USA > California > A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California > Part 48
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Mr. Keleher has been married twice, the first time to Julia Coughlin, by whom he had one son, Ernest, now deceased. Mrs. Keleher died, and her husband married in 1880 Miss Rose Kern, of San José. They have one daughter, Rose. This family reside in a very pleasant home of twenty-eight acres of well improved land adjoining the city of Salinas, where they dispense hospitality to their many friends.
BENEZER F. HARRIS, a California pioneer, came to the State as early as 1850. He is a native of Rowan county, North Carolina, and was born May 10, 1833. His father, Jesse Harris, was a successful cot- ton planter and tobacco grower, who left North Carolina and removed to Missouri, lo- cating in Nodaway county.
Our subject lived with his parents until about seventeen years of age, when he came to the Golden State and spent six years in the mines of El Dorado county. He was a successful miner, but sold his interests in 1856, and went to San Francisco. From there he went to the Salinas valley, where he farmed for two years, and in 1858 he again went to the mines and spent a year there, but returned to Salinas valley the fol- lowing year.
In 1860 he married Lovina, a daughter of the late George Groves, a respected pioneer of Salinas. Mrs. Harris died, July 16, 1886, aged fifty-two years, leaving four sons and
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one daughter, namely: Thomas, a farmer of Salinas; George, of San Lucas; Martin and Edgar of Salinas; Maria is the wife of Sal- vino Boronda, a farmer of Salinas.
Mr. Harris pursned farming for twenty- two years at Salinas, and finally retired from active life. A man of industry, he found no satisfaction in idleness, so purchased an in- terest in the Fashion livery stables of Mr. S. Leon, and now devotes a share of his time to that business. No citizen is better known for his probity and business integrity than the subject of this sketch. Of a practical turn of mind and great energy, he has been fairly successful in his business undertakings.
OHN CONLAN is one of a class of sturdy men who have subdued the soil of the Salinas valley, and made it yield abundant crops of golden grain. He came to Monterey county and located near Salinas in 1871, where he has since resided, engaged in agricultural pursuits. He is now cultivat- ing about 700 acres of land.
Mr. Conlan is a native of Ireland, born March 22, 1845. He was reared a farmer, and came to America by way of Australia in 1863. He was married in Salinas to Miss Mary McGeary, April 10, 1883, and their union has been blessed by the birth of four children, namely: Mary, Agnes, Maggie and John, Jr.
Mr. Conlan is an enterprising man, a snc- cessful farmer and a respected citizen.
OBERT PORTER is one of the most enterprising and thrifty farmers of the Salinas valley. He is a native of Canada, and was born at Quebec, January 4,
1853, son of Thomas Porter, a blacksmith by trade and occupation.
Our subject acquired a good business edu- cation in his native city, and came to Cali- fornia in 1873, and the following year to Sa- linas. By industry and frngality he acquired a fine farm in the Salinas valley, near Blanco.
Mr. Porter married, in 1880, Angust 9, Miss Margaret Bardin, one of Monterey's most accomplished young ladies and a daugh- ter of the late Jaines Bardin, a well known pioneer of Monterey. (See sketch of James Bardin, in this book.) Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Porter, James and Eva. The Porter home is one of the most com- plete in all its arrangements and surround- ings of any in the rural districts of the county, and is an ornament to the Salinas valley. Mr. and Mrs. Porter are quiet and nnobtrusive people, socially, genial and popu- lar.
P. SARGENT, a successful resident of Salinas, is the eldest of four chil- dren of Hon. B. V. Sargent.
His father has been a resident of the town of Monterey since June, 1858, and is a prom- inent citizen by virtue of his long residence here, but more prominent because of his connection with the industries and politics of the county, having served his fellow-citizens in various official capacities, among others very acceptably and creditably filling the of- fice of State Senator in the Legislature of 1887. He was born in Grafton, New Hamp- shire, in 1828, and spent his early days in Boston. July 1, 1849, he arrived in San Francisco and immediately went to the mines on Mokelnmne river, and in September of the same year went to San José, where he kept hotel until the opening of the first State
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Legislature, when he went to the Sandwich Islands, where he remained until the spring of 1850. Returning to California he met his three brothers, J. P., R. C. and I. L. Sar- gent, who had come out overland from Chi- cago the previous year. In the fall of 1850 the four brothers settled in San Joaquin county, where the town of Woodbridge now stands, and went into the stock business as Sargent Brothers. The firm is one of the most widely known in the State, owning sev- eral large properties in several counties. In San Joaquin county they have a grain and stock ranch of 30,000 acres, under the charge Ross and Dr. Jacob Sargent. Iu Santa Clara county they have 12,000 acres under the management of J. P. Sargent, and this is one of the best properties in the State, and is used for diversified farming and stock-raising. Some of the fastest and best-blooded horses in the State are raised here. In Monterey county they have two ranches under the su- pervision of B. V. Sargent. At Bradley, in the southern part of the county, is La Pestilencia, of 12,000 acres. The name is de- rived from the stenches of sulphur springs on the place, the country thereabouts abound- ing in mineral springs. The soil of this re- gion is very fertile and adapted to grain and fruit, although stock-raising has been the principal industry heretofore. The ranch consists principally of low rolling hills and ridges, which in the springtime are carpeted with alfileria and wild grasses, bunch grass being conspicuous. About six miles from Monterey they own a large ranch of 23,000 acres,-ElPotreroSan Carlos San Francisquito. This last named ranch furnishes grazing for 4,000 head of cattle and is watered by nu- merous streams. It is considered one of the finest stock ranches in the State.
As before noticed Mr. Sargent has served
in various official capacities. He has been Supervisor of Monterey county several times and was elected joint Senator of Monterey and San Benito counties in 1886. He was married in 1856 at Mokelumne Hill. His wife is a most estimable lady, well-known in Monterey for her goodness of heart and many acts of charity They have four chil- dren, three sons and a daughter. Two of the sons, J. P., subject, and R. C. Sargent have the immediate supervision of the Monterey ranches. The other son, B. V. Sargent, Jr., is ex: District Attorney of Monterey county. The daughter is the wife of Mr. Gragg, a business man of Bradley, Monterey county.
The Hon. Mr. Sargent is unostentatious in his manner, a man of practical ideas and rare business sagacity. He is genial and so- ciable, possessing a fund of anecdote, and is a very agreeable companion.
J. P. Sargent, subject of this sketch, is a resident of Salinas and was married, October 10, 1883, to Miss Catherine Eckhart, dangh- ter of Charles Eckhart, of Gilroy. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent have two bright little sons, Bradley E. and Charles. Mr. Sargent is the able manager of a portion of his father's es- tate and is one of the leading young business men of the city of Salinas.
ENOR JOSE SILVANO BORONDA is the son of José Eusebio Boronda and was born in the old adobe home De- cember 7, 1857, and he was married Octo- ber 22, 1885, to Miss Marie Ray Harris the adopted daughter of Mr. Ebenezer Harris, who is a well-known and esteemed pioneer of Salinas. The results of this union have been two children: Leslie D. and Louis R .; although the later has been removed by death.
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Señor Boronda is a representative of an old and historic name in his section of the State, and as the old records and names are so rapidly disappearing, it is well to place in safety the deeds and names of those who made our early history. (For a more extended notice of the family see sketch of the brother of our subject.)
ATRICK CASEY, of Castroville, is a native of the Emerald Isle, being born in county Cork, from which he came direct to California, when he pulled up stakes and left the land of his birth to seek, under the stars and stripes, the freedom denied in his native land, making the trip in 1867. He enaged in farming for a time and then embarked in the liquor business at Castro- ville, where he still lives and enjoys the es- teem of a wide circle of friends. He has a brother, Jerry, in southern Monterey county; a sister Julia, now Mrs. John Hoyes, of Castroville; and another sister, Mary, is mar- ried. This gentleman is a fair example of what a man can make of himself if he only has enough push and energy about him.
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H. LONG is well known throughout Monterey county as one of the leading citizens of Castroville, a successful dealer in real estate and the manager of the extensive interests of the Cooper ranch.
Mr. Long is a native of Lorain county, Ohio, born November 7, 1849, a son of Joseph A. Long, a farmer and dairyman by occupation, who was a pioneer of Lorain county and a native of New Hampshire. Our subject's mother was Angusta Will- iams before marriage, and was born in
Canada. F. H. Long received his education in the public schools of his district and learned the occupation of a dairyman.
In 1877 Mr. Long came to California and located in Marion county, where he owned and operated a dairy near Tomales. In 1882 he removed to Monterey county and continned in the same line of business some time when he engaged in the butchering business for two years. At the end of that time he retired and formed a partnership with Mau- uel Merritt, in the real-estate business. In addition to his other interests Mr. Long owns valuable property near Castroville.
