San Joaquin County Biographies


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



WILLIAM J. TODA.
 
        An enterprising business man, as well as a native son, of Farmington, is 
William J. Toda, who is the proprietor of the Farmington Meat Market, sanitary 
and modern in every particular. In 1920, at a cost of $5,000, Mr. Toda installed 
an up-to-date refrigerating system with a capacity of three tons per day. He was 
born at Farmington, March 4, 1882, the eldest son of Julius and Nellie (Schrock) 
Toda, natives of Germany and Texas, respectively. William J. Toda began his 
education in the Shady Grove district school for two years; then while living 
with his maternal grandparents he attended the Paloma district school near 
Fosteria, Calaveras County, until his seventeenth year. He then became 
interested in mining in Calaveras County and spent the following twelve years 
prospecting and placer mining, with considerable success; meantime his father 
had been carrying on the stock business and meat market at Farmington. In 1910 
William J. and his brother, L. A. Toda, entered into a partnership to carry on a 
retail meat business, which was conducted for two years, when the business was 
closed out on account of the illness of the latter. William J. Toda then 
returned to the mines, where he spent six months, then returned to Farmington 
and in 1914 he opened the meat market on his own account, and in 1920 improved 
his business with modern equipment run by electricity. Mr. Toda owns the 
property where his slaughter house is located on the Sonora Road and many 
improvements are under way for the betterment of this branch of the business. 
Mr. Toda formerly ran a meat route covering a territory of fifty miles, but this 
has recently been discontinued.
        Mr. Toda's marriage occurred in Farmington, which united him with Miss 
Zana Gwin, a native of Kansas, a daughter of John and Jennie Gwin, now residing 
in Berkeley, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Toda are the parents of one son, Gwin Toda, a 
pupil at the Shady Grove district school. The family reside in Farmington in 
their comfortable residence and Mr. Toda is a member of the local Farm Bureau.
 
History of San Joaquin County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 
1923
p  1501        
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.