Alameda County
Biographies
HARRISON A. MAYHEW
With few advantages save those of health, physical endurance, practical common sense and a well-defined purpose, Harrison A. Mayhew has forged his way to the front as a grain and commission merchant of San Francisco, and as a fruit and general rancher at his beautiful home, known as Sulphur Springs Farm, adjoining Niles, Alameda county. Behind his energetic and resourceful nature Mr. Mayhew has the sincerity and capacity for painstaking efforts of his New England ancestry. In the early days of its settlement Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., included no more earnest and capable citizens than those which bore the name of Mayhew. They were especially active in religious work, a forceful example being set by the immigrating forefather, Governor Thomas Mayhew, an English merchant who transferred his allegiance to the American colony in 1636, and thereafter devoted his energies to its political and moral upbuilding. A resident of Watertown, near Boston, until 1641, he then obtained from the agent of Lord Sterling a grant of land on Martha’s Vineyard and neighboring islands, about fifty miles from famous Plymouth Rock. He not only became governor of the state of Massachusetts, but, inspired by Christian zeal, spent his time and money in working among the Indians, to whom he carried the gospel of peace and good cheer, and who had cause to rejoice at his coming, as they had cause for regret at his death. He lived to be ninety-three years old, and by precept and example established a family precedent for religious zeal, transmitted to his son, his grandson, and so on through several generations of clergymen. So noteworthy and lasting were his efforts, and so allied with the early history of Martha’s Vineyard, that in London, England, in 1727, a book was compiled from the writings of Experience Mayhew, born in the latter part of 1600, and for many years a missionary to the Indians, entitled The Venerable Mayhews and the Aboriginal Indians. This book was written and published by William A. Hallock, D. D., and accurately set forth the great importance to the infant settlement of the work of the family of Mayhew.
Born in Martha’s Vineyard, August 26, 1835, Harrison A. Mayhew attended the public schools in his youth, but from earliest childhood learned more from experience and observation than from books. He had completed the course at the high school and attended Pierce Academy at Middleboro about two years, when an ambition to acquire business experience led to practical plans for the future, his chief inspiration being an older brother, who had long since left the family roof and established himself in a grain business at what was then Mayhew’s Landing, but now known as Jarvis’ Landing, in Washington township, Alameda county, Cal. in the capacity of accountant for his brother, for six years, Harrison A. Mayhew, who arrived in the state in 1854, gained an extensive knowledge of grain operations in the warehouse and on the wharves at the landing, at the end of his service establishing a similar business for himself in San Francisco. As in all enterprises of the kind, both success and failure have attended his efforts, but behind them has been the solid foundation of foresight, integrity and sound judgment, and his standing in the metropolis has long been an enviable and honored one. He has extended his operations also into Oakland, becoming not only one of its substantial business men, but taking his part in its civic development, holding among other offices that of president of the board of trustees of East Oakland, until that town come under the regular city administration.
In 1882 Mr. Mayhew abandoned San Francisco and Oakland as home centers and bought his present farm of two hundred and eighteen acres, to which he later added thirty acres. The property at the time of purchase presented few encouraging features, and had formerly served as a cattle range, being a stranger to any kind of improvement. Under his able management a change was accomplished in a comparatively brief time, an orange grove was set out covering ten acres and then more were devoted to almonds and English walnuts. A part of this farm is valley land, and that not under fruit, and in the hills, serves well as pasture for his cattle and horses, of which Mr. Mayhew is an enthusiastic raiser, and many fine examples have gone forth from his meadows. One of the most desirable additions to the ranch is a sulphur spring, from which the place derives its name, and which not only furnishes water for family consumption, but supplies the town of Miles. The improvements are modern, the country residence comfortable and roomy, and the general advantages such as appeal to the intelligent farmer.
September 1, 1877, Mr. Mayhew married Emily P. Rann, who came to California in 1870 from her native town of Jericho, Wis., and who is the mother of four children, of whom Florence and Emilita are living. One child died in infancy, and Henry Pierce was accidentally killed at the age of eighteen. The first wife of Mr. Mayhew was Grace A. (Morse) Mayhew, a native of Martha’s Vineyard, and who, at the time of her death, left five children: Susan, Francis, Lizzie, Grace, and Allen, deceased. Mr. Mayhew subscribes to Republican principles, and fraternally is connected with Oriental Lodge No. 133, F. & A. M., of San Francisco, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Niles. He is a quiet, unostentatious man, giving to everything in which he is interested an earnest application and study which are bound to bring their reward. He is conservative in the cultivation of friendships, but once given, his regard is broad and steadfast and generous both in judgment and in the bestowal of favors. The love of sincerity and truth, a heritage from his Colonial forefathers, has lost nothing through his association of speculative ventures, nor have the ups and downs of life taken aught from the serenity and optimism of his nature.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1026-1029. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Joyce Rugeroni.
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