History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 124

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

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periods there. Prior to his marriage, Dwight Locke Wilbur enlisted for service in the Union Army as a member of the 87th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and being destined for capture had the distinction of fall- ing into the hands of the famous Stonewall Jackson. He was paroled, and returned to Ohio; and then, with his wife, he removed to Iowa. Mrs. Wilbur died in Los Angeles, the mother of six children, among whom our subject was the fourth child.

Ray Lyman Wilbur was only eight years old when his parents moved into the Dakota Territory and settled in what is now North Dakota; and at James- town he grew up and attended the local schools. Coming to Riverside he continued his schooling and in 1892 was graduated from the Riverside high school. He then matriculated at Stanford University in 1892 and was duly graduated therefrom in 1896. He continued another year at Stanford and in 1897 rounded out his Master of Arts work. He next took up the study of medicine and in 1899 was graduated, with the coveted M. D. degree, from the Cooper Medical College at San Francisco. In the course of time Dr. Wilbur went abroad for post-graduate study and during 1903-04 was a student at Frankfort-on-the- Main and also at London, and during 1909-10 he was at the University of Munich.

On December 5, 1898, Dr. Wilbur was married at San Francisco to Miss Marguerite May Blake, a native of the Bay metropolis and the daughter of Dr. Charles E. Blake, a prominent physician and one of the lecturers at the College of the Pacific, in the medical department which later became the Cooper Medical College. Dr. and Mrs. Wilbur have five children: Jessica, Blake C., Dwight L., Lois Proctor, and Ray Lyman, Jr.

During 1896-7, Dr. Wilbur was instructor in phys- iology at Stanford University, and during 1899-1900 he was lecturer and demonstrator in physiology at the Cooper Medical College; and from 1900-03 he was assistant professor of physiology at Stanford University. From 1909 to 1916 he was professor of medicine at Stanford University, and from 1911 to 1916 he was dean of the Medical School there. On January 1, 1916, he was inaugurated president of Stanford University succeeding Dr. John Caspar Branner, its former president, now deceased, who in turn had succeeded David Starr Jordan, now chan- cellor emeritus. In 1917, Mr. Herbert Hoover asked Dr. Wilbur to become chief of the Conservation Divi- sion of the U. S. Food Administration at Washing- ton, and he also acted in that year as a member of the California State Council of Defense. He was regional educational director of the S. A. T. C., District No. 11, in 1918, and in 1919 he was president of the California State Confederation of Social Agen- cies. Both the University of California and the Uni- versity of Arizona conferred on Dr. Wilbur the honorary LL. D. degree in 1919; he is a Fellow of the A. A. A. S., a member of the American Academy of Medicine, of which he was president in 1912-13, and he is a Phi Beta Kappa. He belongs to the Uni- versity, Commonwealth, Bohemian, and Pacific Union clubs, and is not only highly esteemed and revered as a profound scholar and a patriot, like his predeces- sor, Dr. Jordan, but also, and equally popular, as a man of the greatest cordiality and gifted with winning qualities attracting to him the ambitious youth.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

The year 1922 will be remembered as the year of the campaign to raise the first million for the Stan- ford Endowment. President Wilbur has thrown him- self heart and soul into this work and has met with heartiest response from the Alumni. At the present writing, June 1, 1922, success is apparent, as $900,000 of the $1,000,000 has already been secured. Addition- al glory was added to Stanford when on May 25,. 1922, Dr. Wilbur was elected president of the Amer- ican Medical Association. He will assume office at next year's convention.

WILLIAM R. PORTER .- Among those whose intelligently directed labors have resulted in the agri- cultural development of Santa Clara County is Wil- liam R. Porter, who is the owner of one of the most valuable prune orchards in this part of the state and is also fruit buyer for Hunt Brothers' Packing Com- pany. A native son of California, he was born in Watsonville, January 22, 1886, of the marriage of Charles Henry and Elizabeth Ann (Underhill) Por- ter. In the maternal line he is a member of an old English family, while the American progenitor of the Porter family was a native of Scotland, es- tablishing his home in this country during the period of the Revolutionary War. The paternal grandfather, Dr. John Porter, followed the profession of medi- cine and was a man of marked patriotism and public spirit. In commemoration of his professional serv- ice and unselfish devotion to the sick of Duxbury and environs, the people of that region erected to his memory an impressive monument. He was one of the most prominent men of his day and was a personal friend of Daniel Webster. His daughter, Jane Porter, married Dr. Bancroft and on her wed- ding day Daniel Webster presented her with a diamond ring which she kept until her death. She willed it to her niece and namesake, Jane Elizabeth Porter, a sister of the subject of this sketch, and when she died it went to her mother, who in turn presented it to her son, William R. Porter, on his wedding day and it is now one of his cherished keepsakes. The grandmother, Ann (Thomas) Por- ter, was also a member of an old family and the possessor of considerable talent in poetry, being able to compose letters in rhyme, and she became well known as a poetess. William Porter's mother was a native of Boston, Mass. Her parents, James and Ann (Todd) Underhill, came from Devonshire, Eng- land, to Massachusetts, and she was the youngest of their five children and the only member of the family born in the United States. George K. Por- ter, an unele of our subject, came to California in the early '60s. finally settling at what is now San Fernando, Cal., where he owned a large ranch and here he was joined about ten years later by his brother, Charles H. Porter, who afterward returned to Boston to visit his old home, where his marriage occurred; with his bride he went to Kansas City, Mo., being employed in the ear shops of the Santa l'e Railroad, but owing to ill health he left that city and returned to Boston, where for a short time he was employed as a master mechanic. He then re- turned to California, settling in Watsonville, where he purchased an eighty-acre ranch and devoted his attention to farming, and also to the harness and saddlery business. To Mr. and Mrs. Porter were born three children: James U., a rancher of Santa Clara County; Jane Elizabeth, who died in 1900, at

the age of sixteen years and seven months; and Wil- liam R., the subject of our review. Charles H. Porter and his wife now live retired in San Jose.

In the pursuit of an education, William R. Por- ter attended the Watsonville grammar schools and then went to Boston, where he completed a course in Comers Business College. On completing his studies he secured a position as office assistant with Wason & Company, a large wholesale grocery house in Boston, established in 1837, and remained with that firm for five years, being promoted until he became a traveling salesman. In 1905 he returned to California with the family, and going to San Fran- cisco, he became assistant cashier and bookkeeper for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, with which he remained for seven months, or until the time of the earthquake. Six weeks afterward, when their plant was established in Alameda County, he again entered the service of that corporation, con- tinuing with them until the plant was discontinued. His father had purchased a twenty-seven acre fruit ranch at Los Gatos and William assisted in its de- velopment and cultivation. In 1913 with his brother he purchased his father's ranch and they engaged in the raising of poultry. Starting with eighteen hens, he soon developed a large business, having at one time as many as 2,000 laying hens. For fourteen years he successfully conducted this business with the exception of the year 1911, when he acted as cash- ier of the A. H. Martin Grain Company of San Jose, the undertaking then being managed by his brother. In 1916 Mr. Porter purchased the interest of his brother and continued the business alone until 1920, when he sold the ranch. In 1918 he had accepted a temporary position with the Hunt Brothers Pack- ing Company, but his services were so valuable to the concern that he was induced to remain and is now their fruit buyer, largely confining his opera- tions to Santa Clara County, although he visits the entire state in their interests. He resides on his ten- acre prune ranch, situated on Prune Ridge Avenue, a short distance west of San Jose, purchasing the land in May, 1920, and paying for it one of the high- est prices ever paid for ranch land in the Santa Clara Valley. It is well irrigated and supplied with all modern improvements, constituting one of the model fruit farms of the county.

In San Jose, on December 15, 1915, Mr. Porter married Miss Elsie A. Aschmann, a native of San Francisco and a daughter of William A. and Eliza- beth (Jung) Aschmann, one of the old-time mer- chants of San Francisco. Mrs. Porter attended the grammar and high schools of San Francisco and by her marriage has become the mother of a daughter, June Elizabeth. Mr. Porter is a Republican in his political views and fraternally he is identified with the Masons, belonging to Los Gatos Lodge No. 292, F. & A. M., and with his wife is a member of the Eastern Star. Throughout his career he has closely applied himself to the work in hand, and he now ranks with the successful orchardists and valued citi- zens of Santa Clara County.

MRS. MAYME ELLIOTT BARRY .- A proficient and popular official, whose fidelity to duty, together with a charming personality, has appealed to all hav- ing occasion to invoke her services, is Mrs. Mayme Elliott Barry, superintendent of the Palo Alto Hos- pital, where she is also house anaesthetist-a woman

William Banker

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

of remarkable natural ability and wide, valnable expe- rience, intensely interested in her arduous work. She was born at Payette, Idaho, the daughter of Thomas Elliott, an Idaho pioneer mining man, now deceased, but once well known to the Inland Empire, the Pa- cific Coast and the Pacific Northwest; and she was educated at Whitman College, in Washington. She took her first training in nursing at the General Hos- pital, at Walla Walla, Wash., and then went to Chi- cago and there pursued post-graduate work in hos- pital management and anaesthesia at the Columbia and the Chicago Post Graduate hospitals.

Returning to Washington, she took charge of the Walla Walla General Hospital as superintendent and house anaesthetist, but on resigning from that posi- tion, she continued courses in anaesthesia at Cleve- land and in New York City. Then she came to Cali- fornia and became identified with the Peninsular Hos- pital at Palo Alto-now known as the Palo Alto Hos- pital-and she remained there as superintendent until 1917, when she resigned her position and established herself at Palo Alto in private practice as an anaesthe- tist. In July, 1918, however, she was appointed by the U. S. Surgeon-General as anaesthetist-at-large with the American forces abroad, and she went im- mediately to Meres Center, in France, four hours by train from Paris, where she had charge of all the anaesthetists in that hospital. She did not return with her base to the United States, as the value of her professional services had now become recognized and a continuation of her services was demanded. She was next sent to Dijon, France, where she be- came chief anaesthetist, and served until July, 1919, when the American Hospital at Dijon was transferred to the United States. Immediately thereafter, in re- sponse to telegrams from Coblenz, Mrs. Barry was sent to the Evacuation Hospital No. 27, in Germany, and she became anaesthetist there, as it was desired to have one who could administer nitrous-oxide as an expert. When a base hospital was formed at Coblenz, some Americans returning to the United States and other Americans taking their places, she remained and became chief anaesthetist, but in March, 1920, on account of illness in her family, she returned to Cali- fornia and Palo Alto, and immediately resumed her work as superintendent and chief anaesthetist at the Palo Alto Hospital.

This, the Peninsular Hospital, was taken over by Stanford University, which operated it in coopera- tion with the Palo Alto city government. On July 1, 1921, the hospital was sold to the city of Palo Alto, and the city in turn leased it to Stanford University, on a twenty-year lease, with Dr. George Somers as superintendent. Now its status is such among hos- pitals of the state that her present responsible post may well be regarded as the fitting climax in Mrs. Barry's career.

Her father, Thomas Elliott, was a native of De- catur, and when the gold excitement broke out, he was attending boarding school in his home town. He ran away, and crossed the great plains while making his way as the driver of a freight team; and he reached California late in 1849. In time he became identified with early mining interests, as well as poli- tics, in Idaho, and it was he who discovered and de- veloped the celebrated Sub-Rosa gold mine in the Boise, Idaho, Basin. He brought all the mining ma- chinery across the plans from the East, and made and lost three fortunes. While at Boise, he was married

to Miss Jane Margaret Starr, a native of Iowa, and an accomplished young lady several years his junior, who had herself crossed the plains to Ogden, Utah, and then moved on to Idaho. Now, at the ripe age of sixty, she resides in comfort at Baker, Ore., the wife of Charles W. Durkee, who developed the cele- brated Durkee Mines at Baker city. Three sons in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Elliott are still living: Jess H. Elliott is interested in mines at Baker; and Paul T. Elliott, who was in the service of his country abroad during the war, resides near Hoplands, Cal., where he is following agricultural pursuits. Norman A. Elliott, also abroad in the defense of his country, is a graduate of the University of California and will continue the study of medicine.

