Santa
Clara County
Biographies
MARINER WOOD AYER
Although a recent comer to Santa Clara county, Cal., Mr. Ayer has been a resident of the state for
the past thirty-six years and during the greater part of this time he has been
busily engaged in ranching pursuits, principally in San Mateo county. It was in
1901 that he purchased a small fruit ranch of eight and a half acres, on the
corner of Alice avenue and Alviso road, in Mountainview, (sic) Santa Clara county, which was planted
to apricots and prunes. Here he has made his home ever since 1902. He was born
in New Brunswick, Canada, November 19, 1840, and is the second child in a
family of six sons and four daughters born to William and Mary (Rye) Ayer. The
father was a farmer by occupation, residing in the vicinity of Sackville for
many years, and it was there that both he and his wife died.
The scholastic training of Mr. Ayer
was gleaned from the common schools and he remained at home assisting his
father until he was eighteen; he had previously become apprenticed in the ship
yards as a ship caulker, but continued to work on the farm at intervals up to 1868. During that year he proceeded to New
York and secured passage on a vessel bound for California, the trip being made
by the Panama route. The first winter of his residence in California was spent
by Mr. Ayer in Milpitas, and in 1869 he went to Woodside, in San Mateo county,
and for a number of years afterward he was employed in the sawmills of that
vicinity. He was then induced to discontinue that line of work entirely and
renting land near Woodside, turned his attention to farm pursuits. Here for years
he raised hay, grain and cattle, renting four hundred acres of land well
adapted for this purpose and he was quite successful, at last realizing
sufficient capital with which to purchase a place of his own, which he did, in
Santa Clara county, as before mentioned.
In Woodside, Cal., Mr. Ayer married
Miss Annie Alseph, also a native of Canada, who came
to the United States in 1882. One son, Willard Melborne,
blessed this union and he resides upon the home place. The political preference
of Mr. Ayer is given to the Republican party, and he
uses both his vote and influence for the benefit of that party, being quite
active in political affairs. Socially he is allied with but one order, the
Knights of Pythias of San Mateo county. During the
short period of his residence at Mountainview (sic)
he has won recognition as a man of progressive ideas, and the respect which is
accorded him is well deserved.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1354-1355. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.