Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 69

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 69

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cet R. A. A. GASTON. This gentleman has forty- one acres at Campbell's Station, which he pur- chased in December, 1883. Up to that time it had been cultivated to grain, but the following spring the Doctor planted it to prune trees, thirty-six acres in French and the rest in Silver prunes. Mrs. Gaston owns five acres in the Willows, on Washington Avenue, between Pine and Minnesota Avenues. This choice tract is planted to prunes, cherries, and apri- cots.

Dr. Gaston is a native of Troy, Pike County, Ala- bama, where he was born in 1849. His parents, Hon. Henry A. and Josephine (Battin) Gaston, were na- tives of New York State. His father was liberally educated in Ohio, and went from there to Troy, Ala- bama, where for seven years he was Principal of an academy. During this time he studied law and was then admitted to the bar, and in 1854 he came to Cal- ifornia, locating in Sierra County, whence he was sent to the Legislature the next year. In 1861 he organ-

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ized the Union party in this State. In 1872 he changed his residence to the State of Nevada and represented his district in the Legislature there, be- ing elected Speaker of the House in 1879. He was the author of "The Ready Lawyer," " The Little Lawyer," and other well-known works of literature. The family are of French descent. Their paternal ancestor, Adolph Gaston, was a refugee from France during the persecution of the Huguenots, and later members of his family emigrated to America, of which branch the subject of this sketch, who is a cousin of ex-Governor Gaston, of Massachusetts, is a descendant. The Doctor's mother was a cousin of the wife of President Tyler. Dr. Gaston came with his mother and sister to California, by the Panama route, in January, 1857, to join his father, who was already a resident of this State and closely allied with its po- litical history.

After completing a course of study in the Gates Institute, Dr. Gaston studied dentistry, and, having successfully passed a thorough examination, received from the State Dental Board a certificate to practice in this State, which he has done for a number of years. He is a member of Friendship Lodge, No. 47, of San Jose Knights of Pythias, and of Mt. Hamilton Lodge, A. O. U. W., of San Jose. The Doctor is a man of warm feelings, and is genial in his intercourse with friends; he possesses a fine intellect and brilliant con- versational powers.

UDOLPH B. SPENCE, land owner and ag- riculturist in Monterey County, was born in Monterey, California, in 1857. He attended school in Monterey up to the age of thirteen years, when he commenced a course in the Santa Clara College, remaining there till nineteen years of age. At that time he became engaged in the office of his uncle, Mr. M. Malarin, President of the Safe Deposit Bank of Santa Clara, where he remained one year, when he left to take charge of the estate left by his father and grandfather, which he man- aged until all the members of the family became of age. He now attends to his own and his sister's (Miss Arcadia Spence) interest.

He was married in January, 1886, to Miss Mamic Sullivan, a native of California, who was born in San Francisco in 1862. Her parents were John and Ada E. (Kenna) Sullivan. Her father, one of the pioneers of 1844, came to California with the Murphy party

in that year, he having known that family in Canada, and later in Missouri. Mr. Sullivan was successively a storckeeper, real-estate owner, and capitalist, having been the founder and president of the Hibernia Bank of San Francisco. He was a man of upright char- acter and well known for his abundant charities. He died in 1882, at the age of 58 years. One of his sons is the Hon. Frank J. Sullivan, member of Congress from the Fifth Congressional District. Mrs. Ada E. Sullivan was a native of Brandon, Mississippi, arriv- ing in California with her parents during the '50's. Her father, Capt. Ramsbottom Kenna, was at -one time the owner of a line of packets running between Charleston and other Southern ports on the Atlantic Coast. He died soon after arriving in California. Mr. Spence's parents were David S. and Refugio (Malarin) Spence. His grandfather was David Spence, a native of Scotland and member of a prom- inent old Scottish family ; who, after being in business in Callao, Peru, for two years, came to California in 1824 and settled in Monterey, where he lived for over fifty years, engaged in buying and selling the products of the country and shipping them to Europe. He was appointed Alcalde of Monterey by Governor Argüello, whose niece, Adelaida Estrada, daughter of Mariano Estrada, the commander of the Mexican forces in California, he married in 1829. There was born to this union one child, David Stewart Spence, the father of the subject of this sketch. David S. was married in 1856 to Miss Malarin, and to them were born six children, two of whom, Ellen and Amelia, died in early childhood. The four living children are: Rudolph B., Albert Alexander, David J., and Arcadia J. The grandfather of these children died in 1875, aged 77 years, and for more than fifty years was a prominent citizen of Monterey County. He left a large estate, of which he bequeathed liber- ally to various churches and charitable institutions, and to several friends and relatives, besides leaving an ample fortune to his grandchildren. Mr. Rudolph Spence is engaged in stock-raising to a certain ex- tent, but the most of his lands are rented. He has 3,000 acres in Monterey County, of which about two- thirds is farming land and the remainder adapted to fruit and stock-raising. Mr. Spence has a magnifi- cent residence on the Alameda near Fremont Avenue, between San Jose and Santa Clara, each of his brothers having also handsome homes adjoining him.

Bancroft, in his "History of the Pacific States," vol- ume 19, page 526, says : "Among new-comers the most prominent was David Spence, the Scotchman,

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who arrived on the Pisarro to take charge of the meat-packing establishment of Begg & Co., and who became a leading and wealthy citizen." In the fifth volume of the " Pioneers' Register and Index " the fol- lowing account appears: "David Spence arrived in 1824, a native of Scotland, who had lived a few years at Lima and came to California in the Pizarro to su- perintend the meat-packing establishment of Begg & Co., at Monterey."

In 1827 he started in business for himself, and was prosperous from the beginning, being cautious, close, and energetic. His name often appears in the record of each year. In 1829 he married Adelaida, daugh- ter of Mariano Estrada, taking an active part in the protection of Monterey during the Solis revolt. He was naturalized in 1830. In 1834-39 he was grantee of Encinal y Buena Esperanza Rancho, of which he was claimant and permanent owner. In 1835 he was appointed Alcalde. In 1836 he was a member of the Deputacion, and in this and the following year was secretly a supporter of Alvarado's government, choos- ing not to act openly as a member of the Congress, yet exerting quietly much influence in municipal and legislative matters. He was elected juez de paz in 1839 and 1840, furnishing information to Laplace, giving Sutter a letter of introduction, and doubtless favoring the exile Graham and his vagabonds. In 1843-45 he was a member of the Junta Department ; in 1845, in command of the foreign guard to protect Monterey during the Micheltoreno troubles, being also appointed Prefect by Governor Pico, but appar- ently declining the office. In 1846, though popularly believed to have intrigued for an English Protectorate, he was regarded by Larkin as friendly to the United States ; was a member of the Council after the change of flag, and of the Legislative Council in 1847. He subsequently served as Prefect in 1849-50, and as County Supervisor in 1858-60. About 1848 he gave up his mercantile enterprises and devoted himself chiefly to the care of his estate and the raising of live- stock. In 1873 he furnished some brief historical notes, and died in 1875, at the age of seventy-seven years. Don David had an excellent reputation among the pioneers of California, few exerting so wide and extensive an influence. While not exactly popular, by reason of his conservatism, obstinate as any of his race, and making enemies as well as friends, he yet merited and received the respect of all classes. His wife survived him but a month, and his only son, David, born in 1830 and educated in Hono- lulu, died in 1868, leaving three sons and a daughter,

who inherited their grandfather's estate. He was the first Alcalde to keep a record of the dividing and ownership of lots in Monterey when it was changed from a presidio to a pueblo.

LFRED R. TOMKIN, druggist, was born in Witham, Essex County, England, June 7, 1826. He is a son of Dr. Thomas M. Tomkin, a graduate of the College of Physicians and Sur- geons, in London, England. During his life-time he practiced medicine, and instituted a private lunatic asylum, besides being much engaged in medical lit- erature, writing for the Lancet and other medical jour- nals. He died in 1858, and his son, Dr. Thomas M. Tomkin, Jr., succeeded him in his practice and in the management of the asylum. The mother of the gentleman of whom we write was a Miss Eleanor Royce, a native of Essex County, and married Dr. Tomkin early in the present century. She died in 1868.

The subject of this sketch attended the Merchant Tailors' school, then in Suffolk Street, at London, for seven or eight years, passing the usual examinations. On the thirteenth of March, 1849, he embarked in the St. George, and bade farewell to friends and coun- try, and turned his face toward the Golden West. He sailed around the Horn, and came direct from En- gland to California, the trip occupying seven months, one of which was spent in Valparaiso. He reached San Francisco on October 13, and, storing his goods he had brought with him, like all new-comers at that time, started immediately for the mines. After digging a little gold at Mud Springs, he was taken sick, and returned to San Francisco, only to find that his goods had been destroyed by fire, leaving him ab- solutely without means. But he afterward received a remittance from England, and, relying upon his knowledge of medicine to aid him, he opened a drug store in Santa Clara in 1854. He remained there sixteen years, and then removed to San Jose, where he has since resided. In 1887 he was elected Coro- ner and Public Administrator of Santa Clara County, which office he still holds.

In 1858 he was united in marriage to Miss Martha F. Forbes, the eldest daughter of James Alexander Forbes, who came to this country from Edinburgh, Scotland, in an early day, and was British Consul during the Mexican occupancy of California, before it was ceded to the United States. Mrs. Tomkin

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died in 1875. Dr. Tomkin has seven living children: Alfred F., engaged in farming in this county; Charles H., a silk manufacturer; Eleanor F., wife of Thomas Roots, a nurseryman of San Jose; Thomas, a painter by trade; Anna M., who resides with her father; Martha and Clara B., also living at home and attend- ing school in San Jose.

ANIEL J. PORTER, of the firm of D. J. Por- ter & Son, No. 83 South First Street, San Jose, was born in Stony Brook Harbor, Long Island, New York, in 1828. In 1833 his parents removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father died in 1839, leav- ing a large family of children. From that time it may be said he battled his own way in life, first finding a home in Central Ohio, with a tanner, and later on a farm. There he had the advantages usual in the West at that time, of three months' schooling each year, which indeed was his only opportunity of edu- cation. At the age of eighteen years he engaged as an apprentice to the wagon-maker's trade. In 1850 he removed to Rahway, New Jersey, where he com- pleted learning his trade in the carriage shop of his half-brother, S. C. Tooker. In 1851 he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked at his trade for several months, returning in January, 1852, to Cincinnati, where he remained until April, when he started across the plains, undecided as to whether he would go to Oregon or California. At the Big Sandy Creek, Utah Territory, the party took a vote to de- termine whether they would take the road to Oregon or to California. The vote was in favor of the latter road. They came through Johnson's cut-off, passing Hangtown (now Placerville) about August 20, 1852. His party arrived at Sacramento, where they rested a few days and then sold their outfit and disbanded.

Through the representations of a Mormon, they met at Sacramento Mr. Porter, and one of his party came on to Santa Clara Valley, leaving his brother David in Sacramento. He arrived in San Jose Sep- tember 1, 1852, and at once went to work at his trade of wagon-making. In November he and H. J. Has- kell, who came across the plains with him, opened a shop for themselves. They bought the property where Mr. Porter's office now is, and conducted their business until 1867. In that year they built the block now on that site called the "Gray Eagle Building," in which Mr. Porter has owned an interest since that time. He conducted a livery stable in the building until 1869, when he sold it and entered into the insurance

business, adding the real-estate business to it a few years afterward. Mr. Porter has an orchard of five acres on the Alum Rock road four miles from San Jose, planted to French prunes, just coming into bear- ing. He was a member of the City Council for six years (1862-68), having been elected three times. He made special efforts to save the reservations to the city now embodied in Alum Rock Park, the Normal School site, and the site of the City Hall. There had been a determined effort on the part of individuals to get illegal possession of these lands, and only by determined opposition by the City Coun- cil were they prevented from so doing-thus saving to the people of San Jose these valuable properties. Without this fight the city would have received less than $250 for the Alum Rock reservation, which is now worth fully $50,000.

