ARTHUR G. FIELD
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: BACON,
a member of the firm of Wright & Field, real-estate and
insurance agents, No. 15 North First Street, San Jose, is a native of Vermont,
having been born in that State in 1862. His parents removing to San Jose in 1872, he received most of his
education in this city, later attending for about six years the University of
the Pacific.
After leaving school Mr. Field learned the business of marble
cutter, working for three years in his father's marble yard. At the end of that
time he took the road as a commercial traveler, selling marble and granite work
up to 1886. He then engaged in the real-estate business with Mr. Wright, with
whom he is still associated.
Mr. Field's parents were Frederick and Mary H.
(Bacon) Field. Frederick Field, father of the subject of this sketch, was also a
native of Vermont, where he was born in 1820, brought up and became largely
interested in marble lands and quarries. At one time previous to the late Civil
War he was considered worth two millions of dollars, a large fortune for that
period. He owned much property, among which were the Italian marble quarries in
Bennington County, near Rutland, Vermont. Naturally a large operator and
speculator, he lost an immense fortune in introducing this marble through the
South, furnishing dealers with vessel and car-load lots, and waiting until it
had been cut up and sold as monuments before receiving payment for it. That
would have succeeded under ordinary conditions, but the war coming on he lost
almost every bill due him in that section of the country. Misfortunes never
coming singly, the marble in the main quarry drifted into a thick limestone
stratum, which had to be removed before satisfactory marble could again be had.
Altogether he had received a succession of blows from which he could not
recover. Selling out to a stock company which has since overcome these
difficulties, he removed to San Jose, California, where he established a marble
yard, and here, by his active, intelligent, and untiring efforts he built up his
business so successfully that he had again acquired a satisfactory competency at
the time of his death, in November, 1887.
He was a member of the Board of Trade of San Jose during most of its existence, and interested in real-estate here. During his early experience in the marble business in Vermont, conceiving that Chicago would be a good distributing point, he at one time brought a cargo of marble by water, landing at that place. Finding that he would need a building to store his marble permanently, and preferring brick to wooden buildings, he tested the clay of the vicinity, found it admirable for the purpose, established a brick factory, and from the product of that kiln, built the first brick house erected in Chicago, having built the first brick kiln and made the first bricks in that now immense city. In every respect he was a man of large views and extensive operations. For ten years he operated between Vermont and Chicago, as well as many other points in the country. While thus engaged he met and was married to Miss Mary H. Bacon, daughter of Hon. Nathaniel Bacon, of Niles, Michigan, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of that State. The date of their marriage was in 1858. Mrs. Field is a well-known magazine writer and authoress. They have seven children.
The subject of
this sketch is, as was his father, an adherent of the Republican party, and a
member of the Presbyterian Church.
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. 668
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT