The Milpitas Parks, Recreation, and Cultural ResourcesCommission (PRCRC) recently voted to name our city’s two newest parks, still in development, after two people who were important to our city’s developmentin very different eras and ways.
The first park is to be named after Bob McGuire. Read more about Bob McGuire Park.
The PRCRC also voted to name another, much smaller,new park in honor of Capt. Calvin Valpey.
Capt. Valpey was born in March, 1806, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. From 1818 to 1832 he sailed the seas When not sailing the seas he turned to farming. In 1847 he sailed from Eastport, Maine, to Liverpool, England, as captain.
The same year Capt. Valpey decided to quit the sea, but was persuaded to pilot a vessel called “The Eagle” from Yarmouth to San Francisco via the Straits of Magellan. On November 9, 1850, he left Yarmouth and after five >months and nine days arrived in San Francisco<.
Once in California, Capt. Valpey spent some time in piloting boats up the Sacramento River and around the San Francisco Bay. Then with a partner, Capt. James Sinclair, he operated a trading schooner that went from Union City to San Francisco with grain and returned with supplies for miners.
Later he purchased 400 acres of land at Warm Springs Landing at sixteen dollars per acre(right next to Dixon Landing) and built some warehouses at Dixon Landing. He lived there until his death in 1880. He was married to Elizabeth Gardner Valpey (1810 –1901) and they had two daughters, Elizabeth Ann Valpey Shaw and Mary Alice Valpey Craycroft.
Although Capt. Valpey is listed as among the plot owners at the Laguna Pioneer cemetery in Ed Levin Park, his obituary claimed that he is buried in Irvington Memorial Cemetery in Fremont.
mhs November 2015
The November 2015 issue of the Milpitas Muse stated that of two new parks being planned for Milpitas, one is to be named for Bob McGuire (1930-2012), the first Director of Parks and Recreation for Milpitas, a longtime member of the PRCRC, and the late husband of our current Events Director Harriett McGuire.
The other, much smaller, new park was to be named for Captain Calvin Valpey, (1806-1880) who sailed produce from the Santa Clara Valley to San Francisco. He owned land and warehouses in Warm Springs and at Dixon Landing, Milpitas. Further research, however, revealed that his home, most of his holdings, and most of his time spent were in Warm Springs, not Milpitas.
Therefore it was decided that the new park would be named for O. H. P (Oliver Harrison Perry) Vennum, who was a prominent farm owner and the first Justice of the Peace for Milpitas Township starting in 1861. He farmed in the eastern area of Milpitas and is believed to be buried at Laguna Cemetery.
Mammoth pumpkins at the Vennum farm. Photo courtesy of the Clyde Arbuckle Photograph collection, Martin Luther King Jr. San Jose LibraryThe 1895 photo, taken by famed local photographer and painter Andrew P. Hill, shows a field of mammoth pumpkins at the Vennum farm on Lundy Road.
mhs April 2016
Last month, this newsletter reported that a park once slated to be named after Captain Calvin Valpey, (1806-1880) was instead going to be named for O. H. P Vennum, who was the first Justice of the Peace for Milpitas Township and a prominent farm owner.
Larry Itliong, Filipino-American labor leaderHowever, in an unprecedented move, the city rejected the PRCRC’s suggestion of the Vennum name and made the decision to name the park for Larry Itliong (1913-1977), a Filipino-American labor leader who was important in organizing Filipino farm labor.
Larry Itliong rose to prominence in 1965 when he was among the organizers of what became known as the Delano Grape Strike, which was one of the first times when Mexican and Filipino workers struck together. That strike brought about the creation of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW).
Itliong was one of the main people featured in the recently released film “The Delano Manongs,” about the pivotal role Itliong and other Filipino leaders played in that important event, which was shown last October at the Milpitas Community Center. However, that was the only connection Itliong had with Milpitas.
mhs May 2016