Merced County Biographies

JOHN M. SILVA

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        Among the many immigrants from the Azores Islands who have contributed 
towards the development of Merced County is John M. Silva, who possesses those 
traits of character upon which material success is founded. He was born in St. 
George, of the Azores on June 7, 1886, the son of Joseph M. and Barbara Silva, 
and was the second of six children as follows: Germania (deceased), John M., 
Rosa (deceased), Antonio, Joseph and Manuel. He came to America in 1904 and 
stopped for a short time in Boston, Mass., came to San Luis Obispo where he 
secured employment as a milker on a dairy ranch for four years. It was the first 
round of the ladder on which he hoped to climb toward a business for himself. 
With the wages he saved he was able to enter into partnership with J. M. Diaz, 
in a dairy of 100 cows on a ranch of 700 acres, five miles from San Luis Obispo, 
and after running the dairy five years they moved fifty of the cows to Merced 
County and settled on the Henry Pfitzer place five miles southwest of Gustine. 
Here John M. Silva has sixty-three acres in alfalfa, having bought the land the 
same year he came here. In March, 1925, he bought out his partner and is now 
running the business alone.
        On September 9, 1914, J. M. Silva was married to Mary Azevedo in San 
Luis Obispo. She is the daughter of Manuel and Minnie (Perry) Azevedo and was 
born in San Luis Obispo; her parents were both natives of the Azores, the former 
of Pico and the latter of Fayal. Her father came to California in 1889 and was 
married in San Luis Obispo, where he is still dairy farming near that place. 
Mrs. Silva is the eldest of six children, namely: Mary, Ida, Manuel, William, 
Louis, and Mabel. She attended school in the Los Osos and the Santa Fe 
districts, both of San Luis Obispo County. Mr. Silva is a member of the U. P. E. 
C. and of the I. D. E. S. of Gustine; also a member of the Foresters of America 
and Knights of Columbus of Newman. Mrs. Silva is a member of the S. P. R. S. I. 
of Gustine and of the U. P. P. E. C. of Newman.
 
History of Merced County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 894-895