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PHELPS BROTHERS - Robert M. and W.S.
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES:
Phelps Brothers have a ranch of 224 acres four miles northwest from Gilroy, on the Day road. Of this land 160 acres is level, and is devoted every year to grain or hay. They sow alternately to wheat and barley for grain. The crop runs from seven to twenty centals per acre of wheat, and barley runs higher. They raise some horses, and only cattle enough for their own use. They have about 100 fruit trees—apples, plums, apricots, peaches, and pears—all bearing well. They also have fifty-two grape-vines that are twenty years old and in good condition. The building improvements on the ranch were made by Thomas Hawkins, now President of the Hollister Bank.
Robert M. and W. S.
Phelps, the owners of the ranch, were both born and reared in Washington County,
Missouri, and started in life by chopping cord-wood at the Iron Mountain.
Robert M. came across the plains in 1852 with a drove of cattle, and spent the
winter in the mines of Calaveras County. The following year W. S. Phelps came
to California, and located in Santa Clara County, in the vicinity of San Jose.
Both went to the mines in 1856, and after a few years spent in different mines
in Butte and Nevada Counties, they returned to San Jose—W. S. in 1858 and Robert
M. in 1862. They purchased the place where they now reside, in 1867, and moved
upon it in November of that year. The Phelps brothers are both Democrats, are
both active, intelligent gentlemen, enjoying the good-will and respect of the
community in which they live.
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. 339
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy
DR. R. E. PIERCE
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: BRITTAIN, PARKER,
This gentleman, who holds a high and worthy position in the ranks of the medical profession of San Jose, was born in St. John, New Brunswick, in 1856, leaving there, however, with his parents in the following year and going to Boston. He there attended the various public schools, and finally graduated in the Medical Department of the Boston University in 1879. For three years he was a student also of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He practiced his profession for about five years in Melrose and Boston. In 1884 he came to San Jose, where, in partnership with Dr. Breyfogle, he has since carried on his professional work. This partnership, which had been arranged previous to Dr. Pierce’s departure from Massachusetts, was continued until the pressure of other duties compelled Dr. Breyfogle to retire from the active calls of his profession. Since that time Dr. Pierce has successfully conducted the united practice.
His parents were
Robert and Fannie L. (Brittain) Pierce. His father was born in Ruthin,
Derbyshire, Wales, in 1832; his mother in the same year, in St. John, New
Brunswick. Dr. Pierce has three brothers, the elder a manufacturer, and the
other two merchants, of Boston. His father was for thirty years a leading
dry-goods merchant of Boston. He died in 1887. His mother is still alive and
is living at Melrose, Massachusetts. Dr. Pierce married Miss Fannie M. Parker,
of Newtonville, Massachusetts, in 1880. They have no children. He has been
interested in fruit lands, but now devotes his time exclusively to the practice
of his profession, in the ranks of which he has risen to a high standard, and is
regarded as a sound and able practitioner. Dr. Pierce is a consistent
Republican, and believes in the full protection of American interests. He is a
public-spirited and highly esteemed citizen, learned in his profession and of
wide experience.
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. 368
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy
SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight