San
Joaquin County
Biographies
CHARLES WAGNER
San Joaquin County will never forget
the important part played by her far-sighted and experienced manufacturers,
among the more prominent of whom was Charles Wagner,
late president of the Wagner Leather Company, operating the Pacific
Tannery. He was born in Wurttemberg,
Germany, January 23, 1837, a son of Christian and Johanna (Gunsser)
Wagner. His father was a tanner, and his
grandfather, John Wagner, was in charge of his great-grandfather’s tannery in
Balingen, Wurttemberg, to which business Christian also succeeded; so that at
least five successive generations of the Wagner family have followed the
tannery business. Both the father and
the grandfather of the subject of this sketch lived to an advanced age, as did
Grandmother Wagner also. Grandfather
Christian Gunsser, a public surveyor and school teacher, was sixty-five years
old at his death, but his wife reached the age of ninety-two. The mother, Johanna (Gunsser) Wagner, lived
to the age of sixty-two years.
Charles Wagner attended school until
he was fifteen years old, and then learned his father’s business. He left Wurttemberg in the fall of 1855 for
California, coming on the ship “Bavaria,” from Havre, France, to New York,
thence by steamer “Northern Light” to Chagres, across the Isthmus on mule back,
and then by steamer to San Francisco, where he arrived January 19, 1856. Proceeding to the mines by way of Stockton,
he made one month’s trial at mining in Calaveras County, near what is now
Copperopolis. The result being
unsatisfactory, he returned to Stockton and with his brother, Jacob C. Wagner,
started the Pacific Tannery on a very small scale, in which he was interested
up to the time of his death.
In 1859, desiring to perfect himself
in his trade, Mr. Wagner left Stockton for San Francisco and other parts of the
state where tanning industries were carried on, and finally worked for eighteen
months in the tanneries at Santa Cruz, where at that time the best article of
leather was made. After an absence of
two years he returned to his labor in the tannery here, which was established
by himself and brother in 1856; continuing to manufacture, in 1865 they adopted
the firm name of Wagner Bros.
In 1869 Jacob C. Wagner retired and
Moses Kullman became a partner, under the title of Kullman, Wagner &
Company. In 1879 Herman, a brother of
Moses Kullman was admitted into partnership, and in 1874 Jacob Salz purchased
an interest. Moses Kullman, bequeathed
one-half of his interest to his brother Herman, and the other half to a nephew,
Charles Hart, who thus became a member of the firm. The Pacific Tannery has thus been an
important industry of the city of Stockton for sixty-seven years. Pure tanned California oak scoured sole
leather, in hard and pliable tannage, is a special feature of their output,
great quantities of this valuable product being produced and exported to the
world’s markets. The company ranks today
as one of the greatest of western leather manufacturing and distributing organizations,
and is a prominent factor in the industrial life of Stockton. For more than half a century the company were extensive producers of harness leather, but in
1919 this feature was discontinued. The
demand for the Stockton product from all parts of the civilized world is one of
the big development factors of this section of California, and to properly care
for the increasing sole-leather trade a general branch office and sales
department are maintained in San Francisco, whence the export trade is handled.
Since the establishment of the
business in 1856, the Wagner Leather Company have been growing steadily year by
year, new buildings and equipment being added until it has become a notable
institution in manufacturing and industrial circles of California and the west. The original tannery was incepted by the late
Charles Wagner, father of Edward C. Wagner, present directing head of the
company, which is capitalized for $300,000 and has a payroll of more than
$100,000 a year. In 1918 a disastrous
fire destroyed the main portion of the plant.
Business, however, continued right along, and in a few months modern and
well-equipped new buildings were erected and machinery installed, each machine
equipped with an electric motor of the latest type, power being furnished by
the company’s own generating plant. This
gives the company production facilities one-third greater than before, a big
item in these days of progress, when there is such a wide demand for
Wagner-made sole leather.
Mr. Wagner was married in Stockton
in 1867, to Miss Philipina Simon, born in Bosenback,
Bavaria, in 1846. She was a daughter of
Jacob and Katrina (Rothenbush) Simon, now deceased,
the mother dying in 1866 and the father in 1867, both well advanced in
years. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner are the
parents of two children. Edward C. is
the president of the Wagner Leather company; and Bertha W. is the wife of
George E. Housken of Stockton, who is treasurer of
the corporation. Fraternally Mr. Wagner
was a member of the Stockton Lodge No. 11, Odd Fellows, and the last of the
charter members of the Stockton Turnverein, of which he was a trustee. At various times he was president of that
society. He was an advanced liberal in
his views, and a progressive man in all realms of thought. He passed away on October 17, 1912, at the
age of seventy-five years. He was a man
of fine character, broad-minded, and with a keen desire for the community’s
betterment morally, commercially and educationally.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
575. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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