Tag Archives: invention

Nirum Cadwallader – Evergreen’s generous Mining Tycoon

June 11, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchbusiness, cadwallader, Cadwallader Avenue, california, downtown evergreen, family, generations, Gold Rush, invention, inventor, mining, namesake, nirum, Pat Loomis, patent, quicksilver, school, schoolhouse, Sign Posts, street name, vacation, women's relief corps, WRCevergreen

Nirum’s an awesome name, as is Cadwallader. For the purposes of my research, I much prefer it to Smith, Stevens, Jones or John. However, when looking into Mr. Cadwallader, he occurs all over the map. The fabulous women of History San Jose pulled it all together for me. I’m always looking for a portrait on my Evergreen individuals. This one happens to be in print, not a photograph.

Mr. Nirum Cadwallader, for whom the school is named, as previously discussed donated the lands to both the Evergreen Schoolhouse at the corner of San Felipe and Evergreen Roads in 1860 and to the Women’s Relief Corps in 1887, located on Cadwallader Avenue. The WRC is probably one of these subdivision plots. By my estimation of the 5 acres donated, I think it’s probably 34 or 57. Those are the only ones bigger enough and “on” Cadwallader. At the time, Cadwallader Avenue started at San Felipe Road. Now, there are only foot bridges connecting Cadwallader to Keaton Loop, formerly San Felipe Road. We’ll discuss this in further detail later. No doubt, Mr. Cadwallader helped shape Evergreen as we know it.

The earliest records of Mr. Nirum Cadwallader appear from Birchville, California, because that’s where he initially struck it rich. Originally from Ohio, Nirum Cadwallader would be apart of the Gold Rush of 1849. In an illustrated version of Popular Science in 1866 would bring attention to Mr. Cadwallader’s patent on a technique of compressing air in dynamic to create larger blasts.

Nirum Cadwallader (1833-1890) was the great grandson of Ohio’s Seneca County’s Hopewell Township’s first settler, Nathan Cadwallader. Nirum’s father Samuel Cadwallader and wife Mary would raise 7 children, of which Nirum was the eldest. He would’ve been sixteen as he would’ve heard the news of gold from California. As a young man, Cadwallader would work his way up the chain at the Milton Mining Company, surely getting the necessary experience that took him to his future heights. The Cadwallader family name is quite popular there in Ohio and along the east coast, also spelt Cadwalader. It and the family originate from Wales, being a descriptive term for the Welsh people. The family’s lineage can be traced back to a Welsh King. Chances are the Cadwalladers were well off in Ohio. There are a long line of Cadwallader inventors preceding and succeeding him. The first Cadwalladers would leave England in 1640, arriving in Virginia, and slowly migrating west from there.

As a young man, Cadwallader would work his way up the chain at the Milton Mining Company, surely getting the experience that took him to his future heights. However established, Nirum Cadwallader would break out from Milton and arrive in California in 1855, at the age of 22. Nirum would become a prolific businessman, acquiring stocks and equity in numerous mining, telephone, water and utility companies in Nevada County, California. He was a very rich and well-respected man quickly after coming to California. Mr. Cadwallader would be married twice, but his first wife passed away while he still lived in Birchville. I couldn’t find any records of the first marriage or the children they might have had. After returning home, no doubt to grieve, Nirum would marry the much younger Emma J. Hart (1847-1930) also from Ohio, having 3 children together. Nirum Cadwallader would own 160 acres in Ohio as shown to the left in this 1874 Atlas. Samuel, his father, would live with Nirum for part of the year, probably during Ohio’s colder months.

If you’re mining for gold in Nevada County, California, you would need quicksilver to obtain pure gold and remove other elements from the compound. If you’re a forward thinking man with mining interests and better mining techniques like Mr. Cadwallader, you might look for some quicksilver mines of your own. This is what probably brought Mr. and Mrs. Cadwallader to San Jose for good in 1881. Although it is unclear whether or not he had any part of the Silver Creek Mines before their flooding and abandonment, Nirum Cadwallader would purchase land in the heart of Evergreen in the 1860’s, though they never lived there. This was a second property to vacation from their downtown home, which was located off of the Alameda, in the heart of Downtown San Jose. It’s been torn down. When Cadwallader donated the land because he hadn’t built on it, he made a huge impact on the Community of Evergreen. Mr. Nirum Cadwallader has been rumored to be a very generous man throughout his life.

In 1888, Birchville’s mining industry would dry up as the mines were picked clean. The population of Nevada County quickly shrank. Forward thinking Mr. Cadwallader had already set up shop elsewhere. His patent made him rich, as did his business ownings. Mr. Cadwallader died in 1890, a year after the WRC opened. Mrs. Emma Cadwallade, the widow, would deed a park in his honor. The small park still exists between 1st and 2nd Streets at Keyes Street. It is the cutest wedge of land with palm trees. This crossroads would dictate the direction you were heading before highways were built. Monterey Road was the closest thing to a highway, also being a portion of the El Camino Real. First Street heading North lead you Santa Clara and then the Alameda which turns to the El Camino Real to San Francisco. Heading down Second Street took you towards Oakland via Oakland Road from Thirteenth Street.

In donating the property to the Women’s Relief Corps in December 1887, constructed in 1889, a ceremony was held to commemorate the occasion in Evergreen on April 6, 1889. The WRC took a year and a half to build on Cadwallader Avenue. A mile long precession and banquet hosted by “ladies of Evergreen”, notable ladies like Mrs. E. J. Smith, Mrs. J. J. Jones, Miss Fowler, and Miss McClay. The occasion was celebrated with Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Edwards, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Cunningham, Mr. and Mrs. Lantz (neighbors nearby the WRC), Miss Minnie Keliher and the Chew Family. It was said that Mr. Cadwallader held the event to show off his beautiful wife from Ohio. She later remarried Mr. Taylor in 1910, twenty years later.

Mr. Nirum Cadwallader’s Evergreen property turned into one of the first densely built home developments in the downtown of Evergreen. It was all located around Cadwallader Avenue, named in his honor. Close by Cadwallader Subdivision were the Smith properties and General Store, Andy Kettmann’s Saloon and the Schoolhouse. When the town grew, it did so because people enjoyed having neighbors and countryside in the places like the Cadwallader Subdivision shown to the right. If you worked these farms nearby, you probably couldn’t afford lots of acres of your own. Plus, you were too busy to ever profit off of the land or tend to it yourself. Evergreen’s farming industry took the whole village to harvest. Evergreen School Sessions would sync with the harvest season, because the kids would be home working as well.

Patricia Loomis discussed the WRC’s opening with first person resources in her article “Cadwallader Ave. Has Had Problems” in her ‘Sign Posts’ series, revisiting historic events in San Jose’s history for the San Jose News in October 17, 1975. What I hadn’t realized before I found Patricia Loomis’s Sign Post was that Cadwallader Avenue went through to San Felipe. The road bridge would be washed out in 1893 after heavy rains. At the time, Cadwallader crossed Thompson Creek, formerly known as Dry Creek because it ran dry in summer months. The wash out surely as something to do with the redirecting of San Felipe Road. It’s never been replaced.

John J. Montgomery – Aviating Pioneer

May 9, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchairport, aviation, business, california, evergreen, evergreen people, flight, flying, glider, hillsides, invention, inventor, modern, monoplane, montgomery, plane, Santa Clara Universityevergreen

The town of Evergreen, still not apart of San Jose, was known for many things at the turn of the 20th century. One of the things, besides its plentiful fruit and famed wines, that put the Village of Evergreen and City of San Jose on the national map was the invention of modern flight. The inventor, engineer, and dare-devil John J. Montgomery would flight Man’s first controlled flight in 1883 and take flights from the Evergreen hillsides and in downtown San Jose in the early 1900’s. Montgomery and fellow aviator, Daniel Maloney, would give their lives for their passion and invention of flight.

John J. Montgomery, the son of a prominent lawyer brought out West by the Gold Rush, was born in 1858 in Yuba City/Marysville. As a boy, John Montgomery would observe flight through birds in the sky and use that as inspiration throughout his work. Montgomery would also be inspired by another early aviator’s demonstration during his boyhood. The Montgomery family would move into Oakland in 1864, where his father held a successful law practice. In Millbrae in 1869, a young John Montgomery would witness the flight of an airship, closer to a zeppelin or blimp, called the Avitor Hermes, Jr. Young Montgomery would go home to Oakland and build a model for himself. Only a hand full of people had ever been in flight. Back then, ships would be lifted by balloons of helium or hydrogen, and were only in air for a very limited amount of flight time, a matter of seconds, before descent.

People have been fascinated with flight but baffled by its execution. In a Greek Myth, Icarus would try to fly with wings of feathers and wax that melted as he approached the Sun. This creates the message that flight is beyond our grasp. There were totally kites going back in history. Leonardo Da Vinci would dream of inventing planes and helicopters in the 15th-16th century. Hot air balloons and the like would be used in the later half of the 18th century. Before John Montgomery’s time, balloons would be the only way to make flight possible, pioneered by Jacques Charles and the Robert brothers. The obstacle with preceding inventions for flight would fall short because they were too heavy to launch from the ground. The planes would simply fall.

John Montgomery attended St. Ignatius College in San Francisco, graduating in 1879 and obtaining his Masters in 1880. James Lick Observatory would begin construction in 1879 and John would’ve become aware of Santa Clara County’s elevations. Montgomery would start designing his flying machines in San Diego County in 1881 when his family moved there after college. After his hours working on the farm, he would pour the left over energy into his theories. John Montgomery would build models in the barn’s attic. These first designs, Montgomery would work with a flapping wing like Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketch. The flapping wing wouldn’t be as effective as a fixed one.

In 1882-84, Montgomery would experiment with flight outside of San Diego along the Mexican border with “gliders”, a monoplane closer to a hang-glider than Leonardo’s flapping flying machine. Gliders would require perfect conditions to get and keep in flight or the aforementioned balloon would raise the machine hundreds of feet. This is a scene from Montgomery’s San Diego area workshop. This machine was inspired on the wings of seagulls. John J. Montgomery’s flights in the 1880’s would be the first heavier-than-air flight, the event observed by friends and family members but not widely publicized. This glider would’ve been a gull shaped, single winged flying machine, or a monoplane. The glider would ignore the “Yaw” or center of mass, the gravitational force towards that would swing from the heaviest point, the pilot. During this time, Octave Chanute, a contemporary critic, would have harsh words for Montgomery, but Montgomery’s pursuit of flight would continue.

John J. Montgomery would continue experimenting and flying throughout California, in San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties. To fund his inventions, John Montgomery would pursue other endeavors within physics and engineering. In 1884, Montgomery would be granted a patent for the process of vulcanizing and devulcanizing rubber.

In 1885, Montgomery would start also experimenting with how air flowed over different shaped surfaces, adding considerably to the field of aerodynamics. Montgomery, still in San Diego County, would be so secretive about his experiments, no one knew what he was up to at the time but close family members. The fruit of this labor would later be written in trade publications and heard during groundbreaking Aviation Navigation discussions in the early 20th century. Inspired by the articulating wings of turkey vultures and eagles, he would being to tie the fixed wing to a guiding mechanism to keep the plane even or balanced. Montgomery’s research would prove a slightly curved surface best for his gliders. Montgomery would also start programming direction and counter-controls for gusts of wind and easy turning through a series of spring loaded mechanisms.

John J. Montgomery was finally hearing through the newspapers and his brother, in New York, about other early aviators. This news and competition would inspire Montgomery to act upon his research, and be a part of the conversation in the new field of science.

In 1893, Montgomery attended the Chicago Columbian Exhibition to listen to Nikola Tesla speak about electricity. Once there, John would introduce himself to the aviation and physics professors, inventors and theorists. His networking paid off, and Montgomery would be invited to speak at the conference himself and gain through his experiments. Montgomery, gaining fame for his accomplishments, would begin lecturing at colleges across the country, demonstrating flights and investigating the physics behind flight. The flow of air over the wing would affect the next design of flying machines.

In 1895, John J. Montgomery would own a patent for a better petroleum burning furnace. John Montgomery would be invited to take a teaching position with Santa Clara University in 1897. He would teach physics and other sciences. At the University in 1901, Montgomery would begin experimenting with Father Richard Bell on wireless telecommunications or radio, transmitting messages as far as San Francisco. In later years, he would demonstrate flight for hundreds of spectators at Santa Clara.

In 1903, John J. Montgomery would begin to develop this gliders again while teaching at Santa Clara University. He would also coin the word “aeroplane”, which later became “airplane”, and gain the patent in 1905 for the improvements of the technology. Inspired by the collaboration of a colleague, Montgomery would design a tandem winged glider with a propeller. The collaborator would take Montgomery’s propeller design and win first place at the World Fair in St. Louis, Missouri.

Sometimes, competition is the healthiest thing for invention and innovation. John J. Montgomery wouldn’t be discouraged by the professional betrayal. Montgomery would lead several successful high elevation flights launched from balloons and maintaining flight for several minutes until gliding to a gradual stop. The Wright Brothers would also be taking flight around this time. What separated Montgomery’s work from other early aviators, besides beating them to flight by 20 years, was the duration of flight and the controlled figure eight patterns demonstrated. Montgomery’s machines wouldn’t have a motor at this point, but that wasn’t Montgomery’s priority. Safety and control were paramount to him.

In July of 1905, Montgomery’s friend, colleague and test pilot, Daniel Maloney, would die testing on of his gliders on a balloon elevated flight. The Santa Clara, this version of the aeroplane, was flown hundreds times. The machine was damaged on a previous flight but hadn’t broken completely until that point. Maloney and Montgomery would’ve tested their gliders in the hills of Evergreen, as well as other places, before demonstrations in the City of San Jose and the University. This event and the big Earthquake of 1906 would cause Montgomery to take a little break from flying.

Montgomery would always be inventing and contributing to a wide range of industries. In 1909, perhaps inspired by hearing Nikola Tesla speak in 1893, John J. Montgomery would patent an alternating current rectifier. This would’ve improved radios and electrical vacuums at the time. The semi-conductor would replace this technology later on. Current Alternating Current Rectifiers are still used in DC (Direct Current) and high-voltage situations today. Most power sources around your house are grounded (GFC), not direct.

Despite popular belief, John J. Montgomery didn’t actually live in the Village of Evergreen. Montgomery lived closer to Santa Clara University where he worked and the Pueblo of San Jose that built up around the Mission of Santa Clara. John Montgomery would come to get permissions from Evergreen’s Ramonda Family to fly on their ranch with the optimal hillsides to take flight from without the assistance of a balloon.

John Montgomery would fly again in 1910, after finding his love. Montgomery fixed, immobilized, the tail of the airplane and incorporated the guiding features into the warping of the wing pattern. From there, John J. Montgomery was to add an engine and patent the design as the first plane. This design was titled “the Evergreen”.

Unfortunately, during this series of flights and trials, John J. Montgomery would pass away after a landing he couldn’t walk away from. On October 31, 1911, Montgomery would fly through Evergreen for the last time. Without his contributions to the field and his competition that drove other inventors, we would be flying hundreds of miles an hour in metal tubes over a hundred years later. Beyond that, Montgomery was constantly improving upon technology and his work is around us everywhere, from our car tires to our electrical outlets.

The experiments and public demonstrations in Santa Clara County brought another claim to fame for the Valley of Heart’s Delight. If you didn’t know Evergreen’s famous fruit or famous wines, you would’ve heard about that guy who died flying there. The park and monument are here in Evergreen at Montgomery Hill Park along Yerba Buena Road and San Felipe Road, near where he passed. Another monument stands today at the Santa Clara University campus. Another airplane wing stands at the site of his San Diego County flights. You can also view his work at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C or the much closer Hiller Museum in Redwood City. His great grandnephew has written a book and has agreed to our interview on the subject of John J. Montgomery and flight in general, at he follows in John’s footsteps as a professor of physics at UC Santa Cruz.

My experience and my knowledge of John J. Montgomery began with painting for the Evergreen School District at the school named in his honor. Otherwise, I would’ve remained unaware of the inventor. There, one of the ball walls specifically discusses the History of Aviation and where John J. Montgomery fits within that narrative. Gliders were incorporated into all the murals on campus.

Other longtime Evergreen residents, like Jerry Kettmann, would’ve had an intimate relationship with aviation, cultivated at the nearby Hillview Airport. Harriet Quimby would’ve been directly inspired by Montgomery’s flights. Here’s the artwork we have planned for John J. Montgomery who helped put Evergreen on the map.

