James Williams wasn’t just Santa Clara’s first African American citizen and one of the first African Americans to settle in Santa Clara County. He was also a “first citizen” as a community leader in the city, and is honored for his role as a leader in Santa Clara’s Volunteer Fire Department. Today, an SCFD plaque honors him.
But without the determination of the Garden City Women’s Club, only the most dedicated California history buffs would know Williams’ name.
In 1976, unhappy about the exclusion of the county’s African American history from a San Jose Bicentennial publication, the club decided to record the story of area African Americans. The result was “History of Black Americans in Santa Clara Valley,” which includes Williams’ story retold by Stephanie Menzies.
Since that time, other local histories have included Williams’ story; most recently, Jan Batiste Adkins’ “African Americans of San Jose and Santa Clara County.”
California was technically a non-slavery state — in fact, slavery was introduced to California by the Spanish in the 18th century — but slaveholders brought their slaves to California to work in the gold fields. There was fierce contention at the state constitutional convention in 1849, and although California entered the U.S. as a free state, the constitution denied voting rights to non-white citizens.
Born April 1, 1825 in Georgia, James Williams was brought to California as a slave in 1851 and forced to work in the Sierra diggings of Negro Hill, an African American mining town. He managed to earn enough money to buy his freedom and, after being swindled out of $600, decided, like so many, that there were better ways to make money in California than mining.
Williams settled in Sacramento, where he was appointed agent and trustee for the AME Church of Sacramento. By 1870, he was living at Murphy Ranch in Milpitas, had established a whitewashing business and was operating freight teams between Hollister and San Francisco.
In addition to being a savvy businessman, Williams was also a careful journal-keeper. He published the autobiographical “Life and Adventures of James Williams” in 1874, now a collector’s item, which he sold for 55 cents a copy.
Williams became friends with Santa Clara’s State Senator Frederick Franck after moving to the South Bay. While the date of the move is unclear, the closeness of their friendship is easy to see.
After a series of “business reverses” overtook Williams, Franck invited his friend to live in a house near today’s Santa Clara City Hall. When the Senator died, his son Frederick Jr. and daughter Caroline Johnson continued to care for their father’s friend.
Williams was active in the Santa Clara community. In 1893, the Volunteer Fire Dept. elected him as sergeant-at-arms for the “Hope Hose Company” in recognition of his work with the organization. More recently, African American members of the SCFD honored Williams with a memorial plaque in department headquarters.
Williams was a well-known in Santa Clara.
“In his last years. ‘Old Jim’ puttered around a vegetable garden from which he extracted his finest products to give to friends,” wrote chronicler Menzies.
“He hobbled around town with the aid of a cane, his spectacles reflecting the light rays, inviting conversation. As people will, they often interjected an ‘Is that so?’ into the conversation. That was the signal for Williams to square his shoulders and declare seriously: ‘Good Lord, man do you think I’d lie to you?’” wrote Menzies.
Williams became ill one morning in October 1913. City Marshal George P. Fallon hurried him to Santa Clara County Hospital (now Valley Medical Center) where he died on October 5. His obituary ran on the cover of the October 7 edition of the Santa Clara News*, which noted that the Hope Hose Company’s flag “floats at half-mast in his memory.”
Mary Hanel, local historian and retired Santa Clara City librarian, contributed to this story.
Santa Clara Central City Library has “History of Black Americans in Santa Clara Valley” and “African Americans of San Jose and Santa Clara County.” For more, visit Gabriel Frank-McPheter’s story map Silicon Valley’s Black Population: A History of Exclusion.
*The Santa Clara News was the city’s first newspaper and an ancestor of Silicon Valley Voice. It’s unrelated to a recent blog of that name.
Carolyn Schuk can be reached at carolyn@santaclaraweekly.com
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Santa Clara’s Municipal Power Company: 19th Century Beginnings
1959 Bond Measure: Looking Back to When Santa Clara Looked Forward and Invested
Santa Clara Woman’s Club: 120 Years of Community Service
This is a fantastic resurfacing of Santa Clara and American history.
This is super cool . Big ups Garden City Women’s Club .