San
Joaquin County
Biographies
GUSTAVE WEYAND
A very industrious, progressive and
successful vineyardist, who well deserves his prosperity, is G. Weyand, who
lives south of Youngstown. He was born
in Hesse-Nassau, November 20, 1874 the son of William and Caroline (Kessler)
Weyand, the former a shoemaker, who lived to be eighty-six years of age, while
Mrs. Weyand passed away in her fifty-second year. The worthy couple had ten children: Emma was the oldest, then came August, Henry,
Sophie, Lena, Henrietta, Caroline, and the subject of our review; and after him
were Ferdinand and William.
The lad attended the grammar schools
of Germany, and after that he set out to make his own way in the world. He worked in the iron mines. In 1891 he came to the United States and
settled at Hillsboro, Kansas, and there he worked on a farm; later he clerked
in a general merchandise store for a few years, and then went into business for
himself in Hillsboro. After ten years of
steady success there, he came out to California and settled at Lerdo, in Kern County.
He rented 107 acres from the Lerdo Land
Company, and the second year there he bought forty acres, renting 300 besides;
but failing to get water he let his Lerdo ranch go
and came to Lodi.
He first rented a twenty-acre
vineyard on Kettleman Lane, but the second year he bought a part of the Fuqua
ranch, northeast of Lodi, making the purchase of Mr. Lorenz. He is at present the owner of 100 acres, in
two pieces, namely: fifty acres of the
Fuqua ranch and sixty acres of the ranch which he purchased from Mr. F. R. Hamsher in March, 1921, he having sold off seven and
one-half acres from the fifty-seven and one-half-acre ranch to his
father-in-law, Mr. B. J. Unruh, who now resides upon it. He also sold off twenty acres from the land
bought from Mr. Hamsher. Mr. Weyand is at present engaged in improving
and planting his sixty acres upon which he and his family are happily
domiciled.
At Hillsboro, Kansas, on October 14,
1900 Mr. Weyand was married to Miss Julia Unruh, a native of Hillsboro and the
daughter of B. J. and Eva (Johnson) Unruh.
Her father came to Kansas as a young man, as one of the first settlers
in that part of the country, and homesteaded a ranch. He is now seventy-six years old, and his good
wife just three years younger; and they are both still living. They had eleven children: Sarah, the eldest, is in Kansas; Minnie,
Peter and David died in Russia; Eva is also in Kansas; Julia is the devoted
wife of our subject; Benjamin is in Kern County, California; August in Kansas; Bena in Kern County; Samuel is at Chinook, Montana; while
Jonathan is deceased, having passed away in Colorado. Mrs. Weyand’s parents came from Warsaw,
Russia, to Kansas, after they had been married in Russia, and Mr. Unruh had put
in hard work as a grain farmer. Mrs.
Weyand attended the Hillsboro schools, as Mr. Weyand had also attended the
schools in Kansas. Eventually Mr. and
Mrs. Unruh came out to California in 1920 and settled on a part of Mr. Weyand’s
fifty-seven and one-half acres. Six
children have been born to our subject and his worthy wife: Edna, their eldest, died in February, 1920;
the others are Wallace, Clarence, Rosaline, Howard and Grace.
Mr. Weyand took out his citizenship
papers in Marion County, Kansas, and later in Kern County, he served on the
school board.
Transcribed by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1604-1605. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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