History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 118

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206

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WASHBURNE R. ANDRUS .- Was born in Farmington, Hartford County, Connecti- cut, September 23, 1841, where he received his education and learned the carpenter's trade, at which he has always worked, save during seven years, when he served as

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a policeman at Hartford, of which city he was finally elected Captain of Police. In this position he made an excellent record. Coming to California in the year 1873, he at first worked in the San Francisco Manufacturing Company's Works, but subsequently took up his residence in Oakland, where he followed his trade. The rise of the Work- ingmen's Party found him at his bench, prior to which he had been identified with the Republicans, but joining the labor movement he became one of the organizers of the famous Peralta Street Club. Elated by recent successes in electing State Senator Bones to the Legislature, they determined to take part in the election for city officials of Oak- land, and on February 19, 1878, at the nominating convention held in Germania Hall, Mr. Andrus received the nomination for Mayor, being elected to that high office by a majority of two hundred and ten votes, his opponent being William B. Hardy of Oakland. In 1879 Mr. Andrus was re-elected to the office by, strange to say, the same plurality, the citizens' nominee on the occasion being Major D. W. Standeford, one of the proprietors of the Oakland Planing Mill. While Mayor Andrus was in office he used his opportunity judiciously, while his two messages are official docu- ments that bear evidence of deep thought and a practical mind; indeed, so much was he thought of that he was appointed Secretary of the State Board of Railroad Com- missioners upon the organization of that department, and, notwithstanding a change in the Government, has been retained to perform the onerous and arduous functions of that position with the second Board.

F. A. ANTHONY .- Was born in Cayuga County, New York, May 14, 1846, and there resided until November, 1854. In this month Mr. Anthony, his parents, Wm. and C. C. Anthony, two sisters and a brother sailed for California via the Nicaragua route, and arrived in San Francisco in December of the same year. After a short time passed in the Bay City our subject and his parents moved to Santa Cruz and there he was in part educated. After serving his apprenticeship at the tinsmith's trade with his father, his schooling was continued in the Brayton School, Oakland. On his return to the home of his father, he engaged as hardware clerk to the successor of his father in business, which he followed until coming to Alameda County in December, 1869. He now settled in Livermore and commenced business in the old town of Laddsville, and in 1872 erected his present store buildings and opened the hardware emporium he now conducts. Mr. Anthony was the first Treasurer of the town of Livermore, and was the Town Clerk during the terms 1880-81 and 1881- 82. He married in Santa Cruz, February 28, 1872, Miss Mary S. Newell, a native of the city of New York, and has no issue.

LOREN B. ANWAY .- Was born in Seneca County, Ohio, January 14, 1829, where he resided until his coming to California, being previously engaged in farming. On May 1, 1852, he left the Mississippi River in company with W. H. Parker, of Marysville, with a party of seventy-four persons in a passenger train and arrived in Yreka, Siskiyou County, August 7th of the same year. Having engaged in mining for six years he returned to Ohio in 1858, but, in 1861, came back to California and settled in Siskiyou County. Having maintained a residence there until March, 1864, he once more paid a visit to the Eastern States. The same year saw him back on the Pacific Coast, however, bringing with him a band of cattle. In 1865 he located in Alameda County on his present farm, comprising one hundred and sixty acres, where he is now engaged principally in fruit-culture and stock-raising. He has twenty- six acres of as fine an orchard, stocked with various kinds of fruits, as is to be seen anywhere. Mr. Anway has held the office of Roadmaster, while he has for nine years been an active and prominent member of the Eden Grange, of which he has . served two terms as Master. Married in Ohio, June 23, 1859, Miss Fannie J. Horton, and has, Clayton L., Dora, Jay B., Mary, Katie.

