Santa
Clara County
Biographies
HANNIBAL PULLAN
It has been given to Hannibal Pullan to
win success as a farmer in spite of many difficulties and to so weave the
threads of his life as to make a harmonious and honorable whole. In his youth he was a stranger to the
schoolroom, and while he came of a family to whom integrity and tradition were
dear, its financial resources were not in accord with the ambitions of its
members. To spur him on he had the
example of ambitions and painstaking ancestors among whom
was his grandfather George, a native of Virginia who fought under General
Lafayette during the Revolutionary war.
For three years he lived in a tent and on the march and stacked his
musket on many of the battlefields which have made the struggle for
independence famous. Temperate in his
life, and calm in the stress and struggle by which he was surrounded, the years
came and went, finding him always peaceful and waiting, until the remarkable
number of one hundred and seven years had passed over his head. His son, Abraham, the father of Hannibal was
born near Richmond, Va., and removed to Kentucky with his father, locating on a
farm in Breckinridge county. In time he married his wife Cynthia, also
born in the south, and a native of Kentucky, with whom and his children he
moved to Missouri in 1843. A farm in St
Francois county continued to be his home until his
death at the age of seventy-two, his wife surviving him until 1873, at the age
of ninety-three. Her father was a German
descent and she was the mother of seven sons and seven daughters, all of whom
grew to maturity, one son and one daughter living at the present time. Mr. Pullan was born February 8, 1826, in Breckinridge
county, Ky.
As a boy Hannibal Pullan worked hard and
knew little leisure, and had no time at all to attend school. At the age of twenty-one he went to St. Louis
and worked at carpentering with his brother William, and while there enlisted
in the Mexican war in 1846, under General Hosian, but arrived in Mexico City
too late to participate in the fighting.
Returning to St. Louis he worked at his trade until 1849,
and in March started for California in an ox train of eighty wagons. Reaching his destination in October, via the
Platte river, he engaged in mining on Feather river,
and next on Scott river, where the brothers parted company. Mr. Pullan then spent a few days in Napa county, working for Eugene L. Sullivan, and in 1853 settled
on a ranch in Napa county for a year.
From 1854 until 1855 he worked at carpentering in Napa county afterward
renting land for a few months, and in the fall moving to rented land near his
present home in Santa Clara county. In 1856 he removed to San Mateo county and engaged in farming for twenty years devoting his
land to hay and grain, and running a threshing machine in connection therewith. In 1876 he returned to the Santa Clara valley
and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land three miles south of Santa Clara
city, on the Williams road and Cypress avenue, where he has since lived,
although in the meantime he has disposed of all but forty acres of his land. For
some years he has lived retired, having amassed a competence, and labored with
zeal for more than the allotted number of working years.
Near Napa City, this state, Mr. Pullan
married Mary Bollinger, a native of Bollinger county Mo., named after her
family. Her father, Christian, was a
prominent man in Missouri, and came to California in 1851, settling on a
large ranch in the Napa valley. Two
years later he bought property near Santa Clara city, on the Stevens Creek road,
from there removing to San Mateo county, and in time
disposing of this farm to the Spring Valley Water Company. The last years of his life were spent in
retirement, and he died at the age of eighty-three years. Ten children have been born to Mr. and Mrs.
Pullan, three sons and seven daughters: Mrs. Mary Yount, of Napa; Ione
deceased; Alice, the wife of William Statler, a rancher of this vicinity; Sarah,
deceased; Emma, the wife of John Ham, of San Jose; Columbus, deceased: William,
managing his father’s farm; George a rancher on the Stevens Creek road; Ernest,
living in San Jose, and an infant, deceased. Mrs. Pullan died November 18, 1897. Mr. Pullan has been interested in Democratic politics
all of his voting life, and for many years was a member of the school
board. During 1871 he was elected
assessor of San Mateo county and served two
years. Fraternally he has been
identified with Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Transcribed by
Louise E Shoemaker, August 23, 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 735-736. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Louise E. Shoemaker.