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 172

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 172

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P. MILTON SMITH .- One of the well known journalists of Central California, P. Milton Smith during the decade or more which has marked his connection with the Register Leader of Mountain View, he has always been a vigilant champion of any cause he believed to be right. While employed by the Palo Alto Times, he was called "Unshakable Smith" and the name seemed to suit him. His great- great grandfather, James T. Smith, with his young wife left Scotland in the early part of the eighteenth century and settled in Virginia, where founded the family. Many brainy and noted men and women sprang from this sturdy Scotch pair, one of whom was General Kirby Smith. The Smiths lived in Vir- ginia for several generations, but all of them abhor- ring slavery, they finally moved to Pennsylvania be- fore the emancipation period.

P. Milton Smith was born February 19, 1869, on a farm in Pulaski County, Ind. His father, Harvey H. Smith, was a country school teacher, and taught and farmed all his life. His mother was Sarah Ann Curry, a Pennsylvanian of Scotch-Irish descent and of strong Presbyterian faith. They were the parents of nine children, four of whom were stricken with scarlet fever, and passed away in one week. Those now liv- ing are Eugene E., a farmer in Pettis County, Mo., Mrs. Ella Dunn of Versailles, Mo., and P. Milton Smith of Mountain View, Cal., the subject of this sketch. One sister, Carrie, the wife of S. A. Webb of Mountain View, died in 1899, leaving no children. Milton was the youngest child of the family. When

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he was one year old, his father removed to Missouri, where they located near Booneville. There young Smith followed the usual life of a country boy, hunt- ing, boating and fishing in the river, attending the country school and working on the farm. To have an education was his major ambition, and knowing that if he gained it he would have to work hard, he chopped wood, farmed and hustled in every honest way possible to get clothes and books. When he was seventeen he entered Clarksburg College and fol- lowed the classical course for two years, when, owing to lack of funds he was obliged to leave and go to chopping cord wood, which was the most remunera- tive work he could find. At twenty he started out and taught school for two years, and then re-entered college, filled with hope that now he could complete a full course. Finally he began work as devil on the Clarksburg Collegian and later was made editor.

In 1893 and 1894 in connection with John W. Holst, now a professor at the University of Montana, he started the Populist at Versailles, Mo., and made it a lively sheet. In the fall of 1894 he went to St. Louis and found work on the Evening Chronicle, the first penny sheet published west of the Missouri River. He remained with the Chronicle three years and then went to Kansas City doing city reporting, and worked in any capacity on the Kansas City Star. In the spring of 1900 he came to Portland, Ore., where he worked on the Oregonian and also on the Portland Evening Telegram. In the spring of 1901 he came to San Francisco where he worked on a lit- tle journal called the Western Oil News until the demise of the sheet that fall. Then he began report- ing for the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the city in the spring of 1902 on account of bad health. and following medical advice, came to the Santa Clara Valley where he has found life fairly prosper- ous and has excellent health. In Palo Alto he found a place on the force of the Times, and on July 1, 1902, he set one galley of the first issue of the Daily Times. He remained with the Times two years and then located in Mountain View, where he has fol- lowed a successful journalistic course.

Mr. Smith owned the Mountain View Leader from 1905 to 1910, when he sold it, and his successor at- tempted to merge the Leader with the Register which was the first paper to be established in Moun- tain View, it having been started in 1888 by Frank Bacon, the well-known actor and playwright, and Harry A. Johnson, now deceased. The Leader was a younger venture, being established in 1903 by H. G. Copeland. In 1905 Mr. Smith bought out Cope- land and the Leader, and in 1910 the two papers were merged into the Register-Leader. Since 1912, when Mr. Smith took over full control, the paper has been one of the fearless friends of all that its owner thought to be right and fair, and has never missed an issue. He has been an earnest worker in the tem- perance cause, and even when his frankly expressed opinions might cause him financial loss, he never hesitated to voice them.

In 1909 Mr. Smith married Miss Ara V. Copeland, a sister of his former business associate, H. G. Cope- land, and has three children, Phyllis, Jean and Aud- rey. That he has prospered is evidenced by his well- equipped office and his pretty home on Oak street.

