San Joaquin County Historical Museum

The first building of the museum was dedicated in William G. Micke memory in 1971. This building, was built upon the location of Micke’s vineyard of tokay grapes, and constructed to display agricultural implements. Funds for the building were obtained from the estate of William G. Micke, allowing the public to view several of the historical museum exhibits for the very first time. Located at 11793 N Micke Grove Road, Lodi CA 95240

San Joaquin County Historical Museum

San Soaquin Historical Museum (Entrance left photo and Exit right photo)

Miwuk Indian House (Native Northern California inhabitants ) - The Miwok lived in small bands without centralized political authority before contact with European Americans in 1769. They had domesticated dogs and cultivated tobacco, but were otherwise hunter- gatherers. In 1770 there were around 9,000 Plains and Sierra Miwok according to historian Alfred L. Kroeber

Calaveras one room Schoolhouse - Originally located on the west side of Highway 88 just north of the Calaveras River. It served from 11 to 28 children in grades one through 9. It was one of the last one-room schools in San Joaquin county in 1959. it was moved to the Museum in 1976.

Print Shop

Blacksmith Shop - moved from the Nelson Ranch on Roberts island

Captain Weber House - The original Captain Weber cottage was preserved by his daughter Julia Weber, who moved it to her north Stockton ranch around 1900. This cottage was subsequently moved to the Museum, restored, furnished, and placed in a setting that provides an a vision of the first view of Stockton seen by new settlers and visitors sailing up the Stockton Channel in the 1850s

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Julia Weber House - In response to what she perceived as the irretrievable deterioration of the neighborhood around Weber Point, Julia moved this house from the Point to her ranch just north of the Calaveras River on West Lane (1900). There it remained until 2001 when it was moved to the Micke Grove Museum. - Helen Weber Kennedy Gallery in the Erickson Building

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Kitchen - "Spark" brand built by the Hammer Bray Company in Oakland, California in the 20s. This perfectly functioning stove was designed to last forever!

William Micke's Franklin - The Franklin Automobile Company was a leader in innovation. Franklin cars were air-cooled, which was considered simpler and more reliable than water cooling. The company's advertisements and brochures explained that air cooling did away with the "radiators, hoses, water pumps and headaches of 'normal' engine boiling and freezing.

Pacific Fruit Express Box Car - Pacific Fruit Express was founded on December 7, 1906 as a joint venture between the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads. It began operation on October 1, 1907, with a fleet of 6,600 refrigerator cars built by the American Car and Foundry Company (ACF). In 1923, the Western Pacific Railroad joined the venture by leasing its own, brand new fleet of 2775 reefers to PFE. They were painted in standard PFE colors with only WP heralds on the cars instead of the paired UP-SP markings. The WP cars were all retired by the late 1950s, among the last wooden reefers in PFE's fleet. WP ended its partnership with PFE in late 1967 and joined Fruit Growers Express instead.

Flame Tokay Grape Vines - The Flame Tokay grape is a table grape with seeds that features a crisp skin and full, fruity flavor. These reddish-yellow grapes were once a Lodi cash crop, although now nearly forgotten. . It was widely popular in vineyards around Lodi in the early 1900s, but as consumers’ expanded their tastes for seedless grapes, the demand for Flame Tokay’s basically fell over a cliff

Sunshine Trail Living Exhibition - A paved trail which loops through native plants from several Northern California plant zones, from the coastal Redwoods and Coast Range through the San Joaquin Valley, the foothills, and the Sierra Nevada, sort of what  a 49er arriving by ship might have experienced on his way to the gold fields.

Clamshell dredge bucket, built for the dredge Columbia by Stockton Iron Works in 1904. it weighs 11,500 pounds

Combine Harvester - The combine was invented in the United States by Hiram Moore in 1834, and early versions were pulled by horse or mule teams. In 1835, Moore built a full-scale version and by 1839, over 50 acres of crops were harvested. By 1860, combine harvesters with a cutting width of several metres were used on American farms. In 1882, the Australian Hugh Victor McKay had a similar idea and developed the first commercial combine harvester in 1885, the Sunshine Harvester. In 1911, the Holt Manufacturing Company produced a self- propelled harvester.

Catepillar Tractor - Benjamin Holt received the first patent for a practical continuous track for use with a tractor on December 7, 1907 for his improved "Traction Engine" ("improvement in vehicles, and especially of the traction engine class; and included endless traveling platform supports upon which the engine is carried").

Alice Chalmers Tractor - The Allis-Chalmers Company was formed by the merger of the Edward P. Allis Company, Fraser and Chalmers Company, Gates Iron Works, and Dickson Manufacturing Company. Financial difficulties led to a reorganization in 1914. The newly renamed Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company entered the farm machinery business and introduced the 10-18, its first tractor. Allis-Chalmers had great success starting in the 1930s with the WC and the small farm B and C. In 1985, the farm equipment operations were sold to Klockner- Humboldt-Deutz of Germany. Tractor production continued under the Deutz Allis name until 1989, when the company was sold and renamed AGCO.

Farmall Tractors - Farmall was a model name and later a brand name for tractors manufactured by International Harvester (IH). The Farmall name was usually presented as McCormick-Deering Farmall and later McCormick Farmall in the evolving brand architecture of IH. The original Farmall was the first general-purpose tractor with narrowly spaced front wheels ('tricycle' configuration) and added ground clearance, making it one of the first row-crop tractors. These design traits allowed for more nimble maneuvering and accurate cultivation than many other tractors of the day, yet the Farmall could also, like previous tractors, perform all the other duties a farmer would have previously achieved using a team of horses.

