Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 114

Author: Foote, Horace S., ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844

USA > California > Santa Clara County > Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California > Part 114

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Charles Spitzer, born 1807, married Elizabeth Frances Amiss, October 29, 1833. Their children were: Mary Catherine, Lewis Amiss, Sarah Ann, and Robert Henry. Mary Catherine was born at New- market, January 21, 1838, married Wm. F. Rupp, of that place, and is still living. Lewis Amiss is the subject of this sketch. Sarah Ann, born in Newmar- ket December 22, 1844, died in Newmarket August 11, 1849. Robert Henry, or Henry (as he was always called), enlisted in the Confederate army when he was sixteen years of age and served under Stonewall Jackson until that officer was killed, and then under A. P. Hill until the close of the war. He came to California in 1872, locating at Hollister, where he was married to Miss Alice Bryant. On the eighteenth of August, 1882, while out hunting, he was shot and killed by a friend, through mistake.

The father, Charles Spitzer, died in Newmarket

November 4, 1862, and the mother, Elizabeth F., died in Wyoming Territory October 25, 1881, while on her way to California to visit her sons, Lewis and Robert. Lewis, who had gone out on the road to meet his mother, whom he had not seen for twenty- five years, found on reaching Ogden that she had died twenty-four hours before his arrival! He was only in time to perform the last sad rites over the remains of her whom he had loved so dearly and reverenced so highly. With the assistance of kind friends, he laid her to rest in the Ogden Cemetery.

The maternal ancestry of the subject of this sketch, who were Scotch, is as follows: Thomas Amiss and Philip Amiss came to America as soldiers in the English.army at the time of the war of the Revolu- tion. Arrived here, they deserted and joined the Con- tinental army, with which they served through all the campaigns of Washington until peace was declared. At the termination of the war, they settled in West- moreland County, Virginia, about two miles from the home of General Washington. Thomas Amiss mar- ried a Miss Hudson and removed to Rappahannock County, where they founded the town of Amissville. They had a large family of children, of whom one son, Gabriel, married his cousin, Margaret Amiss, daughter of Philip Amiss. From this marriage came John Amiss, a soldier of the War of 1812, and for more than thirty years County Clerk of Albemarle County; Philip, a resident of Rose Hill, Kosciusko County, Indiana (Philip's son, James M. Amiss, M. D., is now successfully practicing medicine at Silver Lake, Kosciusko County, Indiana, and the other children are equally well placed); Lewis, who died in St. Louis, Missouri; and Elizabeth F., the mother of the subject of this sketch.

Louis Amiss Spitzer was born in Newmarket, Shen- andoah County, Virginia, February 10, 1840. His early years were spent at home. He passed the win- ter of 1856 with relatives in Pocahontas County, Vir- ginia, returning home in the spring of 1857. On the twenty-sixth of April of that year he started West, arriving in St. Louis in May; went to Minneapolis; back to St. Louis; thence to Vicksburg, returning again to St. Louis; spent a few months in Belleville, Illinois, after which he obtained a position in the clothing store of Morris D. Myers & Co., opposite the Planters' Hotel in St. Louis. He remained there till the spring of 1858, when he started for Leavenworth, Kansas, and after arriving fell in with one of Majors Russell and Waddell's freight trains, Col. A. R. White wagon-master; joined the train and drove an ox team

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to Camp Floyd, Utah, arriving there September, 1858; went to Salt Lake City, and with five others bought four horses and a wagon and started south through the Utah Valley. The day before the party arrived at Fillmore City, the capital of Utah Territory, the Indians mistook two Mormons for soldiers and killed them within a few miles of Fillmore, and after finding they had killed their friends, they threatened to kill the families also, thinking thus to remove all danger of revenge being taken. On the arrival of the party in Fillmore the Mormons begged them to remain and help protect the families. They did so, remaining until the Indians were made to understand that they were not going the right way about it to undo the wrong done by them. This act of protection on the side of the party secured them constant good treat- ment as long as they remained in the Mormon settle- ments. After getting out of the Mormon settlements they had several skirmishes with the Piute Indians, but arrived safely at San Bernardino, California, in November. A few weeks later he went to the Gila River mines, in Arizona, but, not finding them as rep- resented, returned to Los Angeles and went to the Kern River mines. Learning of an expedition being formed to establish a wagon road from Fort Tejon, California, to Fort Smith, Arkansas, under command of Col. E. F. Beal (now General) and Mr. S. A. Bishop (now of San Jose), Mr. Spitzer joined the party, being the youngest member of it, and spent the summer in Arizona and New Mexico. Came to Visalia in the fall, and in the spring of 1860 went to Mono Lake, where he engaged in teaming, mining, keeping restaurant, etc. On one of his prospecting tours he and his party camped during a snow-storm for several weeks under a quartz ledge twenty-five or thirty feet high. This was afterward located, and, as the old Esmeralda mine, has given millions of wealth to the world.

Leaving the mines he went to Fresno County, and worked for the Overland Stage Company. From there he went to Monterey County, in March, 1861, and in 1862 to San Luis Obispo County. He came to Santa Clara County in the spring of 1863 and worked in the redwoods, felling timber for Fremont's mill. In the fall, with W. T. Brown, of this county, formerly of Louisiana, he started for the East, in- tending to join the Confederate army. In Austin, Nevada, Spitzer was laid up all winter with inflamma- tory rheumatism, and the trip was abandoned. He prospected and worked in Nevada until 1865. He came to Santa Clara County the fall of that year and

then went on to San Luis Obispo County to engage in farming and stock-raising, until the spring of 1867. His next venture was with Thomas McGreal, in Ore- gon, where they bought 400 head of stock cattle. They brought them to California and sold them. Mr. Spitzer then engaged in farming in this county.

For four years he served as Deputy County Asses- sor under Henry Phelps, from 1875 to 1879, and con- tinued to farm until he was elected County Assessor in 1882, on the Democratic ticket. He then sold his farm and moved to San Jose. At the conclusion of his term of four years he was re-nominated by accla- mation by his party, and re-elected by a good majority.

In July, 1865, Mr. Spitzer was married, at Austin, Nevada, to Miss Elizabeth H. Easterday. Mrs. Spitzer is the daughter of Francis and Sarah (Davis) Easterday, who were married October 27, 1842. Her father was born in Carroll County, Kentucky, and her mother in Franklin County, of that State. Mrs. Spitzer's parents had eight children, as follows :---

William Thomas, born July 27, 1843, married Nan- nie T. Baird, of Carroll County, Kentucky; Margaret, born May 6, 1846, married Simon S. Higginbotham; Elizabeth Hardin, born August 5, 1848, married Lewis A. Spitzer, July 4, 1865; Lewis, born June 29, 1851, died March 23, 1854; James, born October 20, 1853, died April 10, 1854; Sarah Frances, born Janu- ary 16, 1856, married Thomas W. Whitehurst; John Davis, born November 15, 1858; Lucy Ellen, born November 1, 1862, married William T. Blake. The last two children were born in Clinton County, Mis- souri, and all the others in Carroll County, Kentucky. The old folks are now living seven miles southwest of San Jose, where they have a fine vineyard of fifty-six acres.

Mr. and Mrs. Lewis A. Spitzer have had nine chil- dren, all born in Santa Clara County, as follows: Mary Ellen, born February 11, 1867, just one day after her father's birthday; Francis Easterday, born August 6, 1868, just one day after his mother's birthday; Mag- gie Lee, born December 12, 1870 ; Sarah Elizabeth, born September 23, 1872; Charles Henry, born March 21, 1874, died July 17 of same year; Lewis A., born February 27, 1881; William S., born October 16, 1882, died April 29, 1883; Florence Virginia, born December 8, 1883; Ethel Lorraine, born March IO, 1888. The eldest boy is now upon the ocean, some- where in European waters; the others who are old enough are attending school or college in San Jose.

Mr. Spitzer had an uncle who left home before he, the subject of this sketch, was born, and who has

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

never been heard from; but there is evidence that the Spitzer of the ill-fated Donner party who died at Breen's cabin in 1846 was this uncle.

Mr. Spitzer is one of the best products of America and her institutions-a self-made man-one who, by pluck, perseverance, honesty, and honorable dealings with all men, has placed himself in the front rank. Whether with him or against him politically, all are his friends personally, and he is universally considered a diligent, capable, and trustworthy public officer. He is not a member of any church, but he is a believer in the Christian religion. He is a member of several fraternal societies, viz .: Friendship Lodge, No. 210, F. & A. M .; Howard Chapter, No. 14, R. A. M .; San Jose Commandery, No. 10, Knights Templar; San Jose Chapter, No. 31, O. E. S .; and Enterprise Lodge, No. 17, A. O. U. W.

