James W. Chilton
James W. Chilton was a San Jose businessman and dried fruit packer. Chilton had been the manager for the Porter Brothers dried fruit packing house on North First Street in San Jose; when the company collapsed in 1903, Chilton bought the plant, rebranded it as J.W. Chilton Fruit Packing, and kept the business going. He sold the company to Sunsweet in 1922.
Chilton was local. In 1902, he was managing Porter Bros., and was living at 96 Fox av. Brothers John C. Chilton was a foreman at G. N. Herbert, and Robert L. was a foreman at Porter Bros. In 1907, he lived at 556 North 3rd.
J. W. Chilton supposedly ran for mayor of San Jose in 1912.
Chilton's wife, Blanche. C. Chilton, died in April 1903 at age 29, leaving behind James and two small children; she was a native of Illinois, and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs L. V. Hustead of Saratoga[1]. James remarried a company stenographer, Miss Bertha Behrendt, in January, 1904[2].