Our subject was married, February 20, 1871, to Miss Julia Damon, a daughter of Ira Damon, Esq., of Medina, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Long have five children, namely: Leona, Lillian, Roscoe, Edwin and James A.
HARLES K. TUTTLE, the druggist of the little town of Pacific Grove, was born in Benicia, California, December * 29, 1859. He was educated in the high schools of San Francisco, and graduated at the early age of sixteen. After graduating he started immediately to learn the drug business under Coffin & Maylew, with whom he remained five years, filling the position of head clerk, when he severed his connection with them to open and manage a drug store for J. C. Scott, of Salinas. He was well and favorably known in Salinas for three years, after which he conducted a dispensary for James Murphy, in San Francisco. His health failing, he decided to locate in Pacific Grove and open a small drug store, only intending to run it a few months, until health was re- stored, but the climate proved so beneficial that he has since made this town his home,
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and now he possesses one of the neatest pharmacies in the entire county. It has become a very profitable business and his stock is very complete in all drugs, station- ery and other articles usually found in a drug store. For fifteen years Mr. Tuttle has made Pacific Grove his home and is much attached to the place.
Mr. Tuttle is a son of Captain Joseph Tut- tle, a Mexican soldier and pioneer of Califor- nia, having come to the State in 1849 as an attache of the Government. He served as Quartermaster agent at Benicia stores, Cali- fornia. In 1860 he organized a company of United States troops and was chosen Captain of Company I, Fifth Regiment of California Volunteers, and as such spent two years in Arizona. Later he was appointed Chief Quartermaster of Arizona, stationed at Fort Whipple. He was mustered out of service at the close of the war. Captain Tuttle mar- ried Miss Jane Kirkhaw, an estimable lady of English parentage, and the result of this union is two sons and two daughters, of whom our subject is the second youngest.
Mr. Tuttle, our subject, was married, July 25, 1888, to Miss Emily Yonman, a daughter of Thaddeus Youman and a niece of Dr. O. S. Tremuer, of Pacific Grove. Mr. and Mrs. Tuttle have one son, Floyd L., and a daughter, Gladys.
In spite of the many business cares that demand his attention, Mr. Tuttle finds plenty of time to use his camera, and has one of the finest collections of photographs of the bean- tiful scenery around Pacific Grove, extant, the sale of which forms an important feature of his business. Mr. Tuttle is a member of the City Board of Trustees, a position which he is eminently qualified to fill. He is possessed of the social elements necessary to success in that line and lie is also very
popular in his business. Mr. Tuttle has musical talent in marked degree, which he has developed as far as his time has per- mitted, and as an organist he is an artist.
HOMAS WILLIAMS, deceased .-- The San Juan valley lost an honored citizen in the person of Mr. Williams, one of the influential farmers of that section of country, when his death occurred.
Mr. Williams was a native of England, having been born in Worcestershire, October 30, 1839. By occupation he was a farmer, and was noted for his frugal and industrious habits. At the time of his death he left a comfortable estate and honorable name behind him for his posterity.
The estimable wife of Mr. Williams was the widow of James Vehom, Esq., and the daughter of James Lacy, a native of Dublin, Ireland, who was at one time a well-to-do crockery merchant of Melbourne, Australia, where Mrs. Williams was born. Mr. Lacy came to California, located in San Francisco, and in 1857 became one of the early settlers of the beautiful town of Mayfield, in Santa Clara county, where he engaged in farming. The maiden name of the mother of Mrs. Williams was Mary Ann King, of Irish parentage.
The marriage of Mr. Williams and Mrs. Kate Vehom occurred April 22, 1870, and the following children were born to them: Lillian F .; Clara E., now Mrs. Walter Led- ridge, of San Juan valley; Iva L., Gertrude, Maybell, Pauline, Ethel, George and Thomas. By her former marriage Mrs. Williams had two children, namely: a son, who died in 1887, and a daughter, now Mrs. G. L. Dom- berger, of Mayfield. Mrs. Williams is a lady
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of domestic culture and executive ability. by her many graces of mind and body she has won the esteem of all who know her.
EWIS S. WOOD, of Hollister, is well known as an energetic business man and farmer. He has resided in Cali- fornia since 1870, and at Hollister since 1872.
