History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 86

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

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Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings became the parents of five children: John A., William E., Georgia E., Norma E., deceased, and Adele F. Two grandchildren, Jean and Muriel Rawlings, have brought joy to their grandparents. For more than half a century a resi- dent of this neighborhood, Mr. Rawlings has con- tributed much to its development by his industry and public-spiritedness and has seen the transformation of the large fields of grain to very productive orchards. and himself has aided in this work. He helped organize Valley View School district and served three terms as a trustee. He also aided in getting the paved highway on Almaden Road, and for twenty years he has given his services as deputy assessor.

Politically he has always been an adherent of the Democratic party.

JOHN JAMES DEVINE .- Now living retired at San Jose, is John James Devine, an early pioneer of northern California. He is descended from a line of sturdy Irish ancestors, and was born in Dublin, Ireland, August 15, 1830, the son of Thomas and Catherine (McCann) Devine. His parents were born, reared, married and died in Ireland and their last resting place is in Dublin, at Glass Nevin. His education was received from the public schools of Dublin. After leaving school, he entered the em- ploy of a groceryman as clerk, remaining in that capacity until he embarked for America. In April, 1851, Mr. Devine, set sail for America in a clipper ship, "Racer," built at Baton Rouge, La., with 900 passengers on board. Upon his arrival in New York City, he worked steadily in one place seven years. His brother, Pat Devine and himself, are the only living members of the Devine family. Pat Devine was a scafaring man, encountering many hardships on his voyages. On one trip to China, his vessel, the "Racer," on which our subject came to America, was caught in a typhoon, the masts were broken, the sails stripped to ribbons by the furious lashing of the wind and waves.

Mr. Devine left New York City in 1859 on the John L. Stephens by way of Panama, arriving in San Francisco with the small sum of sixty-five dol- lars in gold. He soon found employment clerking in a grocery store, but soon became enthused with the stories of the great wealth to be obtained in the mines, so he went to Placerville. He remained there but a short time when he went to Sacramento. From Sacramento he journeyed to Folsom over the first railroad built in California. From Folsom he took the stage to Placerville and on the day of his arrival the first pony express came through, which created a great deal of excitement. His mining ventures did not prove very profitable, and he soon was back in San Francisco; however, he was not satisfied but removed to San Jose during the year of 1860, and has continuously lived in this section ever since. His natural industry led him to do any- thing that he could find to do to earn an honest living. He was employed on the rebuilding of the famous Santa Clara Mission. By strict economy he managed to save a sufficient amount of money to open a grocery store in San Jose, which business continued until 1906, when he retired from active business life, to enjoy the fruits of his years of toil, which have brought him a competency that has been well deserved.

The marriage of Mr. Devine occurred in San Jose in 1862, uniting him with Miss Catherine Cork- ery, horn in Cork, Ireland. She came to America about 1859 landing at New Orleans, but soon em- harked for California. She passed away September 19, 1908, at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Devine were the parents of nine children: Mary, now the wife of T. O'Neill, a stonecutter who resides in San Jose; Teressa, who lives with her father; Agnes, the wife of C. Mensing, a grocery- man of Santa Barbara: Catherine, a graduate of the San Jose State Normal, is a teacher in the Lincoln grammar school in San Jose; Elizabeth is the wife of F. Gardner and they reside in San Francisco; Ellen, deceased in infancy; Joseph Mark is em-

I. S. Rawlings

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ployed in the City of Paris store and resides in San Francisco; Augustin died when he was twelve years old; Ignatius is an engineer for the Southern Pa- cific Railroad Company and resides in San Jose. Mr. Devine has twelve grandchildren and three great- grandchildren. He was a member of the first volunteer fire department of San Jose. He is a Democrat in his political convictions. The family are active and prominent members of the St. Joseph's Catholic Church. He is well known throughout the county, and the esteem in which he is held is evi- dence of his well-spent life.

HON. PERLEY FRANCIS GOSBEY .- California owes much, as one of the most attractive corners of the world in which to live, thrive and be happy, to its distinguished members of the Bench and Bar, and prominent among whom may well be mentioned the Hon. Perley Francis Gosbey, Judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, where he has made Department Two widely known for the high stand- ards set in handling probate matters and the dispen- sation of justice. He was born on May 15, 1859, at Santa Clara, the son of Joseph F. and Sarah (Smith) Gosbey who were married in 1856. Mr. Gosbey, Senior, was born in Nova Scotia in 1825, came to California via Panama in 1853 and settled in Santa Clara. He ran a hotel, called the Morgan House, in San Jose for a number of years, giving this up to en- gage in the shoe business, which he conducted for fifty years He died in 1915, having reached almost ninety years of age. Mrs. Gosbey was born in Ohio in 1838, came to this state with her father, Ansyl Smith, crossing the Isthmus in 1852, and settled in Santa Clara; Mrs. Gosbey died in 1903. The later years of their lives Mr. and Mrs. Gosbey lived in Pa- cific Grove. There were two sons and two daughters in the Gosbey family, three of whom are still living.

Perley F. Gosbey pursued the elementary courses and was graduated from the Santa Clara high school in 1875. He then went to the University of the Pa- cific, and there in 1880 he was given his Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1881 he began teaching school and for four years was a teacher in the San Jose high school. Thus far he had laid the foundation for fu- ture attainment; but how well in this preparatory work he had builded can can be seen in the success he has attained as a professional man. Having de- cided upon the law as his future field, Mr. Gosbey went East to the University of Michigan and there matriculated in the Law Department; in 1888 he re- ceived his parchment and the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In June of that year he was admitted to the Bar at Ann Arbor, Mich .; and having returned to his native State. Mr. Gosbey was admitted, in the follow- ing September, to practice at the California Bar. In November, 1908, after years of private practice in which he had proven himself exceptionally qualified for work on the Bench, Mr. Gosbey was elected Judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, and he has continued to hold that high office ever since.

On October 28, 1891, Mr. Gosbey was united in marriage with Miss Susan Rucker, the ceremony tak- ing place at San Jose. Mrs. Gosbey is a daughter of Joseph E. and Susan (Brown) Rucker, born in Santa Clara County and a gifted and attractive lady who has more and more shared in the Judge's increasing popularity. A prominent man in fraternal circles, Judge Gosbey is a Scottish Rite and Knights Tem-

plar Mason and a Shriner. He is a Past Grand Mas- ter of the Odd Fellows and Past Exalted Ruler of the Elks and belongs to Observatory Parlor No. 177, Native Sons of the Golden West and is a member of the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County. A native son, not merely in name but in the intensity of his patriotic spirit, Judge Gosbey has always been conspicuous for his public-spiritedness. For four years he was a member of the Board of Education of San Jose, acting as its president.

FRANK KENYON .- Three miles west of Santa Clara, on the Homestead Road, lies the finely im- proved ranch of ninety acres of Frank Kenyon, the son of that worthy pioneer, James Monroe Kenyon. When the father first located upon this land in 1850, having come to California the year previous; he set- tled as a squatter, and on discovering that it was private property, bought 242 acres. He was born in Ohio on the banks of the Ohio River just opposite the town of Vanceburg. His father, Jonathan Ken- yon, came to Ohio when a young man, and locating in Adams County followed agricultural pursuits until his death. He served as a soldier in the War of 1812, and while a resident of Ohio he acted as a justice of the peace and a lawyer. He married Sarah Strat- ton, a daughter of Aaron Stratton, a native of Vir- ginia and a soldier in the War of 1812, who removed to the Blue Grass state and engaged in the manu- facture of salt; he was an extensive slave owner and prominent in the community.

Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Kennedy were the parents of seven sons, James Monroe being next to the youngest. He received a fair education in the pub- lic schools and meantime helped his father on the farm until he was sixteen years old, when he was apprenticed to learn the carpenter's trade. After completing his trade he contracted throughout Adams County and in Cincinnati, then engaged in his trade in various parts of Missouri until 1849, when he started for California, making the trip with ox teams. In the Spring of 1850 he entered the mines, where he remained until the next fall, when he came to Santa Clara Valley; later purchased the property on which Frank Kenyon now resides. In Missouri he married Martha Roberts, the daughter of Woodford Roberts. They were the parents of six children, of whom only three are living; James M. resides at Saratoga; Emma is now Mrs. Slavens and resides at Santa Clara; and Frank, of this sketch.

A native of Santa Clara County, Frank Kenyon was born on the old Kenyon home place March 1. 1861, and went to school at Milligan Corners, later attending the private school of Mr. Collins at Santa Clara. He then assisted his father on the ranch, which was mostly in grain. When the father passed away, the ranch was divided among the children, Frank Kenyon receiving ninety-one acres as his por- tion of the estate. Of this all but twenty acres is in orchard. Fifty acres have been divided among his children, and the balance he retains as his home.

On April 18, 1883, in Linn County, Ore., Mr. Kenyon married Miss Martha Wheeler, a native of Albany, Ore. Her father was a native of Vermont, who came to Oregon in 1857 via the Isthmus of Panama; after his arrival in Oregon he engaged in teaching and later bought a ranch and farmed. Mrs. Kenyon began her education in Oregon, but finished it in Santa Clara. They are the parents of six

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

children: Harvey, residing at Mountain View; Alfred W .: Anna: Harriet, Mrs. Meston, resides at Vic- toria, B. C .: Frank Jr .; and Elizabeth. In his political affiliations, Mr. Kenyon is a Republican.

JOHN M. BATTEE .- A figure prominent in county circles and the community life of San Jose for half a century and a man esteemed and respected hy those early pioneers, many of them his business and social friends, John M. Battee passed away in this city October 30, 1921, at the age of ninety-three. He was one of the oldest members of the Garden City Lodge, I. O. O. F. His life was one of useful- ness and energy, which left its imprint in many ways upon the Santa Clara Valley. The records of the events of the supervisors' meetings of 1870 show how active Mr. Battee was in that period. He was elected and assumed the office of county supervisor on March 7, 1870, and continued as a member and chairman of the board until March 4, 1878. This was a time when San Jose was growing steadily and beginning to assume proportions other than the cen- ter of an agricultural district. On June 2, 1874, James Lick executed his first trust deed setting aside his estate for charitable and educational work, among the provisions of that document being those giving $25,000 for the purpose of establishing an orphan asylum in San Jose and appropriating $700,000 tor an observatory on land belonging to him near Lake Tahoe, in Placer County. Gratitude for the former gift, in resolutions prepared by Judge Belden, of San Jose, was so deeply acknowledged that Mr. Lick changed the location for the observatory and in August, 1875, with Hon. B. D. Murphy, then mayor of San Jose, visited Mount Hamilton. An offer was made to locate the observatory on Mount Hamilton it the county would construct the road to the sum- mit. On January 9, 1877, the Lick board of trustees and county supervisors made an official inspection. The following is quoted from H. S. Foote's "Pen Pic- tures from the Garden of the World:" "Probably the most earnest and untiring friend of the road was Supervisor J. M. Battee. To his devotion to the cause is due, more than to any other one man, the successful termination of the great work that has attracted the attention of the scientific world to the summit of Mount Hamilton." Mr. Battee was a man who was modest and plain in manner and speech. determined. honest in all his dealings and one of the most far-sighted and efficient county officials of the closing quarter of the past century. Many obstacles faced the supervisors in building the road. Mr. Battee stood determinedly through them all. The valuation of the county at that time was about forty millions. To build a road costing approxi- mately $135.000 was considered quite a bite from the tax levy U'nder the guidance of John M. Battec the road was built without a bond issue, excepting for a small portion, totaling about $12,000 at the mountain end Mr. Battee was a native of Mary- land, born on November 3, 1827. He came via Pan- ama to California in the early fifties, and here he was married to Miss Clarissa MeKean, a native of Ohio, who died many years ago. For years the family resided at their home on Sunol Street, San

Jose, but in recent years Mr. Battee lived with a son at Los Gatos. He is survived by two daughters and three sons: Mrs. Terry McKean, Mrs. Louis E. Wood, Albert J., Fred and Phillip Battec. In his later years Mr. Battee was actively engaged in horti- culture, although in the early days he was a grain farmer, owning large ranches here as well as in the Salinas Valley. He developed a large prune orchard at Los Gatos, which still belongs to the family. He was one of the founders and for many years a director in the Farmers' Union at San Jose.

MRS. EVERIS ANSON HAYES .- A native of Wisconsin, Mrs. Everis Anson Hayes was born at Whitewater, the daughter of Dwight Bassett and Lucetta Wood Bassett, the former a native of Plain- field, Mass., and the latter of Cattaraugus County. N. Y. Dwight Bassett, when a young man, migrated to Whitewater, Wis., where he met and married Miss Wood, who had come to Wisconsin with her parents in the pioneer days of that region. Mr. Bassett was among the early and prominent nursery- men of that state and there he spent the remainder of his life. Mrs. Bassett, now in her eighty-ninth year, makes her home with her daughter at Edenvale.

Mary Bassett was educated in the public schools of her native state. Very early in her life she became interested in teaching. Her first school was taught when she was fifteen years of age, and except for the four years spent in the State Normal School in Whitewater, where she graduated in 1882, and one year spent in advance work in New York City, she was continuously teaching in the public schools of Whitewater, Wis., and Greeley and Denver, Colo., until the summer of 1893, when she was married to E. A. Hayes, a publisher and mining man of Santa Clara County, Calif. It should be said that in her career as a teacher she was unusually successful. having the ready faculty of interesting her pupils in the practical application of their acquired knowledge. She was especially gifted in handling the primary grades, being able to interest the young minds under her charge in a most unusual way, thus giving them a start that very few teachers could equal. Coming into the family life at Edenvale at a time when Mrs. Hayes-Chynoweth was still living and very active. the principles which she taught and exemplified ap- pealed very strongly to Mrs. Hayes and she em- braced them, assisting actively in their promulgation ; she became very much attached to Mrs. Chynoweth and was much beloved by her.

When her husband was elected to Congress in 1904. Mrs. Hayes, with her family, accompanied him to Washington, there participating heartily with her husband in the public life of the Capital of the nation, becoming prominent in the Congressional Club, where for several years she was chairman of the entertainment committee, providing the club with able speakers and artists from all over the world. She made it her special interest to look out for the wives of new members of Congress, seeing to it that they were .not only invited to the functions at her own home, but that they were properly introduced into the social life in Washington, thus making it

IM Batte

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

easier for many to assume and enter upon the social duties which necessarily belong to the wives of offi- cials at Washington. These efforts were appreciated and endeared her to all with whom she came in contact and, as a result, she has today a host of warm and steadfast friends among the wives and families of the members of Congress from all parts of the Union. Mrs. Hayes is modest and unassum- ing and absolutely free from the ordinary deceptions of social life, so that those whom she loves and to whom she is a friend naturally respond with an affection and constancy that have blessed her life as very few women have been blessed. An ideal wife and mother, her family and home life are the things that are nearest and dearest to her and have largely occupied her heart and life, although she has found. and still finds, time for much charitable and public work of various kinds.

LOREN N. GIFFORD .- A fine old California pioneer family is that of Loren N. Gifford, who was born in Illinois on March 21, 1861, the son of Alexander and Lucinda (Plesanton) Gifford, the former a farmer who came from Illinois to Califor- nia in 1852, when he crossed the great plains. He returned to Illinois from California in 1855. Later, he removed to the frontier of Kansas, and there, in Crawford County, he breathed his last. He was the father of six children. Myra is the eldest; Myron A. is a resident of Denver; Melvin A. Gifford lives in Stockton; Loren is the subject of this review. William is still in Crawford County, Kans .; Freeman, who came to California about 1890, is ranching on the Almaden Road. Mrs. Gifford passed away in Kansas when Loren was about ten years old; and her devoted husband survived her three years.

Loren Gifford came to California in 1875 with his brother, Melvin, and on arriving at Berryessa, he worked for his uncle, H. Tillotson. He attended school at Berryessa, and then he took first one job and then another at various places. He next went to Yuba County, and for two years farmed near Marysville; and on returning to Berryessa, he was married on October 27. 1886, to Miss Laura J. Ogan, the daughter of J. M. Ogan, a native of Jefferson County, Missouri, where he first saw light near St. Joseph. He grew up to be a frontiersman and a farmer, and married Miss Marcissa E. Dryden; he settled in the Mt. Hamilton Road and farmed at the foot of the hills. Later, he came to Berryessa and acquired a ranch of 217 acres at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Hostetter Street, now known as the Or- lando ranch; he also came to own a ranch of 300 acres on Pearl Avenue, and also 200 acres of grain- farm in Hollister. He sold the Hollister property and divided up the Pearl Avenue ranch among his sons; Laura Ogan attended the Berryessa school, and after that she went to the old San Jose high school. Thus the family, on both sides, is of old- line, American stock.

For six years, Loren Gifford rented the old Alex- ander Ogan ranch of 150 acres on Sierra road, and then he bought twenty acres adjoining that ranch on the west. He later bought an acre of land in Berryessa, and having remodelled the house then on it, he has lived there ever since. For four years he worked in the U. S. Public Health Service in the

great work of exterminating the ground squirrel, and for three years, in response to his public spirit, he served on the Berryessa school board. A member of the Woodmen of the World, Mr. Gifford is a past council commander of the Alum Rock lodge.

A son of Mr. Gifford, Arnold by name, was mar- ried at San Francisco, on November 9, 1914, to Miss Maude N. Smith, the sister of O. J. Smith, whose life-story appears elsewhere in this volume; and they have had three children-Clifford, June Doris, and Fern Jane. Arnold Gifford was born on October 2. 1892, and was sent to the Berryessa school for his elementary training, and later he was fortunate in getting the best that Heald's Business College could afford. In 1914, he took over the running of the Sierra Road ranch, and for a number of years oper- ated the farm successfully. At present he is a partner with O. J. Smith in the Berryessa Garage, where he enjoys much the same popularity as has been ac- corded him in the Alum Rock lodge of the Woodmen of the World, in which, like his father, he is a popu- lar and active member.

EBERHARD TANNING COMPANY .- Promi- nent among the substantial industries which have ma- terially contributed to make Santa Clara widely fa- mous may well be enumerated the Eberhard Tanning Company's plant, interesting as the oldest manufac- turing concern continuously in business here, since 1848, when it was established by Henry Messing. It employs eighty men steadily; and while it is evi- dent that its total output is great, it has been main- tained and increased its prosperity because it has never lowered its high standard of quality. It also has the distinction of being the oldest tannery on the Pacific Coast. As one of the natural consequences, the experienced, far-sighted and decidedly progressive men at the helm exert an enviable influence in the community in which they operate and live.

The company was incorporated in February, 1892, and Jacob Eberhard, who was a native of Kehl, Germany, and passed away in May, 1915, highly honored by all who knew him, was the first presi- dent, and he continued to fill that responsible office until his demise. He had married Miss Mary Glein, a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, and they had ten chil- dren, all being born in Santa Clara.

The company makes a specialty of tanning skins of all kinds, even for taxidermists, and they make sole leather, harness leather and especially leather for saddles-known to the trade as skirting-and they have in their time filled some very interesting com- missions. The most beautiful and highest-priced sad- dle in the United States, for example, is owned by J. C. Miller, of the 101 Wild West Show. It is hand- carved and set with gold and precious stones, and cost its owner $10,000. It was made by S. D. Myers. of Sweetwater, Tex .; and contains 166 diamonds. 120 sapphires, seventeen rubies, four garnets, and fifteen pounds of skirting with silver and gold. The leather in it was tanned and finished by the Eberhard Tan- ning Company, and it goes without saying that it was the best that they could produce.

The present officers of the Eberhard Tanning Com- pany are: John J. Eberhard, president; Oscar M. Eberhard, vice-president: Miss M. Eberhard, secre- tary and treasurer. Henry P. Eberhard, who was its former secretary, died March 6, 1921.

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MARSHALL POMEROY .- It is interesting to chronicle the life of the pioneer, the man who in his prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as his heritage, and by braving the perils and hardships began the improving of the land, so that it is possible for the later generation to enjoy the ease and comfort of the present-day civilization, wrought by the hand of those pioneer ancestors. Rapidly these grand old men are passing away, and among the very few remaining of the early settlers of Santa Clara County is Marshall Pomeroy, a rep- resentative of the Pomeroy family, whose entrance into California history dates back to 1849, when Warren Pomeroy, the father of our subject, landed at San Francisco, having come hither via the Isthmus of Panama in the early rush to the gold mines.

Warren Pomeroy was born in Somers, Conn., in 1801, and was of English descent, the family being traced back to Pomeroy Castle, in England, and they were among the early settlers of New England Mr. Pomeroy married Lucetta Wardwell, also a native of Somers. He was engaged in the marble business and had built it up to a successful basis when the news of the gold discovery in California went abroad, and leaving the business in charge of his sons, he made haste to reach the new El Dorado. On arriv- ing in San Francisco he at once made his way to the mines and for several years sought the elusive golden treasure, but finally chose agriculture as a surer way to fortune, locating in Santa Clara County, where he did much pioneer agricultural work. He made three trips back to his old home, bringing his wife and the remaining children out in 1859, three sons having already come to California. In 1865 he moved to San Jose, which was from that time his permanent home. He retired from active business some time before his death, which occurred in 1891, his wife having preceded him some years before.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 86

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