History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 101

Author: Sawyer, Eugene T
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1934

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patronage. The steadily-growing business owes its increase, in a large measure, to the strict integrity and careful attention to business of its proprietors. As a public-spirited citizen Mr. Geoffroy has been liberal in supporting objects he deems worthy with both time and money. He owns realty holdings in both city and county, and is accumulating a com- petency worthy of his activities.

IDA M. FISHER .- Fortunate in a thorough artistic training, Miss Ida M. Fisher, the head of her department at the State Teachers' College at San Jose, has done much to advance the study and ap- preciation of music in California, and has thus be- come a woman of exceptionally wide acquaintance and helpful, uplifting influence. A native daughter proud of her association with the Golden State, she was born in Sacramento, a member of the family of John Christian and Wilhelmina (Geiger) Fisher. Her father, a native of Germany, was a noted musician, as was her mother, who came from the Rhineland. Mr. Fisher was one of a family of eight children, and Mrs. Fisher, of a family of five.

John C. Fisher, on coming to the United States, settled with his parents in Western New York and for awhile engaged in business before attempting the passage of the great plains. Leaving his family, he braved the danger of the continent and later Mrs. Fisher and their two children came to California by way of the Isthmus. Mr. Fisher was employed as an engineer and ran between San Francisco and Sacramento; he was a master mechanic and was one of the early division superintendents having charge of the Sacramento to Freeport and Auburn division. Eventually he was injured in the terrible railroad accident in the Tehachepi Pass about 1883, when the engine left the track and so many were fatally injured. These worthy American pioneers, nobly representing an earlier generation to whom present- day Californians owe so much, were blessed with six children. Anson P. Fisher lives at Canastota, N. Y. Minnie G. is Mrs. Wisner of San Francisco. Annie is Mrs. Plummer of Bakersfield. The fourth of the family is the subject of our review. Emeretta is Mrs. Sybrandt of Selma; Fred is at Syracuse.

Miss Ida Fisher attended the grammar and the high school at Folsom, and then for two years pur- sued the courses of the State Normal School at San Jose, after which she taught in California. Later she went to Boston and there for two years studied music, and then for six years she pursued her musical studies at New York. Thus equipped, she had charge of the musical instruction in the schools at Fayette- ville and East Sycamore, N. Y., including both the grammar and high school grades; and while she was teaching at Syracuse, she attended the Syracuse University and studied piano, pipe organ and har- mony. She also took private voice lessons from Thomas Ward. While at Boston, she studied at the' New England Conservatory of Music and for two years took private instruction in piano from Profes- sor Charles Conant, and later graduated from the Holt School of Music in Massachusetts.

In 1899, Miss Fisher came back to California and took charge of the music department of the Alameda schools; and for seven and a half years she con- tributed much toward raising the standards and ex- tending the fame of that school system. In Jan- uary, 1907, she removed to San Jose and took

charge of the musical instruction in the Normal School, now the State Teachers' College. To Miss Fisher, in fact, is due the credit for starting and building up that department; and she has continued there ever since, with the exception of the year 1916-1917, when she attended the Pittsburgh Univer- sity of Music and received a Bachelor of Arts degree. Besides this degree, she has many other enviable credentials, certificates and testimonials. The musi- cal department of this State Teachers' College aims to train teachers of music for both the grammar and the high schools. The course consists of harmony. the history of music, sight-reading, piano, part sing- ing, voice training, orchestration, instrumentation, counterpoint and the theory of music.

EDWARD C. POWER .- A very enterprising. successful leader of local industrial affairs, constantly breaking into new paths and pointing the way where others may follow, who has done much to stimulate and to cultivate public art taste not only in San Jose but throughout Santa Clara County, is Edward C. Power, proprietor of "The Urn Shop." the famous headquarters, at 578 West Santa Clara Street, for architectural modeling, cement and plaster decora- tions, and garden furniture. For half a century or more the name of Power has been an honored one in Santa Clara County, and our subject is a worthy successor of his father, Edward Power, a native of County Dublin, Ireland. When eighteen, he came out to the United States and settled in Chicago; and having learned the trade of a woodcarver, he fol- lowed it energetically in the fast-growing Windy City, maintaining a shop, always attractive to those in search of artistic things, on State Street.

When the Civil War broke out, however, Edward Power, a natural patriot, enlisted in the cause of the Union as a soldier of the Nintieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, popularly termed the Irish Regiment, which had the honor of doing yeoman service under Gen- eral Grant; and during a fierce engagement, he sus- tained a severe leg wound-his sacrifice for a united country. After the war was over, young Power did not return to Chicago nor did he ever see his shop again; but he came out to California and pitched his tent in San Francisco. He worked again at his trade as a woodcarver, and being among the most expert on the coast, he found plenty to do. He married Miss Ellen Barrett, a native of County Cork, Ireland, and in San Francisco, on June 2. 1867, Edward C. Power was born. Mr. Power came to San Jose as early as 1871, to do some contract work in his line; and the following year he first brought his family here. After a few years, he returned to San Francisco; but in 1884 he once more settled in this city, where he made his home until his death, December 16. 1896. Many of the fine buildings erected in and around San Jose from 1871 bore evidences of his superior craft, and he was highly esteemed by fellow industrial workers. Mrs. Power also breathed her last on October 10, 1899. beloved as a good neighbor and a steadfast friend.

Edward C. Power was educated in the excellent public schools of San Francisco, and when old enough, started to learn woodcarving; and having remarkable aptitude for designing, he soon mastered the trade under the fortunate and inspiring guidance of his father, with whom he became associated in business on attaining to manhood. Together they

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

filled a large number of varied contracts, and did much outside ornamental work on many of the leading public buildings, as well as the larger and more notable private residences. Since his father's lamented death, Mr. Power has carried on the busi- ness alone, expanding it with the passing years. The advent of cement and stucco work spelt the knell of woodcarving in building, but Mr. Power evidenced his real genius in becoming an expert modeler, and now, through his latest art, he is able successfully and artistically to carry out and complete any kind of work in his field required of him, fashioning in clay or other materials in original, direct manner, with the most artistic feeling and perception, and bringing out lights and shadows, just as an artist does upon a canvas.

Not only has Mr. Power himself superior tech- niqne, in both designing and in drawing, but he keeps a force of highly-trained men busy all the time. The First National and the Garden City Bank buildings display his handiwork, as well as nearly all the large buildings in San Jose, and the finest residences thronghout the city and the county. He makes garden furniture and finds a ready sale for it all the way from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo; and his shop at 578 West Santa Clara Street has become the mecca of many art-lovers and students and admirers of artistic decoration. Associated with him is his son, Eugene J. Power, who has grown up in the work since he was a small boy, and who is also an expert modeler. As a business man, too, Mr. Power has been very successful, and today he stands high in the city's commercial as well as in- dustrial circles; and he is deeply interested in the upbuilding of both city and county,-a district where the greater part of his life has been passed. He has gained that preeminence which naturally follows superior ability and concentrated effort in the held of activity where he specializes.

At San Jose, in September, 1891, Mr. Power was married to Miss Alida Klinkart, the daughter of William and Alida Klinkart. The bride was born in New York State and came out to California with her parents; and as her father was a leading archi- tect of San Jose, she enjoyed the best of educational advantages. Eleven children have blessed this union of Mr. and Mrs. Power. William, Charles, Dorothy and Alice are deceased. The living members of the family are May B., the oldest child; Edward 1., the second born, who is married, and is an orchardist in the Vaca Valley, Solano County; Eugene J., as- sociated with his father; and Joseph, Richard, David and Bernice, attending school.

JAMES BOYD, D. V. S .- A distinguished repre- sentative of California veterinarians is Dr. James Boyd, of San Jose, who was born in Pittsburgh. Pa., on May 15, 1855, the son of David Boyd, a farmer and stockman, of Scotch-Irish descent who came to Pennsylvania when he was a boy. James Boyd was trained partly in the excellent schools of Pittsburgh, and partly in the Military Agricultural School at Blacksburg, Va .; so that with his home advantages, thanks largely to his mother, whose maiden name was Jane Morrison, he was rather well equipped, for one of his age, to cope with the outside world. Both parents died in Pennsylvania.

When he started out for himself, he went to the Lexington region in Kentucky, and there became interested in fine trotting stock. In 1880, he mi- grated to California, bringing with him some horses and mules, including a trotting stallion worth some $5,000, a colt valued at $4,000, and a saddle horse representing $1,000, together with a mare worth $800, and many valuable jacks. He had already practiced as a veterinarian in Kentucky, so he had no difficulty in establishing himself in the same pro- fessional field in Santa Clara County, and in 1900 he received his certificate from the San Francisco Vet- erinary College.

He settled for a short time in Livermore, then purchased a farm of 100 acres near Milpitas, where he ranched for three years. He sold it to the county, and it is now known as the County Farm. In 1905 he founded and erected a veterinary hospital at Mil- pitas, and in connection with the hospital he also conducted an automobile garage. When he sold his ranch he moved to San Jose, and during the time he lived here he made two trips to the Hawaiian Islands with stock. He then moved to Milpitas and built his hospital. In 1910 he removed to San Jose, and he has ever since then made this city his home. For years he was a director of the Fair Association which was held here annually, and for three years was manager of the track.

On October 13, 1887, Dr. Boyd was married at San Jose to Miss Delia Castle, a native of Amador County, Cal., and the daughter of Wellman Doctor Castle, who had married Miss Frances Ferry. Her father was a real Argonaut, who crossed the great plains in '49, traveling in the spring by ox-team and prairie schooner. He was a native of New York, who first removed to Michigan and from there mi- grated to California. He tried his luck in the Ama- dor Mines, and in later years took up farming and cattle raising, and the development of a fine vine- yard. He lived to be eighty-four years of age, and died at Milpitas. He came to Milpitas in 1872, and here engaged in wholesale butchering, furnishing the markets at San Jose. He was also interested in a large cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon, and was accustomed to make trips to that state each year to arrange cattle shipments, accompanied by his eldest son, I. N. Castle. Mrs. Boyd is one of a family of four children by her father's first marriage. and a stepsister to the three children by his second union; a sister is Mrs. Hattie Topham.

Harold Edward Boyd, the only son of Dr. and Mrs. James Boyd, made a specialty of the study of geol- ogy at Stanford University and is a graduate of that famous institution. He was for three years with the Barber Asphalt Company, which sent him to South America, and at present he is one of the chief geologists in the employ of the Henry L. Doherty Oil Company of New York City. He enlisted for service in the World War as a member of the Flying Corps which was training at Mather Field, and he attended the School of Observation at Berkeley. He had made twenty flights when he was afflicted with the influenza, and after he came out of the hospital, he made four more flights. Then the armistice was signed, and his services were no longer needed.

An acknowledged authority of exceptional experi- ence in his field, Dr. Boyd was appointed by the Bureau of Animal Industry to inspect cattle in Santa

Comfy Lawrence

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

Clara County for inter-state shipping, and for years he has been treasurer of the California Veterinary Association. Since 1915 he has made his home at 505 South Second Street in San Jose, where he has dispensed a generous hospitality.

WILLIAM HOWARD LAWRENCE .- An ex- perienced, successful rancher, now living in comfort- able, quiet retirement, and a veteran in high standing in the ranks of the G. A. R., is William Howard Lawrence, of 116 Naglee street, San Jose, a native of historic Concord, Mass., where he was born on March 3, 1837. His father was Albert Chester Law- rence, who had married Rhoda Ann Fesenden. Al- bert Chester bore the family name of Bull as a boy until his playmates guyed him so severely that he had it changed to Lawrence by an act of the Massa- chusetts Legislature. Both his parents were of English descent; his father's people, three brothers of the Bull family, came to America on the ship "James" in 1635, while his mother's family dates back to the Pilgrim Fathers. Both of his great-grand- fathers were members of the Continental Army and for eight years fought from Bunker Hill until the close of the American Revolution. Grandfather Bull fought in the War of 1812, until 1815, and while serving under General Andrew Jackson was wounded at the battle of New Orleans. Albert Chester Law- rence was a mechanic and worked first as a carpen- ter and then as a cabinet maker, and after that as a pianoforte builder. In 1849 he came around the Horn to San Francisco and went up into the north fork of the American River, where he engaged in mining. His brother, John Clark Bull, was a sea- captain, who sailed the seas and made it a business to trade his cargo to the Mexicans for hides and tallow; and in 1849 he also went around the Horn with a cargo, and while in San Francisco the ship was deserted by its crew, who left pell-mell for the mines. Captain Bull disposed of the ship and cargo and also tried his luck at mining; and later he went into Humboldt County and ran a hotel at Eureka until his death. In pioneer days he had returned East via the Isthmus and purchased a sailing vessel of 150 tons burden and brought his family around the Horn to California.

Albert Chester Lawrence engaged in mining for two years, and then he went into San Francisco and tried his hand as a building contractor, but not meet- ing with success, in 1850 he bought a ranch of 160 acres in Santa Clara County, securing a squatter's claim, and shortly afterward he went into the mines on the Salmon River in Humboldt County, and there remained until driven out by the Indians. He then returned to his ranch and when the Southern Pacific Railroad Company proposed to build a line he donated the right-of-way through his land, and a station was built on his farm, which was called Law- rence. He also became station agent, filling that position until his death. He was born in 1810 and lived to be seventy-six.

William Edward Lawrence attended school in Boston from his seventh to his twelfth year, and when his father went to California he was sent to the Boston Farm School until he was sixteen; he then bound himself to a farmer at Lincoln, Mass., for two years, and later, at Malden, he was employed in a factory and then in a tinshop. In 1855 he came west to Illinois and for a time clerked in Kewanee, Bureau County, and then engaged in outdoor work in Henry County. In 1859 he returned to Malden, Mass., and worked there for a year, and there, on

November 4, 1860, he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. In December he started with his mother and three sisters to California; these sisters were Ellen E., now deceased; Alvira C., who lives at Campbell, and Adra Anna, now Mrs. Keith, of the same place. They traveled by way of the Panama route and arrived in San Francisco on January 10, 1861, after a trip of twenty-two days. General Al- bert Sidney Johnston came on the same ship.

On March 3, 1863, Mr. Lawrence enlisted at San Francisco for service in the Union Army, being mus- tered in by Major Ringgold at Pratt's Hall, and he was in the California Battalion, a picked body of volunteers to be sent East to fill out a Massachusetts regiment, and he left California March 20, 1863. He was in Company C, commanded by Capt. Geo. A. Manning, but when they reached Massachusetts they become Company M. of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, commanded by Col. Charles Russell Lowell. In the spring of 1864 he and his comrades came under the direction of General Merritt, of General Sheri- dan's cavalry, and he in a company of 125 men were ambushed at Drainsville, Va., by Colonel Mosby. Imboden and White, guerrilla leaders, who fired on them from ambush, killing fifteen and wounding thirty. His regiment served from the battle of Winchester in all the cavalry engagements in that part of the country until Lee's surrender, and they were in fifty-one cavalry fights, besides small skir- mishes. Out of 558 men mustered into that battalion, only 181 were mustered out, and of his own company only three are living today. Although Mr. Lawrence never sustained any wounds, he lost five horses, one of which, the fifth, was shot from under him when he was taken prisoner of war. This was in the battle of Drainsville, February 22, 1864. He was sent to Libby Prison and was there three weeks; and then he was removed to Andersonville Prison, where twenty-one of his same company died in seven months' time. Upon receiving the news that the Union forces might take Andersonville, he, with other prisoners, was rushed to Savannah, and there he spent two months of "hell." Two more of his company died, and out of the twenty-seven taken prisoners only four lived to get out. He himself made his escape from the Savannah prison and for three weeks wandered through the swamps of South Carolina and Georgia; he was headed for Sherman's army, and when only two days' distant from the Union forces he was stricken with swamp fever at Brown's Ferry. He went to a black slave for help. but was betrayed, and sent to Barnwell Jail in South Carolina; when he had been there three days it was necessary for the sheriff to smuggle him away t prevent his being lynched by a company of home guards, as they termed him a "Massachusetts Yank." He was taken to Blackwell Station, thence to the Co- lumbia Jail in South Carolina, and after that on to Florence, in the same state. and from there to Wil- mington, N. C., and he was finally paroled at Golds- boro, N. C., and joined the Union lines at Wilming- ton on March 3, 1865.

At Wilmington, N. C., at the Hilltop House, Mr. Lawrence was for two weeks unconscious from ex- posures he had endured, and when he finally came to his senses, a week passed before he was able to take a small glass of milk punch. Dr. Charles Rob- inson brought him through the crisis. Mr. Lawrence had spent one year and ten days as a prisoner of war, and he was finally paroled on March 3, 1865, and in April he arrived at Annapolis, and he re-

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ceived a furlough of three weeks, with orders to re- port to Reedeville Hospital, in Massachusetts. At Recdeville he was sergeant of the police, and he re- mained there until June 23, 1865, when he was dis- charged and returned to California in August.

On August 23, 1865, he was married at Malden, Mass., to Miss Susan Eleanor Phelan, an old school- mate of his sister. She had been born on a sailing vessel in the West Indies, for her father, Theodore, was a first mate, and he eventually went down in a storm at sea. The same day he was married, Mr. Lawrence left for California with his wife, and trav- eled by way of Panama; and on October 31, he landed in San Francisco. He ran his father's farm for a year and then rented a farm of twelve acres near Lawrence, and he was one of the pioneer straw- berry growers in the Santa Clara Valley; and then he bought a ranch of twenty acres adjoining the rent- ed farm in the Jefferson school district and there for seven years raised strawberries. His wife's health failed, however, and it was necessary to seek a change of climate, so he sold his ranch and bought another place of eighty-six acres near Los Gatos, where he raised hay, grain and stock. He still owns fifteen acres of this ranch. There Mrs. Lawrence died on March 10, 1893.

Mr. Lawrence's second marriage occurred on Aug- ust 1, 1893, uniting him with Mrs. Lottie E. (Phil- lips) Broughton, a native of Crown Point, N. Y. Her parents were John and Melissa (Colburn) Phil- lips, and she was graduated at the Crown Point high school, teaching school for two years, until she re- moved to Livingston County, Ill., where she mar- ried William Broughton, a farmer who operated 1100 acres of fine land near Kempton, Ill. He died in Illinois in 1888, and in 1891 she came to California with her two children. Burnell died here at the age of eighteen, and DeEtte is the wife of E. N. Richmond of San Jose.

In 1915 Mr. Lawrence left his ranch and moved to San Jose. He had six children by his first mar- riage, three of whom are living: William Chester is in the salmon fishing business in Alaska; George Al- fred, a physician and surgeon practicing in New York City, holds a record as recruit examiner in the late war and was commissioned a major in the Medical Corps, U. S. A .; Albert Hume is a min- ing engineer in Chile and Bolivia. George Alfred Lawrence married Julia Pinkney, a member of an old New York family; Albert H. Lawrence married Miss Fannie Johnston and they have five children -Howard, Eleanor, Dorothea, Lucy and David. Mr. Lawrence is a member of the board of auditors of the Santa Clara Pioneer Society, and he is a senior past commander of the E. O. C. Ord Post No. 82, G. A. R. at Los Gatos. For the third time he is serving as aide-de-camp on the department com- mander's staff ,and one ycar was an aide-de-camp on the staff of the national commander. Mrs. Lawr- ence is past president of E. O. C. Ord Corps No. 51. W. R. C. of Los Gatos.

MRS. LOUISE GUERRAZ KIRK .- Among the pioneer women who braved the dangers and endured the hardships of pioneer days is Mrs. Louise Guerraz Kirk, who has been a resident of California since 1848 and of Santa Clara County since 1850, still hale and hearty and with her abundance of reminis- cences is an interesting talker. She was, in maiden- hood, Louise Guerraz, a native of Missouri. Her father, John D. Guerraz, was born in one of the

French colonies in Switzerland, his family dating back to France. Coming to America when eighteen or nineteen years of age, he made his way to Tennessee and liking that section was content to remain. There he was married to Elizabeth Bridges, a native of that state, coming from an old Revolutionary family in Tennessee. They made their way westward and were living in Clay County, Mo., when Louise, the subject of this review, was born. In 1848 John D. Guerraz started across the plains with his wife and four children, making the journey in wagons drawn by ox teams, taking six months to complete the journey, being piloted by Captain Childs. They arrived in Hangtown, then called Dry Diggings, un- til the hanging of three desperadoes when it was called Hangtown, this incident occurring while the Guerraz family was living there.

Mr. Guerraz engaged in the grocery business in Hangtown until 1850, when he came to Santa Clara County, locating on a ranch in the Campbell district, improving a farm of 160 acres, engaging in grain farming and viticulture. Later on he disposed of this ranch and purchased another in the mountains, but not satisfied, he sold and located in San Jose, where he lived retired until he died at the age of eighty-eight; his widow then made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Kirk, until her death, in 1894, at the age of eighty-five. Of their family of six children, five are living: Mrs. Louise Kirk, Mrs. Susan Robinson of Campbell, John David resides near Edenvale, Henry lives in San Jose, and William re- sides in the Roberts district.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 101

Author: Sawyer, Eugene T Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1934

Author: Sawyer, Eugene T
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1934