Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 71

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 71

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ORACE G. KEESLING. Among the enter- prising and successful young men of Santa Clara County should be mentioned Horace G. Kees- ling. His residence is on Carlos Street and the Meridian road, where he owns fifteen acres of orchard, which place he came in possession of eight years ago when it was a grain-field. This he planted in or- chard, about five acres each year. It is now planted almost equally in prunes, cherries, and apricots, with about 200 peaches and an assortment of fruits for family use. Only part of this orchard is in bearing, as the part set out at first in apples has been replaced with other trees. Mr. Keesling is also interested in, and editor of, a publication devoted to poultry and kindred interests, entitled The California Cackler, published in San Francisco. He is a breeder and importer as well as exporter of fine poultry, having made several importations of the black Langshan. These come from Langshan, a province in the interior of China. He has had his agent on the lookout for the past four years to obtain a white Langshan, but without success until lately, when they succeeded in obtaining and importing a hen of that breed, the first ever imported into the United States. The Chinese consider them a sacred bird, and are unwilling to sell or dispose of them to people of other nations. The Langshans Mr. Keesling considers well adapted for keeping in orchards, as they are prolific layers, and live in the orchard without flying in the trees or de- stroying the fruit. He also claims that the same care bestowed here in poultry-raising will insure as profit- able results as in the East. In New Zealand and Australia quite a growing market has been built up for American-bred fowls, such as the Wyandottes and Plymouth Rocks, largely through the medium of The California Cackler.

Born in Mechanicsburg, Henry County, Indiana, in

1855, his parents removed with the family to Minne- apolis, Minnesota, in 1856. Here the subject of this sketch lived until his eighteenth year, attending school during the winter months and working out in summer as long as weather permitted. During the last four years of his residence in Minneapolis he learned the business of florist, with Mr. Wyman Elliot, the leading horticulturist of that section. In October, 1873, the family removed to California, set- tling at once in the Santa Clara Valley. He gradu- ated at the San Jose High School in 1874. Since that time he has been engaged in fruit-raising, first with his father until his twenty-fifth year, and since 1880 at his present home. In 1880 he was married to Miss Annie Bacon, of San Jose, daughter of L. and L. J. (McGrew) Bacon, who came to California from Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1852. There have been born to them two children: Jessie and Homer G. His parents are T. B. and Elizabeth (Hasty) Keesling, who removed from Ohio into Indiana at an early day. They now live on Willow Street opposite Cherry Avenue, in the Willows. The subject of this sketch is a member of San Jose Grange, No. to, Patrons of Husbandry, and a member of the Executive Com- mittee of the State Grange of California. He is independent in politics, generally supports the Re- publican party, and is in favor of protective tariff.

EORGE SCHERRER is proprietor of the Eagle Brewery, the first beer-brewing establishment in Santa Clara County, it having been established in 1853 on a very small scale by the late Joseph Hartman. The beer is still sold under the name of " Old Joe's" beer. Mr. Hartman commenced the manufacture of beer with a very small outfit, having a capacity of about eight barrels per day. This soon gave place to the large and complete establishment carried on since Mr. Hartman's decease by Mr. Scherrer, which now has a capacity of fifty barrels per day. This beer is mostly consumed in San Jose and Santa Clara County. They do not make any lager, but all steam beer, which requires only six weeks to become perfect, while lager requires four months. Mr. Scherrer has been identified with the Eagle Brewery for the past twenty-eight years, hav- ing come to this county in 1860. He was born in Alsace, France (now Germany), in 1832, and remained in his native town until twenty-one years of age, at- tending school and learning the brewing business. In

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1853 he came to New York. For the next five years he was employed in various breweries in different parts of the country. In 1858 he came to San Fran- cisco, where he worked for two years in the Germania Brewery. He was there recommended to Mr. Hart- man, of San Jose, by whom he was at once employed, and remained with him nineteen years, as foreman and manager most of the time. On the death of Mr. Hartman, in 1879, he succeeded to the business, which he has continued to conduct to the present time, being now the proprietor.

Mr. Scherrer was married, in 1875, to Miss Georgi- ana Hartman, daughter of Joseph Hartman, the pro- prietor of the brewery. George Scherrer is a mem- ber of San Jose Lodge, No. 34, I. O. O. F., and of the Encampment also; is a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Red Men and of the San Jose Turnverein.

Mr. Hartman was a native of Hesse Darmstadt and came to America about 1846, and to California in 1852, engaging at once in the brewing business, being in Lion's Brewery in San Francisco for one year before coming to San Jose and establishing the Eagle Brewery, as before stated, in 1853. He died in 1879, leaving five children.

D. ALLISON, one of the prominent business men of this county, is the proprietor of the oldest established jewelry store in San Jose, he having succeeded Jackson Lewis, who estab- lished the business in 1849. Mr. Allison is a native of the State of New York, having been born in Broome County in 1834, but removing with his parents to a farm near Birmingham, Michigan, in 1836. Here he received his education, and learned the jewelry bus- iness, working at it both in Pontiac and in Detroit.

In 1858 he came to California by way of Panama, and immediately followed the tide of people to the gold mines, going to Mokelumne Hill. After mining about three months he went to work at his trade in the same town, remaining there four years. During the Esmeralda County gold excitement he went to Aurora, where he remained two years in the jewelry business. In 1864 he came to San Francisco, where he formed a company for the manufacture of aerated bread, adding, after two years, the manufacture of yeast bread. During this time six wagons were re- quired to deliver the bread to the customers. On the breaking out of the small-pox in the fall of 1868,

the company closed the bakery, whereupon Mr. Alli- son came to San Jose, and entered the store of Jack- son Lewis. In 1879 he succeeded Mr. Lewis in the business, and has continued it to this time.

In 1875 Mr. Allison was married to Miss Mollie E. Secoy, of Chicago, whose parents, Dr. Secoy and wife, of Chicago, died during her early infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Allison have five children: Camille, Win- fred, Mildred, Leone, and W. D., Jr. Mr. Allison's parents were David and Susan Allison, his father a native of New York State and his mother of New Jersey. Both parents are dead, his father dying in 1883, at Pontiac, Michigan, at the age of ninety-two years, his mother in 1866. Both are buried at Troy, Michigan, near the old farm where they had lived so long.

Mr. Allison is a member of San Jose Lodge, No. 10, F. & A. M., and of San Jose Commandery, No. IO, of Knights Templar, also a member of Scottish Rite, and of the I. O. O. F.

G. HUGGINS, who resides on the Alameda, has been a resident of Santa Clara County for twelve years, and of San Jose five years. He was born in Ripley County, Indiana, in 1841. In 1851 his parents removed to Iowa. He received his education in the public schools of Indiana and Iowa, and later attended a private school at Kirk- ville, Wapello County, Iowa, until eighteen years of age. He then went to Versailles, Darke County, Ohio, where he remained three years in business with his uncle. During this time he took a course in a commercial college in Cincinnati. He then returned to Iowa and engaged in mercantile pursuits at Ot- tumwa with his uncle, J. W. Huggins, in which he con- tinued for eleven years, doing a general merchandise business in dry goods, boots and shoes. In 1874 they sold out and engaged in the coal-mining and shipping business for two years. They then came to Santa Clara County and purchased 800 acres, between Los Gatos and Saratoga. Mr. Huggins bought his uncle's interest in the land, and started a large orchard, planting 150 acres in fruit, of which 125 acres were in prunes, the rest being in various fruits; 112 acres of this was planted on shares, the man planting and caring for the trees for four years, receiving a certain acreage as compensation. This was probably at the time the largest prune orchard in the world. Early in 1884 Mr. Huggins sold his interest in this orchard

I. Pasture. Two-year old Vineyard in the distance. Southern portion of the farm, looking East.

2. Orchard and Vineyard. looking Northeast.

PROPERTY OF J. W. RANSOM.

3. Prune Orchard and Vineyard, looking Southeast. Distant views.

4. Residence, south side, and surroundings.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

for $50,000, the place having been purchased, eight years before, for $12,000. Hr. Huggins is not at present interested in fruit culture, nor is he in any active business.

He was married, in 1867, to Miss Matilda Maliott, a native of New Orleans, but a resident of Ohio from her early childhood. She died in 1870, leaving one child, Grace, who graduated at the University of the Pacific in 1888. Mr. Huggins was again married, in 1877, to Miss Bertha Roemer, a native and resident: of Ottumwa, Iowa. There has been born to them one child, Howard M., in 1882.

Mr. Huggins was reared on his father's farm up to the age of seventeen years, and trained in all the de- tails of farm work. He has been, until within the past four years, an active business man. Except a small estate from his father, Mr. Huggins has been the architect of his own fortune, and every dollar he pos- sesses represents just so much of hard, earnest, act- ive work. His parents were Alexis M. and Orinda A. (Jenison) Huggins, both natives of New York. His father was a miller and farmer, owning a farm in Ripley County, Indiana, and later in Iowa, operating a mill belonging to his father, as well as carrying on his farm work, while in Indiana. The subject of this sketch owns a beautiful home, and is surrounded by every home comfort. His father died in Iowa in 1863. His mother still lives, residing in San Jose with her daughter, Mrs. Davis.

COEL W. RANSOM. Some of the grandest steps that have thus far been taken by Santa Clara County in the realization of her title, "The Garden of the World," are due to men who are com- paratively new-comers. Only four years ago the great Ransom Fruit Farm, just south of Madrone Station, was a hay and grain field, with nothing about it to make it more remarkable than hundreds of other places in the Santa Clara Valley. Then the present owner took charge, and the horticultural history of California probably presents no parallel to the prog- ress that has been made here since that time. The tract contains 402 acres, including the right of way of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which runs through it. Thirty acres are used to pasture stock, while all the rest is given over to the culture of tree and vine fruits. South of the barn buildings is an orchard of apricots set out in 1884, and three years later it bore a heavy crop, in some instances more than 100 pounds

being taken from a single tree. They are all of the Moorpark variety. North of the residence is a vine- yard of five acres, a portion of which was set out by the former owner, to Mission grapes, into which Mr. Ransom has grafted thirty varieties of fancy French grapes. The new vines are all Zinfandels, and were planted in 1885. The portion of his ranch so far described lies west of the railroad, but on the east the rows of trees and vines stretch away to the eastward until they appear finally to come together in one green mass. At the northern end of the tract, and adjoining the railroad, is a vineyard of seventy- two and one-half acres,-all table and raisin grapes. To the east of this is a sixty-acre prune orchard, set with French prunes in 1884. South of this, Mr. Ran- som planted 100 acres to French prunes, in 1885, and in -1886 he added ten acres more, making in all 170 acres in French prunes, which is the largest French prune orchard in the world, containing 19,000 trees. The next larger prune orchard is in Santa Cruz County, and contains 16,000 trees. South of the young prune orchard he has another vineyard of 110 acres, mostly in Zinfandel, Matero, and other wine grapes, set out in 1886, and presents a healthy ap- pearance. The farm residence is a commodious, single- story building, and well adapted to this climate in construction and arrangement. Mrs. Ransom has devoted much time and attention to the embellish- ment of the grounds surrounding their home, and here may be seen, in healthy growth, almost every variety of tropical and semi-tropical plants. The orange and fig thrive here, while the magnolia de- lights the senses by the beauty and fragrance of its flowers. There are seventy-five fig-trees now in bear- ing, which form a border to the other plants. The oldest of these were set out in 1884-85, from cuttings brought by Mr. Ransom from Cloverdale, Sonoma County, and include the several varieties. There are also choice evergreens, geraniums, verbenas, calla lilies, pomegranates, etc. About six miles from this place, just south of Coyote Station, Mr. Ransom has another farm, known as a portion of the old Fisher grant, purchased in 1887, containing ninety-eight and thirty-six one-hundredths acres. In 1888 Mr. Ransom cut four tons of volunteer barley hay to the acre on fifteen acres of this land, that had been used as pasture. There is an apple orchard of two acres on this place, eighteen years old, and also a small vineyard. The residence is a handsome two-story structure, with all the modern conveniences.

Joel W. Ransom was born in Salem, New London

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PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

County, Connecticut, October 4, 1821. His parents, John S. and Lydia (Newton) Ransom, came from old New England families, his paternal grandfather having been a soldier in the patriot army in the Revo- lutionary War. His father, a farmer, was born in 1788, and died at a ripe old age, in 1871. Joel W. was reared in his native county until he left home, October 4, 1841, to make his own way in life. He went South at once, and settled in Cahaba, Dallas County, Alabama, where he engaged in general mer- chandising. Upon receiving the news of the dis- covery of gold in California, he disposed of his prop- erty, and, January 22, 1849, set out for New Orleans, where he took a schooner for Panama. He was twenty-four days crossing the Isthmus! Here he remained two months and four days waiting for a sailing vessel, so that he could take passage to San Francisco! On the ninety-first day out from Panama he sailed through the Golden Gate. He at once went to the mines, and prospected on the North Fork of the American River until fall, when he went into camp on the Feather River. Mr. Ransom's history from that time is the history of nearly every big- hearted miner of those days; he had his ups and downs, hardships and pleasures. In 1851 he went to Shasta County, and in 1854 to Trinity County. Dur- ing the Florence excitement of 1862, he left there and traveled to Auburn, Eastern Oregon. In Decem- ber, 1862, he went to Boise Basin, Idaho, and from there, in 1865, to British Columbia, and later, in the same year, to Montana, where, in 1866, he established himself in Butte City, and there resided until he came to Santa Clara County, to remain permanently. In Butte City he engaged in several kinds of business, and in the years 1871-72, was Assessor of Deer Lodge County, Montana Territory.

He has permanently retired from mining, and does not intend to again engage in developing the mineral wealth of the earth. New mines will be discovered, but civilization and the railroad can no longer be far away. The man who has taken part in this pioneer development has been necessarily thrown in contact with all classes of men from every clime. This con- tact, under such circumstances, inevitably brings out a man's true character, no matter how polished or rough the exterior may be. Santa Clara County wel- comes Mr. Ransom, who, having passed through this ordcal, is a thorough gentleman. Mrs. Ransom's maiden name was Margaret Amelia Cecelia Logan. She was born in Massachusetts. Her parents, William and Maria (Battice) Logan, were also natives of the

same State, her mother being of French descent. Early in 1865 Mrs. Ransom came with a married sister and her family to Montana, and in the summer of the same year was married, her first husband being James Ruy, who died December 24, 1869. He was extensively engaged in merchandising in Montana. On December 9, 1878, she was married to Mr. Ransom. She is a lady of education and refinement, and, like her husband, is noted for her hospitality.

D. HOWE, whose home and fruit orchard of ten acres are situated on Willow Street, near the Me- ridian road, has been a resident of Santa Clara County since 1880, in which year he came to California. His ranch, which is planted with 350 prunes, 150 cher- ries, 100 apricots, 60 pears, 50 peaches, 2,500 Muscat vines, and a small variety of fruits for family use, he purchased in that year, already planted in fruit, for $350 per acre. Mr. Howe places most value in his grapes and cherries. He shipped in 1887 five tons of grapes, and the year before he had fourteen tons. He has shipped his grapes to Chicago, St. Paul, and other points.

Born on his father's farm in Schoharie County, New York, on August 31, 1849, he remained there until he was eight years of age. In 1857 his parents removed with the family to La Crosse County, Wisconsin, where they purchased a farm on which they resided until the death of Mr. Howe's father, in 1865. The subject of this sketch remained on this farm until the age of twenty-two years, his time being divided between at- tending school and his farm duties. He then rented the farm and engaged in various occupations, mostly in the printing business, for a number of years. Find- ing the climate of Wisconsin trying to his health, he sold out the farm and with his family and mother and sister started for California, purchasing and settling almost immediately in his present home. His mother and sister have a residence near his on the same ranch. His parents were Benjamin S. and Olive (Ruland) Howe, natives of New York State. Mr. Howe was married in 1874, to Miss Milla Eldred, who was born in Wisconsin in 1857, her father, a native of New York State, coming to Wisconsin when it was practically a wilderness. He was the first Sheriff of La Crosse County. To this marriage have been born six chil- dren, of whom two died in 1882: Lilian A., born July 31, 1875, in Wisconsin; Millie Louise, born April 18, 1877, in Wisconsin, died in San Jose, April 22, 1882;

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

Maud Milton, born May 6, 1879, in Wisconsin ; Rolo D., born December 29, 1882, died April 26, 1883, in San Jose; Mark L., born July 31, 1884; Olive, born January 17, 1886. Mr. Howe is a member of Mount Hamilton Lodge, No. 43, A. O. U. W. He generally supports the Democratic party, but believes in tariff protection.

CHARLES A. PITKIN, residing on the Meridian road near the Stevens Creek road, purchased the fifty acres on which he now resides in 1882. He then planted 1,200 French prunes, 450 silver prunes, 1,200 apricots, 500 Bartlett pears, 350 yellow egg plums, 600 peaches, 300 cherries, 175 Hungarian prunes, 56 Washington plums, and 220 fruit-trees of different varieties for family use, making in all about 5,000 trees. In 1887, on twenty acres, from 900 apri- cot trees, there was a net result of $2,000, from 800 various prunes over $1,000, from the yellow egg plums $342, and from 56 Washington plums $56. In the year previous the prunes netted $1.50 to the tree. There is on the place a fruit-drying apparatus, which seems to possess several marked advantages, and on which Mr. Pitkin has been allowed two patents. The fruit to be dried is in trays placed on shelves on a large revolving wheel inside an immense brick oven, these two parts of the apparatus resembling a large cracker-baking oven. The slow revolution brings the fruit within the very dry and the more moist strata of heated air, also in the currents of greater and less heat slowly and at intervals, preventing danger of burning, and enabling the fruit to gather in the lower part of the drier a condensation of jelly-like moisture, re-absorbing and retaining to the fullest extent the natural aroma and flavor of the fruit.

Mr. Pitkin was born in East Hartford, Connecticut, in July, 1837, and reared on his father's farm. He was attending the East Hartford High School at the age of sixteen, when he left school and went to work in the Colt Pistol Factory in 1856, remaining there one year. He was then employed in the firm of Bid- well, Pitkin & Co. as bookkeeper, in which his brother was interested. In 1860 this firm changed its name to Pitkin Bros. & Co., the subject of this sketch being admitted to the firm, and their business the manu- facture of steam, water, and gas apparatus. He re- mained in the firm until the winter of 1877-78, over twenty years, when he came to California and bought twenty-two acres in the Willows, which he planted

partially in orchard and sold later, buying the place on the Meridian road.

In 1862 he was married to Miss Henrietta Lock- wood, daughter of James and Charlotte (Chamber- lain) Lockwood, residents of Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Lockwood was a member of the firm of Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., extensive printers and pub- lishers of Hartford, having engaged in that business with Case, Tiffany & Co. in 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Pit- kin have had four children: Charles A., Jr., interested with his father in fruit culture and drying; Charlotte P., the wife of Rev. W. P. Williams, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Mayfield, California; James D., who died in childhood; and Caroline H., a graduate of the Willows Grammar School. The Pitkin family trace their history back to the thirteenth cent- ury, when, in Hertfordshire, many important positions were held by members of the family. William Pitkin, the progenitor of the family in the United States, came from England in 1659 as King's Attorney for the Connecticut Colony. His son and grandson, both named Wm. Pitkin, were successively Chief Judges of that colony, and held for 125 years the highest official places in Connecticut. The fourth in descent was a member of the Governor's Council from 1766 to 1785, Colonel during the Revolution, Judge of Supreme Court nineteen years, Member of Congress in 1784, and his father Governor of the State, "elected by a majority so large that the vote was not counted!" on account of the stand he took in resisting the accept- ance of the Stamp Act. Mr. Pitkin is a member of the Masonic Order, and of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He has been a Republican from the incep- tion of that party, is in favor of full prohibition, and believes in absolute protection of American industries.

OUIS KRUMB, proprietor of Krumb's Brew- ery, Nos. 76 to 86 South Second Street, San Jose, was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, in 1836. He remained in his native city, attending college, and afterward learning the brewing business. At seventeen years of age he came to America, spend- ing a year in different parts of the Eastern States. In 1854 he came to San Francisco, and worked in the brewing business there and in Sacramento until the fall of 1855, when he started a brewery in Alameda, which he removed in 1856 to San Jose, where he has conducted it ever since. When he started his brewery it had a capacity of four barrels per day, while now

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it has a capacity of twenty-five barrels per day. His market is mostly in Santa Clara County.

He was married, in 1857, to Miss Wilhelmina Schultz, a native of Hamburg, Germany. They have three children living: Augusta, still occupying the pa- ternal home; Justus Edward, now the Deputy Treas- urer of the State of California; and Frederic Louis, engaged in the manufacture of candy in San Jose. Mr. Krumb has a small orchard in Alameda in bearing. He is a member of the Chosen Friends, and the first Past Chief Councillor in the county; also a member of the Red Men, of which he is Past Grand Oler-Chief of the State of California. He was elected in 1873 to the City Council of San Jose, where he served a term of two years. He is a Democrat, and prominent in the councils, having been for the past ten years a member of the Democratic County Central Committee and for the last six years treasurer of that committee. He believes in a modified tariff. Mr. Krumb was connected with the Volunteer Fire De- partment of San Jose from 1857 until it became a paid department, and for four years was foreman of Empire Steam Fire Engine Company, No. I.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 71

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