California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

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


GODFREY NORWOOD VANWORMER. A man of education, culture and refinement, G. N. Vanwormer is 
located within three and a half miles of Fowler, Fresno county, where, in the management of the 
Maud Vineyard, he is demonstrating his business ability and judgment. He was born in Jefferson 
county, N. Y., August 20, 1836, a son of John Vanwormer. a native of the same state, and grandson of 
Cornelius, a farmer there until his death. The latter was a patriot in the war of 1812 and a prominent 
man in the community where he made his home, his father and nine brothers participating in the 
Revolutionary war. John Vanwormer was a ship carpenter by occupation, in the employ of the 
government, working on the famous Constitution and other vessels of note. He came to his death by 
drowning while out in a small boat in Boston harbor. His wife, Eliza Jane Welch, a native of Boston, 
Mass., died when her son, G. N., was a lad. He was the only child, and after the death of his mother 
was reared by his paternal grandparents. He received his education in the common schools and took 
the junior year at Ann Arbor, Mich. At the age of twenty years he left New York state, and after three 
months located in Missouri, where for four years he engaged in teaching, and also for a part of the 
time attended Pleasant Hill Academy, of Missouri; while at this place the Confederate flag was raised 
on the grounds. In 1860 he went to Michigan to visit an uncle and afterward engaged as a teacher in 
Genesee. During 1863 he was principal of the Vassar schools, and for one year filled the same position 
in the Flint schools. Following this he taught in Saginaw for four years, and Bay City for two years, after 
which he went to Wisconsin, and in Chippewa Falls engaged in the fire insurance business for two 
years. Later he taught in Mineral Point for one year, when he returned to Bay City; Mich., and engaged 
in a mercantile enterprise. He then entered the University of Michigan and studied for a time, when 
he went to Dennison, Iowa, as principal of schools of that place. Deciding to locate in California he 
came west in 1880, and in Napa accepted the chair of mathematics in the Collegiate Institute. Two 
years later he accepted the position of manager of the Maud Vineyard, which company he promoted 
and was an important factor in its incorporation during the winter of 1881 and 1882. The property 
consisted of one hundred and twenty acres, of which sixty acres were planted to vineyard and the 
same amount to peaches and nectarines. He still retains the management of the place, in which he 
owns a half interest, and has brought about the success which has characterized the venture. He also 
owns forty acres of vineyard and orchard one mile west of Del Rev, Fresno county. Mr. Vanwormer is 
a member of the Episcopal Church, and politically casts his ballot with the Republican party. Fraternally 
he is identified with the Masonic organization, of which he became a member in Portsmouth, Mich.