Santa Clara County
Biographies
FRANK SCHILLING,
manufacturer of guns and dealer in firearms and sporting goods, Dorado Street, settled in San Jose and opened his present business in the spring of 1862. By keeping the best grades of goods, honest methods in dealing, and diligent attention to business, he has built up a prosperous and growing trade, and made friends of his customers.
Mr. Schilling was born in Southern Germany in 1835. Before reaching his fifteenth birthday he crossed the Atlantic, arriving in New York in 1850. He visited a number of cities in the East and South, working at his trade of gunsmith, before coming to the Pacific Coast. He married Miss Dooty, in San Francisco. She is a native of Dublin, Ireland, but came to this country in her childhood. Their family consists of two daughters and three sons. Their eldest daughter has been a teacher for several years in the public schools, a portion of the time principal of the Fourth Ward School of San Jose. The eldest son, H. E., is assisting his father in business; and the second son, Frank A., after attending school four years at Santa Clara College, is studying law in San Jose; Raymond, the youngest son, is taking a course in the San Jose Business College. Mr. Schilling is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and of the Knights of Honor. Though always a hard worker, he is a remarkably well-preserved man, and has never required the services of a physician in his life. He owns a number of pieces of improved property in the city, including the store in which he carries on business.
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. 646
JOHN J. BERGIN
was born in New York city, February 14, 1845. His parents, Richard and Catharine Bergin, were both natives of Ireland. Richard Bergin left Ireland when he was a young man, and went to Liverpool, England, where he engaged in business for a few years, and along in the '30s came to the United States and located in New York. He was a business man of that city, and made it his home until his death, in 1884. His widow is still residing there. She was the mother of thirteen children, of whom only three sons lived to be grown. John J. Bergin was raised and educated in New York, where he lived with his parents until he entered the government service, in June, 1863. He enlisted in the thirty days' service in the gallant Sixty-ninth New York State Militia. After his time expired he again enlisted in the Fourth New York Heavy Artillery and served through the campaigns of his regiment until the close of the war, and was mustered out of service in October, 1865. He was with Grant in the Army of the Potomac from the time he left Brandy Station to the surrender at Appomattox. After his discharge Mr. Bergin returned to New York, where he remained until he came to California in 1871. He sailed from New York by way of Panama and arrived at San Francisco. He was married, in January, 1876, to Mrs. Francisca Price, whose maiden name was Walkinshaw. The ranch which belongs to Mrs. Bergin has 312 acres, of which seventy acres is in vineyard six years old. There is also twenty acres in orchard of various kinds of fruit of the same age. The remainder of the land is all under cultivation. In the year 1887 the vines bore about 250 tons of grapes, while the present yield will be nearly double.
The orchard is in good bearing condition, and consists principally of apricots, French prunes and Bartlett pears. The place is beautifully situated in the foot-hills about two and a half miles south of Mountain View. The grounds are very ornamental and beautifully laid out, there being on the place twenty-five orange trees, which were bearing a heavy crop when they were injured by the frost last winter.
Mr. and Mrs. Bergin have two children, a son and daughter. Mrs. Bergin was born in Mexico. Her mother was a Mexican lady, and her father, Robert Walkinshaw, was a Scotchman. She was a small child when her parents came to this country and has seen a great deal of early life in California. Her father, Robert Walkinshaw, was a mining expert and was sent from Scotland to Mexico to examine mines in that locality, and from there came to California in 1846 to examine the New Almaden mines, and up to 1850 served as Superintendent of the mines. He bought a farm about two miles west of the Almaden mines, where he lived nine years. He then bought a large tract of land called the Ynigo farm, which was owned by an Indian by that name. The Indian afterward made his home with Mr. Walkinshaw, until he died, at the age of 110 years. Mr. Walkinshaw returned to Scotland, where he died in 1858. The farm was afterward sold, and Mrs. Bergin bought her present place in 1872.
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. 646-647
S. A. COE,
a member of the firm of Burns, Leiter & Coe, dealers in real estate, San Jose, California, was born in Madison County, New York, December 24, 1840. His parents were Sanford M. and Sarah (Bridge) Coe, both natives of Connecticut. Up to his nineteenth year he was reared at his birthplace and was educated in the public school and Cazinovia Academy. On leaving home in 1859 he went to Ripon, Wisconsin, where he engaged in the mercantile business by becoming associated with C. A. Peck in the firm style of Peck & Coe.
In 1861 the style of the firm was changed to that of Coe Brothers, his brother, A. B. Coe, succeeding William Peck in the business. Retiring from the firm of Coe Brothers in 1872, Mr. Coe engaged in the lumbering business at Fairchild, Wisconsin, till 1875, when he went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was the first to introduce the wholesale fruit business in that city, handling California fruit. In 1886, discontinuing the wholesale fruit business at Minneapolis, he came to Santa Clara County and purchased a fruit ranch in the Willows, in the vicinity of San Jose, where, with his sons, Fred A. and Harry F., he is extensively engaged in fruit-culture and in evaporating and shipping fruit to Eastern markets. Of the many rural homes and fine orchards for which the Willows is noted, in point of beauty and picturesque attraction, there are none that excel Mr. Coe's residence and finely cultivated orchards. Mr. Coe is also extensively engaged in real estate at San Jose, becoming associated, in 1887, with J. Burns and J. Leiter as Burns, Leiter & Coe.
November 10, 1862, he married Jennie A., daughter of Edward J. and Martha Smith. Three children were born to them: Alice J., wife of D. D. Brooks, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the two sons before mentioned. Mr. and Mrs. Coe are members of the First Methodist Church of San Jose, of which he is a class leader.
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. 647