Alameda County
Biographies
JOSEPH E. CAINE.
There are few men better qualified to speak authoritatively upon commercial conditions and the methods of municipal commercial development than Joseph E. Caine, who for the past year has filled the important position of secretary and manager of the Oakland Commercial Club. He thoroughly studies the questions that have to do with business progress and exploitation, knows the best methods of holding out inducements and realizes the fact that at all times promises must be substantiated.
His life record had its beginning in Salt Lake City, Utah, on the 16th of April, 1867. His father, John T. Caine, a pioneer resident of Utah, was for many years one of the most eminent and widely known public men of that state, which he represented in congress for eleven years, from 1882 until 1893. For several terms he was a member of the Utah senate and for a number of years was city recorder of Salt Lake City. It was he who drafted the statehood bill upon Utah's admission to the Union.
Liberal educational opportunities were accorded Joseph E. Caine, who attended the University of Utah, the Maryland College near Washington, D. C., and the United States Military Academy at West Point. Upon his return to Utah, he entered into active connection with newspaper work, securing a position on the Salt Lake Tribune, and during the period of his residence there he served for two terms as a member of the board of public works of Salt Lake City. When hostilities between Spain and the United States were inaugurated in 1898 he was commissioned as captain of cavalry and given command of the First Troop United States Volunteer Cavalry, an independent troop of one hundred mounted men. When the war was over he was appointed superintendent of the Yosemite National Park and marched from the presidio of San Francisco to the park with his troop and a large pack train. He remained in the park for four months.
In 1899 Mr. Caine returned to Utah and became cashier of the Utah Commercial & Savings Bank, which position he retained until 1906. He then went to Nevada, where he had purchased some mining interests, located in the well known Mason district, in which he spent three years. In 1909 he returned to Salt Lake City and was elected a member of the board of governors in the Salt Lake Commercial Club. Following the death of the former secretary, Fisher Harris, he succeeded him in that position and his efforts were an influential element in the upbuilding of one of the strongest commercial organizations of the west. He also organized the Commercial Club Publicity Bureau, a subsidiary of the Commercial Club and the Utah Development League, an alliance of all the commercial clubs in the state of Utah.
During his absence from Utah Mr. Caine had retained his residence in that state and through the influence of his friends, in 1908 he consented to become a candidate for state treasurer. He has no particular political ambition, however, and there are things about political management not entirely to his taste. In fact, he prefers to remain in the commercial club work, which he finds exceedingly agreeable and for which he is undoubtedly well adapted, as has been proven in the results which have attended his efforts. While living in Salt Lake City he was a member of the University Club of that city.
On the 1st of June, 1913, Mr. Caine came to Oakland to enter upon the duties of secretary and manager of the newly created Oakland Commercial Club, the interests and policy of which he has shaped and guided in its formative period. The club was organized for the purpose of binding together the interests of Oakland's citizens, to promote its commercial and industrial development and to cultivate a more intense civic spirit and greater fraternalism among its business and professional men. In the Commercial Encyclopedia of the Pacific Southwest was the following: "Mr. Caine came to our city thoroughly qualified by temperament and training to undertake this work. His recent association with the Commercial Club of Salt Lake City in the capacity of secretary and manager, in which he built up that body from a membership of a few hundred to over two thousand, one of the strongest commercial bodies in the west, has given him recognition as one of the ablest authorities on development and upbuilding of western cities.
"He has traveled extensively to various cities throughout the west, studied the conditions and methods of publicity and encouraging industries, and has often been called upon to speak before commercial bodies of the coast and mountain cities on the subject of civic development. His ready and thorough understanding of the many problems involved in development of cities and his natural aptitude for meeting and mingling with men have made him eminently qualified for the task to which he has been called, and has justified the judgment of the committee in their selection."
Mr. Caine was married in 1889 to Miss Anna C. Hooper, of Salt Lake City, a daughter of Captain William H. Hooper, who removed to Utah during his association with Ben Holliday of Overland Stage fame. Captain Hooper was a prominent banker and railroad builder, and was one of the organizers and builders of the old Utah Central Railroad, which later became a part of the Oregon Short Line and the Los Angeles, San Pedro & Salt Lake Railroad systems. For a number of terms he represented Utah in the national halls of legislation and during his service as delegate to congress appointed to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Cadet Robley D. Evans, who afterward became the famous admiral, familiarly known as "Fighting Bob." Mr. and Mrs. Caine have four sons, three of whom are students in the public schools of Oakland. Although the period of residence of the family in this city has been brief, they have already made warm friends here, and the circle is growing day by day. Mr. Caine shows himself possessed of attractive social as well as business qualities and Oakland feels that she has made no mistake in placing him in his present responsible position, for his knowledge and energy well qualify him for the duties which devolve upon him.
Past & Present of Alameda County, California – Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914
p. 327
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
PATRICK A. KEARNEY.
Since 1893 Patrick A. Kearney has been connected with the United States mint at San Francisco, and he has worked his way upward through successive stages of progress and advancement to be superintendent of the coining department, a position which he is now filling with credit and ability. He is a native of Minnesota, born in Heidelberg, February 22, 1871, and his father died when he was still very young, but the mother lived until 1911, when she passed away in Alameda. At the age of three the subject of this review was brought to California, and he acquired his education in the public schools of Alameda, completing the usual course and afterward learning the machinist's trade at the National Iron Works in San Francisco. In 1893 he entered the United States mint as engineer and proved able and conscientious in the discharge of his duties, winning quick recognition and rapid advancement through various positions of trust and responsibility to that of superintendent of the coining department, an office which he now holds. He is recognized as one of the able employes of the treasury department and to the discharge of the duties which devolve upon him he brings a keen business ability and discrimination and a power of handling and controlling men. Throughout the course of his active career he has steadily utilized all the opportunities which have come his way, and his success is the natural reward of earnest, well directed and persistent labor.
In San Francisco, in 1894, Mr. Kearney was united in marriage to Miss Margaret May Reid, of that city, and they have four children: Miriam, Roderick, Norma and Elinor. Fraternally Mr. Kearney is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and is connected with the Unitarian Club of Alameda. In the city where he has made his home since he was three years of age he is well and favorably known, for his many sterling qualities of mind and character command respect and esteem wherever they are known.
Past & Present of Alameda County, California – Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914
p. 329
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler