History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 119

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

USA > California > Alameda County > History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions > Part 119

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JOHN BARTON .- This gentleman, whose portrait appears in this work, is the son of Elijah and Hannah (Ward) Barton, and was born in Leicester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, September 13, 1813. In 1818 he removed, with his parents, to Kent, Litchfield County, Connecticut. Having received his education in the common schools of that place, at the age of nineteen years he obtained a clerkship in a mer- cantile establishment there, and remained until the year 1838. Being then twenty- five years of age, he removed to Buffalo, New York, and in 1839 embarked in business, which he continued six years. For the succeeding two years he resided in Cincinnatus, Cortland County, New York, following the like avocation, and then emi- grating to Richmond County, Ohio, there connected himself with the firm of P. B. Cornwall, and remained until he determined to try his fortune in the Land of Gold. On March 15, 1850, taking passage per steamer Cherokee, Mr. Barton sailed for Chagres, thence proceeding to Panama, he there boarded the Panama, and anchored in San Francisco Harbor April 21, 1850. Like nearly all pioneers of that date, our sub- ject went to the gold-bearing regions. For the first two months he wielded the pick and rocker at Georgetown, El Dorado County; but this he soon abandoned, and returning to Sacramento in the month of October, embarked in the auction and com- mission business, on First Street, between J and K Streets, under the style and firm of Barton & Boolden, subsequently known as Barton & Grimm. In the year 1855

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our subject entered into the salt trade under the firm name of Barton Brothers, and in 1858 commenced the importation of that commodity from Carmin Island, opposite the town of Loreto, in the Gulf of California. On March 25, 1868, the Union Pacific Salt Company was organized, and the most extensive salt-making concern on the Pacific Coast established. After incorporation, the company purchased Rock Island, containing about one thousand acres and situated in Washington Township, at the debouchure of Alameda and Eden Creeks. In 1870 work was commenced, and in 1873 it was so increased that employment was given to a large number of men. A his- tory of this industry will be found on page eight hundred and twenty-four of this work. On the organization of the Union Pacific Salt Company, Mr. Barton was chosen to fill the position of its President, an office he has since occupied. But this has not been the only enterprise on the coast with which our subject has been associated. He was one of the original promoters of the Sutter-street Railroad, San Francisco; in 1863 he became a director and a member of the Finance Committee of the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, positions he now holds in that institution. In 1872 he located in Alameda, and in 1879 erected his present fine mansion in that town. In Mr. Barton we have another of those living examples of what a life of earnest industry can attain. His resolve "to be up and doing" has brought wealth and its adjuncts of comfort and freedom from care. "The whips and scorns of time" have passed him by, and at the "grand climacteric" we find him leading a peaceful and contented life, surrounded by the much-to-be-desired solace of a comfortable home and a happy family. Married October 14, 1858, in Buffalo, Miss Isabella Barton, a native of that city, by whom he has: William Ferris and Grace Thompson.

