History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 219

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

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ly, he is a member of Dania Lodge of San Jose. Both Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have a wide circle of friends in the county and exert an influence for good citizen- ship. For recreation he finds his pleasure in hunting and fishing. As one of the progressive men of the county, Nick Nelson has won the good will of all who know him.

LEWIS M. LUNSFORD .- Among the well- known residents of San Jose is numbered Lewis M. Lunsford, a member of the city fire department, who for thirty-two years has made his home in the Santa Clara Valley. He was born at Mine Lamotte, in Madison County, Mo., October 21, 1869, a son of Lewis Barton and Mary Adeline (Edwards) Luns- ford, the former the owner of lead and zinc mines in that county and a successful business man. When Lewis M. was but a year old his father died and about a year and a half later his mother married Dewitt Finley, their home now being in Los An- geles. Mr. Lunsford was the only child of the first marriage, but five children were born of his mother's second union and all have now passed away with the exception of two, namely: William Finley, a master mechanic residing in Los Angeles; and Earl Finley, who is connected with the Brown Paper Mill Company of that city. A half-brother, James Finley, died of smallpox while stationed in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War.

Mr. Lunsford's educational opportunities were very limited, his father's estate was so involved that his mother lost all of the property, and when thir- teen years of age he started out in the world for himself, securing work in the mines at Ironton, Mo., his initial wage being a dollar and forty cents per day. He grew very rapidly and at the age of thir- teen was allowed to do a man's work without ques- tion as to his age. He continued to work in the mines until his nineteenth year and in March, 1889, came to San Jose, obtaining employment with the Santa Clara & Alum Rock Railroad Company. For two years he drove horse cars and he also operated the first electric cars installed on that line. When the Alum Rock road was built he became a car driver, continuing with the company for three years. In May, 1903, he joined Engine Company No. 3 of the San Jose Fire Department, with which he has since been identified, proving faithful, efficient and fearless in the discharge of his duties and winning promotion to the rank of lieutenant.

In St. Genevieve, Mo., on March 5, 1889, Mr. Luns- ford married Miss Isabel Courtois, a native of that city and a daughter of Henry and Mary (Simpson) Courtois, the former a member of an old French family which settled on the banks of the Mississippi during pioneer times. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Lunsford: Adaline, the wife of Ed- ward Delmastro, a prominent building contractor of San Jose; Nellie, who married J. W. Ford, a civil engineer of San Jose; Bessie Jane, now the wife of Leo Lanford, of this city; Lewis Barton, an auto- mobile mechanic of San Jose; John William, who died in infancy; Gertrude, a high school student; and Russell and Geraldine, who are attending the gram- mar schools. Mr. Lunsford was bereaved of his faithful wife October 23, 1921, a splendid and lovable woman mourned by her family and many friends.

In politics Mr. Lunsford is a Republican with lib- eral views and he is a member of the Junior Order of the Union of American Mechanics, of which he

Nick Nelson Ova nelson

Michel Casaneau

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was one of the organizers, while for thirty years he has been identified with Masonry. His early youth was a period of hard and unremitting toil and he was obliged to face a man's responsibilities when only a child, but he has worked his way steadily upward and his sterling traits of character have won for him the respect and esteem of all with whom he has been associated.

MICHEL CASAUCAU .- The proprietor of the Parisian Bakery at Mountain View, Michel Casaucau has made his way to the front by industry and good management and now owns and operates the leading bakery there, his genial manners making and keep- ing customers and friends. He was born in the Basses Pyrenees, France, a son of Damien and Annie (Vignes) Casaucau. The father passed away fifteen years ago, but the mother still lives at the age of seventy-six and has a cattle farm and cattle business at Buzy, France. Michel Casaucau is the only one of his family in America. There was a family of five children, one brother is a school master; there are three sisters; one brother was killed in the late war and the subject of this review. At the age of fourteen he left his native soil and came to America in 1891 and settled in Mayfield, Cal. He learned the baker's trade under his uncle, Romain Casaucau, well-known in Mayfield, now deceased.

