Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 51

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

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May 1, 1856, she was married by the Rev. Doctor Thomas, of San Francisco, to Henry F. La Bau, a na- tive of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in June of the same year they took up their residence in Alviso, where Mr. La Bau was bookkeeper and cashier for A. B. Rowley, in his extensive grain warchouse, and also for R. K. Ham. Mr. La Bau was thus engaged until a short time before his death, which occurred January 23, 1866. His parents were Jonathan and Margaret (Bergasse) La Bau. His paternal ancestry were Huguenots who left France during the reign of Louis XIV. and settled in New Jersey. His maternalgrand- father was born on the island of Seio, of Greek parents, and came to this country while young, settling in Philadelphia. In 1849 Mr. La Bau left New York city for California, bringing with him sufficient stock and material for erecting and furnishing a general

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merchandise store. On arrival in this State, he estab- lished himself in business in Sacramento, on K Street, and continued for a few years as a member of the firm of H. F. La Bau & Co. Meeting, however, with too great losses by fire and flood, he gave up his place there, and in 1853-56 was a resident of San Fran- cisco, where he was a member of the Vigilance Com- mittee, and also of that division of the Fire Company having charge of Empire Engine, No. I. A brother, N. B. La Bau, of New York city, who married Mary A., a daughter of Commodore Vanderbilt, was at one time a member of the New York State Legislature Assembly, and occupied several very prominent politi- cal positions.

September 3, 1866, Mrs. Tilden consummated her second marriage, being united with David R. Tilden, of Alviso. Mr. Tilden was born in Northfield, Ver- mont, April 2, 1832, his parents being David R. and Nancy Tilden. They came of the same stock as the late Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. Mr. Tilden was a brother of Heber N. Tilden, a wholesale mer- chant of San Francisco. While in business in Alviso he occupied the positions of postmaster and justice of the peace. Mrs. Tilden continued her residence in Alviso, where her husband was engaged in mercantile pursuits, until his death, which occurred April 6, 1875. Mrs. Tilden is the mother of four children, two of whom are now living, viz .: Marguerite F. La Bau, and Minerva Tilden. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Tilden devoted herself to the care and educa- tion of her children, and in 1878 moved to San Jose in order to secure the advantages of the higher schools. In 1880 she returned with her family to Alviso.

Desirous of some occupation, Mrs. Tilden, in 1883, opened a general merchandise store in Alviso, an en- terprise which, with the able assistance of her daugh- ters, she has successfully conducted, having the most complete and best appointed store in Alviso. In this connection it is worthy of mention that, in 1887, Mrs. Tilden built the finest residence in Alviso, being a large two-story house of modern architectural design, and has surrounded the same with well-ordered grounds.

RTHUR WELLSLEY SAXE, A. M., M. D., was born at Plattsburg, Clinton County, New York, in the year 1820. His father, Jacob Saxe, was one of seven sons of John Saxe, of Sax Gotha, Germany, who came to America in 1760 or '70 and first

settled in Pennsylvania, but subsequently removed to Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York, where Jacob Saxe was born. At the time of the breaking out of the Revolution he removed with his family to Highgate, Vermont, where he built stores, mills, etc., and lived until his children were grown up and began to do for themselves, and where Jacob grew from boy- hood to manhood, and was given a common-school education only. He began his business life at Shel- don, Vermont, as a merchant, and subsequently en- gaged in manufacturing iron at Plattsburg, New York, and still later engaged in the same business at Rossie, New York. At the age of sixty he discon- tinued the mercantile and manufacturing business and retired to a farm in Franklin County, Vermont, where he spent the remainder of his days and died in 1852, at the age of seventy-eight years.

His mother, nee Rouena Keith, was a daughter of Hannah and Alfred Keith. They were of Scotch ancestry and were among the original settlers of Massachusetts. She died at Sheldon, Vermont, in 1872, at the age of about eighty years. They were both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. To them were born thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters. Arthur W. Saxe is the fourth son. When he was thirteen years of age his parents re- moved from Plattsburg to Sheldon, where he attended school until his seventeenth year. He then entered the preparatory department of the Wesleyan Univer- sity at Middletown, Connecticut, which he attended until 1840, when, in his twentieth year, he entered the Castleton Medical College at Castleton, Vermont, at which he graduated as M. D. in 1843. He prac- ticed at Swanton, Vermont, until 1850, when he came to California. Here he practiced in the gold dig- gings in various parts of the State, until, tiring of it, in 1852 he came to Santa Clara and permanently lo- cated. The doctor has a State-wide reputation as a skillful physician and surgeon, and has an extensive local practice. In 1880 he was elected President of the California State Medical Society, filling that office one year, and during the same year went to the Hawaiian Islands to study into the condition, charac- ter, and history of the disease of leprosy in those islands, making a report of the result of his investiga- tions to that society during the following year.

