San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1227
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 12/5/2009
DILLARD S. FAGAN
Decidedly popular among the officers in charge of one department or another of the well-organized and well-maintained Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, is Dillard S. Fagan, the storekeeper, a native of Stanislaus County, where he was born on a farm on June 27, 1881, the son of Frank and Emma (Petty) Fagan, the former, now deceased, a native of Illinois, the latter, who is still living, of Tuolumne County, Cal. Mr. Fagan came to California in the late fifties, and with his brother John located on a farm near Linden, in San Joaquin County. They farmed there for a few years, and then they took up a large tract of Government land some twelve miles east of Oakdale, in Stanislaus County. Later, the brothers divided the property, and Frank Fagan farmed the same to grain up to his death on February 24, 1891. His widow, now a resident of San Francisco, was born in Sonora, the daughter of Isaac and Virginia (Gooch) Petty, the father a California pioneer who settled in Tuolumne County in 1849, and later was a prominent farmer near Knights Ferry, in Stanislaus County. The children of this worthy couple still living include Dillard S. Fagan, the subject of our interesting review; Cora A., the wife of W.E. Morrow, of Santa Rosa; and Theil and Louise H., residents of San Francisco.
Dillard, the only surviving son of the family, attended the district schools in Stanislaus County, enjoying the grammar school and high school as well as the courses at Oakdale, and in 1899, when a young man of eighteen, came to Stockton and secured employment in the storekeeper department of the Holt Manufacturing Company. His duties as floor man included looking after the extra parts of the harvester machines and other general duties; and by strict attention to business, when work was expected of him, he justified his advancement to the position of storekeeper in charge of the department, in 1907. Since then, he has administered his important trust so well that he is still filling this post, to the satisfaction of everybody concerned. He has seen, indeed, twenty-three years of continuous service there, and is one of the oldest employees of the company; and as his is one of the most important departments in the famous concern, it will be realized that his work there is fully appreciated. Here are to be found some 50,000 different extra parts of harvester and caterpillar tractors—some of the parts of the harvesters built in the eighties being still kept in stock and supplied to owners who bought harvesters of the company thirty-five years ago; but it is not alone that Mr. Fagan's efficiency makes it really possible to find these, when wanted,—it is the more important fact that, long ago, he made the interests of the Holt Manufacturing Company pre-eminently his own, and gave them his first, best and last service. Fidelity of that sort seldom goes unrewarded—and never by the Holt Manufacturing Company.
When Mr. Fagan married, at Stockton, in the year 1908, he took for his wife Miss Bertha Briggs, a native of Modesto; and theirs has truly been an ideal wedded life. Mrs. Fagan shares her husband's social life and popularity in the circles of the Stockton Lodge No. 11 of Odd Fellows, Stockton Lodge No. 218, of the B.P.O. Elks, Stockton Parlor No. 7 of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and the Golf and Country Club.
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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