A native of Clay county, Missouri, Mr. Wood was born near Smithville, September 24, 1850. His parents, Isaac and Louisa (Duncan) Wood, were natives of Kentucky, and the latter was of Scotch descent. The father was a farmer by occupation.
Lewis S. Wood was about nineteen years of age when he landed in California. He spent two years in Oregon, and, as a State volunteer, took part in the Modoc war. Upon coming to California, he located at Hollister, where he dealt in lumber, hay, wood, etc., and also did some real-estate business for about twelve years. Then he settled on a farm about four miles and a half sonth of Hollis- ter, where he has since resided.
Mr. Wood has been twice married. At Tres Pinos, in 1877, he wedded Miss Mattie S. Newkirk, a native of Utah. She died at Hollister, May 16, 1887, leaving four children, Ellen E., Albert, Lewis Lee, and Mattie E. September 10, 1889, he was joined in marriage to Rose A. Ford, at Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mrs. Wood is a native of Liberty, Missouri, and, previons to her marriage, was a popular and successful teacher at that place.
RANK MAXFIELD .- The time is not far distant when the early time gold hunters of California will all be num- bered with the " great majority," and any
record, however brief, will be perused with interest by the future student of history. The discovery of gold in California attracted a class of men which, taken collectively or individually, were unique. Of their successes or failures, it is not the aim or scope of this work to treat, inasmuch as the miner's future is never, or seldom, determined by any established code of business regulations or principles, but rather upon their good luck in striking a lead and their ability to make a lucky guess as to its extent and value after it has been located.
Frank Maxfield, of Monterey, is one of the pioneer miners of California. He came to the gold fields of the State in 1852. He is a native of Ohio, born in Tnscarawas county, in the northern part of the State, July 15, 1831. There he received the rudiments of his education, and learned the potter's trade, which he pursued at that place till 1851. He then went to Indiana and followed the same business about one year.
Reports of the rich gold discoveries in California so fired his ambitious nature that he joined an uncle, Frank Mauk, Esq., who had visited the gold diggings in 1849, and proceeded with him on a journey overland to the Pacific coast. After remaining one winter in Iowa, they resumed their journey, and arrived at Salt Lake in the month of July. Here they witnessed the laying of the corner-stone of the great Mormon temple, July 17, 1852. Owing to an old school-day acquaintance with Silas, a cousin of the late Mormon priest, John Smith, they were re- ceived at Salt Lake kindly, many privileges and courtesies being extended to them, which was in striking contrast to the treatment re- ceived by tlie average overland emigrant. Having sent word in advance that the little party would arrive in the city at a stated time,
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, they were met with carriages, their entire outfit taken in charge, cattle fed, oxen shod, wagons replenished with provisions, etc .; and when they left the city they were given passes over the numerous bridges and ferries which they would encounter on their west- ward journey. Mr. Maxfield met other acquaintances there who, while embracing and fully believing in the Mormon doctrine, did not believe in or practice polygamy.
They resumed and accomplished their journey without particular incident, reaching Diamond Spring, in El Dorado county, December 5, 1852. The uncle, Frank Mauk, Esq., located at San José, where he farmed for several years. He then engaged in the erection of quartz mills in Amador county and adjoining mining districts. He was an active and aggressive business man, pursuing this business up to the time of his death, which occurred in Arizona in 1889, at an ad- vanced age, he having been born in 1809. Mrs. William Tibbetts, of Monterey, is a daughter of his.
Mr. Maxfield mined in El Dorado, Placer and adjoining counties up to abont 1861, since which time he has lived in Sonoma and Monterey counties, in the last named since 1874. There are few pioneers who are not familiar with his face and voice.
MOS M. HARDIN .- There are few farmers of Hollister, who are better known for their energy, enterprise and thrift than Mr. Hardin. He is a native of Knox county, Tennessee, having been born in Hardin Valley, a lovely stretch of valley land in the southern portion of Knox county. His father, John G. Hardin, was a farmer and stock-raiser, who was born in the same valley,
and who was a son of Amos Hardin, a pio- neer of Knox county, who located land com- prising the valley named for him. Here he reared his family of seven sons and two daughters, our subject's father being the third born. He, like his other brothers, grew up to farm life and located on and about the old farm. John G. Hardin married Sarah Galla- her, who was born in Knox county. He was an enterprising man, who owned and cul- tivated 1,800 acres of land and transacted business on an extensive scale.
