Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: FERGELE, KANE,
hs a ranch of 100 acres about three miles east of Gilroy, of which
thirty acres are in wheat, twenty in barley, and twenty-five in hay;
the balance is pasture for his cattle. His hay-field contains
barley and volunteer oats. Some of his land will raise a good
crop any year without sowing. He has an orchard of 100 trees,
consisting of pears, peaches, apricots, prunes, etc. The
residence was erected when he went on the place, but he has laid on a
hard finish. He put up a windmill and tank in 1884, at a cost of
$620, which will supply 1,000 head of stock. The well is
eighty-five feet deep, but the water some up within ten feet of the
surface. He has put up all the barn buildings except one.
He has a cow barn 40 x 24 feet, with facilities for twenty-six head,
thirteen on each side.
Mr. Kundert was born in Switzerland, May 4, 1827. His parents
were Abraham and Sarah (Fergele) Kundert. Balthaser was reared there,
and in 1848 came to America and located in Green County, Wisconsin,
where for one season he was engaged in dairying with this
brother. In 1849 he went to Illinois, where, and in Iowa and
Missouri, he lived until 1853, when he came across the Sierra Nevada
Mountains with Massey Thomas. He came
to Gilroy, and in the spring of 1854 engaged in the dairy business,
which has since followed He has about 100 head of cattle, and
rents lad for pasturage. He made trips up to the mining camps
with his Swiss cheese, weighing from 2,800 to 3,000 pounds a load. It
generally took him form ten to twelve days to make the trip.
Afterward he obtained a market for his product in San Francisco and San
Jose.
He was married, in this county, to Miss Sarah Kane, a native of
County Armagh, Ireland, They have one child, Abraham, born
November 27, 1861. He was educated in Heald's Business College,
and now resides in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Kundert are
members of the Catholic Church of Gilroy.
SOURCE:
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. page 628