USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California : including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description > Part 78
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90
687
BIOGRAPHIES-SAN JOSÉ TOWNSHIP.
to the high trust imposed upon him. Married, April 21, 1861, in Nevada City, Elizabeth C. Farrell, a native of New Jersey.
Colonel A. G. Bennett. The subject of our present narrative, was born in Oneida county, New York, May 13, 1836. When eighteen years of age, he moved to Oswego, and there learned the trade of carpenter. In 1860, he moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, but in the month of May, in the follow- ing year, returned to Oswego, and there raised, for service in the war, Com- pany B, of the Eighty-first New York Infantry, being promoted to a Cap- tainey one month thereafter. The regiment proceeding to Washington, was assigned to the Fourth Army Corps, of the Army of the Potomac, and served under MeClellan, through the Peninsular Campaign. The campaign ended they returned and camped at Yorktown. In December, 1862, Colonel Ben- nett was assigned to the Eighteenth Army Corps, and proceeded to Port Royal South Carolina. While here, our subject offered his services to Gen- eral Hunter, to command a colored corps, which being accepted, he raised the Twenty-first United States Colored Regiment, and commanded it for three years. Colonel Bennett served through the campaigns of South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, and was subsequently in command of Morris Island, until the evacuation of Charleston, by General Hardee, February 17, 1865. The following morning, the 18th, the Colonel coming to the conclusion that the enemy had taken his departure from the city, placed himself on board a small boat, and with only the crew and escort, at ten o'clock that forenoon, landed in Charleston, raised the United States flag, took command of the place, and received its surrender from the hands of the Mayor. He was mustered out, April 25, 1866, at Charleston, South Carolina, settled at Rouse- ville, Venango county, Pennsylvania, and resided there six months; thence he removed to South Carolina, and engaged in the lumber trade for twelve months; afterwards he resided in Jersey City, Hudson county, New Jersey, where he was in the furniture trade. In 1875, he came to California, and in partnership with his brother, embarked in the same business in San Jose, Santa Clara county. The gallant Colonel is now a member of the San Jose Furniture Manufacturing Company. Married, March 13, 1867, Mary E., daughter of Rev. E. W. Jones, a native of New York.
Samuel A. Bishop. The subject of this biography, one of the best- known gentlemen in the Garden City of California, first saw the light of day in Albemarle county, Virginia, September 2, 1825. Ten years later, his parents moving to Montgomery county, Missouri, he accompanied them thither, there attended school and resided until 1846, when the family changed their domicile to Calloway county, in the same State. Mr. Bishop, although brought up a farmer, carly evinced a taste for mechanics which
688
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
developed into his building a mill in Calloway, while working at various trades such as wagonmaking, engine-constructing, etc. When here engaged with his tools and leading a not very eventful life, the world was shaken to its center by the wild excitement consequent on the discovery of gold. Who that experienced the meteoric hopes of that time can ever forget them ! Our subject was not to be behindhand. To the land of gold was his slogan ; it occupied his thoughts by day and his dreams by night; to the New Dorado then was he bound. On April 15, 1849, he started from Calloway to under- take the little-known journey across the plains with ox-teams. The route chosen was that by Santa Fe in New Mexico, thence along the Colorado river to a point near El Paso, from which he followed Cook's route to Tucson, Arizona Territory, thence to the Gila river, where Fort Yuma now stands, and on into California. But this long journey was not without its mishaps. At the point now occupied by Fort Yuma, the wagons and teams were abandoned, and Mr. Bishop obliged to shoulder his blankets, pick and shovel, and march across the burning desert, finally, foot-sore, weary, but undis- mayed, reaching Los Angeles, October 8, 1849. Here remaining but a short time to recuperate, he once more shouldered his pack, took the route for the Mariposa mines, where he soon arrived with a hundred pounds' weight on his back, after performing a journey on foot of over seven hundred miles. The Summer of 1850 Mr. Bishop passed on the Stanislaus and Merced rivers, his time being occupied chiefly in building dams to turn these streams so as to gain the wealth supposed to lie concealed in their beds; but how uncertain are the ways of events, the month of September arrived and with it an un- expected storm, the rivers rose, the dams were swept away, the work was abandoned, and the gold at their bottom consigned to oblivion. But in those times, as in these, to lie a day idle was to lose the chance of success. Mr. Bishop therefore shifted his camp to Mariposa there intending to pursue his search for the precious metal, but the hostilities known to history as the Mariposa war breaking out, the subject of our sketch forsook the shovel for the rifle, the pick for the bayonet, and was one of the first to enlist- February 10, 1851-in the battalion raised by James Burney, but com- manded by Major James D. Savage. The corps consisted of three companies, A, B, and C, respectively under Captains John J. Kirkwood, John Bowling, and William Dill. Bishop was elected Orderly Sergeant of Company C which he commanded nearly all the time they were under arms owing to the absence of Captain Dill. The entire battalion at once moved in pursuit of the hostile redskins, overtook and captured a band of them on the Merced river, followed the remainder into the Yosemite valley, and there took pri- soner the great chief Yosemite himself. It may be well here to note that the entry of the battalion into this now famous resort, was the first appear- ance of white men in that valley. After this engagement and capture, the,
689
BIOGRAPHIES-SAN JOSÉ TOWNSHIP.
corps was mustered out of the service, and the following discharge given to Mr. Bishop :-
" STATE OF CALIFORNIA, L
" Mariposa County.
"This is to certify that Sergeant Samuel A. Bishop was mustered into the service of the State of California as a volunteer in Company C, of California Battalion, commanded by Major James D. Savage, on the tenth day of Feb- ruary, 1851, and has faithfully performed the duties of First Sergeant of Company C, to this date; and that he is this day honorably discharged. Given under our hands this Ist day of July, 1851.
"W.M. DILL, Captain Commanding Company C. "M. B. LEWIS, Mustering Officer."
After the events above narrated, Mr. Bishop engaged with James D. Savage, his old Commander, and L. D. Vincent Hailer, as a mechanic and general manager of their business. In the year 1852 Major Savage was killed in an altercation with Major Harvey, when Mr. Bishop was admitted into the firm, together with Dr. Lewis Leach, under the style of Leach & Co., the business of Indian traders being conducted on the reservation established by the Government on the Fresno river. Here he had the entire control of the Indians, until General Edward F. Beale was appointed by President Fillmore, Superintendent of Indian affairs in California. In the following year, determining to move the Indians, the General employed our subject to conduct them to the San Joaquin river where they were established at the point at which the Southern Pacific Railroad now crosses that stream. He was, however, instructed to transfer them to the Tejon, near the pass in the mountains of that name, on which place they were located, December, 1853, and in the following year a large erop was raised by Mr. Bishop, with Indian aid alone. In the same year the subject of our memoir contracted to con- struct a military road from the Colorado river at Beale's Crossing (near Fort Mojave), through Arizona Territory into New Mexico, an extremely hazardous un lertaking, when the geographical difficulties and the hostility of the Indians are taken into account; indeed, so determined was the enmity of the abori- gines along the line of the Colorado and within the borders of Arizona, that the Government dispatched a force of one thousand United States troops to bring matters to a peaceful issue. These were sent from San Francisco by steamer, via the Gulf of California, to Fort Yuma, thence by land and light-draft steam- boats to Beale's Crossing, where several immigrants had been massaered during the previous year, and at which place it was hoped the enemy would be come upon. Knowing of this expedition, Mr. Bishop completed his arrangements so that he should arrive at the Crossing at the same time as would the soldiers, and have their protection in fording the river, but, as ill-luck would have it, he got
44
690
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
there a month ahead of them and was forced, unguarded, to cross the swift-running stream with his party of forty-two men, besides twenty camels, and trains of wagons and pack-mules, loaded with the necessary pabulum for an expedition the like of which he was undertaking. While making their way to the opposite bank, the Indians attacked them, compelled a return to the shore and forced their retreat to Beaver lake, two miles dis- tant, where they called a halt, and fortified themselves in the following man- ner: The wagons were drawn up in line, about fifty yards from the lake, and parallel thereto, forming a breast-work, to repel attack from the direc- tion of the plain; the broad sheet of water was kept to the rear, which, on either flank, was connected by a ditch, four feet in depth, thus forming an inelosure wherein was ample security for life and property, and sufficient fodder for the animals. Here, then, did these wayfarers, with rifle, shotgun and revolver, await the attack of full fifteen hundred savages. When the Indians fell upon them they were received with a withering fire; on each succeeding morn was the attack renewed, nor did their determination lax until the seventeenth day, when a flag of truce was sent in to Mr. Bishop's camp, with the request that a council of war be held, when an armistice was declared, and our hero permitted to proceed on his way, which was done, he meeting his partner, E. F. Beale, at the San Francisco mountain, in Arizona two hundred and fifty miles east of the Colorado mountain. They now retraced their steps to the Crossing, where they met the troops, to whom was left no share of the fighting, the enemy having had quite enough of that kind of luxury a month previously departed for parts unknown. This expedition, so bereft of glory to the army, cost the nation four hundred thousand dollars; the brunt of battle and the sinews of war were borne by Mr. Bishop alone. Having purchased the Castec Grant, in the northern portion of Los Angeles county, upon which was located the military post of Fort Tejon, the subject of our nar rative entered into an agreement with the Government, the conditions of which were that he should deed to the United States one mile square of the land on which the post was situated, to be held for military purposes, so long as it should be deemed necessary, upon the lapse of which, then the lands, together with all improvements upon them, should revert to the owner, for the reason that Fort Tejon, when first located, in the Fall of 1864, was supposed to be upon public land, but was subsequently found to be on the Castec Grant, made by the Government of Mexico to Jose Corvarubias, of Santa Barbara county, but tl.e title was not yet confirmed by the Government of the United States of America. In the meantime, while the matter of title was pending in the Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. Bishop entered into negotia- tions for the purchase of said ranch with one Albert Packard, of Santa Barbara, who had previously purchased of the grantee, and finally consummated the
691
BIOGRAPHIES-SAN JOSÉ TOWNSHIP.
purchase, soon after confirmation of the title, in the latter part of the year 1869. In the year 1860 and 1861, after the discovery of the Comstock lode, in Nevada, Mr. Bishop established a branch of his ranch and stock opera- tions on a tributary of Owen's river, now in Inyo county, California, so as to be convenient to the market for his beef for that new mining country, but the Indians made war upon the few white settlers, killing a number and appropriating their stock to themselves, burning their houses, etc. There is a village now upon the range that Mr. Bishop had taken up known by the name of Bishop Creek, and is the post-office of that part of the country. On the outbreak of the Rebellion the troops were ordered to the seat of war and the post abandoned ; the premises with the keys thereof were handed to Mr. Bishop, in accordance with the agreement, who suddenly found himself the possessor of a ready-made village of fine houses, but no inhabitants to occupy it. With that keen intelligence which has earned for him his high position among men of business, Mr. Bishop conceived the idea that a new county could be formed out of the northern portion of Los Angeles, the east- ern part of Santa Barbara, and the southern section of Tulare, thus creat- ing a public boom, while by the donation of his buildings for county pur- poses, such as Court House, Jail, Hospital, etc., a county seat would be found complete in its chief requirements and a benefit be conferred .upon himself individually. To this end he caused a petition to be circulated, setting forth the advantages of such a project, and the fact of a ready-made capital, which met with very general approval. This he took to the Legis- lature, and upon the strength of its generous endorsement by the publie, a bill was passed creating a new county to which the name of Kern was given. In the year 1865 the government of the county was organized, and the usual elections for officials and the establishment of a county seat called. Mean- while a great excitement broke out, and thousands of people were attracted to the mountains near Kern river, therefore, when the election took place, the majority located the seat of county government at the spot which had been named Havilah, and thus, as so often happens, the lesser mind reaps the advantages while the greater intellect is left to start afresh in some new field of labor. Upon the organization of the new county Mr. Bishop was chosen one of its Supervisors, an office he resigned in the Fall of 1866, when he left for a visit to the Atlantic States, and on his return to California, with his family, took up his residence at San José in April, 1867, since when his career has been a portion of the history of Santa Clara county. In the month of February, 1868, he, with others, obtained a franchise to con- struct the San Jose and Santa Clara Horse Railroad, a history of which will be found on page 531 of this volume; In 1870 he became interested in the San José Savings Bank, being afterwardIs for several years the Vice-Presi- dent of that institution; in that same year he became the owner of the San
692
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
José Institute and Business College on First street, having associated with him Mr. and Mrs. Freeman Gates; in 1871 received a franchise from the Mayor and Common Council of the City of San Jose to lay the First-street railroad. Mr. Bishop next became President of the San José Homestead Association upon its organization to purchase lands in East San José and lay them out in lots; he then extended the San Jose and Santa Clara Horse Railroad into that suburb; he afterwards purchased an interest and became a Director of the Butte Flume and Lumber Company (now the Sierra Lum- ber Company), who have gigantic industries in the Sierra Nevada, as well as in the counties of Butte, Pumas, Tehama, and Shasta; while in the year 1876, with six others, he purchased the Stayton Quicksilver and Antimony mines situated in the mountains dividing Fresno from San Benito county, where, though considered rich, work has been suspended owing to the low price of that commodity. Mr. Bishop is a Royal Arch Mason, an Odd Fellow, and a life member of the California Pioneers, also of the Santa Clara County Pio- neers. From the foregoing narrative it will be seen what manner of man is S. A. Bishop. Combining all the powers which go to make a man of mark, he has left nothing undone whereby good may not result. His energy is marvelous, his foresight wonderful, and his bonhommie infectious ; in his public character, what he has done and is still doing will live long after him, in his private life let us hope that his many excellencies will long continue to shed lustre upon his wife and daughter, the amiable and accomplished sharers of his Saturnian age. Married, September 10, 1856, at Los Angeles, Frances E., daughter of William and Amanda Young, by whom he has Sarah Virginia, born February 10, 1859, an only child.
John C. Black. Born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, July 5, 1834, and there received his early schooling, and afterwards his more mature train- ing at the Alleghany College, Meadville, Crawford county, in the same State. He arrived in San Francisco via Panama, March 2, 1855, and proceeded to Amador county, where he engaged in mining; but moving from there to Sierra county he stayed there some time, during which he constructed a wing dam on the north fork of the Yuba river at Mississippi Bar ; thence he proceeded to Forbestown, Butte county, and opened an evening school which he taught during the Winter of 1857, and in the following Spring came to Santa Clara county, and engaged in teaching in San José, and the study of law. Was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court in January, 1863, after which he settled in Yuba county, and in 1864 was appointed District Attorney. In June, 1865, he returned to San Jose and was elected District Attorney in 1871 and was a Notary Public from 1867 to 1868. Mr. Black's office is in rooms 18 and 19, Knox Block, San Jose. He married Marian J. Millard, March 15, 1868, a native of Iowa, and has : Clara N., John Newton, Walter R., Leslie, Edmund, and an infant.
693
BIOGRAPHIES-SAN JOSÉ TOWNSHIP.
Samuel A. Blythe. Born in Shelby county, Tennessee, May 26, 1826. In 1831, his parents moved to the State of Arkansas, but after three years went to Memphis, Tennessee. In 1837, Mr. Blythe went to Texas, and there remained until 1849, when he came overland to California, arriving the 5th September. Coming direct to Santa Clara county, he settled at Saratoga, December 8th, and engaged in lumbering. In 1853, he purchased a two- hundred-acre farm, three miles from that village, and resided there until his coming to San José in 1872. In June, 1873, in company with L. Straus, under the style and firm of Blythe & Straus, he opened an office in the old Hester Building, on First street, and commenced operating in grain. At the end of a year he removed to King's Building, afterwards to McLaughlin's Building, on Fountain alley; thence to Archer's Building, where the part- nership was dissolved, in November, 1879, Mr. Blythe retaining the business. In March, 1880, Captain C. H. Maddox becoming associated with him, his basiness was removed to its present position No. 279 First street, the firm name being Blythe & Maddox, who are. engaged in buying and shipping grain. Married, May 18, 1852, Mrs. Sereni Gruell, née Cox, a native of Coshocton county, Ohio, and has: William L., Mary T., Martha Ann, Alice G., Samuel A., Charles L., and Ethel Sax.
Michael Cahalan (Deceased). The subject of this sketch, whose por- trait will be found in this work, was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, and as long ago as the year 1820 emigrated to the United States, bringing with him his wife and two children, and first settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where he worked at his trade of stone-mason, for fourteen years for one employer, who, at the end of this service, presented our subjeet with a bonus of a hundred dollars for long and faithful efficiency. Among other duties which Mr. Cahalan performed, he was one of those who prepared the foun- dation of the Bunker Hill Monument, and later in life has referrel with much pride to the part taken by him in laying its comer-stone. In 1835 he left Boston and proceeded to Galena, Illinois, via Albany, Buffalo and Chicago, in a two-horse wagon. In the Fall of 1836, he moved to Jackson county, Iowa, and taking up a claim settled near what is now the city of Bellevue, and encountered all the hardships incident to frontier life. One of his sons returning from California in 1851, and giving such glowing accounts of its climate and resources, determined our subject to transfer his goods and chattels to the Pacific coast; this he did in the Spring of 1852, and crossing the almost endless plains with but one horse and two ox- teams, he arrived in San José, September, 1852, having lost only one ox out of eight yoke. Not long after his advent in this State Mr. Cahalan settled on a portion of the Santa Teresa Rancho, and there remained until his death, which took place December 16, 1874, at the ripe age of eighty-four years.
694
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
He was buried in the Catholic cemetery at Santa Clara, where his body quietly reposes. He was a man who had a full faith in his Creator, and lived strictly up to the commands of his church, and was ever ready to bow his head to the Divine Will. He was remarkable for his industry, being able at seventy-five years of age to do his day's plowing. Mr. Cahalan was the father of fourteen children, nine of whom were living at the time of his death. He left Boston with seven children and brought the like number to California.
M. M. Cahalan. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, September 26, 1826. In early life Mr. Cahalan resided in the States of Illinois and Iowa. which latter he left in 1850, and came to California by way of Sublette's cut-off, in company with his brother, C. W. Cahalan, arriving at Nevada City, August 10th, of that year. Here he mined until the following year when he returned home via Panama. In the Fall of 1852 we find our subject back in California with his father and family. They then came direct to Santa Clara county and settled on the Santa Teresa Rancho, where he now resides with his sister. Mr. Cahalan owns about eight hundred aeres on which he has an extensive dairy, milking seventy-five cows daily, and making four hundred and fifty pounds of butter per week. Is unmarried.
James H. Campbell. Born in South Andover, Essex county, Massa- chusetts, February 27, 1850. In the year 1859 he came to California, arriv- ing at San Francisco in April of that year. From 1859 until 1867 Mr. Campbell resided in Grass Valley, Nevada county, and there attended the public schools, and, in 1867, entered St. Ignatius College, where he went through a course that fitted him for matriculation in Santa Clara College, from which he graduated in December, 1871. On his return to Grass Val- ley, he studied law in the office of Messrs. Dibble & Byrne, and, in April, 1874, was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. On being " called to the Bar," he took up his residence in the city of San Jose, Santa Clara county, and was appointed Deputy District Attorney, under Hon. Thomas Bodley, which position he filled until the expiration of the term of office, when he entered into a law partnership with Mr. Bodley, which finally ended with the death of the latter. In September, 1879, he was elected District Attorney, and is the present incumbent of that office. Married, April 22, 1877, Miss Mary Faulkner, a resident of San Jose, and a native of Boston, Massachusetts.
Alfred Chew. Born in Clinton county, Ohio, March 26, 1834. When twelve years of age he went with his parents to Shelby county, Illinois, and, in 1853, started for California, in company with a man named Kirkpatrick, who stopped at the Missouri river, with the intention of going to Oregon in
695
BIOGRAPHIES-SAN JOSÉ TOWNSHIP.
1864. Mr. Chew now joined W. R. Bane, of San Jose, and assisted him to drive a band of cattle to Gilroy, where he arrived in September of that year. After being prostrated with typhoid fever, he obtained various employments in different parts of the State, among others being with U. S. Deputy Surveyor Henry, in San Luis Obispo county. In 1859 he returned to Tili- nois, and came back to Santa Clara county the following year, where, after farming for a twelvemonth, he purchased a tract of two hundred and nine acres, from William Mathews, three miles from Evergreen, and occupied it for five years, when he came to the place where he now resides. In 1873 Mr. Chew was elected to the Board of Supervisors for Santa Clara county. He married, in Shelby county, Illinois, January 19, 1860, Margaret Kennedy, and has: Mary F., born March 25, 1864; Robert W., born April 28, 1866; Martha E., born October 4, 1868; Emily A., born February 7, 1871; Alfred J., born February 20, 1873; Maggie M., born May 22, 1876; Walter R., born August 8, 1879.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.