Sacramento County
Biographies
JOSEPH MARTINEZ BORBA
JOSEPH MARTINEZ BORBA.--A successful asparagus and fruit grower on Grand Island is Joseph Martinez Borba, who owns a 205-acre ranch two miles above Isleton. He was born on Terceira, one of the Azores Islands, October 8, 1878, a son of Joseph Martinez and Anna Felicia (Ignazia) Borba. His father was born in 1853, and his mother in October, 1858. Joseph M., of this sketch, is the eldest of ten children, the others being Mary, John, Jesse, Rosie, Ignacia, Francis, Frank, Manuel and Joseph. Both parents are living at the old home on the Azores Islands, aged seventy and sixty-five years, respectively.
Joseph M. Borba received a public school education in his native land and remained at home with his parents until he was twenty-two years of age, when he came to California and worked for wages on a dairy farm at Menlo Park, San Mateo County, working long hours and each day for $15 a month. Then he settled in the delta, near Isleton, on the Sacramento River, where he leased forty acres for three years and raised vegetables. He then bought fifty-five acres of his present ranch two miles above Isleton on Grand Island, and four years later bought a 155-acre ranch half a mile away from the home place, which is also equipped with an electric pumping plant, both places being improved to orchards. He has improved his farms with a fine residence and other farm buildings, and is successfully raising fruit, asparagus, beans, potatoes, etc.
At Sacramento, in March, 1906, Mr. Borba was married to Miss Mary Caroline de Rosa, a native of Pico, in the Azores Islands, a daughter of Joseph and Anna de Rosa and the youngest of four children. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Borba was blessed with one child, Anna. Mrs. Borba passed away in 1917, and subsequently Mr. Borba was married to Miss Mary De Mello, born on Andrus Island, Cal., a daughter of Luiz De Mello, a farmer on Andrus Island. She received her education at the Georgiana school. They are the parents of five children: Joseph, Mary, Manuel, Vernal, and Edna. Mr. Borba is a member of the Isleton Lodge, I. D. E. S., and the Ryde Lodge, U. P. E. C., being treasurer of both lodges.
Mr. Borba worked very hard to get a start. He put in long, hard hours each day in the dairy at small pay, and later worked on the California Transportation Company's boats at $35 a month; but he saved his money, and in that way was able in time to purchase a small ranch, since which time he has been very successful. He has become a prosperous and well-to-do rancher, and is now enjoying the fruits of his labors. In 1905 Mr. Borba made a trip back to the Azores to visit his father and mother and other relatives, and spent five delightful months going over the scenes of his childhood and visiting the old swimming-hole. On his return to California he was more pleased than ever that fortune had caused him to cast in his lot with the land of sunshine, gold, and flowers. Mr. Borba owns a fine residence at 551 Junipero Street, Pacific Grove, to which the family make frequent trips. Mr. Borba is liberal and enterprising, and is ever ready to assist worthy objects for the improvement of the county.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Reed, G.
Walter, History of Sacramento County,
California With Biographical Sketches, Page 584. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Jeanne Taylor.