Gorham P. Beal came from Erie
County, New York, to California in 1854, arriving in October of that year. For
eight years he devoted his attention to mining, and in this occupation he was
moderately successful. After five years of bachelorhood in the Golden State, he
returned to his native county and married Miss H. L. Hawks, also a native of New
York State. After their marriage Mr. Beal and his bride started for their wild
Western home in the mining district of Placer County. Mrs. Beal declares that
those three years spent in roughing it in the rude mining town, going to church
at the call of an old-fashioned dinner-horn, with no other means of conveyance
that the back of a pony, were among the happiest of her life. After closing up
his mining interests, Mr. and Mrs. Beal spent a year or two traveling through
the East; returned to California in 1864, and settled on the site of their
present beautiful homestead on South Sunol Street, in San Jose.
The last twenty years of
his life Mr. Beal divided his time between horticulture, and traveling. He and
Mrs. Beal made four trips across the continent, and three times made the voyage
between San Francisco and New York by water. Mr. Beal died April 26, 1887,
leaving his wife and four children— two sons and two daughters: Flora, Edward,
Etta, and Irving, all of whom make their home with the widow on their family
homestead before mentioned. The home place consists of eight acres of fine
bearing orchard, chiefly pears; and the estate embraces nine acres of splendid
bearing orchard three miles from the city, in the Willows, consisting of
cherries, apricots, and prunes.
Mr. Beal was a member of
the Masonic Order, and of the Baptist Church.
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.
Transcribed by: Letisha Oddo
Pg. 400/401
SANTA CLARA COUNTY PIONEER BIOGRAPHIES
SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY