Stanislaus
County
Biographies
DAVID EMART
The orange groves of California have
a worldwide reputation. Their fruit is
found upon the Atlantic seaports, in the Mississippi Valley and in the far
northern states, and the annual export from each grove adds materially to the
prosperity of this commonwealth.
Extensively and successfully engaged in the cultivation of his fruits,
David Emart is well known among the representatives of the horticultural
interests of Stanislaus County. He owns
a fine farm and handsome residence, which are pleasantly, situated a mile and a
half west of Knight’s Ferry.
Mr. Emart was born in Wayne County,
Ohio, on the 1st of April, 1834, and represents one of the old
Pennsylvania Dutch families. His father,
George Emart, was a native of the Keystone state, and both he and his wife died
when their son David was a small child.
He then went to live with Anthony Wagener, with whom he remained until
his twelfth year, when he became an inmate of the home of John Emerson. They resided in a wild frontier district in
the midst of the forest and he had small opportunity to attend school, but
acquired a fair education through reading, observation and experience, and is
now an intelligent and well informed man who is successfully following farming
and fruit-raising. In the east he
married Miss Nancy Shafer, and in Iowa he followed farming until 1864, when he
was induced to dispose of his good property there, taking in exchange nine
hundred dollars in cash and a mine in Monterey County, California; but the
latter proved to be worthless. He and
his brothers, Joseph and John, and his father-in-law and his family all came
together to California, crossing the plains with horse teams. They were six months on the journey and spent
the first winter in Napa, where Mr. Emart learned that his mining property was
worthless. As it was necessary for him
to immediately engage in a paying business in order to provide for his family,
he purchased a threshing machine and followed threshing, in the San Jose
Valley, for a number of years.
In 1886 Mr. Emart purchased his
present farm, comprising two hundred acres, which is pleasantly located one and
a half miles west of Knights’ Ferry.
There he has a splendid orange grove and is also engaged in raising
wheat and alfalfa, the fruit which he raises being of an excellent quality,
finding a ready sale in the markets, and he has no trouble in disposing of his
other crops. His residence and grounds
are most attractive in appearance, the place being characterized by an air of
neatness and thrift which indicate the careful supervision of the owner, while
in the home are many conveniences and evidences of the refined taste of Mrs.
Emart. One child was born to them in
Iowa, Jacob, whom they brought with them to California, and here two sons and a
daughter have been added to the family, namely:
John, Charles and Lillie, the last named being now the wife of William
Murry, by whom she has two daughters.
Charles is also married. Jacob is
in Stanislaus County and John and Charles are farmers in Stanislaus County,
living two miles northwest of Knight’s Ferry.
The family is one of high respectability, the members occupying leading
positions in social circles. Mrs. Emart
is a valued member of the Methodist Church, and Mr. Emart affiliates with the
Democrats, but has never sought or desired public office, his attention being
fully occupied with his business affairs, in which he is meeting with signal
success, carrying on operations in lines of industry and honesty that never
fail to bring a desirable reward.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 199-200. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.