Background
Dean Jewett Locke was born in New Hampshire in 1823.
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Dean Locke
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Harvard Medical School.
Career
As a student of the Harvard Medical School, he was a trained physician, but he contributed to the small community in many more professions. The house he lived in is now a historical landmark in California. He left Harvard Medical School before granduation, to join the gold rush on a trip to the Golden State in search of gold.
He traveled with the Boston-Newton Joint Stock Company as their physician.
He later returned to the East to visit family in 1854, and it was there he met Delia Hammond. The Locke ranch became a starting point for the town Lockeford.
He constantly strove to make Lockeford a beacon of trade and prosperity in the West. Locke gave land for the sites of three churches and a school.
Later on, additional property was signed off for the construction of a railroad depot, which he hoped would bring in trade and settlers, as well as making Lockeford a stopping point for two other railroads that were nearby, the San Joaquin Railroad and the Sierra-Nevada Railroad.
Along with donations of land, Doctorate.J. Locke was very generous with his monetary wealth as well. He purchased railroad cars and the constant competition with other nearby towns, such as Woodbridge and Lodi, drove him to purchase a steam boat in an attempt to make Lockeford an inland port. At the end of his days, Doctor Dean Jewett Locke on, 64, was not only a physician and a rancher, he was also a store owner, a bridge operator, and the owner of a steam ship, until his ship, the Pert, ran aground.
Doctor Dean Jewett Locke remained a generous contributor to the community of Lockeford until his death on May 4, 1887.
This little cabin on the San Joaquin Valley was transformed into a homey frame house. In 1865, it was once again remodeled into a three-story brick house, to contain the growing number of children.
The house also had a barn. Other additions were eventually made, such as a water tower in 1881, and another two stories in 1882.
With these additions, the house contained twenty-two rooms, and three stories.
The house was built in the neo-Georgian style. lieutenant could also house the occasional visitor, relative, or a patient of Doctor Locke’son At the time of the Civil War, the barn was used by the Mokelumne Light Dragoons as headquarters.
The has been restored and renovated by the current owners the who are proprietors and innkeepers of “The Inn at ”.
Personality
He was a generous contributor to the community and the town of Lockeford.
