A territorial pioneer of California and a resident of Santa Cruz County since 1855. James Waters is one of the most prominent citizens of the Pajaro Valley, where he has resided for the past thirty-two years and contributed much to the upbuilding of the town of Watsonville, the development of the adjacent country, and the general prosperity of the community. He was born October 18, 1828, in Somerset County, Maryland, and at an early age moved to Baltimore. He was educated in private schools, and while a boy clerked in a commission store. When seventeen years of age he learned the carpenter’s trade, that being his father’s vocation.
In June, 1849, he left for California via Cape Horn on the brig Osprey, and after a long and tedious voyage, occasioned in part by a collision at Rio Janeiro, which laid them up two months for repairs, they arrived in San Francisco February 1, 1850. He first worked at this trade of a carpenter, at a salary of $1.00 per hour, and remained in San Francisco about one year. He was there at the time of the big fires in May and June of 1850 and 1851, and was a member of the Big Six Monumental Fire Company. In the spring of 1851 he went to the mines; returning in 1854 to San Francisco, he resumed his trade and commenced contracting. At that time the waters of the bay crossed Sansome Street, and among other work done by Mr. Waters was the raising of a hotel built upon piles on the corner of California and Sansome, where the Bank of California now stands. The money he had accumulated was deposited with the banking firm of Page, Bacon & Co., who failed in 1855. He lost several thousand dollars by them, but sold his claim for $500, which represented his savings from the wreck.
He came to Santa Cruz this year and took charge of a sawmill, on a flat where the Santa Cruz Powder Mill now stands, but things went from bad to worse, and the few remaining dollars soon disappeared. He concluded it was useless to play against such luck, so he made no immediate effort to recoup his fortune, and for the next two years he did nothing, devoting his time to the pleasure of hunting and fishing. In 1857 he went to Santa Cruz, and, in partnership with Thomas Beck, began active business life again, as a contractor. He struck the tide that Shakespeare refers to , and is now one of the substantial and solid business men of this county.
In 1859 he went to Parjaro Valley to rebuild the Catholic Church and parsonage, where the orphan asylum is now located. He was favorably impressed with this end of the county and located here. The year following he bought forty acres of land on the Salispuedes and planted thereon the first large orchard planted in Santa Cruz County, about two thousand trees. In the winter of 1862 the river overflowed and washed the entire orchard away. He left his ranch in disgust and subsequently sold it to the Catholic Church for $1,500. He moved to Watsonville, and for $450 bought two and a half acres of land between Third and Fourth Streets, upon which he built a home, where he has resided ever since. He continued to follow the business of contracting, and has built much of the town of Watsonville, and a large number of buildings in adjacent towns. He built the Abbott House and Catholic Church in Salinas, and superintended the construction of the county courthouse, of Monterey County, in that place. He erected the buildings in which are the Bank of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley Bank, the Stoesser Block, Trafton Building, the Catholic Church in Watsonville, and a large number of private residences.
In 1867 he engaged in the nursery business with J. A. Blackburn. They commenced with a nursery of about five acres. He subsequently bought out Mr. Blackburn’s interest and has gradually increased the business, until now he has fifty acres in nursery, with a market for his trees and plants in nearly every part of the Pacific Coast. He also has twenty-eight acres in Strawberries, fifteen acres in orchard, and four acres in vines. A twenty-seven-acre piece of property in town is used for nursery, and also a part of a sixty-acre farm across the river in the vicinity of Pajaro. The twenty-seven-acre tract was purchased in 1884, from Captain Robert Sudden, for $6,500 and since then he has in one season sold strawberries from this tract amounting to more than $1,000 an acre. It is now valuable city property, and doubtless will soon be in the market as town lots, worth as many thousand dollars as he gave hundreds for it. Mr. Waters shipped the first strawberries from Watsonville to San Francisco. Besides the twenty-seven acres referred to, he owns fifty acres adjoining, which was purchased from Felipe Gonzales in 1882.
He served one term as supervisor of the county from Pajaro District, and was one of the first trustees of the town of Watsonville, which position he held for seven consecutive years. He was elected president of the Pajaro Valley Agricultural Association in 1888, and has held the position ever since. He was one of the incorporators of the Bank of Watsonville. He is a member of the Knights Templar and subordinate lodges, and has been through all the chairs of the Blue Lodge Chapter and Commandery, being a Past Master, Past High Priest, and Past Eminent Commander. Since his residence in California he has visited home but once, at the time of the Knights Templar Conclave in St. Louis, in 1886.
He was married, September 9, 1861, to Miss Malinda J. Short, of Watsonville, who came to this country with her father and mother from Illinois in 1852. Two other sisters of Mrs. Waters are married, to one Honorable Thomas Beck, and the other to J. A. Blackburn. Mr. Waters is the father of three children, only one of whom is living. Adella, who has been married and has two children.
Mr. Waters is a large man, with a broad mind and liberal ideas. He possesses great executive ability, as is attested by the successful outcome of all his undertakings. He is a man who acts conscientiously, of quiet demeanor, and, while respected by all, is esteemed most by those who know him best. To such pioneers and builders of the commonwealth does California owe her fame, her true worth, and exalted position in the sisterhood of States.
History of Santa Cruz County, California
by E.S. Harrison
Published by Pacific Press Publishing Company
San Francisco, Cal., 1892
Transcribed by Yvonne Valentine 1/18/09, Page 243
Santa Cruz County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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