EZRA F. BEACH
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES; NASON,
dates his birth in Erie County, New York, February 2, 1844. He is the son of Harry and Hannah Beach, both of whom were natives of Erie County. The homestead in which the subject of our sketch was born was established by his grandfather, and there also was born Harry Beach, the father of our subject, and there he still lives, at the age of seventy-nine years. The mother, Mrs. Hannah Beach, died in 1872.
Ezra F. Beach was reared to the life of a farmer, and that work has filled the greater part of his years. At the age of twenty years the desire to see more of the world led him to leave the home of his father and grandfather to seek the far-off Western State of California. The four years succeeding his arrival in this State, in 1864, were spent in the mines at Dutch Flat, Placer County. Upon leaving the mines he came to this part of the State, and ever since has been a resident either of Santa Clara or San Benito County, with the exception of two years spent in Santa Cruz County. His home has been a part of the time at Gilroy, and a part at San Felipe, but wherever he has lived he has been engaged either in agriculture or horticulture.
On the seventeenth of August, 1873, he was united in marriage with Miss Ida Nason, who is a native Californian, dating her birth in San Francisco, February 6, 1856. Her parents, Edmund and Marietta Nason, were born in the State of New Hampshire, but reared in Massachusetts. They came to California, settling in San Francisco, in 1854, and now (in 1888) are residents of San Felipe, San Benito County.
The pleasant cottage home and fine orchard of ten acres, owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Beach, are located on the Stevens Creek road, five miles west of San Jose. The purchase was consummated May 3, 1884. All the improvements, and all the building up of the place, have been the labor of their hands. The orchard comprises prunes, apricots, and peaches, one-half of the land being devoted to the first-named fruit, and the other half to the two last-named fruits, in equal proportions. J. W. Beach, a brother of our subject, owns a promising young orchard of ten acres adjoining this property.
Mr. and Mrs.
Beach are the parents of two bright boys: Elmer E., born September 20, 1875, and
Herbert S., born March 25, 1878. Mr. Beach is a man of public spirit and
enterprise, and is naturally greatly interested in all matters of that
character. Politically he is in full sympathy with the Republican party, while
socially he is affiliated with the Santa Clara Lodge, No. 52, I. O. O. F., and
with Mount Hamilton Lodge, A. O. U. W., 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. 564-565