Santa Clara County
Biographies
ANDREW JACKSON BOLLINGER
Prominent among the men who were conspicuous and influential in developing and advancing the agricultural and industrial resources of Santa Clara county was the late Andrew Jackson Bollinger, who though but a boy of fifteen years when he came to this county, assisted in the pioneer labor of clearing a homestead, by his patient toil and persevering industry paving a smooth pathway for the present generation. A son of Adam Joseph Bollinger, he was born in 1837 in Bollinger county, Mo., and died December 23, 1895, at his home on the Stevens Creek road. He was of Swiss ancestry, being a direct descendant of one Henry Bollinger, who emigrated from Switzerland to the United States in colonial days, and settled first in Pennsylvania, but afterward removed to South Carolina. One of his lineal descendants, Mathis Bollinger, the grandfather of Andrew Jackson Bollinger, was a pioneer settler of Missouri, locating in the county that was subsequently named Bollinger in his honor.
Adam Joseph Bollinger lived in Bollinger county, Mo., during the earlier years of his life. Starting for the Pacific coast with his family March 29, 1852, he made the long journey across the plains with ox teams, coming by way of Green river, which he crossed on the Fourth of July, just in time to encounter a summer snowstorm. Locating in the Santa Clara valley, he bought a squatter's right to a tract of land that is now included in the Bollinger homestead, and erected his first dwelling house just across the road from the present family residence, which he built in 1854. Improving a good ranch, he was here engaged in general farming until his death, March 29, 1885, in the seventh-fifth year of his age. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Hahn, seven children were born, namely: Mary Lovina, wife of Christian Bollinger, of Santa Clara; Francis Marion, of Contra Costa county; Sarah E., widow of A. C. Tinin, of Merced county; Andrew Jackson, the subject of this sketch; Quintilla P., wife of William Tinin, of Contra Costa county; Morgan D., of Santa Clara county; and Samuel P., a resident of Alameda county.
Andrew Jackson Bollinger came to Santa Clara county with his parents in 1852. On the death of his father he succeeded to the ownership of the home farm, in the development and improvement of which he was so actively interested. A systematic and thorough going farmer he continued the cultivation and improvement of the estate after it came into his possession, by his thrift and enterprise rendering it one of the most attractive and desirable homesteads in this section of the country. A man of sterling worth and integrity, honest and upright in all of his dealings, he was especially deserving of the high esteem in which he was held by his fellow men, and his death was regretted as a loss to the community as well as to his immediate family and friends.
October 14, 1860, in Santa Clara county, Mr. Bollnger married Mary Hahn, who was born September 30, 1839, in Missouri, a daughter of Frederick Hahn. A native of Kentucky and of German descent, Frederick Hahn was a pioneer farmer of Missouri, where he lived until 1855. Coming then across the plains to California, he remained here a year and then returned east for his family, which he brought to the Santa Clara valley in 1857. He subsequently bought land in Tulare county, where he followed farming until his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Chanie Hill, was born in Kentucky, and died in California in 1862. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bollinger, ten children were born, namely: Adam J.; George F.; Theodore; Flavius Jesse; Mary Jane; Luke R.; Martin L.; Sarah N. and Chanie E., twins; and Louie A. J. At his death Mr. Bollinger willed to each of his children ten acres of land, and they are all living in the vicinity of their childhood home. Mrs. Bollinger occupies the homestead, and is managing her estate successfully, devoting thirty-seven acres of it to grain, and sixteen acres to the cultivation of fruit.
Transcribed
4-29-16 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource:
History of the State of California & Biographical
Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1159.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2016 Marilyn R.
Pankey.