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 81

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 81

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In 1872 Walden Lords rented his ranch and came to Santa Clara County, where he purchased a farm at Alviso, where he began his career as an horti- culturist, in which he became so singularly successful. He engaged in raising berries and also set out an orchard of Bartlett pears, and in time came to have an orchard of 80 acres, principally Bartlett pears, which yielded him a large return. He was bereaved of his faithful wife in 1903, after which he spent most of his time in San Jose at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Jennings, and there occurred his death on November 3, 1909, an honored member of the Santa Clara Valley Pioneers, who buried him with honors. Mrs. Lords by her first marriage had one child, Delia Huston, who became the wife of Oscar Emmerson of San Jose, while Mr. and Mrs. Lords had three children: Ella is Mrs. Jennings of San Jose; John M. Lords resides on the old home ranch which he superintends; Walden died when twenty-two years old. It is a pleasure to note that since the death of Walden Lords his ranch has been kept in- tact in the family, who have taken the best of care of it and treasure the orchard improved by their pioneer parents, whose memory they cherish and revere.

W. W. & ELLA LORDS JENNINGS .- Promi- nent and popular among the most interesting of pro- gressive and useful citizens in Santa Clara County, W. W. Jennings and his gifted wife, Ella Lords Jennings, of 371 South Thirteenth Street, San Jose, exert a wide and helpful influence in favor of better conditions in California which is helpful and prom- ising to others as well as to themselves. Mr. Jen- nings was born in the Empire State, the son of Charles W. and Emma ( Ward) Jennings, both na- tives of Leicestershire, England, who came to Seneca Falls, N. Y., where the lad first saw the light of day, and he migrated to California soon after the great realty boom in 1888. He was an employe of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, on the Coast Division route, and later embarked in the grocery business, and he followed that trade for many years at the corner of Santa Clara and Teresa streets in San Jose. In 1920 he sold out and took a position in the employ of Black's Package Company of San Jose, with which concern he has been ever since.

At Alviso, on October 16, 1890, Mr. Jennings was married to Miss Ella Lords, the daughter of Walden Lords, a frontier pioneer, who is also represented on this page. Ella Lords attended the Alviso school, and having decided to follow a pedagogical career, attended the San Jose State Normal School. Having graduated, she taught school at Monterey, in the old Capitol Building, and then, when she was be- ginning to be of valuable service to society as a trainer of the young, she concluded to marry and establish her own family. Her union with Mr. Jen- nings was a fortunate one, and this is especially true on account of the cooperation she has afforded her husband, with her exceptional ability, in all of his enterprises. To their union have been born one son and one daughter,-Walden A. Jennings, a mechanic doing expert service on Mare Island for the United States Government, and Emma E., a talented, es- teemed school teacher, a graduate of the State Nor- mal at San Jose, who lives at home.

W. W. Jennings is clerk of the San Jose Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, and he has also passed through all the chairs of the Maccabees at San Jose, and is an active member of the Woodmen of the World of San Jose, besides being a member of the Royal Neighbors in the same city. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jennings are Democrats, although the best of nonpartisan "boosters" of their home district; and Mrs. Jennings is a member of the Vendome Parlor of the Native Daughters of the Golden West, and is recorder of the local lodge of Royal Neighbors as well as recorder of the State Camp of that order.

JOSEPH M. STILLWELL .- A true pioneer of Santa Clara County, Joseph M. Stillwell, is well known and highly esteemed by the residents of San Jose, having here spent his entire life, covering a period of sixty-six years, for he was born in this city. on the Berryessa Road. August 6, 1855, the third son of Joseph C. and Plina A. (Young) Stillwell. The father was a na- tive of Kentucky and in times of peace followed farming and stockraising, but he defended the in- terests of the United States in the war against Mexico in 1846. He came to California that year, joined Fremont at Sacramento and rose to the rank of Lieutenant and after his services were no longer needed he settled down to ranching. He returned

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East for a visit and then came across the plains with the Samuel Young party. He later married Mr. Young's daughter and both he and his wife passed away in San Jose.

Reared upon a ranch, J. M. Stillwell attended the public schools of Santa Clara County and on entering business life took up the painter's trade, remaining in the employ of J. P. Jarman of San Jose until 1891. He has since had charge of the Lowell School of this city as janitor and is most capably discharging his duties in that connection, proving faithful, efficient and reliable.

Mr. Stillwell was united in marriage in 1876 to Miss Josephine Zingg, who was nine years of age when she made the journey across the plains from St. Louis, Mo., to California. Four children have been born of this union. Joseph C., who for the past eleven years has been custodian of the State Normal School at San Jose, is married and has one child, Loraine. Viola, a graduate of the Nor- mal, is now the wife of Thomas T. Dougherty and a resident of San Jose; Maude, who completed a course in the State Normal School, is the wife of T. F. Sourisseau, by whom she has one child, Thomas, and they reside at Campbell, Santa Clara County. William, also a graduate of the State Normal, is a teacher in the public schools of San Jose. He is married and has one child, Barbara. The family reside at No. 452 South Ninth Street, which has been their home for twenty-five years. Mr. Stillwell is identified with the Independent Or- der of Foresters. He has been an interested wit- ness of the growth and development of San Jose and has been an active factor in its progress. Wher- ever known he is held in high regard, and most of all where he is best known.

F. E. CORNELL .- No more interesting pioneer than F. E. Cornell can be found in all Santa Clara County, and certainly no citizen of Sunnyvale is more worthy of honor within the bounds of that rising municipality, for he had much to do with the very beginning of things here, and a great deal to do with blessing the town with a name which is truly descrip- tive of this beautiful and withall historic spot, which has recently taken in new life, by attracting a large number of energetic and well-to-do settlers, many of them having brought large means with them from their former homes in the middle west, as well as several very substantial manufacturing concerns whose varied products being added to the luxuriance of its fields and orchards have made this place known far and wide. A worthy representative of colonial Hol- land-American stock, Mr. Cornell was born at Byron, Fond du Lac County, Wis., on August 4, 1861, the son of James and Emaline (Warner) Cornell. He grew up on a Wisconsin farm, attended the country schools, and when he was ready for the undeveloped Pacific Coast, the Coast was waiting for him. His father. James Cornell, lured by the great gold discovery had come out to California from Wisconsin across the plains in 1849, but after two years returned to Wisconsin, married and settled down to farm life. No wonder young Cornell's heart was in California, so he came to San Jose in 1889. Determined to suc- ceed, he lost no time but took the first job offered him and engaged in the shops of the San Jose Street Railway Company for two years. Thereafter, for five years, he was employed in the ladies' furnishing establishment of Orvis and Cornell at San Jose. He

came out to Murphy's Station (now Sunnyvale) in 1897, and quickly perceived a promising future in the simple environment greeting him, he started a general merchandise business here in October, 1897. The Southern Pacific Railroad Company had retained the name of Murphy's Station, so called from the fact that this was the home of Martin Murphy, Jr., who had built one of the first really good residences in California at this place, in the very early days, from plans and specifications and lumber already cut in the Fast and shipped around the Horn, all ready to be put up in California. This house is still standing and is still in excellent shape, and is the commodious summer residence of Mrs. Mary Carroll, a daughter of its builder. Martin Murphy, Sr., and family and Martin Murphy, Jr., and family were the first two white families from east of the Rocky Mountains to settle permanently in California, making their settlement within the confines of what is now Santa Clara County in 1846. Before the advent of the rail- road, all the lands upon which Sunnyvale now stands was a part of the broad and fertile acres of the Murphy Ranch, originally owned by Martin Murphy, Jr. As the settlers grew in numbers they renamed the place Encinal on account of the many beautiful live oak trees which flourished at this place.

Mr. Cornell was appointed its first postmaster in 1898, the name of the post office being Encinal, while the name of the railway station was Murphy's Sta- tion. The name Encinal might have proven satis- factory enough and might have been adopted by the Southern Pacific had it not been that the company had already given that name to another station on their line. This situation led to a request to Mr. Cornell and other early settlers to suggest a new name. Together with Horace E. Smeld, Mr. Cor- nell submitted three other names but they were all rejected for various reasons.

A happy thought occurred to the postmaster and fellow-townsmen-Sunnyvale-and no sooner had they become convinced that such a name would best describe the locality, than Mr. Cornell in his official capacity, proposed the name for the town. The authorities of the government, as well as of the rail- road company, hastened to accept it, and it has cer- tainly proved a happy designation. Mr. Cornell con- tinued to be postmaster, and served from March 18, 1898 to April, 1915. Always sincerely interested in the welfare of the place, he is now serving on its Board of City Trustees, filling the vacancy caused by the resignation of Karl S. Hazeltine.

He is the efficient and popular teller of the Sunny- vale branch of the Bank of Italy, and is also the keeper of the records and seals in Sunnyvale Lodge, K. P. In whatever field he is active, he has the es- teem and confidence of everybody.

In April, 1897, Mr. Cornell was married to Miss Gertrude Payne, and their union has been blessed with three children, Mildred, Elton, and James, the two eldest being students at Stanford University. Mrs. Cornell shares with her husband the distinction of being a leading citizen at Sunnyvale, and at present is serving as one of the five trustees of the Sunny- vale Free Public Library. Mr. and Mrs. Cornell reside in an attractive home on Murphy Avenue, and all who know of their historic association with the town feel a pride in their presenece as high-minded citizens and warm-hearted neighbors and friends.

Hrm Miles ileaux

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IRWIN MILES WILCOX-For many years rep- resentatives of the Wilcox family have resided in San Jose, bearing an active and helpful part in the work of general improvement and progress in this section, and Irwin Miles Wilcox is actuated by the same spirit of enterprise and initiative which dom- inated his father. As head of the San Jose Broom Factory he is controlling one of the important man- ufacturing enterprises of the city, and he formerly had large dairy interests, displaying marked executive ability in the management of his affairs. A native of San Jose, he was born September 13, 1875, his par- ents being Miles W. and Adeline (Hopkins) Wil- cox. Both arrived in California in 1863, the mother crossing the plains in an ox-team train, and the father coming by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The young people met at Marysville and were mar- ried about 1866. Mr. Wilcox was engaged in manu- facturing brooms at Marysville, and later when they moved to San Jose he established the first broom factory here, building up a large business on Bush Street. He also established a glove factory and for many years conducted a successful business in this line, and in his passing away on July 27, 1911, San Jose lost one of her most public-spirited citizens. His widow survives him, and lives in San Josc.

Their only child, Irwin Miles, acquired his educa- tion at the San Jose public schools and the Garden City Business College, and following his father's death, took over the management of the broom fac- tory. With keen insight into business affairs, he has been able to formulate plans which have resulted in the continued growth of the business, manufacturing brooms for the Keystone Company of San Jose, Hedges, Buck & Company of Stockton, and other local trade. Mr. Wilcox was associated with his mother in the dairy business for many years. They had two ranches, one at Milpitas and the other at Santa Clara, devoted to alfalfa and dairying, and owned some fine pure-bred Jersey stock. From Mil- pitas they shipped their milk wholesale to San Fran- cisco, while the California Dairy, on the Santa Clara ranch, had one of the largest retail trades in San Jose. On the death of his father they sold the dairy busi- ness, in order to give more time to the manufacture of brooms. They still own the ranch at Santa Clara, renting it out to others. Mr. Wilcox also has valu- able real estate interests in San Jose, having firm faith in the future of this part of the state.

Mr. Wilcox was united in marriage in San Jose to Miss Nellie Wilson, a native of Pescadero, Cal., and they have become the parents of two children, Wilbur and Muriel. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he is deeply interested in everything that pertains to the welfare and progress of Santa Clara County. Fraternally he is connected with the Garden City Lodge of Odd Fellows and he finds recreation in hunting and fishing. While it is true that he came into a business already established, he has demonstrated in its control that he has the same executive power and keen discrimination be- tween the essential and the non-essential which char- acterized his father and placed him at the head of extensive and important business interests. That he is a man of strict integrity and moral worth is in- dicated by the high esteem in which he is held by those among whom his entire life has been passed.

E. T. PETTIT .- A pioneer horticulturist who, stimulated by high principles and guided by clear thinking and sound judgement, has certainly suc- ceeded, is E. T. Pettit, and by all who know him he is rated as an aggressively progressive man who has contributed something definite to the development of California husbandry. Mr. Pettit was born near Elwood City, Lawrence County, Pa., November 8, 1846, the son of Nathaniel Pettit, also born in Penn- sylvania, and a farmer there. Mr. Pettit's grand- father, who was of French descent, was one of the pioneers of Beaver County, Pa., coming from Vir- ginia, and the family is able to look back with pride to a long line of Virginian ancestry. His mother was Barbara Grieb, a native of Philadelphia, of German parents, and she died in Lawrence County. Of their eleven children, E. T. was fourth oldest.

When he started in life for himself he chose the profession of the teacher. After completing the public schools he attended the State Normal School at Edinboro, Pa., and after teaching a few terms in his native state he went to Missouri and there entered the State Normal School at Kirksville. He spent the three years following his graduation in 1873 in teaching in Missouri and then came to San Jose, Cal., in 1876, and here took a senior course in the San Jose State Normal, at which institution he graduated in 1878. During the years of 1880 and 1881 he was principal of the schools of Sonora, Tuolumne County, after which he held a similar position in different places in California until as principal of schools at Willows, Glenn County for two years. He retired from educational work in 1885 to devote all of his time to horticulture. As early as 1881 he purchased his present place of twenty-two acres on Douglas Road and began setting out orchard, improving it from a stubblefield to an excellent state of production and of delicious fruit. He set out ten acres to apri- cots and prunes, and the remainder of the acreage was set out during the next few seasons to prunes and peaches and cherries. The results which Mr. Pettit obtains from his horticultural interests clearly show the excellent care which he bestows upon them. In 1887 five acres of apricots yielded thirty-five tons of fruit which sold for $1,000. This same year, Mr. Pettit, in partnership with his sister, purchased land adjoining the town of Colusa, in Colusa County and in 1888 planted it to apricots and peaches, later selling it to advantage. In 1919 Mr. Pettit had a yield of forty-six tons of apricots on four and a half acres and sold them for $5,300, showing how values have risen during this period.

In politics, Mr. Pettit is a thorough Republican. He is a man of sterling integrity, possessed of the influence which every man of education and refine- men, when combined with uprightness of character, exerts for good in the community in which he makes his home. The qualities of thoroughness and faith- fulness in the performance of every duty, which made him a most successful teacher, has made him a success as a horticulturist. Mr. Pettit was an early member of the San Jose Grange No. 10, hold- ing the position of secretary of that organization in 1887 and afterwards as master for several terms, and for four years was master of the State Grange. Thus for thirty years he has attended the annual meeting of the State Grange, in which he is welcome because of his years of experience as well as his fluency as a

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speaker. He was one of the organizers and directors and later served as secretary of the West Side Fruit Growers' Association, a cooperative drying and pack- ing concern, and is the only one of the original direc- tors still serving. He is also a member of California Prune and Apricot Association.

GARRETT J. BYRNE .- A varied and interesting career was that of the late Garrett J. Byrne, one of the best known of the Irish pioneers in California, who was one of the earliest dry goods merchants in the state, his progressive spirit and capability bring- ing him unqualified success in his business ventures. Mr. Byrne was born on November 20, 1827, on the sunny slopes of Tellabyrne, near the noted St. John's well, six miles from Kilkenny, Ireland. The eldest of a family of nine brothers and four sisters, he finished his schooling at the age of sixteen to go to work on the farm. At nineteen he started to learn the dry goods business-four years of apprenticeship and no pay. His father had to pay for his clothes all dur- ing that time and twenty-five pounds besides. When his time was up, he could not get any employment near his home, so went up to Dublin but met with the same result, as those were hard times in Ireland. Starting for Liverpool on the Trafalgar, he took passage on the sailing vessel. Grace McRac-no steamers on the Atlantic at that time-and after a perilous voyage he landed at New York, where he secured a position with Abraham Gunst at 295 Bow- ery, the father of Moses Gunst, the cigar man.

Mr. Byrne remained in New York until October 19. 1852, when he sailed for San Francisco on the Star of the West, stopping at Jamaica and arriving at Aspinwall in due time. They poled across the Chagres River in a flat boat to Gorgona, walked across the Isthmus eighteen miles to Panama, and after ten days took passage on the Cortes, which was making the trip up the coast. He arrived at San Francisco, and as he said in an account of his active life published in the Leader in 1910.

"When I arrived in California, the only capi- tal I had was youth, energy and perseverance, and I needed them badly. My first job in the city was to roll a lot of barrels on Sansome Street from the side- walk to the cellar, for which I received $2.50 for two hours' work. The firm 1 worked for was Rising, Casella & Company, and I will never forget my first joh in San Francisco. After a few days I got a posi- tion with Thos. Masterson on Clay Street at $200 a month and a percentage on my sales. I had $1,000 in a short time, which I loaned at three per cent a month -- thirty-six per cent a year-so I made money fast. Those were great old times. The bay was up to Montgomery and Jackson streets then; the old ship Niantic was high and dry at Sansome and Clay streets and was used as a rooming house. 1 remained with Masterson for a few years, until I started in business at Marysville, December 1, 1855. Mine was, I might say, the first regular dry goods store there. I attended the first Christian midnight mass, December 25, 1854, at St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, and five weeks from that time mine was the first marriage that took place there, February 1. 1855. The Rev. Hugh Gallagher welded the golden chains that were broken by my wife's death Septem- ber 26. 1900. February 1, 1855, was the happiest day of my life and will ever find a warm corner in this old Irish heart of mine."

Mrs. Byrne before her marriage was Miss Annie McCloud; she was born at Sidney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the daughter of Donald McCloud, also born there and descended from an old and prominent family. He was a successful farmer and owned a beautiful place which was enhanced by fine natural lakes. On her maternal side Annie McCloud was a McGilvery and her grandfather was a Sutherland, of the famed house of Sutherland. With her sister Kate, who later became Mrs. J. H. Tobin, she came to San Francisco in 1852 with Captain and Mrs. Urey, mak- ing the trip across the Isthmus of Panama on mule back. She supported herself and her sister by sewing, and sent her sister to the convent of the Sisters of Charity, then located on the present site of the Palace Hotel, and later Kate McCloud attended the public schools in San Francisco. While trading at Master- son's store in San Francisco, Annie McCloud met Mr. Byrne, and the admiration of the young people being mutual, the acquaintance later resulted in their marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Byrne were the parents of a large family-eleven children: Bessie died while attending Notre Dame in March, 1868, the first death at that institution; Margaret died in infancy; Garry died in 1882; Robert died in San Francisco sixteen years ago, Martin died in 1898 at Glenbrook Farm; Allen resides at Sunnyvale; Charles lives at San Mateo; Joseph died in infancy; James died in 1918; Elizabeth, the wife of J. A. McDonald, and Kathryn M. and these two daughters jointly own and make their home at Glen- brook Farm. In 1873 Mrs. Byrne made a trip to Ireland with the children, then eight in number, and they spent two and a half years there, when they re- turned to San Francisco. She was a noble woman and devoted her time to the rearing of her family and in a careful oversight of their education. The boys attended Sacred Heart and St. Mary's academies, while the daughters were educated in the Dominican and Notre Dame convents at San Francisco and the Notre Dame Academy at Santa Clara. Mrs. Byrne was prominent and active in the social life of San Francisco, being a brilliant and accomplished woman; she and her sister. Mrs. Tobin, were both very popu- lar and were considered two of the most beautiful women in the Bay city.

After conducting his business in Marysville until 1858, Mr. Byrne returned to San Francisco, establish- ing himself on Clay Street, where he remained until the Lick House was opened in December, 1862. He then went into partnership with Robert Kirby, who had married Mrs. Byrne's sister, Margaret McCloud, and the Kirby-Byrne Company opened their estab- lishment at 7 Montgomery Street. Mr. Byrne was extremely successful in his business and made what was then considered a fortune in fifteen years, but like many Californians, lost much of it in mining ven- tures. After retiring from business he was for some years a deputy in the county assessor's office in San Francisco.

In 1879 Mr. and Mrs. Byrne purchased the ranch on Stevens Creek, Santa Clara County, named by Mrs. Byrne, Glenbrook Farm, from a beautiful place she had known in Ireland, and here the family made their home, developing it into an attractive estate. After his wife's death, Mr. Byrne made a trip in 1903 to Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, and two years later he crossed the Atlantic to visit his old home in Ireland, after an absence of fifty-four years. The

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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 81

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