California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


JOHN J. SCHLITZ. Like the majority of men gifted with speculative ability, John J. Schlitz 
has experienced his moments of financial elation and depression, and on several occasions 
has won and lost fortunes which would have maintained an average family in comfort for the 
remainder of its days. Unquestionably one of the most capable grain buyers and dealers in 
Kern county, his present position as buyer for the G. W. McNear Company affords ample scope 
for his exhaustive knowledge of the grain resources of this section of the state, knowledge 
gained through practical management of a grain farm of fifteen hundred acres, and years of study 
along his chosen occupation. He has been with the present concern since 1898, and during cer- 
tain prosperous years has purchased as high as a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of 
grain. The company has four warehouses between Bakersfield and Tulare, and carries on 
one of the most extensive businesses of its kind on the Pacific coast. 

A representative German-American citizen, Mr. Schlitz is a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, Ger- 
many, and was born December 2, 1835. According to the custom of the country, he learned a 
useful trade, apprenticing to a lace maker for three years, with which assurance of a livelihood 
he immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York in September, 1852. A year later he 
went to Philadelphia and worked at his trade for a couple of years, and in 1855 sailed around the 
Horn to San Francisco, reaching there August, 2. His first occupation in the west was as an 
assistant in the construction of the first starch factory in Berkeley, for the firm of J. Everding 
& Company, and after its completion he was employed in the factory for a year. He then worked 
on a farm until 1859, when he became interested in mining, and ineffectually sought to enlarge 
his fortune at Dutchflat for one season. His next venture was as manager of a dairy ranch in 
Contra Costa county, and in 1866 he engaged in a general merchandise business at Walnut 
creek, Contra Costa county, a venture which netted him twenty-five thousand dollars, when 
he sold out in 1876. Later on he engaged in quicksilver mining speculation in Napa county, 
and in one year lost all that he had. 

Removing to Oakland, Mr. Schlitz became manager of a produce business until 1881, and 
then rented a ranch near Fresno for a couple of years. In 1883 he went to Tulare and operated 
a grain warehouse for three years, and in the meantime had purchased a three hundred and 
twenty acre ranch in Tulare county, where he raised his first crop of grain in 1884. He con- 
tinued in grain raising with fluctuating success until 1898, often having as many as fifteen hun- 
dred acres under cultivation. He still owns his ranch in Tulare county, near the Kern county 
line, but found that grain raising, when conducted exclusively, did not pay. In keeping with 
his line of business and public spirit, Mr. Schlitz became one of the organizers and the secretary 
of the Delano board of trade in 1903. From time to time he has taken an active interest in 
Republican politics, serving as justice of the peace for twelve years in Walnut creek, for two 
years in Fresno, and for four years in Tulare county. He has been a notary public for several 
years. Mr. Schlitz is identified with Delano Lodge No. 309, F. & A. M., and Tulare Chapter, 
R. A. M. His marriage occurred in 1868, which united him with Mattie A. Jones, a native of 
Contra Costa county, who was born in 1847. Six children have been born of this union, of whom 
the oldest is deceased. Lizzie, the second child, is the wife of Charles S. Eaton, of Tulare ; Mabel 
is the wife of H. D. Zimmerman, a large sheep raiser of Tulare county ; Juanita is the wife of 
R. M. Miller, of the vicinity of Delano; Nellie is the wife of A. B. Bulock, of Reno, Nev. ; and 
Frank is a rancher in Tulare county. Mr. Schlitz bears an honored name in the community, and 
is regarded as one of the liberal-minded, generous and public-spirited citizens of Delano.