Our subject was the fourth in a family of seven children, having been born January 11, 1849. He fonght during the late war in the Confederate army, as Captain of Company B, Third Tennessee Infantry, and served four years. He was captured by the Union forces, at Hatcher's, in front of Petersburg, just prior to Lee's surrender.
After peace was declared he returned home and resumed his business. In 1866 he married Mary S. Owen, a daughter of Rev. Richard Owen, a Baptist clergyman of Clinton, Ten- nessee. Mrs. Hardin was born in Tennessee, and lias borne her husband nine children, namely: James L., Katie S., Mattie G., Richard O., Pearl L., Minnie, Robert M., Wennel and Harry Houston.
In 1870 Mr. Hardin came to California and located at Hollister, his present home, where lie owns a fertile farm of eighty-six acres as a homestead, and also owns 640 acres of land in Fresno county. He is a Knight Templar and an active member of the A. O. U. W.
A. STEINBECK, a well-known citizen of Hollister, is a native of Germany, having been born there November 27, 1832. He learned the cabinet-maker's
Juan Malarin
FOUNDER OF STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM, MONTEREY AND PACIFIC GROVE
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trade in his native country, and at the age of seventeen he, with an older brother and sister, emigrated to Palestine, and he remained for eight years in the old city of Jerusalem, where he worked at his trade and acted as an interpreter of the English, German and Ara- bic languages.
In this far-off land, June 1, 1856, our sub- ject was married to Almira, a daughter of Walter A. Dickson, at that time an independ- ent missionary. In 1858 Mr. and Mrs. Steinbeck went to Massachusetts, which was the native place of the latter, she having been born in that State, in the town of Grafton. Soon after their arrival they went to Florida and located at St. Augustine. When the late war broke out our subject was pressed into service, and served in the Confederate army one year. He was then taken prisoner, but paroled and joined his young wife and two children, who had made her way to her Nortlı- ern home. He remained in Massachusetts for ten years, engaged at his trade in a piano factory, and then came, in November, 1872, to California and located in Hollister, where he has since lived. Mr. and Mrs. Steinbeck have had five sons, namely: Charles, agent for the Southern Pacific Company, at Tem- pleton. This son was born in Joppa, Pales- tine, April 27, 1857. The next child, Her- bert E., is an employee of the Central Milling Company, of Hollister, and he was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, August 6, 1859. Ernest, the third, represents the interests of the Central Milling Company at King City, and was born in Massachusetts, in 1862. Wilhelm is superintendent of the Victor Mills of Hollister, and was born in Massa- chusetts, February 4, 1865. Harry, the youngest, is at Santa Margarita, California, and was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, October 5, 1857.
Our subject is regarded as a man of sound principles and good business judgment, a character that he has transmitted to his sons. He lives in one of the finest villas in the city of Hollister.
UAN MALARIN was born in Peru, Sonth America, November 1, 1825. He came to California in 1849, arriving at San Francisco July 2 as supercargo on a sailing vessel. After having disposed of his cargo he went to the mines in Tuolumne county, where he mined with average success one year. After that he turned his attention to agricultural pur- suits, and was engaged in farming in the Napa valley for about four years. Then for several years he superintended the San Luis Gonzaga rancho of 50,000 acres, sitnated in Santa Clara and Merced counties, and became identified with the business interests of San José, as a director in the Commercial Bank and a stockholder in the Electric Light Company. He is the builder and proprietor of the " Monterey and Pacific Grove Street Railway," which enterprise he inaugurated and pushed to completion in 1890 and '91. Failing to enlist the aid which the enterprise deserved from other parties, Mr. Malarin pushed the road through alone, against what seemed to be insurmountable obstacles. He ran the first car to the Junipero Serra monu- ment April 30, 1891, the day that President Harrison paid a visit to the old capital, and to Pacific Grove the following August. The road is over four miles in length, laid with twenty-pound steel rails and sawed ties, and equipped with first-class cars, both open and closed, affording to the public an excellent service. The grade is light, and the track so
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constructed as to be readily changed into an electric road. Mr. Malarin has invested about $50,000 in this enterprise, and is doing a great public service in advancing the material growth of towns on his lines. It is safe to say that few men would have under- taken such an enterprise single-handed, pushed it to completion, and built up for the same a prosperous business.
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