Santa Clara County
Biographies
THOMAS
HILL JAMISON
THOMAS HILL JAMISON.
Success has attended the efforts of Thomas Hill Jamison since he came to
California, and he is to-day numbered among the prosperous farmers of this section
of Santa Clara county. His farm, which consists of sixty-five acres located in
the foothills seven miles east of San Jose on the Mt. Hamilton road, is
largely given over to the cultivation of fruit, thirty-five acres being planted
to prunes, apricots, peaches, etc. Since his purchase of the property in 1885
he has made many improvements which have added immeasurably to the value of the
farm, erecting various buildings for the protection of stock and farming
implements, and by judicious management bringing the land to a high state of
cultivation. He now leases the ranch, upon which he spends his winters, while
the summer months are passed in pleasant retirement on the coast.
Born in Bath county,
Ky., November 16, 1838, Mr. Jamison was the son of Samuel A. Jamison,
whose native state is supposed to be West Virginia, where he was born of
Scottish ancestry. He was a harness maker by trade and engaged in that and the saddlery business in Mt. Sterling, where he located
after the war of 1812, in which war he participated, being taken prisoner at
the Battle of New Orleans by the English In 1844 he removed to Clay county,
Mo., and engaged in farming principally. He died in 1853. His wife was formerly
Elizabeth Trimble, who was born in Virginia and died in Missouri. She was
the mother of eleven children, nine sons and two daughters, of whom the
daughters died in youth. The second child in order of birth and the only one
now living, Thomas Hill Jamison, received a limited education in the
common schools of Missouri, after which he was apprenticed to learn the trade
of carpenter in Kansas City, Mo. He worked in that location for four or five
years, after which, in 1864, he crossed the plains with ox teams and located in
Yolo county, Cal. In Davisville, he worked for
Mr. Davis on a farm until 1865, when he returned to Liberty, Mo., where he
farmed till 1875, when he settled in Santa Clara county, Cal. He continued
farming in the summer and carpentering in the winter for about twenty years, or
until about 1895. Nine and a half years of the twenty referred to were spent at
Los Gatos. Having acquired sufficient means to justify him in his venture he
purchased, in 1885, his present ranch, which has since been his home, and which
he has made a well regulated and well ordered property. For the last four years
before he retired altogether from active duty, he had given up his trade and
devoted all of his time to farming. He is now seeking an entire relaxation from
business cares, entitled to rest through his many years of usefulness.
In Clay county, Mo.,
Mr. Jamison married Helen Searcy, a native of that locality, and of this union
were born two sons, now deceased, Luther H. and Oscar W.; and one
daughter, Myrta. She is now the wife of
Clifford G. Coats, of Oakland, and has two children: Willis H.
and Lucele Coats. The two sons, Luther H. and
Oscar W., died at the age of thirty-four and twenty-eight years,
respectively. They were well known and highly respected young men in Santa
Clara county, where Luther H. was for some time connected with the San
Jose Bank. He died February 20, 1897. Oscar W. was fireman on
the Southern Pacific Railroad nearly six years. He was a general favorite and
qualified for engineer. He died February 20, 1895. Mr. Jamison is a
member of the First Christian Church of San Jose, and politically adheres to
the principles advocated in the platform of the Democratic party.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard
04 May 2015.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 554-557.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Marie
Hassard.