San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1108
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 10/2/2009
JOHN N. BALLANTYNE
A pioneer establishment of San Joaquin County that has made a steady and satisfactory growth during the past thirty-eight years, is the Frank H. Buck Company of Lodi; and the man most responsible for the increased growth of its business during the past three years is John N. Ballantyne, the industrious manager of the San Joaquin County plants. He was born in Brooklyn, Iowa, and when eight years of age was taken by his parents to Des Moines. He was educated in the public schools, and at the Capital City Commercial College of that city, where he was duly graduated in 1902. His first position was with the Remington Typewriter Company, and later he was employed by the Charles Hewett Company, wholesale grocerymen of Des Moines. In 1905 he came to California, whither his father and a brother-in-law had migrated a few months previously, and located at Acampo, on a fruit ranch which his father had purchased. After three years with them, he sold his interest and purchased thirty acres of the Nelson orchard, located near Youngstown, and on this place he makes his home. He has improved the place with all modern equipment, including a pumping plant, fruit sheds, etc. Of the thirty acres, thirteen are in grapes of the Tokay and Zinfandel varieties, and fifteen in orchard. A six-acre apricot orchard produced in 1920 a gross income of $4500. Mr. Ballantyne owns another thirty-acre tract, in the same vicinity, twenty acres in vineyard and ten acres in orchard. The net profit from the 1920 crop on this place more than covered the original cost of the ranch, and the 1921 crop did almost as well. With a partner, P.J. McLaughlin, he owns a twenty-five-acre ranch near Youngstown, twenty acres in vineyard and the balance in orchard.
In his management of the Frank H. Buck Company, Mr. Ballantyne has oversight of the plants at Lodi, Youngstown, and Victor. The company packs and ships peaches, pears, apricots, table and wine grapes, and many varieties of plums, and during the season handles the output of about 1,500 acres. This company was among the first to enter the fruit packing and shipping industry, that has made California famous and has been such an important factor in the development and prosperity of the state.
The marriage of Mr. Ballantyne united him with Miss Anna Larson, a native of Iowa. His energies are expended toward the building up of his business, and at the same time he never loses sight of the development and prosperity of the city and county with which he has become so actively associated.
History of
SAN JOAQUIN 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
HISTORY BY
George H. Tinkham
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1923
San Joaquin County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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