USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 37
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February 9, 1891, occurred the lamented death of our subject, who left a sorrowing widow and three children: Ada May, Oliver and John C.
Mr. Bardin left his family well provided for, as his estate consists of valuable lands in the Salinas valley, 664 acres in all, and 150 more in the State of Washington. The mem- ory of this gentleman will linger long after that of many has faded from the minds of those who know them.
ALTER WALLACE, a substantial citizen and successful business man of Castroville, is a native of Ireland, having been born in Galway, Ireland, March 16, 1855. He was reared in his native land, where he learned the trade of a butcher. In 1877, he came to California, and the follow- ing year located at Salinas, where he engaged in business as a member of the butcher es- tablishment of E. St. John & Co. and there continued until he located at Castroville, in 1890. He is a fine business man, and enjoys the respect and esteem of all who
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know him for his practical knowledge of his trade.
Mr. Wallace was married, in Salinas, April 23, 1890, to Miss Mary Vaughn, a native daughter of Monterey county, and eldest daughter of P. Vaughn, a well known farmer and pioneer citizen of Salinas,
Mr. Wallace is the owner of some fine residence property in Salinas, and a beautiful home in Castroville.
EORGE GRAVES, deceased, was a na- tive of Marion county, Kentucky, where he was born, July 28, 1813, near the town of Lebanon. His father, William Graves, was a planter by occupation, and slave owner, and carried on a large business. Of his five children, George was the eldest.
Our subject left Kentucky in 1846, and located in Nottaway county, near Marysville, where he lived four years. In 1850 he came to California, and located near San Leandro, in Alameda county, but soon returned to Ken- tucky for his family, which he brought to the " Golden State " across the plains, via Carson river. They lived about four years in Alameda county, when they located on the present estate, near Salinas, in 1853, where Mr. Graves built up a fine property, reared his family and served the public as an enter- prising, upright citizen. His death occurred, April 20, 1889, when he had attained the age of seventy-six years, leaving behind hint a handsome property as provision for his fam- ily. A large circle of friends and relatives mourn his loss.
Mr. Graves was married in Kentucky, August 15, 1846, to Miss Nancy, a daugh- ter of Ignatins Walker, a farmer of Marion county. She was born January 30, 1825,
and reared in the same neighborhood as her husband. She still survives, and is the mother of eight children, namely: Ann Lethea, now Mrs. Jackson Gellitt, of Ven- tura; Georgiana, now Mrs. Robert C. Bemiss, of San José; Simion, lives on the farm; Jennie, now Mrs. J. J. Conner, of Salinas; Mary, now Mrs. J. J. Kelly, of Salinas; Benjamin and Charles, at home.
By a former marriage Mr. Graves had four children, namely: Thomas Graves, and Will- iam T. Graves; and Lovina, a daughter, who married Ebenezer Harris, but is deceased; and another daughter, Rosina, a widow of Robert Laws, of San Francisco.
Mr. Graves was a man of great energy and probity, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him.
ICHAEL RIORDAN can claim the honor of being a pioneer of Califor- nia, having come to the State in 1854, landing at San Francisco. He had come to that city direct from St. Louis, Mis- souri, via Nicaragua. He is a native of Lim- erick, Ireland, born on September 18, 1834. Upon his arrival in California he spent abont six months in the mines of Yuba county and then bought and ran a dray in San Francisco for about four years. His next venture was raising sheep in the Salinas valley. This business he pursued for ten years, from 1858 to 1868. He then engaged in farming at Natividad, and in 1890 he engaged in merchandising at Salinas, in which line of business lie still continues.
Our subject was married, in San Francisco, in 1859, to Miss Margaret Coughlan, of Irish parentage and they have four living children, namely: Thomas J., born in San Francisco, is the present efficient Clerk of Monterey
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county; Philip H., deceased; Joseph M., William F. and James E., all native sons of California, and all except the oldest born in Monterey county. Mr. Riordan is esteemed for his integrity and upright citizenship.
ILLIAM SHAW (deceased) was the pioneer journalist of Hollister, and as will be seen by the following was active, enterprising and aggressive in his work. He was a native of Dublin, Ireland, being born in that city in 1815. He was, however, reared and educated in Liverpool, England, where early in mature life he em- barked in the stationery business, and in this city married Miss Emma Newling, of Man- chester, England.
In 1854, lured by the reported discovery of gold in Australia, he purchased a schooner of seventy-five tons burden and with his wife, his son Robert (the present efficient County Clerk, of San Benito county) and crew em- barked for that country. Upon his arrival at Melbourne he established The Melbourne Age and entered the field of journalism. This enterprise proved a success and the paper is still issued, being one of the influential peri- odicals of the county.
In 1862 he left Australia, sailing for New Zealand, where he engaged in the same line of business quite extensively, and which proved very successful. His next field of conquest was in the Sandwich Islands, where he purchased and edited the Hawaiian Daily Times, which he operated about seven months. In 1871 he came to San Francisco, remaining there about eighteen months, and the follow- ing year located in Hollister Here he estab- lished the San Benito Advance, which soon ranked among the leading weekly publica-
tions of the State as an aggressive exponent of the resources and attractions of its chosen locality. This was the pioneer newspaper of Hollister, and the plant and outfit were the same which Mr. Shaw had nsed in printing his paper in New Zealand.
After Mr. Shaw's death, Mr. George Shaw, the second son, succeeded to the ownership of the Advance (of which mention is made else- where in this work). Mr. Shaw had eight children, seven of whom are sons: Robert, born in Melbourne, Australia, July 16, 1855, and was married in San Francisco, in 1878, to Miss Kate, daughter of John Bowen (de- ceased); they are the parents of five children : George E., Albert D., J. Harnette; William F. Shaw, the fourth son was born in New Zealand, August 25, 1865; in 1889 Miss Emma, who was born in Watsonville, Cali- fornia, and a daughter of Jonas L. Myles, became his wife; one child has been born to them, Reginald; Charles J., and one dangh- ter, Ada, widow of the late Lester Baldwin.
Mrs. Shaw still survives and resides in Hol- lister.
ILLIAM HENRY HAVER .- Mr. Haver is one of the thrifty farmers of the Salinas valley. He was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, January 10, 1841. At twenty years of age he came to Califor- nia, with his eldest brother, Horace Haver, who is now a resident of Watsonville. Mr. Haver lived one year in San Mateo county, whereupon he located in Monterey county, on the Cooper ranch in the vicinity of Cas- troville, where he has since farined 150 acres of the this ranch. Mr. Haver has pur- chased a farm, a portion of the Buena Vista ranch, and will soon locate there.
He married in Watsonville, October 24,
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1880, to Miss Annie, a danghter of Theoph- ilus Candill. She is a native of Monterey county. Mr. and Mrs. Haver have four chil- dren: William H., Jr., died September 30, 1883; Lottie, Eva and John E.
AMES THOMPSON was born in Edin- burgh, Scotland, in the year 1832, and comes of a noble line of ancestry, whose character has ever been above reproach. His father, William Thompson, was born in Scot- land, in 1801, and his mother, whose maiden name was Margaret Anderson, was also a native of that country. They were married in 1824, and lived happily together for many years, until his death, which occurred in 1885, and the mother died the following year. To them were born nine children, of whom five are now living.
James Thompson was married near Edin- burgh, Scotland, in 1854, to Mary Bailley. By her he had eight sons and four daughters, of whom the following-named are living, two having died in Canada and one in California: William, born in 1856, Andrew in 1858, Adam in 1860, these three being natives of Edinburgh; Matthew in 1862, Joseph in 1864 and John in 1866, born in Canada; and Jane and David in Monterey county, Cali- fornia, the former in 1875 and the latter in 1882. In September, 1889, the mother of these children died of cancer. She was a woman of many estimable qualities; was educated and cultured, and previous to hier marriage had been engaged in teaching school. She was a consistent member of the United Presbyterian Church, and was a true Chris- tian, always exerting an influence for good wherever she went. Of their children we state that William, the oldest son, married
Miss Mary Dillon, by whom he liad a son and a daughter. His wife died in 1888, and he subsequently wedded a Miss Johnson. Mary Thompson, the second daughter, was married in 1881 to William Williamson. She became the mother of one child, a daughter, and died a year later. Matthew, another son, married Katie Logwood, daughter of Edward Logwood, in 1890.
Mr. Thompson came to California in 1874, since which time he has been a resident of this State. He and his sons have been engaged in farming and stock-raising, chiefly in Mon- terey county. At one time he superintended the large ranch of the Hon. Jesse D. Carr, and while acting in this capacity gained much valuable information in regard to the finest breeds of cattle, horses and sheep. He now carries on farming on a large scale, hav- ing met with good success in his various operations. He has served the public as Clerk of the Board of School Trustees. By all who know him he is held in high esteem, and is regarded as a man of the strictest integrity.
B B. McCROSKEY, deceased October 1, 1888. In the death of B. B. McCros- key San Benito county has lost an able and faithful District Attorney, Hollister has lost an enterprising citizen, his friends mourn the loss of one in whom they conld rely, and his family are bereft of a tender and affectionate linsband, brother and father. Few men in this portion of the State were better known and few were more popular. As a lawyer he was faithful in the detail work so often neglected by his fraternity, and at the bar he was both eloquent and convincing. He possessed all the attributes of a successful attorney, and had his life been spared he
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would undoubtedly have been prominent in his profession, not only in his county, but ont- side of it. His legal acquaintances held him in high esteem, and his loss is more deeply mourned by them than by any other of his associates.
Mr. McCroskey was born in 1847 in East Tennessee, in the beautiful Sweet Water val- ley. His early life was passed on the Me- Croskey homestead, and he early displayed an adaptability for scholastic pursuits. His early education was gained in the district schools, but at an early age he attended col- lege at Hiwassee and Lebanon, at which institutions he graduated with high honors. For a while he taught school, but having fitted himself for the legal profession, he was admitted to the bar, and for a number of years practiced law in Monroe county, Ten- nessee. In 1878, however, he came to Hol- lister, and in June of that year opened up an office. He shortly afterward formed a part- nership with Robert H. Brotherton, which did not exist long. His office was first on · San Benito street next to that occupied by N. C. Briggs, then in the Odd Fellows' block, and in 1882 he moved into the quarters where his office has since been located. In 1883 and the year following he was in part- nership with John L. Hudner, Esq. This alliance was severed in 1885, but was renewed again in 1887, and at the time of Mr. Mc- Croskey's death the partnership still existed. For six years he was engaged on one side or the other of almost every case which has come before the courts of this county. In the Prew- ett, Mylar and Carleton cases he was promi- nently connected, and in these and other trials his talent and ability have been dis- played.
In the fall of 1882 he was elected District Attorney, which office he has satisfactorily
filled. In 1884 he was defeated for the Su- perior Judgeship, but in 1886 was again elected District Attorney, for which position he was a candidate at the ensuing election with no opponent to contest his election. Stricken down while in perfect health and in the enjoyment of all his faculties, both mental and bodily, his sudden death cast a gloom over the town and county. The family and relatives of the deceased were tendered the sympathy of the entire community.
Mr. McCroskey married October 21, 1874, Miss Irene Clifford Barratt, at Madisonville, Tennessee, and the following are the names of her children: Mary Irene, born August 3, 1875, died February 24, 1886; Elizabeth Priscilla, born November 21, 1876, died October 24, 1878; Benjamin Barratt, born February 9, 1880; and John Marshall, born September 19, 1881. Mr. McCroskey left a comfortable estate behind him for his wife and little ones.
AMES MCDOUGALL. - Among the honored pioneers of Salinas occurs the name of the venerable James McDon- gall, a native of Scotia, having been born March 3, 1815.
In his native land he learned the baker's and confectioner's trades and came to Amer- ica in 1841, and located land in Lake county, Illinois, where he resided until 1852. At that date he came, overland to California, via Salt Lake and Southern route into San Ber- nardino county, with an ox team, bringing with him his wife and one child. The first winter was spent in Santa Barbara county, and from there the little family removed to Monterey county, where the father found employment with David Jacks, Esq., of
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Monterey. Mr. McDougall worked for wages for one year and then engaged in farming for himself in the Carmel valley, later removed to Blanco, near Salinas, and in 1868 he located in Salinas, from which point he did a general teaming and freighting busi- ness. This he pursued about ten years. At present Mr. McDougall is engaged in merchandising at Salinas, where he has spent 80 many years, and where he is greatly es- teemed by all who know him for his ster- ling qualities of character and strict honesty in his business dealings.
While discharging his duties as City Mar- shal of Salinas, which position he held ten years, he received seven gunshot wounds, which seriously impaired his health for some time.
Mr. McDougall was married, October, 1835, to Miss Margaret Parlen, also of Scottish birth, and the following children have been born to them: James H., leading business man of Salinas; Daniel T., a carpen- ter by trade, an ex-soldier, resident of Salinas; Margaret, now Mrs. M. M. Huges; Bell, wife of J. A. McCollum, Tax Collector of Monterey county; John and George, of Santa Barbara county.
UAN POMBER, one of the well-known and highly respected citizens of Castro- ville, is a native son of the soil, having been born at Monterey.
His father, Louis Pomber, came to this country as one of the three survivors of a party of 400 trappers, who left Canada for California, under the leadership of Jared Smith. Mr. Pomber, Sr., was of French ex- traction and a brave, aggressive and adven- turous man. He made his way through
southern California via Kern and Tulare counties to San José and engaged for about two years in ranching. He was of a mechani- cal turn of mind, an excellent stonemason and also worked in wood. He was at Mon- terey as early as 1821, and resided there for several years, and took part in the civil, local and military affairs of those days. In 1823 he married Filomena. a daughter of Dolores Pico, and they had thirteen children, of whom ten lived to maturity. Mr. Pomber manufactured carts entirely of wood after the old primitive style of solid wooden wheels, and with them did a freighting busi- ness. He died at Castroville, in 1864, and his wife in the same place, in 1887.
Juan, the subject of this sketch is one of the eldest of the family, and was born at Mon- terey, August 13, 1836. For many years he engaged, with his father, in building in Mon- terey, and erected many of the old Spanish adobe houses in that city. In 1850 they moved out of Monterey to a ranch in the Pájaro valley, where he remained until 1863, when he engaged in business at Castroville.
Mr. Pomber married Miss Marie A. Boronda, a daughter of José Manuel Bo- ronda, at Castroville, in 1868, and ten chil- dren have been added to their family.
Our subject is a highly esteemed citizen of California and is a prominent business man of Castroville.
ILLIAM PALMTAG, a prominent citizen of San Benito, who has been for the past five years Supervisor of the county and Chairman of that body since 1886, is of Teutonic extraction, born in Ba- den, Germany, in 1847. The father of young Palmtag was a farmer by occupation, and the boy spent his early life on his father's
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farm, acquiring meanwhile such education as was afforded by the schools of his native home. He comes of a prolific race, and the members of his immediate family consisted of father, mother, eleven boys and one girl. Six of the brothers had preceded the subject of this sketch to California, and when he had attained his seventeenth year his enterprising and ambitious spirit predominated. Bidding good- by to his native heath, he proceeded to Liverpool, whence he set sail for Calfornia via New York and the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San Francisco in November, 1863. From the metropolis of California he went direct to Nevada county, where for the following three years he was engaged in mining, part of the time as an employe and part of the time hydraulicking on his own account. During the last year of his stay in Nevada county, he was employed as a clerk in a grocery store. Then, after a short so- journ in Watsonville, he located in the Sa- linas valley, where he engaged in farming, and followed that pursuit for one year with such poor success that he serionsly impaired the small capital which by his energy and industry, he had acquired in the mines of Nevada connty. In the fall of that year, 1869, he went to Watsonville, where his brother, one of the six who had preceded him to America, was engaged in the brewery business, and here he remained and was em- ployed in driving a beer wagon for his brother until the spring of 1872. Having by this time, after several strokes of ill for- tnne, again accumulated the necessary means, he came to Hollister and established himself in the wholesale and retail liquor business, which he continued to run in his own name until 1882. His business had prospered and by close attention thereto and shrewdness and sobriety, he had accumulated considera-
ble money and was desirous of visiting the land of his birth: so he took in as a partner in his business, Mr. Charles Bernhardt, and placed him in charge and control thereof, and the following year he made a trip to Ger- many, spending six months in the Father- land, reviewing the scenes of his childhood and paying a pleasant visit to his brothers and other relatives, his mother and father having died several years before. Upon his return to Hollister he purchased the interest of Mr. Bernhardt and soon afterward joined forces with Messrs. Barg and Kleen, who were running a similar business in the town, and since that time the business has been con- ducted under the firm name of Palmtag, Barg & Kleen.
Mr. Palmtag's time is now taken np in attending to his ranch, which consists of 420 acres, about 150 of which are set in vines, while the rest is devoted to general farming. The ranch is on rich bottom land and well suited to the growing of alfalfa, of which up- . ward of 100 tons are raised by Mr. Palmtag yearly and used mainly to feed his own stock. A winery of the most modern style, on which $10,000 were last year spent in re- pairing and renovating, is part of the prop- erty, and in it the product of the vineyard is made into wine of a superior quality and bouquet, which is sold to customers in San Francisco and the adjoining counties. One of the advantages which Mr. Palmtag pos- sesses over the majority of other vineyardists in California is that he is possessed of the necessary means to enable him to keep his wines in storage for a year or two, until it becomes marketable, instead of being obliged, on account of scarcity of funds, to sell it at an almost losing price as soon as it is squeezed from the grape and before it has had time to mature.
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On the incorporation of the Farmers and Merchants' Bank of Hollister, November 3, 1891, Mr. Palmtag was elected its President.
Mr. William Palintag is a stanch Demo- crat, and has, since he took the oath of allegi- ance to Uncle Sam, been a sincere adherent to that great political party. In 1876 he was elected one of the Town Trustees, and was thereafter twice re-elected to that honorable office. His honor and the conscientious handling of the trust which had been placed in him, was duly appreciated by the citizens of this district of San Benito county, as shown by the fact that he was chosen from among the many prominent residents to represent this district in the Board of Super- visors, of which honorable body he was made Chairman in 1886, which position he has maintained and filled with honor to himself and satisfaction to his constituents for the past six years. Mr. Palmtag is univers- ally recognized and respected as a man who, in the discharge of official duties, is incor- ruptible and fully deserving of the trusts which have been reposed in him. In 1880, he was sent to the Convention at Oakland to nominate State delegates to the National Con- vention at Cincinnati, and was likewise chosen as the representative to the Los Angeles Con- vention last year, which nominated delegates to the national Democratic Convention at St. Lonis, and notwithstanding the opposition which he meets from the Prohibition element of Hollister and San Benito county, he has never been defeated for any office for which he has accepted the nomination.
Mr. Palmtag was married, in 1875, to Miss Kate Moore, of Amador county. He lives in a comfortable home in Hollister, which gives every indication of being one of contentment and happiness.
Mr. Palmtag is a shrewd, conservative
man of business. He has worked hard since he has been in Hollister, the disposition to do so being one of the characreristics of his nature. He has acquired the handsome competency, which he now possesses, by hon- orable methods and by close and constant application to his business affairs, and he richly deserves the high estimation in which he is held throughout the country. In addi- tion to his residence in Hollister, he owns the building in which the business of the firm is conducted-fifty-six feet on San Benito and 150 feet on Fifth street-and the ranch previously referred to. On this latter he employs continually from fifteen to twenty- five men.
J. FIELD is a native of Indiana, born June 3, 1848, in Scott county. He spent his boyhood in Kentucky, went South in 1863, where he remained until 1874. He then entered the employment of the Lonisville & Nashville Railroad Company, in 1865, and was for many years associated with railroad work. He came to California in 1874, and for several years was in the em- ploy of the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany.
He was married October 24, 1882, to Miss Cntatina Danglada, a daughter of Don Raphal Danglada (deceased). Don Raphal was a native of Spain and of French descent, and a professor of instrumental music. He came to Monterey in 1849, and in 1853 married Marie Antonia, the third child of Don Estevan Munras (a sketch of whose useful life appears elsewhere in this work). Prot. Danglada was for many years the only professional innsician in Monterey, and as a man was possessed of rare social gifts.
Some of his ancestors were celebrated
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scientists, an uncle being the discoverer of the art of daguerreotyping, which revolution- ized the early practice of portrait-making. Don Raphal died at San Luis Obispo in 1867. His widow,still surviving, is making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Field.
Mr. T. J. Field of late years has devoted himself to the management of the extensive interests of the Munras estate. The family home is the Munras adobe, one of the finest specimens of the spacious early day adobe architecture in the county, and is the birth place of Mrs. Field, her mother and her (Mrs. Field's) children, of whom there are two: a daughter, Antoinette, born December 5, 1885; and a son, Stephen J., born December 5, 1886.
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