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 227

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 227

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JEREMIAH J. O'BRIEN .- A successful agricul- turist who has also proven that he can make good in quite another field of useful endeavor, is Jeremiah J. O'Brien, the rancher and manufacturer, at Wayne Station on the Oakland Road, who was born in Santa Clara County on the old Gish Ranch, just north of San Jose, first seeing the light there on June 6, 1870. His father, Jeremiah J. O'Brien came out to Cali- fornia in the '50s, a native of County Cork, Ireland. endowed with the best qualities which have always made an Irishman a desirable settler and citizen; and he mined for a while ncar Virginia City before com- ing further, into Santa Clara County. He had mar- ried Miss Katherine Carey, obtaining thereby one of the best of helpmates, and he leased the old Alviso Ranch, of approximately 400 acres, north of San Jose, which he handled in model fashion. Later he leased the old Gish Ranch, where Jeremiah was born, and afterward he bought the twenty acres under that name devoted to the culture of pears. 61

Our subject attended the Orchard school, when it stood on the bank of the Coyote Creek, and then re- mained with his parents until he was twenty years old, when he became foreman of the old R. D. Fox nursery, of approximately 700 acres devoted to rais- ing ornamental and fruit trees, and there he con- tinued progressively active for ten years. Then he took up farming for himself, leasing in all 260 acres, and so well did he prosper that ever since he has been committed to ranching. He manages the De Rosa Ranch of eighty acres on Capitol Avenue, and also a ranch on Gish Road. In 1918 he purchased 1,100 acres one and a half miles from Cottonwood, in Shasta County: and 300 acres of this ranch is under the Anderson ditch and is very successfully devoted to the raising of alfalfa.

Mr. O'Brien's ranching in Santa Clara County is carried on largely for the raising of fruit and vege- tables, and he is also the owner of a plant for the manufacture of berry-baskets, which he runs on a gross percentage basis. The factory is situated on his ranch, and there from ten to twenty workers turn out about 5,000,000 berry baskets a year, cach being of the wooden tray type. In this enterprise, as in everything he undertakes, Mr. O'Brien's natural honesty dictates the policy to be pursued-a square deal for the customer -- with the inevitable result that he has customers, and plenty of them.

At San Jose, on January 7, 1903, Mr. O'Brien was married to Miss Maude Monroe, a native of Loyal- ton, Sierra County, Cal., and the daughter of Charles Colin and Frances (Chandler) Monroe-the former of Scotch descent and an carly settler in California. Two children have sprung from this union-Wayne Henry is a sophomore in the University of Santa Clara, and Jerold is a pupil in the Orchard grammar school. For the past sixteen years Mr. O'Brien has been a member of the board of trustees of the Orchard school district and for the past twelve years has served as its clerk. He is also the deputy county assessor of the third supervisorial district. In 1911 he purchased a home place of an acre and a half at Wayne Station and, having built there a home, he has lived there ever since. He is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West, and is a past president of the Palo Alto Parlor, now called the Garden City Parlor of the N. S. G. W.

MRS. BETTY GWARTNEY .- A highly teemed resident of the Mountain View district who is showing great capability in the management of her ranch is Mrs. Bettie Gwartney, whose home is a center of community progress and hospitality. She was born in Mississippi and when only three years old, came with her parents, Seth Gibbons, a native of North Carolina, and Martha (Appling) Gibbons, a native of Virginia. Her father was a fariner by occu- pation, and left Mississippi directly after the Civil War and coming to California settled in Merced County, where he engaged in farming. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons are the parents of six children, all of whom are living, but both parents are deceased.

Mrs. Gwartney began her education in the public schools; later she was graduated from the State Normal School at San Jose and became a teacher, first at Sutter Creek and later at Mayfield, Cal. At her childhood home in Merced County, she was married to Prof. J. G. Gwartney; he was a native of Indiana and was educated in the grammar and high schools of his native state; then he entered the

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State University at Lincoln, Nebr., and after remov- ing to California entered the State Normal School at San Jose, from which he graduated in 1891. He later graduated from Stanford University with the class of 1898, receiving the degree of A. B. Pro- fessor and Mrs. Gwartney were sent by the U. S. Government to teach in the Philippine Islands, Pro- fessor Gwartney preceding his wife by two years, teaching there for six years, while Mrs. Gwartney taught there for four years. Through the influence and efforts of Mrs. Gwartney a sanitary restaurant was established in the Philippine Islands as a branch of her teaching of domestic science, and this res- taurant has been kept up and is still running. In 1907 they returned to their ranch in Mountain View, and Prof. Gwartney passed away October 1, 1916, at the age of fifty-six. While Mrs. Gwartney gives most of her time and attention to the manage- ment of her fifteen-acre ranch, she still is deeply in- terested in educational matters, and is held in high esteem by the residents of the community.

