Santa Clara County
Biographies
WILLIAM
DALE
WILLIAM DALE. While witnessing the marvelous growth of
Santa Clara county, William Dale has added his contribution of sterling
character and well applied industry, and though well advanced in years finds
himself an integral part of the horticultural world surrounding Mountainview (sic), owning a thrifty fruit ranch of five
acres on the Grant road, half a mile south of town. He also owns a ranch of two hundred acres on
the coast adjoining San Gregorio, occupied by a tenant and devoted to grain and
hay. A representative of an old
Tennessee family, he was born in Marion county, Mo.,
February 5, 1834, and is the oldest in a family of four sons and three
daughters. His father, Edward Dale, was
born in Cumberland county, Tenn., and located in
Marion county, Mo., as early as 1830. He
was a farmer and stockman nearly all his life, and in 1838, when his son
William was four years old, moved to Cass county, Mo.,
not far from Kansas City. For twelve
years he continued to till the soil of his farm, and in the spring of 1850
added to his former journeyings by crossing the
plains to California. Disposing of his
farm, and laying in a large stock of provisions, he started for the coast,
coming by way of the Platte river, Port Laramie, Bear River and Fort Hall, to
Snake river, and finally located near Mountainview
(sic), where he engaged in farming for fourteen years. In 1864 he removed to the old Dale ranch,
which then consisted of one hundred acres, to which he later added eighty
acres, and remained there until his death, in 1888, at the age of eighty-four
years. He was a Democrat in politics,
and was a fair representative of the rugged and determined pioneer, who
understood, and in a manner mastered, the opportunities of his western career. He married Elizabeth
Finley, of Indiana, and reared a family of four sons and three daughters.
Being the oldest child in the
family, William Dale was obliged to shoulder responsibility as soon as his
growing powers permitted, and his attendance at the little log schoolhouse in
Cass county, Mo., was at best irregular and
unsatisfactory. He was sixteen when the
immigration to California took place, and he soon afterward went to work for
Frank Sleeper, the pioneer who laid out old Mountainview
(sic), and who was the first settler of Santa Clara county. Mr. Sleeper owned what later became the old
Dale ranch, disposing of his property to William’s father, who spent the
balance of his life thereon. William
Dale was a thrifty and saving youth, and upon severing his connection with Mr.
Sleeper bought a farm of two hundred acres in the foot hills, where he raised
stock and grain until the spring of 1888.
He then bought his present place of five acres, which he has set out in
prunes, apples and cherries, and where he has added many fine
improvements. He has always made his
home a pleasant and hospitable one, and now has the satisfaction of knowing
that two of his sons, Thomas J. and James J., are established on ranches of their
own near him, and that his daughter, Lucy Ann, is well married to a Mr.
Daniels, and also lives in his neighborhood.
His marriage in Mountainview (sic) with Lucy Kifer has been an unusually happy one, Mrs. Dale, a native
of Kentucky, being a woman of large heart and domestic capability. Mr. Dale has secured a competence sufficient
to permit him to live in retirement for the balance of his life, a fact which,
to a man who appreciates the climate and beautiful surroundings of California,
amount to a practical realization of his ambitions. Fraternally Mr. Dale is identified with the
Blue Lodge, F. & A. M., of Mountainview (sic), of
which he is a charter member. Like his
father, Mr. Dale is a Democrat, emulating the older man also in his abstinance (sic) from participation in local or other political
undertakings. He is respected for his
high character and noble aims, and for the moderation and simplicity which has
characterized his life.
Transcribed by
Doralisa Palomares.
Source: History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Page 1407. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2017 Doralisa Palomares.