San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1480-1481
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 3/21/2010
CHARLES CLAY LITER
One of the representative business men in the city of Lodi, San Joaquin County, is Charles Clay Liter. He was born in Lafayette, Mo., March 27, 1884, a son of Charles and Kate M. (Biggerstaff) Liter, the former a native of Illinois and a farmer who lived to be sixty-seven years old, while the wife and mother passed away at the age of twenty-seven. There were five children in the family: William C., Finley F., Mary Lillian, Claude Albert, and Charles Clay, the subject of this sketch. Charles Clay Liter received his education in the grammar and high schools of Blackburn, Mo., and at Brown's Business College at Kansas City, Mo., and at the age of nineteen was well equipped to enter the business world. After finishing school he owned and conducted a butcher shop at Blackburn for two years; then he removed to Fort Worth, Texas, where he operated a transfer business for three years; then he removed to Oklahoma and worked at McAlester and Muskogee for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for three years. While at Muskogee, within three months' time, he was promoted from the position of agent to assistant manager; he then came West to California and was the agent for the same company for the following five months. From 1912 to 1915 he was a tea and coffee salesman for a Fresno company; then was transferred to Oakland in the same capacity for the same company where he remained for the next five years. In January, 1920, he arrived in Lodi in search of a location for an electric appliance store, but was unsuccessful; however, he rented a furnished room and began to sell vacuum cleaners; the following May he secured a small store building at 10 North School Street and put in a stock of electrical appliances. He rented a place of business from the blueprints and upon completion of the building moved into the Gilbeau Building in November, 1921, where he built up a fine, growing business in electrical supplies. In January, 1923, he sold this business to the Mexer Electric Company and continues with them.
In Blackburn, Mo., on October 11, 1905, Mr. Liter was married to Miss Edna A. Watson, born at Miami, Mo., a daughter of Benjamin and Sallie Watson. Mr. and Mrs. Liter have two children: Mary Estelle and Martha Louedith. Mr. Liter is a Republican in politics and fraternally is a member of the Eagles. He is a member of the committee appointed to reconstruct the electrical construction ordinance for buildings in the city of Lodi; he is also an executive on the Lodi playground committee. He was instrumental in establishing the Exchange Club in Lodi and was its vice-president during 1922. He and his family are members of the First Christian Church of Lodi, where he is a teacher in the Bible school. Mr. Liter is a public-spirited citizen, a friend of education and promoter of general progress, and enjoys the thorough confidence of his fellow citizens.
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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