Santa Clara County
Biographies
ABRAM BLOCK
ABRAM BLOCK. Numbered among the
pioneers of California is this well-known fruit-packer of Santa Clara, who is a
representative of the forceful, energetic German element of our population. The
family of which he is a member has long been connected with German Bohemia.
There he was born February 12, 1830. The same province was the
birthplace of his parents, Z. and Maria (Kafka) Block, the latter of whom
died at forty-nine years of age, and the former at the great age of one hundred
and six years. The family consisted of four sons and four daughters, to each of
whom such advantages were given as the means of the father permitted. The
youngest of the family, Abram, was educated in common schools and also under
private instruction. When a youth of fifteen years, in 1845, he accompanied a
cousin to the United States and settled in St. Louis, Mo., where he became
a clerk in a dry goods establishment. For several years he remained in that
city, meanwhile gaining an excellent knowledge of the wholesale and retail
mercantile business in a large store on Carondelet avenue.
At that time California and its wonderful gold mines
furnished the principal theme of conversation and, naturally, the German youth
began to make plans to seek the Pacific coast. During January of 1853 he left
St. Louis and applied his earnings to the payment of his passage via New
Orleans and the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco. Landing at the end of an
uneventful voyage, he proceeded to Nevada City, where he engaged in a general
mercantile business. Three years later he returned to San Francisco and while
there the vigilance committee endeavored to place the lawless element in the
city under the control of justice and order. His store in Nevada City was
burned twice, once during the general conflagration on July 19, 1856,
when he lost $67,000, without insurance, and the second in a conflagration in
1863. He removed to Santa Clara in February, 1878. Here he has since made his
home, meanwhile becoming closely identified with the fruit interests of the
valley. In the history of the fruit industry Santa Clara is prominent. From
this place, in 1869, L. A. Gould shipped the first car of fruit ever
sent from California to the Chicago market, the freight to that city costing
$900 per car, the fruit being shipped from the property now owned by
Mr. Block.
Since 1880 Mr. Block has been engaged in the
fruit-packing business, and such has been his success in the occupation that he
now ships nine-tenths of all the green fruit sent from this point. In extent
and size of consignments he has built up a business surpassed by none in Santa
Clara county. His brand may be seen in all the markets
of the country and is in demand by buyers, because it indicates a high quality
of fruit. Besides buying of other growers, he ships a large amount raised on
his own places, which consist of two hundred and fifty-seven acres in fruit,
his specialties being pears and plums. He also leases one hundred and sixty
acres of orchard in which pears are growing, besides over one hundred and fifty
acres in the lower part of the county. With every
department of the fruit business he is familiar. His long experience and great
success have won for him the confidence and respect of the people with whom he
has had business transactions.
In 1885 he was first made a member of the California
State Board of Horticulture, appointed by Governor Stoneman
to fill a vacancy; he was afterward appointed by Governor Waterman for a four
years’ term, filling the office with great efficiency. He has also taken the
greatest interest in the welfare of the community in which he has made his home
for so many years and in many ways has served the public. In 1887 he was
appointed by Governor Bartlett as one of the trustees of the Home for the Care
and Training of Feeble-minded Children, a state institution located in this
town.
Though appreciative of the value of a home, he has never
married. He is a hard-working, energetic and capable man, his success being
largely due to his perseverance and the close attention he has given to the
demands of his business. In his fraternal relations he is connected with Bay
City Lodge No. 71, I. O. O. F., in San Francisco, also
Wilder Encampment No. 23, in the same city. A believer in the principles
of Masonry, he is connected with Fidelity Lodge, F. & A. M.,
and maintains an interest in the enterprises and charities fostered by the
order.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 03 July 2016.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
1236-1237. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Marie Hassard.