Santa Clara County

Biographies

 

 


 

 

 

 

MARTIN KANE

 

 

            MARTIN KANE. The satisfaction of knowing a useful trade, and of living a moderate and industrious life, is fully appreciated by Martin Kane, an erstwhile knight of the forge and leather apron, but since 1900 the owner and operator of a ranch of seventeen acres not far from Saratoga. Mr. Kane is reaping the same kind of success as a horticulturist that he did as a blacksmith, which fact evidences his general ability and perseverance, as well as his desire to make the most possible of the advantages that come his way. His ranch is devoted almost entirely to fruit, five acres being under prunes, and the same number of acres under both peaches and apricots. He is making a thorough study of fruit growing, and though as yet a comparative newcomer to the delightful locality he calls home, he is popular with his neighbors, and is in the midst of friends and absorbing interests.

            The ancestors of Mr. Kane flourished as small agriculturists in County Clare, Ireland, for centuries, and his parents, John and Bridget (Mack) Kane, were born in that county, although they did not meet until after a kindly fortune had turned their steps to the United States. John Kane was a railroad man, and judging from the length of his association with the old Erie railroad he must have been a man of great faithfulness to trusts imposed, and of acknowledged authority and control over men. For forty years he was what is known as a walking boss or track man for the railroad, and during that time he made his home principally in Tioga county, N. Y. His death occurred in 1891, at the age of seventy-five, and of his four sons and two daughters, Martin, the third child, and one daughter, survive.

            In Bradford county, Pa., November 1, 1863, Martin Kane was born. At the age of eighteen he was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Smithboro, N. Y., and thereafter followed his trade in the same town four years. From Smithboro he went to Albany, Ore., in 1889, and in 1892 came to Santa Clara county, and worked for three months at Westside. The same year found him in Saratoga, Cal., where he ran a shop until 1901. In November, 1892, in San Francisco, he married Marietta Macoon, a native of Indiana. Mr. Kane has a natural liking for politics, and as a Democrat has kept pace with the progress of his party, aiding its local usefulness by acceptably filling many positions of trust and responsibility. In 1901 he was appointed justice of the peace to fill a vacancy, and was regularly elected to the office in 1902, for a term of four years. Fraternally he is a member and past president of the Fraternal Aid of Saratoga, and a member and treasurer of the Foresters of America. He is foremost in municipal improvements of a general nature, and not only has one of the finest residences in the town, but is the owner of Kane Hall, variously utilized by the citizens of the thriving little community. He is prosperous and thrifty, honorable and influential, and represents the progressive and substantial spirit of the western slope.

 

 

 

Transcribed by Marie Hassard 03 July 2016.

ญญญญSource: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1249-1250. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.


2016 Marie Hassard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Clara Biography

Golden Nugget Library