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 198

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 198

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Mr. and Mrs. Buckley purchased a homesite of one and one-fourth acres at the head of La Paloma Terrace, where they built a beautiful bungalow resi- dence; but Mr. Buckley was not permitted to enjoy it for he died June 4, 1918, a man sorely missed in his community. He was deputy county clerk for many years, a member of the Retail Drug Clerks' Association in San Francisco and the Saratoga Im- provement Association. Fraternally he belonged to the Odd Fellows and Foresters of America and was an Episcopalian in religion. After his death Mrs. Buckley, having worked in the store with her hus-

M.a. Benjan min

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band, assumed the management of the pharmacy until she disposed of it. She still retains her com- mission as deputy county clerk. She opened the Saratoga branch of the County library in her store and was librarian until she resigned in 1921. She is a member of Saratoga Rebekah Lodge No. 334, of the Saratoga Improvement Association and the Foot- hill Study Club.

M. A. BENJAMIN .- A career of more than ordi- nary professional and business promise is that of M. A. Benjamin, horticulturist, landscape gardener, tree doctor and consultant, residing in San Jose, Cal., and having his offices with the Prune and Apricot Association, at the corner of Market and San Antonio Streets. He was born at Rockford. Ill., March 3, 1884, and when he was six months old was taken by his parents, N. H. and Lovinia (Wil- liams) Benjamin to Kansas City, Mo. There he at- tended the public schools, finishing the grammar and high schools and entered Parkville College. His father, who was a contractor, engaged in build- ing cable strect car lines, is now living with his son at the age of seventy-four, the mother having passed away in 1907. They were the parents of five chil- dren, four girls and one boy, of whom the subject of this sketch is the fourth.

Mr. Benjamin has been an enthusiastic devotee of the study of plant life and horticulture ever since a boy, and when eight years old ran away from home and worked in a greenhouse for nothing, so eager was he to learn how the plants grew. The founda- tion of his professional work was laid in Kansas City under the great German expert, Prof. Beltz, but he has never ceased to work and study, and since coming to California eight years ago has pursued correspondence courses from both the University of California and the Agricultural College at Davis, Cal. He has worked, studied and achieved and is counted among the most expert horticulturists in the state. Above all he is preeminently a student, who is willing to pay the price with work and then puts his knowledge into actual use, so that others may profit by his knowledge. At one time, being hard pressed for money, he went to work in the pressroom of the Kansas City Journal, working from midnight until four o'clock in the morning to ob- tain funds with which to pursue his plant study. He carefully cultivates his own orchard of fourteen acres, located on the Stevens Creek Road and Cypress Avenue, which is planted to prunes and apricots, but does a great amount of work for other orchardists and farmers. He has made a careful and extensive study of plant diseases, their prevention and cure, and has discovered the cause of fire blight in pear trees, die-back in other trees and blight in walnut and olive trees; and has succeeded, after many years of careful work, in finding a remedy for these de- stroying diseases. He has made application for a copyright for his formula and process of treatment for blight. During 1921 he made a trip of ten days into Lake County, visiting pear orchards and adminis- tering his remedy, which has proven a specific against blight. His confidence in the efficacy of his formulas and cultural methods is so great that he has under- taken the operation of orchards in run-down and diseased condition, under agreements to take his pay int increase of crop, and has in every instance suc-

ceeded in bringing every orchard to a healthy condi- tion with marked increase in yield

Mr. Benjamin is a proficient landscape artist and is prepared to furnish plans and specifications. Dur- ing the Reed administration in 1917 he was ap- pointed and served as the superintendent of parks of San Jose. He has done landscape gardening for many of the most prominent people throughout the county and his expert knowledge of diseases of plants and trees is often sought by the orchardists of the county, his methods of culture and treatment pro- longing the lives of fruit trees and increasing their productiveness. First of all Mr. Benjamin is a stu- dent and loves his work and often goes to the moun- tains to spend a week or so in studying trees and plants, their characteristics, discases and peculiar- ities of growth and life. He is a writer of note on horticultural subjects and has contributed valuable articles to the magazines and newspapers through- out the United States, and in this way reaches thou- sands of orchardists and agriculturists and imparts knowledge that is invaluable. He has built up a large business during his eight years of residence here and employs sixty men, whom he trains in this work, paying them the highest wages.

Mr. Benjamin's marriage occurred in Kansas City. Mo., and united him with Miss Sue Morris, a grand- daughter of Col. McGee, the noted pioneer and town- site man. Col. McGee was a historical character and was one of the fourteen men who purchased the West Port Landing, the original Kansas City; and sur- veyed the site of Kansas City, Mo., with Indians as helpers, carrying the surveyor's chain. They are the parents of one boy, Morris, who is studying botany and such other branches as will fit him to enter the business with his father, being a student in the agri- cultural department of the University of California at Davis, Cal., majoring in horticulture.

JOHN EDWARD ELLIS .- Born near Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, November 9, 1849, John Edward Ellis was the son of William Robert Ellis, a native of Hull, England, a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, as was his father and grandfather before him. His grandfather, Sir William Ellis, was an M. D., and physician to Queen Charlotte and was knighted. The Ellis family is traced back to Kiddal, founded by William Ellis in 1160. William Robert Ellis, the father of our subject, was a barrister. He married Harriette Warner Elliott, a native of London of the old Northumberland family of Elliotts.

John Edward Ellis is the sixth oldest of eleven children and the only one in the United States. He was reared in the south of England and educated under a tutor and at Highgate School, after which he studied two years at Neuwied on the Rhine, Ger- many, and during this time traveled over various countries on the Continent. He then went to sea as an apprentice on the Matoaka, a full rigged ship, to New Zealand. and at Littleton he left the ship by leaving the day before she sailed and hiding until after her departure. The Matoaka was never heard of again, so the vessel and all must have been lost at sea. He went to work with a Scotchman, John McCloud, who was in the cattle business and later became his partner and spent two and one-half suc- cessful years with him; then he went to Australia where he spent six months before returning to England in 1870. After a visit of three months he started back

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to New Zealand in 1870, making his way through the United States to San Francisco to take the steamer to New Zealand. In Kansas City, Mo., he ran across an old friend who induced Mr. Ellis to go into the cattle business with him. So they went in partner- ship at Eureka, but Mr. Ellis later sold his interest and traveled on to California. He liked the climate, and going to Mendocino County he engaged in sheep raising on the Eel River. Here he continued from 1872 until 1875, when he sold his holdings and moved to Ukiah, where he built the first gas works and system in that city. In 1878 Mr. Ellis sold the plant and 'moved to San Francisco and was in the asphalt and roofing business. While there he took up mining and held a position in an assay office in Nevada County. Then he was with the San Francisco Cop- per Mine at Spenceville, and while there he was mar- ried in Ukiah in 1882 to Miss May Carpenter, who was born in Grass Valley, Cal., a daughter of A. O. Carpenter, a pioncer of Ukiah, a very prominent and popular citizen. Mrs. Ellis was engaged in edu- cational work until hier marriage.

Mr. Ellis continued with the Mining Company at Spenceville until they ran out of ore, and then located in Los Gatos in 1885, where he opened a limestone quarry to get out phosphate of lime. He also set out an orchard. In 1886 he built his residence on Cle- land Avenue and Reservoir Road, where he resides with his family. He organized the Los Gatos Lime Company and built a lime kiln, but soon found he could not compete with others, so sold out in 1890. Leaving his family here he engaged in mining in Plumas County for four years when he sold his inter- est. Mr. and Mrs. Ellis have six children, five of whom grew up: Helen, is the wife of N. B. Phillips, a banker in Seattle; William Robert resides in Ala- meda and is with the Hercules Powder Company; Edward E. is engaged in the automobile business and resides in Alameda; Jno. Frank was killed by a powder explosion; May E., formerly called Peggie, is a graduate of the University of California, now traveling in Ecuador, South America. They also are proud of their seven grandchildren. Mr. Ellis has been secretary of Los Gatos Lodge No. 292, F. & A. M., for thirty years, and with his wife is a member of the Order of Eastern Star of which Mrs. Ellis has been matron.

WILLIAM HENRY HALL .- A pioneer of Santa Clara County since 1854, William Henry Hall was born in Lincoln County, Mo., in December, 1849. His father, Andrew J. Hall, was a native of Ken- tucky, where he was reared, coming out to Missouri when a very young man and there he married Delia Cottle, a native of Missouri. He was a farmer, but becoming interested in the California gold fields he left his wife and two children in Missouri for the time being and came along with two of his wife's brother's, Thomas and William Cottle, to California. Being engaged in mining at Georgetown, he died in 1851, it being a sad blow to his little family in Mis- souri. The two Cottle boys came to Santa Clara County, liked the country and purchased land, after which they returned to Missouri, and it was decided the whole Cottle family would emigrate to California. In 1854 a train was outfitted with Grandfather Ed- ward Cottle, a Vermonter, at the head, bringing a drove of cattle and horses along across the plains. He piloted the train safely through the Indian in-

fested plains to Santa Clara County, where he be- came a large landowner and successful stockman, making a specialty of raising fine horses. His wife died in 1855, but he lived to be seventy-five years old. His daughter, Mrs. Delia Hall, presided over his home until her second marriage to James Mc- Lellan, an early settler and rancher near San Jose. After his death, Mrs. McLellan resided with her daughter, Mrs. Edwards, until her death. The two children of her first marriage are Mrs. Alice Edwards of San Jose and William Henry, our subject, famil- iarly called by his many friends, Budd Hall. By the second marriage there was one child, Edward F. Mclellan, who resides in San Francisco.

Budd Hall was four years old when he crossed the plains in his Grandfather Edward Cottle's train. He attended the public schools of his district and also took a business college course in San Jose. For some years he was in the employ of W. H. Ed- wards, until he purchased a ranch four miles south of San Jose. A few years later he sold it and pur- chased a place eight miles south of town which he operated. When he sold it he purchased a ranch near San Jose, on which he engaged in intensive farming until 1920 when he rented the place and now makes his home in Los Gatos. He also owns 150 acres ten miles south of San Jose devoted to growing seeds.

Mr. Hall was married in San Jose October 8, 1873, being united with Miss Mary E. Henning, a native of Santa Clara County. Her father, Jno. P. Hen- ning, a native of Virginia, crossed the plains to California in 1849; he liked the country and returned to Missouri to bring his family out. In 1854 with his wife and three children he piloted an ox-team train across the plains, bringing a herd of cattle. On his arrival he engaged in stockraising. He also ran a sawmill below Alma, and he laid out and named the town of Lexington, choosing the name of his old town in Missouri. He was married in Saline Coun- ty, Mo., to Mary Van Meter, a native of Virginia, who came to Missouri with her father when she was six years of age. The Van Meters became very large land owners in Missouri. John P. Henning was a cabinetmaker by trade and kept his ranch up in the best of shape. He introduced the most modern agricultural machinery and brought in the first header used in the valley. He was a very liberal and progressive man, gave the lumber for the schoolhouse at Alma and also for the Temper- ance Hall in that place, and was helpful in all pro- gressive movements of his day. He died while resid- ing at San Miguel, while his wife died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Hall. Mary E. Henning was the fourth oldest of their family of six children, three of whom are living. After completing the public schools she attended Gates' Academy and, obtaining a certifi- cate, she taught school a year until her marriage to Mr. Hall. Their union resulted in the birth of nine children, seven of whom grew up: Edith, died at the age of twenty-three years; Louis A., is a rancher at Mountain View; Mrs. Myrtle Abadie lives in Oak- land, Cal .; Albert J. Hall, is the inventor of the Hall- Scott motor and head of the Hall-Scott Motor Com- pany of Berkeley; he served in the U. S. Army during the World War, being placed at the head of production of aviation, serving both here and over- seas, and during this time he, with J. T. Vincent, de-

Elle E. Booth,

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signed and built the Liberty Motor. He was com- missioned a colonel; Mrs. Clara Etel of Los Gatos; Hayes W., was also in U. S. Army, serving overseas in charge of the Army post office in Paris, being commissioned a lieutenant; Harold, is an inventor and designed and invented the California motor; he makes his home in Los Gatos. Budd Hall and his estimable wife have good reason to be proud of their family and particularly the distinguished ser- vice rendered the government during the war by their sons. They are both Republicans and also are members of the Santa Clara County Pioneer Society.

MISS ETTA E. BOOTH .- The College of the Pacific, in its enviable reputation as one of the lead- ing institutions for the study of art in the United States, owes much to the native genius, the trained talent and the attractive personality of Miss Etta E. Booth, the director of the School of Art, a gifted and accomplished lady, all the more interesting as the representative of an early Puritan family prom- inent in the Revolutionary War, whose history dates back to the Mayflower through Elder William Brew- ster, Stephen Hopkins, John Tilly and John How- land, names well known in early days.

