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 200

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 200

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Mr. Wade was a man that took an active part in the life of his town, always trying to improve and make conditions better. He was interested in fruit growing and fruit drying and never missed an op- portunity to encourage farmers in this line of work. He established a branch store of the San Jose Farm- ers' Union in Campbell and was manager of this store until his demise, which occurred in 1913, after he had reached the age of seventy-two; after his death his

son-in-law, Mr. Strong, took up the work of this sturdy old pioneer and is now the manager of this store at Campbell. Mr. Wade helped to organize and was vice-president and director of the Bank of Campbell. He was a helpful factor in many ways in the local affairs, always a leader in matters that tended to promote and increase interest in business and civic life of Campbell. His motto was "Always do well whatever you have to do." He was a strong advocate of temperance, and aided much in keeping Campbell a "dry" town. In national politics he was a Republican and was a thirty-third degree Scottish Rite Mason, and was buried with Masonic honors. Mrs. Wade is a member of the Grange. For years she has been a student of Christian Science and has been a Christian Science practitioner for ten years. She is a member of the Campbell Improvement Club, of which organization her husband was the president at the time of his passing away.

IGINO ALLEGRINI .- Identified with Santa Clara County as proprietor of an up-to-date hostelry, Igino Allegrini has been the owner of the St. Charles Hotel and grill for the last sixteen years, located at 39 North Market Street, San Jose. Mr. Allegrini is a native of Italy, having been born in the province of Lucca on January 11, 1868.

He was educated in the elementary schools and then the Latin school, and then began study for the priesthood, continuing for more than two years when his eyes failed him and he quit studying for two ycars. He then attended the normal school at Pisa, but before he had completed the course was again obliged to quit on account of his failing eyesight. Then he was in the Seventh Artillery of the Italian army serving thirty-four months when he received an honorable discharge. He then decided to see some of the world, so in the year of 1892, he made the voyage to America. Landing in New York City he came on to San Francisco and obtained work of various kinds, and in October of 1892 he came to San Jose. He then spent two years as a rancher in Sacramento, but the floods came and swept every- thing in their wake, ruining him financially, so that he became discouraged in that line of work; in the year of 1895 he again came to San Jose and at first engaged in the vegetable business where he was engaged for eleven years. During this time in 1905 he purchased the St. Charles Hotel and for sixteen years has been proprietor of this modern, and up-to- date hostelry, giving personal attention to the com- fort of his guests and with his pleasing personality, he has made many good friends here and is a leader among his countrymen.

Mr. Allegrini's marriage October 21, 1899 united him with Miss Catherine Baumann and the ceremony was solemnized in San Jose, Cal. Mrs. Allegrini was born in San Francisco and was reared in San Jose from nine years of age and here she attended Notre Dame convent. Mr. and Mrs. Allegrini became the parents of two children: Emma R., a graduate of the San Jose high school and now employed in the county surveyor's office in the court house at San Jose; and Elio. Mr. Allegrini stands high in the Masonic lodge, which order he first joined in Italy, and now belongs to Harmony Lodge No. 26, San Jose. He is also a member of the Druids in which he has passed the chairs and has been delegate to the Grand Grove for fifteen different times. Is a member of the Franco-Italian lodge of I. O. O. F .;

Martha E. Wade

. R. Wade

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

also a member of the i. O. R. M., the Ridgley Pro- tective Association and Italian Benevolent Society, of which he is past president. He takes a live interest in the affairs of San Jose and is always for projects and movements that make for the betterment of the community and the welfare of the commonwealth.

THE GROWERS BANK .- The city of San Jose is liberally endowed with institutions calculated to advance materially the financial welfare of its in- habitants, and the most recent acquisition to finan- cial circles is the Growers Bank, which held a public reception on the occasion of its opening April 30. 1921, in the handsomely-remodeled and spacious five- story building located at the northwest corner of Santa Clara and Market streets, known as the Grow- ers Bank building. The bank was organized with a capital and surplus of $330,000 and the personnel of its officers presage success in their undertaking. The exterior is of the attractive Napoleon gray marble, which gives promise of what the interior will be. On entering one sees gray marble floors and highly- polished marble walls blended harmoniously with the woodwork, quarter-sawed oak finished in silver gray and trimmed in bronze. That the institution comes into being with the best wishes of bankers of all parts of the state, was indicated from the many outside bankers who paid their respects to the 'new institution on opening day. Not only were words of greeting received from all the local banks, but twenty-two representatives from banks in other parts of the state, including the Citizens National and the Merchants National of Los Angeles, were also guests of the Growers Bank, and all wished it every success during the long life which is pre- dicted for it. On the right as one enters the door, is the patrons' waiting room, next the offices of the bank's officials, and farther on the commercial de- partment, all equipped in the most artistic and up- to-date fashion. All office furniture is of steel, the best procurable, and a unique combination of beauty and utility.

At the end of the lobby is the savings department, while back of this department are the bank's two main vaults, one the money vault, and the other the safety deposit vault. They are protected by mas- sive steel doors, each five and one-half tons in weight, equipped with time locks, and so delicately protected that the slightest touch on the combination dial once the door is closed, will set off three bur- glar alarms.

Adjoining the safety vault are four coupon rooms for the convenience of the bank's patrons. In the rear, and to the left, is located the directors' room, finished in mahogany, with a twenty-foot table, con- structed of three solid pieces of mahogany, two and one-half inches in thickness. To the right of the lobby are the foreign and domestic exchange de- partments, and the receiving and paying departments, in the equipping of which no expense has been spared. At the rear end to the right of the building is the stairway which leads to the ladies' rest room on the second floor. This is attractively furnished, and serves both as a reading and rest room. Outside a McClintock clock has been installed at a cost of $1,700 with Westminster chimes sounding the hour and the half hour, which is a delight and convenience to the general public.

Officials of the institution, who were the recipi- ents of many congratulatory messages, are: S. E.

Johnson, president; G. C. Singletary, vice-presi- dent; Sam Martin, vice-president; Fred W. Sinclair. cashier and manager; H. S. Kittredge, secretary- treasurer; J. I. Bujan, assistant cashier, and C. A. Swain, assistant cashier. Over 1,000 new accounts were added to their clientele on opening day, which gives them something like 4,000 accounts.

EVASIO PORTALUPI .- A successful, experi- enced baker whose unremitting industry has enabled him to establish himself, with equal prosperity in other fields is Evasio Portalupi, who was born in Torino, Italy, on June 9, 1885, the son of Joseph Portalupi, a building contractor, who had married Miss Adelaide Rigolone. Mrs. Portalupi died at the birth of her son; and his father passed away when our subject was eighteen years old. Evasio was sent to the grammar schools, and then, to complete his higher education, he attended the College at Torino.

Joseph Portalupi had long had an intimate friend, a building contractor in San Francisco, and his let- ters to the old Italian home district led to Evasio's crossing the briny deep himself. A serious disap- pointment, however, awaited him in San Francisco: arriving in this far-off city on November 25, 1906, he found that the friend in question had been taken ill, and therefore could not continue to do contract work; and consequently the young man was thrown upon his own resources, and had to accept day labor. He worked for a short time with a pick and shovel, and then accepted a position with the United Rail- way Company of San Francisco. He worked there for four months, and then was in the service of the St. Francis Hotel for two years.

About that time Mr. Portalupi bought out the Telegraph Hill Grocery at the corner of Grand and Greenwich streets, and for eight years he managed that enterprise so well that it steadily grew, and be- came a profitable investment. On April 13, 1916, he sold out and removed to San Jose, and here he entered the bakery field, and with the aid of his ac- complished and faithful wife, established the New Style French Bakery. This fine business they sold out in 1919, giving way to Petrino & Ferrarris, and then Mr. Portalupi started the Italian Grocery at 130 West Santa Clara Street, a thriving business since moved to the corner of First and St. John streets. He then began to invest in real estate, and he is today an active operator in that important field. When Mr. Portalupi was managing the bakery busi- ness now conducted by his brother-in-law, Mr. Pet- rino, he so developed it that he had wholesale wagons running throughout San Jose and vicinity, while he was shipping bread to such points as Gil- roy and Milpitas, and for three years supplying the county hospital and almshouse.

At San Jose, on April 13, 1916, Mr. Portalupi was married to Miss Mary Petrino, a native of Montiglio, in the Province of Alexandria, Italy, and the daugh- ter of Evasio and Tersilla Petrino. Her father was a successful commission merchant, and she had the advantages of a good home. In 1908 she came to San Francisco and in 1910 to San Jose. One child, a son named Henry, has blessed the union. Mr. Portalupi is a Republican, and a member of the Masons, as well as the Maccabees and the Red Men, of San Jose, and he has been an active officer in all of the lodges.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

CHARLES GENARDINI .- For more than a quarter of a century Charles Genardini has been active as a dairyman of Santa Clara County, and his success has been obtained through close application to busi- ness, coupled with honesty and uprightness of charac- ter. A native of Switzerland, he was born at Gor- dola, in Canton Ticino, June 29, 1865, the son of Joseph and Rosalia (Pata) Genardini, Charles being the fifth child in a family of six. The father was a farmer and orchardist. Charles was educated in the public schools of his native land, and spent his boy- hood on the farm helping his father with the farm work. In 1886, when he was twenty-one, he came to California, settling in San Luis Obispo County. Mr. Genardini was a carpenter by trade and when he came to California he could turn his hand to any kind of work. He started to work in a dairy, but he found the milking of cows very hard and thought he never would learn it, but in three months he had mastered it, so he could hold his own with anyone. He attended strictly to business and in time his em- ployer sold out to him and he continued the business for four years, then started in the dairy business for himself near the town of Morrow, ten miles from San Luis Obispo and continued for four years; then leased a ranch at Chorro and ran it eight years, when he came back to Morrow, where he leased two differ- ent ranches. In time he came to have one of the largest dairies in that region, having 170 milch cows. He was one of the first dairymen to see the practica- bility of the separator and was one of the first to in- stall a steam separator in his dairy and also a power churn, where he manufactured butter. During sev- eral months of the year he made 200 pounds of butter a day. which he shipped and sold in the Los Angeles markets through commission men, obtain- ing a record price. He was said to have the best bunch of cows on the Coast. He saw to it, too, that his men had comfortable quarters and good food and he was known as one of the most reliable and enterprising men in the county. He continued dairy- ing there until 1913, selling out his dairy in San Luis Obispo County and settled in Santa Clara County on a ranch near Lawrence Station, consisting of 160 acres. He rented this place for about five years, then bought forty-four acres on Bascom Avenue devoted to prunes. which he later sold, and pur- chased his present home on the Stevens Creek Road; remodeling the house into a modern bungalow and putting the place in good shape.

Mr. Genardini's marriage occurred in San Luis Obispo in 1889 and united him with Miss Elizabeth Canet, the daughter of Joseph and Valentine Canet. Grandfather Canet came from Spain and settled in California in very early days. Mrs. Genardini was educated in the schools of San Luis Obispo, and was reared on a farm. She and her husband are the parents of five children: Rosalia, deceased; Armenia, accidentally burned to death when two years old; Jo- seph married Miss Jennie Tonini of Morrow and they have three children-Alfred, Helen and Stanley Charles; Mary is Mrs. Fred Tonini and they have three children-Ellis, Carl and Eileen; Dante entered the service of his country in June, 1918, and was one month at Camp Lewis in Company L, Three Hundred Sixty-fourth Infantry of the Ninety-first Division; was transferred to the Signal Corps in New York and went to France as a telephone operator, and

spent eleven months overseas in Company C of the Three Hundred Sixth Field Signal Battalion and re- ceived the rank of corporal, having a fine record in the service. He returned home July, 1919, and was honorably discharged. He married Miss Irene Jacques and they reside in San Jose.

Politically, Mr. Genardini is a stanch Republican. and he became a citizen of the United States in 1894 at San Luis Obispo. In August. 1906, he made a trip back to Switzerland to visit the old home, where he had a pleasant time, as his mother, who was eighty-two years old, and sister were living. He spent over three months, during which time he traveled into Italy and different countries on the continent, visiting his brother, Elia, in Paris, return- ing to California pleased to get back. His mother lived to be eighty-eight years of age. Fraternally Mr. Genardini is an Elk of the San Luis Obispo lodge and a member of the Druids No. 90 of Cayucos. He is a strong admirer of his adopted country and does all he can for the advancement of his locality.

MRS. RENEE RISPAUD .- A native daughter who takes pride in having been born in the Garden City is Mrs. Renee (Reynaud) Rispaud. Her father, L. Reynaud, a prominent business man in San Jose, was born near Gap, Hautes-Alps, France, in 1865. He was a baker by trade, and coming to San Jose when. eighteen or nineteen years of age, he followed his trade in that city for some years, until he opened the Eldorado Bakery in the Delmas building on Post Street, later moving it to Post and Vine streets. During these years he made three trips on visits to France. The latter part of his business career was in partnership with his son-in-law. Henry Rispaud. He was a member of the Odd Fellows and the Club La France, and died December 9, 1918. The mother of Mrs. Rispaud was Eugenia Richier, also born in France; she died about twenty-one years ago, leaving two children, Renee, and Louis, who is associated with Mrs. Rispaud in business. Renee Reynaud was educated in the College of Notre Dame, Santa Clara County. Going to France, she spent four years at Gap, and there attended Academie Providence. On her return home, after completing the course at Notre Dame, Santa Clara, she was graduated from the Pacific Coast Business College.

