MELVIN JOSEPH ARANA
Pioneer Family of Santa Cruz
San Jose Master Plumber
Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES: RODRIGUEZ, FRANCIS
An expert plumber who has rapidly come to the
force in San Jose is Melvin Joseph Arana, of 371 West San Carlos
Street, at which headquarters he has been manufacturing various kitchen
and other practical utensils of such a novel design as to command
unusual attention. He was born in Santa Cruz on January 14, 1888,
the son of John Arana, also a native of Santa Cruz and a farmer ,
the son of a pioneer of 1850, who was drawn to California by the rush
for gold. Later he went into San Luis Obispo County, and there
engaged in the raising of cattle. He lived to be seventy-four
years of age. John Arana married Miss Santa Rodriguez, of the
family so well known as early-timers and stock-raisers, and herself a
native of Santa Cruz. She attended Notre Dame College in San Jose
in the early period of that institution, and became an artist in
weaving worsted cloth with faces, images and fancy designs in
variegated colors of such real merit that many of her masterpieces were
exhibited at the Panama-Pacific fair in San Francisco in 1915.
Grandfather Rodriguez came to San Francisco as a pioneer and lived on
the sand hills where Golden Gate avenue and Devisidero Street now
cross. John Arana acquired a large farm of 700 acres in Santa Cruz
County, at Arana Gulch Twin Lakes, and there he raised cattle until he
returned to Santa Cruz, where he died. The mother now resides in
San Francisco.
Melvin Arana, familiarly called by his many friends "Mel," attended
both the grammar and high schools of Santa Cruz, and when a young man
took up the plumbing trade with Alexander Tait in Santa Cruz, remaining
in his service about twelve years. He then went to San Francisco
and worked for eight years for the Scott Company. In June, 1920,
he came to San Jose and opened a plumbing shop; he is a very fine
mechanic and an excellent and honest workman, and such has been his
progress, development and prosperity that he is now in a position to do
the plumbing and steam fitting of the largest types of public and
office buildings. He wa in charge of all the plumbing and steam-fitting
for he largest types of public and office buildings. He was in charge
of all the plumbing and steam -fitting on the Faith, the
concrete vessel built during the war, at Redwood City, by the
Government as an experiment in concrete vessels, and partly as a both
the cause and the result, he is now planning the manufacture of
concrete laundry trays and sink combinations. He has already
bought the plot of ground in East San Jose where he intends to
build and manufacture these fixtures. "Mel" Arana has certainly done
much to increase industrial activity in San Jose; and as a Republican
he has always favored that legislation most like to steady and improve
business. He is an enthusiastic member of the Master
Plumbers' Association of San Jose.
On June 30, 1912, Mr. Arana was married at San Francisco to Miss
Estella M. Francis, a native of Buffalo, N. Y., when a young man, and
there he married. They brought their family to San Francisco when
Estella was a small child; she was the third oldest of their six
children and received her education in the Lincoln school in San
Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Arana have been bless with one child,
Evelyn. Mrs. Arana is an accomplished and attractive woman who studied
singing and dancing under the best teachers in San Francisco. She
made a success as a vocalist and dancer, teaching fancy dancing to
a large class. From a small child she displayed marked ability
as a dancer; when only seven year old, she played with Florence
Roberts in the old California Theater in San Francisco, and afterward
as a toe dancer, gave performances at the old Grand Opera House.
She had flattering offers after her marriage, but she gave up her
career, preferring to devote all of her time to her home. Their
daughter, Evelyn, inherits the same talent from her mother, having been
taught by her mother from a child, and from the age of four years she
danced on the state, and David Belasco
pronounced her a child wonder. During the late war baby Evelyn
gave eight months of her time and talent for the Red Cross and benefits
to the soldier boys. She has had many flattering offers from
Belasco, Fox and others, but her parents thought it wiser for her not
to accept them, very naturally wanting thier baby at home with them,
and she is now among the bright pupils of the Lincoln grammar school
. Mr. Arana is a member of the Maccabees and it goes without
saying that Mr. and Mrs. Arana are recipients of their share of
well-deserved popularity.
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922, page 1303-1304
ARANA GULCH-PRESERVE, SANTA CRUZ