Santa
Clara County
Biographies
MRS. KATE E. TEVIS
Prominent among the large property owners
of Santa Clara county is Mr. Kate E. Tevis, whose
skill as a manager has affected her entrance into a field in which men only are
thought to excel. Her whole life has
been spent in the Grass valley [sic. Valley] and she has occupied her present
farm since 1871, being therefore one of the oldest continuous residents of this
part of the county. Mrs. Tevis was born
near her present farm January 1, 1854, and is a daughter of Jonathan and Susan
(Oppey) Martin, both natives of Cornwall, England. The parents were married in England and came
to the United States during the 40s, locating in Wisconsin, where her father
engaged in mining with moderate success.
They were industrious and ambitious people, and after thoroughly
investigating the reports of wealth on the coast, sold their Wisconsin
interests, and in the fall of 1852 Jonathan Martin came to San Francisco via
Panama, Mrs. Martin joining her husband the following year. Mr. Martin first followed mining at Grass
Valley, but in 1860 removed to Almaden, where he mined until his death in 1870,
at the age of forty-two years. Besides
Mrs. Tevis Mr. and Mrs. Martin had three daughters and one son, the latter of
whom Richard, died at the age of twenty-six years. Mrs. Martin is still living, and makes her
home with Mrs. Tevis.
Mrs. Tevis, or Kate Martin, as she was
then known, was reared at Almaden and educated in the common schools of that
place. She was sixteen years old at the time of her marriage to Nathaniel Skuse
in 1869, a bright and interesting girl destined to play a noble part as wife,
mother and friend. Mr. Skuse was born in
London, Canada, and came to the States as a young man, locating at Guadaloupe,
Cal. in 1860. There he became interested
in the lime kilns of the place, known for several years as the Skuse kilns, but
now called the Fair kilns. He later
removed to Almaden and engaged in teaming, and in 1871 bought the farm now
occupied by Mrs. Tevis and formerly the property of Hugh Hart. It consisted then of two hundred acres and
also of the Gray Stone Station and quarry since disposed of to Mr. Goodrich,
and now known as the Gray Stone quarry.
In time he added to his property, and at the time of his death in 1878,
at the age of forty-five, owned four hundred and fifty acres. He devoted his later energies to hay and
grain farming and teaming, and became one of the well-to-do and prominent men
of the valley. The estate has since been
divided among the children, of whom there were three children, the widow
retaining her present home of one hundred and forty-five acres. Annie A., the oldest daughter, is now Mrs.
John Pfeiffer of Gray Stone Station; Edward E. a stone cutter of San Francisco;
and John S. is living with his mother.
In
Grass valley [sic. Valley] Mrs. Skuse married Frank Tevis, a native of Ohio,
who died in 1896. Of this union there
were three children, of whom Nathaniel R., living on the home farm, is the only
survivor. Mrs. Tevis devotes her
property to grain and the usual farm products, and has seven acres under orchard. She is known and honored for her benevolent
and kindly nature, her charity for those to whom fortune has been unkind, and
for her close connection with the educational and religious and social
development of the Pioneer district.
Transcribed by
Louise E. Shoemaker, November 22, 2015.
ญญญญSource: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 885. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
ฉ 2015 Louise E. Shoemaker.