Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 56

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 56

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The Ninth Corps lay at Farmvil e about a week, when it was ordered to City Point, where, after a week

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or ten days, transports were furnished them and they were sent to Alexandria, Virginia. They remained just back of Alexandria, near Fairfax Seminary, un- til after the grand review of the armies of Grant and Sherman, in Washington city, in which he participated. After this he went into camp again for two or three weeks, when his regiment was ordered home, and was mustered out at Reedville, Massachusetts, in August, 1865.

He then returned to his old home in Vermont, and in 1866 attended the academy at Aburgh Springs, Vermont, for two terms. In December, 1868, he left home for California, via Panama, and arrived in San Francisco January 23, 1869. He came at once to Los Gatos, where his brother John was engaged in business, and began to clerk for him in his store, where he remained till 1871 In 1872 he bought his brother's store and ran it for a year, when his brother bought an interest in it, and a year afterward he sold his interest to his brother John and went into the hotel business, keeping the hotel known at that time as the "Ten Mile House," now the Los Gatos Hotel, where he remained until 1875 ; he then sold out and again went into his brother's store as a clerk, and re- mained with him until 1883, when he sold his store. He then engaged in the lumber business near the depot in Los Gatos, which business he still follows. He is a Republican in politics, and is a member of ' the Ridgely Lodge, I. O. O. F., a member of the A. O. U. W., and Past Post Commander of E. O. C., Ord Post, No. 82, G. A. R.

Mr. Lyndon was married August 12, 1873, to Anna J. Murdock, a native of Ontario, Province of Quebec. They have five children, viz .: James Lloyd, born June 9, 1875; William Welden, June 14, 1878; Frances Ray, September 4, 1881; Clarence Hardy, March 15, 1883; Anna May, November 2, 1884.

LEXANDER HILDEBRAND, son of Gustav and Bernhardine Hildebrand, was born in Ber- lin, Germany, May 22, 1827. His father died in 1844, and he lived at home with his mother two years longer. He attended the primary school and afterward the gymnasium. When about sixteen years old he began to learn the carpenter's trade, working at it in summer and in the winter months attending architectural and drawing school for four or five years. He followed his trade until 1849, when, according to the custom of the country, he entered the army, where

he remained a year. In 1850 he sailed for San Fran- cisco, but after being out at sea twenty-four days the vessel was wrecked on an African island. He was on the island six weeks, when he obtained an opportunity to leave on a small American bark bound for Rio Janeiro. He remained in Rio Janeiro three or four weeks, the yellow fever being there at the time. He then secured passage on the Sea Bird, a steamer bound for San Francisco. At Valparaiso he left the boat and remained there three or four months, work- ing in the office of an architect who was building a custom house. Hearing of the big fire in San Fran- cisco in May, 1851, he went there, where he remained in business till 1881 (with the exception of a few months spent in the mines), when he removed to Los Gatos, where he had bought a place the December previous. The place contained seventy-one and one- fourth acres, and he at once set out an orchard and vineyard of twenty-six acres. He has since sold the most of it, and now has but six acres left. In 1886 he turned his attention to drying fruit.

Mr. Hildebrand was married, in 1866, to Marie Wieland, a native of Germany, who died in January, 1879, leaving a family of four children, of whom one daughter and two sons are living. Mr. Hildebrand was married again in December, 1879, to Emilie Bartholdt, a native of Germany, and by her has a son.

ILLIAM C. SHORE, son of Samuel R. and Narcissus Shore, was born in Surry County, North Carolina, September 15, 1830. His father was a native of Pennsylvania and his mother of North Carolina. When he was but five years old his parents removed to Lafayette County, Missouri, and lived there until the beginning of the war, when they moved to a place near Independence, that State, where his father was postmaster of a small place called Chapel Hill. During the war, the Southe. n element being too strong for him, he was forced to leave, and he removed to Kansas City, where he died. His widow still resides there. He reared nine chil- dren, who lived to be grown, of whom two sons and two daughters were older than the subject of this sketch. William C. lived with his parents till he was nineteen years of age, when, in 1849, he came across the plains to California with ox teams, and was five months making the trip.

One of the party was taken sick on the way, and

P. S. Langford.

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in endeavoring to reach a place where there was a little feed for stock, the party stopped to let him die, as they did not want him to die while traveling. After the party halted the man asked them why they had done so, and they told him. He then said, with an oath, that he did not propose to die; that he in- tended to go to California and "make a raise," and return to his family, marry, profess religion, and die like a white man; and, calling for his gun, he directed them to drive on. He recovered, came through to California, made $5,000 or $6,000, and went back to the States; but whether he fulfilled the balance of his contract is not known. William came first to Sacra- mento and then went to Georgetown, El Dorado County, where he followed mining for three years. In the spring of 1853 he came to Santa Clara County and followed farming near San Jose till 1864, when he went to Arizona and remained six months. He then returned to San Jose, where he remained till 1881, when he came to Los Gatos, and in 1884 en- gaged in the retail ice business, which he has since followed.

He was married March 27, 1873, to Mary A. Adams, a native of North Carolina, who came to California in 1872. They have two children, Dalton and Daisy.

LEASANT S. LANGFORD, son of Stephen and Lydia (Parent) Langford, was born in Floyd County, Indiana, September 4, 1818. His father was born in Albermarle County, Virginia, and his mother in Culpeper County, same State. They were married in Staunton, Virginia, in 1815, and moved to Floyd County, Indiana, in 1816, where they lived till 1830, when they moved to Parke County, Indiana. In 1842 they removed to Washington County, Iowa, where they lived some time, and then returned to Indiana on a visit, where Mr. Langford was taken sick and died in 1844. Mrs. Langford was afterward married to Judge Louis Noell, and died about 1880. Mr. Langford was a soldier in the War of 1812, together with three brothers, one of whom was a captain. In Stephen Langford's family there were three children, of whom a daughter and the sub- ject of this sketch are now living. Pleasant made his home with his parents till twenty-one years old.

In 1839 he went to Washington County, Iowa, and bought 160 acres of land, improved it and subse- quently bought eighty acres more, when he sold a part of his first purchase. He put up the first frame

house west of the town of Washington. He started for California April 14, 1853, overland, with ox teams; arrived here in September of that year, and located in Santa Clara County. He at once rented a piece of land west of Santa Clara and farmed for one year, when he removed to the town of Santa Clara and en- gaged in teaming for three years. He then purchased 240 acres in the foot-hills on the Los Gatos and Sar- atoga road, and lived there sixteen years. The land was in a wild state and he cleared and made the im- provements on it. In 1874 he sold this farm and bought his present place on the Quito road. It has eight acres in fruit, consisting of French prunes, apri- cots, peaches, etc., besides a small vineyard for family use. He raises grain upon and pastures the rest of the place. The farm originally contained 153 acres, but now only forty.

Mr. Langford was married in 1843 to Sarah M. Henderson, a native of Guernsey, Ohio. They have had twelve children, of whom seven are now living, five sons and two daughters.

ILLIAM L. LINGLEY, son of John and Frances (Chandler) Lingley, was born in East- port, Maine, November 30, 1831. His father was a native of Long Island, New York, and his mother a native of Nova Scotia. They made their home in Eastport, and both died in St. John, New Brunswick, the former in May, 1854, and the latter in 1867. William lived at home till ten years of age, when he went up the St. John's River and lived with a man named George Scribner for four years. He then went to Nova Scotia and remained a year. At the age of fifteen he became a sailor. He shipped at St. John, New Brunswick, on an En- glish vessel in the coaling trade, running from St. John to Pictou on the English side to Nova Scotia, and from there to Boston. After making the trip twice, he shipped on board of an American vessel and followed sailing for about twelve years, during the summer months plying along the coast, and in the winter making trips to the West Indies. After this he went back to Eastport and was married to Harriet Maria Lincoln, a native of Perry, Maine, March 24, 1853.

In 1855 he went to Pembroke, Maine, and began teaming for the iron works there, being in the employ of William E. Coffin & Co. till February, 1864, when he enlisted in Company B, Thirty-first Maine Infantry,

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and was discharged on account of disability in March, 1865. Returning to Pembroke, he made that his home till September 15, 1875, when he left for Cali- fornia and located at Felton, Santa Cruz County. He was there until May, 1878, when he removed to Klikitat County, Washington Territory, and remained there till 1880, when he returned to California and located in Los Gatos, where he still lives. They reared one daughter, Effie Z., who died at Stoughton, Massachusetts, February 27, 1876, in her twenty-first year. She was the wife of Eben F. Williamson. Mr. Lingley is a member of E. O. C. Ord Post, No. 82, G. A. R., of Los Gatos; also of Los Gatos Lodge, No. 76, A. O. U. W.

LELVILLE S. BOWDISH was born in Milford, Otsego County, New York, March 7, 1837. His parents, Joseph and Ann (Fairchild) Bowdish, were both natives of New York State. They reared a family of seven children, all of whom are living-five sons and two daughters. Joseph Bowdish died in 1877, and his wife in 1881, each being eighty- two years of age at time of death. Melville was raised in Otsego County until eleven years of age, when his parents removed to Illinois, and settled on Fox River, in Kane County, where he lived until 1858, receiving a common-school education. In 1858 he came to California, and located in Contra Costa County. He first worked on a ranch by the month, then bought a threshing-machine and threshed for two seasons. Between times he was engaged in ditching. He built the first ditching-machine used in California, and used quite a number of them near Antioch. He was engaged in that business until 1860, when he went back to his home in Illinois and remained five years. In 1866 he returned to California, and located in San Francisco, and began the manufacture of mills for grinding feed for stock, in which business he con- tinued for two years, when he sold out to M. C. Haw- ley & Co., who owned at that time one of the largest hardware and agricultural implement houses on the coast. Mr. Bowdish was employed by them, and was a traveling salesman for them eight years. In 1876 Mr. Bowdish bought property in the town of Santa Clara and moved there, and at the same time bought a ranch near Los Gatos. From that to the present time he has made his home at Santa Clara. Besides his property in Santa Clara he has three ranches, a wood ranch of 160 acres, a grain and stock ranch of 200 acres, and a fruit ranch containing fifty acres.

Mr. Bowdish was married in October, 1865, to Eliza Acres, a native of Kane County, Illinois, who died in September, 1867. Mr. Bowdish was again married, December 23, 1869, to Eleanor J. Ormsby, also a native of Kane County, Illinois. They have two children : May P., born May 4, 1877, and Arthur J., born October 28, 1880.

ANIEL B. AUSTIN, son of Alvin B. and Sallie D. (Rumsey) Austin, was born in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1834. His father was of Scotch and German descent, and his mother of Scotch and French, and both were reared near Lake Champlain. His father was born in 1800, and was a drummer boy in the War of 1812. He died on the home place, in 1882, and his wife, born 1801, died in 1884. He was a lumberman, and at one time owned large timber tracts in Tioga County. They reared a family of seven children, six sons and one daughter, of whom all are living except the fifth son. Daniel B. Austin remained on the home place until he was eighteen years of age, and in 1853 came to California, by Nicaragua route, from New York, through Central America, and arrived at San Fran- cisco April 12, 1853. His first employment was on the steam ferry-boat Clinton, plying between San Fran- cisco and San Antonio (now East Oakland), where he remained nine months, at a salary of $16 per day. He then engaged in the butchering business in San Francisco, and subsequently became a farmer at San Pablo, Contra Costa County, in partnership with Dr. J. M. Tewksbury, who owned a large tract of land there. He farmed until 1863, when he went to Austin, Nevada, where his brother, A. B. Austin, resided, and after whom the town was named. Mr. Austin at once engaged in engineering and mining, and followed this business, principally, for nineteen years. He put up a number of quartz mills for reducing ores, etc. He returned to California in 1882, and, after looking around over the State, selected Santa Clara for a home and purchased sixty acres, situated about a mile and a quarter from Los Gatos, on the Los Gatos and Sara- toga road. In May, 1888, he sold all his land, except two and a quarter acres, where his residence is situ- ated. He was married at Austin, Nevada, in 1867, to Felicitas Falez, a Mexican lady by birth, whose father was a prospector and miner in the State of Nevada. She died in 1869, leaving one daughter, Delphena C, born December 24, 1869. Mr. Austin

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again married, November 8, 1871, taking this time Sarah C. Rumsey, a native of Pennsylvania. They have six children : George B., born March 5, 1873; Birdie E., May 31, 1874; Floyd L., October 27, 1875; Luther R., January 5, 1877; Ruby S., February 27, 1879; Jesse S., May 27, 1882.

