Santa Clara County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
 
WILLIAM KNOX BEANS 
Santa Clara County Pioneer
 
 
Surnames:  KNOX, MOORE
 
Interesting as both the descendant and successor of a pioneer who attained real 
eminence and distinction in the California world of finance.  William Knox Beans 
is a financier worthy of study for himself, both on account of his own 
experience and records, and because of his enviable position of influence and 
power as president of the Bank of San Jose.  He was born in Nevada City, Cal., 
on May 7, 1857, the son of Thomas Ellard and Virginia (Knox) Beans, the father a 
native of Salem, Ohio, who first saw the light there in 1828, and was a 
descendant of fine old Scotch-Irish stock which had made it way from Europe 
through Virginia to Ohio.  Thomas Ellard Beans was a pioneer of San Jose who 
rose to great prominence as a banker and founded the Bank of San Jose, and is 
elsewhere represented in this volume.
 
William K. Beans was educated principally in private schools in San Jose and 
then the College of the Pacific, after which he entered Mount Union College in 
Mount Union, Ohio.  In 1876, after two years, he returned to the Coast, and 
having said good-bye to student days, he entered his father's bank in 1878.  
There he began at the lower rounds of the ladder and gradually worked his way up 
through various positions of responsibility and experience; and on July 19, 
1905, he was elected president of the bank to succeed his father, who had just 
died after so many years of brilliant and faithful service.  To the institution 
he has given his undivided time and the success of his management is seen when 
it shown an increase of 330 per cent assets in seventeen years.
 
Mr. Beans was married in San Francisco in 1889 to Miss Gertrude Moore, a 
daughter of Judge John H. and Bettie P. Moore, who came to California in the 
early '50s, the father being a prominent attorney and judge in San Jose.  She is 
a native of San Jose and they reside at 1260 the Alameda, where Mr. Beans 
follows the course of political events under the banners of the Republican 
party, maintains his live interest in the doings of the Native Sons of the 
Golden West, in which great organization he is proud to claim membership, and 
cultivates, in his spare hours outdoors, his choice flower garden.  He is a 
member of the St. Claire Club and a charter member of the Commercial Club.  Mr. 
Beans is the oldest banker is San Jose and no man is better or more favorably 
known.  Like his father he is conservative and the people of the valley have the 
greatest confidence in the bank and they appreciate his genuine worth and 
integrity.
 
 
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara 
County, California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 762