HERSCHEL JOHNSON .- A leader among the public-spirited men of the Edenvale district in Santa Clara County, Herschel Johnson holds an assured place. He was born near Boulder, Colo, May 28, 1877, the son of Daniel and Phoebe Ann (Jamison) Johnson, the former now deceased and the latter residing in San Jose. Daniel Johnson was born in Winnebago County, 111., November 23, 1844, and when a lad was taken by his parents to Northeastern Iowa, where the family settled on a farm and con- tinued to farm until 1860. It was then news had been spread that gold had been discovered in Colorado and the Johnson family, consisting of Daniel and his sister and their parents, crossed the plains with an ox team and for a number of years Daniel worked in one of the big smelters about Blackhawk and Central. In 1868 he located on a farm near Boulder and in 1870 he was united in marriage with Miss Phoebe Ann Jamison, who had accompanied her parents across the plains with an ox-team train from Missouri. Their party were continually seeing the ruins of trains that had been destroyed by Indians. but were fortunately not attacked. In 1879, with his family. Daniel Johnson moved his stock to Northern Colorado at the head waters of the Big Laramie River and took up land and became interested in raising stock. At that period wild game was in abundance and for sixteen years this was the home of the family. In 1895 Mr. Johnson came to Cali- fornia to attend the Mid-Winter Fair and at the same time bought a ranch of seventy acres in the Santa Clara Valley, near Edenvale. He sold out his interests in Colorado and removed with his fam- ily to their new possessions and he engaged in the orchard business until his retirement in 1907, when he retired to San Jose and there he died, on Janu- ary 23, 1920, at the home he had purchased on South Seventh Street and where Mrs. Johnson still lives. Their five children are. Orian C .. of Cressey, Cal .; Eslor F., in Fresno; Edith M , Mrs. J. P. Arnold of Richmond, Cal ; Herschel, of this review, and Bertha, Mrs. J. D. Arnold of San Jose.

Herschel Johnson attended the schools of the dis- tricts in which the family lived in Colorado and finished at the Oak Grove school on the Cottle Road. He assisted his father in the development of the ranch and made a study of horticulture. In 1915 he bought his present place of thirty acres on Cottle

Road and has developed a fine prune orchard. He also owns twenty aeres of the old home place just off the Cottle Road, this property he had helped his father develop into a prune ranch. He is a hard worker and also ever ready to learn and applies the most modern methods in taking care of his orchards and is being well rewarded in the practical results he has obtained. He believes in cooperation and is a member of the California Prune and Apricot Asso- ciation, Inc., and in all progressive movements for the betterment of his community is always ready to lend a helping hand.

The marriage of Herschel Johnson on June 21, 1906, at San Jose, united him with Miss Mary Eliza- beth Bader, the only daughter of Frederick and Ada (Boot) Bader, natives of Germany and England re- spectively. She has an only brother, Felix Bader, now residing at Carter, Mont. Mr. Bader was born in Germany on August 8, 1850, was brought by his parents, J. G. and Mary E. (Messinger) Bader, to America when three years old and reared in Allen County, Ohio, until 1862, when they removed to near Des Moines, lowa, and continued farming. The elder Bader served all through the Civil War with Sherman and Grant. In 1866 Mr. Bader went to Boulder, Colo., and while living there his wife died in 1906. He and his family had spent a year, 1902- 1903 in California, but returned to Colorado. After the death of his wife he spent part of his time in Colorado and part in California, making the home of his daughter his headquarters. In 1908 he practically retired, having sold his interests in Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are parents of three children, all attending the Oak Grove school, H. Loren, Hortense E., and Florence Josephine. The family are highly respected by all who know them and take an active part in all civic activities of their neighborhood.

