Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES:  SISKRON, MARTIN, BERNAL, ORTEGA, FRENCH, TAYLOR, FOLGER, STEZER, LOVEREN, MOHRHARDT,  SHRADER, LUCE, DAVIS, KEATING, JANNER

Prominent among the most enterprising, scientifically-venturesome and eminently successful representatives of sturdy, progressive pioneers whose toil and sacrifice were such that they and their descendants have deserved to inherit the fruits of the earth and to enjoy the good things of life, is Alfred D. Gallagher, next to the largest pear grower of Santa Clara County, who is ranching on some 360 acres on the Alviso Road, about four miles north of San Jose. He was born on the old Gallagher Ranch in Santa Clara County, on April 5, 1869, the son of Andrew Thomas Gallagher, who was born in New York City on May 4, 1831, the son of Andrew T. and Mary (Siskron) Gallagher, natives of Ireland, who had migrated to America and had settled in the metropolis. Andrew Thomas grew up in New York, attending school and at fourteen entering the employ of William T. Jenninigs & Company, well-known merchant tailors of Gotham. On October 16, 1848, however, he took passage on the barque John W. Cater, then commanded by Captain Richard Hoyt and bound for California by way of Cape Horn; and on the fourteenth of March, 1849, he reached San Francisco. Shortly after his arrival, he purchased the launch Mary and Catherine, but after running her for a few trips to Sonoma he sold the vessel and pushed on inland to Tuolumne County, where he tried his luck at mining at Sullivan's Camp. After a few months, he moved over to Santa Clara County, and for a few weeks was employed in the Redwoods; and then he took up teaming between Redwoods and Alviso, and still later he transported freight from Alviso to San Jose and Santa Clara. At the same time, he also transported freight between San Francisco and Alviso, using the schooner Catherine Miller which he purchased for that trade and sometimes even commanding the vessel himself. At the end of two years, he decided to make a complete change of work, and then he took a position as clerk in one of the warehouses in Alviso, faithfully performing his duties, different as they were to his previous, more independent operations, until 1863.


As early as June, 1853, Mr. Gallagher, following his marriage, had established his residence upon property he had purchased in the Alviso district, about four and a half miles north of Santa Clara and one mile south of Alviso-a fine farm of 160 acres of very productive land, and there, besides rich pasturage, he was soon raising grain and hay. He also had forty acres of orchard, devoted to nearly all the varieties of fruit grown in that section, and to tomatoes and other vegetables, of which he also had eight extra acres, the same amount of land which he set aside for raspberries and blackberries. Five artesian wells gave him all the water needed, and a pleasant and comfortable cottage home, with outbuildings, testified to his enviable prosperity.

On September 26, 1852, Andrew T. Gallagher was married to Miss Maria Remonda Martin, the daughter of John and Vaclecia Bernal (Ortega) Martin. The maternal grandfather, John Martin, was a native of Scotland, a ship's carpenter on a man-o'-war, who came out to America about 1828 or 1829 and settled for a while in San Francisco. Later he went inland to the neighborhood of Sausalito, in Marin County, and in 1834 he came to Alviso, where he acquired several thousand acres of the Embarcadero Grant; and during the cholera epidemic of 1850 he died of that dread disease. Mrs. Maria Ramonda (Martin) Gallagher was born at the Mission San Jose and died at the age of forty-four years, on the thirtieth of May, 1879.
They were the parents of thirteen children: Mary, born August 12, 1853, became the wife of Mortimer D. French of San Jose-she died 1911, aged fifty-seven years; Martha, born May 1, 1855, died in 1897 from injuries received in a runaway; Andrew T., Jr., born March 17, 1857, died the same day as the father, June 20, 1897; Sarah, died at nine years of age; Edward E., born December 26, 1860, lives retired at Long Beach, Cal.-married Miss Mattie Taylor of Pullman, Wash., and has one child, Mary Anita, the wife of Lester Folger of Pullman, Wash.; Richard M., born August 10, 1863, resides at San Jose, Cal., retired; he married Miss Elizabeth Stezer of San Francisco; George F., born September 18, 1865, at Alviso, became one of the leading pear-growers of the Santa Clara Valley; he died May 20, 1921, left a son, George E. Gallagher, and his widow whose maiden name was Julia A. Loverin who passed away at San Jose, on January 23, 1922; Basilia M., born July 13, 1867, became the wife of Edward F. Mohrhardt of San Francisco; she died November 10, 1918, and left one child, Edward F. Mohrhardt; Alfred D., born April 5, 1869, of this review; Charles W., commission merchant of Oakland, married Miss Stella Shrader; they have three children, Andrew T., Raymond and Martha E.; William M., born June 16, 1873; Mabel L., the wife of Arthur S. Luce, resides at San Jose; James Walter, was an infant when his mother died, May 30, 1879, surviving her by three weeks.

Alfred attended the Alviso schools while being reared on the old Gallagher ranch where, some forty years ago, his father had instituted irrigation by means of an artesian water supply. This ranch, which was gradually expanded to its present size, includes 120 acres devoted to the growing of pears, 130 acres of apples, and 110 acres for pasturage, berries and hay. About 1905 a packing house was built near the old home ranch, and in 1919 a second packing house was erected on the new ranch. Twenty-five men are employed here steadily on the average, and in the busy season this number is increased to twice as many. For the last four years the average yield has been sixty carloads of pears, and each year about six to eight carloads of quinces are shipped to distant points.

At San Jose, on July 6, 1912, Mr. Gallagher was married to Miss Mamie Davis, a native of Alton, Humboldt County, and the daughter of Harrison and Margaret (Keating) Davis. Her father was a native of Ohio, where he was born about 1835; he accompanied his parents to Illinois, when they removed to that state and remained there until about 1850, when he came across the plains to California and settled in Gilroy; but after two years he went into Humboldt County. Mr. Davis is dead, but her mother, Mrs. Davis, still lives and is residing here, a very interesting lady, as a native of England and the representative of an old English family. Mrs. Gallagher is the seventh in a family of twelve children. Harry was the oldest, then came Elizabeth, Bert, Rose, Thomas and Francis, and after Mamie were Sewell, Ernest, Angeline, Sarah and Vernon. Mrs. Davis, who lives with the Gallaghers and contributes greatly to the cheerfulness of their hospitable hearth, is a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Janner) Keating. John Keating was a sea captain; Elizabeth Janner was a native of Southampton, England, and when she was four years old, her parents removed with her to Australia, where they lived until this daughter was seventeen years old, residing at Albana, on King George's Sound. From  Australia the family came to California, and here she met and married Mr. Davis. Mrs. Gallagher attended the schools of Humboldt County, and now she has three children of her own in school: Margaret, Alfred, Jr., and Geraldine.

From Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 1163

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