Santa Clara County
Biographies
HENRY LILLICK
Henry Lillick was a successful farmer of Santa Clara county, located upon property in the neighborhood of Lawrence which he purchased in 1851 when it consisted entirely of wild and uncultivated land. He made this his home for more than half a century and met with success in his work, becoming known as an agriculturist as well as a substantial and reliable citizen, and giving his best efforts toward the upbuilding of the community. Born in Wurtemburg, Germany, in 1824, he brought with him from the fatherland many of the traits which distinguish natives of that country, and has added to them those of the American citizen. His parents, Andrew and Catherine (Lenk) Lillick, also natives of Germany, crossed the ocean in 1833, upon their arrival in the United States locating in Holmes county, Ohio. Seven years later they removed to Van Wert county, in the same state, where the father died in 1847 and the mother in 1872, the latter attaining the ripe old age of eighty years.
Having been reared to a farmer’s life among the pioneer conditions of the middle west, Mr. Lillick was well fitted to become a pioneer of the remoter west. In his youth he received a rather limited education in the primitive schools of Ohio, in 1846 removing to Lafayette county, Wis. His home remained in that state until 1849, when attracted by the discovery of gold, he crossed the plains to California. The journey was fraught with the usual dangers and hardships, and after reaching the Sierra Nevada mountains seven of the party went out to hunt some cattle which had strayed, and this was the last ever seen of them. They were supposed to have been killed by the Indians. Mr. Lillick left the party at Sacramento and went to the Trinity mines, but not meeting with the success anticipated he went on to Santa Clara county in 1850, there purchasing his present farm. The land was unimproved and he had no means with which to carry on his work, so he returned to the mines in 1851 and borrowed the money for his mining equipment, succeeding after a time in making sufficient to give him a start in farming. His first crop, the seed of which cost him twenty-five cents, netter his a handsome profit, but was secured with considerable difficulty, as he had to watch it at night and drive the wild cattle away. But he persevered, and in time accumulated a competence and established himself among the citizens of the county. He made two trips back to his old home in the east, one in 1867 and one the following year. He died December 3, 1889, honored and respected by all who knew him.
The marriage of Mr. Lillick united him with Nancy Schell, a native of Stark county, Ohio, her father, Henry, having come to that county from his native state of Pennsylvania, afterward removing to Van Wert county, where he engaged as farmer and blacksmith until his death. His wife, formerly Mary Burger, also of Pennsylvania, also died in Van Wert county. Mr. Lillick brought his wife to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. They were the parents of three children, namely: Walter F., secretary of the San Jose Transfer Company, located in San Jose; Harry A., manager of the home farm; and Ira S., an attorney-at-law in San Francisco. Fraternally Mr. Lillick was a Royal Arch Mason, and a member of the lodge in Santa Clara and also a member of the Grange. Politically he was a Republican.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1324. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Joyce Rugeroni.