Tag Archives: Valley of heart’s Delight

Alfred Chew’s Residence

J.E. Brown, Theodore Lenzen Residence, Geo. H. Briggs, J.E. Ruc000000The people and places featured in books and publications back in the 1800’s were highly regarded as well as some of the only glimpses into other places at the time.  Alfred Chew was made popular by the Thompson and West Altas published in 1876.  Print was a limited medium, but made the exchange of information possible.  Tales of the Western Frontier being tamed were becoming public knowledge as fruit, dried and canned, would reach the East Coast from Santa Clara Valley.  The building of railroads brought many people to California through and after the Gold Rush, but also made the export of fruit and curiosity a real commodity.

mapImages of Santa Clara Valley were published for the whole world to delight in, along with our bountiful produce in the Valley of Heart’s Delight.  This would’ve also served as a tourism guide of landmarks to see when visiting the area.   Evergreen and Silver Creek were located in the Rancho Yerba Buena Survey, eventually becoming the whole of Evergreen.  The associated map for the above photo is to the right, from Thompson and West’s 1876 Atlas with Alfred Chew’s residence featured.  Fitting, the Survey of mention is in green.

P1310192As you can see from this 1890 map to the left, before the turn of the century, Aborn Road was known as Evergreen Road west of White Road and San Felipe Road.  To the East of San Felipe Road, the heavily driven Evergreen artery Aborn Road was known as Chew Lane.   The Chew property is also featured here in the 1890 map at the top right corner along Chew Lane.  That got me chewing on who Alfred Chew was.

caMr. Alfred Chew (1834-1910) would do a little traveling from his Ohio home front before settling down.  Young Alfred would come with his parents, Morris Rees Chew and Mathilda Crumley, to live in Illinois before traveling West on his own.  In 1853, Alfred Chew would start his journey West with the Kirkpatrick Company, headed for Oregon and making the most out of getting lost at the Missouri River.  Kirkpatrick didn’t immediately arrive in Oregon that time.  Before becoming a farmer in Evergreen, Alfred would meander South into California.  We know about Mr. Alfred Chew for his leadership in early California Statehood in different areas of the State.  Alfred Chew would run cattle through Gilroy before he would suffer from typhoid fever.  Before returning home to Illinois in 1860, Mr. Alfred Chew would pursue government posts, and surely a different type of occupation than he had before.  He was the US Deputy Surveyor for San Luis Obispo County in the late 1850’s.  Alfred Chew would return to Illinois and marry Margaret Kennedy, returning to Evergreen with his new bride.

0000001876 MapAlfred Chew would come to Evergreen and begin farming in 1860 3 miles outside of Evergreen.  Alfred Chew would take his year’s profits and purchase a portion of attorney William Matthew’s property near downtown Evergreen in 1861, which was granted to him in exchange for legal services from the Chaboya vs. Squatters battle in years prior.  This 1896 map shows no road where Chew Lane and now Aborn Road exists.  Evergreen literally grew up with and around the Chew Family homestead.  This is a black and white close up of the 1876 Thompson and West Altas with Chew’s property under “SAN”, before the road in his name was created.  He would’ve moved in right next door to Charles Smith and Genrio Chaboya as one of the first residents of Evergreen.

ls1After his winfall year farming 200 acres 3 miles outside of Evergreen in 1859, Chew would buy 100 acres of his own and build his home in downtown Evergreen.  He would raise 7 children with wife Margaret, Mamie.  They would’ve gone to the Evergreen Schoolhouse.  Mr. Alfred Chew would return to civil service, elected to the Board of County Supervisors in 1873.  He would serve on the Board from 1874-1878.  Chew would also serve in Santa Clara County’s Assessor’s Office into the early 1900’s.  Both his wife, Mamie, and his daughter, Emily Ann or Emma, would teach at the Evergreen Schoolhouse down the street from his downtown Evergreen house.  Emma would also marry into the well-known, well liked Hostetter Family, who found their way to Santa Clara County with the Evergreen Farnsworth family guardians.  Over the 50 years Alfred lived in Evergreen, Chew’s neighbors would sell their large downtown Evergreen farms away to make room for subdivision housing.  Evergreen would continue to grow in population.  Chew’s farm had a very different fate.

Mr. Alfred Chew’s Obituary would read “PROMINENT SAN JOSE ORCHARDIST IS DEAD Alfred Chew,” County Treasury Watchdog Passes Away SAN JOSE, Calif.  Jan. 2. — Alfred Chew, for 33 years the “watchdog of the county treasury” and one of the most prominent orchardists of the county, died late last evening; at his home near Evergreen at the age of 75 years. For nearly half a century he had served the community as supervisor and deputy assessor or deputy tax collector.  He is survived by seven children… ”

P1310203 (1)The Chew children would continue to live in and work on the Evergreen farm on Chew Lane.  Chew’s reputation and leadership in the early days of Evergreen was the reason its main artery was name after him over a hundred years ago.  You can see it crossing the “A” in this 1902 map along the Hart Line.

P1310198As you can see from the 1911 map to the left, this was the time Evergreen Road and Chew Lane became one Aborn Road.  John Aborn, another revered Evergreen character, was a local pioneer figure from before Alfred Chew’s time in Evergreen who fought for farmers with the Chaboya Family, making the town of Evergreen possible.  I wonder how his family must’ve felt about the renaming.  Regardless of how Alfred Chew would’ve felt about the change of the street’s name, he would never have witnessed the change of address.  The Chew Estate would stay in the family for a short while longer, all married and established, and the Chew family would move out of Evergreen in the 1910’s with Mamie’s passing.

MirassouWinerylogoP1310098Shortly after the Chews’ death and Aborn Road’s creation, the original 100 acres purchased from William Matthews in 1861 would be sold to another famed Evergreen family, the Mirassous.  Henriette Pellier would marry Mr. Mirassou, see her family carry on the tradition of winemaking and move the winery operations from Pellier Ranch off Quimby and Chaboya Road in 1911 to the Chew property off of Chew Lane.  There, the Mirassou family would have its famed vineyards and historic tasting room on Aborn Road for almost 100 years.

1866Through this artwork we’re trying to explain the transition from Native wilderness, to Mexican cow pastures to American homesteads.  The artwork that features Mr. Alfred Chew’s residence from 1876, though certainly built in the 1860’s, is a piece that tries to do just that.  Farmers moving into Evergreen would breathe new life into the ever green hills.  Leaders like Chew would shape a developing area and Evergreen’s identity to the rest of the Country.  It’s important to know who Chew was in Evergreen’s narrative.

 

 

Redundant Theme – Evergreen’s Vineyards

P1310197There 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.

Interior-FirstGeneration-PierrePellierLouis%20Pellier%20from%20HSJ(1)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.

Charles C. Smith, F.J. Smith Store and Residence, Adam Herman,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.

P1320569 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.

Heritage Room azules.pdfWilliam 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.

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1876 MapDr. 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.

05s1cyP1310071The 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.

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EastSideFruitGrowers-smThe 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.

cribari1housevin-villagesAn 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.

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lomasazulesmenu2-9631Later 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.

CAM09455P1310098The 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.

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Through the grapevine – Pellier Contributions

1876 MapMy grandmother used to own a home off Norwood Avenue and have volunteer grapevines charging up through her hillside backyard.  Little did she know, my grandmother’s house was a part of the Pellier estate, one of the largest in early Evergreen.

Louis%20Pellier%20from%20HSJ(1)The Pellier Brothers would eventually come to call Evergreen home in the late 1850’s.  Before that, the Pelliers would live in the Pueblo of San Jose as California became a State and as San Jose became its Capitol in the early 1850’s.  Luis Pellier would get creative with his brother Pierre while gold panning in 1848, changing San Jose and California forever once again.

Interior-FirstGeneration-PierrePellierBy bringing over their cions , seeds, clippings and plantings from their Native Country of France, Luis, Pierre and Jean Pellier would set fire to the huge California Fruit Industry.  Basically, there was no industry before that, as Mission lands and their predictable orchards were left unattended and were being reclaimed by wilderness.  The California Missions were secularized by Mexico in 1833.  By the time the Pelliers came to California, the Missions weren’t even holding Catholic Mass.

In fact, Evergreen before the Pellier journeys would’ve been cattle grazing land.  After the Pellier journeys, Santa Clara Valley would become known as the Valley of Heart’s Delights.

MissSJLoWhat was grown in the Spanish Period at the Franciscan Missions in California from 1769-1821?  I’m so glad you asked.  The indigenous native peoples, priests and monks grew “mission grapes”, apples, lemons and oranges, beans, veggies and olives for the most part.  Olive Oil would be a source of pride for the Missions.  The “Mission Grape” of the Spanish colonists was a Vitus vinifera, a Spanish variety that was black and blue in color.  The clippings would’ve been brought over sea with Cortez’s colonization of Mexico or New Spain.  Only problem was less than 1000 acres of vineyards would be cultivated in California until the 1850’s.  These plants were a dying off as people left the Missions.  The Mission Grape would have been made into wine for Sacraments.  The Spanish may have brought apricots as well, originating in Turkey.  There was an indigenous plum tree present in California.  A wild grape, too, would be indigenous.  Mission San Jose would be one of the biggest producers, but would’ve been closed for several years by the time the Pelliers set sail.

booksOE4IRI16s-l225What did the Pellier brothers from France with help from the Delmas brothers bring to the Port of Alviso and to Santa Clara County?  Luis and Pierre Pellier would pull into port and sell peach, pear, plum, cherry, apple and prune cions off their boat in Alviso in the 1850’s.  Certainly his most famous contribution was the Angen ‘D Petit Prune, but the Valley of Heart Delight would begin with these trips to France and these cions.  With the driving force of the Pelliers’ new varietals, the Fruit Industry would soon provide thousands of jobs, would drive people to come to the Santa Clara Valley and would bring spark the Fruit Canning business.  We, in California, still feel the benefit of their actions today.

books1The French Prune brought to California in 1854 was considered perfect for drying and dipping.  After it was grafted on to a California plum tree, it became an instant success.  Pellier raised orchards of prunes and a nursery famed in downtown San Jose.  The Angen ‘D Petit Prune was immediately adopted by other Santa Clara Valley’s orchardists.  This would become Santa Clara County’s identity to the rest of the United States through the 1950’s when Silicon Valley bumped it.  The prune’s attributes, complimentary for drying and dipping, would make them a popular commercial export.

10688125_10153388158008316_4870909524103337438_oThe Prune Orchards would quickly spread all over Santa Clara County, the Valley of Heart’s Delight, and then all over California.  The French Prune ignited the whole California Fruit Industry, as only dried fruits could be exported.  The Mexican Government had a hard time settling California.  California through the Mexican Period (1821-1848) wouldn’t be well-known for its awesome agriculture, despite the rich soil noted by the Spanish Missionaries.  Evergreen was a grazing land.  The Missions closing meant the crops became scarce.  Pellier’s strategy was inspired by the high price of fruit.

1810A dollar gets you much less today, so you will naturally need more dollars to obtain the same product over 100 years ago.  Here’s an exception to that rule.  Before Luis and Pierre Pellier’s travels, an apple would cost over a dollar.  Today, $2.00 would get you a pound or several apples.  The demand was so high for apples and produce, most people couldn’t afford them.  You could forget about apple pie.  That would’ve cost you over $20.00 in apples alone in 1850’s California.  If you were in California in the 1850’s, you were a pioneer, gold panning and roughing it.  Their business idea was brilliant.  I wonder if they knew about the Manifest Destiny campaign that would send thousands of newcomers to California in a few short years.

pl_pellier_city_gardens_crhl434Luis Pellier would open “City Gardens” and sell his cions and young trees to the rest of Santa Clara County’s farmers in 1850.  This was the epicenter of the Valley of Heart’s Delight, creating a path to the American Dream for farmers coming to California.  The Pellier brothers would leave their popular nursery and orchards in downtown San Jose, where Pellier Park is today, and move to Evergreen to plant acres of vineyards in later 1850’s.

In 1858, Luis Pellier, now Evergreen resident, would present nine varieties of foreign grapes at the national trade show, being described as “unequalled to any other of the same variety”.  Luis Pellier’s introduction of new grapes would almost single handedly create the California Wine Industry as well.  Grafted on to Mission vines and indigenous vines, these grapes is really well in Evergreen.  When wine was made and the word spread, the Pelliers struck gold again.

Grapes-Bunches-Illustration jpgThe Pellier brothers are originally from the Bordeaux region of France, well-known for its Wine Industry.  The Pellier boys would’ve grown up cultivating their parents’ vineyards and orchards in France.  Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec would’ve been easily found in that region of France.  Folle Blanche, the ultimate brandy making grape, has been contributed to Luis Pellier.  A Black Burgundy grape, another brandy grape, would also be brought to California by Pellier.  A Mourvedre vine, similar to a Mission Grape but a French strain, has also been drawn back to Pellier.  These would become popular in Zinfandel vineyards.  Chasselas Fontainebleau,  French Colombar and Madelaine are green grapes for white wines that have also been contributed to the Pellier brothers trips to France.

pinotMirassouWinerylogoEven though the Pellier brothers would become famous for their perfect prune trees, descendants of the Pelliers would be boastful of its Pinot Noir grapes and wines.  These certainly would’ve been brought back from France in the 1850’s by their forefathers.  Pellier descendants, the Mirassou family, have called Evergreen home for over 150 years.  Mirassou Winery operated off of Aborn Road for 100 years and continues to be a landmark in Evergreen.  Today, the Mirassou Winemaking Family continues to be the oldest Wine Family in California and continue to call Evergreen home.

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12314282_198416020500512_5584157587879954674_oBefore this point, varieties of wine could only be found in Europe, mainly in France and Spain, and imported into the United States.  California wasn’t well settled, but that would change fairly rapidly.  Again, Missions harvested Mission Grapes for altar wines and brandy, but there wasn’t much more out there.  What was out there was going away with the Missions closing.  With the Gold Rush and Manifest Destiny in full affect, the Pelliers would be at the right place at the right time to make something amazing happen.  California is the second capitol of wine today.  It would difficult to envision Napa Valley today without its vineyards.  80% of these vines can be traced back to that Alviso Port.  California’s Fruit Industry was initiated by Pellier’s cions.  Luis Pellier is acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of San Jose.  Here’s the artwork specific to the Pellier Family past and its present.

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Generations of the Kettmann Clan

P1320560Along 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.

Gold Rush - Public DomainJohan 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.

140) George KettmannGeorge 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.

6254956674_f8ffe7d622Whether 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.

P1320570George 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.

1876 MapThis 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.

P1320569The 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.

P1320549The 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.

P1320566Homestead 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.

P1310192Clemens 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.

P1320551Clemens 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.

P1320554Having 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.

P1320557Generations 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.

Apricots jpgGeorge 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.

P1320553The 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.

CAM10101 6238515012_b826539c1b_oThe 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.

P1320562After 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.

CAM09451In 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.

5985901606_458641384egavelThe 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.

P1320567Judge 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.

1877

 

 

Apricot Town

Apricots jpg 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.

240px-Fruit_exchange_labelBarry 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.

12314282_198416020500512_5584157587879954674_oI 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.

l_19778052Canned 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.

istockphoto_5513085-dried-apricots-on-whiteNot 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.

apricotsIt 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.

dried-apricot-2The 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.

CAM10101The 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.

books1Back 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.

booksOE4IRI16The 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.

a 1945 - ApricotsWhen 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.

evergreen fruit label 19621930 1950 19851915 1860

Redundant Theme – Orchardists

10688125_10153388158008316_4870909524103337438_o An overwhelming motif of Evergreen is our orchards.  You’re going to see a lot of trees in rows portrayed throughout the Evergreen Mural Walk.

My parents would tell tales of moving in across Stevens Lanes from apricot orchards.  In creating the artwork for this project, everyone asked why there weren’t more apricots and prunes.  This theme is plain as day to those of us who remember fruit stands and vineyards.  Our newer residents may not understanding what was here before we moved in.

1848Our Evergreen entrepreneur and agriculturalist, Luis Pellier, hatched a plan in 1847 while gold panning to bring the seeds, plants and clippings from his native France and forever change the fruit industry of California.  The cost of a single apple was $1.50 at the time, which in 1849 dollars was cost prohibitive.  Without our guy, there wouldn’t be the awesome economy in San Jose during the 1800’s.  He’s really the father of California’s wine and fruit industries.  The Pellier family still lives in Evergreen today.

Evergreen treesGunless lawman and California statesman, Charles White, came to America in 1833, but his son was a popular orchardist and businessman.  These are Charles E. White’s orchards to the right.

John Tully would own and operate many orchards throughout Evergreen, as would H.L. Stevens.  From the 1850’s forward, Evergreen would blossom with orchards.

EastSideFruitGrowers-smThe East Side Fruit Growers Association opened in 1893 off Tully Road and McLaughlin Road, serving as a trade association for local farmers across Evergreen and East San Jose.  They would join a larger sales organization in 1899.

19621220710745410.jpg_w900Otis B. Whaley would also make our list of well-known, well-liked orchardists of Evergreen.  Also having served on the Evergreen Elementary School Board of Trustees for 27 years, he would cultivate his orchards in Evergreen from 1911 until he passed in 1947.  The third school opened in the Evergreen School District would be named in his honor in 1963.

240px-Fruit_exchange_labelWhen railroads off Monterey Road became popularized in shipping fruit back east, the fruit industry would shift focus downtown towards the rails.  The East Side association, like others in the Santa Clara Valley, would be acquired by the Santa Clara County Fruit Exchange, a dried fruit co-op opened in 1892, once known as the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association.  The plant was located across the street from Del Monte’s Canning Plant.  California Prune and Apricot would become Sunsweet and can here until 1915.  The Fruit Exchange wouldn’t disband until 1916 after the plant burnt down while leased.

s-l225Popular companies like Sunsweet, Del Monte, Sun Garden and Valley of Hearts Delight, Richmond-Chase, would ship Evergreen fruit, dried and canned, around the world.  Railroads and later Reid-Hillview would play major roles in exporting Evergreen’s produce.  Santa Clara County as a whole was known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight, but Evergreen owns the copyright as its owners still live in town.  The town and community of Evergreen would identify as an agricultural hotspot well into the 1950’s.

Untitled-2 I have a personal relationship with Evergreen orchards picking fruit and pumpkins from the Cortese fruit stand and orchards.  My mother and I made a habit of getting cherries there that never made it home, being snacked on between stoplights.  Vincent Cortese would immigrate from Sicily in 1917, and work in the orchards.  Vincent would eventually marry an Italian-American lady, purchase his own farm in Evergreen and raise his family with an orchardist tradition and one of civil leadership.  The orchards in Evergreen would give way to Evergreen Valley College, but John Cortese, also a lawyer, maintains orchards today.  This is a tradition that still bears fruit today.

1476380_10201283641709104_1152500910_nP1310515My continued affections for orchards existed in the various fruit trees in my own backyard as a kid.  A love of blossoms and blooms enchanted my childhood.  Pies and jams of all kinds came out of our Evergreen kitchen.  Apple sauce is a tradition.  Our backyard gave us peaches in the Spring, Plums in the Summer and Apples all Fall and Winter long.  Lemons, and therefore lemonade, are in abundance at my house.  To say I’m drawing from experience would be an understatement.

Orchards have always been in my life as a native of Evergreen.  Below are pieces that have and haven’t made the cut, but all include our redundant theme of orchards.

a 1945

evergreen fruit label

a 1925

a 1945 - Apricots

a 1917

1915

 

Pellier Roots

Louis%20Pellier%20from%20HSJ(1)The Pellier family and their descendants have been long time Property and Business Owners in San Jose and Evergreen since the late 1840’s.  Though one of the murals is designed specifically for the descendants of the Pelliers, I have another mural for what I’m calling the “Pellier Contribution” to San Jose and the Santa Clara Valley.

1700's EvergreenMini-History lesson: The Spanish Missions ran the agricultural business and mostly did business with the local naval bases that protected them.  The Indians were the farmers and the monks participated as well.  However, when California became Mexican Territories, the missions closed down and the Indians were displaced.  The vineyards and orchards went dry and much of the valley turned to cattle pasture.

images8NKXGYYQLouis Pellier (1817-72), son of winemakers outside of Bordeaux, had plenty of experience keeping the family farm.  At the age of 32, Louis left France during the French Revolution and traveled around Cape Horn to arrive in San Francisco in 1847-8.  Louis sent for his brother, Pierre, and they found success gold mining in Weaverville.  Pierre served in the French Army during the revolution and came to California in 1849.

Louis quickly realized that there were going to be a flood of people coming to California for the Gold Rush and American Dream.  The price of the limited produce was extremely high.  With family in France and experience he gained on the family farm, Louis could get into that business.  Pierre came to California in 1849 in search of gold, but the Pellier brothers returned to their native country several times in search of a different kind of gold.

imagesTKY9RJ9XInterior-FirstGeneration-PierrePellierOn their 1850’s journeys, Pierre brought back his long lost sweetheart, Henriette Renaud.  Louis realized his business plans.  Louis, Pierre and Jean, the Pellier brothers, stretched out across France, looking for fruit and vegetable varieties to repopulate the rich soil of the Santa Clara Valley.  Not all of the plants would arrive alive when traveling by boat.  There was a fair amount of learning taking place in the process.  In steamer trunks and barrels, the brothers brought seeds, small potted plants and clippings to propagate once back in California.

HMS%20FuriousThe brothers improvised when water ran low, presumed to be due to underestimation on the first journey.  They kept the clippings alive by inserting them into potatoes for moisture, which worked well.

The Pellier brothers brought some other notable names, the very young Delmas brothers, to California with them.  The brothers made considerable amounts of money and bought large plots of land in San Jose and east of San Jose.  Unfortunately, the Pelliers sold all their stock of seeds off the dock of Alviso, which meant they had nothing to plant for themselves after the first voyage.  This created the necessity of return trips to France, possibly crossing through Panama by train on their way back to California.

pl_pellier_city_gardens_crhl434Louis Pellier founded City Gardens Nursery in 1850 with Pierre, at the present day corner of St. James Street and San Pedro Street.  The Pellier prune clippings were grafted on to wild Californian prunes, and arranged into rows making the first California prune orchards in 1856.  City Gardens was open to the public for picnics and for the nuns to pick freely.  The prune was a success, and City Gardens was a cultural hub of Downtown San Jose.  The California Prune Industry and Valley of Heart’s Delight radiated outward from the Downtown Pellier orchards.  This, however, will be a forgotten garden.  The Pellier’s other pride lies east of San Jose in the 1860’s.

books1Louis and Pierre bought land in Evergreen, which was once part of the Chaboya Land Grant or Rancho Yerba Buena.  When Louis sold his portion to Pierre, it became one of the largest ranches in the township of Evergreen.

Louis Pellier had a spat with his brothers, presumed to be due to the sale of all the plants or the neglect of their orchards on one of his journeys to France.  Pierre took his horticultural skills and expertise to his ranch and vineyards in Evergreen.  Louis stayed downtown.  Louis took a wife, a woman of French heritage,  who wasn’t well suited for him.  She quite possibly drove him mad, possibly creating the wedge between brothers.

Don’t worry.  There was a lot of love there between the Pellier brothers, even towards the end.  Pierre even named his first son after his brother.  In 1872, Louis died in a state hospital, due to a nervous breakdown after the separation with his wife.  He and his wife had no children.  His brother, Pierre, took care of the estate, and the family decided to pay-off the widow with proceeds of the Downtown property.  There was a Will in place, but the greedy widow kept coming back for more until a cash settlement was reached.

booksOE4IRI16Louis’s amazing business venture wouldn’t reach its height for many years.  In 1929, California would cultivate 171,330 acres of prune orchards.  The La Petite D’Agen from France grafted onto the wild prunes proved to be perfect for California.  It was fruitful or meaty enough to be dried, making the prune easy to export all over the country.  The growth of the railway system made the export possible.  Pierre Pellier brought back the Black Burgundy, French Colombar, Chasselas, Fontainebleau, Pinot Noir, Madeline and others from France.  With these new varieties, Louis and Pierre Pellier founded the Valley’s French wine industry at City Garden Nursery.

9ee89fc729d94679e4a4e7792a02a795Pierre Pelliers’s vineyards and orchards a few miles east of San Jose would get passed down to his five children, who later became vineyard owners and winemakers themselves, following in the Pellier’s footsteps, even through Prohibition.  The descendants of the Pellier brothers would, in fact, become one of, if not the, most famed business out of Evergreen.  The family still has living descendants in family house in the neighborhood.  They deserve their own mural in my humble opinion.

Here’s a look at the artwork I have planned for the “Pellier Contribution.” 1848

The Quest for John Tully

So, my research takes me far and wide.  A lot of it is as easy as Googling the right names and places, but not all of it.  I have a few sepia toned photos of John Tully and his wife, Rose, Irish immigrants by way of Illinois.  The Tully’s owned a considerable amount of land in Santa Clara Valley in the late 1800’s.  They left large charitable gifts.  I wanted to see if I couldn’t find a more personal tact to the Tully’s Tales.

1997300231 15823

I visited the Genealogy Museum nearby where I thought I’d find plenty applicable things.  But no.  I had entered a time warp.

CAM08693

This is a Microfiche something or other.  No, not for looking at little fishies.  But it’s like an original zoomy thing and a manual mouse.  It was like if a computer and a Ouija board got married.  The Microfiche was simple and intuitive to use.

But back to the Tully’s from Evergreen.  Quite a popular last name and without a middle initial, I’m a little lost.  Some references I knew were to my man, but I’m looking for pictures, not written documents.  Specifically, I’d love to find portraits of my key players.

These items and references are in a bigger museum in Sacramento, so it’s just as well.  I’m going to photograph their old residence, but it’s not in Evergreen.  I called publications and sites that referenced them in articles to request a contact, but to no avail.  The Tully trail has gone cold for now.

I may end up there at the Genealogy Museum in Sac, but I’ll have to settle for the imagery I already have for the Tully’s, pictured in the upper right with their Evergreen Eucalyptus trees on their ranch off Tully Road.  It was already an artistic piece of photography.

1890's