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 98

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 98

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J. C. Sutherland attended the Santa Clara grammar and high schools and later took a course in the San Jose Business College, from which he was graduated in 1893. From a boy he assisted his parents on the farm, and while going to school helped to plant the orchards he owns today. After his graduation, he continued on the home place, taking over its active management. His marriage occurred in Santa Clara in 1894 and united him with Miss Eva Jamison, a daughter of the late Hon. Samuel I. Jamison, a prominent pioneer who landed in San Francisco in October, 1849. Immediately after their marriage the young people removed to near Lemoore, and engaged in the cattle business, purchased land and set out sixty acres to a muscat grape vineyard and resided there for eleven years. In 1905 they disposed of their holdings in San Joaquin Valley and returned to Santa Clara County and purchased seventy acres of the home place and have continued to reside there. The property is highly productive and is kept in the best of condition; there are thirty-two acres in prunes; thirty-four acres in Bartlett pears; the balance for the farm buildings, including his comfortable residence surrounded by well laid out

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

grounds. He also has land holdings at Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland are the parents of two children: Carrie E., Mrs. C. M. Mun- ger, has one son, C. M. Jr .; Cleanie is a student in the Santa Clara schools. For generations the Suther- lands have been stalwart Democrats, and J. C. has not departed from the party of his forefathers, but is in- clined to be liberal and considers principles and men. He is a member of the California Prune and Apricot Growers' Association. He is proud of the growth and prosperity of Santa Clara County and is liberal in giving of his time and means to the furtherance of progressive measures.

JAMES C. KENNEDY .- The substantial and well-to-do families have no better representative than James C. Kennedy, whose capable service for the past six years as postmaster of the Mountain View post office, ended on July 1, 1921. For nine and a half vears he was deputy county clerk in San Jose under Henry Pfister, from 1905 to 1915, and then was ap- pointed postmaster and served from 1915 to 1921. He was a native son of California, born at Pleas- anton, Alameda County, November 23, 1868, where his father, Joseph F. Kennedy, was a prominent school teacher. The father, who was born in In- dependence, Mo., in 1843, a son of Captain Robert V. Kennedy, a pioneer newspaper man of Missouri, became an employe in a bank at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in 1863 crossed the plains in a train that was captained by an unele, Captain Boyers, from Independence, Mo., who had previously been to Cal- ifornia, a pioneer farmer of Contra Costa County, who went back to Missouri and brought back a number of relatives and friends. James C. Kennedy is distantly related to the Donners of the ill-fated Donner party and has talked with some of the sur- vivors. Joseph F. left Mountain View in 1876 and went to Idaho and then to Washington and was a pioneer of Whitman County, Wash .; later he went to Spokane and became a merchant, and passed away in 1903. Mrs. Joseph F. Kennedy's maiden name was Margaret Graham, born in Cass County, Mo. She came to California with her parents, who were I. N. and Elizabeth (Wear) Graham, in 1852, settling near Mountain View which is now known as the Abbott place on the state highway. She was the mother of three children, all of whom are living: James C., the subject of this sketch; Frances W., the wife of D. L. Davis of Vallejo, a retired Govern- ment naval official, serving at Mare Island; Mar- garet, the wife of William Bolitho, of Eastern Washington, now lives with her unele, Newton Graham at Mountain View.

Mr. Kennedy has been a resident of this county since 1871 when, after his mother's death in Alameda County, he was brought to the home of a relative, Mrs. W. G. Mayers, on the Springer Road, south- west of Mountain View, where he grew up and be- gan his education in the public schools of the county, and attended a private high school in Colfax, Wash .; he then entered Stanford University and spent two years in the law department, leaving school to enter the county clerk's office.

Mr. Kennedy was married in 1907 to Mrs. Emma (Henderson) Barkway, a native of Kansas. She is the mother of a daughter, Emily W., a graduate of Stanford University, and who is now teaching at Tomales, Marin County. Mr. Kennedy is an Elk,

and is an active member of the Episcopal church. The family are active in social, political, religious and educational circles and are highly respected citizens of the community.

FRANCIS SMITH .- Not alone a pioneer of the state, but a pioneer in his line of business, Francis Smith stands high in the annals of California's de- velopment as the first man in the state to manufac- ture sheet iron mining and irrigation pipe, and at his factory in San Francisco he also built water and oil tanks, these products finding a market not alone in California but in all parts of the United States, as well as South America, South Africa and Australia. Mr. Smith was born at Rutland, near Middleport, Ohio, November 29, 1831, the son of John and Eliza- beth (Monroe) Smith, the latter a descendant of Presi- dent Monroe. The father was a native of New Hamp- shire and the son of a patriotic New Englander who had served in the Revolutionary War.

Of a family of nine children, Franeis Smith was reared on the paternal farm along the banks of the Ohio River, receiving his education in the primitive schools of that day. At the age of fifteen he went to Pomeroy, Ohio, to learn the tinsmith's trade, and at the close of his apprenticeship engaged in this line of work until 1852, when in company with nineteen young men he left for California. Leaving New York on the steamer Georgia, they were crowded on with 3,000 passengers and the horrors of this voyage lasted ten days, when they reached the Chagres River on the Isthmus of Panama. From there they were taken to Gorgona in boats manned by naked negroes, and then started to walk to Panama. As Mr. Smith was not robust, he became exhausted the second day, and but for the efforts of a friend, L. E. Stevens, who forced a native to give up his mule to Mr. Smith, he might have succumbed. They were obliged to wait ten days at Panama for a steamer and then began another terrible voyage, occasioned by the Panama fever breaking out on board the boat. They arrived at San Francisco on February 11, 1853, and Mr. Smith- continued on to Sacramento, going from there to Hangtown, now Placerville, where he worked at his trade for six months. Later he worked at Marys- ville and Camptonville, and in 1855 located at San Juan, where he conducted a tinshop and hardware store. It was while there that he saw the need of something to take the place of the miner's canvas hose, and he began the manufacture of sheet iron pipe, and out of his small beginning his extensive and lucrative business was developed.

In 1869 Mr. Smith removed to San Francisco and two years later began the manufacture of iron pipe in that city, commencing on a small scale and doing all the work himself. The undertaking was an entirely new and original one and met with ready success. For twenty-eight years he was located at 130 Beal Street, and later he built a plant at Eighth and Town- send streets, the largest and most complete establish- ment of its kind in the world at that time. Of rare business ability, Mr. Smith conducted his affairs along practical and modern methods and rose to occupy a position among the most successful manufacturers of the West. In addition to his manufacturing inter- ests he built the city water works for Watsonville, Petaluma, Redding and Winnemucca, Nev. In 1871 he purchased the Swinford property on Baseom Av-

Francis Smith

Rebecca Smith-

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

enue, now known as Dana farm, and lying between San Jose and Santa Clara, whch has since been the family homestead; here Mr. Smith set out the first large commercial prune orchard in the Santa Clara Valley, and it is now one of the fine orchard prop- erties of the district.

On July 3, 1860, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Rebecca Crites, a native of Athens, N. Y., the daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Geiger) Crites, both born in Pennsylvania, the mother being a rela- tive of the famous Miss Geiger who was a despatch carrier during the Revolutionary War. John Crites came to Wisconsin in the early days with Juneau and became a pioneer farmer of Walworth County. Mrs. Smith was reared in Walworth County, Wis., where she received a fine education and in 1857 came to California by way of the Isthmus; she went at once to Miss Atkins' Seminary at Benicia, now Mills College in Oakland, and three years later her marriage to Mr. Smith occurred. They became the parents of four children: George F., whose biography appears elsewhere in this volume, lives on the old homestead; Edwin V. died at San Jose in 1916; Elizabeth is Mrs. Hinson of Melbourne, Australia; Dana W. died in in- fancy. Mrs. Smith took great pleasure in her exten- sive travels, journeying over Europe and making four trips to Australia; a cultured woman of unsual at- tainments, she gathered about her many friends who appreciated her many fine qualities and her generous hospitality, so that her passing away on September 14, 1914, left a deeply felt void not alone in the family circle, but in the community, Mr. Smith's death having occurred two years previously, on October 10, 1912. Prominent in the ranks of Masonry, he became a member of that order while living in San Juan, and was made a Knight Templar in Nevada City about 1858, later demitting to Golden Gate Com- mandery at San Francisco. In personal character- istics no man stood higher among the citizens of this section than Mr. Smith. Endowed not only with business ability, but with stanch integrity, he carefully followed the course which marked his career from the very beginning, and at the close of his useful, well-spent life, he could truthfully say that he had never knowingly wronged a fellowman.

P. HERMANN H. RICHTER .- The scenic beauty, productiveness and agreeable climate of the Santa Clara Valley have attracted many automobile tourists from various parts of the country to this garden spot of California and they have found in Cedar Brook Park at San Jose, of which P. Hermann H. Richter is the owner and manager, an admirable camping site, provided with many facilities for their convenience and comfort. He was born in Meldorf, Holstein, .Germany, December 13, 1865, a son of August and Anna Richter, the former of whom had charge of the street department of that city and for many years was in the service of the government. The only surviving member of a family of ten children, Hermann Richter attended the common schools of Meldorf to the age of eleven years, when he started out to provide for his own livelihood, being variously employed until 1885, when he entered the German army, in which he served for three years. Following his release from military duty, he came to the United States, making his way to San Francisco, Cal., and going from there to San Rafael,

where for thirteen months he worked in the brick- yards. From 1890 until 1892 he was employed on freighters plying on San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River and in the latter year he came to San Jose, obtaining a position in the brickyards on Keyes Street and taking out of the kiln the first bricks manufactured in this city. He remained with that firm for a year and then spent two years with the Peterson-Chockoche Brick Company. In 1893 he had purchased a piece of land, upon which he erected his home, and in 1895 he embarked in busi- ness on his own account, opening a store at the corner of Keyes and Eleventh streets, where he began dealing in hay, grain and wood. In 1900 he bought a four-acre tract at Keyes and Twelfth streets, an abandoned brickyard, which had been used as a dumping ground, and began improving the place, which he has at length converted into a fine auto camping site. This has been visited by tourists from all parts of the country, over 5,000 auto parties having registered here up to January 1, 1922, while many have been so favorably impressed with the locality that they have decided to become permanent residents of San Jose. Mr. Richter's charges are very reasonable, the tourists furnishing their own camping outfits. He also conducts a store where provisions can be conveniently obtained by the camp- ers, and has established an open-air kitchen, equipped with gas stoves; he has installed shower baths, doing everything in his power to provide for the comfort of the tourists. His place was originally known as Willow. Park but in 1902 the name was changed to its present form, that of Cedar Brook Park. In 1920 it was leased as a public camping ground by the Chamber of Commerce, who also secured an option to buy it, but upon the termina- tion of the lease Mr. Richter decided to operate the park himself and success has attended his efforts, this being one of the most popular camping sites in the valley.

In San Jose, on February 2, 1893, Mr. Richter married Miss Katie Reder, who was born, reared, and educated in his native city and came to Cali- fornia shortly before her marriage. They have be- come the parents of six children: Johanna, who is filling a clerical position in San Jose; Olga, Mrs. Gus Spatzwood, a graduate of the San Jose Normal when nineteen and until her marriage taught in Mendocino County, where she now lives in Potter Valley; August Victor, who is in the employ of the Standard Oil Company, graduated from Heald's Busi- ness College at seventeen; Martha, who also is em- ployed as a clerk; Ernest, a high school student; and Emma, who died in infancy. Mr. Richter is a stanch Republican in his political views and an active worker in the ranks of the party. He became the organizer of the Third Ward Independent Club, starting with an enrollment of nine, while it now has 180 members, and he is regarded as one of the leaders of the party in this district. He is also well known in fraternal circles of San Jose, belonging to the Loyal Order of Moose, the Germania Society, the Foresters of America, and the Chamber of Commerce. He has led an active and useful life, employing every opportunity to advance, and his present success is entirely at- tributable to his own efforts. He is a man of high personal standing, of marked business integrity and ability, and his sterling worth has won for him the respect and esteem of a large circle of friends.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

GEORGE F. SMITH .- In this day of change and rapid development it is given to few to have lived for more than half a century on the same property, as has George F. Smith, and to have seen the won- derful transformation wrought in the Santa Clara Valley, from a mustard field to a garden spot and the city of San Jose from a straggling village to its present status as a commercial center. And not as a mere onlooker has Mr. Smith seen this change ac- complished, but in all of it he has taken an active part, a true upbuilder, whose influence has ever been on the side of permanent development. His parents, Francis and Rebecca (Crites) Smith, represented elsewhere in this volume, were among California's highly honored pioneers, the father, a native of Ohio. coming via the Isthmus of Panama in 1853, and the miother coming by the same route in 1857. Francis Smith was the first manufacturer of sheet iron pipe in California, used extensively in hydraulic mining and for irrigation, and he built up an important busi- ness as a manufacturer of pipe and water and oil tanks, his factory, located in San Francisco, then be- ing one of the largest in the world. Mrs. Rebecca Crites Smith was a woman of exceptional culture and widely traveled, and with her husband, held a high place in the community.

The eldest of the family, George F. Smith was born at the old mining town of San Juan, in Nevada Coun- ty. Cal., June 27, 1861, where the family resided until 1869, when they removed to San Francisco. Two years later they came to the ranch on Bascom Av- ennie, near San Jose, and this has ever since been Mr. Smith's home, now fifty-one years. After com- pleting the local schools, he entered the College of the Pacific, where he studied for three years, among his classmates being Judge John H. Richards, Judge Gosbey and Judge Glendenning. When twenty years old he left college to assume the management of the ranch, but later completed a course at Heald's Busi- ness College in San Francisco.

On June 28, 1882, at Agnew, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Lizzie Bell Agnew, who was born at Oskaloosa, Iowa, the daughter of Abraham and Sarah Jane ( Barber) Agnew. The father, a native of Ohio, emigrated to Iowa at an early day, and in 1846 crossed the plains to Oregon over the Lewis and Clark trail as captain of a train. A man of prowess, he led several expeditions each year over this trail to Oregon, finally settling at Oskaloosa, Iowa. In 1873 he brought his family to Santa Clara County, Cal., and purchased the Peebles ranch, part of this property now being the site of the town of Agnew, which was named in his honor. He passed away in 1900, and his wife, who was a member of a prominent old New Jersey family, died in 1905. They were the parents of three children: Hugh, deceased; Lizzie Bell, who became Mrs. Smith, and Jessie B., of San Diego. Mrs. Smith was fourteen years of age when the family came to California and she continued her education at the College of the Pacific, where she took up the study of art, in which she was exceptionally talented, many of her paintings now adorning the walls of the Smith home. Four children of the seven born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith are now living: Frank, a mining engineer, has just returned from the interior of Korea. after an absence of nine years; George D. is mana- ger of the Dana Farm; Isabelle and Effie preside

over the home, whose artistic furnishings and beau- tiful decorations had been planned and carried out by Mrs. Smith, whose devotion to her home and fam- ily made her the center of the happy, harmonious circle. Cultured and lovable in every way, her death, on February 7, 1922, left an irreplacable void.

The home place on Bascom Avenue, called Dana Farm, consists of seventy-five acres all in prunes and pears, and with the fine, large residence and well- laid out grounds, beautifully kept, it is one of the show places of the county. Mr. Smith also owns 200 acres near Exeter, which he developed from rough hogwallow land, and twenty acres are now in bear- ing navel oranges; he is also the president of the North Paris Land Company of San Mateo County, owning a large ranch near Half Moon Bay, and a director of the Watsonville Water Company, of which the members of the family are the principal owners. A firm believer in cooperation, he is a member of the Klink Citrus Association, the Califor- nia Prune & Apricot Growers Association, and the California Pear Growers Association. Mr. Smith is a Republican in politics and a member of the Pres- byterian Church of Santa Clara, in which his wife will ever be remembered for her beautiful Christian life. Just, generous and charitable, Mr. Smith has ever given his best efforts to support every progressive movement and he stands among the first citizens of the county that has been his home for so many years.

WILLIAM S. TEMPLETON .- Among the suc- cessful ranchers of the Santa Clara Valley who has used intelligent methods in his agricultural develop- ments, is William S. Templeton, who came to the county in 1912. A native of Illinois, he was born at Dakota, Stephenson County, on October 23, 1878, the son of Walker and Elizabeth (Bragg) Temple- ton, the father of Scotch descent, who was born in Pennsylvania, February 14, 1839, and the mother was born in England, March 23, 1848. Both parents are still living. The father is a Civil War veteran, having served three years in Company D of the Ninety-third Illinois Infantry. He served in the Western Army and later with Sherman in his March-to-the-Sea.

William attended the Dakota grammar school and then took a course in the Interior Academy at Dakota, Ill. After leaving school he worked on a ranch for about a year and a half. He became inter- ested in raising fancy Cornish chickens, when only fifteen years of age, and by careful study and applica- tion, bred many prize fowls. As his business expanded he became one of the foremost breeds and exhibitors of the Cornish breed, and in time developed the now justly celebrated Templeton's Dark Cornish, Victor Strain Cornish fowls, without doubt America's best table fowl. He has never failed to take one or more first prizes wherever he has exhibited his birds, and he has exhibited at the leading poultry shows in Boston, Madison Square Garden, New York City; Baltimore, Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis World's Fair, Kansas City, Mo .: Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco. In October, 1912, he came with his family to California and settled in Los Gatos, remaining there but a short time, when he removed to Morgan Hill. Later he ranched near Campbell and was thus engaged for four years, when he pur- chased an eight-acre prune orchard on Los Gatos and Santa Clara roads. His orchard is in full-bear-

Perc. H. Smith

Bus São 7 Suite

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

ing prune trees, finely cultivated and well irrigated, so that he gets the best results obtainable from his labor. He also continues to breed his strain of Cornish fowls.

On October 18, 1906, in Winneshick, III., Mr. Templeton was married to Miss Florence Yarger, a native of that state, born in Rock Run Township, near Rock City, a daughter of William C. and Martha ( Mitchell) Yarger. Mrs. Templeton was educated in the schools of Lancaster, III., and the Interior Academy at Dakota. They are the parents of two children: Russell Emlen, born at Dakota, Ill., January 4, 1908, and Lawrence Ozro, born near Campbell, Cal., March 22, 1914. Mr. Templeton is a Republican in his political views, and he and his wife are active and consistent members of the Presby- terian church. With a determination to succeed in whatever he undertook, he is being well rewarded for his industry in his success as a horticulturist.

HERBERT R. TRIPP .- A native son of California and a trustworthy government employe. Herbert R. Tripp was born in Watsonville, Cal., February 10. 1863, a son of Dr. Russell B. and Agnes Jane (Stewart) Tripp. The father crossed the plains to California in 1852 and for a time was connected with gold mining in Placer County, after which he removed to Watsonville, where he engaged in the practice of medicine. He next purchased land near Cambria, San Luis Obispo County, where he en- gaged in stockraising and then went to Wilcox, Arizona, where for many years he continued to raise cattle. In 1897 he sold his cattle interests and re- turned to San Jose, making his home with his son, Herbert R. Tripp, until his demise, June 2, 1919. lacking only twenty-two days of his one hundredth birthday. During the Mexican war he was assistant surgeon in the United States Army.

While Dr. Tripp was engaged in the cattle busi- ness in Arizona the mother resided with her children in San Jose, where they attended the public schools. After completing his public school course Herbert learned the trade of a harness maker, which he followed until 1884, when he was one of the first four mail carriers appointed in the San Jose post- office. For a number of years he continued to fill that position but later he was transferred as a clerk in the office and is now in the registry division.

On December 17, 1885, in San Jose, Mr. Tripp was united in marriage to Miss Lue Butler, who was born in Dewitt, Clinton County, Iowa, November 18, 1865, a daughter of Franklin S. and Mary Jane (Dennis) Butler. Her father was born in Pike County, Ind., February 3, 1837, and was a son of Jonathan S. and Nancy (McNeal) Butler, the former of Scotch descent, while the latter was of English lineage. In 1875, at the age of ten years, Mrs. Tripp came with her parents to California, the party being ten days in making the trip; the family settled in San Jose. On arriving here Franklin Butler re- sumed the carpenter's trade, which he followed until he retired. He was an honored veteran of the Civil war and his military record was a most credit- able one. He enlisted on August 12, 1861, and was mustered into the service at Davenport, Iowa, on the 5th of September, 1861, as a member of the regiment commanded by Col. Frederick Steele. The regiment was ordered to St. Louis, Mo., where it

remained for two weeks, and was then sent to Syra- cuse, that state, where it joined Fremont's forces in the campaign against General Price's Confederate troops. From November, 1861, until March 12, 1862, it was stationed at Sedalia, Mo., and then went to St. Louis, where it embarked for Pittsburg Land- ing, Tenn., taking a gallant part in the subsequent engagement at that point. In the Battle of Shiloh the regiment suffered severe losses and in this en- gagement, which took place on the 6th of April. 1862, Mr. Butler was captured by the Confederates and for two months was confined in a prison at Mobile, Ala. From there he was sent to Macon, Ga .. where he was kept a prisoner for five months, and was then taken to Richmond, Va. There he was paroled and was sent first to Annapolis, Md., and on to St. Louis, where he remained until his regi- ment was reorganized on November 20, 1863. The regiment then joined Grant's forces in the Vicksburg campaign and was afterward assigned to General Tuttle's Division, taking part in the siege of Vicks- burg Landing and the engagement at Jackson, Miss. For a while it was encamped at Vicksburg, being sent from that point to Pocahontas, Tenn., where it was veteranized on January 1, 1864, and in Febru- ary of the same year took part in the raid on Meridian, Miss. Mr. Butler was then granted a fur- lough, afterward rejoining his regiment, which was sent to do provost guard duty at Memphis, Tenn., on the 21st of August, 1864, continuing there during the remainder of the defense of that city against General Forrest. Early in March, 1865, it moved to New Orleans, La., then to Dauphin Isle, whence it joined in the siege of Mobile and the capture of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely, being with Colonel Geddes in the assault on Spanish Fort, which was one of the most brilliant performances of the cam- paign. After the fall of Mobile it moved to Mont- gomery, Ala., and thence to Selma Isle, where it was mustered out April 20, 1766. Mr. Butler was made eighth corporal on January 1, 1862; seventh corporal March I, 1862; sixth corporal December 4, 1862 and second corporal February 10, 1864. He was a member of Sheridan-Dix Post, G. A. R., at San Jose, of which he was past commander. In San Jose he served five years as a lieutenant in the Cali- fornia National Guard.

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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 98

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