ELIAS LYMAN BEARD (deceased) .- The subject of this sketch was born in Lyons, Wayne County, New York, October 15, 1816, but when quite young was taken by his parents to Jackson County, Michigan, and in the following year to Peru, Miami County, Indiana, where he assisted his father who was a contractor, and later took contracts for himself, among the enterprises he was engaged upon being the con- struction of the Wabash and Erie Canal. In 1836 he settled in La Fayette, Tippe- canoe County, in the same State, where he was engaged in grain and saw milling, being shipper of the first load of grain on the above-mentioned aqueduct. Later he engaged in the pork-packing trade, and owned a stone quarry in that place, while to him is the honor of having shipped the first load of corn from the State of Indiana to the New York market. In 1844 he contracted to build for the Govern- ment, and saw to their completion the splendid docks of the Navy Yard at Memphis, Tennessee; after which, he returned to his home in La Fayette, and conducted his milling, quarrying, and mercantile pursuits, until he made up his mind to tempt fortune on the Pacific Coast. Leaving Indiana in February, 1849, he proceeded to New Orleans, and there took ship for Matamoras, whence he made the journey across Mexico to Mazatlan, at which place he secured a passage on board the Government boat Edith, among the passengers being Mr. Sam. Martin of Oakland, and arrived in San Francisco in May, 1849. After passing a month traveling through portions of California he finally settled at Mission San José in June of that year, and became largely interested with John M. Horner in land there. It was a bold venture at the time-this purchase of some thirty thousand acres-the Pico interest in the Mission Grant. The title to the land was so uncertain that it was a great risk to lay out money on it. Fences had to be made of wire, and the miles and miles required of it cost a great deal of money. Farming implements, too, were expensive, and the price of labor was very high. Of course the interest on money was high also, and the result of the farming experiment was considered at that time very uncertain. All flour, as well as other supplies, were being imported from the East, and there were as yet no mills to grind the wheat in California, if it could be grown. But Mr. Beard was a man for large enterprises, and of indomitable courage, and in spite of all obstacles and risks he entered upon the business of grain and fruit raising, on what

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

then seemed to be a magnificent scale, and the result fully justified the soundness of his judgment, and demonstrated the agricultural capabilities of the country. In 1852 he had six hundred and forty acres of grain that yielded, on the average, fifty- six bushels to the acre. His yield of potatoes was sixty thousand bushels, averag- ing, for the most part, three hundred and thirty bushels to the acre. According to the Rev. Dr. Willey, in the Pacific of May 19, 1880, the size of these potatoes was something marvelous. It was common to find some of three pounds weight, and frequently those weighing from three to five pounds. He says: "I remember during one day at Mr. Beard's, when there were nine of us grown persons at the table, and a single potato, weighing four pounds, served us all, and there was plenty left for three persons who came afterward, and both the quality and the flavor were unexceptionable." The Mission orchard inclosure then comprised fifteen acres. Besides vines, fig-trees, olives, peach, and quince trees, there were in this orchard three hun- dred and fifty full-grown pear-trees. The yield of one of the largest of these trees was fifteen hundred pounds of fruit, the gross income from which was $400. The gross receipts from the vineyard in the year 1851 were $16,000. Having been joined by his wife, a son, and step-son, Mr. Beard took up his residence on land purchased from Thomas O. Larkin, and from the produce of the old orchard acquired a hand- some competency. But such were his sanguine hopes of the future- of California that he invested all his means in partial payments upon ranches, and the depression in values which soon followed swept away all his accumulations, and left him a poor man. In the year 1858 he took charge of the Mariposa estate in connection with General Fremont, but this undertaking proving a failure, he then contracted to pur- chase a mile square of land, embracing the now town of Salinas, expended largely in fencing, and put in a crop of wheat, but the season proved unfruitful, and he lost his investment. At the beginning of the Civil War he joined General Fremont at St. Louis, and distinguished himself for his energy and force of character by the rapidity and zeal with which he executed contracts for fortifying the city-contracts which amazed people by the brief time allowed to fulfill their requirements. In 1865, himself and his step-son, Henry G. Ellsworth, procured a perfected title, by patent from the United States, to nearly four thousand acres of land on the ex-Mission of San José, and were again the possessors of a competency. But not content with this, his sanguine disposition led him into sundry enterprises, embracing an attempt to develop an oil-well at Matole, Humboldt County, and to open mines in various parts of the country. After speculations, all of which proved unsuccessful, he made an attempt to recuperate these losses by dealing in mining stocks, which finally swept away his entire fortune, and he died, May 8, 1880, so far as worldly goods are concerned, a poor man, leaving a widow, who is beloved by all who know her- a woman endowed with the finest social and tenderest womanly qualities of char- acter; and a son, a sketch of whose life is given below. Mr. Beard was the first President of the California State Agricultural Society, organized in 1854, and the first fair under his administration, in what was then known as the Music Hall, San Francisco, proved most satisfactory and prosperous.

