WALTER L. SMITH
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: HILL, CHILDS, TRAIN
owns and occupies a a beautiful cottage home on the Meridian road, near the crossing of Los Gatos Creek, in the Hamilton District. His orchard, of six acres, nearly all in full bearing, is planted chiefly with prunes and apricots, with a variety of other fruits for domestic use. The property was bought in 1882, and the residence designed, built, and occupied by Mr. Smith the following year.
Mr. Smith was born in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, March 31, 1823. His youth was spent principally in Massachusetts. The tide of emigration to the New El Dorado caught him in its outward flow, and November 12, 1849, he embarked in the sail ship Euphrasia for a trip around Cape Horn. The voyage was marked by no untoward event. The vessel passed the Golden Gate, and landed her passengers at San Francisco, May 26, 1850. The two following years Mr. Smith spent profitably in placer mining, in Tuolumne County. From February, 1853, to 1870, he was interested with others in lumber manufacture, under the firm name of Smith, Dudley & Co., his brother John being one of the firm, in Mariposa County. The company were extensively engaged in furnishing lumber for the construction of quartz mills, bridges, etc.
Mr. Smith returned to Massachusetts, in 1885, and married Miss Caroline Hill.
She died in San Francisco, in 1869. In 1870 he removed to San Francisco, where
he lived about a year, during which time he went to Lawrence, Massachusetts,
where he married Mrs. Adeline M. (Childs) Train. In 1871 he removed from San
Francisco to Stanislaus County, where he remained until 1880, as the resident
manager of a water right for San Francisco parties. His life in the years up to
1880 were very active and energetic, but now he is living in a somewhat retired
way, at his pleasant home in the Hamilton District.
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. 474
JACOB SMITH
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES: REHOR,
was born in Germany, March 25, 1825. His father, Jacob, was a Frenchman, and his mother, Mary, a German. In 1829 they came to New York, and located near Buffalo, when it was a little log-cabin town. They settled at Eden, about twenty-five miles from Buffalo, where they lived four or five years, when they moved to Hamburg in the same county (Erie), and they lived the remainder of their lives. The old gentleman was past ninety-eight years of age when he died, in 1872. He was for nine years a soldier under Napoleon I. His wife died in 1875. They raised six children,—three sons and three daughters. Jacob, the subject, lived with his parents until twenty-four years old. His opportunities for schooling were limited, and when he attended school he had to work during the intervals. In the fall of 1851 he went West, and traveled over Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois, and in the spring of 1852 returned to New York, and then came to California by way of Panama. Had the Panama fever, and was laid up at Acapulco for one week with it, when he came on to San Francisco, where he arrived on Monday, June 15, 1852. Three days afterward he went to Sacramento, and thence to Hangtown, in the mines, where he remained two or three months, mining, etc., when he returned to the Sacramento Valley, and worked until 1858. Whenever he got $200 or $300 he would go back to the mines and spend it. He made a number of these trips. In 1858 he settled on some government land (160 acres), and lived on it until he came to Santa Clara County, in 1877, and bought his present residence. Originally he purchased 165 acres, but has sold off parcels until he now has but forty-six acres. Has twelve acres in fruit-trees, and vines about twenty years old, bearing well, the balance being in grain.
Mr. Smith was
married, April 6, 1878, to Henrietta Rehor, a native of Germany, who came to the
United States in 1866. They have no children.
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. 611
SANTA CLARA COUNTY The Valley of Heart's Delight