San Joaquin County
Biographies
GEORGE ELTON WATERMAN
GEORGE ELTON WATERMAN, a
rancher of Douglass Township, but residing across the line in Stanislaus County,
where he also owns land, was born in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, in 1856, a
son of George Henry and Mehitable (Bailey) Waterman. The father, a millwright
and carpenter, was accidentally killed while at work in Iowa, in 1858, at the
age of twenty-seven. The mother, born in 1833, by her second marriage Mrs.
Robert Thomas, is still living in Middleboro, Massachusetts. George H. Waterman
was the son of George and Experience Curtis (Thompson) Waterman. The
grandfather, a direct descendant of the first Waterman, who arrived in New
England from the mother country before the close of the seventeenth century,
lived to be seventy-eight, and his wife also reached old age. Her mother,
before marriage Alice Curtis, lived to be over eighty. Grandmother Bailey was a
Miss Sallie Stetson before marriage.
George Elton Waterman, the subject of this
sketch, received a common-school education, and learned the trade of a
stationary engineer at Middleboro, Massachusetts. He came to California in
1875, leaving home August 30, and arriving in San Francisco September 25. He
came immediately to Stockton and went to work in the lumber yard of Simpson
& Gray, remaining until February 1, 1876, when he came out to Stanislaus
County to herd sheep for H. McFarlin, but returned to the lumber yards after
two months. He remained until July, when he resumed the care of McFarlin’s
herds until September. In September, 1876, Mr. Waterman rented 100 acres and
took up the industry of poultry raising with 1,000 hens and fifty turkeys,
investing $800. He took a partner in 1877, who invested $600, but they lost
both investments in the unprofitable venture. In 1877-’78 he sowed nineteen
acres to wheat and raised 400 bushels, which was his first venture in farming.
In 1879 he raised 1,000 bushels, rented 480 acres, and raised 3,500 bushels in
1880. In 1884 he raised 6,500 bushels. That year he bought the ranch where he
now resides. He also rents 640 acres, and raised 8,000 bushels of wheat and
1,000 of barley in 1889. He raised cattle for the market until the spring of
1889, when he cleared out that industry by the sale of forty head. He has about
twenty-five head of horses and raises a few colts for the market annually. He
also runs a combined harvester, and cut over 2,400 acres of grain in 1889.
Mr. Waterman was married in February,
1878, to Miss Nellie F. Gruwell, born in Lake County, California, June 9, 1860,
a daughter of J. D. and Eva (Fine) Gruwell (see sketch of Mr. Gruwell). Mr. and
Mrs. Waterman are the parents of two children,--Daisy Virginia, born October 7,
1880, and George Elmer, born August 20, 1882.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Pages 304-305. Lewis Pub.
Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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