ALFRED MALPAS
Central Pacific Railroad
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: JOHNSON
son of Charles T. and Elizabeth Malpas, was born in New York city, November 16, 1840. Alfred, the youngest of the family of four sons, was educated in New York. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to learn the trade of printer, and worked in that capacity for three years, when he went into the employ of the New York & Harlem Railroads as telegraph operator for the road office. Here he remained for two years, when he entered the employ of the Erie Railroad and was stationed at Otisville, New York, Jersey City, and Paterson, New Jersey, as operator of this road, train dispatcher, and ticket agent, which relations he held till 1861.
When the war broke out he enlisted as a private in Company I, Second New Jersey Volunteer Infantry, and participated in the first battle of Bull Run; was appointed private secretary to General Phil. Kearney in 1861, a short time after the battle, and upon the landing of the army of the Potomac at Yorktown was appointed an aide-de-camp on General Kearney's staff. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant after the battle of Williamsburg, his commission bearing date July 8, 1862. He was first Lieutenant August 12, 1862; was wounded and disabled at the second battle of Bull Run and on account of the wound was discharged February 8, 1863. Soon thereafter he resumed his position as ticket agent of the Erie Railroad, and remained in the employ of that company nearly three years. In 1865 he resigned to take a position on the Atlantic & Great Western, and was stationed at Warren, Ohio. In 1868, on account of ill health, he resigned and took a sea voyage to China and Japan, where he remained about a year. He then came to San Francisco and entered the employ of the Central Pacific Railroad as a telegraph operator, and afterward was appointed ticket agent for the Oakland Ferry. He was afterward appointed overland ticket agent for the Central Pacific Railroad at the foot of Market Street, and afterward his office was transferred to the Grand Hotel. He was in the employ of the Central Pacific Railroad between sixteen and seventeen years, and in September, 1884, resigned and came to reside on his fruit ranch near Saratoga, a part of which was purchased in 1880. The place was set out to fruit in 1881, and additions have been made since. He has at present forty acres in fruit-trees, and sixty acres in vines, besides eighty-seven acres of timbered land. He has 1,000 French prunes, 500 Silver prunes, 300 German prunes, 200 Lewis prunes, 250 apples, 300 pears, 100 cherries, 500 peaches, 500 apricots, 25 almond, 25 walnuts, 200 assorted plums, a few oranges and lemons, and 60 acres in grapes of different varieties. His house has fourteen rooms exclusive of two bathrooms, one upstairs and one down, supplied with hot and cold water throughout the house. The water is brought from the mountains in pipes. The water has a natural fall and is carried to a tank which holds 10,000 gallons. He has gas throughout the house, which he manufactures himself from gasoline. His house is finely furnished, the house and furniture costing $25,000. A fine lawn surrounds the house.
see the historic home, restored and winner of several awards
Mr. Malpas was
married, February 14, 1874, to Mary L. Johnson, a native of New York. They have
four children, two sons and two daughters. Mr. Malpas is Manager of the Los
Gatos and Saratoga Wine and Fruit Company; is a member of George H. Thomas Post,
No. 2, G. A. R., of San Francisco, and a member of the Loyal Legion Commandery
of California, and a member of Oriental Masonic Lodge of San Francisco.
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. 586-587
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT