Napa County CA Archives Biographies.....Tool, S. M. 1848 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 13, 2006, 6:58 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

S. M. TOOL has a ranch of seventy-one acres two and a half miles northwest of
Napa, on the line of the railroad, all of which is in orchard and in full
bearing. It consists of some 10,000 trees, 4,000 being pears, 3,000 peaches,
1,000 cherries and the balance made up of apples, prunes, plums and apricots.
Part of the orchard was set out thirteen years ago, and the last of it about
five years since. Most of the product is shipped East, though some is sold to
the local trade and to the canneries. For some time Mr. Tool has had a canning
establishment of the place, which is utilized as a means of disposing of the
crop when the conditions are not favorable for shipping. This cannery was burned
down in August of this year, and has just been rebuilt with all the appliances
necessary for putting up 100,000 cases of goods during the season. The average
output of this orchard may be summed up about as follows: 5,000 to 6,000 boxes
of Bartlett pears, 4,000 being shipped East and the remainder sent to the
cannery; 4,000 boxes Beurre Clairgeau (fall pears), also shipped East; 5,500
boxes of cherries, mostly sold to the local trade of San Francisco and
Sacramento, but next year the cherry-growers will probably ship East through an
association; 3,500 boxes of plums, mostly shipped to the Eastern markets; 500
boxes of Alexander apples, mostly sent to the mountain States and Territories;
3,000 boxes of peaches, which have generally been sold to the canneries; and ten
tons of dried French prunes. Mr. Tool purchased this ranch in 1883, and since
owning the place he has set out about 3,000 trees.

  He was born in Posey County, Indiana, in 1848. His parents were John W. and
Jane M. (McKinley) Tool, his father a native of Georgia and his mother of
Kentucky. When he was three years old the family removed to Iowa, near
Keosauqua, where his father operated as a pilot on the Des Moines River, as he
had been accustomed to do on the Mississippi during his earlier life. He was one
of the first pilots on the Des Moines. Mr. Tool received his primary education
in the public schools of Iowa, which he continued at the printer's case, where
he worked for twelve years. During that time he assisted in establishing the
first morning daily paper published in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1872. This paper
was called the Politician, and was owned by Sheldon, Tool & Sweet. He sold out
his interest the same year and came to California, where he worked at his trade
in the office of the Napa Register, afterward purchasing a half interest in that
paper. He left this for the grocery business, in which he continued for ten
years, and sold to purchase the orchard which he has managed since. He has
probably the largest bearing orchard in Napa Valley, and conducts it in a
thorough business-like manner. He was married, July 10, 1877, to Miss Jennie
Marks, a native of Iowa.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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