DWIGHT DURKEE, JR.
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: DAVIS, MARTIN
resides on the Saratoga and Mountain View road, in the Collins School District, about five miles west of Santa Clara, and the same distance southeast of Mountain View. Here he owns thirty acres of highly cultivated fruit land, which is destined, under Mr. Durkee's care, to become very productive. Twenty acres are devoted to an orchard, which furnishes peaches, apricots, and prunes. Ten acres are planted with vines, which yield fine table grapes of the Muscat variety. Mr. Durkee has found the grapes very remunerative. The majority of the fruit-trees are yet young, but as showing the productiveness of the soil under such intelligent care as is given in this case it is worthy of note that five-year-old peach-trees of the Salway variety in 1887 yielded 150 pounds of fruit to the tree. The fruit readily brought three cents per pound, thus realizing $7.50 per tree. Mr. Durkee has a pleasant, comfortable cottage home, with good and substantial out-buildings upon his property.
The subject of this sketch was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1858, and is the son of Dwight and Sarah (Davis) Durkee. His father is a resident of St. Louis, while his mother was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mr. Durkee's boyhood and youth were spent in school. Still, at an early age, he entered mercantile pursuits, and in 1878 left his home for Colorado, where he engaged in the hardware business. There he remained until 1882, when failing health compelled him to seek its restoration in a more genial climate. With this purpose in view he left his business and came to California. He easily discovered the charms of one of the most beautiful and fertile sections of the State, and decided upon Santa Clara Valley as his home. He purchased the property heretofore described, and soon commenced its cultivation and improvement. In his work he has been eminently successful. He is a man possessed not only of the intelligence necessary for success in any undertaking, but also of the patience which is indispensable to the proper attention to the details of horticulture. As a result of these conditions, his orchard and vineyard give promise of being among the finest in the section.
His pleasant
home and his labors are shared by his wife, formerly Miss Sarah Martin, with
whom he was united in marriage in 1887. Mrs. Durkee is the daughter of James
Martin, of San Jose.
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. 571
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT