Merced-Alameda-Napa County CA Archives Biographies.....Oliveira, Joseph A. 1875 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 13, 2006, 5:51 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

JOSEPH A. OLIVEIRA

   Numbered among the prominent and progressive agriculturists and business men
of Gustine is Jospeh A. Oliveira, who owns a 100-acre ranch three miles south of
Gustine; he also owns two other large dairies in partnership with others and he
is also part-owner of a butcher shop which occupies the ground floor of his own
building in Gustine. A self-made man in every sense implied by the term, he is
everywhere respected, and his honesty and straightforward business methods have
gained for him the confidence of the community in which he resides. He was born
July 2, 1875, on St. George of the Azores, where his parents, Joseph A. and Mary
(Bontello) Oliveira were also born and reared. His father came to California
when a young man, in 1855, and worked a few years for J. D. Patterson, the West
Side pioneer. He was then married at Mission San Jose and lived for a time in
California, where their first child, a girl, was born. Then the family returned
to the Azores, where the rest of the children were born and where the father
died. His widow returned to California and died in Haywards at the age of
seventy-two years. There were five children in the family, namely: Mary A.,
deceased; Manuel A; Josephine, Mrs. Frank Lopes; Joseph A., our subject; and
Antone A., manager of the Jersey Milk Butter Company of Oakland, Cal.

   At seventeen years of age Joseph A. Oliveira began to make his own living.
After arriving in the United States he worked eleven years for one man in Rhode
Island. Then he came to California and located in Oakland, where he worked in a
paint shop for six months. Going then to Dutton Landing on the Sacramento River,
he went into the dairy business and had succeeded in building up a fine dairy
herd when the flood of 1906 wiped out the accumulations of years of hard work.
He then removed to Newman and by borrowing money was able to establish a dairy
business in this place, and did well. After seven months he bought the dairy
business on the John Azevedo ranch, which he conducted for five years. By
industry and economy he was able to lay up sufficient money to purchase forty
acres of land six miles southwest of Gustine, upon which he conducted a dairy of
about 130 head of cattle. Later he sold a half-interest in his dairy business
and, having decided to try another section of California, removed to San Jose;
but after nineteen months spent there he was convinced that Gustine was the
locality most promising for his line of work. Returning to Gustine, he
accordingly rented 137 acres and started another dairy, which occupied him for
four years, after which for four years he shipped cattle to the San Francisco
markets. He then went into partnership in the grocery and meat business in
Gustine, later selling out the grocery department and with his partner, Frank
Carbello, continuing the meat business, in which they employ four persons. He
carries on a dairy on 100 acres he owns, the old Kruger place, three miles
southwest of Gustine. Under the firm name of Oliveira and Mello he operates a
second dairy on fifty-seven acres of the Isabel Bunker place, two and one-half
miles southwest of town, where he runs forty-five cows; and he and John Mattos
conduct a dairy ranch of 137 acres on the William Bunker place.

   At Fall River, Mass., in 1904, Mr. Oliveira was married to Miss Mary Avala, a
native of Little Compton, R. I., and a daughter of Manuel and Rosie
(Bettencourt) Avala, both natives of St. George, Azores Islands. Mr. and Mrs.
Oliveira are the parents of five children: Joseph A., George, Frank, Dorothy,
and Henry. Mr. Oliveira is a Republican in politics; and fraternally he belongs
to the I. D. E. S. of Gustine. The family reside in the new home bought by Mr.
Oliveira.



Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


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