USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California : including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description > Part 87
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
765
BIOGRAPHIES-ADDENDA.
William J. Knox, M. D (Deceased). The subject of this sketch, whose portrait will be found in these pages, was born near Hopkinsville, Christian county, Kentucky, October 20, 1820, moving with his parents at an early age to Lincoln county, Missouri. Here he received his primary education in the neighborhood schools, and when about twenty years old attended the academy in Troy and subsequently commenced and completed the study of medicine with Dr. Henry Brandt, a distinguished German physician of Warren county, Missouri, after which he attended the Medical College at Loiusville, Kentucky, during the Winter of 1845-6. He now returned to his home in Missouri, and on April 1, 1846, espoused Sarah Louisa Browning. Settling at New Hope, Lincoln county, Missouri, Dr. Knox entered upon the practice of his profession, but in the following Fall, he returned to his Col- lege, and received his diploma in the Spring of 1847. Going back to New Hope he practiced there for two years when he moved to Troy, in the same county, and entered into partnership with Dr. Hiram K. Jones. On April 12, 1850, Dr. Knox and his wife bade adieu to Troy with its many associa- tions and with a party of abont twenty, Mrs. Knox and her sister being the only ladies, commenced the weary journey with teams across the almost endless plains to California. Arriving in Nevada City on the 8th October of that year, they made it their home, the doctor practicing there until the Winter of 1854, when he was elected to the Lower House of the State Legislature. In the Spring of 1855, along with his wife and only daughter, our subject paid a visit to the Eastern States, but returned in the following December, at which time he entered into partnership with Dr. Overton, an association which lasted only a short time. Dr. Knox became, previous to this, one of the projectors and proprietors of the South Yuba Canal Company, one of the most magnificent enterprises that was ever consummated in California. Once more, in July, 1860, he and family visited their friends at the East, coming back in October, 1861. In December,
1862, he left Nevada City, and after a short stay in San Francisco, in the Spring of 1863 took up his residence in Oakland, but moved from there in November and made his habitation in San Jose, where, in company with his brother-in-law, T. Ellard Beans, he established the first bank in that city. In the Fall of 1865 he was elected to the State Senate, and, February 1, 1866, introduced a bill having for its object the taxation of all property not owned by the State or county, a scheme which was met with the most strenu- ons opposition from such bodies as churches, etc., but which was subsequently adopted, almost verbatim as drafted by him, but too late for the worthy Senator, Dr. Knox, to see the fruits of his labor. On the 22d February of the same year he introduced Senate Bill No. 252., which was passed, and reads: " Any married woman may dispose of all her estate by will, also- lutely, without the consent of her husband, either express or implied, and
766
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
may alter or revoke the same in like manner as a person under no disability may do; her said will to be attested, witnessed, and proven, in like manner as all other wills," for which the women of California should ever hold him in grateful remembrance. He had served but one Winter in the Senate, his legislative duties but half completed, when he died at the Lick House in San Francisco, November 13, 1867. To this pioneer and prominent citizen no higher tribute can be paid by us than by using the words of the then Senator from Nevada, Judge David Belden, on the assembling of the Senate in the Winter of 1867. The present Superior Judge of Santa Clara county then said: "The Honorable Senator was a native of Kentucky, but was for many years a resident of Missouri; he came to the State of California in 1850, and settled in the city and county of Nevada, engaging success- fully in the practice of his profession as a physician. He remained there, and successful not only in that, took also a prominent part in the other enterprises of the day and of the vicinity, early assuming a very high position and very excellent reputation with the people and citizens of that county. His name is identified there to-day with many of the most important industrial enterprises of the section, and some engineering works which his capital assisted to complete, with which his enterprise was directly connected, stands there amongst the foremost of their kind in this enterprising State. In 1862 he removed from the county of Nevada, and, in 1863, to the county of Santa Clara, and immediately assumed there the same high positions which the universal verdict of the people of Nevada county had assigned him in the mountains. I may say in this connection that he connected himself in the same extensive manner with the public enterprises of his new home, taking rank as one of its most ener- getic and useful citizens. In 1865 he was elected to this body as a Senator from that district, and I may say here that, taking his seat in this body with impaired health, the disease, that ultimately proved fatal, preying upon his vitals, his position here was in the highest degree honorable to himself and to his immediate constituents. Unpractised in public discussion he rarely occu- pied the attention of this house by a formal speech, but what he did say, and his votes, were always upon the right side. He rarely, or never, erred in his judgment, either of men or measures, and to-day the record of his votes, as they appear upon the journals of this house, contain not one line that his friends could wish were otherwise, and that would not, as a monument, serve as his best eulogium. This, sir, in brief, was the character of our late associate. It may, indeed, be well said, that his actions in connection with two important sections of this State will rest as the best eulogium that can be pronounced to his memory. I will say, Mr. President, in offering these resolutions of respect, that it is well that we, as Senators, can here meet upon one common ground, where political asperities are at an end;
767
BIOGRAPHIES-ADDENDA.
where, for a time, we can forget that we are partisans in any sense of the word, but hold ourselves, and each other, bound by that higher band of asso- ciation which here unites us with the departed, to whose memory we com- bine in paying this simple tribute. I offer, therefore, as expressing the sense of the Senate and our bereavement the resolutions which are in the hands of the Secretary." These were : Resolved, That in the death of the Hon. William J. Knox, late a member of this body from the Seventh Senatorial District, the State of California loses an enterprising and useful citizen, and this Senate an able and efficient member. Resolved, That we deeply sym- pathize with the afflicted family of the deceased in their bereavement, and convey to them our assurances of respect and esteem for the memory of our departed associate. Resolved, That in respect to his memory this body do now adjourn."
Sarah L. Knox-Goodrich. Widow of the above-named Senator, Doc- tor William J. Knox, and now the wife of one of our earliest pioneers, and most successful architects, Levi Goodrich, the second daughter of Will- iam Winston and Sarah Smith Farrow Browning, was born in Rappahan- nock county, Virginia, February 14, 1825. Her grandfather Browning, and her unele, Charles Browning, both served with distinction in the Revo- lutionary war, one being a Captain and the other a Lieutenant, they were in most of the great battles fought in Maryland and Virginia, down to the bat- tle of Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis. Her father, William Winston Browning, also served his country in the war of 1812, he being only cighteen years old at the time; was a private in Captain George Love's company of Virginia Militia; was stationed for some time'on the James river below Richmond; served until the close of the war, when he received an hon- orable discharge. He received a bounty warrant for one hundred and sixty acres of land in 1852 for his services. In 1878, fourteen years after his death, a bill was passed, giving the widows of the soldiers of 1812, pensions. Mrs. Knox applied for the pension for her mother, who is still living, and after a long, tiresome, and almost hopeless effort (her father's papers having been lost during the Rebellion) succeeded in procuring sufficient evidence to secure her mother the pension, which she now receives. It was more a matter of principle with Mrs. Knox, than the amount of the pension; as she is well able, and has taken care of her mother, who has been with herfor the last twelve years, a confirmed and at present helpless invalid, now in her eightieth year. Mrs. Knox-Goodrich, although but eleven years of age when her parents removed to Missouri, had received a very fair education in her native State, having attended the best of country schools some four or five years. She, however, again attended school in St. Charles county, Missouri, where they took up their residence for about one and a half years, when her father
768
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
purchased a farm in the adjoining county, Lincoln, situated about four miles from Troy, the county seat, where heremoved with his family and continued to reside for many years. There the subject of this sketch grew to womanhood, was married and left the home of her childhood to enter upon and share the duties, pleasures, and cares of another home, which, at an early day, she and her husband, Doctor Knox, decided to make in California. After nearly twenty-two years of married life she was left a widow with her only child, Virginia Knox, who in August, 1869, was married to Cabel H. Maddox formerly of Ken- tucky. Mrs. Knox remained a widow until January 15, 1879, when she was again united in marriage to Levi Goodrich, above mentioned. As a lady whose fame is not confined to California alone, but whose name is known throughout the United States, we deem it a privilege to be permit- ted to present her portrait in this volume.
Early in life Mrs. Knox-Goodrich espoused the cause of her own sex, con- tending that taxing their property and using the proceeds, without giving them a voice as to its disposal, was unjust, unmanly, and diametrically opposed to the principles of the American people, as fought for by our ances- tors. It is her conviction, a judgment arrived at after the most mature con- sideration, that woman is as well endowed with the necessary qualifications to use the right of franchise, as are the men; that they are the pioneer mothers of a common country, who have suffered the hardships and privations of a frontier life; that they have assisted materially to transform the howling wilderness into a garden of beauty; and that they have (or should have) the same right, to say the least, as the ignorant male negro (fellow-citizens) of the south, the Chinamen, either born or naturalized, both of which there are specimen voters at present; or the alien, who, only a short five years before, planted his foot for the first time on American soil. Mrs. Knox- Goodrich will be remembered as the lady who, in 1874, went up to the Leg- islature, with her friends, Mrs. Laura J. Watkins and Miss Sallie R. Hart, and by their energy and fairness in stating the many advantages to be derived from the passage of the bill giving women the right to hold educational offices in the State of California, succeeded in getting the bill passed, not- withstanding the opposition of those representing the county; only one, Mr. Thomas Key, of Gilroy, being in sympathy with the ladies, and voting for the bill. In 1869, this lady assisted to organize the first " Woman Suffrage Association" in San Jose, of which she is at present an active member. The " National Woman's Suffrage Association," as well as the " American," the " California State Association," and " Woman's Congress," claiming her among their members. She is a member of the Santa Clara County Pioneer Association, a life member of the San Jose Library, the Law Library, and the Santa Clara Agricultural Societies. She was for several years a Trustee in the San Jose Library and contributed liberally to its support. She also
Gray
626, Worthington .
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
-
769
BIOGRAPHIES-ADDENDA.
served, for about thirteen years, as one of the Trustees in the Unity Society, that was organized in San Jose, by the Rev. Charles G. Ames; finally she is a large real estate owner, and a stockholder in the Bank of San Jose. Mrs. Knox-Goodrich, a lady of refinement, holding advanced ideas, is much respected by all who know ber, not only for her many excellent personal qualities, but as one of the pioneer mothers of California, claiming for her motto: Equal rights and Justice to all.
L. Krumb. Was born in Germany, January 15, 1836, where he was educated. In the year 1853, he landed in New York City, and, after travel- ing in the Eastern and Western States, came to California, via Panama, arriving in San Francisco, July 23, 1854. While in Germany, Mr. Krumb learned the trades of brewer and cooper, therefore, shortly after his arrival in the Bay City, he was placed in charge of the LaFayette Brewery. It was not long, however, before he went to assume control of the Franklin Brewery, in Sacramento City, where he removed until the Spring of 1855; he then moved to Alameda, Alameda county, and purchased the Oakland Brewery, moving the same to the above place, under the name of the Ala- meda Brewery, the first established in that town and second in the county, and carried on the business there. In company with Philip Dorr, he erected a brewery in Santa Clara, in 1856, but selling his interest that year, he removed the Alameda Brewery to San José, located it on Market street, but in 1860, moved it to the site now occupied by Walteufel's Book Store, at the corner of First street and Fountain alley. In 1864 he disposed of the estab- lishment to Adam Holloway, and the same year opened his present brewery, at 377 and 379 Second street, a history of which premises will be found else- where in this work. Mr. Krumb has served as an Alderman in the City Council of the city of San Jose, while, in the year 1876 he was a candidate for the office of County Clerk. Married, August 8, 1857, Wilhelmina Schultz, a native of Germany, by whom he has: Augusta, born October 18, 1859; Justice, born November 19, 1861; Frederick, born November 17, 1865.
Horace Little. Whose portrait appears in this work, is a native of Cayuga county, New York, and is the youngest son of Asa and Esther Lit- tle, and was born October 28, 1828. In 1836 his parents emigrated to Hillsdale county, Michigan, where his father, Asa Little, engaged in farming up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1842, when the subject of our memoir was only fourteen years of age. At this early age in life he was employed as clerk, and continued this occupation until he determined to visit the Golden State. On December 22, 1852, he took passage on the steamer Illinois from New York City, and on this side was a passenger on the Tennessee, which was wrecked on her next voyage. Mr. Little arrived
49
770
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
in San Francisco January 20, 1853, and the first of February following found him in Georgetown, El Dorado county, where he engaged in mining for two months, then found his way to this county. At the time he landed in the State his capital consisted of two dollars and fifty cents. Upon his arrival in the county he was employed by Albert Dexter, who at that time owned a tract of land near Laurence Station, as a farm laborer. Here he labored for one year, then returned to the mines; this time he was searching for the glittering metal in Amador county. In the Spring of 1855 he re- turned to this county, and in company with Henry Ringstorff was engaged in threshing. In 1856 he commenced farming on a piece of land just east of San Jose, near Amos White's, and the following Winter bought a squat- · ter's title of Robert Thomson, and there remained until the Fall of 1863 when he purchased an interest in a four-hundred-acre tract located on the Monterey road, some eight miles south of San José. He also owns a good stock ranch in San Felipe, located on a creek bearing the above name, where he intends to have some fine carp ponds fitted up at no distant day. Mr. Little has been and is one of the directors of the Farmers' Union ever since its organization. He is a man that is honored and respected by all who know him best. He was united in marriage to Mrs. Lovina Fisk, a native of Canada, on December 19, 1876.
