FRANK COTTLE
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES; PARKER, CARROTHERS LARKHAM, DECKER, HUDSON, KELLY, ROSS,
Frank Cottle, who owns a fine orchard on Cottle Avenue, in the Willow District, is the subject of this sketch. This orchard, planted by himself, contains ten acres, and is equally divided between apricots and prunes. He bought the land of his father, Royal Cottle, in 1883, and set out the trees the following year. Mr. Cottle is a thorough horticulturist. During the past six years, in addition to the care of his own orchard, he has handled his father’s orchard, of forty acres. In 1887 from eight acres he sold 104 tons of apricots, at $30 per ton, realizing $3,120. From the age of fifteen years, Mr. Cottle has called Santa Clara County his home, although his absences have been many in number and of years in duration.
He was born in Des Moines County, Iowa, October 5, 1842, being the son of Royal and Sarah (Parker) Cottle. (For more extended history of the family, the reader is referred to the sketch of Royal Cottle, Sr.) His youth, from five to fifteen years of age, was spent in Oregon, but since 1857 his father has resided in this county, and since the following year at the Willows. Frank Cottle started in life for himself when nineteen years of age. From 1861 to 1864 he spent his time in the southern part of the State, whence he went to Idaho, where he was employed on cattle ranches up to 1868. Returning in that year to this State, he worked in the mines, in Kern County, eight or ten years. Since 1878 he has resided in this county.
On January 28, 1879, he was united in marriage with Mrs. Belle (Carrothers) Larkham, daughter of Mr. Walter Carrothers, one of the men of ’49. He removed from Richland County, Ohio, where Mrs. Cottle was born March 22, 1849.
More than a passing mention must be made of Walter Carrothers. He left his family in Ohio, and came overland to this State, in 1850. For many years, with varied success, he followed mining in El Dorado County. He was one of the first men in the State to engage in sugar production. Commencing in Sacramento County, in 1861, in the following year he was awarded by the State Agricultural Society a silver cup for the best sugar evaporator. Some years later he was the manager of a sugar plantation on one of the Sandwich Islands. Returning to this State, he rented the Bloomfield Ranch, in this county, and engaged in producing sugar-cane. Finally he became convinced that the limit to Santa Clara’s profitable production had been reached when it reached the sugar-cane. He brought his family from Ohio, in 1868, since which time Mrs. Cottle has resided in California. His children are: Robert W., Mrs. Cottle, Mrs. Sarah Decker, Mrs. Laura A. Hudson, Mrs. Frances Kelly, and Mrs. Dora Ross, all residing in this county. At the age of sixty-one, Mr. Carrothers died, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Cottle. His widow now resides in San Jose.
Mrs. Cottle’s first
husband, Thomas H. Larkham, died in this county, in August, 1876. By that
marriage she has two children, Walter and Lucy. By her marriage to Mr. Cottle
she has one child, Laura. Mr. Cottle, like his father, and all of his father’s
family, is identified with the Republican party.
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. 419-420
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT