San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1284
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 12/9/2009
EMIL FIMBEL
Among the thriving industries of San Joaquin County is the Pickle Manufacturing Company, of which Emil Fimbel is the senior partner, not only the pioneer establishment in this line, but the only one of its kind in the county. Possessed of sturdy ability and enterprise, his success has been steadily increased as a result of each year's operations. He was born in Alsace-Lorraine, February 10, 1854, in the town of Mühausen, where his father, Jacob Fimbel, owned and operated a bakery.
Emil Fimbel received a good education in the excellent schools of his native town, and while young learned the trade of iron turner in a machine shop where he was employed until 1873, when he went to Paris. The following year, 1874, he came to the United States, locating at Pittsburgh, Pa., and there followed his trade for two years. He then removed to Canton, Ohio, where he worked for two years for the Leibold & Teitsold Safe Manufacturing Company; then he went to Philadelphia, where he worked in the shipyards at Chester, Pa., and while there worked on three ships as follows: the Center, the City of New York and the City of San Francisco. He then went to Dubuque, Iowa, and later to Kansas, where he intended to take a homestead, but was not pleased with the conditions in western Kansas. He then went on to Buena Vista, Colo., prospecting, working in the mines and sharpening tools for the miners. In 1888 he located in Bakersfield, Cal., and two years later he came to Stockton, where he found employment with the Shippee Harvester Company, the Stockton Iron Works and the State Hospital. Then he started his own business on Bridge Street, buying and selling vegetables. Some ten years ago he started to make pickles in a small shop on East Channel Street and this business has steadily increased.
The marriage of Mr. Fimbel, in Stockton, in 1897, united him with Mrs. Mary Merz, a native of Bavaria, Germany, who came to California in 1885. She has two sons by her former marriage: Hans G. served in the United States army overseas and now is a farmer on Linden Road, San Joaquin County; William F. Merz is a partner in the firm of Fimbel & Merz. Mr. and Mrs. Fimbel are the parents of one son, Emil Fimbel, Jr., also a partner in the business.
The firm of Fimbel & Merz contract with the farmers to buy their cucumbers and manufacture them into dill, sweet, sour, mustard and mixed pickles; they also manufacture sauerkraut. They conduct a large wholesale business, as it is the only industry of its kind in the county and they enjoy a steadily increasing patronage. Mr. Fimbel is the owner of an eighty-acre ranch in Calaveras County, a portion of which is devoted to vineyard and farming land and on which is also a limestone quarry; the rock makes a perfectly white lime of excellent quality. Mr. Fimbel formerly belonged to the Odd Fellows Lodge and Encampment, and is now identified with the Foresters of America, Sons of Herman, of which he is a past president, and the I.D.E.S. Mrs. Fimbel is a member of the Druids.
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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