USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 40
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Some fifteen years ago Mr. Mansfield led Miss Mamie Gallagher, a charming lady, to the altar. A son and a daughter bless the union. De- spite the urgent calls for a busy newspaper man Mr. Mansfield loves do- mestic life, and his little home is inviolate from the call of telephones and the annoyances of business. The thing of which he is most proud, aside from his family, is that no man can say he ever betrayed a friend. His heart is large, his word unimpeachable.
JOHN PERRY, JR.
John Perry, Jr., is one of the noblest examples of California business ability, of well balanced judgment and perseverance that in all his immense financial transactions have never failed without soon recouping the losses, of high integrity and extreme philanthropy of character, and all in all of virility and symmetry of manhood such as are without example on the Pacific coast. He set forth on his journey of life nearly ninety years ago, and from the date of the beginning of his business career at the age of sixteen, under the rapidly shifting skies of success and adversity, from commercial activity in the east
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during the early years to deeds of high emprise on the golden shores of the Pacific in the latter half of life, and through years burning with intense energy and devotion to the manifold affairs of his life. he has come to these closing years with undimmed alertness and clearness of mentality and judg- ment, and rejoices that he can still carry the burden which would overwhelm most men of half his years. The history of his active career begins with a beautiful resolution, and nobility of purposes and strength of character have marked his life to the end.
John Perry, Jr., was born in 1815, in Stafford county, New Hampshire, being the second of nine children born to John and Abigail (Kimball) Perry. His ancestors were among the first settlers of New Hampshire and came from England. His father was an industrious farmer, and his mother was one of the women of strong common sense and evenness of temper who seem destined to give birth to great sons.
John, Jr., lived at home and worked on the little farm until he was six- teen years old, and in March, 1831. with twenty-five cents in his pocket, made his first venture into the wide world of industry and business. His father was not overly prosperous on the little farm, having much to do to maintain his large family in decent comfort, and there was besides a mortgage on the home place which hung as an incubus over their content and happiness. John, as one of the oldest children, resolved to pay off this debt before he had reached his eighteenth birthday, and at Andover, Massachusetts, he obtained employment at one hundred dollars a year and board, and by his industry and economy he cleared the mortgage before the set time, and as long as his parents lived he provided for their comfort and welfare.
In April, 1832, he went to Boston and obtained employment in a whole- sale store at a salary of one hundred dollars per annum, and he later secured a position in Charleston, South Carolina, at a salary of six hundred dollars per annum, where he was doing well until the panic of 1837 broke up the firm. and he then returned to Boston. He had a few hundred dollars and plenty of energy and enterprise, and he decided to enter the brokerage business, putting out his first sign at the age of twenty-two. In 1839, through the influence of some gentlemen of Boston who had been attracted by his business tact and manifest ability, he became a member of the Boston board of brokers, which then contained sixty members of wealth and position. By 1842 he was worth thirty thousand dollars. But in that year a false rumor to the effect that Great Britain had declared war on the United States caused a panic in the stock markets of New York and Boston, and in a single day he lost all he had and found himself in debt several thousand dollars. He retained his seat on the board, however, and was. soon again prosperous, but in 1849 he lost and this time was unable by about thirty thousand dollars to liquidate his indebtedness. He assigned all his property to his creditors and received a discharge from the Insolvent court.
Then, with fifty dollars in his pocket, after his passage was paid, he joined the gold-seekers, and on April 15, 1850, sailed for Panama. When he reached the isthmus he found that tickets for San Francisco were selling for enormous prices, and he at once invested his entire capital of six dollars
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in a bulletin board, rented an office, and as a ticket broker, charging com- mission to both buyer and seller. soon made thirty-five hundred dollars. Ar- riving in California, he went to the mines and for a few months was engaged in the unsuccessful venture of store-keeping at Ophir. He soon afterward went to San Francisco and made the beginnings of his long career as broker.
In those early days the expenses of both state and city were defrayed by an issue of scrip bearing interest at three per cent a month. In the spring of 1851 the state had seven hundred thousand dollars and the city one mil- lion five hundred thousand dollars of this paper on the market, but no taker could be found because money was bringing a higher rate in ordinary trans- actions. Mr. Perry saw and grasped the opportunity. He made arrange- ments with Page, Bacon and Company to advance the money, then opened the first brokerage office in San Francisco on the corner of Montgomery and Merchant streets, and within eighteen months had purchased more than three-fourths of the entire scrip issue of city and state, which was funded into bonds of city and state. The city scrip sold as low as twenty-five per cent and the state as low as forty per cent. The legislature of 1850 and 1851 had paper bills to fund the city scrip into ten per cent bonds, payable in twenty years, and the state into seven per cent bonds, nearly all of which Mr. Perry placed in the Boston and New York markets at nearly their par value. All these bonds were ultimately paid by both city and state at their face value, leaving a large surplus in both city and state treasury. At the same time Mr. Perry made a fortune for himself before he had been on the coast two years. One of the first uses that he made of this money was to pay off his creditors in the east, although he had been legally discharged of all obligations to them, and he paid both principal and interest. He also opened a banking house in San Francisco, and realized large profits during the early days from mer- cantile loans, exchange and dealing in gold dust.
In 1853 he left his flourishing business in care of an agent, and went east with the intention of making a European tour. While in Philadelphia as a guest of General H. M. Naglee he met Miss Sallie C. Green, a lady endowed with many rare gifts of mind and heart and with a singular purity and ele- vation of character. They were married within six weeks, and then returned to California and began a wedded life of unalloyed happiness for more than thirty years, terminated only by her death in 1885.
Soon after his return from the east Mr. Perry lost another fortune. But in 1861, during the mining excitement in Nevada, Mr. Perry's experience as a broker in both the east and west was taken advantage of by his asso- ciates, and the Old Board, or Big Board, was brought into existence in San Francisco, and he was its first vice president and continued his connection with it until 1876. During this time his transactions were very large and his profits corresponding, at times making as high as $15,000 per month, bitt his natural generosity would not allow him to retain wealth.
In 1876 he decided to restrict his operations to bonds and other local investments sought by conservative investors, and this has been the line of most of his subsequent ventures. He has a vast experience in the financial and speculative sides of business, and he has often used his influence to pre-
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vent poor people from speculating. During the Civil war he exerted him- self in placing the bonds of the government on the San Francisco market. . After leaving the mining stock board in 1876 he helped organize the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange, of which he was the first president and served as such for many years.
Among all his host of acquaintances Mr. Perry has always had friends, never an enemy. He is a true philanthropist, and much of his wealth has gone for countless charities. As one of the founders of the Unitarian church in San Francisco he contributed liberally to its funds and served as treasurer. He paid many of the bills out of his own pocket, and at one time advanced sixteen thousand dollars for its use. He has served on the city council and on the board of education, and for over fifty years has been one of the most public-spirited citizens of San Francisco. He had no children, but at the death of his wife he adopted her niece, Miss Laura Kimber, and she is now living with him.
CAPTAIN ZEPHANIAH J. HATCH.
Captain Zephaniah J. Hatch, who has been prominently connected with steamboat building and operation in the Pacific states, was born in Monti- cello, Sullivan county, New York, on the 15th of June, 1846. He is a son of Cornelius and Jane (Trobridge) Hatch. The father was a native of New Bedford, Connecticut, and was reared upon the home farm. He became a sailor, but after sailing the deep sea for a short period he returned to the old homestead and removed with his parents to Sullivan county, New York, the family becoming pioneer settlers of that locality. After arriving at years of maturity he wedded Jane Trobridge, who was a native of Westchester county, New York, and whose parents were early settlers of Sullivan county. Mr. and Mrs. Hatch became the parents of seven children, four of whom reached years of maturity.
Captain Hatch was reared in the usual manner of farmer lads of the period. He early became familiar with the labors of field and meadow, assisting his father in the operation of the home farm through the summer months. In the winter seasons he attended the public schools and later he profited by a course of study in an academy at Monticello, New York. He also benefited largely by instruction from his father, who was a very highly educated man, and thus he promoted his intellectual development until at the age of twenty-one years he became a teacher, and was principal of the public schools of Ellenville, New York, until 1871. He then retired from the profession of teaching and became a bookkeeper in the First National Bank at that place, while later he was made assistant cashier, serving in the latter capacity until August, 1872.
In that year Captain Hatch resigned and removed to the northwest, settling first in Portland, Oregon. Soon after his arrival he entered the engineering department of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company at Kal- ama. In June, 1873, he removed to Oldtown, Tacoma, and was bookkeeper and paymaster for the Tacoma Land Company; in 1874, owing to general
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business depression following the financial panic in the northwest he resigned his position and started for the mines of Nevada. While stopping at Port- land, he met Captain U. B. Scott, S. H. Brown and L. B. Seeley, who were associated in the building of the steamer Ohio to operate on the Willamette river, between Portland and Eugene, Oregon. Mr. Hatch was engaged to act as chief clerk of the boat, and during the absence of Mr. Brown he also served as its manager, filling the position until 1875. He then retired from that position and, associated with Messrs. Scott, Brown, Seeley and M. S. Burrell, he organized the U. B. Scott Steamboat Company, which built the steamer City of Salem, which it operated in the same route between Eugene and Portland. Mr. Hatch served as purser on the City of Salem until May, 1876, when he became agent for the company at Portland, occupying an office on the Pacific wharf. In 1878 he personally leased the dock and warehouses and conducted a general wharfage business until 1879, when he sold his interests and turned his attention exclusively to the handling of wheat.
During the first winter in which he was engaged in that enterprise Captain Hatch furnished part or all of the cargoes of thirty-three ships. He also bought the steamboat A. A. McCully and operated it in connection with his wheat interests. During the fall of January, 1880, disaster over- took him, for he lost four thousand tons of wheat by a sudden rise in the river. This was a hard blow to the captain and he retired from the wheat business. He continued, however, to operate the steamer McCully with good success, and in 1881 he built the steamship Yaquina to run from Port- land to the coast cities of Oregon and Washington and to ports on Puget Sound.
In the same year Captain Hatch returned to Monticello, New York, and there on the 15th of March, 1881, he married Miss Adeline Tremain. He returned with his bride to Portland and then for a time his business history was filled with disaster, for the Yaquina was destroyed by fire and later his warehouses were burned. The steamer McCully was all that was left to him, but it served to bring him out of his financial troubles. This boat, however, was finally destroyed by fire in the spring of 1885. Captain Hatch then operated the Albina warehouses for J. B. Montgomery until the fall of 1886, when in partnership with F. E. Smith he purchased the steamer Fleetwood, which they operated on Puget Sound between Olympia and Se- attle. In 1890, when the Columbia River and Puget Sound Navigation Company was organized, consolidating the interests of the steamers Fleet- wood, Bailey Gatzert, Telephone, City of Frankfort and the Flyer, Cap- tain Hatch took charge of the Bailey Gatzert, continuing until October, 1890, when he sold his interests and retired from the company. About that time he built the Monticello, which is one hundred and twenty-six feet long, with eighteen-foot beams and nine-foot depth in the hold. This was launched on the 25th of April, 1891, and operated between Seattle, Port Townsend and Port Angeles until the fall of 1893, when he began running the Monticello to Whatcom and Olympia and continuing thus until 1895. In that year Captain Hatch brought his boat to San Francisco and
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began operating between this port and Vallejo, making the first trip on the Ioth of August, 1895, and continuing until 1901. In 1900 he built the steamer General Frisbee, and after retiring the Monticello he operated the General Frisbee in her place, the boat making three round trips daily, carry- ing passengers, perishable and express freight, with headquarters at Vallejo city dock, foot of Virginia street, also with headquarters in San Francisco at Mission street dock, pier No. 2. Captain Hatch retired from the Pilot House in 1898 and has since devoted his time to the management of his business from his offices. He is associated with his brother, C. N. Hatch, who has the active management of the office work. The General Frisbee is one hundred and seventy feet long, with twenty-seven-foot beams and twelve foot in the hold, and a capacity of six hundred passengers and a ton- nage of five hundred and fifty tons.