GEORGE E. PUTERBAUGH .- Prominent among the successful prosthetic dentists of Santa Clara County is George E. Puterbaugh, who has attained a high standing in his professional career. His skilful work inspires confidence in his patients, and invariably wins the regard and esteem of all with whom he comes in contact. A native of lowa, he was born January 25, 1893, in Clarinda, a son of John W. and Mollie (Barnett) Puterbaugh. The father, John W., is a lineal descendant of the great Puterbaugh family, pioneers of Illinois. He resides in Chicago and is engaged in the automobile business. The mother was born in Clarinda, a daughter of John Barnett, a native of Virginia, who came to California during the gold rush of 1849. He established a trading post at Placerville, but later farmed at Evergreen, and was a prominent pioneer of Santa Clara County. The family moved to Ore- gon when George was a small child of two years and remained there for two years; at the end of that time they came to California and settled in San Jose. His

education was obtained in the public schools of this city; then he entered the machine shop belonging to his father, and became a thorough auto-mechanic. During the years of 1913-1916 he spent in auto racing as a mechanician with a Mercer car, racing at Los Angeles, Corona, San Francisco and San Diego; other notables in these races were De Palma, Dario Resta. Barney Oldfield. Eddie Rickenbacker and others. He then began the study of prosthetic den- tistry, serving an apprenticeship in dental labora- tories in San Jose and San Francisco and in the

R. Farnsworth

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

meantime taking courses in this line in the Southern Branch of the University of California at Los An- geles. In 1916 he first enlisted in the United States Field Artillery for service on the border, after his discharge returning to his profession. During the World War he enlisted in the United States Dental Corps and was commissioned a first lieutenant and assigned to duty in the American Red Cross with the Czecho-Slovak army, doing prosthetic dentistry in Siberia, going inland 300 miles to Omsk. After the close of his term of one year's service he returned to California and received his honorable discharge. Returning to San Jose he soon thereafter established his own business.

The marriage of Mr. Puterbaugh in 1917 united him with Miss Irene Milbury, a native of California, born in Visalia, Mr. and Mrs. Puterbaugh are the parents of one child, Melville. In January, 1920, he established the Puterbaugh Dental Laboratory, lo- cated in the Twohy Building in San Jose. He em- ploys several assistants to take care of his large and growing practice. He also does expert work for leading dentists as far south as San Luis Obispo and north to San Mateo. Fraternally he is a popular member of Fraternity Lodge No. 399, F. & A. M., and of the Knights of Pythias. He enjoys a lucrative and extensive patronage and well deserves the esteem and respect in which he is held in the community.

RALPH FARNSWORTH .- Two old-time Cali- fornia families of more than passing interest are rep- resented in the life-stories of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Farnsworth of San Jose, the former a native of Amador County, where he was born on January 30, 1866, and the latter a native of Sutter County. Mr. Farnsworth's father was Junius Farnsworth, born in Ohio in 1831, and his mother before her marriage was Ann Maria Scott, one of the well-known Scotts who came to California in 1850, taking six months to cross the great plains. Junius Farnsworth came out in 1852, and he sailed all the way around the Horn in order to get here. He became a merchant at Ione, and later went to Stockton; and from there until he was eighty-one years old he traveled as salesman for the Aurora Mills of Stockton, in which city he lived until the age of eighty-nine years, ten months and fifteen days when he died in July, 1921. His wife, who is seventy-nine, is still living.

Ralph Farnsworth attended the public schools at Ione, and when eighteen years of age started out to make his own way in the world. Taking up railroad- ing, he entered the service of the Southern Pacific, and finally became a passenger conductor. From 1888 to 1894, he ran out of Sacramento, and from 1897 to 1900 he ran on the Bakersfield and Point Richmond division of the Santa Fe. In 1900 he again joined the Southern Pacific, and for two years he continued with that company. Since 1902 he has lived in San Jose, where he has followed the work of building up a business and then selling it at the proper profit. Among the lines exploited in this legitimate manner are the restaurant, cigar-stand, pool hall and garage. In 1918 he joined T. J. Callahan in the auto accessories trade, and now they carry a full line and do principally a wholesale business cov- ering Santa Clara Valley, Hollister, Watsonville and Santa Cruz. He is also especially interested in the Gilroy Midway Oil Company in the McKittrick field, and he has been very successful in his oil dealings.

