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 97

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 97

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Mr. Babb's marriage united him with Miss Bertha Dexter and they have a son, Harold James Babb, connected with the ticket sales department of the Southern Pacific at Ashland, Ore. A Republican in politics, Mr. Babb affiliates in fraternal circles with the Eagles, being a member of the order at Hollis- ter. For eleven years he was chief of the Gilroy Fire Department, and although his business keeps him at Morgan Hill, he still maintains his home at Gilroy, spending his week ends there, where he has a host of friends.

J. SAMUEL STAUB, M. D .- During the years that Dr. J. Samuel Staub has pursued the practice of medicine in San Jose, he has been known not only for his skill and assiduity as a physician and sur- geon, but also for his genial manners, literary taste and talent, making him a popular member of San Jose's social and fraternal circles. He has gained eminence as a family physician and has always sought to merit recognition by his knowledge and skill, as a true physician in the highest sense, rather than to gain prominence by methods through which less meritorious practitioners find a short cut to fame and fortune. Coming of a family of medical men well known in their native city of Berlin, Ger- many, Dr. Staub was born there on May 23, 1885, the son of Morris and Etta (Goldberg) Staub. His father, who was an able practitioner of Berlin, came to America when Samuel was only one year old, and having brought with him considerable means, he retired from professional work and settled in Phil- adelphia, where he lived a comfortable life. Mrs. Staub passed away when Samuel was a boy of only six years; he has one brother and two half-brothers, but is the only one in the West. His grandfather, Dr. Staub, was a noted German physician and was very well-to-do; he continued actively in his pro- fession until he was seventy-five, passing away at the Staub home in Philadelphia.

J. Samuel Staub was reared in Philadelphia and attended the public schools there, finishing the first year of high school. He was then seventeen years old, and all alone, he came out West, locating at San Jose, Cal., where he attended the Washburn school, later entering the College of the Pacific, where he was graduated in 1911 with the B. S. de- gree, being honored with the presidency of the Rhizomia Literary Society while there. Having chosen medicine as his future profession, that same fali he matriculated in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and taking the regular four years' course, graduated with high honors in 1915 with the degree of M. D .; during his college course he was a popular member of the Omega Up- silon Phi fraternity. Having been tendered the post of resident physician at the Southern Pacific Hos- pital at San Francisco, he accepted and came hither, remaining there until the fall of 1916, when he came to San Jose and opened offices in the Garden City Bank Building and later in the Twohy Building. When the World War broke out, he enlisted in the Medical Corps of the U. S. Navy and was stationed at Marc Island, where his skill as a surgeon enabled him to make a valuable contribution to the hos- pital work there. He received a commission as

lieutenant, serving until March, 1919, when he was released from active duty. He then went East for a post-graduate course, studying surgery in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, also visiting Lon- don for clinic and post-graduate work. He returned to San Jose in September, 1919, and resumed his practice, occupying a suite in the Twohy Building.

Dr. Staub is a member of the American Medical Association and of the State and County Medical Societies. He is on the surgical staff of the O'Con- nor Hospital in San Jose, and as a medical and surgical authority of high standing he is often called upon to give expert testimony for the Southern Pacific Railroad in accident and damage cases. Fraternally he is very popular as a member of the San Jose Elks, the Odd Fellows, the San Jose Country Club, and is a prominent Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner, while he keeps up his military associations by membership in San Jose Post No. 89, American Legion.

CHARLES D. ROBERTSON .- A popular, effi- cient and genial official is Charles D. Robertson, the agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company at Morgan Hill, who is a native of San Jose, where he was born on November 5, 1871, the third son of John and Margaret (Curry) Robertson, both natives of Northern Scotland. An expert shoemaker, John Robertson emigrated to America in 1868, and coming to San Jose, he established himself in the boot and shoe business. Two years later, he sent for his wife and two children. In 1908, he passed away at the age of sixty-eight, honored of all who knew him; his devoted wife lived to be seventy-four years of age, and died at her home in Edenvale in 1917. Prior to his death, John Robertson had acquired a ranch of 100 acres, eight miles south of San Jose, a place formerly known as the Eight-Mile House, and there the family were reared.

