San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1344-1347
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 3/24/2010
CHARLES M. LONG
The family name of Long is well-known throughout San Joaquin County, where Charles M. Long has passed his entire life, and where his parents lived for many years. He was born on the old Charles C. Long ranch at Waterloo on November 28, 1860. His father, Charles C. Long, was born October 20, 1835, in Schuylkill County, Pa., his parents being Michael and Barbara Long, both natives of Germany. They came to America in 1828 and settled in Pennsylvania, where Michael Long went to work in the coal mines, and afterward took up a coal claim from the government, but was unable to develop it because of a lack of funds. The mine afterwards became very valuable. He passed away in 1875. Charles C. Long was reared on a farm until eighteen years of age, when he learned the wagon-maker's trade. In 1855 he started for California via the Isthmus, and after forty days landed in San Francisco. He went to Sacramento, and then to Stockton, where he worked at his trade about five months. He then went to the mines in Siskiyou County, remaining eighteen months, and then to Trinity County, where he mined for about two years. In 1859 he returned to Stockton and started a wagon shop, which he ran for one year. Selling out his shop, he then located 160 acres on the Calaveras River, about ten miles from Stockton. After four years he sold the place and located on 220 acres on the Waterloo road. It was then covered with timber and underbrush, but in time became one of the best-improved farms in the county. In the fall of 1859, Mr. Long married Miss Rachel Meyers, a native of New Orleans. They were the parents of nine children, seven of whom are now living: Charles M.; Barbara, now Mrs. Charles Lydecker; Lucy, wife of James Main; and Frank, Henry, Joseph and Rosa. The father passed away at the age of fifty-six, and the mother died during February, 1921, at the age of eighty.
Charles M. Long attended the Greenwood district school and the Stockton Business College, and grew up on his father's farm, remaining at home until he was twenty-nine years old. He then took up the machinist's trade, working for Houser & Haines of Stockton for thirteen years, after which he was for two years with the Sampson Iron Works in the construction department. When his father died, he located in Lodi and built a house on a three-acre vineyard about one-half mile east of the city, and here his mother resided with him until her death. In 1901, Mr. Long started his business of well-boring, and since then has sunk wells all over the county. Of late years most of the wells bored have been twelve-inch holes, rarely over 200 feet deep.
At Stockton, on March 3, 1889, Mr. Long was married to Miss Letitia Williamson, a native of Stockton, and daughter of Philander and Anna (Ingwood) Williamson. Philander Williamson came from Detroit, Mich., across the plains to California in 1852, his wife following the next year via Panama; and they settled in Stockton. They had a family of four children: Charles, Dean, George, and Letitia, the wife of our subject. The mother passed away at the age of thirty years, and the father at eighty-two years. Mrs. Long attended the old Vineyard school in Stockton. Mr. and Mrs. Long are the parents of three children: Rosa Bell, now Mrs. Bert Wakefield, a student of music in New York City; Ethel, now Mrs. Michelson, of Lodi; and Lowell Leland, at home. Mr. Long is a Democrat in national politics. Fraternally, he is a member of the Foresters of America.
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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