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 69

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928

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In those early days of mining in California, scien- tific methods were unknown. Machinery had to be ordered in London and shipped round Cape Horn, and this required many months. In the meantime, Mr. Coe, who had determined to engage in the business of providing this, settled in San Francisco as a purchasing agent for miners' supplies. Not until 1858 did he revisit New York. He did so then on a mission of no small importance to himself. He mar- ried the lady of his choice, Miss Hannah Huntington Smith, who had waited for him nineteen years. Mrs. Coe was born August 16, 1821, in Camden, N. Y. She was the daughter of Rev. Henry Huntington Smith, a native of the village of Durham, N. H.,

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and the son of Hon. Ebenezer and Mehitabel (Sheafe) Smith. Reverend Smith graduated from Bowdoin College in 1810, and finished his theological training at the Andover Theological Seminary in 1815. He was ordained as a minister during the year of 1817 at Camden, N. Y., and while engaged in his chosen work and during a vigorous exhortation, he was stricken and died July 19, 1828. This branch of the Smith family were prominent in the history of the Northeast, and many members of the family were connected with the affairs of state. The Hunt- ingtons were among the Revolutionary soldiers.

When Mr. Coe returned to California with his bride, he found that his mining property had been taken possession of by Alvinza Hayward, who was reaping a handsome fortune each month therefrom. Happily Mr. Coc possessed an ample fortune of his own, as did his bride in her own right. They soon were attracted by the quiet of the country, so they came to San Jose, where Mr. Coe purchased 150 acres in the section known as The Willows. Here he established a beautiful country residence, the hospitality of which was nowhere surpassed. He cleared his tract, and was the first man to plant fruit trees and hops. Mr. Coe was the first extensive shipper of hops to New York, Liverpool and Aus- tralia, and he grew the first tobacco in California, from which he made cigars, and the first silk grown and manufactured from the native product of the United States was grown and manufactured at The Willows, the silk being made into a beautiful flag presented to Congress in 1872. This flag was after- wards exhibited at the Centennial Exposition, in Philadelphia; at the World's Fair, in Chicago, and is on exhibition today in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. The experiment demonstrated the possibility of silk culture in Santa Clara Valley, both soil and climate being admirably adapted to the mul- berry and cocoon. Mr. Coe was extraordinarily successful as a grower of hops and was the first to use sulphur in bleaching hops and fruit, a process that is universally employed at the present time. Men traveled expressly from Europe to purchase hops from him as they were declared superior to any grown elsewhere in any land.

Later Mr. Coe suffered great financial losses and this induced him to part with all his property in The Willows, after holding it fifteen years. Thereafter he lead a retired life in the lovely San Felipe Valley, a fit haven of rest, among the beauties of nature, where he had often expressed the wish that the evening of his life might be spent until its close. Surrounded by all who were dearest to him, the end came at sunset on June 17, 1896, and thus ended a varied and worthy life. Whether considered as the merchant of pioneer Detroit days; the enterprising cotton manufacturer of Cooperstown, N. Y .; the pioneer crossing the plains and braving dangers of every kind in 1847; the volunteer schoolmaster of Oregon City in the days of its foundation; exploring the Columbia; fighting, where all were heroes in the battle of the terrible Indian war in Oregon; migrat- ing, a leader ever, from Oregon to California over- land; whether considered as a miner or a merchant of the Golden State; in the hills, or in the city; or whether remembered finally, as a pioneer orchardist of Santa Clara Valley, bringing to San Jose its title

of "The Garden City"; the first of its hop growers and silk producers; at whatever time of life recalled, Henry Willard Coe will ever stand to all who knew him as one of the highest types of the American gentleman, the enterprising, fearless, generous, high- minded and public-spirited citizen. In presence, Mr. Coe was slightly over six feet. He was a man of striking dignity, but of most kindly manner. He was exceptionally well read, with a memory that was remarkable, and he retained his faculties up to within an hour of his death. He remembered perfectly General LaFayette's visit to this country. He and his brother Eben had stood watching on the banks of the Hudson when Fulton first ran his steamer on its waters. He knew San Francisco when it con- tained only a population of five hundred. He was fond of dwelling upon the marvelous development of science that he had seen take place within his own lifetime. He was broad-minded in all things, and rejoiced in progress of every kind. Mr. Coe was survived by his widow, four years. She died Janu- ary 17, 1901, beloved by all, as she had lived. Her womanly graces and her great kindness of heart had endeared her to all kinds and conditions of people from the moment she made her home among them. Two sons of her union with Mr. Coe survive them both: Henry W. Coe, who lives in the beautiful San Felipe Valley, of whom more extended mention is elsewhere given, and Charles W. Coe, for many years a resident of San Jose, but now of Phoenix. He married Miss Leontine Carteri, a native of Santa Barbara, who is a granddaughter of the first Eng- lish settler in Southern California, William D. Foxen, who, in 1836, built the first ship in California. Mr. Foxen it was, also, who saved General Fremont's small body of troops from annihilation, by guiding them over the mountains, instead of journeying through the Goleta Pass, where destruction awaited them at the hands of General Castro. Four children, Eben, Willard, Leontine and Roger, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Coe.

It is to such men as Henry Willard Coe that the country really owes what is best in its character and achievements. He stood for advancement and pro- gressiveness in all things and his labors were an effective force in bringing about improvements and upbuilding along numerous lines that have proven of untold worth to the communities in which he lived.

HENRY W. COE .- No history of San Jose and the surrounding country would be complete without reference to Henry W. Coe, who was born on Coe Avenue in The Willows on April 17, 1860. His father, Henry Willard Coe, and mother, Hannah Huntington (Smith) Coe, were representatives of families who helped shape the destinies of America and they became pioneer residents of the Santa Clara Valley, where during their lifetime, they contributed not a little to the progress of the community. Else- where in this volume will be found a sketch of their eventful lives.

Henry W. Coe was reared and educated in San Jose, having attended the grammar and high schools of that city, later graduating from the Pacific Busi- ness College of San Francisco. His father having acquired 500 acres of land, part of the Los Huecos grant in the San Felipe Valley, Henry W., together with his brother, Charles W., engaged in the stock-

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raising business, running 1,000 head on the prop- erty. In time Henry W. bought out his brother and added to his holdings until, at the present time, he owns upwards of 8,000 acres in Santa Clara County. One of his favorite ranches is located in the Pine Ridge Country cast of Morgan Hill, an ideal loca- tion. While Mr. Coc has to some extent discon- tinued his stockraising business, he still retains his land holdings and on his home ranch ranges some 200 head; also raises fruit.

On August 21, 1905, Mr. Coe was married to Rhoda Dawson Sutcliffe and they have become the parents of two children: Henry Sutcliffe Coe attending the San Jose high school, and Sada Sutcliffe Coe, a pupil at the Lowell School, San Jose. Mrs. Coe, who shares with her husband the good will of all who know them, was born in Halifax. Nova Scotia, Feb- rnary 10. 1879, and is the daughter of Rev. Ingham Sutcliffe. born in the year of 1804 at Cowling, near Bradford, Yorkshire, England. During the year of 1832. he became a Wesleyan missionary to Nova Scotia. where he was energetic and active in the mission work and where he died in 1885. On ac- count of the migration of this branch of the Sut- cliffe family in the early days, Mrs. Coe has known but little of her English forbears, but that they were people of standing and education is evidenced in the traits of character exhibited by their descendants on this side of the Atlantic.

Mr. Coe is a member of the Pioneer's Society of Santa Clara County and takes great pride in the pioneer work accomplished by his father and is al- ways ready to aid in all progressive movements. Hc is always genial. whether in the casual meeting on the street or within the portals of his home. His home life is ideal. He spends nearly all of his time on the ranch though maintains a residence in San Jose that his children may have the advantages of the city schools. Mr. Coe is held in high esteem by all who know him and is a genial and compan- ionable man whose sterling worth has gained for him warm friendships.

JOHN WILLIAM NIXON .- From the beginning of its experience as a live, progressive city, and for many years past, San Jose has been famous through- out all the Pacific slope for both its well organ- ized institutions of education and its high educational standards and influence in the development of popu- lar culture. Leading among the best conducted of these notable organizations is unquestionably Heald's Business College whose scholarly and gifted man- ager, John William Nixon, occupies an enviable posi- tion in the history of California pedagogy. He was born in Cumberland, Md., the son of Thomas Nixon, a business man, who married Miss Agnes Morton, and the devoted parents both passed away while our subject was still a child. However, his mother had inculcated in his mind the necessity of an educa- tion. By perseverence, self-denial and surmounting obstacles. he was able to work his way through the public schools and high school and then matriculated at the State University of Iowa from which, in 1897 he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science, while two years later he received the de- gree of Bachelor of Law from the same university.

Upon leaving the university, Mr. Nixon accepted the principalship of the Garrison, Iowa, high school and later became identified with Elliott's Business

College of Burlington, lowa, at that time one of the largest business colleges in the country. Later he moved to Texas and practiced law for a time in Dal- las. On coming to California in 1907 he became identified with the Heald Business College organiza- tion. Heald's Business College corporation had at that time acquired an interest in the old San Jose Business College and Mr. Nixon was placed in charge. He immediately proceeded to effect a consolidation of the San Jose Business College and the Pacific Coast Business College which in turn had absorbed the Garden City Business College. The deal was soon consummated, and the consolidated school trans- ferred to Heald's Business College. From a very small school he has built up and extended its repu- tation and influence as a live institution, success having attended his labors until it has become known everywhere as one of the most exacting of busi- ness colleges in the state, in its high standards, while it is also one of the most helpful to its students, af- fording every encouragement and legitimate aid to those ambitious to climb and improve their condi- tions in life. Students come from many parts of the United States to attend this institution. Heald's Business College is the only business college in the city of San Jose, and specializes in all the com- mercial branches. The appreciation of a highly in- telligent public may be seen in its splendid enroll- ment of more than 500 students during the past year.

Since his identification with the Heald organiza- tion, Mr. Nixon has been a member of its board of directors, and for several years past has been the treasurer of the corporation. Mr. Nixon was active in the various Liberty Loan and war drives during the World War, receiving special mention from the WVar Department for his services. He is a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, and an active di- rector in the Y. M. C. A. He was chairman of the Campaign Committee that put over so successfully the campaign for the new Commercial Club, and it is needless to say that he seeks to make his asso- ciation with these excellent organizations mean some- thing to the community. He is a director in the People's Thrift Bank and also a director of the Lions Club of San Jose. He is a practical rancher with extensive interests in rice lands, general farming, and fruit culture, and was among the first to engage in growing cotton in the south San Joaquin Valley, and has developed a fine eighty-acre fruit ranch consist- ing of citrus and decidious fruits, near Porterville, which was only a wheat field when he acquired title thereto.

Mr. Nixon is fond of fishing and outdoor life, mak- ing many camping trips to the mountains during the summer months. He is a member of Fraternity Lodge No. 399 F. & A. M .; Howard Chapter No. 14 R. A. M .; San Jose Council No. 20 R. & S. M .; San Jose Consistory No. 9, Scottish Rite bodies; Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. of San Francisco, and with his wife is a member of San Jose Chapter No. 31 O. E. S., and an officer in Rose Croix Shrine No. 7, White Shrine of Jeru- salem. He was married December 27. 1899, to Mayme E. Palmer, an accomplished lady, who is an active director in the San Jose Woman's Club Day Nursery and other women's organizations. Mr. Nixon has always taken an active part in local politics, having been a member of the County Central Committee of both Republican and Progressive parties.

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ARCHIE McDONALD-Those forces which have contributed most to the development, improvement and benefit of San Jose received impetus from the labors of Archie McDonald, whose life record is a credit and honor to his city and state. He is dis- tinctively a man of affairs and one who wielded a wide influence and his name is indelibly engraven upon the pages of San Jose's history. He was born in Ireland on December 15, 1830, and when he was but a few months old his parents came to the United States, settling in Saxonville, Mass. On March 3, 1852, when a young man of twenty-two years, he sailed from Boston Harbor on a small brig and made the trip around the Horn to Cali- fornia. He was one of a party of about seventy persons and they were eight months in completing the voyage, landing at the wharf in San Francisco on the 21st of October. 1852. Of the original com- pany he and Mrs. William Erkson, of San Jose, are the only survivors. Soon after reaching San Francisco Mr. McDonald went to Auburn, Cal., where for a short time he engaged in mining, but not meet- ing with success he came to the Santa Clara Valley and for several years devoted his attention to the raising of grain, his farm being situated near Moun- tain View. Subsequently he became interested in the luinber business in the mountains back of Santa Cruz and it was during this period that he had his first glimpse of San Jose, which at that time consist- ed of a small group of adobe houses with strings of chili peppers hanging over the doors. The vil- lage was situated in the center of a vast sea of wav- ing grain fields, with rough wagon roads and horse trails as its only means of communication with the outside world. There were no orchards in the val- ley, merely a few fruit trees scattered here and there. While engaged in logging, cutting and haul- ing timber to the mills in Blackburn Gulch, Mr. Mc- Donald became acquainted with the late Duncan Mc- Pherson, later editor of the Santa Cruz Sentinel, whose father at that time owned and operated one of the large logging mills.

In 1856, with ox team and wagon, Mr. McDonald started for the gold fields along the Kern River, going by way of the Pacheco Pass, which his team was the first to cross, this being a very rough and hazardous route. From San Luis Hacienda, near the beginning of the pass, to Visalia, there was not a single house in sight, Visalia itself, now a thriv- ing and prosperous city, consisted of but seven houses made out of shakes. He did not remain long in those unprofitable fields, however, and in the following year returned to Massachusetts to visit his parents, who were still residing in Saxon- ville. The trip was made both going and coming by way of the Isthmus of Panama, but when he re- visited the East ten years later, he traveled by rail.

After completing his lumbering operations at Santa Cruz, Mr. McDonald went to San Francisco, where he entered the employ of the Pioneer Wool- en Mills, there remaining tintil 1872, when he came to San Jose as general manager of the old San Jose Woolen Mills, which were located at the corner of Hobson and San Pedro Streets. He remained at the head of this business for about twenty years and soon after his resignation the mills were discon- tinued. In August, 1887, in association with other public-spirited citizens of San Jose, Mr. McDonald became a member of a stock company, and for years

president, which purchased the old homestead prop- erty of Josiah Belden, which at that time was owned by C. H. Maddox. This consisted of eleven acres, for which they paid the sum of $60,000, erecting thereon the Hotel Vendome at a cost of about $400,- 000. ' This became one of the most famous hostelries in the state, for a number of years ranking next to the Del Monte in popularity. Mr. McDonald next became interested in the Garden City Bank & Trust Company, of which he remained a director for over a quarter of a century, resigning his posi- tion owing to impaired hearing, caused by a paralytic stroke. His progressive spirit led him into im- portant relations and his cooperation ever proved an impetus for renewed and intelligently directed ef- fort and no business concern with which he was connected failed to advance to success. He was a member of the State Hospital Board for Stockton and Agnew, appointed three times by Republican governors and once by a Democratic.

In 1862 Mr. McDonald was united in marriage to Miss Jeanette Jamieson, of San Mateo, Cal., but a native of New Zealand of Scotch parentage, who came to California in March, 1852, and their two sons, George K. and John A. McDonald, are both residents of San Jose, the former a director in the Garden City Bank and the latter a contractor and builder. The character of the work which Mr. McDonald did and the importance of the place to which he attained are evidenced in the deep and widespread esteem in which he is held. He is a man of high ideals and exalted standards of citizen- ship whose irreproachable character and incorrupt- ible integrity fully entitle him to the esteem he is ac- corded by all who knew him, and his name is writ- ten high on the roll of those who are among the builders and promoters of California.

Mr. McDonald remembers San Jose when it was a straggling village; where stands the First National Bank was a saloon, north of where now stands the Bank of San Jose building was the stage office of Hedges, Dillon & Hall, who ran a line of stages to and from San Francisco, stages leaving each place at 9 A. M. and arriving at their destination at 4 P. M., too late for the business man to transact his busi- ness that day, and he was required to spend an entire day at an expense of $25 or $30. Now that same journey can be made, business transacted and dinner eaten at home and the expense only a quarter of the amount stated above. The present site of the Bank of Italy was a lot overgrown with wild mustard.

