San Joaquin County
Biographies
HENRY WITMER WEAVER
HENRY WITMER WEAVER, of
Stockton, an attorney for land claimants, was born in Pennsylvania, December
22, 1836, a son of Jonathan and Ann (Lefevre) Weaver, both natives of that
State, and both now deceased. Five of their children, three sons and two daughters,
are living in 1890, all married: one son in Kentucky, another in Philadelphia,
the third, the subject of this sketch, in this city, and the two daughters,
near the old home, nine miles east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
H. W. Weaver received a limited education
in his youth in the old log-school-house of the district, and at the age of
fourteen became a clerk in a general store in Paradise, Pennsylvania, where he
worked several years, receiving a salary of $300 toward the close of his
connection. He then went to the State Normal School for two years, but instead
of teaching took a position on the Pennsylvania Railroad at Station 24, in
charge of a grain warehouse and other interests of the road at that point. In
1858 he moved to Sterling, Illinois, where he entered a dry-goods store as
clerk, remaining until April, 1861, when he enlisted in the Thirteenth Illinois
Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until mustered out in 1864. He then
returned to Sterling and resumed his situation in the same dry-goods
establishment in which he had worked before his enlistment. He was there
married in 1864, to Miss Ellen G. Cooke, born in Newburg, Chenango County, New
York, a daughter of William Z. and Charlotte (Hyde) Cooke. They were among the
early settlers of Sterling, where the mother died at about the age of forty;
the father is living in Santa Ana, California, in 1890, aged about seventy.
Soon after his marriage Mr. Weaver opened a general store in Sterling, which he
carried on until January 1, 1870, when he came to Stockton, more especially for
the benefit of Mrs. Weaver’s health. She had been an invalid for a few years,
but has entirely recovered. Mr. Weaver obtained the position of clerk in the
United States land office, where he remained until 1876. He was elected County
Clerk in 1877, holding the place by re-election until 1883, and since that time
has been engaged in his present business of attorney for land claimants before
the Stockton land office or the general land office in Washington, District of
Columbia.
Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Weaver have four
children: Ann, now Mrs. C. E. Littlehale, of this city; Daniel L., a clerk with
Jackson & Earle; Catharine J., and Henry Eckert Weaver, of whom the oldest
was born in Sterling, Illinois, and the other three in Stockton, California.
Mr. H. W. Weaver has been a Mason since 1858, and is also a member of the A. O.
U. W.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County,
California, Page 646. Lewis Pub. Co.
Chicago, Illinois 1890.
© 2009 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
Biographies
Golden Nugget Library's San Joaquin County
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