But his present well-earned good fortune does not mean that Mr. Smith is not a purely self-made man who has obtained his education by very hard work while he was striving to overcome almost unsur- mountable obstacles. Always poor during his early life, he still had his heart and mind set on the time far ahead when he would be a strong factor in the work of moulding public opinion; and the years de- voted to wood chopping, farming, working at poorly paid jobs on newspapers never daunted his purpose. Even the awful experience in Missouri, while he was yet a lad, failed to starve his ambition even if it did nearly starve his body. Grasshoppers, the fatal plague which more than once devastated the Middle States, paid an autumn visit to his locality, quietly deposited millions of eggs in soil which had been fallowed for winter wheat. With the first warm breath of spring, when grain grew green, the hoppers hatched in swarms and soon devoured every vestige of growing things. Not a leaf was left on tree or vine, and poverty of the most awful type settled over the entire region. But neither hoppers nor the pangs of hunger could long keep down the lean, lank youth who has now developed into the Santa Clara Valley "Unshakable Smith."

OTIS BLABON .- One of the early settlers of Santa Clara County is Otis Blabon. A native of Maine, he was born June 20, 1840, the son of Otis and Mary Blabon. The father came around the Horn from Boston to San Francisco, landing July 4, 1849. In the spring of 1850 he removed to Santa Clara County and located on a ranch near San Jose on the Stevens Creek Road. In the early sixties he returned to Maine and remained there for some years, return- ing to California and settling at Saratoga in 1870. He lived to the good age of ninety-nine years. The mother had previously died in Maine.

Otis Blabon, at the age of twelve, ran away from home to go to sea. During the first year he was twice shipwrecked and was then willing to remain at home and work on the farm in Maine. However, his desire to see the world became so strong that in 1856 he left for San Francisco, removed to Santa Clara Valley and engaged in farming with his brother for six years. His next removal was a trip to the Sandwich Islands, where he remained for a year; then to Idaho for six years; then he returned to Saratoga and teamed for two years and then en- gaged in the livery business and ran a stage from Santa Cruz and Congress Springs to Santa Clara for a number of years. He spent five years camping from Oregon to Mexico, finally locating permanently in Saratoga and engaging in the harness business, which he has continued to the present time.

Mr. Blabon's marriage united him with Miss Adie Carroll and they were the parents of two children, one of whom, Charles, is living and resides in River- side County. Mrs. Blabon died in Oregon, and Mr. Blabon was married to Mrs. Lucy (Berry) Verric, and she died in San Jose five years ago. They had one child, Mark, killed while fireman for the South- ern Pacific Railroad at Sargent Station, when he was twenty-four years old. Mr. Blabon is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party and belongs to the Santa Clara County Pioneer Society.

Emil Meyer

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

EMIL MEYER .- A very enterprising viticulturist who is proud of being a native son is Emil Meyer, who was born in San Francisco, September 1, 1871. His father, Ernst E. Meyer, an early settler of Cali- fornia, was born at Denmark in 1843, a son of Judge Andreas Meyer, an attorney and judge who attained to prominence in his day and became one of the leading men in Hadesleben. Ernst E. received a good education, completing the polytechnic school, majoring as a draftsman, after which he served in the German navy during the years of 1863-64. Then he was engineer on the Hamburg-American line be- tween Hamburg and New York, quitting the sea to locate in San Francisco, in 1868, where his brother, William, was a wholesale and retail florist on Geary Street, and there he continued in business until 1884. Meantime he had purchased four and one-half acres on Stanyan Street, at the Golden Gate Park entrance, and established the Eureka Nursery, and was the first to subdivide and lay out lots in that district. Running through this property were Penoches Ave- nue, Gratton Street, Stanyan Street, and others. This was accomplished in 1883-84. As early as 1881 Mr. Meyer had purchased 1700 acres of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and on November 26, 1884, he located on the place and started the Mare Vista Vine- yards. Between 1881 and 1884 he sold off fourteen different tracts to people who improved the lands. The Meyers built over thirteen miles of road at their own expense, and later on these roads were given over to the county. They cleared the land and set out vineyards and built a winery and cellars.

Ernst Meyer was married in San Francisco in 1870 to Maria Detje, born in Hamburg, Germany, whose father, Martin Detje, was a musician. She came to San Francisco with her sister, and thus the acquaintance that had been formed in Hamburg was renewed in the metropolis of the Pacific. Mr. Meyer died April 8, 1918, survived by his widow and two sons: Emil, the subject of this review, and Arthur, who is president of the Michaletschke Company, wholesale cigars and tobaccos in San Francisco; he is widely traveled and was one of the early salesmen in his line for the Alaska trade. The mother, who did her share in making Mare Vista Vineyard a suc- cess, still makes her home on the ranch with her son.

