Santa Clara County
Biographies
ALDACE N ASHLEY
General Merchandise
Milpitas, California
ALDACE N. ASHLEY is the proprietor of a
general merchandise store in Milpitas, and has a complete assortment of goods,
such as are adapted to the wants of the community in which he resides, having,
in fact, one of the best regulated and furnished stores in Milpitas. Mr. Ashley
is a native of California, dating his birth at Damascus, Placer County, May 13,
1864. His parents were John T. Ashley (whose sketch is given above) and Mary E.
Ashley. His life, until the age of twelve years, was spent in the place of his
birth, receiving such schooling as was obtainable in the schools then
established. In 1876 his father moved to Auburn, the county seat of Placer
County, and there Mr. Ashley availed himself of the opportunities afforded, and
closely applied himself to attending the excellent public schools of that town.
In 1881 he ceased attending school, and entered into an apprenticeship as a
carriage, sign, and house painter. After some months at this calling he was
engaged as a clerk in a drug store, and afterward as a clerk in general
merchandise and grocery stores. In 1882 he went to the mines, and was engaged in
the "Sunny South" mine for a year, becoming practically schooled in the various
phases of mining life.
In 1883 he accompanied his father to Santa Clara County, and located in
Milpitas, where he was engaged, and took charge of his father's interests in the
store of Dixon & Ashley. Mr. Ashley, though but nineteen years of age, proved
himself a competent and thorough business man, and in April, 1885, he purchased
Mr. Dixon's interest in the store, and continued the business in partnership
with his father, under the firm name of Ashley & Co. October 26, 1886, his
father died, and since that time the ownership of the store has been vested in
himself.
Mr. Ashley is a member of San Jose Lodge, No. 34, I. O. O. F.; also a member of
Palo Alto Parlor, Native Sons of the Golden West. He is a stanch and consistent
Republican, and takes an intelligent interest in the political affairs of the
day.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County,
California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing
Company, 1888. transcribed by Roena Wilson , page 530
DR. J. IRVING BEATTIE
Surnames: SAXE, MAYER
DR. J. IRVING BEATTIE.--Prominent and successful from the very beginning of his
practice as a physician and surgeon, Dr. J. Irving Beattie has become
pre-eminent among the leading medical men of Santa Clara County and is today
rightly regarded as one of the first citizens of Santa Clara, in which city he
has his residence and office at 1075 Benton Street. He was born in the province
of Ontario, Canada, on June 1, 1883, and came to California as a young man of
seventeen.
When properly prepared for special work, he entered the Cooper Medical College
at San Francisco, from which he was graduated with honors in 1905; and then he
traveled in Europe and for a year worked in the London Hospital. On his return
to America, he spent a year at the French Hospital at San Francisco.
In 1907 he located at Santa Clara, and on the first of the year opened an office
as the third doctor at the corner of Main and Benton Streets, which for decades
has been the Mecca for thousands of sufferers, succeeding to the office of his
uncle, Dr. D. A. Beattie, now located in San Jose, who in turn succeeded Dr.
Saxe, an early and noted practitioner at Santa Clara. Dr. Beattie's success may
be in part estimated from the constant attendance of patients during the
afternoon hours when he is available for office consultation. The mornings are
devoted to surgical operations at the hospital, and to visiting those in
distress at their own homes.
On January 12, 1907, Dr. Beattie was married to Miss Hilda Mayer, a native of
San Francisco and the daughter of Charles Mayer, Jr., of the Bay metropolis. She
is a graduate of the University of California, having finished her studies with
the class of 1906; and she has been of inestimable service to her husband in his
constantly increasing practice. Two children have blessed this union, Hermione
and Yvonne. As public-spirited as he is genial, Dr. Beattie joined the ranks of
the Americans in the World War and in 1918 went to Fort Riley, where he served
as lieutenant until three months after the signing of the armistice.
Transcribed by Joseph Kral, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of
Santa Clara County, California,
published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 495