Alameda
County
Biographies
HENRY B. MARLIN
The ranch owned by Henry B. Marlin, in Eden township, Alameda county, ranks with the most productive and
valuable in the state of California, being held at $600 per acre. This was a
part of the property owned by his father, John Marlin, who became a pioneer of
the remote west in 1849. He came to Astoria, Ore., by way of the Isthmus of
Panama, emigrating from his home in Perry county, Pa.,
where he was born and reared. He engaged in the lumber business at Astoria with
three brothers until 1852, when he came to California and located as a squatter
on a piece of land in the San Lorenzo district. He farmed this for some time,
but was finally compelled to give it up, at which time he bought one hundred
and thirty-five acres near San Lorenzo, property owned by Louis Steitz, for which he paid $4,000. At that time this was
nothing but an open field located half way between San Lorenzo and Robert’s Landing, with the exception of twenty-five acres which was
in small timber. With characteristic energy he entered upon the cultivation and
improvement of this property, clearing the twenty-five acres and devoting it
all to general ranching and the raising of vegetables. In 1863 he purchased one
hundred and sixty acres in San Lorenzo, for which he agreed to pay $18,500,
going in debt to the amount of $18,000. Thirty acres of this ranch was in
orchard fruits, two acres being devoted to cherries, for which he received as
high as $1 per pound. In the course of two years he had paid off his
indebtedness and had $27,000 in the bank. He then purchased the John B. Ford
ranch in the Mt. Eden district, paying $27,500 for the same, and up to the time
of his death, November 2, 1878, at the age of fifty-six years, he gave his
entire time and attention to the cultivation and improvement of the three
ranches. He set out orchards and put up buildings and in many ways added to the
value of the properties. In his political convictions he was a stanch Republican,
and although active in his efforts to promote the principles he endorsed, never
cared for personal recognition officially. His brother, Brady W. Marlin, was supervisor
of Mt. Eden township for seventeen years. Fraternally
Mr. Marlin was a member of the Masonic lodge at San Leandro and the Odd Fellows
of Haywards. (sic) He was one of the most successful
farmers in this section and left an estate valued at $150,000, his ranches
having been devoted to the raising of cattle, horses, grain, vegetables and
fruit. His wife, formerly Eliza Bowers, was also a native of Pennsylvania and
came to the Pacific coast with her husband. Her death occurred here in 1863, at
the age of about thirty-six years. His second wife was Sarah Bowers, a sister
of his first wife, who is also deceased. Born of the first union were the
following children: Elizabeth, the widow of H. Smyth, who makes her home on the
ranch; Henry B.; Katie, the wife of John Tychson, of
Napa county, Cal.; Margaret, the wife of Thomas Armstrong, of Haywards; (sic)
Caroline, the wife of William Mendel, of San Lorenzo; Annie, who died at the
age of twenty years; and John P., who owns one hundred and five acres of the
old homestead.
Henry B. Marlin, who was born
November 2, 1850, in Perry county, Pa., was only an infant when his parents
brought him to this location and the greater part of his life has since been
spent here. He remained on the ranch until he was twenty-one years old,
receiving his education in the San Lorenzo grammar schools, while he also
learned the practical duties of a farmer. On the day that he attained his
majority he went to Napa county and began to work on a
ranch. Shortly afterward he secured a position at $50 per month and board on a
stock ranch in Nevada, where he looked after about five hundred head of cattle.
For one year he farmed on shares, and after about two years he returned home
and engaged with his father for the same wages that he had been receiving,
acting as foreman of the home ranch. At the death of his father he inherited a
part of the estate, and with his brother he bought out the interest of the
other heirs in the home ranch of two hundred and ten acres, paying $500 an
acre, which amounted to $18,000. This money was paid before the death of Mr.
Marlin’s second wife, who thus willed her share of the estate to Henry B. and
John P. Marlin, each of whom now owns one hundred and five acres. The brothers
set out the entire ranch to orchard, but Henry Marlin later took up sixty acres
of pears and apples, having about forty acres devoted to apricots, plums, and
various other fruits. The balance of the ranch is given over to the cultivation
of vegetables and is especially adapted to tomatoes, which are raised in large
quantities.
The marriage of Mr. Marlin occurred
in 1877, and united him with Sophia Peterson, a native of Denmark, and they are
the parents of four children, namely: May, John, Alice and Stanley, all of whom
are at home. In national politics Mr. Marlin is a stanch Republican, but
locally gives his support to the man whom he considers best qualified for
public office. He has never cared personally for official recognition.
Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic lodge at San Leandro, the Woodmen of
the World of San Lorenzo, and is a charter member of the lodge of the United
Workmen of San Lorenzo.
Transcribed
by: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 1011-1012. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.
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