The Booth family are descended directly from Adam DeBoothes, who came over to England with William the Conqueror in 1066. The American branch of the family are descended from three sons of George Booth, the first Lord Delaware, who was created Earl of Warrington and who came over to New Haven, Conn., in 1639. Miss Booth's great- grandfather, Joshua Booth, fought in the War of the Revolution, as did Hugh Gunnison, an ancestor in the maternal line.

Miss Booth was born at Goshen, N. H., the daugh- ter of Silas Booth, a farmer and teacher, who was a native of that place. He was a member of the New Hampshire Legislature for four years. and his father, Oliver Booth, who was prominent in the public life of his day, was a member of that body for eight years. Silas Booth married Miss Alice M. Gunnison, a talented woman with a great love for art, who also was a native of Goshen. Her brother, Lieutenant John W. Gunnison, who lost his life in the Gunnison massacre at the time of the Indian troubles on the frontier, was a graduate of West Point and was sent out by the Government to explore and survey the western part of the country and was in command of the party making the first survey for the Central Pacific Railroad. He belonged to the Topographical Engineers and his labors in that corps won for him a name the first in the country. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Gunnison Mountain, Gunnison River and a town in Colorado bear his name. He wrote the first history of the Mormon church, one of the most interesting records of the interior growth of this country that has ever been written, and this book was afterwards republished in Europe. An- other uncle of Miss Booth, A. J. Gunnison, of the firm of Gunnison and Booth, was the oldest prac- ticing lawyer in the state of California at the time of his death. Before coming to the state he practiced in the courts of Massachusetts. At the time an at- tempt was made to detach the state of California from the Union, Mr. Gunnison was a member of the Legislature and vigorously resisted the attempt. He delivered an all-night speech to gain time against the secession movement, and this was one of the

most important factors in its defeat. Miss Booth's brother, Andrew G. Booth, a well-known lawyer of San Francisco and a member of the firm of Gunni- son and Booth, was a member of the Legislature and prominent in political circles. She has one sis- ter living, Mrs. George Nourse, who resides part of the time at the old Booth home at Newport, N. H.

Miss Booth entered Kimball Union Academy at Meriden, N. H., from which she was graduated as a student in the classical course; she also attended the Abbott Academy at Andover, where she did special literary work. From childhood she could draw and make pictures and she was also a ready versifier. She wrote poems for papers and magazines, and short stories at the beginning of her 'teens; and after a year's study in Boston, she took a teacher's course at the Normal Art School, always studying art dur- ing her vacations. She studied under Professor Geary and Miss Hoyt, and later came to California, where she studied, giving instruction at Napa.

She then went abroad to study and sketch through Germany and Holland, as well as in Belgium, Italy, England and Paris, and in the latter famous center of art she became a student at the Academie Julien and Academie Delacluse, and worked under the French masters, Bouguereau, Paul Delance and Cal- lot; she was also a pupil of Professor Ertz and Pro- fessor Van der Weiden and later of William Chase in the United States. Returning to California, Miss Booth studied at the Solly Walter School of Illustra- tion at San Francisco, and accepted a position at the College of the Pacific under Dr. Eli McClish, then president of the College, and since 1898 has been the director of the School of Art. Some of her best- known paintings are water-color scenes made in Carmel and Laguna and also at Boothbay Harbor, Maine; many of her works done in foreign art schools have been reproduced here, as for example, her study, "The Rag Picker." Many of her works have been exhibited in Paris. She makes a special point of always keeping in touch with the work of the Eastern art schools and artists, the better to impart knowledge. Her main work is to educate teachers for instructing in drawing and art in the public schools, and her highest testimonials are the pupils who have studied under her and later attained pro- nounced success as teachers of others.

Z. A. MACABEE .- A resident of Santa Clara County since 1864, Z. A. Macabee was born at Ma- lone, N. Y., October 14, 1857. His father, Edward Macabee, a Canadian by birth, was reared in New York from the age of six years, and later he became a farmer near Malone. In 1864, accompanied by his wife and three children, he came via Panama to San Francisco. Coming on to Santa Clara County, he purchased a farm in the Union district, following farming until 1868 when he returned East, but soon came back to Santa Clara County and followed ranching for many years until he became proprietor of the Alpine Hotel. When he retired he moved to San Jose, where he resided until his death. His wid- ow, Mathilda Francis, also a native of Canada, is still living at the age of eighty-four years. Of their eight children six are living.

