NATHANIEL BRACKETT
Born
Rockingham County, New Hamshire1818
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: CHAPIN, TURNER, BRAMAN
residing on the San Jose and
Alviso road, in the Alviso District, became a resident of Santa Clara County in
1863. His productive farm, of sixty-seven acres, is
about five miles north of San Jose and four miles south of Alviso. He obtains
profitable results from the various industries to which he devotes his farm.
There are eighteen acres of orchard, which furnish Beurre Clairgeau and Bartlett
pears, apricots, French prunes, egg plums, peaches, and Pippin and Bellflower
apples; twenty-two acres are used as vegetable gardens, ten acres for the
production of grain and hay, and the remainder for stock purposes, for farm and
dairy uses.
Two artesian wells are particularly noticeable, as they furnish water sufficient
to irrigate 400 acres. One of the wells is 400 feet in depth, and flows
eighteen inches over an eight-inch pipe. Mr. Brackett utilizes this splendid
flow of water for running machinery, such as grindstones, vegetable graters,
etc.
Mr. Brackett was born in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, in 1818, and is the son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Brackett) Brackett, who were natives of New Hampshire, and descendants of old Puritan families of the Plymouth Colony. His schooling was received before he reached the age of sixteen years, as at that age he entered with his brother into an apprenticeship in learning the carpenter's trade. When nineteen years old he started out in life for himself, and, taking up the millwright's trade, successfully followed it for many years. In 1837 he went to Boston and entered the counting house of his uncle with the intention of becoming a merchant; but after a few months' experience he decided that the work was not suited to him, and, having a strong desire for a Western life, he went to Lenawee County, Michigan, where he engaged in the work of a millwright for many years. During his residence there he married, in 1841, Miss Lucinda Turner, the daughter of Jethro and Lydia (Chapin) Turner. Miss Turner was a native of New York, but a resident, at the time of her marriage, of the State of Michigan. In 1852 Mr. Brackett returned to Boston, and, with his family, embarked in the ship Brutus, Captain Meacham, for the voyage around Cape Horn. They arrived in San Francisco in August, 1853, and spent ten years in that city, Mr. Brackett working at his old trade, in the responsible work of superintending the construction of flour-mills in different parts of the State. He purchased, in 1863, the Santa Clara property on which he has since lived, and to the cultivation of which he has since devoted all of his time, with the exception of that spent in the building of one quartz and three flour mills.
Mr. Brackett is an intelligent and able mechanic, as well as a most successful horticulturist and agriculturist. His strong will and undaunted courage have sustained him through some severe financial losses. In 1878 the floods destroyed the crops of his orchard and berry lands, causing a loss of nearly $10,000! But with characteristic energy, Mr. Brackett at once recommenced its cultivation. As the result of his years of labor, he is the owner of one of the finest farm and orchard properties in his section.
Mr. Brackett is a zealous Republican, taking a great interest in the affairs of
both State and nation. Mr. and Mrs. Brackett are the parents of three children,
of whom two, Jethro Nathaniel
Bruce and Lydia Elizabeth Edora, are residents of San Jose. The third, Louis
Philander, is a member of his parents' household. They have also with them an
adopted daughter, Lydia Mehetabel Braman, who is the daughter of Mrs. Brackett's
deceased sister.
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. 466-467