Tag Archives: kettmann

Quimby Road – History

September 7, 2016Concept, Historical Researchaborn, casalegno, Chaboya, evergreen, family, generations, kettmann, mayor, mirassou, pellier, Quimby, quimby road, Renaud, san jose, street nameevergreen

Quimby Road, from its 1860’s creation, has been an artery into the town of Evergreen, intersecting with historic White Road and King Road for over 150 years now. We’ve discussed previously in Evergreen Mural Walk’s blog Evergreen’s Own Mayor Quimby. John Alonzo Quimby, San Jose Mayor, is indeed the roadway’s namesake, whose second home outside of downtown was here in Evergreen in the 1860’s. Quimby Road on our Best Drives List, however, is host to many powerful stories and breathtaking vistas.

We’re looking at Quimby Road from the familiar now 1899 map, which I found at Evergreen Valley College’s library in the Heritage Room, curated by Colleen Cortese. Let’s talk about what these parcels are now.

You can see White Road further left. Left is west and a pinch south. White Road runs North and South and Norwood Avenue, running off the map here, ought to point directly East. The right of the adjacent Chaboya properties, belonging Ramon Chaboya, is the Evergreen School District Office and Quimby Oak Middle School. This is Ramon, or Raymond, Chaboya to the left here. The western border of the western, or left, Renaud property is Ruby Avenue which later builds through to the Mirassau or Mirassou property on Chew Lane, which became Aborn Road. This is a particularly interesting tid bit because of the Pellier lineage

.The roadway was named for the one time Mayor, long time civil servant and Evergreen rancher. Strangely enough though, the Quimby Family property, in the family as shown above, isn’t located on Quimby Road in 1899. It appears to have been downsized and passed down to the Quimby’s daughter, then Mrs. Wright, lived on Chaboya Road. Can I be honest with you? This M. Wright parcel feels more like the corner of the Pellier Ranch. The straightened portion becomes Murillo Avenue and the offshoot of Chaboya Road is there. This is where the Sikh Gurdawa is today. It would’ve outline the neighboring Pellier Ranch in 1876 and become the driveway by 1899.

We’re going to look back at Quimby Road again, but this time in 1876. I’m going to tell you that this zoom out is very deceiving. The properties will appear to be the same size, but that is not the case. They’re much larger and fewer. They’ll just be bigger. Check the acre size on the Ramon Chaboya and the McClay/Chaboya parcel to be sure. Ramon Chaboya’s are both 39 acres. The McClay/Chaboya parcel on Quimby Road is 36+ acres.

As stated above, Quimby Road connected Evergreen to downtown at its Northern end as Evergreen and Chew Lane did on the South side. The portion of Tully Road where Quimby Road first appears was also known as Quimby Road. This section was soon after renamed for the prominent businessman and landowner, John Tully, Lake Cunningham were developed. You can see Cunningham on the Wallace & Tully parcel in yellow. Tully Road would divide this property in half.

Along the dotted line, Norwood Avenue would’ve been built and Tully Road would border the Wallace Tully property to the North. This is considered the boundary of Evergreen itself.

During the 1870’s, the Chaboya’s would spread out along Quimby Road with large ranches and a driveway that would later become Murillo and Chaboya. Into the 1890’s the family would downsize and swap parcels with neighbors like the McClays, who would also downsize over the years as it passed down to later generations. The Kettmann’s were upsizing, purchasing Mt. Hamilton land for goat herding, and surely used Quimby Road and Mt. Hamilton to get there. The widowed Mrs. Tully was buying up property. Also seemingly moving out of the Evergreen area is the Pellier Family, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

As we discussed before in RIP Louis Pellier, detailing a gravestone mix up, the Pierre Pellier family lost their budding male heir at the age of 16. This was a huge blow for Mr. & Mrs. Pellier and their daughters , soon after the death of Pierre’s brother . There wasn’t another son. Uncle Louis and his wife would have no children. Uncle Jean would have children. He is the only one who would carry on the family name. But the Pellier daughters would step up, marry well and pass on their family lineage and French heritage.

Mrs. Pellier’s distant family members, the Renaud’s, would move in near the French immigrants and begin planting vineyards on Quimby Road. One Pellier daughter would marry into the Renaud Family, third cousins or further removed. Elise Pellier would marry Alfred Leon Renaud and have eight children in 17 years on a Quimby Road Estate. In fact, Alfred Renaud would’ve passed away before Rose knew she was pregnant with their last child in 1901. I think a Renaud property is across from Evergreen Valley High School, but the larger E. L. Renaud property may stand for Elise Leon Renaud. In fact, there are still grapes grown here. The homestead may have been across Evergreen Valley High School while the grapevines grew up the street.

Again, a Pierre and Henrietta Pellier daughter would marry a French transplant moving to the Santa Clara County to engage in agriculture. Pierre Mirassou would marry Henrietta Pellier, the eldest daughter, and a wine dynasty would be born from their union.

Pellier Daughter Josephine would marry Mr. Michael Casalegno, an Italian immigrant, and have six children on the Pellier Ranch. I got to see their house, which has been moved and preserved within Evergreen. This would’ve been the Pellier’s home at one point. The largest ranch in Evergreen would again break up and become many of the largest ranches in Evergreen. The awesome ending to this Evergreen story is that it doesn’t end and they continue to raise new generations in Evergreen today. Rad.

I also need to confirm another historic Quimby Road lead that one of the Rinella daughters, a large Sicilian, Italian family, would marry into the LaMantia Family. Mr. LaMantia would maintain orchards of his own and the vineyards for the Evergreen Cribari Winery.

Back to Quimby Road in the late 1800’s, though. It would’ve been paved fairly early as an alternative route to James Lick Observatory. Alum Rock Road’s construction would have to be innovative and swift so the Observatory could begin its construction. Evergreen’s awesome drives and almost unchanged roadways have a lot to do with East San Jose and the Observatory’s development in Santa Clara County. Suddenly Evergreen’s thousands of residents were receiving a little more love from its Department of Transportation.

Let’s see if Quimby Road has changed much. Here it is today.

And the side by side. Can’t find it earlier than 1876.

The Evergreen artery, Quimby Road, has had some updates. I think there’s been two path changes in Quimby’s 150 year history. The first is the part of Quimby Road that now runs through to Mt. Hamilton Road. In 1876, it merely ran through Evergreen or up to “the Summit”. That was the boundary for Rancho Yerba Buena and is the color change at the end of each Quimby Road. This area simply didn’t exist before. Mt. Hamilton Road’s path too has been softened over time.

The second place updated is where I’m thinking is where I found evidence of it in a bridge. Quimby Road crosses creeks many times and therefore would’ve been washed out if unpaved or poorly maintained. This update would’ve taken place adding a second and steeper hump between the J. A. Quimby and A. Chaboya in the 1876 map. This was cleary updated in 1935. I’ll have to find out when Quimby reached Highway 130 and see if they happened at the same time.

Have you hugged an Oak today?

