Santa Clara County Biographies


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



ERNEST WEHNER
Highland Vineyard and Orchards
1888
 
Ernest Wehner is the owner of Highland Vineyard, which is located on the west 
side of the eastern hills, where it commands a beautiful view of the valley, and 
can be seen with fine effect from San Jose and points beyond. The tract 
comprises 750 acres, and the great work of transforming the place into a great 
vineyard and orchard was undertaken on a grand scale in 1888. Already 175 acres 
have been planted in vines, and fifty acres in choice fruits, but not until 
about 500 acres are thus improved will this portion of the work be complete. All 
the grapes are of wine varieties and all foreign selected. Of the tress thus far 
planted there are 1, 500 apricots, 500 nectarines, 2,000 peaches, 500 French 
prunes, 500 Bartlett pears, and all show fine progress. Three hundred acres 
additional of vines will be planted. The arrangements for the manufacture of 
wine are now being matured, and in 1889 a winery, with a storage capacity of 
500,000 gallons, will be erected. No wine will be sent off the place until it 
has aged sufficiently to become of fine quality. The construction of a residence 
building, to cost $20,000, will be commenced in the fall of 1888, and it will be 
built of stone quarried from the neighboring hills. Water for all purposes is 
supplied in abundance from many living springs. Only two of these have thus far 
been tapped, but they yield from 8,000 to 20,000 gallons per day.

Mr. Ernest Wehner, under whose intelligent superintendence all this work is 
being done, is a native of Hanover, Germany. In 1869 he came to America, and 
after a residence of one year in Wisconsin removed to California. He resided in 
San Jose until he undertook the management of the Highland vineyard. His 
brother, William Wehner, the owner of the ranch, is well known as the originator 
and proprietor of many large panoramas in a number of large cities of the United 
States. Among the more celebrated of these panoramas are those of the 
Crucifixion of Christ, the Battle of Gettysburg, and Missionary Ridge. He has 
others at Indianapolis, Detroit, and Chicago, while the building and paintings 
for one at Buffalo, New York, are now in course of preparation.

SOURCE: 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. page 532 
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben