Alameda County
Biographies
HON. JOHN W. KOTTINGER
No lapse of time can ever remove from the memory of the citizens of Pleasanton, Alameda county, the life and services of Hon. John W. Kottinger, the founder of this little city and throughout the years of its growth one of its most important factors. It is not too much to say as well that he was as widely known throughout Santa Clara county and as highly honored for the many sterling traits of character which were evidenced in all his work, and with his passing away July 29, 1892, the community lost a citizen whose worth can never be computed, as a strong and earnest influence toward matters of progress and reform remains always a test of the man who has passed that way.
Born November 24, 1820, John W. Kottinger was a native of Austria and the son of Anthony and Rosa (Koenig) Kottinger, and when nine years old he was sent by his parents to Vienna to enter the best schools that the country afforded in the pursuit of an education. Of an ambitious as well as studious temperament he made marked progress as the years passed by, and when twenty-two years he entered the family of Prince Charles Lichenstein as private tutor, remaining so employed until 1845. In that year he went to Switzerland and in 1846 crossed the Atlantic to New Orleans, La., thence going to Louisville, Ky., where he was associated with George D. Prentice as editor of the Louisville Journal for one year. He made his home in various parts of the United States and in time drifted to New York City, taking passage on board a steamer bound for Rio Janeiro (sic), and also visited Valparaiso and other South American ports, when September 16, 1849, he arrived in California on the Hamburg bark, Adelgunda. He remained in San Francisco for six days after which he went to Pueblo de San Jose where he established and conducted the first private school. From January, 1850, to October of the same year he acted as interpreter in the courts of Santa Clara county. Primarily a sagacious business man he became interested in possible investments and in the latter part of 1850 he bought a herd of cattle and drove them to the mines for sale to the miners. He then returned to San Jose and formed a partnership with District Attorney Sanford, and was admitted to the bar in the spring of 1851. In the fall of that year he located upon property owned by his wife on the present site of Pleasanton and there erected the first frame house and in time sold some of the lots to the first business men of the place. In January of the following year he was joined by his family and until 1857 he remained in that location engaged in ranching and stock-raising, when he removed to San Francisco and became interested in the real estate business. Five years later he returned to Pleasanton to look after his ranch interests, and having a home also in San Jose where the family resided for a part of the year for the better educational advantages afforded by the city, he spent his time between that point and Pleasanton until his death. As a man of marked business ability, extensive financial interests, and a citizen of progressive ideas and public spirit, he wielded a strong influence in the upbuilding of the town, serving in various official capacities, among them being that of justice of the peace for some time.
The marriage of Mr. Kottinger allied him with an old and distinguished family of California, the ceremony performed April 27, 1850, uniting him with Senorita Maria R. Bernal. She was born near San Jose in what is now the town of Edenvale, April 27, 1835. Her father, Juan Pablo Bernal, was born June 27, 1810 at the Presidio, San Francisco, his father, Joaquin, being a native of Mexico and an officer in the Mexican army at the Presidio in a very early day. He purchased quite a large grant of land known as the Santa Theresa, upon which he lived to be a very old man, rearing a large family and occupying a position of prominence among the early citizens of the community. Juan P. Bernal was also a soldier at the Presidio, and when a young man he and his brothers secured quite a large grant of land in Alameda county, Rancho El Valle de San Jose, a part of which is still in the possession of Mrs. Kottinger. For several years he remained upon his large ranch engaged in the stock business, when he divided the land among his children and removed to San Jose where he made his home until his death in 1878 at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, who was Rafaela Felis, born in Santa Cruz, Cal., and died in San Jose in December, 1871, at the age of fifty-four years, was the daughter of Senora Antonia Castro, a native of California and the representative of one of the proudest old families of the state, and who lived to be one hundred and ten years old. Mrs. Kottinger was reared to a cultured womanhood on her father's ranch, and in the paternal home in San Jose, receiving her education principally through the instruction of private tutors. After her marriage she resided in Pleasanton and San Francisco for several years, but the greater part of her time was passed in San Jose, where her children were educated. Since the death of her husband she has made her home principally in this city. Of the eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Kottinger two died in infancy, those surviving being named in order of birth as follows: John D.; Frank R, first American child born in Pleasanton; Rosa, who married E. Merkel and died at forty-two; Alfred, a farmer near Livermore; Eva, the wife of J. W. Burnett, of Pleasanton; William B., an architect and carpenter of San Francisco; Anna B., an accomplished instructor of music, at home with her mother; Maggie R., one of the noticeably successful teachers of Alameda and Santa Clara counties, who taught in the school at the old mission of San Jose but who, on account of her mother's advanced age, has now resigned from the work for which she is so eminently fitted; Martha R., engaged in business in San Francisco. The daughters were all educated principally at the state normal and college of Notre Dame of this city. Mrs. Kottinger still owns about a thousand acres of the land that formed a part of her father's estate and which adjoins the city of Pleasanton. It is utilized for farming and pasture land is now rented.
Transcribed
5-15-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1177-1178. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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