Santa Clara County Biographies


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


 
SYLVESTER NEWHALL, 
 
of the Willows, has  been identified with Santa Clara County since 1856, and is 
now ranked among the county's leading fruit-growers. In five different tracts he 
has 140 acres in fruit-trees. Energetic and painstaking, he has made 
horticulture a source of profit and pleasure. His fine residence, standing on 
Lincoln Avenue, a little south of the crossing of Los Gatos Creek, was erected 
in 1881.
        He dates his birth at Lynn, Massachusetts, March 4, 1827, and is the son 
of Otis Newhall. The history of the family in America extends back as far as the 
Pilgrim Fathers. The first white child born in Lynn was a Newhall. Early in life 
Mr. Newhall left the old homestead, and for a short time lived in Cincinnati, 
Ohio. In 1850, smitten with the gold fever, he crossed the plains and mountains 
to this State, traveling nearly the whole distance on foot. While traversing the 
last 500 miles, he, with his companion, subsisted upon ten pounds of parched 
meal and one pound of sugar, an allowance which, divided, was barely sufficient 
to keep body and soul together. At last they reached Sacramento, ragged and 
starving. Several years were spent in placer mining, with varied results.
        In 1856 he came to this county, and, buying a building lot, commenced 
life at the Willows. Soon afterward he became a pioneer nurseryman. From a small 
beginning, he has, by industry and economy, combined with a strong, sturdy fund 
of New England common sense, attained a competence sufficient for all needs.
Mr. Newhall's orchard interests consist of forty-five acres in prunes, 
twenty-five acres in apricots, and the remainder in cherries, peaches, apples, 
and pears. Politically, he is a strong Republican. He is a member of the 
American Horticultural Society, and also of the ancient and honorable order of 
Masons, being affiliated with San Jose Lodge, No 10.
        In 1871 he was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary (Myers) Stodard, a native 
of the State of Virginia. They have six children, viz.: Fred, Bessie, Grace, 
George, Carl, and Belle.
 
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. 431