1044    HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY


Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES:  TEETER,

The vicinity of San Jose and surrounding country are fortunate indeed to have as able and conscientious a druggist to care for the physical welfare of its citizens as is found in Elijah M. Saleeby, who is the proprietor of the University Drug Company, located at 50 East Santa Clara Street. Mr. Saleeby was born in Mt. Lebanon, Syria, on April 8, 1878, and was the son of Mitry and Helena Saleeby, the father being the superintendent of schools of Mt. Lebanon. The Free Church of Scotland had sent ministers and missionary teachers to these schools to educate the youth, and Mr. Saleeby's father, who was an educator, had the direction of these schools in his hands. The father lived to be an old man, having attained the age of eighty-two years when he passed away in 1920, his wife having preceded him many years ago.

Elijah Saleeby attended the public schools and the high schools in Mt. Lebanon and then entered the American College of Pharmacy in Beirut, graduating at the age of twenty-two years with the degree of Ph. M. During the year 1901 he went to Egypt and took a position, where he worked for a period of two years, and then came to New York in 1903. He did graduate work in New York College of Pharmacy and spent four years in New York City as a pharmacist, after which he voyaged to the Philippine Islands, became the chief pharmacist in the U. S. Civil Hospital for a short time, and then was the chief pharmacist of the Philippine General Hospital for two years. He then left the government work and opened a drug store at Zamboanga, in the Philippines, which he conducted for eight years, and disposing of this business he became the manager of the Martini Drug Company at Manila, P. I., at which place he stayed for one year. The year 1919 marks the returning of Mr. Saleeby to the United States, at which time he made an extended trip; starting from San Francisco, he traveled via Los Angeles, Denver and Washington, D. C., to Pennsylvania, visiting his wife's people, who lived at Altoona, Pa., and also visited his friends in New York, and returned to California, this time settling in San Jose. He arrived during the month of July, 1919, and in August of the same year he purchased the University Drug Company of San Jose, which he has since conducted with gratifying success.

Mr. Saleeby's marriage, which occurred on December 27, 1917, in Manila, P. I., united him with Miss Laura Teeter, who is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born near Altoona, the daughter of Andrew and Katherine Teeter, and they are the parents of one son, Charles. Mr. Saleeb is a very public-spirited man and is interested in the progressive development of the country; is very popular in the San Jose Progressive Business Men's Clubs and is an active member of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Mason, having taken the thirty-second Scottish Rite degrees, and is a member of Nile Temple, A. A. 0. N. M. S., at Seattle, Wash., and he is also a member of the Sciots and Eastern Star and of the Alameda and Santa Clara County Pharmaceutical Associations. In national politics his inclinations favor Republican principles.

From Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 1044

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