Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 72

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 72

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EDWARD J. DELANEY. This gentleman has a lovely little fruit farm of ten acres situated on Lincoln Avenue, between Willow Street and Minnesota Avenue, in the Willows, San Jose. The trees are principally apples, pears, prunes, apri- cots, peaches, plums, and walnuts. Mr. Delaney bought this place in 1875, it having been planted in the winter of 1874-75, and has made nearly all of the improvements himself. In 1887 it yielded about 2,500 boxes of shipping apples, 1,500 boxes of dry- ing apples, and 15,000 pounds of prunes-returning about $1,500 gross income for the products of the orchard. He has also three acres on the corner of Lincoln and Minnesota Avenues, that are in bearing -prunes and cherries.

Mr. Delaney is a native of England, having been born in Exeter, Devonshire. He left there at the age of six years, with his parents, who went first to Aus- tralia during the gold excitement, where they remained two years, and then came to California by way of Honolulu, where they stopped six months, arriving in California on the first day of May, 1852. Mr. Dela- ney's parents were Matthew and Mary (Pillman) De- laney-the father born in Maryborough, Queens County, Ireland, and the mother in Exeter, England.

Matthew Delaney was all his adult life a veterinary surgeon, having studied that profession while in the Queen's Royal Ninth Lancers, of which command he was for seventeen years a member, and from which he was discharged on account of disability incurred in service in the riding school, while training a vicious and unruly horse. Mr. Delaney brought with him to California the first lot of Sydney horses that came to this country.

He was married to Mary Pillman, in Exeter, in 1838, in the same year that the marriage of Queen Victoria occurred. He died in San Francisco in 1865. The subject of this sketch was the second child, and remained with his parents until 1865, attending school, and later studying veterinary surgery, having charge alternately of his father's estate until its final settle- ment. In 1870 he was married to Miss Laura G. Smith, the first white child born in Nevada City, Cal- ifornia, whose father, George W. Smith, came across the plains to Oregon in 1846 with his uncle, Peter H. Burnett, later the first Governor of California. Mr. Smith fought in the Cayuse War in Oregon, in 1848, but in 1849, at the first gold excitement, he came to California. In 1850 he was married, in Sacramento, to Miss Elizabeth D. Robinson, who had come across the plains with her parents from Missouri in 1849.

Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. De- laney. Two died in infancy. Those remaining are: Joseph W., born in San Francisco, August 4, 1872, now at school in the Willows; Carrie, born July 15, 1875, attending school in San Jose; Herbert, born May 30, 1877, attending school in the Willows; and Ada, born November 5, 1885. The last three were born in San Jose.

Mr. Delaney is a member of the Fruit Growers' Association of the Willows. He has always been a Democrat in politics; is a believer in the protection of the fruit-growing interests of California.

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IMOTHY CONANT, whose fruit ranch and residence are on the Meridian road, at the inter-

@ section of Willow Street, San Jose, has been a resident of California since 1873, and of the Santa Clara Valley since 1874. In that year he bought forty acres of land, for which he paid $5,000, and has since then purchased twelve and a half acres adjoining, of which his son now owns eight acres. Of these places there are thirty-three acres in fruit, of which about two-thirds is in bearing, one-third being

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

in prunes, one-third in apricots, and one-third in peaches. They have just set about five acres in cher- ries of the Napoleon Bigarreau variety.

Mr. Conant was born in Medina County, Ohio, in 1828, on his father's farm, where he lived until 1854 and there received his education in the public schools of the neighborhood. In 1854 he removed to Min- nesota, where he again engaged in farming, to which his life has been almost entirely devoted. In 1864 he enlisted in the Fourth Minnesota Infantry. He had previously attempted to enter the service of the Union, but was refused on account of his health; in 1864, however, the Union needed defenders so much that he was accepted. He was sent to Sherman's army at Altoona Mountains, taking part in the en- gagement at Altoona and at the Battle of Benton- ville, remaining with Sherman on his March to the Sea. He took part in the grand review of the troops in Washington in May, 1865, and was mustered out of the service at Louisville, Kentucky, June 15, 1865. He was married in 1857 at Dayton, Minnesota, to Miss Martha Davis, a native of Augusta, Mainc. There were born to this union two children: Eva G., December 15, 1859, now the wife of James Moore, residing in Solano County, California; and Ernest W., July 2, 1862, now living with his parents and en- gaged in fruit-raising. Mr. Conant's father is still living in Medina County, Ohio. When he came to that State, at the age of twenty years, with his father, Ohio was a wilderness. Mr. Conant is a member of Phil. Sheridan Post, No. 7, G. A. R., San Jose. He has always been an ardent Republican, and in favor of protective tariff. His son Ernest is a member of the Sons of Veterans, with the rank of Major, and very active in that organization.

ENRY BOOKSIN. This gentleman, a promi- nent fruit-grower and typical man of Santa Clara County, came to California from New York State in 1851, settling first in Colusa County. He is a German by birth, the place of his nativity being Hesse Cassel, and the year, 1827. He attended the public schools of his native place until he was about sixteen years of age, when he commenced learn- ing the business of wagon-making in Marburg, Ger- many, completing his apprenticeship when twenty- one years of age. He then emigrated to New York, and worked at his trade about three years, when he came to California. He opened a wagon-making es-

tablishment in Colusa, in 1852, carrying on that busi- ness until 1856, when he purchased a farm in the same county. In 1857 he revisited Europe, traveling in Germany, France, and England until the spring of 1858, when he returned to California, arriving in Co- lusa in April. While on this visit he was married, in Germany, in 1858, to Miss Elizabeth Kraft, a native of Hesse Cassel, bringing her immediately to the home of his adoption, California. He remained on his Co- lusa ranch until 1874, cultivating wheat and raising stock, in which occupations he did so well that when he sold out in 1874 he had about 6,000 acres of the best valley land. In 1875 he purchased his present residence, No. 574 Second Street, San Jose, where he has since resided. In 1881 Mr. Booksin purchased eighty acres in the Willows of Santa Clara County, thirty acres of which were already in fruit-trees. He immediately planted the remaining fifty acres in trees, and now has one of the finest orchards in Santa Clara County, consisting of thirty acres of French prunes, twenty-five acres of apricots, fifteen acres of peaches, and the remainder of cherries, which are all in full bearing. In 1887 this orchard produced about 250 tons of apricots and 150 tons of peaches. The prunes yielded their first crop that year, producing about thirty-five tons. Mr. Booksin has on his place a Flem- ing dryer, with which he dried a large part of the crop, receiving about $16,000 for the entire product. The prune crop of 1888 will probably double that of 1887.

The parents of Mr. Booksin, John and Catherine (Rodehause) Booksin, were natives of Hesse Cassel, died and are buried there. His grandfather was in America during the Revolutionary War, one of the Hesse Cassel soldiers who fought with the British. His father was a soldier under Napoleon in the Rus- sian campaign, being a member of the Grenadier Guards, going as far as Moscow, and participating in the famous retreat from that city. He was later a soldier under Blucher, and took part in the battle of Waterloo.

There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Booksin four chil- dren: Louis, now engaged in fruit-raising in the Wil- lows; John and Henry, living at home, and assisting their father in the fruit business; and Gienni, who also lives at home. Mr. Booksin's first wife died in Colusa, in 1866, and he afterward married her sister, Miss Katie Kraft. Both Mr. and Mrs. Booksin and family are attendants at the Presbyterian Church of San Jose. Mr. Booksin belongs to the Republican party, believes in the protection of American interests, and is thor- oughly American in all his feelings and sympathies.

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PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

LDEN E. MOODY, District Secretary and Manager of the Home Mutual Insurance Com- pany of California for the district comprising the counties of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey, with headquarters at No. 20 West Santa Clara Street, San Jose, was born in Water- town, Jefferson County, New York, in 1833. He at- tended school in his native place up to the age of eighteen years, at the same time working on his father's farm. He then worked one year at the car- penter's trade, after which he went into a general merchandise store, where he remained a year. In 1853 he crossed the plains to California with a band of seventy-five horses, paying the man who owned the horses $200 for the privilege of helping him drive them across the plains. Upon his arrival in Califor- nia he came directly to San Jose, where he located. He at first worked at the carpenter's trade, and later' with an associate, established the planing-mills now situated on the corner of Fourth and San Francisco Streets, which were the first planing-mills in San Jose. These he afterward sold and became the representa- tive of the Pacific Union Express Company, which place he occupied until the company's franchise and business were purchased by Wells, Fargo & Co., when he engaged in the insurance business, in which he has continued for the past twenty years, and for eighteen years has held the position he now occupies in the Home Mutual Company.

He was married in 1857, and to this marriage were born three children: Charles E., of the firm of Bailey, Crossman & Moody ; Gettie, wife of H. P. Thayer, Superintendent of the Guadaloupe quicksilver mines; and Everett, attending the public schools of San Jose. Mr. Moody was married again in 1885, to Miss Ada Huiton, of San Francisco, daughter of William M. Huiton, the founder of the San Francisco Evening Post. The first vote he ever cast was in San Jose, for Jolin C. Fremont for President. During that campaign Mr. Moody, with the late Levi Goodrich, the late James F. Kennedy (then Sheriff), and D. B. Moody, now of the Central Milling Company, formed a singing quartette and stumped the county for Fre- mont, singing at the political meetings in every part of this county. To this work they devoted about three months, and rolled up a majority for Fremont in this county, which was the only county in the State doing as well. Since that time he has been a consistent Republican. He has been very successful in the in- surance business. Taking charge of the business of the Home Mutual Insurance Company of California,

when insurance interests were flat in San Jose, he has built up a most successful business and added largely to the assets of the company, while giving abundant satisfaction to those who were fortunate enough to hold policies of his company whenever overwhelmed by the fire fiend. Mr. Moody is classed among the foremost of business men at San Jose.

ZRANK A. BAUMGARTNER. This gentle- man, who resides on Lenzen Avenue, near the Alameda, San Jose, was born in Bohemia in 1854. He came to America in 1865 with his parents, Louis and Mary Baumgartner, also natives of Bohe- mia, who settled in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, where they yet reside, engaged in farming and conducting a coopering establishment. In 1873 the subject of this sketch left his parental home, after having learned the brewing business in Almapee, Wisconsin, and went to Chicago, where he was foreman in Seipp's Brewery. In October, 1883, he came to California, taking a position as foreman of the Fredericksburg Brewery Company, at San Jose, where he is still em- ployed, in charge of the manufacturing department. Mr. Baumgartner is also interested in fruit-growing, having ten acres of French prunes and apricots in full bearing, on Fruit Vale Avenue, near the Meridian road.

Mr. Baumgartner was married in 1877 to Miss Mary Wacek, a native of Bohemia, her parents having re- moved from Bohemia to Wisconsin in 1868, in which State they still reside. There have been born by this marriage three children: Libbie, in 1878; Josephine, in 1880; and Louis, in 1882. Mr. Baumgartner sup- ports the Democratic party.

AMES R. CURNOW, A. M., M. D. The subject of this sketch was born in Gulval, near Penzance, in Cornwall, England, in 1853, and came to Amer- ica with his brother, William Curnow, when young, and directly to California. He went to the gold mines in Nevada County, where he remained several years. He had attended the national schools in Cornwall, and here, in 1874, he entered the University of the Pacific, which institution he attended six years, graduating in the classical course, in 1880. He then commenced the study of medicine in the office of Drs.

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Potts & Caldwell, where he remained about one year; then he began the scientific course at Columbia Col- lege, in New York city, remaining there during one session. He then entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, graduating there in 1882. He attended the hospitals in Philadelphia in pursuit of the study of his profession until July, 1883, when he commenced practice in San Jose, devoting his time since then ex- clusively to the practice of medicine.

Dr. Curnow was married January 21, 1885, to Miss Lottie E. Crichton, a native of Santa Clara County, daughter of Frederick and Emily (Walker) Crichton, natives of England, who came to California about 1852. Mr. Crichton engaged in general merchandis- ing and trading until he came to San Jose about 1870. He built a home in San Jose, and lived here until his death, in March, 1888, Mrs. Crichton having died in June, 1873. Mrs. Curnow was a graduate of the State Normal School, in the class of 1880, and before her mar- riage taught school four years at the New Almaden quicksilver mine.

Dr. Curnow has a sister in Philadelphia, the wife of Frank Clemens; one brother, William, in Nevada City, of this State, and one brother, Robert, now at- tending school in San Jose; and other relatives, now living in England. His father died in England in 1882, and his mother in 1885.

Dr. Curnow was at one time physician at the Guad- aloupe mine, until the mine was closed. Both Dr. and Mrs. Curnow are connected with the Episcopalian Church.

EROME VOSTROVSKY is one of those valued acquisitions to this population who, having passed a large part of their life-time in some of the States east of the Rocky Mountains, and there acquired a competency, have come to pass the remainder of life amid the pleasures of climate and delightful surround- ings afforded only by California. He purchased four acres on the southwest corner of Willow Street and Lincoln Avenue, in the Willows, in 1884, planting French prunes and cherries, and has erected an ele- gant dwelling, which the family now occupies. Besides this, he is the owner of several pieces of valuable land and city property. Mr. Vostrovsky is from Bohemia, the land of Huss; he was born near Prague on March 5, 1836. He attended school in Bohemia and traveled through the different countries of Europe. Not sym- pathizing there with the political conditions, and giv-

ing too free an expression to his feelings, he found it advisable to come to the land of free thought and free action, America, where he is loyal to the flag of the Union. In 1864 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits; one year later he went to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where he engaged in the dry-goods business, the style of the firm being first, Fort & Vostrovsky, and later, J. Vostrovsky & Co. Here he married Anna Witousek, the daughter of John and Frances (Polak) Witousek, of Moravia. Remaining until 1870, he then sold out and removed to West Point, Nebraska, where he opened the same kind of business. He was City Treasurer for a number of years, and was also appointed Notary Public, and known as one of the most enterprising citizens. He removed to Livermore, California, in 1876, where he again engaged in the dry-goods business, with his usual activity and enterprise. He remained there three and a half years, and sold out with his good-will and returned to West Point, Nebraska, where he still had property interests, which he disposed of, and then traveled. After seeing the greater part of California, Oregon, and Washington Territory, he chose San Jose for his home, and in 1883 permanently located here. Mr. Vostrovsky has decided literary taste and ability, being a correspondent of several newspapers in the Bohemian (Czech) language. Mr. and Mrs. Vostrovsky have been blessed with three bright and interesting children: Anna, Clara, and · Jerome. Mr. Vostrovsky is a member of Jordan Lodge, No. 27, F. & A. M., and West Point Lodge, No. 52, I. O. O. F., of West Point, Nebraska ; of Pacific Council, No. 474, American Legion of Honor, in San Jose; and of Golden Gate Lodge, No. 93, of the C. S. P. S., Bohe- mian Benevolent Society of San Francisco; also a member of San Jose Turnverein. Courteous and gentle in manner, Mr. Vostrovsky is yet a man of clearly-defined views, well-fixed convictions, and broadly independent and liberal in his political and religious sympathies.

HADDEUS W. SPRING, of the firm of T. W. Spring & Son, clothing merchants, corner of Santa Clara and Market Streets, San Jose, was born in Buffalo, New York, June 17, 1829. His ances- tors for many generations were residents of Massachu- setts and Vermont. While he was an infant, his father moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, where he received his education up to the age of eighteen years. He

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PEN PICTURES FROM THE "GARDEN OF THE WORLD."

then enlisted in Magruder's Battery, United States Army, and after making the voyage around Cape Horn with his battery on the ship Monterey, landed in San Diego, California, where he remained until 1851, when he was discharged and came immediately to San Francisco, and engaged in the auction business, which he continued for two years. He then made a trip to the Sandwich Islands, after which he returned to California and commenced mining in various parts of the State and in Nevada, with the usual success at- tending mining operations. He came to San Jose in 1861 and engaged in the auction business with N. Hayes, which he followed for four years. He then commenced business for himself in clothing and gen- tlemen's furnishing goods, which he has carried on ever since very extensively. He was married in 1862, to Miss Emilie Houghton, a native of Iowa, and there have been born to them two children, viz .: Marcella, wife of Fred W. Moore, of Santa Cruz, and Henry Mayo Newhall Spring, who is associated in business with his father.

OSEPH E. BROWN, of the firm of J. E. Brown & Son, has been connected with the real-estate business in Santa Clara County since 1862. He was born on his father's farm in Steuben, Oneida County, New York, April 25, 1825. He attended school in Utica until eleven years of age, when his father removed to Centreville, St. Joseph County, Michigan. Here he worked on his father's farm, at- tended the local schools, and later spent two years at school in Kalamazoo. In 1846 he removed to New York State, where he remained two years engaged in the carriage-making business, and while there married Miss Diana Sevey, a native of Genesee County, New York. In 1848 he returned to Michigan with his wife, and there engaged in the manufacture of carriages, making the first top buggy in St. Joseph County. In 1852 he came to California, crossing the plains in the usual way, and after remaining a few months in Butte and Plumas Counties, came to San Jose, where he has since remained. Here he again en- gaged in carriage and wagon-making, manufacturing also the first top buggy ever made in Santa Clara County. He worked at this business until his election to the State Legislature, in 1861. His wife died in 1854, and in 1862 he married Miss Mary S. Grant, a native of Oneida County, New York, a niece of the late Dr. China Smith. In 1862 he engaged in the real-estate

business, but the movement of property being slow, he returned to his trade of carriage-making, at which he worked until 1873, when he again entered the real- estate and insurance business, which he has followed since. He is now in his seventh term of re-appoint- ment as Notary Public, making, including this term, fourteen years. He owned, and lived for twenty-five years on, a vineyard and orchard of fifteen acres on Martha, between Third and Sixth Streets, San Jose, which he has lately disposed of.

There were born to his first marriage two daughters, who both died in childhood. By the second marriage he has one son, Goldwin, associated with his father in the real-estate business, He is a Republican and his name was among the first on any paper in this county for the organization of that party. In 1856 he stumped the county for Fremont. He also started the first free library (public) in San Jose, in 1854, which has since been merged into the present public library, and the books transferred to it. This library was organized in the fall of 1854, the Trustees being Dr. J. C. Cobb, Rev. Eli Corwin, Judge Charles Dan- iels, Mr. Manney, and the subject of this sketch. Mr. Brown collected all the money raised for the purpose and turned it over to Dr. Cobb, who, while on a trip East, made the purchase of the books for this library. Mr. Brown has been, during his thirty-seven years of residence, a public-spirited, broad-gauge man, active in every movement tending to the benefit of San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley, and possessing the confi- dence and esteem of those who have known him longest and best. He has lately arrived from a trip in the Eastern States, and returns home more than ever in love with California, and especially with the Santa Clara Valley.

BEL ALDERSON WITHROW, familiarly known as "Abe," is a veteran soldier and also the veteran saddle and harness maker and car- riage trimmer of Santa Clara, and deals largely in whips, robes, etc. His shop is not only the rendez- vous of the G. A. R. men, but also of his other friends, who frequently drop in to "swap news" and talk over old times.

He was born at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in 1833. When twelve years of age he was taken to Greens- burg, Indiana, by his parents, Abel and Susan (Jordan) Withrow, both deceased. At the age of fourteen years he was apprenticed to learn the saddle and

Reservoir Fed by a Perpetual Spring on the Mountain Side, West of Residence.

View of Residence, looking Southwest.

Glimpse of Prune Orchard and Residence.

PROPERTY OF D. C. RIDDELL,-SIX MILES WEST OF GILROY.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

harness making trade. After serving three years he. went to Salem, Iowa, in 1851, and continued working at his trade until the spring of 1853, when, catching the gold fever of that day, like thousands of others, he undertook the perilous and fatiguing journey over the plains to the gold regions of California, and reached the diggings at Pine Grove after weeks of weary travel, He mined at Pine Grove and St. Louis until the fall of 1857, when his golden dreams were dispelled by the realization of rough fare, hard work, and small gains. From Pine Grove he came to Santa Clara, where he was employed at his trade as a jour- neyman till 1860, when he became proprietor of a resort seven miles west of Santa Clara, known as the Blackberry Farm, which he kept until 1862, when the war excitement was at its height in California. The sentiment of the State seemed evenly divided on the question of union or disunion; but while loyal to the Union by a loyal press and a host of earnest patriots, and although no call was made upon the citizens here for soldiers, there were thousands of patriotic men anxious for an opportunity to go to the front and prove their devotion to the flag. In that ycar Mr. Withrow became a member of the California Hundred, so well and favorably known in history that it is unnecessary to dwell upon it in this sketch. The company in which he enlisted was under Capt. George A. Manning, which with other companies went East by steamer, paying their own expenses and going direct to Readville, Massachusetts, where they were drilled, mounted, and assigned to active duty as a part of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry, under Colonel Charles Russell Lowell. They participated in fifty battles and skirmishes, Mr. Withrow being in thirty-two of them. Though not permitted to carry the "Bear Flag" they took with them, they were always identified and known among the commands they served as the "The Californians." Mr. Withrow enlisted as a trumpeter, and was afterward promoted as chief trumpeter. He was discharged at Read- ville, Massachusetts, with his regiment, July 20, 1865, the war being closed, and after visiting relatives and friends in Indiana and Iowa, returned to Santa Clara in the following November, where he was welcomed alike by Unionist and non-Unionist. In the spring of 1866 he opened his harness shop at Santa Clara.

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Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or Santa Clara county, California, Part 72

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