Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JOHN R. HARDIN
Ever since the landing of the
historic Mayflower the Hardin family, which is of Scotch origin, has been
identified with the history of our country. Especially prominent in Kentucky,
where one of the counties of the state was named in their honor, several
successive generations were born, reared and educated there, and became
identified with its agricultural or commercial interests. Richard Hardin, a native
of that state, was one of the soldiers which the war of 1812 brought into the
service of the country. His son, John Henry, was born and reared at Frankfort,
and in young manhood learned the trade of bricklayer and stonemason. On
starting out for himself at twenty-one years of age, he went to Ohio, where he
worked at his trade on the Miami river. About 1835, he
became a pioneer of Lee county, Iowa, where he took up a tract of raw land and
brought the same under cultivation, at the same time following his trade in
Keokuk, the principal town in the county.
Accompanied by his family, in April
of 1852, John Henry Hardin made the overland journey to California in a
“prairie schooner” drawn by four yoke of oxen. Nothing of special importance
marked the trip, and when he had reached his destination in Santa Clara county he took up work at his trade. After a time he bought
land four miles south of Santa Clara, and there placed a portion of the
property under cultivation, while the remainder was utilized for the pasturage
of his large herds of stock. Farming and stock-raising continued to engage his
attention until he died in 1870, at sixty-eight years of age. Although he never
gained wealth, yet he was fairly successful in his enterprises, notwithstanding
the discouragements and obstacles incident to life in a new and undeveloped
country. His wife, who was Lydia Gruewell, a native
of Ohio, traced her lineage to France, but was of Ohio parentage. Two of her
brothers came to California in 1848, and in 1852 she accompanied her husband to
this state, where her death occurred in November, 1878, when she was about
sixty-nine years of age. After the death of her husband she made her home with
her son, John R., in whose residence at Pleasanton her death occurred.
During the residence of his parents
in Lee county, Iowa, John R. Hardin was born April 3, 1850. When an infant he
was brought to California, hence his first recollections are associated with
the state which he has always regarded as his home. For a time, during early
manhood, he engaged in the stock business in Oregon, Washington, Montana and
Idaho, but in 1877 he settled upon a farm in the Livermore valley, and
afterward gave his attention to agricultural pursuits. After many years as a
rancher, in the spring of 1904 he and his family removed from their country
home to Pleasanton, where they occupy a comfortable residence built under his
supervision. Here he has taken a position as a public-spirited citizen, a
contributor to movements for the benefit of the town, a pronounced adherent of
Democratic principles, yet caring little for official honors and invariably
declining the candidacy for such. In temperament unassuming and quiet, his
tastes lie in the direction of domestic life rather than public affairs, but he
has kept intelligently posted concerning matters bearing upon the progress of
county, state and nation.
The marriage of Mr. Hardin, November
19,1878, united him with Miss Amelia Garthwaite, a step-daughter of Charles C. Garthwaite. Her mother, who bore the maiden name of Marie
Antonia Groff, was born in Baden-Baden, Germany, and at the age of twenty-five
years crossed the ocean to America. By her first husband she had only one
child, Amelia, who was quite small when she accompanied her mother to the Pacific
coast. Soon afterward the latter was married to Charles C. Garthwaite,
a native of Elizabeth, N. J., and a California pioneer of 1849. Like the
majority of the emigrants of that year, Mr. Garthwaite
tried his luck at mining, his principal attempts in that occupation being on
the Feather river. While he was more successful than
many, yet the occupation was not congenial, and in 1856 he turned his attention
to ranching. During that year he came to Alameda county
and purchased a ranch and store, the latter of which he conducted for four
years. At the expiration of that time he bought a one-half interest in a ranch
owned by the Bernal heirs, comprising seven hundred and fifty acres two miles
from Pleasanton, and here he followed general farming and stock-raising until
his death in 1887, at sixty-eight years of age. He was one of the first men to
set out fruit trees and vines in Alameda county, and many of the trees are
still standing on Mr. Hardin’s present ranch. The large estate that he
accumulated was inherited by his daughter. Some of the land has since been
disposed of to settlers, but two hundred acres still remain in her possession,
and upon this tract she and Mr. Hardin made their home until the spring of
1904, when they came to Pleasanton. Three children were born of their union,
namely: Edward, who is employed as bookkeeper for a wholesale house in San
Francisco; Modena, who died April 27, 1904, at twenty-two years of age; and
Lydia, who remains with her parents. The family have won many friends during
the long period of their residence in Alameda county
and among all of their acquaintances and associates are esteemed for those
qualities of mind and heart that are the bulwark of our country’s honor and
progress.
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 730-733. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Cecelia M. Setty.