W. F. WARD
FRUIT-DRYING
Bio-Pen Pictures
SURNAMES:CANNEY, STEVENS,
has a beautiful residence on Minnesota Avenue, between Washington and Lincoln Avenues, surrounded by two and a half acres, planted about an acre each in apricots and prunes, the rest devoted to a variety of fruits for family use, and the general surroundings of a refined home. He owns a fruit-drying establishment on Northrup Street, near the Los Gatos bridge. The drier, for the sale of which Mr. Ward is also the resident agent, has a capacity of about four tons every twenty-four hours. There were dried there last year about 1,600 tons of green apricots, 500 tons of French prunes, about 800 tons of peaches, and fifty tons of assorted fruits. It is calculated that six tons of green fruit will make one of dried, three tons of green for one of dried prunes, eight tons of green for one of dried peaches. He rented the drier to the Garden City Preserving Company, superintending the work for them. He has an interest in fifty-five acres, which they have decided not to put into fruit. It will probably be cut up into building lots.
Mr. Ward was born in Calais, Maine, in 1835, where he attended school and lived until his seventeenth year, when he removed, in 1852, to Minneapolis, Minnesota, at that time part of the government reservation of Fort Sully. He there learned the trade of carpenter, afterward being interested in contracting and building in Minneapolis. He left there for California, April 30, 1871, locating immediately in the Willows, on the place he now owns, where he has lived since that time. Since his coining to California Mr. Ward has been principally engaged in buying and drying fruit. During 1873-74 he was one of the Board of Supervisors of this county.
He was married, in 1857, to Miss Elvira J. Canney, a native of New Hampshire, whose parents, James and Lois (Stevens) Canney, removed to Minneapolis in 1856. They have two children, viz.: Forrest S., born in 1858, still living with his parents, and interested in fruit culture; and James W., born in 1861, now practicing medicine in San Francisco. The latter attended school at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and at San Jose, California, where he graduated at the high school, at the age of thirteen years. He commenced studying medicine with his uncle, Dr. Canney, of San Jose, remaining with him for five years. He then attended lectures at the Hahnemann College, of New York, where he graduated after a two years' course. Remained as Resident Physician at the Hahnemann Hospital for two years, returning to San Francisco in 1886, entering into a practice now almost too extensive for the attention of one physician.
Mr. Ward was an
active and enthusiastic Republican from the earliest history of the party,
taking an active part in the Fremont campaign in 1856. He supported ex-Governor
St. John in the presidential campaign of 1884, and is now as ardent a
Prohibitionist as he was then a Republican. He is a member of Pacific Council,
No. 474, American Legion of Honor. Mr. and Mrs. Ward and family are members of
the Orthodox Friends' Church.
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. 645
SANTA CLARA COUNTY BIOGRAPHY PROJECT