San Joaquin-San Francisco County CA Archives Biographies.....Von Detten, Otto December 11, 1873 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 2, 2006, 11:43 pm

Author: The Lewis Publishing Company

California and Californians, Pages 30-31

	OTTO VON DETTEN, of Stockton, began his career with a plan and a 
purpose, used a tremendous amount of industry and energy in fitting himself 
for his chosen life work, and in consequence has made more than an ordinary 
success as a lawyer, business man and leader in the local affairs of his 
community.
	Mr. Von Detten was born at Stockton, December 11, 1873.  His father, 
Clement V. Von Detten, was a California pioneer.  Born in Germany, he came to 
the United States in the early ‘40s, was a soldier in the Mexican war and 
twenty years later was in the Union army in the Civil war.  He had settled in 
San Joaquin County between these two war periods.  When he returned home after 
his service in the Union ranks he settled on his farm in San Joaquin County 
and became a prominent vinyardist, one of the first in that section of the 
state.  He had for a time been in business at San Francisco and had also 
worked in the mines.  Clement Von Detten married Agnes McElroy, who was born 
in New York State, of old Virginia ancestry.
	Their son, Otto Von Detten, received his education in public schools 
in San Joaquin County.  When he left school he had firmly fixed in his mind 
the idea of becoming a lawyer.  The money to attend law school was not at hand 
and he turned to work as clerk and telegraph operator with the Southern 
Pacific Company, in whose service he remained for several years, utilizing his 
leisure to study law, and in that way he qualified for practice before the 
Superior Court in San Francisco, and later was admitted by the District Court 
and Circuit Court, and in 1906 by the California Supreme Court.  Mr. Von 
Detten has practiced law in Stockton for over a quarter of a century.  His 
first partnership was with M. J. Henry, under the name Von Detten & Henry.  
Among other interests they represented Eugene F. Goodrum, then public 
administrator.  When Mr. Goodrum retired from office he entered the firm, 
which became Von Detten, Henry & Goodrum.  Mr. Von Detten is a member of the 
San Joaquin County, California State and American Bar Associations.  He has 
won the esteem of members of his profession and the general public, and his 
personal popularity can in a measure be judged from the fact that while he is 
a Democrat in politics he has been elected to several offices by majorities 
that are significant in what is considered an iron-clad Republican district.  
He has been a justice of the peace, and also served a time as county auditor 
and recorder, and has been police judge in the City of Stockton.
	In a business way Mr. Von Detten is a director of the Union Safe 
Deposit Bank, and was one of the original directors of the Security Building & 
Loan Association, which has since been merged with the Pacific States Building 
and Loan Association.  He was a member of the board of directors of the 
Stockton Morris Plan Association and was one of the five men who started the 
Manteca Canning Company, the first canning plant in Stockton.

Mr. Von Detten married, in 1898, Miss Kathryn Sutherland.  Her parents were 
James and Helena Sutherland, early pioneers of the San Joaquin Valley.


Additional Comments:
California and Californians, Volume IV, Edited by Rockwell D. Hunt, A.M., 
Ph.D., Assisted By An Advisory Board, The Spanish Period, By Nellie Van de 
Grift Sanchez, The American Period, By Rockwell D. Hunt, California Biography, 
By a Special Staff of Writers, Issued in Four Volumes, The Lewis Publishing 
Company, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, 1932.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/sanjoaquin/bios/vondette362gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/

File size: 4.2 Kb