ACOB SMITH was born in Germany, March 25, 1825. His father, Jacob, was a Frenchman, and his mother, Mary, a German. In 1829 they came to New York, and located near Buffalo, when it was a little log-cabin town. They settled at Eden, about twenty-five miles from Buffalo, where they lived four or five years, when they moved to Hamburg in the same county (Erie), and they lived the remainder of their lives. The old gentleman was past ninety-eight years of age when he died, in 1872. He was for nine years a soldier under Napoleon I. His wife died in 1875. They raised six children,-three sons and three daughters. Jacob, the subject, lived with his parents until twenty-four years old. His opportunities for schooling were limited, and when he attended school he had to work during the intervals. In the fall of 1851 he went West, and traveled over Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, and in the spring of 1852 re- turned to New York, and then came to California by way of Panama. Had the Panama fever, and was laid up at Acapulco for one week with it, when he came on to San Francisco, where he arrived on Mon- day, June 15, 1852. Three days afterward he went to Sacramento, and thence to Hangtown, in the mines, where he remained two or three months, mining, etc., when he returned to the Sacramento Valley, and worked until 1858. Whenever he got $200 or $300 he would go back to the mines and spend it. He made a number of these trips. In 1858 he settled on some government land (160 acres), and lived on it until he came to Santa Clara County, in 1877, and

bought his present residence. Originally he purchased 165 acres, but has sold off parcels until he now has but forty-six acres. Has twelve acres in fruit-trees, and vines about twenty years old, bearing well, the bal- ance being in grain.

Mr. Smith was married, April 6, 1878, to Henrietta Rehor, a native of Germany, who came to the United States in 1866. They have no children.

ASSEY THOMAS was born on Green River, in Ohio County, Kentucky, January 27, 1813. His parents were James and Elizabeth (Miller) Thomas, the former being a native of Tennessee. Massey Thomas, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Virginia, and was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. He emigrated to Tennes- see when there was nothing but a pack trail there, and removed to Danville, Kentucky, when James was a mere child. The family was contemporaneous with Daniel Boone. He afterward removed to Ohio County, where he died and was buried on his own farm. Massey Thomas, Jr., was reared in Kentucky until he was fourteen years of age, when his parents removed to Marion County, Missouri, and after re- maining there three years removed to Lewis County, where he grew to manhood, and bought and improved a farm. In 1849 he crossed the plains in Eb. Ousley's train bound for California, and after a trip of five months reached Sacramento. He then went to the mines at Auburn, but in one month gave up mining and went to teaming, at which he earned from $25 to $30 per day. He followed this business eighteen months, and then returned to Missouri, by way of Panama and New Orleans, and February 15, 1851, reached his old home. He remained there until April, when he again came to California, bringing 300 head of cattle, which comprised his entire capital, He reached Gilroy about the middle of October, and located where he now resides. He erected his present residence in 1862. Mr. Thomas was married, May 7, 1837, to Miss Phebe Foster Bain, a native of Bracken County, Kentucky, daughter of Balden and Nancy (Reynolds) Bain. Her parents were natives of Vir- ginia. Her grandfather Reynolds was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. Her grandmother was a sister to Daniel Webster, and Governor Reynolds, of Mis- souri, was Mrs. Thomas' uncle. Her mother died in Bracken County, Kentucky. When Mrs. Thomas

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was seventeen years of age (in 1833) she went with her sister to Missouri, and located in Lewis County. Her father afterward removed to Pike County, Mis- souri, where he died. Mr. Thomas' father came out to California in 1855, in his seventieth year, and resided here until his death, in 1868. He was a great hunter, and while out deer-hunting one evening he was thrown by his horse near a precipice and was not found until the next morning, and soon died. He clung to his hunting proclivities until his death. He was born August 27, 1786. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have reared ten children: James Balden, born June 30, 1838, and died October 29, 1859; Mary Susan, born February 3, 1840, wife of William O. Barker, now residing in Fresno County; Thomas Reynolds, born December 8, 1841, and died in 188 -; he was a grain dealer in Gilroy; John and William (twins), born October 28, 1843; the former resides in San Benito County, and the latter died January 4, 1880; Benjamin F., born December 22, 1846, was educated in San Jose and is now practicing law in Santa Barbara; Louisa E., born August 7, 1848, died December 7, 1849; Massey, born December 10, 1851, now residing at San Felipe; Clayton R., born January 25, 1854, residing with his parents; and Charles E., born January 15, 1857, now residing at San Miguel. Mr. Thomas was an old-line Whig in the days of that party, but upon its disinte- gration became a Democrat. His father was also a Whig, and later a Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas are members of the Christian Church, and he is an Elder. He was one of the founders and principal supporters of the Gilroy congregation, and he and his wife were among the original members.

Mr. Thomas has a fine ranch of 50134 acres in Gilroy Township, 300 acres being valley land and the balance table-land. It is all susceptible of culti- vation. He usually raises about 250 acres of grain annually, 200 acres of wheat, and 50 of barley. His crops have never failed. His wheat usually averages from fifteen to twenty-five centals to the acre, and he has raised seventy-five bushels of oats to the acre. His barley yields about twenty-five centals to the acre. His table-land is used for pasturage mostly. He has about seventy head of cattle and thirty-five horses. His brand is a capital "T," with the lower portion ex- tended through a small "o." He raises choice stock of all kinds. He also has an orchard with most of the varieties of fruits, and has been a successful fruit- raiser.

C. STOUT, M. D. The parents of this gentle- man, Dr. J. M. and Julia A. (Henderson) Stout, were among the earliest pioneers of Illinois, going there from Ohio with their parents while they were chil- dren. The Doctor was born in Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois, in the year 1846. He worked on his father's farm, and attended the district school, until he attained the age of sixteen years, when the Civil War was ushered in, and he enlisted in Company I, Ninety- first Volunteer Infantry of Illinois. His regiment joined Buell's command, and he participated in that general's campaign in Kentucky during 1862 and early in 1863, when they joined Grant's forces before Vicksburg, being then attached to the Third Brigade, Second Division of the Thirteenth Army Corps. After the surrender of that stronghold he went with his company to New Orleans, and later on several ex- peditions in that part of the country, during which time they had engagements in battle with Generals Dick Taylor, Marmaduke, and Joe Shelby, after which they went on an expedition to Brownsville on the Rio Grande, where he remained one year and was then sent home on a sick furlough. In 1864 he was ordered to the general hospital, and there discharged from the service. The following fall he entered Illi- nois College at Jacksonville, and after spending one year there he attended the Shurtleff College, at Alton, Illinois, for the next three years. In 1868 he en- gaged in the drug business at Whitehall, Illinois, in which he continued for two years, and then joined his father, who had emigrated to Kansas, where he studied medicine and practiced, with him for his preceptor. He remained there four years. During this time he was appointed by the county commissioners to fill the vacancy in the sheriff's office, in Neosho County, which position he occupied one year, and in March, 1874, he came to California, and accepted a position with Charles Langly & Co., wholesale druggists, of San Francisco. At the expiration of a year he went to Gilroy, where he practiced medicine a year and a half and then returned East, where he took a regular course at the American Medical College of St. Louis. Graduating in 1878, he located at Edwardsville, Illi- nois, where he practiced three years and then returned to California, and located at San Jose, where he has been actively engaged in his profession since. He is a member of the State Medical Societies of Missouri, Illinois, and California, having been one year Vice- President of the Illinois State Medical Society, and President of the California Society for two consecu- tive terms. He is also a member of the National

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Medical Society, having been delegated to that asso- ciation twice from Illinois, and once from California. He is a member of various fraternal orders in San Jose, being medical examiner in several of them, and is medical director for California in the G. A. R.

In 1876 he was married, at Upper Alton, Illinois, to Miss Gertrude Smith, a daughter of Hon. George Smith, formerly State Senator from that district and the founder of Shurtleff College. The Doctor has three children, whose names are: Pearl H., Arthur, and Olive Gertrude. The Doctor's father died at White- hall, Illinois, in 1886. His mother died in Spring Hill, Kansas, ten years before. The Doctor has two brothers and three sisters in California, who came to this State since he did. His brother, George W., is a practicing physician in Ukiah, Mendocino County; his other brother, E. W., is a contractor and builder in San Jose. His sister Mary is now the wife of Smith McGarvin, a carriage-builder of San Jose. Martha, another sister, is the wife of Frank Titus, of Gilroy, and Amy, his other sister, is the wife of J. W. Keenan, a merchant of Placerville, El Dorado County.

The Doctor is a member of the Baptist Church, and a stanch Republican in politics, believing in the fullest protection to American industries.

ONATHAN SWEIGERT. This gentleman is a " broad-gauge," energetic man, full of active enterprise in whatever course he pursues. He is a native of Du Page County, Illinois, where he was born in 1842. His parents came to that State in 1830, after being married in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, of which State his mother is a native. His father came to that State direct from Germany, his native land. His father dealt in real estate in Illinois, chiefly in Chicago, until the fall of 1852, when he came with his family, by the way of New York and Panama, to California. He invested in real estate in San Francisco, where they remained until 1860; then they came to San Jose, where his father has been in business ever since. Mr. Sweigert attended the pub- lic schools of San Francisco while they lived there, and after coming to this county he took a two years' course at the University of the Pacific, at Santa Clara; then, deciding to engage in business pursuits, he be- gan raising fruit in the Santa Clara Valley. In 1878 he was elected a member of the City Council of San Jose, which office he filled for two terms, then was elected License Collector, and held that office two

years. In 1887 he was elected Sheriff of this county, and still occupies that honorable position.

In 1868 he was married to Miss Emma M. Her- ringer, a native of Philadelphia, who came with her parents to California in 1862. Her father was en- gaged in fruit-raising in Santa Clara Valley, and died in 1885. Her mother still resides in San Jose. Mr. and Mrs. Sweigert have three children: George A., born in 1869 and graduated in June, 1888, at the University of the Pacific; Clara, born in 1871, and Emma, two years later, are both attending the same university. Mr. Sweigert owns 330 acres of land near Berryessa, which is partly planted to fruit trees. He is a member of the Methodist Church, and of Enter- prise Lodge, No. 17, A. O. U. W. of San Jose. He is a Republican in politics, and believes in the protec- tion of American industries to the fullest extent.

GON. BERNARD D. MURPHY, son of Martin and Mary (Bulger) Murphy, was born at Que- bec, March 1, 1841, and was but three years of age when, with his parents, he made the his- toric journey across the continent, and nine years of age when they came to Santa Clara Valley. It may therefore be said that all his life has been passed in Santa Clara County, and devoted to the development of its resources.

He was educated at Santa Clara College, graduat- ing with honor in 1862. On leaving college he be- gan the study of law, first with Williams & Thornton and afterward with Campbell, Fox & Campbell, both eminent law firms of San Francisco. Having passed the critical examination then required by the Supreme Court, he was admitted to the Bar in 1865. How- ever, he did not enter upon the practice of his profes- sion, his law studies having been prosecuted more specifically for the purpose of enabling him more un- derstandingly to perform his official duties and to manage the legal business connected with the vast family estate. In politics he was a Democrat, and in 1869, at the age of twenty-seven years, he became a candidate for the Assembly, and in the election which followed he received the largest majority of all the candidates on the ticket. In the session of the Leg- islature to which he was thus elected, his legal ability was recognized by an appointment on the Judiciary Committee, in the deliberations of which his opinions carried great weight.

During the winter of 1869-70, the question of

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locating the State Normal School came before the Legislature. Nearly every county in the State offered a site, and some of them a money premium. The battle for this institution was long and bitter. Mr. Murphy determined from the first that San Jose should have this school. In an eloquent manner he presented to the committee and to the Assembly the great advantages possessed by this location. Day and night he labored with all his ability, and a zeal born from his conscience, and secured the passage of a bill by the Assembly fixing San Jose as the future site of this institution. The bill went to the Senate and there the battle was renewed, but Mr. Murphy's vigi- lance defeated its enemies, and he was able to an- nounce to his constituents the consummation of their wishes.

But the enemies of San Jose were not yet defeated. Having lost the school, they determined that San Jose should have no benefit from it, and resolved to oppose any adequate appropriation for its buildings or maintenance. This warfare was more dangerous than the other, inasmuch as it united the representa- tives of all other counties who wanted the location, against Santa Clara County. But even this opposi- tion Mr. Murphy was able to meet and dissipate, and to secure an ample appropriation for the institution.

The skill with which Mr. Murphy handled this matter and the zeal that he displayed in carrying out the wishes of his constituents, commanded the grati- tude of his people, and in 1873, when his term as member of the Assembly had expired, they, without regard to party affiliations, called upon him to take charge of the affairs of the city as its Mayor. His large property interests demanded his attention, and he would have avoided this call could he have done so conscientiously. But, believing that personal con- sideration should be subservient to public duty, he accepted the trust, and for four years continuously gave his best abilities to the service of the city. Dur- ing his incumbency as Mayor, he never drew a cent of the salary pertaining to that office, but donated it all to the use of the free public library, which dona- tion he supplemented from time to time with liberal gifts from his private purse.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 114

Author: Foote, Horace S., ed Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 844

Author: Foote, Horace S., ed
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 844