FRED. D. ARFF .- Was born in Keil, Holstein, Germany, on the 5th of February, 1822; and resided there with his parents until sixteen years of age, when he had a great desire for the sea. He led a seafaring life for sixteen years, sailing on various freight an 1

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

passengers vessels, and entered mostly all the principal ports on the continent. In 1852, on the 11th of May, he arrived at San Francisco on the clipper ship John Stewart, and landed at long wharf on Commercial Street. At the time he landed he was penniless, but was fortunate enough to get free board and lodging for a couple of days. Soon after his arrival he went into the mining occupation. The first mine he entered was at Woods Creek, between Jamestown and Sonora, where he discovered from eight to ten dollars' worth of gold daily. He remained there six months, when he went back to San Francisco, where he again took up his old occupation for six months on a sailing ship, carrying lumber from Oregon to San Francisco. After leaving the latter ship he met an old mate of the John Stewart, by the name of James Wood, who got him a situation in a store at the corner of Union and Battery Streets. At the end of twenty-three months he embarked in a draying business until 1856, when he came to his present place, comprising two hundred and eighty acres of land at Mount Eden. On the 18th August, 1857, he married a Miss Louise D. Liese, of Hesse-Cassel, Germany. Five children were the result of this union, of which two sons and two daughters survive.

CAPT. GEORGE ATKINSON .- Was born at Mountville, Waldo County, Maine, September 26, 1836, being left an orphan at eleven years of age. On March 4, 1852, being then but sixteen years old, he went to Syracuse, New York, and there found employment in a drygoods store, where he continued five years, on the ex piration of which time he moved to Lyons, Ionia County, Michigan, where he was engaged in a like business for two years. He then proceeded to Fulton, Whitesides County, Illinois, and after a year to Lake City, Wabasha County, Minnesota; he there engaged in the commis- sion business and resided until his coming to California. When the Civil War broke out, Captain Atkinson on April 26, 1861, enlisted in Company I of the First Minne- sota Regiment of Infantry, and leaving Red Wing on the 27th of May proceeded to Washington, where they were assigned to Franklin's brigade, and took part in the first battle of Bull's Run. Subsequently he was attached to Sedgwick's division of Simm's corps of the army of the Potomac, and was present in all the engagements until August 8, 1862, when he mustered out for promotion at Harris Landing, Vir- ginia. He now returned home, and on August 26th of the same year took command of Company G, Eighth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and with it proceeded to Fort Abercrombie, Dakota, where he was quartered for eighteen months under General Sibley in the first instance and afterwards under General Sully, their duty being the subjection of refractory Indians. In the summer of 1864 Captain Atkinson was detailed with two hundred men to procced to the relief of certain emigrants who were held in check by Indians about two hundred miles west from Fort Rice, which duty being successfully carried out, they marched back to Sioux City, Iowa, thence to Du- buque, and then followed his regiment, which he joined at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, and was appointed Brigade Inspector of the Third Brigade, First Division of the Twenty-third Army Corps, with which he remained until the close of the war, having been engaged in the great fights at Nashville, Franklin, and Murfreesborough. After the battle at Nashville the corps to which Captain Atkinson was attached followed Hood to the Tennessee River, where the Captain sustained the well-earned reputa- tion of Minnesota troops for bravery on the field of battle, whence they were trans- ported to Washington, where they arrived in February, 1865. Here they embarked in transports for Fort Fisher and thence to Newburn, North Carolina, then following up the railroad to Kingston, and onward to Goldsboro' there joining Sherman's army, with which they proceeded to Raleigh, North Carolina, and finally halted until August, 1865, at Charlotte, in that State. On the 26th of the same month his regi- ment was mustered out of the service and returned home, he never having received a scratch, although being in the thickest of the fray in many a hot engagement. Upon his return to Minnesota, as we have already said, Captain Atkinson engaged in the commission business in Lake City, where he resided until 1872, when he embarked in a

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grocery store in St. Paul, Minnesota, and there remained until November 1874, when, with his wife and family, he came to California and made his home in San Francisco. His first employment there was for one year in the Assessor's office, after which he entered upon his present position in the General Freight office of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. In 1876 he transferred his residence to East Oakland, and for the last four years has been secretary of the Cosmopolitan Mutual Building and Loan Association. Married in Lake City, June 7, 1866, Miss Maria Kellogg, a native of Pennsylvania, and has five children, viz .: Frank, Sue, Blanche, Nellie, Hardy.

NATHANIEL L. BABB .- Was born in Saccarappa, Cumberland County, Maine, January 14, 1837, where he received his education and resided with his father, who owned and carried on an iron and brass foundry. Was a molder and foundryman until starting for the Pacific Coast. On June 16, 1852, being then fifteen years of age, our subject sailed for California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and arrived in San Francisco per steamer Daniel Webster, on the 9th August of the same year, coming direct to J. B. Sweetser's farm, at what is now Centreville, Alameda County, where he continued until the fall of 1857, when he revisited his home in Maine. During his absence his parents had removed to Portland, where he spent the winter of 1857-58. In the following spring he returned to California and located on his present place, having previously purchased a hundred acres of land situated three miles west from Washington Corners, has there made many extensive improvements and resided ever since, with the exception of a trip, starting in April, 1863, and returning in October, the same year, to Washington Territory by the way of Carson, Humboldt, Snake, Burnt, and Powder Rivers, back across the Blue and Cascade Mountains to Eugene City, Oregon, thence back by stage road through California home. He went on horse- back, as a great part of the way there was not even a trail. He also made a visit to Arizona by Tulare Lake, Fort Tejon, Mohave River to Fort Mohave thence returning by San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and then the coast road home. Went with light spring wagon. His companions returned from Los Angeles by steamer, but he returned on horseback with as many of their animals as were able to stand the trip. They started in the fall of 1863, returning in January, 1864: Mr. Babb occupies himself with general farming and running a threshing machine in the proper season. Beyond being one of the organizers of the Washington Township Pioneer Association and one of its charter members, Mr. Babb has held no office. Our subject also owns one hundred and sixty acres of land on the Patterson Pass road seven miles from Livermore, which he leases.

CAPTAIN THOMAS W. BADGER .- The subject of this sketch, one of Oakland's best- known citizens, was born in Northampton County, Virginia, July 28, 1827, and is the son of T. W. and Margaret (Chearn) Badger. Having resided with his parents until he was fifteen years of age, he then commenced a seafaring life, which lasted until 1849. In that year, so dear to every pioneer, our subject came to California and entered upon the navigation of those streams which before that time had known no more violent commotion than the ripple left by the native canoe, or the wake behind the whale-boat of the more advanced settlers. Settling in San Francisco, Captain Badger engaged in the shipping business, having several vessels employed not only navigating the coast and inner waters of California, but also in the Sandwich Island, Chinese, Australian, Mexican, and Japan trades. In the month of September, 1857, he took passage, with his wife, in the ill-fated steamer Central America from Aspinwall to New York, during which, so bad was the weather experienced, she shipped green seas from figure-head to stern, putting out the engine-room fires and leaving the vessel a helpless wreck, to the mercy of the waves. The master and offi- cers were lost overboard, therefore Captain Badger took command of the craft, which, by his great experience, he kept afloat until relief was obtained from a Norwegian bark, who cared for the survivors. To his skill and management are due the saving of the remainder of the lives, two hundred of whom were duly taken from the wreck

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

four hours before she sank. On his landing in New York, the intrepid conduct of Captain Badger was rewarded by a committee of its citizens, with the presentation of a handsome silver trumpet, bearing the following well-deserved tribute: "Presented to Captain Thos. W. Badger, by the Central America Fund Committee, in token of their high appreciation of his conduct on board the steamer Central America, at the time of the loss of that ill-fated vessel. PETITIA PERIT, President; LLOYD 'ASPINWALL, Secretary. New York, May 17, 1857." Remaining at the East until 1861, in that year he returned to California, and coming to Alameda County purchased the beauti- ful demesne which he has since transformed into one of the most beautiful public parks in the State. Early in 1872 he commenced building the large pavilion and pre- paring the ground ere thowing it open to the public. His improvements cost him between forty and fifty thousand dollars, but this immense outlay has been rewarded by perennial success. During the administration of Governer Haight be was called upon to discharge the functions of Pilot Commissioner for the port of San Francisco, and also under Governor William Irwin's administration he held the same office. At a still earlier date he was Marine Surveyor for one of the principal insurance companies in that city. He married, December 29, 1856, Mrs. Jennie A., widow of Captain Chas. A. Falkingburg, by whom he has no issue.