Her marriage in San Jose in January, 1912, united her with Henry Rispaud, who was born at the old Joseph Rispaud home at Long Bridge, above Sara- toga. After his marriage Mr. Rispaud engaged in business with his father-in-law, L. Reynaud as pro- prietors of the Eldorado Bakery and Winery, contin- uing the business until 1919, when they quit on account of national prohibition. Two children were born of this union, Eugene and Henrietta. The fam- ily were bereaved of their husband and father August 29, 1920, a deep sorrow to them as well as to his many friends. In September, 1921, Mrs. Rispaud came to Long Bridge and purchased her present place, where she has a small store with confectionery and soft drinks, and also has a camping grounds equipped to accommodate automobile and picnic par- ties, with pits for cooking and tables for serving the ineals. Trout fishing can be had in the Campbell Creek on which her property is located. In this enterprise she is associated with her brother, Louis Reynaud, who is assisting her in its management:

Chas Genardini

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

they still own their property in San Jose. Mr. Ris- paud was a member of the Odd Fellows, Eagles, Native Sons of the Goklen West and the Club La France, of San Jose.

CLIFFORD BYRON GOODRICH .- The suc- cess achieved by Clifford Byron Goodrich in business and the high standing he enjoys as a citizen fur- nishes an example of what may be accomplished by a man of determination, perseverance and energy. A native of the county, born in Saratoga, October 1. 1894, he is a son of E. E. and Lilly ( Dutcher) Good- rich; the father, a retired rancher, resides at Capitola, Santa Cruz County. They were the parents of five children: Clifford Byron, the subject of this sketch; Leo, an oil driller, living in Coalinga; Claude E., an oil driller living in Texas; Adell, residing in San Jose: Vera resides in Saratoga. His mother passed away in 1917.

Mr. Goodrich's boyhood days were spent on a ranch near Saratoga: later removing with the family to a place on Tenth Street, San Jose. His education was obtained in the public schools of San Jose, sup- plemented with a business course at Heald's Busi- ness College, graduating in 1912. He entered the employ of J. B. Leaman, San Jose's laundryman and dry cleaner, learned the business and for three years he served as foreman of the dry cleaning establish- ment. Later, for one year, he was manager for the Vapor Dry Cleaning Company. On November 1. 1921, he became connected with the French Benzol Company on North Fourth Street, where modern and up-to-date machinery is used, making the plant sanitary and also places it in the front rank of busi- nesses of this kind. Mr. Goodrich is a self-made man in the best sense of the word; while working he made his own way through school, and is now reaping the rewards of an honest, consistent and well-directed efforts. He has acquired a pleasant home at 183 Humboldt Street in San Jose.

The marriage of Mr. Goodrich united him with Miss Viola Neville, a native of Kansas City, Mo .. and they are the parents of two children: Adell and June. Fraternally he is a Mason, holding a mem- bership in Friendship Lodge No. 210, F. & A. M .; he is also a member of the Sciots, and is active in the Chamber of Commerce of San Jose. During the Mexican trouble of 1916-17 he served his country on the border.

MELVIN JOSEPH ARANA .- An expert plumber who has rapidly come to the fore in San Jose is Melvin Joseph Arana, of 371 West San Carlos Street, at which headquarters he has been manufac- turing various kitchen and other practical utensils of such a novel design as to command unusual at- tention. He was born in Santa Cruz on January 14, 1888, the son of John Arana, also a native of Santa Cruz and a farmer, the son of a pioneer of 1850, who was drawn to California by the rush for gold. Later he went into San Luis Obispo County, and there engaged in the raising of cattle. He lived to be seventy-four years of age. John Arana married Miss Santa Rodriguez, of the family so well known as carly-timers and stock-raisers, and herself a native of Santa Cruz. She attended Notre Dame College in San Jose in the early period of that institution, and became an artist in weaving worsted eloth with faces, images and fancy designs in variegated colors. of such real merit that many of her masterpieces

were exhibited at the Panama-Pacific Fair in San Francisco in 1915. Grandfather Rodriguez came to San Francisco as a pioneer and lived on the sand hills where Golden Gate Avenue and Devisidero Street now cross. John Arana acquired a large farm of 700 acres in Santa Cruz County, at Arana Gulch Twin Lakes, and there he raised cattle until he re- turned to Santa Cruz, where he died. The mother now resides in San Francisco.

