CALIFORNIAHistory and Genealogy Research
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J B DULCICH
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
Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic Record
Co., 1925, 903 pgs.
: submitted
by Sharon DULCICH
One who has taken advantage of the
opportunities
that have come in his way,
and when the opportunities were not coming has
made some, is J. B. DULCICH,
the owner of a sixteen and one-half acre ranch
in the Second Bradley addition
of Merced, which he acquired by purchase in 1908.
It is not a large ranch,
but developed as he is doing it, into orchard
and vineyard, it will furnish a
comfortable livelihood whenever he may wish to
retire from other business.
Though of foreign parentage, Mr.
Dulcich is a
native of California, born in
Hunter's Valley, Mariposa County, July 9 1883,
the youngest of two sons born
to George and Adelaide (SPAGNOLI) Dulcich. His
brother, Jacamore, died when
eleven months old. His father, was born in Jugo
Slavia and died at his home
in Merced January 8, 1914. The mother was born
in Canton Ticino, Switzerland,
and died in Hunter's Valley in 1903. The father
left home at the age of
twenty and went to sea and, after traveling the
seven seas of the world, left his ship at San Francisco in 1861, went
to Stockton
on a river boat, and by
stage from there to the home of his cousin near
Hornitos, crossing the ferry
at Merced Falls. For twelve years he worked in
the Washington Mine. He became
a naturalized citizen and a prominent figure
in mining circles.
In 1873 he took up Government land
in Hunter's
Valley, built a house there and engaged
in stock and fruit production, planting one fo
the earliest orchards in that
section. It proved a wonderful success and he
won the esteem of his fellow
men and had a wide circle of friends. The property
was held till his death,
when his son sold it in accordance with a plan
of his father's.
The mother came out to California
in 1868, preceded
by her brothers, Joseph and
Valentine SPAGNOLIi, both prominent Swiss-Americans
at the time of their
death, the oldest having come to California in
1849.
J. B. DULCICH received a good
education in the
Hunter Valley school then attended by some twenty pupils. At sixteen
years
of age he took up ranch work with his father and
remained at home till he was twenty-three. He
was married at Merced to Miss
Eloise N. WICKHAM, born at West Point, Calaveras
County. Her father was a
poineer miner of that place and lost his life
in a mine catastrophe. Her
mother then married Winfield Scott McSWAIN and
resides in the Bradley
addition. They have four children: Harold; Verna,
a student in the Merced
High School; Orval; and Elma.
Mr DULCICH is a member of Merced
Camp, W. O. W.
He left the home ranch to work for the Exchequer Mine and Power Company
at Exchequer, and three years later he went to the BARRETT ranch at
Merced
Falls, where he was occupied until 1913. He then moved to Merced, and
in
1915
came to his own ranch property. Besides his ranching
he was in the employ of the Standard Oil Company for three years and
delivered
oil throughout Merced County with a horse-drawn vehicle; in 1918 he
entered
the employ of the Associated Oil Company of Merced and with motor
vehicles
covered forty miles a day, going as far as Chowchilla, Madera County.
Mr. DULCICH holds the high esteem
of his fellow
men and his family is well
and favorably know, their home being the center
of many happy and social
occasions.
posted May 17, 2001