Campbell

By Karen Brey, Campbell Historical Museum & Ainsley House, The Campbell Historical Museum and Ainsley House

Book Overview

The charming city of Campbell sits amid bustling urban neighbors in California's Silicon Valley. For many years known as the Orchard City, Campbell is still very much a small town clinging fiercely to its identity. Benjamin Campbell founded a hay and grain farm on what is now downtown Campbell in 1851. Shrewdly selling off one of his acres for $5 for a railroad depot, Campbell soon subdivided his farm. The resulting town evolved into a rail center for shipping fruit across the continent and around the globe. Campbell Fruit Growers' Union, a large co-operative, sent apricots and prunes to dry yards that were at one time the largest in the world, and canneries like the J.C. Ainsley Packing Company and Geo. E. Hyde & Company became local giants.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738529176
• ISBN13: 9780738529172
• Release Date: December 2004
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (SC)
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great Mini History of the Orchard City

This book is spot on! It provides both facts. and photos from the boom days of the cannery industry in Campbell, California. The book is engrossing, and really grabs your interest. I read it cover to cover, as soon as it arrived. This book puts a human face on local history. As a direct descendant of Bejamin Campbell, and a Granddaughter of John D. Blaine, I was thrilled to see some family photos which I had never seen before. Among them, a photo of my Great Grandfather John H. Blaine, the photo of my Great Aunt Lena Swope French, on page 15, and that of my uncles Frank and George, and cousin Elgin Hurlbert in the back of Grandpa's delivery truck. Well done.

Nice overview of this orchard town in Silicon Valley

Campbell in 2007 has little to no resemblance of Campbell of old where orchards were predominant. Very nice historical photographs of that community.