Santa
Clara County
Biographies
DANIEL GOULD BREWER
The pioneer history of California
is replete with interesting experiences of many of her first citizens,
prominent among whom is Daniel Gould Brewer, now a resident of San Jose, but
widely known throughout the entire state. A self-made man in the best sense
implied by the term, Mr. Brewer has known the ups and downs of life, has
experienced privations, hardships and dangers, but withal has met with a
success which numbers him to-day among those who are rewarded for their efforts
in the past by prosperity in the present. Born in Middletown, Delaware county, N. Y., April 25, 1825, he is the son of Deliverance
and Rhoda (Taber) Brewer.
Deliverance Brewer was a native of
Westchester county, N. Y., while his wife owed her
nativity to Boston, Mass. He was a blacksmith by trade, following the same in
his native state, where he died at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife had
died many years before at the age of forty-three, leaving a family of ten
children, eight of whom attained maturity, one son besides our subject coming
to the state of California. After his father’s second marriage Daniel G. Brewer
left home (which was then located in Stockbridge, Madison county, N. Y., where
the father had brought his family in 1830), at the age of thirteen years hiring
out to a neighboring farmer. His remuneration was to be $3 per month and board.
After a few weeks he made arrangements with the farmer to remain with him until
he was twenty-one, with three months in school each year. In the intervening
years he saved his money, and on attaining his majority bought a farm there and
began farming for himself. After five years, however, he found himself broken
in health, and on recovering from a severe attack of pneumonia he was forced to
seek a milder climate. Disposing of his farm, he took passage on a steamer at
New York City, October 8, 1850, bound for Charleston, S. C. After visiting the
celebrated Coco Springs in Aiken county, that state,
he went on to Savannah, Ga., thence to Jacksonville, Fla. He remained in the
latter state two years, his health improving to a large extent; but his right
lung was still badly affected and hemorrhages so frequent, that he went to an
interior county in order to take the chills and fever, it having been said this
would counteract the other disease. After having one chill he effected his own cure of that disease and has never been
troubled since with the other, ever after acting as his own physician and
being, as he says, his oldest patient living. While in Florida he carried the
mails six months by a small boat from New Smyrna to Fort Capron, a distance of
one hundred and fifty-two miles, he being the only man who was never capsized
in that length of time. In the year 1855 he returned to New York, and October
5, the same year, he sailed from New York City for San Francisco, crossing the
Isthmus and arriving in San Francisco October 29. After a month spent in Angels
Camp, whither he had gone in the hope of recovering from a severe cold which he
contracted on the night of his arrival in California, he again went to San
Francisco and there engaged at the carpenter’s trade until January 23, 1856. He
then engaged with H. C. Hudson in his mustard and spice mills, but his health
again failing him he spent some time in visiting various places along the coast.
Again locating in San Francisco he formed a company to proceed to the Fraser river, and July 4, 1858, they sailed from that city on the
clipper ship E. F. Willits, commanded by Captain Holmes. On their arrival in
the north Mr. Brewer was elected captain of the expedition, which, though
replete with interesting experiences, was also one of extreme hardships and
danger. The company disbanded at Fort Yale and Mr. Brewer began mining with a
rocker, in October returning to San Francisco, going thence to Alviso and
Milpitas, in the latter location renting land in conjunction with V. W. Van Wie. Their first crop failed, whereupon Mr. Brewer leased
one hundred acres of the Alviso tract, remaining upon the same until 1866, then
purchasing a ranch of eighty acres. This he sold in 1887 and removed to San
Jose, where he now makes his home.
Mr. Brewer married Jennie Richards,
born in New Jersey, a daughter of Thomas Richards. Though so long a resident of
California Mr. Brewer has not forgotten his native state, nor the section in
which he spent the years of his young manhood, and between the years 1888 and
1900 he made twelve trips back east, one each year, visiting various places. In
1904, in company with his wife, he returned again to the east and renewed old
acquaintances, passing through Chicago, St. Paul and Yellowstone Park on his return
home.
In his fraternal relations Mr.
Brewer is a Mason, having become a member of the order in Madison county, N.
Y., and has kept up his interest to the present time. Always actively
interested in all movements calculated to advance the general welfare, he
served in the early days as a member of the Vigilance Committee, being one of
Captain McDonald’s company. Mr. Brewer is held in the
highest respect for all that he has accomplished in his life, and the qualities
which distinguished him among the citizens of this community.
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., Pages 1323-1324. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.