RICHARD E. COLLINS
Druggist- San Jose, 1876
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: TAYLOR, WILSON
Richard E. Collins, druggist, at No. 166 South First Street, San Jose, was born in Chatham, Massachusetts, in 1844. He attended the public schools of his native town till thirteen years of age, when his family removed to Boston, where he worked in the printing office of J. E. Farwell & Co. five years. The war commencing at this time, Mr. Collins became attached to the Quartermaster’s Department of the army, with Capt. William Wilson acting Quartermaster of the Southern Division of the Mississippi, with headquarters at Nashville, Tennessee. There he remained till the capture of Richmond and the close of the war, when he was discharged from the service and returned to Boston. Shortly after his return home he went to sea, and followed that occupation for three years. In 1869-70 he was employed by the American Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts. In the latter year he began to learn the drug business in Boston, in which trade he continued until 1875; then he moved to California, locating in San Francisco, where he remained a year. In April, 1876, he moved to San Jose and established the business he now carries on, and to which he has devoted his exclusive attention. Having great confidence in Santa Clara County as a fruit-growing section, Mr. Collins, in 1883, purchased a ranch of twenty acres, six miles from San Jose, on the road to San Francisco, and the same year planted ten acres to fruit-trees, of which 700 were apricots and 300 peaches. The following year he planted 1,000 prunes and 350 cherries. This orchard paid handsomely in 1887, the yield from 650 apricot trees being seventeen tons, and from 300 peach-trees over twelve tons.
Mr. Collins was
married, in 1866, to Miss Jennie Wilson, a native of Lowell, Massachusetts. To
them have been born two sons: Richard E., Jr., engaged in business with his
father, and Albert, who is managing the ranch. Mr. Collins is a member of the
Masonic Order and Knights Templar. He is also a member and Treasurer of Mt.
Hamilton Lodge, No. 43, A. O. U. W., and for eighteen months was a member of the
Board of Education of San Jose. He is a Democrat, and in favor of a
modification of the tariff. His parents were Richard H. and Mary (Taylor)
Collins, both natives of New England. His mother died in 1848, and his father
still lives in Boston.
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. 377-378
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT