San Joaquin County Biographies


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



 
FREDERICK C. GARLICK.
 
        Prominent among the most successful building contractors of San Joaquin 
County, Frederick C. Garlick, a pioneer of the Fair Oaks section, was born at 
Kemptville, Ontario, Canada, and when he was a year and a half old, his family 
removed to "the States," and settled, first at Ogdensburg, N. Y., and later at 
Springfield, Ill. There he was reared and educated; and there he learned the 
trade of a carpenter; and in 1879, when a youth of seventeen, he left home and 
for a short time worked in the mines at Leadville, Colo.
        On August 6, 1880, he arrived at Sacramento with just five cents in his 
pocket; and he secured work at once on the ranch of Frank Slack. Later, he 
worked at Gardner's Woodyard at Sacramento, and then he journeyed south to Los 
Angeles, reaching there at the time of the great flood. This led to his 
returning north to San Francisco, from which port he shipped on the whaling 
ship, Dawn, for a cruise of eight months in the Arctic. On his return to 
California, he worked for the Continental Oil Company in Sacramento, and coming 
to Stockton, he worked for a building firm and helped to erect both a building 
at the State Asylum and the Masonic Temple in Stockton. For three years he was 
in San Francisco as foreman on the Wharf Building on the Bay front; and then he 
returned to Stockton and joined the police force as bailiff in the police court; 
two years later he became a patrolman. Later still, he engaged in house-moving 
in Stockton for sixteen years, but more recently he has followed building as a 
contractor, operating particularly in the Fair Oaks district. There he has built 
over thirty cottages, and he has proven an important factor in the building up 
of the district. Over thirty years ago, he bought six lots at Ash and Sonora 
streets, and erected his home; lots 25x115 feet on Sonora Avenue sold for $125 
at that time, and they are now valued at $500 per lot. Corner lots, 50x115 feet, 
are now valued at more than $1750, while lots on Fair Oaks Avenue have trebled 
in value. Villa Park Addition, Gambeth's Addition, and supplements to these two 
additions, and Burkett's Acres are included in the Fair Oaks section. This land 
was a mere grain field when our subject first located there, and the paving he 
put in on his block was the first in the district. He was also the first to 
build a concrete sidewalk in Fair Oaks. Now he owns valuable real estate, and 
has more calls for his houses than he can meet. The Fair Oaks district is 
growing very rapidly, and is now a part of the city of Stockton, for being 
higher in its altitude than the city, it has become a very desirable suburb.
        At Stockton, August 6, 1889, Mr. Garlick was married to Miss Mary Burke, 
a native of Cincinnati, and the couple are now the center of a devoted circle of 
friends.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p 1320         
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.