San Diego County
Biographies
CHARLES DELEVAL
was born at Pays de Calais, France, March 29, 1832; his parents were also natives of France. In 1851 he came to America, sailing from Havre to New York, and across the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, where he arrived in 1852. He went to placer mining in Fresno and Mariposa counties, prospecting for about six years. He then came to Los Angeles and started a grocery store, which he successfully carried on for eight years, also running a flour-mill at San José, continuing the two lines of business until 1870, when he sold out and came to San Diego and started a commission and wholesale grocery store, under the firm name of Deleval & Waterman, which they continued until 1874. They sold out to Stewart & Capron, and started the liquor business on the corner of F and Fifth streets, putting up their own building. But this business proved disastrous, and in 1880 they went into liquidation, and Mr. Deleval returned to Los Angeles, where he resumed the grocery business for five years and then sold out and speculated, during the boom of 1886, in real estate. In 1889, from pure love of the climate of San Diego, he returned to that city and entered the wholesale and retail liquor business, under the firm name of Charles Deleval & Co., buying out and succeeding the San Bernardino Wine Company, and they now carry a stock of about $5,000 in wines and liquors.
Mr. Deleval was married at Los Angeles, March 12, 1861, to Miss Marie Hennequin. They have five daughters.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 198
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JAMES MURPHY,
a retired rancher residing in San Diego, is a native of County Kilkenny, Ireland. He was born July 21, 1843. His father, John Murphy, was a farmer in Ireland, and his mother, whose maiden name was Bridget Kennedy, was also a native of Ireland. They were married in 1827, and had twelve children, all of whom reached the age of eighteen, and eight of whom still survive. His mother and sister are still living at the old home in Ireland. He obtained his education at the national school in the town of Castle Corner, County Kilkenny. When through with school, he sailed in the steamship Kangaroo from Queenstown to New York, where he landed June 1, 1864, and worked for nearly two years in a bonded warehouse. In February, 1866, he left New York for California, and landed at San Francisco. He went to Petaluma and engaged in dairying and agriculture, where he remained until 1869, when he left there and moved to San Diego, where he worked for five or six months at whatever he could get to do. He tried farming in 1872, but the drouth was so great that the crop was a failure. He then engaged in sheep-raising, and followed it for ten years. During that time he located 160 acres of Government land, lying six miles south of El Cajon, on the Sweetwater river, and afterward bought 700 acres adjoining his homestead, where he remained a little over five years. There were few neighbors at that time, while now there are many fine places that were then considered of little or no value on this ranch. He built a house and barn, planted a variety of deciduous fruit trees and a few orange and lemon trees. The fruit trees were intended principally for family use. He carried on dairying and agriculture, and part of the time sheep-raising, and realized two or three thousand dollars per annum from his ranch. His cattle were good grade dairy cattle. He carried on farming quite extensively, raising in a single year as high as 250 acres of wheat, barley and corn. He planted one sack of corn and harvested seventy-eight sacks, the soil receiving no culture after planting. In August, 1887, he sold his real estate
at the ranch for $40,000, the property with the buildings costing him $3,000, when he came to San Diego and built a nice house on some lots he had purchased of Mr. Horton in 1869, expending about $4,000 in improving these lots.
He was married in February, 1878, to Miss Emma A. Webb, a native of California, who was born October 12, 1860, in Point Arena, Mendocino County. Her father, G. W. Webb, was a native of Georgia. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have a family of six children: Alice, born October 24, 1879, on the Jamaica ranch, San Diego County; John, born May, 1881; Ida, February 26, 1883; Jane, December 25, 1884; Mary Agnes, August 5, 1887, and James, born in San Diego, May 29, 1889. Mr. Murphy is a member of the Catholic Church, and also a member of the San Diego Society of Pioneers. While on his ranch in 1885, he gave an acre of ground on which a nice $1,000 school-house was built. He was a trustee of the school from then until he came away. At present he is retired from business. He is another fine illustration of what industry and close application will do for a man.
SOURCE: An Illustrated History of Southern California: Embracing the Counties of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower California… Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890. p.- 198-199
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler