History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 81

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

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Mr. Wilcox was united in marriage in San Jose to Miss Nellie Wilson, a native of Pescadero, Cal., and they have become the parents of two children, Wilbur and Muriel. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party and he is deeply interested in everything that pertains to the welfare and progress of Santa Clara County. Fraternally he is connected with the Garden City Lodge of Odd Fellows and he finds recreation in hunting and fishing. While it is true that he came into a business already established, he has demonstrated in its control that he has the same executive power and keen discrimination be- tween the essential and the non-essential which char- acterized his father and placed him at the head of extensive and important business interests. That he is a man of strict integrity and moral worth is in- dicated by the high esteem in which he is held by those among whom his entire life has been passed.

E. T. PETTIT .- A pioneer horticulturist who, stimulated by high principles and guided by clear thinking and sound judgement, has certainly suc- ceeded, is E. T. Pettit, and by all who know him he is rated as an aggressively progressive man who has contributed something definite to the development of California husbandry. Mr. Pettit was born near Elwood City, Lawrence County, Pa., November 8, 1846, the son of Nathaniel Pettit, also born in Penn- sylvania, and a farmer there. Mr. Pettit's grand- father, who was of French descent, was one of the pioneers of Beaver County, Pa., coming from Vir- ginia, and the family is able to look back with pride to a long line of Virginian ancestry. His mother was Barbara Grieb, a native of Philadelphia, of German parents, and she died in Lawrence County. Of their eleven children, E. T. was fourth oldest.

When he started in life for himself he chose the profession of the teacher. After completing the public schools he attended the State Normal School at Edinboro, Pa., and after teaching a few terms in his native state he went to Missouri and there entered the State Normal School at Kirksville. He spent the three years following his graduation in 1873 in teaching in Missouri and then came to San Jose, Cal., in 1876, and here took a senior course in the San Jose State Normal, at which institution he graduated in 1878. During the years of 1880 and 1881 he was principal of the schools of Sonora, Tuolumne County, after which he held a similar position in different places in California until as principal of schools at Willows, Glenn County for two years. He retired from educational work in 1885 to devote all of his time to horticulture. As early as 1881 he purchased his present place of twenty-two acres on Douglas Road and began setting out orchard, improving it from a stubblefield to an excellent state of production and of delicious fruit. He set out ten acres to apri- cots and prunes, and the remainder of the acreage was set out during the next few seasons to prunes and peaches and cherries. The results which Mr. Pettit obtains from his horticultural interests clearly show the excellent care which he bestows upon them. In 1887 five acres of apricots yielded thirty-five tons of fruit which sold for $1,000. This same year, Mr. Pettit, in partnership with his sister, purchased land adjoining the town of Colusa, in Colusa County and in 1888 planted it to apricots and peaches, later selling it to advantage. In 1919 Mr. Pettit had a yield of forty-six tons of apricots on four and a half acres and sold them for $5,300, showing how values have risen during this period.

In politics, Mr. Pettit is a thorough Republican. He is a man of sterling integrity, possessed of the influence which every man of education and refine- men, when combined with uprightness of character, exerts for good in the community in which he makes his home. The qualities of thoroughness and faith- fulness in the performance of every duty, which made him a most successful teacher, has made him a success as a horticulturist. Mr. Pettit was an early member of the San Jose Grange No. 10, hold- ing the position of secretary of that organization in 1887 and afterwards as master for several terms, and for four years was master of the State Grange. Thus for thirty years he has attended the annual meeting of the State Grange, in which he is welcome because of his years of experience as well as his fluency as a

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speaker. He was one of the organizers and directors and later served as secretary of the West Side Fruit Growers' Association, a cooperative drying and pack- ing concern, and is the only one of the original direc- tors still serving. He is also a member of California Prune and Apricot Association.

GARRETT J. BYRNE .- A varied and interesting career was that of the late Garrett J. Byrne, one of the best known of the Irish pioneers in California, who was one of the earliest dry goods merchants in the state, his progressive spirit and capability bring- ing him unqualified success in his business ventures. Mr. Byrne was born on November 20, 1827, on the sunny slopes of Tellabyrne, near the noted St. John's well, six miles from Kilkenny, Ireland. The eldest of a family of nine brothers and four sisters, he finished his schooling at the age of sixteen to go to work on the farm. At nineteen he started to learn the dry goods business-four years of apprenticeship and no pay. His father had to pay for his clothes all dur- ing that time and twenty-five pounds besides. When his time was up, he could not get any employment near his home, so went up to Dublin but met with the same result, as those were hard times in Ireland. Starting for Liverpool on the Trafalgar, he took passage on the sailing vessel, Grace McRae-no steamers on the Atlantic at that time-and after a perilous voyage he landed at New York, where he secured a position with Abraham Gunst at 295 Bow- ery, the father of Moses Gunst, the cigar man.

