Marcella Thorp Emerick, Kay Thorp and Nancy Hammond

Biography

The Lockes were a pioneer California family and founders of the San Joaquin County town of Lockeford (1855). Dean Jewett Locke (1823-1887) graduated from Harvard Medical College (1849) and, in that year, traveled overland to California with the Boston-Newton Joint Stock Association. He established a ranch on the Mokelumne River with his brothers Elmer and George (1851). Returning east to visit his family, Dr. Locke married Delia Marcella Hammond (1855). They returned to California with Locke's father, Luther, who was later Postmaster of Lockeford. Delia Hammond Locke's sister, Susan, came to Lockeford as a school teacher (1858). She married George S. Locke, Dean Jewett Locke's brother. Delia Hammond Locke kept diaries throughout her life that detail events in Lockeford (1855-1922). Locke-Hammond family members were active in civic, mercantile and religious affairs of the town they founded. D.J. Locke was a physician, bridge operator, store owner, rancher and briefly a steam ship owner. His wife and sister-in-law taught school and were active in temperance and religious organizations. D.J. Locke and his wife had thirteen children. Many of them remained in Lockeford, married and continued to contribute to the life of the town. One of their daughters, Hannah, married a Demangeot. Another, Theresa, married a Thorp. Both of these families remained in Lockeford and contributed to the life of the town well into the twentieth century.

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