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.
ฉ 2016 Marie Hassard.