California Biographies

Source:
History of Napa and Lake Counties
San Francisco, Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1881

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011

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


JOSEPH F. LAMDIN.  Son of Robert and Caroline M. Farland Lamdin, was born in Talbot County, 
Maryland, January 10, 1828. He resided at his birthplace till his fifteenth year, when he went to 
Baltimore, where he secured a situation in a dry goods store. He remained there until the fall of 1849, 
when he contracted to work for the firm of Wetmore & Gray, who had preceded him to California and 
engaged in the dry goods business in San Francisco. March 22, 1849, Mr. Lamdin sailed on the ship 
"Samoset," via Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco September 10th, same year. He proceeded to 
Benicia, where he began clerking for the above named firm. He remained there until April, 1850. He 
was then sent by the firm to Stockton to superintend a branch store, where he remained until the fall 
of 1851, when their store was destroyed by fire. He then formed a partnership with H. T. Compton, in 
the same business, under the firm name of Lamdin & Compton, Stockton, and continued in this 
business until 1858, during which time Mr. Lamdin resided in San Francisco and attended to the 
business for the store. In 1858 the firm was dissolved. Mr. Lamdin then remained in San Francisco till 
he came to Napa in 1859, where he began the general merchandise business in that place, which he 
continued until 1868, when he confined himself to the express business, having been Wells, Fargo & 
Co.'s agent since 1863, in which business he is now engaged, and it is but small encomium to say that 
Mr. Lamdin is the right man in the right place, as he is obliging and accommodating, and entirely 
trustworthy, and is held in very high esteem by the citizens of the city in which he lives. The subject of 
this sketch was married in Stockton to Miss Althea Parker, October 29, 1859, a native of Nantucket, 
Massachusetts, born February 14, 1841. By this union they have five living children, Robert P., born 
September 19, 1860; Alfred H, born March 6, 1866 ; Gertrude E,, born December 17,1874; Joseph R., 
born October 3, 1876, and Julien B., born March 1, 1878.