PERRY W. ROBINSON .- A worthy pioneer who in his day and generation so well contributed to the bettering of the world and the forwarding of all that pertained to progress that he is pleasantly re- called by all who knew him, and the honor once accorded him has been bestowed upon those near of kindred still surviving, was Perry W. Robinson, a native of Blackstone, Mass., where he was born on April 21, 1844, although he was reared and schooled in Rhode Island. When fourteen years of age, he entered the cotton mills in his locality, and when twenty-two he married Miss Anna Sheldon, who was born at Chepachet, R. I., on August 21, 1841, the daughter of Joseph W. and Nancy Smith (Youngs) Sheldon. She was reared at home, and attended the excellent Rhode Island schools; a sister, the wife of Henry Miller, the famous land and cattle king of

a. Mc Donald

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California, had already been living several years in California, and through them Mr. and Mrs. Robin- son became interested in the Golden State, and eventually turned their faces far-westward. In 1878 they came to the coast, and they at first settled at the Miller home at Bloomfield Ranch, just south of Gil- roy. Mr. Robinson began to take an active partici- pation in the work of the ranch, becoming the book- keeper, and for ten years he was secretary to the cattle king. Later, he was made manager of the harness shop at Bloomfield, and had full charge of purchases, sales and repairs,-a post of considerable responsibility and no little arduous work, considering the number of Miller ranches supplied from that shop, and the scale upon which Mr. Miller operated.

The Robinsons resided at Bloomfield Ranch until 1911, when they removed to Gilroy, where they had already acquired a fine residence at the corner of Eighth and Eigleberry streets, and there they con- tinued to live happily together until November 4, 1916, when Mr. Robinson passed away, mourned by a wide circle who had found in him an ideal man. One son, Albert, had blessed their unon, and he died at the age of eight years. Mrs. Robinson, an oc- togenarian, and a fine type of true Christian woman- hood, is hale and hearty, the center of a group of admiring and devoted friends.

JAMES H. LYNDON .- A faithful, efficient public official, whose record for unchallenged public-spirit- edness and personal bravery, and also for exception- ally high integrity, was such that his name will al- ways be held in esteem, was the late James H. Lyndon, for more than forty years a resident of Los Gatos, and from 1894 to 1898 sheriff of Santa Clara County-than whom, perhaps, there never was a doughtier, or one more deserving of the wide popu- larity which he enjoyed. He was born in Grand Isle County, Vt., on May 6, 1847, the son of Samuel and Polly Caroline Lyndon, with whom he lived until he was sixteen years of age, attending the district school and enjoying the comforts of an old- fashioned Yankee home. Then, in 1863, he made his way to Burlington and enlisted in the Fifth Ver- mont Infantry, where he was promptly rejected by the inspecting officer on account of his age. The next year he succeeded both in getting to Massachu- setts and in getting accepted as a member of Com- pany I, Twenty-first Massachusetts Infantry, after which, with some 300 other recruits, he was sent to Galloupe's Island, in Boston Harbor, and from there, after six weeks of drill, despatched to Annapolis, to join his regiment, which was attached to the Ninth Army Corps, commanded by Gen. Ambrose E. Burn- side. Young Lyndon remained in Annapolis until the middle of April, when he was ordered to join his regiment at the front; and, marching by way of Washington, D. C., he and his comrades overtook the Second Division of the Ninth Corps, near the Rapidan, just before the battles of the Wilderness. He participated in these battles and in those of Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor, in which latter cp gagement his regiment suffered heavy losses; and after the battle of Cold Harbor, the Ninth Corps was ordered to City Point, where for several months the Army of the Potomac invested Petersburg. After the capture of several of the outposts, with heavy losses, the city of Petersburg fell, after a siege of

several months. From Petersburg the Army of the Potomac followed Lee's army for several days, the Ninth Corps going as far as Farmville, which they reached on April 8, 1865, and the next day General Lee surrendered his army to General Grant, which practically closed the war. The Ninth Corps lay at Farmville for about a weck, when it was ordered to City Point, where, after a week or ten days, trans- ports were furnished them and they were sent to Alexandria, Va. They remained just back of that town, near Fairfax Seminary, until after the grand review of the armies of Grant and Sherman in Wash- ington, in which James Lyndon participated; and after that he went into camp again for two or three weeks, when his regiment was ordered home, and he was mustered out and given his honorable discharge at Reedville, Mass., in August, 1865.

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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 69

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