Santa Clara County
Biographies
ISAAC BINGHAM
The bachelor population of Santa Clara county has no more prosperous or prominent member than Isaac Bingham, owner of an eighty-eight acre ranch seven miles east of San Jose on the old Tully road. Mr. Bingham's loyalty to interests and regard for neatness and detail have been apparent all along his agricultural career, and are nowhere more in evidence than on his home place, which impresses the visitor as being typical of the best possible of accomplishment in the farming and fruit raising line. He has twenty-six acres under prunes, and two acres under peaches and apricots, the balance of his land being devoted to grain and hay. For ten years he was able to pride himself upon a well kept vineyard of sixty-six acres, but he finally disposed of this, and it now comprises a part of the William Wehner vineyards. For the past four years the home has been made bright and attractive by the excellent housekeeping of Margaret Emma, the sister of Mr. Bingham, whose husband, Mr. Tibbits, is employed on the Bingham farm.
Born in Ontario, Canada, February 10, 1845, Mr. Bingham is a son of Robert and Margaret (Stevenson) Bingham, natives of Ireland, the former of whom immigrated to Canada when twenty-one years of age. He married his wife in Ontario, she having come to America with her parents when two years old. The family continued to live in Canada until locating on a farm in Pottawattamie county, Iowa, where the father became well known as a large farmer, as a Republican politician, and a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was survived some years by his wife, who died in Iowa in 1898, leaving three sons and four daughters, of whom Isaac is her eldest born.
That Mr. Bingham is a well educated and well informed man is due principally to his exertions out of the school room, for his boyhood opportunities were limited in the extreme. He came to the United States in 1864, landing in San Francisco, Cal., from where he journeyed to the lumbering regions of Washington territory. After two years in the forests he engaged in farm work in Santa Clara county, then rented a farm until 1873, when he went into partnership with W. L. Edwards and purchased a farm of one hundred and fifty acres in the foothills. For many years this association was continued amicably and with good financial results, Mr. Bingham finally disposing of his share to his partner in 1898, just prior to the purchase of his present farm.
Offices of trust and responsibility have awaited the acceptance of Mr. Bingham for many years past, but he has been content to exercise his usefulness as a member of the school board only. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and one of the oldest members of the Garden City Lodge, of San Jose. He is a genial and kindly man, looking at the world through contented eyes, and helping its progress by treating everyone fairly, and using his opportunities to the best advantage.
Transcribed
1-31-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource:
History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 968-969. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R.
Pankey.