Mr. Porter was married in 1855 to Miss Caroline McKee, a native of Connecticut. Seven children were born to this marriage, of whom five died in infancy or early childhood. Two are now living: Daniel A., engaged in business with his father, and Adelia, still residing at her father's home. He is a member of Friendship Lodge, No. 210, F. & A. M., San Jose, and of Garden City Lodge, No. 142, I. O. O. F. He is a Republican and believes in the fullest protection to American industries, and in protecting American labor by prohibiting the free importation of pauper labor. He has been actively interested in the development of the interests of San Jose on the best and broadest basis.

ceto R. A. C. HIRST. The President of the Univer- sity of the Pacific, San Jose, A. C. Hirst, D. D., was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, June 15, 1839. He was for a number of years a pupil in the schools of that city, but finished his collegiate educa- tion at Hanover College, Indiana, in 1859, graduating in that year with honor. He was elected at once Adjunct Professor of Latin and Greek in Stewart College, Clarksville, Tennessee. His first position afterward was that of Associate Principal of Sayre Female Institute, Lexington, Kentucky, which he re- signed to accept a professorship in Transylvania University. For five years he was Superintendent of Public Schools at Ironton, Ohio, and in 1870 became Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in the State University at Athens, Ohio. He quitted his professional duties to engage in active ministerial

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work in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and served the leading churches at Marietta, Washington, Chillicothe, Columbus, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, being Pastor for one term of Christ Church in the latter city. He was also for one year Principal of the public schools at Washington Court House, Ohio, after he entered the ministry. In 1887 Dr. Hirst was Pastor of Trinity Church, Cincinnati, when he was requested to assume the duties of President of the University of the Pacific. Finally yielding to the most pressing invita- tions, and the manifest call and necessity of the oc- casion, Dr. Hirst consented to accept the position. He resigned his pastorate in Cincinnati, and arrived here, as was stated, in August, 1887, at once entering upon his duties, following in this position Dr. C. C. Stratton, the eminent educator, who resigned in or- der to undertake the presidency of Mills College.

It will thus be seen that Dr. Hirst fills his labori- ous and responsible position as President of a great university, with a mind well-stored with knowledge drawn from practical experience in the higher walks of educational effort, and with a culture enriched and enlarged from the direct and personal advantages gained by an itinerant minister, of all of which oppor- tunities he has made excellent use in the storing and maturing of information and experience. The Univer- sity has felt the effect already of his energy and tact, and displays at once a highly gratifying and success- ful advance. Dr. Hirst enjoys a high rank among theologians and pulpit orators, and his advent to this coast marks another period in the progress of educa- tional development in California.

HARLES P. OWEN, Recorder and Auditor of Santa Clara County, was born in Port Byron, New York, in 1858. His father, J. J. Owen, was a native of Cayuga County, New York, and an eminent agriculturist of that State, having twice rep- resented his district in the State Legislature. In 1851 he came out to California, and for two years was mes- senger for the Gregory Express Company, on the Sacramento River. In 1853 he returned to New York State, where he stayed until the fall of 1861, when he once more came to California, bringing out his family in the following year. He at once estab- lished the San Jose Mercury, and conducted it continuously until three years ago, when he sold out to Mr. C M. Shortridge, the present proprie-

tor. He is now conducting the Golden Gate news- paper in San Francisco. He represented Santa Clara County in the State Legislature during the sessions of 1862 and 1863, holding the responsible office of Speaker during one term, and being always an active and consistent Republican. From the time of mak- ing San Jose his home he took an active part in all public works of general benefit, interesting himself especially in the lighting of the city by electricity. He was President and founder of the Electric Light Works in San Jose, and erected the splendid electric tower that spans the intersection of Market and Santa Clara Streets. On the formation of the company into a stock association this was purchased jointly by them and the city. He is still a stockholder in the company.

Mr. Owen's mother was Kate Paddack, a native of New York State. She died in San Jose, in 1884. There are four daughters and two sons, the result of this union. Of these, Clifford, the eldest, is now and has been for twenty years connected with the San Jose Mercury.

Mr. C. P. Owen was the fourth child. He attended the public schools of San Jose, graduating in 1877. He went at once into the Mercury office as cashier and collector, a position he held until December, 1881. Occasionally he worked at the case, becoming an ex- pert compositor, and also doing some editorial work. In January, 1882, he accepted a position in the State printing office at Sacramento, under Governor Per- kins, remaining until September, 1883. He then returned to San Jose and took up his former position, which he retained until January, 1885. At that time he became Deputy County Clerk and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, filling this post until January 1, 1887, when he was elected by a large majority to the office of County Recorder and Auditor, a position which he holds with the greatest satisfaction to the people, as he has shown himself a painstaking and efficient officer.

In 1881 he married Miss Mary Conmy, a native of Trinity County, California, her parents having come to this State in the early days of its settlement, locating in Shasta County, and removing thence to San Jose in 1868. During the first three years of his residence here Mr. Conmy was a partner of Mr. Owen, and later opened the job-printing business, which he still carries on. Mr. and Mrs. Owen have four children. They are: Charles H., born in Decem- ber, 1882; Katie, born in July, 1884; Alfred, born October, 1885; and Francis, born November, 1887.

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Mr. Owen is Commander of the American Legion of Honor, an officer of Enterprise Lodge, No. 17, A. O. U. W., and a member of the San Jose Turnverein, in all of which orders he is in good and honorable stand- ing. Mr. Owen is a Republican in politics, believing fully in the protection of American industries. He is opposed to the further importation of the Chinese element, seeing clearly its evils, and desiring the best development of American citizenship.

EWIS A. SAGE was born in New York city, June 17, 1848, and came to California with his mother when about four years of age, arriving here in the spring of 1852, his father having preceded them. He was educated in the public schools of San Francisco and at Santa Clara College, where he grad- nated in 1867. He then went to Virginia City, Nevada, and engaged in the assaying business. In 1868, after a residence there of seven months, he was obliged to return to California on account of his health, and located in San Francisco, where he engaged in the street contracting business for about two years. He then went into the manufacture of artificial stone under the Ransome patent, and was thus engaged for two years. He then came to his present place, where he has since resided. He was married in 1876 to Cloelia Lewis, a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and has three children, all sons.

PROF. JOHN W. BRILL, Principal of the Com- mercial Department of the University of the Pacific, was born in Ottawa, Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada, in 1865. He received his edu- cation principally in Albert College, in the city of Belleville, Ontario, graduating there in 1886, having previously attended the Napanee Model School, Len- nox County, Ontario. He commenced teaching in the public schools in Leeds County, Ontario, in 1885, continuing in that work for one year, when, his health failing, he gave up teaching and devoted some time to its recuperation, finally taking a position as head bookkeeper in J. M. Clark's hardware store at Smith's Falls, Ontario. The extremes of the Canadian cli- mate being found too rigorous for his constitution, he came to California, in December, 1887, receiving his appointment to the position he now occupies early in

January, 1888. Under his supervision the Commer- cial Department of the University is in a very pros- perous condition, having at this time a much larger attendance than ever before, and the prospects are excellent for a large increase in the classes. Much care is taken to develop in the minds of the students a careful analysis of the work they perform. An actual business department has been organized which conveys the pupil through the practical routine of a business establishment. His parents were the Rev. David and Mary (Pake) Brill, the former for the past twenty-seven years an active member of the Methodist Conference of Ontario, who has lately come to Cali- fornia, and intends to remain.

ICHARD E COLLINS, druggist, at No. 166 South First Street, San Jose, was born in Chat- ham, Massachusetts, in 1844. He attended the public schools of his native town till thirteen years of age, when his family removed to Boston, where he worked in the printing office of J. E. Farwell & Co. five years. The war commencing at this time, Mr. Collins became attached to the Quartermaster's De- partment of the army, with Capt. William Wilson acting Quartermaster of the Southern Division of the Mississippi, with headquarters at Nashville, Tennessee. There he remained till the capture of Richmond and the close of the war, when he was discharged from the service and returned to Boston. Shortly after his re- turn home he went to sea, and followed that occupa- tion for three years. In 1869-70 he was employed by the American Watch Company of Waltham, Massa- chusetts. . In the latter year he began to learn the drug business in Boston, in which trade he continued until 1875; then he moved to California, locating in San Francisco, where he remained a year. In April, 1876, he moved to San Jose and established the business he now carries on, and to which he has devoted his ex- clusive attention. Having great confidence in Santa Clara County as a fruit-growing section, Mr. Collins, in 1883, purchased a ranch of twenty acres, six miles from San Jose, on the road to San Francisco, and the same year planted ten acres to fruit-trees, of which 700 were apricots and 300 peaches. The following year he planted 1,000 prunes and 350 cherries. This orchard paid handsomely in 1887, the yield from 650 apricot trees being seventeen tons, and from 300 peach-trees over twelve tons.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 69

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