Santa Clara County
Biographies
EZRA F. BEACH
dates his birth in Erie County, New York, February 2, 1844. He is the son of Harry and Hannah Beach, both of whom were natives of Erie County. The homestead in which the subject of our sketch was born was established by his grandfather, and there also was born Harry Beach, the father of our subject, and there he still lives, at the age of seventy-nine years. The mother, Mrs. Hannah Beach, died in 1872.
Ezra F. Beach was reared to the life of a farmer, and that work has filled the greater part of his years. At the age of twenty years the desire to see more of the world led him to leave the home of his father and grandfather to seek the far-off Western State of California. The four years succeeding his arrival in this State, in 1864, were spent in the mines at Dutch Flat, Placer County. Upon leaving the mines he came to this part of the State, and ever since has been a resident either of Santa Clara or San Benito County, with the exception of two years spent in Santa Cruz County. His home has been a part of the time at Gilroy, and a part at San Felipe, but wherever he has lived he has been engaged either in agriculture or horticulture.
On the seventeenth of August, 1873, he was united in marriage with Miss Ida Nason, who is a native Californian, dating her birth in San Francisco, February 6, 1856. Her parents, Edmund and Marietta Nason, were born in the State of New Hampshire, but reared in Massachusetts. They came to California, settling in San Francisco, in 1854, and now (in 1888) are residents of San Felipe, San Benito County.
The pleasant cottage home and fine orchard of ten acres, owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Beach, are located on the Stevens Creek road, five miles west of San Jose. The purchase was consummated May 3, 1884. All the improvements, and all the building up of the place, have been the labor of their hands. The orchard comprises prunes, apricots, and peaches, one-half of the land being devoted to the first-named fruit, and the other half to the two last-named fruits, in equal proportions. J. W. Beach, a brother of our subject, owns a promising young orchard of ten acres adjoining this property.
Mr. and Mrs. Beach are the parents of two bright boys: Elmer E., born September 20, 1875, and Herbert S., born March 25, 1878. Mr. Beach is a man of public spirit and enterprise, and is naturally greatly interested in all matters of that character. Politically he is in full sympathy with the Republican party, while socially he is affiliated with the Santa Clara Lodge, No. 52, I. O. O. F., and with Mount Hamilton Lodge, A. O. U. W., of San Jose.
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.
Pg. 564-565
CHRISTIAN BOLLINGER
was born in 1817, in Bollinger County, Missouri. At that early date it was a wild and unsettled country, and his pioneer parents not possessing an abundance of this world's goods, his youth and early manhood were spent in hard and unceasing labor at farming and kindred pursuits, which left his opportunities for securing an education even more limited than was necessitated by the primitive condition of the country. But his inborn good sense, coupled with untiring energy, has enabled him to overcome many of these disadvantages, and to successfully compete with the more favored but less ambitious portion of humanity, in the race for wealth and position.
At the early age of nineteen years, Mr. Bollinger was united in marriage with Miss Sallie Farmer, the daughter of Reuben Farmer, of Bollinger County, and together they traveled life's road for more than forty-four years, the wife's death occurring in 1880. To Mr. and Mrs. Bollinger were born nine children, of whom five are now living: David, George, Mary, Catharine, and Emma. All are married and living either in Santa Clara or San Mateo County. For his second wife, Mr. Bollinger married Mrs. Vinnie Weinberg, of Contra Costa County.
The subject of our sketch is justly entitled to the distinction of being one of the pioneers of California, he having emigrated to this State early in 1852. He first lived in Napa County, for about a year, and then came to Santa Clara County. Here he spent another year, and again removed, this time to San Mateo County, where he became possessed of large and valuable tracts of land in the foot-hills of the Coast Range. In 1883 the Spring Valley Water Company, of San Francisco, having need of Mr. Bollinger's land in extending their water system, made him advantageous offers, which he accepted. Having thus disposed of all his real-estate interests in San Mateo County, he returned to Santa Clara County, and established his residence on a 184-acre tract of fine farming land on Saratoga Avenue, a little southwest of Santa Clara. This property he sold in 1887, realizing a fine return upon his investment. He then removed to Santa Clara, where he has since made his home.
Mr. Bollinger owns some fine orchard property on Saratoga Avenue, within the limits of Santa Clara, and there he intends to build a home, in which to spend his remaining years, where, surrounded by all needed comforts, he may enjoy the rest which his long, energetic, and industrious life justly entitles him to receive.
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.
Pg. 565