Santa
Clara County
Biographies
ISAIAH
S. C. GORHAM
I. S. C. GORHAM. In reviewing the lives of the pioneer
settlers of Paradise Valley, Santa Clara county, Cal., due mention should be
made of I. S. C. Gorham, who traces his ancestry back to the
Puritans who came over in the Mayflower, braved the hardships and privations
incident to life in a new country, fought with the savages and laid the
corner-stone to a new nation. It was in
the historic old town of Plymouth, Mass., that
Mr. Gorham was born February 4, 1835.
He is a son of Jabez and Rebecca (Standish)
Gorham and grandson of James Gorham, who was born in New Brunswick and
distinguished himself as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Gorham’s father was a butcher by
occupation, and during the after part of his life he also followed farm
pursuits in the vicinity of his home in Plymouth, his death taking place at
Mattapoisett. His mother also died in
Massachusetts. She was a direct
descendant of Miles Standish, who came to this country on the Mayflower and who
played an important part in the history of town and colony. Among the heirlooms of the family is the
famous iron pipe which once belonged to him.
This is now the property of Mr. Gorham and it is on exhibition at
the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, now being held in St. Louis, Mo. It has also been exhibited at the expositions
held at Chicago and Atlanta.
There were ten sons and four daughters
in the family, I. S. C. being the eighth child. Educated in the common schools,
Mr. Gorham early became apprenticed to learn the painter’s trade, which he
followed for five years in Massachusetts.
In 1856 he went to New York city, and for seven
years he followed his chosen occupation there, going west to Iowa in 1863,
locating at Waverly, where he engaged in similar work. This continued to be his home until 1883, the
date of his removal to South Dakota.
Near Parker he bought one hundred and sixty acres of farming land and
here he followed the double occupation of farming and painting until 1895.
It was during the latter year that he
came to California and settled permanently in Paradise Valley, Santa Clara
County, purchasing the Rosedale ranch.
He has twenty-four acres in prunes, apricots and peaches, eleven acres
in assorted fruits and the balance in pasture land. Mr. Gorham planted his own fruit ranch,
putting out nothing but the choicest varieties, and he is amply repaid by the
excellence of the fruit. His land lies
three miles southwest of Morgan Hill.
The home ties of Mr. Gorham date back to his marriage in Brooklyn,
N.Y., in 1863, to Miss Mary Elizabeth Craft, formerly of New York City, and
they have one son, Charles Wesley, who is a graduate of the schools of Mount
Vernon, Ia., and editor of Tribune at
Snohomish, Wash. Fraternally
Mr. Gorham affiliates with the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, and in his
political views he is a stanch[sic] Republican.
But of the many good things which can be said of him the best is that he
is a Christian gentleman, having for many years been an active member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and until recently has also been engaged in Sunday
school work.
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 854-855. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Donna Toole.