Generations of the Kettmann Clan

May 5, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchagriculture, apricots, business, civil service, downtown evergreen, evergreen, evergreen people, family, fruit, generations, invention, kettmann, orchards, street name, township, Valley of heart's Delight, vineyardsevergreen

Along the research for this Evergreen project, I have met the most fantastic people. If this guy needed a new best friend, I would be first in line. I discussed with Honorable Judge Gerhard J. Kettmann (Jerry) the four generations of his family who blossomed in Evergreen and continue to call Evergreen home today. He’s the ultimate expert, having written a book and working on another about their family history. What is extraordinary about the Kettmann family, making it a crucial piece of our mural series, is their witness to almost 150 years of Evergreen’s development. We will start by discussing how the Kettmann’s came to America. The United States is a country of immigrants. We would all come here from somewhere else. I think that’s the first thing that bonds all of us Evergreen residents together.

Johan Hermann Gerhard Kettmann (George) was the youngest of 8 siblings, born in 1827 in Kettenkamp, Germany. His someday wife would be another German immigrant growing up only 8 miles away in Germany. Gerhard Kettmann would leave his Native Country of Germany at the age of 22 and arrive in the Port of New Orleans in 1849. Gerhard Kettmann would travel from Louisiana through Panama to come to Sutter County, California in 1853 and pan for gold. With a little luck along the Yuba River and Feather River, George would come to purchase 160 acres of land in Sutter County.

George Kettmann would marry Bernadina Torbrecke in Marysville, California, but there’s a very cute folkloric story to this pairing. Dina was first cousin of the Krehe Family, who would also come to live in Evergreen. Henry and Bernard Krehe would invite their unmarried family members from Germany to come to the United States. George Kettmann, being close friends with the Krehes, got to make his pick first and chose Bernadina.

Whether that story was true or not, the German couple was married in Marysville, California in January of 1858. George and Bernadina Kettmann would have eleven children. The Kettmann clan would begin grow in Sutter County on the acreage along the Feather River, operating a general store known as “Five Mile House”. In addition to the store along the highway, George also would raise a herd of sheep and cattle on his 160 acres before moving the whole herd, family and all, to the Santa Clara County.

George Kettmann showed interest in Santa Clara County in the 1850’s, after traveling their with a family member. With the new variety of fruit being introduced to the agricultural field stimulated by Luis and Pierre Pellier, Kettmann made his move to Evergreen, then a tiny farming town. George Kettmann would purchased a portion of Rancho Yerba Buena in 1867 near downtown Evergreen along Evergreen Road. In fact, this first Evergreen parcel purchased by the Kettmanns belonged to the Chaboya Family’s attorney, William Matthews, and had been paid land in order to settle those legal fees.

This initial parcel was a perfect 150 acre rectangle with the exception of the land that had been donated to the Evergreen Elementary School. Evergreen’s schoolhouse would be where the shopping center with the Valero and Wells Fargo is today. The Evergreen Elementary School would be located here until 1892, when it moved a little down San Felipe Road. Kettmann Road at Aborn Road is very near this school site, but it would’ve been on the other side of Thompson Creek, then Dry Creek. Let it be known though that even the attorney didn’t donate this land. That carried over on the Title from the previous owner, Mr. Cadwallader.

The Kettmann family didn’t stop with that first purchase of 147.7 acres in downtown Evergreen. Through an interesting purchase and exchange of land with fellow German immigrants, the Hassler family, the Kettmanns obtained another 103.10 acres in 1875. The Hasslers and Kettmanns separated the properties along the Touchard Line, which falls on part of present day Neiman Boulevard. Modern day Kettmann Road, where the Evergreen Library Branch is located on Aborn Road, runs between these two land purchases. As Evergreen folklore would have it, this acquisition was the only purchase Antonio Chaboya’s family actually profited off of after their debts were settled trying to evict their new neighbors. In 1881, one of George Kettmann’s sons would become an Evergreen landowner as well.

The eldest of eleven siblings, Clemens Andrew Kettmann was born on the Marysville ranch in 1858, less than a year after the couple wed. Clemens would’ve made the journey with his father, George, the large sheep herd and fellow cowboys to Evergreen in 1868. Clemens Kettmann was the only son to make the journey at 9 years old. Young Clem only had sisters at that point. The trek from Marysville with the herd must’ve taken over a month on horseback. The rest of the family would come in 1869, after Dina gave birth to another sister. From the Evergreen homestead, the clan would continue to raise livestock but also incorporate fruit, vegetables and grain into their business strategy.

Homestead Laws would allow families to obtain a certain portion of land from the government after cultivating it for 5 years. The Kettmann Family as a group diversified this ranching strategy in the heart of Evergreen and accentuated their grazing potential with homestead purchases along the back side of Mt. Hamilton Ranch. These adjoining Mt. Hamilton homesteads weren’t fantastic for farming, but it could and would be done with altered harvesting equipment. The Kettman clan had so many acres in the Mt. Diablo Mountain Range, this area would become known as “Kettmann Range”. Lamb and sheep would be a rarity in Evergreen and San Jose at this time. Cattle ranching would’ve been totally ordinary and generally what had been grazing throughout Evergreen for some 50 years beforehand. The Kettmann clan held on to their German heritage by passing on this tradition.

Clemens Kettmann would come to purchase the adjacent parcel to his father’s in 1881, then 23 years old, from Louis Kampfen, another German farmer, who obtained his portion after the Hasslers from the previous Hassler/Kettmann deal. This was 80.18 acres large, literally being the family’s “80 acres”. Kettmann’s friends and cousins, the Krehe Family, would also move in nearby. There was quite the hotspot of German American culture in early Evergreen, with the Smith’s and Stephens Families nearby.

Clemens A. Kettmann would marry a German-American lady, Mary Vollmer, in 1890 at St. Joseph’s Basilica in downtown San Jose. Mary wore an apricot colored dress, how fitting. Clem Kettmann and Mary Vollmer would have seven kids on their Evergreen homestead. This labor force, along with his younger brothers at his father’s homestead next door, would help Clem Kettmann cultivate the land.

Having a big family in the 19th century was a big deal. You needed help working on the farm. In fact, having eleven children wouldn’t be enough to operate ranches as large as these. The Kettmanns would employ help in the house and on the farm. The children would start picking fruit between school breaks and into adulthood would sew sacks and become a part of the traveling crew harvesting crops all over Evergreen. Harvests were true team efforts. A barter system would be reached for labor and harvesting. Horses were in high demand for plowing and the like. Labor was generally $2.00 a day for a horse and a man. This was a typical scene from the Fowler Threshing Syndicate, harvesting grain. Evergreen was a teambuilding utopia back in the day. Strength in numbers seemed to be a focus.

Generations of the Kettmann clan would grow up in Evergreen alongside the Industrial Revolution. George Kettmann would’ve farmed just like he had learned to in his Native Germany, very much by hand. The Farming Industry during this time would transition from horse and plow, pitchforks, sickle and scythe to tractors, threshing machines and haypresses. George’s youngest son, Andrew Kettmann, would develop tools for apricot harvesting. Clem’s children, too, would’ve hand first on experience transitioning from horse pulled threshing crews to tractor or truck pulled rig. The Kettmann clan would continuously learn to adapt their farming techniques as the technology improved. In the 1920’s, Clem’s son, Julius, would open a garage to help fix machines in downtown San Jose after adapting and fixing machinery on the family homestead. This legacy can be seen as descendants now operate the Kettmann Machining, Inc. in San Jose.

George and Clem would both plant orchards on their properties. Clemens Kettmann would plant several acres of apricots with their commercial stock going way up. Mixing his varieties of apricot, Clem created a sweet apricot which was also large and ripened evenly. Clem’s sloped property presented irrigation problems for portions of his orchards. He found the unirrigated crop was sweeter but smaller than the other harvest. These were his apricots. He would find the same to be true of his corn crops. Those that were naturally watered were naturally sweeter.

The Kettmann families would plant several acres of prunes and cherry orchards along with their apricots. The clan also had several acres of vineyards also at their Evergreen property. Threshing crews would cultivate over a hundred acres of grain, oats and alfalfa from the Kettmann farms. I never thought about it before, but horses take a lot to feed. If you have horses for plowing, you need acres just to settle your own horses. The Kettmann family would continue to grow and branch out in Evergreen. Into the 1900’s their children would take over the roles running the farms and ranches after their education. Prohibition cause a lot of vintners to pull up their grapevines and retire their wine businesses. The Kettmanns did not however and made a small fortune continuing to sell grapes for underground wine operations. Between these ranches and the Kettmann Range, the Evergreen family was sitting pretty.

The German American Inventor and all around funny guy, Andrew Kettmann would grow up sewing sacks for grain and maintaining the family farm. George’s son and Clem’s youngest brother, Andy Kettmann would open downtown Evergreen’s second Saloon along San Felipe Road. Andrew Kettmann’s Saloon became increasingly popular amongst quicksilver miners through World War I. This spot would be a hub of culture until 1920 when Prohibition was enforced. Until then, many tipsy tales were told out of Andy’s Saloon.

After George’s passing in 1912, his property would be equally divided amongst his eleven children. The Kettmann Family Ranch would continue to modernize with Clem’s son’s, Louis. Louis Kettmann would take Clem’s horse powered ranch into the present with the purchase of a tractor built from tank parts. Large mechanical farming equipment would need to be leased or the old machinery would need to be updated. The rural Village of Evergreen was rapidly changing through the early 1900’s. Cars were a blessed invention and roads would be paved, but open space began to dwindle. That free path to the Kettmann Range through Downtown Evergreen would close up. Clem would pass in 1943. The Kettmann family continued to expand, but some would start breaking away from the family business to pursue their own goals. Farming in Evergreen would become more scarce as more residents starting moving in. Managing the wasn’t easy business as my interviewee would realize firsthand.

In the summer of 1947, Judge Jerry Kettmann, then just known as Jerry, would lease hay land from Grandma Mary (Vollmer) Kettmann. It was Jerry’s idea to make it rich that summer and buy a convertible to take out coeds from San Jose State. This same model T, pictured here with Jerry taken over that summer, pooped out in the middle of the road off San Fernando and 4th Street near the University. Jerry called his cousin to help push the car out of the roadway and into the gas station it pooped out yards away from. Jerry Kettmann would sell off a nearly paid-off tractor to cover his losses and pay his grandmother back that summer.

George’s great grandson and Clem’s grandson, Judge Gerhard J. Kettmann, was born in 1926 in Los Gatos but would soon relocate to his father’s Evergreen homestead. As a boy, Jerry would attend Evergreen Elementary School, then Roosevelt Middle School and San Jose High School. Kettmann recalls family get togethers with the Chaboya family as a child. Jerry would throw apricots like snowballs, run through vacant mine shafts and sleep in homemade treehouses in Evergreen. Judge Kettmann is a huge fan of flying, a fondness he developed on an aircraft carrier in World War II. Kettmann’s father and grandfather could’ve told him tales of Montgomery’s pioneer flights from their own experience.

After serving in the Navy in World War II, Jerry Kettmann later worked in the railroad as a fireman, at the Baron-Gray Packing Company packing fruit and then at the Post Office downtown before attending SJSU for Aviation Engineering then Business and Economics. Sadly, young Jerry’s 1947 dream of striking it rich quick would never be realized.

The Honorable Judge Jerry Kettmann was accepted to Stanford Law in 1953 but instead attended UC Berkeley, where he graduated in the upper third of his class. Judge Kettmann began working as a Trust Attorney for Wells Fargo, but left to pursue trial law with the District Attorney’s Office. Though Judge Kettmann is partial to Civil Law, he told me about 85% of the cases he saw on the bench were criminal cases. Judge Kettmann would oversee cases at the height of the Civil Rights movement, even appearing in front of an Angela Davis case. Rioters would shout things and try to frustrate Judges. It wouldn’t work on Judge Kettmann, though. He removed their signs and have them properly tagged by court officials as the defending attorney tried including them as evidence. Judge Kettmann would find himself arbitrating through the later part of his career.

Judge Gerhard J. Kettmann would retire from the Law and write from his Evergreen home. The Kettmann family historian carries a tradition that began about 150 years ago in Evergreen. Judge Kettmann, though groomed on the farm, managed to keep up with the quickly changing times. This area of Evergreen, between Kettmann Road and Neiman Boulevard was developed beginning in the 1960’s. At 89 years young, Judge Kettmann’s enthusiasm is contagious. Really, I am so proud of my Evergreen people. It makes my job so easy when they are great and have great stories to tell! Here’s the artwork we have worked up for the Kettmann Family.

Flying through Evergreen

February 9, 2016Artwork, Historical Researchaviation, business, evergreen, hillview airport, invention, james lick, montgomeryevergreen

Evergreen in the southeast corner of San Jose has a long legacy of ranching, agriculture and entrepreneurship throughout its timeline, creating continuity and inspiration throughout this collection of murals that I have planned for our Evergreen Gateway. Another legacy Evergreen has had over time is a love affair with flight and the sky.

In 1876, one of California’s wealthiest citizens, James Lick, put aside the funds for the most powerful telescope ever and world’s first mountain top observatory. It couldn’t be done without the County of Santa Clara building the windy road that same year. James Lick Observatory nearby Evergreen began construction in 1880 and completed in 1888. Located on Mount Hamilton, horses brought materials up a series of switchbacks to reach the summit beyond the paved road, now Highway 130. There is a whole list of discoveries and research coming out of the observatory. But…. this is just outside of Evergreen. People would have stopped in Evergreen on their way to East San Jose, Smith Creek and James Lick Observatory.

Around the same time the observatory was being built, John Joseph Montgomery(1858-1911) was looking up at birds flying through the sky. The engineer and physicist set out to invent a glider that mimicked their wings. Montgomery would move to Evergreen with his family, and continue his experiments by running off the slope of the hills. His flight experiments would predate that of the Wright Brothers and become the first heavier than air vehicle to take flight. These flying machine designs would be inspired by the coastal gulls and Evergreen indigenous Turkey Vultures, articulating and guiding the air. His inventions would go to the World Fair and make him famous all over the country. Later becoming a professor at Santa Clara University, both he and his assistant, Daniel Malohney, would loose their lives in aviating accidents in the early 1900’s. Their work made the Wright’s Brothers flight possible.

In the Evergreen neighborhood, there are city parks, residential streets, statues and monuments, an elementary school and an observatory at Evergreen Valley College named after inventor, John J. Montgomery. His machines made later innovations within Aviation possible, testing different configurations of wings and mechanism through his work. The Montgomery family were long time residents of Evergreen.

Harriet Quimby(1875-1912) would move to Evergreen in the 1890’s, when Montgomery’s experiments began. Harriet would become a journalist and Hollywood movie screenwriter. She also became a pioneer lady aviator breaking gender barriers and world records. In the midst of Montgomery’s death, she became the first licensed female pilot. Harriet was the spokeswoman for a grape soda company because of her famous purple flight suit. She broke many borders for women in her field and died in an aviating accident in 1912. Unfortunately, Quimby Road is not named after Harriet, but likely one of her distant family members.

Bob and Cecil Reid, World War I veterans, built Garden City Airport in 1935, near present day McLaughlin and 101. Garden City Airport would have to move for the construction of the Highway in 1938.

The Garden City Airport would move to Reid Hillview Airport in 1939 northwest of Hillview Golf Club. This NASA research starting at Moffet Field, commercial flights had to go elsewhere. Though the runway wouldn’t be paved until 1946, it was an efficient way to ship fruit out of the Valley of Heart’s Delight. Before that time, fruit had to be shipped by train to the rest of the country and dried fruits were all the rage. Veterans were also enjoying the excitement of flight during peace times.

The airport expanded in 1965 with the construction of a second runway and the control tower. Over time, the County Fairgrounds and San Jose Speedway would also be located at Evergreen’s Hillview Airport until its expansion. Today, San Jose State University’s Aviation program flies out of Reid Hillview.

Amelia Reid, Cecil’s daughter-in-law, was another famous woman pilot. The Evergreen flyer earned her commercial pilot’s license and had a fondness for vintage aircrafts herself. Amelia operated a flight school out of Reid Hillview, empowering the next generation of pilots and flight enthusiasts. Amelia’s flight career would last over 60 years.

Evergreen’s fascination with flight wouldn’t end there. Montgomery Hill Observatory opened at Evergreen Valley College in 2003 and holds star gazing events open to the public today.

Evergreen’s love affair with the flying is still alive and well at Reid Hillview Airport today. Below is the artwork that ties some of this amazing Evergreen history together.

Evergreen Mural Walk

A Public Display of Affection

Tag Archives: invention

Nirum Cadwallader – Evergreen’s generous Mining Tycoon

John J. Montgomery – Aviating Pioneer

Generations of the Kettmann Clan

Flying through Evergreen