History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 213

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

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About 1874 John Robertson acquired a ranch of 100 acres eight miles south of San Jose, known in the early days as the Eight-Mile House, and here Edward C. was reared, attending the Oak Grove school. He worked on the ranch for his father until he was twenty-one, and then, in 1894, desiring to see more of the world, he took an extensive trip through Mexico, spending two years there. After returning to California, Mr. Robertson learned the molder's trade and followed it as a journeyman in

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different cities on the Coast for six years. Later he returned to the home place and conducted it for several years, and after acquiring ten acres of it by inheritance, he purchased another ten acres from J. D. Robertson. Besides the careful attention he gives his own property, which is in a fine state of cultivation, he also operates the ranch of Mrs. Gavin McNab at Edenvale.

At Everett, Wash., on December 17, 1900, Mr. Robertson was married to Miss Daisy M. White, and two children have been born to them, Evelyn and Melvin. Always ready to lend a hand in any plans for the upbuilding of the neighborhood, Mr. Robertson votes with the Republican party in per- forming his civic duties, and fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World.

CRISANTO CASTRO .- In the old Spanish Mis- sion of San Jose, Cal., Crisanto Castro was born August 15, 1828, and during his life was an eye- witness of all the changes from the old civilization to the new, having lived under the flags of Spain, of Mexico, and of the United States. Few men live in one community for so long a period as Mr. Castro has lived in Santa Clara County, pursuing but one occupation. His fine, productive farm was one mile northwest from Mountain View, and came to him by inheritance. Crisanto was the youngest of eight children born to Mariano and Maria Trinidad (Pe- ralta) Castro, both parents born in San Francisco. His father was born there in 1784, when California was under Spanish rule, and he was a soldier in the Spanish army. Early in the nineteenth century he removed to San Jose and followed ranching until the time of his death in 1856. He was a large landowner and raised many cattle. His wife survived him sev- eral years and passed away in Santa Clara County. Crisanto Castro and the members of the Castro fam- ily were generous, hospitable and public-spirited. He donated the land for the public schools at Moun- tain View and the site for St. Joseph's Catholic Church at Mountain View, while his mother gave five acres for the first Protestant Church and burial ground for all denominations.

Mr. Castro's education was received from private subscription schools, which he attended in San Jose, and when of suitable age he engaged in farm pur- suits. He became an extensive grain farmer, ship- ping as high as 400 tons of hay to San Francisco, but for a number of years the land was rented. This had been his home since 1841, and prior to that his parents lived in San Jose on the corner of San Pedro and Santa Clara streets, the father, Mariano Castro, being alcalde under the Mexican govern- ment. The vast tract of land owned by him was called "Pastoria de las Borregas."

In 1857 Mr. Castro married Miss Francisca Ar- mijo, whose parents owned a large tract of land on the present site of the Armijo high school in So- noma; it adjoined the General Vallejo ranch. They were the parents of nine children: Mariano, Mer- cedes, Susanna, Andrew, Joseph, William, Frank, Roque and Crisanto. The family are regular com- municants of the Catholic Church of Mountain View. In 1911, Mr. Castro built a magnificent country home, a bungalow with an encircling porch with beautiful arches in the Moorish style of architec- ture, and where several of his children still live. Mr. Castro passed away April 9, 1912, and Mrs. Castro died August 3, 1907.

The Castro family are truly early settlers of Santa Clara County and have been important factors in its development. A hospitable gentleman, Mr. Castro will long be remembered, and his family have the high esteem of the community.

RAYMOND BARRETT LELAND .- Prominent among the eminently successful educators in Santa Clara County of whom Californians, ambitious and jealous of their great system of popular instruction, may well he proud, is Raymond Barrett Leland, the efficient and popular principal of the San Jose high school. A native of the Hawkeye State, he was born at Cedar Falls on October 22, 1884, the son of Henry Perry and Sophia C. (Barrett) Leland, both of whom, after useful and honorable careers, and rich in es- teeming friends, have passed away. For eight gener- ations the Leland family have been citizens of Mass- achusetts, following Hope Leland who came to the colony in 1623. Great grandfather Oliver Leland was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving in a Massachusetts regiment, while Henry Perry Leland served in the Civil War, rising to the rank of lieuten- ant in the Third U. S. Infantry.

Raymond Leland attended both the common and the high schools of Cedar Falls, and later he com- pleted the course of the Iowa State Teachers Col- lege in the same city, receiving the A. B. degree. Then, with equal thoroughness and success, he did graduate work in the State University of Iowa at Iowa City. Entering the active pedagogical field, he was for one year assistant principal at Manning, Iowa, and then for two years was principal of the high school at Chariton, in the same state. Next he went to Brookings, S. D., where he was principal for a year; and in the fall of 1910 he came to San Jose. For eight years he taught history and had charge of athletics; and his ability, both general and special, having been recognized, he was elected principal of the San Jose high school in 1918, the choice of the board meeting with general approval. Since then, while associating himself with the San Jose Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club, and so placing and keeping himself in vital touch with the life of the town, Mr. Leland has devoted himself assiduously to the rapid and high development of an institution al- ready ranking high among the secondary schools of the Golden State.

For three years in college, Mr. Leland had military training and exercise, and for six years he was an officer in the Iowa National Guard, with the rank of captain. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of Company B of the Fifth Infantry, N. G. C., and then was commissioned major and also command- ant of cadets hy the adjutant-general of the state, and has instructed the cadets since February, 1914. In national politics a Republican, he has never neglected an opportunity to inculcate the healthiest of American patriotism.

At Chariton, Iowa, on July 29, 1910, Mr. Leland was married to Miss Carolyn J. Custer, also a native of Iowa, and the daughter of Walter S. and Mabel (Jewell) Custer. On her paternal side Mrs. Leland is closely related to Gen. Geo. B. Custer. She is a graduate of Laise-Phillips Seminary, Washington, D. C. She is president of Chapter C. A., P. E. O., and a member of Daughters of the American Revolu- tion. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Leland has been blessed with the birth of a son, Gordon Custer.

6. Castro

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They are communicants of Trinity Episcopal Church, and Mr. Leland is a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, the Knights of Pythias and the Elks. He was made a Mason in Manuel Lodge No. 450, F. & A. M., at Manning, Iowa, and later demitted to Fraternity Lodge No. 399, F. & A. M., San Jose. He is also a member of Harvard Chapter No. 14, R. A. M., and San Jose Commandery No. 10, K. T., as well as the Sciots. He manifests his patriotism in his membership in Sons of American Revolution and the Sons of Veterans. For five years he has been president of the North Coast Section of Cali- fornia Interscholastic Federation, and is a member of Santa Clara County School Masters Club, the Cali- fornia High School Principals Association, the Cali- fornia Teachers Association, and the National Educa- tional Association. Mr. Leland is fond of out-door life, and especially fond, as he is well posted in re- gard to both baseball and football. When he turns to more serious hobbies, he takes up such work as that imposed upon him by his being a member of the Santa Clara War History Committee.

DAVID H. LUNDY .- An interesting representa- tive of one of the best-known and highly honored of California pioneer families is David H. Lundy, the rancher, who lives on Lundy road, about three miles east of San Jose. He was born in the old Lundy Ranch, in Santa Clara County, on July 26, 1876, the son of David and Margaret (McManus) Lundy, and comes of an old North Carolina family of substantial planters dating back to the stirring Revolutionary days. David Lundy, the father, came out to Cali- fornia in 1850 and settled in Santa Clara County; and such a path-breaking pioneer was he that the Lundy Road was named after him. There he acquired fifteen acres, and later he bought a ranch of 400 acres adjacent to Alum Rock Park; and as long ago as fifty years, he built a home dwelling on the Lundy Road, a comfortable structure still standing. He was a grain farmer and a stockman, and he knew his industrial problems, and what the soil and climatic conditions about him might be expected to do.

Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Lundy, and among these our subject was the fifth. William, the first-born, is now deceased; Elizabeth has become Mrs. Gussman, and she resides on the King Road; Anna, her next youngest sister, was killed by the Interurban Electric Railway near Berryessa; Eva, now Mrs. Fuller, lives on the home ranch; Martin, the next youngest brother of David, is a resident of Watsonville; Abbie and Ezra are deceased.

David attended the Eagle district school, and then, while remaining at home, started to work on his father's ranch, since which time he has been follow- ing agriculture, always endeavoring to farm in the most progressive manner. He lives on the Lundy Mountain Dell ranch, has a fourth interest in the Lundy estate, and owns a ranch of fifty acres near Hollister, which he devotes to the raising of seed. David Lundy, Sr., passed away in 1919; but his de- voted widow is still living, the center of a circle of devoted friends, at the age of seventy-five.

On October 15, 1914, Mr. Lundy was married to Miss Agnes Harker DeVillier, the ceremony being performed at San Jose. She was born at San Fran- cisco, and is the daughter of Thomas DeVillier, of a well-known Southern family. Mrs. Lundy received the best of educational training in the San Francisco

schools, and has given all proper attention to the education of her one son, Richard. Mr. Lundy is a Democrat, but also a broadminded, nonpartisan citi- zen in favor every time for the best men and the best measures, regardless of party, for the community in which he lives.

ERNST BROTHERS .- A representative firm which has contributed toward the prosperity and the fame of Santa Clara County is that composed of George J. and Albert A. Ernst, ranchers northeast of San Jose, who were born in San Luis Obispo County, the former seeing light for the first time on November 21, 1868, and the latter four years later, on December 17. They are the sons of Martin and Anna Ernst, and their father was born in the duchy of Baden-Baden, Germany. He came to the United States when a young man, and reaching Cali- fornia about 1885, settled in San Luis Obispo County, and soon came to raise grain and stock extensively. In 1900 he came into Santa Clara County, and he purchased a ranch of ten acres on Lundy road, which he set out to trees in admirable fashion. In time, he bought fifteen acres adjoining his ranch, and later his two sons, our subjects, purchased a tract of ten acres adjoining their father's ranch.

Nine children were granted Mr. and Mrs. Ernst, and seven are still living: Anna has become Mrs. Eckoff, and is living at Orange; Martin is at Camp- bell; Fred died of influenza during the epidemic of 1919; Walter lives at Santa Clara; Edward is also deceased; Mattie has become Mrs. Casterson and has a pleasant home at Chowchilla. The seventh is George J. Ernst, and the others are Elsie, who is at home, and Albert A. Ernst. Both brothers attended the Eagle school, and then they helped on the home ranch, there acquiring the most valuable experience which has made itself apparent in their later opera- tions and success. Seventeen of the thirty-five acres are planted to beets in rows between small prune trees, and the entire ranch is devoted to fruit, and a very fine, model fruit ranch it is. Inasmuch as both parents are still living-Martin Ernst being past seventy-five years of age- the young men are still enjoying the parental roof, and still profiting by association with the pioneer. Martin Ernst was al- ways a Democrat, but George is a Republican, and Albert an Independent.

Both Albert and George Ernst saw service in the late war in patriotic defense of their native land. Albert enlisted in September, 1917, and was sent to Camp Lewis as a member of Company I, Three Hundred Sixty-third Infantry, Ninety-first Division; but after being there for three months he was dis- charged and returned home to resume ranching. George enlisted on July 23, 1918, and was also sent to Camp Lewis, where he served for three weeks in the Camp Depot Brigade, when he was transferred to Camp Fremont, and was there placed in Head- quarters Company, Twelfth Infantry, Eighth Divi- sion, and served in the trench mortar platoon. From Camp Fremont he was sent to Camp Miller, N. J., where he trained for four weeks, and then he was transferred to Camp Stewart, at Newport News, Va., at which place he remained from November 24, 1918 until March 1, 1919, and then he was sent to Camp Hill. Va., where he entrained for California. On March 20, 1919, he was honorably discharged at the Presidio. Miss Elsie Ernst, a sister of our

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subjects, was graduated from the State Normal School in 1912, and since then she has been active in teaching in various schools, in both Central and Southern California. At present, while she is teach- ing at Berryessa, she also makes her home with her parents. Santa Clara is proud of her considerable army of young, energetic and highly progressive young men of the type of the Messrs. Ernst, and proud that this dependable army is growing larger with every passing year.

H. S. REXWORTHY .- Prominent among the highly-trained captains of industry who have con- tributed much toward bringing California into such a front line among her sister commonwealths that she is now everywhere recognized as the Golden State, is undoubtedly H. S. Rexworthy, the capable general superintendent of the Joshua Hendy Iron Works at Sunnyvale, who has had an exceptionally varied and rich experience in the building of im- mense engines, heavy mining machinery and mas- sive gates such as are used in the large irrigation projects of the Turlock Irrigation Company and ex- tensive hydro-electric undertakings in California and the Pacific West. He was born in Gloucestershire, England, on December 2, 1873, the only son of Cor- nish parents and a descendant, on his mother's side of John Sibree, a near relative to the noted African explorer of the same name.

The mother is still living, in England, at the age of seventy-eight; and there are three sisters. Mr. Rexworthy was educated at the famous Bristol Grammar School with its delightful hillside environ- ments at Bristol; later he went to London and there studied the general sciences, and when he left the halls and lawns of those favored institutions to which so many of England's great men had gone as students, he was eighteen years of age and ready for a tussle with the world. He took up mechanical work under the widely-known John McIntire, the celebrated naval architect of Glasgow, and after two years' preceptorship, he was made his assistant. He went as a pupil to the East Ferry Company at Millwa, near London and worked there for a num- ber of years, and then he became assistant manager.

During that time Mr. Rexworthy was married to Miss Irene Roberts, a daughter of Edward Roberts, I. S. O. and F. R. A. S., an extremely clever mathe- matician who has, for many years, been retained as the chief assistant in the British Government's Nau- tical Almanac's office, where he is known as one of the world's greatest authorities on tides. Mr. Rexworthy then traveled as engineer for the Murex Company, and after that he took up mining, and he made the first installation in the process for handling carbonate ores, silver, lead and gold. Next he made his way to Northern Siberia and became an expert for the Bogolosky Company, probably the largest gold and silver-mining company in the world, owning and controlling some 4,000 square miles of auriferous territory and employing 400,000 men. About this time the great World War broke forth, and Mr. Rexworthy was recalled to his native land for war purposes, and after that he was as- signed to the task of perfecting the process of tungsten alloy. After ten months in England, he was sent to California to superintend a process for the recovery of base metals and later he became superintendent of the Lane Mines, for the Darwin Corporation at Darwin, Inyo County.

He had first set foot on American soil at New York in November, 1914, and from there he pro- ceeded to the Pacific Coast and Mountain states, and he was at San Francisco when he was called to England to process tungsten steel. Eventually, he came from Inyo County to Sunnyvale, where he was appointed chief engineer. He has always been and still is a hard worker, putting in from ten to twelve hours a day. He has displayed excep- tional natural and developed ability, and has risen to eminence in the world of mechanism. He is a member of the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, and it goes without saying that he worthily rep- resents the great iron works elsewhere described.

Mr. and Mrs. Rexworthy have one child, a son, Ed- ward. They have built a fine residence on Sunny- vale Avenue, in Sunnyvale, and as members of the Episcopal Church they enter heartily into the re- ligious, civic and social life of their adopted town. Mr. Rexworthy is a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers of England, and his fame as a leader of scientific attainment in the industrial field has gone abroad through two continents.

FRANK ANELLO .- As a reward for his industry Frank Anello has a fine ranch of thirty acres on the Homestead Road, near Santa Clara, and its develop- ment has been due to his energy and forethought. Mr. Anello is a long way from the land of his child- hood, for he was born in the Province of Palermo, Italy, May 7, 1893, a son of Vincent and Providence Anello, the father a farmer in his native land. Frank is the youngest of a family of three children; Made- line is now Mrs. Chiovaro and has two children, Joseph and Francis, and they live on the Homestead Road; Sam. married Miss Hill and they have three children, Vincent, Providence, and Frank. In 1895 the father came to the United States and worked in various parts of the country, finally settling in Dixon, Texas, and in 1904 his family joined him.

Frank Anello received his education in the schools of his native province and his early childhood days were spent on a farm helping his father. Upon ar- rival in Texas, the father leased a small ranch and with the help of Frank ran it for one year, when they removed to Santa Clara County, where our subject worked for Frank Di Fiore and later for H. F. Curry at Berryessa. The father bought a ten-acre piece of property on the Senter Road, which was devoted to fruit raising, and after six years, sold this ranch and a forty-two-acre property was pur- chased on the Homestead Road about three and a half miles from Santa Clara. Later this ranch was divided and his son-in-law now has ten acres and the balance remained in the possession of the father, while Frank and his brother Sam Anello operate the orchard. The land is well improved with an irrigat- ing well and good buildings.

On August 28, 1917, Mr. Anello entered the U. S. Army and was sent to Camp Kearney and served in the One Hunderd Forty-fifth Machine Gun Battalion in Company B. After a month's training this com- pany was started on its way to France, and after arrival there Mr. Annelo was transferred to the One Hundred Thirtieth Machine Gun Battalion, Com- pany A, Thirty-fifth Division. Mr. Anello trained at various points in France and twenty-one days before the armistice was signed, his company was placed in the Verdun sector. While serving at the front

H. Schree Nelum

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Mr. Anello sprained his ankle very severely and was in the hospital for four months. He returned to his home via Brest to Hoboken, N. J., and thence to the Presidio, San Francisco, where he was discharged May 23, 1919, and returned to his home.

In Oakland, on November 28, 1920, Mr. Anello was married to Miss Mamie Chiovaro, a native of Louisi- ana. While still a young girl, her parents removed to Oakland and there she received her education in the public schools. They are the parents of one child, Providence.

VICTOR A. SOLARI .- An industrious, progress- ive and successful rancher of the fine Italian- American type always so popular, because of past records of prosperity and usefulness, in Santa Clara County, is Victor A. Solari, now farming with ex- cellent results on the Dr. Bowen ranch two miles east of San Jose. He was born in the province of Genoa, on January 12, 1883, and his parents are G. B. and Bernardine Solari. His father was a farmer, who operated extensively in Italy, where he owned vast acreage given to the culture of vines and varied fruit; and after Victor had pursued the courses of the elementary echools at Genoa, he helped his father on the home farm. When nineteen years old, how- ever, he set out from Italy across the ocean to the United States; and having eventually reached Cali- fornia, he settled in Santa Clara County; and here, for many years, he worked for wages on fruit ranches. He also worked in the market gardens in the vicinity of San Jose, and there, as on the ranches, was able easily to demonstrate his natural ability in these fields.

For the last five years Mr. Solari has been leasing the Dr. Bowen ranch of twenty acres devoted to fruit, and there he has been raising some of the choic- est prunes in the Santa Clara Valley. He gives his undivided time and attention to his investments, and since he is a good student, seeking to learn from books and to profit by past experience, and inclined to compare notes, he makes progress steadily, thereby contributing something definite toward the advance- ment of California agriculture, as well as toward the enlargement of his own fortune. His only brother in California, Joseph Solari, is with him on the ranch.

Ten children made up the fine family of Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Solari, among whom Victor was the youngest, and each has done well in the world. The eldest is Andrew, then come Anna and Mary, and next Joseph, already referred to, and after that Rosa, Lawrence, Louisa, John and Angelo. Judging by the success of the two brothers in Santa Clara County, Italy, from which romantic country have come so many good American citizens, is to be con- gratulated on retaining the rest of the family.

MRS. ROSIE G. ROSE .- A resourceful, enter- prising and very successful rancher is Mrs. Rosie G. Rose, of Piedmont Road, northeast of Berryessa, a splendid example of what a woman, and especially what the woman in California can do. She was born in Fayal, in the Azores Islands, on May 30, 1864, the daughter of Antone and Teresa (Feliico) Garcia, and she was twelve years of age when she came out with her parents to California, arriving here in 1876. Her father bought ten acres of bare land near the Mission San Jose, and went to farming; and there he and his good wife reared their family of six children. Mary is Mrs. Rodriguez; Ida became Mrs. Santos

and passed away in her fortieth year; Manuel is a dairy farmer at Hanford; Rose, the next youngest, is our subject; Marian, Mrs. Serpa, lives at San Jose; Anna is Mrs. Rose of Oakland.

On September 26, 1881, Miss Garcia was married to Joseph F. Rose, also a native of Fayal, where he was born on August 25, 1854, the son of Manuel and Ida Rose. Joseph F. Rose came to California in 1874, when he moved into Santa Clara County, and worked for wages on farms. He lived and farmed upon the Downing Ranch on the Calaveras Road, continuing there for twenty years, and there he died, on October 30, 1907. He was a member, at the time of his death, of both the U. P. E. C. and the I. D. E. S. lodges of Milpitas.

Directly after her husband's death, Mrs. Rose bought a ranch of twelve acres on the Piedmont road, and there she has lived ever since. This farm is about an hour's walk from Berryessa, within com- fortable reach of the town, and is very successfully devoted to the growing of apricots. Rosie, the eldest daughter, is Mrs. Pedro, and she lives on the Down- ing Ranch in Milpitas; Joseph is on the Calaveras road; Manuel died of the influenza in 1918 ;. Mary is Mrs. Pedro; Anna is Mrs. Henriques of Sunny- vale; Frank lives at home; Minnie died in 1891; An- tone is ranching on Capitol Avenue; William is in San Jose; John is also ranching; Minnie, the second, died in September, 1898; Henry is at home; Carrie is Mrs. Henriques and lives on the Evans ranch, east of Milpitas; Minnie, the third, is at home. While living in the hills, the children attended the Laguna school, and after moving to the Piedmont Road ranch they went to the Berryessa school.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 213

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