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    Ceres
    Ceres
    Ceres
    Ebook202 pages1 hour

    Ceres

    By Jeff Benziger

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Fertile soil drew Ceres founder Daniel Whitmore to the flat land south of the Tuolumne River in California's San Joaquin Valley in 1867. Named for the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres was laid out in 1875 among the stalks of grain. A devout Baptist, Whitmore offered free lots to anyone who wanted to make Ceres their home with a pledge never to use alcohol. As irrigation water and railroad tracks were later introduced, the town flourished as an agricultural community where peaches, almonds, and walnuts are grown. Today Ceres has retained its agricultural roots, and drinking is now permissible. In fact, one of the nation's largest wine producers, Bronco Winery, calls Ceres home. Residents come together as a community with the Ceres Street Faire, summer Concerts in the Park, Farmers Market and the dazzling Christmas Tree Lane.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439625156
    Ceres
    Author

    Jeff Benziger

    Waterford resident and historian Jeff Benziger, the Waterford News editor from 1982 to 1987 and former city councilman, offers a fresh look at the very old history of Waterford through a vast photographic collection of the Waterford Historical Society and key families.

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      Book preview

      Ceres - Jeff Benziger

      together.

      INTRODUCTION

      Most California towns sprang up as the result of the massive influx of immigrants stemming from the gold rush of 1849. While Ceres is far from the gold fields, it can trace its foundation to the lust for gold. Word of James Marshall’s January 24, 1848, gold discovery in Coloma was the single greatest catalyst for the development of California. Many Easterners sought out the Gold Country on a dangerous wagon trail trek over land or by a treacherous sea route to San Francisco. Sierra Nevada communities like Auburn, Placerville, Jackson, Columbia, Angels Camp, Jamestown, and Sonora boomed, but many souls quickly grew disillusioned. Hunting for gold was a backbreaking and slow endeavor. Many turned to more traditional jobs, such as running mercantiles, supplying freight, blacksmithing, and farming. They came down out of the hills to squat on the flat land of the San Joaquin Valley where soil was perfect for farming wheat and alfalfa.

      Many who settled in Ceres did so out of indifference to gold striking. Daniel Whitmore knew the life of an Atlantic sea captain and packed up with wife and children from Michigan for California in 1854. He arrived in Stockton to grow wheat and soon would be the first one to build a home in Ceres, which has preserved it to this day. James Warner, born in England, came to California in 1852 by sea in search for gold. He eventually found his way to Ceres as a businessman. John Service left Auburn for Ceres in the fall of 1867. Along with Warner, Service first laid his eyes on the Stockton area in December 1864. Vermont-born Ephraim Hatch ran away from Boston to escape an abusive father and ended up in San Francisco at age 19 with $1 in his pocket. He walked from Stockton to the gold fields. He eventually became a huge landowner in the area that is Hatch Road up to the Tuolumne River and over to South Modesto. These were the men who ended up in the region that was to become Ceres.

      In the shadow of Modesto, Ceres has a fascinating past well worth celebrating.

      Elma J. Carter was responsible for giving Ceres its name in 1871. Elma was the pretty daughter of Levi and Fanna Carter, the first settlers in the Ceres-Keyes region. Because the region was planted in wheat, the schoolteacher believed that Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, was a fitting name for her father’s granary and warehouses along the new Central Pacific Railroad tracks south of the settlement. The name Ceres was picked up for the town after Levi Carter sold a section of his real estate holdings to Daniel Whitmore. Curiously, the area’s horse-watering stop was near the Carter house and was named Esmar by taking the first letters of the names of the Carter children—Elma, Stanton, Melbourne, Aletha, and Roscoe. In 1889, 47-year-old Elma married Edward H. Hills and lived out the rest of her life in Modesto. She died May 30, 1902. (Jan Vilas Conway.)

      One

      ROOTED IN THE LAND

      The abundantly rich soil drew farmers who had a vision for a new town for raising families. Like many after the gold rush of 1849, Ohio-born Daniel Whitmore, who had learned sailing in Massachusetts, decided to head for California. He and his wife, Lucy, left Pittsford, Michigan, in the spring of 1854 in a wagon train bound for California. Five months later, the Whitmores arrived in the Stockton area and settled in the Cherokee Lane vicinity until 1857. He farmed wheat and later moved into Stanislaus County, purchasing 10,000 acres in 1867 south of the river at present-day Ceres. Arriving with the Whitmores were John and Julia Service. Daniel’s brother, Richard K. Whitmore, showed up in 1869 at about the time Daniel was building a house that stands today on Fifth Street. The first buildings constructed in the Ceres area, however, were Levi Carter’s granary and warehouse on his 2,400 acres south of town. From Stockton, Carter snatched up land in Stanislaus County from 1863 to 1865 and named his new establishment where horses were watered Esmar Station. In 1871, introduction of the railroad near Whitmore’s town resulted in a Ceres depot. In 1872, Carter sold Daniel Whitmore a block of land for $9,000 that extended from Tenth Street to Central Avenue and from Whitmore Avenue to Service Road. Ceres was built within that block. In 1875, Daniel Whitmore filed the first town plot and offered lots to anyone who pledged to refrain from selling alcoholic beverages. With its mild climate (except for some blisteringly hot summer days), Ceres blossomed as a town. Wheat remained the primary crop grown in the area until irrigation was made available from the La Grange Dam in 1900. An availability of year-round water allowed other crops to be grown, including figs, peaches, walnuts, almonds, and vegetables. Dairy cattle provided milk for the Ceres Creamery, which produced Ceres Butter.

      The Carter-Vilas home was the first in the Ceres region. Levi Carter built the house south of the future Ceres town site in 1865. At the time Carter farmed 2,400 acres in the area that would become Ceres and Keyes. Carter has been called the first citizen of Ceres as his house was built before Daniel Whitmore’s 1870 residence. After the Central Pacific Railroad laid its tracks in 1870, the first railroad crossing was near the Carter house and named Esmar. The spacious 112-acre estate was sold in 1905 to Marcellus Vilas, a New York native who came to Ceres from Shasta County. The house was enlarged in 1892 and has remained in the Vilas family. (Mildred Lucas.)

      A son of Levi Carter, Stanton L. Carter became an attorney and judge of the superior court in Fresno. He was born in 1853 in Clayton, New York, and arrived in California in 1862. Stanton graduated from Stockton High School in 1871 and then worked summers managing the grain

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