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 61

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 61

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The work of construction was begun upon the Cen- tral Pacific Railroad on January 8, 1863, when Leland Stanford, as president of the company, turned the first shovelful of earth, and in May, 1869, the Central Pa- cific and the Union Pacific Railroad companies were united at Promontory Point, where Leland Stanford drove the last spike in the line of railroad connecting by rail the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, and binding indissolubly together the Eastern and Western sec- tions of the country. With a courage which never faltered, and an ability that rose equal to the difficul- ties as they presented themselves, this quartet of wonderful men,-Stanford, Huntington, Crocker, Hopkins,-persevered until they attained success. It was a gigantic enterprise managed by men of re- markable ability, the peculiar ability of one in a par- ticular sphere of action supplementing the peculiar ability of another in another sphere, and all working

in harmony for the common purpose. From the be- ginning to the end, however, the master-mind and the master-will were those of Leland Stanford. Upon the doubtful chances of success, these men ventured the moderate fortunes they possessed. Leland Stan- ford realized a colossal fortune, but with the attain- ment of great wealth, his labors in no wise ceased. He continued to be the president of the company until 1885, and during that time the management of this great corporation and the connecting lines which it acquired kept him constantly employed. In addition to the work of the railroad, Mr. Stanford also had the care and direction of his extensive landed estates. His home was on the Palo Alto estate of 7,200 acres, and he also owned the Gridley farm of 20,000 acres, and the great Vina ranch of 55,000 acres. These places he improved to such an extent that they became among the most valuable and productive tracts in all the world. Mr. Stanford thus came to be very much interested in the development of trotting horses, and owned the famous "Electioneer." sire of many of the fastest horses in America, including "Sunol," whose record was 2:0814. and "Palo Alto," whose record was 2:0834, and "Arion" with a two year old record of 2:1034, which record he held for seventeen years, sold for $125,000.

The great sorrow of Mr. Stanford's life came in 1884, when his only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., died. He was a lad of many attractive qualities and of great promise, and the idol of both his father and his mother, but while traveling through Europe with his parents, he was attacked with a virulent fever, and despite the best of medical aid, he died in Flor- ence, Italy, on March 13, 1884, in the fifteenth year of his age. He passed away in the flower of his youth, but his memory is perpetuated forever in the noble institution of learning which bears his name. The Leland Stanford Junior University is situated upon the Palo Alto estate, in Santa Clara County, distant about thirty miles from San Francisco. On November 11, 1885, Leland Stanford and his devoted wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford,-spoken of in detail else- where in this volume,-united in founding and endow- ing a university for both sexes to be called the Leland Stanford Junior University, and to be located at Palo Alto. The estates granted for this purpose included the Palo Alto farm, the Gridley farm and the Vina farm, aggregating 83,000 acres of land, and the total endowment of the new university in land and money was estimated to be $20,000,000. The university has for many years been in successful operation, and is surely destined to become more and more, one of the foremost seats of learning in the world, being un- rivaled in munificence of endowment. Its doors were opened in October, 1891, to over 500 students, and for the current year there are five times that number, despite the exactions of high standards, in attendance. From the inception of the idea of found- ing the university, through every stage of its develop- nient and through every period of its operation, Mrs. Stanford was the earnest, enthusiastic, never-failing, helpful friend, and to her was committed the task, in part left uncompleted by her husband, of still fur- ther widening the university's influence and increas- ing its usefulness.

In 1885, Mr. Stanford was elected a member of the United States Senate, and took his seat on the 4th of March; and he was reelected for the term ending March 3, 1897. His name will forever be associated

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with the Land-Loan bill, which he originated and presented to the Senate; and his addresses on this measure have been quoted in works on political econ- omy in every language of civilization. The bill pro- posed, in brief, that money should be issued upon land to half the amount of its value, and for such loans the government was to receive an annual in- terest of two per cent. Mr. Stanford frequently stated that if the measure were adopted it would. in time, raise revenue enough to pay the entire expenses of the government, and would thus take the tariff question entirely out of politics. The high estimates formed of the value of Mr. Stanford's services as a Senator are set forth in the appreciative addresses of his associates in Congress, delivered upon the occa- sion of his memorial.

It is worthy of interest, in discussing this one pre- eminent representative of the Stanford family in America, to recall another Stanford, a distant rela- tive and also a member of the English circle. John Stanford, a clergyman, came to the United States in 1786. opened an academy in New York City, inter- ested himself especially in charitable institutions, and originated the New York House of Refuge. the first juvenile reformatory in America which separated children from hardened criminals in the penitentiary. He was also one of the chief promoters of the New York Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. The first library of Bellevue Hospital was suggested by him. and it is interesting, in the light of what Mrs. Stan- ford. in particular, did for the Stanford University Library, that this was named in his honor the "Stan- ford Library Association of Bellevue Hospital." By request of the Common Council in New York in 1825 his portrait was painted by Samuel F. B. Morse, of telegraph fame, and now hangs in the New York De- partment of Charities.

JANE LATHROP STANFORD .- Few American women so deservedly occupy the preeminent position universally accorded Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford in the history of the American nation, and few Americans, women or men, bid fair to be found equally prominent to a commanding and revering degree in the halls of fame as the centuries recede and other men and women of note play their parts and come by superior incrit to the fore. She was born at Albany. N. Y., on August 25, 1825, was married to Leland Stanford, and began her social life when he was elected gov- ernor of California in 1861. and after his death she was occupied chiefly in fostering and developing The Leland Stanford. Jr., University, which she had aided her husband to establish in memory of their son, in 1891, a mere boy cut off by untimely death.

In 1901. Mrs. Stanford increased her gifts to the university by transferring to its trustees securities valued at $18,000,000, her residence in San Francisco, held at $400,000, and specified for a museum and art gallery, and some 12,000 acres of land valued at $12,000,000; and she subsequently added other bene- factions. thus making the university the wealthiest . university in the world She also established the Children's Hospital in her native city, the Empire

State capital, at a cost of $100,000, and provided an- other $100,000 for its permanent endowment; and she gave $160,000 to various schools in San Fran- cisco, particularly favoring the establishing and ex- tension of the German kindergarten, then bidding for acknowledgment and support, and now admitted as one of the best things given to the world by the idealists of the Fatherland.

One of the especially interesting incidents in Mrs. Stanford's philanthropic and romantic life is her crea- tion of a special fund for the purchase of books for the university library-almost a prophetic endeavor on her part in the light of the appalling disaster that was soon to affect all the great libraries of the Bay district. In February, 1905, as she was about to sail for the Hawaiian Islands in the hope of restoring her health, she delivered to the board of trustees a letter of instruction with respect to the disposition of her jewels, which in 1899 had been transferred to the trustees to insure the completion of the Memorial Church. She said: "I was subsequently enabled to erect the Memorial Church without the necessity of resorting to the sale of these jewels. In view of the facts and of my interest in the future development of the university library, I now request the trustees to establish and maintain a library fund, and upon the sale of said jewels, after my departure from this life, 1 desire that the proceeds therefrom be paid into said fund and be preserved intact and be invested in bonds or real estate as a part of the capital of the endowment, and that the income therefrom be used exclusively for the purchase of books and other pub- lications. I desire the fund to be known and desig- nated as the Jewel Fund." In 1908, in accordance with these instructions from Mrs. Stanford, the board of trustees established the "Jewel Fund," call- ing it into activity through the following resolution. "Now, therefore, in order to carry out said plan of Mrs. Stanford and to establish and maintain an ade- quate library fund and to perform the promise made by this board to her, it is-Resolved, that a fund of $500,000, to be known and designated as the Jewel Fund is hereby created and established, which fund shall be preserved intact, and shall be separately in- vested and kept invested in bonds or real estate by the board of trustees, and the increase of said fund shall be used exclusively in the purchase of books and other publications for the library of the Leland Stanford Junior University, under the supervision and direction of the library committee of this board of trustees." The immediate result of this action was to make available for the purchase of books about $20,000 each year. In 1910, also, the board of trus- tees accepted the design of Edwin Howland Blash- feld, the artist and author whose work at the Colum- bian Exposition, in the Congressional Library at Washington, in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and the private residence of C. P. Huntington, New York City, has given him lasting fame, for a book-plate to be placed in all books purchased on account of the Jewel Fund From this journey to Honolulu Mrs. Stanford did not return alive, for she breathed her last in the Hawaiian Islands on February 28, 1905.

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GEORGE MILLER BROWN .- Interesting, in- structive and inspiring is the story of the part played by the many sons and daughters of historic old England who, in settling as pioneers in California and the neighboring sister states, have contributed mightily, through hard work, venture and sacrifice, to the upbuilding of great commonwealths. Promi- nent among such worthy pioneers of the "right little, tight little island" who have helped to lay broad and deep the foundations of romantic California, and in doing so best developed the resources of the Golden State, is George Miller Brown, a native of Gloucestershire, England, long prominent as one of the most successful growers of Bartlett pears in the Santa Clara Valley, and very influential -- fortunately always in the direction of ennobling Christian en- deavor and moral uplift-as a far-seeing capitalist.

Mr. Brown was born at Stow-on-the-Wold, in Southwest England, on August 16, 1843, fortunate in his honorable parentage, but unhappily the fam- ily was so soon broken up that at a very early age he was compelled to push out into the world and struggle for himself. He went to school only until his eighth year, but being naturally apt, got more out of his books and teachers than many a child of less necessity. At nine years of age he drove a four- ox team hitched to a plow, being given that re- sponsible job because he could "fill the bill" better than any grown-up workman on the place. Secing the promise in the lad, his employer remarked, "George, you will beat your master yet," and this prophecy was, in time, literally fulfilled. He con- tinued to work at farm labor on a large English estate, and when he was only fifteen he was made foreman and given charge of the cultivation of 300 acres, with a dairy and sheep, cattle and horses.

In 1861 Mr. Brown left England for the United States, and landed in New York, then seething with its first year's participation in the Civil War; and probably on account of the disturbed conditions there, he went on to Hamilton, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Ontario. He accompanied his brother, James M. Brown, a tailor, who previously had made a trip to the United States, had gone as far as California, and had seen the stirring life of the gold diggings in 1850. George Brown entered the employ of a Hamilton doctor, and he continued with him until he came out to California.

The steerage ticket to San Francisco at that time cost $100, which represented all the money Mr. Brown had been able to save; but a friend who was anxious that he go with him, and who had a small capital of $2,000, advanced him enough cash to en- able him to reach the Promised Land. When he reached California, however, he had only twenty dollars left, so he went to work at once on a farm in Alameda County and stayed there a year. He rcpaid the thirty dollars advanced to him by his friend-repaying in shining gold-all within sixty days after his arrival in the Bay City in April, 1862. When he had been in California two and a half years, Mr. Brown followed his brother to Van- couver Island, where he preempted some land near Nanaimo, taking up 100 acres, and having brought with him, by boat, a yoke of oxen and four cows, he set to work to do the best he could with the undeveloped tract.

At the end of two years, however, Mr. Brown was not suited with his location, and so he turned his claim, stock and all other possessions over to his brother and came back to California. He had a capital of $600 when he arrived at Nanaimo, and when he arrived in Alameda in 1866 his last two-bits were gone. He found his place open on Judge Hast- ings' farm and for ten months continued in his em- ploy; and then he worked for Franklin Pancos, the pioneer strawberry grower, with whom he came to Santa Clara County and formed a partnership. They rented thirty-six acres in the Jefferson district, in Santa Clara County, in 1868, and put the entire tract in strawberries; later he formed a partnership with another young man who had set out ten acres to strawberries on a part of Mr. Brown's present land. About 1871 he bought out his partner, and then he continued to raise strawberries on rented land. He had twenty-two acres in berries and in the height of the season it took ninety-eight men to pick them before they spoiled, and when all his expenses had been paid, he had just ten dollars left. It took him thirteen years to pay for his first twenty-two acres, the nucleus of his present place; since then he has added by purchasing adjoining until he has 102 acres in a body, and it took forty-four years to pay for it with all the improvements, for he kept right on improving.

About forty years ago Mr. Brown helped put out the pear trees on what is now Mrs. Weston's place. There were some trees left, so he set them on his own place, which was the beginning of his present orchard, in what is now the greatest Bartlett pear district in California. Mr. Brown alone has 102 acres, which is said to be the finest Bartlett pear orchard in the United States-decidedly an inspiring triumph after years of hardship and discourage- ments. Mr. Brown and his wife also have other valuable realty holdings and are active in financial as well as commercial circles.

In San Jose, January 29, 1885, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Emma Lobb, also a native of Eng- land, who was born at St. Hoswell, a daughter of Henry and Jane Lobb, who emigrated with their family via the Isthmus of Panama in 1869, to Nevada County, Cal .; the father was a miner in Grass Val- ley until they came to San Jose, where he and his wife passed their remaining years. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Brown has been blessed with the birth of five children: Alfred is the foreman of his father's ranch and is also the owner of pear orchards and a prominent nurseryman, raising all kinds of fruit trees for the wholesale and retail trade. He has come to be known as an authority on horticulture and his advice is frequently sought by others. Albert is engaged in auto transportation, having a fleet of trucks for the purpose; he married Miss Viola Chew and they have three children. His headquarters are in San Jose where he resides with his family. Wal- ter, when only seventeen, enlisted for service on the Mexican border, was later sent to France, where he was wounded, and was honorably discharged at the completion of his patriotic service; he married Isabel Shirley and they have one son. Ella L. is a graduate of the San Jose State Normal, and during the World War served for ten months in the Red Cross as a field volunteer, paying her own expenses. She went

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overseas, serving in France, and sinee her return makes her home with her parents. She is very fond of travel and is somewhat of a globe trotter, having visited every continent, as well as the South Seas, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, West Indies and Azores, and has also dug gold in Alaska. She has crossed the Aretie Cirele and has sailed almost to the Antarctic Circle. She is now in charge of the relief work for San Jose Post No. 89, American Legion, and is a member of American Women's Overseas League of San Francisco. Edith, a gradu- ate of the Santa Clara high school, was also very patriotic and was placed in charge of Red Cross work for the Jefferson district during the war. She is now the wife of Floyd Jamison, who served with the A. E. F. in France; he is an electrician, and they make their home in San Jose, where she is active in the work of Trinity Episcopal Church.

In national political affairs a Republican, and in respect to creed and church membership an Episco- palian, Mr. Brown and his wife are broad-minded citizens, delighted when participating in church work under any acceptable banner. Mr. Brown's life is guided by the Golden Rule of doing unto others as he would be done by. He is one of the most liberal and enterprising men in Santa Clara County, and there is no worthy movement that has for its aim the betterment of the conditions and the enhancing of the happiness of the people of his community that does not receive his hearty support. He is well known as a very liberal contributor to civic organi- zations and the Red Cross, as well as other humani- tarian societies. It is to men of the type of George Brown that California owes much of its present development, for he was not afraid to venture and work to develop the raw land until the orchards of the valley have become a world-famous garden spot. Mr. Brown is well read and well informed, and having a retentive memory and being a good narrator of events, is an interesting conversationalist. He has a comfortable home, and being a big-hearted man, he loves to dispense the old-time California hospitality, so that it is indeed a pleasure to enjoy a visit with this pleasant old pioneer.

MRS. MARY HAYES-CHYNOWETH .- The in- terest awakened by a visit to the beautiful estate of Edenvale, with its sixty acres of well-kept grounds is heightened by a knowledge of the wonderful per- sonality who once lived and reigned there, Mrs. Mary Hayes-Chynoweth, who, until the time she passed away, continued with undiminished enthu- siasm and power the remarkable manifestations of spiritual life evidenced even in the years of her childhood. The deep religions fervor that was one of her predominant characteristics came as an in- heritance from her father, Rev. Abraham Folsom, who was a minister of the Free Will Baptist faith. Sup- plementing this inheritance there early came into her aspiring soul a power which she accepted as a gift from God and which shaped the course of her nse- ful existence, and resulted in her efficient service as pastor of the True Life Church of San Jose.

In the early day Rev. Abraham Folsom left Ver- mont, where he was born and where his parents, Daniel and Mary (Moody) Folsom had lived and labored. With a pioneer instinct and an earnest desire to preach the Gospel in regions then just

opened to the civilizing influences of American set- tlement, he settled in Holland, Erie County, N. Y., and there his daughter, Mary, was born October 2, 1825. Later he moved to Cuba, same state, and finally, when his daughter was twenty-three years of age, he identified himself with the then sparsely settled state of Wisconsin. While still a mere child the daughter had given evidence of the possession of peculiar qualities. When she was five, two years after the family had settled in Cuba, her little sister was accidently and seriously burned on the head. Her frantic cries were continued in spite of every effort to relieve her. About 1:30 in the morning the older sister was awakened, dressed and came into the room where the little sufferer lay in extreme pain. As she took the child into her arms, her cries stopped and soon she was sleeping comfortably. As she grew older neighbors began to come to her for help in cases of sickness. Many a page might be filled with accounts of her successful labors in relieving the sick. One instance of the kind, oc- curring when she was ten, may be mentioned among the many of a similar nature. A neighbor hurried to their home one day, saying that he feared his wife was dead. Hastening to their home, the child found the woman with jaws set, apparently in the embrace of death. After rubbing the body for a time she asked for angelica, with which she made a tea. The absence of a tooth in the woman's mouth enabled her to force a small amount of the tea into the throat. In a very short time the sufferer returned to consciousness and to health. The cure was re- markable when it is considered that the child knew nothing of medicine nor the effects of angelica. The idea had come to her as an inspiration and the physician on his arrival praised her timely action, adding that the lady would have been dead had it not been for her help.

The environments of pioneer life and the limited means of the family prevented Miss Folsom from attending school. Her entire schooling did not cover a period of one year. Notwithstanding this privation, by research and reading she acquired such a thor- ough education that her labors as a teacher were successful to a gratifying degree. When only twelve years of age, feeling that she should not be a burden to her father, she desired to support herself by go- ing out to work, but her father persuaded her that she was too small for self-support. A few weeks later she was called to the home of Mrs. Webster, a neighbor, who was ill with inflammatory rheuma- tism. The remedies she suggested were so prompt in action that the woman was able to take up her weaving within two days. In this home she re- mained for a year as an assistant and afterward she made her own way in the world. When in her eighteenth year she took up a summer school that her brother, William A. Folsom, had taught the previous winter and her success in the work led her to follow the profession for seven years. After settling with her parents in Waterloo, Wis., she en- gaged in teaching there. During the last two years of her work as an instructor her leisure hours were largely devoted to prayer. Six months before the elose of her last term the Fox sisters had begun their promulgation of spiritism. In alarm lest relatives or friends might be led into their doctrines, she prayed even more earnestly than before, asking God

Mary Hayes Chynowette

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to show her the truth and to reveal to her the im- mortality of the soul. The answer to her petition was long delayed, but still she continued in prayer, determining that naught but death should seal her lips until God revealed to her the evidence she de- sired. With the close of her school on Friday, she returned home. The following Sunday morning serv- ices were held in the church near by and she pre- vailed on the other members of the family to attend while she remained at home with her father. The homely task of dishwashing was engaging her at- tention when she fell to the floor, crushed by what seemed to her a hundred-pound weight At the same time she began to pray in an unknown tongue, as impelled by the power of God. Her father questioned this unseen power through his daughter and was there told of the work before her for which she was to prepare herself and in doing so do the will of God. By a careful study of the miracles related in the Bible and comparing with her work, all became convinced that the divine spirit had blessed her in answer to her prayers. For two years she was under the divine influence, praying unceasingly and deprived herself at the request of the controlling pow- er of all substantial food except bread. With the in- dwelling of the holy spirit there came wonderful power in healing the sick and alleviating pain. From the regions round about came the sick and suffer- ing in such numbers that she had not time for all. Calls came to her from Whitewater, East Troy, Waukesha and other Wisconsin towns, where she was invited to preach in churches and schoolhouses. Contrary to her wishes in the matter of remuneration she was finally prevailed upon to accept all gifts voluntarily offered, as by doing so it would confer a benefit upon those whom she helped. The money thus received and her salary as a teacher were given toward paying the interest on the mortgage on her father's farm. Indeed, in all the years of the con- tinuance of the family circle, she contributed to its maintenance, proving herself a devoted daughter.

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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 61

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