Melvin Arana, familiarly called by his many friends "Mel," attended both the grammar and high schools of Santa Cruz, and when a young man took up the plumbing trade with Alexander Tait in Santa Cruz, remaining in his service about twelve years. He then went to San Francisco and worked for eight years for the Scott Company. In June, 1920, he came to San Jose and opened a plumbing shop; he is a very fine mechanic and an excellent and honest workman, and such has been his progress, development and prosperity that he is now in a po- sition to do the plumbing and steam-fitting of the largest types of public and office buildings. He was in charge of all the plumbing and steam-fitting on the Faith, the concrete vessel built during the war, at Redwood City, by the Government as an experi- ment in concrete vessels, and partly as both the cause and the result, he is now planning the manufac- ture of concrete laundry trays and sink combina- tions. He has already bought the plot of ground in East San Jose where he intends to build and man- ufacture these fixtures. "Mel" Arana has certainly done much to increase industrial activity in San Jose; and as a Republican he has always favored that legis- lation most likely to steady and improve business. He is an enthusiastic member of the Master Plumbers' Association of San Jose.

On June 30, 1912, Mr. Arana was married at San Francisco to Miss Estella M. Francis, a native of Buffalo, N. Y., and the daughter of David and Rose Francis, natives of France and New York, respec- tively. David Francis came from France to Buffalo, N. Y., when a young man, and there he married. They brought their family to San Francisco when Estella was a small child; she was the third oldest of their six children and received her education in the Lincoln school in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Arana have been blessed with one child, Evelyn. Mrs. Arana is an accomplished and attractive wo- man who studied singing and dancing under the best teachers in San Francisco. She made a success as a vocalist and dancer, teaching fancy dancing to a large class. From a small child she displayed marked ability as a dancer; when only seven years old, she played with Florence Roberts in the old California Theatre in San Francisco, and afterward, as a toe dancer, gave performances at the old Grand Opera House. She had flattering offers after her mar- riage, but she gave up her career, preferring to devote all of her time to her home. Their daugh- ter, Evelyn, inherits the same talent from her mother, having been taught by her mother from a child, and from the age of four years she danced on the stage, and David Belasco pronounced her a child wonder. During the late war baby Evelyn gave eight months of her time and talent for the Red Cross and benefits to the soldier boys. She has had many flattering offers from Belasco, Fox and others, but her parents thought it wiser for her not to ac-

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cept them, very naturally wanting their baby at home with them, and she is now among the bright pupils of the Lincoln grammar school. Mr. Arana is a member of the Maccabees and it goes without saying that Mr. and Mrs. Arana are recipients of their share of well-deserved popularity.

JAMES K. KENNEDY .- Among the men of af- fairs who left their imprint on Santa Clara County and by their well applied energy helped to make the county more prosperous must be mentioned the late James K. Kennedy. He was of Scotch descent and a native of St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada, where he received a good education. After spending a few years in New York City he came to California in the early '70's, locating in San Francisco, where he was married on July 1, 1876, to Miss Mary F. Pippin, a native daughter of California, born in Stanis- laus County, a daughter of Samuel H. and Sarah A. (McClung) Pippin. His maternal grandmother was a member of the Rutledge family that settled in Nashville, Tenn. Her father, Samuel H. Pippin, was a native of Maryland and in frontier times he re- moved with his family to Warsaw, Mo. In 1852, in company with thirty other families, he started for California, this being one of the largest trains of emigrants that ever came into the state. They were six months in reaching their destination, the journey being one of great hardship and peril. Grandfather McClung and his wife were in the train, and they were very kind to the Indians, giving them food at various points on the road, and one evening when the party was camping on the banks of the Platte River, an old Indian crept up to the grandmother and indi- cated by signs that an attack was to be made upon them that night. She implored the leader of the train to break up camp and move to a point farther on, but this he refused to do. The grandfather, feel- ing uneasy, the McClungs and a few others left the remainder of the party and sought a more remote place in which to spend the night. This was in the vicinity of Fort Laramie and they subsequently learned that of the original band all except one were massacred that night by the Indians. Owing to her robust constitution, Grandmother McClung was able to withstand the hardships of the journey and passed away at the venerable age of eighty-six years and four months.

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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 200

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