Addison Edgar Turpen

HISTORY OF STANISLAUS COUNTY P. 443

ADDISON EDGAR TURPEN ---A native son able to recall the most interesting incidents of early life in and around Turlock is Addison Edgar Turpen of Modesto, who has seen Turlock develop from a string of grain houses. He was born in Stanislaus County, about five miles out of Modesto, between Modesto and Waterford, on June 29, 1874, the son of Maj. A. M. Turpen, a farmer from Jefferson County, Mo., who came to California in 1864 and on the twenty-ninth of September camped under the oak tree still standing on H Street, near High. He located in Waterford, and was the first postmaster of that place, serving there for five years: and with James Hudelson he purchased half of a section of land on the Tuolumne River, about five miles from Modesto, where Addison, the subject of our review, was born. With James Hudelson he farmed the Dickinson ranch of several hundred acres for five years, and they were the first farmers in Stanislaus County using a six horse gang plow. Major Turpen married Miss Mary Frances Hudelson, whose father came to California first in 1850, crossing the plains with ox-teams, going back after his wife died, then returning in 1853 and again coming here in 1857, making three trips, and settled in Stanislaus County.

    After a while, Major Turpen moved to Fresno County and there purchased a half-section of land at Centerville—that is, he purchased the very land upon which Centerville afterward grew and developed. However, when the first Irrigation District in Fresno County was formed, Major Turpen sold his holdings in Fresno, and moved to Merced County, on account of health conditions, caused by the seepage water running into the dug wells, having been in Fresno County for six years; in Merced County he leased 3,000 acres from Dr. W. M. Ryer of San Francisco, and raised grain for fourteen years. Then he purchased an 800-acre ranch thirteen miles east of Turlock on the Old Snelling Read. He sold this ranch in 1902 and bought 960 acres near Denair, in Merced County, and for twelve years raised grain. This was outside the Modesto Irrigation District, and was devoted to grain. After being there two years, he sold this ranch and bought a ninety-six acre ranch near Lodi, devoted to fruit: but this lie had only one year when he returned to Stanislaus County and purchased a half-section, part of which today is a part of the site of Riverbank. After holding this ranch for a number of years, he sold it to C. W. Minnear. In 1908 fie moved into Modesto, and there, on April 9, 1910, he died. Mrs. Turpen, the beloved center of a circle of admiring friends, is today hale and hearty at the age of sixty-six. There were ten children in the family, eight boys and two girls—Addison E., Walter M., Lourena May, Mrs. G. M. Lock, Eugene S., James M., Arthur C, of Oakland ; W. Bartlett, of Fresno; Aaron G., Mary Frances, Mrs. A. A. Dorfmeier of Fresno, and Oliver S.

    Addison Turpen had his schooling in the district school of Merced County, with a course in the business college at Santa Cruz, and at seventeen years of age he took the lead of work on the home place, lived at home till he was twenty-one and for seventeen successive summers he ran a threshing outfit., He went into farming with his father, and for five years they ran the 3,000-acre ranch in Merced County. For the last twenty-three years, Mr. Turpen has been in the building business at Modesto, and he has been very successful. He has specialized in first-class bungalows, and has built many of the Modesto homes. He can well remember when the country hereabouts was nothing but sand-heaps, and when a three-days' sand storm buried from sight the fence-posts standing where the main streets of Turlock now run.

At Modesto, on March 11, 1900, Mr. Turpen was married to Elizabeth Pittorf, a daughter of Valentine and Katherine Pittorf. Her father was a pioneer baker of Modesto, and came here at an early day without much of this world's substance, and started a bakery. He delivered his first goods with a hand-basket, then purchased a two-wheel push-cart, and finally a horse and a wagon, and from then on prospered in his baking business. Mrs. Turpen's mother is living, and enjoys the esteem and affection of all who know her. Mrs. Turpen, who was an invalid for many years, passed away on January 7, 1907. Three children, all students of the local high school, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Turpen. Elbert Vernon and Warren Edgar have become ranchers, Lorene Wilhelmina are still busy with their books.