USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 29
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In 1898 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Jury and Miss Maude A. Green, a native of California, and then a resident of Santa Clara county, California. Miss Green is the younger daughter of C. W. and Sarah J. Green, a graduate of the Detroit high school and of Leland Stanford Uni- versity. Her father was formerly a shoe manufacturer and dealer, and is now prominently connected with horticultural interests, owning valuable orchard property in Santa Clara county. To Mr. and Mrs. Jury have been born two sons, John Clare and William Alvan. Mr. Jury is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Grand Fraternity. His political support is given to the Republican party. In his private life he is distinguished by all that marks the true gentleman. Endowed by nature with high intellectual qualities, to which have been added the discipline and embellishments of culture, his is a most attractive personality. Well versed in the lines of his profession and with comprehensive knowledge of the world and its people, he is a conscientious and successful lawyer, a writer of ability and a man of versatile and genuine worth.
SOL C. MISH, M. D.
Dr. Sol C. Mish, physician and surgeon and specialist, was born and reared in San Francisco and has honored this city by his work as an able and skilful practitioner since he passed from the period of preparation into active
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practice. He had a liberal education and the best of opportunities for gain- ing equipment for his profession, and for some years he has enjoyed a fine practice, principally in gynecology and surgery of the abdomen.
He was born July 29, 1868, being a son of one of the California forty- niners and one of the best known San Francisco business men. His father, Phenes Mish, was a wholesale milliner, and in 1849 came from St. Louis, Mis- souri, to California. He organized the first lodge of the Order of Druids in this state. He was married in St. Louis in 1850 to Miss Sarah Cohen, and in San Francisco they established an extensive millinery business. After eighteen years they owned and operated four stores in San Francisco, and in 1869 opened a branch house in New York city, closing it out in 1874. Phenes Mish died May 12, 1895, and after his death the business was sold and his wife is now living a retired life. He was a Royal Arch Mason, and · was one of the founders of the Sherith Israel Congregation, being its presi- dent for eleven years. There were nine children in the family, five sons and four daughters, and one son died at the age of twenty-two and a daughter at the age of eighteen, all the others living at the present writing.
Dr. Mish received his early education in the public schools and at Brew- ers Military Academy, finishing in 1885. He then entered the medical de- partment of the University of California, from which, in 1890, he went to New York city and became assistant surgeon of the out-door poor at Bellevue Hospital. In 1891 he graduated from the Broome Street Maternity Dispen- sary, and from there went to Louisville, Kentucky, graduating from the medi- cal school in that city on June 20, 1892. On his return to San Francisco he began the practice of medicine with his office in the Parrott building, from which his practice as a specialist and surgeon has extended to all parts of the city and given him position as a foremost member of his profession.
Dr. Mish is founder of the Elite Gynecological Society, which has a mem- bership of six hundred, and is physician in charge of the same. He is phy- sician of Golden Gate Lodge No. 74. I. O. R. M., and is a member of Bay City Lodge No. 117, Knights of Pythias, and medical examiner for the en- dowment rank of the order. In politics he is a Republican.
August 25, 1901, Dr. Mish married Miss Wanda Shirek, a daughter of Adolph Shirek, who was a pioneer clothing manufacturer of this city. They have one child, Gladys.
GEORGE ALPERS.
George Alpers began to tread the road to success at a very early age, and from a clerkship in a grocery store advanced by sure and successive stages to control, at the age of twenty, of a business of his own, and he is now the prosperous and well known grocery merchant at the corner of Fifth and Clara streets, San Francisco. Public affairs and politics have attracted some of his attention in the more recent years when his material success was well founded, and he is one of the influential and public-spirited men of San Francisco, having done much for the general welfare and civic im- provement of his city.
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Mr. Alpers is a thorough American in all but birth and earliest train- ing, although he cherishes fond regard for the fatherland and is prominent in the work of various organizations and clubs bespeaking connection with Germany and its institutions. He was born in Germany, January 5, 1869, and received his education there in the public schools. In 1883, at the age of fourteen, he came to New York city, where he obtained employment as a clerk in a grocery store and laid the foundations for his subsequent mer= cantile activity. In 1886 he came out to San Francisco, where for several years he was also a grocery clerk. In 1889 he started a business for himself at the northwest corner of Fifth and Folsom streets, but in 1892 sold this store and erected the fine block at Fifth and Clara where he has since con- ducted one of the best groceries and markets in the city.
Mr. Alpers is a Republican, and since 1898 has taken part in all the political struggles of the party in San Francisco. He played a conspicuous part when the new charter of the city was framed, voted for and passed by the people, taking effect in 1899. His participation in this agitation for im- proved municipal rule led to his continuance in public life. In 1901 he was elected a member of the board of supervisors, and was re-elected in 1903. In 1902 and 1903 he did much toward getting the bond issue before the people and in gaining their favorable vote upon the measure. The city was bonded for nineteen million dollars for the purpose of public improvements, to include streets, sewer system, schoolhouses, a new hospital, and many other things needful for municipal progress. Mr. Alpers affiliates with Herman Lodge No. 127, F. & A. M., and with San Francisco Chapter No. I, R. A. M .; with Menzonnito Grove of the Order of Druids; with the Nord- deutscher Verein, the Germania Club, the San Francisco Schützen Verein, the Germania Shooting Club and the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
In 1892 Mr. Alpers married Miss Wilhelmina Holst, of San Francisco, and they have two children, George H. and Enit, both attending the Wit- tier primary school of San Francisco.
CHARLES EDELMAN.
Charles Edelman, a prominent man of affairs of San Francisco and well known in political and business circles, was born in the city of Hamburg, Germany, October 3, 1848. He has lived in this country since he was twelve years of age, so that he is a true American in all the best senses of the word. One fact of his career so typical of men of eminence in this free land is that he began to work out his own destiny and depend on his own re- sources of mind and body almost as soon as he arrived in this country, and from small beginnings progressed by sure steps to be one of the leading men of a great city and a great state.
His father was Albert Edelman, a successful merchant in both Germany and the United States. Charles received his early education in a boarding school in Hamburg, and when twelve years old accompanied his parents to New York city. He soon obtained employment with A. T. Stewart and Company, the largest dry-goods house of the world. He remained with
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this firm only a few months, and in July, 1862, at the age of thirteen, en- listed for service in the United States navy. He was on the frigate Minne- sota and various other vessels, and was mustered out in 1866. This latter year is the date of his coming to San Francisco. For four years he was employed in the postoffice, in the custom house four years, and for the fol- lowing five years was connected with the office of the chief of police. In 1882 he resigned his position and moved to Tombstone, Arizona, where he was deputy sheriff for some months. In 1883 he returned to San Fran- cisco and entered the mercantile business, retailing cigars and tobacco from three stores. This was a very satisfactory and profitable business, but in 1888 he sold out and then became associated with a San Francisco diamond house as secretary of the company and later as president. In 1894 he re- signed the presidency of the company and moved to Orange county, Cali- fornia. On his return to San Francisco in 1898 he entered more actively into political life, and has since been prominently identified with politics and public affairs generally.
Mr. Edelman was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in 1900. In 1894 and in 1898 he was honored by his party by nomination for the office of state treasurer, and was defeated by only a small majority in a normally Republican state. In 1898 he was a member of the advisory committee that conducted the campaign for the election of Judge James G. McGuire. He has been a notary since his appointment by Governor Gage on April 9, 1902. In 1896 Governor Budd appointed him a member of the Hamburg Exposition commission.
Mr. Edelman is a leading member and worker in secret and fraternal orders. He is a Knight Templar Mason, having taken thirty-two degrees in the ancient order, and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is a past commander of Lincoln Post No. I, G. A. R., and was three times elected a delegate to the national encampment of the Grand Army. On two occasions he served as grand marshal of the Memorial day celebration, was president of the day twice, and once was chairman of the general committee. The direction of this important celebration demands much executive ability and arduous labor, and for his excellent management of affairs in 1903 he was highly commended by a complimentary letter from Mayor Schmidt, dated June 22, which is the only time such a mark of favor and courtesy has been shown by the city's mayor.
In 1890 Mr. Edelman married Mrs. H. E. Eddred, who for a number of years owned and conducted the State House Hotel at Sacramento. She died in November, 1901.
EDGAR REEVE BRYANT, M. D.
Edgar Reeve Bryant, chief surgeon of the Homoeopathic wards of the city and county hospital of San Francisco, has in the practice of medicine attained the prominence and success which in professional circles are granted only in recognition of strong intellectuality, comprehensive understanding of the science involved and accurate application of its principles to the inter-
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ests which affect mankind. Dr. Bryant has spent almost his entire life on the Pacific coast, his birth having occurred in Gilroy, Santa Clara county, Cali- formia, on the 6th of May, 1866. He is a representative of an old American family, his ancestors on the paternal line having been among the first set- tlers of South Carolina, establishing their home in that colony in 1660. Berryman Bryant, a grandson of William Bryant of South Carolina, a revolutionary soldier and the father of Dr. Bryant, was born in South Carolina and was a graduate of the Botanical Medical College at Memphis, Tennessee, of the class of 1848. In January, 1849, he came to California, and going to the mines realized a fortune in the practice of medicine and surgery. He married Miss Henrietta Frances Reeve, who was a native of Ohio and a lineal descendant in the twelfth generation of the Prince of Orange. She was also connected with the Woolsey family, to which Cardinal Woolsey belonged, and among her ancestors in America were those who espoused the cause of the colonists and fought for the indepen- dence of the nation in the Revolutionary war.
Dr. Bryant is indebted to the public school system of San Jose county, California, for the early educational privileges which he enjoyed and which formed the basis for further literary study in the University of the Pacific. In that institution he won the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1885, Master of Philosophy in 1888 and Master of Arts in 1903. In the mean- time he had begun the study of medicine and was graduated at the Hahne- mann Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the class of 1889. Subsequently he spent one year, 1889-90, as resident physician at the Hahnemann Hospital in New York city and from March, 1890, to May, 1893. in post-graduate work in Europe. In May, 1893, he returned to Cali- fornia, settling in San Francisco, where he has since made his home. En- gaged in the practice of medicine and surgery, he has won for himself an enviable reputation by his superior skill, by his careful diagnosis of cases and by his ability in administering to the needs of the sick and suffering. He has been a frequent and valued contributor to many medical journals, is identified with various medical societies for the promulgation of scientific knowledge, and is now chief surgeon of the homoeopathic wards of the City and County Hospital. He is likewise professor of surgery and one of the trustees and is registrar of the Hahnemann Medical College at San Fran- cisco: a director of the Pacific Homoeopathic Polyclinic and of the Homoe- opathic sanitarium.
Dr. Bryant was married to Miss Betty Tisdale, a daughter of W. D. Tisdale, who for twenty years was president of the First National Bank in San Jose, California. Her mother was Luella Gebhart, a native of Michigan. Mrs. Betty Tisdale Bryant is a descendant of a passenger of the Mayflower, of soldiers of the Revolutionary and Colonial wars, and of Francis Cook, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. They are prominent in the social circles of San Francisco, and Dr. Bryant is actively connected with the club life and with different fraternal organizations here. He has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in Masonry, is also a Knight Templar and is surgeon of his commandery. He belongs to the Bohemian
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and Union League clubs, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of California Pioneers and the Native Sons of California, and he holds mem- bership with St. Luke's church. The Doctor is a social, genial gentleman, interested in all that pertains to the welfare of the state, is charitable and benevolent, and worthy demands of the needy are seldom made in vain. He has a large circle of warm friends, and his friendship is best prized by those who know him best. In his professional capacity Dr. Bryant is known throughout the country, his reputation extending far beyond the limits of his state, an honor to the profession by which he has been especially dis- tinguished.
JOSHUA GRAVES RIDLEY.
Joshua Graves Ridley, who is identified with agricultural and horti- cultural interests in Santa Clara county and makes his home in San Jose, is a native of Maine, the width of the continent separating his present place of residence from that of his birthplace. He was born on the 30th of May, 1834, in the town of Wayne, Kennebec county, and is a son of Daniel and Rebecca (Graves) Ridley. The father was of Scotch lineage, and the family was founded in America prior to the Revolutionary war, the first of the name in this country settling in the Pine Tree state. The family undoubtedly sprang from the old Riddell family, very prominent in the reign of Queen Anne, and one of the ancestors was burned at the stake. After the family was established in the new world they became loyal to the cause of the colon- ists and were identified with the movement for liberty which brought on the Revolutionary war and won the independence of the nation. Daniel Ridley, Jr., the father of Joshua G., was a farmer by occupation, following that pur- suit in Kennebec county, Maine, where he reared his family, numbering nine sons and three daughters.
On the old homestead Joshua Graves Ridley spent the days of his boy- hood and youth, and in the winter months he attended school, while in the summer seasons he worked upon the home farm. At the age of twenty-four he came to California, arriving in the spring of 1858. He was attracted by the business possibilities that were being opened on the Pacific coast, and with a young man's desire for rapid advancement he came to this portion of the country and followed the fortunes of mining for some time. He also engaged in ranching in Butte county, remaining a resident of that section of the state until 1883, when he came to Santa Clara county and began the development of an orchard and farm. To this line of activity he has since devoted his energies with good success. His fields are well tilled, his orchards . are planted with fine fruit trees and everything about the place indicates the careful supervision and enterprise of the owner, who is a man of thrift and energy and deserves great credit for the success which he has achieved. He is also devoting some time to the breeding of fine trotting stock, making a specialty of the Wilkes horses.
Mr. Ridley was united in marriage to Mrs. Vienna Melissa Ridley, the widow of his brother. Charles Graves Ridley, who had come to California in 1876 and was an orchardist living for a number of years in Santa Clara
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county, where he was residing at the time of his death, which occurred in 1885. In the family are three sons and two daughters: Minnie B .; George; Lee; May, and Charles G. Lee married Miss Edna Clinton, a daughter of J. E. Clinton, who was one of the old-time residents of Santa Clara county and a prominent contractor and builder ; they have four daugh- ters, Irma, Alberta, Vienna and Minnie. George was married October 2, 1901, to Miss Catherine Meade, a native of the Hawaiian islands, and they have one son, Daniel. May married Carlisle Holmes Loomis, a native of Michigan, May 27, 1902; they have one daughter, Ruth Riddell, born Octo- ber 24, 1903. During his residence in Santa Clara county Mr. Ridley has made an enviable record as a reliable business man, persevering and enter- prising, and in the control of his agricultural and horticultural interests he has displayed good ability, which is bringing to him gratifying success.
JAMES W. BURNHAM.
The history of the pioneer settlement of California would be incom- plete without the record of this gentleman, who from the earliest founding of the town has been a prominent factor in its substantial growth and im- provement. When California was cut off from the advantages and com- forts of the east by the long, hot stretches of sand and the high mountains, he made his way across the plains, braving all the trials and hardships of pioneer life in order to make a home in the far west-rich in its resources, yet unclaimed from the dominion of the red men. In a valuable old docu- ment which cur subject possesses he is spoken of as an "able seaman" at the age of eleven years, and at twelve years of age he became a California pioneer.
Mr. Burnham was born on Christmas day of 1836, at Newburyport, Massachusetts, his parents being James and Lucy (Varinia) Burnham. Both were natives of the old Bay state and the ancestors of the family had located there in early colonial days. Three brothers of the name of Burn- ham came to America on the Mayflower, and their descendants became active in shaping the policy of the colony and also took part in the early colonial wars and the war of the Revolution. The ancestral history of Mrs. Lucy Burnham was one of equal remote connection with the development of Massachusetts. Her father was of French lineage descended from the French Huguenots, who came to the new world about 1636. James Burn- ham, Sr., was a hatter by trade and followed that pursuit in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He first came to California in 1849, accompanied by his son, James W. Burnham, and later the mother and daughter of the family joined them on the Pacific coast. The father died soon after his arrival in California, but the mother lived until 1900, passing away at the very ad- vanced age of ninety-one years. In the family were two daughters, Lucy, who died at the age of ten years; and Sarah, who became the wife of John L. Eckley, of San Francisco, and died in 1902 at the age of seventy years. James W. Burnham acquired his early education in the public schools of Newburyport, Massachusetts, but his privileges were somewhat limited
Jas W. Born have
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as he left school permanently when twelve years of age. He then went to sea as a cabin-boy for his uncle, Captain William Varinia, his first cruise being to the West Indies. His second cruise was made with another uncle, Captain Nicholas Varinia, on the brig Forrest bound for California. The vessel was loaded with a cargo of general merchandise and sixty passengers, James Burnham and his son, James W. Burnham, being among the number. The ship sprang a leak off the coast of South America and ran into port at St. Catherine, where the vessel was beached and necessary repairs made. While there the passengers had much trouble with the Indians of that locality and when they sailed were fired upon from forts. In rounding Cape Horn the vessel encountered very severe weather, and it was three weeks before they were able to make their way through that treacherous district and out into the calmer waters of the Pacific. In fact, four of the seamen were lost at that point, being washed overboard. However, the vessel proceeded in safety up the coast of South America and North America until reaching San Fran- cisco, anchor being dropped in the harbor, at the corner of what is now Clay and Montgomery streets, on the 6th of July, 1849. The voyage had occu- pied one hundred and eighty days.
At that early time seamen needed protection from possible seizure by foreign powers and because of this James W. Burnham was granted a cer- tificate which read as follows :
"I, William A. Wellman, deputy collector of the district of Boston and Charlestown, do hereby certify that James W. Burnham, an American sea- man, aged eleven years, or thereabouts, of the height four feet one and a half inches, light complexion, light hair, blue eyes, born in Newburyport in the state of Massachusetts, has this day produced to me proof in the manner directed by the Act entitled 'An Act for the relief and protection of American Seamen,' and pursuant to the said act, I do hereby certify that the said James W. Burnham is a citizen of the United States of America. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal of office, this twenty-second day of February in the year of our Lord, 1848. W. A. Wellman, deputy collector." Accompanying Mr. Burnham's certificate is an old-fashioned daguerreotype, which shows the boy who was a foremast hand at eleven years of age. Well may he treasure this as a memento of his early adven- tures.
After arriving in California James W. Burnham and his father started for the mines, taking passage on a small schooner from San Francisco. Proceeding to Sutters' mill they began placer mining, but the exposure and hardships of such a life were too hard for them and after about three months they became ill with chills and fever. Accordingly they returned to San Francisco, and in 1850 started for their old home in New England, embark- ing on a Chilian vessel for Panama. They then crossed the isthmus by Chagres, and became passengers on a small brig bound for New Orleans. From the Crescent City they proceeded up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Sandusky, Ohio, thence across the country to Buffalo and by Albany and Boston continued their journey homeward to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where they remained until February, 1852. They then again started for
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California, the father bringing with him his wife, daughter and son. This time they became passengers on a ship which sailed from Boston, and once more they rounded Cape Horn, eventually arriving safely in San Francisco. James WV. Burnham is familiar with all the pioneer experiences incident to the early development and settlement of California. He was sixteen years of age at the time of his second arrival in this state and for many years there- after he was an active factor in business life, his efforts proving of value in promoting the development and the improvement of the natural resources of the state. For many years he conducted a carpet and furniture house in San Francisco, and on disposing of that enterprise he purchased Oaklawn fruit farm, comprising thirty acres and pleasantly located about two and a half miles from Santa Clara. He built thereon a handsome residence, which he occupied until 1887. Upon the ranch he made splendid improvements, and it was unsurpassed by any of its size in the valley, being equipped with all modern accessories and conveniences. After selling that property for twenty-one thousand five hundred dollars he returned to San Francisco and built a beautiful residence in Alameda. At the same time he began operating in real estate in connection with F. D. Marsh, and is to-day a representative of that business, buying and selling property and doing a general rental and collection business. The firm has handled much valuable realty, has nego- tiated many important property transfers and has a large clientage which makes their business profitable.
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