Various locally renowned people have established their homes in the Riverside-Pocket area at different times during the history of this historical community. And among these notable residents was former Mayor Clarence L. Azevedo.

Clarence L. Azevedo served as the mayor of Sacramento from 1956 to 1959. / Photo courtesy, PHCS

Clarence, who was born in Mountain View, Calif. on Oct. 21, 1909, was the son of John Lawrence Azevedo and Rosa Agnes Silva Balcao Azevedo.

John Lawrence immigrated to Sacramento from the Azores Islands with his brother Frank in the early 1890s.

In 1893, the two brothers constructed a house on the old Jackson Road, five miles east of Sacramento in the town of Perkins, and a few years later, they engaged in winemaking.

Frank later established a farm in Natomas and John Lawrence farmed in Mountain View.

In addition to farming, John Lawrence was able to occasionally provide Portuguese interpreting for the courts through his knowledge of Portuguese and Latin, which he acquired while studying for the priesthood in the Azores Islands.

While residing in Mountain View, John Lawrence met and married Rosa Agnes and together they had three children, who were born in Mountain View.

The Azevedo family eventually sold their Mountain View ranch and purchased a summer resort in Calistoga, Calif.

It was there that the family moved into a 14-room house, rented out cabins to tourists and made wine for the government.

With the establishment of Prohibition, the Azevedos lost the majority of their income and moved back to the Sacramento area, where the couple had their fourth child and John Lawrence went to work for his brother in Natomas.

John Lawrence later worked at Manlove Station, east of Perkins, where he managed the McGillivray Ranch.

On Jan. 10, 1920, John Lawrence became a victim of influenza and, as a result, died at the age of 58 on June 6 of the same year. And Rosa Agnes died nearly 17 years later at the age of 52.

Following his father’s death, when he was 10 years old, Clarence, who was the oldest of his siblings, worked at a grocery store in Brighton, near Perkins.

At the store, he worked after school for 10 cents per hour from 4 to 7 p.m., then he returned to his home in Brighton to milk his family’s cow and sell quarts of milk by horseback.

After his long day of school and work, Clarence would spend time on his homework by the light of a kerosene lantern.

When Clarence was 14 years old, he spent an entire month operating the aforementioned grocery store, as well as its associated gas station while the business’s owner was on vacation.

And while he was still working at the grocery store in 1923, Clarence, who was then attending Sacramento High School, purchased a used Ford touring car for $180.

Clarence turned his vehicle into a means of making money, as his car became a sort of school bus for out of town students.

In being well aware that the county assisted out of town students by paying them $5 per month to attend high school, Clarence filled his car each day with six other out of town students and then collected his passengers’ $5 per month payments.

During the summers, Clarence earned 25 cents per hour performing cultivating and irrigation work at the nearby Rooney hop fields.

Alice Azevedo stands inside her Oak Park apparel shop on its opening day, Aug. 17, 1935. / Photo courtesy, PHCS

When he was 18 years old, Clarence applied to work at a Safeway grocery store one afternoon.

Because his desire to work and earn money was so strong, Clarence claimed that he was 21 years old on his application.

Furthermore, he showed up the following morning, without waiting for someone from the store to call him, just in case a store employee had quit their position and created a job opening.

Clarence’s persistency paid off, as he was hired to work at the Safeway store at 2430 J St. His first job at the store was peeling onions.

With his work ethic and drive, Clarence, who eventually worked for Safeway for 16 years, graduated to the order department following an incident in which he took a $132 grocery order from a Sloughhouse farmer.

At a pay rate of $22.50 per week, Clarence worked from 7 a.m. until whatever hour his work was completed each night.

Being that he lived in a city that was fanatical about baseball, it should come as no surprise that Clarence showed a great interest in baseball.

In addition to his dedication to Safeway, Clarence, beginning when he was 15 years old, played 15 years of semi-pro baseball as a catcher for teams in Perkins and Florin.

Although Clarence participated in this popular sport with such notable players as Joe Marty and Stan Hack, Clarence admitted that he was “not in their league.”

While he was still 18, Clarence married 16-year-old Alice Banks and the couple had one child, Phyllis Jean.

During the early part of his marriage, Clarence was living with his family in Stockton, where he worked at a Safeway for 10 months.

After transferring back to Sacramento, Clarence successfully managed various Safeway stores.

