Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 59

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 59

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Mr. Hall was married, in 1866, to Sarah Brewer, a native of New York State. Previous to her marriage she taught school for two seasons, one in Russian River Valley and one year in the Lincoln District, where they now reside. They have two children, Bertha M.

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and Edna B. The former is a graduate of the State Normal School at San Jose, in the class of 1888. Mr. Hall has lived in this valley since 1852, except one year he spent in the mines. Prior to his marriage he made his home with Elisha Stephens, the first settler in this part of Santa Clara County.

AGNUS TAIT was born on the Shetland Isl- ands north of Scotland, May 30, 1837. His father, Michael, was born in Garth, Parish of Nesting, Shetland Islands, October 21, 1805, and died at Joliet, Illinois, October 6, 1879. He was mar- ried November 8, 1829, to Margaret Leisk, a native of the same islands, and in 1838 he left his native land and came to America, arriving at Chicago, Illi- nois, July 19 of that year. In 1848 he became a resi- dent of Joliet, Illinois, where he was one of the first charter members of the Baptist Church and closely identificd with all its interests from the first. His wife died in Joliet, March 27, 1882, at the age of 79. They left a family of four sons, all living. Magnus was an infant when his parents came to America, and lived with them till twenty years of age. He was married May 26, 1858, to Antoinette Cooley, a native of Amber, Onondaga County, New York, who was born December 7, 1837.

August 4, 1862, he enlisted in Company M, First Illinois Light Artillery, and his company was at- tached to the Fourth Army Corps most of the time while in service. At the time of enlistment he was promoted a Sergeant in charge of Gun No. 6. He was in all the engagements in which the Fourth Corps participated. He was in twenty-two battles and skirmishes, the heaviest being Chickamauga, Mis- sion Ridge, Resaca, and from Dalton to Atlanta. For about 100 days his guns hardly became cold, being kept almost in one continuous engagement to Atlanta, and on the night of August 26, 1864, the day before Atlanta fell, he was taken prisoner near that city. He was taken to Andersonville, where, and in Savan- nah, Millen, Blackshear, and Thomasville prisons, he was confined until the close of the war. He, with 4,000 Union soldiers, was taken from Thomasville prison to Vicksburg, there to remain until a like num- ber of Confederate prisoners should be brought down from Rock Island, Illinois, when they were to be ex- changed. The news of the assassination of President Lincoln reached them at Vicksburg at two o'clock the following morning. The Confederate major who had

them in charge became alarmed at the preparations that were at once made to hang him, and escaped and was never heard from. It was lucky for him that he left just as he did, because a rope had been procured, but the excited soldiers when they reached his tent found that he had abandoned it. This broke the cartel, or agreement between the authorities of the two governments, and the Union troops were at once shipped north to their respective homes.

Mr. Tait returned to his home in Illinois, and in August, 1865, removed to Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, where he lived until 1885, when he came to California. He located at Ocean Side, San Diego County, and remained there until July, 1887, when he located in Los Gatos. Mr. Tait is a member of the Scottish Rite Knight Templar Degree, having taken the thirty-second degree in 1885, and is a char- ter member of the Los Gatos Blue Lodge, A. F. and A. M. He is a member of the Oriental Order of the Palm and Shell; a member and junior Vice-Com- mander of E. O. C. Ord Post, No. 82, G. A. R., and a charter member of the Andersonville Survivors' Association, organized September 22, 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Tait have had four children, viz .: Florence I., born April 16, 1859; Walter M., July 7, 1860; Thomas I., August 24, 1861 ; and Magnus C., November 16, 1862. Walter M. died March 16, 1885.

EWIS HEBARD, son of Albetis L. and Philo- melia Hebard, was born in Wells, Hamilton County, New York, April 20, 1821. His father and mother were natives of Dutchess County, New York. Albetis L. moved from Dutchess to Hamilton County, and thence to Marcy, Oneida County, New York, and in 1843 the family moved to Illinois, where Mrs. Hebard died, in 1844. Mr. Hebard then returned to New York, where he soon after died. Lewis, the subject of this sketch, the only child, was reared in New York and went with his father to Will County, Illinois, where he remained while his father resided there. He then went to Jefferson County, Wiscon- sin, where he remained till March, 1850, when he left for California, coming overland. The party with which he traveled arrived in Sacramento August 7, 1850. Upon his arrival he immediately went to the mines and located at Cook's Bar; in three weeks he was taken sick and returned to Sacramento, where he had to remain six weeks. He then went to work on the American River levee, where he worked a short

VIEWS FROM THE HOME OF ROBERT WALKER.

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time and went to the Big Bar mines and remained till January, when he went to Jackson Creek and thence to Amador Creek, where he remained till spring. After a few more wanderings he finally came to San Jose, in 1852, and went to work at the carpenter trade, which he followed for five years. In 1857 he went to the mountains above Lexington, where he took up 160 acres of land under the pre-emption act, where he has since lived. At that time the land was wild and was inhabited by grizzly bears, deer, etc., and he endured great hardships for some years in clearing the land.

Mr. Hebard was married in January, 1849, to Lu- cinda Dygert, a native of New York, of German par- entage. She died in March, 1863. They had four children, all of whom are dead. Mr. Hebard was married again in September, 1874, to Mrs. Lodoiski A. (Girard) Murdock, a native of Mobile, Ala. She has two children, one by her former marriage and one since. Mr. Hebard has 105 acres, twenty-five of which are under cultivation. He has a fine orchard, con- taining cherries, prunes, plums, peaches, and apples. The rest of his land is in hay, pasture, and lumber. Mr. Hebard was a charter member of. the Hook and Ladder Company of San Jose, organized in 1853.

OBERT WALKER was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, September 15, 1842. He is a son of John and Ann (McIntosh) Walker, the former from Edinburgh and the latter from the Highlands of Scotland. John Walker located in Montreal, Canada, when he was a young man, where he was married. From there he moved to Ancaster Township, near Hamilton, being one of the pioneers of that locality, where he lived to a good old age, and died in April, 1885. His widow is still living there. They reared a family of eight children, of whom five are now living, four sons and one daughter. Robert Walker, the eldest of the living children, lived with his parents until he was twenty years of age, In 1862 he came to California by water from New York via Panama to San Francisco, and immediately left by the next steamer for Victoria, British Colum- bia. In 1863 he went into the Caribou gold mines, near the Fraser River, between three and four hun- dred miles from Victoria, and remained there until the fall of 1865. He then returned to San Fran- cisco, and in the following spring made another trip

to British Columbia, where he engaged in mining at Big Bend, in the Columbia River. Not finding the mines profitable, he again returned to California and settled in Monterey County, where he rented a piece of land and farmed for three years. He was married there, in 1869, to Eliza Jane Parr, a native of Santa Clara County, and daughter of Jonathan Parr, de- ceased. In 1871 he came to this county and moved upon his present place, situated on the Los Gatos and San Jose road, where he has since resided. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have three children: Leslie R., Myrtile M., and Vivian C.

Mr. Walker became a member of the order of Odd Fellows in January, 1888, and has been a member of the A. O. U. W. for several years. He is one of the directors of the Bank of Los Gatos and of the Los Gatos Fruit Packing Company. Mr. Walker's farm contains 415 acres, and at the present time (1888) has 260 acres sowed to barley, and the remainder, with the exception of twenty acres in vegetables, is used for pasture.

ENJAMIN FRANKLIN BACHMAN traces his ancestors back to 1696, when his grand- mother's father, John Rohrer, of the Bachman family, was born in Alsace, now a part of Ger- many. John Rohrer came to America when quite young, and in 1732 married Maria Saunders, who was born in Manheim, Germany, February 29, 1716. She died May II, 1769, and her husband, November 28, 1771. The Rohrer family were Huguenots. His great- grandfather, John Bachman, married Anna Miller, June 15, 1744. He died October 3, 1757. His grand- father, John Bachman, was born March 20, 1746, at Big Spring, now part of Lampcter Township, Lan- caster County, Pennsylvania. He was married April 9, 1771, to Maria Rohrer, who was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, January 28, 1749. His father, Jacob Bachman, was born in what is now Conestoga Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1782, and died May 10, 1849. His great-grandfather, on his mother's side, Jacob Eshleman, was born in Switzerland, July 4, 1710. He sailed from Rotterdam in the ship Mortonhouse, James Coultas captain, and arrived in Philadelphia August, 1729. He married Barbara Barr, who was born February 22, 1714. On May 4, 1748, he bought a large tract of land on Pequea Creek, now a part of Paradise Township, Lan- caster County, Pennsylvania. He died December 15,

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1758. His grandfather, Jacob Eshleman, was born in Pennsylvania November 7, 1742, and married Bar- bara Groff January 15, 1767. Barbara Groff was born March 5, 1747. Her father, Jacob Groff, was born April 2, 1699. Her mother's maiden name was Brackbill. Mr. Bachman's mother, Barbara Eshle- man, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1789. Her marriage to Jacob Bachman took place March 31, 1814, and her death occurred October 3, 1867.

Benjamin Franklin Bachman was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, February 25, 1829. He was reared on his father's farm, and in his younger days attended the public schools of his neighborhood, and afterward attended the Strasburg Academy at Stras- burg, Pennsylvania, Rev. David McCarter Principal. After the discovery of gold in California, he sailed from New York, November 26, 1849, in the brig Emma Prescott, around Cape Horn, and arrived in Monterey, California, May 1, 1850. He then fell in with a party of young men, who hired mules and a guide and started for the mines in Mariposa, where he lived for thirty years. In February, 1851, he joined the Mariposa Battalion of Mounted Volunteers, and served against the Indians until the following July. The world-renowned Yo Semite Valley was discovered in March, 1851, by a portion of this battalion on one of their expeditions, Mr. Bachman being one of the party. He served as postmaster of Mariposa from 1862 to 1865. For three years he worked in the mines, and afterward followed trading and other pur- suits. During the last ten years of his residence there he was engaged in the cattle business. In 1880 he moved to Santa Clara County and purchased fifty acres of land in and adjoining the town of Los Gatos, which at that time was a village of a dozen houses. He has thirty-two acres of land planted to the lead- ing varieties of fruits grown in this section of the country. He has 500 French prunes, 500 peaches, 400 apricots, and 700 ¿almonds, together with a small number of cherries, pears, and plums. Mr. Bachman has never married.

ICKNELL G. CONEY was born in the western part of England, January 5, 1830; lived with his parents until nineteen years old, and graduated at an English university. He then went to Australia, where he was employed in managing stock and sheep for nearly three years. Next he engaged in quartz and placer mining, and was Superintendent of a quartz-

crushing machine at Sandhurst. After remaining in Australia eight years, he returned to England, in 1861, and about six months afterward came to San Fran- cisco, where he remained two months, and went to British Columbia, staying there eighteen years. For four years he held an appointment from the British Government on the inland revenue service, and in 1867 he bought a farm of 160 acres, which he farmed for five years, when he sold it and engaged in mining for a few months, and afterward rented a farm for a year. He was then appointed Recorder of Mining Claims in the Cassiar District, the appointment coming from the Provincial Government. He was also a Justice of the Peace, and had charge of the northern division of the district for two years. In May, 1880, he returned to England, where he remained until March, 1881, when he came to California, and in the fall of the same year bought his present place.

OLLA BANKS was born at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, West Virginia, November 15, 1817. His father, Samuel Banks, was a native of Virginia, and his mother of Maryland. They removed to Coshocton County, Ohio, where he fol- lowed farming, and died about the year 1826. Mrs. Banks died in 1880, aged nearly 100 years. They reared a family of five sons and three daughters, Rolla being next to the youngest. He spent his boyhood days on the farm, and lived there till 1836, when he left home, but remained in the neighborhood till the breaking out of the Mexican War, in 1846, when, in the month of June, he enlisted in the Third Ohio Infantry, Col. Samuel R. Curtis commanding, and was elected Second Lieutenant of Company B, of which James M. Love was Captain. At the end of his enlistment he was mustered out and returned to Ohio, and in 1849 came to California, and was among the first to come overland. His train, con- sisting of five wagons, started from Independence, Missouri, and all remained together till they reached Sacramento, in September, after a journey of nearly five months. Sacramento, at that time, was a large camping-place, there being no buildings except a few adobe houses. The party still adhered together, bought a load of provisions, and took them to the mines at Hangtown (now Placerville), unloaded, and returned to Sacramento with their teams and sold them.

The party mined at Hangtown till 1851, when

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they went to Amador County, near Drytown, and again engaged in mining till some of the party tired of it and wanted to go home, and finally all con- cluded to do so, as they had been together so long, and, in 1853, they all returned to Coshocton, Ohio, the place they started from. Late in 1853 Rolla and family removed to Illinois, and in 1855 to Minnesota, where he followed farming till the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1862 he organized a company and was commissioned Captain. The company was at- tached to the Seventh Minnesota Infantry, Col. Will- iam R. Marshall commanding. Receiving a paralytic stroke while in Mississippi, in August, 1864, he was discharged from the service in 1865, and was a suf- ferer from this for some years before he was able to get around without assistance. He came to Califor- nia in the fall of 1882, locating first at Santa Cruz, then at Santa Rosa and St. Helena, and in 1883 he located in Los Gatos, where he has resided since that time.