Mr. Austin is one of the original stockholders of the Los Gatos and Saratoga Wine and Fruit Company, and one of the directors of the corporation. He has also an interest in some silver mines in Nye County, Nevada. He was mainly instrumental in having the Austin School District, in which he resides, estab- lished, and the district was named after him. He was a member of the celebrated First California Guard, under Captain Bluxon. Each member of this com- pany was six feet high. Their armory was located on Pine Street, San Francisco, and they encamped three months each year on the Alameda, in San Jose.

OHN CILKER, son of John and Elizabeth (Bar- loga) Cilker, was born in Hanover, Germany, March 15, 1833. His parents came to the United States when he was an infant, and located in Detroit, Michigan. They afterwards removed to Joliet, Illi- nois, where his mother died about 1840, and then his father moved back to Detroit, where he died in 1841. Upon his father's death he was bound out to a law- yer in Detroit named Alexander Buell, and lived with him about two years, when Mr. Buell's wife died and he was again bound out to a man named Peter Fisher, living with him two years, and when fourteen years old started for himself. He lived in Wisconsin, Illi- nois, and Missouri. In 1857 he came to California and went into the gold mines near Placerville. In June, 1858, he went to the Fraser River mines in British Columbia, where he mined for a while and then went to Washington Territory and engaged in the lumber business, which he followed for ten years. Mr. Cilker was married in Victoria, British Columbia, December 9, 1867, to Jane Lipsett, a native of County Donegal, Ireland, and then came to Santa Clara County and settled on his present place, on which all the improvements were made by him. He has eight children living,-three girls and five boys. Mr. Cilker is a stockholder and president of the Co- operative Wine Company of Los Gatos. He has 174 acres planted as follows: Twelve acres to almonds, now six years old and in good bearing; seventeen acres in French prunes, of which ten acres are five

years old and seven acres three years old. He has had one good crop from the older trees, and the trees are full this year. He has 212 cherry trees six years old, bearing well; eight acres in white egg plums about two years old, and a family orchard of three acres of different varieties, consisting of 250 trees, which are doing well, and five acres of peaches, two years old. He has also a large vineyard, of which 10,000 vines are three years old, 10,000 two years old, and 8,000 one year old.

ILLIAM G. ALEXANDER, son of Calvin and Anna (Wright) Alexander, was born in Madison County, New York, December 12, 1 1829. His father was a native of Canada and his mother of New York State. William remained with his parents until he became of age, when he be- gan work at the carpenter trade and followed it in Monroe County till the spring of 1854, when he came to California and located at Sacramento, where he worked at his trade for one year. The following year he went to the mines on Scott River, and in the spring of 1858 returned to Monroe County, New York, and September 30, 1858, was married to Julia A. Colles- ter, a native of that county. After his marriage he bought a farm in Monroe County, where he remained two years. In the spring of 1860 he went to St. Joseph, Michigan, where he remained till 1875. During this time he was engaged in different kinds of business. The first year he was a contractor, then for three years he was engaged in buying and shipping fruit to Chicago. After that for two years he was in- terested in the manufacturing and shipping of lumber. He then went into the business of manufacturing brick and shipping the same to Chicago, after the great Chicago fire. In May, 1875, he came to Oak- land, California, where he remained one year in the business of contractor and house builder. In the spring of the next ycar he removed to Santa Cruz, where he continued his business as contractor till Feb- ruary, 1884, when he came to Los Gatos and located. Since he came here his principal business has been contracting and building. In August, 1887, he became associated with W. Peck & Co. in the real-estate and insurance business. He started the Los Gatos Land Agency, consisting of W. Peck, W. G. Alexander, and Z. H. Vohde. He has a son, Monroe Hamilton Alexander, born July 21, 1855, who graduated at the University of the Pacific in 1881, and is now a Pro-

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fessor of English Literature in the same college. He has a daughter, Jennie Lulu, born in St. Joseph, Mich- igan, December 21, 1868, also a graduate of the University of the Pacific in June, 1887.

RS. H. G. MAYNARD located in Santa Clara County in 1887, purchasing a property between Los Gatos and Saratoga for the benefit of her children. The ranch contains forty acres, and is called " Mascot Villa." Thirty-five acres are in fruit-trees. There are 3,000 French prune, 650 peach, 370 Bartlett pear, 570 apple, and 200 apricot trees, all in full bearing. There is a nice spring of water on the place. The house is a large and substantial one, surrounded by well-kept grounds, with ornamental shrubbery, etc., and is kept in excellent order, thanks to the energetic management of H. G. Maynard, Jr.

Mrs. Maynard is the wife of H G. Maynard, who came to California in 1850, and in 1855 went to Gold Hill, Nevada, and became interested in many lines of business, being very successful as a banker. He built some seventy-five houses in the "town, includ- ing one large block called the "Maynard Block." He was married in 1864 to his present wife, she being the widow of James D. Jackson, M. D., of Worcester, Massachusetts, who died in San Francisco, in 1863.

After Mr. Maynard's marriage, he returned to Massachusetts and built a summer residence in North- borough, and a winter residence in Boston, where he lived five years. He then sold his Eastern property and returned to San Francisco, where he bought property on Bush Street, and built seven houses be- tween Powell and Mason Streets. In 1884 he went to Washoe City, Nevada, and engaged with Gov. C. C. Stephenson in the Willow Creek silver and lead mines, devoting his attention solely to the mines.

B. MCNEAL, one of Santa Clara County's wor- & thy and highly esteemed citizens, was born in Bangor, Maine, December 14, 1837. After re- ceiving a common-school education in his native State, he engaged in the lumber business with his father. At twenty-one years of age he went to St. Paul, Minnesota, and engaged in lumbering. He then went South, where for a time he managed a plantation, but afterward returned to Minnesota and resumed the lumber business. In 1859 he sailed from

St. Paul for California, landing in San Francisco July 5 of that year. Like the majority of new-comers in the early days, Mr. McNeal went to the mines. He was there engaged in getting out timber for mining purposes. At the breaking out of the late war Mr. McNeal enlisted in the Union Army and served for about three years. At the close of the Rebellion he settled in Alameda County, California, and engaged in farming.

In October, 1871, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary May. To them have been born four chil- dren, one boy and three girls. The family are con- sistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. McNeal is a member of the A. O. U. W. Lodge, and in politics he is a Prohibitionist. The family res- idence is situated on the Berryessa road, where Mr. McNeal owns twenty acres of fine land, which is de- voted to fruit culture.

CHRISTIAN WENTZ was born in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, August 13, 1822.

e In 1833 he emigrated to America with his par- ents and settled in the vicinity of Port Deposit, Maryland, where he lived until he attained his majority. He was one of the first in his locality to start for the California gold mines. He took passage on the ship Greyhound at Baltimore, January 10, 1849. On June 3 he arrived in San Francisco and at once went to the mines at Jamestown, in Tuolumne County. He there worked until fall, when he returned to San Francisco. In the spring of 1850 he again went to the mines,-this time on the Yuba River near Foster's Bar. He soon became dissatisfied with mining and returned to San Francisco, and in November, 1850, he came to Santa Clara County, where he began farming near San Jose. In 1856 he removed to his present residence, at Gilroy (now Old Gilroy, the new town being started in 1861).

Mr. Wentz has always taken an active part in pub- lic affairs, and is recognized as a man of clear percep- tions and sound views, and has often been called upon by his fellow-citizens to fill positions of honor and trust. In 1861 he was elected Justice of the Peace for Gilroy Township, and from 1872 to 1876 was Deputy County Assessor, and again in 1880 and 1881. In 1880 he was elected to the General Assembly from Santa Clara County and served his constituents with honor and credit. He served on the Committees on Horticulture and Vines, Commerce, and Navigation,

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and Labor, at both the regular and called sessions. In 1882 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of County Treasurer of Santa Clara County.

Mr. Wentz has fifty-one acres of land, in two tracts, and all his land is used either for dairying or fruit- raising purposes. He has an orchard of fourteen acres, which contains most of the varieties of fruit suitable to this climate. Some of the trees are very old and have attained a large growth. Four acres of this orchard were set out by Mr. Wentz in 1887-88. He regards the French prunes as the most successful fruit, as far as abundance of yield is concerned, al- though he has had great success with Bartlett pears. On his home place he has ten acres which he has cropped for twenty-seven years, and it yet produces an average of three tons of hay to the acre, and there has never been a failure. He milks about thirty cows, and ships the product to customers at Soledad and San Francisco. He manufactures both "Flats" and "Young Americas."

In April, 1855, Mr. Wentz was united in marriage to Eliza E., daughter of Elder J. K. Rule. In 1868 he was one of fifty who purchased the Justo Rancho from Col. W. W. Hollister, and laid it out into homesteads, and also laid out the town of Hollister, now the county seat of San Benito County.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 56

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