USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California : including its geography, geology, topography, climatography and description > Part 88
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Ranch (now Milbrae, in San Mateo county), where he found no one with whom to converse, but discovered hanging in the cook-house a bounteous supply of fresh beef, some of which he cut, cooked and ate. He slept on the earthern floor, near the fire, without covering, turning first one side and then the other to the blaze to keep warm. The following day brought him to the ranch of John Coppinger, then known as the Pulgas Redwoods, now called the Valley of San Raymundo. Here he found eight or ten English-speaking people, most of them old runaway sailors, who were engaged in sawing lumber for the markets at Yerba Buena and Pueblo de San José. At this place he remained a few days, when the arrival of a schooner at Embarca- dero (now called Ravenswood) from Yerba Buena, for a cargo of lumber, was reported. The next morning he proceeded to the craft to seek intelligence of his own ship. He found the drogher in an estuary about two miles from the bay, lying by the bank, the water being deep enough at high tide to float her and her cargo, but, at low tide, the muddy bottom was bare. She was commanded by an Italian, who had for his mate a red-whiskered, sandy-complexioned man named Davis, and another individual for his crew. Peckham told them his story, and was assured that the Cabinet had sailed; he then sought permission to attach himself to the schooner and work his passage back to Yerba Buena, which was granted. We will now relate the first of the Judge's numerous, Californian experiences: They were engaged in loading the vessel about the middle of the afternoon, the tide being out and the bottom of the estuary bare of water, the schooner lying easily, her keel embedded in the mud, when a native Californian came down on horseback, dismounted, took his riata (a long, braided rawhide rope with a running noose, used in lassoing wild horses and cattle), placed the loop around the horse's neck, tied the other end to the rigging of the vessel, and, with the Captain, went down into the cabin. It was the first opportunity Peckham had had of examining closely a Californian saddle and bridle and they imme- diately attracted his attention. Having scrutinized both very attentively, and patted the horse which appeared to be very gentle, the notion suddenly seized him that he would like to test the comfort of the seat. Without untying the animal, he placed his foot into the stirrup and sprang in, but no sooner had he reached his goal than the horse starting at a gallop, quickly attained the end of the riata, and then commenced to retreat by a series of backward jumps which carried him off the bank where he was mired down half buried in the mud and incapable of further exertion. The rider struck feet down and went half his length in the mud, about ten feet from the horse; he extricated himself but the horse had to be aided. The owner, hearing the rumpus, rushed on deck, and, taking in the position at a glance, delivered himself of a very lengthy and eloquent address in Spanish, the only portion of which now recollected by the Judge is the word " car-rah-ho." As night
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arrived the schooner was loaded, and a start made for Yerba Buena, but when off San Mateo she was found to be sinking, and finally run ashore in a cove on the east side of San Bruno mountain. On this voyage the mate, Davis, spoke freely and unreservedly of his former exploits as a pirate on the Mississippi, and of the crimes committed by himself and the gang with which he was there connected. He afterwards became a noted highwayman and desperado in California, under the name of " Red Davis," and was, about the . year 1852, captured and hanged by the people in the city of Stockton. Peck- ham now returned to his old friends and quarters, and learned that the Cabinet had not sailed but that the story told him on the schooner had been done for the purpose of getting him to Yerba Buena in the hope of securing a reward for his delivery on board. After staying a few days at the Mission Dolores, the Judge returned to the Pulgas Redwoods, where shortly after encountering Dennis and Jackson Bennett he accompanied them to their home at the Santa Clara Mission, where also dwelt their mother, an estim- able lady, who afterwards became the wife of Captain Harry Lane, the cap- turer of the celebrated bandit Joaquin Marietta. For this woman Peckham performed his first day's work for wages in California, washing wheat in the little lake by the Cook place, near the present town of Santa Clara. He was bare-footed, so she let him have a pair of shoes for four dollars, and he was to work it out, washing wheat at one dollar per day. On the third day, while at work, he was surprised to hear his name called, and on turning round found the voice to proceed from his friend Sparks, and with him pro- ceeded to the San Joaquin valley, where, in company with a party of Mor- mons, they founded the first permanent settlement in that great vale, on a spot situated on the north bank of the Stanislaus river a mile and a half above its junction with the San Joaquin. Here they commenced to till the soil. and eighty acres had