History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 97

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

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

active part in social life. She belongs to the Outdoor Art League, and contributes her influence for the moulding and improvement of the public taste.

The loss of Major Braslan was sorely felt among all his wide circle of friends in America and Europe; a man large in his sympathies and possessed of many native graces. Mrs. Braslan was grief-stricken over the sudden death of her devoted husband and the indulgent father of their daughter Olga. By a for- mer marriage, Major Braslan had a son, Charles A. Braslan, with the People's Water Company of Oak- land, and a daughter, Virginia, now Mrs. John E. Calhoun, of Minneapolis. He is also survived by two sisters, who reside in the old Braslan home in Cambridge, Mass.

RALPH L. SNELL .- A prominent horticulturist and apiarist of Mountain View, located on the Whis- man Road, about one mile northeast of that place, is Ralph L. Snell, who is the owner of a fifteen-acre tract, which in point of production, is unexcelled in California. He is taking a prominent place among the horticulturists and nurserymen of the state. He was born thirty miles south of Boston, at South Weymouth, Mass., August 4, 1872, and is familiar with the places made famous during the Revolu- tionary struggle-the Boston Common, Bunker Hill, Lexington, and many other historic places. His father, Norman Snell, was engaged in contracting and building in and about Boston. The paternal grandfather, Stillman Snell, was employed at team- ing and buying and selling horses at Weymouth, Quincy and Braintree. Mass. Mrs. Norman Snell, who was Abbie Ewer, passed away when the sub- ject of this sketch was only six years old, the mother of seven children, five boys and two girls. The father is living at ninety-six years of age.

Ralph L. attended the public schools of Boston and later the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then pursued a commercial course at the Y. M. C. A. Hc first settled in Tulare County in 1894 and was occupied with farming, but not realizing the measure of success expected, he removed to Fresno, Cal., where he was employed in the fruit packing in- dustry for seven years, working for A. L. Hobbs and for the J. B. Inderrieden Company.

Mr. Snell's marriage occurred in Fresno in 1902, and united him with Miss Emma Chamberlain, a native of Nevada, a daughter of Henry Chamber- lain, a lumberman of Pioche, Nev., who is still liv- ing at the age of eighty-five. Mr. and Mrs. Snell are the parents of two children: Frederick and Marion, both students in the Mountain View high school. From Fresno Mr. Snell removed to San Francisco in 1904, where he engaged in contracting and building for twelve years, and in 1914 he re- moved to Mountain View and purchased his present ranch. He has the distinction of starting raspberry culture at Mountain View, being the introducer of the celebrated Ranaree and La France raspberries, and holds the record for the greatest production of any raspberry grown in California. During 1920, from one and a quarter acres, Mr. Snell sold $6,000 worth of berries and $3,500 worth of raspberry plants. He works in connection with the State Dc- partment of Agriculture. Besides his activities along horticultural lines, he keeps seventy-five stands of bees and is a careful student of bee culture, appropriating the best features in both the Root and Miller systems of beekeeping. Mr. Snell has one

acre of ground planted to the Cory thornless black- berry and it remains to be seen what success he will have in the culture of this fruit. He is an active member of the local Grange and in his political af- filiations he is a Republican. The community is greatly indebted to such a man as Mr. Snell, who has always been willing to sacrifice his own con- venience for the upbuilding of the locality.

The Mountain View Berry Growers' Association sprung into existence in December, 1921, directly as a result of Mr. Snell's unprecedented success in rasp- berry culture. There is now under construction, by said association, at Mountain View, a large pre- cooling plant, 50 by 150 fect, with a capacity for precooling four car loads of fruit every twenty-four hours and manufacturing ten tons of ice per day, the ice being used for the refrigerator cars in which the berries are transported to Eastern markets. Seventy-six berry growers at Mountain View have joined in a trusteeship, with the following seven trustees: B. W. Holman, W. P. Angelo, J. E. Reiter, Victor Stanquist, F. E. Gallagher, C. C. Spalding and Ralph L. Snell. The project's primary purpose is to market the produce of the growing raspberry industry, the soil and climate at the south end of San Francisco Bay being peculiarly adapted to berry culture. An affiliated interest is the Runny- mede Berry Growers' Association, who will bring their berries here for precooling and shipment. The plant is being erected at a cost of $45,000. Victor Stanquist and Ralph L. Snell, both members of said Board of Trustees, and both capable contractors and builders, constitute the building committee and have charge of the work of construction. This plant will also precool apricots, strawberries and cherries. The temperature of the berries will be reduced to from thirty-four degrees to thirty-six degrees before being loaded into the refrigerator cars. The base- ment will contain a barreling department where from seventy-five to one hundred women will be engaged in sorting out the berries which are too ripe to stand transportation. These berries will be packed into barrels with sugar and frozen, in which condi- tion they will be placed on the market. The plant at Mountain View will work in conjunction with the Central California Berry Growers' Association.

PAUL J. ARNERICH .- A man of especial gifts who easily impresses others with both his natural ability and his acquirements through experience is Paul J. Arnerich, a native son, having been born near San Jose on September 23, 1869. His father was Mathew Arnerich, and he had married Mrs. Elizabeth (Brown) Moylan, the widow of Edward Moylan. When fourteen years of age, Mathew Arnerich shipped as a sailor, and in the historic year of '49 he voyaged from China to San Francisco. Three years later, he removed to Santa Clara Valley and here engaged in agriculture. In 1856 he married, and purchased 160 acres in the Union district. He died on May 3, 1883, from injuries received in a fall from a buggy. Mrs. Arnerich also came from an old pioneer family; she died here about 1910.

As kind parents this worthy couple provided the best training for Paul in the public schools, and when he had finished with his studies, he worked with his father on the home farm until he was twenty-one. Then, for several years, he farmed for himself, and in 1905 he ran for the State Legislature. in which he served a term. He was then appointed

Maria Loyer.

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

to the United States Marshal's office as deputy marshal and discharged that responsibility for ten years; and having resigned, he ran for the Legisla- ture, was elected in 1915, and in 1917 he was re- elected. Next he was a deputy sheriff in Alameda County for a couple of years, and finally was engaged in the real estate business for a number of years until he became a deputy sheriff, serving under Sher- iff Lyle of Santa Clara County.

At San Jose, on February 21, 1898, Mr. Arnerich was married to Miss Eva La Montagne, a native cf Santa Clara County and the representative of another pioneer family; and four children have blessed their union. They are Bernice, Francis, Genevieve and Elizabeth. Mr. Arnerich belongs to the Republican party, and when he gets tired of politics he turns for recreation to hunting and other outdoor sports.

MARIA COX LOYST .- In all sections of the world the pioneer is highly honored, but especially is this the case in California, where the present gen- eration realizes that the development of the twen- tieth century is due to the indefatigable determina- tion of those who faced the hardships of an overland journey and the even greater hardships connected with the transforming of an unknown, sparsely set- tled region into one of the greatest commonwealths in the United States. Much is due to the faithful- ness of the capable and kindly pioneer women of that day, of whom we hear so little, and yet their contribution to the upbuilding of these great com- monwealths was invaluable. Among these good wo- men was Mrs. Maria (Cox) Loyst, now deceased, who was born near San Jose, January 14, 1853. and was reared and educated and spent her whole life in this county. She was the daughter of William and Dicey (Baggs) Cox, natives of Ohio, who came to California at the early date of 1852, in an ox-team train, and settled in Santa Clara County, their in- teresting life history appearing elsewhere in this vol- ume. Maria Cox was the third oldest in a family of ninc children, and after completing the Moreland district school course she attended a girls' boarding school in Santa Clara. which afterwards became the University of the Pacific.

The marriage of Maria Cox, in 1878, united her with Andrew Loyst, a rancher living near Saratoga, a native of Canada. They became the parents of five children: two children died in infancy; Mabel M. became the wife of J.W. Breeding; they reside on part of the old Cox homestead and are the par- ents of four children-Lester, John. Wilgus, and Etho; William W. is a traveling salesman of San Josc, and was married to Miss Etho Hight and they became the parents of two children-William W., Jr .. and Kenneth; George G. married Tilly Doan and they have one child, Eleanor D., and they also reside on the old home place. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Loyst engaged in orcharding on Pierce road, where they had a 60-acre ranch. Mrs. Loyst also became the possessor of fifty acres of her father's old farm, which was partly set to orchard. She passed away October 30, 1892, at the age of thirty- nine years, leaving her place to her three children, who have improved the balance to orchard and in- stalled an electric pumping plant for irrigating the place, and it has become a very valuable property. Mrs. Loyst was a woman of splendid attainments

and greatly loved by all who knew her. She was a devout Christian, being a member of the Methodist Church in Saratoga.

J. C. SUTHERLAND .- Among the early pioneer families of Santa Clara County whose prominence was won through privation and sacrifice, J. C. Sutherland is a worthy representative and the suc- cess which he is enjoying is well deserved. He was born November 1, 1872 on the James Sutherland ranch on Sutherland Avenue, the son of the late James Sutherland, and a grandson of that early settler, William Sutherland. The paternal grand- parents William and Ann (Dawson) Sutherland were both born at Newcastle, England, and in 1851 came to the United States. William Sutherland worked for a while in the coal mines of Missouri and Illinois and in 1852 he crossed the plains. The family first settled in Sacramento County, purchased a farm and spent five years there. They next removed to Fresno County and engaged in stock raising. From Fresno County they removed to Santa Clara County in 1868 and established the home on the Saratoga and Alviso roads. The old home place contained eighty acres of choice land and it was devoted almost exclusively to the production of hay and grain and the raising of stock. There were two fine artesian wells on the ranch, one 300 feet in depth and flowing five inches over a seven-inch pipe, and the other 425 feet in depth and flowing two and one-half inches over a seven-inch pipe. The father, James Sutherland, came to California with his parents and was reared and educated in the schools of this state. His mar- riage united him with Miss Eliza Esrey, born in Missouri, whose parents were also early settlers of California. He owned 94 acres on Sutherland Avenue devoted to orchard and dairy. until he returned to San Jose in 1905, where he passed away at the age of sixty-ninc. The mother resides in San Jose at 483 South Sixth Street. They were the parents of five children: Caroline became the wife of Scott Dean, both deceased; J. C., the subject of this re- view; W. M., a rancher in Kings County; Annie Jane, Mrs. L. A. Bates, and Lena E., Mrs. A. T. Griffin, live in San Jose.

J. C. Sutherland attended the Santa Clara grammar and high schools and later took a course in the San Jose Business College, from which he was graduated in 1893. From a boy he assisted his parents on the farm, and while going to school helped to plant the orchards he owns today. After his graduation, he continued on the home place, taking over its active management. His marriage occurred in Santa Clara in 1894 and united him with Miss Eva Jamison, a daughter of the late Hon. Samuel I. Jamison, a prominent pioneer who landed in San Francisco in October, 1849. Immediately after their marriage the young people removed to near Lemoore, and engaged in the cattle business, purchased land and set out sixty acres to a muscat grape vineyard and resided there for eleven years. In 1905 they disposed of their holdings in San Joaquin Valley and returned to Santa Clara County and purchased seventy acres of the home place and have continued to reside there. The property is highly productive and is kept in the best of condition; there are thirty-two acres in prunes; thirty-four acres in Bartlett pears: the balance for the farm buildings, including his comfortable residence surrounded by well laid out

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grounds. He also has land holdings at Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland are the parents of two children: Carrie E., Mrs. C. M. Mun- ger, has one son, C. M. Jr .; Cleanie is a student in the Santa Clara schools. For generations the Suther- lands have been stalwart Democrats, and J. C. has not dleparted from the party of his forefathers, but is in- clined to be liberal and considers principles and men. He is a member of the California Prune and Apricot Growers' Association. He is proud of the growth and prosperity of Santa Clara County and is liberal in giving of his time and means to the furtherance of progressive measures.

JAMES C. KENNEDY .- The substantial and well-to-do families have no better representative than James C. Kennedy, whose capable service for the past six years as postmaster of the Mountain View post office, ended on July 1, 1921. For nine and a half vears he was deputy county clerk in San Jose under Henry Pfister, from 1905 to 1915, and then was ap- pointed postmaster and served from 1915 to 1921. He was a native son of California, born at Pleas- anton, Alameda County, November 23, 1868, where his father, Joseph F. Kennedy, was a prominent school teacher. The father, who was born in In- dependence, Mo., in 1843, a son of Captain Robert V'. Kennedy, a pioneer newspaper man of Missouri, became an employe in a bank at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and in 1863 crossed the plains in a train that was captained by an uncle, Captain Boyers, from Independence, Mo., who had previously been to Cal- ifornia, a pioneer farmer of Contra Costa County, who went back to Missouri and brought back a number of relatives and friends. James C. Kennedy is distantly related to the Donners of the ill-fated Donner party and has talked with some of the sur- vivors. Joseph F. left Mountain View in 1876 and went to Idaho and then to Washington and was a pioneer of Whitman County, Wash .; later he went to Spokane and became a merchant, and passed away in 1903. Mrs. Joseph F. Kennedy's maiden name was Margaret Graham, born in Cass County, Mo. She came to California with her parents, who were I. N. and Elizabeth (Wear) Graham, in 1852, settling near Mountain View which is now known as the Abbott place on the state highway. She was the mother of three children, all of whom are living: James C., the subject of this sketch; Frances W., the wife of D. L. Davis of Vallejo, a retired Govern- ment naval official, serving at Mare Island; Mar- garet, the wife of William Bolitho, of Eastern Washington. now lives with her uncle, Newton Graham at Mountain View.

Mr. Kennedy has been a resident of this county since 1871 when, after his mother's death in Alameda County, he was brought to the home of a relative, Mrs. W. G. Mayers, on the Springer Road, south- west of Mountain View, where he grew up and be- gan his education in the public schools of the county, and attended a private high school in Colfax, Wash .; he then entered Stanford University and spent two years in the law department, leaving school to enter the county clerk's office.

Mr. Kennedy was married in 1907 to Mrs. Emma (Henderson) Barkway, a native of Kansas. She is the mother of a daughter, Emily W., a graduate of Stanford University, and who is now teaching at Tomales, Marin County. Mr. Kennedy is an Elk,

and is an active member of the Episcopal church. The family are active in social, political, religious and educational circles and are highly respected citizens of the community.

FRANCIS SMITH .- Not alone a pioneer of the state, but a pioneer in his line of business, Francis Smith stands high in the annals of California's de- velopment as the first man in the state to manufac- ture sheet iron mining and irrigation pipe, and at his factory in San Francisco he also built water and oil tanks, these products finding a market not alone in California but in all parts of the United States, as well as South America, South Africa and Australia. Mr. Smith was born at Rutland, near Middleport, Ohio, November 29, 1831, the son of John and Eliza- beth (Monroe) Smith, the latter a descendant of Presi- dent Monroe. The father was a native of New Hamp- shire and the son of a patriotic New Englander who had served in the Revolutionary War.

Of a family of nine children, Francis Smith was reared on the paternal farm along the banks of the Ohio River, receiving his education in the primitive schools of that day. At the age of fifteen he went to Pomeroy, Ohio, to learn the tinsmith's trade, and at the close of his apprenticeship engaged in this line of work until 1852, when in company with nineteen young men he left for California. Leaving New York on the steamer Georgia, they were crowded on with 3,000 passengers and the horrors of this voyage lasted ten days, when they reached the Chagres River on the Isthmus of Panama. From there they were taken to Gorgona in boats manned by naked negroes, and then started to walk to Panama. As Mr. Smith was not robust, he became exhausted the second day, and but for the efforts of a friend, L. E. Stevens, who forced a native to give up his mule to Mr. Smith, he might have succumbed. They were obliged to wait ten days at Panama for a steamer and then began another terrible voyage, occasioned by the Panama fever breaking out on board the boat. They arrived at San Francisco on February 11, 1853, and Mr. Smith continued on to Sacramento, going from there to Hangtown, now Placerville, where he worked at his trade for six months. Later he worked at Marys- ville and Camptonville, and in 1855 located at San Juan, where he conducted a tinshop and hardware store. It was while there that he saw the need of something to take the place of the miner's canvas hose, and he began the manufacture of sheet iron pipe, and out of his small beginning his extensive and lucrative business was developed.

In 1869 Mr. Smith removed to San Francisco and two years later began the manufacture of iron pipe in that city, commencing on a small scale and doing all the work himself. The undertaking was an entirely new and original one and met with ready success. For twenty-eight years he was located at 130 Beal Street, and later he built a plant at Eighth and Town- send streets, the largest and most complete establish- ment of its kind in the world at that time. Of rare business ability, Mr. Smith conducted his affairs along practical and modern methods and rose to occupy a position among the most successful manufacturers of the West. In addition to his manufacturing inter- ests he built the city water works for Watsonville, Petaluma, Redding and Winnemucca, Nev. In 1871 he purchased the Swinford property on Bascom Av-

Francis Smith

Rebeca Smile

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HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY

enue, now known as Dana farm, and lying between San Jose and Santa Clara, whch has since been the family homestead; here Mr. Smith set out the first large commercial prune orchard in the Santa Clara Valley, and it is now one of the fine orchard prop- erties of the district.

On July 3, 1860, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Rebecca Crites, a native of Athens, N. Y., the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Geiger) Crites, both born in Pennsylvania, the mother being a rela- tive of the famous Miss Geiger who was a despatch carrier during the Revolutionary War. John Crites came to Wisconsin in the early days with Juneau and became a pioneer farmer of Walworth County. Mrs. Smith was reared in Walworth County, Wis .. where she received a fine education and in 1857 came to California by way of the Isthmus; she went at once to Miss Atkins' Seminary at Benicia, now Mills College in Oakland, and three years later her marriage to Mr. Smith occurred. They became the parents of four children: George F., whose biography appears elsewhere in this volume, lives on the old homestead; Edwin V. died at San Jose in 1916; Elizabeth is Mrs. Hinson of Melbourne, Australia: Dana W. died in in- fancy. Mrs. Smith took great pleasure in her exten- sive travels, journeying over Europe and making four trips to Australia; a cultured woman of unsual at- tainments, she gathered about her many friends who appreciated her many fine qualities and her generous hospitality, so that her passing away on September 14, 1914, left a deeply felt void not alone in the family circle, but in the community, Mr. Smith's death having occurred two years previously, on October 10, 1912. Prominent in the ranks of Masonry, he became a member of that order while living in San Juan, and was made a Knight Templar in Nevada City about 1858, later demitting to Golden Gate Com- mandery at San Francisco. In personal character- istics no man stood higher among the citizens of this section than Mr. Smith. Endowed not only with business ability, but with stanch integrity, he carefully followed the course which marked his career from the very beginning, and at the close of his useful, well-spent life, he could truthfully say that he had never knowingly wronged a fellowman.

P. HERMANN H. RICHTER .- The sceni beauty, productiveness and agreeable climate of the Santa Clara Valley have attracted many automobile tourists from various parts of the country to this garden spot of California and they have found in Cedar Brook Park at San Jose, of which P. Hermann H. Richter is the owner and manager, an admirable camping site, provided with many facilities for their convenience and comfort. He was born in Meldorf, Holstein, Germany, December 13, 1865, a son of August and Anna Richter, the former of whom had charge of the street department of that city and for many years was in the service of the government.

The only surviving member of a family of ten children, Hermann Richter attended the common schools of Meldorf to the age of eleven years, when he started out to provide for his own livelihood. being variously employed until 1885, when he entered the German army, in which he served for three years. Following his release from military duty, he came to the United States, making his way to San Francisco, Cal., and going from there to San Rafael,

where for thirteen months he worked in the brick- yards. From 1890 until 1892 he was employed on freighters plying on San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River and in the latter year he came to San Jose, obtaining a position in the brickyards on Keyes Street and taking out of the kiln the first bricks manufactured in this city. He remained with that firm for a year and then spent two years with the Peterson-Chockoche Brick Company. In 1893 he had purchased a piece of land, upon which he erected his home, and in 1895 he embarked in busi- ness on his own account, opening a store at the corner of Keyes and Eleventh streets, where he began dealing in hay, grain and wood. In 1900 he bought a four-acre tract at Keyes and Twelfth streets, an abandoned brickyard, which had been used as a dumping ground, and began improving the place, which he has at length converted into a fine auto camping site. This has been visited by tourists from all parts of the country, over 5,000 auto parties having registered here up to January 1, 1922, while many have been so favorably impressed with the locality that they have decided to become permanent residents of San Jose. Mr. Richter's charges are very reasonable, the tourists furnishing their own camping outfits. He also conducts a store where provisions can be conveniently obtained by the camp- ers, and has established an open-air kitchen, equipped with gas stoves; he has installed shower baths, doing everything in his power to provide for the comfort of the tourists. His place was originally known as Willow Park but in 1902 the name was changed to its present form, that of Cedar Brook Park. In 1920 it was leased as a public camping ground . by the Chamber of Commerce, who also secured an option to buy it, but upon the termina- tion of the lease Mr. Richter decided to operate the park himself and success has attended his efforts, this being one of the most popular camping sites in the valley.

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History of Santa Clara County California with biographical sketches, Part 97

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