Santa
Clara County
Biographies
ALFRED
ROE WOODHAMS
ALFRED ROE
WOODHAMS. To no one has the marvelous development of
Santa Clara county been a greater revelation than to
that honored pioneer, miner, and rancher, Alfred Roe Woodhams. That his own personal assistance has been of
undisputed value in bringing about this happy state is not surprising, for with
few exceptions his ranch has been in the possession of the family for a longer
period than any other property in the neighborhood, and possibly in the county. This fact, added to the zest and earnestness
which has characterized his life, and the breadth of view which has enabled him
to advance with his surroundings, renders him one of the best known and best
appreciated pioneers of 1849.
As a boy Mr. Woodhams
could walk down to the edge of the Hudson river on his
father’s farm near Newburg, in Orange county, N.Y. In this ideal agricultural country he was
born May 31, 1832, his father, Joseph Woodhams,
having settled there upon coming from Buckingham, England, in 1826. The elder Woodhams
brought with him to his adopted land a thorough knowledge of the millwright’s
trade, and two years after landing he returned to England and married Ann
Maurice, a schoolmate born in the vicinity of Buckingham. Mr. Woodhams
prospered as a farmer on the Hudson, and in 1839 was appointed deputy flour
inspector of New York City, a position maintained with such satisfaction that
some years later, in 1843, he was sent to Chili, South America, in charge of a
mill owned by an English firm. In 1849
he sailed from Chili and reached California in the spring of 1850, on a vessel
which he had chartered and cargoed, and of which he
disposed at a large profit in San Francisco.
He then purchased a squatter’s right to a one hundred and sixty acre
tract of land for twelve hundred dollars, near Santa Clara and settled on the
same in the fall of 1850. Two years
later he purchased a mill and for the balance of his active life operated farm
and mill together, attaining to a fair measure of financial success. Four sons and two daughters were born to him,
and though his wife died in 1861, at the age of sixty-two, he survived her
until 1887, at the advanced age of eighty-two years and eight months.
Maurice Woodhams,
an older brother of our subject, accompanied his father to Chili. In 1848, Alfred Roe Woodhams
started for Chili, arriving there in March, and in December of 1849 accompanied
some Scotchmen to California. He was a
natural mechanic, and in San Francisco worked for seven dollars a day for three
weeks at carpentering, a line of occupation much in demand at that time. Afterward, with a party of surveyors he went
up the Sacramento river and worked for a hundred
dollars a month until August, and in November accompanied his Scotch friends to
the mines at Hawkins Bar, on the Tuolumne river. On the following New Year’s
day he returned to San Francisco and engaged in teaming until the fall
of 1850, when he joined his father in settling on his present ranch two and a
half miles west of Santa Clara city. At that
time the claim consisted of one hundred and sixty acres, but it was soon after
added to, and together father and son cleared and cultivated the land, and ran
the mill, until the death of the older man, the son in the meantime making
frequent trips from home, as mining or other interests demanded his attention
elsewhere.
In 1853 Mr. Woodhams
spent a month on the Feather river, but finding mining
there disappointing returned to his father’s farm. In 1856 he made a trip to Michigan, and the
next year crossed the plains through Indiana, Illinois and Missouri to the west
with horse teams. In the fall of 1863 he
began a series of interesting experiences in Arizona, being employed on a
government contract at cutting logs for the government used in building the
stockade at Fort Whipple. While there he
and his associates were instrumental in forming the Union League, which
numbered such distinguished personages as the governor of the territory and
high officials among its members.
Mr. Woodhams and James Barney worked
vigorously and thoroughly for the league’s interests, and in fact were its
chief promoters, the first meeting being held in their cabin. For his work in this connection Mr. Woodhams received a vote of thanks in October, 1864, from
the secretary of the council, which recognition, being on paper, he has
treasured to the present time.
In the fall of 1864 Mr. Woodhams returned to California and has since
uninterruptedly lived on his ranch. At
present he has a hundred acres, fifty-five of which are in orchard, and the
balance in hay and grain. His home is a
comfortable and commodious one, and his family enjoy
the advantages made possible by his success in many directions. He married first in 1868, Cynthia Dopking, who was born in Canada, came at an early age to
California, and died here in 1872. In
1877 he married his present wife, formerly Mrs. Lizzie Saul, who by her
former marriage had two children, and by this marriage
three children, the latter of whom are deceased. The children living are Laurola W.,
now Mrs. M. P. Brasch, who is
secretary of the state grange, and who lives in Santa Clara; and
William S., of San Jose. Mr. Woodhams is a Republican, but has always been averse to
office holding. He is an upright and
conscientious man, and has always impressed his associates as living close to
the golden rule, and as having in mind always the good it has been possible for
him to accomplish.
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 626-629. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
© 2015 Donna Toole.