STOCKTON, a city of central California, U.S.A., at the head of tidewater on the San Joaquin river, 8o m. E. of San Francisco; the county seat of San Joaquin county. It is on the Pacific high way; has a municipal airport; and is served by the Santa Fe, the Southern Pacific, the Western Pacific, electric and beltline rail ways, by motor-coach and truck lines in all directions, and by river boats to San Francisco. Pop. (1920) 40,296 (77% native white) ; 1930 Federal census 47,963. Stockton has a level site, not much above sea-level, surrounded by the fertile lands of the San Joaquin valley, which produce great crops of potatoes, onions, beans, corn, asparagus, grain, Tokay grapes and other fruits. Over so com mercial crops are grown in the county, valued in 1927 at $52,000, 000. Dredging of a deep-water channel which will make the port accessible to 90% of all ocean-going vessels was under way in 1928. The aggregate factory output of Stockton in 1927 was valued at $23895,431; bank debits in 1926 totalled $324,934,000; and the assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $65,563,796. Stock
ton is the seat of the College of the Pacific (Methodist Episcopal), the oldest incorporated educational institution of the State, char tered in 185i, located in Santa Clara until 1871, and in San Jose from 1871 to 1922.
There was a small settlement here (called Tuleberg, and later New Albany) before the discovery of gold. With the coming of the first gold-seekers the importance of the site as an outfitting point for the mining country immediately became apparent. A town was laid out in the spring of 1849 and named after Robert Field Stockton, who had been prominent in the events which secured California for the United States. In 1850 Stockton be came the county seat and was chartered as a city.