Portuguese Family Histories
from somewhere in the
AZORES ISLANDS
BEM VINDO
(Welcome)
Henry Costa, a descendant of the Azores?
Frank De Costa, of the Azores
Manuel I. Enos, of the Azores
Antone Fernandes, of the Azores
John Fernandez, of the Azores
Manuel A. Fratis, of the Azores
Rose Gomes Frates, a descendant of the Azores?
Marion Jacinto, of the Azores
Joaquim S. King, of the Azores
Joseph Lewis, of the Azores
Antone M. Lial (Leal), of the Azores
John Marks (Marques?), descendant of the Azores?
Joseph A. Mento (Sarmento?), descendant of the Azores
Jess F. Noia, of the Azores (Flores?)
Antone Pimentel, of the Azores?
Manuel F. Silva ("Biscaia"), of the Azores
Manuel Silva, of the Azores?
Manuel F. Sylva, descendant of the Azores?
Marshall Neves Sousa, descendant of the Azores
Joseph W. Waxon (Machado), of the Azores
Manuel S. Williams, of the Azores
You can add the story of your ancestors here. Send E-Mail to: Family-Histories@dholmes.com
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From page 210 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
HENRY COSTA was born November 9, 1876, in Sacramento, one of eight children of Antonio and Bernarda Amelia Costa. His father Antonio was a pioneer employee of the Southern Pacific Co., and worked for them 30 years. He died in Sacramento on July 20, 1907, at age 90. Henrys mother died on November 12, 1878, in Sacramento at age 44, when Henry was two years old.
The other Costa children were George, Joseph, Michael, Frank, Antonio, Mary, and Annie. Antonio and Annie were twins. Most of them were sent to orphanages in San Rafael and South San Francisco, as their father was away working for the railroad and unable to care for them.
Henry, who was baptized November 17, 1876, was brought up by his godparents, Frank and Maria (Laura) Governor, in Yolo County. On January 6, 1901, he married VICTORIA IRENE SOTO, daughter of John and Frances (Dutra) Soto. They had two daughters: Evelyn Violet (1902-1957), and Mildred Agnes, born January 21, 1909.
Henry worked on the Manuel Soto farm on Holland Island in Yolo County. Later he worked on the Smith & Rydell ranch in Yolo County, and became their superintendent. Then he farmed for himself on Grand Island.
Later, Henry and Victoria moved into the ranch house owned by her parents on the River Road in the Lisbon District, and Henry operated the Freeport Ferry which his mother-in-law owned. (See Chapter 10 about the ferries.) When the Freeport bridge was built in 1929, Henry became the first bridge tender. He walked to work until he and Victoria moved to Sacramento in April 1942. Then, not wanting his car exposed to the elements, he moved a garage up on the levee near the bridge on the Freeport side of the river.
In 1939, when he was 63 years old, Henry saw his sister, Ann Sternberg of Seattle, for their first reunion since they were separated as children.
Henry and Victoria celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in January 1951. He retired as bridgetender in August 1954. He died January 21, 1957, at age 81, in Sacramento. Victoria died July 15, 1976, at 95 years of age, in Sacramento.
[Fleurette Rogers]
From pages 210-211 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
FRANK De COSTA was born 1834 in the Azores, coming to America at an early age and becoming a whaler in New Bedford. He met MARY ROMANA De COSTA (same surname), born in Horta, Faial, in 1851. They married in Boston when she was 16. They returned to the Azores for a visit and their oldest son Arthur was born there. They returned to Boston for a while before sailing around the Horn to San Francisco.
They came to Sacramento and lived with her sister Louisa "Annie" King and her husband Antone on a ranch near the Brickyard. Their children were Arthur, Joseph, Frank and Manuel. Manuel died of tuberculosis February 20, 1900 at age 23. Frank De Costa died in 1876 shortly after his youngest child Manuel was born and Arthur was six years old.
Bernarda Delphina De Costa, Mary Romana's widowed mother, was from Horta and came to Boston with Mary Romana and did domestic work. Little by little she sent for each child from Horta. She had had 12 children but by the time she became widowed she had only five living: Mary Romana, Louisa Coelho, Joseph, Frank and Capatelena (Lena), all eventually coming to California and settling in various places, some in Sacramento.
Bernarda settled in downtown Sacramento with the youngest daughter Lena, who married Stephen Farley, proprietor of the 12th Street Enterprize Store, a grocery, located at the corner of 12th and F Streets.
Mary Romana returned to Boston after Frank died and lived there about a year before returning to Sacramento. About a year later she married JOSEPH PETERS, widower with four children. Mary Romana DeCosta Peters died October 2, 1938, age 87. The children of Mary Romana and Joseph Peters were: William, Carrie, and Domingues, who died at eight months. Joseph Peters died November 7, 1917. Frank De Costa, Mary Romana De Costa Peters, and Joseph Peters share the same plot at St. Josephs cemetery along with five other family members.
Joseph Peters was born in 1831 in São Jorge. He had been a miner and came to Sacramento in 1851 and became a riverboat captain with the Sacramento Transportation Company (later River Lines), one of the 13 captains who founded the company. Later he worked for the Southern Pacific Co., and Mary Romana took in borders to help with finances. Son William Peters was a captain in the Sacramento Fire Dept. and was killed while fighting a fire in 1937.
[Romana Vieira]
From pages 217-218 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MANUEL I. ENOS was born in 1853 in the Azores, and came to the U.S. with his mother in 1872, settling first near Freeport where he was one of the early day hop growers and later became roadmaster of Yolo County. In that position he was responsible for the building and maintenance of the early day levees.
Later he moved to Sacramento to enter the grocery business at 15th and Q Streets. With his two daughters and two sons working in the store, he made deliveries to Freeport via a toll road, beginning on Sutterville Road and weaving around the Pocket district. He retired in 1912.
He was a leader in the Portuguese community, having been past president of the IDES and UPEC; was a member for many years of the Democratic Central Committee of Sacramento; and was prominent in the work of establishing St. Elizabeths Church in 1912.
He died September 13, 1927 as a result of a hit-and-run driver in Oakland while on his way to an IDES convention in Petaluma.
Son ALFRED N. ENOS was to follow in his father's footsteps, he too becoming a leader in Portuguese circles. Starting as a clerk and delivery boy in his fathers grocery store at a very early age, he and his brother William drove the horse and wagon and made the grocery deliveries to Freeport and other locations in Sacramento. Later Alfred was to run the grocery store after his fathers retirement, operating what was then called the corner grocery during the Depression years through the thirties. He later became Constable of Sacramento Township and was the last constable to serve Sacramento County after the advent of the Municipal Court system.
It was during his service with the County of Sacramento that he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died February 1947, age 56. He was president of the Southside Improvement Club in 1939, and had much to do with the centennial celebration of that year, particularly the establishing of a replica of the 1849 City of Sacramento in Southside Park.
Alfred had one child, Alfred R. Enos, who also was active in Portuguese and other civic affairs. He served in all offices of the the Cabrillo Civic Club, including president. His business career covered 44 years in banking, starting in 1937 as a bank messenger with the Bank of America, and culminating in 1966 as manager of the Citrus Heights branch. Before his retirement in 1981 he was the oldest banker in point of continuous service in Sacramento.
WILLIAM H. ENOS, Manuel Enos' other son, established a costuming firm in 1909 after leaving the grocery store. This was the period before motion pictures, and there were many stage shows in northern California. William would travel by horse and wagon and sometimes by stage coach and supply the costumes necessary to produce these shows. His business expanded several times from a beginning at 1110-1/2 K Street, to different locations in Sacramento, and he went into manufacturing of clothing items, selling of women's ready-to-wear, and a complete womens department store. The firms success is more fully described in Chapter 10.
[Alfred R. Enos]
From pages 222-223 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
ANTONE FERNANDES was born in the Azores in 1857, and settled in the Clarksburg area where he married MARY SOTO, oldest daughter of John and Frances Soto of Clarksburg. Antone bought a ranch near the IDES hall grounds where he and Mary made their home and raised their family.
He farmed his small ranch, and Mary suffered through a number of family illnesses while keeping her children well dressed through her beautiful sewing, and keeping her home spotless. She never had a lawn, but swept her dirt yard smoothly and clear, and was known to have the cleanest yard in the neighborhood.
Their first child, Mamie, was born about 1886; their second, Tony E., in 1888. Then three more sons followed in the 1890s when an epidemic of back diphtheria struck, and in about two weeks Antone and Mary lost their three younger children in succession. At that time Mary's mother, Frances Soto, quickly took Mamie and Tony away from the plagued home to her house, saving the lives of the two older children. Later Antone and Mary had two more sons, Manuel, in 1897, and Clarence, in 1901.
Antone had two brothers and two sisters: MANUEL FERNANDES, who was the father of John Fernandez, the home builder (he was the only one in the family to take the "z" spelling of the name); KING FERNANDES (see below), father of Louise Fernandes Silva from the Pocket district; ROSE FERNANDES, who married FRANK FONTES from Natomas. They had no children but raised a godchild, Edward Ventura; and MARY FERNANDES DOMINGUES, who lived near St. Elizabeth's Church in Sacramento.
Mary Soto Fernandes had 10 sisters and five brothers. (See SOTO.)
Antone Fernandes died September 23, 1951 at age 94, and Mary Soto Fernandes died August 19, 1944, at age 79.
Their daughter MAMIE FERNANDES married JOE LEWIS, and made their home in the Natomas District where Joe had a farm. They raised three children, Joe, Jack, and Lenore Lewis Dutra.
Son TONY E. FERNANDES married MABEL MIGUEL. They lived in Sacramento, where Tony worked for PG&E. Their children: Irene, Thelma Stone, and Maj. Edward A. Fernandes of the U.S. Air Force.
Son MANUEL D. FERNANDES, called "Mannax," married MINNIE JACINTO of Freeport, and they made their home in Sacramento off Land Park Drive. Manuel operated a hay and grain trucking business for 40 years. Their children: Verna Bonetti, Norma Eramo, and Doris Jean Marquardsen.
Son CLARENCE FERNANDES married MARY SILVA from the Pocket, and had two children, Eleanor Muller, and Ronald Fernandes. They first lived alongside Clarences parents home in Clarksburg, and later moved to Sacramento.
[Grace Freitas Rose; Anna Soto Freitas]
From pages 223-224 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
JOHN FERNANDEZ was born in the Azores in 1887, the son of Manuel and Rose (Jacinto) Fernandez, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1890 when John was three years old, settling in the Clarksburg area of Yolo County. John was the brother of Mary Domingues Azevedo of Sacramento, and of Rose Fernandez, who married Frank Fontz of Natomas.
John married MAMIE FONTES, daughter of Fortunato and Frances Fontes. (See FONTES.)
John Fernandez was in the construction business for 45 years, including 25 years as owner of the Sierra Builders firm. He built more than a thousand homes in Sacramento, including in such subdivisions as Freeport Manor, Freeport Village, Coloma Terrace, Cambridge Heights, Cordova Gardens, South Land Park Terrace, South Land Park Hills Unit No. 40, and Hollywood Park. He also constructed the Raleys store that was located on 24th Street and Fruitridge Road, along with several other office buildings in the Sacramento area. He built his own residence at 3138 Land Park Drive.
Mamie and John had five sons: twins Raymond E. and Ralph D., Norman J., and twins James W. and Jack T. Fernandez. Raymond lost his life on a flight mission off Alaskan waters during World War II. (See MEDEIROS.)
[Grace Freitas Rose; newspaper obituary]
From pages 234-235 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MANUEL A. FRATIS was born in 1876 in Cohasset, Mass., the son of Manuel and Rose Frates. His father came to Monterey with the first fishing crew and remained here for a short time before returning to the Azores where he married, returned again to Massachusetts, and then retired to the Azores where he died.
Manuel was educated in the public schools of Massachusetts and the Azores. He worked as a carpenter in the Azores, and in 1900 came to California and then, in 1903, to Sacramento where he was employed for seven years as a journeyman with Charles Vanina, a building contractor. He then went into business for himself and built some of the public schools and finest residences in Sacramento, Newcastle, and Auburn. He was in the building trade for 40 years, and retired in 1947.
He married MINNIE AGNES MARSHALL, a native of Newcastle. They had three children: Arthur, Viola Brown, and Marvin. (See MARSHALL.)
Manuel died January 25, 1962.
[History of Sacramento County, 1923]
From page 235 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
ROSE GOMES FRATES was born in Folsom in 1884, the daughter of M. Gomes, who was chief of the Folsom Fire Dept. for eight years before his death. Her grandfather, who in this country went by the name of Frank Frank, was born in Portugal and came with his parents to California when he was nine years old. At one time he had been a sea captain. Later he lived in the mining camps in and around Folsom, and then went to work for Simon Cohn in 1856 when he opened his S.Cohn & Co. store on Sutter Street in Folsom.
Rose, her brother, and also her mother all attended early-day Granite School on Mormon Street, from which Rose graduated in 1900. They walked seven or eight blocks through mud and across water ditches to get to school. Her mother once owned 25 acres in Berkeley, now on the site of the University of California.
Rose married JOSEPH FRATES in 1907. They had four sons: Raymond, Irving, Edward, and Fred; and daughter Annabelle Gemignia, who had two daughters, Lillian Gemignia and Julie Cornacchioli. Rose died November 10, 1978, at age 94.
[Adeline F. Serpa; Folsom Telegraph, 1966 and November 1978]
From pages 244-245 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MARION JACINTO was born in the Azores in about 1853, and came to the Sacramento area as a boy, later farming in various places in Yolo and Sacramento County. He married CARRIE SILVA. She died in 1902, and Marion on April 16, 1913, at age 60. Marion had a brother Manuel, and sisters Mary, Rose, and Carrie. Manuel and his wife Margaret had a daughter, Dolores, who died in 1922. Mary married Manuel J. Corey; Rose, who died in 1921, married Manuel Fernandez; and Carrie married A. S. Contente.
Marion and Carrie Jacinto were the parents of nine: Manuel, John, William, Joseph, Tony, Mary, Margaret, Amelia, and a son, Marion, who died in 1890 at age 13.
Son MANUEL JACINTO was born on a Yolo County farm on December 12, 1879, and was educated in the public schools of Sacramento County. He helped his father on the ranch, and when he became a young man he operated a wood and coal business in which he had two large trucks for making deliveries. He was also engaged in the construction of state and county highways with a partner and built 80 miles of road. In addition, he raised beans on an 80-acre ranch.
The other children:
[Richard Jacinto; History of Sacramento County, 1923; newspaper obituaries]
From pages 245-246 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
JOAQUIM S. KING was born in the Azores September 16, 1838, before the Civil War and 13 years before California became a state. He came to the United States on a whaling ship when he was 17. He settled for a while in Boston, and then sent for his wife and their first child, Isabel. After the second child, Mary, was born, they headed west two years later on what he said was the second train to cross the continent. The fare was $100.
The family settled in the Clarksburg area. His first job was as a ditch digger at $1.50 a day. He gave up his own ranch between Freeport and Clarksburg in 1924 after his wife died, and lived in retirement after that on a ranch owned by his son, Frank. He died there in 1952 at the age of 114. Newspaper accounts said he may have been the oldest man in the world at the time. His family said he once told them that his father lived to be 125.
Another son, John, of Napa, obtained verification of his father's birth date from a priest in the Azores, who checked baptismal records in the church King attended as a child.
[Sacramento Bee, October 21, 1952]
From page 248 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
JOSEPH LEWIS ("Kitee") was born in the Azores, and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 19, settling in Clarksburg, where he became a commercial fisherman on the Sacramento River. He moved across the river to the town of Freeport at the age of 42, and was employed by the Western Pacific Railroad Co., from which he retired in 1945 after 18 years as a carman helper.
He married MARY FAGUNES ("Florinda"), who was born in Clarksburg. They had four sons: Joseph, Clarence, Edmund, and Merle.
Joseph Lewis died in the Western Pacific Hospital in Portola, Plumas County. Mary Lewis died April 18, 1976, in Sacramento.
Joseph had a sister in the Azores, Mary Andrade. Mary Fagunes Lewis had three sisters: Minnie Felix, Anna Rogers, and Belinda Perry. They were all related to Herman Fagunes.
[Grace Freitas Rose; Helen Alamo; newspaper obituaries]
From pages 249-250 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
ANTONE M. LIAL (Leal) was born in the Azores in 1843, and in California married MARY MILLER, who was born here in 1858, a daughter of the pioneer Portuguese Joseph S. Miller of São Jorge and Josephine Paravagna of Genoa, Italy. Antone and Mary Lial had 11 children, one of whom, Emma, born in 1882, died as a child. The others, with Portuguese spouses named:
MARY LIAL (1858-1935) married JOHN V. PERRY and had four children: Tony, who died at age 12; Johnny, who married Elerta Du Vali; Leopoldina, who married Ernest Foster; and Marie, who married John Del Porto. Betty, the daughter of Leopoldina and Ernest Foster, married Joe Silva.
ANTONE LIAL, JR. (1878-1930) married MAMIE KING, and had children George, who married Thais Metcalf; and Alfred, who married Helen Brown. Mamie died in 1940.
ROSE LIAL (1880-1954) married MANUEL ALAMAO (1867-1922), who was born in the Azores. Of their children, Joseph married Irene Corey, Frank married Helen Freitas, William wed Martha Earl, Laura married Ray Azevedo, Myrtle married Joseph Nevis, and Carl married Rose Costa.
JOSEPH R. LIAL married three times, his third wife being MINNIE RODRIGUES, and they had a son, Joseph R. Lial Jr., who married Sharon Barrets. Joseph's daughter Della Lial, by wife Mary Black, married Joe Costa. The senior Joe Lial was a member of the crew that his uncle, Joseph F. Miller, took to Pago Pago in 1900 to assemble and construct there a clamshell dredge and operate it for two years in that Samoan port.
EMMA LIAL married ANTONE SERPA, and several of their children married Portuguese: Magdalene married Tony Amaral, Joe Nunes, and Jack Orlandi; Tony Serpa married Annie Brun; Daniel Serpa married Betty Lou Azevedo; Leroy Serpa married Nilda; and Albert Serpa married Mary Jane Silva.
GEORGE F. LIAL (1891-1971) and his wife Edna had one child, Lowella (Billie) Lial, who married Vic Nagulko. Billie died in December 1989.
ADELE LIAL (Della), who died in 1911 at age 22, had married MANUEL SIMAS.
CECELIA LIAL married JOHN M. LEAL (1891-1953), and had children John Keith Leal, who married Laurene E. Silva; Barbara Leal, who married Ralph Tomberg; and Donald A. Leal, who married Janet Snyder.
THERESA LIAL married Ernest Pool, and had daughters Norma and Thelma. She married again subsequently, among her husbands being a Borges and a Rodgers.
FRANCES LIAL married Victor Morris, and their daughter, Anita Morris, married Paul Guidera. Frances later married Louis Samboceti.
[Edward A. and Linda Dutra, from family charts]
From pages 261-262 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
JOHN MARKS, called Johnny, was born in 1884. His parents lived not far from the Clarksburg IDES Hall.
Johnny took over the Soto Saloon business, being the second operator, after Antone Soto, who operated the business for his father, John Soto. The saloon was situated on the Soto ranch directly adjacent to the ferry landing.
He married ISABEL SOTO (Belle), daughter of John Soto and Frances Dutra Soto, and lived for some time in what was called the "ferry house," because many of the ferrymen occupied the house, located immediately adjacent to the saloon on the south side. (See SOTO.)
Johnny was considered a good bartender because he was a man of strength and he could box, traits considered essential to be able to restrain rowdy patrons. He was well respected by his neighbors, as he would come to their rescue whenever rowdy outsiders tried to rough things up.
The saloon was a neighborhood stopping place for the men, especially on long winter days. They would have a beer or whiskey, engage in chit-chat, and play the Portuguese card game of Pedro, gambling modest amounts, with the winner treated to a five-cent glass of beer. The patrons were the bartender's friends. Occasionally, someone would indulge too much, and Johnny would send him home staggering along the levee, but he always came back to drink another day.
Influenza during the World War I epidemic took Johnnys life on November 6, 1916, at age 32, as it did the lives of many at that time. Maggie Valine Pimentel remarked that her father actually sat down and cried when Johnny died, saying he had lost his best friend. When he died, his widow, Belle, left the saloon-residence and moved in with her widowed mother, Frances Dutra Soto, just down the road. Later Frances Soto, Belle, and the latters spinster sister, Amelia Soto, moved into Sacramento on 4th Avenue near 24th Street, where Frances Dutra Soto died.
Isabel Soto Marks then met Everett Richmond. They married and moved a few blocks to Castro Way, while Amelia Soto moved to Danville to live with her sisters Rose and Clara. Clara died in Danville, and Everett Richmond died in 1953, at which time Rose and Amelia moved back to Sacramento to live with Isabel. Isabel died July 20, 1968, at age 84.
Johnny and Belle had no children. He had two sisters, Rose Marks Ramos and Mary Marks Silva, and one brother, Manuel Marks.
[Maggie Valine Pimentel; Grace Freitas Rose]
From page 268 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
JOSEPH A. MENTO was born in 1887 on a farm in the Riverside area, one of ten children of Manuel Mento and the former Louisa Da Rosa. His father, Manuel, had served in the Civil War with General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army after coming to the U.S. from the Azores. The other Mento children were Louis, George, Frank, John, Antone, Enos, Manuel, Theresa, and Mary. Louisa Da Rosa Mento died around 1970.
After graduating from Sutter District School on Riverside Road, Joseph Mento attended Howe's Academy at 12th and J Streets, taking commercial courses. He became assistant manager of the Empress Theater on K Street, and then entered the real estate business, sold insurance, and ran a dry-cleaning shop. During this period he hired lawyers to tutor him in the law until he was able to pass the bar examination in 1917. He then established his law practice at 614 Capitol National Bank Building in Sacramento.
He married Agnes Hoffman on September 1, 1920. Joseph Mento died on November 28, 1975, working up to about three years before his death. He was a charter member of Cabrillo Civic Club No. 5, serving two terms as president of the chapter and two terms as state president. He was a skilled cabinet and furniture maker, his hobby.
(See Chapter 11 for Mento's work with delinquent boys and his leadership in developing the Sacramento County Boys Ranch.)
[Agnes Mento; Sacramento Bee]
From page 273 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
JESS F. NOIA was born December 5, 1886, the son of Jess and Amelia (Ramos) Noia, both of the Azores, who came around the Horn to San Francisco in 1849. His father followed mining in the Newcastle area for some years, then ranched. He died at age 36. The senior Noias had four children: John E., Jess F., and Mary Perry.
Jess Noia commenced working at age 14. He drove a butcher wagon in Newcastle by which he earned $25 a month in the employ of F.E. Cannon, and under him learned the butchers trade. He next worked in Sacramento and Palermo as a butcher, but returning to Newcastle he went to work for a fruit house, and later bought out Mr. Cannon's meat market.
In addition to building up a large meat trade in Newcastle, Loomis and Rocklin, with well appointed meat markets in each place, he also ran a wholesale business in Auburn, Penryn and Sacramento. He purchased his beef in California and Nevada, shipping them to his stockyards at Rocklin in carload lots.
Besides his meat markets he owned a fruit ranch of 40 acres in the Rock Springs district next to Newcastle.
On January 22, 1913 he married JULIA ROGERS of Folsom. They had three daughters: Marcele N., Meljane, and Claire.
[History of Placer and Nevada Counties, 1924]
From page 281 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
ANTONE PIMENTEL was born in 1862, and came to the Pocket area of Sacramento from Fresno in 1893. His mother, Mary, was a Neves, who died in June 1918. He married ANNA LEONORA SILVEIRA, widow of Manuel da Rosa Garcia, who died in 1889. (See GARCIA.) Antone and Anna had one child, TONY PIMENTEL, who was born November 27, 1893.
After Manuel Garcia's death, Anna Leonora was left with their five small children and needed help. Antone Pimentel came from Fresno to visit his brother who was attemping to court the beautiful Anna Leonora. She spurned the brother and sent him away and he left town. Antone, not finding his brother, accepted her plea for help and hired on as a ranch hand. He became her suiter and later became her second husband.
Antone Pimentel lived only two years after his marriage with Anna Leonora. He was killed in a duck-hunting accident. He was reaching for his gun in the boat and the trigger caught on the bottom, discharging the gun and hitting him in the torso. He was with his stepson, Manuel Garcia Jr. It is reported that all he said, in Portuguese, was "Goodbye to all of you," and died in 1895.
Again widowed, Anna Leonora moved with her son from the Pocket to Sacramento where she had bought a piece of property at 11th and S Streets, and had a house and barn built there.
About five years after Antone Pimentel died, Anna Leonora returned to the Azores and brought her mother, Leonora Jacinta Leal Silveira, back with her to live in the home at 11th and S Streets. Leonora Jacinta died in 1921 at age of 101 (actually aged 97). (See SILVEIRA.)
Anna bought a pony for young Tony, and he became the first Bee boy on Riverside Road, delivering the paper from Y Street to as far south as the Garcia ranch where he was born.
Around 1912, when Tony was about 19, Anna Leonora bought the building and liquor license of the Ingleside Inn to set up her son in business. In partnership with his brother-in-law Ernest Alvin Savoie, who was married to Tony's half-sister Anna (daughter of Anna Leonora and Manuel da Rosa Garcia), Tony formed a partnership to operate the saloon, later known as Pimentel's Ingleside Cafe or simply Pimentel's saloon. Today it's The Trap, at the intersection of Riverside Blvd. and 43rd Avenue. (See Chapter 11.)
Tony was too young to tend bar, so he handled the grocery end of the business while Al Savoie tended bar. When Tony became of age he also took on duties as bartender. Later, Al became sick, and Tony bought out his share of the business, continuing to run the saloon himself.
Anna Leonora Pimentel never remarried. She died April 2, 1928.
On January 21, 1916, at St. Joseph's Church in Clarksburg, Tony married MAGGIE VALINE, daughter of Antone Valine of Clarksburg, and lived in a house behind the Ingleside Inn until a new house was built around 1924, still standing, to the west of The Trap's present location. Later, in partnership with Al and Annie Savoie who lived in the tank house next to the new house, Tony and Maggie acquired 15 more acres on which was located a large barn which was also used as a blacksmith shop by Almiro Maciel. Tony and Maggie bought the 15 acres outright when Annie Savoies illness forced her to move into town.
With purchase of the acreage, Tony became more interested in farming, and hired others to handle the saloon business while he concentrated on farming. He sold the Ingleside Inn in 1930.
Tony Pimentel died August 26, 1968. He and Maggie had three children: Lloyd Pimentel, who died April 19, 1951, at age 34; Kathryn, who married William A. Weitman; and Geraldine Pimentel Quintana. Kathryn died February 1, 1985, at age 66, and her husband seven months later, on September 1.
[Maggie Valine Pimentel]
From page 306 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MANUEL F. SILVA (Biscaia) was born in the Azores, and at St. Joseph's Church in Clarksburg married MARY GLORIA BITTENCOURT, who was born in Faial in 1864, and who came to the United States at age eight with her parents, João "Piloto" and Maria Bittencourt. (See BITTENCOURT.)
Manuel and Mary Silva bought a ranch about a mile south of the Freeport Ferry landing near the Cambra ranch, which today is a pear orchard. Many years later they moved to Sacramento, where they bought a home in Oak Park at 2925 Franklin Boulevard, at the time an attractive new district of the city. Later, about 1910, they built a grocery store alongside their home, which they operated for many years in the actively growing area.
Manuel died in 1923. Mary died in 1958 at age 94. Their children: Manuel, Frank, Joe, Albert, John, and Alex Silva; Mary King, Carrie Fernandes, Alice Perry, Erlene Rohrer, Minnie Gomes, Rosie Silva, and Frances Gillespie.
[Grace Freitas Rose]
From page 310 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MANUEL SILVA was born in Portugal in 1836. When 17 years of age he went to sea, and followed a sailor's life until 1858, when he returned to Portugal and spent about a year there visiting.
He then came to California and settled in Yolo County as a farmer. In 1875 he bought a ranch of about 160 acres six miles from Sacramento and two miles from Freeport, worth at the time about $2,100.
He was married in 1862 to Amelia Adelaide, also a native of Portugal. They had six sons and five daughters.
Manuel Silva was a School Trustee of Union House District.
[Thompson & West, History of Sacramento County]
From pages 315-316 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MANUEL F. SYLVA was born in Clarksburg on July 31, 1882, and was educated in the public schools of Yolo and Sacramento Counties. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1903 for service in the Spanish American War, rising through various gunnery classifications to sergeant until he was discharged in 1907.
During the San Francisco earthquake and fire in April 1906 he commanded patrols in the Presidio District. On July 1909 he enlisted as first sergeant of the California National Guard, made first lieutenant, and was discharged in 1912. In 1917, with the advent of World War I, he asked unsuccessfully to be commissioned for active service in any rank on four different occasions. He was commissioned captain, commanding the 87th Company, California Military Reserve, and at the close of the war was in command of the Second Provisional Battalion, and placed on the reserve list as Brigadier General, to command the projected California Department.
The company, which he organized, lacked guns, so in 1918 he called on the San Francisco Turn Verein to lend them rifles for the duration of the war, and received 29 Old Model Springfield rifles and 50 Mauser rifles which had been a personal gift of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm to the San Francisco Krieger Verein.
In civilian life Manuel F. Sylva was traveling manager for review of the Reviews Company, assigned to the California Department. Later he was credit manager of D.N.& E. Walter Company of San Francisco. During this period he studied law at Kent Law School and the YMCA Law Review Course, passed the bar examination, and went on to practice law for 16 years. He was at one time Assistant District Attorney for San Francisco.
Affiliated with many civic organizations, he was founder, organizer, and first grand president of the Grand Council of Cabrillo Civic Clubs of California in 1934. Sylva's motivation in organizing the Cabrillo Clubs was to give proper recognition of the Portuguese explorer's contribution to the history of California. He was the leader in efforts to make Cabrillo Day, September 28, 1937, a state holiday.
He died August 28, 1937, survived by his wife Grace F. Sylva.
[Sharon Rose Schultz; Cabrillo Commentator, December 1937]
From page 327 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MARSHALL NEVES SOUSA was born in the Pocket district of Sacramento in 1877, the son of Manuel and Caroline (Marshall) Sousa, who came from the Azores. When Marshall was a youngster the family moved to New England Mills, now known as Weimar, in Placer County.
Marshall's father was born a Neves, but because there were so many other Neveses in the Pocket area he added the name Sousa to eliminate mail mixups. Other children of Manuel and Caroline Marshall Sousa: Manuel and Tony N. Sousa, who lived in Sacramento; Joseph N. Sousa of San Francisco; and Caroline Neves Da Costa, who died in Alaska.
After a few years at Weimar, in 1899 the family returned to Sacramento, where Marshall attended Howe's Academy of Business. He was later employed by the Earl Fruit Company for 15 years. He then went to work for the City of Sacramento's Waste Removal Department where he became the door-to-door bill collector until 1931, when appointed Deputy County Assessor, an office he held until his retirement in 1947. He then took a post-retirement job as an official with the Federal New Helvetia Housing Project off 8th and Broadway.
Marshall Sousa married Sarah Irene Sanderson in the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacramento on January 10, 1912. She was born in Delaware in 1888 of Pennsylvania Dutch and Scotch-Irish parents Wilburforte and Mary Quinn Sanderson. The Sousas had two daughters, Patricia Sousa Scarpino, and Caroline Sousa Pfeiffer. The family resided for many years at 1226 Q Street.
Marshall died December 7, 1961, at age 84. Sarah Irene died February 21, 1983, at age 94.
[Caroline Sousa Pfeiffer; newspaper obituaries]
From pages 337-338 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
JOSEPH W. WAXON (his Portuguese name not known) (later determined to be MACHADO, Waxon taken from the word "ax" - the meaning of Machado) was born in 1830 in the Azores. As a young man he became a whaler and lived on a whaling ship until he was 15. He sailed around the Horn to San Francisco then made his way to Sacramento. He went back to the San Franciso area to a nearby island and stayed, catching huge sea turtles so large that two men could sit on them. He would bring them up the river and put them to pasture in a field on the Glide property, where they would be pastured there and sold as food.
Rosalyn Waxon Mosher, granddaughter of Joseph Waxon, remembered going to the ranch as a girl about eight or ten years old and seeing the turtle shell.
About 1861 Joseph married MARY GLORIA NEVES, who was born in 1837 in São Jorge, the Azores. She was the sister of Joseph Miller.
They bought three ranches in the Pocket. One was about 20 acres near the canal which later became the John Waxon's (Rosalyn's father) ranch and sold later to Manuel Waxon, John's brother. Another ranch was near the Lewis and A.L. and John L. Silva ranches. The third later became the Faustino Silva slaughter house property.
Joseph Waxon also had a large ranch in the Grant, near Mather Field, and raised wheat there. The ranch had a cabin where they stayed part-time while they also ranched the Pocket ranch. Altogether, Joseph worked hundreds of acres.
The 1870 census lists Joseph 40 as farmer, Mary 35 his wife, and children Mary, age eight; Joseph, age seven; John, age three; and Manuel, age one. Other children born later were Josie, Anthony, Frank, Peter, Theresa, Amelia (Millie).
During the time he was farming, Joseph Waxon had a schooner wagon with about a 14-mule or horse team in which he delivered produce to miners in the mountains. There were no established roads then. They would go up to Strawberry then continue to Virginia City, a trip taking three weeks up and another three weeks back. It was a hard but profitable business.
Rosalyn Mosher as a young girl remembered the schooner on the ranch with the skeleton of the top. Joseph Waxon delivered to hundreds of people. His son John (Rosalyn's father) accompanied him on one trip when he was about 15, which would be around 1875. He made numerous trips, some with his other sons.
Joseph Waxon stayed in the Pocket until he died in 1891, age 61. Mary Gloria, his wife, died in 1922, age 85. Their children:
[Rosalyn Waxon Mosher]
From pages 338-339 of Portuguese Pioneers of the Sacramento Area:
MANUEL S. WILLIAMS was born in the Azores in 1849, and lived for several years in Sacramento as a bachelor before marrying JOSIE S. WAXON, who was 21 years younger than he, having been born in 1870, one of nine children of Joseph and Mary Gloria (Nevis) Waxon who lived at 1626 11th Street. (See WAXON.)
They were married at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacramento, and Josie later recalled coming down 11th street after the ceremony, in a surrey driven by a beautiful team of white horses, and driving around the State Capitol.
Manuel Williams had a grocery store at 11th and Q Streets, and it was in that store that the planning meetings were held which resulted in the building of St. Elizabeth's Church on property donated by him. (See Chapter 12.) He and Josie lived over the grocery store. Josie was a compassionate woman. During the Depression, when some people couldn't pay for the groceries they bought at the Williams store, Josie would let them have what they needed, permitting them to pay later whenever they could.
It was an exciting time on May 24, 1910, when a would-be robber entered the store as Manuel Williams was putting up orders for afternoon delivery. Holding a gun on Manuel, he was ordered to the cash register and to make no outcry. But Manuel yelled at the top of his voice. His family was upstairs in their apartment eating lunch, and 14-year-old Ernest heard his father's cry and rushed downstairs armed with a silver fork from the table.
The robber heard him and sought to escape by a side door, only to run into Ernest who threw the fork at him and gave chase, followed by his brother Arthur and by John Azevedo. The children at Harkness grammar school at 10th and Q Streets were just leaving for lunch, and as Ernest ran up the street in pursuit dozens of young boys also took up the chase, first to 10th and P, to 9th and 0, to 12th Street, and finally to the alley between 0 and P and 25th and 26th. The man spotted the police at the end of the alley, so he stopped and shot himself in the head. During the chase he had fired several shots over the heads of his pursuers. The would-be robber got no money from the store.
The church site which Manuel donated was one of many properties he acquired throughout downtown Sacramento, along R Street, 11th Street, the site of the present William Land School, and others.
Manuel died at home on February 24, 1916; Josie died October 9, 1945.
Their children: Adeline, who married Albert Cabler, an advertising salesman with the Sacramento Bee for 20 years; Ernest A. Williams, who worked for the Roma Wine Co. and who married Ida Ryan of the Ryan funeral home family; and Arthur E. Williams, a county claims auditor, who married Emily Hagerty, whose father was a Sacramento County marshal. Ernest's wife, Ida, was considerably older than he, and he eventually left her for another woman. Arthur and wife Emily were the only ones to have children. One son, Arthur E. Williams Jr., who married Doris Ann Harvey, was an executive with the J.c. Penney Co. Ernest died on May 11, 1970.
Whenever important people came to Sacramento to meet her father in connection with his many investments in town, it was daughter Adeline's job to show them the points of interest in Sacramento.
Arthur and Emily Williams were music lovers, and active in the local theater as producers of stage works and as actors in the late 1920s. Both were great ballroom dancers. In one American Portuguese Club dance competition at the Turn Verein Hall there was a tie between the Williams couple and Frank and Mary Rogers, the win finally being accorded to the Rogers couple.
[Sacramento Union, May 25, 1910; Grace Freitas Rose]
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