Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 31

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

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At this time the fruit interests of Santa Clara County received a heavy blow. As we have said, the plantings heretofore had been principally of apples and pears. In 1868 the yield from these orchards more than glutted the market. There was no sale for a large portion of the product, and it could hardly be given away. Part of it was sent to San Francisco, but the proceeds, except in some cases, hardly paid the large cost of transportation. Wagon loads were carted off to the mines, but with all this, tons of choice fruit rotted under the trees. This experience disgusted many orchardists and they neglected their trees or dug them out of the ground. They seemed to have no idea of drying their fruit, or that the over- land railroad would, in time, give them an Eastern market. The influence of this experience was long felt in the county. People generally lost confidence in the fruit business, and even now persons can be found who shake their heads when they contemplate the extensive orchards, and cite the seasons of 1867-68 as proof of coming disaster.

The plantings in the celebrated Willow Glen Dis- trict were commenced as early as 1858, when W. C. Geiger set out a portion of his cherry orchard on what is now Willow Street. In 1862 C. T. Settle planted an orchard of apples and pears on what is now the northeast corner of Lincoln and Minnesota Avenues. At that time this district was covered by a dense growth of willows, and the lower portion was subject to overflow from the Guadaloupe. The only road was the El Abra, since called Lincoln Avenue, and the main central portion of the district was owned by Settle, Cottle, and Zarilla Valencia. Settle was soon after followed by Royal and Ira Cottle, who also planted apples and pears. Soon afterwards Miles

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Hills and a Mr. Sampson purchased the Zarilla tract, as it was called, and subdivided it into ten-acre lots. They planted cherries, peaches, apricots, etc., and from their subdivision started the real fruit interest in this section. The first experiment was on strawberries, the first vines being planted by Downs and Arne, on the tract now owned by Gribner. Their venture was so profitable that it created quite an excitement and nearly everybody in the Willows planted strawberries. At that time there were artesian wells in this district. They did not flow, but the water raised so near the surface that it could be easily pumped for irrigating purposes. This industry flourished for some years, and then came into competition with the strawberry growers in the lowlands near the bay. Here the artesian wells gave a great flow, and the Willow peo- ple could not pump water and compete with their neighbors. They converted their berry patches into orchards; but, with the experience of the apple and pear-growers fresh in their minds, they avoided these varieties and planted stone fruits almost exclusively. After the railroad was built and the market extended, they resumed the planting of apples and pears, but discontinued it after the codlin moth made its ap- pearance. This insect being now likely to be got un- der control, we can see signs of the revival of the apple and pear industry.

One of the earliest orchards of the county was that of D. C. Vestal, on the Milpitas road, which was be- gun in 1854, and was principally apples and pears. This orchard is prominent as being the place where the Moorpark apricot was first propagated for market. Geo. Hobson, who had an orchard and nursery on the ground now occupied by L. F. Sanderson, had two of these trees, but held them in little estimation on ac- count of their irregularity in ripening. From these trees Mr. Vestal procured buds and worked them into a few trees on his place. When the fruit came, he was so pleased with its size and flavor that, in 1869, he planted three acres. Mr. Vestal's experiments at- tracted attention, and the Moorpark came into uni- versal favor. Mr. Vestal says that as this tree increases in age it produces regular crops and ripens its fruit evenly. As proof of this statement he cites one of the original trees now on his place, which is thirty- four years old and has failed in its crop only three times since it came into bearing. Many seasons he has got $12 worth of fruit from it. In 1857 Mr. Vestal received a sack of walnuts from a friend in Chili. From these he has grown three trees, from which he harvests annually about $75 worth of nuts.

These trees have attained great size and are very beautiful as well as very valuable.

As the orchards of the valley increased in number and in bearing capacity, the fruit-growers began to fear that perhaps there might come a repetition of the experience of 1868, and the crops be wasted. Al- though the new orchards were of fruits suitable for canning and drying, no one had attempted thus to preserve them for market, and it seemed likely that when the supply exceeded the local demand, the busi- ness of fruit-growing would become unprofitable. Just before this contingency arrived, however, the danger was averted by the enterprise of a gentleman not theretofore identified with the fruit interests.

