Santa
Clara County
Biographies
JEAN TURONNET
Numbered among the successful business men of
San Jose is Jean Turonnet, the genial and popular
proprietor of the Lamolle House. Enterprising and
accommodating, he has gained a wide and favorable reputation as “mine host,”
and is always generously patronized by the great traveling public. A son of
Jean B. Turonnet, he was born in Southern France,
near the Pyrenees, March 17, 1862. His father, who was an agriculturist,
married Mary Jane Goge, by whom he had three
children, all of whom are living, two of them being in America. Both of the
parents spent their entire lives in their native land.
At the age of fifteen years, having
obtained a good common school education, Jean Turonnet
sailed across the broad Atlantic to the United States, coming directly to
California, arriving in San Francisco in 1877. For five years thereafter he
remained in that city, being employed as a clerk in different hotels and
restaurants. Locating in San Jose in 1882, he accepted a position as clerk in
the Lamolle House, and continued thus employed until 1887. Going back to San Francisco in that year he
remained there until 1890, when he returned to San Jose, and, buying an
interest in the Lamolle House, managed it in
partnership with Mr. Lamolle for two years. In 1892
Mr. Turonnet became sole proprietor of the hotel,
which he has since managed with excellent success. This house was opened in
1871, and is one of the best known in this part of Santa Clara county. In 1902 Mr. Turonnet
closed the hotel for six months for repairs, and during the time remodeled and
enlarged it, raising it one story, so that now it has forty good rooms, and is
a first-class commercial hotel. It is well furnished throughout with all modern
conveniences, and has one of the finest dining parlors to be found in the city.
It is conveniently located, being but TORone-half
block from the business center of the city, and its guests are always sure of a
hearty welcome and good treatment.
In San Jose Mr. Turonnet
married Matilda Indart, a native of France, and they
are the parents of two children, namely: Armand and Camille. Mr. Turonnet is a man of excellent ability, and is a member of
the San Jose Chamber of Commerce.
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 1166. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Cecelia M. Setty.