HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY 546
VARGAS BROS
GENERAL MERCHANDISE
DAIRY FARMING
SURNAMES: DURATE, SELMAS, ANGELO, MARSHALL, DORSEY,
Wide-awake as self-made, enterprising and successful dairymen having
one quarter of a thousand well-selected cows. Vargas Bros. are equally
serviceable to their community, and proportionately prosperous, as
proprietors of the finely stocked store at 899 Franklin Street, the
principal general merchandise establishment in Santa Clara.
The firm is composed of M. J. and F. J. Vargas, both Santa Clara County
boys, for they saw the light of day near the San Francisquito Creek, in
the vicinity of Palo Alto. M. J. Vargas was born on December 15, 1879;
and F. J. Vargas joined the family circle on October 26, 1881.
Their father was the late Joseph P. Vargas, a successful rancher
farming near Palo Alto, and he had married Miss Anna Gloria Durarte.
Both parents are now deceased; but three of their daughters are living
in Santa Clara County. Miss Anna J. Vargas was an overseas Red Cross
nurse, attached to Unit 30, who was privileged to return safely to
California, after splendid service in France. Rose is the wife of Frank
Selmas, the rancher, at Sunnyvale. Flora is Mrs. Joe W. Angelo, and she
resides at Sunnyvale, where they have a ranch, her husband clerking for
Vargas Bros.
These ambitious boys were reared on the Santa Clara County farm, while
they attended the Palo Alto grammar school, and later Heald's Business
College at San Jose; and then they were employed by their uncle, Manuel
Vargas, whom they bought out in 1904.
M. J. Vargas married Miss Leonore Marshall, of Ross, Cal., and they
have three children. F. J. Vargas married Miss Anita Dorsey. Both are
members of the Saint Claire Roman Catholic Church of Santa Clara, and
they also belong to the Native Sons of the Golden West and the U. P. E.
C. They have erected at generous expense ornate and comfortable
residences for themselves, and also four handsome cottages, which they
rent.
As merchants, Vargas Bros. deal in the best of everything within their
line, which they endeavor to offer at the lowest possible price, so
that their large and varied stock keeps moving. As dairymen they are
the principal owners in the enterprise of Vargas Bros. & Mendoza,
who milk 250 head of high-grade Holstein cows, and have 450 acres
rented and devoted to this dairy. They are members of the California
Milk Producers' Association, and they are among the most welcome
members of the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Clara. M. J. Vargas is a
stockholder and director in the Santa Clara Branch of the Bank of Italy.
Transcribed by Marie Clayton, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County, California, published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 546
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