DR. JAMES M. DAWSON, the pioneer fruit-packer in the Santa Clara Valley, put up the first canned fruit for the market, in 1871. From observation of the superior quality of the fruits then grown in the valley, Dr. Dawson foresaw the marvelous possibilities of its climate and soils for fruit production as a factor of commerce on the Pacific Coast; and he also real- ized that, for the fruit industry to attain any con- siderable importance, it was a prime necessity that means should be provided to prepare and preserve the fruits for commerce in the immediate vicinity of where they were grown. Acting upon these con- victions, and stimulated by the wise counsel and hearty co-operation of his wife, Mr. Dawson resolved to make the experiment of starting a fruit cannery in this valley. An ordinary cooking range was pur- chased and placed in a 12x16 shed kitchen in the rear of their residence, on the Alameda; and on this the fruits were all heated before being placed in the cans. The fruits were obtained by Mr. and Mrs. Dawson driving about the neighborhood and pur- chasing them in small lots, and paying five to eight cents per pound for them. The season's pack, con- sisting of three hundred and fifty cases of fruits and tomatoes, was made in this modest manner. Dr. Dawson thought to demonstrate to Eastern people the superiority of California fruits to those of their own States; and in this respect the fine appearance and excellent flavor of his experimental effort proved entirely satisfactory. The next year the base of operations was changed to San Jose, the cannery being located on Sixteenth and Julian Streets, in an orchard, and a partnership formed with W. S. Stevens, a brother-in-law. The pack that season was double that of the first.

The third year, 1873, another addition was made to the firm, including Lendrum, Burns & Co., grocers,

Dr. Jannes Mr Dans

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the firm name being J. M. Dawson & Co. A large building was erected on the corner of Fifth and Julian Streets, in which the pack of that season was made, which reached eight thousand cases. A year or two later the business was incorporated under the title of San Jose Fruit Packing Co., Dr. Dawson being made president. The plant was enlarged, and the pack increased to twenty-five thousand cases a year. The business continued in this way till 1878, when, the cares and responsibilities proving too great for his failing health, Dr. Dawson disposed of his interest and retired. The trade had extended beyond the limits of California and across the mountains to the Eastern cities.

In 1879 Dr. Dawson returned to his place on the Alameda, and resumed the business in a moderate way, in a building erected for the purpose in the rear of their residence, under his individual name, J. M. Dawson. The following year he took in his son, E. L. Dawson, as an equal partner, the firm title becoming "The J. M. Dawson Packing Company." The plant was enlarged from year to year, the front- age changed to Myrtle Street, and the pack corre- spondingly increased.

In 1883 Dr. Dawson retired, placing the active management in the hands of his son, the junior partner, who has conducted the business ever since. The old gentleman's health steadily declined, and he passed away in March, 1885. His interest in the business passed into the hands of the widow, who is still a joint owner with her son, under whose enter- prising management it has prospered and grown. The pack and sale of canned goods by the firm in 1887 was over one hundred and forty thousand cases, giving employment during the busy season to from three hundred to five hundred hands. The aim of the Dawson Packing Company has always been for the highest standard of excellence in the quality of their goods, and no brand of canned fruits ranks higher. Great strides of improvement have been made in the methods of fruit-packing during the past few years, as the result of much study and experimenting. The fruit is cooked by steam, after being put into the cans cold, and, wherever possible, machinery has taken the place of hand labor, and the process expedited and cheapened many fold, while the quality of the goods has been improved. This personal thought and study have developed methods somewhat independent of each other, which are, in a measure, the private and secret property of their respective discoverers; there-

fore the fruit is handled in each establishment in a manner peculiarly its own.

James M. Dawson was a native of Maryland, born in 1809. Came to Ohio a young man, where he studied and practiced medicine a few years. He removed to Iowa in 1851, and from there came to California, in 1870. While in Iowa he married Eloise Jones. The widow, two sons, and a daughter, survive him. Mrs. Dawson and the daughter reside in the pleasant homestead on the Alameda. E. L. Dawson was born in 1859, and was educated in the University of the Pacific. After leaving college he started in as an apprentice in the canning business, learning the details of every department, and thus is complete master of the situation.

The history of the Golden Gate Packing Com- pany is related in the following biographical sketch :-

GEORGE M. BOWMAN, vice-president of the Garden City National Bank of San Jose, is also superintend- ent and secretary of the Golden Gate Packing Com- pany, and has had charge of the extensive busi- ness of this company in his present capacity for eleven years, during which time it has grown to be one of the largest fruit-packing establishments on the Pacific Coast. The company was incorpo- rated in 1877, some of the members composing it having started the fruit-canning business in a small way on the site of the present works, Third and Fourth Streets, between Julian and Hensley Avenue, two years previously. The company in- creased the facility for the business by erecting new buildings and other improvements the first year after its incorporation. In 1881 the entire plant was destroyed by fire. New and larger buildings im- mediately succeeded the old ones, which were fitted up with the best and most approved machinery, con- stituting a plant worth $50,000. They manufacture most of the cans used, and their pack, which averages one million, nine hundred and twenty-five thousand cans, includes vegetables and all the varie- ties of fruits grown in the Santa Clara Valley. Dur- ing the busy season, from four hundred to four hundred and fifty hands are employed. The con- stant aim of the management has been to attain the highest standard of excellence for their goods, and the "Golden Gate" brand is recognized by dealers and consumers, wherever introduced, as having no superior. The principal market for their product is the New England States, though their goods are shipped to all parts of the United States, and to Canada, England, India, and Australia. Their

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fruits are carefully selected, put up in heavy syrup made from the best white sugar, and are held in such high esteem that they have had an extensive sale in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Messrs. Cross & Blackwell, of London, England (the celebrated pickle firm), proposed to become the sole agents for Great Britain for the "Golden Gate " apricots, and to handle no others. Mr. Bowman, to whose careful and able management the present enviable reputation and success of this company is largely due, is a native of Iowa, born in Dubuque forty-four years ago; was educated at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, and came to California in 1866. Previous to engaging in the canning business he was employed ten years by the Wells, Fargo Express Company. He married Miss A. C. Coldren, at Boone, Iowa, in 1866, who was educated at the same institution as himself. The family consists of two sons and one daughter, and their home is one of the handsomest in the Garden City.

The Los Gatos Fruit Packing Company was organ- ized in 1882, with a capital stock of $10,000, which has since been increased to $25,000. It has only four- teen stockholders, and there is no stock to be bought. Its officers are Samuel Templeton, President; James E. Gordon, Secretary; J. W. Lyndon, Treasurer; Robert Walker and Michael Miller, Directors. The institution commenced work in a building 60x80 feet, with ma- chinery giving them a capacity of five thousand cases for the season. The product of this factory was sent to England, where it immediately attracted attention, and contracts were made with Liverpool dealers for the entire pack for the two following years. The favor with which their goods were met in the market necessitated enlarged facilities; new buildings were erected and new and improved machinery and ap- paratus were procured. Their plant has been steadily increased to meet the demands of the trade, until they now employ two hundred and fifty hands and require a sixty-horse-power boiler to do their cook- ing. The pack of 1887 was eight hundred and forty thousand cans, and will be much more this season.

We have run ahead of our chronology in order to give the foregoing statements in regard to the growth of the fruit-packing industry. The canneries, when established, seemed able to take care of all the fruit suitable for that method of packing. But there were varieties which the canners could not utilize to ad- vantage in this manner. Notably among these were prunes and apples, and some varieties of plums. In

