Merced County Biographies
Ref: Pages 558-559
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/22/2009
JOHN V. AZEVEDO
A successful merchant, John V. Azevedo commands the respect and esteem of all who have witnessed his steady progress up the ladder of success since he located in Gustine in 1907. He had located in the State twenty years earlier, having emigrated from St. George, in the Azores Islands, where he was born on March 14, 1868, settling first in Monterey. He is the son of Viresimo Jose and Anna (Candada) Azevedo, both natives of St. George, where the father spent his entire life as a farm laborer. There were eight children in this family, namely: Manuel; a second child, died in infancy; John V., our subject; Mary, deceased; Jose V., deceased; Jose V., resides in Patterson, Cal.; Rose, deceased; and Antone. The father passed away at St. George at the age of seventy years, the mother now makes her home with John V. at Gustine, aged eighty-three years.
John V. Azevedo had little chance of obtaining an education. He left home at the age of nineteen and came to the United States, landing in Boston, Mass., and came direct to California and stopped at Monterey, where he soon found work on a dairy ranch in that vicinity and continued for four years; then he rented a farm of 400 acres and, with his brother Manuel, conducted a dairy of fifty cows for the next five years at San Juan. When the brothers divided the herd our subject came to Crow's Landing in the San Joaquin Valley, and with his brother Joseph and a cousin, John Borba, conducted a dairy for two years. He came to Merced County in 1901 and bought a farm of 155 acres where he ran a dairy six years, being one of the pioneer Portuguese settlers in this section. When Gustine was laid out as a town he purchased two lots on which he erected the West Side Store and he carries a full line of groceries, dry goods, shoes, hardware, grain and mill feed, some farm machinery and household furniture. Since then he has bought considerable real estate in Gustine.
At Salinas, on February 11, 1898, Mr. Azevedo was married to Miss Ida Victorina Azevedo, born at Sausalito, daughter of Manuel V. and Mary (Cunha) Azevedo, both natives of St. George, Azores Islands. Her father, Manuel V. Azevedo, came to California at the age of fourteen years on a whaling vessel. He was married in Sausalito, where he engaged in the dairy business and also followed the carpenter's trade; both parents are now living in Newman. There were nine children in this family; Angeline, Manuel, Mary, Ida (the wife of our subject), Ellen, Anna and Marianna (twins), Rosa, and the ninth child (died in infancy). Mr. and Mrs. Azevedo have had four children: Manuel; Mamie, now Mrs. Antone S. Balthazer; Anna, deceased; and John. The son Manuel married Miss Leonora Cardoza and they had one son, Adolph, who died; the daughter, Mamie, Mrs. Balthazer, has one daughter, Geraldine. Mr. Azevedo votes the Republican ticket. Fraternally, he is a member of the U.P.E.C., of Gustine, and Past President of the I.D.E.S. Lodge of Gustine, having been elected president when the lodge was organized.
History of
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925
Merced County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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