Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JOSEPH JACQUELIN
Retired from the active duties which have engrossed his attention for so many years, Joseph Jacquelin is spending the twilight of his existence in contentment among flowers and shrubbery at his home in San Jose. He was born in Bourges, France, April 6, 1830, and was reared to young manhood in the paternal home, following agricultural pursuits. He received a good education through the medium of the common schools, and at the age of sixteen years went to Paris, where he underwent a thorough training in landscape gardening. When twenty-one years old he came to San Francisco, Cal., attracted to the western world by the glowing reports of the gold discovery. Although well educated in his native tongue he was unable to speak a word of English and necessarily experienced many difficulties during the first few months in this country. Going first to Shasta county he prospected with but little success, at times fighting for a mere existence and having nothing of material comfort but his blanket. His native qualities however, stood him in good stead during this trying period, his strong constitution combating illness, his courage defying defeat. He never admitted even to himself that failure was possible, pushing on from county to county like the many other fortune hunters of those days, at times experiencing a run of success, and again losing all he had made in an unfortunate venture. He was among the many who were attracted north to the Fraser river at the time of the gold excitement there, after which he spent some time in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Subsequently he returned to California, and after about ten years of prospecting with good and bad results he located in San Francisco and took up gardening, laying out some fine gardens there. In 1866 he came to San Jose, then a very small town, but his ability soon became recognized and won him an extensive custom, many of the most beautiful homes of this city being the work of his hands. He also set out and fostered many hundreds of the stately trees to-day so highly prized both for their shade and ornamentation. A lover of flowers and with the ability to successfully tend and grow them he also gave much time to their cultivation, and in his home, which was in the same block where he now resides, he had many beautiful varieties. When Mr. Jacquelin first purchased property in this block and built a home his was the only house; at the present time it is entirely built up. Afterward Mr. Jacquelin sold that property and built again, and finally erected his present home, where he is passing his days in the care of his flowers and shrubbery. On account of failing health he gave up active gardening about twenty years ago, accepting then a position as sexton of the Odd Fellows Hall and maintaining the same for fifteen years. For the past five years he has been retired.
In San Francisco Mr. Jacquelin was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary Fonta, who died in 1885, at the age of forty-three years. For a second wife he married Teresa Fonta. The children born to those parents died in infancy. Mr. Jacquelin has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for twenty-six years and has passed through all the branches, including canton and encampment. He himself instituted the Franco-Italian lodge of San Jose, serving as its grand master and chief patriarch. He is a member of the Rebekahs, and in memory of the time when he first sought a home in the state he belongs to the Pioneers Society.
Transcribed 9-14-15 Marilyn R. Pankey.
ญญญญSource:
History of the State of California &
Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.
M., Pages 769-770. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marilyn R.
Pankey.