H. Messing. Born in Cassel, Prussia, April 4, 1824. He remained in his native land until he sailed for California, on August 5, 1849, and arrived in San Francisco, April 8, 1850. After visiting and working in the mines at Sonora and vicinity, he returned to San Francisco, in ill-health, and came to San José, in July, 1850, and farmed for two years. He then removed to Santa Clara, and in company with Messrs. Frank and Glein, conducted the tannery now owned by Jacob Eberhard. Here he remained seven years, and then came back to San José, purchased the harness business of Roman Don, located on Market street, and there carried on business, until 1866, when, in company with some others, he purchased the portion of a block of land on First street, and on it erected a brick building, No. 378, which he is occupying at present. He married, June 19, 1849, Mary Glein, a native of Germany, by whom he has: Rudolph, born November 30, 1851 ; John, born September 7, 1853 ; Dore, born March 1,1855 ; Louis, born December 14, 1856; Anna, born October 26, 1858; Frederick, born June 1, 1864 ; Adolph, born October 27, 1866.
R. F. Peckham. This worthy pioneer, in very truth, whose portrait appears in this work, was born in Charleston, Rhode Island, January 30, 1827, and is the eldest of a family of nine, all of whom have since become residents of Cali- fornia. His early education was confined to the stray leaves of knowledge
771
BIOGRAPHIES-ADDENDA.
that he could eull, during a session at the country schools, of but three months in the year. Happily for him he had a taste for books, which developed into his quickly becoming a proficient in learning, coupled with a decided inelination for mechanics and a love of the sea. At the age of ten, he was possessed of a retentive memory, marvelous in one so young; at twelve he had mastered that bug-bear to every youth-the multiplication table, and three months after had made himself acquainted with the rules and problems in Dabott's Arithmetic, in the following Winter garnering the treasures of Columbus' Algebra, and the mathematical portion of surveying and navigation. At fourteen years of age, he started life on his own account, and has ever since been dependent on his own resources. The next Summer he worked on the farm of one Oliver Davis, for six dollars a month, on a contract of seven months, where he was far from happy. At the age of six- teen, he went before the Examining Board, stood a successful scrutiny, and was granted a certificate, authorizing him to teach any public school in his county. The following Winter he taught the school in the district where he had been reared, and in the same house where he had received his education. He now had some opportunity for gratifying his taste for machinery. From his earliest childhood he passed most of his leisure time in the Woolen Mills, Cotton Mills, and other manufactories in the neighborhood, which have since developed and placed him at the head of one of the leading looms of the State. Early in his seventeenth year, he entered into an agreement with a Baptist preacher, to learn the carpenter's trade, but after two months, find- ing that mixing mortar and carrying a hod were not the most rapid inethods of acquiring the art, obtained a release from his compact, and entered a wood-working establishment, at Westerly, Rhode Island, where he continued until he was thrown out of employment by having his left hand caught in a circular saw, in the following Winter. Before he was able to return to work, in obedience to his natural taste for the sea, he resolved to cast his destiny in the business of whaling. A sailor's life had a charm for him; there was wealth in the whaling grounds. A young man, if he proved himself a good whaleman and stuck to his craft, could reasonably hope to command a ship after three or four voyages, and to hold such a position for two or three cruises was to achieve riches. He shipped before the mast, on May 30, 1845, on board the ship Cabinet, John Bottom, Master, and sailed from Stonington, Connecticut, on what was to be a two, and, perhaps, a three years' cruise around the Cape of Good Hope, about the Indian Ocean, and New Zealand, into the North Pacific, and home around Cape Horn, thus completing the circumnavigation of the globe-a no mean feat for a youth in those days. It will be impossible for us, for want of space, to follow Judge Peckham in his early adventures on board the Cabinet, how he nearly suffered shipwreck at the Azores, fished for crawfish at Tristan d'Acunha, had his first conflict
772
HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