Ford Tractor

Gibson Tractor -The Gibson Manufacturing Corporation, Longmont, Colorado, was founded in March, 1946 by Wilber Gibson. This company was a offshoot of the original company which had been formed by Wilbur's father, Harry Gibson, at Seattle, Washington. Production of the full sized models began in 1948 with the model 'H' series, which offered three units. The model 'H' was a tricycle type, the model 'HFS'came with a fixed standard type front axle, and the 'HFA' which had an adjustable wide front axle. The 'H' was rated as a 25-belt horsepower unit equipped with a four cylinder 1XB Hercules engine. The 'H' was rated as a two-plow unit a weighed 3650 pounds. On an 86" wheel base, it had 10 x 38 rears and 5.00 x 15 front tires.

John Deere Tractor - In 1947, John Deere opened a new tractor factory in Dubuque, Iowa, built to produce the John Deere M. The M was created to address the increasing demand for small tractors and compete with the increasingly popular Ford and the smaller Farmall tractor models. The M was the first Deere tractor to use a vertical 2-cylinder engine, with a square bore and stroke of 4.0 × 4.0 inches (100.5cuin) with a high row crop

GMC Tractor - In 1917. In the same year, GM, under the leadership of William C. Durant, purchased the company to enter the market for farm tractors and to emulate the success of Ford Motor Company

McCormick Deering Tractor - Together with his brother Leander J. McCormick (1819–1900), McCormick moved to Chicago in 1847 and started the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The McCormick reaper sold well, partially as a result of savvy and innovative business practices. Their products came onto the market just as the development of railroads offered wide distribution to distant market areas. He developed marketing and sales techniques, developing a vast network of trained salesmen able to demonstrate operation of the machines in the field. McCormick died in 1884, with his company passing to his son, Cyrus McCormick, Jr. In 1902 the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and Deering Harvester Company, along with three smaller agricultural equipment firms (Milwaukee; Plano; and Warder, Bushnell, and Glessner— manufacturers of Champion brand) merged to create the International Harvester Company.

MM Tractor - Minneapolis-Moline was a large tractor and machinery producer based in Minnesota. It was the product of a merger between three companies in 1929: Minneapolis Steel & Machinery (MSM), Minneapolis Threshing Machine, and Moline Plow. It was headquartered in Hopkins, MN and had plants on Lake Street at Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis, in Hopkins, and Moline, IL.

Vineyard Special Tractor - Designed for the narrow rows with wheel covers to protect the vines

Autocar Truck

Mack Truck

Ford Trucks

International Trucks - International Harvester Company (IHC or IH) was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer. In 1902, J.P. Morgan merged the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and Deering Harvester Company, along with three smaller agricultural equipment firms, to form International Harvester. International Harvester sold off its agricultural division in 1985 and renamed the company Navistar International Corporation in 1986. Case IH was formed when the agricultural division merged with J.I. Case.

Patriot Truck built by truck body producer, Patriot Manufacturing Company of Havelock, Nebraska

Samson Truck - The Samson Iron Works were founded in Stockton, California and, after becoming known for building farm tractors, were renamed the Samson Tractor Company in 1916 and again the Samson Sieve-Grip Tractor Company in 1917. In the same year, GM, under the leadership of William C. Durant, purchased the company to enter the market for farm tractors and to emulate the success of Ford Motor Company's highly successful Fordson Model F tractor and others. In addition to building tractors, Samson made trucks and did an effort to produce an automobile, too. The Samson truck was built from 1920 to 1923 as a ¾ ton and a 1¼ ton model. It was powered by a Chevrolet 26 bhp engine that had been developed for the Chevrolet 490 passenger car. Success was limited.

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Dairy Production in the San Joaquin Valley increased in the 1870s when William S. Chapman, one of the largest landowners in the state, sold 80,000 acres of land to a group of German settlers in the Central Valley and encouraged them to cultivate alfalfa with irrigated water.

Fire Hose Cart

Gang Plows - While gang plows may have as many as four bottoms, the two- and three-bottom versions were the most popular. Not all gang plows were ridden, however. Some required the operator to walk behind the plow, especially the lightweight walking plows with multiple 8-inch bottoms, which were popular in orchards and vineyards.

Wine Presses - A wine press is a device used to extract juice from crushed grapes during wine making. There are a number of different styles of presses that are used by wine makers but their overall functionality is the same. Each style of press exerts controlled pressure in order to free the juice from the fruit (most often grapes). The pressure must be controlled, especially with grapes, in order to avoid crushing the seeds and releasing a great deal of undesirable tannins into the wine. Wine was being made at least as long ago as 6000 BC.

Barbed Wire Collection - The "Big Four" in barbed wire were Joseph Glidden, Jacob Haish, Charles Francis Washburn, and Isaac L. Ellwood. Glidden, a farmer in 1873 and the first of the "Big Four," is often credited for designing a successful sturdy barbed wire product, but he let others popularize it for him. Glidden's idea came from a display at a fair in DeKalb, Illinois in 1873, by Henry B. Rose. Rose had patented "The Wooden Strip with Metallic Points" in May 1873.

California License Plate Collection

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