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 143

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 143

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In December 1898 the library was moved to a room on Emerson street, now occupied by Crandall's Homeware Store, and in the following January Miss Anne Hadden was appointed librarian at a salary of $15 and the free use of a rear room. The latter was later given up and the salary raised to $30. In Oc- tober, 1899, the town voted to appropriate $20 per month to the Library, and this was continued for nearly three years, although the Woman's Club con- tinued in control and made up the amount necessary for running expenses with subscriptions, entertain- ments and other activities. In January, 1902, the town's appropriation was raised to $50 per month By October, 1902, the Woman's Club had received and expended $4258 and was spending about $1200 per year. With 2300 books on the shelves it was felt that the institution was large enough to be taken over by the town officially. This was done by the adop- tion of an ordinance establishing a public library and levying a tax of one mill for its support, this yielding an income of $1076. The first board, which took of- fice on October 15, 1902, was composed of J. S. Lakin, Mrs. Mary Roberts Smith, Mrs. Dane Cool- idge, Mrs. A. F. Wallace, A. S. Ferguson, and B. F. Hall. Miss Elizabeth Hadden was appointed as- sistant librarian, to serve without pay.

By the early part of 1903 the growth of the lib- rary showed that a new building was a necessity and an appeal was made to Andrew Carnegie. This was presented in person to Mr. Carnegie's secretary by J. F. Parkinson, and shortly after Mr. Parkinson's return from New York word came that $10,000 would be given on the usual terms, that a site should be

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provided and an amount equal to at least 10 per cent of the gift appropriated annually. The Board of Trade undertook to secure the lot and raise the amount necessary to purchase it. A committee con- sisting of Prof. Fernando Sanford, George R. Parkin- son, and C. S. Downing, was appointed to handle the matter, and through their efforts the site at the corner of Hamilton avenue and Bryant street was selected from among half a dozen or more offered. The purchase price, $2170, was met by private sub- scription and appropriation from the treasury of the organization. $100 was also donated by the Board of Trade for a corner stone. On November 10, 1903, the corner stone was laid, with Prof. A. B. Show as master of ceremonies. Mrs. Gilbert read a historical paper, an address was made by Prof. Nathan Abbott of the Stanford law department, and President Jor- dan told of the visit of Andrew Carnegie twelve years before, when he suggested that Palo Alto would some day be ready to receive his donation for a lib- rary. But as that was in the days of the box car depot, Mr. Carnegie thought it scarcely likely that he would be called upon. The new library was opened with a public reception on November 1, 1904. With a building and fixtures representing a cost of $10,939.48, the town was at last possessed of a real library and one that it was felt would be sufficient for the needs of the community for many years to come. Miss Frances D. Patterson had been added to the staff in 1903, and in 1908 a third assistant, Miss Ethel P. Gale, was appointed. Miss Anne Hadden, who had been librarian since her appointment in 1899, resigned in September, 1913, to take charge of the Monterey County Library, and Miss Patterson was appointed to the chief position.

There have been various changes in both staff and trustees since the opening of the new building. With the growth of the city the demands upon the staff have become more and more exacting, but it has not been found possible to increase the number of employees, even with an additional amount granted in taxes, the money, as far as possible, having been put into increases of salaries of those already em- ployed, until these salaries are now more nearly ap- proaching what is felt to be a fair return for trained employees. But the most serious problem has been to provide more room. Various methods were at- tempted to solve the problem, a second and a third appeal being made to the Carnegie fund without suc- cess, and two bond elections being held for building and ground for an addition, both lacking the neces- sary two-thirds vote. By 1921 even the public began to realize that the library must be enlarged if it was to keep pace with the demands upon it and with the growth of the community dependent upon the library, a population far exceeding the political boundaries of the city proper. A campaign was started by the Civic League under the direction of Mrs. Theodore Hoover which resulted through private subscriptions and the holding of a May Day Fete in the raising of enough money to purchase the lot adjoining the building for an addition and leave a balance for the purchase of furniture and necessary equipment for the new building. On November 15, 1921, bonds to the amount of $40,000 for an addition to the Library were carried by a large majority, the vote heing the largest ever cast at a bond election. This addition will be completed by October 1, 1922, and will make a building of which Palo Alto may well be proud.

