History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 66

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

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In his political views Mr. Menker is a Republican and he has been a worker in behalf of the Prohibition cause. He is a faithful and earnest member of the Centella Methodist Church, San Jose, in the work of which he takes an active and helpful interest, serving as one of its stewards and trustees. A self-made man, he has never selfishly centered his activities upon his own interests, but has steadily progressed in general usefulness as well as individual success.

PEDRO A. BERNAL .- A native son of Santa Clara County and a worthy representative of one of the prominent Spanish families of California, Pedro A. Bernal first saw the light on the Santa Teresa Rancho on October 19, 1868. He is a son of Ygnacio and Jesusita (Patron) Bernal, the former one of the best known and highly esteemed men of the county, and whose sketch will be found on an- other page of this history.

Pedro A. Bernal attended the Oak Grove public school and topped off his studies at the University of Santa Clara in 1886-7-8, from which college his father was a gold medal student, and took a business course at the Garden City College and graduated from the normal penmanship department of this college. After leaving college Pedro came back to the home ranch and worked for a time, then secured a position in Mexico with the firm of Losoya & Sons, chemists, mine owners and operators and large landowners, and the three years he spent there en-

John. C. Menken

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

larged his vision and experience a great deal. Re- turning to California he then went to work for the P. G. & E. Company as storekeeper in San Jose and remained with the concern until 1904, which year he started on a trip that occupied his time for over one year and took him to the important centers of Europe and throughout South America, where he visited an uncle in the Argentine. The money he spent on his journey he had saved from his earnings the previous years, and he thereby secured a post- graduate course by practical experience that has enabled him to hold his place with the leading men of the state in business and finance and in developing the resources of the county.

Before going on his extended travels Mr. Bernal had seen a deposit of some kind of mineral wealth on the home ranch, but did not know what value it had; when in England he found some of the same formation and secured samples of it; also of some from South America. He had them analyzed after he reached home, and also some of the local product, and found the latter on a par with the foreign mat- ter. He had investigated the uses to which the fin- ished product was put and knew there was an un- limited field for this special kind of fertilizer in the United States, and in consequence he decided he would develop the field from the Santa Teresa Rancho supply. He sent to St. Louis for a twenty- ton mill, and this he set up with his own hands and began grinding out the fertilizer that now is so widely known as the Bernal-Marl Fertilizer. For seven years he worked to introduce to the ranchers of this county and the San Joaquin Valley the great value of the fertilizer to the soil, and then he had fully convinced himself that the supply was inexhaust- ible and concluded to interest capital to expand the manufacture and distribution of the product. This prehistoric deposit of lime shell marl is only found in paying quantities worthy of development in three sections of the globe -- in England, in South America. and on the Santa Teresa Rancho in Santa Clara County, Cal. From the twenty-ton mill he first erected-and, by the way, this is still doing duty in refining the marl-there is now installed at great ex- pense, an equipment with a 1,000-ton capacity per day of eight hours. The Bernal-Marl Fertilizer Company is incorporated under the laws of Cali- fornia with A. J. Ginoux, of Oakland, as president, and F. Gay, secretary. Mr. Bernal is one of the salesmen and demonstrators of the company, and for every ton of marl shipped from the ranch, Mrs. Ygnacio Bernal receives a royalty. The company own three trucks of seven-ton capacity, and hire others, to distribute the Bernal marl to their custom- ers within a radius of forty miles from the plant; also have a station on the Southern Pacific Railway called Bernal-Marl, and a shipping point at Coyote and one at Edenvale, where cars are loaded for points in various parts of California. They also have water- shipping facilities. As yet they have been unable to supply the demand in this state. There is an un- limited supply covering over 100 acres and the de- velopment company have a lease of twenty years and a contract for all minerals that may be found under the surface of the earth where they are working. Full credit is accorded Pedro A. Bernal for his per- sistency of purpose and his stick-to-it-iveness in thus developing one of the mineral products of this earth that has proven such an aid in replenishing the soil

and thereby bringing greater profits to the producer.

Mr. Bernal, who is still manager of his mother's interests, is a very experienced orchardist and rancher and is making the Bernal Ranch pay splendid divi- dends. He is independent in his politics, supporting the best men for public office, and is a member of the Catholic Church. To all enterprises for the advance- ment of the business, educational and social prob- lems in the county, Mr. Bernal is always found ready to do his duty, and his public spirit is well known to all with whom he has come in contact.

THEOPHILUS KIRK .- Conspicuous among the extensive and successful fruit growers of Santa Clara County, Theophilus Kirk was both prominent and influential, and his demise was regretted by his neigh- bors and a host of friends. He was owner of one of the finest orchards and one of the most attractive home estates to be found in the valley. A man of keen intelligence and superior business attainments, he was actively identified with the agricultural and horticultural developments and interests of Santa Clara County since the early '50s. He was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, a son of Theophilus and Elizabeth (Lowe) Kirk, and in that state his father died, his mother passing away at the Kirk home place on Hicks Avenue, Santa Clara County.

Theophilus Kirk was educated in the public schools of Iowa and Illinois, whither his parents had moved. In the early years of his life, he crossed the plains in 1853, bringing with him a drove of cattle and con- suming about six months in the journey from the Mis- souri River to the Coast. He and his brother, S. Kirk, located in Santa Clara County, where they purchased a large tract of land and began farm- ing; but Mr. Kirk soon saw the future for the successful growing of fruit and so was one of the first to set out orchards, becoming one of the pioneers in the dried fruit industry, which has made this valley so famous. He was also one of the pio- neers of irrigation in the county, and at his passing he was the last of the six original owners of the Kirk Ditch Company, organized in 1859 for irri- gating purposes. Mr. Kirk made a practical study of horticulture and found both pleasure and profit from this interesting side of country life. All the improvements he made were of a substantial and modern nature and the methods he employed in the culture of his orchards were those of the earnest and interested student of science.

Mr. Kirk's marriage, at Stockton, united him with Miss Elizabeth Chesnutwood, also a native of Jef- ferson County, Ohio, who came to California with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Kirk were the parents of two daughters-Ethel, now the wife of S. D. Far- rington, and Edith L., the wife of J. P. Dorrance- both residing on the Kirk estate. There are two grandchildren, Theo Kirk Farrington and John Kirk Dorrance. Politically Mr. Kirk was a firm supporter of the principles of the Republican party, but was never an aspirant for official honors. He was a de- vout Methodist and was for many years an active and official member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of San Jose. Liberal in the support of all measures looking toward the prosperity and advance- ment of his community, his conscientious and upright life and business career won for him the honor and esteem of his fellowmen, and his passing on June 30, 1915, deeply mourned by his family and friends, was a distinct loss to the county.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

HON. C. C. SPALDING .- Those forces which have contributed most to the development, improve- ment and benefit of California have received impetus from the labors of Hon. Charles Clifton Spalding, financier, horticulturist and legislator, whose life re- cord has been a credit and honor to the state which has honored him. He is distinctively a man of af- fairs and one who wields a wide influence, while in all that he undertakes he is actuated by high ideals that seek the benefit both of his home locality and of the state at large.

A native of lowa, he was born at Horton, in Bremer County, seven miles north of Waverly, November 5, 1864, his parents being John F. and Olive (Partridge) Spalding. They were natives of New York, whence they removed to Iowa, and in 1900 they came to Sunnyvale, Cal., where the father successfully followed agricultural pursuits until his demise. The mother survives and is yet living in Sunnyvale. The two surviving sisters and one brother of Mr. Spalding are Minnie L., the wife of C. L. Stowell, of the Stowell Realty Company of Sunnyvale; Myrtie L., who married O. F. Pier- son, a well-known orchardist of Sunnyvale; and the brother, C. W. Spalding, also of Sunnyvale.

Reared on his father's farm in Iowa, C. C. Spald- ing attended the common schools of Bremer County. When nineteen years of age he taught school for a winter, then he clerked in a large store in Waverly, lowa, until he was twenty-one years of age, when he bought out a general mercantile establishment at Horton, Iowa. Five years later his brother, C. W., bought a half interest in the store, which they. con- ducted as Spalding Bros. for some time, when they engaged in the wholesale grocery business at Al- gona, Iowa.

In 1900 Mr. Spalding came to Sunnyvale, arriving here at an early period in its development, and he has since laid out several additions to the town. He also helped to organize the city government, and was elected its first treasurer, serving in that capa- city ever since, and aiding materially in promoting the development and upbuilding of the town, which now has its own fire department and modern domes- tic water system and a fine grammar school, while a union rural high school, patterned after the Chaffee Union high school, is soon to be erected near Sunny- vale for pupils in the Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Mountain View districts. Mr. Spalding, who is a mem- ber of the board of trustees, has done everything in his power to raise the standard of the schools in his community and the cause of education finds in him a strong advocate.

He is deeply interested in the agricultural and hor- ticultural development of the Santa Clara Valley and in association with his brother, C. W. Spalding, and F. D. Calkins purchased a 250 acre ranch at Sunnyvale, which they have brought under a high state of cultivation. It is given over to the growing of peaches, apricots, prunes and cherries, all devel- oped from stubble, and it has one of the largest pumping plants in the county, having a capacity of 2100 gallons per minute. Mr. Spalding was one of five who became the organizers of the California Prune & Apricot Growers, Inc., and he was elected a member of the board of trustees in 1921, receiving the largest number of votes ever cast in favor of a

candidate from this district, which is a very import- ant one, comprising Santa Clara, Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

In financial circles, too, Mr. Spalding occupies a foremost positon. He was the organizer of the Bank of Sunnyvale, of which he was made cashier, while W. E. Crossman became its first president, and two years later he was succeeded in that office by Mr. Spalding. They erected a substantial bank build- ing and in 1919 the institution was sold to P. M. Landsdale, of Palo Alto, who in the following year disposed of his interests to the Bank of Italy, its present owners, who are about to build a new brick and reinforced concrete bank building at a cost of $35,000. The Bank of Italy stands high among the financial institutions in the state and Mr. Spalding has been chosen as manager of its Sunnyvale branch. He is well versed in the details of modern banking and is promoting the success of the institution by progressive, systematic work.

Mr. Spalding's marriage occurred in San Jose in 1911, uniting him with Miss Jessie A. Parkman, a native daughter of San Jose and a graduate of the State Normal. She was an educator, teaching in the San Jose schools for eighteen years and during a portion of this period she was a member of the coun- ty board of education. They are blessed with one son, Charles C., Jr., now nine years of age.

For years a member of the Republican County Central Committee, his fellow-citizens, recognizing his worth and ability, have called Mr. Spalding to other important public offices and in 1906 he was elected a member of the thirty-seventh California Legislature, serving for one term, taking an active part in passing important legislation, one of his measures being a bill to rebuild the State Hospital at Agnew after the earthquake and fire, securing an appropriation of $800,000. In November, 1920, he was elected to represent his district in the forty- fourth General Assembly, by the people of his dis- trict. He is making a splendid political record, characterized by marked devotion to duty and the fearless defense of whatever he believes to be right, looking ever beyond the exigencies of the moment to the opportunities and possibilities of the future. He is chairman of the committee on banks and banking and is also a member of the committees on agri- culture; hospitals and asylums; motor vehicles; nor- mal schools; roads and highways; and state grounds and parks. He was one of the organizers and is a prominent member of the local Chamber of Com- merce, of which he is chairman.

Mr. Spalding was made a Mason in Waverly Lodge, A. F. & A. M., in Iowa, and demitting, be- came a member of Mountain View Lodge, No. 198, F. & A. M., and is now a charter member and treas- urer of Sunnyvale Lodge, No. 511, F. & A. M. He is also a Scottish Rite Mason of the 32nd degree, a member of Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco, and with Mrs. Spalding is a member of Sunnyvale Chapter, O. E. S., of which he is past patron. He also is prominent in the Odd Fellows, Elks, Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen of Amer- ica, and the Mountain View Grange.

Pre-eminently public-spirited, his interest and co- operation can always be aroused in behalf of any project for the welfare of county or state. His ef-

Spalding

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

forts are of a most practical character, the sound judgment of an active business man being manifest in all of his opinions concerning the best methods of improving the city along lines of material and in- tellectual progress and municipal growth. His acti- vities have touched the general interests of society to their betterment and Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County and the state have benefited by his co-opera- tion and initiative spirit in many ways.

HENRY RENGSTORFF .- A man of many re- sources and adaptability was the late Henry Reng- storff, who came to California in 1850. His contribu- tion to agriculture and horticulture in the Santa Clara Valley is hard to estimate, for he owned six valnable and well-improved farms throughout the county. When he arrived in California he had little in a financial way, but his mind was well stored with the practical and homely maxims of the German people, and his youth had been spent in an atmosphere of refinement. He was born September 29, 1829, near Bremen, Province of Hanover, Germany, the son of Fritz and Amelia (Hambruch) Rengstorff. His father, Fritz Rengstorff, was an educator, and also the owner of a tavern on a country road a few miles from the seaport town of Bremen. His mother, also born in Germany, preserved the longevity in the family, attaining to the age of ninety-four years. The father lived to be sixty-six years old and had, besides Henry, one son, Fritz, and two danghters.

Henry Rengstorff was reared and educated in his native province, and upon reaching twenty-one de- termined to seek a newer country and there estab- lish a home and fortune. The spring of 1850 found him afloat on a sailer, bound for San Francisco via Cape Horn. From San Francisco he came to Santa Clara County and worked on farms in the neighbor- hood of San Jose until 1853, when he purchased a squatter's right to 290 acres on Silver Creek and en- gaged in general farming and stockraising for three years. His next squatter's right was of 290 acres, and in 1864 he purchased his home place of 164 acres, on which his daughter, Mrs. W. F. Haag, now lives, one and a half miles north of Mountain View. This place was devoted to the raising of grain and hay, as was also the farm of 227 acres near Mil- pitas. A farm of 117 acres on the San Francisco Road, near Los Altos, was planted entirely to fruit. and the farm of 1,200 acres in San Mateo County was devoted to general farming and stockraising. He also owned a ranch upon which was built the Reng- storff Landing, and a half interest in a ranch of 520 acres east of San Jose. For a number of years he rented all of his farms and his son, Henry, assumed the management of the Rengstorff Landing and the warehouse.

The marriage of Mr. Rengstorff occurred in San Jose about 1855, and united him with Miss Chris- tine Hessler, a native of Germany, who lived to share in his well deserved fortune. They were the parents of seven children: Mary, who became the wife of A. C. Martel, died and left two sons, Robert and Alfred; John H. married in Seattle and removed to Nome, Alaska, and there died; Elise is the wife of William F. Haag; Helena, who became the wife of Dr. O. P. Askam, died and left two children, Earl L. and O. Perry, who were overseas during the late war; they are both professional musicians; Christine F. became the wife of Robert McMillan and they 23

have one child, Daniel H., who was in the naval re- serve during the late war; he later became a student at the Law School of the University of California, and in 1920 met death in an automobile accident in San Francisco; Henry is a rancher of Mountain View; and Charles W. passed away in infancy. Mr. Rengstorff passed away in 1906 at the age of seven- ty-seven, and his wife survived him until 1919 and reached the age of ninety-two. Mr. and Mrs. Reng- storff were active in the affairs of the Presbyterian Church of Mountain View and were liberal contribu- tors. After his arrival in California he strove to es- tablish a school system, and served as school direc- tor for many years and erected the schoolhouse in the Whisman district. With characteristic per- severance and thrift he worked to realize his ambi- tions, and he was highly esteemed throughout the community for his many sterling qualities.

RODNEY ESCHENBURG .- Esteemed and be- loved among the sturdy pioneers who have been closely identified with the development of the won- derful resources of Santa Clara County, the late Rodney Eschenburg, a citizen of eminence of Gilroy, began his interesting association with that town in 1889, after which he was not only an eyewitness to the growth of this section, but did all that he could toward giving it prominence. A native of Delaware, Rodney Eschenburg was born in Wilmington on Washington's Birthday, 1831, one of eight children of John and Eliza (Rodney) Eschenburg, his mother being a grandniece of Caesar A. Rodney, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Her father was appointed U. S. Minister to the Argentine Republic, and he and his family took up their resi- dence at Buenos Ayres, and in that beautiful South American city she was married, and there, too, four of her children were born. While she was on a visit to her old home in Wilmington, the subject of our story entered the family as the fifth child.

A native of the famous "free city" of Hamburg, John Eschenburg left his homeland while a young man and songht his fortune in far-away South Amer- ica, and became a dealer in Peruvian bark, assem- bling his cargoes and shipping the same to the Eu- ropean markets. There he met Miss Rodney, whom he later married. and by whom he had eight children: Emily, Ellen, John, Isabel, Rodney, Herman, Mari- quita and Albertine. Mr. Eschenburg lost the fortune he had amassed when the South American Revolu- tion swept away lives and property; and in 1834 he removed to Mexico, where he was very successful as a merchant for many years, also serving as Prus- sian consul at the City of Mexico. About 1859, he came to the United States, and for ten years he fol- lowed agricultural pursuits in Madison County, Ill., about twenty miles from St. Louis.

In 1849, the gold fever drew three of his sons to California, while the remainder of the family re- turned to the old home in Delaware; and the next year, John Eschenburg himself hurried to the Cali- fornia gold-fields by way of the Isthmus. In 1851. he returned to the East with part of the family; and in 1856 the rest followed. For years, after he had taken up his residence out here, John Eschenburg worked as a bookkeeper for Castle Bros. in San Fran- cisco, and after his son, Rodney, had acquired a farm near Gilroy, he removed hither, in 1857, with his family. In 1863, Mr. Eschenburg became sec-

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retary of the San Marcial Mining Company, and once again he removed to Mexico, where he worked in his secretarial capacity until within three days of his death, which occurred at San Marcial in 1865, when he had attained to the ripe old age of eighty- four years, and until 1874 he was survived by his widow, who died in San Francisco in her eighty- second year.

Rodney Eschenburg in 1849 set out with his broth- ers, Herman and John, to try to cross the great continent to California, and with dependable, if slow. mule-teams they accomplished the journey in 105 days. They put up the first cabin at Auburn, and then plunged into mining. On December 16, 1850. however, Herman passed away, not far from Nevada City, and the other two hrothers were left to con- tinue their mining ventures, with which they had only uncertain success, so that in 1858 they left the mines. At Sacramento, Rodney got a job at unloading flour, for which he was paid one dollar an hour, working nearly twelve hours a day and handling 200-pound sacks. He also worked on the first vessel ever sunk in California waters, the Lady Washington, later raised and salvaged. Ahout 1853, he went into the Santa Clara Valley about five miles east of Gilroy. and there bought a farm with some of the profits from his mining investments, thus acquiring some 343 acres, which he so improved that in time he had one of the finest dairy farms in that section. On giving up mining, therefore, in '58, he naturally turned to farming, and for three decades he contin- ued dairying, becoming one of the leading dairy- farmers of Santa Clara Valley, and a rancher whose progressive ideas influenced many in other parts of the county. Retiring at last, he removed to Gilroy; and in June, 1921, he laid aside the cares and re- sponsibilities of a world which had grown decidedly better for his having lived and toiled in it. This 343- acre ranch is still known as the Eschenburg Dairy and is owned by the family.

Mr. Eschenburg was married in Gilroy on Decem- ber 12. 1863, to Miss Maria Louise Thomas, one of the attractive daughters of John B. and Fanny (Smith) Thomas, who had six children, brought up in Delaware County, N. Y. Three years prior to her wedding, Miss Thomas accompanied her sister, Mrs. John A. Perkins, of Fresno, on the even then somewhat difficult journey to California, coming out merely for a visit; but having met Mr. Eschenburg. who wooed and won her, she decided to stay and to help make the Golden State still more golden. Two children were granted Mr. and Mrs. Eschen- burg: Isabel Madeline became Mrs. Matthew Mc- Currie and was made secretary of the Humane Society of San Francisco; and they have two chil- dren, Donald Rodney and Gordon. Herman R. Esch- enburg married Miss Georgia Cobb, of Gilroy, and died, in August, 1903, the father of one boy, Herman Rodney Eschenburg, who graduated from the Davis Agricultural School in 1921, and is now making his home in Gilroy. Rodney Eschenburg assisted as a charter member in founding the Presbyterian Church at Gilroy in 1860, his wife also joining, and later he hecame an elder in the church. He early joined the Republican party, and throughout his life labored to effect an elevation of all that pertained to politics.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 66

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