with a whale in the Indian Ocean, encountered a cyclone on the voyage to Van Dieman's Land (now Tasmania), and became mystified by the gain on time. Let us recount this curious event. They left Hobart Town in the latter part of December, and January 16, 1846, crossed the meridian one hundred and eighty degrees either east or west of Greenwich. On that day, which was a Sunday, observations were taken, when they found by actual count that they had the benefit of two Sabbaths-beyond saying how they had stolen a march on old Father Time, the Judge is silent. After sailing about here, there and everywhere, the subject of our sketch got his first glimpse of the California coast, August 29, 1846. Standing down its sea- board, the Cabinet sighted a ship at anchor in shore, and sending a boat off, found her to be the Brooklyn, of New York, lying at Bodega (now in Sono- ma county), loading lumber for the Sandwich Islands, but who had brought a company of Mormon immigrants from New York to Yerba Buena (now San Francisco). From her the first news of the Mexican war, and the occu- pation of California by United States troops, was received. The next day, August 30th, the Cabinet anchored at Saucelito (now in Marin county). Of this place the Judge says: " the anchorage was abreast a little valley formed by spurs of the mountain shooting down to the bay, in which valley was a spring of good water, the principal attraction for sca-going vessels." The Judge further remarks that the spring was afterwards, at an early day (that is of contemporaneous history), used as a water supply for San Fran- cisco, whence it was taken in an old steamer, converted into a water-boat, but which metaphorically sank on the completion of the Bensley and other companies. The Cabinet lay at Saucelito for a week, taking in water from the spring, wood from Angel Island, with fresh beef and the only vegetables the country afforded, which were chiefly potatoes of the size of a hickory nut, red beans, Indian corn, wheat, pumpkins or water-melons, and these in small quantities. The ship having taken on board her complement of wood and water, a boat was dispatched across the bay to Yerba Buena, which landed on the beach at what is now the corner of Sansome and Jackson streets. Peckham, who was one of the crew, without stopping to bid adieu to his ship-mates, abruptly took "French leave," got into the sand hills and brush, and never saw the Cabinet or her boat again. The Judge's outfit, when he bade farewell to that life which had so captivated him in his inexperienced youth, was one pair of old satinet unmentionables, prominently patched with cotton canvas; a red flannel shirt decidedly the worse for wear; an old Guernsey frock; a Scotch bonnet not too new; a pair of boots that had seen better days; and a commissariat consisting of four sca biscuit, popularly admitted as better fitted to sharpen the teeth than appease the appetite. At first he had no intention of proceeding into the interior, but simply thought to keep out of the way until the Cabinet had left, and then seek employment
773
BIOGRAPHIES-ADDENDA.
in the town. On the fourth day of his concealment, exhausted nature demanded nourishment, water was his chief want, he therefore wandered south, hoping to get out of the scrub-oaks, and see some habitation or person who could at any rate give him information as to if his vessel had put to sea. Late in the afternoon he came out on the Mission creek, above where the Mission Woolen Mills now stand. The stream was navigable far above that point, and there he found a small undecked schooner in charge of two men who spoke English, and who proved to be Mormons that had come out in the ship Brooklyn. One was named Austin, the other Q. L. Sparks, now a lawyer of San Bernardino. They were men having families and lived at the Mission Dolores, in the old mission buildings, in which were quartered several Mormons. In answer to their questions, Peckham told them the whole truth; in return they promised friendship; they had plenty of fresh beef and sea biscuit; a fire was made, the beef cut into slices, strung together on a stick, held before the fire until cooked, and here the Judge ate his first " square meal" in California. At dusk Sparks took him to his house, gave him a place to sleep, and on the following morning betook himself to Yerba Buena, to ascertain if the ship had taken her departure, reporting on his return, her still being anchored in the harbor. Sparks then told Peckham that he could stay with him as long as he desired; that he should have a place to sleep and such as he had to eat; and said he: " We are Mormons; we have some bad people among us, but average as well as anybody ; but, by having bad men among the Mormons, they, by their acts, have brought the whole Mormon people into trouble and disgrace. We are despised and persecuted because we are Mormons; but we have as much of the milk of human kindness, and know how to practice Christian charity as well as anybody." From thirty years' subsequent experience and knowledge of Mormon character, the Judge, putting no faith in any of their religious theories, believes, and openly maintams, the remarks made by his friend Sparks to be strictly true. Sparks is a man of over average intelli- gence, a good talker, was raised in Connecticut, had been a schoolmaster, and was then a preacher in the Mormon church. But to return to Judge Peckham. He accepted the situation and remained with Sparks for about ten days during which each learned to respect the other as they both were Yankees and had both been preceptors. But the Cabinet appeared deter- mined not to budge, our hero therefore, one fine morning, said farewell to his newly-found friends and started on foot towards San Jose. The road at that epoch was a horse-trail and passed around the base of San Bruno mount- ain by the bay. At the crossing of Islas creek he met a native Californian to whom he sold his boots, and made the rest of the journey bare-footed. The Judge remarks that walking upon the elover-burrs and prickly grass proved anything but interesting. His first night he passed at the Sanchez
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.