JOHN L. BEARD .-- The son of the above, E. L. Beard, was born in La Fayette, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, June 18, 1845, and there resided until his coming to California with his mother in 1850. He lived with his father at the Mission San José until the year 1867, when he took up his abode on his present place, about two miles and a half from Centreville, where he is engaged in farming and fruit- raising. Married, and has two children, namely, Jessie and Eldridge L.

HON. JAMES BEAZELL .- This well-known gentleman of Alameda County is a native of Pennsylvania. Born in Westmoreland County, October 30, 1830, where he resided until he attained the age of twenty-one years. He then came, via the Missis- sippi River, Gulf of Mexico, across Texas and Mexico, to California, arriving in San Francisco July 19, 1852; coming immediately to Mission San José, where he

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found employment for a short time at his trade of blacksmithing, and then went to Alvarado; and finally, in 1853, located in Centreville, where he carried on business until 1862, when he moved to Washington Corners, and in August, 1868, transferred his business to the thriving town of Livermore; and in 1878, in connection with his brother, erected their present shop on Lizzie Street, where they transact a general blacksmithing business, under the firm name of Beazell Brothers. In the fall of 1875 Mr. Beazell was called from his anvil by the voters of Alameda County to represent them in the State Senate, a position he was re-elected to in 1876, filling all the functions of that high office to the satisfaction of his constituents and honor to himself. In January, 1871, our subject was united in marriage, in San Francisco, to Miss C. W. Veirs, a native of Ohio, by which union they have two children, Ella B. and Jessie M.

BENAJAH BENEDICT .- This much respected pioneer of Alameda County, whose portrait will be found in this volume, was born in Addison County, Vermont, Decem- ber 1, 1825, and is the son of Jonas A. and Soloma (Towner) Benedict. His parents moving to Crown Point, Essex County, New York, when he was six years of age, there he received his education, grew to manhood, and resided on his father's farm, until determining to tempt fortune on the Pacific Slope. On April 20, 1852, he sailed in the bark Southerner, around Cape Horn, for San Francisco, where he arrived on the 22d of October. It was not to loiter in that city that he had braved the dangers of the deep and made the wearisome voyage; no, he almost immediately went to the gold-producing cañons of the Sierras, but not finding there the riches that he had expected, he made his way back to San Francisco, and there remained until January 11, 1853. At this date he first came to the Contra Costa, for Alameda County had not yet been created, and, locating in the vicinity of Union City, embarked in farm- ing operations on the land at present owned by John Shinn. There he remained until October, 1853, when he removed to the Encinal of Alameda, and commenced agricult- ural pursuits on land now owned by Capt. R. R. Thompson, and upon which that gentleman has erected his handsome mansion. In December, 1854, he transferred the scene of his labors to Bay Farm Island, rented land from Mr. Cleveland, on which he farmed until 1856. In the following year he was associated with Mr. McDonald in tilling the soil, and in 1859 he erected and occupied the house in which he now resides. Mr. Benedict owns on the island about seventy-five acres of land, which is chiefly devoted to the raising of asparagus and hops, while he is largely interested in the latter industry with Jacob B. Shirk, in Washington Township. This enterprise Mr. Benedict has succeeded in bringing to a high state of perfection, and with the high prices ranging during the past year for that commodity the yield has added considerably to his already well-filled coffers. The benefits that he has conferred upon the small community of the Island are many. ' His advocacy and support of our public school system shows that he firmly believes that the only royal road to knowledge is by the early training of the young, and that it is the "mind that makes the man." Married, February 19, 1857, Mrs. Persis A. (Cleveland), widow of Chester Hamlin, who has two surviving children.

NEWTON BENEDICT .- Was born in Rhode Island, September 15, 1825, and is the son of David and Margaret (Gano) Benedict. He received his education in his native place, and there resided until seventeen years of age, when he went to Boston and became connected with the Boston Daily Times newspaper, at that time the lead- ing daily morning paper in that city. Here Mr. Benedict resided most of the time until his departure for California. The father of our subject was a distinguished divine of the Baptists, and was the historian of the denomination, an erudite article which will be found in extenso in the Encyclopedia Britannica. On March 4, 1849, Mr. Benedict sailed from Boston in the ship Charlotte by way of Cape Horn for the Pacific Coast, and after a voyage of one hundred and ninety-two days, with all its attendant discomforts, cast anchor in the harbor of San Francisco. Proceeding a

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

once to the mining county of El Dorado, he there embarked in a mercantile business' which he continued until 1854. In that year he returned to San Francisco for a short time, and subsequently located in Todd's Valley, Placer County-eighteen miles above Auburn, on the divide between the north and middle forks of the American River. Here he dealt in merchandise until 1862. He next passed four years partly in Washington Territory and in the State of Nevada, still being engaged in the same business, and in 1866 came to Alameda County, located in Oakland, and assumed the affairs of several fire and life insurance agencies. In 1867 Mr. Benedict filled the office of Recording Secretary to the State Legislature of California; performing its functions the last three sessions in the senate until the year 1879-80. In 1875, he embarked in real estate transactions which he now continues, being associated with James R. Capell, under the style of Benedict, Capell & Co., real estate agents, and notaries public, at No. 457 Ninth Street, Oakland. Mr. Benedict married, September 14, 1853, Fanny S. Burrows, née Sowles, a native of New York, and has: Anna H., and Harry G.

ROBERT H. BENNETT .- Was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in the year 1826, and is the son of John and Elizabeth S. Bennett. Having received his education in the ordinary schools of that city, he entered the counting-room of a grain commission house where he remained until 1849. On the 25th January of that year he sailed from Baltimore in the ship Jane Parker by way of Cape Horn to San Francisco, where he arrived July 21, 1849. Mr. Bennett and two others on landing pitched their tent on the site now occupied by the Clay-street Bank, and there established a mercantile store, which was carried on with much success until the never-to-be-forgotten May fire of 1850. Notwithstanding this disaster the business was immediately started under the style and firm of Bennett & Kirby, hardware and commission merchants, and con- tinued until July, 1851. Mr Bennett now entered the commission and produce trade under the name of R. H. Bennett & Co., but in 1855, upon forming a copartnership with H. G. Blaisdell, ex-governor of the State of Nevada, the same business was car- ried on in the store-ship Steiglits at what is now the corner of East and Washington Streets. At the end of a year the firm resumed its old style of R. H. Bennett & Co., by which it is still known and highly respected in San Francisco. In 1878 Mr. Bennett came to Haywards and took the warehouses there. He with his family were residents of Oakland between the years 1864 and 1876, in which latter year they moved to Fruit Vale, where they at present dwell. Mr. Bennett is married and has a family of two children surviving.

AUGUSTIN BERNAL .- Was born in San José, Santa Clara County, California, May 25, 1848. His father, Augustin Bernal, who died June 19, 1872, was born at the Santa Teresa Rancho, in Santa Clara County, and was eighty-seven years of age at the time of his demise. For more than twenty years he served as a lieutenant in the Mexican army, for which he received eleven leagues of land in the San Ramon and Livermore Valleys, known as the Rancho El Valle de San José, and which he divided equally with his brother Juan Pablo Bernal, and two sisters. As patented, the rancho contained forty-eight thousand acres, and extended from Suñol Valley to Livermore. He was twice married, and left a widow and large family of sons and daughters to mourn his loss. He was much respected for his honesty, integrity, genial and generous disposition, while, he was an exception to the general run of his countrymen. He was very careful and held on well to his property, and made it secure by dividing it among his children; the result is that the Bernals hold their ground on the original grant better than any other of the native families. When but an infant the subject of this sketch was brought by his parents to what is now known as Alameda County, where he has since resided, at present owning an estate of eleven hundred and fifty acres, which he rents, and maintains a residence himself in Pleasanton. Married Miss Francesca Soto, a native of San Mateo County, by whom there is no issue.

