EDWARD FERRY EASTMAN
Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES: FERRY, SLEEPER, FOSS
The life which the narrative chronicles began in Eastmanville, Mich.,
on January 15, 1863, in the home of Galen and Mary Lucina (Ferry)
Eastman, who were representatives of Colonial families of New
England. Galen Eastman was born July 8, 1829, at Canaan, Maine,
and was engaged in the lumber business, owning his craft and barges on
the rivers and lakes, and his own mills. What education he had
acquired was by his own efforts, but whatever he undertook he succeeded
in doing well. During the year of 1836 his parents had removed to
Michigan. Mrs. Mary Lucina AEastman was a sister fo the Hon.
Thomas W. Ferry, who was a member of the House and U. S. Senate
from Michigan for twenty-six years, and upon the death of Henry Wilson,
became activing vice-presidnt of the United State. In 1879 Galen
Eastman took a trip into the frontier of New Mexico and became the
government agent for the Navajo Indians at Fort Defiance, N. M.
For several years he was also a success ful hardware merchant in San
Francsico. He passed away on January 18, 1899, aged sixty-nine, and his
widow passed away in 1903 in San Francisco, when sisty-six years old.
Edward F. Eastman was educated in teh schools of Grand Haven, Mich.,
and during the year of 1876 left school to take a trip on the great
Lakes. Touching at Chicago, he traveled on and on util in
February of the following year he was in Louisiana, where he soon found
employoment in towing and freighting on Grand Lake, transporting
thousands of feet of lumber and thousands of tons of merchandise to
points on Bayour Teche. Another experience was whil iving on
the Indian reserevation; he became much enamored on the wild life
of the Indians, and in 1881 was called upon to act as a guide for a
party of tourists going to the Canyon de Chelly in Arizona. Leaving
Albuquerque, N. M., well equipped with packs and horses, he headed so
as to cross the head of the canyon and made the trip without any
serious accident. Four years later he was in teh Wasatch
Mountains in utah and working in the silver mines. various
enterprises engaged his attention fnrom slmelterman to engineer, and
the xperience gained throughout all the years were necer amiss.
However, in 1885 he gavce up his mining operations and left for San
Francisco.
On November 3, 1887, Mr. Eastman was married to Miss Nellie Florence
Sleeper, born in Columbia, Tuolumne County. Cal., the daughter of the
sturdy pioneer, William Osgood Sleeper, who was born in 1816, a native
of St. Albans, Maine, and who crossed the Isthmus in 1851, arriving in
San Franicsco early in 1852. He was engaged in the buying and
shipping of gold dust, and also tried his luck at mining. He
married Miss Almira Foss, and in 1868 they removed to San Francisco.
Mr. Sleepter died in Santa Rosa in 1901, and Mrs Sleeper passed away in
Santa Clara County in 1908.
In 1887 Mr. Eastman removed with hsi family to Santa Rosa, and there
purchased a ranch and was engaged for the next two years in farming,
but still believing that he could find a fortune in the mines, he
disposed of hsi ranch and went to Utah, where he remained ulntil
November, 1891, when he located in teh Santa Clara Valley, and since
that time has been a residen tof that county most of the time.
FOr eleven years he was in teh hardware and the marble business in San
Francisco, and continued until the time of the great fire and
earthquake in 1906. The reverses which he and his brother
suffered at that time never caused our subject to give up the fight,
but by hard work and good judgment he was succeeded in stabishing
himself on a substantial basis. For many years he owned and
operated the extensive ruanch property, consisting of 652 acres, known
as Mountain Dell, in the Uvas in Santa Clara County.
Mr. and Mrs. Eastman are the parents of two children; George W. is
married and is a practicing chiropractor and resides in New York City;
Alice L. is the wife of Percy Dunlap and they reside in
Sebastopol. Mr. Eastman is a stockholder in the Farmers' Union
store in Morgan In 1919 the Mountain Dell ranch was sold to
Harold McD. Smith, and Mr. Eastman ereced a modern and comfortable
residence on a nine-and-a -half acre ranch on the Uvas Road eight miles
from Morgan Hill, called "Creek Side." Politically he is a stanch
Republican, and fraternally he is a Mason,holding membership in Mission
Lodge NO. 169, F. & A. M.; a charter member of Mission Chapter No.
79, R. A.M.; a member of California Commandery No. 1. K. T., and Islam
Temple, A. A.. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco. Both Mr. and
Mrs. Eastman are members of Magnolia Chapters, O. E. S.,
Gilroy. Mr Eastman has practically lived retired since 1907, but
is ever intereed in teh welfare and future of his locality.
Transcribed by Carolyn Ferobenfrom Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,
published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. Page 939-940
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT
SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY - THE VALLEY OF HEART's DELIGHT