Santa
Clara County
Biographies
WILLIAM BOUCHER
William Boucher, manager of the San Jose
Business College, the second largest and one of the best equipped institutions
of the kind in California, was born in Barton county, Mo., February 18, 1874,
and is the third oldest of the nine children of S. E. and Elizabeth (Stephens)
Boucher, natives of Louisiana and Missouri respectively. Mr. Boucher’s
great-grandfather shouldered a musket in the Colonial army during the
Revolutionary war, enlisting from Louisiana, where he owned a plantation and
where he lived to an advanced age. His son, Joseph, the grandsire (sic) of
William, was of more ambitious mind, and, while Missouri was as yet a stranger
to plow or harrow and the fearless energy of the paleface, took his family
overland to Barton county, of which he was one of the pioneer settlers. S. E.
Boucher, one of his numerous progeny, had the scant advantages of the early
subscription schools of Louisiana and Missouri, eventually engaging in
independent farming in Barton county. In 1884 he came to Los Angeles, moving
later to San Benito county, and thence to San Jose, where he has since
conducted a butchering and meat market business.
William Boucher was fortunate in
stepping into the groove for which he is best adapted at an early age. It was
while attending the San Francisco Business college that he demonstrated marked
commercial ability, and at the conclusion of the course, which extended from
1889 until 1891, he was retained as bookkeeper in the institution for one year,
and in 1892 became one of the regular faculty of the college. He had formerly
attended the public schools of Los Angeles, to which he moved in 1884, and
those of Hollister, where he graduated from the high school in the spring of
1889. He continued with the San Francisco college until 1899, and for the
following two years was an expert accountant in San Francisco, during that time
going over some of the most complicated sets of books in the city, and opening
some of the largest corporation accounts in the state of California. In 1901 he
associated himself with A. S. Weaver, principal of the San Francisco Business
College, and C. J. Craddock, proprietor of the Eureka Business College, in the
purchase of the San Jose Business College, established in 1891, and of which he
has since been manager. The college occupies the entire upper floor of the
McKee Building, on the corner of Second and Fernando streets, and through its
connection with the San Francisco Business College is able to offer its
students superior opportunities for employment. In this respect it is second
only to the San Francisco Business College, admittedly the largest procurer of
commercial positions in the state.
Mr. Boucher has an able assistant in
his wife, who is principal of the shorthand department of the college, and who
also received her commercial training at the San Francisco Business College.
Mrs. Boucher was formerly Elizabeth R. Donohue, a native of Pennsylvania, and
she is a graduate of the San Rafael high school. Two children have been born to
Mr. and Mrs. Boucher, William Robert and Oliver Joseph. Fraternally Mr. Boucher
belongs to the Knights of Pythias. He is personally well adapted to his work,
being genial, sympathetic, and kindly disposed, and having excellent discipline
and authority. His students are noted for their accuracy and thoroughness, and
their ability to step at once into positions of trust and responsibility. His
position in the community is therefore clearly and encouragingly defined, for
at no period of the world’s history has there been such a conspicuous need of
dependable and commercially capable young people.
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., Page 1380. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.