THE
VALLEY OF HEART's DELIGHT
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JOHN S. SELBY
Bio - Pen Pictures
SURNAMES; TURLEY, BRELSFORD, TRIMBLE , COOMBS
resides upon the Mission road, in the Orchard School District, about five miles north of San Jose, where is situated his tract of fourteen acres. Eight acres of this productive land is devoted to orchard culture, and comprises the following trees: 300 peach, 200 "Bureau Hardy" pear, 170 Bartlett pear, 80 Winter Nelis pear, 60 cherry, and 50 apricot, besides a few plum, apple, fig, persimmon, and English and black walnut trees. This orchard is in full bearing, and very productive, as the few facts which we mention about the crop of fruit prove. From sixty cherry trees, the fruit has realized an average of $150 per year for the last four years, while 100 Bartlett pear-trees, occupying but little more than one-half an acre, have yielded $3.00 worth of fruit per tree each year for the same length of time. Six acres of the land is used for pasturage.
Mr. Selby was born in Callaway County, Missouri, November 24,1834. He is the son of William and Julia (Turley) Selby, natives of Kentucky, who emigrated to Missouri at an early date, and were among the pioneers of that State. His father was a carpenter as well as a farmer, and in both industries the subject of our sketch was trained. He was eighteen years of age when, in the spring of 1853, he left home to make the overland trip to California. He reached Santa Clara County in the fall of the same year, and soon located in the redwoods, where he worked for about a year. During the following year he hauled redwood, and fenced in 150 acres of land in the Berryessa District, which he rented and in the working of which he spent about a year.
In 1856 he rented 150 acres of land from Colonel Jacques, about one and a half miles northeast of Berryessa. Later he rented and afterwards purchased 150 acres just north of Berryessa, upon which he lived for four years. In 1860 he sold this farm, and took up his residence upon the property upon which he now resides. In addition to the cultivation of his place, Mr. Selby engages in contracting and carpenter work.
The subject of our sketch was united in marriage, in 1856, with Miss Sarah Brelsford, whose parents are residents of Indiana. To them have been born seven children, of whom five are now living. Their names are: Mary, the wife of William E. Trimble, of Berryessa; Emma, Edwin Abel, residing in Milpitas; William H., Lizzie L., the wife of W. E. Coombs, of San Jose, and G. Wray.
Mr. Selby is a man whose life of industry and integrity has won the
respect of a large circle of acquaintances. He is deeply interested in
the welfare of the Southern Methodist Church, and was one of the
organizers and founders of the church of that denomination in Berryessa
in 1857, being also one of its first Trustees. He now creditably fills
the position of School Trustee in his district. In politics he is a
Democrat, but liberal and conservative, especially in local politics.
Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H. S. Foote.- Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888.
Pg. 438
Transcribed by Joseph Kral, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,
published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. 483
SANTA CLARA HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES
SANTA CLARA COUNTY HISTORY AND GENEALOGY