San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 743-744
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 2/10/2010
THOMAS M. HODGSON
Among the successful vineyardists of the Lodi section of San Joaquin County is Thomas M. Hodgson, who resides on his well-improved ranch of fourteen acres five miles south of Lodi on Douglas Avenue. Starting out in life with the handicap of being orphaned when a child, he has steadily worked his way upward, gaining success and winning the public confidence. He was born in Stockton, December 18, 1872, a son of W.T. and Hetty (Stanaway) Hodgson, the former a native of London, England, who came to California in 1852. His mother was a daughter of J.G. Stanaway of Milton, Cal., who lived to be 101 years old. Hetty Stanaway was born under the British flag on the high seas enroute from Australia to California in the early '50s. The father was the foreman on the Judge Creaner place and passed away at the age of forty-five. The mother died at the age of thirty, leaving four children: Alice, Mrs. J.B. Ashworth of Mariposa, Cal.; Thomas M., of this sketch; Eunice died at the age of fourteen; Melvin died at the age of one year.
Thomas M. was five years old when his mother died and he was placed in the Sacramento Orphans' Home, where he remained for two years and then was adopted by a man by the name of Peter Fink of Kings River, who so cruelly treated the lad that at the age of nine years he ran away. He found work on a cattle ranch herding stock on the stubble fields about thirteen miles from Fresno, where he worked for five years; he then went to Reno, Nev., and rode the range and did all kinds of ranch work. In 1897 he returned to California, where he found employment at Yosemite National Park and later in the Princeton mines, Mariposa County, until 1902.
On September 25, 1902, in Watsonville, Cal., Mr. Hodgson was married to Miss Annie Hill, born in Mariposa County, a daughter of E.V. Hill and his wife Jane (Quick) Hill, both natives of California. Her mother's family were early pioneers of California and Mrs. Hodgson received her education in the district schools of Mariposa and Watsonville, Cal. In 1903, Mr. Hodgson established a grocery business at the corner of Grant and Main streets, Stockton, but this did not prove a very successful undertaking and in the fall of the same year removed to the Live Oak school district north of Stockton, where he bought fourteen acres of land. This Mr. Hodgson set about to improve; he built a house with his own hands and also built other necessary farm buildings and has developed the entire fourteen acres to a Tokay vineyard. Later he purchased twenty-five acres on the Eight-mile Road, ten acres of which he has set to vineyard and the balance of fifteen acres is used for grain raising. Mr. and Mrs. Hodgson are the parents of five children: Mabel; Hetty, Mrs. E.M. Cormeny, resides in Stockton; Thomas M., Jr.; Dorothy; and William, deceased at the age of five years. Mr. Hodgson is a Republican in politics and fraternally is a member of the Modern Woodmen of Lodi.
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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