Sacramento County
Biographies
EDWARD J. CROLY
EDWARD J.
CROLY. During the period of twenty-five years in which the firm of Carle &
Croly engaged in the building business on the Pacific coast they satisfactorily
filled contracts for many of the most substantial public and private buildings
in California. While engaged in enterprises involving the
outlay of vast sums of money and the employment of a large corps of men, they
maintained the most harmonious and amicable relations with each other, and
their business association was of an unusually pleasant character. In 1890 the firm dissolved partnership and
Mr. Croly continued contracting alone until 1898, when he was injured, retiring
at that time from the business with an enviable reputation as a reliable
workman, capable contractor and sagacious business man. A list of the buildings in
whose erection he was interested presents an epitome of the development of the Sacramento valley
and, indeed, of the entire state itself, so large and important have
been his undertakings in his chosen occupation.
Like many
other successful men of California,
Mr. Croly was attracted to the west by the opportunities which it offered to
its early settlers, and the decision which led him to identify himself with the
then undeveloped Sacramento valley he has had no reason to regret. The family which he represents is of the
illustrious French Huguenot strain and his mother, a descendant of the DePuy family, was born in London
in 1800, her maiden name being Ann Supple.
The maternal grandfather, John Supple, was a merchant and connected with
the East India trade with John Large, a great-uncle of Mr. Croly; this business
continued until the Napoleonic war, when John Large was taken prisoner by the
French and lodged in Toulon prison
until 1803, when an exchange of prisoners was effected
between the French and British governments.
He moved to Canada
and while there was awarded for his services by the British government a grant
of land, on which he remained until his death in 1842. His last resting place is in the Baldwin
plot, in Spadina cemetery, in Toronto. Mr. Large was a cousin of Captain Cook, the
English navigator, whose monument now stands on the Island
of Hawaii where he was murdered by
the natives. After years of successful
work at his profession of the law, Robert Baldwin, a distant relative of Ann
Supple and a native of Cork, Ireland,
was elected prime minister of Canada
and filled that high office for a long period, remaining in Canada
until the early ‘50s, when his death occurred.
About 1826 Thomas and Ann Croly left Europe for America
and settled in Canada, where the
father engaged in farm pursuits and also followed the building business in Toronto
(then known as York).
The fifth
in a family of six sons, Edward J. Croly was born near Toronto,
Canada, October 20,
1836. From an early age he was a
resident of Ohio, where he attended the public schools
of Cleveland and later was a student in Oberlin
College. At the age of seventeen he began to follow
the carpenter’s trade in and near Toronto, Canada,
but a painful accident for a time deterred him from following his trade and
caused him to engage in teaching school for a year. For three years ensuing he was interested in
the natural oil wells in the Tillsonburg district,
after which, in 1865, he moved to Chicago and secured employment at
carpentering. Soon after the railroad
was completed across the continent, during the winter of 1867-68, he came to California
and at once secured work at the building business. May 20, 1870, he formed a partnership with
Silas Carle, a native of Waterboro, York
county, Me., born December 13, 1833, and for three years an apprentice to the
carpenter’s trade at North Bridgewater, Mass., later for a similar period a
journeyman in Boston and other parts of Massachusetts, coming via Panama to
California and arriving in San Francisco September 28, 1858, subsequently
settling in the city of Sacramento.
Early in
their business association Carle & Croly had the contracts for the
residences of Charles McCreary, Tenth and L streets, Sacramento;
L. Williams, Tenth and H streets; L. Tozer, Fifteenth
and H; F.J. Stauffer, Fourteenth and I; L.B. Mohr, Twelfth and L; also of
George Merkley, L. Frazier, C.A. Yoerck,
Judges McFarland and McKune, and many others. In 1880 they erected the addition to the
insane asylum at Stockton, the business houses of Austin
Brothers, and the residence of Judge Patterson at Stockton. During 1884-85 they had the contract for and
erected the Santa Rosa court
house. About 1886-87 they erected the
Masonic hall and Hughes hotel at Fresno, the latter costing $120,000. During this same period they were chosen to
build the Stoneman house in the Yosemite valley, their bid being the lowest of seven
competing firms and only $125 less than one of them; the cost of this structure
was about $50,000. They also built the
Arizona State Insane Asylum at Phoenix, and in the same
year built the smelter at Cortex mine, situated thirty-five miles south of Beowawe, Nev. Among the buildings which they erected during
the earlier years of their partnership were the Masonic Temple at Stockton, the
Beet Sugar Factory at Sacramento, Western hotel, Sutter block, County Hospital,
Hall of Records, the court house at Colusa, and the rebuilding of the
Wells-Fargo block, and also churches and school houses throughout the state.
Among the
most responsible undertakings ever assumed by the firm was at the time of the
high water in the spring of 1878, when a serious break occurred two miles below
Sacramento on the east bank of the Sacramento river.
The overflow of water destroyed all the crops in the bottom lands. After spending large sums of money in an
attempt to repair the break in the levee, the commissioners and city
authorities abandoned the project as hopeless.
Later the property owners called for proposals for repairing the break
and awarded the contract to Carle & Croly, whose plan was to fill grain
sacks with sand and gravel and place them temporarily across the break until a
more substantial levee could be built.
Forty thousand grain sacks were used to check the flowing water. A strong north wind washed away ten thousand
of the sacks and a severe storm imperiled the entire undertaking, but by
keeping a large force at work night and day the levee was repaired within
sixteen days. Another important
enterprise which they assumed was the construction of the San Diego
flume for bringing water into San Diego
from a distance of forty miles. Eleven
million feet of lumber were utilized, being hauled by six hundred head of mules
and horses, and when completed, in September of 1888, after fifteen months of
arduous labor, the flume was said to be the largest structure of its kind in
the world. The Byron
Springs hotel and the Shippee
agricultural works at Stockton were
among the later contracts filled by the firm, and in these, as in all others,
fidelity, promptness and accuracy marked every detail of the work.
While still
a young man Mr. Croly became identified with the Masonic order, and is now
connected with Sacramento Lodge No. 40, F. & A. M., Sacramento Chapter No.
3, R.A.M., and Sacramento Commandery No. 2, K.
T. In addition he is interested in the
Independent Orders of Odd Fellows, being a member of Capital Lodge No. 87 and
Pacific Encampment No. 2. Politically he
favors Republican principles, yet he is broad and liberal in his views, and
partisanship finds no place in his life.
In 1879 he married Miss Bertha V., daughter of Johnson Van Norman; the
two children born of their union are now both deceased. While practically retired from the building
business he enjoys taking up his tools for repair work at his Sacramento
home, and also oversees the buildings on his two ranches, one of one hundred
and sixty acres and the other of eighty acres.
Personally Mr. Croly is a man of fearless nature, bold in the face of
danger. This trait of his character was
illustrated in an experience with two burglars who entered his bedroom one
night about eleven o’clock. Aroused from
his slumbers, he immediately attacked one of the men and in return received a
shot through the shoulder, the ball lodging near the spine. Notwithstanding his wound he threw one of the
men to the floor and was getting the better of the other desperado when a shot
passed through his left shoulder, injuring him so severely that he could not
prevent the men escaping. Later,
however, they were apprehended and both are now serving life sentences, while
as a reminder of his memorable fight Mr. Croly still carries one of the balls
in his body.
Transcribed
by Kathy Porter.
Source: “History of
the State of California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento Valley,
California” by
J. M. Guinn. Pages
368-371. Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1906.
© 2007 Kathy Porter.