Santa Clara County
Biographies
HENRY N. AYER
In Henry N. Ayer San Jose has a retired representative of an old Connecticut family established in the east at an early stage of the nation’s history, which when represented in the west, has adhered to the conservative and desirable traits with which its name has ever been associated.. Mr. Ayer still owns the time honored farm in Pomfret township, Windham county, Conn., where he was born January 17, 1841, and which also was the birthplace of his father, Nelson Ayer. His mother, Sarah W. (Turner) Ayer, was a native also of Connecticut, and at her death at the age of forty left but one child, Henry N., her only daughter having died in infancy.
In 1857 Henry N. Ayer and his father came to the coast by way of New York and Panama, and after investigating different parts of California, came to Santa Clara county and bought a part of the ranch of General Naglee, formerly known as the old Pyle ranch. Father and son conducted a dairy on this property for several years, when the older man returned to his farm in Connecticut, remaining there ten years. Eventually he returned to the coast and lived with his only son, his death occurring in 1886, at the age of eighty-two years. In the meantime Henry N. had given up dairying and entered a butchering business in San Jose, and also operated extensively in raising, buying, and shipping stock. Later he opened a market with H. H. Cole, under the firm name of Ayer & Cole, continuing the same for twelve years, or until locating on his present place on one of the pleasant streets of the city. He is a thrifty and painstaking man, has always lived within his means, and is rated as one of the substantial business men of the community. His income from the Connecticut farm supplies a comfortable livelihood, and besides he has invested in town property in San Jose. His wife was formerly Hattie Reith, a native of Vermont, who died at the age of thirty-eight, leaving a daughter, Edna, now the wife of J. H. Shaw, of San Jose. In his retirement Mr. Ayer finds enjoyment in the society of his two grandchildren, Frederick and Florence.
Transcribed
5-9-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
Source:
History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 1161. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Marilyn R.
Pankey.