Santa Clara County Biographies


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



 
J. P. SARGENT. 
 
        The Juristac Ranch, owned by Sargent Brothers, lying in the southern 
portion of Gilroy Township, is one of the most interesting in the county. It 
contains over 7,000 acres of beautiful land, divided about equally between hill 
and valley. On the hill land are the famous " Tar Springs," as they are commonly 
known. Here are inexhaustible deposits of liquid asphaltum, which in places 
bubbles from the ground in the manner of water springs. For years the crude 
deposit has attracted attention, as asphaltum is a valuable material in the 
useful arts. Some of the best specimens of paving in San Jose were made from the 
asphaltum obtained from the Sargents place, heating being all the preparation 
that is required before using. But there are many other purposes besides that of 
paving for which this substance is useful, and perhaps not the least important 
of these is its use in the manufacture of illuminating and fuel gas. A process 
for manufacturing gas from it has been perfected by Mr. E. A. Holloway, of 
Gilroy, and as soon as his patents are procured, the system will be adopted in 
that place. Mr. Holloway has already demonstrated the practicability of the 
process by lighting the streets and business houses of Gilroy with asphaltum 
gas. This matter is further treated in another portion of this volume.
        The ranch is principally devoted to stock-raising and dairying, though 
some attention is given to grain-growing. On this place there are about 1,500 
Durham or Shorthorn cattle, Mr. Sargent preferring the cross of these two fine 
breeds of cattle. When he first engaged in the stock business in California, he 
handled only the common American and Spanish cattle, but since 1872 has been 
steadily introducing the Durham or Shorthorn. In that year he also engaged in 
dairying, and his dairy interests are now among the most extensive in the 
county. Two hundred and fifty cows are kept for this purpose, and an average of 
twelve flats per day are manufactured all the year round, the output sometimes 
amounting to seventeen or eighteen per day. The place is splendidly adapted to 
dairy purposes, and all appointments are complete. The La Brea Creek flows 
through the ranch, affording a never-failing supply of water for all purposes. 
On this tract spacious pleasure grounds are laid off in attractive form, and are 
annually visited by many gatherings of people who come for a day's pleasure. The 
Southern Pacific Railroad runs through the ranch, and lands passengers at the 
station, known as Sargents, close by which are the pleasure grounds known as 
Camp Sargent.
        Mr. J. P. Sargent is a native of Grafton County, New Hampshire, born 
February 11, 1825. His parents, Jacob and Martha H. (Webster) Sargent, both came 
of old New England families. When a mere boy, he lost his mother by death, and 
he started in life for himself at an early age. After a year in Merrimac County, 
New Hampshire, he went to Massachusetts, in 1843, and was there employed during 
the winter in driving a milk-cart for an uncle, Hon. J. W. Robertson, living 
near Quincy, and in the summer in delivering ice in Boston. In 1844 he commenced 
the ice business on his own account in Boston, in connection with his brother, 
R. C. Sargent, and there he laid the foundations of a prosperous business 
career. In 1848 they went West and located in Chicago for the purpose of 
engaging in the ice trade in that thriving city, and it is of interest to 
mention that they packed the first ice ever put up in Chicago.
        The temptations of the great gold fever of 1849 were, however, too much 
for them to resist, and they sold out their business in the city by Lake 
Michigan, and crossed the plains to California. Locating at Weavertown, El 
Dorado County, they embarked in mercantile business and mining. In 1850 the 
subject of this sketch and three brothers engaged in the business of purchasing 
stock from immigrants, and into this business they drifted more and more until, 
in 1855, they closed out the store and gave their attention entirely to stock. 
In 1853 Mr. Sargent came to Santa Clara County and located on the Los Angeles 
Ranch (now in San Benito County). In 1854 he removed to a tract near Soap Lake, 
and in 1856 to the Juristac Ranch, where he now resides. The stock firm of 
Sargent Brothers, of which he is a member, is composed of J. L., R. C., J. P., 
and B. V. Sargent. For this extensive business a vast acreage is required. They 
have 25,000 acres in one body in the San Joaquin Valley, and other landed 
property there. In Monterey County, they have 24,000 acres in two tracts, and 
they have also a number of other small pieces of land, and on one of their 
tracts the town of Bradley, an important station on the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, is located.
        Mr. Sargent was married, in Monterey County, November 4, 1864, to Miss 
Agnes Bowie, a native of Montreal, Canada, whose parents came to California in 
1857, locating at San Juan, where both have since died. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent are 
the parents of five children, viz.: James A., Ross C., Agnes, Ida, and Louisa.
        Mr. Sargent is a man of marked business ability, as indicated by his 
progress, making his own start in boyhood, and rising unaided to his present 
position. He is a Republican, politically, and in 1872 was chosen on that ticket 
to represent this district in the Legislature of California. He has been for 
many years a Director of the Santa Clara Valley Agricultural Society, and in 
1877 was elected its President. It can truthfully be said of Mr. Sargent that, 
wealthy as he is, and having accumulated his fortune by his own efforts, he has 
yet ever been free from everything of a sordid nature, and is known as a genial 
and whole�souled man.
 
