San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1573-1574
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 12/14/2009
C.W. FORBES
Prominent among the most highly-esteemed citizens of Manteca may well be numbered C.W. Forbes, who has been a popular resident of the live town since October, 1918, having there, with M.A. Forbes, built up the extensive corporation called the Manteca Telephone and Telegraph Company. Mr. Forbes was born on a farm in Wayne County, New York, in 1871, and as a boy enjoyed the advantages of a good common-school education. When sixteen years of age he entered the employ of the Bell Telephone Company of New York State, after which he gradually worked up from lineman to be general manager of a private telegraph and telephone company at Chicago.
In 1909 he went into Mexico, to the State of Sonora, where he pioneered in the development of the Sonora Telephone Company, with their headquarters at Hermosillo; and in this venture Mrs. Forbes was a partner throughout the nine years required for expanding the extensive business; and during their stay there they became intimately and pleasantly associated with prominent Mexican families, including that of the present President Obregon. Before coming to California, however, Mr. Forbes sold his entire interest, on account of the unsettled state of affairs there.
In 1916 he reached the Golden State, and since that time he has built up a business consisting of five hundred and thirty phones within a radius of three miles from Manteca to a territory fully seven miles in length with a steady growth from six suburban lines in 1918 to twenty-two lines in 1922, while the long-distance service has more than tripled in this period. From an investment of $6,000, the volume of business has so increased as to call for an investment of some $40,000—which speaks for itself.
Mr. Forbes is a live wire in the Chamber of Commerce, and equally so in the newly-organized Lions Club, of which he is chairman of the executive committee. He is also a most welcome member of the Masonic lodges.
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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