Santa Clara County
Biographies
WILLIAM D. GREENWALT
The home of Mr. Greenwalt is pleasantly situated seven miles from the business center of San Jose, on the Almaden road. He was born in Santa Clara county February 16, 1864, and is the second child in a family of four sons and three daughters born to David and Eliza (Booth) Greenwalt, natives of Lehigh county, Pa., and England, respectively.
The Greenwalt family was established in America during the middle of the eighteenth century by Jacob Greenwalt, the paternal great-great-grandfather of William D., who came from Holland under circumstances which argued well for his determination and faith in the country of his adoption. Having no money to pay for his passage in the sailing vessel, it became necessary for him to labor three years on this side of the water to meet the indebtedness incurred. He settled on the farm in Lehigh county, Pa., which has been in the possession of the family for six generations, and which is still owned by bearers of the name. His son and son's son were named Abraham, the latter being the father of David, father of William D. David Greenwalt left Pennsylvania at the age of fourteen and located in Illinois, from where he removed in 1846 to Wisconsin, and spent four years in the lead mines. His bias for adventure, and dissatisfaction with the gloomy life of the mines, made him a ready listener to the reports of gold on the coast, and in 1850 he crossed the plains in an ox train, eventually engaging in mining in what is now Placerville, which he reached August 2, 1850. Two months later he visited this valley, and October 9, 1851, married Eliza Booth, born in England in May, 1831. Mrs. Greenwalt and her parents came to California in 1846, being members of the famous Donner party, but more fortunate than many of the travelers, they separated from the main body on the way, and thus reached their destination in safety. Soon after his marriage Mr. Greenwalt went with his wife to Australia, lured thither by the same dream of mining success, which had brought him to the coast, and which proved equally effervescent. After a fair trial in the mines of Australia, they returned on the Jessie Burns, reaching San Francisco in August, 1852. Soon after landing Mr. Greenwalt engaged in stock-raising with his father-in-law in Santa Clara county, and in 1867 came to the two hundred acre farm now owned and operated by his son. He was always glad to recall the contrast between his first appearance in this county and the prosperity with which years endowed it, yet no one changed in greater degree than himself. He came here poor, and found long stretches of land unbroken by a single fence, and in his last days looked upon as fertile and home loving, and rich an agricultural region as is to be found in the whole world. His death, July 6, 1888, was widely regretted, not only by the men who had battled with him in the pioneer days, but by those new comers who recognized in a type of worker in the world's harvest field which soon shall be such in history only. His wife preceded him to the better land, her death occurring October 29, 1887.
William D. Greenwalt inherits his father's ability as a manager and his taste for country existence. Continuously he has lived on the home place in young manhood becoming his father's ablest assistant, and after the latter's death taking possession of the homestead embracing thirty-one and one-half acres. He has converted twenty-two and a half acres into orchard, in which prunes, apricots and peaches predominate, and for the picking and shipment of which he has ample facilities. Mr. Greenwalt has taken a greater interest in politics than his father, and is stanchly(sic) devoted to the principles and issues of the Republican party. During four years he served as deputy assessor, and is now a member of the school board. He is interested in the educational and general advancement of his neighborhood, and by no means confines his progressive ideas to his own domain. His family consists of his wife, formerly Lizzie M. Withers, a native of California, and four children: Ethel M., Irma E., Viole M. and Elizabeth G. Erville W., the third child, died at the age of seven years.
Transcribed
11-9-15 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource:
History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Page 878. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marilyn R.
Pankey.