History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 148

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

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in doing well. During the year of 1836 his parents had removed to Michigan. Mrs. Mary Lucina East- man was a sister of the Hon. Thomas W. Ferry, who was a member of House and U. S. Senate from Mich- igan for twenty-six years, and upon the death of Henry Wilson, became acting vice-president of the United States. In 1879 Galen Eastman took a trip into the frontier of New Mexico and became the gov- ernment agent for the Navajo Indians at Fort De- fiance, N. M. For several years he was also a suc- cessful hardware merchant in San Francisco. He passed away on January 18, 1899, aged sixty-nine, and his widow passed away in 1903 in San Francisco, when sixty-six years old.

Edward F. Eastman was educated in the schools of Grand Haven, Mich., and during the year of 1876 left school to take a trip on the Great Lakes. Touch- ing at Chicago, he traveled on and on until in Feb- ruary of the following year he was in Louisiana, where he soon found employment in towing and freighting on Grand Lake, transporting thousands of feet of lumber and thousands of tons of merchandise to points on Bayou Teche. Another experience was while living on the Indian reservation; he became much enamored of the wild life of the Indians, and in 1881 was called upon to act as guide for a party of tourists going to the Canyon de Chelley in Ari- zona. Leaving Albuquerque, N. M., well equipped with packs and horses, he headed so as to cross the head of the canyon and made the trip without any serious accident. Four years later he was in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and working in the silver mines. Various enterprises engaged his atten- tion from smelterman to engineer, and the experi- ence gained throughout all the years was never amiss. However, in. 1885 he gave up his mining operations and left for San Francisco.

On November 3, 1887, Mr. Eastman was married to Miss Nellie Florence Sleeper, born in Columbia, Tuolumne County, Cal., the daughter of the sturdy pioneer, William Osgood Sleeper, who was born in 1816, a native of St. Albans, Maine, and who crossed the Isthmus in 1851, arriving in San Francisco early in 1852. He was engaged in the buying and ship- ping of gold dust, and also tried his luck at mining. He married Miss Almira Foss, and in 1868 they re- moved to San Francisco. Mr. Sleeper died in Santa Rosa in 1901, and Mrs. Sleeper passed away in Santa Clara County in 1908.

In 1887 Mr. Eastman removed with his family to Santa Rosa, and there purchased a ranch and was engaged for the next two years in farming, but still believing that he could find a fortune in the mines. he disposed of his ranch and went to Utah, where he remained until November, 1891, when he located in the Santa Clara Valley, and since that time has been a resident of that county most of the time. For eleven years he was in the hardware and the marble business in San Francisco, and continued until the time of the great fire and earthquake in 1906. The reverses which he and his brother suffered at that time never caused our subject to give up the fight, but by hard work and good judgment he has suc- ceeded in establishing himself on a substantial basis. For many years he owned and operated the extensive ranch property, consisting of 652 acres, known as Mountain Dell, in the Uvas in Santa Clara County.

Mr. and Mrs. Eastman are the parents of two children; George W. is married and is a practicing

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

chiropractor and resides in New York City; Alice L. is the wife of Percy Dunlap and they reside in Se- hastopol. Mr. Eastman is a stockholder in the Farm- ers' Union store at Morgan Hill. In 1919 the Moun- tain Dell ranch was sold to Harold McD. Smith, and Mr. Eastman erected a modern and comfortable residence on a nine-and-a-half-acre ranch on the Uvas Road eight miles from Morgan Hill, called "Creek Side." Politically he is a stanch Republican, and fraternally he is a Mason, holding membership in Mission Lodge No. 169, F. & A. M .; a charter member of Mission Chapter No. 79, R. A. M .; a member of California Commandery No. 1, K. T., and Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. Both Mr. and Mrs. Eastman are members of Mag- nolia Chapter, O. E. S., Gilroy. Mr. Eastman has practically lived retired since 1908, but is ever inter- ested in the welfare and future of his locality.

RICHARD ATKINSON .- An esteemed and wor- thy pioneer of Santa Clara County was Richard Atkinson, a native of England, born in Chester County on May 10, 1837. He came to America while still a very young man and was engaged in farming on the Tarpy Rancho on the coast below Monterey, and in the early '60s removed to the New Almaden Mines, where he was employed as engineer for many years, and his untimely death was caused by injury received there. He passed away at the Atkinson home on Croy Road, Uvas Canyon, October 4, 1875.

