Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES:WILIAMS, DAVIS
Frank Lobdell, son of Calvin and Eliza Ann (Williams) Lobdell, was born in Lake County, Illinois, June 11, 1849. His parents were natives of New York State and settled in Lake County in 1843, where his father located on a pre-emption claim under the land laws of the United States. They have a family of four children, of whom Frank is the oldest son. He lived with his parents till sixteen years of age and attended the district school while living at home, and afterward went to the High School at Waukegan, in his native county. He worked as an apprentice at the carpenter’s trade in the summer and attended school in winter for two years. He then went to Chicago and worked as a journeyman carpenter, and was there during the great fire of 1871. In the winter of 1871-72 he opened a contractor’s and builder’s shop with O. J. Daily, under the firm name of Daily & Lobdell. About this time he began the study of architecture, and attended night schools under different masters for about three years. After this he turned most of his attention to architecture, and continued the practice of his profession there until 1876, when his health failed and he was unable a great deal of the time to attend to business. On March 4, 1877, he left Chicago and came to California and located in Bridgeport, Mono County, where he ran a restaurant for about a year and a half, when he sold it and moved to Bodie, in the same county, and opened a notion emporium, dealing in cigars, tobacco, and notions; he continued in that business there till the fall of 1880, when he sold out and moved to Los Gatos, where he purchased a ranch of ten acres about a mile north of the town, and planted it to trees and vines. He worked at the carpenter’s trade until 1885, when he turned his attention to the profession of architecture. In the fall of 1887, on the growing demand for his work, he opened an office in Los Gatos, where he has been constantly engaged ever since. He has made a great many designs for builders in Los Gatos and vicinity. He has one acre in table grapes, five years old; 350 French prunes, 250 apricots, 200 peaches, 100 yellow egg plums, all of different ages, and about 50 trees of different varieties in the family orchard.
Mr. Lobdell was
married in 1873, to Cora A. Davis, a native of Lake County, Illinois. They have
four children, viz.: Annie R., Winniford, Maud R., and Jessie.
Pen Pictures From The
Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated.
- Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 299-300
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT