San Joaquin County Biographies


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



THE MODEL HAT SHOP
ELSIE A. SOLOMON
HELEN E. TODD
 
        A thoroughly up-to-date concern, whose enterprise has also stimulated 
other firms, is the millinery shop located at 15 West Elm Street, Lodi, known as 
the Model Hat Shop, owned and operated by the Misses Elsie A. Solomon and Helen 
E. Todd, thoroughly experienced in designing and trimming hats. This shop was 
founded by Mrs. Vassar, who conducted it for eight years as a parlor millinery 
shop, one of the first in Lodi. It was then sold to Miss E. M. McLachlan and 
successfully conducted by her until it was sold to the present owners in 1919, 
and they have built up a fine, well-paying business. Miss Elsie A. Solomon is a 
San Joaquin County girl, born seven miles from Stockton on the Linden Road, a 
daughter of Gustave and Agnes Solomon. Gustave Solomon came to California in an 
early day, and for many years conducted a winery. He passed away in 1910, and 
her mother is now residing in Berkeley. Miss Solomon received her education in 
the Delphi district school, then attended the Washington school and the Stockton 
Commercial College in Stockton. She took up millinery work in Stockton and spent 
nine years in shops in San Francisco and Stockton previous to locating in Lodi.
        Miss Helen E. Todd was born in Diagonal, Iowa, a daughter of Edgar P. 
and Laura Todd. In 1901 Miss Todd accompanied her parents to California and 
settled at Selma, where her father is engaged in the real estate and insurance 
business. Miss Todd attended the Selma grammar and high schools and learned the 
millinery trade in Fresno and San Francisco, and she, too, had nine years' 
experience before locating in Lodi.
        In 1919 Misses Solomon and Todd purchased the business conducted by Miss 
McLachlan, add their enterprise and industry have been rewarded by increasing 
patronage and the Model Hat Shop is a credit to the city.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p     1637     
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.