History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 91

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

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JOHN McBAIN .- A building contractor who has made for himself an enviable reputation as a first- class contractor in building, both for the originality of his up-to-date work and the thoroughness and de- pendability of his workmanship, is John McBain of Noble Avenue, about two and a half miles east of Berryessa. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 29, 1877, the son of Angus and Elizabeth (Saugec) McBain-the former a descendant of an old-line Scotch family. the latter a native of Bo- hemia, of Czecho-Slovanian ancestry. Mr. McBain

was a building contractor, well known in Glasgow for his extensive operations; and it is rather natural that our subject should also rise to prominence in this field.

After attending the graded school until he was eleven years old, John set out to make his own liv- ing. He served an apprenticeship under John Forbes of Glasgow, and when nineteen commenced to con- tract on his own responsibility. He did well enough in the crowded Old World, but was sure that he could do better in the New; and so, in 1902, he crossed the ocean to New York, where he remained for three years, busy building as a contractor. Then, in 1905, he came to San Francisco, and there he worked for six months. His next shift took him to San Mateo, but he stayed only a short while and went on to Sacramento, in which city various com- panies kept him engaged for a year and a half.

In 1908, Mr. McBain removed to Mountain View. Santa Clara County, where he made his residence, at the same time he started to contract in San Mateo. He also established himself at Burlingame, where he lived for about three years. In 1918 he purchased a ranch of thirty acres on Noble Road, east of Berry- essa, and he has lived on this ranch ever since. He also owns ten acres at Mountain View. Both of these ranches are set out with apricot trees, and both are irrigated. He also owns a ranch of seventy-six acres on the Calaveras Road, in the hills east of Mil- pitas, where part of the land is given to an apricot orchard, and part to the raising of hay.

At Sausalito, on January 2, 1906, Mr. McBain was married to Miss Emma Carlson, a native of San Jose and the daughter of John and Johanna (Johnson) Carlson. Her father came to California from Chi- cago in 1874, and for years had a well-known hotel at the corner of Second and San Fernando streets, and in the hotel field he continued until 1883. Her mother died in her fifty-sixth year. Mrs. McBain at- tended the old Lincoln, and later the Horace Mann school, and still later she went to the Hester and the Mountain View schools. She also was a student for two years at the San Jose high school, and after that she pursued a business college course. A sister of Mrs. McBain, named Anna, is married and has be- come Mrs. McComb Houghton of Astoria. Five children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Bain; Edith J., Frank E., Angus Carlson. John Charles and Dorris Joan, and they are all in the San Jose schools. Mr. and Mrs. McBain are stanch Re- publicans, and Mr. McBain is a member of the B. P. O. E., belonging to the San Mateo lodge. He also belongs to the Masons of Mountain View, and to the Scottish Rite body at San Francisco.

Mr. McBain is the second in a family of eight children. Mary, the firstborn, has become Mrs. Duncan McClellan of Dennistoun, a suburb of Glas- gow. Theresa is at Pacific Grove; Christina is Mrs. Darrah of Mountain View; Frank lives at Portland; Angus is at Mountain View, and Elizabeth lives at the same place; William, who gave his life during the World War; Frank served from 1917 to 1919 with the Canadian engineers and went through the worst of the fighting without sustaining a wound. He was also one of the Army of Occupation. Wil- liam enlisted in 1914 with the Scotch Highland In- fantry, and went through some terrible battles, and was killed at Vimy Ridge.

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MRS. GERALDINE E. FRISBIE .- A woman of rare capabilities and good business judgment is Ger- aldine E. Frisbie, the efficient president of the Wo- man's Relief Corps Home of California, and past na- tional president, having served as president of the na- tional Woman's Relief Corps during 1912-13. Since November 10, 1921, the Woman's Relief Corps Home of California has been located at Winchester, Santa Clara County, where it now owns thirteen acres, for- merly owned by Dr. and Mrs. A. E. Osborne, and known as Osborne Hall. Too much credit cannot he given to the noble women who have built up this insti- tution, which provides a real home to mothers, wives, widows, sisters and daughters of Union veterans of the Civil War. It is a state institution, being amenable to the State Board of Control, but an institution which primarily owes its existence to philanthropic and noble California women, starting with Mr. Cadwallader's donation of five and thirty hundredths acres at Ever- green in Santa Clara County, where the first Home was built and occupied until destroyed by fire October 10. 1920. Mrs. Geraldine E. Frisbie was then its president, and through the loyal and hearty support and cooperation of the secretary, Mrs. Sarah J. Farwell, no time was lost in getting temporary quarters for the inmates, who were left in sore distress. Appeals were immediately addressed to the various W. R. C. posts of the state, who re- sponded very promptly in sending money, clothing and food, while the state anthorities gave the use of one of the buildings at Agnew, until November 10, 1921. when the present premises had been secured. Dr. and

Mrs. A. E. Osborne have given liberally. The sum of $12,500 was obtained as insurance on the former Home at Evergreen. Several thousand dollars have already been expended in remodeling and fitting up Osborne Hall for the Home. Of the $55,000 now in- vested at Winchester, the women have raised $20,000, while the state has appropriated the balance. It will be necessary to purchase some more land in order to meet the needs of the Home, and a movement is now on foot whereby its holdings will be increased to eighteen acres. The present officers of the Woman's Relief Corps Home are as follows: Geraldine E. Frisbie, president, San Mateo; Mary Alice Arthur, matron, Winchester; Mrs. Belle Donovan, vice-presi- dent, San Francisco; Mrs. Sarah J. Farwell, secretary, Oakland; Mrs. Carrie L. Hoyt, treasurer, Berkeley; in addition to the president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, the board of directors consists of: Pearl M. Baum, Hayward; Sarah A. Martin (wife of Commander Russell C. Martin of the Veterans' Home at Napa) Napa; and Mrs. Mary L. Farmer, San Fran- cisco. These women have served well and faithfully. the secretary, Mrs. Sarah J. Farwell, having rendered efficient and faithful service for twenty-six years.

Mrs. Geraldine Elizabeth Frisbie is a native of Rochester, N. Y., a daughter of Hiram D. and Sarah B. (Hall) Sutton. The mother died at the age of twenty-six; her father married the second time and moved to Washington, where the years of Mrs. Fris- bie's early childhood were passed. The Sutton fam- ily were prominent English people of wealth and in- fluence in London, and were the founders of a home for the aged ministers and their families in London. Owen P. Sutton, an unele, came to San Francisco in 1849; was prominent in the Pioneers Society of which he was one of its first presidents and was also

a member of the Legislature of California. He was a successful banker and was largely interested in min- ing and built many buildings in San Francisco.

Geraldine Sutton was educated in public and pri- vate schools of Rochester, N. Y. Her first marriage occurred in San Francisco on March 20, 1866, and united her with Lester P. Cooley, a native of Ver- mont. He was a rancher, later owning the Ravens- wood ranch near Dumbarton bridge. They became the parents of five children, all sons, of whom two died in childhood. Those that grew up are: William L., Charles Philip and Frank H. William L. was en- gaged in seafaring, and has three children; Harry pur- sued the night studies in the navigation school at the same time that he was a student in the San Francisco Polytechnic High from which he graduated in 1913. and soon thereafter graduated from the navigation school. He enlisted in the Navy during the World War, but transferred to the Merchant Marine, and sailed the seas during that entire conflict. He was pro- moted to first officer; Lester P .. an ensign in the U. S. Navy was stationed at Brest, France, during the late war; Olive is a graduate nurse, who served during the latter part of the World War. She married Horace Miller, resides in Los Angeles and is the mother of one child, Betty Jean. Charles Philip is a member of the Board of Supervisors, Santa Clara County, re- sides in Palo Alto, and has one child, Stanley. Frank H. resides at San Mateo, where he is engaged in ranching, he is the father of six children; Gerald Mortimer; Harold; Elizabeth is the wife of Dr. Geo. B. Lemon, D. D. S., resides at Salinas and is mother of one child, George Gerald; William L; Charles . P; and Francis W.

Lester P. Cooley passed away in 1882, and in No- vember, 1883, Mrs. Cooley married at Redwood City Mr. Frisbie, a Civil War veteran, who served three years with the Wisconsin troops as first lieutenant and special aide and private secretary to General Charles Devan; he passed away in 1885. Since 1887 Mrs. Frisbie has been active in Relief Corps work, serving faithfully and well and she has the loyal sup- port and cooperation of her six coworkers and matron in the care of the Home and its thirty inmates.

NATHAN L. LESTER-WILLIAM WALTER LESTER .- Among the representative horticulturists of Santa Clara County, whose methods have been backed by hard work and close application to the task in hand are Nathan L. and William Walter Lester. Nathan L. was born in Ledyard, Conn., January 20, 1876, and William Walter was born in the same town October 20, 1879; their parents were Nathan L. and Sarah E. (Spicer) Lester, both born in Ledyard, Conn. The father was born January 1, 1843, and was the third oldest of a family of ten children. His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm and very early he learned lessons of industry and thrift. The first time he came to Cali- fornia was in 1861 and in company with his brother Amos settled in Napa County and leased a tract of land and raised wheat and was thus engaged for seven years; he then returned to Connecticut and settled on a farm and remained there until 1883, when he again removed to California, and came this time to the Santa Clara County and purchased the homestead on Lincoln Avenue in the Willows dis- trict, San Jose. He began his horticultural ac- tivities with but one thing in mind, a determination

Murs Geraldine E. Frisbie

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

to succeed and the task was pleasurable to him and success crowned his labors to an unusual degree. He first planted thirty-one acres to prunes, which proved to be a profitable venture. There were times of discouragement, but these were courageously met. He married Miss Sarah E. Spicer in 1871, the daughter of that prominent and distinguished citi- zen of Ledyard, Conn., Judge Edmund Spicer, who had married Bethiah W. Avery. Judge Spicer was a school teacher, farmer and merchant, and also held many positions of trust and honor in New Lon- don County. He was a member of the school board for many years; was postmaster, county clerk, county treasurer, and in 1849 was elected to repre- sent his district in the state legislature, and :.. 1862 was a candidate for the state senate, and for twelve years served as judge of the probate court. During early life he served as captain of a rifle company, and ever afterward was known as Captain Spicer. He was one of the charter members of the Led- yard Library Association and served as its secretary for eighteen successive years. In 1867 he was elected treasurer and librarian and continued until his death in 1890. He was a prominent member of the Congregational Church. Mr. and Mrs. Spicer were the parents of seven children, Mrs. Lester be- ing the third in order of birth. While building a dryer, Mr. Lester fell from a ladder and sustained injuries from which he died June 27, 1900. He was a highly honored and respected citizen of Santa Clara County, a thorough straightforward business man and could be counted upon to keep his word. Mr. and Mrs. Lester were the parents of seven children, Nathan L. being next to the oldest, and William Walter being the third oldest.

Both brothers were educated in the district schools of Willow Glen, and Nathan L. was also graduated from the Garden City Business College, San Jose, and William Walter attended the Washburn school. From their youth they had always assisted their father on the ranch, and were thus able to continue along the same lines that he had so ably established. The brothers' first purchase was a forty-acre piece in the Campbell district on the Johnson and Hamil- ton roads; it is in full-bearing prune trees, and is irrigated from a deep well. They next bought seven- teen acres in the same district, making a total of fifty-seven acres. Later they purchased a ninety-acre orchard on the Pentetencia Creek and White roads, devoted to prunes and apricots; this is also well irri- gated. The home place of the Lesters is located on the Santa Clara-Saratoga road and consists of 254 acres set to prunes; on this ranch there are three deep irrigating wells and centrifugal pumps are used. On the west side of the highway is Nathan L.'s palatial country home, while on the east side of the road is William's modern residence. The ranch in the Berryessa district is irrigated by a deep well equipped with a turbine pump. The brothers also have a two-thirds interest in a 192-acre prune orchard between Los Gatos and Campbell. They also own several pieces of valuable downtown busi- ness property on Market Street in San Francisco, and also own a controlling interest in the St. Francis Realty Company, which owns four valuable pieces of downtown business property in San Francisco and of which Nathan L. is president. He is also a director in the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association.

Nathan I. was married in Santa Clara in June. 1907, to Miss Sylvia Hughes, a native of Pittsburgh, Pa .. a daughter of William B. and Katherine Hughes. Her father was an abstractor in Pittsburgh. Pa., until he brought his family to Santa Clara County in 1905, where they still make their home. Mrs. Lester received her education in the grammar and high schools of Pittsburgh. Mr. and Mrs. Les- ter are the parents of two children, Katherine and Nathan L., Jr. In all their holdings and transactions the brothers are equal partners and they both give it their entire attention.

William Walter was married in San Jose in May, 1914, to Miss Ethel V. Gerrans, born in Plymouth, Cal., a daughter of Jeremiah Gerrans, who was a gold miner in the early pioneer days of California. They are the parents of two children, William Wal- ter, Jr., and Elizabeth Viola. Mr. Lester is a mem- ber of Fraternity Lodge No. 399, F. & A. M., San Jose, and with his wife is a member of San Jose Chapter of the Eastern Star; he is also a member of the Sciots. Both brothers have maintained the stand- ard of honesty and industry followed by their father and are valued and prominent citizens of the county.

WALTER J. GARDNER .- A successful orchard- ist and dairyman is found in Walter J. Gardner, whose ranch is on the Homestead Road, and on this same place his father settled in 1860. Walter J. was born November 1, 1878, the son of L. E. and Jo- hanna (McCoy) Gardner, the former a native of Maine, and the latter of Simcoe, Canada. The father was a pioneer of Santa Clara County who came to California in 1852, first going into the mines of the Placerville district; later he went to San Francisco and engaged in the draying business. He then located in the Santa Clara Valley and for two years engaged in hunting, furnishing game for the San Francisco market. In 1860 he bought 160 acres on the Home- stead Road, a portion of which Walter J. Gardner now occupies. The land was covered with brush and Mr. Gardner set to work and cleared it and planted it to grain. The mother also came to Cali- fornia in the early days. They were the parents of four children; Ella, Mrs. Arment of San Jose; Wal- ter J .; Lee resides at Watsonville; Eva is Mrs. J. J. Murphy, whose husband is on the police force of San Jose; and Viola, a trained nurse, at O'Connor's Sanitarium. The father lived to be sixty-three and the mother fifty-eight years old.

Walter J. attended the Collins school and the Santa Clara high school, and later Stanford University; afterwards he went to Elko, Nev., and worked in the quartz mines in the Tuscarora district near Inde- pendence Valley and spent two years in this occupa- tion; he then returned to Santa Clara County and assumed control of his portion of his father's estate.

During 1903, in Santa Clara, Mr. Gardner was married to Miss Josephine Gardner, born in San Jose, the daughter of William H. and Jane (Holt) Gard- ner, the latter born in Liverpool, England. She is one of a family of four children, as follows: Hen- rietta, wife of H. A. Blanchard, a San Jose attorney; Walter A .; Rose, now Mrs. C. L. Rich; and Mrs. Gardner. Mrs. Gardner's father was a native of West Virginia, who crossed the plains to California in 1851 and bought a piece of land consisting of ninety acres on the Homestead Road. Mrs. Gard- ner was educated at the Hester grammar school, and

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later took a course at the Hester Business College. Mr. Gardner's ranch consists of fifty-six acres, forty-six acres of which came to Mrs. Gardner as her portion of her father's estate; one-half of the acreage is planted to alfalfa and the balance to fruit; a good well for irrigation purposes has been devel- oped on his place, and in connection with his orchard and alfalfa. he has a dairy. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner are the parents of three children: Walter, Jr .: Car- rol; and Dorothy.

DR. A. E. OSBORNE .- A distinguished citizen of California long and eminently identified with Santa Clara County, who has honored Los Gatos by his choice of that attractive foothill town as the best place he knows for residence, is the Hon. Antrim Edgar Osborne, M. D., Ph. D., the present efficient and popular state senator whose influence in many fields and directions, in the great work of building up the commonwealth, has been so notable and far- reaching. He was born at Chester, Pa., on February 23, 1857, the son of Antrim Osborne, the proprietor of the Waterville Woolen Mills and a descendant of one of the oldest and most historie families of North- ern Europe. Originally from Denmark, where the progenitor's name was Aasbjorn (meaning "The Bear on the Peninsula"), who was a mighty war- rior, and who lent his soldiers and military aid to William the Conqueror in his conquest of England; the family become established in the British Isles under the renowned name of Osborne, and many of the descendants migrated to America, various branches in time adopting different spellings, such as Osburn, Osbourne, Osborn, and Osbourn. When Antrim was yet a boy of five or six years, his father became owner of the woolen mills at Rose Valley, in the same county, and thither removed with his fam- ily: there the lad grew up, to go to the public school and be further instructed by private tutors. When not quite sixteen he passed the examination for West Point, but declined admission to take up pre-medical studies and for this purpose he was sent to the mili- tary academy known as the Pennsylvania State Col- lege, in Center County, where he took a course of four years in science and natural history, and soon showed such exceptional proficiency that he was appointed assistant to the professor in that depart- ment. He then went to the University of Pennsyl- vania, where he pursued the regular medical course for three years and was graduated on March 12, 1877. with the degree of M. D. For the next year he remained in Philadelphia practicing medicine and at the same time pursuing a special course in the hospitals, and then removed to Media, Pa., and opened an office as a general practitioner. His am- bition, however, would not let him rest at that at- tainment, hence he resumed post-graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and in 1879 had conferred upon him by his Alma Mater the degree ot Doctor of Philosophy, being the youngest grad- uate, up to that time to receive this marked academic degree in return for original research and demon- strated scholarship.