Captain Hatch has met with reverses that would have discouraged and disheartened many a man of a less resolute spirit, but with determined pur- pose he has continued actively in the line of business which he chose as his life work, and is now meeting with good success, which he certainly well deserves. To him and his wife have been born five children: Allen T., Louise T., William, Ferry and Adeline. He belongs to the Masonic fra- ternity and he and his family occupy a residence in Oakland. This is one of the choicest suburban homes of the city and stands in the midst of beauti- ful grounds covering five acres.
D. F. RAGAN, M. D.
Dr. D. F. Ragan, M. D., occupies the very important position of health officer of San Francisco. Than the health department of a large city there is no division of municipal government affecting more closely the well-being and actual safety of the people. As the executive officer of the board of health Dr. Ragan must be on the watch against adulterated foodstuffs, impure milks and.unsanitary conditions of all kinds. It is his duty to see that persons af- fected with contagious diseases are isolated and that they may not be per- mitted to mingle socially until all danger of infection is past ; that strict quar- antine is enforced about all patients with the measles, mumps, whooping- cough, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, yellow fever, plagne, leprosy, smallpox, etc., and, more recently, tuberculosis. In San Francisco the health department often wrecks and destroys entire buildings in such unsanitary quarters as Chinatown. The crusade for health with which Dr. Ragan has been specially identified and in which he has accomplished inestimable good for all persons, but in particular the children, has been his relentless warfare against impure milk, and it is highly creditable to his efficiency that the sup- ply of wholesome milk has visibly increased and that it is now very difficult if not impossible for an inferior quality to be foisted upon the innocent public. In these and in many other ways Dr. Ragan has been of great service to his city, and his career as medical practitioner in San Francisco during some seventeen years has brought him to notice as one of the foremost physicians of the Pacific coast.
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Dr. Ragan was born in Placer county of this state, April 21, 1861, being a son of Dennis and Catherine (Downey) Ragan. His father was born in Ireland, and when very young came to the United States, locating in the south, and in 1854 followed the westward trail of civilization to California, where he spent the rest of his life. He was a farmer for many years, and in this state was a miner, both making and losing money at this occupation.
Dr. Ragan was educated in the common and high schools, and, like so many who seek professional life, was engaged in teaching school during his younger years, being a successful instructor for ten years in Placer county and in San Francisco. He studied medicine in the Cooper Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1887. In a competitive examination with twenty-seven others he received an appointment as interne at the city and county hospital in San Francisco. From 1890 to 1894 he was chief of clinic of nervous diseases in the Cooper Medical College, which place he resigned in order to take the office of United States pension examiner, which he still holds. He is secretary of the board of pension examiners. He has also been a mem- ber of the city board of education. In addition to all these duties and his engrossing work as city health officer he carries on a large private practice in the city.
Dr. Ragan was married to Miss Mary E. Sweeney, a daughter of M. H. Sweeney, and they have five children. Mrs. Ragan is an active worker in religious affairs and is grand president of the Young Ladies' Institute.
JAMES A. CLAYTON.
James A. Clayton was for many years a leading and influential citizen of San Jose and his activity in business affairs, his co-operation in public in- terests, and his zealous support of all objects that he believed would con- tribute to the material, social or moral improvement of his community kept him in the foremost rank of those to whom the city owes its development and present position as one of the leading metropolitan centers of California. His life was characterized by upright, honorable principles, and it also exemplified the truth of the Emersonian philosophy that "The way to win a friend is to be one." His genial, kindly manner won him the regard and good will of all with whom he came in contact, and thus his death was uniformly mourned throughout San Jose and the surrounding district.
