Santa Clara County Biographies


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



MARK CALKINS
 
            Mark Calkins is the owner of an orchard farm in the Berryessa School 
District, located on the Milpitas and Berryessa road, about four and a half 
miles northeast of San Jose, and two and a half miles south of Milpitas.  His 
property contains thirty-four acres, and is devoted to fruit culture.  The 
orchard contains 1,700 French prune, 1,200 apricot, 500 peach, and 75 cherry 
trees.  There are also a few vines, which produce table grapes of the Muscat, 
Tokay, and Sweetwater varieties.  Mr. Calkins has made the cultivation of 
raspberries of the Cuthbert variety a profitable branch of the industry, as his 
bushes yield largely and five months of the year.  Although the orchard is 
young, that it promises to be among the best the following estimate will show:  
In 1887, from the two-year-old apricot trees, the crop of green fruit sold for 
$45 per acre, while in the same season, the fruit from the peach trees of the 
same age realized $85 per acre.  Water is found in abundance on this farm at a 
depth of 60 feet, and from a ten-inch well 10,000 gallons a day can be procured. 
 A comfortable cottage home and substantial out-buildings complete the aspect of 
prosperity which this property wears.  Adjoining this farm is a splendid orchard 
of 74 acres, containing over 8,000 French prune trees.  This property belongs to 
Mr. Calkins� brother-in-law, F. M. Smith, but is in the charge of Mr. Calkins.  
His success in the management of these large interests clearly proves his 
thorough knowledge of his business.
            The subject of our sketch was born in Lincolnshire County, England, 
near Brigg, on the twenty-first of March, 1843.  He is the son of George and 
Mary (Markham) Calkins, who emigrated to the United States in 1845, and located 
at Brockport, New York.  There they made their home for a few years, when they 
went as far west as Wisconsin, and settled in Walworth County.  There they 
engaged in farming, and to that work the subject of our sketch was reared, at 
the same time receiving a good common-school education.  At the age of twenty 
years he started out in life for himself by renting and working land in 
Wisconsin.  Engaged in agriculture in that State, he spent almost twenty years, 
leaving it in 1882, to come to this State.  He located in Santa Clara County, 
and soon after bought twenty acres of land on the Hostetter road, in the 
improvement and cultivation of which he spent eighteen months.  At the end of 
that time he sold the place to J. G. F. Berghauser, and purchased his present 
homestead, upon which he has since resided.  He has entered thoroughly into his 
horticultural work, and is destined to rank among the leading fruit-growers of 
the county.  Politically, he is a Republican, and has held several offices of 
trust in the gift of the people.  In Wisconsin, he held the responsible position 
of Town Treasurer of Richmond, and also served two terms in the same town as 
Supervisor.  Industrious, liberal, and public-spirited, he is a desirable 
acquisition to his community.
            Mrs. Calkins was formerly a resident of Wisconsin, in which State, 
in 1878, Mr. Calkins married her.  She was Miss Ida L. Smith, the daughter of 
Henry G. and Charlotte (Paul) Smith, natives of New York, and pioneers of 
Wisconsin.  Two children have been born in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Calkins, 
one of whom, Lena M., is living.
 
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.
Pg. 276-277
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
Proofread by Betty Vickroy