At Oakland, Cal., Mr. Casaucau was married to Miss Jennie Hourcade, born in the same town in France as her husband. They are the parents of five children: August, who served in the late war, is now driving an auto truck delivery wagon for his father; Albert is also a driver for the Parisian bakery; Lucy, Harriet and Andrew. Mr. Casaucau is the true type of the frugal and successful French- American and the excellent products he turns out from his establishment speak for themselves, his goods being delivered fresh every day. He is a true and loyal American in every particular and willingly gives his best efforts to the measures that tend to- ward the advancement and progress of his locality, which he has selected for his permanent home.

CARMELITE MONASTERY .- Decidedly among the most interesting of all Roman Catholic institu- tions of faithful, unremitting activity and wide, permanent influence for good in California is the Carmelite Monastery of Santa Clara, where the nuns, leading a secluded life, pinning their faith to the precept also voiced by Shakespeare, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world knows of," pursue a routine of industry and severity, and yet enjoy a sublimely happy, supremely blissful existence comparable, perhaps, only to the heaven they con- template from afar. The name Carmelite is derived from Mount Carmel, a Palestine mountain, famed in song and story, the sanctified abode of the prophet Elias, where, on July 20 each year, on the Feast of Elias, thousands of pilgrims in the East-Christians, Jews and Turks-frequent the mountain, to obtain Elias' protection for their crops and a guarantee of plentiful harvest. The Carmelites, embracing friars, nuns and religious and secular tertiaries, from one of the four great mendicant orders of the Roman Catholic Church. The first written rule of the Car- melites was given, A. D. 400, by John, Forty-fourth Patriarch of Jerusalem, and in 1251, at Cambridge, England, Our Blessed Lady revealed to St. Simon Stock that those who died invested with the Car- 59

melite scapular will be preserved from eternal fire. Since then, this scapular, or habit of the Carmelites, has had a wondrous history, as wide as the world, and through it the faithful participate in all the good works, prayers and penances offered by the religious. Following St. Teresa, justly called "the glory" of Spain and the Church, the Carmelite sons and daughters, have extended the benefits of the order to the farthest parts of the earth, and never have they allowed trials to daunt their courage or quench the ardor of their charity.

A discalceated Carmelite, Father Andrew of the Assumption, offered the first Mass in California, on November 10, 1602. In that year, Don Sebastian Viscayno, having been sent to explore the Coast line of the Californias, was accompanied by two Carmelites; yet there was no foundation of Carmel in this state until 1908. In 1619, some thirty years after the death of St. Teresa, Lady Mary Lovell, daughter of Lord Roper, founded a Carmelite con- rent in Antwerp for English-speaking ladies. In 1790 Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, brother of Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, invited the Carmelites to his vast diocese, just after the Revolutionary War. In 1863 the nuns from Baltimore Carmel founded the monastery at St. Louis; and during the great Catho- lic Congress at Baltimore in 1889, the Boston dele- gates learned of the esteem in which the Carmelites are held in that city, and devout Boston Catholics wishing to have a house of Mount Carmel, the wish was approved by the Archbishop of Boston, and five nuns, appointed by Cardinal Gibbons, went to the hub of New England, each there, amid the bustle of materialistic life, to dwell in her cloister, daily pre- sent petitions for remote souls, preparing her own soul, in order to make her prayers the more effective, by penances, by perpetual abstinence, by almost con- tinual fasting, by sleeping on straw, wearing coarse woolen, and by many other exercises of constant mortification. In 1897 appeared a volume, now out of print, called "Carmel: It's History and Spirit; compiled from approved sources by the Discalced Carmelites of Boston," and designed to give informa- tion as to the meaning of the fourth Carmelite monastery in the United States and the first in New England; and therein was sketched the history of the ancient mount in Palestine, the progress of the movement through the Greek and Latin eras, the inspiring story of St. Teresa and the great reform she wrought, the extension of the order to other countries and the crossing of the Pyrenees, the rise of the English Teresians and the going forth of their American sisters, with an insight into the spirit and rule of Carmel, and her devotions.

