Santa Clara County Biographies


This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
ABRAM BLOCK
 
Abram Block is a native of Bohemia, and was born at Schwihau in 1830. When 
fourteen years of age he came to America, and on his arrival here went directly 
to St. Louis, Missouri, where he had several brothers. Having only a limited 
education, he attended school at St. Louis until his seventeen years. He then 
obtained a situation as a clerk in the wholesale and retail dry-goods house of 
Nathan Ables, in which he acquired an interest in 1850. In 1852, on account of 
poor health, he withdrew his interest in the firm and came West to Nevada City, 
were he became associated with S. Furth, in the mercantile business, after which 
he also engaged in private banking until 1874. In 1856 he became a resident o 
San Francisco, where his firm also engaged extensively in business. Meeting with 
reverses in 1874, caused by the depreciation of mining stocks, and also by 
accommodating friends in whom his faith was too sanguine, he was forced to make 
an assignment. In 1878 after settling up his affairs, by the advice of his 
physician, he abandoned mercantile and banking pursuits and turned his attention 
to fruit-culture, and with what little he saved from his financial wreck he 
invested in a fruit ranch near Santa Clara, long known as the Gould Fruit Ranch. 
Mr. Gould was a noted horticulturist, and it was he who first shipped California 
fruits to Eastern States, as well as foreign counties, i.e., Australia, Sandwich 
Islands, and China. Mr. Block's ranch contains ninety-six acres, and he grows 
many varieties of fruit, but the pear is this specialty, the land being best 
adapted to that fruit. He is widely known as a pear culturist, and he ships 
large quantities of pears to Eastern markets. Although deeply in debt, with the 
help of friends Mr. Block has succeeded in removing every financial encumbrance 
from his ranch, the result of his persevering industry under the most trying 
difficulties. He ranks among the prominent horticulturists of the State of 
California, and in 1885 was appointed a member of the California State Board of 
Horticulturists, by Governor Stoneman, to fill a vacancy, and afterward by 
Governor Waterman, to a full term of four years, and is now a member of the 
Board. He is also one of the Trustees of the Home for the Care and Training of 
Feeble-minded Children, a State institution at Santa Clara having been appointed 
by Governor Bartlett in 1887.

Politically, Mr. Block is independent, and never votes a strictly partisan 
ticket; and, although of foreign birth, he loves the free principles of the 
United States, and believes in adhering to and upholding the laws of his adopted 
country He is still unmarried, and will probably never be a bedict, or allow 
himself to be a party to a matrimonial alliance.

Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, 
Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 
1888. page 265 transcribed by Carolyn Feroben
 
A BLOCK FRUIT COMPANY
 
The A. Block Fruit Company, located on the northwestern limits of Santa Clara , 
was established in 1873 by the late Abram Block, and is perhaps the largest 
deciduous fruit house in the world, packing in different years, according to the 
size and quality of the crop, from 500 to 900 carloads, all assorted and boxed 
by experienced hands and shipped to almost every corner of the globe- China, 
Europe, South America, South Africa. The Blocks make a specialty of quality 
fruits, the bulk of which is grown in their own orchards. They pack nothing 
except the best, their brand having a reputation second to none wherever it is 
marketed. California's finest pack of pears and plums, grown on Santa Clara 
soil, is harvested and packed by this local establishment.

Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara 
County, California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 278