Santa
Clara County
Biographies
LYMAN S. BARE
As a rancher, land speculator, Republican
politician and promotor of education and other enterprises, Mr. Bare has been
an influential factor in the history of Santa Clara county
since 1876. The architect of his own
fortunes, and possessing more than average foresight and executive ability, his
services have been needed and appreciated in a community continually striving
to overcome the crudities of pioneerdom, and establish its growth upon a
conservative and substantial foundation.
Mr. Bare comes of Pennsylvania and Vermont stock as originally
represented in this county, although his paternal grandfather, John Bare, came
from Germany, and after many years of farming in Pennsylvania, became a pioneer
settler of the vicinity of Ripley, Huron county,
Ohio. His son and namesake, John, the father
of Lyman was born in Pennsylvania, and reared in New York, in the latter state
marrying Amy Stout, a native of Vermont, with whom he removed to Ripley,
Ohio. On the home farm in Huron county,
Ohio, Lyman S. was born July 16, 1845, the seventh son and tenth child in a
family of ten sons and five daughters.
John Bare was a man of leading characteristics, active in Republican
politics, and in the Methodist Church. At one time he as a member of the state militia, attaining to the
rank of orderly sergeant. His
death occurred in Ripley at the age of seventy-four, his wife also attaining to
a ripe old age. This couple reared their
children to habits of thrift and industry, and, considering the largeness of
their responsibility, and the comparative meagerness of their resources, gave
them more than the average advantages.
From the public schools Lyman S. Bare went
to the Normal Western Reserve school at Milan, Ohio,
and after a two years’ course turned his attention to railroading on the old
Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, now operated under another
name. Starting as fireman he was
promoted to engineer after a short service, remaining with the company for
three and a half years. In 1866 he
removed to Crestline, Crawford county, Ohio, and for a
year and a half conducted a hotel, in the latter part of 1867 engaging in
buying and shipping stock to Buffalo, N.Y.
Arriving in California in the fall of 1871, he located first in San
Mateo county, and after a successful farming
experience, came to the neighborhood of Santa Clara in 1876, purchasing one
hundred and twenty-four acres of land on Saratoga avenue. This property he traded for two hundred and
twenty-four acres of land on Saratoga avenue. This property he traded for two hundred and
eighty-one acres on Bollinger road in 1887, and in
1888 sold his farm and bought his present ranch of eighty acres on Stevens
Creek road, three and a half miles west of San Jose. At present time he owns fifty-one acres,
twenty of which are under fruit, including prunes, apricots and peaches. The balance is devoted to general
farming. In the meantime Mr. Bare has
speculated extensively in lands, and probably has as accurate an idea of the
value of properties in this part of the state as any man in it. His ranch is highly improved, and has a large
and commodious residence, the scene of extended hospitality and good
cheer. Through his marriage in San Mateo
county to Emma Bollinger, a native of the state, he
became identified with one of the early pioneer families of California,
established here by Christian Bollinger a pioneer of 1852, and after whom
Bollinger road is named. The children
born to Mr. and Mrs. Bare are: Georgianna, Josephine, Alice, Edith Hazel and
Lyman C.
As becomes so broad-minded and
well-informed a man, Mr. Bare is interested in the political situation from
both a local and national standpoint, and his fitness for official service has
been repeatedly verified. His name was
proposed in the convention for state senator, and he has been a member of the
Republican county central committee for eight years, having just stepped out of
the office and is now a member of the Republican state central committee. His practical and clearly outlined ideas on
general questions of import to the community are invariably given well merited
attention, and his influence for progress and enlightenment has stood the test
of party dissension and the more or less local prejudice which hedges in a
strong and self-reliant character.
Transcribed by
Louise E. Shoemaker, July 26, 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 703. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Louise E. Shoemaker.