MICHAEL RYAN
Bio - Pictures
SURNAMES: SULLIVAN
one of the representative farmers of Irish birth in Santa Clara County, is the owner of a fine property on the Almaden road, three miles south of the city limits of SanJose. His estate, of sixty-four acres, also fronts on the Foxworthy road.
Mr. Ryan was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1843, but his youth from four years of age was spent in England. He was orphaned at an early age by the death of both parents. When but seven years of age he commenced work in a silk factory, and continued in the work for fifteen years, adding not a little toward the support of the family. He was thus deprived of the educational advantages which are enjoyed by more fortunate children. Soon after reaching manhood, he came to the United States, the land of promise to so many of the poor in the old country. He landed in New York in 1865, with only $10 in his possession. He is the only representative of his family in America. In 1868 he came to California, in company with Thomas Kelty, whose history appears elsewhere in this volume. Since then he has been a resident of Santa Clara County. Mr. Ryan was by no means well supplied with worldly goods when he reached this State. He was at first in the employ of Thomas Kell, and afterward a cultivator of rented lands. The estate which he now owns he purchased about thirteen years ago. He devotes his farm to the production of grain, and since the autumn of 1877 he has resided upon leased property, the estate, of 110 acres, belonging to the heirs of C. Columbet.
On the fifteenth of June, 1878, Mr. Ryan was united in marriage with Miss Catharine Sullivan, a native of Ireland. Three children were born to them: William P., Joseph H., and Daniel V.
Mr. Ryan is a
member of the Catholic Church, and is a Democrat in politics. He is one of the
leading men of his nationality in the county, and is a living example of what
may be accomplished by a determination to succeed, even under the most adverse
circumstances. His advancement, the result of his energy and enterprise, from a
penniless stranger in a strange land, through the positions of farm laborer and
worker of rented lands to the position which he now holds, that of a
responsible, influential land owner, he may well be proud of.
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. 554-555
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