Santa
Clara County
Biographies
EUGENE KNICKERBOCKER
Inheriting from his honored Dutch ancestors
those habits of industry and thrift that are as truly synonyms of prosperity in
our country as ever they were in Holland, Eugene Knickerbocker
has won a position of prominence among the leading business men in San Jose. As
proprietor of the San Jose Ice Works and of the San Jose Ice Company, also a
stockholder in the National Ice Company, he is actively identified with the
industrial progress of this part of Santa Clara county,
and is an important factor in promoting its material welfare. A son of Jacob Knickerbocker, he was born May 17, 1846, in Lafayetteville, Dutchess county,
N. Y., about ten miles from the city of Rhinebeck. He comes from ancient and
distinguished stock, being a lineal descendant of Herman Jansen Knickerbocker, born in Friesland, Holland, in 1648. He
served in the navy under Admiral Van Tromp and De Ruyter,
and participated in many of the naval victories of that period. He was the
founder of the Knickerbocker families that were so
prominent in the early settlement of New York, the emigrant ancestor from
Holland having located on the Hudson river in the old
colonial days. Eugene Knickerbocker’s grandfather,
James Kickerbocker, a well-to-do farmer of Dutchess county N. Y., married Jane Van Ben Scoten, who was also of Dutch ancestry, and was closely
related to the Van Rensselaer, Schuyler, and other families of distinction.
Jacob Knickerbocker
was a native of Dutchess county,
N. Y., and was prosperously engaged in mercantile pursuits in Lafayetteville until his death at the age of forty-six
years. As a man and a friend he was greatly esteemed, and his sincerity and
integrity commanded the respect of all who came within his influence. He headed
the John C. Fremont party in his county and was a stanch Republican in
politics. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church and one of its most
faithful supporters. He married Eliza Martin, a native of Dutchess
county, N. Y. Her father, George N. Martin, who was
born in the same county, of English ancestry, moved from there to Elkhart,
Ind., and was a pioneer merchant of that place, doing much toward building it
up. He was likewise engaged in the manufacture of lumber of some extent, and in
1840 built the first dam at Elkhart, on the St. Joseph’s river. Of the five
children born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Knickerbocker,
four are living: Eugene, the subject of this sketch; Calvin, a San Francisco
capitalist; Mrs. Carrie Hinkle, of San Francisco; and William H., cashier of
the First National Bank of Elkhart, Ind. Mrs. Knickerbocker
survived her husband and died at the home of her son, Eugene, in San Jose,
Cal.
Going to New York city
(sic) to live when a boy of twelve years, Eugene Knickerbocker
completed the grammar school course of study, and then went to Rondout, N. Y., where he was employed as a clerk in a
general store for four years. The following two years he worked in a hardware
store in Rhinebeck, N. Y. On June 3, 1867, Mr. Knickerbocker
located in San Jose, Cal., and has since made this his place of residence.
Embarking in business for himself in 1872, he opened a hay
and feed yard on North First street, starting with a capital of $300 on the
present site of the Victory theater (sic). In 1879, in connection with the San
Jose Ice Company, he began the retail trade of ice, in which he has since built
up a very large and lucrative business. Buying out the San Jose Ice Works in
1901, he remodeled and improved the plant, greatly increasing its capital, and
has now one of the best equipped plants in the country. It is advantageously located
on the Narrow Gauge Railway, has a capacity of twelve tons daily, is furnished
with the latest improved machinery which is run by steam power, generated by
oil burner, and has refining rooms and a cold storage plant. Mr. Knickerbocker is also one of the proprietors of the retail
department of the San Jose Ice Company, and carries on the largest retail ice
business in Santa Clara county, the delivery of the output of his plants
employing eight teams, his headquarters being located at No. 400 North Second
street. He resides at No. 404 North First street,
where he has a pleasant home.
In Kinderhook, N. Y., Mr. Knickerbocker married Clara Pennoyer,
who was born in that town of French-Huguenot stock. Her grandfather was John Pennoyer, whose father died from a bayonet wound received
at the storming of Stony Point, he being a soldier in the Revolutionary army.
Her father, Robert Pennoyer, married Emma Wheeler, a
descendant of Rev. James Benedict, of New York, whose father Thomas Benedict,
came to New England in 1638. Four children have blessed the union of Mr. and
Mrs. Knickerbocker: Mrs. Nina Boucher, of Chico,
Cal.; Charles, a graduate of the San Jose Business College, is bookkeeper for
his father; Roy, a graduate of the Pacific Coast Business College, is assistant
bookkeeper for his father; and Irving is at home. Mr. Knickerbocker
has been established longer in business than any other business man of San Jose,
and in addition to his ice trade is one of the stockholders of the Hotel
Vendome, whose location he suggested. He is a strong Republican in politics,
and a member of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants’
Association. He has been an Odd Fellow since he was twenty-one years old and
belongs to Garden City Lodge and to the Encampment. He is also a member of the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: History of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast
Counties, California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1301-1302. The
Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.