San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1363-1364
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 11/15/2009
R. HAROLD DeVINNY
One of the great industries that has grown up in San Joaquin County is the fruit packing and shipping business, and as district manager of the Producers' Fruit Company of California, R. Harold DeVinny has a guiding hand in the policies of one of the largest concerns operating in the San Joaquin Valley. He was born at Rochester, N.Y., on June 8, 1880, the son of Dr. C.L. and Hattie (Landon) DeVinny, natives of that state and both now deceased. The family took up their residence at Stockton in 1884, and for twenty-five years Dr. DeVinny was a prominent physician there, serving a number of terms on the San Joaquin County Board of Health. There were two children in the DeVinny family, R. Harold, of this sketch, and Mrs. Florence S. Seawright of Bakersfield, California.
Coming here when a small boy, R. Harold DeVinny was reared at Stockton, attending the public schools there and graduating from the Stockton high school in the class of 1898. For the next eight years he was bookkeeper and cashier for the Stockton "Independent," and in 1906 he came to Lodi, where he purchased a vineyard of twenty acres. Since then he has increased his holdings until he now has sixty acres of highly developed land, equipped with three pumping plants, the whole place being cared for according to the most modern and approved scientific methods. Twelve acres are in cherries, peaches, plums and prunes, while his vineyard, which is twenty-two years old, contains a variety of table grapes, Tokay, Cornichon, Ferrera, Emperor and Morocco, all bringing the highest prices in the Eastern markets. In 1920 the ranch produced 30,000 crates of fruit and grapes.
In 1909 Mr. DeVinny entered the employ of the Earl Fruit Company at Lodi as field manager and his marked ability has given him repeated promotions. He is especially well qualified to fill his present position, having made an exhaustive study of horticulture through reading and study, supplemented with years of practical experience on his own properties. During the selling season of 1920, the Earl Fruit Companay [sic] sent him on a tour of all the Eastern markets, thus familiarizing him with all the problems of distribution at these points, and he has visited all the fruit sections of California, getting much valuable information in this way.
At Stockton, on June 7, 1905, Mr. DeVinny was married to Miss Frances L. Brown, a native of Canada, and they are the parents of two children: E. Bruce and Harriet Elizabeth.
Mr. DeVinny is a member of Charity Lodge No. 6, I.O.O.F., of Stockton, and the Lodi Lodge No. 41, Knights of Pythias, and is a prominent member and a director in the Lodi Lions Club. He is president of the Methodist Men's Club of Lodi, also a trustee of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Lodi, and was the chairman of the building committee when, in 1919, their large and beautiful church edifice was built on the corner of Church and Oak Streets in Lodi. Mrs. DeVinny is an active member of the Methodist Church choir and is a prominent Sunday school worker. This church has the largest organ of any church or theater in Lodi. The chimes in this organ were donated by Mr. and Mrs. DeVinny, in remembrance of Mr. DeVinny's mother, the late Hattie E. DeVinny.
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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