Mr. Clayton was a native of Derbyshire, England, born on the 20th of October, 1831. He came to the United States in 1839 with his parents, John and Mary (Bates) Clayton, both of whom were natives of New Mills, Derby- shire, England. The family home was established in the lead-mining regions of Iowa county, Wisconsin. The father had engaged in lead-mining in Eng- land, and he followed the same pursuit in this country in connection with agricultural interests during the greater part of his remaining days. He lived upon a farm near Mineral Point, Wisconsin, up to the time of his demise, which occurred in 1857, when he had reached the advanced age of eighty years. His wife also attained a ripe old age and passed away in 1853.
James A. Clayton was the twelfth in order of birth in a family of thir-
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teen children. He pursued his education in the common schools of Wiscon- sin, but his opportunities were somewhat limited, owing to the financial con- dition of his father, who found it somewhat difficult to provide for his large family. In consequence Mr. Clayton left school at an early age and came to California with his brother Joel, arriving in this state in the spring of 1850. They were pioneer settlers here, and the brother afterward died in Clayton, Contra Costa county. He had been manager of a train of emigrants that crossed the plains in 1850, the number including James A. Clayton.
In 1846 Charles Clayton, another brother, had first made his way to the Pacific coast, settling in Oregon, where he remained for about two years, when he came to California. As the years advanced he took an active and helpful part in the work of improvement and was a factor in municipal and state affairs. His ability well fitted him for leadership and his devotion to the general good was one of his strong characteristics. He served as a mem- ber of Congress from California, was surveyor of the port of San Francisco and held many prominent positions in that city. For a quarter of a century he ranked among the leading Republicans on the Pacific coast, and his labors in behalf of the party were far-reaching and effective. In the early territorial days of the state he was prominent and influential and served as the alcalde under the Mexican territorial government. This office gave him the power to issue grants of public land, to pass upon the subject of corporal punish- ment and, in fact, to act as judge upon many cases. During the period of his residence in Santa Clara county he engaged in conducting a flour mill and bought and sold grain on quite an extensive scale, but after a few years he removed to San Francisco, where he operated largely in the market. He was also the president of the Produce Exchange in San Francisco, being identi- fied therewith up to the time of his demise. He died October 4, 1885, and thus passed away one of the pioneer settlers who had aided in laying the foundation for California's present greatness and prosperity.
James A. Clayton and his brother Joel were eighty-seven days in making the journey from the Missouri river to Placerville (then called Hangtown). In the spring of 1850 the former arrived in Santa Clara and was employed as a clerk by his brother Charles, who had been a resident there from 1848. He also engaged in mining for some time, from 1850 to 1852, hoping that the gold fields would more rapidly yield him a fortune than he could obtain in other lines of business, but after a number of months he became convinced that a more congenial field of labor could be found elsewhere and he returned to Santa Clara valley, locating in San Jose. He then engaged in merchandising from 1852 until 1859, thus becoming a representative of the early commer- cial interests in the city. Here he purchased a photographic gallery, which he conducted for thirteen years with excellent success. In the meantime he was elected county clerk of Santa Clara county in 1861 for a term of two years, and was then re-elected so that he was continued in the office for four years. After his retirement he established a real estate office in 1867 and con- tinued operating in land until his death. During this period he sold every piece of titled land in the county and some many times over. He thoroughly informed himself concerning realty values in this part of the state and nego-
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tiated many important real estate transfers and did a business which brought to him very gratifying success. In 1887 he admitted his sons Edward W. and Willis S. to a partnership and upon his death in April, 1896, they became successors to the original firm and have since dealt in real estate in San Jose.
Mr. Clayton was a man of resourceful business ability and carried his efforts into other fields of activity. In 1872 he assisted in the organization of the First National Bank of San Jose and was one of its directors for many years, while for two years prior to his death he held the office of president, and under his administration the bank was on a most solid financial basis and was carried forward to still greater successes. For many years Mr. Clayton was also identified with horticultural and agricultural interests of California, and was a firm believer in the future of this part of the country, so that he made investments in property here and put forth most earnest effort in behalf of public improvement and for the substantial growth of the state.
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