GEORGE E. ABEL- native of Milpitas, California
surnames: Mulhern, Staunton, Melarkey,
Staunton, Keating
Bio-Sawyers
A very successful and
influential rancher who has remained in the vicinity of his birth and
become more and more identified with that region is George E. Abel, a
native of Milpitas, where he was born on January 3, 1882, a son of
Henry and Margaret (Mulhern) Abel. In pioneer days, Henry Abel
set out from Wisconsin for California, and he chose Milpitas as the
best place in which to found family and fortune. He became a retail
meat-dealer, and continued to that important trade for forty
years. His shop stood on the same spot on which now stands the
home of our subject on the main street of Milpitas, south of the
Catholic Church. When he quit his butcher shop and business, Mr. Abel
went in to farming, and he acquired a farm of 500 acres on the Trimble
Road, southwest of Milpitas. Mr. and Mrs. Abel had a family of
four children, and our subject was the youngest. William H., the
first-born, resides on the Abel ranch in Nevada, near Winnemucca.
The daughter Miss. H. Gertrude, lives at Milpitas. Arthur F. Abel
is on the same stock-farm with his brother William. Henry Abel
was an active member of the school board in Milpitas, and in that
capacity served his fellow citizens faithfully.
George E. Abel attended the public schools in Milpitas, and then
pursued a general course at the Santa Clara College, spending about
fifteen years, in the meantime, with his father in the butcher
business, and then following his father to the ranch. Henry Abel
passed away on January 29, 1917, four years(transcribers note- maybe
meant four
months?) after the death, on September 29, of his devoted wife,
and since his death, George Abel has been managing the milpitas portion
of the Abel estate. The 500 acres are devoted to grain, hay,
vegetables, and fruit, thirty-five acres being in pears, and the ranch
is irrigated by artesian wells.
While at Winnemucca, Nev., George Abel was married
to Miss May
Staunton, the ceremony taking place on September 29, 1914. The
bride was the daughter of Michael and Jennie (Melarkey), her father was
one of Nevada's earliest pioneers who mined for years throughout
California and Nevada, and later became a merchant in the Sage Brush
State. They had four children, Michael D.; Edward W; May and
another daughter, Josephine, who became Mrs. T. P. Keating, of San
Francisco. Mrs. Abel attended the public schools at Winnemucca,
and later the Alameda high school, and finished her studies at Mills
College, in Oakland. Two children have blessed the union of Mr.
and Mrs. Abel, George Staunton and Margaret. The family attend
the Roman Catholic Church at Milpitas, and in that town recently Mr.
and Mrs. Abel built their attractive home. In national politics a
Republican , he is a member of Knights of Columbus of San Jose, and a
charter member of the lodge.
Transcribed by Carolyn Feroben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 1102
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