June 21, 2016Artwork, Concept, Historical Researchbay laurel, cedar, Chaboya, creeks, Dry Creek, evergreen, forests, grassland, grove, indigenous, kettmann, laurel, mexican, mexico, millbrook, missionaries, missions, nature, Norwood, Norwood Creek, oak, oak land, oaks, Quimboy Oak, Quimby, quimby creek, Rancho Yerba Buena, san felipe road, settlers, silver creek, Silver Oak, Spanish Empire, species, street name, township, transplants, trees, tully, Wallace, wilderness, woodsevergreen

When you think of “evergreen” and trees in general, chances are you would think of Christmas trees or redwoods. Evergreen’s trees are not this connotation of evergreen. In our dear Evergreen, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, our indigenous trees would inspire the name of the township, the communities surrounding it and many of its public schools today and not of them are coniferous. The natural beauties of Evergreen would inspire poets and artists throughout its history. These trees too are evergreen but the kind we generally think of.

Misnomer: Evergreen School District’s old logo may be Evergreen trees, but that might have come from the commemorative redwoods planted for the Evergreen School’s first teachers, like Markham and KR Smith. Evergreen was named for its lush, green hills covered in oak trees. I think if the name Oakland wasn’t taken in California, Evergreen might have been called Oakland. It’s all rich oaky grasslands with natural creeks which made hills green year round before farming irrigation.

Evergreen definitely has some gigantic, wicked oak trees today in the oddest places amongst modern homes and along every creek, of which we have many. There are different species of oak trees around Evergreen. The oak grove along the Quimby Creek would give the name to Quimby Oak Middle School, built in 1968. It was built before Millbrook Elementary, built in 1985, which was named after a mill along this brook some 150 years old. Millbrook was built on the property owned by Henry Lambert Stephens, Evergreen pioneer since 1866. In fact, There’s a haunting oak tree in front of the former mill owner’s house today. Don’t worry. I’ll get you a better photo. This oak grove made way for houses and orchards. Quimby Oak Middle School is more likely the Victoria Chaboya property, not Mayor J. A. Quimby’s. He would’ve lived above Ruby Avenue.

The Honorable Judge Jerry Kettmann would show me oak trees in Evergreen that were over 200 years old. These would’ve been well grown in before the Judge would tend the Kettmann Family Ranch. These oak trees served the purpose of landmarks, deciphering the locations along the Kettmann ranch in a developed neighborhood of Evergreen. The neighborhood grew up around Kettmann Ranch in surrounding Cadwallader and Smith Subdivisions. This was once a large farm, actually two adjoined farms, in Downtown Evergreen. The town of Evergreen must have looked very different back then. These space oaks would be unchanged relics of a time before ours.

Silver Oak Elementary School, built in 1994, was named for a particular tree that was silver in color up on the hill above the school in the 1990’s. The discoloration ended up being an illness this picturesque oak would come down with. Silver Creek Country Club removed the tree because it wouldn’t continue to be safe with the moving of earth around it that home building required. Never underestimate the beauty of a single, stand alone oak, though. This is such a common theme in photography from our community. The motif continues to inspire people today.

Holly Oak Elementary School would be named for the trees found along Dry Creek, renamed Thomspon Creek in 1974. Hollies wouldn’t grow all over Evergreen. There’s also a Coastal Live Oak species, which looks more similar to holly, that grows along that creek specifically. I’ve enjoyed many a bike ride through this area and have gotten scratched. There’s also a shrub species, Heteromeles, which is also knicknamed California Holly that I certain recognize around Evergreen. Maybe these two tag teamed the Thompson Creek creating a Holly Oak grove. Or it’s something completely different. Holly would also have another meaning like Hollywood. Holly would mean magical. Either these were magical oaks or these were holly-like oaks. John Aborn would’ve pioneered this neighborhood and raised his daughter here, advocating for the rights of homesteaders and a defendant of Chaboyas.

The varieties of oaks themselves are evergreen, so it’s only natural so the name is only natural. Evergreen hosts a number of species. “Blue Oak” Natural Reserve is tucked away beyond Joseph Grant Park to observe one of our species. Valley Oak with distinctive leaves would prefer lower elevations of Evergreen. Creeks and natural springs kept grass alive on the hillsides year round. Chaboya’s cattle ranching business wouldn’t have changed a lot of Evergreen’s landscape. With so many green trees, and rolling grasslands, the place begged the name. The word “evergreen” simply meant green all year round. In fact, Antonio Chaboya would mark Rancho Yerba Buena boundaries using cattle brand and the oak trees.

The Norwood neighborhood would get its name from Northern woods in the township of Evergreen. The map to the left predates the avenue, however the avenue exists along this Green border. It’s no coincidence. The Norwood and Quimby Creeks would keep this area heavily wooded, and that element can still be felt there today. This hillside would’ve been cleared for orchards or vineyards in the mid 1800’s. I’ve gone on many drives to connect with Evergreen, one of them through this neighborhood, and our oak groves are a continued point of inspiration.

Cedar Grove Elementary was named for a natural grove of cedar trees. California Cedar, or Incense Cedar, could have been indigenous to Evergreen and this Northern wooded area. That’s this one on the right. This coniferous cedar grove would’ve been a part of this larger forest known as Norwood. If it’s indigenous, it was a natural boundary for cattle herding and for the Ranch of Yerba Buena, you can see it on the Chaboya map.

Cedars could’ve been planted along San Felipe Road to provide shade through this area when Spanish settlers founded Mission San Jose in 1797 and possible when Mission Santa Clara was founded in 1777. You can see them on the San Felipe route in the old map here and ought to be this area with doubled up trees. Cedar Grove may have been planted as early as 1821 by the Chaboya family to reinforce the border between Yerba Buena and neighboring ranchos or pueblo lands that eventually turned into East San Jose. In the 1800’s, this would have been a popular source of lumber for building. Norwood Avenue would be established between 1876 and 1899.

Cedar Grove Elementary appears to be located in this John Tully property, once jointly owned in partnership with Wallace engaged in the lumber business in 1876 found at the top corner of this map. It’s quite possible the Tully & Wallace company cut the grove down, build their homes and made way for orchards fed by the natural creek nearby. These are cedars seen is Alfred Chew’s front yard.

However, looking at all the varieties of cedar trees to find the origin of Cedar Grove’s name, there’s cedar all around us in Evergreen. I never realized how often it pops up now that I know the difference. I think this is a cedar in my own front yard. Seen here to the left, this cedar tree is a staple of Evergreen today. Cedrela or Cigar Box Cedar species is all over the Evergreen Community today as a decorative tree, especially this neighborhood surrounding the school. This species was native to Mexico, so it is not beyond the realm of imagination that these trees came with the Mexican or Spanish Empires. They’re drought resistant so they’re widely used in landscaping today.

Laurelwood Elementary School would be named after a natural bed of Laurel trees. Coastal Bay Laurel, Umbellularia californica, would be prevalent in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but huge laurel groves would cover this area too thousands of years ago. A climate change would shift that evolution and laurels would recede and make way for our oak groves. This event took place all over the world in laurel forests in Mediterranean and subtropical climates. Laurels are most notably the leafy thing behind the ears of many Greek and Roman statues. I hadn’t realized laurel trees and the avocado were relative plants. If a wood or forest of laurels existed in Evergreen in the 1800’s, it would certainly be notable. Today, laurel shrubs and trees can be found on the school’s campus. Some of these shrubs around Thompson Creek behind the school would appear to be flowering, blossoming laurel bushes.

Beyond that, trees and varieties continue to inspire the naming of streets and neighborhoods. “Glen” and “dale” all refer to clusters of trees. That’s right. Willow Glen was named for a cluster of Willow trees, also a township founded approximately the same time as Evergreen. Evergreen was named for its out of world beauty and would draw tourists to its trees. The Creeks created these groves, but would later empty into the orchards’ and farms’ irrigation systems. Before that, Lake Cunningham, then Silver Lake, would flood into creek beds. This would continue to be a problem for the Evergreen Township, but a win fall for the trees. If you’re ever curious about the name “Evergreen”, just take a drive through the hills. You’ll get lost in the natural wonder in your backyard. To say our roots are Evergreen is an understatement.

Recommended Routes for unspoiled beauty:

Silver Creek Valley Road, park at the shopping center and take a little walk.

San Felipe Road, make a right on Silver Creek Road, notice the awesome Silver Creek and its wicked silvery oaks

Follow Quimby Road until its windy, it quickly becomes stunning and natural

From Murrillo Avenue, make a right onto Chaboya Road, the Sikh Temple is beautiful but just beyond are rustic barns shaded by hundreds year old oaks

Follow Tully Road until its windy, it quickly becomes stunning and natural with excellent farms and oak land to see

The Man with a Hoe

June 16, 2016Historical Researchaborn, Chaboya, downtown evergreen, educator, Edwin Markham, evergreen, evergreen people, Evergreen School, farmers, farming, K.R. Smith, kettmann, literature, Markham, poet, poetry, schoolhouse, Smith Family, teacherevergreen

Charles Edward Anson

Markham (1852-1940) is characterized as a minor American poet. Since he has Evergreen roots, we’ll designate him a major Evergreen poet. Edwin Markham was a teacher at the Evergreen Schoolhouse from 1869-1889. During those twenty years, he would write from the East Foothills and inspire and educate students from the Chaboya family, Kettmann family, Smith Family, certainly one day principal and superintendent, Katie R. Smith, Aborn Family , Chew Family and others. He was so cherished by the community, a redwood tree would be planted in his honor.

Though not published until 1899, ten years after Edwin Markham left the employment of the Evergreen School, I like to speculate about his inspirations. The Oregon native wrote poetry about the working class life in the late 1800’s. He would’ve worked on the family farm as a child, like most children at the time, in the north bay area. He would finish his teaching credential at San Jose State, then known as the Normal School, and fall in love with Evergreen. From 1921-1931, Edwin Markham would be Poet Laureate of Oregon.

Edwin Markham incites emotion through his metaphors and that familiar sense of earning. It is often said that Markham’s “The Man with the Hoe” was inspired by Jean-Francios Millet’s painting of the same subject, shown here to the left. That may have been a contemporary pop culture influence, however, Markham would get to see this activity quite regularly during his twenty year teaching stint in the town of Evergreen.

I have specific details about the farm adjacent to the schoolhouse using hoes, pitchforks and sickles, archaic equipment the immigrant family would’ve used in the old country. The farmers in Evergreen during this time would have front row seats to the Industrial Revolution and watch their equipment mechanize before their own eyes. Poorer farmers would have to work by hand until Evergreen’s labor force combined and circulated large rigs to harvest everyone’s fields.

Markham’s poetry would very much parallel the hardworking farmer’s plight during this time in history. Evergreen was farm country, first appearing in the Altas in 1867. Markham would move into Evergreen in 1869, as one time squatters became legal land owners and brand new farms were being raised all over town. It would be harder to imagine Markham’s work not being inspired by his time in the little farming town 8 miles outside the City.

Here’s Markham’s poem. If you enjoy this, read on. His poetry is quite lovely.

The Man with the Hoe

Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans 
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, 
The emptiness of ages in his face, 
And on his back the burden of the world. 
Who made him dead to rapture and despair, 
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes. 
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox? 
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? 
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow? 
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain? 
Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave 
To have dominion over sea and land; 
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; 
To feel the passion of Eternity? 
Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns 
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep? 
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf 
There is no shape more terrible than this — 
More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed — 
More filled with signs and portents for the soul — 
More fraught with menace to the universe. 
What gulfs between him and the seraphim! 
Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him 
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades? 
What the long reaches of the peaks of song, 
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose? 
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; 
Time’s tragedy is in the aching stoop; 
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed, 
Plundered, profaned, and disinherited, 
Cries protest to the Powers that made the world. 
A protest that is also a prophecy. 
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, 
Is this the handiwork you give to God, 
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched? 
How will you ever straighten up this shape; 
Touch it again with immortality; 
Give back the upward looking and the light; 
Rebuild in it the music and the dream, 
Make right the immemorial infamies, 
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes? 
O masters, lords and rulers in all lands 
How will the Future reckon with this Man? 
How answer his brute question in that hour 
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores? 
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings — 
With those who shaped him to the thing he is — 
When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the world. 
After the silence of the centuries?

Evergreen School House Rocks

May 26, 2016Artwork, Historical ResearchChaboya, downtown evergreen, education, evergreen, evergreen people, family, Founders, generations, Katherine, kettmann, KR Smith, original building, school, schoolhouse, smith, superintendent, teacher, township, woman, womenevergreen

The Evergreen Schoolhouse opened in 1860. There were enough Chaboyas, both European and American homesteaders and rancheros families to open up a school in Rancho Yerba Buena. It would be incorporated into the Santa Clara County Education system in 1866 as the township became more established.

Famed author Edwin Markham (1852-1940) would come to Evergreen Schoolhouse to teach in its early days after attending San Jose State University. Teaching in Evergreen from 1969-89, he would recall the days of a single story school house, replaced by a larger two-story one. A nearby redwood tree was planted in his honor after teaching there for twenty years, which I intend to find if it’s still around. The Redwood would be over 100 years old now. It is said the Evergreen helps inspire some of Markham’s work. The commemorative redwood tree also might be the inspiration of the Evergreen trees in the School District’s logo.

In general, the School’s schedule would sync up with the fruit picking seasons and operate 10 months a year. They insisted on keeping the school free to the public and secular from its inception. My old time interviewees would recall the school house at the corner or San Felipe/White Road and Aborn Road, then Evergreen Road. That may seem odd now, but it would’ve been located there the shopping center and Valero gas station stands today. The land was donated by Mr. Nirum Cadwallader, who also donated the same amount of land to the WCR some years later, and upheld the donation by William Matthews in the transaction to Geo. Kettmann. Education has been something Evergreen residents have felt strongly about since the town began. The Schoolhouse had been there on Evergreen Road, now Aborn, since the 1860. I think it’s so cool that today’s well-known creek crossings would’ve been somebody else’s path to school 150 years ago.

Katherine R. Smith (1870-1973), daughter of town leader and postmaster Francis J. Smith, would come back to Evergreen schoolhouse after being one of the first women to graduate from San Jose State University and teach down the street from her house. The school house would remain there for a long time. Katie is huge part of Evergreen History.

The two-story school house would be moved by rolling it over logs down the street on San Felipe Road and Yerba Buena Ave. during the 1950’s. This is when San Felipe would’ve changed directions and Keaton Loop created. Post World War and new City Planning developing in effect, Evergreen’s update began with this major move. It also helps explain why this view of the Smith homes feels incorrect. From the drawing, the road now runs between the houses and business, and this driveway between them is essentially Yerba Buena Avenue. Directly next to this road would’ve been Dry Creek, now known as Thompson Creek. The Schoolhouse would come to stand where the General Store and Winery are.

That’s right, the schoolhouse moved across the street from Katherine’s House. How rad is that? Katherine, Katie, would become Superintendent of the Evergreen Elementary School District, watch the school outgrow this two-story facility and move to Fowler Road before expanding with new schools. The Evergreen School is where Evergreen Elementary School is today. Katie would live to be 103 years old and known as the Daughter of Evergreen. As a staple of the Evergreen Community and a beloved educator, it only seems appropriate to name Evergreen’s second school in her honor in 1962.

This two-story school house still stands today, or at least that’s what I had heard from fellow Evergreenians. I did some digging. I found what stands where the schoolhouse was last seen. There is this odd, adobe looking, older apartment building, called the Chaboya Apartments, standing there now at the intersection of San Felipe Road and Yerba Buena Avenue.

What I was not understanding or seeing before was that the Evergreen Schoolhouse does still stand, but with the addition to the original building disguising it. I took a closer look at what was there and found the Schoolhouse I was looking for hidden in plain sight! I find it here farthest to the right in the picture to the right. It would be naturally to extend evenly in each direction, but you’re pretty limited in repurposing a building with a creek in your backyard. To say it’s gotten some body work would be an understatement, but that’s it with the stairs leading up to it. Only the front got the more modern adobe facelift.

It’s an incredible finding as the Evergreen Elementary School District is an ally of The Evergreen Mural Walk project, as well as a source of its inspiration. Education is something we’d like to focus on here in Evergreen and that strength came from within in many instances. Katie is one of those inner strengths. The students still living having used this facility are still a connected family here in Evergreen. Here’s some of the artwork inspired by the early days of the Evergreen Elementary School District.

Pioneering Squatter’s Rights

May 7, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchcalifornia, Chaboya, evergreen, evergreen people, family, generations, homesteads, kettmann, legal case, Rancho Yerba Buena, settlers, Squatters, statehood, street name, territoryevergreen

California would be fast tracked as a State and the Village of Evergreen would become a town where immigrants could find the American dream coming true. The same could be said of Willow Glen, Saratoga, Berryessa, Santa Clara, Alviso and other towns surrounding the Pueblo of San Jose during the 1850’s being turned into highly profitable orchards and vineyards. Many would find new homes in early Evergreen from back East, the Midwest and even Europe. This did, however, create stiff tensions between newcomers and the Mexican Rancho owners across Santa Clara Valley. These tensions would come to a head in Evergreen with a “Settlers’ War”, culminating in a fight over Squatters’ and Homesteaders’ Rights. Rancho Yerba Buena Socraye is the boundary of Evergreen, so its stories are our stories.

Marcos Chaboya and his family, as Californios, would come to the Santa Clara Valley in the 1820’s to settle the area with vast herds of cattle. I have varying sources as to whom sponsored Chaboya’s trip, the Spanish or the Mexican Governments. Antonio Chaboya would be granted over 24,000 acres of Rancho Yerba Buena in 1833 by the Governer of Alta California when California was a new Mexican territory. The boundaries of his rancho create the modern boundaries of the Evergreen Community. Antonio’s brothers would also be granted land nearby in Santa Clara County.

24,000 acres is really hard to survey and keep an eye on on horseback. The Chaboya family and their ranch hands wouldn’t be able to ward off all of the Ohlone Natives, American settlers and European newcomers who would make a home at Rancho Yerba Buena. Don Pedro Chaboya would lead the charge to run off returning indigenous people from the ranchos in the 1820’s. Antonio Chaboya’s brothers, owning ranchos nearby, would suffer a similar fate. California was recently accepted into the Union as a full fledged State, and these events were some of those growing pains.

So, what’s the United States Government to do about a Mexican land grant it upheld in court in the new State of California and the American Dream it promised to new Californians?

John Aborn would immigrate from England to California through San Francisco as early as 1833. Aborn, for which Aborn Road is named for, would be a veteran of the Mexican American War and the Civil War. He would also be named as a defendant by the Chaboya family for illegally homesteading on his property, or “squatting”. People liked this defendant so much, they named a road in Evergreen after him! He married a Donner Party survivor. The word on the street, rather the plaque, is that he held a popular rodeo back in the day off Neiman Boulevard and Capitol Expressway. How are you gonna deny this man his rights after fighting for your liberties?

Let’s back up. What brought on the hostilities in Evergreen?Antonio Chaboya would first appear in court in front of Justice McKee to evict farmer John Tully, an Irish immigrant, from Rancho Yerba Buena in 1856. This decision was a compromise. Chaboya would have to sell his land for a fair price. John Tully wouldn’t be evicted and paid $900.00 for the fine in 1858. In 1861, John Tully would come up with $4,400.00 for the real estate having gone through proper channels. After this point, Homestead Laws would dictate that a farmer would need to live and work on the property for 5 years and that only 160 acres could be obtain through this avenue. Judging by this map in 1866, this was probably the John Tully property being fought over.

Chaboya’s land grant was patented by the US Government and upheld in 1858. Did John Tully’s case create a poor precedent for Chaboya’s grant or did it provide opportunity to pursue monetary damages?

In 1858, Rancho Yerba Buena would be defended again from newcomers. These named defendants were Chauncey C. Barbour, Truman Andrews, William Raymond, Thomas J. Baxter, Benjamin Kenny, John Aborn, Andrew Gheringer, Thomas Farnsworth, George Osteck, Jacob Newhouse, Patterson Barnard, William McClay and James M. Bottsford. Antonio Chaboya would name these thirteen families even though approximately 500 people occupied Rancho Yerba Buena illegally. These Evergreen residents would have just be looking for their space in a growing country, finding their way to one of the prettiest, most inspiring places. I would try to hold on to my home, too.

In 1860, Antonio Chaboya would be successful in court and be granted his eviction of the homesteaders, but there were riots as Sheriff John Murphy tried to enforce the law.

The Sheriff of San Jose made several attempts to evict the new farmers from Evergreen. Here’s the thing. It’s hard not to empathize with the newcomers. Antonio Chaboya had one of the largest ranchos in all of California then upheld by the United States. Other ranch owners were loosing their court battles and their ranchos, including Antonio Chaboya’s brothers. Chaboya couldn’t even have it surveyed often enough to keep people from setting up shop long term.

In 1861, Evergreen residents would have the support of the rest of Santa Clara County. Sherriff’s officers didn’t want to arm themselves and serve the eviction notices and force farmers to quit their property. Of 600 Officers, none wanted to perform the duties asked of them so Sheriff Murphy excused them for their duty. Evergreen residents would march the 8 miles into downtown San Jose to St. James Park and the footsteps of the court to contest the eviction. During another attempt, the towns of Saratoga, Berryessa and Santa Clara sent over 2000 troops in support of the new residents. Saratoga even brought a cannon to hold off the eviction papers. People in and around the City of San Jose would come to Evergreen’s aid and empathize with their struggles. The Sheriff Murphy must have supported Evergreen farmers in some way, because he later married the daughter of John Aborn, Miss Maddie.

Rancho Yerba Buena and Antonio Chaboya was now saddled with a ton of debt mounting from his legal cases against squatters. The Chaboya family was land rich but cash poor. He couldn’t also continue to pursue this eviction and hold on to his property. Antonio Chaboya pursued the peaceful solution which would change Evergreen forever. First, Antonio and his family settled debts to his team of attorneys by parting away the asset he had in abundance, land. Lawyers J.B. Hart, Hiatt R. Hepburn, Henry Wilkins and William Matthews would be the first legal residents, along with John Tully, of the Evergreen are. The lawyers would be compensated for their legal fees in the sale of these large properties. After portions of Hart’s property and Matthews’s property were sold to farmers like the Smith Family, James McCarley and the Stevens Family, the Village of Evergreen was born, with an epicenter of Evergreen Road and San Felipe and White Roads.

Antonio Chaboya’s family would finally profit off of the sale of their own real estate in 1875 with the sale of John Hassler and George Kettmann acquisition off of then Evergreen Road. From this transaction, life long friendships would be made between the Kettmann and Chaboya clans. The Chaboyas would come to grips with the changing times and downsize their lands considerably. The Chaboya family would continue to own farms up and down Quimby Road for another 50+ years.

In Evergreen, this was huge news at the time. It would soon be an event everyone wanted to forget quickly. Evergreen farmers like John Aborn, Thomas Baxter, Thomas Farnsworth, George Osterk and William McClay would stay in town and raise their families in Evergreen even after the court cases and eviction situation. Though not a non-violent protest, luckily this was settled without bloodshed. It must have been so hard to part with the big, beautiful Rancho Yerba Buena, but what the Chaboyas made room for was for new neighbors and a developing California. Soon after, Evergreen would be planted with orchards, vineyards and hayfields. Here’s some of the artwork that incorporates these players, even if we omit the event for the most part.

Redundant Theme – Evergreen’s Vineyards

May 6, 2016Artwork, Concept, Historical Researchagriculture, business, california, evergreen, evergreen people, family, fruit, generations, grape, kettmann, pellier, township, Valley of heart's Delight, vineyards, winemakingevergreen

There are some motifs which reoccur throughout the Evergreen Mural Walk artwork. Let’s be transparent about what they are because these themes will eventually amount to be the identity of the Evergreen Community in different stages of its history. A common denominator which reoccurs several times within the artwork is Evergreen’s agricultural prides. One of those were our vineyards and its grapes.

California would have its own wild grape before immigrants began colonizing. The California Missions would grow grapes by the Spanish, but not fancy ones. The Pellier family from Evergreen would bring European grape varietals over from their Native France in the 1850’s and ignite the California Wine Industry.

Evergreen was a town that began alongside the California Wine Industry. One of the first businesses in Evergreen would be opened by town founder, Francis J. Smith. The Smith Winery off of San Felipe Road at the epicenter of Evergreen. openeing next door to the family’s general store. I will do some further research whether or not this is the same structure the beauty salon opened in at the same location today.

The Kettmann clan would boast about their hundreds of acres vineyards, even keeping them planted even through Prohibition when many farmers abandoned them. The Kettmann family profited off of the sales made for illegal winemaking operations.

William Wehner, a German painter coming to California by way of Chicago, would who come to Evergreen and build the Wehner Mansion or Villa Lomas Azules in 1891 by an influential skyscraper architect. From the Mansion built for winemaking, Wehner would grow award winning white varieties of wine. The Villa Lomas Azules, or Blue Hills Estate, would house winery operations for almost 75 years in Evergreen.

Dr. C. C. Babb, Mayor John A. Quinby (Quimby), and farmer John Avena would also be noted as having vineyards in the Village of Evergreen in the early 1900’s. I am fairly certain smaller vineyards would have existed throughout Evergreen for personal use. Homesteads had to be self-sufficient as possible in those days. These were what was found in Business Directories until 1902.

The Pellier brothers plants would live on, but their French winemaking tradition would be passed down as well. Henrietta Pellier, daughter of Pierre, would marry Mr. Mirassou and the couple began the Mirassou Winemaking Family still being cultivated in Evergreen today. After Mirassou’s passing, her new husband would also continue to make wine in Evergreen.

The East-side Fruit Growers Association would assist East San Jose and Evergreen farmers negotiate with Packing Companies. Nearby Barron-Gray would need grapes for their first-to-market Fruit Cocktail. Large winemaking operations would outsource certain varieties which they themselves couldn’t grow. Grapes are fickle fruit. They liked the climate and hillsides of Evergreen. This East-side trade association would eventually be goggled up by the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association, which would become SunKist Fruit.

An Italian immigrant, Benjamino Cribari, would come to own the famed Wehner Mansion in 1933, then known as the Cribari Mansion, and plant vineyards up the steps of the Evergreen foothills and extended the winery’s property in 1940. The Cribari’s family specialty would be table and altar wines. Benjamino’s children and grandchildren would grow to cultivate the Evergreen vineyards into the 1970’s. Silver Creek Winery is still operated by the Cribari family today.

Later generations of the Mirassou family vintners would lease the basement of the Cribari Mansion for wine storage. The Wehner/Azul Lomas Villa/Cribari Mansion is now located inside the Villages Retirement Community nestled into Evergreen hills. Today, the mansion is a historic landmark but needs a little love.

The Mirassou Wine Family would be the oldest winemaking family in California. Mirassou Winery today continues to be a landmark on Aborn Road. The fourth generation would take over the wine operations in 1966. The wine operations would move, due to suburban development and depletion of soil nutrients. That having been said, this is an ungoing love affair for the Mirassou family who continue to make wine and call Evergreen home.

Vineyards in Evergreen may be scarce today, but we owe credit to the grapevines of Evergreen’s glory days. Here’s the artwork conceived with our Evergreen vineyards in mind.

Generations of the Kettmann Clan

May 5, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchagriculture, apricots, business, civil service, downtown evergreen, evergreen, evergreen people, family, fruit, generations, invention, kettmann, orchards, street name, township, Valley of heart's Delight, vineyardsevergreen

Along the research for this Evergreen project, I have met the most fantastic people. If this guy needed a new best friend, I would be first in line. I discussed with Honorable Judge Gerhard J. Kettmann (Jerry) the four generations of his family who blossomed in Evergreen and continue to call Evergreen home today. He’s the ultimate expert, having written a book and working on another about their family history. What is extraordinary about the Kettmann family, making it a crucial piece of our mural series, is their witness to almost 150 years of Evergreen’s development. We will start by discussing how the Kettmann’s came to America. The United States is a country of immigrants. We would all come here from somewhere else. I think that’s the first thing that bonds all of us Evergreen residents together.

Johan Hermann Gerhard Kettmann (George) was the youngest of 8 siblings, born in 1827 in Kettenkamp, Germany. His someday wife would be another German immigrant growing up only 8 miles away in Germany. Gerhard Kettmann would leave his Native Country of Germany at the age of 22 and arrive in the Port of New Orleans in 1849. Gerhard Kettmann would travel from Louisiana through Panama to come to Sutter County, California in 1853 and pan for gold. With a little luck along the Yuba River and Feather River, George would come to purchase 160 acres of land in Sutter County.

George Kettmann would marry Bernadina Torbrecke in Marysville, California, but there’s a very cute folkloric story to this pairing. Dina was first cousin of the Krehe Family, who would also come to live in Evergreen. Henry and Bernard Krehe would invite their unmarried family members from Germany to come to the United States. George Kettmann, being close friends with the Krehes, got to make his pick first and chose Bernadina.

Whether that story was true or not, the German couple was married in Marysville, California in January of 1858. George and Bernadina Kettmann would have eleven children. The Kettmann clan would begin grow in Sutter County on the acreage along the Feather River, operating a general store known as “Five Mile House”. In addition to the store along the highway, George also would raise a herd of sheep and cattle on his 160 acres before moving the whole herd, family and all, to the Santa Clara County.

George Kettmann showed interest in Santa Clara County in the 1850’s, after traveling their with a family member. With the new variety of fruit being introduced to the agricultural field stimulated by Luis and Pierre Pellier, Kettmann made his move to Evergreen, then a tiny farming town. George Kettmann would purchased a portion of Rancho Yerba Buena in 1867 near downtown Evergreen along Evergreen Road. In fact, this first Evergreen parcel purchased by the Kettmanns belonged to the Chaboya Family’s attorney, William Matthews, and had been paid land in order to settle those legal fees.

This initial parcel was a perfect 150 acre rectangle with the exception of the land that had been donated to the Evergreen Elementary School. Evergreen’s schoolhouse would be where the shopping center with the Valero and Wells Fargo is today. The Evergreen Elementary School would be located here until 1892, when it moved a little down San Felipe Road. Kettmann Road at Aborn Road is very near this school site, but it would’ve been on the other side of Thompson Creek, then Dry Creek. Let it be known though that even the attorney didn’t donate this land. That carried over on the Title from the previous owner, Mr. Cadwallader.

The Kettmann family didn’t stop with that first purchase of 147.7 acres in downtown Evergreen. Through an interesting purchase and exchange of land with fellow German immigrants, the Hassler family, the Kettmanns obtained another 103.10 acres in 1875. The Hasslers and Kettmanns separated the properties along the Touchard Line, which falls on part of present day Neiman Boulevard. Modern day Kettmann Road, where the Evergreen Library Branch is located on Aborn Road, runs between these two land purchases. As Evergreen folklore would have it, this acquisition was the only purchase Antonio Chaboya’s family actually profited off of after their debts were settled trying to evict their new neighbors. In 1881, one of George Kettmann’s sons would become an Evergreen landowner as well.

The eldest of eleven siblings, Clemens Andrew Kettmann was born on the Marysville ranch in 1858, less than a year after the couple wed. Clemens would’ve made the journey with his father, George, the large sheep herd and fellow cowboys to Evergreen in 1868. Clemens Kettmann was the only son to make the journey at 9 years old. Young Clem only had sisters at that point. The trek from Marysville with the herd must’ve taken over a month on horseback. The rest of the family would come in 1869, after Dina gave birth to another sister. From the Evergreen homestead, the clan would continue to raise livestock but also incorporate fruit, vegetables and grain into their business strategy.

Homestead Laws would allow families to obtain a certain portion of land from the government after cultivating it for 5 years. The Kettmann Family as a group diversified this ranching strategy in the heart of Evergreen and accentuated their grazing potential with homestead purchases along the back side of Mt. Hamilton Ranch. These adjoining Mt. Hamilton homesteads weren’t fantastic for farming, but it could and would be done with altered harvesting equipment. The Kettman clan had so many acres in the Mt. Diablo Mountain Range, this area would become known as “Kettmann Range”. Lamb and sheep would be a rarity in Evergreen and San Jose at this time. Cattle ranching would’ve been totally ordinary and generally what had been grazing throughout Evergreen for some 50 years beforehand. The Kettmann clan held on to their German heritage by passing on this tradition.

Clemens Kettmann would come to purchase the adjacent parcel to his father’s in 1881, then 23 years old, from Louis Kampfen, another German farmer, who obtained his portion after the Hasslers from the previous Hassler/Kettmann deal. This was 80.18 acres large, literally being the family’s “80 acres”. Kettmann’s friends and cousins, the Krehe Family, would also move in nearby. There was quite the hotspot of German American culture in early Evergreen, with the Smith’s and Stephens Families nearby.

Clemens A. Kettmann would marry a German-American lady, Mary Vollmer, in 1890 at St. Joseph’s Basilica in downtown San Jose. Mary wore an apricot colored dress, how fitting. Clem Kettmann and Mary Vollmer would have seven kids on their Evergreen homestead. This labor force, along with his younger brothers at his father’s homestead next door, would help Clem Kettmann cultivate the land.

Having a big family in the 19th century was a big deal. You needed help working on the farm. In fact, having eleven children wouldn’t be enough to operate ranches as large as these. The Kettmanns would employ help in the house and on the farm. The children would start picking fruit between school breaks and into adulthood would sew sacks and become a part of the traveling crew harvesting crops all over Evergreen. Harvests were true team efforts. A barter system would be reached for labor and harvesting. Horses were in high demand for plowing and the like. Labor was generally $2.00 a day for a horse and a man. This was a typical scene from the Fowler Threshing Syndicate, harvesting grain. Evergreen was a teambuilding utopia back in the day. Strength in numbers seemed to be a focus.

Generations of the Kettmann clan would grow up in Evergreen alongside the Industrial Revolution. George Kettmann would’ve farmed just like he had learned to in his Native Germany, very much by hand. The Farming Industry during this time would transition from horse and plow, pitchforks, sickle and scythe to tractors, threshing machines and haypresses. George’s youngest son, Andrew Kettmann, would develop tools for apricot harvesting. Clem’s children, too, would’ve hand first on experience transitioning from horse pulled threshing crews to tractor or truck pulled rig. The Kettmann clan would continuously learn to adapt their farming techniques as the technology improved. In the 1920’s, Clem’s son, Julius, would open a garage to help fix machines in downtown San Jose after adapting and fixing machinery on the family homestead. This legacy can be seen as descendants now operate the Kettmann Machining, Inc. in San Jose.

George and Clem would both plant orchards on their properties. Clemens Kettmann would plant several acres of apricots with their commercial stock going way up. Mixing his varieties of apricot, Clem created a sweet apricot which was also large and ripened evenly. Clem’s sloped property presented irrigation problems for portions of his orchards. He found the unirrigated crop was sweeter but smaller than the other harvest. These were his apricots. He would find the same to be true of his corn crops. Those that were naturally watered were naturally sweeter.

The Kettmann families would plant several acres of prunes and cherry orchards along with their apricots. The clan also had several acres of vineyards also at their Evergreen property. Threshing crews would cultivate over a hundred acres of grain, oats and alfalfa from the Kettmann farms. I never thought about it before, but horses take a lot to feed. If you have horses for plowing, you need acres just to settle your own horses. The Kettmann family would continue to grow and branch out in Evergreen. Into the 1900’s their children would take over the roles running the farms and ranches after their education. Prohibition cause a lot of vintners to pull up their grapevines and retire their wine businesses. The Kettmanns did not however and made a small fortune continuing to sell grapes for underground wine operations. Between these ranches and the Kettmann Range, the Evergreen family was sitting pretty.

The German American Inventor and all around funny guy, Andrew Kettmann would grow up sewing sacks for grain and maintaining the family farm. George’s son and Clem’s youngest brother, Andy Kettmann would open downtown Evergreen’s second Saloon along San Felipe Road. Andrew Kettmann’s Saloon became increasingly popular amongst quicksilver miners through World War I. This spot would be a hub of culture until 1920 when Prohibition was enforced. Until then, many tipsy tales were told out of Andy’s Saloon.

After George’s passing in 1912, his property would be equally divided amongst his eleven children. The Kettmann Family Ranch would continue to modernize with Clem’s son’s, Louis. Louis Kettmann would take Clem’s horse powered ranch into the present with the purchase of a tractor built from tank parts. Large mechanical farming equipment would need to be leased or the old machinery would need to be updated. The rural Village of Evergreen was rapidly changing through the early 1900’s. Cars were a blessed invention and roads would be paved, but open space began to dwindle. That free path to the Kettmann Range through Downtown Evergreen would close up. Clem would pass in 1943. The Kettmann family continued to expand, but some would start breaking away from the family business to pursue their own goals. Farming in Evergreen would become more scarce as more residents starting moving in. Managing the wasn’t easy business as my interviewee would realize firsthand.

In the summer of 1947, Judge Jerry Kettmann, then just known as Jerry, would lease hay land from Grandma Mary (Vollmer) Kettmann. It was Jerry’s idea to make it rich that summer and buy a convertible to take out coeds from San Jose State. This same model T, pictured here with Jerry taken over that summer, pooped out in the middle of the road off San Fernando and 4th Street near the University. Jerry called his cousin to help push the car out of the roadway and into the gas station it pooped out yards away from. Jerry Kettmann would sell off a nearly paid-off tractor to cover his losses and pay his grandmother back that summer.

George’s great grandson and Clem’s grandson, Judge Gerhard J. Kettmann, was born in 1926 in Los Gatos but would soon relocate to his father’s Evergreen homestead. As a boy, Jerry would attend Evergreen Elementary School, then Roosevelt Middle School and San Jose High School. Kettmann recalls family get togethers with the Chaboya family as a child. Jerry would throw apricots like snowballs, run through vacant mine shafts and sleep in homemade treehouses in Evergreen. Judge Kettmann is a huge fan of flying, a fondness he developed on an aircraft carrier in World War II. Kettmann’s father and grandfather could’ve told him tales of Montgomery’s pioneer flights from their own experience.

After serving in the Navy in World War II, Jerry Kettmann later worked in the railroad as a fireman, at the Baron-Gray Packing Company packing fruit and then at the Post Office downtown before attending SJSU for Aviation Engineering then Business and Economics. Sadly, young Jerry’s 1947 dream of striking it rich quick would never be realized.

The Honorable Judge Jerry Kettmann was accepted to Stanford Law in 1953 but instead attended UC Berkeley, where he graduated in the upper third of his class. Judge Kettmann began working as a Trust Attorney for Wells Fargo, but left to pursue trial law with the District Attorney’s Office. Though Judge Kettmann is partial to Civil Law, he told me about 85% of the cases he saw on the bench were criminal cases. Judge Kettmann would oversee cases at the height of the Civil Rights movement, even appearing in front of an Angela Davis case. Rioters would shout things and try to frustrate Judges. It wouldn’t work on Judge Kettmann, though. He removed their signs and have them properly tagged by court officials as the defending attorney tried including them as evidence. Judge Kettmann would find himself arbitrating through the later part of his career.

Judge Gerhard J. Kettmann would retire from the Law and write from his Evergreen home. The Kettmann family historian carries a tradition that began about 150 years ago in Evergreen. Judge Kettmann, though groomed on the farm, managed to keep up with the quickly changing times. This area of Evergreen, between Kettmann Road and Neiman Boulevard was developed beginning in the 1960’s. At 89 years young, Judge Kettmann’s enthusiasm is contagious. Really, I am so proud of my Evergreen people. It makes my job so easy when they are great and have great stories to tell! Here’s the artwork we have worked up for the Kettmann Family.

Apricot Town

April 16, 2016Artwork, Concept, Historical Researchagriculture, apricots, coe, fruit, kettmann, orchards, pellier, prunes, san jose, township, Valley of heart's Delightevergreen

In discussing what makes Evergreen what it is today, I kept being asked about the variety of fruit shown in the proposed artwork. Almost every interviewee asked me why I was showing love to all the fruit picked here. We have vineyards associated with Evergreen, for sure. My parents kept telling us that they moved in across from apricot orchards and the houses were built when we were too young to remember. The majority of orchards in Evergreen were apricots.

Barry Swenson, Evergreen Native and Downtown Developer, recalls the school schedule coinciding with harvest schedules. “Cot” Season would be from July to August, prune harvest following that before school would resume. Prunes were a big business in the Valley of Heart’s Delight with 80,000 acres of prune trees. Apricots would come in second with some 7,000 acres of trees. Farming families would raise huge farms and huge families to cultivate the rich Evergreen soil. Harvest time was a community event. Families, companies and neighbors all pitched in to pick fruit and harvest grain.

I bet you’re asking: “What’s the prune got that the apricot doesn’t?”

Luis Pellier’s small Agen prune / plum cions would make him famous once successfully grafted or implanted onto a natural wild California plum tree. He’s often called the father of the “California Fruit Industry.” The prune was successfully marketed as “Fine to Dry”, though the prune would need to be hastened through a boiling or dipping process. Prunes as a crop were much easier to harvest than apricots, so they were an attractive investment. Santa Clara County would grow up around prune orchards and packing factory all thanks to Pellier. The Apricot didn’t have a fancy PR campaign and wasn’t so easily dried and exported.

Canned apricots are totally cool and were popular. I certainly remember eating them as a kid. They would still play second fiddle in the Santa Clara Valley to the prune. In the later half of the 1800’s though, that dried prune had the country captivated. Dried fruit to export was a new thing. Canned fruit had been around for a little while as the primary way of exporting fruit long distances. In fact, there weren’t can openers when Evergreen fruit started going into cans. Railroads would be the only way to get fresh fruit out of the Santa Clara Valley. Into the 1900’s, Evergreen Packer, Edmund N. Richmond and the Richmond-Chase Company would be one of those canners using Evergreen harvested apricots.

Not until San Felipe Ranch owner, Henry W. Coe for which the largest State Park is named, changed the drying process did apricots take off. Apricots sun-dried and pitted without any treatment get really sweet but black in color. That’s a difficult product to get to sell. Henry W. Coe perfected the apricot drying system with a sulfur smoke which preserved the color and the golden apricot embraced as a fine dried fruit. Coe was a business man using his back East, New York connections. His exports and products may have inspired the “Heart’s Delight” knick name by the rest of the Country. Importing and exporting was Henry Coe’s strength and he was first to market with the dried apricot.

It turns out that back East, people loved golden apricots and may have gotten over the whole prune fad. The dried ‘cot was new and hip. The farmers across the Town of Evergreen would be blanketed with thousands of acres of apricot orchards. In 1914, 600,000 apricot trees were recorded in Santa Clara County, most of those planted in Evergreen. In the early 1900’s, the apricot industry would improve in Evergreen. German-American farmer, Mr. Emil Farhner, would figure out that cutting the apricot in half, not just pit them, would hasten drying as well as prevent blackening and reduce drying error.

The dried golden apricot technique was perfected here in Evergreen. The delicious snack quickly became a big hit across the country. Tons of the dried fruit were sent around the world, over 25,000 tons exported a year from Santa Clara County. Apricots became especially big business for the Evergreen orchardists. Eastside San Jose Fruit Growers Association would operate out of McLaughlin Road and Tully Road Headquarters until 1899 when it was acquired by California Prune and Apricot Growers, which eventually became SunSweet.

The dried ‘cot was so popular, the methods of harvest also needed to innovate to keep up with the demand. Prunes fell to the ground for harvest, where apricots had to be picked off the trees while on ladders. That can be a balancing act. An Evergreen Native would own the patent on the apricot picking bucket in 1920. Evergreen Native and youngest son of Gerhard Kettmann, for whom Kettmann Road is named, would invent a bucket that hung over the ladder rung, where tying the bucket would eventually dump the bucket or limit how many you could pick at a time. The apricot industry would really develop in Evergreen soil.

Back to that PR campaign the dried prune had, the apricot cions were brought with Spanish colonists through the El Camino Real and raised on the Mission lands. Mission of Santa Clara and Pueblo de San Jose were founded in 1777. Mission of San Jose would open its doors in 1797. That would date the apricots’ roots back in California before 1800.

The apricots were already here before the European immigrants and California Statehood. Spanish “Mission Grapes”, too, were also already around and probably the vines French cions would be grafted on to by Pellier. There were no printing presses to spread agricultural trends in the mid 1800’s. Some Santa Clara Valley farmers would witness the Industrial Revolution very personally and learn to adapt their machinery and techniques, like Andrew Kettmann.

A little trivia: When a apricot and a plum/prune have a baby, it’s called a pluot.

Another bit of trivia: All prunes are plums, but not all plums are prunes.

When people think of Evergreen, they think specifically of Apricots. I think that’s because of the frequency of “Cot” orchards in and around town. It’s not misplaced association, however. I don’t think people know how Evergreen apricots really are. The apricot was made perfect here by forward thinking farmers. The “Cot” is definitely an Evergreen thing.

Here’s some of the artwork we have planned with ‘cots featured.

Road to Aborn

March 2, 2016Historical Researchaborn, downtown evergreen, evergreen, kettmann, street name, townshipevergreen

Aborn Road is one of our main arteries in and out of the Evergreen neighborhood – running east to west, intersecting with Ruby and Murillo Avenues, White and San Felipe Roads as well as Capitol Expressway. It’s very close to the project site. Just a stone’s throw away from our murals.

In the research and design phase of this project, I looked into all the street names around Evergreen. It’s a little lazy, but a decent starting place if there was an awesome story to go with it. The boundaries are consistent through the cartographical research.

It would be safe to assume Aborn was someone important, right? I combed physical and electronic records for signs of John Aborn.

Records of John Aborn’s journey to the United States date back to 1833 with some other notable European San Jose Pioneers from England by sea. He was also sited in the case Anotnio Chaboya brought to suit naming squatters and evicting them. His daughter Mattie married John M. Murphy, son of the Pioneer, and then notes for John Aborn dry up.

There’s a monument placed at the site of his ranch, where community rodeos were once held, but nothing further on this John Aborn. I don’t know if this portrait is supposed to be him. His ranch would become William Prusch’s, whose daughter, Emma, would donate and become the namesake of the farmstyle park in East San Jose. William would eventually turn it over to H. W. Golds for another farm. I looked for family members of Aborn’s ranch manager, but alas, no leads. The story Dead Ends, but he must’ve been a well-liked man for people to have remembered him in such a large way.

Most notably, Aborn Road had been home to Mirassou Vineyards, winery and tasting room on Aborn Road for many years. The vineyard property is now new home developments. Aborn begins in luscious hills and rural ranches. Aborn ends at highway 101. Today, it is home to shopping centers, the Aborn Village Square, hundreds of homes (which include some historic subdivisions), and the Evergreen Library Branch. It’s a major Gateway through Evergreen. I drive it nearly every day. As a kid, I would cross it at various points using bridges over creeks and stop signs.

This Evergreen roadway wasn’t always called Aborn Road, though. San Felipe Road kept its name but not its route along Dry Creek, later Thompson Creek. This made it difficult to place historical sites. White Road would remain true to its course and its name throughout time. Aborn Road has been a consistent gateway into downtown Evergreen. I reviewed over 20 maps preparing for this project. The same road shows in some form or another in all the resources, but has had different names through the years. Until I looked at them in chronological order, I thought I was going crazy. The maps weren’t lining up for me. It wasn’t making any sense at.

The Mirassou wine family would purchase 100 acres of real estate from farmer Alfred Chew in 1911. Before Aborn Road was called Aborn, it was Chew Lane.

Alfred Chew, Sr., was born in 1834 in Ohio, making his way out to California in 1859. Alfred would raise seven kids on his Evergreen Farm, one daughter becoming an Evergreen teacher. The Chew Family would reside in Evergreen for over 50 years. In 1860, Alfred Chew would buy his farm from William Matthews, an attorney of the Chaboyas. Alfred Chew would be elected to the County Board of Supervisors in 1873 and serve until 1878.

Honorable Judge Kettmann did the paperwork for the Chew family in the sale of their historic property, shown above, before his judgeship. The Kettmann’s, too, would live off Chew Lane for several generations as well. The Hassler property would reach Chew Lane at one point. The Tullys would own property here, east towards King Road and down White Road.

Before Alfred Chew moved into the Evergreen neighborhood, the path was simply known as Evergreen Road. This roadway was the main road in and out of Evergreen for over 150 years.

The first Evergreen School house would sit at the corner of San Felipe Road and Evergreen Road, where there’s now a gas station and shopping center. The series of walking bridges connecting the communities separated by lagunitas or creekbeds, were the connective tissue of Evergreen. The Saloon was at this corner, down the way a little. The general store was here. The postmaster was here at this intersection. The new school house was relocated on San Felipe Road. This quaint downtown at Evergreen Road would’ve been where neighbors ran into each other.

Evergreen Road was once a driveway that split the Smith Residences down the middle at San Felipe and White Roads. This was the original Plat of Evergreen to the right. Charles C. Smith would open the General Store. The Smith House still stands today on San Felipe Road. I’d love to see it turned into a museum or venue of some sort. Nearby, the Hinman Garage is the location of the Smith blacksmith shop.

Before that, it would simply be grazing land for Chaboya cattle. This was a portion of Rancho Yerba Buena that ownership was contested. Popular Evergreen Pioneers were involved in the suit, so I don’t want to go too far into it. In the end, the squatters won. The Chaboyas exhausted funds evicting and fighting for their land claims. The squatters won the right to buy the land at a fair rate. The Chaboyas maintained ownership of what they had left, but had to grant portions away to settle legal fees. Before that, it would be Ohlone wildnerness.

Although the trail for John Aborn fell cold, the story the street tells is entirely awesome. Evergreen is a place that transitions with the times. It’s an ever changing identity.