Santa
Clara County
Biographies
SILVERIO
Y. C. SOTO
SILVERIO Y. C. SOTO. A native Californian and the descendant of
one of the early settlers of the state, Silverio Y. C.
Soto has passed his entire life among the primitive conditions of a developing
western civilization. He was born in
Santa Clara, Santa Clara county, May 14, 1831, a
son of John and Petra (Pacheco) Soto, both of whom were also natives of the
state and the children of prominent Spanish families, who received large
Spanish grants in the early days of the country. He was reared in Santa Clara county as were
his brothers and sisters, all of whom became finely developed men and women,
inheriting from their Spanish ancestry splendid constitutions made vigorous by
an active outdoor life. After completing
his education in the schools of his native county, Mr. Soto engaged in the
occupation to which he had early been trained.
Two years after his marriage in January, 1852, to Carmel Higuera, a native of Santa Clara county,
he removed to Contra Costa county and located on a tract of land known as the
San Miguel ranch. This property, which
consisted of six hundred and fifty acres of the finest land that could be
obtained in the state, had formerly been owned by Mr. Soto’s ancestors. His first home was a small house which had
been erected by two squatters by the names of Bowen and Lightston. There was scarcely a settler in the valley at
that time, only here and there a squatter made his home in the beautiful
valley, which was then covered with a great growth of native grass and abounded
in grizzly bears, elks, deer, antelope and other wild animals. There was no necessity for building fences as
the settlers were so remote from one another, and Mr. Soto raised upon his open land stock of all kinds. He engaged to some extent in general farming,
raising corn and beans, etc.
Subsequently he sold off his land until he has left to-day but
sixty-five acres, this developed to the highest state of cultivation. In 1856 he brought from Santa Clara county
fruit trees and grape vines and began setting out an orchard, having now an
abundance of pears, peaches, apples and various other fruits. He has found pears to be the best bearing
fruit that he has tried. He has built a
handsome residence, commodious and substantial barns, and laid out a garden
which abounds in choice flowers and tropical plants. He has a water plant by windmill which gives
him an abundant supply of water.
To Mr. Soto and his wife were born
fourteen children, of whom seven are living, namely: Ignacio L., Frank L.,
John, Presentation M., Silverio J.,
Marguerite L., and Baudilia.
[Inserted by D.
Toole.]
Silverio
Y. C. Soto
1870
Nov 7, Sacramento Daily Union, P1, Sacramento, California
Diseased
Swine – The Contra Costa Gazette of November 5th,
has the annexed:
A
few days ago, Silverio Soto killed a healthy
appearing hog, but on cutting it up discovered that the meat was specked
through and through with little whitish sacks, about the size of a grape seed,
which, from the character of the matter inclosed[sic] were thought, by most of those who inspected them, to
be the eggs of some kind of worms, or maggots, though none were developed to
the crawling stage of worm life. Our friend
Soto, since his observations on this dead hog, has taken a huge disgust with
pork, and threatens to turn Jew – and sell all his bacon. G. M. Bryant of this place, had three likely
shoats, of Essex breed, up in a pen feeding upon kitchen refuge[sic] and wheat,
with the promise of furnishing the family with nice hams, bacon sides,
spare-ribs, and genuine domestic sausage; but, early this week, two of these
promising pigs were unaccountably seized with staggers, blindness and
convulsions, with which they were affected about forty-eight hours, when death
terminated their sufferings, leaving the swine experts much puzzled to find a
cause for their sickness and early demise.
Died
13 Oct 1906
California
Death Index
Transcribed by Donna Toole.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages 1345-1346. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Donna Toole.