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Page: 389
CHARLES BELDING.--Prominent among the old-time
Californians now actively engaged in business pursuits
in Stockton, stands this gentleman, a native of
Hampshire County, Massachusetts. He was born July 12,
1831, his parents being Joshua and Rosetta (Cooley)
Belding. His father was at different times a merchant
and a farmer, and both parents were born in
Massachusetts. They moved to Luzerne County,
Pennsylvania locating in the Wyoming Valley when Charles
lacked about two months of being six age. At the age of
sixteen years he went to Mauch Chunk, to enter the
service of Asa Packer, the great coal and iron magnate,
continuing in his employ about three years. Early in
1852 he left New York for California, embarking on the
steamer Daniel Webster, crossing the Isthmus by the
Nicaragua route from San Juan del Norte to San Juan del
Sur, and thence on the steamer Independence to San
Francisco, arriving February 24, 1852. The next day he
stepped off the of the Kate Kearny at the Stockton wharf
way to the mines. After a few months' experience there
he went to Tuolumne County, and was at Hawkins' Bar and
Oak Springs, until August. For several months he sold
vegetables for a farmer, making two or three trips a
week to the mining camps, on each of which he would sell
a load covering the bottom of a lumber wagon for $60 or
$70. Coming to Stockton, he entered the employ of
Lippincott & Vaughn, who had started in the business of
soda-water manufacturing in July, 1852. The firm of
Chase & Co., the first to get started in this line, had
commenced business two or three months before, but
Lippincott & Vaughn would have started even prior to
that had not their machinery been unduly delayed in its
voyage around Cape Horn. Mr. Belding remained with that
firm much of the time until the spring of 1855; then
John B. Vaughn, a younger brother of one of the firm and
Mr. Belding bought out a soda-water factory at Murphy's,
and there carried on the business. In October 1856, Mr.
Belding sold out and went East. He returned to Stockton
in April of the following year, and bought an interest
in the business of his old employers, the firm then
becoming Lippincott & Belding. This partnership
continued until December, 1870, when Mr. Belding bought
out Mr. Lippincott and has since that time carried on
the business alone. Since 1863 he has also conducted the
business of manufacturing soda water at Marysville.
Notwithstanding his large interests in this line,
however, Mr. Belding classifies himself as a farmer, and
in that direction he has indeed extensive investments.
In his two ranches, located in San Joaquin and Butte
counties, he has 1,700 acres of splendid valley land,
and both places are kept up to the highest standard.
They They are devoted to wheat as a principal crop, and
also to live-stock, in which line he now has about 100
head of horses and colts, all reared by him. They are
roadsters of Hambletonian stock and farm horses from
Clydesdale and Woodworth stock. He gives his personal
attention to the management of his ranches, and has been
uniformly successful in making them profitable. His farm
books are as carefully kept as those of any business
house, and with him farming is no chance affair.
He belongs to San Joaquin Lodge, F. & A. M. and is a
member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is a
Republican politically, and takes a lively interest in
affairs of a public nature. In 1878-79 he was Mayor of
Stockton, and for nine years was Public Administrator of
this county; has also been member of the City Council,
City Assessor, School Trustee, Trustee of the City
Library, etc. He is a man of strict business habits, and
holds the highest reputation for honorable and
considerate methods.
Page: 390
He was married in Calaveras County, April 28, 1859,
to Miss Josephine L, Latimer a native of Michigan, who
came to California in 1852, via Nicaragua. Her parents,
Daniel and Bathsheba Latimer, both died in this county.
Her father for several years carried on an extensive
mercantile business at North Branch. Mr. and Mrs.
Belding have four children; Walter L.; Juliet wife of
Ralph E. Lane; Laura L., wife of Berkeley W, Moore, and
Herbert C.
Mr. Belding's life affords a lesson that should have
its effect. He made his own start in the world, and by
strictly honorable means achieved success in a degree of
which any man might be proud.
Page: 411
CHARLES BARTHMAN, proprietor of the National Soda
Works, Stockton, is a native of the city of Hanover,
Germany, born March 14, 1842, his parents being Fredrick
Charles and Fredrika (Peltz) Barthman. His father, a
merchant, built the first chiccory factory in Hanover.
The subject of this sketch was reared at his
native place, and to the age of fourteen years attended
school there. He then went to college for over two
years at Holtzminden. After completing his
education he served an apprenticeship to a contractor of
Hanover, and then traveled throughout the country,
taking in the principal cities. In 1863 he was drawn for
service in the army, and became a member of Second
Company, Third Regiment, First Battalion, and was
assigned to duty in the city of Eimbeck. He took
part in the Holstein trouble of 1864 and again in the
war in 1866, and was then discharged from the Hanoverian
army. He then served seven weeks in the Prussian
army, as a non-commissioned officer of the Eleventh
Infantry, Grenadier Guard, being stationed at Altona,
near Hamburg. Upon leaving the service of Prussia
he emigrated to America, sailing from Hamburg to New
York. He started a furniture store on the corner
of Hudson and Dominick Streets, New York, and carried on
there a little over a year. Then the Vallamosa
Springs excitement, in the Blue Mountains of Alabama,
broke out, and he went the scene and bought land there.
He was there about sixteen months, but gave up his
interest there on account of trouble about title.
He then went to Memphis, from to New Orleans, and
eventually to Texas, where he followed contracting.
He built the first two story house ever erected in
Dallas. Becoming sick in Texas he spent the next
three years traveling in search of health going to St.
Louis, to Kansas City, and eventually was fortunate
enough to get back his health and strength. In
1871, he came to California, locating at San Francisco.
Finding the climate there unsuited to him, he traveled
for some time, finally locating in Alameda, where he
established a soda-water factory. In 1885 he
removed his machinery to Stockton and established the
National Soda Works, for which he has built up an
extensive city and country trade. While at the
Bay, he served for seven years in Company C, Second
Regiment N. G. C., and was a non-commissioned officer.
He was married in San Francisco to Miss Christiana
Gauler, a native of Holstein. Mr. Barthman is
president of the Stockton Turn-Verein, and is a member
of the lodge No. 123 A. O. U. W. He joined the
order in 1879 in the lodge No. 5, Alameda, and belongs
to the Workmen's Guarantee Fund Association. He
also belongs to the Verein-Eintracht.
Mr. Barthman is an enterprising business man,
and enjoys the esteem of a large circle of warm personal
friends on account of his uniform courtesy and urbanity.
Picture of Charles Belding courtesy of the Library of
Congress
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