GRANVILLE L. SAVAGE
CALIFORNIA PIONEER, NOW OF SUNNYVALE
1922
SURNAMES: Kennedy, Antrim
An ochardist whose lifestory of persistant, intelligent industry, is
Granville L. Savage, who lives in Sunnyvale and operates an orchard
one-half of a mile to the south of said city. Coming as a mere boy to
the Golden State, even as a boy he had a rich pioneer experience such
as many seeking adventure might envy, and which others, wishing to know
life as it really is, might desire. He was born at Ottawa, Ill., on
March 29, 1855, the son of Captain William E. Savage, of Bangor, Maine,
who made many a transatlantic trip from New York to Liverpool with the
best steamers of his day. He married at Providence, R.I., Miss
Elizabeth E. Kennedy, after which, with his wife, he migrated westward
to Ottawa, Ill., where he took up farming. The worthy couple had eight
children, among whom our subject is the fourth in the order of birth
and the third son.
When five years old Granville accompanied his father and two brothers
to California, leaving their farm of 700 acres, and outfitting with
mule-wagons, horses and cattle at Ottawa, from which place they set
out. They had mule-wagons, also horese and cattle, and joined a train
made up of fifty-six wagons, captained by William E. Savage. On their
way they had several battles with the Indians, but they pulled up at
Sacramento at the end of a six months' journey, in the early winter of
1859. They remained at Sacramento for a year, and then moved into San
Joaquin County, where they settled about two and one-half miles from
Lodi, and there Captain Savage became an extensive raiser of wheat. He
walso engaged in freighting, owning and operating many teams in
freighting, and he drove thirty-two mules on freight wagons all through
the mining country.
Meanwhile Granville attended the school in the Houston district until
he was fifteen, when he left off studying and went to San Francisco for
his first tussle with the busy world. He obtained a job as clerk in
Bowen Bros. grocery store on Pine street, where he worked from six a.m.
until five p.m., and then he attended evening school until ten o'clock
at night. In addition, he took a couple of hours of lessons on Sundays.
Then he entered the service of a San Francisco commission house,
handling general produce, and at the end of two years, he became a
commercial drummer, traveling up and down the coast, and at times
representing as many as five different wholesale houses. He worked very
hard, attending strictly to business, and saved his earnings, and he
made as much as $12,000 per year.
Naturally gifted as a salesman, Mr. Savage had no difficutly in life.
In crossing the plains, for example, the emigrants found the Indians
not only hostile, but very artul. Their game was a stampede the trains,
and then to rob and steal the cattle, horses, mules and wagons. Captain
Savage was equal to the emergency, however, he engaged two trappers,
who formed the wagons into circles, when the emergency arose, kept them
moving, and thus stood off the Indians and saved the train. After the
battles they found that several Indians had gone to more distant
hunting grounds. Getting established in the Golden State, Mr. Savage
saw the completion of the Central Pacific Railway, now the Southern
Pacific Railroad, from Stockton to Sacramento, with all the interesting
incidents growing out of the great, momentous undertaking. He made his
first trip to San Jose with his father in 1862, and he was at Gilroy in
1868, at the time of the earthquake.
After an experience of ten years as a traveling salesman, Mr. Savage
went to New York City in 1890, and commenced the manufacture of brass
goods such as valves, faucets, etc., and these he shipped to all parts
of the United States, Canada, Europe and South Africa. He succeeded so
well that he became well-to-do, but his health broke down, and his life
was even despaired of. Then he acted on the resolution of come back to
California, and once more in this salubrious climate, he bought a
twenty-acre orchard devoted to the growning of prunes, peaches and
walnuts, which is under a high state of cultivation. There he leads the
outdoor life, and applies the same intelligence and energy to the
management of his orchard that he formerly spent in his manufacturing
enterprises. He has regained his health, and has been materially
rewarded for all his efforts.
At Pt. Arenas, in Mendocino County, in 1877, Mr. Savage was married to
Miss Emma V. Antrim, a native of Healdsburg, and a charming, gifted
woman, and their union has been blessed with the birth of three
children, one of whom, Gertrude, grew to New York City, then attended
the Horace Mann School, and afterward pursued the courses of the Pratt
Institute at Brooklyn and the Art Institute in Chicago, and also the
Hopkins Art School at San Francisco.
During the World War Mr. Savage served on the Federal Grand Jury for
the Eastern District of New York from January 6 to May 8,1918, and
assisted in investigating several noted bomb plots, and indicating
various spies and the criminals involved in blowing up the Wellan
Canal, or at least trying to destroy that waterway. From youth to
man-hood inspired with patriotic zeal, Mr. Savage has never shirked the
duty of a citizen having confidence in the future and being ambitious
of seeing the land or locality of his choice come, and come speedily
and richly, to its own.
It is a matter of congratulation to Sunnyvale that Mr. Savage selected
that favored spot for his residence, after his extensive business
experience and wide travels. He has seen and transcated business in
every state of the Union, Europe, Canada and Alaska. He is the
orchardist member of the San Francisco Rotary Club from Sunnyvale, and
is always ready to boost and make a concerted pull for Sunnyvale and
California.
Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 1539
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