Madera County Biographies

THOMAS J. TOPHAM

Transcribed by Craig A Hahn

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

THOMAS J. TOPHAM, proprietor of the Madera Soda Works, was born in 
Huntingdonshire, England. He was reared on the farm of his father and was 
educated at Eton College. In 1872 he came to the United States with his parents 
and landed at Boston during the disastrous fire in that city. They then went to 
Wythe County, Virginia, where Mr. Topham bought a farm of 420 acres and carried 
on general farming. After five years in this country, on account of failing 
health, young Topham took a trip to England, and after one year there went to 
Australia and New Zealand, hoping to derive benefits from the sea voyage. After 
four years passed in traveling about Australia, with health restored, he started 
for California, where he arrived in February, 1884. He then settled upon a farm 
of 120 acres in Tulare County, where, for three years, he carried on general 
farming. In 1887 he came to Madera, purchased land and erected his present 
establishment, which is fitted up with the latest improved machinery for the 
manufacture of soda water and the bottling of wines. Mr. Topham purifies the 
water used in his soda water by a chemical process. The water is then carefully 
filtered before being used, making the soda of better quality and causing it to 
keep for a longer time. He has a bored well, 100 feet deep, which supplies the 
factory and an ice house for the storage of manufactured stock. He is pleased 
with his success, as he is building up an extensive patronage throughout the 
county. Mr. Topham was married, in Australia, in 1884, to Miss Carrie Reinhardt, 
a native of Australia, but of German descent. They have no children. 
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, 
California Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892, p. 750