Mr. Banks was married in September, 1847, at Coshocton, Ohio, to Elizabeth Morrison, who was a native of that place. They have two children living: Sadie Banks Clement, residing at Winona, Minnesota, and Bessie Banks, who resides with her parents.

OHN W. MONTGOMERY, son of Spencer and Martha Ann (Keathley) Montgomery, was born in Lawrence County, Indiana, September 17, 1835. His father's parents were Virginians and his mother's were Pennsylvania Germans. The parents of Jolin Montgomery removed to Missouri in 1837, where they resided till their death, when he was a small boy. John remained in Missouri until seventeen years of age, when, in 1852, he came to California and went to the mines in El Dorado County, where he remained a few months, and then went to Grass Valley, where he lived about twenty years, first engaging in mining for nearly two years, then for two years he worked at his trade, that of saddle and harness making. After this he farmed four years, and then engaged in min- ing till the spring of 1863, when he went to Virginia City, Nevada, where he followed mining, farming, and his trade. Losing his health there, he returned to California in February, 1865, and again located in Grass Valley, where he remained till 1873, engaged in different occupations, when he came to Santa Clara Valley and farmed for a year, and in 1874 opened the first harness shop in Los Gatos. About six months

afterward he removed to Santa Barbara County, where he lived three years, when he returned to Santa Clara County and followed farming for four years, and then engaged in the saddle and harness business again in Los Gatos, which he still follows.

He was married December 18, 1881, to Sophia Jones, a native of West Virginia. They have no children of their own, but have an adopted child, Earl.

OSEPH CUNNINGHAM was born in Middle Tennessee, February 11, 1820. His father, Will- iam Cunningham, was a native of North Carolina. When he was seven years of age his father died, and he then went to Tennessee, where he had rela- tives, with whom he lived till grown. He married Narcissa Jenkins, a native of Kentucky. Her father, Joseph Jenkins, went from East Tennessee to Ken- tucky when he was a young man; was married there, and afterward with his family moved into Lincoln County, Middle Tennessee. Narcissa Jenkins was reared in Middle Tennessee, being a small child when her father moved there. After William Cunningham was married he made Lincoln County his home until 1835, when he moved to Randolph County, Missouri, located on a farm, and died there, in 1842, at the age of forty-seven years. His wife died about three years after, at the age of forty-four. They had a family of ten children, four of whom lived to be grown, and three are now living.

Joseph Cunningham lived with his father until he was twenty-one years old. For those times he was able to get a fair education. He was reared on a farm, and is the fifth generation of the Cunningham family who followed farming. In the spring of 1844 he married Margaret J. Hannah, a native of Tennes- see. Her father, Andrew Hannah, moved from that State into Missouri in 1833, when she was a mere child. She died in February, 1845, leaving one son, William A. Cunningham, who resides in Arizona.

In the spring of 1843 Mr. Cunningham bought a farm, where he lived for twenty years during his resi- dence in the State of Missouri. In the fall of 1846 he was married again, to Mary J. Gooding, who was born in Randolph County, Missouri, July 2, 1827. Her parents were natives of Kentucky, her father having moved to Missouri in 1818. In 1863 Mr. Cunningham sold his farm and came to California. He bought land in Solano County in 1864, and re- mained there until 1881, when, in November of that

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year, he sold and moved to Santa Clara County. He bought his present place near Saratoga, and has one of the finest ranches in this vicinity.

Mr. Cunningham's ranch contains thirty-two acres, nineteen of which are in fruit, consisting of the fol- lowing varieties: 1,200 French prunes, 400 pears, 50 apples, 250 apricots, and about 100 trees in a family orchard, together with 100 vines. Two of his sons, J. C. and J. F. Cunningham, have, the one nine and a half, and the other six, acres respectively, of which the former has eight acres in fruit, and one and a half acres in nursery, and the latter all in fruit, princi- pally French prunes, apricots, and peaches.

There are seven children living and two deceased, six of whom reside in Santa Clara Valley. Mr. Cun- ningham is a member of the Cumberland Presby- terian Church of San Jose, and has been a member of the Presbyterian Society about forty-six years. Mrs. Cunningham has belonged to the same church about two years longer.

ARVEY WILCOX was born in Onondaga County, New York, March 30, 1822. His father, Loammy Wilcox, was born in Connecticut, August 27, 1787, and removed to New York at a very carly datc. He was married to Hannah Paddock April 14, 1812. She was born in New York April 29, 1786. They reared a family of four children, Caroline, Edmund, Harvey, and Cordelia, of whom Harvey was next to the youngest. He was reared in New York until sixteen years of age. At this age he removed to Joliet, Illinois, where he engaged as a elerk in a general merchandise store and remained there till 1843, when he went into business for himself. When the Mexican War began he was one of the first to run cargoes of oats and other merchandise down the Des Moines and Mississippi Rivers on flat-boats to New Orleans, where he sold his cargocs to the government. He lived in Joliet till 1849, when he came to California and went into the mines, and after being there about a year returned to Joliet. He came again to California in the winter of 1855-56, and has been a resident of the State ever since. He located again in the mines in Sierra County, and was there about two years, when he returned to Solano County; engaging in business there until 1876; he then came to Santa Clara County and located. He settled in Los Gatos in 1881, bought and improved forty aeres

of land, which was purchased from him by the Santa Clara College of Jesuits as a branch of their college. Mr. Wilcox built the "Wilcox House" in Los Gatos in 1887, which he owns. It has thirty-five rooms, and is situated near the depot. Mr. P. A. Lamping is the. proprietor.

Mr. Wilcox was married October 1, 1844, to Har- riet S. Demmond, a native of Worcester, Massachu- setts, where she was born July 1, 1826. They have two sons: Charles F., born July 6, 1852, and Harry E., June 12, 1861-both attorneys in San Jose.

PHILIP G. GALPIN was born in Buffalo, New York, February 3, 1830. His parents, natives of Vermont, settled in New York at an early date.

When five years of age he was adopted by his uncle, Philip S. Galpin, for many years Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut. He was educated in New Haven, attending Russell's Military Academy, and in 1845 entered Yale College, at which he graduated in 1849. He then studied law with Henry B. Harrison, lately Governor of Connecticut, and entered the Yale Law School, graduating in 1852, and was admitted to the Bar in New Haven in the same year. He removed to Ohio and settled in Findlay in 1853, to engage in the law business. There he entered into partnership with Hon. James M. Coffinberry, his brother-in-law, who was afterward for ten years Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga County. He traveled the neighboring counties on horseback, carrying his law-books in his saddle-bags. His first case was tried in a little town called Ottokee, on the border of Mich- igan. The court-room was in a log house about fifty feet square. Morrison R. Waite, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was also there at the time, trying several cases. The witnesses, judges, and lawyers all had to take quarters together in the garret of the only hotel in the place. Mr. Galpin then practiced law in Toledo a year, and wrote for the Toledo Blade; thence he went to New York city, entered into partnership with Robert G. Pike, and practiced in Wall Street. This partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Pike removed to Connecticut and became President of the Hartford & Middletown Rail- road, but Mr. Galpin continued practice in New York for a number of years. In 1857 he came to Califor- nia on business for a client in the East, a widow, whose husband had died here leaving a large property. The leading cases were Gray vs. Palmer, reported in ninth

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volume of California Reports, and Gray vs. Bugnar- dello, in Supreme Court of United States. He was at- torney for Mrs. Gray and won sixteen lawsuits for her, in which she recovered a large amount of property. He returned to New York and argued in the Supreme Court of the United States, Galpin vs. Page, which became a leading authority on "jurisdiction." He came again to California in 1860 and tried several actions for an Eastern client in ejectment, remaining here at that time about eighteen months. During this time his business was going on in New York, where he had partners. In 1865 he was employed in New York by the heirs of J. Ladson Hall, of Phila- delphia, to come to California to recover the estate of their father, valued at $150,000. Hall vs. Dexter was the leading case. He tried and argued it in the United States Circuit Court of California, where judgment was rendered against Hall. Mr. Galpin appealed the case to the Supreme Court of the United States at Washington, D. C., and there argued it for the Hall heirs. The decision of the Circuit Court was reversed. The last decision established the point that the deed of a lunatic was void and not voidable. The late Roscoe Conkling was the opposing counsel. Mr. Galpin then remained a year and a half in New York and soon after went to Europe. He was married in Paris, France, in January, 1867, to Mary E. Culver, a native of Baltimore, Maryland. In 1869 he returned from Europe to New York city, where he practiced law till 1875. Having acquired property in Califor- nia which required attention, he came here that year and located in San Francisco, where he resided till 1880, when he bought a place at Claremont near Oak- land. His wife died there in 1883. He continued to reside at his home in Claremont till 1886, when he married Julia B., youngest daughter of Victor Castro, by whom he has one child.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 59

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