Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JOHN PINCKNEY BABB
Among the most beautiful ranches in the Santa
Clara valley is that of Hill Crest Orchard, owned and operated by John Pinckney
Babb, an enterprising farmer who has been located in this section since 1874. It
is situated in the foothills that skirt the base of Mt. Hamilton, and commands
a sweeping view of the Santa Clara valley. Of this property of sixty acres
twenty-five is given over to the production of fruit, consisting largely of
French prunes, apricots, almonds, peaches, apples, plums, cherries, etc., while
the balance of the land is devoted to hay and pasture. The care and attention
which have been exercised in the management of this ranch places it at once
among the most valuable properties of its size in this section.
Born in Wilkesbarre,
Pa., May 28, 1836, John Pinckney Babb was the youngest in a family of three
sons and four daughters, of whom one daughter died in infancy. His father, John
P. Babb, was a native of Pennsylvania and engaged in contracting and building
in Wilkesbarre. He died in Lynchburg, Va., in 1840.
His wife, formerly Mary Schriner, also a native of
Pennsylvania, died in Wilkesbarre in 1844. John P.
Babb, Jr., received his education in the common schools of his native state,
where he remained until he was twelve years old, when he removed to Indiana. He
there attended Wabash College for one year, being then compelled to put aside
his studies on account of impaired health. He returned to Pennsylvania for a
short time and afterward, at the age of eighteen years, engaged with his
brother-in-law in Cincinnati in the commission business, there acting as a
shipping clerk. He also worked for some time on a farm near Indianapolis. In
Cincinnati he attended a business college and afterward became a reporter on
the Daily Gazette, where he continued
for a year. He next attended the Farmers’ College at College Hill, Ohio, a
suburb of Cincinnati.
Later he removed to North Vernon,
Ind., where he engaged in farming until 1874, when he came west to California
and located upon his present place, purchasing sixty acres of land, nearly half
of which he has since devoted to horticultural purposes. He began to set out
trees in 1875 and has continued until he has twenty-five acres of fine
orchards. He has very appropriately called his property “Hill Crest Orchard.”
In Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Babb married Nettie Hatfield Williams, a native of
that place and of this union were born three children, namely: Clifford,
Clement Edwin and Walter, the first two being deceased. Walter is a mining
engineer by profession. Mr. Babb occupies a position among the enterprising men
of this section of the county, being also a stockholder in the East Side Fruit
Growers’ Association, in which he acted as director for many years, and also is
identified with the Santa Clara County Fruit Exchange. In politics he is a
stanch Republican and is proud to recall that he cast his ballot for Abraham
Lincoln. In May, 1864, he enlisted in the service of his country, serving as
sergeant in Company B, One hundred and Thirty-seventh Indiana Infantry, for one
hundred days, but served a longer term, during which time he occupied points in
the neighborhood of Chattanooga and Nashville, guarding the roads which the
soldiers traversed in their march to the sea with General Sherman. He was later
placed in charge of the books of the commissary department at Tullahoma, Tenn.
Upon his honorable discharge at Indianapolis, September 21, 1864, he received
commendatory word from President Lincoln for meritorious service. He is a
member of John A. Dix Post, G. A. R., of San Jose. He is a charter member of
the Second Presbyterian Church at San Jose, where he was an active deacon till
the fall of 1903.
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., Page 1180. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.