San Joaquin County Biographies


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



WALTER E. MAESTRETTI. 
 
         Among the younger generation of ranchers of the Elliott district is 
Walter E. Maestretti, who is making a decided success of his agricultural 
activities. He is a Californian by birth, born at San Francisco on December 3, 
1890, a son of Emilio and Media Frances (Orr) Maestretti, the former a native of 
Canton Ticino, Switzerland, and the latter of San Francisco, Cal. The father, 
Emilio Maestretti, was born in 1863 and when sixteen years of age came to 
California and began work as a sheepherder; later he went into the sheep 
business for himself. In 1893 the father bought 160 acres at Clay Station, 
Sacramento County, and engaged in general farming, specializing in the raising 
of turkeys on a large scale. Emilio Maestretti married Media Frances Orr, a 
daughter of Andrew Younger Orr, a native of Scotland, who came around the Horn 
as a sailor with Captain Sir Herbert Austin. Landing in San Francisco, he 
immediately went to the mines at Camp Seco; later when he returned to New York 
he enlisted and served in the 142nd New York Volunteer Infantry, and being a 
baker by trade he followed it throughout the Civil War. They are the parents of 
seven children: Walter E., the subject of this sketch; Emma; Andrew, born at 
Clay Station July 1, 1895; George resides in Sacramento; Josie is the wife of 
Andrew Aldrich; Alfred, living in Sacramento; and Wesley.
        The education of Walter E. Maestretti was obtained in the district 
school near Clay Station and when he was twenty-two years old he left home and 
settled in the Elliott section of San Joaquin County, where in partnership with 
his brother Andrew, he farms a 144-acre tract of land. Besides their farming 
activities, they own a Holt seventy-five-horsepower tractor, a Holt harvesting 
outfit, and a full line of grain farming implements and are kept busy a great 
portion of the time doing tractor contract work throughout the county.
        Mr. Maestretti entered the service of his country during the World War 
in December of 1917, and was sent to Camp Lewis and placed in the Ninety-first 
Division, Fifth Battalion, Company Fifteen of the One Hundred and Sixty-sixth 
Depot Brigade, but on account of illness was unable to leave Camp Lewis and in 
January of 1918 was discharged from the service and returned to his home in 
Elliott.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p 1481        
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.