DR.
A. A. GASTON
CAMPBELL's STATION
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: BATTIN, TYLER,
This gentleman has forty-one acres at Campbell’s Station, which he purchased in December, 1883. Up to that time it had been cultivated to grain, but the following spring the Doctor planted it to prune trees, thirty-six acres in French and the rest in Silver prunes. Mrs. Gaston owns five acres in the Willows, on Washington Avenue, between Pine and Minnesota Avenues. This choice tract is planted to prunes, cherries, and apricots.
Dr. Gaston is a native of Troy, Pike County, Alabama, where he was born in 1849. His parents, Hon. Henry A. and Josephine (Battin) Gaston, were natives of New York State. His father was liberally educated in Ohio, and went from there to Troy, Alabama, where for seven years he was Principal of an academy. During this time he studied law and was then admitted to the bar, and in 1854 he came to California, locating in Sierra County, whence he was sent to the Legislature the next year. In 1861 he organized the Union party in this State. In 1872 he changed his residence to the State of Nevada and represented his district in the Legislature there, being elected Speaker of the House in 1879. He was the author of “The Ready Lawyer,” “The Little Lawyer,” and other well-known works of literature. The family are of French descent. Their paternal ancestor, Adolph Gaston, was a refugee from France during the persecution of the Huguenots, and later members of his family emigrated to America, of which branch the subject of this sketch, who is a cousin of ex-Governor Gaston, of Massachusetts, is a descendant. The Doctor’s mother was a cousin of the wife of President Tyler. Dr. Gaston came with his mother and sister to California, by the Panama route, in January, 1857, to join his father, who was already a resident of this State and closely allied with its political history.
After completing a course of study in the Gates Institute, Dr. Gaston
studied dentistry, and, having successfully passed a thorough
examination, received from the State Dental Board a certificate to
practice in this State, which he has done for a number of years.
He is a member of Friendship Lodge, No. 47, of San Jose Knights of
Pythias, and of Mt. Hamilton Lodge, A. O. U. W., of San Jose. The
Doctor is a man of warm feelings, and is genial in his intercourse with
friends; he possesses a fine intellect and brilliant conversational
powers.
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. 372-373
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
SANTA CLARA COUNTY
BIOGRAPHY PROJECT