Many have been the years that have come and gone and great the changes that have occurred during the residence of Claus Lindemann in San Joaquin county, and he now makes his home near Bethany, a respected citizen and a well-to-do agriculturist. He took up his abode upon his present ranch in the fall of 1871 and it has since been his home. Here he has three hundred and twenty acres, and the land is valuable and highly cultivated. He pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres from the government, and this is still in his possession and formed the nucleus of his present property, to which he added from time to time by purchase until within the boundaries of his farm are comprised a half section.

Mr. Lindemann was born in Holstein, Germany, on the 12th of March, 845, a son of Claus and Magdalena Lindemann, both of whom are natives of Holstein. The days of his boyhood and youth were passed in the land of his nativity, and his attention was divided between the work of the schoolroom, the pleasures of the playground and various duties which were assigned him. He acquired a fair education in his native tongue and afterward added to his knowledge through experience and observation and reading. He served for three years as a soldier in the Germany army and subsequently emigrated to America in 1870, taking passage at Hamburg on a steamship which in due time dropped anchor in the harbor of New York city. He came direct to California and thence to San Joaquin county, and it has since been his place of abode, while to its development and improvement he has devoted his energies untiringly, with the result that he has wrought a wonderful transformation here and made his property productive and valuable. In the fall of 1881 he returned to the fatherland on a visit, but the following year again came to California. He has a sincere love and attachment for the land of his adoption and is ever loyal to its best interests. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, for his study of the questions and issues of the day has led him to the belief that that organization and its platform contain the best elements of good government.

Source: History of the New California Its Resources and People, Volume II

The Lewis Publishing Company - 1905
Edited by Leigh H. Irvine