J. EDWARD BAKER .- Was born in Wyoming County, New York, June 24, 1849, and is the son of James and Nancy (Guffin) Baker. Receiving his education at the University of Rochester, he subsequently became a telegraph operator in the city of Buffalo, an occupation he continued until coming to California in the year 1871. After being engaged for a short time in the telegraph service in San Francisco, he transferred the field of his operations to Santa Clara County, and accepted a position in the San José Savings Bank, where he remained until 1878, when he was dispatched by Mr. Hinds to assist in the organization of the First National Bank at Alameda, in which he has since held the position of Cashier. He married April 17, 1876, Miss Carrie Packard, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and has two children, viz., Alice and Carleton.

HUGH BANKHEAD .- Was born in Cumberland, Alleghany County, Maryland, April 22, 1846, and there resided until two years of age, when he was brought to Missouri, then to California, by his parents, arriving here at seven years of age. First settling in Plumas County, they abode there four years, when they moved to Honey Lake Valley, Lassen County, where they dwelt for a further period of six years. Here our subject worked on his father's farm until 1863, when he transferred his resi- dence to Oakland, and attended the College of California for three years. In 1866 he engaged in the auction and furniture business, which he still continues in Oakland, at Nos. 911 and 913 Washington Street. Married in 1872 Miss Eva J. Weider, and has two sons, viz .: Malcolm Houston and David Boyd.

ANTONIO BARDELLINI .- Was born in Lerci, Italy, and there spent his early life, having, when quite young, adopted the sea as a calling, and as such visited most parts of the known world. The year 1850 found him in California, and in San Francisco engaged in the fishing business for several years. After passing a good many more years in the mines, he went to Mexico, and embarked in the dry- goods business, and on his return once more tempted fortune in the gold-yielding cañons of the Sierras. He once more, after this period, commenced fishing for the San José market, and in 1858 opened a general merchandise store at Mission San José, where he resided six years, when he came to Alisal, now Pleasanton, and opened the first hotel in that place, it being a portion of the present Rose Hotel, and then known as the Pleasanton Hotel. In the year 1867 he came to Laddsville, built a hotel there and conducted it for four years, when he purchased the ranch now occu- pied by Mr. Robinson, and set out the first vineyard in that locality. On the destruction of the hotel by fire in 1872, he continued farming until 1874, when he disposed of his farm and moved on to his present property, which had been pur-

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chased by him'some time previously, consisting of half a block on the corner of First and L Streets, in the town of Livermore, to which many extensive improvements have since been made, all of which have developed into the Washington Hotel, one of the leading hostelries in the prosperous town of Livermore. Married in San Francisco October 20, 1862, Maria Lometti, a native of Italy, and has four children, viz .: Joseph B., Corinne J., Furrello J., Emil A.

HENRY S. BARLOW (deceased) .- Was born in East Dougall County, Pennsyl- vania, July 19, 1820. Having served his apprenticeship to the miller's trade, in the year 1847 he proceeded to Iowa, and there followed his calling until starting for Cali- fornia in 1852. On arrival he at once proceeded to the mining districts, and after remaining there until 1854, in that year came to the Encinal of Alameda and embarked in agricultural pursuits. He subsequently tried his hand at teaming for a short time. Mr. Barlow had held the office of Constable for Alameda, as well as the position of School Trustee, and in 1863 commenced the erection of the Loyal Oak Hotel, where he died January. 29, 1878. Married February 9, 1848, Miss Susan Keiser, a native of Bloomfield, Perry County, Pennsylvania, by which union there are four surviving children, viz .: Elizabeth C., Albert, David K., Mary J.

W. P. BARTLETT .- The subject of this sketch, for six years a resident of Liver- more, was born in New Portland, Maine, in 1855, and is consequently twenty-seven years of age. He completed his schooling at fifteen, learned the printing business, and worked for several years as a journeyman in Boston, Philadelphia, and San Fran- cisco, before becoming of age. In January, 1877, he resigned a lucrative situation in the last city, to engage in the newspaper business in this county, starting, with a very limited capital, the Livermore Herald, now a well-established and influential journal. Two years ago he added the real estate business to his newspaper work, in which his success has been without precedent in that section of the county. By this means, and through the columns of his paper, he has succeeded in bringing many new settlers to Livermore Valley. He was one of the first to make known abroad its resources, having written and published in 1878, a pamphlet of forty pages descrip- tive of its advantages, which obtained a large and wide circulation. He is an active member of the Pacific Coast Press Association, and aside from his regular literary work and business, an occasional contributor to the San Francisco press. Series of articles from his pen, on the scenery of the high sierras, published in the Chron- icle in June last, have been copied by numerous of the larger Eastern journals and in Europe, besides being quoted as authority by Omman's new guide-book to this State. He possesses a decided fondness for mountain scenery, and makes fre- quent trips through the Coast Range and Sierras, each of which adds to a fund of information, for use in subsequent literary work. He is, moreover, an active, enegetic business man, and an earnest worker for the best interests of every section of Livermore Valley.