The laying of the cornerstone of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus for the Carmelite Nuns of Santa Clara took place on Gaudete Sunday, December 17, 1916, when the Most Reverend Archbishop Hanna performed the ceremony, accompanied by many priests and representative laymen, Knights of Columbus, and throngs of people. The sermon, a wonderful discourse on "Wisdom hath built herself a house," was preached by the Very Rev. R. A. Gleason, S. J. Provincial; the University of Santa Clara offered hospitality to the visiting clergymen, and everything was done to make the occasion a

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memorable one in the annals of the historic town of Santa Clara. On November 1, 1906, Mrs. Alice Phelan Sullivan, since deceased-the beautiful and loyal daughter of the church in whose honor the chapel and monastery will forever stand as a memorial-accompanied by her son and daughter, arrived at the Carmelite Monastery, Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Boston, and there her child made the sub- lime sacrifice of all the world calls dear and entered the austere walls of Carmel. Some time after, the Most Reverend Archbishop Riordan, going on his ad limina to Rome, calling to see the former member of his diocese, was favorably impressed with all that he saw of the Monastery, and this led Mrs. Sullivan later on to request His Grace to admit the Nuns to his Archdiocese. He hesitated, however, for the earthquake and fire had wrought many ravages in church and convent, and it seemed no time for new endeavor; but when Mrs. Sullivan offered to assume the responsibility of foundress, and when it was made clear that the nuns, far from fearing condi- tions, only felt in them an added spur to prayer and a longing to aid in some way in the upbuilding of the glorious city for a time laid low, he yielded and wrote the invitation that brought a little colony 3,000 miles across the continent to settle in San Francisco.

Archbishop Riordan himself said the Foundation Mass on October 4. The chapel was beautifully appointed, the altar and pews and organ in place, the "Turn" grating and partitions so arranged that when the three days set aside by the Archbishop for visitors were at an end, the nuns could very soon resume their regular life. Being so strictly cloistered, it had been considered wise to permit them to meet the public in order that prejudice miglit be removed and friends be made for the newcomers, and indeed the event proved the wisdom of the permission, for the annals of Carmel record an unprecedented wel- come from the Catholic body of San Francisco.

Carmel ranks in the church as a mendicant Order, and cherishes poverty as a glory and a crown-a fact the more interesting for so many who enter its severely plain walls come from homes of wealth. While accepting with profound gratitude the grounds and monastery donated in memory of their foundress, the nuns have from the beginning refused endowment, and true to the ancient traditions of their order, cast themselves upon the charity of the faithful for their daily support. They came in abso- lute poverty, for, though the monastery in Boston offered, as is customary, the dowers of the nuns who were to go, they pleaded to be allowed to leave all behind and to trust themselves to God, and the charity of those who were to receive them, and they never had cause to regret their step. During the first days before their manner of life was known, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan and Miss Phelan and members of the family, took turns day by day and brought with their own hands the alms of fish, vegetables and groceries, upon which the Sisters lived. Soon others learned the mysteries of the receiving "Turn," and the provisor of the Convent had wherewith to supply the daily menage.

When the five nuns came from Boston to found the Carmelite Monastery in San Francisco, the prem- ises once occupied by Robert Louis Stevenson were used for a while; and experiencing the need of more

room, they bought eleven acres on Lincoln Avenue, 111 Santa Clara, upon which they built the monastery chapel, and the monastery, designed by the cele- brated architect, Charles D. Maginnis. This chapel contains the burial place of Mrs. Sullivan, who founded the Monastery here. A book might be written about this wonderful group of the Carmelite Monastery at Santa Clara which not so long ago led "The Architect," one of the best of art journals, to say: "Of those who spin along the smooth high- way through the orchards of the pleasant country between San Jose and San Francisco, how many know that a park of stately trees on the outskirts of Santa Clara secludes a building which in Europe they would gladly incur discomfort and expense to visit, and is theirs to see for the mere stopping?"

In essential scheme, as "The Architect" has put it, tne Carmelite Monastery Building (designed by Ma- ginnis & Walsh) is a rectangular arcaded cloister, surrounded on three sides by two-story building, with the public chapel projecting from one corner, the whole structure slipping quietly and naturally into its place among the trees like a thing which has al- ways been. Italian or Spanish, unmistakably Medi- terranean, the architecture is one with the broad, sunny Valley of Santa Clara. The dominant charac- ter of the building is adequacy, or poise. The rich- bess never relapses into mere lavish display, but as- sures a prevailing note of simplicity and restraint. The exterior walls are plaster of a pinkish buff tone. All ornament is of buff terra cotta, lighter and less pink in tone. The roofs are tile in slightly varying shades of red. These colors are ideal foils to the green of the California foliage and the blue of the California sky; and throughout the rainless seasons of the year they must enter into happy combination with the tawny brown of the dry grass covering the ground. The similar interior cloister has pavements of dull red brick. On the interior, the most note- worthy room is the Nuns' Choir, behind the chapel and connected therewith by metal grilles, through which the nuns can hear the services unseen. The barrel vault and penetrations are of white plaster, the walls of face brick of buff hues, varied by pale tones of greenish and lemon yellow, the pavement of dull red brick, and the wood of benches and altar is gum in its rich natural color. The public chapel is of cream plaster, light buff terra cotta, with dull red brick pavement and open ceiling of wood in its nat- ural color or but slightly mellowed by stain. The richly-designed carved wood altar end is finished with a soft metallic luster, a quasi-iridescent sheen. Sep- arated by bronze grilles from the east aisle of the chapel are the small Lady Chapel and the Mortuary Chapel, the latter a memorial to the donor of the building. Here are a scale and finish more jewel-like, precious marble covering walls and floors, altars and appointments of detailed perfection, and gilded plas- ter vaults. The Building Review considers that the architects have been very successful in their unique and delicate expression of a domesticity presented by this community of women, whose lives are wholly consecrated to religion, in a cloistered order of an unusual austerity of habit, where hours not devoted to domestic duty are given to prayer, contemplation and spiritual exercises; and speaks in particular of the relation of the community to the public, and the

John a. black.

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architectural devices to facilitate this. The com- munity communicates personally with the public by voice only, the sisters not being visible, and this is accomplished by the "speak-room," consisting of two apartments (an outer and an inner speak-room), sep- arated by a fixed grille of metal, veiled on the inner side. The outer speak-rooms are directly accessible from the public lobby of the convent, where is the "turn," a revolving cylinder of wood, with shelves, on which alms, in food or money, may be conveyed to the community. This "turn" is a symbol of the dependence of Carmel on the charity of the world, and herein, perhaps, may be found the key to the never-failing support given this institution.

JOHN A. CLARK, M. D .- A prominent and promising member of the medical profession in Cali- fornia, Dr. John A. Clark is especially interesting as the son and worthy representative of one of the pio- neers and most eminent men in the department of medicine and surgery along the Pacific Coast, his father, Dr. Jonas Clark, having settled in the Golden State, with all the prestige of a former associate of Professor Oliver Wendell Holmes, three decades or more ago; a sketch of his life is given on another page in this history.

Dr. John A. Clark was born at Knights Landing, Yolo County, Cal., on October 20, 1879, and received his educational grounding in St. Ignatius College in San Francisco, then in the public schools in Gilroy. Entering the University of Santa Clara, he was graduated therefrom in 1901, when he received the degree of A. B., after a very creditable record in lit- erary and classical studies. He entered the Medical College of the University of California in 1903, and four years later received the coveted M. D. parch- ment. While attending the University of California he was instructor in anatomy. After that, during 1909, he pursued post-graduate work at Harvard, and in 1910 he was instructor in Histology and Anatomy at Santa Clara College. After his return to Gilroy, Dr. Clark opened an office with his father, and in 1911, when the latter became superintendent of the Santa Clara County Hospital, he took upon himself the entire practice. In 1917, responding to the na- tion's call, Dr. Clark entered the U. S. Army; but owing to a broken vertebrae in his back, dating from the year previous, and from the effects of which he has never fully recovered, he was honorably dis- charged. From 1914 to 1918, Dr. Clark amply dem- onstrated his public spirit by serving as councilman of Gilroy for two terms, and from 1910 to 1914 he was city health officer. In national politics a Re- publican, he has long stood for the highest stand- ards possible in civic life and duty. His high repu- tation as a very skilful surgeon has given him addi- tional influence in any cause he seeks to advance.

At Oakland, in August, 1913, Dr. Clark was mar- ried to Miss Mary E. Devine, who died in February, 1916; and then he married the sister of his deceased wife, Kathleen Devine, daughter of Thomas and Kathryn (Flynn) Devine. Three children have blessed the second union; Marie, John and Alice. While a student, Dr. Clark was a member of the honorary society, of the Alpha Omega Alpha, and also of the Zeta Omicron; and he belongs to the San Jose lodge of the B. P. O. Elks. He is a member

of Santa Clara County Medical Society, the Califor- nia State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association.

CHARLES J. RONECKER .- A native son, the representative of an interesting, long-established family, whose excellent workmanship as a plumber and sheet metal worker has entitled him to the con- fidence of all dealing with him and his firm is Charles J. Ronecker, of Messrs. Bowen & Ronecker, of 910 Main Street, one of Santa Clara's most sub- stantial business houses. He was born in San Fran- cisco on July 8, 1891, the son of Charles Ronecker. who was well-known in the commercial circles of the Bay City, and who died in 1914, leaving a widow and two children. Besides the subject of our re- view, there is a daughter, Jennie. L., now the wife of Roy Tuttle, a Santa Rosa druggist. Charles Ronecker married Kate Dockery, a native of Marys- ville, Cal., who also came from a pioneer family. An uncle, J. P. Dockery, was one of the organizers of California Parlor No. 1 of the N. S. G. W., he himself being prominent in that order; he was chief milk inspector at San Francisco for twenty years.

Charles J. Ronecker attended the public schools of San Francisco and Santa Cruz, and then learned the plumber's trade as an apprentice to C. L. Meis- terheim in San Jose. In 1914-16 he built up the Marin Oil and Burner Company of San Rafael, and he did so well that he was able to make a trip to the Orient. In April, 1921, with Fred Bowen, Mr. Ronecker founded the firm of which he is now the wide-awake junior member. They were formerly employed by Le Vin & Son on South First Street, San Jose, and are now working shoulder to shoulder, and well known for the thoroughness with which they carry out a contract, they are building up an enviable trade in Santa Clara and environs, and their establishment has become one of the most dependable assets in the growing city.

JOHN F. CARDOZA .- A progressive native son and self-made man who has learned to do by actually doing, and is today a leading carpenter and builder of Santa Clara County, is John F. Cardoza of Moun- tain View, residing with his family on Bailey Avenne, in the community in which he has been known and respected for over thirty years. He was born at Half Moon Bay on October 19, 1883, and when six years of age came with his parents, Jess and Mary B. Cardoza, farmer folks of Santa Clara, to Mountain View. His father was born in the Island of Fayal. in the Azores, while his mother first saw the light in the near-by Island of Flores. Mrs. Cardoza died in June, 1918.

John was sent to the public school in Mountain View while he was growing up on his father's little six-acre place near that town, and when nineteen years of age he took up carpentering. He formed a partnership with a young brother, Joe Cardoza, now a contractor at Hollister, and they commenced build- ing. He had to be satisfied with day work at first, and then they made contracts to put up barns and tank-frames, and after that they built bungalows and other residences, and even concrete bridges. So well did Mr. Cardoza and his brother succeed in establishing a reputation for both ability and de- pendability that they were commissioned to erect

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many of the notable structures in and around Moun- tain View, including the Catholic Church at Sunny- vale. They also put up the residences of Frank Rose, Mrs. Merrill, Dutro at Sunnyvale, Ehrhorn, Lund, Charles F. Hartley, Frank Abbott, Larry Randall at Mountain View, and Haag's Dairy. Mr. Cardoza's prosperity is expressed in part in his purchase of twenty-seven acres at Hollister recently, which he has planted to prunes and apricots, and he owns his cozy bungalows, constructed by him in 1920.

In 1903 Mr. Cardoza was married to Miss Jennie Brown, a daughter of Frank Brown of Redwood City, in which town she grew up; and they have four children-Jessie and Lucile, who are in the Moun- tain View high school, and Jean and Jack. The Cardozas belong to the Catholic Church at Moun- tain View, and Mr. Cardoza is a member of the Foresters, the Native Sons of the Golden West, and the I. D. E. S. In politics he follows the standards of the Republican party.

JOHN W. DICKINSON .- A well-known former member of the San Jose Fire Department, whose local patriotism has made him one of the unselfish supporters of every movement for the welfare of the Golden State, is John W. Dickinson, recording sec- retary of the Independent Order of Foresters and prominent in lodge circles. He was born at Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Mich., on May 6, 1855, the son of John W. Dickinson, who was a physician in his early career but later in life gave up professional work for farming. He married Miss Cynthia Stiles, and they came to have a family of five children. A long distance intervened between their farm and the nearest school, and so our subject enjoyed scarce- ly three months of schooling in the year.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 219

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