Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 125

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 125

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HOMAS TREANOR, residing at No. 1261 Lick Avenue, San Jose, is extensively engaged in horticulture. In connection with his residence is a young orchard of eleven acres, comprised of French prunes, apricots, and pears. He also owns an orchard of twenty-two acres near the junction of Malone Avenue and the Almaden road. This or- chard yields French prunes, apricots, and peaches, four acres of the property being now in vineyard. Mr. Treanor was born in Ireland, February 5, 1853. He

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

came to the Pacific Coast a poor boy fifteen years of age. His life has been an active one. Commencing as a common laborer, he has passed all the grades of employment open to him, until he reached a position in which he has furnished nearly all grades of em- ployment to others, pertaining to mining, agriculture, viticulture, horticulture, etc. He has labored and owned mining interests in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Arizona, and Patagonia, South America. He is now the owner of mines in Yavapai County, Arizona, as well as of other property there. His largest interests and best investments have been those in that Terri- tory, and he is still possessed of quite a large amount of property there, also in Texas.

Mr. Treanor married, at Virginia City, Miss Matilda Wehner. She is the mother of four children, viz., Edith, Viola, Francis, and Ida.

The subject of this sketch established his home in San Jose in 1884, at that time and at present (1888) intending to make this valley his future home. An enthusiast in horticulture, he dries his own and other fruit, having handled in the season of 1887, 150 tons. Having increased facilities for this branch of his busi- ness this season (1888) he will doubtless find it still more profitable than formerly. He has a good market for his fruit, having an agent in the East who dis- poses of it. Experience in horticulture and a love for it makes him a successful manager of the interests of others, as well as of his own property.

EO. W. RYDER, jeweler and optician, No. 8 South First Street, was born in Holliston, Massa- chusetts, in 1836. Up to the age of sixteen years he attended the public schools of his native town. He then entered the Mount Hollis Seminary, at which institution he graduated in 1853. In 1854 he com- menced learning the jewelry business in Holliston, re- maining three years in one establishment. Going to Natick, Massachusetts, in April, 1857, he there opened for himself a jewelry store, in addition to which he owned and conducted for five years a newspaper, the Natick Observer, the latter enterprise having been rather forced upon him from having loaned the pre- vious owner a sum of money, the paper later being left on his hands for the indebtedness. This venture he managed with his usual energy and success. One of the frequent contributors to the columns of his pa- per during these years was the wife of the Hon.

Henry Wilson, who was later Vice-President of the United States, during General Grant's second term in the White House. Finding his health much im- paired by the rigorous climate, Mr. Ryder sold out all his interests in Natick. He had endeavored to enter the Union army, but not passing the requisite physical examination he decided to follow the boys if he could not go with them. In October, 1863, he left for New Orleans, stopping on the way at Havana, Cuba. He found immediate benefit to his health, and was already wonderfully recuperated on arriving in New Orleans in November, 1863. Receiving from General Banks a permit to open a trading store at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he operated it for about one year, cultivating, during the summer of 1864, within the Union picket lines, about fifty-five acres in cotton. By promptness in putting to work a sufficient force of hoe hands during a few dry days which followed a long-continued rain, he managed to free his crop from the grass which had almost taken possession, and which could be destroyed only when the ground was dry. That work made him a profit of $10,000, which otherwise would have been an almost equal loss. The cotton worm took complete possession of the crops that year in Louisiana, resulting in almost absolute loss. On Mr. Ryder's place a few balls on each stock had early become too mature for the worms to eat, and made cotton which was worth in New Orleans at that time $1.80 per pound. The writer of this rode through a plantation near New Orleans in that year on which there was a crop worth $400,000; two weeks later it looked as though a fire had swept through it-not a green ball or leaf in sight; all devoured by the cotton worm.

In the following year, in conjunction with Major Brigham, then Paymaster in the army, he raised a large crop of sugar, cotton, and corn on a plantation situated on the Bayou La Fourche, two miles below Donaldsonville, which sold for $50,000. That year Mr. Ryder intended to return North, but was induced to plant a crop of cotton in the cotton belt of Mis- sissippi, in partnership with the owner of the place. They raised that year 400 bales, weighing each 400 pounds of cotton, which sold at sixty cents a pound, besides a large crop of corn.

He then sold out all his interests to his partner and went to Boston, where he bought out a jewelry business on the corner of Causeway and Leverett Streets. This he retained until bronchial trouble again necessitated a change of climate. Selling out his business, he came to California, settling in San

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PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

Jose in 1874, where he engaged in the jewelry busi- ness in the location where he has continued until this time. In 1881 he set out an orchard of prunes and apricots on a place of ten acres he had purchased in June, 1880. In 1885 he realized from this $562.50, selling the fruit on the trees. In 1886 the fruit sold for $850, and in 1887 his fruit crop sold for $1,500.

Mr. Ryder was married, in September, 1860, to Miss Eliza J. Hildreth, of Dorchester, Massachusetts. They have had six children, one of whom died in infancy. Death again laid his cold hand upon their happiness, taking from them, in 1885, at the age of fourteen years, their daughter Lona, a child beloved as widely as she was known, and who possessed a voice and musical talent of wonderful power and sweet- ness. They have four living children: Georgia, a graduate of the San Jose Institute; Jennie, now the wife of George B. Polhemus, of San Jose; William, engaged with his father in the jewelry business; and Irving, attending school in San Jose.

Mr. Ryder was elected School Trustee in 1883, and re-elected in 1885, from the Third Ward. He has always been a Republican, and believes in the fullest protection to American industries. His family are of old New England stock, originally from En- gland. His great-grandfather, Hopstell Eames, was a quarter-master in the Revolutionary army. While Mr. Ryder was not himself accepted for service, two of Mrs. Ryder's brothers, George and John Hildreth, made a good record in the Union army during the late war. The husband of Mr. Ryder's sister, Charles E. Loring, also went through the war with honor.

RTHUR G. FIELD, a member of the firm of Wright & Field, real-estate and insurance agents, No. 15 North First Street, San Jose, is a native of Vermont, having been born in that State in 1862. His parents removing to San Jose in 1872, he received most of his education in this city, later attending for about six years the University of the Pacific. After leaving school Mr. Field learned the business of marble cutter, working for three years in his father's marble yard. At the end of that time he took the road as a commercial traveler, selling marble and granite work up to 1886. He then en- gaged in the real-estate business with Mr. Wright, with whom he is still associated. Mr. Field's parents were Frederick and Mary H.(Bacon) Field. Frederick Field, father of the subject of this sketch, was also a

native of Vermont, where he was born in 1820, brought up and became largely interested in marble lands and quarries. At one time previous to the late Civil War he was considered worth two millions of dollars, a large fortune for that period. He owned much prop- erty, among which were the Italian marble quarries in Bennington County, near Rutland, Vermont. Naturally a large operator and speculator, he lost an immense fortune in introducing this marble through the South, furnishing dealers with vessel and car-load lots, and waiting until it had been cut up and sold as monuments before receiving payment for it. That would have succeeded under ordinary conditions, but the war coming on he lost almost every bill due him in that section of the country. Misfortunes never coming singly, the marble in the main quarry drifted into a thick limestone stratum, which had to be re- moved before satisfactory marble could again be had. Altogether he had received a succession of blows from which he could not recover. Selling out to a stock company which has since overcome these difficulties, he removed to San Jose, California, where he estab- lished a marble yard, and here, by his active, intelli- gent, and untiring efforts he built up his business so successfully that he had again acquired a satisfactory competency at the time of his death, in November, 1887. He was a member of the Board of Trade of San Jose during most of its existence, and interested in real estate here. During his early experience in the marble business in Vermont, conceiving that Chicago would be a good distributing point, he at one time brought a cargo of marble by water, landing at that place. Finding that he would need a building to store his marble permanently, and preferring brick to wooden buildings, he tested the clay of the vicinity, found it admirable for the purpose, established a brick factory, and from the product of that kiln, built the first brick house erected in Chicago, having built the first brick kiln and made the first bricks in that now immense city. In every respect he was a man of large views and extensive operations. For ten years he operated between Vermont and Chicago, as well as many other points in the country. While thus en- gaged he met and was married to Miss Mary H. Bacon, daughter of Hon. Nathaniel Bacon, of Niles, Michigan, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of that State. The date of their marriage was in 1858. Mrs. Field is a well-known magazine writer and authoress. They have seven children.

The subject of this sketch is, as was his father, an adherent of the Republican party, and a member of the Presbyterian Church.

669

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

CHISTOPHER CONRAD STIERLIN was born in Switzerland, March 3, 1826. He was reared there till the age of sixteen years, when he came to the United States, landing in New Orleans July 5, 1842. He is a machinist by trade, having learned the business of his father in the old country. After working at his trade in New Orleans for a year, he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked two years in the employ of the government in the machine shops connected with the arsenal. From there he made two trips to New York, but soon returned again to St. Louis. From there he went to Illinois and up into Iowa, which at that time was a pretty wild country. He has traveled both the Mississippi and Missouri Riv- ers from their mouths nearly to their sources. From Iowa, in 1849, he made preparations to come to Cali- fornia. There was a party of four agreed to make the trip together. Two of them, including Mr. Stier- lin, bought the stock and drove to St. Joseph, travel- ing days without any accommodations other than camping out. At this place, as by an agreement, they met the other two of the party, with the wagon, provis- ions, etc. Having completed their arrangements they started out with three yoke of cattle, one yoke of cows, two horses, and a mule. Leaving St. Joseph on the twenty-fourth of May, they arrived at Nevada City in the latter part of October with one yoke of oxen, one yoke of cows, and two horses, after being on the road a little over five months. He engaged in mining at the place where the city of Nevada now stands, working for a doctor at a salary of $6.00 a day. After working for him eight weeks he hunted up a claimn for himself, which he worked all that winter with very poor success. This claim was at Rock Creek, three miles from Nevada City. At this time a company of twenty old miners was formed, which he joined, and went to Rich Bar, on Feather River, where he took out $7,000 in about four months. He then left and returned to Nevada City, where he had an interest in a quartz mine. However, he soon left that mine and

went to Mormon Island, in the North Fork of the American River. Here he went into a river claim, and after doing some of the hardest work that he ever did in his life, lost all of his money except $400, with which he returned to Nevada City in hopes that the quartz mine had turned out better than what he had expected, but upon arriving there was doomed to an- other disappointment. By this time becoming satis- fied with experience at mining, he sought employ- ment in Sacramento, and there found a chance to buy a gunsmith shop, which he did and continued in that business for one year, when he sold out. With a capital of $3,000, an outfit of four horses and a wagon, he came to Santa Clara County in 1851, and bought a little farm in Fremont Township, where the old town of Mountain View now stands. His next purchase was 850 acres of government land in San Mateo County, and he engaged in a stock business, buying calves and young cattle, which he kept on his ranch until they were in good order, and then sold them to the San Francisco market, which was a profitable business. In 1864 he purchased his present place of 164 acres,. about three-quarters of a mile from New Mountain View. He also has fifty-six acres just east of the sta- tion about a quarter of a mile, and eighty-seven acres on the Charleston road. His land is principally a grain farm, with the exception of seven acres in orchard for home use. For eight years he acted as a grain buyer for San Francisco capitalists, which was also profitable. Mr. Stierlin was married, in 1854, to Clara Laux, a native of Germany, who is the mother of four children : Lisetta, wife of Fred Jansen, a resident of San Francisco; Harry John Stierlin, a watch-maker and jeweler of Villa Lerdo, Central Mexico; Mar- guerita C. C., and Mary Esther G. Stierlin, residing at home. Mr Stierlin has one of the most attractive places in the county. On his place is a fine spring, which is walled up and furnishes an abundance of pure water. Mr. Stierlin was reared in the Protest- ant faith. In political action he is identified with the Democratic party.

MISCELLANEOUS -

SAN JOSE BOARD OF TRADE.

There was a Board of Trade in San Jose in 1874, organized for purely commercial purposes. George B. McKee was President, and E. H. Swarthout, Sec- retary. The greatest problem with which it had to wrestle was the adjustment of the difference between gold and silver coin. In those times silver was at a discount of from one-quarter to three per cent, and to the retail dealers this was a matter of considerable im- portance. They were practically compelled to re- ceive silver from their customers and to settle with their wholesalers on a gold basis. How to do this without loss to themselves and without altercation with either their patrons or wholesalers, was a matter of considerable moment. At this time too the trade dollar came into circulation and tended to complicate matters. They succeeded in putting all transactions on a gold footing, and thus equalized matters.

They also made an attempt to prevent the collec- tion of the merchandise license tax which was then imposed. They all agreed that it was inequitable, and raised several hundred dollars by subscription in order to contest it in the courts. Before anyone was found willing, however, to become defendant in a lawsuit, the Board dissolved and the money was used to assist Edward Martin, a merchant of Santa Cruz County, in a suit involving the same questions.

The present Board of Trade was organized Septem- ber 27, 1886, with the following Directors: D. B. Moody, President; A. Friant, First Vice-President; William Osterman, Second Vice-President; Frank Stock, Treasurer; G. W. James, A. Barker, W. C. Andrews, P. Etchebarne, Joseph Enright. S. A. Barker was selected as Attorney and Edward B. Lewis, Secretary.

Early in 1888, at the request of many prominent citizens, the Board took in hand the matter of induc- ing immigration to the county. An Executive Com- mittee was appointed, consisting of C. W. Breyfogle,

A. Friant, and J. H. Barbour. For several months this committee gave nearly their entire time to the work assigned to them. They sent an agent to Los Angeles to meet Eastern people coming into the State by the Southern route, and spent much money in advertising the resources of the county, both in California and the East. The rooms of the Board in the Bank of San Jose Building were supplied with a full exhibit of the different products of the soil, to be shown to visitors, and excursions were brought to the city from various points. The citizens responded liberally with money, which was judiciously expended by the committee. So effectively was the work done that the "boom" came almost before it was expected. In the early spring there was quite a marked move- ment in real estate, but as the tourist season was about ended before the Board began its work, it was soon over, and a renewal was not expected until the following winter. But in August the rush began. In a week from its commencement the sales of, real estate ran up to a million of dollars per week, and the County Recorder was compelled to quadruple his force in order to take care of the instruments pre- sented for record. Values doubled before the month was out, and several hundreds of acres of new land in the vicinity of San Jose was subdivided into lots and sold. Country property was cut up into five and ten- acre tracts, and during the following season planted to trees and vines. The wild excitement subsided after a time, but there has been a steady increase of values ever since.

HOTEL VENDOME.

One of the first propositions brought before the Board was that of building a mammoth hotel for the accommodation of visitors to the city. It had been industriously advertised among tourists that San Jose had no adequate hotel accommodations for any con- siderable number of visitors, and, although this was not true, it had the effect of keeping many from the

670

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

city. The Board of Trade could not itself build the hotel, but it could give the undertaking its active moral support, which it did. Public opinion was prac- tically unanimous in regard to the necessity of the en- terprise, and there were assurances that the capital stock would be promptly subscribed. The question of location was most difficult to settle. It was pro- posed that permission should be asked from the city authorities to place the hotel in the center of St. James Square; but it was soon ascertained that the city could not grant this privilege. Negotiations were then entered into for the purchase of the Morri- son lots, at the northwest corner of First and St. John Streets, the plan being to make St. John Street ten feet wider, and to erect a four-story block on the en- ·tire frontage on First Street, from St. John to the Court House, Mr. Beach turning in the St. James Hotel property to assist the enterprise. In examin- ing the title it was found that the property could not be alienated at that time, inasmuch as it included an interest of certain minor heirs. For this reason that project was abandoned, but the movers in the matter did not abate their efforts. A stock company was formed and the old homestead property of Josiah Belden, on First Street, near Empire, was purchased. It contains eleven acres planted as a park. The owner at the time of sale was C. H. Maddox, and it required $60,000 to make the purchase.

With this purchase the Hotel Vendome may be said to have originated. The company was organized August 11, 1887, with the following Board of Directors: J. B. Randal, W. S. Thorn, J. S. Potts, L. Lion, C. W. Breyfogle, A. McDonald, T. S. Montgomery, F. H. Mabury, and G. Lion. The stock was placed at $10 per share in order that all who wished might assist in this great improvement.

Enough of the shares were soon sold to warrant the commencement of the present magnificent build- ing, which will probably be ready to receive . guests by the time this book reaches its readers. The es- timated cost of the building is $250,000. It has a frontage of 254 feet, and is three stories in height ex- clusive of basement and attic, the basement of brick with pressed brick facing, and the building proper of redwood. The first story is fifteen feet in the clear, the second twelve, the third eleven, the attic ten, and the basement nine. The basement contains dining- rooms for the servants, barber shop, bakery, store- rooms, fuel rooms, etc. On the first floor is located the main entrance, 41x66 feet, in which is the office, the grand stairway, elevator, private stairway, etc.

Here also is the dining-room, 60x80 feet, with two wings, 30x40 feet, thirty chambers, ladies' parlors, billiard-room, reading-room, baggage-rooms, etc. On the second floor there are fifty-thrce rooms. Here suites can be extended to seven rooms if desired, and on the front nine rooms can be merged into a single suite. There are an equal number of rooms, with the same facilities for suites, on the third floor. The at- tic contains forty rooms. Each suite throughout the building has bath and toilet rooms and electric bells. Three towers rise from the building, the central one 100 feet in height, and those on the ends 85 feet each. The club-room, stables, laundry, etc., will be some distance in the rear of the hotel.

PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.

In the spring of 1887 the Board of Trade pre- sented a petition to the Mayor and Common Coun- cil of San Jose, asking them to call a special election for the purpose of deciding whether or not the city should issue bonds to raise money for necessary pub- lic improvements. Two elections for this purpose had been held before this, and the proposition to issue bonds had been defeated. It was thought it would meet a similar fate now. The call was made, however, and the Board, with the assistance of the press, pre- sented the matter in such an urgent manner that the bonds were ordered to be issued. From this trans- action comes the substantial bridges on Santa Clara Street, the magnificent new City Hall, the beautiful improvements at St. James Park and at Alum Rock, the perfected sewerage system, and convenient cross- walks.

The first Executive Committee of the Board re- signed in June, 1887, at which time a new committee was appointed, consisting of Henry Phelps, N. Cad- wallader, and W. T. Adel. This new committee took up the work where the old committee laid it down, and have carried it successfully forward. A display of our county products at the Mechanics' Fair at San Francisco was made by them, and the great exhibi- tion at the same fair in 1888, the fame of which has spread all over the Union, was arranged under their auspices. They made an exhibit of our horticultural resources at the Iowa State Fair of 1887, at the Grand Army Encampment at St. Louis in 1887, and at Co- lumbus, Ohio, in 1888. The Board of Trade, since its organization, has disbursed nearly $50,000 for the people of the county, and that it has been judiciously invested is proved by the signs of lively prosperity on every hand.

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PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

THE DEATH PENALTY.

Since the American occupation the death penalty has been inflicted twenty-two times in Santa Clara County, each time by hanging.

The first was in 1849, when three persons were hanged by order of the Alcalde's Court. They had been convicted of murdering two Germans in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and robbing them of $8,000. They were the same parties who stopped Thomas Fallon on the road, related in the first portion of this work.

In the same year Antonio Valencia was hanged for the murder of Edward Pyle.

Theodoro Vasquez was executed January 30, 1852, for stealing a horse. The law at this time permitted the infliction of the death penalty for grand larceny. This law was repealed in 1856.

Ramon Romero was hanged November 26, 1852, for grand larceny.

Guadalupe, an Indian, was executed December 17, 1852, for murder.

Demasio Berryessa was hanged by a vigilance com- mittee July 22, 1854. He was charged with having murdered Alexander McClure.

Pedro, an Indian, was executed for murder Decem- ber 7, 1855.

Gregorio Soberana, December 14, 1855, for murder.

Blas Angelino, September 12, 1856.

Antonio Cardoza, May 3, 1857.

Francisco, an Indian, May 8, 1857.

Ricardo Lopez, July 11, 1857.

Francisco Guileroz, July 18, 1857.

Salvador Garcia, November 2, 1860.

Abner Smith, July 10, 1863, for the murder of Mr. Van Cleave, of Santa Clara.

Ah Pat, a Chinaman, October 30, 1863.

Tiburcio Vasquez, the bandit, March 19, 1875.

Encarnacion Garcia, hanged by vigilantes at Los Gatos, June 17, 1883.

Joseph Jewell, November 30, 1883, for the murder of Renowden.

Jean Wasilewski, October 24, 1884, for the murder of his former wife.

Charles Goslaw, November 25, 1887, for the mur- der of H. A. Grant.

Jose Ramirez, December 3, 1887, for the murder of Francisco Acero.

TEMPERATURE.

The following table shows the thermometrical ob- servations, taken at San Jose, for one year :-

HIGHEST.

LOWEST.

AVERAGE.

1885.

December.

1886.

January .

February.

March.

April

May

June

July.

August

September.

October.

November.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 125

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