Mr. Byrne remained in New York until October 19, 1852, when he sailed for San Francisco on the Star of the West, stopping at Jamaica and arriving at Aspinwall in due time. They poled across the Chagres River in a flat boat to Gorgona, walked across the Isthmus eighteen miles to Panama, and after ten days took passage on the Cortes, which was making the trip up the coast. He arrived at San Francisco, and as he said in an account of his active life published in the Leader in 1910.

"When I arrived in California, the only capi- tal 1 had was youth, energy and perseverance, and I needed them badly. My first job in the city was to roll a lot of barrels on Sansome Street from the side- walk to the cellar, for which I received $2.50 for two hours' work. The firm I worked for was Rising, Casella & Company, and I will never forget my first joh in San Francisco. After a few days I got a posi- tion with Thos. Masterson on Clay Street at $200 a month and a percentage on my sales. I had $1,000 in a short time, which 1 loaned at three per cent a month-thirty-six per cent a year-so I made money fast. Those were great old times. The bay was up to Montgomery and Jackson streets then; the old ship Niantic was high and dry at Sansome and Clay streets and was used as a rooming house. I remained with Masterson for a few years, until I started in business at Marysville, December 1, 1855. Mine was, I might say, the first regular dry goods store there. I attended the first Christian midnight mass, December 25. 1854, at St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, and five weeks from that time mine was the first marriage that took place there, February 1. 1855. The Rev. Hugh Gallagher welded the golden chains that were broken hy my wife's death Septem- ber 26. 1900. February 1, 1855, was the happiest day of my life and will ever find a warm corner in this old Irish heart of mine."

Mrs. Byrne before her marriage was Miss Annie McCloud; she was born at Sidney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the daughter of Donald McCloud, also born there and descended from an old and prominent family. He was a successful farmer and owned a beautiful place which was enhanced by fine natural lakes. On her maternal side Annie McCloud was a MeGilvery and her grandfather was a Sutherland, of the famed house of Sutherland. With her sister Kate, who later became Mrs. J. H. Tobin, she came to San Francisco in 1852 with Captain and Mrs. Urey, mak- ing the trip across the Isthmus of Panama on mule back. She supported herself and her sister by sewing, and sent her sister to the convent of the Sisters of Charity, then located on the present site of the Palace Hotel, and later Kate McCloud attended the public schools in San Francisco. While trading at Master- son's store in San Francisco, Annie McCloud met Mr. Byrne, and the admiration of the young people being mutual, the acquaintance later resulted in their marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Byrne were the parents of a large family-eleven children: Bessie died while attending Notre Dame in March, 1868, the first death at that institution; Margaret died in infancy; Garry died in 1882; Robert died in San Francisco sixteen years ago, Martin died in 1898 at Glenbrook Farm; Allen resides at Sunnyvale; Charles lives at San Mateo; Joseph died in infancy; James died in 1918; Elizabeth, the wife of J. A. McDonald, and Kathryn M. and these two daughters jointly own and make their home at Glen- brook Farm. In 1873 Mrs. Byrne made a trip to Ireland with the children, then eight in number, and they spent two and a half years there, when they re- turned to San Francisco. She was a noble woman and devoted her time to the rearing of her family and in a careful oversight of their education. The boys attended Sacred Heart and St. Mary's academies, while the daughters were educated in the Dominican and Notre Dame convents at San Francisco and the Notre Dame Academy at Santa Clara. Mrs. Byrne was prominent and active in the social life of San Francisco, being a brilliant and accomplished woman; she and her sister, Mrs. Tobin, were both very popu- lar and were considered two of the most beautiful women in the Bay city.

After conducting his business in Marysville until 1858. Mr. Byrne returned to San Francisco, establish- ing himself on Clay Street, where he remained until the Lick House was opened in December, 1862. He then went into partnership with Robert Kirby, who had married Mrs. Byrne's sister, Margaret McCloud. and the Kirby-Byrne Company opened their estab- lishment at 7 Montgomery Street. Mr. Byrne was extremely successful in his business and made what was then considered a fortune in fifteen years, but like many Californians, lost much of it in mining ven- tures. After retiring from business he was for some years a deputy in the county assessor's office in San Francisco.

In 1879 Mr. and Mrs. Byrne purchased the ranch on Stevens Creek, Santa Clara County, named by Mrs. Byrne, Glenbrook Farm, from a beautiful place she had known in Ireland, and here the family made their home, developing it into an attractive estate. After his wife's death, Mr. Byrne made a trip in 1903 to Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, and two years later he crossed the Atlantic to visit his old home in Ireland, after an absence of fifty-four years. The

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remainder of his years were spent in comfortable re- tirement at Glenbrook Farm, where he passed away on January 14, 1917, highly esteemed by all who knew him, his death closing a career of unusual activity and accomplishment.

JAMES A. McDONALD .- Coming to California thirty-three years ago, James A. McDonald is num- bered among the successful orchardists of Santa Clara County, and he can look back on a life filled with varied and interesting experiences, from his boyhood days in the Maritime Provinces, to the time spent in balmy, tropical Honolulu, and then by way of severe contrast, three years spent in the frozen North, in the first gold rush to Alaska. His birth- place was Cape Breton, Canada, and he traces his ancestry back to the McDonalds and Macdonalds of Inverness and Glencoe, Scotland. Augustine and Mary (Giles) McDonald were his parents, the father born on Prince Edward Isle. Grandfather Angus McDonald and Great-grandfather Ronald McDonald came from Morarshire, Scotland, and settled on Prince Edward Island, and this was the family home for many years. There Augustine McDonald fol- lowed his trade as a builder, until his marriage, when he made his home on Cape Breton Island until his death at the age of ninety-two. Mrs. Mary Giles McDonald's grandfather came from Scotland to Prince Edward Island, and here her father, Donald Giles, was born. When a young man he came with his wife and child in an open boat to Cape Breton while it was yet a wilderness, and was one of the first settlers there, taking up land and improving it and becoming well-to-do. He built two vessels, one for each son, and for years they were engaged in trading along the Atlantic Coast. Mrs. McDonald passed away at the age of seventy-seven, the mother of thirteen children, seven of whom are living.

The fifth oldest of the family and the only one in California, James A. McDonald attended the schools of his home neighborhood until he was twelve years old, and shortly after he entered a dry goods store in Sidney as a clerk, continuing in that line of work until 1888, when he came to San Francisco. Wishing to get into the great outdoors, he followed ranching at San Rafael for five years and engaged in the same line at Hopland, Mendocino County. He next served as a deputy under Sheriff McDade at San Francisco, then went to Honolulu, where for three years he imported horses from California, sell- ing them in the Hawaiian Islands. At the time of the first gold rush to Alaska, in 1898, Mr. McDonald made his way to St. Michael and then up the Yukon to Dawson; it took from July, 1898, to June, 1899, to make the trip, as the party was frozen in en route. He was at Fairbanks when there was only one old prospector there, and they had to walk across from Rampart City. At Dawson the Canadian Government was building a telegraph line to White- horse, and he entered their employ, working on the boat handling the wire, and helping install the first telegraph instruments at the station at Dawson. After the line was completed he was mate on the steamer taking people to Whitehorse, and on the way down the river they lost the boat. All on board escaped watery graves, Mr. McDonald coming ashore hareheaded, and they walked 250 miles to Dawson, camping out nights. He continued to prospect, but after putting in three years there he returned to San Francisco in 1901, via Cape Nome.

At old St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, on April 30, 1904, Mr. McDonald was married to Miss Elizabeth Byrne, the daughter of Garrett J. and Annie (McCloud) Byrne, pioneers of San Francisco, who are represented on another page of this history. Mrs. McDonald was born at San Francisco and edu- cated at the Dominican Convent there; she is a cul- tured woman of much capability and the union has proven a very happy one. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. McDonald took up their residence on Glen- brook Farm. the Byrne homestead since 1879, and since then Mr. McDonald has devoted his time to horticulture, having reset and improved the ranch until sixty acres are now in full bearing orchard of prunes and apricots. It is beautifully located on Stevens Creek and is one of the show places of the country. Mr. McDonald is also roadmaster in the Fifth supervisorial district, having filled this office since 1905, very creditably to himself and the pub- lic, as the roads in that district well testify to his ability in that line. He is a member of the San Jose Council, K. of C., and is greatly interested in the improvement of the Santa Clara Valley, this wonder- fully favored section of the globe.

DR. J. IRVING BEATTIE .- Prominent and suc- cessful from the very beginning of his practice as a physician and surgeon, Dr. J. Irving Beattie has be- come pre-eminent among the leading medical men of Santa Clara County and is today rightly regarded as one of the first citizens of Santa Clara, in which city he has his residence and office at 1075 Benton Street. He was born in the province of Ontario. Canada, on June 1, 1883, and came to California as a young man of seventeen. When properly prepared for special work, he entered the Cooper Medical College at San Francisco, from which he was gradu- ated with honors in 1905; and then he traveled in Europe and for a year worked in the London Hos- pital. On his return to America, he spent a year at the French Hospital at San Francisco.

In 1907 he located at Santa Clara, and on the first of the year opened an office as the third doctor at the corner of Main and Benton Streets, which for decades has been the Mecca for thousands of suffer- ers, succeeding to the office of his uncle, Dr. D. A. Beattie, now located in San Jose, who in turn suc- ceeded Dr. Saxe, an early and noted practitioner at Santa Clara. Dr. Beattie's success may be in part estimated from the constant attendance of patients during the afternoon hours when he is available for office consultation. The mornings are devoted to surgical operations at the hospital, and to visiting those in distress at their own homes.

On January 12, 1907, Dr. Beattie was married to Miss Hilda Mayer. a native of San Francisco and the daughter of Charles Mayer. Jr., of the Bay metrop- olis. She is a graduate of the University of Cali- fornia, having finished her studies with the class of 1906; and she has been of inestimable service to her husband in his constantly increasing practice. Two children have blessed this union, Hermione and Yvonne. As public-spirited as he is genial. Dr. Beattie joined the ranks of the Americans in the World War and in 1918 went to Fort Riley, where he served as lieutenant until three months after the signing of the armistice.

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WILLIAM SIMPSON, M. D .- Highly esteemed as a successful physician and surgeon, with a long and enviable record of faithful. efficient service in the cause of humanity, Dr. William Simpson of San Jose enjoys a unique position in local society as one of the most interesting of old-time residents. He was born in the province of Quebec, Canada, on March 21, 1846, the son of George F. and Har- riet (Towns) Simpson, who crossed the line into the States when our subject was three years of age and settled for a while near Fort Edward, N. Y. There Mr. Simpson died, and later his devoted widow came to California and remained with her son until her death, in her eighty-eighth ycar.

William went to the district schools in New York, and later topped off his education by pursuing courses at the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute; and then he taught school for a number of years. He was the last principal at the famous Farmers Hall Academy-whose first principal. by the way, was Noah Webster-and during Mr. Simpson's service this academy was incorporated into the New York state public school system and became the academic department of the Goshen schools. He then took charge of the Union Free School at Chester, N. Y., for six years, and after that studied medicine at the Long Island College Hospital. Brooklyn's well-known medical school, from which he was graduated in 1878. He was resident physi- cian at the Brooklyn Children's Seaside Home at Coney Island, being the first physician who had ever spent a season there. After that he was for three years at Hoosick Falls, N. Y.

In 1881 he came to California and located at San Jose; and since then he has carried on the long- est term of practice of any physician near here, not one of his colleagues who were here when he came being alive today. Before coming to Cali- fornia, Dr. Simpson took a special course of study in New York City in relation to the eye, ear and throat, in which he specializes. He is now county health officer, and he has the distinction of having been the first health officer of San Jose, being ap- pointed in 1889. He it was who began the making and preservation of the records of vital statistics, which had not been kept before he took charge.

Dr. Simpson was married on April 12, 1892, at San Jose, to Miss Rose E. Denne, and they have had one daughter, Mrs. Helen Simpson Cole. The family are members of Trinity Episcopal Church. Dr. Simpson has been a Mason since February 26, 1872, having been made a Mason in Standard Lodge No. 711, A. F. and A. M., at Chester (now Mon- roe ), N. Y., and he served two terms as master and was a delegate to the Grand Lodge at New York, June 2. 1875, at the dedication of the temple there; he now belongs to San Jose Lodge No. 10, F. and A. M., and to San Jose Chapter, R. A. M. He also is a member of San Jose Lodge No. 522. B. P. O. Elks, in which society he was exalted ruler during' 1906, and attended the national annual con- vention at Philadelphia the following year. He be- longs to the Santa Clara Medical Society, having served as president, is a member of the California State Medical Society and has been vice-president of same, and is a member of the American Public Health Association; also the California State Health Officers' Association, serving as vice-president in

1922-23. Dr. Simpson was the first surgeon of the Fifth Regiment, N. G. C., and was retired with rank of major, though he served during the railroad strike and after the fire and earthquake in 1906, and was a member of the Volunteer Medical Service during the World War.

JAMES MATTHEW FELLOM. - Prominent among the native Californians who have attained distinction as writers of stirring American fiction may well be mentioned James Matthew Fellom, whose latest work, a story entitled "Celestial Chattel," has just been secured for publication in the Pictorial Review. He was born on February 7, 1880, on a ranch near Old Gilroy, in Santa Clara County, the son of Sinfriano and Anna Maria (Fellom) Fellom, the former of whom was born near Gilroy, while his mother was born in New York City, and the record of his ancestry is itself romance. His grand- father, Matthew Fellom, a sturdy Norseman, hailed from Elsinore, Denmark, and made many daring voyages in a Danish whaling vessel on the seven seas; and as early as 1833, after a hazardous trip around the Horn, left his ship while it lay at anchor at Bodega Bay. The pioneer, John Gilroy, had preceded him to this port two years before, and Grandfather Fellom, it is said, was the second white man, from Northern Continental Europe, to reach the Santa Clara Valley. Subsequently he married a beautiful senorita and himself became a don and later served as alcalde. Sinfriano Fellom was a graduate of the University of Santa Clara and was a mine operator in Lower California for many years, and was a prominent official of the Mexican gov- ernment. being secretary to Governor Luis Torres and was territorial postmaster at Ensenada: later on he located at San Francisco and made a second trip during a big mining boom to Sierra Pintada, from which point he anticipated penetrating the Lower California desert, perishing in the attempt.

Life on the rancho of 2.000 acres, which Matthew Fellom later owned, was a continuation of the wed- ding feast, and many gaieties were enjoyed by all the neighbors in the vicinity of the old town of Gilroy; and it is not surprising that Matthew became the first alcalde at San Juan Bautista under the Amer- ican regime. He had a younger brother named Caius Julius Fellom, who had left Denmark after Matthew; and it was when the latter made a sec- ond trip from New York to California in the early fifties that the two brothers met at Gilroy for the first time, Caius having been born after Matthew left Denmark. A New Yorker had been out to the Santa Clara Valley and while here had learned of, or met, a Fellom at Gilroy; and having reported this fact to Caius Julius Fellom on his return to the East, the meeting was eventually brought about. On the trip from San Francisco down the Peninsula. Cains J. Fellom came on foot, and he could relate much to his friends of the richness of the valley. The giant mustard grew to such height that a man on horseback would never be able to see beyond and around him.

Caius Julius Fellom remained in the Santa Clara Valley and located near Oak Hill, near the site of the Oak Hill cemetery of today; and six months later he sent for his wife and children who came out to California in 1860. via the Panama Isthmus, and then for a time they all lived in a house on

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Devine Street, San Jose. Matthew Fellom, on the other hand, surrounded by every comfort that re- sources and wealth could bring to the early Dons, lived only to middle age.

Mr. and Mrs. Sinfriano Fellom were first cousins, and James Fellom, our subject, is the eldest child in a family of five children; Landon is a miner and publisher at San Francisco; Roy, a magazine pub- lisher and a member of assembly of the State Legis- lature from San Francisco, and there was a brother and a sister who died young. Mrs. Sinfriano Fellom was a graduate of Notre Dame convent and was talented in music and literature. She now makes her home in San Francisco. When James was eight months old his parents removed from Gilroy to San Jose, and while the children were growing up, the father arranged for their education in the best schools. At the age of fourteen, James grad- uated from the Franklin school, and then he spent a term at St. Joseph's College in San Jose, where he studied Latin and Greek and the English classics under Father John Walsh, to whose scholarship, personality and association he has always been in- debted. He also received private training in lit- erary studies and in elocution, and after attending St. Ignatius College in San Francisco for a term, he set out for Mexico at the age of eighteen. His father had already entered into mining, and he went there with him on a mining expedition. They were at Camp Alamo, in Lower California, for a year and a half; but their efforts were crowned with failure, and their return was made with an Indian guide and a pack-mule,-150 miles of "hike" amid memorable and fascinating scenery.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 81

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