Santa Clara County
Biographies
ALBERT DEXTER
The Dexter family is one well represented in Santa Clara county, the first of the name to take up his residence here in pioneer days being Albert Dexter. Remembered throughout this section as a progressive and enterprising merchant and farmer, and one who gave material assistance in the upbuilding of the county. He became the owner of eight hundred acres of fine farming land located on the Pacheco Pass road and for nearly thirty years engaged in its cultivation and improvement, which eventually brought the property to rank with the most valuable of Santa Clara county. In addition to general farming he conducted a dairy and the raising of stock, in all meeting with a success which left behind him a record worthy of emulation.
Born in Royalston, Mass., January 23, 1809, Albert Dexter was a son of Ebenezer W. Dexter, and the descendant of an old New England family for generations residents of the Bay state. In 1829 Mr. Dexter went on two whaling voyages, the second one lasting three and a half years. Though only a mere boy in years he was so courageous and energetic and so skilled with his harpoon that he became a favorite with the entire crew. After leaving the sea he spent eight years in Posey county, Ind., where he was engaged in the manufacture of fanning mills and furniture, in partnership with a brother. Through a combination of circumstances they failed in business, but with the honesty characteristic of the native of New England they paid every dollar of indebtedness, though it left them in straitened circumstances. With only $13 left Mr. Dexter walked to St. Louis, Mo., and there sought and found employment, for four years being engaged as a mechanic. While thus engaged he built the first omnibus ever made in St. Louis. In 1846 he built a wagon and with ox teams crossed the plains to Oregon, for two years following the trip working for the Hudson Bay Company. Learning of the gold discovery in California in 1848 he came south at once, and going to the mines on the American river, was soon engaged in the attractive but hard life of a miner. He formed one of a party of nine, which were attacked by the Indians and seven of their number killed, Mr. Dexter and one comrade miraculously escaping. The two joined nineteen others and pursued the Indians, overtaking them in a gorge, where they meted out a proper punishment by killing all but five. These five they captured and brought to Sutter’s Fort. An attempt of the Indians to escape resulted in the killing of four more, the one succeeding in escaping being a chief, who was, however, afterward killed.
In 1849 Mr. Dexter returned east and married, and the following year brought his wife and her parents and family across the plains to California, driving with him a drove of cattle. He had previously located land near Lawrence Station and he there built a house upon his arrival with his wife. This remained their home for the period of ten years, when he removed to Redwood City and engaged in the mercantile business, later disposing of his ranch to Thomas Selby. May 9, 1867, he came to Santa Clara county and purchased, near Gilroy, eight hundred acres of land, upon which he remained a resident until his death in 1890, at the age of eighty-three years. He met with a success in his work and as well won the esteem and respect of all who knew him by an upright and high-principled life. In his political convictions he was a Republican. His wife, formerly Ellen Davis, of Illinois, was a daughter of Jacob Davis, of Pennsylvania. He settled in Illinois, but in 1850 crossed the plains and became a pioneer resident of this section, making it his home until his death in Gilroy. Mrs. Dexter died in 1898, leaving a family of four sons, namely: Wheeler Davis, William, Harrison, Albert Lyman and Otis Lucian. A sketch of each of these sons appears elsewhere in this work.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 667. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Joyce Rugeroni.