Description
The Weber Family Papers contain materials documenting the business and social lives of three generations of the family. They
include: business records and personal papers of Charles David Maria Weber (1836-1881); his wife, Helen Murphy Weber (1882-1895);
his brother, Adolf Weber (1857-1889); and, Adolph Weber's son-in-law, physician and tenor, Francis Xavier Spranger (1894-1908).
The papers also contain records of Charles Martin Weber's various business
enterprises, including: the Weber Home Co. (1895-1919); Stockton Terra Cotta (1891-99); and, the Stockton Pavilion Co., an
ice rink (1906-07). The papers contain records of Julia Weber's
Weber Ranch (1894-1919)
Background
Capt. Charles David Maria Weber (1814-1881) was the founder of the City of Stockton (1848). His descendants continued to live
in the city for over one hundred years after his death. Weber had come to California with the first overland party from the
United States (1841). He acquired a substantial land grant near the San Joaquin River Delta in the Central Valley and other
lands in the southern Santa Clara Valley. Having amassed considerable wealth from gold and from the sale of portions of his
grants to settlers, Weber married (1850) Helen Murphy, daughter of Martin Murphy, an early settler of the Santa Clara Valley
(1846). Capt. Weber's brother, Adolf (1825-1906), came from Germany to California in search of his brother (1853) and settled
in San Francisco, where he worked as a chemist at the State Mint and ultimately founded Humboldt Savings and Loan (1869).
Of Capt. Weber's three children, Charles Martin (1851-1912), Julia Helen (1853-1935) and Thomas Jefferson (1855-1892), only
the first had issue. Charles Martin Weber dabbled in real estate and other commercial ventures in Stockton. His sister, Julia,
operated family ranch properties and was active in Catholic charities. She never married. The youngest son, Thomas, died young.
Charles Martin Weber had two children. The eldest of these, Helen Weber Kennedy (1889-1983), married Stockton banker, Gerald
D. Kennedy, and devoted much of her time to collection and preservation of the family papers and library. The younger child,
Charles M. Weber III (1893-1987), was a civil engineer who also represented San Joaquin County in the State Assembly (1927-1943).