July 21, 2020
The building at 125 W. California Street in Jacksonville now occupied by the J’ville Tavern was once the Anderson & Glenn General Store. Built in 1859, it was one of the few “fire proof” brick buildings to actually survive the major fires of 1874 and 1884 that took out all the surrounding structures. Anderson was one of Jacksonville’s first merchants. James Glenn joined him in partnership in 1859. Born in Virginia around 1825, Glenn was one of the 49-ers who came west seeking gold. He later turned his hand to farming and became a large landowner with investments in quartz mining and a flour mill. In 1859, he was Treasurer of Jacksonville when it was first incorporated and the town’s 3rd wealthiest citizen. In 1862, Glenn married Minerva Gass, 20 years his junior. Glenn apparently continued in the general merchandise business until the mid-1870s. By 1875, he had moved to Alameda, California where he was a “real estate investor.” The Anderson & Glenn brick store continued to be used as a general merchandise store into at least the early 1900s.