The Valley of Heart's Delight
JAMES H. LYNDON- Los Gatos Pioneer- Sheriff, Mayor and Postmaster
Surnames: MURDOCK, LEE , NICHOLS, RYLAND
Photo of John and Anna LYNDON and his brother James LYNDON
A faithful, efficient public official, whose record for unchallenged
public-spiritedness and personal bravery, and also for exceptionally
high integrity, was such that his name will always be held in esteem,
was the late James H. Lyndon, for more than forty years a resident of
Los Gatos, and from 1894 to 1898 sheriff of Santa Clara County--than
whom, perhaps, there never was a doughtier, or one more deserving of
the wide popularity which he enjoyed. He was born in Grand Isle County,
Vt., on May 6, 1847, the son of Samuel and Polly Caroline Lyndon, with
whom he lived until he was sixteen years of age, attending the
fashioned Yankee home. Then in 1863, he made his way to Burlington and
enlisted in the Fifth Vermont Infantry, where he was promptly rejected
by the inspecting officer on account of his age. The next year he
succeeded both in getting to Massachusetts and in getting accepted as a
member of Company I, Twenty-first Massa-chusetts Infantry, after which,
with some 300 other recruits, he was sent to Galloupe's Island, in
Boston Harbor, and from there, after six weeks of drill, despatched to
Annapolis until the middle of April, when he was ord-ered to join his
regiment at the front; and, marching by way of Washington, D. C., he
and his comrades overtook the second Divison of the Ninth Corps, near
the Rapidan, just before the battles of wilderness. He particpated in
these battles and in those of Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor, in which
latter engagement his regiment suffered heavy losses; and after the
battle of Cold Harbor, the Ninth Corps was ordered to City Point, where
for several months the Army of the Potomac invested Peterburg. After
the capture of several of the outposts, with heavy losses, the city of
Petersburg fell, after a siege of several months.
From Petersburg of the Army of the Potomac followed Lee's army for
several days, the Ninth Corps gooing as far as Farmville, which they
reached on April 8, 1865, and the next day, General Lee surrendered his
army to General Grant, which practically closed the war. The Ninth
Corps lay at Farmville for about a week, when it was ordered to City
Point, where, after a week or ten days, transports were furnished them
and they were sent to Alexandria, Va.They remained just back of that
review of the armies of Grant and Sherman in Washington, in which James
Lyndon participated; and after that he went into camp again for two or
three weeks, when his regiment was ordered home, and he was mustered
out and given his honorable discharge at Reedville, Mass., in August,
1865.
Mr. Lyndon then, with a natural yearning for the scenes of his boyhood,
returned to his old home in Vermont; and in 1866 he attended the
Academy at Alburg Springs and for two terms supplemented his schooling.
California and its lure had seized his imagination; and in December,
1868, he started via the Panama route, arriving in San francisco
January 23, 1869. His brother, John W. Lyndon, who was James' senior by
eleven years and had come out to California in 1859, had preceded him
to Los Gatos and had established there a lumber yard, where later James
hurried to Los Gatos and accepted a position as clerk in John's employ.
In 1872 he bought his brother's business and ran it for a year, when
John bought an interest in it, and returned to his former activity; a
year later, James sold his interest to John, and embarked in hotel
management at the Ten Mile House, later known as the Los Gatos Hotel,
which he made more and more famous as a hostelry, until he sold out in
1875. He again clerked for his brother, remaining with him until 1883;
but in that year he set up in the lumber business for himself near the
depot in Los Gatos, which business he continued to manage for years.
Mr. Lyndon was best known, perhaps, particularly in San Jose, as the
broad-minded Republican sheriff of Santa Clara County, an office he
filled most creditiably. Under President Harrison, he was also
postmaster of Los Gatos, and he had the honor of serving as the mayor
of that law-abiding town, and he was an active member of Los Gatos
Lodge No. 282, F. & A. M., and of Ridgley Lodge, I. O. O. F., and
he belonged to the ancient Order United Workmen; he was past post
commander of the E. O. C. Ord Post of the G. A. R.
At San Jose, on August 12, 1873, James H. Lyndon was married to Miss
Anna J. Murdock, a native of Ontario, and she and five of their
children who still survive, cheered by their lives and affection the
sturdy pioneer when he breathed his last, on March 28, 1912, one of the
most widely known and best-beloved ciczens of the county. These worthy
sons and daugheters are: James Lloyd Lyndon of San Jose; William W.
Lyndon of San Francisco; Clarence H., Mrs. Ray Lyndon Lee, and Mrs. May
Nichols of Los Gatos, and Mrs. Hazel Ryland of Oakland. Santa Clara
County today owes much of its present prosperity and greatness to men
like Mr. Lyndon, for by enduring hardhsips and indefatigable work and
true optimism they paved the way that the future generations may enjoy.
Mr. Lyndon was very active and energetic and was ever to be found a
leader in the vanguard of progress.
Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 403
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