Santa Clara County
Biographies
CHARLES WEHNER
The name of Charles Wehner is connected with the most extensive efforts at street improvement in the city of San Jose. No one other man, or even several men, have accomplished so much in this line for this beautiful community of interests. Nearly all of the thoroughfares which delight the eye, and whose smooth surfaces render enjoyable either walking or driving, have been planned and executed by this past master of road construction, and his reputation has even extended to other towns, Monterey, Pacific Grove, and other places of interest having profited by his ability to satisfactorily lay sewers, grade, pave, and otherwise make useful and attractive the highways of the state. Mr. Wehner built the main outlet sewer from San Jose to Alviso, and graded and built the car line from Del Monte to Pacific Grove, and also did considerable grading for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He built the finest macadam road in Santa Clara county, known as the Oakhill Cemetery road, and he is half owner the practically inexhaustible stone quarry at the cemetery. Mr. Wehner will always be associated with the Bender subdivision of thirty-two acres, which he began to improve years ago, and which has long since rewarded him financially and artistically for his painstaking efforts. This subdivision is his own residence section, he having completed his beautiful home at No. 694 Spencer avenue, in 1886, and he also owns several other lots, and several residences in the same subdivision. He is interested in farming in this county, also owning a farm in Monterey county, and formerly he owned and improved an orchard which brought him financial returns. A résumé of these facts brings but one conclusion before the observer, and that is that Mr. Wehner has used his talent and time to good account, and has invested his earnings wisely and cautiously. He is one of the substantial and practical business men of the town, and one in whom his fellow dwellers have abundant cause to place confidence. His work bears the stamp of painstaking and conscientious oversight, bringing him invariably a return of the patrons who have profited by his skill.
The family came to San Jose in 1869, where the father died at the age of sixty-nine, and where the mother also ended her earthly career. Charles had few advantages in his youth, for his parents were in moderate circumstances, and besides himself there were eleven other children. He began his active business career in San Jose in 1880, and since has been the foremost street contractor in the town, learning the business from the bottom up, and applying to it more than average perseverance and ability. Owing to his unqualified success, Mr. Wehner has been able to give his eight sons and one daughter advantages of which he never dreamed in his youth, and in his effort to develop the latent talent and ability in his household is seconded by the aid and sympathy of his wife, who was formerly Margaret McDonaugh. Mr. Wehner is public spirited in the extreme, contributing generously to charitable and other demands upon his purse, and aiding with his influence and counsel the improvements which establish the prestige of improvements which establish the prestige of wide-awake and progressive towns. He is independent in politics.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Page 1341. The Chapman Publishing
Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2016 Joyce Rugeroni.