Bio-Sawyers
SURNAMES: ALVISO, DENNE, JONES, CORTELYOU,

A member of the famous Arguello family, intimately connected with the early history of San Jose, Santa Clara, Monterey and San Francisco, Julio Arguello was born at the old Arguello home at Santa Clara on December 9, 1870, one of the first mansions built there. It was later sold to Senator James W. Phelan and now it is the property of the University of Santa Clara and one of the college buildings will be erected on its site. It was the center of much of the social life of its day and its razing removes another landmark reminiscent of the past generation. The Arguello home was built by Don Jose Ramon Arguello, for many years the leading citizen of Santa Clara, being the son of Gov. Luis Antonio Arguello, first governor of California under the Mexican regime and now buried at the Mission Dolores, San Francisco. His father was Commandante Jose Arguello, a Castilian soldier, who was in charge of the Presidio at San Francisco and also at Monterey during the days of the Spanish rule. Our subject's mother was Isabel Alviso before her marriage, a member of the famous old Castilian family for whom the town of Alviso was named.

Julio Arguello lived at the Arguello mansion until he was seven years old, when the family removed to the Blake farm of 320 acres on Quito Road at Los Gatos, now the property of P. J. Walker. There he was reared until his fourteenth year, when he entered pt. Mary's College at San Francisco, from which he was graduated at the age of eighteen. Don Jose Ramon Arguello died in 1876, when Julio was six years old, the father of fourteen children, and the mother later married again. Of these children only three survive: Isabel, the widow of Nicholas Denne, of Santa Barbara; Quito and Julio. Don Jose Arguello was at one time the most extensive landowner in the Santa Clara Valley, and he was the pioneer who donated the right of way to the Southern Pacific Railroad through his large holdings.

Mr. Arguello's marriage united him with Miss Sarah Maud Jones, who was born in Wisconsin, but was reared in Minneapolis. She came to California about fifteen years ago and her marriage to Mr. Arguello occurred at San Jose in 1911. By his first marriage Mr. Arguello had a daughter, Claire, now the wife of James Cortelyou. For some time Mr. Arguello was successfully engaged as a real estate broker, his specialty being the handling of vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley. He closed some of the important deals in this section, among them being the sale of the American vineyards at Del Rey and Hanford, the two bringing $525,000, the William Neumann vineyard at Belmont Avenue and Del Rey Road, which sold for $210,000, and many others. Mr. Arguello died from pneumonia, after an illness of only eight days, on February 14, 1922, and was buried at Santa Clara.

Sawyer, Eugene T, History of Santa Clara County, California : Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic Record Co., 1922, 1776 pgs. page 1599

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