Book Review: Place-Names of California's North San Joaquin Valley

Place Names of California's North San Joaquin Valley: Includes San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced Counties, by David L Durham, Word Dancer Press, Clovis, California, 2000.

It is fascinating how many place names there are.  There are rives and sloughs and channels and islands surrounded by rivers.  That is what you get with a delta.  Of course this is not room to hit on every place name, so let me offer some high lights.  The San Joaquin River shapes much of the area, with its many channels. 

Charles Weber laid out Stockton and French Camp.  This was after he received a land grant Campo de los Franceses.  The are was called this based on some French fur trappers who had camped in the area.  Stockton is the County Seat, and most prominent city of San Joaquin County.  Weber laid out the town of Stockton in 1847 on his land grant.  Other names were suggested, but in the end Stockton took the name of Commodore Robert F. Stockton, who was commander of military forces in California at the time and largely responsible for conducting of the Mexican American War in California and the annexation of Alta California into the United States.  In Stockton there is Mormon Slough, but no idea why it took this name.

Manteca, which means butter or lard, took its name from the local creamery.  The rail way station was first called Cowell in honor of Joshua Cowell who had granted the rail company right-of-way. 

New Hope, the Mormon community is mentioned in the section on the Sanislaus River.  This community was near the mouth of the Stanislaus River, and lasted only about a year.  This was later known as Staislaus City and there was a ferry in the area.  Ripon developed nearby.  There is another New Hope in the county in the Lodi area.  Lodi is north of Stockton.  It was originally named Mokelumne.  Lodi Lake is located near Lodi (originally Smith Lake.)

Banta is near Tracy where Kasson and Grant Line roads meet.  There was a prominent Inn there.  Lathrop is along the San Joaquin River.   Tracy took the name of Lathrop tracy, an official of the rail road.  The alternate is Judge F.P. Tracy, a contemporary of Leland Stanford. 

Also south of Tracy in the Diablo Range is Corral Hollow.  I had heard of the name being the result of a corral made to catch wild horses.  This book gives and alternative.  It may have been named for Edward Corral.  The canyon and creek were also known by the Mexicans as Buenos Ayres Creek.

San Joaquin City was a river town with the Dunham Ferry close by.  From here originally oak, and later wheat was shipped.  Sturgeon Bend in the San Joaquin River is close to this spot. 

Knights Ferry fascinates me.  The name-sake of the town was actually killed in a gun battle.  There is a geologic feature near here known as Lover's Leap or The Jumping Off Place.

There of course is much more in this book available at the Manteca Library.  I have focused mostly on San Joaquin County. 

Book Review: San Joaquin City

This book was written by Earle Williams, who is a former resident of San Joaquin City.  San Joaquin City is a ghost town which was located close to the San Joaquin River and the Durham Ferry.  This is now were Airport Way crosses the river, on the West side of the river and South of the road on S. Kasson Rd.  The author attended New Jerusalem School.  For a look at the area now:  http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2012/08/caswell-park-picturesnew-hope.html

This book was loaned to me by Linda Hicken from the Ripon Ward.  I have already explored what it said about New Hope in a couple of blogs:  http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-hope-aka-stanislaus-city-revisited.html
http://bwardlehistory.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-hope-aka-stislaus-city-revisted.html

San Joaquin City was first established as a river boat town, where first wood was shipped to San Joaquin for wood stoves and steam heat.  It then evolved into a grain shipping town, and much of the wheat, when the valley was covered with wheat, was shipped to market from this town.

There are a couple of men that bare mentioning.  These are men from San Joaquin City.  The first was William H. Riecks who was sheriff of San Joaquin County for almost twenty years. 

The other was George Williams.  George had developed a smokeless gunpowder, and pursued this invention with almost manic drive.  He as a youth attempted to rob a train and ended up in juvenile detention as a result.  When he came home he lived on the East side of the San Joaquin River, opposite San Joaquin City.  A friend from the detention center lived with him, and when George could not get parties interested in funding his research and development of the gun powder, they decided to rob a train.  The attempt took place where Manteca is currently located.  They made a fire on the rails to stop the train.  However when George went to get the car opened with payroll money, a transient emerged, and as he surprised George, he let lose with his shot gun and killed him.  This caused George to leave the attempt, and he just left and went back to his home on the river.  His partner took off as well.  George was arrested as they found a letter that had fallen from his coat.  After he was arrested, his partner was also.  They were both tried for train robbery.  The murder was never tried.  Both were sentenced to life in prison and sent to San Quentin.  However years later George was paroled and returned home.  His partner was never released and died in prison. 
George was a character that lived on the river for many years.  He developed his own electricity for his place, fished for sturgeon, his home was on sturgeon bend.  Raised bamboo for fishing poles. 

San Joaquin City: Ghost Town

Old San Joaquin City was located just south of where the Dunham Road goes over the San Joaquin River on the River Road, now Kasson Road.  It was on the west side of the road.  It originally was a ferry town, the Dunham Ferry crossing about where the bridge is now.  It later became a river time and at one time had 1500 residents.  Today there is one farm house in the area, and everything else is farms, or brush area leading to the river.  These pictures were taken on the east side of the river going towards Sturgeon Bend.  They are of the East Side Slough, but hopefully in the area where George Williams lived.  He was a resident who pioneers electricity in the area.  He also had the first wireless.  He had come up with an idea for smokeless gun powder.  In an effort to get money for his project, he attempted to rob a train in Manteca.  This went array when a hobo came from under the train and started George.  He ended up shooting him and killed him.  He was convicted of train robbery and sent to prison.  He was later paroled and returned to live long the river.

This picture is from the other side of the river where the city was actually located.  In the early days the boats would tie up to the trees.  Grain and wood were hauled from here to Stockton.  The landing helped the west side of the valley develop the wheat industry.  Today the channel of the river has moved east some yards.  The plaque is now missing, having been stolen at least five years ago.