A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day, Part 59

Author: Storke, Yda Addis
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 738

USA > California > San Luis Obispo County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 59
USA > California > Santa Barbara County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 59
USA > California > Ventura County > A memorial and biographical history of the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura, California Containing a history of this important section of the Pacific coast from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospective future; with full-page steel portraits of its most eminent men, and biographical mention of many of its pioneers and also of prominent citizens of to-day > Part 59

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skirmish with the Indians, which circum- stance was accounted for by the fact that Colonel Riley and his party, who had been sent out by the Government and who had preceded them, had some field-pieces and also the first ox-team the Indians had ever seen. When the Indians attacked them Colonel Riley brought his field-piece to bear upon them, of course doing much damage in their ranks, and as Mr. Branch and his party had ox-teams along they were afraid to attack them, as they also had " shooting wagons." In the fall of 1830 Mr. Branch joined a trap- ping party in the Tulare Valley. They made the journey from New Mexico toward Big Salt Lake, across the head waters of Red River, and struck a stream supposed to be the Sevier River, which they followed until it emptied into Little Salt Lake, near the California mountains. It being the month of November, the country was covered with snow, and they found it impossible to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and conse- quently struck off south for Red River. They were nine days crossing and had to break a path through the snow, which was two or three feet deep. They found but few beaver and no game, and soon their provis- ions gave out. When they started from New Mexico they had fonr oxen, and when near Little Salt Lake they killed their last ox and then had to subsist upon the flesh of their horses and mules, each man being put upon short allowances, which at best was very poor.

They traveled along Red River and reach- ed the Mohave country, Inckily escaping all attacks from the hostile tribes of Indians, and finally arrived safely at San Bernardino, California, in February, 1831, and from there proceeded to Los Angeles, where the party disbanded. After leading a hunter's life for three years, Mr. Branch invested his bonds

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in a grocery store at Santa Barbara, which he subsequently sold to A. B. Thompson.

In 1835 he was married to Doña Manuela Corlona, and they settled in San Luis Obispo County, where in 1839 he obtained a Spanish grant of land of great value. This property consisted of 16,954.83 acres located on the Arroyo Grande. Mr. Branch afterward be- came the owner of mnch valuable property in addition to this, including the Huer- Hnero, Pizmo and other large tracts, also vast herds of horses and cattle. The dry years of 1862-'63-'64 proved very disastrous to his enormous herds of cattle, numbering in 1863 over 70,000 head, and as a result he lost almost a fortune, when the value of cat- tle the year previous is taken into considera- tion. Mr. Branch profited by the favorable season which followed, though not for a long time did he make up for the disaster alluded to above. He has held public offices at va- rious times, and was prominently identified with the affairs of the city and county. The public positions which he was called upon to fill were frequently important ones, but his wor't was always eminently satisfactory. He died at his home on Santa Mannela rancho, May 8, 1874, leaving a widow and fonr sons: Ramon, Frank and D. Fred, all of whom, with the exception of one, are still alive.

The splendid adobe house, the home of the Branch family, still remains, above and ad- joining the home of D. Fred Branch. The house is not now occupied, but is in an ex- cellent state of preservation, revealing clearly the fact that in its day it was a substantial as well as a beautiful home. Mr. Branch, like many of those early pioneers, reached Cali- fornia with nothing but his gun by which to make his living. This, however, proved in his skillful hand to be all the capital he needed, as with it he shot otter, the skins of which were very valuable, and always bronght

the ready cash in those times. His history bears with it a moral. He set out in life poor, and by his own energy and activity he became rich in the world's goods, and at one time was one of the wealthiest men in San Luis Obispo County.

R. NICOLES, resident at Lompoc, Surveyor of Santa Barbara County.

H. NICHOLSON, a careful and practi- cal farmer of Santa Maria, was born in Winneshiek County, Iowa, in 1856. His father was an extensive farmer of that period, having 400 acres of land, which he farmed to general crops, and was also engaged in stock-raising. The subject of this sketch received a common-school education, and then attended the Cornell Methodist College at Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he finished in 1875. He then farmed on rented land, until 1878, when he bought a farm of 100 acres in the same county. He was married at Ossin, Iowa, in 1876, to Miss Agnes Hall, and they lived on this farm until 1881, when he sold out and came to California, arriving in Santa Maria, in May, 1881, and with his uncle, M. P. Nicholson, an early settler in the valley, they leased a farm of 3,000 acres, where they were engaged in raising grain; Mr. Nichol- son took charge of the ranch. In 1883 he purchased the lease and stock and farmed the same tract until 1887, when he purchased his present beautiful ranch of 320 acres. In 1882 they raised from 3,000 acres, 3,300 sacks of grain, mainly wheat. In addition to his present ranch he rents 180 acres, and devotes the entire tract of 500acres to grain,

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wheat being the main crop. He nses all heavy machinery of gang plows, headers and steam-threshers, and also does much threshing about the valley. He raises stock only for ranch purposes. He is making preparations for fruit culture, which he will enter quite extensively. Mr. and Mrs. Nicholson have two children, Harry Roland and Edith. Mr. Nicholson is a member of Santa Maria Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and also a mem- ber of the Farmers' Alliance.

USTAVUS W. RICHARDS, who has had an extensive business as civil engi- neer, was born June 3, 1834, in New York city, the son of G. U. Richards, a prominent dry-goods merchant of New York. The sub- ject of this sketch was educated at Portland, Maine, and there learned his profession, and up to 1875 was extensively engaged through the Eastern, Middle and Southern States. In 1865 he was married at Zanesville, Ohio, to Miss Eleanor Macleod, a danghter of Robert MacLeod, who was born in Washington, Dis- triet of Columbia, July 3, 1815. He was by profession a civil engineer, and did a large business throughout the East, until December, 1874, when he came to Lompoc. He bought 160 acres and farmed until 1878, when he sold out and moved to Santa Barbara, where he died January 23, 1880.

The subject of this sketch came to Lom- poc in 1885, purchased sixty acres of land, and rented other land, and farmned for four years. He went to the mines in Arizona and for ten years was absent in mining and railroad engineering. His family meanwhile resided in Lompoc and Santa Barbara. All of the original purchase has been sold, ex- cepting ten acres and their residence. Mr. and Mrs. Richards have seven children, six

boys and one girl, all at home. Mr. Rich- ards has had a varied experience.

- HOMAS JEFFREYS WILLIAMS, Superintendent of Arroyo Grande, Nip- omo and Los Olivos Lumber Yards, generally known as Captain Williams, was born in Pennsylvania. of English parents. He received a good practical education at his boy- hood home, leaving however, at the early age of sixteen years in company with a schoolinate for the gold fields of California; they reached San Francisco by way of Panama on October 5, 1853. After a few months' expierence in the then small but busy city at the bay. he joined his fortunes with others from the Key- stone State, in a trip to the mines, arriving in Nevada City, Nevada County, in January 1854. It has been said by many, and the Captain says it is true, that this was the year of flush times in California. After two years of mining in the hills surrounding the city of Nevada, Captain Williams, in company with a Scotchman by the name of David Thorn, established the Nevada Foundry, un- der the firm name of Thorn & Williams; they were very successful, building many quartz and saw mills and hoisting works for deep mining. In 1861 Captain Williams sold out to Mr. Hugh, and engaged to go to Arizona, to superintend reduction works at the Patago- nia mines, for Lientenant Mowry, the pioneer of the Territory. He arrived there in April, 1862. After a few months successful work- ing they were compelled to suspend on ac- count of withdrawal of troops from the Ter- ritory. After indifferent success in mining in northern Sonora, Mexico, for the next two years, Captain Williams returned to California overland, by the way of Fort Yuma, in company with John Archibald, a

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merchant of Tucson. After a hard trip and many narrow escapes from the hostile Apaches, they reached Los Angeles in Febru- ary 1865, where Captain Williams engaged to superintend mines for Colonel Rand, a gentleman from Boston, who purchased mines for a Boston syndicate at Havilah, Kern County. He remained here four years, tak- ing out upward of half a million dollars in bullion. The company suspended work in 1869, when the Captain entered the field of polities, being elected Clerk of the County without an opponent, in 1870; resigning be- fore his term expired, he purchased a ranch and engaged in stock raising. After a few years he sold out and returned to the Mecea of all old Californians, San Francisco, where he received a State appointment. Seven years ago he was sent by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company to manage their lumber business on the line of their railroad, where he is still to be found. The Captain has three children, two sons and a daughter by a former marriage: his second wife who is still living was a Miss Hurlbert, of Middlebury, Vermont, a near relative of the Rockwells, and a direct descendant of the Mayflower Pilgrims. Captain Williams' future home will be at Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County, where he has an apricot orchard of sixty acres one mile from the town.

ENRY CAMILO DANA, engaged in raising cattle and sheep in the Nipomo, is a son of Captain W. G. Dana (whose sketch is given on a subsequent page) and nee Maria Josefa Carillo, and was born in Santa Barbara, July 14, 1839, one of twenty- one children, twelve of whom are now living. Mr. Dana has followed ranching all his life, on the old homestead. He now has 300

acres, beautifully situated in the Nipomo. He has never been away from Nipomo for any length of time, except in 1853, when he visited the Eastern States for a year and a half, especially New York and Massachusetts. He has been Deputy County Clerk of San Luis Obispo County, and frequently has been Clerk of Election.

He was married in 1884, to Josephine Blake, and has three children.

OSEPH KAISER, a prominent real- estate dealer of Santa Maria, and Presi- dent of Kaiser Land and Fruit Company, was born in the city of Mobile, Alabaına, April 10, 1858. His father, Meyer Kaiser, was a wholesale and retail grocer of that city, who died in 1861. His mother and family came to San Luis Obispo in 1870, and estab- lished their residence. Our subjeet was educated at Mobile and San Luis Obispo, and finished at Heald's Business College at San Francisco. In 1874 he began business as book-keeper for his brother, at the general merchandise store of L. M. Kaiser & Co, at Guadalupe, continuing until 1880, when, as- soeiated with his brother, the general mer- chandise store of Kaiser Bros. was established at Santa Maria. They continued until 1882, when Blochman & Cerf were admitted, and the firm changed to Kaiser Bros. & Co., which dissolved in 1884, and the business was sold. There was then organized the Kaiser Land & Fruit Company, of which our subjeet was elected president. They have 300 acres west of town, known as Fair Lawn, which has been subdivided and platted into lots from two and a half to forty aeres, offer- ing special inducements to settlers. They also have 2,700 aeres of raneh · property, suitable for fruit or farming. In 1887 they

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began setting ont trees, and have planted 130 acres to English walnuts and ninety acres to French prunes. The ranch property is leased, and under cultivation in general farm crops.

Mr. Kaiser has been treasurer of the Santa Maria Stock and Agricultural Association since its organization in 1886, his term of office having just expired. He is a member of Hesperian Lodge, No. 264, F. & A. M., and of Santa Maria Lodge, No. 90, K. of P.

AMES MADISON GRAVES was born in San Luis Obispo, December 17, 1858, and is the son of William J. and Soledad (Pico) Graves. At an early age he attended school in his native city and later was a student at Berkeley. In 1881 was appointed Depnty Sheriff under Sheriff Oaks; afterward for a time was employed in the State Peni- tentiary. After the death of his father, in December, 1884, he resigned his position there and returned to his old home in San Luis Obispo. He then accepted a position in the sheriff's office, as deputy, and then Under Sheriff, acting in the latter capacity for three years. Mr. Graves is at present City Marshal, an office he has held three years, being twice elected.

He was married September 17, 1888, to Miss Martha de la Guerra, by whom he has two children.

EORGE F. RUCKER, a rancher of Lompoc, was born in Saline County, Missouri, in 1851. His father was a farmer and a native of Virginia, and in 1852 emigrated across the plans to this undevel- oped country, rich in minerals, called Cali- fornia. He settled near Santa Clara on a 27

farm of 160 acres, and there engaged in gen- eral farming. The subject of this sketch was brought up on a farm, and in 1876 came to Lompoc, and very wisely selected fifty-six acres of rich loam soil, east of town, near the foot-hills, which he improved, and where he has since resided. He then devoted his time and energies to cultivating the land. He also rents eighty acres, and plants about sixty acres to beans and the balance to bar- ley. He now has a finely developed ranclı.

Mr. Rucker was married in Lompoc, in 1878, to Miss Susan Frances Barker; they have four children, who are now in school. Mr. Rucker is a member of Lompoc Lodge, No. 262, F. & A. M.

OBERT CARR, a rancher, and one of the early settlers of Lompoc Valley, was born in Lancashire, England, Jann- ary 1, 1833. His father was connected with railroad work, and was killed on the Liver- pool Railroad, while in service. Robert entered the English army in 1855, when England, France and Turkey were allied against Russia, and they were in the first attack on Sebastopol, on June 18, 1855, and remained until after the first surrender, after a siege of eleven months. He then came with his regiment to Kingston, Canada West, where they were stationed one winter. In September, 1857, he was discharged, and he came to the United States, settling in Jeffer- son County, New York, where he remained two years, working on a farm. In the fall of 1859 he left for California, by water and the Isthmus of Panama, arriving in San Francisco January 9, 1860. He worked on a farm in Alameda County until 1864, and then rented one year. In 1864 he bought a ranch of 320 acres in the Livermore Valley,

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where he raised wheat and barley; he re- mained until 1875, when he sold out and came to Lompoc. Mr. Carr then bought eighty acres in the northwest part of the town, which was covered with brush and timber, but he has since cleared it and now plants thirty acres each to beans and mustard. He has built a house and farm buildings, and has five acres in a variety of fruits.

Mr. Carr was married in Jefferson County, New York, in May, 1859, to Miss Martha Rawley, a native of Long Island, Canada. Mr. Carr keeps six horses, and breeds for carriage purposes from a fine Bashaw mare.

AVID COPELAND NORCROSS was born in Farmington, Maine, July 12, 1829. His boyhood was spent at home and he received his education at Abbott's School in Farmington. Coming to the State of California in 1851, he went at once into business at Sacramento, where he remained for a time. He afterward went to Arizona, being there interested in quicksilver mines. In 1865 he was in Monterey County, where he was engaged in the sheep business with Colonel Hollister. About 1867 he came to the county of San Luis Obispo, continu- ing sheep-raising at Mariano Springs. A stanch Republican and an active and enthusi- astic worker, Mr. Norcross received in 1871 the nomination of his party for the office of Sheriff and was elected. In 1873 he was re- elected by a largely increased majority. At the conclusion of his term of office, he ac- quired the ranch known as Juerta de la Rom- nalda, a few miles north of San Luis Obispo, where he resided until within a short time. This property was formerly held by Senator Stanford.

In 1872 Mr. Norcross was married to Miss

Elida Woods, of San José, a sister of Mr. C. H. Phillips, of San Luis Obispo. Mrs. Nor- cross formerly lived in Wisconsin. By this marriage there have been four children born, all living at present.

Mr. Norcross died suddenly of heart dis. ease, August 10, 1889. It was on returning to his home, then in the city, where, at the usual hour he had dined, that he complained of a pain in the region of his heart. His wife remained with him, and while they were conversing he gasped and settled baek on his pillow unconscious, having died instantly. While the actual cause of his death will not, perhaps, be positively known, it is presumed by physicians to have been occasioned by a blood clot suspending the action of the heart. Few men in the county are more widely known or more popular than was David C. Norcross. Generous in disposition, genial in manner, devoted to his friends, a kind, faith- ful and loving father and husband, he is greatly mourned by his family and will be long remembered with sincere regret by his many friends.

T. RUCKER, a prominent dealer in and trainer of trotting horses, was born in Saline County, Missouri, in

1846. In 1852 his father moved his family, across the plains to California, settling near Santa Clara, on a farm of 160 acres. Our subject lived at home until 1867, when he rented a farm of 200 aeres and was engaged in raising wheat, which he carried on suc- cessfully. In 1875 he came to Lompoc and bought a one-half interest in the black- smith shop of Joseph Dimmick, which they carried on for eighteen months. Then, in partnership, they bought a ranch of 128 acres, which, after working for two years

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they divided. Mr. Rucker has since added to his ranch to the amount of 122 acres, where he carries on general farming, making beans a leading crop, planting forty acres. All of the land is under cultivation. During late years Mr. Rucker has been giving his time and attention to the breeding of a high grade of horses, breeding from the old Percheron horse " Dexter," which he owned, and he has secured some very valuable colts, and now has about twenty-seven head of horses. He has charge of the race-track and stables and gives his entire attention to the training of trotting horses.

Mr. Rucker was married in Santa Clara County, in 1870, to Miss Emma Drake, a native of Iowa. They have five children, three of whom are now living.

E. SHEPHERD was born in Fair- field, Iowa, Jnne 30, 1842. He is the son of Thomas Shepherd, a native of Ohio, who followed the business of tanning. His ancestors were Scotch-Irish. Mr. Shepherd's mother, Sarah S. (Edgar) Shepherd, was born in Ohio. Her parents were formerly residents of Pennsylvania, and her remote ancestors were English people. The subject of this sketch is one of a family of five children, and he was reared and edu- cated in Iowa. His legal education was ob- tained at Oskaloosa. After his admission to the bar, he at once began the practice of his profession When Mr. Lincoln was elect- ed to the Presidency, Mr. Shepherd was appointed Postmaster of his town, and also held the office under Grant's administration. During the campaign in which Mr. Greeley was a candidate for President, Mr. Shepherd was on the Greeley ticket for Elector from his district, and he was defeated by General

Weaver, who was then the candidate on the opposing ticket.

In 1873 Mr. Shepherd came to California, and, in Ventura, engaged in the newspaper business, and conducted the Ventura Signal for five years. Since then he has been en- gaged in the practice of law, and is one of the leading attorneys of the city, being asso- ciated with Mr. Blackstock. The firm stands high and enjoys a lucrative practice. Mr. Shepherd has a quick preception, a strong, resolute will, good reasoning faculties and fine argumentative ability, and is a fluent speaker. He is wide awake to the interests of his chosen city, and contributes his full share to its success. The side on which he arrays himself has in him a powerful advo- cate.

He was united in marriage to Miss Theo- dosia B. Hall, daughter of Augustus IIall, formerly a member of Congress from Iowa -a man of rare ability-and late Chief Jus- tice of Nebraska. Mrs. Shepherd was born in Keosauqna, Iowa, October 14, 1845. Until 1873, except when in Batavia, New York, at school, she resided in Iowa and Nebraska. In that year, with her husband, W. E. Shepherd, and family, she came to Southern California, and soon found a home in Ventura. From those who know her well we learn she has been prominently connected with every movement for the good of the town and county: that it was greatly dne to her and her lady co-workers that the town has a fine library of 3,000 volumes.

In addition to the care and education of her children, Mrs. Shepherd has, in the past five years, established a prosperous business, and formed in that business the nucleus of an important industry. When, five years ago, she told her friends that she intended to grow seeds and bulbs and to sell them in large quantities to Eastsrn dealers, she was met

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with good-natured but incredulous smiles. Knowing something of the magnitude of the demand, and having unbounded confidence in the soil and climate of the country, and be- ing possessed with a passionate love of flow- ers, she went to work as the pioneer in this work-at first in a very small way. Her first green-house cost only the small sum of $2.50, and from year to year, without capital, she increased her facilities and trade. Now she keeps three men at work the year round; and has under her control, in addition to her beanti ful two acre tract in town, five acres planted to calla lilies, smilax and other rare plants and bulbs.

Mrs. Shepherd modestly attributes her suc- cess, which is really remarkable, to the glori- ons sunshine and soil of Southern California. Her friends insist, however, that her success is due to her pluck, perseverance, push and energy. They say not one in a thousand would have withstood the rebuffs of dealers, the discouragements, the disappointments, the lack of capital, the mishaps, the losses and the derisive smiles of friends. She was indneed to go into the business through the advice and enconragement of the late Peter Henderson, of New York. He wrote to her a very kind letter, saying Southern Cali- fornia had the soil and climate for the pro- duction of bulbs and seeds and that he be- lieved in fifty years it would grow seeds for the world. Mrs. Shepherd is a slight woman, weighing a little over 100 pounds. She has unusual executive ability. Her business correspondence now is very large, which she conducts herself, besides replying to letters from many women who write to her for ad- vice as to how to go to work to do for them- selves what she has done in her line. She takes a just pride in being known as the pioneer flower-seed and bulb grower of the Coast, and is entitled to all the praise she

has received from the press of the State and from the many correspondents who have visited her grounds and written up her work.

When the writer went through her grounds and green and bath houses and packing house, heard her tell in her quiet, unassuming way, how she had worked, saw her directing her employés; considered what a vast amount of labor she must have personally performed, and what a tax on her memory it must be to hold at her tongue's end the names of her endless variety of plants and bulbs and shrubs; and then entered her parlors and saw her there with her husband, her daughters and son, the queen of the household, whom they all honored; saw there the evidence of culture and refinement,- when he saw all this, he gave a hearty assent to every word of praise so generously bestowed by her many friends in her home town.

Mr. and Mrs. Shepherd have an interesting family of four children: Augustus H. and Myrtle, born in Iowa; and Madge and Eda, in Ventura.

Mr. Shepherd enjoys the distinction of be- ing a veteran of the late war. In his coun- try's first call for volunteers, he enlisted in the Third Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for six months, and afterward in the three years' service. A part of the time he was in the postal service, by order of General Grant, under General A. H. Markland. He is a member of the G. A. R., and his political views are Democratic.

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Author: Storke, Yda Addis Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 738

Author: Storke, Yda Addis
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 738