At San Francisco on September 24, 1902, Mr. Farnsworth was united in marriage with Miss Annie 11. Graves, born in 1874, the daughter of Henry and Mary A. (Terstegge) Graves, pioneers of Sutter County, the former descended from good old New England stock, born in Connecticut. He came to California in 1849, crossing the plains and after min- ing for a time went to San Francisco and with others bought a quantity of supplies and a whaleboat and started for the end of navigable waters up the Sacra- mento to sell to the miners. After this venture he bought land in Sutter County, became a rancher and stockraiser and lived there until he died at the age of fifty-eight. Mrs. Graves came across the plains from Indiana in 1852, met and married Mr. Graves and lived to the age of eighty-seven. Mr. and Mrs. Farnsworth have one daughter, Ruth A., a graduate of the San Jose high school and now doing post- graduate work there. Mrs. Farnsworth is a member of the Native Daughters. Mr. Farnsworth is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner; also a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Native Sons; and is enrolled among the members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Auto Trades Association.

EARL E. KESLING .- A comfortably-situated orchard owner who has found that California offers the best of inducements to the horticulturist, is Earl I. Kesling, who lives on the Sierra Road one and a half miles east of Berryessa. He is a native son, and was born in Santa Clara County, on the Morrill Road, on May 5, 1897, the son of Ernest N. and Amelia Kesling. His father was a native of Ohio, while his mother came from Pennsylvania; and they were married in Ohio and moved westward to Cali- fornia in 1895. Mr. Kesling was an orchardist, and boasted a very trim twenty-acre ranch devoted to prunes and apricots on the Morrill Road. They had a family of four children; and besides the eldest, our subject, there were Carroll, Ione and Eileen. In 1905 Mr. Kesling died, and the next year Mrs. Kesling sold out the home place.

That same year, Mrs. Kesling purchased a ranch of forty acres on Sierra Road, devoted to the raising of prunes and apricots, and after a while she was mar- ried a second time to William K. Luce. One daughter by this second marriage is named Grace, and she is attending the Berryessa school. Mr. Luce, the step- father, was killed in 1918, while oiling the pump drive- shaft; it is supposed that his clothing caught in the machinery, but whatever the cause, he was hurled to the bottom of the well-pit. This tragedy left the devoted mother a second time a widow.

Earl Kesling attended the Berryessa grammar school, and then completed the courses of the San Jose high school, and after that he studied for two years at the College of the Pacific. The great World War then appealed tremendously to his patriotic in- stincts, and in November, 1917, he enlisted to fight for Uncle Sam. He was sent to Berkeley and be- came a flying cadet in the Aviation School, and after that he was transferred to Rockwell Field, Cali- fornia, where he was trained for three months and was then commissioned second lieutenant. Next he was sent to Dallas, Texas, where he spent one month in a concentration camp, from whence he went to Dayton, Ohio, and trained for one month at the Wilbur Wright field. Then he was granted a fur- lough home, and on his returning to duty, he went

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to Mineola Field, L. I., and on October 17, 1918, sailed for Southhampton. He crossed the channel to Havre, France, and at Issodoun, in that country, he trained until January, 1919. Then he was transferred to Grande, France, and after that he went to Coblenz, with the Army of Occupation. He left Germany in July of the same year, and on August 12, 1919, sailed from Brest, France, with just one port in view-the metropolis of the United States. He was hon- orably discharged at the Presidio, at San Francisco, on August 25, 1919, after which he made haste to return home. With his brother, he is at present run- ning the forty-acre orchard on Sierra Road.

While in France, Mr. Kesling was assigned to a pursuit squadron, and although he was not in actual front-line duty, he flew along the front frequently.

Mr. Kesling is a popular member of the American Legion-as might be expected when one knows the popularity of his father among both the Masons and the Odd Fellows of San Jose, and is a broad-minded Republican. At San Jose, on September 22, 1918. he was married to Miss Cora Scales, a native of North Carolina and the daughter of Frank and Anna Scales. Her parents had removed to California about 1914, and are now living retired in San Jose. Mr. and Mrs. Kesling are the parents of one child, a boy named Ernest F.

FRED LAWRENCE FOSTER. - Prominent among the professional and business men of San Jose, is Fred Lawrence Foster, the president of the Foster Optical Company, a resident of San Jose for twenty-two years, and for seventeen years the head of the company which bears his name. He was born on March 9, 1868, at Elizabeth, N. J., and was the son of Frederick and Margaret (Todd) Foster. Both parents are living in New York City; the father, who is now eighty-nine years old, was one of the officers of the first safe deposit company in New York; he and a friend, having the distinction of originating the safe deposit idea. Fred was educated in private schools in New York and later took special training in his chosen profession at college in Philadelphia. He came to San Jose in January, 1900, and estab- fished the business in which he is now engaged, which was incorporated in 1905.

Mr. Foster's marriage united him with Miss Mary Halsey, who is a native of San Jose, and they are the parents of three children: Margaret Vail, Emma Louise, and Lawrence Halsey. Mr. Foster is a char- ter member of the Lions Club and is an active mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce. He has served many years as director of the Merchants Association and during the war was vice-chairman of the War Work Council, his district embracing many of the professional men. Mr. Foster takes a keen interest in his work as an optometrist and keeps abreast with the latest developments and modern ideas by frequent post-graduate studies. Well-known in his profes- sion, he has served as a delegate to many conven- tions in various cities.

KARL F. KENNEDY .- An honored representa- tive of early pioneers of California, back through two generations, Karl F. Kennedy stands high in the professional and civic life of the community where he was reared and where he has made his home. His grandfather, James Faris Kennedy, was one of Cali- fornia's earliest permanent white settlers. Descended from Revolutionary stock, his grandfather having heen an officer in the Revolutionary War, James F.

Kennedy was born in Bucks County, Pa., January 18, 1810, but was reared in Philadelphia, where his parents settled when he was a child. Leaving there at the age of twenty-one, he traveled through various parts of the country, being employed for several years at the lead mines at Galena, Ill. As an agent for Commodore Stockton, he came to California in 1850 and had charge of Commodore Stockton's tract of land, consisting of 3,000 acres, lying between San Jose and Santa Clara. In the fall of 1860 he located near Los Gatos, where he purchased a large ranch. He became extensively interested in horticulture, in which he met with good success, and likewise ac- quired fame as an expert stock breeder, and raising some of the finest thoroughbred horses ever bred in Santa Clara Valley. A strong Republican in his political affiliations, he was at one time the candidate for lieutenant-governor, running on the ticket with Leland Stanford. At the time of his death, in 1864, he was sheriff of Santa Clara County. Mrs. Kennedy, who was Serena Safter of Philadelphia before her marriage, survived him until June, 1888. They were the parents of six children: William C., James F., Samuel T., Edwin A., Mrs. Clara C. Bray and Robert F. James F. Kennedy served as Adjutant General of California during the Civil War and as he was a strong Union man he quelled many a secessionist movement in the state and thus did much toward keeping California from seceeding from the Union.

William C. Kennedy, the father of our subject, was the eldest son of James F. Kennedy. He was born in Philadelphia in 1844, and when only a fad was brought to California by his parents, in 1852, via the Isthmus of Panama. He grew up at San Jose, and graduating from Santa Clara College in 1868, was admitted to the bar in the state of Nevada in 1871, where he practiced for a time. On locating in San Jose, he at once took his place as a leader in the legal profession in this part of the state, continuing his practice until his death, which occurred in 1912. His marriage united him with Miss Kate Moody, daughter of Chas. Moody and a native of San Jose, and a sister of the late Mrs. Eugene T. Sawyer. Mrs. William C. Kennedy, who still makes her home at San Jose, is descended from the Lee family of Virginia, her mother being a cousin of the famous General Robert E. Lee.

The only son of his parents, Karl F. Kennedy was born at San Jose, March 21, 1880, and here the early years of his fife were spent. After his preliminary education was finished, he entered Stanford Univer- sity, completing the legal course there in 1904, and was admitted to the bar in 1905. Following in the footsteps of his father, he entered the practice of law, practicing at San Jose and San Francisco for a period of over thirteen years. During the World War Mr. Kennedy gave up his professional work to offer his services to his country, and was stationed in France as secretary of the Y. M. C. A. work, attached to the French army until after the armistice. He then entered the Morale Department of the United States Army, being appointed by Secretary of War Baker, and holding the rank of first lieutenant. On his return to California, after completing his services, he became representative for The Safe-Cabinet Com- pany of Marietta, Ohio, and is their distributor in six counties south of San Francisco: San Mateo, Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz and

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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 227

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