Contra Costa County
Biographies
JOHN J. PERES
Occupying a ranch of eighty-eight acres in the vicinity of Richmond, John J. Peres is known as one of the most successful general farmers of his neighborhood, his prestige being augmented by a directorate in the Bank of Richmond, and conscientious service as a member of the school board. He comes from the isle of St. George, one of the Western Islands, off the coast of Spain, where his parents, Manuel and Theresa Amelia Peres, owned a small farm and where the former died at an advanced age. The family is still represented in the Islands by the mother and one son and two daughters, while John J., the eldest of all, and two brothers and one sister are living in California.
At the age of sixteen John J. Peres put to sea as an ordinary sailor, coming to Boston, Mass., and New Bedford, and from there sailing between the Massachusetts coast and New Zealand for a couple of years. From Boston he sailed by schooner to Savannah, rounding Cape Horn in 1877 and locating in San Pablo, where he found employment on a farm. For seven years he ran a hay press with profitable results. In 1887 he bought his present farm, and in 1903 sold off thirty-seven acres called the Treppins tract, an addition to Richmond. About the same time he purchased fifty-nine acres, and now has eighty-eight acres in all. He is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, and also rents two hundred acres from the Santa Fe Railroad Company. Before the railroad came through he leased about four hundred acres, and then conducted much larger operations than at present.
From the first of his residence in the west Mr. Peres has sided with the Republican party, and has served his township in various capacities, being at present a school trustee and road master, having held the latter office four years. He is fraternally connected with the U.P.E.C., and I.D.S., and the F. of A. of San Pablo, and is a member of the Catholic Church. His wife was formerly Mary O'Connell, a native of Richmond, Cal., and who is the mother of three sons and one daughter: John, Lizzie, Eddie and George, the two last being twins. Mr. Peres brought a great deal of energy and resource from the Western Islands, and has applied it to excellent advantage to both sea and land affairs. He is a progressive and intelligent farmer, improving his property with every passing year, and living always within his income. He is esteemed by a large circle of friends and neighbors, and is a type of the transplanted western farmer from whom aspiring youths might gain many valuable lessons.
Transcribed
9-6-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1308-1309. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Contra Costa County Biographies