Every day thousands of motorists travel on Hatch Road from Carpenter Road in Modesto, through Ceres and all the way to Geer Road in the Hughson area. But few know the man, or family, for whom the road is named.
Hatch Road is named for Ephraim Hatch, who was a prominent landowner in Stanislaus County starting in the 1860s.
Ephraim Hatch was born on Nov. 17, 1831, in Chelsea, Vt., the son of a whip maker. In 1849 he left home for Lowell, Mass., where he worked as an accountant. When he earned enough money in 1851 he bought a ticket to sail by steamer to San Francisco by way of Panama. He was 19 and had $1 in his pocket when he arrived that September.
History has recorded that he journeyed to the mines by way of Stockton. He must have done well at mining for he bought six horses and a wagon and engaged in freighting in Columbia. His pay for services was primarily in gold dust, which he kept hidden from thieves in a pocket on his horses’ blinds.
In 1858 Hatch headed for the Stockton area to freight back and forth from the port to the mining country.
Hatch later decided to become a farmer, so poor that first year that he begged for credit to buy food and supplies until his first crop was harvested and sold.
Ephraim married Carolyn Matilda Horn in Stockton on Jan. 12, 1862.
He hauled the lumber from Stockton to build a home in Paradise City, a long forgotten establishment on the Tuolumne River west of Modesto (where Paradise Road is named).
It’s believed that they settled in Ceres in 1869 and acquired 160 acres for grain farming in the area of Crows Landing and Service roads. His land holdings grew to 6,000 acres in Stanislaus County.
Hatch also had acquired the large San Isabel ranch near San Luis Obispo County in 1872. He also bought 43,000 acres, known as the Moulton tract, with John Service; and owned 640 acres in Madera County.
Ephraim and Matilda Hatch raised four children in Ceres in a homestead on Hatch Road. One of their children was Amos, who died at the age of 17 and is buried at the Ceres cemetery.
The Hatches left Stanislaus County for good to live in Grinnell, Iowa so that their son and daughter could attend college there. When the Hatch kids graduated the family came back to California, settled in San Jose in 1884. He bought a large house at the corner of University Avenue and Elm Street. It had sustained damage in the San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906.
Ephriam Hatch suffered from diabetes in his later years and at the age of 82 died on Feb. 14, 1914 in San Jose and is buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park in San Jose. His widow lived until Dec. 15, 1920 and is at rest by his side.
Cora, a graduate of Mills College, married San Jose physician Joseph Newton Johnston on June 24, 1896. She died on Jan. 5, 1962.
Son Herbert Mavro “Bert” Hatch graduated from the University of the Pacific and the Garden City Business College and stayed in the Ceres area managing his father’s ranch. The Hatch house was used later as a school before 1887. Bert and Laura had three children, Chesley Warde Hatch (1893-1973), Raymond Ephraim Hatch (1894-1971) and Hazel Hatch Woolridge (1903-1975). He died on Aug. 30, 1928 at age 63 and is buried with his parents.
