San Joaquin County Biographies


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




MRS. MARIA SANGUINETTI.
 
        Since 1879 Mrs. Maria Sanguinetti has been a resident of California, and 
has borne her full share of the duties and responsibilities that were the lot of 
successful Californians from the early days to the present. She resides on her 
forty-one-acre orchard and vineyard home seven miles northeast of Stockton, on 
which she has built a modern bungalow home. She was born at Paggi in the 
province of Genoa, Italy, April 28, 1867, a daughter of Gio Batta and Anna 
(Podesto) Podesto, also natives of that town, who were substantial farmers. Her 
father was a soldier in the Italian army for eleven years and was a veteran of 
the war with Napoleon. He received a silver medal from the government, a mark of 
honor for distinguished services in the war. He resided on his home farm until 
his death in 1910 at the age of eighty-three years, leaving a fine and honorable 
record, a much esteemed and highly respected man; his widow is still living at 
the old home at the age of seventy-seven years. Maria is the eldest in a family 
of five children, the others being Katherine; Louise, deceased; another daughter 
Louise who became Mrs. Sturla, living in Italy; and Stefano, deceased. Maria 
Podesto was educated in the private schools near her home. She had an uncle in 
Buenos Ayres named Louis Podesto and another, Albert Podesto, in California, and 
so had an opportunity to go to either South America or California, finally 
deciding to come to the land of gold and sunshine on the Pacific Coast, a 
decision she has never regretted. On June 12, 1879, Maria Podesto left her 
native land for California in company with her uncle, John Podesto, her mother's 
brother, and after her arrival in California kept house for him for a year, then 
she worked at various places until her marriage. In Stockton, on February 5, 
1882, she was married to John Sanguinetti, also a native of Genoa, Italy, a son 
of Augusto and Katherine Sanguinetti, farmers in Italy. John Sanguinetti was 
educated in Italy and was a horticulturist and viticulturist. He first married 
Miss Maria Prato in Italy and they had three children: Angelo, deceased; Anna 
and Jennie, of Stockton.
        John Sanguinetti and his first wife came to California while young and 
settled at Stockton where John Sanguinetti engaged in truck gardening on land 
where now stands the Sperry Flour Mills, and his wife passed away while residing 
there. Subsequently he met and married Maria Podesto and they purchased a ranch 
about six miles northeast of Stockton in the Morado section, consisting of 
twenty-seven acres of bare land, which was developed to orchard. John 
Sanguinetti died on that place November 21, 1896, aged fifty-one years, and the 
home place was divided equally between Mrs. Sanguinetti and his two daughters by 
his former marriage. Mrs. Sanguinetti received thirteen acres as her share of 
the estate, and two years ago she sold her portion of the old home place. Twelve 
years ago she had purchased twenty acres in the Morado precinct where she now 
resides, and she has added to her original purchase until she now owns forty-one 
acres in orchard, vineyard and hay land, which is well irrigated by an electric 
pumping plant, thus making it productive, so it brings a fine income. While Mrs. 
Sanguinetti leases most of her ranch, yet she has demonstrated her ability to 
make good along agricultural lines. In politics she is a stanch supporter of the 
Republican party. She has seen a great improvement in the county in the 
forty-three years of her residence here, Stockton having grown from a small 
place to a large city with handsome buildings and paved streets. She loves her 
adopted state and would not be content to live elsewhere.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p  1000       
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.