CHARLES FRANCIOS
GILROY TOWNSHIP HISTORY
Bio- Pen Pictures
was born in Alsace, Germany, March 16, 1818, his
parents being Charles and Catharine Francois, who had a competence and
lived on the interest of their money. The grandfather of Charles
Francois was a soldier under Napoleon I. The subject of this
sketch was reared in his native country and lived there until 1858,
when he took passage at Havre, France, on the steamship Alma, bound for
New York. He remained in New York city six years, when he went to
San Francisco, where he remained four years. He then came to San
Jose and shortly afterward to Gilroy where, in 1868, he located on the
place where he now resides, and all the improvements thereon. He
has 180 acres in the Uvas Valley, on which is an orchard continuing 475
cherry, apple, plum, pear. prune, and other trees. He has a dozen
varieties of grapes, and a winery containing ten tanks, with a capacity
of 25,000 gallons. He also has a brandy distillery, in which he
manufactures as many as fifty barrels per years. At present
(1888) he has 20,000 gallons in store. The Uvas Creek runs
through his place, affording fine trout fishing. He has
sixty-five acres in grapes all in full bearing. His place presents a
beautiful view, and is certainly handsome at attractive. He has a
water tank of 10,000 gallons' capacity on the hill-side, supplied from
a spring that never fails. From this he has piped water to his
still-house and from another spring to house and barn. He values
the place at $25,000.
He was married, in San Jose, to Miss Adele De Vaux, a native of
France. They have five children, namely: Ernest. Pauline, Harry,
Lydia, and Bela.
Pen pictures from the garden of the world, or,
Santa Clara County, California :
Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1888, 743 pgs.page 630-631
transcribed by cdf