Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

JOSEPH ALFRED VELASCO

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

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


 
            Yuba City may well be proud of its experienced and enterprising 
artisans of the industrial world, prominent among whom we find Joseph Alfred 
Velasco, the proprietor of the well-equipped general blacksmith shop on Sutter 
Street.  A native son, he was born at Aptos, Santa Cruz County, November 21, 
1888, the son of Joseph M. and Catherine (Omnes) Velasco.  The father was born 
in California and reared at Lexington, and became a prominent stockman in Santa 
Cruz County.  The grandfather, Capt. Julian Omnes, came to California in the 
early forties and owned one of the first sawmills in the State.  He built his 
first sawmill in San Bernardino, and later moved to Santa Cruz County and built 
a sawmill at Rincon.  He built a sailboat with which he transported freight from 
Santa Cruz to Yerba Buena, or San Francisco.  Later still he erected a sawmill 
farther up the coast in Santa Cruz County.  He also owned a large rancho, 
extending from San Francisquito Creek to Palo Alto.  Both parents were descended 
from the best of pioneer stock and were highly esteemed in their day.
            Joseph Alfred Velasco, or Al Velasco, as he is familiarly called, 
went through the public schools and later took a course in the International 
Correspondence School. Four of the uncles in the Omnes family were blacksmiths 
by trade, and it was but natural that Al Velasco should learn the trade from 
them.  When he was twelve years old he was able to shoe a horse satisfactorily 
to his uncles.  He worked at his trade in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, 
continuing until 1909, when he came to Marysville and here found employment with 
the Dunning Brothers Company.  So well did he demonstrate his ability that in 
one month he was made foreman of their blacksmith shop.  When the Dunning 
Brothers Company opened the California Garage, Mr. Velasco continued with them 
as foreman of the blacksmith department, to the satisfaction of all concerned.  
Wishing to engage in business for himself, he found an opening in Yuba City in 
1922; so he resigned from his position and began to devote his time and energy 
to building up a business.  The business grew and in time necessitated enlarging 
his quarters and adding to this equipment.  Having bought the lot where his shop 
is situated, he now has a floor space 80 by 80 feet and does general 
blacksmithing, horseshoeing, and wood-working, and runs a general repair shop 
for wagons, automobiles and truck wheels, tractors and farming implements.  He 
makes a specialty of oxy-acetylene welding and body-building for automobiles and 
trucks, has a furnace especially equipped for the making of springs of all 
kinds, and manufactures dipping tanks and baskets.  He also handles tires for 
automobiles and trucks and has the agency for the Quaker State motor oils.  So 
rapidly has his business expanded that he employs four experienced men to assist 
him, and his establishment is one of the busiest in the city.
            At Petaluma, on July 2, 1912, Mr. Velasco was married to Agnes Daly, 
born in Athlone, Ireland, a daughter of Thomas and Catherine (Norton) Daly.  
They brought their family around Cape Horn to San Francisco, where Mrs. Velasco 
was reared from her childhood; and it was in that city she attended the public 
schools.  Mr. Velasco is fond of hunting and fishing.  He belongs to the Woodmen 
of the World and to the Yuba City Commercial Club.  In politics he is a 
Republican, but in local issues he believes in supporting the best men and best 
measures for the good of the community.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p. 1111