A FEW MORE NAMES
KING- Andrew Lewis King arrived with the 49'ers. He ran a clothing store for a while and then bought a farm. At the time it was called "Locust Farm" because of all of the Locust trees adorning the property. Emma Pursch, who donated the land and buildings for Pursch Park to the City of San Jose was his daughter.
KIRK- Theopholus Kirk came from Ohio in 1852. He drove a herd of cattle across the plains, which took six months. Family members owned 900 acres on Dry Crek Road.
KOOSER- He came to California via The Isthmus in 1850. He was a gold miner, and a mechanic in the Almaden Mines for 15 years. In 1866 he bought 200 acres on Almaden Road and built a mansion.
KEE- Sing Kee was born in China and journeyed to California in 1880. He opened a laundry in Santa Clara, but his real claim to fame was as a weather forecaster. Local farmers all preferred his predictions to any newspaper.
LARIOS- Justo Larios was a military artilleryman in the early Mexican San Francisco Presido days. He later became a soap maker. Larios was the 1842 grantee of the Rancho Capitancillos of 4,470 acres embracing most of The New Almaden and Guadlupe Mine property. Larios was a victim of hard luck. He lost the Rancho to mining interests and was one of those who had their herds of horses "appropriated" by Fremont's roving band. He also struck it rich in the gold fields, but lost all of that by theft or gambling. He spent his last days in Gilroy.
LAWRENCE- Albert C Lawrence was born in Boston in 1810, to a Methodist minister named Bull, and his wife. As young Chester was growing up, his playmates often teased him about his name. He had the courts in Massachusetts change it to Lawrence. He was a cabinet maker who constructed Chickering pianos. He left his family behind in 1849, at the time of the Gold strike, and took a ship around the horn. He mined with success, and sent for his family in 1861. He settled 3 1/2 miles West of Santa Clara, in a place that was to be later known as Lawrence Station, a flagstop on the Southern Pacific. He died in 1886, leaving nine children. Lawrence Expressway got its name from Lawrence Station Road, which was the road across Lawrence's field to the station.
(Occcasionaly, people will ask if Saint Lawrence the Martyr Catholic Church got its name from Lawrence, or the Expressway. Sorry, the church is named for the first vicar for temporal affairs of the Catholic church. Lee Weimers wrote a piece about this many years ago.)
LENZEN- Theodore Lenzen was born in Prussia in 1833 where he learned the building trade. He came to San Francisco in 1861 and drew plans for Saint Ignatius College, later to be known as The University of San Francisco. Not to be confused with the buildings at 800 Market Street or at Stanyan and Parker Streets. He was so successful, that at 28 years of age, the he was called to Santa Clara to plan the college, today's Santa Clara University. He also designed the old city hall, the first State Capitol in San Jose, and the original Fredricksburg brewery. Lenzen planned the 1889 O'Connor Sanitarium and luxurious Hotel Vendome.
LESTER- Nathan L. Lester was born in 1834 in Connecticut. He made trips to California in 1861 and 1883. He purchased a homestead on Lincoln
Avenue. He was a judge and a state legislator. His two sons, Nathan L. and William Walter were also owners of large orchards. The home place was on Santa Clara-Saratoga Road, 254
acres of highly developed prune orchard. (We call this road Saratoga Avenue today and part of the orchard is now Prunridge Farms Golf Course.)
LICK- James Lick was born in Penneslyvania in 1796. He was apprenticed to a piano maker. The business failed in New York, in 1820, so he headed to Buenos Aires, where he was eminently successful. He returned to the United States in 1823 with $40,000.00 worth of otter skins. He started another piano factory but left again for South America for a very prosperous eleven year stay. He returned to the West Coast in 1847. He spent much of his money on what was supposed to be worthless sand dunes in San Francisco (now the Sunset and Parkside Districts) and "barren but fertile" lands in Santa Clara Valley. He quickly became a millionaire. He built a large flour mill and residence near Alviso and a mansion in San Jose, yet he lived like a pauper. He was one of the real philanthropists of his time. He gave more than $700,000.00 in 1887 for the construction of the observatory.
LYNDON- John W. Lyndon was born in Vermont in 1836 and came to this area in 1859 via The Isthmus. He had a grocery store in Lexington. (Now extinct town above Los Gatos.) He also bought 7,500 acres where the "Ten Mile House" or Lyndon Hotel in Los Gatos was once located. When the railroad arrived in 1877 Lyndon did the layout for many of the stores.
MABURY- Frank Maybury was an early farmer on what today is San Jose's east side. He raised his three children on his 63 acre farm.
MANLY- William Lewis Manly was born in Vermont and moved to Ohio, where he became a trapper, expert hunter and Indian fighter. When gold
was discovered he hired out as a driver of a train of 107 wagons. The party fell on rough times and split up. Manly choose an unknown southern route and somehow wound up in Death Valley, camping at what is now Bennett's Wells. He had a man named Rogers ride for 26 days to get to The San Fernando Valley. They led help back to the stranded party. After the rescue he moved North to the mines where he was more successful. In 1850 he returned to the Santa Clara Valley to purchase 250 acres just South of San Jose, paying $16.00 an acre for the fertile flat land. A successful farmer, he retired to live out his days at his home on Stockton Avenue. The book he wrote, "Death Valley in 49" is a must for all history buffs. (The Santa Clara Public Library does not have a copy, but you might be able to find a copy around at garage sales.)
MARCELLO- Was one of the true pioneers, he was a Santa Clara Mission Indian. He was baptized in 1789 and was supposed to be four years old at
that time. He was a skilled Mission laborer. With his contemprary Indian chief, Ynigo, they owned Rancho Posomi, 1,695 acres and part of Rancho Ulistac, 2,271 acres in the area of what
was until recently, the Moffett Field Naval Air Station. He is also known to have been married at least seven times.
MARKHAM- Charles Edwin Markham was an author and poet. He was born in 1852 and is best remembered for his poem, "The Man with the Hoe", which
was written in a cottage on South 8th Street. He died in 1940.
MASSON- Paul Masson was born in France in 1859. He came from a family of wine makers. He came to California in 1878 and worked for Charles LeFranc
then the leading vineyardist in the valley. Masson planted the Saratoga hills with rare vines, and the name is still world famous. With the destruction of the Champagne cellars,
the only remnant of his empire is the Mountain Winery. (Which is still a fine place to see a concert.)
McCARTHY- Martin McCarthy was born in Ireland in 1825. In 1851 he built a toll road above Saratoga to Campbell's Lumber Mill with a settlement at the base then called Toll Gate. In 1855 a post office was established here called McCarthysville, now Saratoga. The Toll Gate crossed Big Basin Way near what is now Third Street.
MCKEE- Joseph Olcott McKee and his father were responsible for the actual moving of the state capitol from San Jose to Vallejo in 1851. Being seafaring men, they were engaged to move the state archives. Joseph setteled down on his farm, and died there in 1907. The land is now part of the San Jose high school campus.
McKIERNAN- Charles Henry (Mountain Charley) was born in Ireland in 1830.Several books have been written about his famous fight with the bear in the Santa
Cruz Mountains. Today he is better remembered for giving his name to the night spot in Los Gatos.
Some of the resources used to put this page together
© 1997 to 2007 by John D. Casey Jr.