PACIFIC MANUFACTURING COMPANY .- Prominent among the important industrial concerns to which Santa Clara County is indebted for much of the rapid, yet sound and permanent development which has of late made this section one of the most progressive of all the counties of the Golden Gate, is the Pacific Manufacturing Company, for the past thirty-five years under the able management of its president, James H. Pierce. His father, the late James P. Pierce, had been president before him, and ever since the latter's death James H. has had the reins well in hand. Associated with him are J. G. Kennedy, manager of the San Francisco office; Her- bert J. Quinn, manager of the Los Angeles branch, and R. T. Pierce, secretary and treasurer, another de- pendable official with a record of thirty-five years of service. The directors are: James H. Pierce, J. G. Kennedy, R. T. Pierce, J. L. Pierce (son of R. T. Pierce), of San Jose, L. L. Morse and F. A. Birge of San Francisco, and W. F. Hayward. The concern employs five hundred men, the year around, and has its main office at Santa Clara, and is, without doubt, the most substantial industry in Santa Clara County, and the largest manufacturing concern of its kind in the State of California.

This company, founded with such foresight by the late James Pieronnett Pierce, and guided so admirably by James Henry Pierce, his son, and those happily associated with him, has a most interesting history, as recently outlined in the Pacific Factory Developer. In 1875, the Pacific Manufacturing Company started with a small planing mill and lumber yard to supply the local needs of the town of Santa Clara, and ever since this progressive company has steadily enlarged its scope of work and field of operations, until now its business covers all of California, the Hawaiian Islands and extends as far east as Utah. The company for many years has been a prominent factor in the build- ing up of San Francisco, particularly so since the great fire in 1906. Many of San Francisco's principal build- ings bear convincing evidence of the quality of the work turned out by the Santa Clara mill. We may mention the St. Francis and Palace hotels, the Hum- boldt and First National banks, and the Southern Pacific and Balfour-Guthrie buildings as testimonials of its handicraft, and several of the many buildings which are now under construction in the Bay Cities.

The company ranks high among the sash and door factories of the state. However, its specialty is fine, hardwood, interior finishings, and the quality of the work it turns out in this line is recognized by different architects throughout California as being unsurpassed. The company maintains a mill and lumber yard at Santa Clara, covering an area of twenty acres, and a private switch connects with the Southern Pacific Railroad, so as to facilitate the handling of its large output, and for receiving Inmber and raw materials. In a recent interview, W. F. Hayward, the popular representative of the Santa Clara office, said that his company had been doing a capacity business for some time past, which necessitated the employment of be- tween 500 and 600 people. During the war the Pacific Manufacturing Company made a specialty of airplane parts, and received much praise from the Government on the quality of the finished work. Pioneers in their line, the Pacific Manufacturing Company are always in a position to render excellent service, and all work turned out by them is known only as the best.

P. Nella Rogers-

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

R. NELLA ROGERS .- A naturally-gifted, thor- oughly trained, and highly-accomplished musician and instructor in music, who has done much, in de- veloping and raising the standard of her department, to make the College of the Pacific one of the very best educational institutions in all the west, is R. Nella Rogers, the teacher of voice culture, and mu- sical favorite in San Jose, where she is known as a soloist, as well as at Helen Guth Hall, where her pleasing personality makes it a pleasure to reside. She was born near Princeton, Bureau County, Ill., the daughter of Andrew Rogers, a native of Eng- land, a cabinet maker and a furniture dealer at Princeton, Ill., and also a landowner. While in Illinois, he married Miss Mary Ross Whitney, a na- tive of Ohio. Her maternal great-grandfather came from England and settled in Maine where her grand- father, Ephraim Whitney, was born; her grand- father afterwards settled in Ohio where he was mar- ried to Miss Edith Ross, a native of the Buckeye State, a daughter of Squire Wm. Ross, who was mayor of Urichsville, Ohio, for forty years. Miss Ross was very musical and had a splendid voice much appreciated in those days and their children were all talented as musicians. Miss Rogers' mother also possessed a beautiful soprano voice and was in demand for church singing. She spent her last days in Los Angeles. She was the mother of three chil- dren, one of whom is now deceased. Edith E., a sister of our subject, is the wife of J. A. Shank, a dealer in lumber and fuel in Spokane.

