No man is more prominently and closely identified with the history of Santa Cruz than is Elihu Anthony. Mr. Anthony came to California in 1847, and to Santa Cruz in 1848, since which time he has taken a leading part in the affairs of this community. He is notable as a member of the first Board of Supervisors of Santa Cruz, also as a builder of the first wharf in Santa Cruz harbor. This wharf stood where Davis & Cowell's wharf now is, and was built upon a similar plan.
Mr. Anthony owned the first iron foundry in the county, the third on the Pacific Coast, the other two being in San Francisco. This foundry made the first cast-iron plows manufactured in California. Patterns were obtained from the East in 1848, and the castings made and attached to the proper woodwork. A few iron plows had previously been imported and sold at high figures. The modern plow was then supplanting the old Mexican plow, described on another page of this work
Mr. Anthony was in Monterey when gold was discovered in California. Specimens of the ore were sent to Monterey and subjected to chemical tests, which proved them to be the precious metal. Mr. Anthony visited the scene of the discovery at Sutter's Mill race. The miners were using picks made of wood. Elihu was a blacksmith. So he returned to his shop in Santa Cruz and began making light iron picks. The first eight dozen of these were hauled over the mountains to Sutter's Fork by Thomas Fallon, and sold for three ounces of gold apiece - $60 for each pick. These were the first iron picks manufactured in California.
Another enterprise in which Mr. Anthony was a pioneer was the establishment of a water system in Santa Cruz. F. A. Hihn was his partner in this undertaking. By the year 1856 the village of Santa Cruz had grown large enough to require a better water supply than wells could afford. So Hihn and Anthony brought the water from the river in pipes made of redwood logs, bored out and joined together, and stored the water in reservoirs constructed by them on the piece of land where Mr. Anthony now lives. The old reservoirs are now (1891) being filled up.
But the history of a man's life should begin with his birth. Mr. Anthony was born in New York State in the Month of November, 1818. His father was a mechanic, and owned a scythe factory. In early youth Elihu was taught the blacksmith's trade, and attended school three months each year from the time he was five years old until he reached the age of thirteen. Before he was twenty-one years old he went to Michigan, where he lived two y ears, and when his father's family moved from New York to Indiana, Elihu followed them to that Territory. In 1838 he was married to Miss Frances Clarke, and settled down in Indiana, working at the trade he had learned when a boy. His wife died after five years. She had borne him three children, all of whom have since died.
In 1841, Mr. Anthony was converted, and united himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was afterwards ordained by that church as a minister of the gospel, and for five years was a circuit preacher in Indiana and a member of the North Indiana Conference.
In 1845 he was the second time married. His second wife was Miss Sarah A. Van Anda. She is of a Maryland family, that moved to Ohio in 1831, and from there to Indiana. In 1846 Mr. Anthony gave up the circuit and went to Iowa to join a company that was preparing to start the next spring across the plains to Oregon. The caravan was a large o ne, comprising more than one hundred ox teams. The journey was attended with the customary hardships, scarcity of water and food for stock. The only serious accident was a stampede of the cattle when the train reached North Platte. A number of the wagons were broken to pieces, and several of the emigrants injured.
After a six months journey the emigrants reached Fort Hall, California, just south of the Oregon line. There the train divided, the greater portion going North, while Mr. Anthony and his family, with a few others, joined a party of emigrants who came along just then on their way from Oregon to the central part of California.
Mr. Anthony first went to the Santa Clara Valley, where, on the night after their arrival, his wife's second child was born. This is their son Bascom, a present resident of Santa Cruz. Mr. Anthony remained in Santa Clara but three months, and then removed to Santa Cruz. He found but five American families within the present limits of the county. He at first engaged in his trade of blacksmithing, then went into the foundry business, before mentioned, and in 1849 opened a general merchandise store, in partnership with A. A. Hecox.
Mr. Anthony is a member of the local Methodist Church, and has taken an active part in church work during his residence in Santa Cruz. He has not yet entirely retired from business life, but gives a portion of his time to his extensive property in and about the city. The Anthony Block, at the head of Pacific Avenue, was erected for him in 1848. The first building was torn down in 1875, and the present Anthony Block erected upon its site.
In 1856 Mr. Anthony, with his family, revisited the East, and his father and mother came out to California the next year. There are now a large number of Anthony's in California, relatives of the subject of this sketch, who is the pioneer of the family in this State.
In 1880 Mr. Anthony was elected to the State Legislature, and assisted in the revision of the State codes consequent upon the adoption of the new constitution.
Five children have been born to Mr. And Mrs. Anthony, one daughter and four sons, all of whom are now living.
History of Santa Cruz County, California
by E.S. Harrison
Published by Pacific Press Publishing Company
San Francisco, Cal., 1892
Transcribed by Yvonne Valentine 1/9/09, Page 227
Santa Cruz County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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