Z. A. Macabee, the second of the family, came via Panama with the family in 1864; as stated, the family returned East in 1868, but in 1869 found their way back to California, coming by way of Panama

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each time. He was educated in the public schools in the various districts they lived, after which he en- tered the Garden City Business College at San Jose, where he was graduated in June, 1883, after which he was associated with his father in farming and in the hotel business until he engaged in the barber business in Los Gatos. After seven years his health became impaired and he was advised by his physi- cian to seek out-of-door employment. His first at- tempt at rusticating was to exterminate gophers that were girdling his cousin's fruit trees. He tried all kinds of traps and saw much need for improve- ment, and concluded he could make a better trap. Obtaining some wire and with a plier and vise he made a trap that suited him and was a success. This trap embraced the principles of his present Macabce gopher trap which has since become so popular and successful, not only famous all over the Pacific Coast region but also in the Middle West and East. On October 22, 1900, he patented the Macabee gopher trap and began their manufacture on Loma Alta Avenue, Los Gatos. He made all the machines used in their manufacture and is now mak- ing about 1000 traps a day, sold principally to the jobbing trade over the United States and Mexico, and it is estimated he has three-fourths of the busi- ness in this line in California.

Mr. Macabee was married in Los Gatos to Eliza- beth Gansburger, a native of Germany, coming to California with her parents when she was a young girl. Their union has been blessed with three children: Raymon, is assisting his father in business; Lucile is a graduate of the College of the Pacific, majoring in music: she is now director of music in the Napa public school; Rona is a graduate of Los Gatos high school and of Heald's Business College, and is now Mr. Macabee's secretary. Mr. Macabee for many years has been a member of the Odd Fel- lows and the Independent Order of Foresters, and belongs to the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce.

REV. BENJAMIN V. BAZATA .- A lover of nature who has created a beautiful home place on Azule Creek, Saratoga district of Santa Clara Coun- ty, is Rev. Benjamin V. Bazata. He was born near Prague, Bohemia, September 28, 1867. His father. Francis Bazata, was a graduate of the gymnasium, became a literary man and scholar and there he mar- ried Antoinette Kletzau, and they had four children, born in that country. In 1870 he brought his family to Greenpoint, N. Y., and in time became a success- ful merchant in New York City until he retired. He has passed away, being survived by his widow, aged eighty years. Of their seven children, Benja- min V. Bazata is the fourth oldest. The scene of his first recollections is of Brooklyn, N. Y., where he attended the public schools. Later he entered Bloom- field Academy, where he was prepared for college, entering the College of the City of New York. Having chosen the ministry as his profession he quit the college in his junior year and entered the Union Theological Seminary in the same city, con- tinuing his studies for two years, when he took up college settlement work. In 1895 he came to Califor- nia and completed his theological course at the San Francisco Theological Seminary at San Anselmo, where he was graduated in 1896 with the Bachelor of Theology degree. Having accepted a call to Al- hambra, he was there ordained in 1897 in the Los

Angeles Presbytery, and he was pastor of the Pres- byterian Church in Alhambra for eight years.

In 1905 he was married in Alhambra to Miss Min- nie H. Bailey, who was born in Maui, H. I., a daugh- ter of William and Anna (Hobson) Bailey, natives of Hawaii and Connecticut, respectively. Her grand- father, William H. Bailey, went to the Hawaiian Is- lands in 1832 as a missionary for the Congregational Church and spent the most of his life there. Grand- father Hobson was master of his own vessel. In 1848 he established the Inter-Island Steamship Com- pany, and built the first railroad in the Islands.

Rev. Benjamin V. Bazata was called to the Con- gregational Church in Maui and there he spent two and a half years when he resigned to become pastor of the Congregational Church in Burlingame, remain- ing for three and a half years, when he resigned to devote his time to the improvement of his sixty- seven acre ranch he had purchased on the Pierce Road in the Saratoga district, and here he built a residence of Italian architecture.

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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 198

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