Charles Robertson entered the public school at Oak Grove in 1875, and he topped off his studies in the upper grades in San Jose. In 1892 he began his association as an employe with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and for a while served an ap- prenticeship at the Hillsdale Station. Then he be- came the operator at the Laurel Station, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and he also was assistant station agent at Santa Margarita and Redwood City, and was agent at Volta, and worked at times all through the Coast Division of the Southern Pacific Railroad. He opened the new station at Naples, and then for two years served as assistant agent at Gilroy. In 1902 he was given the agency at Morgan Hill, and he has discharged the duties there all these interven- ing years with exceptional satisfaction to the public. He has charge of the American Railway Express. the Western Union Telegraph, and the United States Mail delivery at Morgan Hill. He is a Republican, but first, last and all the time an American citizen. He belongs to the Order of Railroad Telegraphers and is a Mason.

In 1894 Mr. Robertson was married to Miss Annette Mac Donald, who was born in San Mateo, the daughter of John and Harriet Donald-the for- mer now deceased, the latter still living at Redwood City. Three sons have been born to them. Charles D., in the promising age of twelve, died from acci- dental drowning at Capitola; and John Butler and Welburn Edson are attending the public school. The family attend the Presbyterian Church of Mor-

Charles Becstan

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

gan Hill, and live in their residence at the corner of Hatfield and Del Monte streets at Morgan Hill.

Mr. Robertson has always been public-spirited, and instrumental in bringing about various local modern improvements. He is a member of the Live Oak high school board of trustees, and at present is the clerk of the board. He owns thirteen acres of fine fruit ranch at Edenvale, part of his share of the family estate, and is thus an horticulturist as well as a railroad official, and deeply interested in Califor- nia husbandry as well as in the problems of California transportation.

MAJOR CHARLES PETTINGILL BRASLAN. In the death of the late Major Charles Pettingill Braslan, American agriculture lost one of its pro- gressive leaders, and the American nation one of its most public-spirited citizens. Hq was for years widely known in the seed world, and he was one of the far-seeing pioneers in commerce who secured the Panama Exposition for San Francisco. More than that, he was pleasantly associated by marriage with the family of a sturdy pioneer, who rose to become of great service to the American public in carrying important public projects already of blessing to other generations than his own.

Charles P. Braslan was born at Cambridge, Mass , on July 1, 1861, attended the excellent schools of Boston, and while yet a lad went to work for John Breck & Son, the oldest and largest seed firm in the world, with whom he remained for eleven years. Then he became a member of the seed house of Northrup, Braslan and Goodwin, of Chicago, where he was general manager for thirteen years; but prior to that he had been in the same line in Minneapolis. While in Minnesota, Mr. Braslan was commissioned major on the staff of Governor Merriam, and ever afterward bore that title.

In 1898 he came West to California. Locating at San Jose, he sold seed as an agent for the growers. Then he embarked in seed growing for himself, and the well-known firm, the Braslan Seed Growers, was incorporated, July 13, 1902, and Major Braslan be- came the president and manager of this company, and in that responsible and honorable office he continued until his death. He has not only sold but grown seeds, inspecting growing crops and supervising the harvesting and cleaning of seeds in nearly every state in the Union, and had probably a keener knowl- edge of the seed industry in all its phases than any- one in the business. He possessed a wonderful busi- ness ability, a wide knowledge of public affairs and was a man of large caliber. He became the largest seed grower and wholesale shipper in the world, dealing extensively with all countries and handling many large government contracts. Major Braslan first grew seeds under contract, but by his incessant and untiring energy he built up a business that reached to all quarters of the globe. The company at the present time has some 5,000 acres devoted to seed raising in Santa Clara, San Joaquin and San Benito Counties, besides enormous acreages under contracts in other parts of California. He began the business in a small way, and practically without any capital, but his success was rapid and continuous, and his name was known everywhere where seeds were sold; in fact his name stood as a counterpart for the best in the seed markets of the world.

At San Jose, in November, 1901, Major Braslan was married to Miss Olga Adele Pieper, a daughter of John H. Pieper, who was born in Germany in 1824 and educated at the celebrated Polytechnic Col- lege in Hanover. Patriotic and with a proper sense of the duty which he owed to the land of his birth, Mr. Pieper joined the engineering corps of the Ger- man army, and in a short time was made first a lieu- tenant and then an adjutant. Having thus honor- ably put behind him his military service, he decided to migrate to the United States, and having visited New Orleans, he went on to San Antonio, Texas. Pushing north to New York City, he was for three years employed as principal assistant of the Topo- graphical Survey of the State of New Jersey, and then he served as first assistant engineer in the lay- ing out of Central Park in New York City. After seven years in that very responsible position, where he discharged his duties with such credit as to re- flect handsomely on his training, as well as on his own native ability, Mr. Pieper resigned to become a mining engineer and assistant manager of the Mari- posa Grant, in Mariposa County; and that position he held for two years. He then removed to San Jose and engaged in practice as a civil engineer and sur- veyor, and as early as 1867 he became city engineer of San Jose, and was instrumental in effecting many city improvements. Sewers and other channels, for example, passing through the city, were constructed according to his plans The excellence of his public works was generously recognized, and he never wanted for flattering recognition in the land and in the city of his adoption. He married Miss Adele Hoffman, by whom he had six children, and died on November 16, 1888, being survived by his widow, who passed away November 13, 1919.

Major Braslan, who was a member of the Repub- lican party and was by nature a leader, consented to work as one of the members of the Committee of Twelve in the Fifth Congressional District to look after the interests of California in securing San Fran- cisco as the site for the proposed Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915, and in company with Senator Ralston of San Francisco toured the large Eastern cities as Commissioner Plenipotentiary for the Pan- ama-Pacific Committee. He performed the service at the request of Governor Gillett and Mayor Mc- Carthy of San Francisco, and his very successful ef- forts in obtaining recognition from the railroads and great transportation companies, as well as influential financial houses of the country, are well known. It was his intention to follow up the work while in Washington during the session of Congress as he was deeply interested in the work and had the honor of being the only man appointed on the Commission outside of San Francisco. His aid was sought h>- cause of his wide acquaintance and influence with in- fluential men all over the United States. While on his trip East he caught cold and on December s, 1910, died of pneumonia, too soon to see and enjoy the wonderful creation of industry and art by the shore of the Pacific, for which he was in part so re- sponsible. He belonged to the Elks and the Family Club of San Francisco, and both within and beyond those organizations enjoyed a wide circle of friends. Mrs. Braslan, while maintaining an active interest in the company founded by her husband, also takes an

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

active part in social life. She belongs to the Outdoor Art League, and contributes her influence for the moulding and improvement of the public taste.

The loss of Major Braslan was sorely felt among all his wide circle of friends in America and Europe; a man large in his sympathies and possessed of many native graces. Mrs. Braslan was grief-stricken over the sudden death of her devoted husband and the indulgent father of their daughter Olga. By a for- mer marriage, Major Braslan had a son, Charles A. Braslan, with the People's Water Company of Oak- land, and a daughter, Virginia, now Mrs. John E. Calhoun, of Minneapolis. He is also survived by two sisters, who reside in the old Braslan home in Cambridge, Mass.

RALPH L. SNELL .- A prominent horticulturist and apiarist of Mountain View, located on the Whis- man Road, about one mile northeast of that place, is Ralph L. Snell, who is the owner of a fifteen-acre tract, which in point of production, is unexcelled in California. He is taking a prominent place among the horticulturists and nurserymen of the state. He was born thirty miles south of Boston, at South Weymouth, Mass., August 4, 1872, and is familiar with the places made famous during the Revolu- tionary struggle -- the Boston Common, Bunker Hill, Lexington, and many other historic places. His father, Norman Snell, was engaged in contracting and building in and about Boston. The paternal grandfather, Stillman Snell, was employed at team- ing and buying and selling horses at Weymouth, Quincy and Braintree, Mass. Mrs. Norman Snell, who was Abbie Ewer, passed away when the sub- ject of this sketch was only six years old, the mother of seven children, five boys and two girls. The father is living at ninety-six years of age.

Ralph L. attended the public schools of Boston and later the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then pursued a commercial course at the Y. M. C. A. He first settled in Tulare County in 1894 and was occupied with farming, but not realizing the measure of success expected, he removed to Fresno, Cal., where he was employed in the fruit packing in- dustry for seven years, working for A. L. Hobbs and for the J. B. Inderrieden Company.

Mr. Snell's marriage occurred in Fresno in 1902, and united him with Miss Emma Chamberlain, a native of Nevada, a daughter of Henry Chamber- lain, a Jumberman of Pioche, Nev., who is still liv- ing at the age of eighty-five. Mr. and Mrs. Snell are the parents of two children: Frederick and Marion, both students in the Mountain View high school. From Fresno Mr. Snell removed to San Francisco in 1904, where he engaged in contracting and building for twelve years, and in 1914 he re- moved to Mountain View and purchased his present ranch. He has the distinction of starting raspberry culture at Mountain View, being the introducer of the celebrated Ranaree and La France raspberries, and holds the record for the greatest production of any raspberry grown in California. During 1920, from one and a quarter acres, Mr. Snell sold $6,000 worth of berries and $3,500 worth of raspberry plants. He works in connection with the State De- partment of Agriculture. Besides his activities along horticultural lines, he keeps seventy-five stands of bees and is a careful student of bee culture, appropriating the best features in both the Root and Miller systems of beekeeping. £ Mr. Snell has one

acre of ground planted to the Cory thornless black- berry and it remains to be seen what success he will have in the culture of this fruit. He is an active member of the local Grange and in his political af- filiations he is a Republican. The community is greatly indebted to such a man as Mr. Snell, who has always been willing to sacrifice his own con- venience for the upbuilding of the locality.

The Mountain View Berry Growers' Association sprung into existence in December, 1921, directly as a result of Mr. Snell's unprecedented success in rasp- berry culture. There is now under construction, by said association, at Mountain View, a large pre- cooling plant, 50 by 150 feet, with a capacity for precooling four car loads of fruit every twenty-four hours and manufacturing ten tons of ice per day, the ice being used for the refrigerator cars in which the berries are transported to Eastern markets. Seventy-six berry growers at Mountain View have joined in a trusteeship, with the following seven trustees: B. W. Holman, W. P. Angelo, J. E. Reiter, Victor Stanquist, F. E. Gallagher, C. C. Spalding and Ralph L. Snell. The project's primary purpose is to market the produce of the growing raspberry industry, the soil and climate at the south end of San Francisco Bay being peculiarly adapted to berry culture. An affiliated interest is the Runny- mede Berry Growers' Association, who will bring their berries here for precooling and shipment. The plant is being erected at a cost of $45,000. Victor Stanquist and Ralph L. Snell, both members of said Board of Trustees, and both capable contractors and builders, constitute the building committee and have charge of the work of construction. This plant will also precool apricots, strawberries and cherries. The temperature of the berries will be reduced to from thirty-four degrees to thirty-six degrees before being loaded into the refrigerator cars. The base- ment will contain a barreling department where from seventy-five to one hundred women will be engaged in sorting out the berries which are too ripe to stand transportation. These berries will be packed into barrels with sugar and frozen, in which condi- tion they will be placed on the market. The plant at Mountain View will work in conjunction with the Central California Berry Growers' Association.

PAUL J. ARNERICH .- A man of especial gifts who easily impresses others with both his natural ability and his acquirements through experience is Paul J. Arnerich, a native son, having been born near San Jose on September 23, 1869. His father was Mathew Arnerich, and he had married Mrs. Elizabeth (Brown) Moylan, the widow of Edward Moylan. When fourteen years of age, Mathew Arnerich shipped as a sailor, and in the historic year of '49 he voyaged from China to San Francisco. Three years later, he removed to Santa Clara Valley and here engaged in agriculture. In 1856 he married, and purchased 160 acres in the Union district. He died on May 3, 1883, from injuries received in a fall from a buggy. Mrs. Arnerich also came from an old pioneer family; she died here about 1910.

As kind parents this worthy couple provided the best training for Paul in the public schools, and when he had finished with his studies, he worked with his father on the home farm until he was twenty-one. Then, for several years, he farmed for himself, and in 1905 he ran for the State Legislature, in which he served a term. He was then appointed

Maria Lyst.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

to the United States Marshal's office as deputy marshal and discharged that responsibility for ten vears; and having resigned, he ran for the Legisla- ture, was elected in 1915, and in 1917 he was re- elected. Next he was a deputy sheriff in Alameda County for a couple of years, and finally was engaged in the real estate business for a number of years until he became a deputy sheriff, serving under Sher- iff Lyle of Santa Clara County.

At San Jose, on February 21, 1898, Mr. Arnerich was married to Miss Eva La Montagne, a native cf Santa Clara County and the representative of another pioneer family; and four children have blessed their union. They are Bernice, Francis, Genevieve and Elizabeth. Mr. Arnerich belongs to the Republican party, and when he gets tired of politics he turns for recreation to hunting and other outdoor sports.

MARIA COX LOYST .- In all sections of the world the pioneer is highly honored, but especially is this the case in California, where the present gen- eration realizes that the development of the twen- tieth century is due to the indefatigable determina- tion of those who faced the hardships of an overland journey and the even greater hardships connected with the transforming of an unknown, sparsely set- tled region into one of the greatest commonwealths in the United States. Much is due to the faithful- ness of the capable and kindly pioneer women of that day, of whom we hear so little, and yet their contribution to the upbuilding of these great com- monwealths was invaluable. Among these good wo- men was Mrs. Maria (Cox) Loyst, now deceased, who was born near San Jose, January 14, 1853, and was reared and educated and spent her whole life in this county. She was the daughter of William and Dicey (Baggs) Cox, natives of Ohio, who came to California at the early date of 1852. in an ox-team train, and settled in Santa Clara County, their in- teresting life history appearing elsewhere in this vol- ume. Maria Cox was the third oldest in a family of nine children, and after completing the Moreland district school course she attended a girls' boarding school in Santa Clara, which afterwards became the University of the Pacific.

The marriage of Maria Cox, in 1878, united her with Andrew Loyst, a rancher living near Saratoga, a native of Canada. They became the parents of five children: two children died in infancy; Mabel M. became the wife of J. W. Breeding: they reside on part of the old Cox homestead and are the par- ents of four children-Lester. John, Wilgus, and Etho; William W. is a traveling salesman of San Jose, and was married to Miss Etho Hight and they became the parents of two children-William W., Jr .. and Kenneth; George G. married Tilly Doan and they have one child, Eleanor D., and they also reside on the old home place. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Loyst engaged in orcharding on Pierce road, where they had a 60-acre ranch. Mrs. Loyst also became the possessor of fifty acres of her father's old farm, which was partly set to orchard. She

passed away October 30, 1892, at the age of thirty- nine years, leaving her place to her three children, who have improved the balance to orchard and in- stalled an electric pumping plant for irrigating the place, and it has become a very valuable property. Mrs. Loyst was a woman of splendid attainments

and greatly loved by all who knew her. She was a devout Christian, being a member of the Methodist Church in Saratoga.

J. C. SUTHERLAND .- Among the carly pioneer families of Santa Clara County whose prominence was won through privation and sacrifice, J. C. Sutherland is a worthy representative and the suc- cess which he is enjoying is well deserved. He was born November 1, 1872 on the James Sutherland ranch on Sutherland Avenue, the son of the late James Sutherland, and a grandson of that carly settler, William Sutherland. The paternal grand- parents William and Ann ( Dawson) Sutherland were both born at Newcastle, England, and in 1851 came to the United States. William Sutherland worked for a while in the coal mines of Missouri and Illinois and in 1852 he crossed the plains. The family first settled in Sacramento County, purchased a farm and spent five years there. They next removed to Fresno County and engaged in stock raising. From Fresno County they removed to Santa Clara County in 1868 and established the home on the Saratoga and Alviso roads. The old home place contained eighty acres of choice land and it was devoted almost exclusively to the production of hay and grain and the raising of stock. There were two fine artesian wells on the ranch, one 300 feet in depth and flowing five inches over a seven-inch pipe, and the other 425 feet in depth and flowing two and one-half inches over a seven-inch pipe. The father. James Sutherland, came to California with his parents and was reared and educated in the schools of this state. His mar- riage united him with Miss Eliza Esrey, born in Missouri, whose parents were also early settlers of California. He owned 94 acres on Sutherland Avenne devoted to orchard and dairy, until he returned to San Jose in 1905, where he passed away at the age of sixty-nine. The mother resides in San Jose at 483 South Sixth Street. They were the parents of five children: Caroline became the wife of Scott Dean, both deceased; J. C., the subject of this re- view: W. M .. a rancher in Kings County; Annie Jane, Alrs. L. A. Bates, and Lena E., Mrs. A. T. Griffin, live in San Jose.

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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 97

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