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DENNIS F. BERNAL .- The subject of this sketch, whose portrait appears in this work, as a proper representative of one of the earliest families to settle in Alameda County, was born in Pleasanton, in that county, April 8, 1856, and is the son of Francisco and Maria (Thompson) Bernal. When he was fourteen years of age he left California for South America, and having visited all of the principal ports on its Pacific Coast, at the end of five years returned to his birthplace on December 8, 1875. In the following month he entered the Golden Gate Academy where he remained until November 18, 1878, and in January, 1879, commenced a course in a business college in San Francisco, from which he graduated on Christmas-day of the same year. Mr. Bernal then took up his residence in Livermore, but in August 1881 took a trip to Arizona and Mexico, where he visited the mining districts of those States, and shortly after came back to California. On his return home he won the heart of a dark-eyed daughter of one of Alameda County's Supervisors, but a native of New York, to whom he was united in marriage in 1883. He has since taken up his abode in his beautiful residence in the town of Livermore, near which he has a large farm of very valuable land, on which there is a comfortable farm-house, with mill, barn, etc. Mr. Bernal also possesses some property in the vicinity of Pleasanton.

JOSE BERNAL .- This scion of one of California's most ancient and well-known Spanish families, was born in what was then known as the Contra Costa section of the District of San José, October 20, 1823. Save during the time of attending the schools at Monterey, the former capital of California, Mr. Bernal has been always a resident of what is now called Murray Township, Alameda County-the place of his birth. Fuller remarks on the Bernal family will be found elsewhere. Our subject married, November 10, 1855, Alta Garcia Higuerra, a native of California, by whom there are: Ezequiel, Ezequies, Peryguino, Gonzaguia, Francisco, Emil, Manuel, Candido, Sedonia, Madronia.

ELIJAH BIGELOW .- Is the son of Elijah and Rebecca (Fisk) Bigelow, and was born in Newton, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, September 9, 1810. Here he resided until the year 1852, when joining in the human stream then turned towards California, he sailed from the city of New York, March 20th, and arrived per steamer California in the harbor of San Francisco, May 14, 1852. He at once embarked in the grocery and provision business on Front Street, and there continued three years, afterwards being thus engaged in other parts of the city in the same line of trade until 1863, when he crossed the bay to Oakland, and started in real-estate transac- tions, acquiring the first homestead in Oakland, it being situated at the corner of Market and Fourteenth Streets of the present day. Married, firstly, July 13, 1834, Emma MeLachlan who died January 6, 1880; and secondly, May 15, 1882, Mrs. C. F. Bartlett.

J. A. BILZ .- Was born in Baden, Germany, January 7, 1837. When about twenty years of age, he emigrated to the United States, sailing from Havre, and arriving in New York July 3, 1857. After working at his trade for five years in the State of New York, and about nine months in Connecticut, he sailed from New York in April, 1863, via Panama, to San Francisco, landing May Ioth of the same year. For the first three months he worked in Benicia; afterwards he moved to San José; then to Mission San José, and subsequently in different places until the fall of 1865, when he came to Pleasanton, there being but five houses in the town at that time. Here he commenced working at his trade, which has steadily increased, until at the present writing he is the proprietor of a large wagon factory. To Mr. Bilz is the honor of building the first wagon in the Livermore Valley. He married in Centre- ville, March 28, 1869, Miss Catharine Ishinger, a native of Würtemberg, Germany, and has three surviving children, viz .: Helene, Selma, and Minnie; and one deceased named Charles.

AMASA WRIGHT BISHOP .- One of the old residents and prominent citizens of Oakland is the gentleman whose portrait appears in this work. Mr. Bishop was born

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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.

at Wallingford, Rutland County, Vermont, August 18, 1832; was educated for the Bar, and at the age of twenty entered the law office of the Hon. David E. Nich- olson. By the laws of Vermont, five years' reading in the office of an attorney is nec- essary before admission to the Bar, and only then upon a certificate and affidavit of good character, and thorough examination. Mr. Bishop pursued his studies in the same office for five years, practicing in the mean time in the Courts of Justices of the Peace in his own and neighboring towns, and was always very successful in his prac- tice. In 1857 he was examined, and admitted an attorney of the Rutland County Bar. Always predisposed to literature, during his studentship he wrote more or less for the press; and in 1857, in connection with a schoolmate and student in the same office, Philip H. Emerson (now, and for the past ten years United States District Judge of Utah Territory), he started a small paper, simply for amusement, called The Local Spy, which created no little stir in the staid community as each weekly issue made its appearance. The paper was continued for more than a year, and until Mr. Bishop left for California, arriving in the Golden State early in 1859. He sought his fortune in the mines, as did nearly all new-comers at that time; but it did not require a great length of time to convince him, in the language of Leatherstocking that mining was not his "gift." He returned to Marysville, and for some eight or nine months devoted himself to mercantile business, in the saddlery and harness store of John W. Moore, Esq., one of Marysville's best citizens. Early in January, 1860, at the request of Mr. Moore, he went to Red Bluff, Tehama County, to take charge of the same business for his brother, C. A. Moore. While in Marysville he was a constant writer for the press, and after locating in Red Bluff, was a steady contributor to the Marysville Appeal, and also to the Red Bluff Beacon. At the solicitation of leading Republicans and anti-Le Compton Democrats, he gave up his position with Mr. Moore, and started the Semi-Weekly Independent at Red Bluff, the first paper issued oftener than once a week north of Marysville, and the first paper to take the dispatches-first, of the Pony Express across the Continent; afterwards the telegraphic dispatches. The first paper was issued August 14, 1860. In the fall of 1860 he was appointed Deputy District Attorney of Tehama County; and the District Attorney leaving the State soon after, he exercised that office until the next election. Tehama County at this time was one of the strongest of Democratic strongholds, only thirty-nine Repub- lican votes having been polled in 1859. At the Presidential election in 1860, however, through the untiring labors of Mr. Bishop, and the influence of the Independent, this vote was increased to two hundred and forty-two for Abraham Lincoln, the balance of the vote being divided between the Douglass, Bell, and Breckinridge electors-the Douglass ticket receiving four hundred and ninety-seven votes; the Bell and Everett ticket two hundred and nineteen votes, and the balance going to the ·Breckinridge ticket. The next year, 1861, Mr. Bishop accepted the nomination for District Attor- ney from the Republican Convention, and worked with so much energy and persist- ency, visiting nearly every voter in the county, that he beat the nominee of the combined Democracy-Breckinridge and Douglass-by seventy-six votes. In 1862 the Republican party carried the county, electing its full ticket. Such was the change in public sentiment, and the credit for that change was due, in a great measure, to the personal work of, and the paper edited and published by, Mr. Bishop. At the session of the Legislature of 1863-64, Mr. Bishop's services were recognized, and he was chosen Assistant Secretary of the Senate by acclamation, and served during the session. The same year the Democratic paper, the Beacon, succumbed, was bought by Mr. Bishop, and merged in the Independent. In 1863, on the 7th day of November, Mr. Bishop married an estimable young lady of Red Bluff, Ellen M., the daughter of Captain E. G. Reed, the pioneer settler of the town, who located the town site, and built the first house, a hotel, at the steamer-landing. In 1865 Mr. Bishop sold his paper, and devoted his time to his profession, holding at the same time the office of Collector of Internal Revenue for the division including Tehama, Colusa, and Butte Counties. The people

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History of Alameda County, California : including its geology, topography, soil, and productions, Part 119

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