History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 100

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928

USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 100

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CHARLES F. LIETZ .- A business man to whom must be credited much of the prosperity for which Santa Clara and vicinity has long been noted, and whose operations have spelt success to others as well, is Charles F. Lietz, the affable and popular manager of the Santa Clara branch of Rosenberg Bros. & Company, wholesale dealers in and packers of dried fruits and nuts, at Santa Clara. His hard and conscientious work, and his faithful, painstaking attention to the wants of each and every patron, have enabled him to rise in the service of this well known and highly successful firm.

Mr. Lietz was born at Chicago on July 17, 1886, and having come to California, settled at San Jose, in 1903. He had received the best of public school advantages in the city by the lake, and had had the advantage of office experience with the B. F. Cum- mins Company, manufacturers of perforating ma- chines, in that city; and on resuming work here, he became a bookkeeper. His marriage united him with Miss Mabel Wight, a native of Iowa, and they have two children: Harold and Laura. The happy family reside at 32 Lenzen Avenue, San Jose, and are justly popular as neighbors fond of dispensing a hearty hospitality. Mr. Lietz belongs at present to San Jose Lodge No. 10, F. & A. M.

Like the other members of his family, Mr. Lietz holds the friends he makes, and forms friendships and friendly associations rapidly: and he has done much to further expand the gigantic operations of Messrs. Rosenberg Bros. & Company, undoubtedly the largest independent dried fruit firm in California. They have a very large establishment at Santa Clara, with tracks for switching to and from the Southern Pacific; and have a gigantic plant in Fresno and in many of the other largest fruit producing sections in California. All in all, theirs is an institution in the highest degree creditable to California, serving the public well, appreciating its employees, and being in turn appreciated by both those employed and the public that patronizes.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

CHARLES D. BEVERSON-Californians delight to honor the intrepid and far-seeing pioncer, whose courage, ambition and progressive industry have made possible so many of the blessings of today, having paved the way for those who were to come after; and among such worthy early settlers the name of the late Charles D. Beverson will find an enviable place. As has already been said of him, his career was remarkable, for he began the battle of life at an early age in a foreign country, and without capital worked liis way gradually and steadily into the foreground until he easily ranked among the most prosperous and successful stock raisers and fruit growers in Santa Clara County, where he had lived since the late '60s.

Mr. Beverson was born at Bremen, Germany, on April 10, 1850, the son of Clause and Mata (Jus- ton) Beverson, natives of the same locality, where they passed all their days. His father had a farm of 100 acres, rather large for that time and section, and by following agricultural pursuits supported his family of five children. The fourth child of the family, Charles, had only a common school educa- tion and at the age of fourteen left his home and crossed the Atlantic, and in New York he found such employment for three years as enabled him to support himself. Having heard much of California, however, he set out for the Pacific Coast in 1867, crossing by way of the Nicaraguan route, and final- ly reached the Golden Gate. He went into the San Joaquin River district for a while and spent the first season near Alice. Then he come to Santa Clara County and took up a claim of 160 acres twenty-three miles east of Milpitas, where with keen forcsight he began to raise cattle. He succeeded from the first and little by little made additional purchases, and thus came to own a fine ranch of 2,000 acres in that locality, and to keep 300 head of choice cattle and a number of horses. He also owned some eighty-six acres devoted to dairying at Laguna, where he milked twenty-five cows and made a fine grade of butter.

Mr. Beverson was twice married. At his first wedding he became the husband of Mrs. Jennie L. (Gallea) Williams, a daughter of Hiram D. and Amanda ( Kennedy) Gallea, the former a native of New York, the latter born in Ohio, both of Scotch origin, and they were the parents of seven children: Betsy, Mrs. Bancroft, died in Montana; Mrs. Helen Simpkins died in Michigan; Statira, Mrs. Harrison, died in Michigan; Mrs. Jennie L. Beverson died in California; Olive, the present Mrs. Beverson; Mrs. Orsie M. Ross of Michigan; Ebert died at the age of six months. Hiram D. Gallea engaged in farm- ing and stock raising at Belvidere, Ill., for five years, and while there raised a yoke of white oxen that were a dead match, and which took the blue rib- bon at every fair they were exhibited. Wishing to locate in Allegan County, Mich., he drove this span of oxen through to his destination, where he set- tled upon Government land, living there until his death at the age of sixty-seven, Mrs. Gallea passing away the same year, having reached her sixty-fifth year. Both were devout members of the Baptist Church. Mrs. Jennie L. Beverson first saw the light at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and when she passed away on the home ranch in Santa Clara County she was the mother of two surviving children: Robert L. Williams, always called Bob Beverson, was educated at the San Jose high school and Stanford University, and is now a popular young business man, engaged in the automobile trade at San Jose; Meta Ruth Bev-

erson, a graduate of the San Jose State Normal and a member of the State Teachers' Association, is teaching the Orchard School. Mr. Beverson's sec- ond marriage united him with Miss Olive S. Gallea, a sister of Mrs. Beverson; she was also a native of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, but was reared at Wat- son, Mich. Since her husband's death, on July 17, 1921, she has continued to live at the home place on the San Jose-Oakland Highway, devoted to his mem- ory and looking after the large interests left by her husband and carrying out his plans and ambitions. In her earlier years she was engaged in educational work, teaching school in Michigan, so she is natur- ally much interested in the career of her daughter, Miss Meta Beverson. Having been reared in an atmosphere of culture and refinement, she emanates an influence for good, and her stand for high ideals and morals is well known. Her patriotic zcal dur- ing the World War was helpful in the various war drives, and especially in the local chapter of the Red Cross, of which she was president. Of a pleas- ing personality, she is well known and much es- teemed, and her influence has been felt in her ac- tivity in social and civic circles.

A Republican in politics, Mr. Beverson was broad- minded in local affairs and served as a nonpartisan school trustee up to 1909. He was a charter member of the Fraternal Brotherhood and at the time of his death had been a member of that order for twenty- one years. Mr. Beverson always attributed most of his financial success in life to the devoted as- sistance of his wife, who capably looked after the financial end of his large business, thus making it pos- sible for him to devote all his time to stock raising and the improvement of his lands. A man of great energy, he was never idle and was active in his busi- ness affairs until a week before his passing away.

ROBERT A. FATJO .- An interesting representa- tive of an early Santa Clara family is Robert A. Fatjo, the affable manager of the Santa Clara Branch of the Bank of Italy. He is a son of the pioneer, Anton V. Fatjo, once a director of the old Santa Clara Valley Bank at Santa Clara, which was later absorbed by the Bank of Italy. He was town treas- urer for many years, and at his demise, in 1917, our subject succeeded him as city treasurer. He came to Santa Clara from Chile, South America, where he was born, and as he grew up here, he entered heartily into the building up and the upbuilding of both the city and county; and being public-spirited, and in no wisc a politician, he gave his salary as city treasurer to the Library, the Woman's Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the firemen of Santa Clara, and his son, Robert, is a chip off the old block, and does likewise.

The Fatjo family tree goes back to Barcelona, in Catalonia, Spain, and to the thirteenth century, and although many of them have since figured as mer- chants and bankers, our subject's ancestors were for the most part orchardists, viticulturists, agriculturists and dairy farmers. Grandfather Anton Fatjo was born in Spain, where he attended the Spanish schools until he was fourteen, when he began to prepare for the priesthood; but owing to his ill-health, it was determined to send him to Chile with a friend of the family, a merchant well acquainted there, and thus he rose to be a merchant himself, dealing in drygoods, and to marry Miss Marians Salcedo, a Chilean lady. In time they made a trip to Spain.

Olive y. Beverson

& D, Beverson

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

and while they were there, their youngest child, Luis M. Fatjo, was born. They had five children, and the second in the order of birth was Anton Fatjo, Robert A. Fatjo's father.

In 1849, Grandfather Fatjo came North from Chile to California, and at San Francisco hie engaged in wholesaling general merchandise, and he also estab- lished a retail store at Santa Clara, being one of the first extensive merchants here. He also started the first tannery in Santa Clara, the Eberhart Tan- ning Company, being its successor. He died in Santa Clara at the age of seventy-three, mourned as one of the truly "first citizens" of town and county.

Anton V. Fatjo, the father of our subject, mar- ried Mrs. Refugio (Malarin) Spence, a native of Monterey, a gifted and attractive woman who made many friends and was greatly missed when she died at Santa Clara in 1910. These good parents had two boys and a girl; Robert A., our subject, being the eldest, while the others are named Del- phine and Eugene.

Robert A. Fatjo was born at Santa Clara on December 13, 1876, and was educated at Santa Clara College. After this he took his place in the Santa Clara real estate office of Fatjo & Lovell, when his father went into banking; and later, in 1910, he organized the Mission Bank and was its president until 1917, when it was sold to the Bank of Italy. Since then, he has been the manager of the Santa Clara branch of the latter bank. Hc is also the vice-president of the Santa Clara Building and Loan Association, in which his father was treasurer, and he is a director in the Santa Clara Chamber of Com- merce. In national politics a Republican, he is ever ready to "boost" the locality in which he lives.

At Santa Clara, in 1902, Mr. Fatjo was married to Miss Teresa Farry, who was born and reared in that place; and their union has been blessed with the birth of two children,-Mary Teresa and Robert A. Jr. The family are members of St. Claire's Catholic Church at Santa Clara while Mr. Fatjo is a charter member of San Jose Council, Knights of Columbus, and is also a member of Santa Clara Parlor, N. S. G. W.

LOUIS LIEBER .- A man of artistic tastes and an able craftsman, Louis Lieber is easily recognized as the veteran commercial artist of San Jose. His business is conducted under the name of Lieber Signs and is located at 63 South Second Street. A native of Illinois, Mr. Lieber was born at Rock Island, on September 26, 1862, the youngest child in a family of three children. At the age of cleven he was brought to California by his father, who left him with an uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. A. Gerst- mayr, early residents of San Jose, and by them he was reared. He attended the public school until he was thirteen and then was apprenticed to a car- riage painter, remaining a little over two years, when he went to learn the trade of sign painter with D. Rinaldo, at that time the best of workmen in his line in the state. At these two trades he served about seven years and then, at the age of twenty, he went East and worked in several of the larger cities for about a year, coming back to San Jose to embark in business for himself and since then has built up and carried on a large business.

Though the earlier years of his cxistence was somewhat of a struggle, yet Mr. Lieber has always

chosen his associates among the best element of the city. He is a close friend of Eugene T. Sawyer, the historian of this work, whose literary and dra- matic ability he greatly admires. Mr. Lieber be- lieves that practice makes perfect and his decided talent for sign painting was developed until he be- canie very proficient in it. He has now been en- gaged in this work for himself for thirty-eight years and does work for the leading commercial houses and professional men in San Jose and also in that vicinity. He takes great pride in the achievements of San Jose and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. In the early days he took part in many amateur theatrical performances staged in San Jose. He has many warm friends among the old-time resi- dents and business people in San Jose who appreciate his talent and many sterling characteristics.

WILLIAM L. FITTS .- A pioneer family whose paternal and maternal branches both reach back to historic periods and touch some of the earliest and most interesting families long identified with Cali- fornia is well represented by William L. Fitts, the plumbing contractor of 51 West St. John Street, San Jose, who was born in Santa Clara, June 25, 1865. His father, William Fitts, came to California by way of the Isthmus in 1852 and married Dolores Pinedo, a member of a well-known Spanish family, who was educated at Notre Dame College. The old Pinedo estate at Santa Clara, recently sold by the family was a Pincdo possession for a hundred years. Our subject's Grandfather Pinedo was a mer- chant tailor at Santa Clara in the early days and his great-grandmother was a Berryessa.

William Fitts, Sr., ran a bus between San Jose and Santa Clara before the era of horse cars, and when they were built, he went to work for the car company. Then for six or seven years he was town marshal of Santa Clara, and when he removed to San Jose in 1881, he was appointed jailer under Sheriff Williams. After his term of four years he entered the employ of the horse-car line as superin- tendent, continuing about ten years until it was changed to an electric line. He then was employed by the city until his death, March 14, 1916, aged almost eighty years. His wife had preceded him in 1910. Eight daughters and three sons were born to this worthy couple and William L. was the eldest; Laura is Mrs. George Pollard, the wife of the assistant manager of the gas company; Charles, Lena, Carmelita, Ida and Minnic; Grace is Mrs. Sherburne; three of the children dicd.

William L. Fitts attended the primary department of the College of the Pacific and then completed the grammar schools; when sixteen years old he went to work at the plumbing business, joining John Cor- coran on January 23, 1882, and serving a three-year apprenticeship. Then he entered the service of John Stock and was with him for three years, and in 1890 opened a shop for himself. For thirty years or more his well-known plumbing and repair head- quarters were at 107 North First Street, but he is now comfortably established at 51 West St. John Street, where two of his sons are associated with him; thus he has followed plumbing in San Jose for forty years.

At San Jose, January 1, 1889, Mr. Fitts was mar- ried to Miss Katie Eyselee, a native of Gilroy, Cal., the daughter of Albert and Sarah (Plass) Eyselee.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

the father one of the early-timers at that place. having come from New York. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Fitts; William is a plumber, working with his father; Emery is an auto trimmer; Walter is also in business with his father; Dolores is Mrs. Walker; Katherine is head nurse at the State Hospital at San Francisco, and the youngest is Evelyn. Mr. Fitts belongs to the Red Men and the Eagles at San Jose.

AMOS LESTER .- The life record of an honor- able and upright citizen and an industrious and suc- cessful agriculturist and horticulturist is illustrated in the career of Amos Lester, prominent among the pioneer residents of Santa Clara Valley. Linked with the carly history of Ledyard, New London County, Conn., records chronicle the arrival of the Lester family there at almost the same time as the Ledyards, for whom the town was named; the bear- ers of the name of Lester reflected credit on the family through their patriotic service during the War of the Revolution. Grandfather Amos Lester, for whom the subject of this sketch was named, was probably born at Ledyard, and died there in 1842, at the age of sixty-six. Much of his life was spent at the old homestead, which housed three genera- tions of the family. There his son, Isaac Lester, was born on March 4, 1810, and there Amos Lester, the son of Isaac, first saw the light on December 3, 1839. Isaac Lester married Mary Chapman, born March 12, 1815, also a member of an old Colonial fam- ily of New London County, and the daughter of Ichabod Chapman, a prosperous farmer there, and two daughters and nine sons were born to them.

The eldest child in the family of Isaac Lester, Amos Lester grew up at the old home place, at- tending the public schools there, and then attend- ing the New Britain Normal School for two terms, after which he taught school for a time, receiving a salary of fourteen dollars a month, boarding around with the parents of the different pupils, as was the custom at that time. In 1861 he came to California via Panama and located on a ranch in Napa County ; he was accompanied by his brother Nathan L., their combined capital being less than a hundred dollars. He worked out until 1864, when the two brothers leased land and engaged in wheat growing, meet- ing with success, so that by 1866, Mr. Lester had accumulated $7500, so he decided to return to his Con- necticut home, making the trip by way of the Nicar- agua route. He soon established himself at Nor- wich, Conn., and on May 28, 1868, he was united in marriage with Miss Carrie G. Spicer, who was born at Ledyard, on May 28, 1850, one of eight chil- dren born to Judge Edmund and Bethiah W. (Avery) Spicer. Judge Spicer, who was born at Ledyard in 1812, was a man of prominence in his day, serv- ing as probate judge of his native town for fifteen years and was also a member of the Connecticut Legislature. He passed away in 1890, while Mrs. Spicer, who was born in 1817, had preceded him to the Great Beyond in March, 1886.

Mr. Lester continued in business in Connecticut un- til 1869, when California again called him. Making the trip by way of Panama, he settled at Pinole, where for two years he engaged in grain farming, returning to his native state by rail on this occasion. There he resumed farming on his place near Norwich and served as selectman of Ledyard. In 1890 he

again came West, this time accompanied by his wife and four children, and after spending a year near San Jose, he took up his home on the ranch four miles southeast of Gilroy that was for so many years the family home. Here he purchased 463 acres of land, and this was brought to a high state of culti- vation under his efficient and painstaking care. A number of acres were planted to fruit trees, and thorough in this as in all his work, Mr. Lester made an extensive study of horticulture, mastering the lat- est scientific methods of his time and applying them in a practical way to his problems as they arose. He also took his place in the business and financial life of California and was a member of the board of directors of the Napa Bank.

Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Les- ter, three of whom passed away in Connecticut: Mary Carrie at the age of sixteen, Amos Everett when twelve, and an infant son. Those now living are Henry W., a prominent orchardist of Edenvale, he married Ethel Cottle and they have a daughter, Edith Ethel; Charles C. married Henrietta Pieri, and is a large orchardist at Gilroy; John S., an orchardist at Rucker, married Viola Nichols; Minnie is the wife of Charles J. Clark and they have two sons, Charles L. and Everett Spicer, and reside in San Jose; Mil- ton married Norine Davis and they have a daughter, Florence; he is also an orchardist and resides at San Jose. Wishing to retire from active business life, Mr. Lester sold his ranch to his son, Charles C., and with his wife makes his home with his daugh- ter, Mrs. Clark, on Minnesota Avenue, San Jose, where they live in comfortable retirement. Mrs. Carrie Spicer Lester was reared in an atmosphere of culture and refinement in the New England home of her parents at Ledyard, Conn., and there she also learned the habits of thrift and economy. The benefi- cent influence of her early training she carried with her to her western home, thus capably guiding the education and training of her children. A woman of much business acumen, she has materially aided her husband and encouraged him in his ambitions, as- sisting him to make a success of all his affairs, so now in the afternoon of their life they are enjoy- ing the fruits of a well-spent life and are honored and esteemed by everyone who knows them. Mr. and Mrs. Lester are both consistent Republicans and throughout their life have been identified with the Presbyterian Church, of which Mr. Lester was for many years an elder.

OSCAR E. GLANS .- A native-born citizen of California, and a son of Olaf S. Glans, a pioneer of the early '70s, a native of Sweden. Oscar E. Glans has always taken great interest in the welfare of the state, and by his industry and strict attention to business has succeeded in his chosen life work. He was born in San Jose April 29, 1885, where his boy- hood was spent and where he received his education in the public schools, supplementing this with a course at the Alexander Hamilton Institute of New York City. His life has been spent in learning various lines, first working as a cigar maker for five years, then in a bakery for one year; then he became a cobbler. In this line of work he soon became very efficient, becoming an expert operator on shoe-repairing machinery. He then entered the employ of J. E. Stuart, one of San Jose's leading shoe dealers, and worked as shoe repairman for one

Amos Lester

Carrie G. Lester.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

year. For the next ten years he worked as sales- man with this firm. In July, 1913, he began working for Walter Brodey, owner and proprietor of the Walk-Over Boot Shop, and in one year was ad- vanced to the position of manager, where he has remained up to the present time.

Mr. Glans' marriage occurred in June, 1911, and united him with Miss Josephine Peterson. a daugh- ter of J. M. Peterson, a pioneer of Santa Clara County, now deccased. They are the parents of two children, Florence and Eugene. The family are active and prominent members of the Immanuel Swedish Lutheran Church; Mr. Glans serving on the board of trustees and Mrs. Glans being active in musical lines. Mr. Glans is identified with the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants Asso- ciation, and of Observatory Parlor No. 177, N. S. G. W. Personally he is a man of culture, with busi- ness ability, energy and earnestness of purpose, and has made his presence felt in the community which has numbered him among its citizens since his birth.

JAMES MURRIN .- A retired merchant whose years of strenuous, fruitful activity well merited a comfortable competency and rest, is James Murrin of 795 South Ninth Street, San Jose, which city he has seen grow from a very small place, and where he was born, on September 7. 1858, on Third Street near the present site of the Jewish Synagogue. His parents were Michael and Ann (Cogan) Murrin, and they were natives of County Sligo, Ireland, who came to New York when they were young. Michael Murrin continued in that metropolis until 1855, working as a laborer. and on coming to California, by way of Panama, he stopped for a short time at Oakland. The city did not appeal to him, however, and so he proceeded on to San Jose. For two or three years he continued to work for wages, and then he went in for landscape gardening, in which field he did very well. This sturdy pioneer, who died in 1915 respected of all men, lived to be ninety years old. although his good wife, also beloved by those who knew her well, reached only her seventy-sixth year. They had a family of seven children of whom James was the fifth.

Growing up in San Jose, the lad enjoyed only a brief grammar school training, and few additional favorable opportunities, and when eighteen years old he started to make his own way in the world. He worked for ten years in the store of James Hart. the grocer who was called the Coffee King, and then he opened a grocery for himself, on Keyes Street in San Jose, and for twenty-five years engaged in business at that stand. Then he sold out and retired from active life. Except for a short time in San Francisco, Mr. Murrin has spent all of his life in San Jose, and it is natural that he should look backward and forward with peculiar interest.

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History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 100

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846- Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1928

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928