Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: GRIBNER, SMITH
of Hamilton District, commenced the improvement of his five-acre tract, on Hamilton Avenue, from a grain field, in the winter of 1884. His orchard, which is now four years old, covers the whole ground. It comprises 294 prune, 98 apricot, 238 peach, 112 cherry, 14 apple, 14 pear, and 14 egg plum trees. All are in good condition, the ninety-eight apricot trees, but three years old, yielding, in 1887, about three tons of fruit.
Mr. Peard was reared in Genesee County, New York, where he was born, September 14, 1842. He volunteered for service in maintaining the nation's integrity, in the autumn of 1862, enlisting in the Twenty-second Independent New York Volunteer Battery. He served in that organization in the defenses of Washington for about eighteen months, when the Battery was transferred, as Company M, to the Ninth New York Heavy Artillery, and in May, 1864, joined the Army of the Potomac, at North Anna, Virginia. He participated in the battle at Cold Harbor, and was in the lines at the investment of Petersburg. Later he was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley, under General Sheridan, and there, among other battles, he took part at the engagements at Winchester, Cedar Creek, and Fisher's Hill, returning to the lines in front of Petersburg for winter quarters. He also participated in the closing campaign of the army in Virginia, which culminated in the surrender of the rebel army at Appomattox, and, after the surrender of General Lee, was transferred to the Second New York Heavy Artillery, and remained in garrison at Washington, near Chain Bridge, until honorably discharged, in October, 1865. Mr. Peard was never in hospital or guard house, but always engaged in active duty. His faithful discharge of every duty as a soldier gives him the right to look back with satisfaction to the part he bore in the defense of his country.
Mr. Peard left the State of New York in 1873, and for four or five years was on a ranch in Yolo County, this State. For the past ten years he has resided in Santa Clara County, renting and operating the Coley fruit farm at the Willows, where he lived until November, 1887, when he removed to his own property in the Hamilton District, having had charge of both places until the present season.
Mr. Peard's parents, Thomas and Frances A. Peard, were of Irish descent. They joined their children in this county in the spring of 1886, his father dying here on the first of February, 1888, at the age of seventy-seven years, while his mother resides with him and is his home-keeper. A brother of the subject of this sketch, Robert, lives in Batavia, New York. One sister, Frances, is the wife of George T. Gribner, of the Willows, and the other sister, Kate, is the wife of C. D. Smith, a resident of San Jose.
Politically Mr. Peard is a member of the Republican party. Like most old
soldiers, he is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic, being a member of
Phil Sheridan Post, No. 7, G. A. R. He is also identified with San Jose Camp,
No. 125, Knights of Pythias.
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. 477-478
SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight