Santa
Clara County
Biographies
CHARLES A. ENGLISH
Among the native sons of
California who are continuing the agricultural prestige of their family, and
adding to it the vigor of younger years, and the advantages of modern methods,
is Charles A. English, owner of a well cultivated ranch of forty-three acres on
the Prospect road, Moreland school district. Mr. English is a practical
horticulturist as well as agriculturist, having eighteen acres under prunes,
and five acres under peaches. His ranch is equipped with latter-day implements,
good outhouses, and a modern and comfortable dwelling. That he is a painstaking
and conscientious workman finds confirmation in every department of his
enterprise, and the visitor is impressed with the air of neatness and method,
without which no ranch combines the delightful, homelike and practical phases
of country life.
Born on a ranch in Mendocino county
Cal., October 24, 1862, Mr. English is a son of William P. and Melissa J.
(Barnes) English, natives of Missouri, and born June 14, 1834, and January 1,
1847, respectively. William P. English outgrew the opportunities by which he
was surrounded in Missouri, and in 1852 crossed the plains with ox teams,
thereafter operating in various mining sections of the state. His success was
not sufficiently pronounced to continue mining indefinitely, and in 1857 he
located in Mendocino county and returned to the
occupation of farming, in which he had been reared, and which had been followed
by his ancestors for many generations. That his forte lay in this direction was
all too apparent for he fell in with the spirit of the west, and created a
success in accord with his expectations. In time he owned sixteen hundred acres
of land, upon which roamed large herds of cattle, and where extensive general farming
was conducted. The genial owner amassed a fortune, considering his occupation,
and now that years crowd heavily upon him he is enabled to spend them in retirement, and in travel over different part of the
country. He is one of the substantial and reliable large land owners of
Mendocino county and his firm grasp upon his pioneer
surroundings, and equally forceful mastery of later opportunities, makes him a
conspicuous and masterful factor in the history of Mendocino county. The mother
died February 24, 1897.
For his life equipment Charles A.
English had a practical common school education, supplemented by a course at
the Pacific Methodist College, which he entered in 1883, and from which he
graduated in 1887. He continued ranching with his father in Mendocino county until 1890, and then purchased his present property
in Prospect road. He married in this county, Mary C. Graves, born on the farm
now owned by her husband, and then the possession of her father, Jacob Graves,
a native of Tennessee, and a California pioneer of 1849. Mr. Graves was
successful as a miner and farmer, contributing much to the material and general
upbuilding of Santa Clara county, in which he settled
at an early day. He lived to the age of sixty-two years, his death occurring March
12, 1890. Three sons have been born into the English home, William Frank, Floyd
Everett, and Donald Charles. As a stanch Democrat Mr. English has been
prominent in local politics, although he is liberal minded enough to vote for
either party he thinks in the right, or for any man well fitted to serve the
public interests. He has been a school director three terms, and at present is
serving his sixth year as road supervisor. He is fraternally connected with
Santa Clara Lodge No. 52, I. O. O. F., and the Grange of Cupertino. Like his
esteemed father, he is a tireless worker, a good manager, and fair and
honorable in all of his dealings.
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., Page 915. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Cecelia M. Setty.