Wilkening was our second German-born sheriff. He
immigrated to the United States in 1852 and obtained his citizenship
papers in 1867.
After settling in Antioch, he became a member of
that city's Masonic Lodge 175.
During his term of office, the county jail housed
an average of four to seven men.
The father of eight children, he died in 1915 in
Palo Alto and is buried in the Wilkening plot in the Antioch cemetery.