In about 1940, Clarence, who was then residing at 831 El Dorado Way in East Sacramento, became the manager of a new Safeway store at 2900 Freeport Blvd.

The only other person working at the store at the time was a butcher, named George Zarzana, who resided with his wife, Mary, at 1906 P St.

Within its first sixth months, the store grew from a first week’s total of $315 to the highest volume Safeway store in Northern California, and employed seven clerks.

Azevedo also set up a training course for new employees, and he earned $5 for each employee hired and trained.

Safeway’s upper management was so pleased with the quality and effectiveness of Clarence’s work that he was presented with the opportunity to become the supervisor of 27 Siskiyou County-based stores.

Apparently Clarence did not accept the job, since Alice was well established in the capital city with her own business, the California Apparel dress shop at 2925 35th St. in Oak Park. She had opened the store on Aug. 17, 1935 with $750 of Clarence’s Safeway bonus money.

The exterior of the third Oak Park location of California Apparel is shown in this 1952 photograph. / Photo courtesy, PHCS

Clarence left Safeway on July 10, 1943 to assist Alice with California Apparel, which at various times had stores in other locations in the Sacramento area, Roseville and Stockton.

Recurrent vandalism forced the Azevedos to close the last of their Oak Park stores – there were three such stores at different times – at 2930 35th St. in 1952.

In the same year, the Azevedos sold the remainder of their stores and began to operate a very large California Apparel store in the Fruitridge Shopping Center. This store, which was entirely managed by Clarence and earned $2.7 million in its last full year, continued to operate until April 28, 1986.

During the time that he was managing the Fruitridge store, Clarence became involved in politics and was appointed to the city council in 1953 to complete the term of Roy Nielson, who had been elected to the state assembly.

In 1956, Clarence began serving in the first of his two terms as mayor, a position he held until 1959.

It was also during this era that Clarence was a member of the executive committee of Solons, Inc. – the organization which purchased the Sacramento Solons minor league baseball team in 1959 – and the head of a committee designed to study the feasibility of financing the fairgrounds at Cal Expo.

In his latter years of his life, Clarence, who passed away at the age of 91 on Feb. 14, 2001, two years following the death of Alice, resided on 43rd Avenue, just off of South Land Park Drive, in the Riverside-Pocket area.

Back in the 1920s, the Pocket area was a much different place than it is today, as the area consisted of many ranches that were mostly operated by Portuguese farmers. Also among the workers of the area was Faustino Silva, who was well known for his slaughterhouse.

Faustino and Mary Jessie (Marks) Silva are shown seated on their wedding day, Nov. 7, 1925. Behind them is a couple identified as Mr. and Mrs. Tavares. / Photo courtesy, PHCS

Faustino, who was born Faustino Da Silva in the island of Pico in the Azores Islands of Portugal on Oct. 10, 1900, arrived in the United States when he was 19 years old.

After traveling to Sacramento by train, Faustino first resided with one of his three sisters in the old “Arizona” area of Sacramento at 4th and T streets.

Faustino obtained his first employment in California working as a farmhand on the Joe J. (Nordeste) Machado ranch in the Natomas area, just north of Sacramento.

Following his time on the Machado ranch, Faustino began working at the River Lines, Humphrey Vineyards in Perkins, just east of Sacramento.

In 1924, Faustino, like many locals of the time, became an employee at the Southern Pacific shops in Sacramento.

After becoming established at the shops, Faustino married Sacramento native Mary Jessie Marks, the daughter of Pico natives Antone and Mary (Azevedo Vieira) Marks, on Nov. 7, 1925.

While living at their 4th and T streets residence, Faustino and Mary Jessie had their first child, Marie.

In 1927, Faustino moved with Mary Jessie and Marie to the Pocket area, so that Faustino could establish a slaughterhouse business and have a house constructed for his family.

The house that was built on the family’s property was located at the edge of Riverside Road.

Faustino Silva wears an off-white Stetson hat while preparing beef for the Riverside Holy Ghost Festa dinner during the 1940s. Standing to the right of Silva is Antone Perry “Peru” Dutra, another well-known resident of the area during this time. / Photo courtesy, PHCS

When the family moved to their property, which was located on about a five-acre parcel, near the northern intersection of today’s Riverside Boulevard and Park Riviera Way, the property already included an old slaughterhouse that was formerly owned by Jerry Jaksich, Sr. Jacksich was also known for his position as part-owner of the Belevedere Meat Market at 330 S St.

