Merced County Biographies

J. J. GONZALES

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        A building contractor of Atwater who has always had his share of the 
building business of that fast-growing settlement is J. J. Gonzales, a native 
son, born in Bear Valley, Mariposa County, on May 1, 1873, the oldest child of 
Manuel and Mary (Silva) Gonzales. Manuel Gonzales was born on the Island of Pico 
in the Azores, and in the early sixties landed in San Francisco and soon 
afterwards located in Mariposa County. At the age of thirty he married Mary 
Silva, who is still living at the age of seventy-four years and resides at 
Atwater. Manuel died there in 1923.
        J. J. Gonzales attended the public schools of Mariposa County and as he 
grew up he followed mining in the creek channels in that county. The results 
were far from satisfactory to the ambitious lad and he started in to learn the 
carpenter's trade and learned it from the bottom up. He came to Atwater in 1906 
and for some time his attention was divided between ranching and carpentering as 
he secured jobs here and there. In 1913 he gave up ranching to devote his time 
to contracting and building and has since been thus engaged, doing his share of 
the home building in Atwater and the surrounding country.
        Mr. Gonzales was married in 1905 to Anne DeNeves, born in Bear Valley, 
Mariposa County, the daughter of the late Mathew DeNeves, who died in April, 
1925 at the age of seventy-seven. His widow, Mary DeNeves, is still living. Of 
the union of Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales four children have been born: William, Elmer, 
Franklin and Thelma, all born in Merced County.
 
History of Merced County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 837