Santa Clara County Biographies


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


 
E. T. PETTIT
 
E. T. Pettit, residing on the Doyle road, one-half mile south of the Stevens 
Creek road owns a fine orchard property of twenty-two acres, which he bought in 
1881, and has improved from a stubble-field.  Three-planting was commenced at 
once, ten acres being planted the following season in apricots and prunes about 
equally divided.  The remainder of the orchard was set during the next two 
years, principally to prunes and peaches, French prunes leading the whole 
orchard.  The results which Mr. Pettit obtains from his horticultural interests 
clearly show the excellent care which he bestows upon them.  In 1887 five acres 
of apricots yielded thirty-five tons of fruit, which sold for about $1,000.  
After gathering the crop of 1887, Mr. Pettit, in partnership with his sister, 
bought twenty acres of fruit land adjoining the town of Colusa, in Colusa 
County, and during the present season (1888) has planted it with apricots and 
peaches.
The subject of our sketch was born in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.  When he 
started in life for himself, he chose the profession of the teacher.  After 
teaching a few terms in his native State, he went to Missouri and there entered 
the State Normal School at Kirksville, Adair County.  He spent the three years 
following his graduation, in 1873, in teaching in Missouri, and then came to 
this State.  Here he took a senior course in the State Normal at San Jose, at 
which institution he graduated in 1878.  During the years 1880 and 1881 he had 
charge, as Principal, of the schools of Sonora, Tuolumne county.  The larger 
part of the time, however, since his graduation has been spent in teaching in 
this county.  Since 1885 he has devoted his entire attention to horticulture, in 
which he has been very successful.  A brother, Cyrus, is in the carriage 
business at Stockton.  His father, Nathaniel Pettit, resides at the family home 
in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.  His grandfather was one of the pioneers of 
Beaver county, Pennsylvania, from Virginia.  The family is able to refer with 
pride to a long line of Virginian ancestry.
Mr. Pettit is a member of San Jose Grange, No. 10, in 1887 holding the position 
of Secretary of that organization.  In politics he is a thorough Republican.  A 
well-educated man, and one of integrity, Mr. Pettit is possessed of the 
influence which every man of education and refinement - when combined with 
uprightness of character- exerts for good in the community in which he makes his 
home.  The qualities of thoroughness and faithfulness in the performance of 
every duty, which made him a most successful teacher, assure his success as a 
horticulturist.
 
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.p.462
Transcribed by Debbie Combs