As a little girl, Nella Rogers came to Jefferson, lowa, brought there by her mother; for her father had died three months before her birth. She at- tended both the common and high schools at Jeffer- son, and in time matriculated at the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin College, Ohio, where she studied both voice and piano; then she became a teacher of voice and piano in the Conservatory of Music of Grand Prairie Seminary at Onarga, Ill. During this period she did concert work throughout the state of Illinois. Meanwhile she made two trips to Europe; the first time she studied at Hanover and then found her way to Weimar, the classic city in which Liszt lived and taught; and there she became a pupil of Frau von Milda. Her second trip she went first to Berlin, where she studied under Georges Gra- ziani; and in Paris she took instruction from Mme. de la Grange. Her mother meantime had married a second time to Mr. Charles Fellows Peck of New London, Conn., had removed to Fremont, Nebr., and on her return from abroad Miss Rogers joined her mother in that city and the two immediately made preparations to come to Los Angeles, Cal., to spend the winter. Dr. Eli McClish, who had been president of Grand Prairie Seminary, while she was a teacher there, had become president of the Uni- versity of the Pacific (now the College of the Pacific) and learning that Miss Rogers was in California tendered her the position of teacher of voice, which she accepted, coming immediately and taking up her work in 1897; since 1899 she has been the head of the department of voice culture. In 1911 she studied with William Shakespeare of London, England, while that celebrated musician was teaching in Los An- geles, and in the summer of 1916, she was a pupil of Dudley Buck in New York; she also studied un- der Kronberg of Boston, and during 1917, 1918 and 1919, she was a student at the McBurney studios,

in Chicago. How enthusiastically progressive she is may be gathered from the fact that for four consecu- tive years she has gone East for graduate work.

As a soloist with an exceptionally pleasing mezzo- soprano voice, Miss Rogers has been singing in the First Congregational Church in San Jose for the past nine years; and she has frequently contributed to public programs of various kinds, favoring her audiences with her talent. With practical experience in oratorio work in America, and a thorough and broad knowledge of musical conditions in the musi- cal centers of the Old World, as well as in the United States, Miss Rogers has been of inestimable service to many an aspirant, in developing real tal- ent, and in encouraging the ambitious to reach the highest possible goal.

JAMES FRED PAYNE .- Among the worthy pioneers of Santa Clara Valley who did much to in- crease the resources of the county was the late James Fred Payne who was born in Columbia Coun- ty, N. Y., March 20, 1833, a son of William Payne, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1799. John Payne, the paternal grandfather, was also a native of Yorkshire and in 1802 brought his family to New York, locating in Columbia County. William Payne farmed in that county until 1837, when he removed to Schoharie County, where he lived until his demise in 1866, aged sixty-five. His wife was in maidenhood Gertrude Crapser, daughter of John Crapser, a native of New York and a soldier in the War of 1812. Gertrude (Crapser) Payne, the mother of our sub- ject, lived to be eighty-four years old. She was the mother of seven sons and four daughters, who were given the best education possible of attainment in the country schools of New York state and were reared to habits of industry and usefulness. Until 1855 James Fred, the fifth in his father's family, worked on the home farm and then came to California by way of Panama, locating in Tuolumne County, where he resided until 1858. That year he purchased a farm in the foothills in Santa Clara County. Two years later, in 1867, he located on a farm a mile east of Los Gatos, and in 1873 came to the place that became his permanent home and where his widow still resides. He owned 126 acres of land that he devoted to farm- ing and fruit raising and in time had large orchards devoted to prunes and apricots. He was thrifty and he had good substantial buildings as well as good equipment for caring for the fruit, including a large drier. The grounds around his comfortable residence were well laid out and abounded in flowers, shrubs and trees which are still a monument to his energy.

Mr. Payne was married in Mountain View in 1874, being united with Miss Phoebe McClellan, a native of Missouri, born near Independence in 1848, in which state her father settled after removing from his native home in Tennessee. The Mcclellan family were pioneers of Santa Clara County. Her parents, William and Eveline (Dickey) Mcclellan, natives of Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively, crossed the plains to California bringing their children in an ox- team train of seventy wagons. After a trip of six months through the Indian country, they arrived safely in the fall of 1849. After teaming for a while, Mr. McClellan purchased a farm near Mountain View and later on bought and owned several places, among them being the old Captain Stevens ranch

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for whom Stevens Creek was named. On this place Mr. and Mrs. McClellan resided at the time of their death. They had nine children, seven of whom are living. Mrs. Payne was only six months old when her parents started across the plains in 1849, so she is now among the oldest settlers of Santa Clara County. Mr. Payne died January 25, 1915, mourned by his family and many friends. Since his death his widow continues to reside at the old home, the estate comprising about 100 acres, nearly all in fruit trees. Her son, George C., an able horticulturist, has charge of the orchard, thus relieving her of all care. Mr. and Mrs. Payne were the parents of five children: George C., the manager of the Payne ranch; Hurley, is also a horticulturist and resides in Campbell; Ger- trude E. Howard and Louise are at home. In reli- gion Mrs. Payne is a Presbyterian, and politically a Republican. She is now one of the few pioneers of 1849 that are still living and able to narrate accounts of early days in California.

JOSEPHINE MARSHALL FERNALD .- Stand- ing high in musical circles of the state as a teacher of voice and piano, Josephine Marshall Fernald is the efficient director of the Stanford Music School and of the Berkeley School of Music, recently estab- lished at 2168 Shattuck Avenue. She comes from one of the most disinguished families in America, being a direct descendant of Chief Justice John Marshall, and she has all the virility and acumen of her illus- trious progenitor, who in a more clear and forcible way than any other jurist, construed the Constitution of the United States.

Mrs. Fernald's parents were Maj. Lewis Field Marshall and Mary Helen Mar Force. Her father was born in 1825 and was the son of John Marshall, whose wife was Mildred Field. She was the daughter of Lewis Field, born in 1763, the son of Colonel John Field, born in 1720, whose wife was Ann Rogers Clark. Col. John Field served in the French and Indian War in 1756, and in 1758 as a captain under Forbes in protecting the frontier. In 1760, as colonel of a company, he was ordered to join General Brad- dock at Fort Duquesne during the battle on the Monongahela River. Braddock was mortally wound- ed, General Washington taking his place, and under him Colonel Field served as lieutenant-colonel. In 1764 he was a major in Bagnet's expedition, and in 1865 he was a burgess. In 1774 he enlisted in an independent volunteer company of thirty-five men, reinforced by 100 Virginia Regulars, and joined Col- onel Lewis at Fort Union. He was killed at Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774, during the fight with the French and Indians under Comstock, whom he defeated, for which service his heirs were granted large tracts of land in Kentucky by Lord Fairfax. part of this land now being Bourbon County. Mrs. Fernald is also a descendant of George Rogers Clark, the intrepid explorer of the Northwest, in whose honor the Lewis & Clark Exposition at Portland was held. Another ancestor, Lewis Field Marshall, en- listed in the Revolutionary War in 1779, at the age of sixteen. He was captured in June, 1779, by Little Turtle, the Indian Chief, and was for some time held a prisoner at Montreal and Quebec. Capt. William Marshall, father of John Marshall, horn in 1730, was a captain of Virginia Militia in 1776. On September

3, of that year, he marched with his company to Wil- liamsburg, Va. His father, Col. William Marshall, grandfather, Col. Thomas Marshall of Westmoreland County, and his great-grandfather, Col. John Mar- shall, were officers in the Colonial and Indian Wars. Capt. John Marshall of England and Ireland distin- guished himself at the siege of Calais, for which ser- vice he demanded the restoration of his lost title, Earl of Pembroke and Sturguil. Capt. William Mar- shall was a lineal descendant of William Marshall, first Earl of Pembroke of the Marshall line, and Regent of England in 1216, and whose name is first after that of King John upon the Magna Charta of England. Mary Helen Mar Force, French "Faure," was descended from the widow Faure, who with four children, was sent by the bounty and goodwill of the King of England on the ship Mary and Ann, arriving July 23, 1700, after thirteen weeks passage from Lon- don with the first Huguenot refugees, about 700 in number, and settled at Manakin Tower, eighteen miles below Richmond on the James River.

Mrs. Fernald was born May 25, 1880, in Bland- ville, Ky., and at the early age of nine years was re- ceiving a salary as organist of the Baptist Church of Memphis, Tenn., where she studied piano, voice and theory for two years. She joined the Emma Ab- bott Opera Company, taking minor parts, and re- ceived instruction under Emma Abbott for three years and accompanied her in concert. Then for two years she was vice-president and head of piano and voice departments of the California Conservatory of Music in San Francisco; she then entered the Boston Conservatory of Music at Boston, Mass., and was a pupil of Otto Bendix, piano, and Edith Evani, voice. After graduation from the Boston Conservatory of Music she continued private instruction with Bendix, who had then removed to Chicago, acting as his concert substitute and toured in concert with him. She taught in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and established her own music school in San Francisco. She has traveled all over America in concert, ora- tories and opera; was with Emma Eames Opera Company and the Metropolitan Opera Company; she founded the Woman's Symphony Association and St. Frances Delphian Club, and was one of the pro- moters of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Dramatic Society, San Fran- cisco, Cal. In October, 1919, she founded the Stan- ford Music School, which is now located at 915 Waverly Street, Palo Alto, Cal.

Mrs. Fernald has taken a leading part in the cam- paign to have women artists admitted to positions in symphony orchestras on the Coast. She is active in national and local politics, becoming a candidate for Congress on the Democratic ticket in 1916, running against the present congressman, Julius Kahn, from the San Francisco district: she was elected and served as chairman of music at the National Democratic Convention at San Francisco in 1920, and her counsel is sought on matters of political moment. She is an ex-state treasurer of the Daughters of the Amer- ican Revolution of California, a regent of Esperanza Chapter, and a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Mrs. Fernald is the mother of two sons; the elder of the two is in the U. S. Army and the younger resides with her at Palo Alto, at 915

John Hanke

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

Waverly Street. While the greater portion of her time and energy is occupied by her musical work, she is always interested in all public-spirited move- ments that make for the betterment of the community.

JOHN HAUK .- An enterprising business man whose splendid success has been due to his intelli- gent industry, together with a fortunate hotel site, is John Hauk, the proprietor of the popular resort, "Alum Rock Lodge," at the summit of Alum Rock Avenue, about five miles east of San Jose. He was born in the town of Nebes, Marhan Province, in Czecho-Slovakia, the son of John Hauk, a linen weaver. John made his own living from the time he was ten years old, working at wire weaving for his uncle until thirteen years of age, when he went to Vienna, Austria, and then tried different trades, but found it uphill work until he learned the waiter's trade and in time got on his feet. When fifteen he made a trip home, after which he apprenticed at the tailor's trade in Deutsch Lebau, for three years, after which he worked as a journeyman in Austria and then came on foot over the Rodeburg Moun- tains to Dresden, Germany, after which he worked in Berlin, Heligoland and Hamburg, then back to Berlin again, where he remained for five years. In this city he had the opportunity of studying the sciences and he majored in economics and politics. While living there he was married January 10, 1890, to Miss Elizabeth Fremde, descended of a splen- did old German family, and five months later he had saved sufficient money to migrate to Chicago, Ill., arriving in August, 1891. Here he worked at his trade and also made patterns for ladies' suits.

A year later, however, he started a business of his own. engaging in millinery and dressmaking. Later on he dropped the latter to give all of his time to the millinery store, and by close application made a splendid success. Three years after he started he bought a lot and built his own business building and under the sign "Leading Millinery," he established himself as a leader in this line.

In 1902 Mr. Hauk came to California, traveling over the state investigating and looking for a loca- tion. In June, 1903, he came out again with his wife and purchased twenty-two and one-half acres on the summit of Alum Rock Avenue. His wife returned to Chicago, but he remained to start the improve- ment of his orchard property. After he had built a residence he and his wife lived here, but they con- tinued the business in Chicago. He was at the

spring opening there in 1906, when a wire telling him his wife was very ill called him home, but she died six weeks later, on April 1. After this he sold his business in Chicago and made a trip to Europe, traveling in different countries, but he was homesick for California, so after nine months he returned.

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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 143

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