First Lodi drug store owner also started Woodbridge irrigation system

By Ralph Lea and Christi Kennedy
Special to the News-Sentinel

A pioneer Lodi druggist who also postmarked mail and tapped messages on the town telegraph was the founder of irrigation in San Joaquin County.

Byron De La Beckwith was an early Lodi settler with many talents and a profound vision for the future. As the warm weather approaches, Lodians today can enjoy the cool relief of Lodi Lake and the bounty of irrigated crops because of this druggist.

A fisherman, shown at right, has two lines dipped into the rushing water below the Woodbridge Dam on the Mokelumne River. This dam is either the original wood structure built in 1891 that washed out four years later or it may be the second dam built in 1897. (Photo courtesy of Ralph Lea)

Beckwith's family originally came from Normandy, France and moved to England and later to the United States where they settled in Virginia. Byron Beckwith grew up in Virginia, but as a young man he yearned for the rich promise of frontier California that everyone back East dreamed of in the Gold Rush years of the 1850s.

Finally heeding to his dreams, Beckwith traveled west shortly after the Gold Rush crush eased. He settled in Woodbridge, but it is not clear what he did or how long he was there.

In 1870, just a few months after the new town called Mokelumne Station (today's Lodi) was born along the railroad tracks, Beckwith opened the first drug store. His store was located at the northeast corner of Elm and Sacramento streets close to the railroad tracks.

A short time later, Beckwith erected a building across the street on the northwest corner that mostly likely served as his residence as well as his drug store and office.

In the early 1870s, Mokelumne Station flourished with new businesses appearing regularly along the steadily lengthening Sacramento Street. Within a year of its birth, the new town had 56 buildings, and the train continued to bring more settlers. Like many of these enterprising pioneers, Beckwith recognized the necessity and economic benefits of diversifying. Shortly after opening the drug store, Beckwith also began selling insurance.

In 1874 Mokelumne Station was officially renamed Lodi, and Beckwith became the town's second postmaster. Beckwith received all mail in his drug store across the street from the train, and residents came down to pick up and send out their correspondence and packages.

The telegraph was also located in his store, and Beckwith was the operator. Beckwith was postmaster for seven years until Nov. 21, 1881. With his daily contact with Lodi residents, Beckwith was well known and must have been an involved and civic-minded man.

On April 8, 1876, Beckwith joined six other men who felt that the growing town needed a meeting hall and formed the Lodi Hall Association. They sold shares for $25 apiece. In September of that year, the association hired Stockton builder Matthew McCarty to build a two-story brick structure at the southwest corner of Elm and Sacramento streets, just across the street from Beckwith's store. This building was called the Granger's Building and housed a general store on the ground floor and the meeting hall on the upper floor. This brick building, which is Lodi's oldest commercial building and is currently Joe Hassan's warehouse, was the only structure on the block to survive the devastating October 1887 fire.

But by the time of this conflagration, Beckwith had already left Lodi and was into other ventures. In late 1881, he sold the drug store and post office to his employee Robert L. Graham for $2,000. Just three years later, Lodi's first telephone was installed in Graham's store, and Graham became the first telephone manager in operation of the town switchboard. Although Beckwith missed this innovation and notoriety, he was embarked on another far-reaching vision.

Beckwith thought that a ditch system could be built that would take water from the Mokelumne River and irrigate the thirsty crops on nearby farms. Years earlier, Capt. Charles Weber, founder of Stockton, had been the first to dig a ditch and irrigate crops south of the Calaveras River, but Beckwith had more ambitious plans.

In the late 1880s, northern San Joaquin County farmers were switching from wheat to more thirsty crops like watermelons, tree fruit and grapes. As the population grew and more farmers plowed the earth, the water table, once just a few feet below the ground's surface, began dropping. The need for water was a growing concern, and Beckwith came up with a plan.

In 1886, Beckwith became one of California's earliest applicants for irrigation water rights to a river. His plan was to tap the Mokelumne River near Woodbridge and irrigate approximately 100,000 acres of farmland south of the river. He claimed 150,000 cubic inches per second of Mokelumne River water. The claim was recorded Dec. 31, 1886. The water was appropriated.

In 1888 Beckwith hired Allen T. Covell to engineer the canal system for the Woodbridge Canal & Irrigation Co. Covell moved to Woodbridge the previous year and had the perfect credentials for Beckwith's project. A former gold miner, Covell became a civil engineer, helped design and establish the Fresno County Irrigation Colony before deciding to settle on his own land in Woodbridge. Beckwith hired Covell, and one can only imagine his happiness at finding such a qualified man.

Covell designed a main branch of the canal to head south from the Mokelumne River for 10 miles where it would meet the Calaveras River. One branch of the canal ran west toward New Hope, today's Thornton. With the design done, Beckwith hired Benjamin A. Laws to build a wood dam and dig 24 miles of canal.

The Woodbridge Canal & Irrigation Co. was incorporated on April 27, 1889, 115 years ago. Beckwith was one of the directors. The company had 300,000 shares of stock that were sold at $1 each. Beckwith, Covell and Laws also sold bonds to finance construction.

Byron De La Beckwith

The canals were dug with hand labor and mule and horse teams pulling Fresno scrapers. It took more than two years from the company's official incorporation for the work to be completed.

On Nov. 12, 1891 a big celebration was held. Nearly 3,000 people attended a huge barbecue at mid-day. Dignitaries included the Stockton Board of Trade and entertainers like the Stockton Band. At about 1 p.m., the crowd walked to the dam's head gates.

Beckwith, the druggist who started the county's first irrigation system, had the honor of opening the gates that allowed the Mokelumne River to flow into the canals for the first time. After cheering at the rush of water and after photographs were taken, Beckwith and the crowd walked back to the large tent and listened to orations from Judge James Swinnerton and William H. Mills of the Southern Pacific Railroad Co.

Four years later, high water forced this wood dam (located just downstream from the Woodbridge cemetery) to give away. A temporary brush dam and later another wood dam were built. Beckwith's original organization was reformed, and a concrete dam (the current dam being replaced) was built in 1910. The organization eventually was reformed again and became the Woodbridge Irrigation District in 1924.

Sometime after the first dam's completion, Beckwith left the area and resettled north in Colusa along the Sacramento River. Armed with his experience building the Woodbridge irrigation operation, Beckwith also built another canal system in the Colusa area. He died there in 1904.

 

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