Santa
Clara County
Biographies
WHEELER D. DEXTER
A man of energy, enterprise and liberality, Wheeler D. Dexter has
won for himself the esteem and confidence of his fellow men in his effort to
acquire the competency which the world owes every man. Born at Lawrence
Station, Santa Clara county, July 4, 1853, he was the oldest son of his father,
Albert Dexter, one of the first and most honored settlers of this section. For
more complete details concerning his life, refer to his sketch which appears elsewhere
in this volume.
From
Santa Clara county the Dexter family removed to San Mateo county, locating in
Redwood City where the father conducted a mercantile enterprise for a number of
years. The youth of Wheeler D. Dexter was spent in that city and on the farm
near Gilroy, where his father afterward located, interspersing his home duties
with attendance at the district school in pursuit of an education. He also
attended the public schools of Santa Clara for a time. On completing his
education he settled down on his father’s ranch, where he remained until he
entered upon independent operations in the agricultural
line. In the Pacheco mountains he owned a ranch of sixteen hundred acres, just
twenty-two miles from his present location, and this he fenced and utilized for
stock-raising purposes. After some time he sold his ranch and removed to the
home ranch, of which he now owns two hundred acres, devoting the same to the
cultivation of hay and grain. He also has an orchard of fifteen acres. His
ranch, in a high state of cultivation, well improved and carefully tended, lies
on the Pacheco Pass road, five miles east of Gilroy.
In
Gilroy Mr. Dexter married Emily Reithet, a native of
that city, and the daughter of Jacob Reithet, a
pioneer of the state of California. Of this union were born the following
children: Nellie, the wife of William Dowdy, located near Gilroy; Bertha, the
wife of James Babb, of Gilroy; Fred Reithet, farming
with his father; Mary, the wife of John Deward, of Gilroy;
and Percy Raymond, at home. Fraternally Mr. Dexter affiliates with the Redmen, and politically is a Republican. A man of fine
characteristics, a kindly personality, Mr. Dexter enjoys to an unusual degree
the regard of those about him, and in turn gives to those with whom he comes in
contact an application of the Golden Rule, which motto has been the mainspring
of his actions thus far in life. At one time he served efficiently on the grand
jury.
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 1366-1367. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.