San Joaquin County Biographies


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



ARTHUR F. ROBERTS.
 
        A business man of marked ability, who has been with the Hobbs-Parsons 
Company of Stockton, wholesale distributors of produce, for the past twenty-one 
years, is Arthur F. Roberts, the capable manager of that organization. Born on a 
farm in the Mohawk Valley near Rome, Oneida County, N. Y., on July 28, 1870, he 
received his education in the district schools, the Rome Academy and the Albany 
Business College in Albany, N. Y. Remaining at home until he was twenty-three 
years of age, in 1893 he came to Fresno County, Cal., and went to work in a 
raisin vineyard at thirty dollars per month; at the end of one year he formed a 
partnership in the retail fruit and produce business; later engaged in the 
wholesale fruit and produce business and was the originator of the system of 
packing figs with steam treatment. He was thus occupied until 1900 when he 
entered the employ of the Hobbs-Parsons Company as a buyer. He traveled over the 
large potato growing states of the West, principally Oregon, Idaho and 
Minnesota, passing two seasons in Minnesota where he established relations with 
the large potato growers, and this business connection still continues.
        The marriage of Mr. Roberts united him with Miss Clara Belle Hamilton, a 
native of Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, Cal., and they are the parents of 
three children: Edward Hamilton, Thomas Arthur, and Harriet Anne. He has taken 
an active interest in the Y. M. C. A. and for several years was a member of the 
board of directors and at present is a member of the finance board. In 1920 he 
was chairman of the boys' work committee. At one time he was a member of the 
executive council of the Boy Scouts. During the World War he was captain of all 
drives covering a territory eight miles north of Stockton and near the close of 
the war served as a member of the county exemption board. He is a member of the 
Stockton Golf and Country Club; an ex-member of the board of directors of the 
Chamber of Commerce, and is a past president of the Stockton Rotary Club. In 
1921 he was elected a director in the Stockton Savings and Loan Bank. In May, 
1922, he was elected a member of the committee of freeholders, fifteen in 
number, which drafted a new charter for the city of Stockton, providing for the 
manager form of government. In his religious affiliations he is president of the 
board of trustees of the First Congregational Church, of which the family are 
members.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p     662
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.