Bio- Pen Pictures
SURNAMES:  NELSON,  GARDNER

became a resident of California in December, 1861. His pleasant home is on Hicks Avenue, in the Willow District.

He was born in Westchester County, New York, November 29, 1847.  His father, John D. Arthur, was a cousin of the late President Arthur.  His mother was Dorinda H. Nelson.  Both parents were f rom a long line of American ancestry, of English extraction.  John D. Arthur, the father, aged eighty-five years, is now a resident of Oakland.  He was among the earliest settlers of California, coming to the state in the spring of 1850.  He was also one of the first business men of San Francisco, opening an agricultural warehouse on the corner of Washington and Davis Streets.  He was thoroughly identified with the city's interests, being engaged in active business there for over twenty years.  From time to time he was joined by different members of his family, which he had left in the East.

His wife arrived in 1860, and in 1862 the family circle was complete with the exception of one son and one daughter, Charles S. and Emma J., both now deceased.  Mrs. Arthur died in April, 1876, at the age of sixty-three years.  Of their children who came to California, William N. died in San Francisco, in April, 1865; George N. lives at the Willows; Gertrude is a resident of Oakland; and Edward M. makes his home in Portland, Oregon.

John C. Arthur is the youngest of the family.  He came to the State at the age of fifteen years, and spent six years of the next eight in his fathers establishment in San Francisco.  In 1870 he bought the first real estate that he ever owned, a ranch south of San Felipe, on the edge of the Las Animas grant, of 179 acres.  There he engaged in stock raising, until 1875, when he sold the property.  In 1877 he bought the property where he now makes his home.  It contains six and one-half acres, and was then part of oa grain field.  The substantial buildings where are now found there are mainly the work of his own hands.    In November, 1882, Mr. Arthur bought twenty-two acres in the same neighborhood, which was covered with brush and timber.  This he cleared and planted with fruit trees the following year.  That property he has since sold, realizing a handsome sum  Mr. Arthur owns a one-third interest in a fine fruit ranch of thirty acres near Campbell Station.  For the home property he paid 4200 per acre.  It is now a fine productive orchard of prune, cherry, peach, and apricot trees.  Mr. Arthur has realized as much as $1,100 for one years product of this orchard, sold green.  The owner of a pleasant home and several fine fruit orchards, Mr. Arthur is one of the many prosperous citizens of the Willows.  Politically, he is an independent, with Republican antecedents.  He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  On the fifth of October, 1874, he married Miss Eliza J. Gardner, daughter of William Gardner, who resides on Delmas Avenue.  She was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, May 12, 1855.  Three daughters were born to Mr. and Mr. Arthur, but all of them have passed to their heavenly home.  Nettie died at the age of seven years, Alice at the age of two and one-half years, while one daughter died in infancy.

SOURCE:

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, Page 456

Transcribed by: Cdf