USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol II > Part 7
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Locating in Santa Cruz, Mr. Burkett accepted a position with the Dan- iels Transfer Company, and after a couple of years was made foreman, act- ing in that capacity until 1889. when he came to San Jose. Here in connec- tion with S. F. Mikel he purchased the business of the San Jose Transfer Company, its equipment then consisting of three horses and three wagons. Soon the number was increased and the company now has about fifty horses and twenty-five carriages and wagons. The office was formerly located at No. 25 West Santa Clara street, and is now at No. 62 East Santa Clara street. In 1891 the company established a store house in a one-story build- ing, thirty by sixty feet. The present storage comprises two buildings, one of brick and the other of iron. Each is forty by one hundred feet, and two stories in height. The old storage has been converted into a barn. In 1891 the transfer business was incorporated for twenty thousand dollars, with G. P. Burkett as president and manager, and Mr. Bennett as treasurer, the latter having purchased Mr. Mikel's interest in 1890. W. F. Lillick is sec- retary and the stock is principally owned by Mr. Burkett, Mr. Bennett and C. H. Nash.
In 1876 Mr. Burkett was united in marriage to Miss Isabel Mikel, a native of North Carolina and a daughter of M. L. Mikel, a large cotton manufacturer whose business was ruined by the exigencies of the Civil war and who afterward removed to California, where he died in 1900. They have two children, Katherine and Edgar, and have also adopted a daugh- ter. Fannie. Mr. Burkett belongs to both the subordinate lodge and encamp- ment of the Odd Fellows society and to the Foresters of America. He is a self-made man, who in his business career has depended entirely upon his own resources and gained the success which he is now enjoying as the reward of earnest and persistent effort.
CURTIS MASON BARKER.
Curtis Mason Barker, of San Jose, was born in Detroit, Michigan, April 12, 1861, his parents being Kirkland Charles and Jennett Barker. His fath- er was a distinguished citizen of Detroit and served as mayor of that mu- nicipality. A native of New York, his birth occurred in East Schuyler, Her- kimer county, on the 8th of September, 1819, and his early education was acquired in the public schools there. When a youth of fourteen he became a student in a manual training school at Whitesboro, New York, and after completing his education accepted a position as a salesman in a store at Franklin. New York, and subsequently was employed in a similar capacity in Utica, that state. At the age of eighteen, however, he left the state of
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his nativity and went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he secured a position in a warehouse, and while in that city he had the distinguished honor of being elected commodore of the Yacht Club on the Lakes, this title to continue throughout life. In 1848 he established the American Eagle Tobacco Works at Detroit, and was connected with that business until his death, being a lead- ing representative of the industrial interests of the city. In 1864 his fellow townsmen honored him with the office of mayor and entering upon his duties in 1865 he served for two years.
Kirkland Charles Barker was united in marriage to Miss Jennett Be- dell, a daughter of Gilbert Bedell, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and to them were born three children, of whom Curtis M. is the youngest. The father was drowned on the Detroit river while yatching on the 20th of May, 1875, and was laid to rest with Masonic honors, having been a member of the Knight Templar commandery.
Curtis M. Barker supplemented his early educational privileges by study at the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor, where he pursued a course in civil engineering and surveying. Believing that the west furnished a better field of labor for one in the profession he went to Colorado in 1880 and was employed in the mines and at railroad survey work until 1885, when he came to California, locating first at Palo Alto. For seven and a half years he was employed as assistant civil engineer on the construction of the Leland Stanford University. In 1894 he came to San Jose, where he estab- lished an office as a civil engineer and surveyor. Not long afterward he was appointed city engineer of San Jose and occupied that position with marked ability until the Ist of July, 1902.
In 1883 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Barker and Miss Zoe A. Campbell, a daughter of j. C. Campbell, one of the prominent mining men of Nevada City. This union has been blessed with two daughters: Nettie Weir and Muriel Campbell Barker.
Mr. Barker is prominent in fraternal circles, holding membership with San Jose Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M .; Garden City Lodge, I. O. O. F .; and with San Jose Encampment and the San Jose Patriarchs Militant of the Odd Fellows fraternity. He is also identified with Mount Hamilton Lodge, A. O. U. W. Well qualified for his profession, he has occupied lucrative posi- tions in that connection, and his business career has been one of continued progress.
JOHN C. BLACK.
John C. Black, a representative of the bar of Santa Clara county, living in San Jose, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, a son of James and Nancy A. (Russell) Black. He acquired his early education in the public schools of his native county and afterward attended Alleghany and West- minster colleges. In 1855 he emigrated to California, attracted by the discovery of gold in this state, hoping that he might rapidly acquire a for- tune on the Pacific coast. For two years after his arrival he engaged in mining and then turned his attention to teaching school. During his leisure hours he read law, being thus engaged until 1863, when he was admitted to
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the bar of the superior and supreme courts at Sacramento. In 1872 he was admitted to practice in the United States district courts and also the court of appeals at San Francisco.
In the year 1864 Mr. Black was appointed deputy district attorney of Yuba county, California, which position he creditably filled until June, 1865, when he removed to San Jose and entered upon the practice of law. At the general election in 1871 he was chosen district attorney of Santa Clara coun- ty and acted in that capacity until 1874. He has since been continuously engaged in law practice with offices in rooms 18 and 19 of the Knox block. He has there been located for a third of a century and has long maintained a foremost position in the ranks of the legal fraternity of this part of the state. He has been retained as counsel either for the prosecution or defense in almost every case of importance tried in the courts of this district. Among the notable lawsuits with which he has been connected is that of the Cummings murder case, which was tried in 1889, and the damage case of Nichols versus Dumphy. After a bitter contest of four years, during which time the case was twice taken to the supreme court, the judgment was affirmed. and the damages collected, Mr. Black thus winning the case for his client. He also defended Legarbo in a trial for murder. He had scarcely any ground on which to base his defense and yet so ably did he conduct his case that he reduced the verdict to murder in the second degree. With a nature that could never content itself with mediocrity he has applied his attention dili- gently to the mastery of the principles of jurisprudence, and he never enters the courtroom unless he is well prepared for the presentation of his case. In argument he is logical and forceful, and seldom fails to win the verdict desired.
In 1868 Mr. Black was united in marriage to Miss Marian Millard, a daughter of Levi Millard, of San Jose, California. Their union has been blessed with six children: Clara, now the wife of George B. May; J. N., who is connected with the police department of San Jose; Walter R., who is a law student and clerk; Edmund M .; James G .: and Eleanor, who is now a student in the high school of San Jose. In his political views Mr. Black is a very ardent Republican, unfaltering in his allegiance to the principles of the party and keeping so well informed on the issues of the day, that he is ever able to support his position by intelligent and strong argument. He belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, also to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has taken the Rebekah degree, and the Degree of Honor. As a lawyer and citizen he is well known and the position which he occupies in the regard of his fellow citizens is indicative of a life of honor and uprightness.
THOMAS KELLEY, M. D.
For a third of a century Dr. Thomas Kelley has engaged in the prac- tice of medicine with excellent success in Santa Clara county, and is one of the pioneer physicians of this part of the state. Maintaining a high standard of professional ethics, ever keeping abreast with the continued progress being
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made by the medical fraternity, and devoting his efforts untiringly to the important duties which devolve upon him in connection with his chosen calling, he has long maintained a foremost place in the ranks of his profes- sional brethren in San Jose and the surrounding district.
Dr. Kelley is a native of Illinois, his birth having occurred in Logan county, that state, on the 18th of September, 1836. He is a son of Alex- ander and Lucinda ยท(Anderson) Kelley, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Ohio. The Kelley family is of Irish lineage, while the Andersons are of Scotch descent, and both families were established in America at an early period in the settlement of the new world. The doctor's father was a farmer by occupation and at the time of the Civil war responded to his country's call for aid, enlisting in Company K, of the Forty-first Regi- ment of Illinois Volunteers, of which he became captain, but after a short time he resigned and returned home. He died in Illinois, at the advanced age of seventy-eight years.
Dr. Kelley, one of a family of eight children, was reared on the old home farm in Illinois, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors incident to the development and cultivation of the fields. He pursued his education in the public schools, which he attended until twenty years of age. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army, becoming a member of Company K, Forty-first Illinois Infantry, under command of his father as captain and of Colonel Isaac C. Pugh. He joined the army as a private and was mustered out with the rank of first lieutenant. He was for some time with the army under General Grant and in the fall of 1866 received an honorable discharge, returning home a veteran and a victor. He took part in the capture of Fort Donelson, the battle of Pittsburg Land- ing, siege of Corinth, the battle of Coldwater, Mississippi, battle of Hatchie River, Jackson, Mississippi, went with Sherman to the sea and engaged in the numerous skirmishes and battles of that campaign.
Following his return from the war Dr. Kelley was engaged in farming until he entered Rush Medical College, of Chicago, Illinois, in which he' pursued a regular course of study fitting him for the practice of medicine and surgery. He was graduated with the class. of 1871, and almost immediately afterward started for California, locating first in Santa Clara, where he en- tered upon the active practice of his profession, in which he has continued to the present time. In October, 1876, he established his office in San Jose, and has easily maintained a place in the foremost rank of the medical prac- titioners of this city. He has read and studied extensively and understand- ingly, and while not quick to discard the old and time-tried remedies whose value has been proved, he is ready to take up any new remedial agency which he believes will promote the work of the physician and surgeon and increase his usefulness in coping with the intricate problems of disease. He is now classed with the pioneer physicians of Santa Clara county, and is regarded with gratitude in many a household of the locality for the effective aid he has rendered in times of serious illness.
Dr. Kelley had been twice married. In 1858 he was joined in wedlock to Miss Alice Leeds, a native of Clermont county, Ohio, and a daughter of
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John Leeds, a pioneer farmer of Ohio. There is one living son of that mar- riage, Alfonso M., who is a farmer and fruit-raiser of the Santa Clara val- ley. In 1864 the doctor was again married, his second union being with Sarah A. Whittle, a native of Ohio and a daughter of Alba Whittle, a pio- neer of Illinois, who came from that state to California, where his last days were passed. Three daughters have been born of the second marriage: Lessie, the wife of Charles Leadbetter, a resident of Portland, Oregon; Eliza- beth, who is assistant librarian in the public library of San Jose; and Nannie, who is living at home. The second wife died July 5, 1903.
In 1897 Dr. Kelley made a trip to Alaska at the time of the early rush to the gold fields of that part of the country, but soon returned to San Jose and resumed the practice of his profession. He is a Republican in his politi- cal affiliation, and in 1889 was appointed postmaster of San Jose by President Harrison. He served in the office for nearly five years. He belongs to John A. Dick Post No. 42, G. A. R. and thus keeps in touch with his old army comrades with whom he faced the enemy and underwent the rigors and hardships of war. In matters of citizenship he is as true and loyal as when he followed the old flag on southern battlefields. His marked individuality, his strong mentality and his devotion to his profession and to all duty are numbered among his salient characteristics.
MARCELLUS A. NURSE.
Marcellus A. Nurse, state surveyor of California, has made a most creditable record in connection with various public works of vast benefit to the industry and commerce of the state, and is one of the foremost civil engineers of the west. Reclamation and irrigation work has occupied most of his time in the past few years, and he has carried to successful comple- tion some plans whose ultimate value to the people of the state is inestima- ble. He is enthusiastic in the prosecution of his work, and loves his pro- fession for its own sake as well as for the individual good he derives from it. Mr. Nurse was born in Scioto county, Ohio, June 19, 1846, a son of Uri and Narcissa (Turner) Nurse. His father was of an old American family, and of the famous Rebecca Nurse stock. He was born in New York state, and died in 1876. He was an engineer and millwright, and while in Ohio was principally engaged in bridge building, and he owned a large flour and a saw mill. He was a successful and prominent man wherever his interests were found. He came to California among the original forty-niners, and for a time was a successful miner on Bidwell's bar on Feather river. He returned to the east in 1851, and in 1862 brought his family out to California. He was engaged in quartz mining in Amador county, and also in stock-raising, and later did surveying. In the declining years of his life he bought a farm in Yolo county and lived there until his death. He was a descendant of Sir John Rodgers, one of the earliest emi- grants from England to America. Mrs. Narcissa Nurse was born in Vir- ginia, of an old Revolutionary family, and she died in 1889. Her brother John was county clerk of Scioto county, Ohio, for forty-four years, and was
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also mayor of Portsmouth, Ohio, and president of the bank there. His son was appointed by President Lincoln as chief justice of Nevada territory. Mr. M. A. Nurse has three sisters: Louisa, the widow of William McKin- ney, and residing in San Francisco; Caroline, the widow of William Morton, of Kentucky ; and Phoebe, the widow of Obe Salladay, and residing in Los Angeles.
Marcellus A. Nurse attended the public schools at Portsmouth, Ohio, and began a course of civil engineering while still in the high school. He came out to California with his father, and then began work on the western division of the Central Pacific Railroad, in the engineering corps, for a time having charge of a division on that road, with headquarters at Pleasanton, Alameda county. Three years later he gave up railroad work and accepted a position with the Clear Lake Water Company, who were engaged in placing irrigation and navigation works through Yolo and Lake counties, and he had charge of their work for twelve years. For some eight or ten years he had charge of the reclamation enterprises near Knights Landing, on the west side of the Sacramento river. He became connected with the state department of public works just after the election of Governor Mark- ham, and at first was appointed as an assistant on the river surveys. At the election of Governor Budd he was made chief engineer, and has held that position ever since.
The greater part of the river improvement work has been done since Mr. Nurse has been in this office, and many hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone into the work. The San Joaquin river channel has been straightened; extensive jetties have been placed in the Sacramento river for the removal of the Newtown shoals, which had long been a menace to navi- gation; a system of waste weirs has been devised and partly introduced for regulating a maximum flow of water in the river channel instead of per- mitting it to leave the channels to the basins adjacent. These weirs have been successful, and are built permanently, of solid concrete. Every piece of work done is a part of a comprehensive plan for the general improvement of all navigation and irrigation enterprises in the San Joaquin and Sacra- mento valleys. Mr. Nurse, assisted by George N. Randle, who has been his assistant engineer for the past nine years, has devised the entire system of river improvement, and plans for further and more complete improve- ments have been prepared and submitted to the legislature.
Mr. Nurse has also some important mining interests in Sonora, Mexico, consisting of copper, gold and silver deposits, and which are now in course of development. His principal property consists of farming land. He owns one hundred and sixty acres of fruit and grain land in Yolo county, and four hundred acres of vegetable land in Sutter county.
Mr. Nurse was married in Yolo county, September 15, 1872, to Miss Mary Wood, a native of California and a daughter of Joel Wood, who was a pioneer of 1849 to this state and in 1850 settled in Yolo county, where he has been prominent in affairs and well known as an extensive grower of cattle and sheep. The Wood family, originally from England, emigrated from Virginia to Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Nurse have three sons and four
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daughters: Albert R., who is conducting his father's farm in Yolo county and frequently assists on the surveys; Jay C., a student in the State Uni- versity ; Ray, at the Sacramento high school; Clare, who is the wife of IV. L. Ely, of Yolo county ; Mollie, the wife of George N. Randle, assistant state engineer : and Estella and Edith, both in school.
Mr. Nurse is a Democrat, but has taken little part in politics. At the solicitation of his friends he accepted the nomination for county surveyor of Yolo county, but later resigned. His professional work on the public utili- ties has been his most important duty, and it has met with general approval, the best evidence of which being that further appropriations have always been readily granted by the legislature. He has fraternal affiliations with the Independent Order of Foresters.
ARTHUR H. MCCURDY.
Arthur H. McCurdy, who has the distinction of being the youngest justice of the peace ever elected in Sacramento county, is one of the rising and brilliant young attorneys of the city of Sacramento. He is just on the threshold of his career in the legal profession, but his talents and his past performance justify the highest anticipations of his friends. He showed himself to be a leader during his school days, and has ever since been able to mingle with men and influence them in various ways. He is one of the popular young men of the city in social and professional circles, and has shown the energy and public spirit and determination which always win success.
Mr. McCurdy was born in Winnipeg, Canada, July 21, 1871. His father, James McCurdy, who was of Scotch descent, was at that time build- ing the Canadian Pacific railroad bridge at Winnipeg, which accounts for the fact that Mr. McCurdy is not a native son of the United States. His father was born in the United States, and was a successful bridge con- tractor and builder. He died in 1882. His wife was Helen Prescott, who is still living and makes her home in Oak Park, Sacramento. She is a granddaughter of the Colonel Prescott of Bunker Hill and Revolutionary fame, and she is also a direct descendant of the Martha Winslow who canie over with the Mayflower Pilgrims, and she has some heirlooms from that famous ancestor in the shape of some silver spoons. She is of pure English descent, and has an ancestry which numbers some of the most noted names in American annals. Mrs. McCurdy has three children: Arthur H .; Wal- ter J. N., who is an attorney at law in Nogales, Arizona, and has extensive mining interests in Sonora, Mexico; and Miss Clara Maude, who resides with her mother.
Mr. McCurdy was educated in the public schools of Sacramento, to which city he came with his mother shortly after his father's death. He graduated from the Sacramento high school with the class of 1901, and then entered the law office of Frank Brown as a student. Two months later he continued his studies in the office of ex-Superior Judge J. B. Devine and Frank D. Ryan, present commissioner of public works. At the age of
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twenty-one he was appointed a notary public by Governor Gage. He has been active in the Republican party, and has attended state and county con- ventions. At the last state convention he was assistant secretary, and wrote out the minutes, and he served in the same capacity at the last county con- vention. He was elected justice of the peace in Sutter township in Novem- ber, 1902, by a flattering majority, and, although the youngest justice of the county, his administration has been remarkably good and only one decision has failed of confirmation by a superior court.
He served on the signal corps of the militia until the war with Spain, but was not allowed to enlist on account of his youth. He is a past chief ranger of the Foresters of America, and is a member of the California State Grange. While in high school he took a leading part in athletics, and was captain of the football team for two years. He was also a clever bicyclist, and took part in the state amateur races. At the last legislative assembly he served as sergeant at arms.
GEORGE DRAPER WORSWICK.
Among San Jose's business men none are more closely identified with the growth and best interests of the city than George Draper Worswick, who since 1889 has made his home here. For many years he has been known for his sterling qualities, his fearless loyalty to his own convictions, his sturdy opposition to misrule in municipal affairs and his championship of all meas- ures for the general good. He is pre-eminently a business man, and it was only at the solicitation of his friends and because of his realization of the obligations involved in citizenship that Mr. Worswick accepted his present duties as chief executive of San Jose.
A native of Canada, he was born in Kingston on the 28th of June, 1861, and is a son of John and Emma (Rutter) Worswick. The father was a native of England and in his boyhood days accompanied his parents on their emigration to the new world, the family home being established in New York. At a later epoch in his history he was identified with the building of the Grand Trunk Railroad in Canada, and in 1861 came with his wife and children to California. Not long afterward, however, he went to Ore- gon, where he was engaged in railroad construction. In 1875 he returned from Grant county, Oregon, to southern California, to become superintendent of construction of the famous San Fernando tunnel on the line of the South- ern Pacific Railroad. In the family were six sons and five daughters, and of this number one son and one daughter are now deceased.
George Draper Worswick was only six months old when his parents removed from Canada to California. Much of his boyhood was spent in Oregon, and in the public schools at the Cascade he acquired his preliminary knowledge of the branches of English learning. After the removal of the family to The Dalles, where the father was in the government employ, Mr. Worswick continued his education there and later became a resident of Grant county, Oregon, where the father engaged in merchandising while the sons attended school. In 1881 the family removed to Idaho, and George
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