In 1862 Mr. Atkinson had married Miss Sarah Gallagher, a native of County Sligo, Ireland, born August 19, 1839, who passed away November 16, 1918, at the family home. After Mr. Atkinson's death the burden of proving up on the land fell on the mother, but she was equal to the task, and on April 9, 1881, the family came into clear and full possession of the 160 acres on the Croy Road. Mrs. Atkinson also had the responsibility of rearing and education of three children: Sarah died in childhood; Mary is now owner of the ranch; Josephine is the wife of Philip Daly, and they are the parents of five children and reside at Mendota; Richard J. is de- ceased. The children were educated in the Uvas dis- trict school, of which Mrs. Atkinson was the founder. having given a portion of her ranch for the establish- ment of the school in 1875, and she furnished part of the lumber, while J. W. Week and Peter Bosset built the building.

EMORY C. SINGLETARY .- A representative pioneer settler of California, and a prominent and highly esteemed resident of San Jose, the late Emory C. Singletary occupied an honorable position among the venerable and well-to-do agriculturists of Santa Clara County. A descendant of one of the early colonial families of New England, he was born May 16, 1824, in Holden, Mass. On both sides of the house he was closely connected with families of dis- tinction, among others being the Goulds, the Dwin- nells, the Pierces and the Greeleys. He came of patriotic stock, one of his earliest American ances- tors, a brave soldier, having been killed by the Pequod Indians, and another ancestor, his Great- great-grandfather Singletary, having served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, Amos Singletary, was born and reared in Massachu- setts, where he was engaged in agricultural pursuits during his active life. He married a Miss Johnson, of English descent, and of the children born of their

union Emory was the father of Emory C. Singletary, the subject of this review. His father grew to man- hood on the ancestral home place in Massachusetts and obtained a fair education in the district schools of his home town. Removing to Wisconsin in 1838, he located in Walworth County, where he acquired large possessions, and was for many years an ex- tensive and prosperous farmer. He died in Elkhorn, near the homestead which he had there improved, at the age of ninety-three years. He married Lois Pierce, a native of Massachusetts, a daughter of Ans- tin Pierce, a first cousin of President Franklin Pierce, and she passed away in Massachusetts. There were three children born of their union, all deceased.

Reared and educated in Massachusetts, Emory C. Singletary started for the far west in 1840, being then a youth of sixteen years. After some time spent in the vicinity of the Great Lakes, he located in Walworth County, Wis., and there engaged in farming and stock raising, and became an extensive dealer in cattle. He became well acquainted with many of the prominent men of the states through which he journeyed, and was acquainted with Abra- ham Lincoln. In 1853, accompanying a party in which there were nineteen men, Mr. Singletary crossed the plains to California. Leaving his Wis- consin home in February, he outfitted in Middletown, Logan County, Ill., and May 16, 1853, left Council Bluffs, having with him his family and driving 200 head of cattle. Leaving Salt Lake City on the left, the party came down the Humboldt Valley, and had several skirmishes with the Indians on the way, but arrived at Beckwith Pass, Colusa County, Cal., in October, in good condition, having nearly every head of stock. Purchasing land near Colusa, he em- barked in farming and stockraising, and for several years was the largest and best-known cattle dealer in the state. Later he became a horse breeder of note, and shipped many horses to the eastern mar- kets. He also became one of the largest landholders of the state, at one time holding title to over 35,000 acres. In 1873, he sold 9,700 acres of land and re- moved to the Santa Clara Valley, hoping to regain his health, which had become impaired, and there he resided until his death. He formerly owned about 20,000 acres of land in Kern County, which he later sold, and also owned the Calden ranch of 2,200 acres. In 1874 he was one of the organizers and the first vice-president of the First National Bank of San Jose, and was a stockholder at the time of his death; he was also a stockholder in the Bank of Visalia, Cal. For a number of years he carried on a large business as a money lender, being one of the best- known brokers of this locality. In 1884 he built his fine residence on Stockton Avenue, surrounded by all the comforts and luxuries of that day.

Mr. Singletary was twice married. In Walworth, Wis., he married Caroline A. Wilson, a native of Ohio, a daughter of Alexander Wilson, a pioneer farmer of Wisconsin. She passed away while resid- ing in Colusa County, Cal. On January 11, 1877, Mr. Singletary married Miss Florence Grigsby, who was born near Potosi, Grant County, Wis., a daugh- ter of William E. Grigsby. Educated in the public schools of Wisconsin and in the State Normal School at Platteville, Wis., she taught school in her native state and in Iowa for a number of terms. Coming to the Pacific Coast in 1870, she was a teacher in

Paul HP Cordes

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

the Bishop Scott School, in Portland,. Ore., for a year. In 1871 she taught in Santa Clara County, and subsequently entered the San Jose Normal School, from which she was graduated in 1874, and in which she was afterwards a teacher until her mar- riage. She was the mother of two children, Emory Grigsby and George Curtis, twins, the former de- ceased and the latter a resident of San Jose. Mr. Singletary was a member of Friendship Lodge No. 210, F. & A. M. For a number of years he was one of the directors of the State Agricultural Society, and was a life member and one of the first organ- izers of the Marysville, Cal., fair. Mrs. Singletary ' is a member of the Isabella Chapter, D. A. R., and is a member of the Episcopal Church of San Jose.

PAUL H. CORDES .- Another citizen of the kind which Americans have always appreciated, and of a type which Germany, especially in earlier years, fre- quently gave to both America and California, was the late Paul H. Cordes, who was born at Hanover, Germany, August 18, 1840, and came to America in the spring of 1855, when he crossed the Atlantic as a steward, thus earning more than his way. He married Miss Mary E. Bicknell, July 3, 1859, who died at the home place near Gilroy on June 3, 1892, survived by a son and two daughters: Paul Henry, died 1907: Mrs. T. F. White, and Mrs. George D. Monnin. May 16, 1897, Mr. Cordes married Mrs. Izora Viers, who died February 29, 1915. For many years before he acquired land, Mr. Cordes worked as a gardener, at Oakland, growing vegetables extensively in the '60s upon land, at the corner of Fourteenth Street and Broadway, where now stands the metrop- olis. When he sold out, it was to engage in more extensive grain farming in the San Joaquin Valley.

Mr. Cordes made it a principle and a practice to treat his employees as he would like to have been treated when he first started out at the bottom of the ladder; with the result that he was always able to command loyal service. By industry, foresight and strictest integrity, he acquired, one by one, sev- eral ranches, totaling over 438 acres-bare fields, when he took hold of them, and requiring much pioneer work before they could be made to bear fruit. He gradually developed these lands, and in 1875 the family located at "The Nest" near Gilroy, in Santa Clara Valley. Mr. Cordes was widely es- teemed, for he was half a century ahead of his gen- eration. He was among the very first to see the future of the fruit industry, and had many vines and trees set out before other folks thought of doing the same. He had learned the secret of real success as a boy, and he lived to be seventy-eight years old and to enjoy the fruits of his hard and honest labor, pass- ing away on June 6, 1917.

THOMAS F. WHITE .- Interesting among the efficient executive whose proficiency is undoubtedly due to a sensible reference frequently to the exper- ience of the past, is Thomas F. White, who resides upon the P. H. Cordes place, on the Watsonville Road, about seven miles northwest of Gilroy. He was born at San Jose, on St. Valentine's Day, 1867, the son of Thomas and Mary A. (Ford) White, whose life-story is given elsewhere in this volume; and was reared and schooled mostly at Gilroy. He grew up as a farmer's boy, and worked for his mother until he was twenty-three years of age; and then he struck out for himself into the world.

On June 24, 1896, Mr. White married at Gilroy, Miss Anna L. Cordes, the eldest daughter of the late Paul H. Cordes, a sturdy pioneer of California and the Santa Clara Valley; and this union was blessed with the birth of three daughters, Miss Marie L. White, Miss Laura F., and Miss Gladis White, who were educated in Oakland and San Francisco. For several years Mr. and Mrs. White resided at San Jose; and from 1897 to 1902, Mr. White served as a deputy sheriff. In 1903 he removed to Oakland. where he entered the employ of the Traffic Depart- ment of the Oakland Rapid Transit Company; and since then he has owned a fine residence in that city. He retired from railroad service, however, at the time of the death of his father-in-law, June 6, 1916; when he took active management of the Cordes es- tate. He is a Republican, and member of the Wood- men of the World; is a hard, intelligent worker, and a mighty good citizen.

ROLLA BUTCHER, SR .- A distinguished and influential pioneer whose interesting life story, setting forth a career of great usefulness, inspired by high ideals and practical aims, will ever be a part of the history of the Golden West, was the late Rolla Butcher, who, for many years identified with notable mining interests, became known and honored among financiers for the shrewd judgment characterizing all his business affairs. He was born in Wood County, Va., in 1825, and his early days were spent upon his father's farm. He studied hard to acquire an educa- tion and in his young manhood was a teacher in the schools of his section; later he was extensively en- gaged in the lumber business on the Kanawha River, but the heavy floods of 1856-57 entailed such losses as to compel him to retire from this pursuit.

Going from his native state to Missouri, Mr. Butcher took up teaching, taking particular interest in teaching geology and metallurgy, and later took up metallurgy as a profession, becoming an eminent exponent of that science, and in time was honored by the naming after him the city of Rolla, Mo., the seat of the School of Mines and Metallurgy, of the Uni- versity of Missouri. He then resolved to make min- ing his life work and in 1857 joined Albert Sidney Johnston's expedition to Salt Lake; his primary pur- pose was to put his knowledge of mining into prac- tice in the great mining country of the Far West, and secondarily to get the protection of the military forces during those perilous days of Indian and Mor- mon uprising.

At Salt Lake City he became interested in mining, going from there to Idaho, and thence to Mon- tana, where he became acquainted with such men as the Walker brothers, Senator William A. Clark, Mar- cus Daly, Senator George R. Hearst, and other pioneer mining men. Going to Butte County, Cal., he was married there and remained for a time, then returned to Idaho, and from there went to Butte. Mont., where he developed some noted mines, among them the famous Alice Mine, which was afterward sold to Walker Brothers of Salt Lake City; this was later listed in the Eastern stock market for $10,000,- 000. Mr. Butcher also owned and operated the Star West Mine.

While in Butte County, Cal., Mr. Butcher met and married Miss Emma Ann Smith, who was born in

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

Essex County, England, on April 24, 1834, the daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Cheke) Smith, both descendants of distinguished English families. Her father, Samuel Smith, an Essex County farmer, was born on October 13, 1809, while her mother, Elizabeth Cheke, was born at Essex, England, ou June 5, 1811, a descendant of Sir John Cheke, the famous English statesman and scholar, whose life span stretched from 1514 to 1557, and whose life story may be found in English histories and also in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. He was a professor of Greek and actively identified with the introduction of classical study at both Oxford and Cambridge. He became the tutor of Edward, the son of King Henry VIII, and when the former came to the throne he was also his counsellor. Samuel Smith came to the United States with his family in 1862, and after a short stay at Council Bluffs, he crossed the plains with his family, traveling by ox team; while en route his death occurred near Silver Creek, on the banks of which he was buried. Mrs. Smith continued to reside in Utah, reaching the age of ninety-three, and was the mother of, four children, of whom Mrs. Butcher was the second. She received a common school training in her native country and was the first of her family to come to America, ac- companying friends with whom she had lived in Lon- don. After a trip of six months, across the ocean and then across the plains to Salt Lake City, they ar- rived in Butte County, Cal., in 1857, and there she was married to Mr. Butcher. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Butcher: Rolla, is represented elsewhere in this volume; Josephine married A. C. Hollenbeck and passed away in 1900, leaving a daughter, Elizabeth; Arthur C., is an orchardist, re- siding on a portion of the original Butcher ranch at Butcher's Corners, Santa Clara County.

In 1881 Rolla Butcher sold out his mining interests on account of failing health and came to Santa Clara County, Cal., where he bought 160 acres and started in to improve this land, which was located between Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. He was left but a short time in the enjoyment of his home, however, as he passed away February 13, 1882. His widow still

makes her home on part of the ranch, in the enjoy- ment of all her faculties at the age of eighty-eight. She can look back on a well-spent life, as through her wise management and the industry of her sons the ranch property was brought to a high state of im- provement and brought in an excellent income, al- though her husband's long illness had left his finan- cial affairs considerably involved at the time of his death. During his lifetime Rolla Butcher was a con- sistent Democrat and influential in his party's coun- cils. Patriotic and public spirited, he was particularly interested in education for the masses and served as an active member of the board of education of Butte, Mont., and as its presiding officer for several terms. He was also county commissioner of Silver Bow County, Mont., and had to he so chosen, any office of trust in the gift of the people would have been at his command, so highly was he respected.

ROLLA BUTCHER .- A prosperous rancher who may well be proud of both the enviable traditions of his cultured, historic family and also his own relation as a native son of the Golden State, is Rolla Butcher, who first saw the light in Butte County, and now resides on the State Highway, between Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. He was born May 26, 1864, the son of Rolla Butcher, a native of Virginia, who had mar- ried Miss Emma A. Smith, who was born in England. The father was reared to manhood in his native state and then went out to Missouri, where he followed teaching and became a noted metallurgist. In 1857 he came out to Utah with Albert Sidney Johnston's expedition, later in Idaho and Montana continuing the distinguished career elsewhere narrated in this historical work. He passed away in 1882, leaving a fine record for valuable contributions to human prog- ress, particularly as a mining man, and one greatly interested in educational matters. Mrs. Butcher is still living at the age of eighty-eight and resides on the ranch adjoining the home place of her son.

Rolla Butcher attended the public schools of his locality and later went to Ames, Ia., where he pur- sued the civil engineer's course at the Iowa State College, graduating with the class of '83. Prior to that he had been in Butte, Mont., had carried the first copy of the first paper printed there, and as printer's devil on the Butte Tri-Weekly Miner had set up the first report received of the Custer mas- sacre, late in June, 1876. Later he learned the black- smith trade, and on coming to California, whither the Butcher family had removed, he became a regis- tered pharmacist.

In San Luis Obispo County, on November 20, 1895, Mr. Butcher was married to Miss Minnie Matthews, a native of Petaluma, and the daughter of Elias M. Matthews, who was born near Dayton, O. In 1852 he crossed the plains of California, arriving at Los Angeles about Christmas time. He brought his wife and two children with him from South Bend, Ind., where he had lived and worked as an architect and builder, and where he had taken for his life com- panion Miss Juliette Phelps. The family removed from Los Angeles to Petaluma and Mr. Matthews passed away at San Luis Obispo at the age of eighty- nine, while Mrs. Matthews died when she was eighty- one. They were the parents of four children, Mrs. Butcher being the fourth.

For many years Mr. Butcher was a fruit buyer for a wholesale house in San Francisco and through that experience he has become thoroughly familiar with the fruit business and well acquainted with the fruit men of California. He is now a successful horti- culturist, and one of his orchards is planted entirely to cherries and interplanted to peaches, and is highly cultivated. In all these enterprises Mr. Butcher has been ably assisted by the good counsel and en- couragement of his wife, a truly noble woman, and they are both highly esteemed as among the most substantial citizens of Santa Clara County. The family reside on their ranch, admirably situated on the State Highway near Butcher's Corners, between Santa Clara and Sunnyvale. Two sons have been born to them, Rolla Matthews and Craig Cheke, both in their names honoring their worthy ancestors. The former served in the Marine Corps during the war and the latter is helping manage the home place.

Susanna W. Fourcade

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

SUSANNA W. FOURCADE .- A prominent and successful rancher of Paradise Valley, Santa Clara County, Cal., is Susanna W. Fourcade, whose skill as a manager of her property has effected her entrance into a field in which men only are thought to excel. Most of her life has been spent in the Santa Clara Valley, her parents coming to California in 1869, when she was four years of age. Mrs. Fourcade was born in Sunderland, County of Durham, England, on May 4, 1865, and is a daughter of the late John Douglas, who had married Miss Susanna Stovert, and they were both natives of England. Her grandfather, John Stovert, was a shipbuilder and became very wealthy and he died in England. John Douglas and his father, Martin Douglas, were rope manufacturers in England, but after coming to California John Douglas speculated in mining stocks. He died at the age of seventy-seven and the mother, at seventy.

Mrs. Fourcade was reared in Santa Clara County. Her first marriage in San Jose, in 1882, united her with Manuel Gallarda, a native of New Mexico, and they had five children; P. H. is in the real estate and nursery business at Chowchilla, Cal., John W. is a vineyardist and orchardist there and is the father of four children; Alexander is married and has four sons and is a dairyman in the Chowchilla district; Rose Ethel is the wife of Peter Peller and they reside in Santa Clara County; Alice married John Pasch and is deceased, and her son, Robert F., has been reared by Mrs. Fourcade. In 1896 Mrs. Fourcade moved into Paradise Valley and managed and worked a ranch while the children were growing up. They cut 300 cords of wood from the timber on this ranch. In 1907 she purchased fifteen acres of fine valley land one-half mile from her other home and set out a vine- yard and it is now full bearing; seventy-nine tons of grapes from twelve acres, a record yield, were sold from this ranch in 1920.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 148

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