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. 665-666


J. P. SARGENT, a successful resident of Salinas, is the eldest of four children of Hon. 
B. V. Sargent. His father has been a resident of the town of Monterey since June, 1858, 
and is a prominent citizen by virtue of his long residence here, but more prominent 
because of his connection with the industries and politics of the county, having served 
his fellow-citizens in various official capacities, among others very acceptably and 
creditably filling the office of State Senator in the Legislature of 1887. He was born in 
Grafton, New Hampshire, in 1828, and spent his early days in Boston. July 1, 1849, he 
arrived in San Francisco and immediately went to the mines on Mokelumne river, and 
in September of the same year went to San Jose, where he kept hotel until the opening 
of the first State Legislature, when he went to the Sandwich Islands, where he remained 
until the spring of 1850. Returning to California he met his three brothers, J. P., R. C. 
and I. L. Sargent, who had come out overland from Chicago the previous year. In the fall 
of 1850 the four brothers settled in San Joaquin county, where the town of Woodbridge 
now stands, and went into the stock business as Sargent Brothers. The firm is one of the 
most widely known in the State, owning several large properties in several counties. In 
San Joaquin county they have a grain and stock ranch of 30,000 acres, under the charge 
Ross and Dr. Jacob Sargent. In Santa Clara county they have 12,000 acres under the 
management of J. P. Sargent, and this is one of the best properties in the State, and is 
used for diversified farming and stock-raising. Some of the fastest and best-blooded horses 
in the State are raised here. In Monterey county they have two ranches under the supervision 
of B. V. Sargent. At Bradley, in the southern part of the county, is La Pestilencia, of 12,000 
acres. The name is derived from the stenches of sulphur springs on the place, the country 
thereabouts abounding in mineral springs. The soil of this region is very fertile and adapted 
to grain and fruit, although stock-raising has been the principal industry heretofore. The 
ranch consists principally of low rolling hills and ridges, which in the springtime are carpeted 
with alfileria and wild grasses, bunch grass being conspicuous. About six miles from 
Monterey they own a large ranch of 23,000 acres, � El Potrero San Carlos San Francisquito. 
This last named ranch furnishes grazing for 4,000 head of cattle and is watered by numerous 
streams. It is considered one of the finest stock ranches in the State. 

As before noticed Mr. Sargent has served in various official capacities. He has been 
Supervisor of Monterey county several times and was elected joint Senator of Monterey 
and San Benito counties in 1886. He was married in 1856 at Mokelumne Hill. His 
wife is a most estimable lady, well-known in Monterey for her goodness of heart and 
many acts of charity They have four children, three sons and a daughter. Two of the 
sons, J. P., subject, and R. C. Sargent have the immediate supervision of the Monterey 
ranches. The other son, B. V. Sargent, Jr., is ex-District Attorney of Monterey county. The 
daughter is the wife of Mr. Gragg, a business man of Bradley, Monterey county. 

The Hon. Mr. Sargent is unostentatious in his manner, a man of practical ideas and 
rare business sagacity. He is genial and sociable, possessing a fund of anecdote, and is a 
very agreeable companion. 

J. P. Sargent, subject of this sketch, is a resident of Salinas and was married, October 
10, 1883, to Miss Catherine Eckhart, daughter of Charles Eckhart, of Gilroy. Mr. and 
Mrs. Sargent have two bright little sons, Bradley E. and Charles. Mr. Sargent is the 
able manager of a portion of his father's estate and is one of the leading young business 
men of the city of Salinas. 

A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California : illustrated : containing 
a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its discovery to the 
present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future, illustrations and full-page portraits of 
some of its eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers, and prominent citizens of 
to-day (1893)

Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Publishing Company; Author: Barrows, Henry D; Ingersoll, Luther A

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper