Alameda
County
Biographies
JOSHUA CHADBOURNE
In the
course of an active and successful career, covering the period from the pioneer
history of California to the present era of progress, Mr. Chadbourne has been
identified with various enterprises contributing to the material development of
the state; and, although he now has reached a point where the necessity for
work no longer exists, yet his energetic disposition impels him to maintain
many of the activities of his younger years.
On his home place, situated two and a half miles from Pleasanton, and
entitled by its improvements to be classed among the most attractive rural
homesteads in Alameda county, he is engaged in raising
cattle and horses. In addition he owns
sixty acres planted to fruit trees and a vineyard of ten acres, from which in
season shipments are made to the markets of northern California.
The
Chadbourne family, of which Joshua Chadbourne is the western representative,
has flourished for many generations in the New England states. The first of the name in this country was
William Chadbourne, who came from Devonshire, England, in 1634, and settled in
what is now South Berwick, Me. He was
one of the forty-one inhabitants of Kittery, who, on November 16. 1852, signed
the act of submission to Massachusetts.
He had three children, of whom William lived in Portsmouth; Patience
married Thomas Spencer and lived in Berwick; and Humphrey became one of the
most prominent men of his day. Very
early in the history of the state he purchased from the Indian sagamores Roles large tracts of land, which remained in the
family for over two hundred years. He
built the great house at Strawberry Bank, near Portsmouth, which was used as a
blockhouse for defense against the Indians, and subsequently became a trading
post. He is in reality accounted the
founder of the tow of Portsmouth. The
succeeding generations of the Chadbourne family, members of whom changed the
spelling the name to Chadborn, were variously connected with the history of the
New England and Atlantic states, the Hon. Benjamin Chadborn, I the fourth
generation, being a captain in Col. Jonathan Bagley’s regiment at Louisberg, in
1745. He was colonel of the militia,
judge of the court of common pleas, member of the governor’s council, ad one of
the founders of Berwick Academy. His
home was a fine colonial mansions surrounded by the magnificent New England
elm, a large number of these trees having been sent to the governor of
Massachusetts to be planted on Boston Common.
Members of this family also distinguished themselves in the French and
Indian wars, four sons of James Chadbourne being numbered among these patriots. In the Revolutionary war the family was well
represented, the Rev. Levi Chadbourne of the sixth generation, being with
Washington at Valley Forge, and for his services receiving a land grant; Levi
Chadbourne of the seventh generation served in the war of 1812, and received a
grant of sixty acres, while Major Paul Chadbourne and any others of the family
distinguished themselves in the Civil war.
The
immediate ancestry of Joshua Chadbourne were Joshua and Charlotte (Westcott)
Chadbourne, his parents, natives of Maine, and in Cumberland county, January
21, 1833, the first named was born. The
elder Joshua Chadbourne, who was the son of a Revolutionary soldier, entered
the American Service in the second war with England, but the struggle came to
an end before he saw any active service.
During all of his active life he was a resident of East Baldwin, where
he carried on mercantile pursuits until his death at the age of sixty-nine
years. At the age of fifteen years
Joshua Chadbourne, Jr., secured employment in driving a team and distributing
stores to agents in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The position was one of considerable
responsibility, involving the handling of considerable money and the fact that
he rendered satisfactory service proved his trust-worthiness. After two years he returned to Maine and for
a year drove a baker’s wagon. His next
venture was in the stove and tinware business at Great Falls, N.H., but in 1853
he gave the store into the charge of his partner and came to the Pacific coast,
via the Nicaragua route. For six months
he drove a milk wagon in Visitation, eight miles from San Francisco, and the
ranch was sold he secured work as a driver of a bakery wagon in San Francisco.
Returning
east in the spring of 1854, Mr. Chadbourne brought to the coast his wife, who
was formerly Frances Olivia Haley, a native of Maine, and their son, their
marriage having occurred in Saco, Me., in the fall of 1852. Immediately after his second arrival in san Francisco he drove a job express wagon and had a
contract to haul ice from ships to the ice houses. After some six months he embarked in the
bakery business with a brother, and when he sold out at the expiration of one
year he had a profit of $6,000 from the venture. With two others he purchased from General
Vallejo fifteen hundred acres of land in Sonoma county. On the division of the tract he received the
land on Petaluma creek, now utilized as a landing place for steamers. On this site he erected a store and
warehouses. From 1856 to 1862 he engaged
in the rain business on the range at Lakeville, Sonoma county,
where his warehouses were located. In
1862 he sold out and in partnership with John Holmes, purchased a hay and grain
business on Market street, San Francisco.
During the first year he and his partner were burned out twice within
four months, and, as they had no insurance, the loss was heavy. However, friends who had confidence in his
ability furnished him the needed capital.
With $10,000 of borrowed money he entered a firm as one of three
partners, who planned and consummated the idea of buying up all the hay in the
state. During the first year they made
about $12,000 each. With the profits of
that enterprise they bought the warehouses, three schooners, and other buildings
at Warm Springs, for which they paid $22,000, and Mr. Chadbourne was detailed
in the spring of 1868 to superintend the firm’s interest at that place. A degree of success rewarded the efforts of
the firm until the fall of 1868, when the earthquake destroyed all their
buildings, the replacing of which cost them $15,000.
Leasing
the right of way to the Southern Pacific Railroad, Mr. Chadbourne engaged in
digging a canal from the slough, six hundred feet to the mainland, for the
Southern Pacific Company. It was about
this time (the winter of 1868-69) that he met with a serious accident. One day, when out hunting ducks and alone in
a boat, his gun was accidentally discharged and tore off his right arm below
the elbow. Many hours passed before it
was possible to get a surgeon there from San Jose, but his splendid constitution
warded off ay ill effects and in a few days he was
again superintending the building of the canal at Warm Springs. In 1873 he came to Pleasanton and purchased a
three-fifths interest in the warehouses, the remaining two-fifths being owned
by two local men. Upon the dissolution
of the firm in San Francisco a division of the property was made, at which time
he receded as his share a ranch at Irvington and the business in
Pleasanton. Later, however, he purchased
the two-fifths interest of Isaac Meyer warehouse, and for four years conducted
the same alone. In 1890, by
consolidation with others, the Chadbourne Warehouse Company was formed. Soon afterward he purchased the stock of the
other parties and became sole proprietor of the four warehouses and the
implement shop. For four years he acted
as agent for the McCormick machinery. In
1904 he sold his grain and lumber business, warehouses and implement house,
thus severing his connection with activities to which many of the best
years of his life had been given.
While
never neglecting business matters, Mr. Chadbourne has always been interested in
public affairs, is a believer in progressive movements, has contributed
generously to the building of all the churches in Pleasanton, and may always be
depended upon to discharge every duty falling upon a public-spirited
citizen. In politics he maintains an
independent attitude and at no time has he sought the honors and emoluments of
office; yet with his characteristic friendliness he stands ready to support
associates who are candidate for office.
Not only mentally but physically, he is stalwart ad robust, a type of
finely proportioned manhood bearing but few traces of his life of strenuous
activity. More than once during the
early days here he was exposed to danger while carrying out his work as a
member of the vigilance committee of 1856 San
Francisco. Some years later, at the tie of the earthquake, he had a narrow escape from
death. When the building began to totter
on its foundation, with remarkable presence of mind he jumped into the
canal. A moment later the building
tumbled into the water just over him, but he finally succeed in extricating
himself without serious injury. Of late
years his only son, Henry Pierce Chadbourne, has assisted him in the conduct of
his properties and speculative interests, but he has never permitted himself to
retire from work, for he is pre-eminently a active,
energetic man, to whom leisure possesses fewer fascinations than the management
of important interests.
Transcribed by
Louise E Shoemaker April
16th 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
487-489. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Louise E.
Shoemaker.
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