A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California, Part 31

Author: Barrows, Henry D; Ingersoll, Luther A
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 494


USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 31


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clined to politics." He amassed a fortune. He bore the reputation of being a generous, open-hearted man; was a genial companion, and was ever true to his friends. In 1850 he bought the San Benito rancho, consisting of a league and a half, and located with his family on the same. He was financially ruined by the drought of 1863, and died the following year. Mariana, his faithful con- sort, was a daughter of Thomas Escamilla, a Spanishı soldier, who came to Mexico when that country was under Spanish rule, and there married a lady of Mexican birth. He was a soldier at the old Mission Dolores, San Francisco, and at that place his daughter Mariana was born. He finally retired from the army and removed to Monterey, where he died, leaving three sons and two dangh- ters. To James Watson and his wife were born the following named children: Frances, in 1830; Catalina, in 1833; Thomas, June 14, 1834; David, in 1836; and Adolph, Marignacia, Narcisa and Anitas, all but one living at this date.


Thomas Watson, the subject of this sketch, was educated in Monterey, and for many years followed the occupation of cattle-buyer. He later engaged in the butchering business, in which he was very successful. He served the people of Monterey county as Sheriff four successive terms, commencing in 1866, and voluntarily relinquished his hold to the office. Of recent years, although repeatedly urged to take a seat on the county board of Super- visors, he has withheld from shouldering public responsibility.


In 1855 he married Miss Louisa Moreno, a member of one of the old families of Cali- fornia. Santiago Moreno, her father, lived at Monterey and afterward at Salinas, she be- ing born at the latter place. Mr. and Mrs. Watson have ten children, the youngest at


this writing (1892) being eleven years of age. Their home place consists of a fine ranch of 800 acres, utilized as a dairy and cattle ranch.


There is probably not a man in Monterey who is more popular with the masses, and who as a business man and citizen bears a more honorable name than Thomas Watson, Esq., of Corral de Tierra.


OSEPH SCHULTE, JR., a snecess- ful merchant and esteemed citizen of Monterey, is a native of Rome, Oneida county, New York, born June 28, 1851. He is of German parentage, his father, also Joseph, having been born in Prussia, Germany. He came to New York State, where he lived about five years, and then removed to Canada, but not being satis- fied there, he came to California with his family in 1873. He is a merchant tailor by trade and conducts a thriving business on Alvarado street, Monterey. His wife, Mary Fraver, likewise of Prussian birth, bore him four children, of whom two are now living, onr subject and a sister, Mrs. Henneken, of Monterey.


Mr. Schulte received his primary educa- tion in the public schools of Canada and afterward attended a convent school for six years, studying one year for the priesthood, but during that time became convinced that clerical life was not suited to him. He abandoned the study of theology, joining his parents on their farm, where he engaged in farming in Norfolk county, Canada, for some time. He later acquired the blacksmith trade, and afterward thoroughly acquired the watchmaking and jewelers' business. He came with his parents to California in 1873. They all pursued farming for about five


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years in the town of Vallejo, Solano county. Our subject tired of agricultural life, so, after three years of indifferent mining in Shasta county, near Igo, he resumed his trade as a journeyman and traveled for three years more. He located in Monterey in 1885, opened a jewelry store, and has, from that date, been prospered financially and socially.


Mr. Schulte was married at Monterey January 13, 1885, to Miss Eloisa Gutierrez, born December 1, 1866, danghter of Joaquin Gutierrez, who, in his day, was one of the most respected citizens of his State and town. He came to Monterey as early as 1831, from Mexico, on a ship under the command of Captain Juan Malarin. He was a native of Spain, and was an honorable, intelligent gentleman, who became connected with the history and military government of Monterey, commanding the esteem and confidence of all the military officers and governors of Cali- fornia. Upon his retirement from public life, he lived in independence until his death, which occurred December 1, 1872. He married, in Monterey, Douna Josepha Escobar, daughter of Don Marcelino Escobar, an early influential Spanish resident of Monterey, and in 1833, its Alcalde. He had fifteen children, twelve of whom are still living.


One danghter has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Schulte, October 25, 1885, and the fair young child died the following December, less than two months after its birth.


Mr. Schulte is one of Monterey's most successful business men, and is a member of the local board of trade. As a citizen, he is enterprising and universally popular. Fra- ternally, he has more than a local reputation, as he is a foremost and important member of Chosen Friends, and has filled some of its most important offices; he is the originator of the Y. M. I., No. 57, of Monterey; was its


first delegate to the fourthi Grand Council, and was there appointed one of its Grand officers. He has since represented his society at the sixth and seventh Grand Councils, con- vened respectively in San Francisco and Watsonville in 1890 and 1891. He is a member of Institute, No. 109, of San Fran- cisco, and was appointed Grand Deputy for Salinas, where he has organized No. 88 of that city; also, he was the first delegate to the Grand Council of Chosen Friends, April 12 to 16, San Francisco, Cal.


It is such men as Mr. Schulte that every prosperous city needs, and his energy and good citizenship are a credit to Monterey.


AMES B. SNIVELY, one of the repre- sentative men of Monterey, was born near Buffalo, New York, October 21, 1835. He enlisted in the Thirty-Eighth Illinois Infantry, August, 1861, and served three years; being mustered ont at At- lanta, Georgia, October, 1864. The rigors of a soldier's life had left him an invalid; so he resolved to seek a more congenial climate, and, as California seemed to promise such a climate, he emigrated to this State, arriving in 1868, and the following year engaged in the lumber business with Capt. T. G. Lam- bert.


In 1873, he was appointed Wells, Fargo and Company's agent at Monterey, and has held that and the Western Union Telegraph office ever since.


He was the first president of the Board of City Trustees under the new incorporation. He is connected socially with the G. A. R., I. O. O. F. and F. & A. M.


He has two brothers, Richard and Daniel, the former a snecessful dairyman and fruit-


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grower in the Carmel valley, ten miles from Monterey, who arrived in California in 1863. The latter brother, Daniel, is a successful fruitgrower in Santa Clara county, having come to the State in 1868.


Mr. Snively is a highly respected gentleman and faithful employe of the company whom he has served for so many years.


W. STEDMAN, the subject of this sketch, was born fifty-two years ago, in Cortland, New York, from New England stock. He came to California in the year 1858, and first settled in Marin county, where he engaged in dairying. From there he went to Contra Costa county, where he followed stock-raising and butchering; thence to Solano county, where he engaged in butchering and merchandising; thence, in 1869, to his present place of residence, Qui- nado Cañon, about six miles from Kings City, Monterey county. Here he has engaged in various pursuits, keeping a feed yard and boarding-house, and doing a blacksmith busi- ness, and drifting eventually to farming and stock-raising, in which he has been eminently successful. The soil in this vicinity is espe- cially adapted for grain culture and fruit, and the wheat he raises is classed as A No. 1 Mill- ing. He owns 760 acres of land, but farms several hundred acres more belonging to other parties.


Mr. Stedman married Miss Griselda A. Bradley, of Sebastopol, Sonoma county, Cali- fornia, October 21, 1873. The result of this union is five sons and one daughter, namely : Alvirus, born in 1874; Maud, 1876; Albert C., 1878; Walter Scott, 1881; Ray Bradley, 1886; and Jack, 1890.


Mr. Stedman has held the office of Clerk


of the Board of School Trustees, and Justice of the Peace for many years. In the year 1879 he was nominated for Sheriff on the New Constitution ticket. The ticket, being a side issue, was defeated.


He is a consin of H. D. Coggswell, of San Francisco, James P. Coggswell, of Oak- land, and William Coggswell, the artist and owner of the celebrated Madraville mines. Personally, Mr. Stedman is large, muscular, of good presence, and stands high for his in- tegrity in the community in which he lives.


APTAIN THOMAS GRAFTON LAM- BERT .- There are few names more familiar to the people of Monterey and adjoining counties than that of Captain Lam- bert. He belongs to a class of sturdy pio- neers who came to California at a time when her future was very uncertain. It was be- fore her mineral wealth had been developed or even discovered. The American flag had only a few months waved on the shores of the California coast. Her constitution had not yet been formed, and her individuality as a State of the Union was as yet unestab- lished. There are now comparatively few men living who took a part in those early-day scenes and events of California's infancy, and it is therefore fitting and profitable that ap- propriate and becoming note be made on the pages of history, touching the influences which directed the path of the men whose mature lives have made the past history of this coast.


Captain Lambert is a native of the Old Colony State of Massachusetts, born in Dukes county, January 10, 1826. His father, Thomas H. Lambert, was of New England ancestry, which dates back to 1662, when the founder


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of the family emigrated from England. His mother, Lydia West, was likewise of English extraction and a member of an old Massachu- setts family. Thomas H. Lambert was a man of affairs. He served the public as Sheriff of Dukes county thirty-nine consecutive years. He was a man of intrepidity, undaunted courage and cool judgment, and left to his posterity a most honorable name.


Of his family, which consisted of three sons and seven daughters, Captain Lambert is the oldest, and the first one to leave his na- tive State and deal in the uncertainties of life in the then almost limitless West. He had re- ceived a good common-school education in his native county, and inherited a strong constitu- tion and many of the pronounced qualities of his sturdy father, and had developed a vigor- ons intellect. As opening the way to the gratification of a desire he had always felt for travel and seeing the outside world, he at the age of twenty-one years went to sea. He shipped on a New Bedford whaling vessel, the John Cogswell, and reached the Pacific coast in 1847. He remained on the coast, with but two brief interruptions, up to 1855, from which date he made the post of San Fran- cisco his point of departure and return, and up to the year 1869 engaged in no other busi- ness than that of a mariner. From 1855 to the close of his life on the seas he was master of a ship, during which time he visited all the ports of the west coast, and likewise most of the seaports from Cape Horn to Southern China. His numerous and extended cruises took him from time to time to all the various important islands of the Pacific, and he captured whales in every sea and clime where they have been pursued by man.


In 1879 he abandoned the seas, located at Monterey, and established himself in the lum- ber trade, in which business he still continues.


No citizen has become more thoroughly identified with the material interests of this section of California business, civil and social, than Captain Lambert. Typically a business man, he has aimed to confine his energies in strictly business channels.


In political matters, he has been in a meas- nre aggressive. A Republican in principle and action, he has persistently worked for and with his party, and, being a man of methods, broad information and forcible argument, has done his party valuable service. He has never sought political favors and never willingly be- came a candidate for any office. He was, without his own effort, nominated and elected to the office of Justice of the Peace of Mon- terey in 1878, and held the office for six years. The promptness and efficiency with which he administered justice is well known to be beyond reproach, and needs no com- inent.


Fraternally, Captain Lambert is a promi- nent figure on the coast. He was initiated an Apprentice in the order of Free and Ac- cepted Masons May 5, 1862; has passed the various degrees of the order to the Knight- hood, and is a member of the Watsonville Commandery of Knights Templar. He has for some years been a member of the Masonic Veterans' Association, and is now its efficient first Vice-President. He has served the order as a Master Mason since November 4, 1862, a period of almost thirty years.


Captain Lambert is a public-spirited and patriotic citizen. He inherited a love of liberty in its broadest sense, and in early life became imbued with the western spirit of progress. He is versatile in conversation, genial and courteous in manner, and eloquent as a public speaker. Not infrequently is he called upon to do the honors of public occa- sious, such as in the course of events naturally


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take place in dignified and historic Monterey. It is such men as Captain Thomas G. Lam- bert who have laid the foundation of empire in the Golden West, have remained with it, fostering its interests, and must soon leave it as a proud heritage to the coming genera- tions.


OHN TOMAS is a fair representative of a class of men who have paved their own way over rugged paths to success. He is a resident farmer of San Benito county, coming to California with his parents in 1853. He was born October 28, 1843, and his father was Massey Tomas. Upon arrival in California he, father of our subject, located at Gilroy, Santa Clara county. He had first come to California to the mines in 1849, but returned to Missouri and brought the family, four years later, consisting of seven sons and one daughter and his wife.


John Tomas is one of twins and the fourth in the family. He received a liberal education in Santa Clara county and grew up a farmer and stock-raiser, coming to San Benito county in 1870, where he took up a squatter's claim of government land on San Benito creek. He has acquired the title to his first claim and has added to it until he now has 1,000 acres of tillable and grazing land. Before he was twenty-one he went to Arizona, in the fall of 1863, and there washed his first gold dust and assisted in killing his first Apaches. He traveled and prospected two years in that healthful zone; was one of a company of 100 men who elected Colonel Ring S. Wollsey, their commander, the purpose of which was to prospect the headwaters of the Gila and Salt rivers, and in so doing discovered the wheat patch, planted by Apaches, between Penal mountain and Salt river. Richard Gird, the


sugarfactory man of Los Angeles county, was made one of their captains. Gold was found in various places, but not in paying quantities. Three men were killed in this expedition, one by Indians and two by carelessness. Mr. Tomas returned to California in 1867.


His marriage occurred in 1878, to Miss Agnes Duval, a daughter of Thomas Duval. Her father died when she was yet a small child. The place of her birth was Napa county, California, occurring September 25, 1859. She is a lady of excellent domestic and business qualifications, and has borne her husband five children, namely: Florence, born November 7, 1879; Myrtle, born June 28, 1881; Minnie B., born May 7, 1883; Grover C., born February 19, 1886; and Marion M., born May 1, 1887. They are all bright intelligent children.


Mr. Tomas is a man of enterprise and broad general information and strong con- victions. He is classed among the most suc- cessful farmers of San Benito county.


M RS. ANNA GALLANAR, editor and proprietor of The Pacific Grove Re- view, is a native of New Franklin, Howard county, Mo .; a daughter of Adam Lohry. He was a native of Germany, and by occupation a merchant. He was married at Louisville, Kentucky, to Miss Susanna Deer- ing, and emigrated to California in 1853, locat- ing at Lotus, El Dorado county, where he for the remainder of his life engaged in merchan- dising. He died in 1880.


Of the ten children of his family, Mrs. Gal- lanar was the fifth. She enjoyed the blessings of a happy home circle and received a thorough schooling, and at the age of twenty- four mar- ried Geo. W. Gallanar. After marriage they


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made their home in San Francisco, where they resided until 1888, when they came to Pacific Grove.


In 1889 Mr. Gallanar commenced the pub- lication of the Pacific Grove Review and con- ducted the same until Mrs. Gallanar assumed control in 1890. The following year she be- came sole owner and editor of the Review, and now conducts its publication. Mrs. Gallanar's management of the paper has proven a marked success. She is by instinct and inclination a journalist, admirably fitted to edit end publish a journal such as the cul- tured and ethical people of Pacific Grove demand.


Mrs. Gallanar is a lady of irrepressible de- termination and force of character. She also possesses a hopeful, sunny nature,these notable traits of character giving a strengtli and luster to her writings that constitute a valued and happy feature of the Pacific Grove Review, mention of which will be found elsewhere in this volume.


UNCAN STIRLING, of Castroville, a native of Canada, was born in that one of Her Majesty's possessions, August 18, 1864. He is the youngest son of Will- iam Stirling, of Castroville, a sketch of whom may be found elsewhere in this book.


Our subject came to the Golden State with his parents and received his education in the public schools of Monterey county. Later, he attended the State Normal School, at San José, at which institution of learning he graduated in the class of 1886. Mr. Stir- ling first taught school near Santa Ana, Orange county, California. He is now the efficient principal of the public schools of Castroville, which position he has filled for


the past three years, and stands in the front ranks of Monterey county's progressive corps of teachers.


Mr. Stirling was married, May 29, 1889, to Miss Ella, the accomplished danghter of J. W. Mullis, of Castroville, a native of Sonoma county, born August 22, 1866, and she and her husband enjoy the respect and esteem of all who know themn.


ON. THOMAS RENISON, editor and owner of the Gonzales Tribune, one of influential newspaper journals in the State (notice of which will be found else- where in this work), and a resident of Gon- zales, Monterey county, and also the presen- representative of the Sixty-ninth District in the Assembly, was born in the county Tipper- ary, Ireland, in 1850. He came to California in 1868, and located in Monterey county in 1869, beginning life here as a farm-hand. His education had been obtained in the common schools of Ireland, and after coming to this county he studied law by himself, being ad- mitted to the bar in 1881. In 1879 he was elected Justice of the Peace at Salinas, serv- ing one term. He was appointed Deputy District Attorney under J. A. Wall, and was elected to the Assembly in 1886, and again in - 1888, by a large majority. From the first he took a leading position on the floor of the House, and at once became one of its most influential members. He has been the author of several bills and resolutions of importance, and has taken no uncertain position on all questions involving the rights and privileges of his constituents. Mr. Renison is a inarried man, very domestic in his tastes, and fond of his home and its comforts.


Retiring in manner, yet in debate "forcible,


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aggressive, logical, and convincing," he is destined to many years of usefulness, as the people will not fail to take advantage of his abilities in the future, as in the past. His career is a shining exemplification of the truth that if the true metal is in a man it will be made manifest in spite of poverty, obscurity, and difficulties to overcome. Let no man sit down to wait his opportunity, but rather, with his own hands and brain, shape it for himself.


HOMAS S. HAWKINS .- The leading spirit of San Benito county, the man above all others to whom the com- munity looks in matters of public moment, who for years has been its acknowledged leader, whose advice is sought and opinion respected in all questions of importance, is Thomas S. Hawkins, president of the bank of Hollister.


Born in Marion county, Missouri, in the year 1836, Mr. Hawkins is now in his fifty- fifth year. His early life was passed on a farm, and despite the disadvantages surround- ing young men in Missouri fifty years ago, he managed to secure a good education. Laboring on the farm until sixteen years of age, he attended a local school, teaching in the meanwhile some of the younger pupils.


In 1860 he turned his steps to the West. Accompanied by his wife and infant son, he, with some neighbors, successfully made the long journey across the plains, and attracted by the fertility of the Santa Clara valley he located there and engaged in the occupation of farming. He remained there until 1867, and by economy and good management found himself in vastly improved circumstances. In 1868 the San Justo Homestead As- sociation was organized, having for its object


the subdivision of a portion of the San Justo rancho, in Monterey county. Although but thirty-two years of age, Mr. Hawkins was the leading spirit in this gigantic task, and the prosperious town of Hollister, with its sur- ronnding fertile farms, now mark the result of their labor. Arriving on the ground be- fore the town was laid out, he secured two of the subdivisions, amounting to 340 acres, immediately adjoining the town site on the sonth. As the village commenced to grow, by skillful management in the disposal of lots he directed its growth toward his land, and soon one ranch of 170 acres was disposed of at a great advance, and a portion of the other was also on the market. With the money thus realized he, with others, founded the Bank of Hollister, in 1873. Chosen to be its first president, he has retained the position ever since. This institution has been a powerful factor in the development of the resources of the county of San Benito. In the organization of the county, which was cnt off from Monterey county in 1874, Mr. Hawkins was one of the most influential and indefatigable workers. Since then his po- sition as a foremost man in the community has never been assailed.


W. GREGG, EsQ., of Monterey, is ranked with the pioneers of California, having made the journey from the East to this coast in 1853, coming via New Or- leans and the Isthmus of Panama.


Mr. Gregg is a native of Virginia, born in Loudoun county, December 8, 1828. His parents removed to Ohio during the early settlement of that State, and located in Lick- ing county. Aaron Gregg, his father, was a farmer by occupation. His mother was be-


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fore her marriage, Miss Elizabeth Flemming. Both were natives of the Old Dominion. The father died in Ohio. Of their six chil- dren, the subject of our sketch was the third born, and is the only one of the four now living who has settled in California.


Mr. Gregg has been a life-long farmer and stock-raiser. He came to California with naught save a strong constitution, resolute purpose and willing hands, and commenced life by working on a farm and in a sawmill at Monterey. He farmed for sixteen years on the ranch owned by the Snively Brothers, in the Carmel valley, and had large numbers of cattle on the then open ranges. After about ten months' residence in Monterey, he purchased and moved to the place now ocen- pied by William Hatton. He added to this acreage from time to time, until he owned 1,270 acres of fine farming and grazing lands.


May 9, 1868, he was united in marriage with Miss Lola Soberanes, a native of Mon- terey, and the second danghter of Don Ma- riano Soberanes. For children have been born to them, namely: Elizabeth A., now Mrs. Thomas Oliver; Lola M., wife of John Sparolini; Mary A., wife of J. B. Steadman; and Joseph Gregg, at home.


Mr. Gregg has disposed of his landed in- terests, and has retired from active life, living quietly at Monterey. He is an esteemed citizen, unassuming in his manner, and enjoys the confidence and respect of a wide circle of friends and old-time acquaintances.


ISS LOUISE E. FRANCIS, the gifted editor and owner of the Castroville Enterprise, is well known in the field of Pacific coast journalism as one of the most successful newspaper publishers on the coast.




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