A.G. HUGGINS
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: MALIOTT, ROEMER, JENISON, DAVIS
A. G. Huggins, who resides on the Alameda, has been a resident of Santa Clara County for twelve years, and of San Jose five years. He was born in Ripley County, Indiana, in 1841. In 1851 his parents removed to Iowa. He received his education in the public schools of Indiana and Iowa, and later attended a private school at Kirkville, Wapello County, Iowa, until eighteen years of age. He then went to Versailles, Darke County, Ohio, where he remained three years in business with his uncle. During this time he took a course in a commercial college in Cincinnati. He then returned to Iowa and engaged in mercantile pursuits at Ottumwa with his uncle, J. W. Huggins, in which he continued for eleven years, doing a general merchandise business in dry goods, boots and shoes. In 1874 they sold out and engaged in the coal-mining and shipping business for two years. They then came to Santa Clara County and purchased 800 acres, between Los Gatos and Saratoga. Mr. Huggins bought his uncle’s interest in the land, and started a large orchard, planting 150 acres in fruit, of which 125 acres were in prunes, the rest being in various fruits; 112 acres of this was planted on shares, the man planting and caring for the trees for four years, receiving a certain acreage as compensation. This was probably at the time the largest prune orchard in the world. Early in 1884 Mr. Huggins sold his interest in this orchard for $50,000, the place having been purchased, eight years before, for $12,000. Mr. Huggins is not at present interested in fruit culture, nor is he in any active business.
He was married, in 1867, to Miss Matilda Maliott, a native of New Orleans, but a resident of Ohio from her early childhood. She died in 1870, leaving one child, Grace, who graduated at the University of the Pacific in 1888. Mr. Huggins was again married, in 1877, to Miss Bertha Roemer, a native and resident of Ottumwa, Iowa. There has been born to them one child, Howard M., in 1882.
Mr. Huggins
was reared on his father’s farm up to the age of seventeen years, and trained in
all the details of farm work. He has been, until within the past four years, an
active business man. Except a small estate from his father, Mr. Huggins has
been the architect of his own fortune, and every dollar he possesses represents
just so much of hard, earnest, active work. His parents were Alexis M. and
Orinda A. (Jenison) Huggins, both natives of New York. His father was a miller
and farmer, owning a farm in Ripley County, Indiana, and later in Iowa,
operating a mill belonging to his father, as well as carrying on his farm work,
while in Indiana. The subject of this sketch owns a beautiful home, and is
surrounded by every home comfort. His father died in Iowa in 1863. His mother
still lives, residing in San Jose with her daughter, Mrs. Davis.
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. 384-385
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT