USA > California > Alameda County > The centennial year book of Alameda County, California : containing a summary of the discovery and settlement of California, a description of the Contra Costa under Spanish, Mexican, and American rule, biographical sketches of prominent pioneers and public men > Part 50
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In 1849 Mr. Eagar went to San Francisco, where he remained till the year 1854. In 1854 he went to lumber-making at Corralitos, in Santa Cruz County, and made some money. The price of redwood lumber was then but $12 per 1,000 feet, yet it was profitable. Left there the same year and entered the Brooklyn or San Antonio red- woods, where he formed a partnership with a man named Brown, and started a steam saw-mill. Among those who made lumber there were T. B. and William Prince, Spicer, Thorne and Plummer. All com- bined produced about 12,000 fect of lumber per day, which was hauled to Larue's wharf, at San Antonio, by Michael Murray, Anto- nio Peralta, Albert Eldred and others. There it was worth $25 to
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$35 per 1,000 feet. Lumber operations were very profitable. There were some very large trees in these redwoods, one measuring at the base 13 feet 9 inches in diameter. The forest was thick, and was about one and a half miles long by three-fourths of a mile wide. The trees were all cut down by 1858.
In 1859 he pulled up stakes again and went to Santa Cruz, where he was elected to the State Legislature on the Republican ticket. In 1860 was elected to the Legislature again for the same county, and the following year was chosen Sergeant-at-Arms of the Assem- bly. As will be seen by the annals of each year, Mr. Eagar took a prominent part from the first in the affairs of Alameda County. From 1861 to 1869 he spent most of his time engaged in the lumber business, in Washoe, Nevada, holding his residence here. In 1866 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of California for Ala- meda County. He built his first house in Clinton, in 1854. There was quite a little village in San Antonio. The only houses in Clin- ton were Patten's, Chase's, Lacey's, Dr. Wentworth's, Mrs. Pres- cott's and Ault's. The people were very sociable, and parties were of constant occurrence. Returned to Brooklyn in 1869, and remained a year, when he again returned to Washoe. In 1871 he built a framing-mill for mines, in Carson, with peculiar machinery, for which he procured a patent. Is still running this mill, which is paying handsomely.
Mr. Eager married in Brooklyn, in 1854, taking for wife a Miss Angelina Ann Tupper ; the union proving a most happy one, and a large family, consisting of what are now mostly young men and women, the result. Mr. Eagar has a beautiful and comfortable home, and is now in a position to rest on the labors of many years. It is pleasant to sit at his fireside and hear him tell of his pioneer experience. He is yet a young man and in the prime of life. A more agreeable couple than himself and wife, and a more amiable family, are hard to find.
E. D. BLOCK.
Emanuel D. Block, of Oakland, is now the pioneer merchant of Alameda County. He is a native of Bavaria, but came to the United States when very young. In 1852 he reached California from New York, and soon sought out a desirable location in which to commence merchandizing. His natural sagacity soon convinced him that this side of the bay would rapidly develope, and he selected San Leandro
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as the most desirable and central place in which to locate in the newly- formed County of Alameda. There, then, he established himself in the year 1853. He was young; so was the county ; and both had a bright future before them. Both have now absolutely realized that future. San Leandro soon became the county seat, and business flourished. The store occupied by Mr. Block in San Leandro is the one now occupied by Mr. Ferdinand Meyers.
In 1863 Mr. Block opened a dry-goods store in Oakland, still carrying on his general store in San Leandro. The place he first occupied at the present county seat was in Valdez' block, on the east side of Broadway, between Fifth and Sixth streets. His next move was to Delger's old block, on the opposite side of the street, and there he continued, gaining customers and increasing his business, till Octo- ber, 1869, when he removed to the then new block on the corner of Broadway and Ninth streets, "away up town." Here his business so increased that the aid of a desirable partner became necessary ; and in 1871 he admitted Mr. Andrew Barnes Bennison, a young gentle- man who, by his address and tact as a dry-goods clerk, had won very favorable opinions, into partnership with him. Since then the busi- ness has gone on increasing in a remarkable manner. In 1874 it became necessary to build an addition of forty feet to the store, and now its full length of 100 feet is shelved and filled to the ceiling with all kinds of seasonable fancy and staple dry goods, the stock on hand at present being very extensive. Twelve persons, includ- ing the principals, are employed in this mammoth establishment, and it is enlivening to behold the stream of richly dressed ladies that are constantly entering and departing. It is encouraging to see a pioneer thus prosperous.
JAMES BUSKIRK LARUE.
In 1850 Brooklyn, now East Oakland, was only known as the embarcadero of San Antonio, so named after the Peralta rancho. Unlike Oakland it consisted of rolling ground, and was " out of the woods." It commanded beautiful views and presented a handsome site for a town, mayhap a city. Vessels of considerable size were able to sail up to it and load and discharge freight.
The late Jas. B. Larue was the first man to fully appreciate the advantages of this beautiful location. In 1851 he moved from San Francisco, bought land from Antonio Peralta, and settled there with the determination of building a town and establishing a commerce.
.HARRISON,
HON. JAS. B. LARUE.
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There is no grander spectacle in our civilization than of those daring, persevering men going forth to subdue the wilderness and build up communities. Who that has not passed through it can appreciate the ordeal of labor, anxiety, suffering and disappointment that they have to endure ? Mr. Larue is recognized as the pioneer of Brook- lyn, and as such he is treated here.
He was born in Bergen County, New Jersey, on the 6th day of February, 1800, and died in Brooklyn, in this county, on the 7th day of January, 1872, after a protracted illness of several months. Mr. Larue was " a man of affairs," as the French say-always plan- ning some new enterprise or perfecting some old one.
In his native State he was engaged in the manufacture of paper ; but feeling that the boundless West offered opportunities and openings for his active enterprise and unlimited energy, he set out for Michigan in 1836 and settled there. He entered largely into the business of lumber-making in that State, and pursued it successfully for a period of years. But a crisis came ; lumber was a drug in the market ; and ends had to be met. No matter how good a manager, how able a financier, how shrewd a calculator, disaster from depression of busi- ness will overtake the best, and in this way Mr. Larue had to suc- cumb to misfortune. He behaved honestly, and gave all he had up to his creditors. While a resident of that State his worth and wis- dom were appreciated, and at one time he was put forward as a can- didate for Lieutenant-Governor, but was defeated because the party that nominated him was defeated.
He started for California in 1849, in company with a number of others. He worked a short time in the mines, then returned to San Francisco for a while, and in 1851 permanently located on the bright side of the bay at San Antonio. Here he kept store, sold lumber and dealt in real estate. He owned the whole of the land on the south side of the hollow and a good deal on the other.
In the year 1857 he became associated with a number of persons in establishing an opposition ferry line between Oakland, Brooklyn and San Francisco, believing, as he did, that the rates of fare and freight then charged were excessive and detrimental to the interests of this side of the bay. Upon the formation of the company, which was called the " Oakland and San Antonio Steam Navigation Co.," he was chosen President. The steamer Confidence was bought. Out of her was built the steamer San Antonio, which commenced run- ning in April, 1858. The rate of fare was reduced to 25c., one-half
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the former rate, while the rates of freight were reduced, in many instances, two or three hundred per cent. In the Fall of 1858 the steamer Oakland was built, and during the following Summer a very lively opposition was kept up between the old and the opposition lines, during which time the steamer Contra Costa, of the Minturn line, was blown up and several lives lost.
The enterprise did not pay as well as its promoters anticipated, and a large majority of them were anxious to sell out. The California Steam Navigation Company bought quite a large amount of the stock and tried very hard to get a majority of it. Thus he was forced to buy a sufficient amount to control the whole business or allow the whole scheme to fail ; and, in doing so, he became largely involved. In 1862 the Oakland and San Francisco Railroad and Ferry line was established, and the steamers were sold to that company. But the great object which he sought to establish, viz. : frequent and rapid communication with San Francisco, with low fares and freights, was accomplished. The large amount of real estate which he then owned he retained, and since has largely increased in value.
Very few men were possessed of a better judgment of "men and things " than James B. Larue. In matters of law his judgment was superior to many professional lawyers. One instance may be cited to show what faith he had in his own judgment and how persistently he followed it up. When the opposition ferry line was established, the Contra Costa Steam Navigation Co., Charles Minturn, agent, was supposed to have the exclusive right to run and maintain a ferry between Oakland and San Francisco, under a contract with Carpen- tier and others, and suit was commenced against the opposition com- pany. Many lawyers said it would be useless to resist, for Minturn undoubtedly had an exclusive right. The suit was finally decided, in the U. S. Supreme Court, in favor of the opposition company. One of the best lawyers of the San Francisco bar once said : " If I could beat J. B. Larue in a law-suit, it would be a big feather in my cap." He was warm-hearted and genial in his nature, and beloved by his family and by all who knew him intimately. He gave freely to all public institutions of the town. He presented the lots on which the Presbyterian church is built ; also, the Episcopal ; also, the lot for the engine-house, besides being the largest contributor to buy a fire- engine. He was a member of the Legislature of the State of Michi- gan before his departure, and of the State of California subsequently. He was possessed of fortitude to a remarkable degree, which, coupled
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with his great financial ability, always enabled him to extricate him- self from the troubles to which his enterprise sometimes subjected him.
Before his last and fatal illness he commenced the erection of the most elegant residence is East Oakland, but which he did not live to see completed, much less enjoy.
He left, besides his wife, a family consisting of four sons and one daughter, all well-known and respected members of the community. His son James, who succeeded him in business, displayed his father's shrewdness and enterprise, and continues to devote his best energies to the advancement of his adopted home-beautiful Brooklyn.
After Mr. Larue's death, his widow, who was also his cousin, returned to the old family homestead at Bergin, where the Larues and Buskirks are long remembered, and made a protracted visit. The old pioneer pair are now no more, for she followed her husband to the better land last year.
WILLIAM HAYWARD.
The gentleman whose name heads this sketch is about as well known as any man in Alameda County. After him is named the beautiful little town in Eden Township, originally the homestead of one of the numerous Californian family of Castro, who owned so many leagues of land and whose thousands of cattle covered hill and plain.
William Hayward is a native of Massachusetts, in which State he was born in the year 1815. After many mishaps by sea on his voy- age hither from New York, he landed in San Francisco on the last day of October, 1849, having been six months and eight days making the trip via Cape Horn. He came to California, like everyone else, to make his fortune and return. After his arrival in San Francisco he started with some companions for the mines, where he had indiffer- ent success, but met many adventures. After getting thoroughly dis- gusted with life at the mines, he returned to San Francisco and en- gaged in road-making. After finishing a contract to build the old Mission road, tried the mines again in the Mariposa country. From there he entered the Livermore valley, in 1851, and stopped awhile. He went thence, via Martinez, to San Francisco, and purchased a scythe to cut hay, which latter he stacked in the Amador valley, be- tween Dublin and Limerick, with old Amador. His next location was the Palomares cañon, between his present residence and Dublin. Here he found good water, pitched his tent and remained a month, shooting deer.
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He found a note left in his tent one day, informing him that he was a squatter. Then Castro, the owner of the ranch, sent for him, and offered him land for a farm. Was of the impression before that it was all Government land. He accepted the offer and pitched his tent on the ground opposite his hotel, in the Fall of 1851. Had made the acquaintance of Jas. B. Larue, when in San Francisco. He had a dairy there near the Mission Dolores, and there milked Spanish cows for him. When Hayward settled on the Castro ranch he went across to San Francisco, and purchased some cows for his new farm, of Mr. Larue. Besides farming, Hayward started a small store, while yet residing in his tent, and improvised hotel accommo- dations. In the following Fall he built 30 feet of his long house. He also engaged in road-making, and constructed most of the roads in his neighborhood, for the county. Was a stock-holder and Director in the Larue Steamboat Company, and lost $10,000 in the speculation. A. W. Swett, of Brooklyn, and himself, stood by Larue to the last, in that enterprise, which, however disastrous to them- selves pecuniarily, was of great service to the county. Served the county in the Board of Supervisors, and was once a candidate for the Legislature.
Guillermo Castro, the owner of the ranch, held six leagues of lands in the hills. He employed about 100 persons, Mexicans, Indians and South Americans. Among the latter were a number of exiles. Castro's first bad move, he says, was made in 1852, when he took $35,000 with him to the southern country, to buy new stock, and employed 150 to 175 vacqueros to drive them to his ranch. He could not keep the money until he made his purchase, and spent it in gambling. In 1856 he mortgaged his ranch. Then he sold enough land to Hayward, Hughes, Maddox, Corey and others, to get out of debt, besides $3,000 to $10,000 which he unprofitably spent in San Francisco. It was then that he hail to mortgage to Ather- ton, who got hold ; and finally, in 1864, gave him $30,000 to give the ranch to him. Then Castro went to South America, taking all his family with him, excepting a daughter, married to one of the Peraltas, and Louis, the present County Surveyor. Messrs. Chitten- den & Simpson, Attorneys, had the legal management of the ranch. The once opulent lord of so many leagues and so many herds, em- ploying as many servants as a feudal baron, died some years since in his South American exile home, no doubt bitterly regretting the misuse he had made of his splendid opportunity.
DUNCAN CAMERON.
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Hayward got married, the particular year the writer does not now remember, but knows, as a guest at her hotel, that Mrs. H. is a good housekeeper. Mr. H. is now in independent circumstances ; owns a popular family hotel, which is full of guests in the summer months ; farms about 60 acres of land ; has a town named after him, and is ex-officio Postmaster. He has had a most eventful career, and were all the incidents of his life narrated, they would make a most inter- esting volume.
DUNCAN CAMERON.
Few men in Alameda County are better known than Duncan Cam- eron. He is a native of O'Delltown, County of Huntington, Canada, close to the New York border. He came to California via Cape Horn, from New York City, and arrived in San Francisco September 24th, 1849. On the voyage he was twice shipwrecked, and suffered considerable privations. In San Francisco he for a short time traded in groceries, and in January, 1851, went farming in Pacheco Valley, and continued all winter. Here he turned up the virgin adobe for the first time, and found it hard work. He returned to San Francisco for a spell, and lost all his capital in trade. After this he worked for a while at Sacramento. Disliking the place on account of its un- healthfulness, he sought another location and pitched upon San Anto- nio, which he reached via Martinez, on horseback. He started the first livery stable in the place with three horses, which he kept in a yard. It was for a time precarious work, but the business lived.
At that time there was no wharf, merely a little embarcadero, in the place. The means of communication with San Francisco was by launches and whaleboats manned by Portuguese, who would pull across the bay when there were passengers enough to make a load. The charge for crossing in this manner was $2.00 a trip, and it took about four hours to make it. The only inhabitants of the town then were a butcher named Fuller, Allen, Chase, Larue, the Pattens, Michel, and Lemoine, besides some Portuguese who boated, fished, and raised poultry. There were some Mexicans and Californians who were employed about the ranches. One hundred Chilanos made the place at one time a rendezvous. There were two saw-mills then in the Redwoods, and two more were built afterwards. They were Prince's, Spicer & Witherill's, Tupper and Brown's, and Thorne's. They continued about five years, until the timber was all cut down.
The livery business did well, and in 1853 he built a large stable and had eight or ten horses. This he sold out within a year, and in
36
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1854 bought a piece of ground and built upon it, concluding to make Brooklyn his permanent home. Purchased the Post-office block, now the most valuable property in the town. In 1854 married Miss Annie Lydia Maddox, of Castro Valley. At this time there was no farming done, only what was done by the Pattens and Chase. In fact, none was done down the valley nearer than San Lorenzo. On the Alameda encinal there were only Wickware, Hibbard Aughen- baugh and Brower, who raised tomatoes and other vegetables on the edge of the peninsula, close to the estuary. Larue and Patten had some squatter troubles, Larue having pre-empted some water front claimed by the latter; but in a lawsuit the latter was beaten.
It was in 1856 that Mr. Cameron started in the stage business, which brought him his special popularity and local fame. He started an opposition line to McLaughlin's, then running. The run to San José was very lively. For a time the fare was only $1 per passen- ger between San Antonio and San José, and the trip was most expeditiously made. The opposition was kept up for several years, when Cameron was compelled to withdraw.
" Dunk," as he was familiarly called, filled various public positions, from Constable to Supervisor. He was Road Overseer and Public Administrator; for three years he filled the position of County Supervisor. He took always an active and earnest part in politics, and was in succession a Whig and a Republican.
In 1858 he bought a quantity of land for farming purposes, which, however, he partly disposed of in 1861. Previous to the real estate excitement of 1868, he purchased a tract of land north of the town of Brooklyn, known as the Cameron Tract, for $18,000, which he disposed of within a year for $50,000. Mr. Cameron has a brother, now in the East, named Carlysle, who was for a while Justice of the Peace for Brooklyn Township, and a frequent contributor to the col- umns of the local press, always writing in a pleasant, humorous vein. Mr. Ashley Cameron, for many years a prominent resident of Wash- ington Township, is also a brother. His aged father lived in this county for a number of years, and his was the oldest name on the great register of Alameda County, before he returned to his old East- ern home.
Having acquired a considerable competency, Mr. Cameron has given his two children, a son and daughter, a superior education, and amuses himself with occasional trips from home, seeing the world, and comparing other places with that in which he lives. He never
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wavers in the opinion that there is no place like Alameda County. Mr. and Mrs. Cameron being among the first American couples mar- ried in this county, there has always been an interest attached to them by the old settlers.
WILLIAM MEEK.
This gentleman is the model farmer of Alameda County. His resi- dence is at San Lorenzo, and his ranch extends towards Haywards more than three miles. He left Van Buren County, Iowa, on the first day of April, 1847, and crossed overland to Oregon City, where he arrived on the 9th day of September, the same year, with a large party of immigrants. Among Mr. M.'s effects was a wagon loaded with fruit trees and seeds. This constituted the first lot of grafted fruit trees on the Pacific Coast. There were seedlings already in the country, intro- duced by the Hudson's Bay Company. Located at the town of Mil- waukee, on the Willamette river, five miles from Portland, and went into the nursery business in June, 1848, with Mr. Henderson Lewel- ling, whom he had known in Iowa. In the Fall of 1848 he went to the California gold mines with an ox team, and remained till the fol- lowing May. The party he came to California with, made the first wagon track from Oregon to California, passing through the Modoc country, and skirting the lava beds. On his return to Oregon, con- tinued fruit-growing and lumbering, till December, 1859. That year sold out in Oregon, and removed to San Lorenzo, in Alameda Coun- ty. His first purchase of land was 400 acres, of H. W. Crabb. This land originally belonged to the Soto grant. He subsequently bought 1,600 acres more, which made 2,000 acres. At first he devoted his attention to grain-growing and general farming. He managed his land with skill, and followed a system of rotation. In 1864 Mr. Meek farmed 2,200 acres of land, on which he had 20,000 almond trees, and sold from his nursery that year a similar number. He also planted out 7,000 more. He had 4,200 cherry trees, 3,000 plum and prune trees, 225,000 currant plants, making altogether 260 acres of fruit trees. No man bestows more care and attention on his land or experiments more successfully. He has a water reservoir in the foothills, about three and a half miles from his home, and the water is conducted in pipes through his lands for irrigation. In 1870 he erected the finest farm house in the county, which cost him $20,- 000, and the furniture $5,000 more. He has 90 head of horses, in- cluding 50 work horses and mules. He milks about a dozen cows,
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and pastures 800 to 1,600 sheep, according to the season. He em- ploys a large number of hands, but not Chinamen.
When he raised fruit in early days in Oregon, prices were very high and produced fortunes. Apples sold by the box, which was then about a bushel measure, for $1.50 a pound weight ; cherries sold for $2 a pound, and plums $1. The year 1856 was the most profitable time for cherries ; 1856-7 for apples. It was no uncommon thing to pay a dollar for an apple. He netted $45,000 in two years' business.
Mr. Meek has grown on his present land 80 acres of corn, produc- ing 70 bushels shelled, to the acre. In 1874 he grew a marrowfat squash that weighed 149 Ibs. In his nursery he grows oranges, lemons and limes. In one late year, he raised 50 acres of tobacco, which was sent to Louisville, Kentucky, and which was highly prized. Mr. Meek's plan of rotation is as follows: Pastures 500 to 600 acres in one year ; next year sows wheat; next barley, and next Chevalier and common barley. He makes cash rent out of the pasture. In 1873 Mr. Meek raised 30,000 centals of wheat and bar- ley ; but the writer has not learned of his operations during the past two years, which he has no reason to suppose have diminished.
Mr. M. was elected a County Supervisor for four terms, commenc- ing in 1862. He is a married man, has raised a family, and unless the writer is mistaken, is a grandfather. He is a native of Ohio, and is now in his sixtieth year.
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