Alameda County
Biographies
ABRAHM B. MONTROSS
Numbered among the more respected and esteemed citizens of Alameda county is Abraham B. Montross, one of California’s early pioneers now living retired from active pursuits in Irvington. For many years he was prominently identified with the leading interests of this section of the state, and with great pride has watched its gradual evolution from a wild and barren country to a superb agricultural region, whose well-cultivated farms, extensive orchards and vineyards indicate its general prosperity. A son of Dr. John W. Montross, he was born August 2, 1822, in Moscow, Livingston county, N. Y.
Born and bred in Westchester county, N. Y., John W. Montross entered upon a professional career when young, and for several years was a medical practitioner in his native state. Migrating with his family to Michigan in 1835, he settled at White Pigeon, St. Joseph county, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession until his death, in 1837. He married Catherine Bruyn, who was born in Ulster county, N. Y., and died, in 1838, in Michigan. Eight children were born to their union, six sons and two daughters, Abraham B., the subject of this brief sketch, being the seventh child in order of birth, and the only one living.
In a small log house, with its rude slab benches, Abraham B. Montross received his elementary education, becoming familiar with the three “R’s,” the only branches then taught in the common schools. Coming westward with his parents in 1835 he remained in St. Joseph county several years, after the death of his parents working on a farm. Starting from Centerville, Mich., March 20, 1849, for the newly-discovered gold fields, he went on horseback to St. Joseph, Mo., where he joined an ox-team train, with which he came to California, arriving in Ringold, Eldorado county, September 28, having been five months in crossing the plains. For nearly two years thereafter Mr. Montross was engaged in mining on the Feather and Salmon rivers, and in Shasta county. In August, 1851, in company with his three mining partners, he explored the river from Shasta to Sacramento as to the feasibility of operating a steamer. Upon arriving in Sacramento they bought an interest in the steamer “Orient,” and for a time engaged in transporting goods and passengers on the Sacramento river as far as Redbluff, the boat being the first to sail above Colusa, and oftentimes making the passage under great difficulties. Mr. Montross was one of the pioneers who navigated the upper river.
From 1852 until 1856 Mr. Montross resided in San Francisco. Removing to the Alameda valley in the latter year, he bought a squatter’s right to one hundred and sixty acres of land near Desoto, where he lived for two years. Embarking in the business of a sheep raiser in 1858, he was thus employed in Alameda and San Joaquin counties for seven years, meeting with fair success. Purchasing a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres near Irvington, Alameda county, in 1865, Mr. Montross made many valuable improvements, and was there prosperously engaged in general farming for nearly three decades. In 1894 he removed to Irvington, where he owns eight-four acres of valuable land, two acres of which he devotes to the raising of fruit, and has since lived practically retired from active business, attending only to the care of his orchard.
In San Francisco, January 29, 1873, Mr. Montross married Sarah McCalvy, who was born in Scotland, and emigrated with her parents to Wisconsin when a child of three years, and in 1865 came to California. Mrs. Montross has one child, namely: George A. McCalvy, a bookkeeper in San Francisco. Politically Mr. Montross is a stanch Republican, probably being the eldest member of his party in Alameda county, and has served as school director and as road supervisor. He is a member of the California Pioneers of Alameda county.
Transcribed
Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 728. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Joyce Rugeroni.
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