History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 172

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

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Dr. Dinsmore came of the stock of the early set- tlers of Western Pennsylvania. His great-grand- father, James Dinsmore, and his brother, Robert, came from Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania, and settled at Millers Run in Allegheny County, in 1774. There James Dinsmore took out a patent for 300 acres of

land, which farm, after various changes of ownership, has now for the third time come into the possession of the Dinsmore connection, being the farm on which the Mand mine of the McClane Mining Company is now located.

Dr. Dinsmore was married to Miss Adeline Vance, a daughter of Isaac Vance, December 22, 1852. She was born on the farm which is now the site of Marshalsea, in Allegheny County. To this union were born six children, four of whom are still living: William V. and Paul A. Dinsmore, of Oakland, Cal .; Dudley F. Dinsmore of San Jose, Cal., and Mrs. Mar- garet Dinsmore Bachus, whose present residence is in Alaska. Dr. Dinsmore was twice married, his last marriage being with Miss Alice Blackford, in 1919. Previous to her marriage Miss Blackford had been a teacher under the care of the Women's Board of Home Missions. Dr. Dinsmore's late home was in Los Gatos, where his wife survives.

Dr. Dinsmore was a man of large mould and vigor- ous personality, a preacher of great power, and a man who always took a foremost place in the assemblies of the church. He was a man of genial personality and a delightful companion. He contributed much to the life and guidance of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, having been chairman of the per- manent judicial commission, and largely instrumental in the formation of that and other agencies of the church, as above noted. He was a leader in the civic reforms of every community in which he had his resi- dence and was a man of courageons speech to defend what he deemed were needed reforms.

EMILY JOSEPHINE COLOMBET. - Promi- nent among the influential and highly-esteemed women of San Jose whose family associations are of especial interest may well be mentioned Mrs. Emily Josephine Colombet, who is living retired at her com- fortable residence at 225 Vine Street. She is the eld- est daughter of the late Wayne Butler Rogers, who had married Miss Sarah Borgrove, and she was born at the Rogers home, on the Rancho de Santa Ter- esa, south of San Jose. She attended the local Oak Grove School, and during the session of 1867-68 was a student at the College of the Pacific; and now she is an honored member of the Emendia Society, the oldest college society on the Pacific Coast. On March 2, 1876, she was married to Charles Thomas Colombet, now deceased, son of the late pioneer, Clemente Colombet. Charles Thomas Colombet, was born at the Mission San Jose on November 23, 1852, and was reared in Santa Clara County, where he attended the University of Santa Clara. He be- came a prominent stock dealer, and used to operate very extensively in California, Nevada and Arizona. Three children were born to the worthy couple. Cle- mentina J., now the wife of F. C. Struven, a merchant of San Francisco, has one daughter, Bernice. Char- lotte is the bookkeeper for Armsby & Co., at their office in San Jose, and Charles Wayne married Miss Florence Campbell, who is a daughter of the late Edward Campbell, an honored pioneer of Santa Clara. In 1916, due to frail health, Charles T. Col- ombet retired from active business and enjoyed the quiet of his San Jose fireside; and on January 27, 1921, he passed to his eternal reward. He was held in high regard by all of his fellow-citizens, and was

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a member of the Fraternal Aid. Mrs. Colombet, also has been fortunate in enjoying the same complimen- tary esteem from all who have known the Rogers and Colombets. She is among the interesting members of the Pioneer Sons and Daughters; she has done good work in the Trinity Guild of San Jose, of which she is an active member; and she belongs to the Flower Lovers' Club.

One of the most interesting events in the annals of the family occurred on June 11, 1917, when Mrs. Wayne B. Rogers, Mrs. Colombet's mother, celebrat- ed her ninetieth birthday anniversary at the home of her daughter, Mrs. F. J. Brandon, at 1037 South First Street, San Jose. There was no attempt at a formal affair, says the San Jose Mercury Herald of June 17, but scores of friends remembering the sig- nificant date, called upon the beloved little gentle- woman, bearing good wishes and tokens of their af- fection. During the course of the afternoon, she was presented with twenty beautiful bouquets. Two large birthday cakes, also, one lighted with ninety pink candles, the other ornamented in lavender and bear- ing ninety lighted candles, were the center of attrac- tion at the buffet luncheon throughout the day. Mrs. Rogers is a native of Baden, Germany, and came to this country when a baby with her parents and grandparents. The families settled in Ohio, and it was in Bucyrus on April 23, 1849, that Miss Sarah Borgrove plighted her troth to Wayne B. Rogers, a prominent pioneer of Santa Clara County, born in Bucyrus, Ohio, January 31, 1827. His father, Icha- bod Rogers, was born in New York and later re- moved to Bucyrus, Ohio, where he was a miller and farmer. In 1849, he came across the plains to Cali- fornia but remained only a short time, returning to his home in Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his days. His wife, Lucy (Widger) Rogers was also born in New York and passed away in Ohio at the age of ninety-seven years. When she was seventy- five years old she visited California, making the jour- ney alone.

In 1852 Mr. and Mrs. Wayne B. Rogers started to California. They were five months en route across the continent in their "prairie schooners," enduring many hardships, and arrived at the Santa Teresa rancho on Christmas Day, 1852. For fifty-eight years Mr. and Mrs. Rogers lived in the same house on the Santa Teresa, and there all but two of their eleven children were born, six of whom are living: Mrs. Emily J. Colombet; Mrs. Amanda C. Brandon; Mrs. Ida R. Connell; Mrs. Lillie M. Odlin; Mrs. Adella S. Lester, and George L. Rogers, all of San Jose. Mr. Rogers was active in aiding the settlers to get deed to their land on the Santa Teresa rancho. and made several trips on horseback to Stockton for that purpose. In 1856 he returned East and bought a drove of horses, intending to bring them across the plains, but on account of the Indian uprising he sold them and came to California by the way of Panama. Mr. Rogers passed away December 6, 1909, other pioneers of the famous old rancho passed on, and on June 11, 1917, at the age of ninety, Mrs. Sarah Rogers was the sole survivor of the early set- tlers on the grant. She was also the oldest member in point of years and membership in the First Metho- dist Church of San Jose. Until a few months be- fore this ninetieth birthday celebration, Mrs. Rogers

enjoyed excellent health and was able to be up and about the house and garden at Mrs. Brandon's home, where she resided; she passed away December 3, 1919. This loveable woman, remarkably young in appearance, considering her age, approached the sunset of life with a grace and gentle dignity that marked her as a philosopher and true disciple of the Great Teacher, who dealt most kindly with her dur- ing the passing of the years.

PATRICK MURPHY .- An old resident of the Santa Cruz Mountain region is Patrick Murphy, a native of Wicklow, Ireland, born October 10, 1854, the youngest of three children born to Edward and Bridget (Lawler) Murphy. He was brought up on the farm in Ireland, at the same time attending the public schools of his locality. In 1875 he emigrated to Herkimer County, N. Y., being employed at farm work until 1879, when he came to California. After a year spent at Lodi he came to the Santa Cruz Mountains, being employed at logging in the sawmill of Mr. MeKoy at Felton for a couple of years, then a short time for Tom Hubbard, after which he was with Hubbard & Carmichael Bros Company, logging and swamping, continuing with them until they closed their mills from the lack of further available timber. Since then he has continued to work for the Carmi- chael brothers on their ranches in the Saratoga dis- trict, except a short time for Mr. Rodvin, the con- tractor. Mr. Murphy now makes his home in Sara- toga; he is a great lover of the great outdoors and enjoys hunting and fishing, and in the early days on holidays he could be often seen with his rod and gun wending his way over mountain and stream, enjoying nature to the fullest. Fraternally, he is a member of the American Foresters at Saratoga.

P. MILTON SMITH .- One of the well known journalists of Central California, P. Milton Smith during the decade or more which has marked his connection with the Register Leader of Mountain View, he has always been a vigilant champion of any cause he believed to be right. While employed by the Palo Alto Times, he was called "Unshakable Smith" and the name seemed to suit him. His great- great grandfather, James T. Smith, with his young wife left Scotland in the early part of the eighteenth century and settled in Virginia, where founded the family. Many brainy and noted men and women sprang from this sturdy Scotch pair, one of whom was General Kirby Smith. The Smiths lived in Vir- ginia for several generations, but all of them abhor- ring slavery, they finally moved to Pennsylvania be- fore the emancipation period.

P. Milton Smith was born February 19, 1869, on a farm in Pulaski County, Ind. His father, Harvey H. Smith, was a country school teacher, and taught and farmed all his life. His mother was Sarah Ann Curry, a Pennsylvanian of Scotch-Irish descent and of strong Presbyterian faith. They were the parents 'of nine children, four of whom were stricken with scarlet fever, and passed away in one week. Those now liv- ing are Eugene E., a farmer in Pettis County, Mo., Mrs. Ella Dunn of Versailles, Mo., and P. Milton Smith of Mountain View, Cal., the subject of this sketch. One sister, Carrie, the wife of S. A. Webb of Mountain View, died in 1899, leaving no children. Milton was the youngest child of the family. When

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he was one year old, his father removed to Missouri, where they located near Booneville. There young Smith followed the usual life of a country boy, hunt- ing, boating and fishing in the river, attending the country school and working on the farm. To have an education was his major ambition, and knowing that if he gained it he would have to work hard, he chopped wood, farmed and hustled in every honest way possible to get clothes and books. When he was seventeen he entered Clarksburg College and fol- lowed the classical course for two years, when, owing to lack of funds he was obliged to leave and go to chopping cord wood, which was the most remunera- tive work he could find. At twenty he started out and taught school for two years, and then re-entered college, filled with hope that now he could complete a full course. Finally he began work as devil on the Clarksburg Collegian and later was made editor.

In 1893 and 1894 in connection with John W. Holst, now a professor at the University of Montana, he started the Populist at Versailles, Mo., and made it a lively sheet. In the fall of 1894 he went to St. Louis and found work on the Evening Chronicle, the first penny sheet published west of the Missouri River. He remained with the Chronicle three years and then went to Kansas City doing city reporting, and worked in any capacity on the Kansas City Star. In the spring of 1900 he came to Portland, Ore., where he worked on the Oregonian and also on the Portland Evening Telegram. In the spring of 1901 he came to San Francisco where he worked on a lit- tle journal called the Western Oil News until the demise of the sheet that fall. Then he began report- ing for the San Francisco Chronicle. He left the city in the spring of 1902 on account of bad health, and following medical advice, came to the Santa Clara Valley where he has found life fairly prosper- ous and has excellent health. In Palo Alto he found a place on the force of the Times, and on July 1, 1902, he set one galley of the first issue of the Daily Times. He remained with the Times two years and then located in Mountain View, where he has fol- lowed a successful journalistie course.

Mr. Smith owned the Mountain View Leader from 1905 to 1910, when he sold it, and his successor at- tempted to merge the Leader with the Register which was the first paper to be established in Moun- tain View, it having been started in 1888 by Frank Bacon, the well-known actor and playwright, and Harry A. Johnson, now deceased. The Leader was a younger venture, being established in 1903 by H. G. Copeland. In 1905 Mr. Smith bought out Cope- land and the Leader, and in 1910 the two papers were merged into the Register-Leader. Since 1912, when Mr. Smith took over full control, the paper has been one of the fearless friends of all that its owner thought to be right and fair, and has never missed an issue. He has been an earnest worker in the tem- perance cause, and even when his frankly expressed opinions might cause him financial loss, he never hesitated to voice them.

In 1909 Mr. Smith married Miss Ara V. Copeland, a sister of his former business associate, H. G. Cope- land, and has three children, Phyllis, Jean and Aud- rey. That he has prospered is evidenced by his well- equipped office and his pretty home on Oak street.

But his present well-earned good fortune does not mean that Mr. Smith is not a purely self-made man who has obtained his education by very hard work while he was striving to overcome almost unsur- mountable obstacles. Always poor during his early life, he still had his heart and mind set on the time far ahead when he would be a strong factor in the work of moulding public opinion; and the years de- voted to wood chopping, farming, working at poorly paid jobs on newspapers never daunted his purpose. Even the awful experience in Missouri, while he was yet a lad, failed to starve his ambition even if it did nearly starve his body. Grasshoppers, the fatal plague which more than once devastated the Middle States, paid an autumn visit to his locality, quietly deposited millions of eggs in soil which had been fallowed for winter wheat. With the first warm breath of spring, when grain grew green, the hoppers hatched in swarms and soon devoured every vestige of growing things. Not a leaf was left on tree or vine, and poverty of the most awful type settled over the entire region. But neither hoppers nor the pangs of hunger could long keep down the lean, lank youth who has now developed into the Santa Clara Valley "Unshakable Smith."

OTIS BLABON .- One of the early settlers of Santa Clara County is Otis Blabon. A native of Maine, he was born June 20, 1840, the son of Otis and Mary Blabon. The father came around the Horn from Boston to San Francisco, landing July 4, 1849. In the spring of 1850 he removed to Santa Clara County and located on a ranch near San Jose on the Stevens Creek Road. In the early sixties he returned to Maine and remained there for some years, return- ing to California and settling at Saratoga in 1870. He lived to the good age of ninety-nine years. The mother had previously died in Maine.

Otis Blabon, at the age of twelve, ran away from home to go to sea. During the first year he was twice shipwrecked and was then willing to remain at home and work on the farm in Maine. However, his desire to see the world became so strong that in 1856 he left for San Francisco, removed to Santa Clara Valley and engaged in farming with his brother for six years. His next removal was a trip to the Sandwich Islands, where he remained for a year; then to Idaho for six years; then he returned to Saratoga and teamed for two years and then en- gaged in the livery business and ran a stage from Santa Cruz and Congress Springs to Santa Clara for a number of years. He spent five years camping from Oregon to Mexico, finally locating permanently in Saratoga and engaging in the harness business, which he has continued to the present time.

Mr. Blabon's marriage united him with Miss Adie Carroll and they were the parents of two children, one of whom, Charles, is living and resides in River- side County. Mrs. Blabon died in Oregon, and Mr. Blabon was married to Mrs. Lucy (Berry) Verrie, and she died in San Jose five years ago. They had one child, Mark, killed while fireman for the South- ern Pacific Railroad at Sargent Station, when he was twenty-four years old. Mr. Blabon is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party and belongs to the Santa Clara County Pioneer Society.

Emil Meyer

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EMIL MEYER .- A very enterprising viticulturist who is proud of being a native son is Emil Meyer, who was born in San Francisco, September 1, 1871. His father, Ernst E. Meyer, an early settler of Cali- fornia, was born at Denmark in 1843, a son of Judge Andreas Meyer, an attorney and judge who attained to prominence in his day and became one of the leading men in Hadesleben. Ernst E. received a good education, completing the polytechnic school, majoring as a draftsman, after which he served in the German navy during the years of 1863-64. Then he was engineer on the Hamburg-American line be- tween Hamburg and New York, quitting the sea to locate in San Francisco, in 1868, where his brother, William, was a wholesale and retail florist on Geary Street, and there he continued in business until 1884. Meantime he had purchased four and one-half aeres on Stanyan Street, at the Golden Gate Park entrance, and established the Eureka Nursery, and was the first to subdivide and lay out lots in that district. Running through this property were Penoches Ave- nue, Gratton Street, Stanyan Street, and others. This. was accomplished in 1883-84. As early as 1881 Mr. Meyer had purchased 1700 acres of land in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and on November 26, 1884, he located on the place and started the Mare Vista Vine- yards. Between 1881 and 1884 he sold off fourteen different tracts to people who improved the lands. The Meyers built over thirteen miles of road at their own expense, and later on these roads were given over to the county. They cleared the land and set out vineyards and built a winery and cellars.

Ernst Meyer was married in San Francisco in 1870 to Maria Detje, born in Hamburg, Germany, whose father, Martin Detje, was a musician. She came to San Francisco with her sister, and thus the acquaintance that had been formed in Hamburg was renewed in the metropolis of the Pacific. Mr. Meyer died April 8, 1918, survived by his widow and two sons: Emil, the subject of this review, and Arthur, who is president of the Michaletschke Company, wholesale cigars and tobaccos in San Francisco; he is widely traveled and was one of the early salesmen in his line for the Alaska trade. The mother, who did her share in making Mare Vista Vineyard a suc- cess, still makes her home on the ranch with her son.

Emil Meyer attended the public schools of San Francisco until thirteen years of age, when he came to Mare Vista Vineyard, after which his education was in private schools. From a lad he learned viti- culture under his father's guidance and in time be- came associated with him in the business. Since the death of his father he has taken over the business and is manager of the Mare Vista Vineyards, comprising 500 acres of land-eighty acres being in different varieties of wine grapes. He has a bonded winery but is now specializing in the manufacture of unfer- mented grape juice. At Wright's, in 1904, Emil Meyer was married to Miss Anna J. Matty, born in San Jose, a daughter of Antoine Matty, a pioneer of San Jose, otherwise represented in this work. To them have been born two children: Arthur K. and Alice Marie. Mr. Meyer is interested in the cause of education and is a trustee of Wright's school district. He is also greatly interested in the good roads move- ment and is an advocate of the Skyline Boulevard 48

from San Francisco to Woodwardia and continuing to Watsonville and the Southland, a much-needed thoroughfare. He has faithfully attended the meet- ings and given his influence for the fulfillment of the project, well knowing, after it is completed, the lateral roads will fall in.

Enterprising and progressive, Mr. Meyer can always be counted on to aid and give his influence towards worthy movements that have for their aim the build- ing up and improving of this favored garden spot of the world. Politically, he is a decided Republican.

CHARLES EDWARD BARNS .- Santa Clara County, famed the world over for landscape beauty, climate, fruit and intelligent, progressive and kind- hearted people, is also known, to those familiar with the real California of today, as among the leading shires in the Golden State for attracting those so distinguished in the world of science, art or letters that any section of the country would feel itself honored in their residence. Prominent among such eminently desirable citizens to whom this favored portion of the coast has made an irresistible appeal, and who, in turn, have conferred something upon life here of exceptionally high value, is Charles Ed- ward Barns, the astonomer of Morgan Hill, known to the scientific world as a fellow-scientist, to the literary world as an inspiring writer, and to the world of art as the genius presiding over the Diana Printery, which bids fair to rival, in genial fame, the renowned Walpole Press of old Strawberry Hill.

Mr. Barns was born at Burlington, Wis., on July 23, 1864, the son of Caleb P. and Elizabeth A. (Eddy) Barns, who were both natives of Northern New York. They migrated westward, and became sturdy pioneers in the Badger State. where Caleb became a banker, and thus it happened that Charles Edward attended the excellent Wisconsin schools, where the processes for stimulating the curiosity of a lad are properly appreciated and used by the peda- gognes, and then, at the academy at Racine, he pre- pared for college. In 1884, he entered Columbia University Law School, and soon after was busy studying the natural sciences and high mathematics. He also became a special writer on the staff of the New York Herald.

Later, when only twenty-three years of age, Mr. Barns made a tour of China, Japan and India, pri- marily to recover shattered health; but he also ac- quired a wealth of material, fact and local color, which he applied to excellent advantage in his work in fiction during the next eight or nine years, most of which time, after his return to New York, were spent in the service of the New York Herald. It was his fortune during this period to make a trip to Continental Europe, and he spent two years in ex- tensive travels in France and Italy, stopping a good part of this time at Venice and Florence. Such a man, with an unusual head upon his shoulders, and something very unusual therein, could not lie around idle; he was, in fact, in constant demand by Eastern publications.

For many years, Mr. Barns had been associated, as a friend, with Charles Kellogg, the naturalist, and having visited his home near Morgan Hill in 1915, he was greatly impressed with the natural resources and the beauties of the Santa Clara Valley. He re- solved to locate here some day; and in 1918 he made

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good his resolution and removed with his family to California. Now he has a comfortable home in a handsome orchard of twenty acres at Morgan Hill, in which he has erected a dwelling house, a study and an observatory; for he was busy with astro- nomical work for many years before coming to Cali- fornia. He is a member of the American Astro- nomical Society, which includes representatives of every department of astronomy, and is a charter member of the Association of Variable Star Ob- servers. He is a thoroughly modern scientist, and looks forward confidently to a complete revision of the rules governing experimental astronomy.

A most interesting evidence of Mr. Barns' intense and unselfish devotion to the cause of astronomical science is afforded in the learned publications, issued from time to time in the form of very neatly-printed booklets, from his own private press known as the "Diana Printery." Such an one is the little volume entitled, "The Practical Observing of Variable Stars," a series of timely essays on this most fas- cinating field of practical astronomy, wherein Ed- ward C. Pickering wrote upon "Organized System," and other scholars discussed the "Conversion of Cal- endar Date to Julian Days," the "Variable Stars for the Amateur," "The Variable Star Problem," "The Spectrum of Variable Stars," "The Overcoming of Initial Difficulties," "Charts and Their Uses," "Method in Observing," "Conditions in Observing Faint Stars," "The Subject of Personal Equation," and "The Plotting of Light Curve," and there is much good matter by the secretary. The work is well illustrated, and is serviceable as well as enter- taining. In some respects a more important issue of these brochures is that devoted to a "Memorial to Edward Charles Pickering," whose life stretched from 1846 to 1919, a memorial of the American Asso- ciation of Variable Star Observers. Besides an cx- cellent portrait, and the well-written tribute, there is a lengthy poem entitled, "Translated," by Charles Edward Barns, which well reveals the author's depth of thought and sympathy of heart, and is a graceful and worthy addition to the great mass of Pickering In Memoria. Particularly suggestive, in the light of recent world-events, is the content of the last admir- ahle verse:

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 172

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