Emil Meyer attended the public schools of San Francisco until thirteen years of age, when he came to Mare Vista Vineyard, after which his education was in private schools. From a lad he learned viti- culture under his father's guidance and in time be- came associated with him in the business. Since the death of his father he has taken over the business and is manager of the Mare Vista Vineyards, comprising 500 acres of land-eighty acres being in different varieties of wine grapes. He has a bonded winery but is now specializing in the manufacture of unfer- mented grape juice. At Wright's, in 1904, Emil Meyer was married to Miss Anna J. Matty, born in San Jose, a daughter of Antoine Matty, a pioneer of San Jose, otherwise represented in this work. To them have been born two children: Arthur K. and Alice Marie. Mr. Meyer is interested in the cause of education and is a trustee of Wright's school district. He is also greatly interested in the good roads move- ment and is an advocate of the Skyline Boulevard 48

from San Francisco to Woodwardia and continuing to Watsonville and the Southland, a much-needed thoroughfare. He has faithfully attended the meet- ings and given his influence for the fulfillment of the project, well knowing, after it is completed, the lateral roads will fall in.

Enterprising and progressive, Mr. Meyer can always be counted on to aid and give his influence towards worthy movements that have for their aim the build- ing up and improving of this favored garden spot of the world. Politically, he is a decided Republican.

CHARLES EDWARD BARNS .- Santa Clara County, famed the world over for landscape beauty, climate, fruit and intelligent, progressive and kind- hearted people, is also known, to those familiar with the real California of today, as among the leading shires in the Golden State for attracting those so distinguished in the world of science, art or letters that any section of the country would feel itself honored in their residence. Prominent among such eminently desirable citizens to whom this favored portion of the coast has made an irresistible appeal, and who, in turn, have conferred something upon life here of exceptionally high value, is Charles Ed- ward Barns, the astonomer of Morgan Hill, known to the scientific world as a fellow-scientist, to the literary world as an inspiring writer, and to the world of art as the genius presiding over the Diana Printery, which bids fair to rival, in genial fame, the renewned Walpole Press of old Strawberry Hill.

Mr. Barns was born at Burlington, Wis., on July 23, 1864, the son of Caleb P. and Elizabeth A. (Eddy) Barns, who were both natives of Northern New York. They migrated westward, and became sturdy pioneers in the Badger State, where Caleb became a banker, and thus it happened that Charles Edward attended the excellent Wisconsin schools. where the processes for stimulating the curiosity of a lad are properly appreciated and used by the peda- gogues, and then, at the academy at Racine, he pre- pared for college. In 1884, he entered Columbia University Law School, and soon after was busy studying the natural sciences and high mathematics. He also became a special writer on the staff of the New York Herald.

Later, when only twenty-three years of age, Mr. Barns made a tour of China, Japan and India, pri- marily to recover shattered health; but he also ac- quired a wealth of material, fact .and local color, which he applied to excellent advantage in his work in fiction during the next eight or nine years, most of which time, after his return to New York, were spent in the service of the New York Herald. It was his fortune during this period to make a trip to Continental Europe, and he spent two years in ex- tensive travels in France and Italy, stopping a good part of this time at Venice and Florence. Such a man, with an unusual head upon his shoulders, and something very unusual therein, could not lie around idle; he was, in fact, in constant demand by Eastern publications.

For many years, Mr. Barns had been associated, as a friend, with Charles Kellogg, the naturalist, and having visited his home near Morgan Hill in 1915, he was greatly impressed with the natural resources and the beauties of the Santa Clara Valley. He re- solved to locate here some day; and in 1918 he made

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good his resolution and removed with his family to California. Now he has a comfortable home in a handsome orchard of twenty acres at Morgan Hill, in which he has erected a dwelling house, a study and an observatory; for he was busy with astro- nomical work for many years before coming to Cali- fornia. He is a member of the American Astro- nomical Society, which includes representatives of every department of astronomy, and is a charter member of the Association of Variable Star Ob- servers. He is a thoroughly modern scientist, and looks forward confidently to a complete revision of the rules governing experimental astronomy.

A most interesting evidence of Mr. Barns' intense and unselfish devotion to the cause of astronomical science is afforded in the learned publications, issued from time to time in the form of very neatly-printed booklets, from his own private press known as the "Diana Printery." Such an one is the little volume entitled, "The Practical Observing of Variable Stars," a series of timely essays on this most fas- cinating field of practical astronomy, wherein Ed- ward C. Pickering wrote upon "Organized System," and other scholars discussed the "Conversion of Cal- endar Date to Julian Days," the "Variable Stars for the Amateur," "The Variable Star Problem," "The Spectrum of Variable Stars," "The Overcoming of Initial Difficulties," "Charts and Their Uses," "Method in Observing." "Conditions in Observing Faint Stars." "The Subject of Personal Equation," and "The Plotting of Light Curve," and there is much good matter by the secretary. The work is well illustrated, and is serviceable as well as enter- taining. In some respects a more important issue of these brochures is that devoted to a "Memorial to Edward Charles Pickering," whose life stretched from 1846 to 1919, a memorial of the American Asso- ciation of Variable Star Observers. Besides an ex- cellent portrait, and the well-written tribute, there is a lengthy poem entitled, "Translated," by Charle,, Edward Barns, which well reveals the author's depth of thought and sympathy of heart, and is a graceful and worthy addition to the great mass of Pickering In Memoria. Particularly suggestive, in the light of recent world-events, is the content of the last admir- able verse:

Monarchs maintain and pass, forsooth- The exiled kings, unsceptered czars; But who adds one cosmic truth, He shall be deathless as the stars.

At Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1884, Mr. Barns was mar- ried to Miss Mabel E. Balston, the daughter of James P. Balston, a native of Fredricksburg, N. S., and their union has been blessed with three children: Cornelia has become the wife of Arthur Garbett, the composer and writer, for several years associated with the title department of the Victor Phonograph, they have one child, Charles Richard; Fred B., who is an electrical engineer and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served in the United States Army during the late war, and while in France for two years was commissioned first lieutenant, he is married, and resides in New York City; and Miss Anne Barns was formerly of the traffic department of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Mr. Barns is a Blue Lodge Mason.

HERMAN W. HOBSON .- San Jose is indeed fortunate in having the life and property of its citi- zens safeguarded by one so trustworthy as the pres- ent chief of the fire department, Herman W. Hob- son. A man of great energy, intensity of purpose and strong convictions, he was born December 17, 1872, a native son of San Jose. He is the son of Thomas M. and Sarah (Calaway) Hobson, who came to the Golden West in early pioncer days. The father was first engaged in brick making, but later was engaged in farming and was for many years a successful orchardist; in later years he retired from active life. He passed away several years ago, but his wife is still living, and makes her home with her son in San Jose.

Herman W. Hobson was educated in the public schools of San Jose. After leaving school he entered the employ of the Santa Clara Valley Lumber Com- pany and became an efficient workman in the sash and door department. In the year 1908 he entered the service of the city fire department as lieutenant on Engine No. 1 and in 1910 he was advanced to the position of captain. In 1915 he became assist- ant chief and three years later, in 1918, he became chief of the San Jose Fire Department.

Mr. Hobson's marriage in 1898 united him with Miss Mary J. Boyer, who passed away in 1914. One daughter, Marion, survives her mother. He is an upright, agreeable, and generous man, contribu- ting to worthy causes, and making his influence felt in Republican circles, and general city government, having taken an active interest in his community's welfare. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Moose, Eagles, and Garden City Parlor No. 22, N. S. G. W. He is a member of the National Association of Fire Chiefs and the Pacific Coast Fire Chiefs Association. When enabled to do so, he spends his leisure hours in the mountains or at the seashro.e

PETER NELSEN .- An energetic and industrious rancher is found in Peter Nelsen, who came to America in early manhood. He was born and grew to manhood in Skåne, Sweden, his birth occurring at Christianstad, February 28, 1846, and was the son of Nels and Carste Pearson, farmers in Sweden. He is next to the youngest in a family of five children, namely, Edna, Hans, Bettie, Peter, and Batilda. The father lived to be an old man. Peter attended the public schools of his native land until he was eight years old; then he started to work on a farm; as soon as he was old enough, he learned the plasterer's and bricklayer's trade and worked at it for three years in Sweden before leaving for America. In 1869 he started on his long journey for America and go- ing directly to Chicago, he worked for four years there at his trade; and was there at the time of the big fire in 1871 and helped rebuild many of the buildings. In 1875 he removed to Oakland, Cal., and followed his trade until he began contracting plaster- ing and continued there until 1909.

