Santa
Clara County
Biographies
MRS. MARTHA A. BERGLER
A capable and accomplished woman, Mrs. Martha A.
Bergler is well known throughout San Jose and its
suburbs as a professional nurse of prominence and efficiency. Warm-hearted,
sympathetic, painstaking and careful, she is peculiarly adapted to her chosen
work and her services are in demand in the sick room, where her presence is a
benefaction to the invalid and an inspiration to the attending physician, who
has learned that under her charge all his orders will be most faithfully
executed. A daughter of Gersham Orvis Wicks, she was
born in Watertown, N. Y., on the paternal side coming from thrifty Scotch
ancestry. Her grandfather, Thomas Wicks,
the son of a Revolutionary soldier, was born and reared in Vermont, but after
serving in the war of 1812 removed to Jefferson county N. Y., where he engaged
in farming until his death.
Born November 12, 1800, in Halifax,
Vt., Gersham O. Wicks accompanied his parents to
Jefferson county, N. Y., where for a time he was
engaged in agricultural pursuits, but was afterward in the hotel business, and
was also sheriff of the county. Starting westward in 1844 with his family, he
journeyed with horse-teams through New York, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, to
Illinois, settling in Mount Carroll, where he lived for six years. In 1850,
with his wife and two children, he went to Kansas City, Mo., and there
outfitted for a trip across the plains. Starting from there early in the spring
of 1851 with an ox team train, he followed the trail of the Santa Fe traders
across the Gila river to Fort Yuma, where the party awaited the coming of the
government train from San Diego that they might join it on its return to the
Pacific coast. In Arizona the Apache Indians stole all of their stock excepting
sixteen oxen and cows, and killed one man, making such ravages that of the
train of thirty wagons with which they left Missouri, they were forced to leave
twenty-six of them at the border of Mexico, coming from there with four wagons
and their provisions only. Arriving in San Diego, Cal, in May, 1852, Mr. Wicks
remained there about two years, engaged in farming and trading. Coming to Santa
Clara valley in 1854 he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land at Willows,
on what is now the Malone road, and embarked in general farming and
stock-raising. Selling out in 1860, Mr. Wicks located in San Jose, and as a
contractor assisted in the construction of many of the city streets and roads.
He lived to be an old man, dying November 19, 1882, at the venerable age of
eighty-two years. He was a Republican in politics, and a member of the Baptist
Church.
Mr. Wicks married Phoebe A. Waters,
who was born in Hartford, Conn., a daughter of Zenas
Waters, who was for many years engaged in the merchant marine service as owner
of three vessels, carrying on a substantial East India trade. Zenas Waters married Asenath
Phelps, who was born in Connecticut, and was a descendant of Sir John Phelps,
of England. Mrs. Phoebe Wicks died in San Jose, Cal., in 1861. She bore her
husband four children, namely: Willard died in Mount Carroll, Ill.; Mrs. Eliza
Putnam, of Bellevue, Iowa; Martha A., the subject of this sketch; and Thomas
Z., of Alaska.
Brought up in Mount Carroll, Ill.,
Martha A. Wicks came across the plains with the family in 1852, and in October,
1854, at San Diego, Cal., married Louis Bergler, who
was born in Bavaria, Germany, a son of Col. Alvin Bergler,
a prominent officer in the German army. Emigrating to
the United States when a young man, Mr. Bergler soon
after enlisted in a regiment of United States cavalry, and served in the
Mexican war, taking part in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Camargo
and Buena Vista. He was shot in the arm while in action, and was so severely
wounded that he was honorably discharged from service. Coming then to San
Diego, Mr. Bergler established the Citizens’ store.
The first mercantile house opened in that place, and was there engaged as a
merchant for several years. In 1855 he removed to Monterey, and from there went
to Tuolumne county, where he was employed in mining for a number of years,
being very successful in his operations and owning some of the best placer
mines at Chinese Camp. Coming from there to San Jose, he purchased land at the
Willows, becoming the owner of a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, and
setting out a large orchard. Selling that property, Mr. Bergler
went to Virginia City, Nev., where he engaged in mining. He returned to San
Jose for a couple of years and died at the Soldiers’ Home in Napa, Cal.
Mrs. Bergler
continued a resident of this city, and now owns and occupies a house at No. 75
Adams street, East San Jose. In her career as a
trained nurse she has been very successful, and has proved herself well worthy
of the high estimation in which she is held. She is a Republican in politics, a
member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, and belongs to the Santa Clara
County Pioneers’ Society. Four children were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bergler, namely: Imogene, of San Jose, wife of C. C. Reed,
of whom a sketch may be found elsewhere in this work; James Collin, died in
1891 at the age of thirty years; Mrs. Nettie A. Johnson, of British Columbia;
and Elizabeth A., who resides in San Jose.
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 1266-1267. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.