The Doctor is a lover of flowers, and his floral and botanical gardens, with their numerous native and exotic plants and trees, manifest his taste, knowledge, and skill as a floriculturist. Among his hundreds of varieties of flowers, of the rose genus alone he has

German Tenter.

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250 varieties. He also excels as an amateur artist, and the products of his brush and palette adorn the walls of his well-appointed and pleasant home with sketches of the chief points of interest in the Ha- waiian Islands.

In 1844 he was married, at Sheldon, Vermont, to Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Fred W. and Lois (Keith) Judson. They have two living children: Fred J., a surgeon dentist, at Oakland, California, and Frank K., a physician and surgeon, at San Jose. They lost two children in infancy.

Not to mention the generous and charitable nature of the Doctor and his amiable and inestimable wife, would leave this brief sketch incomplete. Their acts of charity and promptness for the relief of the desti- tute and suffering, have endeared them to the com- munity in which they have lived so long. Both are consistent Christians and efficient working members of the Santa Clara Methodist Episcopal Church. The Doctor is an enthusiastic Republican, and although no aspirant to office, he was elected to represent his district in the California State Senate in 1884, which he filled with honor to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents.

AMES S. DILLEY is a native of Ohio, and was born at Hubbard, Trumbull County, in 1816. His parents were Cornelius and Sarah (Lock) Dilley, both deceased. Mr. Dilley received his cdu- cation mostly at Farmington Academy, at Farming- ton, Ohio. At the age of nineteen he began to teach in the schools of Trumbull County, and taught some three years. In 1838 he went to Valparaiso, Indiana, where he taught several years; afterward he farmed near Hebron, on the Kankakee River, until 1843; next he went to Delaware, Wisconsin, and engaged in the mercantile business till 1850, when he came to California, overland, and engaged in mining in the gold diggings on the Middle Fork of the American River, and at Negro Bar, now Folsom. After spend- ing a year there as a miner, he returned to Wisconsin, by way of Nicaragua and New York, where he re- mained until 1854, when he again made a trip to Cal- ifornia, by way of Panama; he engaged in mining and merchandising at Drytown till 1856, when, re- turning to Wisconsin, he was employed as a commer- cial traveler. In 1860 he made his second trip over the plains, this time being accompanied by his family, locating at Silver City, Nevada Territory, where he

was engaged in business, and was subsequently elected and served one term as County Collector. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln Internal Revenue Collector for that Territory and served four years. In 1866, leaving Silver City, he came to Santa Clara, where he established himself in general insur- ance and real-estate business.

Politically, he was originally a Whig and voted for Wm. H. Harrison in 1840 for President, afterward be- ing among the organizers of that party in Wisconsin, in 1848, and was that year a delegate from that State to the National Free-soil Convention held at Buffalo, New York, that nominated Martin Van Buren for the presidency. At the organization of the Republican party he became a Republican, and so voted until 1885, when he espoused the cause of the Prohibition party, of which he is a zealous partisan. In 1872 he was elected a Justice of the Peace of Santa Clara, which office he held by re-election for six consecutive years.

In 1838 he was married, at Valparaiso, Indiana, to Miss Sarah A. Richards. They are members of the Episcopal Church of Santa Clara. Eight children were born to them, only four of whom are living: John B., of Santa Clara, attorney at law; Charles R., min- ing in Montana Territory; Sarah A., wife of Seldin Hetzel, register of the U. S. Land Office at Sacra- mento, and Mary E., wife of F. D. Kuettner, holding a clerical position at Portland, Oregon. Their oldest son, James D., died in Chicago, Illinois, in 1876, from disease contracted while serving in the Union army. He was out during the whole war, serving in different Wisconsin regiments. Another son died in 1868 in Chicago, where he was engaged in the mercantile business. Two others died in infancy.

ERMAN SENTER, a retired capitalist and bus- iness man of Santa Clara, was born in Belfast, Maine, in 1810, but was reared in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and received only a limited common-school education. He served an apprentice- ship at Lowell, Massachusetts, to learn the trades of carpenter and millwright, both of which he followed for five years at different places in the East; then he went to Rock Island, Illinois, where he pursued his trades, until he went to Galena, Illinois, in 1846, where he worked in a plow manufactory until 1852; next he went to Warren, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, where he engaged in manufacturing plows until 1859,

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when, having to discontinue all business on account of failing health, he came to California by the Isth- mus of Panama, locating at Santa Clara in Novem- ber of that year. He was intimately acquainted with General Grant, who, on Mr. Senter's departure for California, cashed a draft of $500 for him to use as spending money on his trip. He remained in Santa Clara until 1868, having by that time so regained his health that he went to Santa Barbara, California, and engaged extensively in real estate, buying at one time 8,000 acres of land on the Peninsula of Lower California, ncar Ensenado, where he resided from 1882 to 1888. He returned to Santa Clara to reside with his son. Although Mr. Senter has accumulated much property and is considered wealthy, he has seen much of the darker phase of life, and has met with many reverses, but he never allowed himself to be- come despondent on meeting financial losses, which he considered temporary and possible for him to retrieve. He thought his only and great loss was when death entered his family and took his loved ones from him.

He has been three times married, his first wife be- ing Margaret Vader, whom he married at Ellington, New York, in 1834, and who died at Warren, Illinois, in 1854, leaving him eight children, only four of whom are living: Mrs. Hannah Carlton, of Warren, Illinois; Mrs. Emma Stout, of Santa Barbara, California; James, of San Diego, and John, of Santa Clara. He was again married at Warren, Illinois, in 1855, to Mary Vader, a sister of his former wifc. She died at Warren in 1857. His third wife was Mrs. Raphela Hill, relict of the late Daniel Hill, of Santa Barbara, whom he married in 1871, and who died at Santa Barbara in ISSI.

CHARLES WILSON LOVE resides on the Santa Clara and Alviso road, in the Alviso Dis- trict, about five miles north of Santa Clara, and one mile south of Alviso. His farm contains fifty- five acres of productive land, eight acres of which is in orchard, producing pears, apples, and pruncs. About twenty acres are devoted to berry culture, strawberries of the Longworth variety, principally, but also raspberries and blackberries. The remainder of the land is used for the production of hay and grain, and for stock pasturage, Mr. Love owning some fine cattle of thoroughbred Jersey stock. There are two artesian wells upon this place, one of which is

worthy of special mention. It has a depth of 742 feet, having a seven-inch pipe throughout its whole depth. It flows three inches over the pipe, and the temperature of the water is over 70º Fahrenheit.

Mr. Love dates his birth in Jersey City, New Jersey, November 3, 1832. He is the son of Alexander and Lily (Le Grande Pride) Love. His father was a na- tive of Glasgow, Scotland, and was a veteran of the English naval service in the War of 1812. His mother was also born in Glasgow, and was of French descent, her father having met with his death in the famous Battle of Waterloo. When ten years old he was taken from school to assist his father in his work, that of gardening. At the age of fifteen he was appren- ticed to the ship carpenter's trade, and after spending three years in becoming proficient in it, he went to the Isthmus of Panama. He there engaged for a year in the railroad survey and construction. Hc then returned to New York and remained a few weeks before leaving, via steamer route, for California. He reached San Francisco in April, 1850, and for the next six years was engaged in the coasting trade from that city. In 1856 he came to Santa Clara County, and settled at Alviso, where he spent the four years following as engineer in the flouring mills, and as an employe in the warehouses. In 1870 he took pos- session of his present home, and since then has made orchard culture there his occupation.

Mr. Love married, in 1865, Miss Soladad Martin, the youngest daughter of John and Baselicia Bernal (Ortega) Martin. Her father was born in Scotland, and came to this State in 1826, in the capacity of ship's carpenter in the English naval service. Mr. Love has four children, viz .: M. Lily, Ida L. H., James A. and Charles A.

Mr. Love is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In politics he is a strong Repub- lican, and has several times been delegated by his as- sociates to represent them in the State and County Conventions. He is one of those whose many genial traits of character make them ever welcome and pleasant companions, and his friends are many.

H. DOWNING, cditor and publisher of the Santa Clara Journal, was born at Newark, Mis- souri, June 19, 1852. He was reared on a farm and is practically self-educated. At the age of twelve years he lost his hearing, caused by spinal

Oliver Boulieu

Mrs. Oliver Boulieu.

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meningitis, which cut him off from schooling advan- tages, and he never attended an institute for the deaf. He began his newspaper experience at Shelbina, Missouri, in November, 1882, when he purchased the Shelbina Index, which he conducted with little inter- mission until coming to California in February, 1886, when he took charge of the Livermore Review; but, becoming dissatisfied with the outlook there, he re- signed two months after and " roughed it," so to speak, from that time to November 1, 1886, when he pur- chased the Santa Clara Journal, which at that time was a " patent outside," poorly patronized and doing a very small business. Under his management, by February 1, 1887, it became a seven-column weekly, and all home printed. January 1, 1888, it became a six-page weekly. On May 1, 1888, he began to pub- lish it as a semi-weekly paper. The newspaper ca- recr of this remarkable man has been attended with wonderful success; his skill and executive ability as a manager place him on the highway of success, and as a writer he takes no low rank. His loss of hear- ing cuts him off from political matters, and he takes but little interest in them. When election time comes he selects his men and votes for them independent of what others may say. On this point he is firm in the conviction that it is degrading to his manhood to al- low any living man to influence his vote against his principles. He is a member of no church, although he believes in the good of Christianity and aims to live a Christian life, such a life as he thinks accept- able in the sight of God, regardless how creeds may view it.

On the seventeenth of April he was married to Ida R. Drake, of Shelbyville, Missouri, a lady who de- scends from one of our oldest and best Virginian fami- lies, and who graces their home with that rare charm of mind and person born of the true lady, and for which our old Virginian families are noted the world over. She, like her husband, is not a member of any church, but believes in and lives a Christian life. They are the parents of three children: Bertha and Bernie, twins, and Carl M.

LIVER BOULIEU, of the Willow District, re- resides on Lincoln Avenue, near its intersection with Pine Avenue. He is one of the pioneers of the State, coming to California when it was yet a Mexican Province. He was born ncar Quebec, Canada, March 15, 1810. His life has been a check-

ered one and full of adventure. His father was a farmer and miller, and Oliver remained on the farm and with his parents until about fourteen years old, and was then apprenticed to Alex. Osgood, and served three years in learning the trade. In 1827 he removed to Upper Canada, worked about six months getting out ship timber, and then emigrated to Bur- lington, Vermont, working at his trade. He remained in Vermont for three years, and while in Burlington Mr. Boulieu had the pleasure of meeting and shak- ing hands with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and Martin Van Buren. In 1831 he moved to Boston and remained three years, working for Childs, the banker. Here, in 1834, he met General Lafayette, and mentions with pride and a just satisfaction the grand parade given to the General in Boston upon his last visit to the city " La Granda Parada." From Boston Mr. Boulieu went to New Hampshire, where he resided for two years; after this he returned to Canada to revisit his people, and then came back to his adopted country, locating for one year at Detroit, Michigan. We find him next in Wisconsin, where he bought three sections of land, and remained for three years. Rattlesnakes were so numerous, how- ever, that he was finally forced to sell out. One af- ternoon he killed no less than sixty of the reptiles with his scythe while mowing.

The next move was to St. Louis, Missouri, passing through, on the way, what is now the city of Chicago. At St. Louis he spent the winter, taking occasion to pay a flying visit to New Orleans. In April, 1844, he joined General Fremont's expedition, and with him went to Independence, Missouri, from there to Fort Benton, and on to Fort Laramie, where he was stricken with cholera, but recovered in time to go on with the command to Fort Hall, where winter over- took them. So far, the journey consumed six months. Although the snow was already falling, but a week was spent here recuperating and organizing, and then they pushed on to The Dalles, Oregon, where they spent some time trading with the Indians, and pro- curing new horses and outfits. The next stop was at Lake Tahoe, where, on account of the loss of all their animals, they were forced to stop and recuperate. The trials and privations they passed through can hardly be imagined. Their sufferings were terrible, reaching al- most the perils of starvation. At the lake, however, they met a body of about 5,000 Indians, who supplied them with food in abundance and provided them a guide. After three days' marching they reached what is now known as Fremont's Peak. Here the guide

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abandoned them, and for a time they were in a terrible plight, having to kill their mules to sustain life. Cold, freezing, and dying with hunger, Mr. Boulieu made his way in advance of the party to the summit of the mountain. His eyes were delighted to look down into the valley below, the first to do so. An hour later, General Fremont came up and joined him, with three others. Here they divided their remaining food, which consisted of three crackers, among the starving five, and set out for the valley. One of the party was so enfeebled by cold and hunger, added to the fatigue, that had it not been for Mr. Boulieu, who carried him from the peak to the camp, he must have per- ished, as he had given up. It will thus be seen that " Fremont's Peak" might as well, if not better, be called " Boulieu Peak," as he was the first white man to ascend the mountain. It can truly be said he has seen his full share of danger and hardships, and yet to-day, at the age of seventy-nine years, he is pos- sessed of a physical vigor which might well be en- vied by a man in fair health and of half his age. His strength and power of endurance were of the greatest assistance to him in the wild Western life into which he entered with such spirit. It took them a whole week of travel through the snow before they reached Sutter's Fort.

Here Mr. Boulieu left General Fremont's com- mand, although urged by the latter to return with him, and remained near Sacramento for two years and a half, then establishing a tannery at Sutter's Fort. Hides were bought at a nominal price, and the business was very successful. In connection with the tannery Mr. Boulieu kept a general store. During Fremont's operations in the conquest of California, in the Mexican War, he bought largely of the goods, leather, and merchandise of Mr. Boulieu, for which the latter has never been paid. Nearly all of his live stock was seized for use during the war, and for this loss he has as yet received no compensation. His bills against the government, amounting to $15,000, have never been allowed. Mr. Boulieu's services to the government of eleven months under Fremont, in the expedition of 1844, and under the "Bear Flag," entitled him to better usage.

After living at Sutter's Fort for two years and a half, he moved to Santa Rosa, Sonoma Valley, where he remained eleven years. In 1856 he removed to the Willows and took possession of his present home. Here he owns 190 acres of as fine land as can be found in one body in Santa Clara County. Fifty acres are in fruit, of which twenty acres are set

to prunes, five to apricots, four to peaches, and the re- mainder furnishes a general variety of cherries, apples, pears, etc. The orchard is young but coming into bearing the present year (1888). He has devoted his time to general farming, grain-raising, etc. Mr. Boulieu owns a fine residence, which is surrounded by all the appurtenances of a well-conducted ranch. His first wife lived but two years after marriage and left one son, Oliver, who now lives at Santa Clara. His present wife, formerly Miss Elise Pinard, a native of Canada, he married in 1857. They have eleven children: Louis, Elise, Rosalie, Marie, Albert, Charles, Victor, Catherine, Adella, Theodore, and Lionell J.

After an active life Mr. Boulieu is permitted to enjoy a hale and hearty old age, in his pleasant home, in the midst of prosperity, which he well deserves.

EORGE LAUCK, proprietor of the Santa Clara Brewery, at Santa Clara, was born in Baden, Germany, June 17, 1838, where he was reared as a farmer until his sixteenth year, when he came to America. On his arrival here he went to New Jer- sey, and until 1858 he worked as a farm hand near Newark. He then went to Galena, Illinois, where he learned brewing, at which he worked until the break- ing out of the Rebellion in 1861, when he enlisted as a private in Company F, Twelfth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served during the whole war, his regiment being among the first out and last to return. He was promoted from its ranks to the posi- tion of Corporal, then as Sergeant, and during the last two years of the war was Orderly Sergeant of his company. He, with his company and regiment, participated in the Battle of Corinth, siege of Atlanta, and in all the engagements in General Sherman's celebrated march through Georgia from Atlanta to the sea. His regiment, called the " Bandbox," was reputed for bravery and endurance, and as an officer, Sergeant Lauck was highly esteemed by his comrades. The writer of this sketch was informed by a comrade of Sergeant Lauck's that after the battle of Alla- toona, Georgia, he was ordered by the company com- mander to call the roll; but, as he looked along the line and saw the vacant places of the many comrades who had fallen, his heart failed him, and, with a tear coursing down his battle-smoke-begrimed face, he re- ported to the officer, "All present or accounted for," in faltering words, without calling the roll as ordered. He was discharged with his regiment at Springfield,

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 51

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