San Joaquin County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
LOUIS N. DOUVILLE.
 
        Among the old-timers of San Joaquin County who has resided in California 
for over half a century is Louis N. Douville, for many years a successful cement 
contractor, but now retired from business activity. A man of forceful character, 
he has held premier rank among the men of his class in San Joaquin County, and 
his mantle of reliability and thoroughness has been transferred to his son, 
Louis N. Douville, Jr. He was born at Quebec, Canada, March 15, 1852, and was 
reared in that city until he was eighteen years old, when he concluded that 
nothing could be gained by remaining in Canada. When he arrived in Stockton in 
1870 he could not speak a word of English, coming from Canada on an emigrant 
train which occupied fourteen and a half days to make the trip. His first 
employment was on a threshing machine for Charles Doyle, where he worked for 
three months; he then bought a hay press of his owns which he operated 
throughout the county for the next ten years, when he was employed by Dr. Asa 
Clark at his private asylum on South Center Street, remaining there for three 
years. He then entered the employ of the Gray Brothers, cement contractors of 
San Francisco, becoming foreman for them. He had twenty-seven men under him in 
his work, building streets in San Francisco, Alameda, and Oakland; also doing 
cement work in new subdivisions in these cities; he did the cement work on the 
salt water reservoir at Geary Street and Central Avenue, San Francisco; also the 
reservoir in San Rafael. Then he built miles of street sidewalks in Stockton and 
when he entered business for himself, he helped to do the cement work on the 
first paved streets in Stockton.
        Mr. Douville's marriage united him with Miss Delia Hannan. a native of 
Stockton, and a daughter of a California pioneer. They are the parents of two 
children: Louis N., Jr., and Ethel, Mrs. Roy E. Gibbon. Louis N. Douville, Jr., 
was born in Stockton May 23, 1890, and received his education in his native 
city; he then went to San Francisco and was in the employ of the T. & D. theater 
for two years when he returned to Stockton and became a conductor on the street 
cars; then he became associated with his father in the contracting business. 
Among his more important contracts are the following: the foundation of the 
Studebaker block on Weber Avenue; St. Agnes Academy and St. Joseph's Hospital. 
During the four years since his father retired from active business life, he has 
had the contract for cement work of the new subdivisions, the Yosemite Terrace, 
Tuxedo Park, Salfield's addition at Oak Park; in Rio Vista he laid the 
foundation for the Standard Oil tank, cement work in a number of dairy barns, 
foundations for bungalows in Manteca and on the Hugh Tye block on South San 
Joaquin Street, Stockton; cement work on annex of the Union Planing Mill on 
South Sutter Street; on the Stockton Mineral Baths; and laid the cement floors 
in the Lafayette school building. He is a first-class workman in every 
particular, thorough and reliable; his prices are very moderate and all his work 
is guaranteed. He is a member of the Eagles of Stockton. He married Miss Barbara 
Christy, a native of California, and they are the parents of three children: 
Clark, Geraldine, and Jack. Mr. Douville, Sr., is a member of the Iroquois Tribe 
of Red Men of Stockton and he has always led a useful, upright life.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p     424
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.