Santa Clara County
Biographies
WILLIAM
HENRY BRUNDIDGE
WILLIAM HENRY
BRUNDIDGE. A man of intellectual vigor and scholarly attainments,
William Henry Brundidge is an esteemed and highly respected resident
of San Jose, and is actively identified with its agricultural, horticultural
and manufacturing interests. Possessing excellent executive ability, he has
been associated with several successful business enterprises, and is widely
known as the patentee of the Herbena Medicines, which
include the Herbena Cough Cure, the Herbena Dandelion Celery Elixir, and the Herbena Dandelion Pill, all of which, made from herbs only,
are manufactured by the Herbena Medical Company at
No. 150 South Eighth street, San Jose. Mr. Brundidge is also one of the
directors of the New Century Manufacturing Company, of which he was one of the
organizers and incorporators. This company is located at No. 104 Franklin
street, Chicago, Ill., and manufactures the New Century Shaft Coupler, which
has found favor in all parts of the Union, being endorsed by the leading
carriage, wagon and implement manufacturing companies of the country, and by
the up-to-date liverymen, and the owners of private vehicles of all kinds. The
Pacific coast office of this company is located at the Auzerais
building, San Jose, Cal., being under the charge of J. E. Hoblit.
A son of Andrew
Brundidge, Mr. Brundidge was born near Auburn, Cayuga county, N. Y.,
April 8, 1839, of English ancestry. His great-grandfather,
Oliver Brundidge, Sr., emigrated from England to New York, settling
on Manhattan Island, in Westchester county, where he became owner of six
hundred acres of land, a part of which is now included within the limits of the
town of Yonkers, where he spent his declining years. He was a most estimable
and respected man, and a Quaker. His son, Oliver Brundidge, Jr., the
grandfather of William H., was born in Westchester county, N. Y., and
there reared to agricultural pursuits. Inheriting the parental homestead, he
traded the entire six hundred acres for an eighty-acre farm in Ulster county,
N. Y. Although brought up in the Quaker faith, he changed his religious
views, becoming a Methodist.
Andrew Brundidge was born
at Pleasant Valley, Ulster county, N. Y., and was there reared and
educated. Removing to Cayuga county, he followed the cooper’s trade for a
number of years, making all the barrels used in the Auburn flour mills. On
retiring from active pursuits he returned to Ulster county, and was there a
resident until his death, at the age of sixty-six years. He was a strong
Methodist in religion, and an active and consistent member of the church of
that denomination. He married Hannah Lynason,
who was born in Ulster county, N. Y., and died, at the age of fifty-six
years, in the same county. Her father served in the war of 1812, taking part in
the Battle of New Orleans. He married a Miss Price, whose father served
under Washington in the Revolutionary war, and whose mother was
General Washington’s nurse, and who attained the remarkable age of one
hundred and four years, dying in Brooklyn, N. Y. Of the union of Andrew
and Hannah (Lynason) Brundidge nine children were
born, namely: Eliza Jane died in New York; Moses died in New York;
William Henry, the subject of this biographical notice; Carrie died in New
York; Hannah E. resides at Cornwall on the Hudson; Susan R., of Clintondale, N. Y.; John H., in business in
Newburg, N. Y.; Andrew D., of Elizabeth, N. J.; and Richard R.,
of Highland, N. Y.
Acquiring a limited
education in the public schools of Ulster and Cayuga counties, N. Y.,
William H. Brundidge learned the cooper’s trade when young, and
worked with his father until becoming of age. During all of this time he had
studied by himself, and soon after entered the Charlotte Theological Seminary,
from which he was graduated. Engaging then in teaching, he found the occupation
very congenial, and followed it a number of years, in the meantime serving as a
local preacher in different places. He was very successful as a disciplinarian,
and at one time was hired to take charge of what was called the hardest school
in the state, being composed of sailors and brickyarders,
and was so successful in its management that he remained in the place, Balmville, N. Y., three years. He afterward taught in
Milton, N. Y., two and one half years, and then embarked in the grocery
business in Newburg, N. Y. In 1865 Mr. Brundidge migrated to Smithton,
Pettis county, Mo., where he resumed his early occupation, accepting the principalship of a school that had a hard reputation, and
there met with characteristic success, making it a model school. A year and a
half later he was sent for to take charge of the school at Cornwall,
N. Y., and for twelve years remained there as its principal, having during
the time as neighbors E. P. Roe, Dr. Lyman Abbott and
N. P. Willis. He subsequently kept a private school for a year.
Coming to San Jose in
1883, Mr. Brundidge engaged in horticultural pursuits, setting out one of the
first orchards in the eastern foot-hills, and giving it such attention that he
became famous as a pruner, dryer and orchardist. This orchard of eighty-four
acres he managed successfully for nine years. Selling out then he, in company
with Dr. A. E. Mintie and others,
embarked in placer mining, becoming owners of the Old Baker Divide in Placer
county, and turning over five miles or more of Forest Hill, a process that took
them nine years, and used up all of their available funds. Mr. Brundidge
then built a fruit dryer five miles east of San Jose, and for five years was
engaged in fruit drying. He has since been prosperously engaged in the real
estate, insurance and loan business in this city, being located in the Porter
building, on North Second street, and for the past sixteen years has also
served as notary public. He was formerly interested in the Kenosha Mining and
Milling Company, in Siskiyou county, being vice-president of the organization,
but gave up his interest in it. He is still a stockholder, and the
vice-president, of the Siskiyou Mining and Milling Company which is tunneling
in Nevada county, and is also interested in the Kenosha mine, in Yuba county.
Mr. Brundidge married,
in Waterbury, Conn., Elizabeth F. Mintie, a native of
Connecticut. Politically Mr. Brundidge has been identified with the
Republican party since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln.
He is an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a local
preacher and a Bible class instructor.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 21 April 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 476-477. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.