In addition to his duties at his slaughterhouse, Faustino attended cattle auctions and also purchased animals from local ranches and dairies. He also slaughtered dairy cows and calves for veal.

Employed full-time by Faustino at his slaughterhouse were his main deliveryman, Arthur Neves, Arthur’s brother, John Neves, Frank “Cap” Perry and Melvin (“Garsha”) Garcia.

Part-time slaughterhouse workers were: Clarence Nevis, Marvin Silveira, Marvin’s brother, Alvin Silveira, and Folsom area resident Joe Azevedo.

Another one of Faustino’s workers was Manuel “Tiranha” Martin, who would purchase cattle that would be delivered to the slaughterhouse.

Among Faustino’s largest customers were the local Stop-N-Shop markets, which were owned by the Kassis brothers.

Part of Faustino’s profits outside of the sale of beef was his sale of hides and “offalls” – the name used for organs.

Although some people at the time believed that Faustino raised dairy cows, his entire interest was in raising beef cattle.

The Pocket area street, Faustino Way, was named in honor of Faustino Silva, who owned a slaughterhouse in the area from 1927 to 1948. / Valley Community Newspapers photo, Lance Armstrong

As Faustino acquired more beef cattle, he realized his need for additional pastureland, as he purchased an additional 2.5 acres near the northern boundary of his Pocket area property.

Faustino, who generally wore an off-white Stetson hat, purchased the property from A.S. Sebego, who was commonly known by Portugese people of the area as “Saboogs.”

With his desire to expand his pastureland for his cattle, Faustino purchased 43.91 acres from brothers Joe C. and Manuel C. Nevis in about 1939. This property, which later included Faustino’s new home, was located from the Sacramento River levee, southeasterly, to Riverside Road.

While residing in the Pocket area, the Silva family grew to include four more children, Faustine, Elsie, Robert and Gary.

Elsie, who lives in the Sacramento County town of Herald, which is located about 29 miles south of Sacramento, recalled the enjoyment she had while observing her father work in his slaughterhouse.

“I remember as a very young girl going back to the slaughterhouse and sitting in a safe place watching my dad for hours split beef with a huge cleaver,” Elsie said. “This was before he had an electric saw. Doing this all day gave him great muscular arms and shoulders.”

Elsie added that watching her father work was her own way of finding additional moments to be in his presence, since she otherwise did not spend as much time with him as she had desired.

Silva Valley Elementary School in El Dorado Hills was named in honor of Faustino Silva. / Photo courtesy, PHCS

Concentrating his interests in acquiring more cattle and pastureland, Faustino closed his slaughterhouse business in 1948.

The last parcel of land that Faustino purchased in the Pocket area was further around the present day Pocket Road.

During his time residing in the Pocket area, Faustino added to his notoriety as a pillar of the community by donating beef to the Riverside AADES for its Holy Ghost Festa dinner at Portuguese Hall, located at the beginning of today’s Pocket Road.

In addition to supplying beef for the event, Faustino worked with his close friend, Antone Dutra, to cut and prepare the meat for its all-day cooking.

Faustino, who was very admired for his friendly nature, generosity and long hours of physically hard work, also donated beef for the Freeport Festa and later to the Elk Grove Festa.

With a desire to further expand his cattle-raising business, Faustino purchased additional property for pasturing in the Yolo Bypass area, Sutterville/Land Park area, Meadowview-Freeport area and the Sloughhouse area.

Silva Valley Parkway is one of two El Dorado Hills’ tributes to Faustino Silva. / Photo courtesy, PHCS

Faustino also obtained his largest land acquisitions in El Dorado Hills and Herald. These properties each consisted of thousands of acres.

So great was Faustino’s name in the El Dorado Hills area that a street, Silva Valley Parkway, was named after him, and off of Silva Valley Parkway, an extensive elementary school in the posh Serrano community was named Silva Valley Elementary School.

Making this tribute even more impressive is the fact that Faustino owned his El Dorado Hills property for no more than five years, yet he was nonetheless able to make an extremely strong impression in the area.

But tributes to Faustino are not exclusive to El Dorado Hills, as a modern day street, which is known as Faustino Way, in the Pocket area on the site of the old Nevis brothers’ ranch, which he acquired, is named in his honor.

Although Faustino passed away at the age of 79 on Nov. 2, 1979, his legacy remains strong in the Pocket area and beyond.

lance@valcomnews.com