Photograph by Paul Myers
Bill Balch, 91, has lived in Los Gatos most of his life. His parents and brother moved from Iowa to California in 1905.
Home Land
Some local families have lived in the area since the turn of the last century
Some local families have lived in the area since the turn of the last century
By Rebecca Ray
Photographs by Paul Myers
Bill Balch remembers when Los Gatos was mostly orchards. The 91-year-old Los Gatos native remembers taking train rides through the Santa Cruz Mountains, before there were houses on them, and admiring the view.
Balch and other residents have family roots in Los Gatos and Saratoga that go all the way back to the turn of the 20th century and beyond. The recollections of these longtime residents breathe life into the local history and can provide a sense of perspective for newcomers to the area.
From Iowa to Los Gatos
Bill's parents, Stephen Delos and Lucy May Cosgrave Balch, moved from Iowa to California with their toddler, Carl, in 1905. If it had been up to Stephen, the family might have lived in present-day South Dakota, where Stephen had owned a bank. But Lucy, who didn't want to live there, told Stephen she wouldn't marry him unless he sold his business. After the family spent a year looking for a place to live, they settled in Los Gatos, when it had fewer than 3,000 people.
Stephen bought three acres--on the corner of what are now Massol Avenue and Los Gatos-Saratoga Road--from former town mayor Fenilen Massol. The Balches' other children, Mary Frances and Bill, were born in the family's home on the property in 1909 and 1910, respectively. According to Bill, the home is still standing, but it has been converted to an apartment.
Stephen's mother, Maria, as well as his sisters and their husbands, also came to California. While Maria lived in Santa Cruz County--she didn't want to intrude in family affairs, Bill said--Stephen's sister Margaret and her husband, Jim Case, lived where The Bay Tree Apartments are now. Stephen and Jim co-owned the Bank of Los Gatos.
Estelle Harwood, Stephen's half-sister, married George McMurtry, the town's first treasurer, after her first husband died. McMurtry served as treasurer for more than 40 years, according to The History of Los Gatos by George G. Bruntz.
George McMurtry was the son of William McMurtry. The History of Los Gatos says William co-owned the first store and lumberyard in Los Gatos. William also operated Forbes Mill, a former flourmill that's now a museum.
Bill attended University Avenue Grammar School, which is now the Old Town Shopping Center, and, in 1924, was part of the school's first graduating class. He graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1928 and from Whittier College in 1932, where he studied English and history.
Photograph courtesy of Los Gatos Public Library
Bill Balch's uncle, William McMurtry, ran Forbes Mill, a former flour mill, in the 1870s and 1880s. The Forbes Mill Museum of Regional History now operates on the site.
From Bouncer to Bank
Because Bill finished college during the Great Depression, "I was lucky to be able to eat," he said. He drove a truck for Shell Oil Company in Monterey County until his friend got him a job as a bouncer at a San Francisco hotel. Later, when Bill worked as a hotel clerk, Stephen told him that because everyone in the family was a banker, Bill had better be one too. So Bill quit the clerk job and worked for Stephen, who was then president of First National Bank in Los Gatos.
Bill continued to work for the bank after American Trust Company bought it in 1955. He also worked there after 1960, when, according to The History of Los Gatos, American Trust merged with Wells Fargo.
Bill didn't want to commute by railroad from San Francisco to Los Gatos. He also didn't want to raise his children, Betty and Peter, in San Francisco. So he, his wife, Evelyn Wilcox Balch, whom he married in 1935, and their children moved to Palo Alto. Shortly afterward, they moved to Los Gatos, where Bill has lived since.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Ivy grows over a rock behind Los Gatos Town Hall, where Co-operative Winery stood until about 1914. The winery is now in ruins. Town pageants were held on a stage that used to be part of the winery from 1919 to 1947.
Orchards and Pageants
When Bill was a child, the Balches had their own orange orchard and vegetable garden and drew their water from a well. His father had planted eucalyptus trees behind the house because they made good firewood. At night, the Balches kept a gaslight on in the hallway. According to Bill, although streetcars rattled by at night, the noise never bothered them because they were used to it.
Bill enjoyed participating in town pageants, which began on his ninth birthday, June 21, 1919. Each pageant had a theme, such as "The Californian" in 1920 and "Frontier Days" in 1935, according to Los Gatos Observed by Alastair Dallas. Nearly everyone in town participated, including local writer Ruth Young, who once organized a pageant with a Chinese theme.
Pageants in Santa Clara Valley were rare occurrences, and people often attended to see their friends and relatives act in plays. Bill remembers streetcars pouring through town and dropping off out-of-towners. Pageants occurred until 1947, when they no longer drew as many people. The pageants took place on the stage of the former Co-operative Winery, which is now in ruins, behind Town Hall, according to Los Gatos Observed.
Stephen Balch
Stephen bought a new home, on the corner of Glenridge and Hernandez avenues. He nailed nothing but aluminum shingles to the roof because he never wanted to buy more. Although the shingles are still there, they're now dull instead of shiny, Bill said. The house also had a high sink, because Stephen liked high sinks, and an attic where Stephen and Lucy's grandchildren liked to roller skate.
Bill remembers when Stephen stored possessions for Japanese Americans when the government forced them into internment camps after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II.
Stephen served as mayor of Los Gatos from 1914 to 1916, according to The History of Los Gatos. Carl, Bill's brother, was mayor in 1940, but resigned when he moved to Burlingame.
Bill said he felt like he should also serve the town. "I didn't want to go political," he said, so he served on the library board for about 33 years. In 1993, the town gave him a Volunteer Recognition Certificate of Appreciation.
Stephen and Lucy lived until 1953 and 1954, respectively. Although they lived to be in their 70s, Bill and his siblings surpassed the age of 90. Carl lived to be 96, and Mary Frances resides in Palo Alto.
Bill lives with his second wife, Mary, whom he married last December, in a retirement community. Evelyn died in 1991.
As for Bill's children, Betty and her husband, Jeff Chase, live on county land between Los Gatos and Saratoga. Peter, a retired teacher and principal, and his wife, Liz, live in Whittier. Bill also has three grandchildren and four great grandchildren, none of whom live in the Bay Area.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Los Gatos resident Notia Smith, 91, comes from two families who settled in Los Gatos in the 1800s.
Wagon Train to Los Gatos
Notia Wilder Smith, 91, comes from two once-prominent Los Gatos families, the Wilders and Pearces. Notia's father, Notia Wilder, whom she is named after, traveled from Des Moines, Iowa, to Los Gatos with a wagon train around 1880. In his diary, Wilder, who was about 19, says he joined a wagon train because of an Indian attack, and that the wagon train camped overnight with Jesse James.
Los Gatos Observed says that Wilder's brother, Alfonso Eli, and four others, including Fenilen Massol, bought pieces of a 90-acre almond orchard shortly after Los Gatos became incorporated in 1887. The new landowners designed a subdivision called Almond Grove, with wide streets and 50-foot lots. One street in the subdivision was Wilder Avenue, named for Alfonso.
Alfonso served on committees that drew the town boundaries before the town was incorporated, The History of Los Gatos says. The book also says he was a clerk and assessor after the first town election in 1887 and a justice of the peace. A justice of the peace, who was like an undersheriff, could both marry and arrest people. Alfonso was also a leading stockholder of the Bank of Los Gatos.
Other Wilders who settled in Los Gatos were Wilder and Alfonso's father, Almond Wilder, and his sons Latus and Ernest Leroy, who directed the Chamber or Commerce, says The History of Los Gatos. Notia's mother, Jennie Pearce Wilder, told Smith that Almond often tied his long white hair back with a blue ribbon.
The building at 308 E. Main St. in Los Gatos is where Notia Smith's uncle, James Pearce, ran a grocery business about 100 years ago. The building is now a hair salon.
Photograph by Paul Myers
Five Houses and a General Store
Notia's other grandfather, William Pearce, born in 1819 in England, came to the United States in 1848. When he supervised mines at the present-day Almaden Valley, which was a rural agricultural and cattle-raising area, his wife, Louisa, couldn't live there because of her heart problem. So in 1869, William bought a 100-acre ranch on Los Gatos-Saratoga Road.
After the Pearces sold their ranch and moved to town in 1875, Los Gatos Observed says, William invested in five houses on Tait Avenue and Main Street. In 1884, he opened a general store on N. Santa Cruz Avenue. Louisa, along with her and William's children--Josiah, Franklin, James, William Bartholomew and Louisa Jane (or "Jennie," Notia's mother)--helped William run the store. William had another son, Bartholomew, who died at age 1 when he stood too close to the stove and his clothes caught on fire, Notia said.
William Bartholomew was a judge and, according to Los Gatos Observed, served as town treasurer from 1896 to 1898. The book says James started a branch of the Pearces' grocery business at 308 E. Main St. and served on the town council from 1902 to 1906. Sunshine Market, the building that housed James' grocery business, is now a hair salon. Josiah, the oldest, owned several homes on Villa Avenue, Notia said.
Childhood
Jennie Pearce married Notia Wilder when he was 50. His first wife had died and left two sons. Wilder and Jennie's only child, Notia, was born at Pearce House, 128 Tait Ave., which Jennie had inherited from her father. The family moved to a home on E. Main Street, where the First Church of Christ Scientist is now, when Notia was 3.
In the first and second grades, Notia attended Vineland School, 269 Los Gatos Blvd., which is now a house, according to Los Gatos Observed. Notia, who is left-handed, remembers the teacher tapping her with a ruler to make her write with her right hand. Wilder ran a dry goods store and wanted Notia there after the school day had ended. Because the store was closer to University Avenue Grammar School, Notia spent the rest of her elementary school days there.
Like Bill Balch, Notia graduated from Los Gatos High School in 1928. After she graduated from what is now San Jose State University in 1932, she became a teacher.
Notia Smith married her late husband, Lynn Smith, at her mother's home in Los Gatos on Sept. 6, 1936.
Photograph courtesy of Los Gatos Public Library
Teaching Days
For three years, Notia taught various grades in San Simeon and Williams, Calif., about 50 miles northwest of Sacramento. One man refused to let her teach his child because he thought she looked like a student. Still, he often danced with her at dances.
It was at a dance where Notia met her late husband, Lynn Smith. She married him in 1936 at her mother's home on E. Main Street. (Notia's father died in 1934.) Notia's friend decorated the home and sprayed tree branches silver. Notia and Lynn were married on the lawn, under an arch covered with flowers set back from the road. On their honeymoon, they traveled around the United States.
The Smiths' only child, Martin Wilder Smith, was born at O'Connor Hospital in Los Gatos in 1939. Because of Lynn's job as an engineer, the family moved around often. They returned to live in Los Gatos after World War II.
Notia resumed teaching when Martin was in the sixth grade. Once, while teaching at the old Loma Prieta Elementary School building on Summit Road, there was such a heavy snowstorm that she couldn't drive home, and she had to spend the night at a student's house. An article about it appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.
Notia's friend suggested she apply for a vacancy in the Campbell Union School District. Notia finished her teaching career at Marshall Lane Elementary School in Saratoga 19 years later, at the age of 58. When she retired, the district awarded her a certificate of merit.
Notia is the last of her family line. Lynn passed away in February 2000. Two weeks later, Martin, who had no children, died unexpectedly.
Notia, who lives in a retirement community, is the only person from both sides of her family to have stayed in Los Gatos.
Photograph courtesy of Amy June Jorgensen
Eliza Bilton Smith and John Ellsworth Smith hold their grandchildren, Doris Elizabeth Smith and Winifred Jean Smith, in 1917.
Rawdon Dell
Amy June Jorgensen, 81, has lived at her home, dubbed "Rawdon Dell," most of her life. Her great-grandfather, John Ellsworth, came to Saratoga in 1878 and bought almost 57 acres along present-day Saratoga Avenue for $3,000. In 1916, Ellsworth's son, John Ellsworth Smith, built the home where Amy June lives. Ellsworth's son used the last name Smith because his maternal grandparents, whose last name was Smith, had raised him.
John Smith named the property after his family's ancestral town in Yorkshire, England. The property also had a Victorian ranch house until World War II.
John Smith had six children: Thomas, Fred, Harry, May, Grace and Amy June's mother, Jean, or Jennie. When they grew up at Rawdon Dell, eucalyptus trees, some of which are still there, lined the driveway. Two palm trees planted in 1916 also stand on both sides of the driveway entrance. When Jennie walked to Saratoga Grammar School, which, according to Saratoga's First Hundred Years by Florence R. Cunningham, was on the site of the present-day Saratoga Elementary School, she would see lumber trucks travel to and from the mountains.
Jennie and her sisters enjoyed playing tricks on other family members. One year, on April Fool's Day, Jennie stuck cotton in a prune that one of her brothers ate for lunch.
Another time, Jennie and her sisters waited until the rest of the family went to bed. Then they set all the clocks in the house ahead one or two hours to make everyone wake up early. In the morning, John complained about the darkness and waking the cow and chickens. And when Thomas arrived at the general store where he worked, it was still closed. The store building, 14501 Big Basin Way, now houses Harmonie European Day Spa.
Jennie married Amy June's father, Frederick James Currier, at what later became Amy June's house. At first, Jennie, who was born in 1881, was unsure about marrying Currier, who was 21 years older. Currier, whose first wife had died, had brought his children from Wisconsin to Saratoga to live at a prune ranch, near the present location of Prospect High School. Jennie also questioned whether she should marry Currier because she was friends with his daughters. But to Jennie and Currier's surprise, Currier's daughters said they'd love for him to marry Jennie. So the couple ended their 10-year courtship and married in 1918.
Back to the Family Home
After Jennie married Currier, the couple moved to Red Bluff, where Currier supervised a fruit-packing house. But they returned to Rawdon Dell, to the old Victorian home, when Jennie was ready to deliver Amy June. Jennie wanted Dr. Robert Gober, the beloved family physician, to deliver her only child. Dr. Gober, who lived in Los Gatos and made house calls as far away as the mountains near Los Gatos and Saratoga, later married Jennie's sister May.
In 1929, Jennie and Currier built a house on Saratoga Avenue and moved there. Jennie's brothers, Harry and Fred, also built houses on the street, and Amy June grew up near her cousins and grandparents. "It was lots of fun, always coming back to grandfather's for holidays," Amy June said.
Amy June attended Saratoga Elementary School, which was built in 1923, until she graduated in 1933. In 1937, she graduated from Los Gatos High School, since Saratoga High School wasn't built until 1959.
The Last Smith in Saratoga
Amy June met her husband, the late John Jorgensen, while majoring in English and minoring in business at San Jose State College, now San Jose State University. She and Jorgensen, who served in the Army, traveled around the country before Jorgensen left to fight in Italy during World War II. By the time he returned, Amy June had made her current house their home.
Jennie inherited 12 acres from her father, who died in 1941. The property included present-day St. Andrews Church, school and playground, and extended almost to Herriman Avenue. She donated the part of her property near Saratoga Creek to what is now the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The creek had washed away a quarter of Jennie's property in 1955.
Amy June's children--Kirke, 56, Locke, 53, and Rilla, 50--also grew up at Rawdon Dell and attended what are today Saratoga Elementary, Redwood Middle and Saratoga High schools. Locke lives in Fremont and works for a hardware store, while Kirke and Rilla, whose last name is Betz, live with their spouses in Southern California. Amy June has one granddaughter and three grandsons, who also live outside the area.
Amy June is the last of the Smiths to remain in Saratoga. But her family always celebrates holidays at Rawdon Dell, and her descendants consider it an important part of their heritage, she said. Locke, who studied natural resources at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, regularly tractors and prunes the various fruit trees on her three acres of property.
One Christmas, Locke made Amy June a wooden sign, which she hung outside the home. The sign chronicles Amy June's lineage, all the way back to John Ellsworth.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
