San Joaquin County Biographies
Ref: Page 1212
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 3/31/2010
JOHN R. LUBECK
A man who has had much to do with the building up of the city of Tracy is John R. Lubeck, for a number of years chief engineer of the pumping plant of the West Side Irrigation District, with headquarters near Bethany, Cal. He was born in Smoland, Sweden, on June 24, 1868, and received a good elementary education in the schools of his native land. His father, Adolph F. Lubeck, was a prominent and well-known manufacturer of Fredericksfors, Sweden, where he owned and operated huge smelters in that district. Serious financial reverses, suffered by his father in 1874, made it imperative that John R. find work; this was the beginning of his self support and his first position was as an apprentice to the machinist trade, which occupied him for four years. He was nineteen when he went to sea on the S.S. Romio; in 1889 he was transferred to an English ship and sailed the seven seas, stopping at various points of interest, and also being privileged to visit the interior of the different countries. When he was twenty-two years old, he received a second chief engineer's license with an unlimited license on merchant vessels. In 1890 Mr. Lubeck stopped off at New York and went to Hartford, Conn., where he remained for seven years as engineer for the transportation corps for the Hartford and New Haven Transportation Company; in 1898 he became an employee of the Standard Oil Company, serving as chief engineer on different oil tankers on the Atlantic seaboard; then in 1902 he became chief engineer on Walter Jennings' private yacht, “Tuscarora,” making a world cruise covering a period of three years. Upon his return to the United States he took a cruise on the yacht “Clapsico” of the West Indies, which was both interesting and instructive. Desiring to come to California, he brought the Standard Oil Tanker “Maverick,” with Borer No. 91, in tow all the way (13842 miles) from New York City to San Francisco, Cal., through the Straits of Magellan, eighty-two days on the trip, landing at San Francisco January 2, 1907. Coming to Tracy he secured a position as chief engineer at the Standard Oil pumping station near Tracy, remaining in that position until 1917, when he enlisted for service in the U.S. Navy and served throughout the duration of the war as a lieutenant. After his discharge from the Navy, Mr. Lubeck returned to Tracy where his services were required by the West Side Irrigation District, which had just been completed and where he was put in charge of the pumping plant and by new and economical methods, many of which have been adopted by the district, the plant at Bethany has been of great benefit to the farmers of that section.
Mr. Lubeck's marriage united him with Miss Elizabeth Widerquist, a native of Sweden who was reared in Brooklyn, N.Y., and who came West in 1907, and they are the parents of two children: John R., Jr., and Florence. Mr. Lubeck is a member of the American Legion, a past officer of the Odd Fellows Lodge in Tracy, and a member of the Masonic Lodge of Richmond, Cal., No. 347. He is a heavy stockholder in the manufacture of the Lambert Solid Tires and has done much in the way of introducing them in Central California. He has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the West and, utilizing the opportunities here offered, has made a name and place for himself.
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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