The marriage of Mr. Nelsen occurred in Oakland, in the spring of 1892 and united him with Miss Hilda E. Samuelsen, also a native of Sweden, a daughter of Charles Samuelsen. She was educated in the schools of her native district, and on reaching young womanhood came to America and for a few years lived in the Eastern States before coming to Cali- fornia. Mr. and Mrs. Nelsen have two children liv- ing, Charles Albert, living on a ranch on the Home-

of Campbell

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

stead Road, and Lolo, now Mrs. Frostholm, who lives at home most of the time, her husband being a me- chanical erecting engineer on ships. During the year of 1909, Mr. Nelsen removed to Santa Clara County, and purchased an eight-acre ranch on the corner of Fremont and Hollenbeck Avenue. This ranch was devoted to the growing of prunes and was in fine shape when he disposed of it after keeping it three years. In 1912, Mr. Nelsen bought a twenty-acre ranch on the Saratoga and Mountain View Road about three quarters of a mile from Cupertino. This place is well irrigated and is set to prunes, and the build- ings are substantial and attractive. Fraternally he belongs to Berkeley Lodge No. 270, I. O. O. F.

ANDREW J. CAMPBELL .- A native son of Cal- ifornia, Andrew J. Campbell was born on the sum- mit of the Santa Cruz Mountains, October 16, 1865. His father, Wm. J. Campbell, was born in Ohio of Scotch descent. He married Miss Celinda Braffett, also a native of the Buckeye State, who was of French descent. In 1851 they started across the plains for California, making the journey of six months in an ox-team train to Placer County, where Mr. Campbell followed mining until about 1857, when he located on government land which he cleared, improved and engaged in stockraising; later he set out orchards and vineyard. In time he sold this place and purchased another which he also sold and in this way he owned several ranches. He died on his ranch in Highland district at the age of forty-eight years, leaving his widow and nine children. The mother sold the ranch and purchased another in the Summit district, where she reared the family, giving them the best school advantages within her reach. She was a splendid woman of strong character and when she passed away in 1915 at the age of seventy- eight years, she was deeply mourned by her family.

Andrew J., the sixth oldest of the family, attended the local schools and assisted on the home farm. After his father died he continued to aid his mother until he was twenty-one, when he began for himself, engaging in teaming, hauling lumber and wood from the mountains to Los Gatos, using a six-horse team. He continued in this line for about fifteen years. when he quit to engage in orcharding, being employed on the Burrell place since 1907, and he has lately leased this place. The fifty-five acres is devoted to raising prunes, pears, plums, cherries and grapes, and with the care he gives it, is an excellent producer. He is a member of the California Prune & Apricot Association. In his political views he gives his sup- port to the Republican party.

THEODORE C. LUNDIN .- Businesslike, alert, energetic and genial, Theodore C. Lundin is engaged in the lucrative business of merchant tailor, with attractive rooms in the Bank of San Jose building. He thoroughly understands his business, having had many years of practice in his chosen line of work. He was born in Alameda County, near Fruitvale, a son of Theodore C. and Anna C. Lundin, and at- tended the grammar and high schools of San Fran- cisco. In 1886 he took up the tailoring trade at the John J. Mitchell Cutting school in New York City, and ten years later he removed to San Jose and entered the employ of Springs, Inc., having charge of their tailoring department until 1907. He then took a post graduate course with John J. Mitchell in New York, after which he returned to

San Jose and opened up for himself, his business steadily increasing year after year.

The marriage of Mr. Lundin occurred in San Francisco, February 22, 1894, uniting him with Miss Kitty Roberts, a daughter of William and Sarah Roberts. Her father was a native of England, coming to California and settling in San Francisco in an early day. He was also a merchant tailor and was for years located in the Palace Hotel. Mrs. Roberts is deceased while Mr. Roberts is still liv- ing. Mr. and Mrs. Lundin are the parents of two children, Almer Roberts, and Dorothy Kitty. Almer Roberts enlisted for service in the World War, March, 1917, training at Camp Kearney and Fort Scott in the Fortieth Division of a sanitary train, going to France. For three months he served with the English forces. While in France he served in the One Hundred Fifty-ninth Infantry under Col- onel Farrell, seeing thirteen days of heavy fighting on the Somme. He returned to America by the way of Saint Nazaire arriving at Hoboken, N. J .. he was sent to the Presidio. San Francisco, and was discharged in May, 1919. He then took a course at the University of California agricultural school at Davis and on completion of his course in 1920 took charge of the twenty-one acre property in the Almaden district adjacent to San Jose, planted to apricots and walnuts.

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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 172

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