Santa Clara County
Biographies
CLEMENS ANDREW KETTMANN
CLEMENS ANDREW KETTMANN needs no introduction to the
people of Santa Clara county, Cal., which has been his
home since the days of his early childhood, his parents having removed to this
locality as early as 1854, when he was but seven years old. Mr. Kettmann has always been identified with the farming
interests of the community, and in choosing the life of an agriculturist he but
followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. In tracing the
ancestry of Mr. Kettmann we find him to be of
German descent. His paternal grandparents, George and Mary (Brunswick) Kettmann, were natives as well as life-long residents of
Hanover, Germany. They reared a family of three sons and five daughters and the
only surviving members of the family are one daughter and one son, the latter
being George Kettmann, the father of
Clemens A.
Born December 6, 1827, in Hanover, Germany, George Kettmann was the youngest of the family and was educated in
the common schools of his native land. He assisted his father in farm work
until he attained the age of twenty-two years, and in 1849 immigrated to the
United States, and for several years was located at St. Louis, Mo., where
he worked at anything he could obtain. In 1854 he came to California, making
the trip by the Panama route, and began mining on Feather river.
After six months’ experience in the mines with the usual varied fortune he
followed farm pursuits for several years in the vicinity of Marysville. It was
in 1868 that he was induced to locate in Santa Clara county,
at that time purchasing one hundred and fifty acres, subsequently making an
additional purchase of one hundred acres in the same vicinity. Upon this
magnificent farm in the fertile Santa Clara valley Mr. Kettmann
met with excellent success, raising hay and grain, and he is now one of the
largest land owners of this section. In addition to his home place he has a
fifteen hundred acre sheep ranch and raises on an
average about twelve hundred sheep per year. His home farm is located in the
Evergreen district, adjoining Evergreen, and although the greater part of his
ranch is utilized in raising hay and barley, he also grows fruit to some
extent, having ten acres in assorted fruits and ten acres in vines. He built a
fine residence upon the place as well as commodious barns, in addition to
adding a number of other improvements.
In Marysville, Cal., George Kettmann
married Miss Dena Torbaker, a native of Hanover,
Germany. She died on the home ranch in 1900. The parental family comprised
eleven children, as follows: Clemens A., Anna, Lena, Josephine, Emma,
Christiana, Dena, August, George, Joseph and Andrew. Two of the daughters, Anna
and Dena, reside at Marysville; Lena, at San Francisco; and Josephine in San
Jose. Of the sons, August is employed in a bank in San Jose and Andrew is a
resident of Seattle, Wash. The other children are still at home except
Clemens A. These children were reared in the Catholic faith and in his
political views, their father is a Democrat.
As the eldest son of a large family, the attendance of
Clemens A. in the public school was irregular, and his education in his boyhood
days was rather limited, he being obliged to assist
his father in the work on the home farm. Born November 23, 1857, in Sutter county, Cal., he attended school at Evergreen after the
removal of the family there, and some time later took a course in the San Jose
Business College. Mr. Kettmann then chose the
career of a farmer, but did not leave home until he reached his majority. In
the fall of 1881 he bought eighty acres of land seven miles southeast of San
Jose, and upon this place he has followed farm pursuits ever since. He has ten
acres in orchard, raising prunes, apricots and assorted fruits, and the balance
in grain, carrying on a general farming business.
The marriage of Mr. Kettmann,
in San Jose, Cal., united him with Miss Mary Vollmer, born in
Rochester, N. Y., March 11, 1864. Her
father, John Vollmer, a native of the same city, came to California in 1889,
locating in San Jose, where, as contractor and builder, he carried on business
until his death in 1894. His wife, whose maiden name was
Miss Frances Bittiger, was a native of
Germany and her demise, too, occurred in San Jose. Seven children were born to
Mr. and Mrs. Kettmann. Two sons, John and
George, died in infancy, and the others are Rosalie, Carolyn, Eleanora, Julius and Louis, all at home. The family are
regular communicants of the Catholic Church, and like his father, Mr. Kettmann is a Democrat in his political preference, having
served upon several occasions as a delegate to the county convention, and
having officiated for two terms as school trustee for the Evergreen district.
Transcribed by Marie Hassard 11 November 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages
862-865. The Chapman Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Marie
Hassard.