WILLIAM COX .- An interesting California pio- neer and orchardist, who was an upbuilder of Santa Clara County, was found in William Cox, who came to the Santa Clara Valley in 1852. He was an Ohioan by birth, being born at Coshocton, on Jann- ary 21, 1827, a son of John and Mary (Hammel) Cox, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Pennsylvania, both parents being taken to Ohio while small children and there grew to young man- hood and young womanhood. In 1846 they removed to Lee County, Iowa, where they made their per- manent home, residing there until their death. They reared a family of two sons and five daughters. Wil- liam, the eldest son, lived with his parents until 1852, when he, his father, John Cox, and a sister, Mrs. Serena Blythe, came across the plains, and were about six months making the trip. There were four wagons in the party who came through together to the Santa Clara Valley, Capt. Robert Gruwell com- manding the party. William at once hired out as farm hand, and he and his wife, for a time, worked at anything they could get to do, and one of the first debts they paid was money borrowed to pay for ferrying across rivers on their way across the plains. The next season he rented a piece of land from his brother-in-law, Samuel A. Blythe, and put in a crop. In 1874 he bought seventy acres, which was under a Spanish title at that time, and a few years later bought more land, until he owned 315 acres, all under cultivation. He set a number of acres to vine- yard and planted an orchard of French prunes, also peaches, apricots, pears and apples, and was one of the most extensive grain growers in his locality.

The marriage of Mr. Cox occurred on August 10, 1848, in Lee County, Iowa, and united him with Miss Dicey Baggs, a native of Champaign County, Ohio. They were the parents of the following children: John was a rancher and died on his home farm; Jacob M. was also a rancher, as well as office deputy county clerk, who passed away in San Jose; Maria was the wife of Andrew Loyst; Mary Jane is Mrs. Henry C. Walter, and they own and reside on the old William Cox home place; George W. is an en- thusiastic orchardist on a farm of the old Cox ranch; Joseph E. and La Fayette are prominent orchardists on a part of their father's old homestead; Elmira and William are deceased. The family are deeply attached to their father's old home and have, with- out exception, retained the portion of the estate they inherited, which they have greatly improved by setting it out to orchards, now full-bearing. Even though they have other interests, their sentiments hold them to the old homestead and they cling to

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

and revere their father's memory and are worthy descendants of a worthy sire. William Cox was a school trustee for some years in the early days. He was a Methodist in religion, and a truly good man.

JAMES E. BEAN .- As a successful horticultur- ist and upbuilder of Santa Clara County, James E. Bean as thoroughly merits as he also thoroughly en- joys the esteem and good will of his fellow-citizens, and his excellent judgment in business matters had given him a place of well-deserved prominence, since his advice can ever be given the utmost reliance. Mr. Bean was born at Minneapolis, Minn., on February 28, 1862, the son of James and Roanna (Fox) Bean, substantial American citizens, esteemed and influen- tial wherever they have resided. The father, who was born in New Hampshire in 1822, removed to Minne- scta and for years was the United States paymaster to the Chippewa Indians. During his residence there he became interested in banking and various commer- cial enterprises. In 1880 he removed to West Branch, lowa, where he remained for two years, and then came out to San Jose, Cal. He and his wife took up their residence on the Alameda, and there at the splendid old age of ninety-three, Mr. Bean died, his wife having passed away ten years before.

James E. Bean attended the public schools of Min- neapolis and was then sent to Providence, R. I., to continue his studies at the Friends Boarding School, where his parents had also been educated; during this time he also attended lectures at Brown Univer- sity, Providence, On his return to the Middle West he located at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and having chosen to study pharmacy, he entered the wholesale and re- tail house of G. C. Haman as clerk. Finishing his pharmaceutical studies in 1887, he then entered into partnership with his employer, the firm name being Haman & Bean. Later he purchased another drug store in Cedar Rapids and was also secretary and manager of the Cedar Rapids Linseed Oil & Paint Company. In December, 1890, he disposed of his in- terests, and coming to California, located at San Jose. He soon became manager of the Madera Flume and Trading Company, with Madera as his headquarters. The majority of the stock of the com- pany was owned by stockholders of the Safe Deposit Bank of San Jose; over 300 men were employed and more than 33,500,000 feet of lumber were ent in a season. The company maintained twelve branch yards and offices, so that Mr. Bean was naturally a very busy man. After eleven years he disposed of the interests of the company and returned to San Tose, where he became secretary of the San Jose Safe Deposit Bank, combining the duties of this office with other active service in the bank until 1908, when he bought the controlling interest of H. B. Martin & Company, wholesale grain and produce dealers of San Jose. Soon after this he took in partners from Salinas, Cal., and changed the name of the corpora- tion to the Salinas Valley Grain and Produce Com- pany, having warehouses and mills throughout the Salinas and Santa Clara valleys. In 1918 Mr. Bean closed out the business of this corporation, taking two years to dispose of their interests, so that the final disposition was in 1920. In addition to these ac- tivities, Mr. Bean is interested in real estate, owning ranches in different parts of California and timber lands in Oregon and business property in San Jose.

On April 19, 1893, Mr. Bean was married in San Jose to Miss Edith Coolidge, born in Honolulu, a sister of C. C. Coolidge, district attorney of Santa Clara County. Mr. and Mrs. Bean have been blessed with five children: Mary Isabel, James Edwin, Jr., Jerome Coolidge, Donald and Paul Dows Bean. Mr. Bean is a member of the San Jose Chamber of Com- merce, the San Francisco Commercial Club, and politically is a strong Republican. A truly self-made man, his initiative, perseverance and application have been the potent factors in his success. His record is an enviable one and his advice on business matters is frequently songht by others, who repose the great- est confidence in his judgment. Of a pleasing per- sonality and kindly, generous impulses, he is ready to help others who have been less fortunate than himself, and can ever be counted upon to lead in any movement for the county's upbuilding.

GEORGE THOMAS CLARK .- Naturally promi- nent among the distinguished librarians of the coun- try, both on account of his own scholarly and literary attainments, and also on account of the famous insti- tution he helped to create and which he now directs with such mastery, George Thomas Clark, librarian of Stanford University Library, enjoys a most envia- ble position throughont California, wielding as he does a powerful influence here in the cause of higher learning. A native son, he was born at San Fran- cisco in 1862, first seeing the light on December 7. the son of the Hon. Robert Clark, a prominent busi- ness man of the Bay City, who so ably represented his district for a term in the California State Legis- lature. He was a native of Vermont, and while still a resident of the East, was married to Miss Augusta Caryl, a native of New Hampshire, both parents rep- resenting fine old American stock. George Thomas Clark, growing up in an environment certain to de- velop in him to the greatest extent his natural powers and special talents, was graduated from the Univer- sity of California in 1886, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, and six years later, on June 8, at San Francisco, he married Miss Annie Douglas, a native of Ohio, then residing at that city, a lady of talent and exceptional charm, who is now deceased. One son, Douglas Clark, blessed this happy union, and in time he was graduated from Stanford University, as a metallurgist and mining engineer.

During the year of his graduation from the State University, Mr. Clark was made assistant librarian of the University of California Library, and from 1887 to 1890, he was deputy state librarian. For the next four years, he was classifier at the California State Library, and from 1894 to 1907, he was librarian of the San Francisco Public Library. Since 1907, Mr. Clark has been at the helm of the great center of re- search and repository of literature which, more than ever since the appalling earthquake and fire, has moved forward to take front rank with the renowned and most serviceable libraries of the world; and only those who have used that library extensively, or have watched with expert knowledge and regular review the development and growth of the establishment, can fully appreciate what Mr. Clark has done, in co- operation with others and on the foundations already laid, to make the library what it is. In 1913 Mr. Clark was sent East by the trustees of Stanford Uni- versity to look over the important libraries and to get suggestions from them. When he was the head of the

James Edwin Bray.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

San Francisco Public Library in 1904 he had made a tour of the country to gather ideas for a new build- ing which was to be erected in that city. On this first trip he visited practically all of the well equipped libraries of that time, so that his later tour was a rounding out of the former inspection and he looked over only the buildings which had been put up in the meanwhile. During the year 1920, Mr. Clark, during a leave of absence from the University, made a jour- ney around the world on which, as a side issue, he visted famous libraries and purchased books. He went first to Japan, where he was entertained by the Stanford Club, which is composed for the most part of Japanese graduates from Stanford. From Japan he proceeded to the Malay settlements and India, where he had planned to meet Dr. Brainerd Spooner, '99, the deputy director-general of the Indian Archae- ological Survey; but did not do this owing to the fact that he did not reach Delhi, the capital, until April, and the government had already moved to the summer capital in the hills at Simla. Mr. Clark, fol- lowing this course of travel, finally came to Europe. On this trip he purchased over 10,000 volumes for the university library. Most of them were out of the way books which had been ordered for several years and which had not been found in that time. While a student at Stanford, Mr. Clark was an editor of the "Blue and Gold" and in his senior year was the joint editor of the "Occident," then one of the leading student publications. He is a member of the A. L. A., and also of the Library Association of California: and he has to his credit the immense work of a joint compiler of an index to the laws of California covering the period from 1850 to 1893.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 124

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