been sown and inclosed by the middle of January, 1847. About this time, feeling disgusted at his unimproved prospects. Peckham determined to leave the San Joaquin and try his luck in the vicin- ity of San Jose which, however, he did not reach without considerable diffi- culty. The Winter of 1846-7 was particularly wet and stormy overflowing the banks of the rivers, creeks and sloughs. After having floated down the Stanislaus to the San Joaquin which he crossed in a canoe, it being then three miles wide, he made what he then believed to be the Livermore Pass, but now known to be Corral Hollow, therefore, at daylight he retraced his steps into the valley and struck the emigrant trail. Receiving kind care at Livermore's he passed the Mission at San Jose at sundown on the following day ; keeping on he crossed the Milpitas rancho, wading for a inile through water from six to twelve inches deep. About ten o'clock he forded the Coyote creek, waist deep, where the road now crosses to Milpitas, and about an hour after discovered a light some distance to the right of the road,
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which proved to be an Indian village that stood on the site now oecu- pied by the Woolen Mills at San Jose. Here he slept. In the morning the first sight almost which greeted his eyes was the American Flag floating over the pueblo, but instead of entering the town he crossed over to Mother Bennett's, as she was called, in Santa Clara. She was glad he had come. The military officers had told her that the Mission orchard was Government property, and subject to pre-emption, and she was alone with her girls; her three sons were away, Winston, with Fremont's Battalion; Dennis a soldier in the pueblo; and Jackson was laid up with a wound received in the battle of Santa Clara. She wanted a worker to take possession of the orchard for her; plow it up and put in a crop of wheat. A bargain was inade and the next morning the Judge, for the second time, entered the employ of this lady, his wages being thirty dollars a month. This day he got a gun, went out, shot some geese and in the evening returned to the house, where he was given a back room, a candle, and an Indian as room-mate; no bed, no blankets, no floor, neither chair nor stool, and no fire. While here en veloped in reflection Peckham overheard the eldest daughter say: "Mother, let us ask that man in to sit with us by the fire," to which generous appeal she received the bluff reply: " No! let him stay out there with the Indian. It is good enough for him." After a spell his supper was sent in. It, consisted of a little Indian corn, roasted on the cob before the fire, shelled off, ground up in a coffee mill and saturated with water. The Ju lge says, " This was all right for it was all she had for herself and family, but the warm fire was a different consideration." He therefore thought soldiering was preferable, so the next morning he came to the Pueblo de San Jose and enlisted. This was January 29, 1847; the day after he completed his twentieth year. In the latter part of February he received his discharge and entered the store of Dr. Stokes where he received much kindness and attention, and with whom he remained until the month of May when the Doctor disposing of his stock-in-trade, Peckham was thrown out of employment, although he made his home with Joseph T. Ruckel, one of the firm who had purchased Stokes' store, until the following year, during which he essayed as a car- penter. About this period gold was discovered, and such was the rush to the mines that in a little Peckham and Frank Lightston were the only adults remaining in San Jose. About the last of June some of the gold- seekers returned to look after their affairs, full of astonishing stories of the new discoveries, which they were able to verify, by the gold which they had brought with them. Some of those who had gone from San Jose had got four, eight, and twelve, while some as high as twenty thousand dollars. Peckham could stand it no longer. About the 4th July, 1848, he started to the mines in company with Charles White and William Daniels, at the end of a week's travel finding most of the San Jose people in a place they had named Weber's
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Creek. The stories he had heard were no fabrication. It was no object to work for less than sixteen, while there were some earning as high as from two to four hundred dollars per day. Here Peckham remained but a few days, removing then to Coloma, where the "yellow stuff" was first discov- ered, and there was placed in charge of his store by Sam. Brannan, but was shortly relieved by William Stout, one of the partners. From Coloma, the Judge proceeded to New Helvetia, and as a salesman took charge of the wholesale establishment there, the largest and best stocked store in the coun- try, where he continued until early in October, when the enterprise at Coloma was closed out, Stout taking charge of that at Sacramento (New Helvetia) and parted with Peckham, between whom there had been some misunderstanding. A traveling expedition to the mines was now planned between him and a Scotch graduate of the Edinburgh University named Perkins. They purchased two thousand dollars' worth of goods on credit and hired a two-mule wagon to take them to what is now called Big Bar, on the Mokelumne river. Their ronte lay along the emigrant road to San José across the Cosumne and Mokelumne rivers and then up the latter on the south side about thirty miles into the mountains. In the crossing of the last-named stream, the wagon was upset, the goods saturated and such things as pilot-bread and sugar completely destroyed; thence, the route lay through the mountains; on the second day from the ford, they reached the summit of a high hill overlooking the deep valley at its base and observed the blue, curling smoke of a camp-fire. In a twinkling the hill-sides were peopled with Indians, men, women and children, coming to survey the wagon. Some uneasiness was felt as to what was to be the character of the meeting, but when within about four hundred yards, one of the Indians was heard to call out in Spanish, "Es el Cierbo" (it is the Elk), a nick-name by which the Judge is still known among them, he found he was among friends for the remark had proceeded from a young Indian who had lived with Charles M. Weber, in San José. Descending the hill they found, besides the Indians collecting gold in the river, Thomas Fallon and his stock of goods; he had been there but a few months and had already realized a fortune. Here Peckham and Perkins pitched their camp, sent the team back to Sutter's Fort and commenced retailing their stores. They had been established in this place only three days when Fallon received a message from his brother that a gulch of fabulous richness had been discovered by him only sixteen miles distant. The next day a general exodus took place, Peckham and his partner joining n the hegira, taking with them the balance of their stock on pack-mules. On arrival, they found their fountain of riches being drained by hundreds-the news had leaked out. General Castro was here, seeking fortune like the rest, while, a man in his employ found lying on the top of the ground a piece of pure gold weighing twenty-one ounces,
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which Judge Peckham secured in exchange for five pairs of blankets. In less than a week our hero and Perkins had disposed of the remainder of their goods, they therefore, the mining season being over, returned on foot to New Helvetia, there to pass the Winter. Arriving at the Fort, a division of profits was made, the net proceeds being three thousand dollars, obtained in about four weeks. On his way Peckham met a party of immigrants who had crossed the mountains that year from the Mississippi valley, under the leadership of Joe Childs, by way of the Carson river and Piacerville. In this train was a young lady, Ann E. Smith, to whom he was married in San Francisco, January 14, 1849, and where he obtained the position of salesman in the wholesale house of David Dring, where he spent the Winter. In the following month the Judge moved from San Francisco to San Jose, invested his money in city lots, and went to work at the trade of carpentering; but the time had come when a better class of workmen were to be had, he therefore abandoned this occupation and went to Campbell's redwoods, above the place now known as Saratoga, where he passed the Summer sawing logs, making from twenty to thirty dollars per day. In the month of August he proceeded to Sacramento, and purchased an ox-team for the purpose of drawing lumber from the redwoods, then a lucrative business. He drove his oxen to San Francisco, turned them out to grass, and never saw them alive again; they were found some days subsequently, dead in the mire, at the present corner of Fourth and Folsom streets in that city. He next determined to turn his attention to merchandising in San José ; purchased a stock of dry goods and groceries, and returned. He erected a tent of blue drilling, and started a store in it on Market Square; here passed the Winter and until the following May. It was about this time that he determined to commence the study of law ; to this end he bought two books, borrowed a couple more, and sat down to his task without a legal guide, philosopher or friend. So engrossed did he become in his new research that he did not pay proper attention to his mer- cantile affairs, which naturally resulted in complete failure. Being nom- inated in February, 1850, for the office of County Attorney, but it was necessary that the gentleman holding that position should be an admitted lawyer; he therefore passed an examination-not a very arduous one, the Judge admits-and received a certificate from Judges Redman and Kincaid. The successful candidate on the occasion was the Whig nominee, John H. Moore. On the opening of the District Court in San José, Peckham made application, was admitted to the Bar, and forthwith hung out his shingle as Attorney-at-Law, but business coming not, on account of the better-known and older opposition against which he had to contend, he settled up his affairs in San José, and removed to Monterey, where he sojourned until the Spring of 1851. Now the Judge resolved to try his hand at farming; he
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consequently removed to Salinas, took up a quarter-section of what was represented to him by the adjoining ranch-owners as public land, but which they afterwards managed to get surveyed into a grant, and thus became, unwittingly. the first squatter in the valley. He fenced in forty acres and sowed it with grain, but 1851 proving a dry season it did not yield the seed. His house was made a station for Hall & Crandall's line of stages from San José to Monterey, getting enough for keeping a span of horses to pay his expenses for beef, hard-bread, sugar and coffee, meanwhile keeping up his legal studies. In the Fall of 1851 he moved to Santa Cruz, entered into partnership with George W. Crane, and was very successful. The partnership, however, not lasting long, the Judge went into business on his own account, one of his first elients being his old acquaintance, Mrs. Bennett, who was naturally much surprised to find her quondam " help " a full-fledged lawyer, with a lucrative practice. In 1853 he was elected to the office of District Attorney of Santa Cruz county, and served three years in that capacity. In the same year he conducted the case Kettleman rs. Graham for the plaintiff, having as his opponents D. S. Gregory, and the late General E. D. Baker, when he received very high praise from the entire Bar, but more especially from ex-Governor Burnett, then a prominent member of the legal fraternity of San José. On his return to Santa Cruz he was engaged in a case with Judge Ord to dissolve an injunction in the case of Gregory vs. Hay, there being about twenty thousand dollars involved, while shortly after this he was admitted to prac- tice in the Supreme Court. He soon began to feel that he had secured the confidence of the people, as also that of the Courts, and the leading members of the profession as well. In less than two years he was allowed by the Judges of the Supreme Court to have attained a legal knowledge of a high order, while he had made for himself a State reputation. His cases in Santa Cruz and Monterey were mostly those springing from disputes in regard to land, involving, occasionally, sums of great magnitude, most of which were settled before he left that quarter. He was elected and served one term as County Judge of Santa Cruz. In 1863 he returned to San José and entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1865 he joined Judge Payne in busi- ness, a copartnership which existed until 1870. In 1868, fearing the loss of eyesight and memory, he went to the Eastern States, visited every cele- brated battle-field, and every noted city, made himself cognizant with the working of several manufactories, especially those in woolen goods, and, on his return to San José, determined to start a mill for that class of fabric, which, after years of toil and unceasing energy he has succeeded in doing, until now it is one of the best pieces of property in California. His trouble in getting it upon a paying basis will be found fully explained on page 524 of this work. He has a family of nine children, the following being
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their names and dates of birth: William Henry, born November 17, 1849; Martha Jane, born October 17, 1851; James Albert, born March 11, 1854; Mary Augusta, born October 20, 1855: Sarah Frances, born June 24, 1857 ; Lois Aureline, born September 30, 1859; Lucy Josephine, born October 4, 1861; Benjamin Lincoln, born October 27, 1865; Leah Caroline, born Octo- ber 3, 1867.
Joseph E. Rucker. Is the eldest son of William T. and Veranda S. Rucker, and was born in Howard county, Missouri, December 21, 1831. When a year old his parents took him to Saline county, where he received his education, and learned farming. In May, 1852, he started for California with a drove of cattle, and occupying five months in driving them across the plains, he finally arrived in Santa Clara county, October 1st of that year. He at once proceeded to the redwoods, but after working only nine days, he was stricken with typhoid fever and obliged to return to the valley. On regaining his strength he commenced working on the farm of James Williams, and with him remained during the year, all but one month, dur- ing which he planted a crop of potatoes on his own account. He received wages at sixty-five dollars per month from December, 1852, for the whole year. On the expiration of his term in December, 1853, Mr. Rucker, with his father, took up a claim about two miles west from Santa Clara, where he remained until 1856, when he disposed of his land, and moved to Gilroy, where he combined merchandising with stock-raising and farming. From the proceeds of the stock there raised he purchased two hundred and forty acres of land. The farm he left in 1861, and moved on the Salice ranch, he having previously purchased it. Here he remained till the Fall of 1864, when he went on a farm about four and a half miles south from Santa Clara. In August, 1874, Mr. Rucker moved on to a ten-acre tract at The Willows, and thence to E street, San José. At that date he opened a real estate and insurance office in the Commercial Bank Building, and has since been joined by Robert Page, which partnership is carried on under the style and firm of Rucker & Page. Mr. Rucker is also the possessor of three hundred acres of land in San Bernardino county. He married, September 27, 1855, Susan Brown, a native of Missouri, who came to California in 1850, and has: William B., born February 6, 1857; Mary E., born August 16, 1858; James T., and Samuel N. (twins), born April 16, 1862; Joseph H., born March 23, 1865; Susan W., born March 5, 1867; Lucy M., born May 31, 1869.
John H. Russell. Was born in Cook county, Illinois, July 16, 1843. He received his primary education in the common schools of the district, and was a student in the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Illinois. At the beginning of the Civil War, August 5, 1861, at the age of eighteen years,
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he enlisted in Company F, Thirty-ninth Illinois Volunteers, and with his regiment joined Fremont's command in Missouri; from thence were ordered to proceed to the upper Potomac, where they served during the Winter of 1861-62, and were assigned to duty as guard to the workmen who were rebuilding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, until its completion to Martins- burg, Virginia, when they were attached to General Shield's Division; par- ticipated in the battle of Winchester or Kernstown, March 23, 1862, and the long and arduous marches, counter-marches, skirmishes, and battles, which followed in the Shenandoah valley; thence proceeded to re-enforce MeClel- lan's Army, and arrived during the progress of the battle of Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862; covered the retreat of the Potomac Army from the Peninsula; garrisoned Suffolk, Virginia, until January, 1863; and were transferred to the Department of North Carolina and sailed with General Foster's expedi- tion to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and were actively engaged in the cam- paigns that followed-the siege and capture of Morris Island, Forts Wagner and Gregg, erection of the "Swamp Angel," and the battering down of Fort Sumter. Our subject re-enlisted in the same regiment, which, after a short furlough home joined the Army of the James, and was assigned to the Tenth Corps, and were almost constantly engaged in action during the memorable campaign of 1864, at Bermuda Hundred, Deep Bottom, and before Peters- burg. Early in 1865, our subject was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant, and subsequently First Lieutenant, and transferred to the Thir- ty-eighth Regiment U. S. C. F., and as such served in front of Richmond, and was among the first to lead his company into that city, April, 1865. Was appointed Regimental Quartermaster, in June, of the same year, when his regiment sailed for Texas with the Twentieth Corps, and performed frontier service along the Rio Grande, until February, 1867, when his command was mustered out of service. He now bade adieu to military life, returned home, entered the Chicago University, and graduated from the law department, and came to California. Was married to Cornelia E. Cadwell, since which time he has been a resident of San José. Was Deputy City Clerk from April, 1879, to October, 1880, and Deputy County Clerk from that date to the present writing. Has two children, viz .: Jessie Eleanor, born September 12, 1870; and Gilbert H., born October 18, 1872.
Givens George. Born in Callaway county, Missouri, January 11, 1830, where he was educated, learned the trade of printer, and followed it until coming to California, by the way of the plains. He, accompanied by his father and brother, arrived September 19, 1849, and halted at Placerville, then known by the rather onimous name of Hangtown. Here Mr. George mined until 1850. He now determined to return to the Eastern States, and proceeding via Nicaragua where he remained five months; on reaching his
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destination he entered upon the study of medicine. This, however he aban- doned, and returning to California in 1852, came to San José, Santa Clara county, in the month of December, and became engaged with F. B. Murdoch & Emerson in the publication of the Santa Clara Register. January 4, 1854, he commenced issuing the Semi- Weekly Tribune, and continued it until 1859, when he sold to George O'Daugherty, and went to Sacramento, where he was employed on the Union and Bee, until the Spring of 1861, when he returned to San Jose. Mr. George now established himself in the auction and commission business in that city, which he conducted until 1870, when he opened a saloon, in which occupation he has been since engaged. On April 1, 1881, in company with Rudolph Hoelby, he opened the elegant and spa- cious establishment at the Auzerais House, as well as that at 286 First street. Givens George is one of the pioneers of Santa Clara county, of which he is a permanent resident. He owns a commodious residence on Third street, San José. Married, October 25, 1855, Mary Frances Wilburn, a native of Mis- souri, and has seven children living : Ida, Mattie, William B., Charles, Frank Wilburn, Alfred and Everett Stone; and one child dead.
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