Santa
Clara County
Biographies
HUGH
DANIEL MENTON
This pioneer of 1850 in California,
who is now a resident of Santa Clara, is of remote French extraction, but was
born in Manchester, England, of Irish parentage. His father, Hugh, a native of Kings county, removed to England in
1835 and settled in Manchester, where he carried on a retail coal business.
During 1841 he made the long voyage to Australia and took up farm pursuits in
the vicinity of Sydney, where he remained until the discovery of gold in
California. November 14, 1849, he landed in San Francisco, where he engaged in
business for eighteen months. His next change was to the Santa Clara valley,
where he bought a quarter section of land and devoted his attention to improving
the property. His last years were spent in the town of Santa Clara and there he
died in 1885 at eighty-four years of age. After becoming a citizen of the
United States he always voted the Republican ticket. His first wife, who bore
the maiden name of Hannah Flanagan, was born in Kings county,
Ireland, and died in California in 1866, at about forty-seven years of age.
After her death Mr. Menton was again married, having
by his second union a son and a daughter. Of his first marriage there were two sons and one
daughter, namely: Hugh Daniel, of Santa Clara; William H., of San Francisco;
and Mrs. Hannah Benton, also of San Francisco.
The oldest member of the family
circle was Hugh Daniel Menton, who was born January
25, 1838, and was three years of age when his parents settled in Australia. His
education was begun in the schools of that country and completed after the
family settled in California, where he was a student in Santa Clara College
until within one year of graduating. His first experience in earning his
livelihood was as a clerk in a store in San Jose, but in 1860 he abandoned that
occupation for farming. However, a few years later he resumed mercantile
enterprises and engaged in a retail grocery business until 1871, when he sold
out and removed to Oregon. In that state he started a stock ranch, but, not finding
the surroundings or climate to his liking, he joined a surveying party in
eastern Oregon, and from there returned to the Santa Clara valley. In 1869 he
settled in San Luis Obispo county and two years later embarked in the sheep
business, which he conducted with fair success for some years. On his return to
San Jose in 1877 he secured employment as a driver on a horse car, but gave up
that work in 1880 to accept a position as deputy county assessor, continuing in
that capacity for four years. At this writing he owns forty acres of the
homestead ranch, as well as a quarter of a block in Santa Clara, the latter
being improved with two residences, in one of which he and his family make
their home.
The marriage of Mr. Menton was solemnized in San Francisco and united him with
Annie T. Murphy, who was born in Burlington, Iowa, and who, like himself, is a
consistent member of the Roman Catholic Church. They became the parents of five
children, of whom the following are now living: H. O. F. Menton,
D. D. S., of Santa Clara; Hugh Daniel, Edward, Mary Ellis, and Percival Edmund,
at home. In common with the other early settlers of this vicinity, Mr. Menton finds pleasure in his association with the members of
the Santa Clara County Pioneer Association and enjoys recounting with them
incidents connected with the exciting days of the ‘50s. No one has observed
with greater interest than he the gradual development of the state’s resources,
the expansion of her interest and the increase of her population. In his
political belief he is a pronounced Republican. During the Civil war he was a
member of the California Home Guard, in which he was promoted from the ranks to
the position of first sergeant and later was chosen captain of his company.
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 310-311. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.