Santa
Clara County
Biographies
EDWIN E. SKINNER
One of the busiest wagon and repair shops in
San Jose is owned and operated by Edwin E. Skinner, a master workman whose
energy and resourcefulness have been directed into useful channels, and who is
also known in the county as a successful dairyman and farmer. In his youth Mr.
Skinner was reared in a home where industry and frugality were scrupulously
adhered to, and he found a ready inspiration to effort in his father, David
Edwin Skinner, the founder of the family on the coast, and a trunk maker by
occupation.
David E. Skinner was born on a farm
near Genesee Falls, N. Y., in 1810, and when a young man went to what was then
considered the far west, but is now regarded as the middle of the country.
After considerable travel overland and by canal he located in the small town of
Milwaukee, Wis., where he learned the wagon maker’s trade, at which he soon
became an expert. From the apprenticeship he stepped into paying work by the
day, and finally established a shop of his own, about the same time moving into
his own house, shortly after his marriage to Lanette
Moody. August 24, 1850, his only child, Edwin E., was born. Early in the spring
of 1853, hoping to better his financial outlook, the father started for the far
west, the company of which he was a member comprising thirty people. Before
starting Mr. Skinner had provided himself with a stout team and a wagon of
provisions and furnishings. After a journey devoid of remarkable or adventurous
happenings he located in San Jose. In 1854 he purchased half a block on St.
Julian street, between Sixth and Seventh streets, where he opened up a lumber,
hay and fuel business, conducting the same with fair success until his death in
1863, at the age of fifty-two years. His wife survived him until 1902, her
death occurring at the age of eighty-nine. Out of the thirty people who joined
their fortunes on the trackless plains in 1853, but four are living at this
writing (1904).
Three year of age when he came to
California, Edwin E. Skinner was educated in San Jose, and in 1867 served an
apprenticeship to a wagon maker named C. S. Cridensise,
but at that time did not apply his trade to any extent. Until 1886 he filled a
clerkship with one of the foremost firms in the town, and then purchased a farm
in San Luis Obispo county, and engaged in a dairy
business until 1894. He then came to his present home in San Jose, where he has
worked up a large trade, and where he is meeting with deserved success.
The home life of Mr. Skinner has
been an exceptionally happy one, and his wife’s artistic ability has brought
joy and more than local renown to their quiet home. Mrs. Skinner was formerly
Mary Dart, a native of San Luis Obispo county, and at
an early age developed a talent for painting which has been carefully
cultivated. She became the mother of two children, Edward H. and Leroy C., the
latter of whom died when young. The former graduated at the Stanford University
in the class of 1902, and is now a professor of languages at the Mount
Tamalpais Military Institute, of San Rafael, Cal. Mr. Skinner is proud of his
son, of his wife, and of the beautiful home he has been able to create for
them. His energy has been unceasing and his judgment clear, and while plodding
from day to day and year to year, he has carried with him the assurance that all
men were bound to respect his earnestness, sincerity and good faith.
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 1099. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.