Dr. Osborne's experience as interne at the Pres- byterian and the Philadelphia hospitals in the City of Brotherly Love was of great value to him, partic- ularly as he began to specialize with nervous and mental diseases in his practice of medicine. It was about that time that he was the first resident physician

at the Odd Fellows' Home, and later he was semi- officially connected with the Pennsylvania Training School for the Feeble-Minded. For the following eight years, in addition to his other professional work, he oc- eupied the chair of natural sciences in the Media Acad- emy, where he organized the department of physical culture and established a gymnasium. By the middle eighties, Dr. Osborne had attracted general attention through the results of his profound study of the proper care and treatment of the feeble-minded, and in Oeto- ber. 1886, he was appointed to succeed Dr. B. T. Wood as medical superintendent of the California State Home for Feeble-Minded, and for fifteen years he was secretary of its board of trustees. He assumed charge on December 1, and proved himself the right man for the position hy the admirable manner in which he brought the institution to a high state of efficiency. Later he was made medical superin- tendent of the Napa State Hospital for the Insane and effected its thorough reorganization. Since 1901, Dr. Osborne-who was long the only physician en- gaged in his line of work on the Pacific Coast, and in charge of the only private institution of the kind west of Nebraska-has been the owner and director of Osborne Hall, at Winchester, Santa Clara County; an institution for the treatment of mental deficiencies. Prior to that he had been professor of nervous and mental diseases in the College of Physicians and Sur- geons in San Francisco, and he also held the same post in the Oakland Medical College. He was also lecturer on nervous and mental nursing in the Nurses' Training School, and psychiatrist at the O'Connor Sanitarium at San Jose.

On September 7, 1880, Dr. Osborne was married to Miss Margaret H. Paxton, the daughter of Col. John C. Paxton, a Civil War veteran of Marietta, Ohio. Mrs. Osborne, a lady of enviable accomplishments, has proven a valuable coworker in the doctor's spe- cial field, sharing with him his social activities and prestige. They have no children of their own, but have adopted a niece, Agnes Blondin. now Mrs. Will- iam Horst, Jr .. of Santa Clara. Dr. Osborne has held membership in the Delaware County (Pa.) Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical So- ciety, the American Medical Association, the American Association of Medical Superintendents, and the Media Institute of Science, and he was also the organizer and president of the Media Medi- cal Club. His original researches and independent treatment of medical and scientific subjects have made a name for him in the line of new discoveries, so that he has frequently been cited as an authority in these lines particularly his own. He is now active in the California State Medical Society, being for six years a member of its council, and has twice been pres- ident of the Santa Clara County Medical Society. He was one of the organizers of the Consistory in San Jose and was very active in the building of the Scottish Rite Temple there, which was erected when he was master of the bodies. The Odd Fellows also claim him as a member and he has been district deputy grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias; his memories of college days lead him back to the delightful secret conclaves of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.

A progressive Republican and public spirited to a marked degree, Dr. Osborne has served two terms on the board of trustees of Santa Clara, and he was formerly president of the Sonoma Valley Board of

A. S.E. Osborne

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

Trade and vice-president of the Commercial League of Santa Clara. He has been chairman of the pro- bation committee of the Juvenile Court in Santa Clara County continuously since the court was established, and he served as chairman of Draft Board No. 2 of Santa Clara County, during the World War. On November 2, 1920, Dr. Osborne was elected to the State Senate from the Twenty-seventh senatorial district, Santa Clara County, having received the nomination of the Republican, Democratic and So- cialist parties. He served very efficiently during the session and introduced into the Senate the joint measure on conservation and reforestation, which was duly passed and became a law. Senator Osborne was particularly interested in all measures affecting the home and general welfare, and in measures pertaining to the state institutions, including charities and cor- rections, and civil service. He served on the following committees: Civil service, conservation, county gov- ernment, hospitals and asylums, labor and capital, Nor- mal schools, public charities and corrections, public health and quarantine. This public service is natural to one who modestly but properly appreciates his own family lineage; for with two other editors, resident in New York, he has been editing for years the exten- sive and very interesting Osborne Genealogical His- tory, which is related to the rise and development of so many other representative families in America.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 91

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