C. J. Bloed
Contributed by; Carol Lackey
SURNAMES: Whipler, Shaw
The growth and resources of Merced County, and it development from large ranches
and stock ranges to a more intensive kind of agriculture, are matters of first-
hand knowledge to C. J. Bloed, for he has been a part of ranch and stock
activities here for over thirty years, and has within that space of time seen
many changes take place in this section of the State. He was born at
Princeton, Mariposa County, May 17, 1869, the son of Franklin Charles and
Gertrude (Whipler) Bloed, the former born in Baden, Germany, November 15, 1826,
and the latter a native of Carlsruhe, Germany, born March 19, 1827. The father
came to California early in 1850, and worked in the mines of Copperopolis for a
short time, and later went to Mr. Bullion. He conducted the hotel at
Princeton, Mariposa County, for six years, and from there went to Merced Falls,
where he worked in the mill. He had returned east to Pennsylvania, in 1856, and
there his marriage occurred, in Philadelphia, and their eldest child, now Mrs.
J. Coulston, of Modesto, was born in San Francisco, as the young couple soon
came to California to make their home. The father was accidentally drowned in
the Tuolumne River, near La Grange, his death occurring February 15, 1881, and
the mother lived until February 4, 1893, their last years being spent at
Snelling, Cal.
The youngest of nine children born to his parents, three of whom survive, C. J.
Bloed received a good education at Merced Falls, and started in life for himself
as a plow-boy, doing his first work in 1884, on neighborhood ranches, and
continued in steady employ of large ranch and stock ranges until 1919, when he
settled at Snelling, and soon after became successor to A. Bertraind's Snelling
Pool Hall & Smoke House, where he conducts a first- class establishment.
The marriage of Mr. Bloed united him with Miss Dora A. Shaw, a native of Oregon
and daughter of William H. Shaw, late of Hopeton, Merced County. One son has
blessed their union, Franklin W., now a student at Heald's Business College in
Fresno. Mr. Bloed is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Merced, and for
three years past he has been a member of the Merced Municipal Band, playing the
slide trombone. He is a booster for Merced County, and especially the Merced
River district, one of the most fertile in the State, and even now just at he
beginning of its real development.
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.
