Santa
Clara County
Biographies
ALEXANDER PEERS
Mayfield rates Alexander Peers among its
substantial commercial promoters, and cherishes just pride in a career which
has been received its greatest impetus from the west, basing its success upon
rugged honesty and undaunted perseverance, and having its start in a youth to
which fortune had denied the advantages of money or influence. Since 1887 the
owner and proprietor of an extensive warehouse business in Mayfield, he is
equally at home as a merchant and lumberman, occupations with which his name
was prominently connected here, and in Searsville, San Mateo county,
for many years. Born in the little village of Helsby,
Cheshire England and not far from the Irish Sea, September 8, 1834, he was
reared among quaint and historical surroundings, Chester, the oldest town in
England, being only eight miles distant. In Lancashire, due north, and also a
maritime county of England, his father, Richard, and his mother, Sarah
(Williams) Peers, were born in 1810, the former on January 31, and they were
married in the same county, September 21, 1829. Alexander is the third of the
seven sons and seven daughters born to his parents,
all of whom grew to maturity, and eight of whom are living. The father gained a
fair livelihood as farmer and merchant, but as may be imagined with so many
mouths to feed, he was unable to supply the growing needs of strong and
ambitious children, a fact which early impressed upon all the necessity of
caring for themselves.
With a common school education to
back him Alexander Peers came to America in 1856, and after locating in
Woodstock, Oxford county, province of Canada, he worked as a clerk in a general
merchandise store until 1860. Journeying to New York City after careful inquiry
into the prospects for young men in the west, he embarked for Panama, and from there to San Francisco, reaching the latter
city in May, 1860. After a summer in San Jose he removed to San Mateo county, and at Searsville became a clerk for William Page,
in whose employ he remained four years. Well satisfied with his progress in the
west, he returned to his home in England in the fall of 1864, and upon his
return to Searsville the following year he bought a half interest in the
business of his former employer, Mr. Page. In 1866 the firm of Page & Peers
enlarged their sphere of activity and established a lumber yard at Mayfield,
two years later dissolving partnership, Mr. Peers assuming control of the
mercantile business at Searsville, and Mr. Page owning the Mayfield interests.
In 1871 Mr. Peers sold his store and located in Mayfield, soon after buying out
Mr. Page, and conducting the lumber business on his own responsibility. To
facilitate his enterprise he owned and operated lumber mills in the redwoods,
and for sixteen years was recognized as one of the most extensive and practical
lumber merchants in the county. The disposal of his yards and mills in 1887
lost to lumbering development one of its stanchest
and best posted promoters in the county but the experience of years insured to
him a continuation of his former success after embarking in the warehouse
business, a line of occupation calculated to stimulate many-sided trade, and to
especially encourage and assist the great western farmer.
January 31, 1867, Mr. Peers was united
in marriage with Elizabeth Boynton, a native of the state of Maine. Their only
child died in infancy. Mr. Peers votes the Republican ticket, and at present is
a member of the board of trustees of Mayfield and a member of San Mateo Lodge
No. 168, F. & A. M., of Redwood City. Mr. Peers has made his way with
dignity and assurance, maintaining always those practical and conservative
business ethics which win respect and emulation.
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., Page 1330. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.