RICHARD BARRON .- The subject of this sketch, whose portrait will be found in this work, is the son of Edmund and Ellen (Helin) Barron, and was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, June 22, 1824. He accompanied his parents in 1834 on their emigrating to the United States, and with them settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where our subject resided until coming to the Pacific Coast in search of health. Starting from St. Joseph, Missouri, on May 1, 1850, with wagon and horses, he made, Hangtown, now called Placerville, in ninety days, where, selling his animals, he purchased a min- ing outfit and tried his luck in Hangtown Cañon. Two or three days of gold-seeking were enough for him. He at once proceeded to San Francisco and commenced dray- ing, which following, at the end of five years he abandoned and betook himself to Alameda County in 1855, where he located and began farming on his present estate, comprising seventy-five acres of arable land and fifteen hundred ot marsh-land. Is also in the business of shipping of freight and storage of grain and hay, and manufac- turing of salt, etc. Married August 5, 1852, Miss Mary Foley, a native of Ireland,

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

and has five surviving children, viz .: Ellen, now Mrs. J. Scribner; Katie, now Mrs. T. Stratton; Emma, now Mrs. H. C. Martin; Richard, and James.

WILLIAM BARRY .-- Was born in Rochfort Bridge, Westmeath, Ireland, October 2, 1831, and there resided until fourteen years of age. Afterwards he served two years in the office of a solicitor in Dublin, but getting tired of the musty tomes and crisp parchments of this "limb of the law," he shipped on board the Forest Monarch, bound on a voyage from Liverpool to New York, subsequently proceeding to St. John's, New Brunswick, whence he sailed for Greenock, Scotland; but on the passage suffered shipwreck on the Arran Isles, on the northwest coast of Ireland. The crew landed on the island of Inniskerragh, and stayed by the hulk for nearly a month. They soon separating, our subject found his way home after a weary walk of a hundred and eighty miles, and an absence of six months. Mr. Barry followed "a life on the ocean wave" for several years, during his cruises visiting nearly all parts of the world. In the year 1851 we find him in Australia, reaching Port Phillip in the first year after the gold discovery there, whence he sailed for South America, etc. On May 1, 1852, our subject arrived in the harbor of San Francisco with a cargo of coal from Valpa- raiso, but soon after left his ship and found employment with the Pacific Mail Steam- ship Company for one month. Mr. Barry next was for a short time engaged in Contra Costa County, working for William Castro. He then went to San Francisco; and finally came to Alameda County July 1, 1852, and obtained work from E. L. Beard and Millard Brothers, until 1854. In the summer of 1855 he started in the manufacture of grain-sacks in Centreville, in partnership with Richard Wilson, and in the fall of that year purchased the lot whereon now stands the store of Saltz & Co., on which a building was erected, and our subject opened a store of general merchan- dise. This business he conducted until 1857, when he sold out and embarked in sheep-raising, an occupation he abandoned in the fall of 1861, when, meeting with some serious reverses, he left the county for the first time since his arrival in it. Pro- ceeding to Monterey County, he there became superintendent of the extensive ranch of Colonel Hollister, where he remained until the summer of 1863, at which time he went into the employ of Searle & Wynn, when he was prostrated from sickness. On his recovery, Mr. Barry returned to San Francisco, and in April, 1864, took charge of the ranch of J. B. Wynn, near Hollister, in whose employ he continued till the fall of 1866. He now engaged in the book business until 1869, in which year he returned to Alameda County, purchased his present place of fifteen acres, situated a mile and a half east of Centreville, and where he cultivates fruits and herbs.

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History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 118

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood Number of Pages: 1206

Author: Munro-Fraser, J. P
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : M.W. Wood
Number of Pages: 1206