Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Calkins, Almon H. 1841 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com December 20, 2005, 1:25 pm

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)

    ALMON H. CALKINS is a native of Oswego, N. Y., born January 1st, 1841. His
father was Almon Calkins, a native of Connecticut, a Methodist clergyman of the
Genesee, N. Y., Conference. He is of Welch ancestry. The mother of Mr. Calkins,
Susan Alma, was a Quakeress, a native of New York. The family came west in 1850
and located at Janesville, Wisconsin, where young Calkins grew up and passed
through the public schools. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted
for the conflict under Professor Cass, who organized Company A, 40th Wisconsin
Infantry and was elected its captain. This company was largely made up of
Captain Cass's former pupils of the Janesville High School. They went to the
front under the ninety days call of 1864, and were stationed at Memphis,
Tennessee, where he suffered a sunstroke while under a forced march which
permanently incapacited him for further military duty. He was honorably
discharged from the service and returned home with his regiment.

    He then turned his attention to the development and promotion of a new
device for burning fuel oil, of his own invention, upon which he was granted a
series of letters patent by the United States Government, and which was also
patented in foreign countries. He also, in company with brothers, acquired
ownership of several patents on barbed wire for fencing purposes, which they for
years controlled in this country, the revenues from which made the brothers
wealthy. The financial crisis of 1873 proved a disastrous occurrence for this
and hundreds of other well-established business enterprises, which was followed
by the death of the brothers and loss of health by the subject of this sketch.
He came to California and Santa Monica in 1879 which has since been his home.

    Mr. Calkins has two sisters, residents of Santa Monica—Juliete, widow of the
late Judge Boyce, and Jennie M., widow of M. Boyce, a prominent attorney of
Illinois and a half brother of Judge Boyce.

    Mr. Calkins leads a quiet life and attributes the prolongation of his life
to the health-giving climate of Southern California.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Ingersoll's century history, Santa Monica Bay cities: prefaced with a brief
history of the state of California, a condensed history of Los Angeles County,
1542 to 1908: supplemented with an encyclopedia of local biography and
embellished with views of historic landmarks and portraits of representative
people.

Los Angeles: Luther A. Ingersoll (1908)


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