July, 1874, a company was formed called the "Alden Fruit and Vegetable Preserving Company." The pro- jectors were W. H. Leeman, F. C. Leeman, C. T. Settle, Ira Cottle, M. R. Brown, Royal Cottle, Oliver Cottle, S. Newhall, W. W. Cozzens, R. C. Swan, K. D. Berre, A. D. Colton, Miles Hills, J. M. Batter, T. B. Keesling, M. Hale, and Pedro de Saisset. They purchased an Alden evaporator and placed it at the corner of San Salvador Street extension and Josefa Street. The machine was of no great capacity and did not work satisfactorily, but it turned out some good fruit, and in 1876 the company made a shipment of about fifteen tons of dried apricots. The returns from this shipment were so large that it satisfied the people that there was a great future for fruit-growing in this county. They knew that methods could and would be devised for putting their product into an imperishable shape for transportation, and they started in with vigor to plant their orchards. At this time the Willows was the principal orchard section of the county. The older orchards of Ballan Tarleton, Aram Vestal, and others that we have mentioned, were north of San Jose, and David Hobson had an orchard to- ward Berryessa. The orchards of Gould and Wat- kins were at Santa Clara, and there were others in other places, but the Willows was nearly all planted to fruit, and it came to be believed by some that this was the only section in the county where this industry could be successfully prosecuted. There is a record of one man who owned a fine place near Berryessa, and bought a tract of ground in the Willows in order to have an orchard. That same Berryessa farm is now one of the most promising orchards in the country.

In 1856 Lyman J. Burrell planted an orchard and vineyard in the mountains near the Santa Cruz line. The trees and vines did well; some of the old peach trees that were planted at that time are still alive and are bearing full crops. This was the first planting in the mountains, or, in fact, outside the little circle around San Jose and Santa Clara, as we have before related, with the exception of an orchard planted by Benj. Casey in 1855 or 1856, on the Los Gatos road near where the Cambrian school-house now stands. In 1873 the almond orchard now nearly covered by the town of Los Gatos was planted, and in 1874 the large orchard on the Los Gatos road now owned by Mrs. Gardner was set out, and also the almonds on the Kennedy place. Mr. J. F. Kennedy, whose bio- graphical sketch appears on another page, came to California in 1852 as salesman for the nursery of Commodore Stockton. In 1860 he moved upon

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what is now known as the Kennedy ranch, near Los Gatos, where he planted a small orchard for family use. There were some few small orchards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, chiefly of apples and pears, as early as 1874, but this region, with the foot-hills on this side, took no rank as a fruit country until about 1880. In 1876 W. D. Pollard planted twenty acres two miles north of Saratoga, and the next year the planting of the famous O'Baniar & Kent Orchard (now owned by James E. Gordon) was commenced. William Rice also planted an orchard in the same neighborhood. These men were looked upon as possessed of a sort of lunacy. It was first predicted that the trees would not grow in such dry, thin soil. When the trees did grow it was prophesied that they would never have vigor enough to bear a paying crop. At six years old the trees yielded about $500 per acre, and then the prediction was that they would die out in a few years. But as time passed and the trees did not die, but con- tinued to bear good crops, the people accepted the revelation and commenced to plant for themselves. Land which had before been held at $30 per acre jumped to $100, and is still increasing in value. Land on the brushy hill-sides, considered worth about $10 an acre, has been cleared and planted and now is covered with profitable orchards and vineyards. At the present time there is scarcely a ten-acre tract along the foot-hills from Los Gatos north that is not occupied with fruit.

The orchard interests of the Berryessa District are practically of a recent date. David Hobson had an orchard in that vicinity planted sometime in the '60's, and Isaiah Shaw had also a small orchard, but it was not until 1880, when Mr. Flickinger commenced the "Pacific Orchard," that the fruit development of this section really began.

J. H. FLICKINGER, one of the leading exponents of the fruit industry of Santa Clara County, is the sub- ject of this sketch. Coming to this valley in 1849, observing the gradual unfolding of the resources of the section, and grasping, with a keenly intuitive in- stinct, its wonderful possibilities, he has always been foremost in advocating and illustrating these possi- bilities by personal exertion. Mr. Flickinger was born in Germany in 1830, but from a child reared in Erie, Pennsylvania. His parents, Adam and Katie (Hechtman) Flickinger, were long residents of Erie, and owned a farm near the place. He received his early education in the usual neighborhood schools, later attending for two years an academy in Erie.

At the age of nineteen, attracted by the wonderful

stories told of the then almost unknown California and its treasures of gold, he went to New York and took passage for this State, around Cape Horn, on the bark Clyde, which left port on the twenty-fourth of April, 1849. On the trip, while off the Cape, they encountered a terrible snow-storm, which in- crusted the sails and cordage with ice, and froze the rudder, causing the ship to drift for twenty days toward the south pole, during which time of anxiety they were imperiled by floating icebergs, and so near exhausting their provisions that the passengers and crew were put on an allowance of one hard-tack cracker and a cup of water per day! Fortunately, the wind changed and they weathered the Cape, reaching Valparaiso on the first of August, where they remained three weeks to recruit, and provision the ship, arriving at last in San Francisco on the first of November, 1849.

Mr. Flickinger came to San Jose in December, the "Legislature of a thousand drinks" being then in session. He at once opened a meat market, which he kept through the winter. When the Legislature adjourned he went to the mines, where he remained until September, 1850, when he returned to his San Jose meat market. In the spring of 1851 he extended his business to general merchandising, in which he continued two years, when he closed this and went into the wholesale cattle business, exclusively. He continued in this until April, 1886, when he went into the fruit-canning business. In 1880 he had purchased part of the land which he now has in orchard, adding to it at different times until he has now two hundred and fifty acres on Berryessa Avenue and Lundy's Lane, on which he has planted twenty-five thousand trees,-one thousand cherries, eight thousand apricots, ten thousand peaches, and six thousand prunes, of which, in 1887, about fifteen thousand were in bearing.

When he purchased this land it was in pasture, grain, and mustard, and honeycombed by squirrels and gophers, and did not pay current expenses and taxes. He immediately inaugurated a revolution,- planted his orchard, fought squirrels and gophers, spent money lavishly, but judiciously, until, as a re- sult of his efforts, in 1887, in his cannery and drying establishment, he employed over four hundred persons, turning out of the orchard goods that sold for over $100,000. These are some of the results which can be obtained in Santa Clara County by well-directed effort combined with pluck and knowledge. The cost of his canning and drying plant has been about $20,000.

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In 1858 Mr. Flickinger was married to Miss Mary A. Smith, a native of New York, her parents being Dr. China and Parnell (Hall) Smith, who came to California, from Rochester, New York, in 1855. Dr. Smith died in 1885, aged eighty years, and his wife in 1880. Both died in and were buried at San Jose. There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Flick- inger five children : Katie and Charles S. (twins), born in 1860, the former now the wife of L. F. Graham, of San Luis Obispo, and the latter in business with his father ; H. A., born in 1864, also in business with his father; Nellie, born in 1868, now the wife of J. R. Patton ; Sarah, born in 1870, attending, in 1888, the Normal School. Mr. Flickinger's father, who is now (1888) over eighty years of age, is still living on the old homestead in Erie, Pennsylvania; his mother died in 1862. He has been a member of the I. O. O. F. Lodge, No. 34, San Jose. In 1856 he joined the Re- publican party, helping to carry this county for Fre- mont and Dayton, and has worked in this harness ever since. He believes in the fullest protection of American industries.

In 1856 Sylvester Newhall came to Santa Clara County and established a nursery on the banks of the Coyote, which, after a few years, he sold and removed to the Willows. He had an abiding faith in the hor- ticulture of Santa Clara County from the first, and has done his share toward making that faith a reality. He has not only constructed a large nursery, but he has also planted about a hundred acres of orchard, which is at this time coming into full fruition.

In 1863 came John Rock, a German by birth, but with many years' experience in the nurseries at Rochester, New York, and other noted fruit-growing sections of the East. He established a small nursery on land near Alviso, rented from Malavos. He soon moved from there to Wm. Boots' place, and in 1865 purchased forty-eight acres on the Milpitas road near San Jose, which he planted to a nursery of fruit and ornamental trees. In 1879 this place became too small for his operations, and he purchased his present location, of one hundred and thirty-eight acres, near Wayne Station. The rapid strides of the California fruit interests made such demands on the Santa Clara County nurseries that in 1884 Mr. Rock, with R. D. Fox and several other nurserymen, organized the California Nursery Company, and purchased four hundred and sixty-three acres of land near Niles, of which three hundred and thirty-three acres are now planted and furnishing stock,and the remainder will be

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 31

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