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Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES:  JOHNSON,

An enterprising fruit and vegetable shipper who has studied the fruit trade of California with such scientific care that he is now rated as one of the experts in his field, is Alexander Matracia, the district manager of the Stewart Fruit Company at San Jose. He was born at Palermo, Sicily, on April 30, 1871, the son of Alexander and his good wife Mary Matracia, who breathed her last at Chicago, to which city she had come to join her son ,after his locating there in 1886. He began his schooling in Sicily, and attended school for only a short time in Chicago. When he was eleven years old, his father having died about a month before he was born, Alexander came to New Orleans, where he remained about five years. After that, he made his way to Chicago, and there he was engaged in the wholesale fruit business until 1910, when he came west to California.

He came direct to San Jose where he engaged in business as fruit and vegetable shipper. He continued successfully, though on a small scale, until he met Mr. Stewart of the Stewart Fruit Company, who had known Mr. Matracia in Chicago. He had closed his San Jose plant a few years before because it was not paying, but Mr. Matracia assured him the business would pay. Mr. Stewart had confidence in the ability of Mr. Matracia, and in 1907 he became the manager of the San Jose branch and has built up a splendid trade. The Stewart Fruit Company employs seventy-five women and fifteen men in the busy season and has headquarters both in Los Angeles and in San Francisco. Mr. Matracia's wide and practical experience enables him to meet and master every emergency such as so often, and suddenly, arises in this trade with perishable stuff. He belongs to the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, and to the Italian-American club, and it is needless to say that his counsel there is much appreciated.

At Chicago, in 1906, Mr. Matracia was married to Miss Esther Johnson, who was born in and who passed part of her life in Michigan. She is an accomplished woman able to assist her husband materially and shares with him the social life of the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. They have a daughter, Marian. Mr. Matracia votes with the Republican party, and with Republicans seeks to improve trade relations and so add to the country's prosperity.

From Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 1547 cdf

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