Santa Clara County
Biographies
PLEASANT CUNNINGHAM HODGES
Among the time honored enterprises of Gilroy and vicinity is the lumber business of Whitehurst & Hodges, operated continuously since January, 1868. Advancing from a small beginning the superior business ability of its promoters, their thorough understanding of the lumber resources of the state, and their pluck and determination in the face of hardship and difficulty, have placed the concern among the chief clearers of land, manufacturers of supplies, and encouragers of emigration and building in this part of Santa Clara county.
Pleasant Cunningham Hodges, the junior member of the firm, comes from North Carolina, where he was born in Surry county July 19, 1825. The family was established in the south by enterprising Scotch travelers, some of whom were connected with Capt. John Smith in the settling of Jamestown, Va. At least five great uncles of Mr. Hodges stacked their muskets on the battlefields of the Revolution under the leadership of Washington, and bearers of the name served with equal patriotism in the war of 1812. Within nine miles of the old homestead in Surry county, William Hodges, the father of Pleasant, was born June 3, 1799, and in the same vicinity his entire life was passed, he attaining the advanced age of ninety-four, and his death occurring in August, 1893. Dorcas (Cunningham) Hodges, the mother of Pleasant, was also a native of Surry county, and was born in 1780, her father, William Cunningham, having arrived at an early day from the North of Ireland, thereafter devoting his life to farming in Surry county. Mrs. Hodges lived until 1848, and was the mother of seven children, of whom Pleasant, the eldest, Preston, of Lompoc, Cal., Susan Dicken, also of Lompoc, and Sarah D. Ramey, of Gardner, Kans., are the sole survivors.
The childhood of the lumber merchant of Gilroy was a busy one and he was early taught the value and even necessity of industry. The primitive schoolhouse, built of logs, supplied whatever education the leisure of the winter months permitted, and at the age of twenty-three, in 1848, he left home with preparation equaling that of the average youth of his neighborhood. Reaching Jackson county, Mo., with his brother Preston, in the fall, he engaged in farm work until the spring of 1852, when the brothers started for California May 8, and with ox teams accompanied a party of one hundred people to the coast. Various reverses met the fortune seekers, so that when they arrived in the Napa valley November 28, 1852, there were but fifty to take up the burden of work in the new Eldorado. Mr. Hodges secured work on the farm of Charles Hopper, near Napa, for eleven months, and in the fall of 1853 bought an ox team in San Jose and engaged in hauling lumber from the redwoods. In 1856 he began to haul lumber at Santa Cruz, and two years later took advantage of a temporary lull in business to return to his old home in North Carolina. Having noticed a dearth of cattle in the west, he made his way to Missouri in 1859, and after purchasing one hundred and fifteen head, started with them across the plains. On the way disease and difficulty with provisions and water caused losses in his stock, and but eighty-six remained of as fine a herd as ever crossed the plains. Disposing of the cattle, he again turned his attention to hauling lumber from the redwoods to San Jose, and in January, 1868, located on his land near Gilroy, soon after starting his present lumbering business. The firm have a general lumber yard in Gilroy, and in the vicinity of the town have a mill for the manufacture of builders’ products. They are known throughout this part of the state, and have enviable reputations as progressive and reliable business men. As a relaxation from business cares Mr. Hodges is interested in his orchard of ten acres one mile east of Gilroy, in which he takes great pride, and which affords fruit of all kinds that is both abundant and excellent.
Eighteen years after coming to this part of the county, December 4, 1870, Mr. Hodges was united in marriage to Judith Franklin, whom he knew in Surry county, N. C., where she was born September 13, 1828, her family being one of the old and honored ones of the district. She was a true and consistent member of the Christian Church and honored for her many good qualities of head and heart by all who knew her. She died March 5, 1904, aged seventy-five years. No children have come to brighten the Hodges home, yet unstinted hospitality prevails, and the many friends of the family are glad of an excuse to breathe its genial and kindly air. Mr. Hodges has been a broad-minded and public-spirited man, and even though failing strength at times wars with undaunted ambition, he still retains an interest in the material and moral development of his neighborhood, attending with regularity the Christian Church, in which, as a young man, he worshiped, and which has claimed his mature years as elder and trustee. Politically he adheres to the Democratic party, but has never found time or inclination to enter the ranks of office seekers. An agreeable personality, loyalty to friends and interests, steadfast perseverance from the days of comparative poverty to affluence, and an earnest desire to further the general interests of Santa Clara county, are a few of the claims which this large-minded citizen has presented for the consideration and approval of his fellow workers.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 812-813. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Joyce Rugeroni.