Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JAMES PRINCEVALLE
Gilroy is particularly fortunate in the
possession of a score or more of native sons, who are vigorous and strong, and
who are carrying on the work of fathers who labored in the days of the city’s
lesser growth and prosperity. Among
those to who the town owes a generous share of its mercantile impetus must be
mentioned James Princevalle, who was born in Gilroy September 1, 1875, and who
is the owner of two paying enterprises, an ice cream and confectionery
manufactory, and the grocery store on the corner of Monterey and Fourth
streets, formerly owned by his father.
Mr. Princevalle has the reputation of being a hard worker, and of using
rare discretion in the selection and management of his lines of business. He is extremely cautious, but at the same
time is one of the city’s most enterprising and progressive citizens, as well
as a fine example of its younger generation of merchants. The career of his father, Giacomo, belongs
rather to the past than present of Gilroy.
Giacomo Princevalle was born in Italy, and was still young when he crossed
the sea in 1849, his mind aglow with expectations of a large fortune in the
mines of the state. Disappointed in the
making of money in the mines, he settled down to the life of a merchant in San
Francisco, beginning at the bottom among people who were strangers at heart,
and who spoke a strange language, he finally was rewarded for his ambition and
success in the face of difficulty, and took his place among the most prosperous
of his transplanted countrymen. His
protecting southern nature warming the charms of an Italian girl named Palmina
Lorietta, the young couple were married, and all seemed to be going well,
especially after the advent of a small addition to the Italian colony. A night of terror changed the face of things
completely, for the clanging of fire bells roused him to the nearness of his
own danger, and the certainty of everything he had in the world going up in
flames. The frenzied excitement of
saving his wife and baby from the flames turned his hair gray and his heart
cold, and when daylight broke over the ruins of his home and store there
remained little to hold him in San Francisco.
Reaching Gilroy in1869, Mr. Princevalle began again to climb the tiresome
ladder of success, bravely facing new difficulties, and succeeding as he had
succeeded before. From a little fruit
stand on a corner of the street he branched out into a grocery business,
continuing the same until his retirements from active life in February, 1904,
at the age of seventy-six. He and his
wife make their home in Gilroy, as do also their four sons and one daughter, of
whom James is next to the youngest.
As a
foundation for his business career James Princevalle has the education of the
public schools, a course at the Garden City Business College, from which he was
graduated in 1896, and years of practical training under his father. From a boy up he assisted in the grocery
store, continuing with the older man until 1898, when he started a confectionery
manufacturing business, at the same time making ice cream and operating a fine
soda water plant. In this he prospered,
but notwithstanding this responsibility, he purchased his father’s grocery
business in February, 1904, and now manages the joint enterprises. The grocery store is a double one, with a
frontage of sixty feet, and an effort is made to keep on hand a large supply of
seasonable goods, catering to all classes, and extending inducements in the way
of fair prices and fresh commodities. As
becomes so enterprising and public spirited a young merchant, Mr. Princevalle
is interested in politics, and has taken a keen interest in the development of
Democratic undertakings in the state.
His first official service was inaugurated in 1904, when he was elected
to the Gilroy council on the Progressive ticket by a large majority, afterward
serving as chairman of the street, and as a member of the police, fire, water,
gas, and public buildings committees. In
the council he made his broad and progressive policy felt, and by his enthusiasm
and practical views infused life and vitality into that body. Mr. Princevalle has a pleasant home in
Gilroy, presided over by his wife, Eva F. (McFarland) Princevalle, whom he
married in Hollister June 19, 1902, and who is a native of Albany, Ore. Mr. Princevalle is an enthusiastic fraternalist, [Sic.] and is a member
of the Red Men and Foresters.
Transcribed by
Louise E. Shoemaker, September 20, 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 771. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Louise E. Shoemaker.