Santa
Clara County
Biographies
FRANK WILLIAM BLACKMAR
Well-known in Santa Clara and vicinity a proprietor of the Road house, Frank William Blackmar established this hotel more
than twenty years ago, and in its management has met with eminent success. Pleasant, genial, and accommodating, he is a
popular host, and well deserving of the generous patronage given him by the
traveling public. A son of William
Blackmar, he was born January 28, 1852, in Wayne county, Mich., being the
twelfth child in order of birth of fourteen children. William Blackmar was born, reared and married
in New York state. Migrating to Michigan
in 1826, he took up wild land in Wayne county, and having redeemed a farm from
the wilderness was there employed in agricultural pursuits until his death, in
1861. His wife, whose maiden name was
Laura Tibitts, was born in New York state, and is now
a resident of Berkeley, Cal.
Reared on
a farm, and educated in the district schools, Frank W. Blackmar became familiar
with the various branches of agriculture while young, and became a tiller of
the soil from choice. With a view to
bettering his financial condition he migrated to California, arriving in San
Francisco July 13, 1879. For six months
or more he drove a milk wagon in that city, but did not find the employment
very profitable. Coming to Santa Clara
in May, 1880, he rented his present place of two hundred acres and carried on
general farming until 1883, meeting with good results. In that year, with
characteristic enterprise and wise forethought, he established the Road house,
which he has since operated with most satisfactory financial results. This house is advantageously located at the
corner of Stevens creek and Saratoga avenue, on what
is called Meridian Corners, four and one half miles west of San Jose, on the
San Jose, Saratoga and Los Gatos Electric Railway line, which brings many
customers to his door. In connection
with the house Mr. Blackmar runs a ranch of six acres devoting it principally
to the raising of prunes.
In 1883,
in Santa Clara, Mr. Blackmar married Ellinor Louise Driscoll a native of Boston,
and they are the parents of six children.
Politically Mr. Blackmar is a sound Republican, and fraternally he is a
member of the Foresters of America, the Improved Order of Red Men, and is a
Royal Arch Mason.
Transcribed by
Louise E. Shoemaker May4, 2016.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1144-1147. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Louise E. Shoemaker.