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 61

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 61
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 61
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 61

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He was married near San Juan, January 1, 1856, to Miss Harriet Rhea, a native of Illinois, but of French descent. They have four children, two sons and two daughters.

L. FORRESTER, a rancher of Santa Maria, was born in West Virginia, in 1850. He lived at home until eighteen years of age, and then worked in a saw-mill and in oil works in Parkersburg, and there learned the science of well-boring. He then went to Kansas, and for several years fol- lowed farming and stock-raising. In the spring of 1875 he came to California, and farmed one year in Butte County, then went to Tulare, where he ran a saw-mill and team- ed until 1878, when he went to Oregon and helped build and run a saw-mill, until he re-

turned to California and settled in Santa Maria, in 1880. He then opened a black- smith shop in the Santa Maria district, which he continued until 1885, when he returned to Santa Maria and built his present spacious shop, 46 x 70 feet, corner of Chapel and Broadway streets. He also has a machine shop and barley crusher, all running by steam power, and he is prepared to do blacksmith- ing in all its branches, also carriage building and repairing, always keeping on hand two blacksmiths and one wood-workman. He also owns a ranch of 480 acres in Santa Maria district, 130 acres of which is tillable, and the remainder is good for grazing. He has twenty acres in fruit, mainly prunes and apricots, and also grows barley and beans. He breeds horses and cattle, keeping from forty to sixty head. In 1878 he started the water-works, pumping by steam from the well to an elevated tank, and is prepared to supply the town; this interest he sold to his brother in the fall of 1889. Mr. Forrester is a professional house-mover, and has moved some of the largest houses in the surround- ing country.

He was married at Pottawattomie, Kansas, in 1872, to Miss Martha Clark, a native of Missonri, and they have five children. Mr. Forrester's father was born in Philadelphia.

F. EARLS, one of the successful ranch- ers of the East side, was born in Boone @ County, Kentucky, in 1830. His father was a farmer, and in 1837 emigrated to Andrew County, Missouri, where he bought 320 acres, and engaged in general farming and stock-raising. The subject of this sketch lived at home until 1852, when he started for California, crossing the plains. He came out with Steele, McCord & Co., driving 800

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head of cattle, and being 134 days in cross- ing, landing at Grand Island on the Sacra- mento River, where they sold their stock. Mr. Earls went to Santa Clara, where he rented and farmed until 1857, when he went to Monterey County, rented land and started a dairy, continuing until 1863. He then went to Virginia City, Nevada, and began teamning, which he continued until 1869, then to the White Pine country, where he teamed until 1874, and also engaged in farming, first purchasing 280 acres.

He was married in 1874, to Mrs. Martha Jane McMinn, and carried on his ranch until 1878, when he came to Lompoc, still retain- ing the ranch. At Lompoc he bought 120 acres, partly covered with brush and timber. He began clearing and improving it and now possesses a highly developed ranch, devoting himself to farming, making beans the main crop, of which he planted about seventy acres. They have two sons, both living under the parental roof.

ICOLAZO ESTRADA, widow of Julian Estrada, was born in Monterey in the year 1820. She is the sister of J. Gaxiola, one of the oldest residents of the surrounding country, a brief account of whose life we append to this sketch. Mrs. Estrada is herself one of the earliest settlers of the place, having come to San Luis Obispo in 1846, as the wife of Julian Estrada. At that time there were but ten families living in the county, and where the city of San Luis Obis- po now lies there was but one building and that was the old Mission. When Mr. and Mrs. Estrada moved to this county in 1846 they took up their abode on their Santa Rosa ranch, which was twelve miles square. Twenty-three years later they sold this ranch,

excepting a small portion of it which they continued to occupy. During the past year this has been disposed of, and Mrs. Estrada is now occupying a residence within the city limits, where she is spending the closing years of her life with a portion of her family, Mr. Gaxiola and an unmarried daughter. Her husband died in the year 1869, leaving three sons and four daughters.

Mr. Gaxiola is one of the most prominent survivors of the Mexican war now living in this county. Ile fought under General Castro, and many are the stories told of his brave deeds during this period. He was a great favorite with his comrades and also with the officers. Of late years Mr. Gaxiola has led a quiet and retired life. Ile was married in 1835, but has no family.

HOMAS SAULSBURY, a rancher of Santa Maria, was born in England, in 1830. He began work in the coal mines at Oleburg, at nine years of age, con- tinning six years. He then worked in the iron factory, and learned the trade of pnd- dler. In 1848 he came to the United States, first settling in St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked at his trade, on the opening of the first irou factory in that city. He remained until 1852, when he came across the plains to California. He came with the freight train of Ben Holliday, as driver of a mule team, the train being loaded with whisky, dry goods and general merchandise. They landed at Sacramento, where Mr. Holliday established a store, and our subject remained with him for twelve years, much of the time being engaged in driving cattle from Salt Lake to California. At the time of the Mor- mon war, Mr. Holliday bought General John- son's stock, consisting of 1,000 mules, all of

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them being driven to California, in Mr. Saulsbury's care. In 1864 Mr. Saulsbury began farming in Alameda County, where he bought land, and kept 100 head of cattle, re- maining until 1873, when he came to Guada- loupe, and was one of the pioneers of that town. He bought 347 acres of land, and started the dairy business, keeping seventy- five cows, and making butter. He still owns the ranch, which he rents with part of his stock. He and his sons also own a stock- ranch of 2,000 acres in the Cuyamaca coun- try, where he raises horses and cattle. He is now renting a ranch of 160 acres near town, thus affording his children the advantages of the school; he and his sons plant 120 acres in beans. .

Mr. Saulsbury was married in Alameda County, in 1860, to Miss Isabelle Randall, and they have eleven children.

ENRY JEWETT, son of Samnel and Maria Rosaria (Herrera) Jewett, the for- mer of Vermont and the latter of Mex- ico, was born in the city of Mexico in 1844. In 1850 the family moved to San Francisco, where two years later the father died from cholera. Alameda was next their home. Young Jewett was very fond of traveling and roamed around the country a great deal in search of new sights. He was for nine years engaged in ranching in New Mexico. In 1869 he came to San Luis Obispo, and there served as Constable, Deputy Sheriff and City Marshal. Mr. Jewett was married in 1869, in Los Angeles, to Elvira Andrada. They were the parents of ten children, six of whom are now living. After his marriage he went to San Francisco, believing he would prefer to settle there, but decided later that San Luis Obispo presented the best business op-

portunities for him. During the gold excite- ment Mr. Jewett went to the mines in San Josè and was moderately successful in his search. He was a member of the A O. U. W., and also of the fire department. When he died, August 11, 1889, a worthy and re- spected citizen passed away.

M. CLARK, one of the intelligent ranch- ers of Lompoc, who farms with his head as well as his hands, was born in Mon- roe County. Michigan, in 1845. His father was a mechanic in early life, but devoted his later life to farming. He moved his family of eight children to California in 1856, and settled in Alameda County, where he died in 1876, at the age of seventy-one years. His widow is still living, hale and hearty, at the age of eighty-four years. The subject of this sketch passed his early life at home, and in March, 1865, enlisted at San Josè, having passed several years in the Home Guards, in Company E, First Cavalry, under Captain McElroy, and they were then sent to Arizona. Mr. Clark was mainly on escort duty with the paymaster, and during the year rode 3,000 miles. He was discharged at Drum Barracks, Los Angeles, in 1866. He then passed two years in roaming and riding over the country, and in 1868 settled in Pajaro Valley, near Watsonville, with his brother. They also had a stock-ranch in San Benito County, consisting of 900 acres, where they raised horses and hogs, and continued the partner- ship until 1878. Mr. Clark then became agent for Major J. L. Rathburn and the Athertons, who owned large ranches. He superintended the farming and attended to the sale of lands until 1885, when he came to Lompoc. He bought eighty acres of land, to which he has since added ten acres more,

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making his present attractive ranch. He makes beans his main crop, planting abont forty acres; and during the wet season, when the potato crop is likely to be light on the wet lands, he pays careful attention to that crop. In 1889, from seven acres of land, he cleared $1,700, obtaining a yield of 275 bushels to the acre. Mr. Clark is a careful, systematic farmer, and now enjoys what in boyhood was his chief ambition, to have a nice farin, with every desirable tool, and snf- ficient horses to conduct his ranch.

On March 8, 1882, Mr. Clark received a certificate from Governor Perkins of Califor- nia, in accordance with a passage of the Leg- islature, testifying the people's gratitude to the soldiers of the civil war. Though an ardent Republican, he aspires to no political distinction, but devotes himself to his family and the proper maintenance of his ranch. He is a member of Robert Anderson Post, G. A. R.

Mr. Clark has been twice married; first in Watsonville, in 1866, but his first wife surviv- ed but a short time. He was married the second time at San Jose, in 1869, to Miss Juliet Duncan, a native of Missouri, who came to California in infancy. No children have been born of this union.

ILLIAM R. STONE, one of the leading business men of San Buena- ventura, was born in Winchester, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, eight miles from Bostor., August 17, 1854. His father, Hon. J. F. Stone, a native of New Ilampshire, was a business man of that State for many years, and for the last eight years of his life represented his district in the Legislature of Massachusetts, as a Republican. IIis wife, nee Melvina Clark, is also a native of the

Old Granite State. They have five children, of whom three are living, Mr. Stone, our subject, finished his education in a Bryant & Stratton business college, located at Boston, Massachusetts, and when of age he became a traveling salesman for John M. Davis & Co., in the line of gents' furnishing goods, and continned three years in their employ, with good success. Then, for four years, he had charge of the furnishing-goods department of C. C. Hastings & Co .; next he was salesman until 1885 in the hosiery department of Mur- phy, Grant & Co .; and then he embarked in business for himself in San Buenaventura, buying out Jchn A. Walker's establishment of dry goods, fancy goods and gents' furnish- ing goods. He conducted the business with marked success until November 23, 1887, when he moved into his large, new store, the " White House," where he enjoys a large trade from the better class of customers, based on keeping fine fashionable goods. The store is kept well filled with stock; it has a nice, cosy office, and a gallery in the rear for a cloak department. Every feature is met- ropolitan, showing that the proprietor is a trained merchant of experience, although comparatively young. He is Master Work- man of Ventura Lodge, No. 173, A. O. U. W., Chancellor Commander of the K. of P., a member of the K. of HI., and is a prompt and efficient officer as First Lientenant of Com- pany D, Seventh Infantry, First Brigade, National Guard of California.

He was married in 1879 to Miss Minnie C. Clark, a native of San Francisco. By this marriage there was one daughter, named Mand C., born in San Francisco February 23, 1880. In 1882 Mrs. Stone met with a sad accident which caused her death; and in 1884 Mr. Stone was again married, this time to Miss Emina Ellinghonse, whose place of birth was San José; and by this marriage

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there is also one daughter, named Arlie B., and born in San Buenaventura, in 1886.

M THORNBURGH, of Santa Maria, was born in Wayne County, Indi- ana, in 1835. His father, John Thornburgh, was a native of Tennessee, and emigrated to Indiana in 1819. He was a tanner and saddler by trade, and carried on that business in connection with farming. In 1864 he moved to Redfield, Iowa, and there engaged in wool manufacturing until 1870, when he came to California, spending one year in Ventura County. In 1871 he came to Santa Maria and purchased 160 acres of land on the corner of Main and Broad- way, and was one of the founders of the town. He engaged in the merchandising business three and a half years, but his main interests have been in agriculture. He is still living, being hale and hearty at the age of eighty- one years. He married Elizabeth Hunt, a native of Guilford, North Carolina, of Quaker parentage, and Mr. Thornburgh, our present subject, was also brought up in Quaker prin- ciples.

Mr. Thornburgh, our subject, was educated in the common schools of Indiana, and then attended the Union College, in Randolph County, until 1855, when he returned home and engaged in farming. In 1858 he was married, in Wayne County, Indiana, to Miss Ellen MeLucas. They then removed to Red- field, Iowa, where Mr. Thornburgh engaged in farming. In 1864 he assisted his father in building the Thornburgh Woolen Mills, and was engaged therein until 1870, when his father left for California. The subject of this sketch then became foreman for saw mills through Dallas and Boone counties un- til 1875, when he came to Santa Maria and

took up a Government claim of 160 acres, and also clerked in the store of Thornburgh & Co. In 1876 he was appointed the first Justice of the Peace of the town by the Board of Supervisors, and thereafter continued by election until 1884, and one terin since by appointment to fill a vacancy. In 1880 he was appointed the first Notary of the town. He organized the Central School district in 1882, and. was Clerk of the Board of Trustees for six years.

Mr. Thornburgh is now living with his third wife, to whom he was married at Santa Maria, in January, 1887. Has two sons by his former wife. He was a charter member of the Hesperian Lodge, 264, F. & A. M.

P. WARD, one of the business men of San Buenaventura, alive to the interests of his town and ready to help it in every enterprise for the advancement of the city, was born in the State of New Jersey, April 30, 1853. His father, G. A. Ward, was born in the State of New York in 1832. As far as is known, the ancestors of the family were from New York. His mother, Margaret Graff, was born in New York city, and is of German descent. They had four sons and two daughters. Mr. Ward, the third child, was educated in New York and New Jersey, learned the carriage-making trade, working at it three and a half years, and, finding that it did not agree with him, removed to Chicago, where he was employed for years as carpenter and architect for Allen & Bartlett, prominent builders; he was in Chicago during the great fire of 1871. In 1876 he came to Yolo County, California, and began contracting and building, and had a large and snecessful business. lu 1886 he came to Ventura, and has since built a fine

Пулои Андре.

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residence on the Floral tract, three-fourths of a mile from the business center of the city, and the structure exhibits the skill of the architect and builder. On arriving here he formed a partnership, which is known as the firm of Shaw & Ward. They were the build- ers of the Anacapa Hotel, the residence of Mr. Wells, and several other fine houses. They are also the architects of a new church which is now in process of erection for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which Mr. Ward is a member of the building com- mittee, and also district steward. He be- longs to the order of F. & A. M. and the I. O. O. F., and his wife was also a member of the same church with him. He was married in 1886 to Miss. Jennie Hill, a native of Yolo County, this State.

M YRON ANGEL is a native of the State of New York, born in Oneonta, Otsego County, December 1, 1827, a descendant of the first Puritan Pilgrims who landed on Plymouth Rock. His father, William Angel, desiring to advance the pros- perity of Oneonta, established a newspaper in the village, and in this office the subject of this sketch often assisted in the mechan- ical and editorial departments, although then very young. In 1835 his mother died, and in 1842 his father, leaving him an orphan in his fifteenth year. The boy, inheriting a fair property, was enabled to acquire a fine education from district school to Hartwick Seminary, thence, in 1846, to the Military Academy at West Point, from which institu- tion he resigned to join the excited throng bound for the gold mines in the newly ae- quired region of California.

At the date of the discovery of gold his elder brother. Engene Angel, was practicing

law in Peoria, Illinois, having recently been admitted to the bar, and was anxions to join the " Peoria Pioneers" in the journey over- land. Urging the cadet to join him in Peoria, Mr. Angel, in January, 1849, started on his journey, crossing Pennsylvania to Pittsburg by stage-that being the only con- veyance at the time, the New York & Erie Railroad only reaching to Port Jervis, on the Delaware River-and from Pittsburg to St. Louis by steamboat, thence a short distance up the Illinois River by boat, and a toilsome journey in mud-wagons to Peoria. In April the pioneers left that city, destined for St. Joe, on the Missouri, on the "utterly utter" verge of civilization. The treachery of the captain of the steamboat on which was that part of the company in which was Angel's party changed the fate of the young emi- grants by landing at Weston and refusing to proceed to St. Joseph, this deciding the party to take the Arkansas and Gila route instead of the direct route to the gold mines via the Sonth Pass. On the steamer was Captain William Kirker, an old mountaineer who had been guide to Colonel Doniphan in his march through New Mexico a few years previously. . He told of gold mines in the Rocky Mountains, far richer than those in California, and a large sum was paid him by a collection of Illinois and Missouri people who then made up a company. Late in May . the journey was undertaken, and in July prospecting parties entered the Rocky Moun- tains on the Rio Sangre de Christo and other localities which have since become famous for their mineral wealth; but, being entirely ignorant of the occurrence of gold, or how to obtain it, found nothing.

The mines of the Pike's Peak region were then condemned, and the route taken again for California, or somewhere, the travelers hardly knew where. Captain Kirker, the

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gnide, said he knew of mines on the Gila River, and he would take them there. The captain was only playing his party, as he had a family at Albuquerque and he only wished to have an eseort to take him safely there. The long journey was pursued many hundred mniles sonth, along the Rio Grande, then westward into Sonora to the head of the Rio Santa Cruz, then northerly through Tucson to the Pima villages on the Gila River. From this point the two brothers Angel, be- coming impatient to reach their destination. it being then October, went in advance of the train, each taking a small pack of cloth- ing and food, and, after a journey of severe fatigue, reached San Diego about the middle of November, ragged and famished. The train, which had been left behind, dragged its weary way along, and in the spring of 1850 reached the mining region in Mariposa County.

At San Diego was a small hermaphrodite brig about to sail for San Francisco, and would take passengers at $100 each, the pas- senger to furnish his own subsistenee. As a great favor, the owner of the brig accepted $150 as passage money for the two, that be- ing the size of their pile after buying some provisions for the voyage. About half a dozen others who had reached San Diego with sufficient means also went as passengers, leaving near one hundred destitute emigrants bewailing their hard fate. A few days after- ward the steamer Oregon called in on her way from Panama and took all remaining, free of charge.

On the 8th of December, 1849, the two brothers landed in San Francisco, in the rain and mud of a severe winter, in a condition that ean better be imagined than deseribed. A few days thereafter an incident oeenrred that helped muel to relieve them of want when employment was unattainable. They

had left in the wagon a trunk well filled with valuable books, some elothing, etc., to lighten the load. This was thrown out at the cross- ing of the Colorado. At that time Lienten- ant Cave J. Coutts was in command of some soldiers stationed there (since called Fort Yuma), and seeing the trunk as jetsam on the sand he examined it, and, finding the books, papers and clothing of a cadet, quickly put it on an ambulance and hastened after the departed train. Finding that the object of his search had gone before, he pushed through to San Diego, but was still too late to overtake the owner of the things he had rescued at so much trouble. The kind offieer then put the trunk in charge of a gentleman going to San Francisco with instructions to hunt up the owner and restore to him his property with the warm regard of a brother soldier. The trunk thus reached its destina- tion, and the valuable books it eontaimed sold for such prices as aided to pass the hard- ships of a winter which proved the last to many young and homesick pioneers.

The summer of 1850 was spent in mining at Bidwell's Bar, on Feather River, with rather poor snecess; and in 1851 the two brothers settled on a ranch at a place sinee called Angel's Slough, near the Sacramento River, south of Chico. In 1856 they pur- chased a mining claim at North San Juan, Nevada County, and, joining with others, commeneed opening it by tunnel. In this enterprise abont $40,000 was expended and lost. The brothers had continued insepar- able until 1860, when the elder, Engene An- gel, went to the eastern slope, in the Washoe excitement, and was killed at the massacre at Pyramid Lake, May 12, 1860. Myron An- gel in the meantime had become editor of the Placerville Semi-Weekly Observer, in which situation he continued until the spring of 1860, when he returned to San Juan to

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take charge of his mining interests there. Upon the breaking out of the war, he offered his services to the Governor of California, and received the appointment of Captain of Infantry. Upon this being announced, the San Juan Press, of October 5, 1861, said:

" We are pleased to learn that our friend and fellow-townsman, Mr. Myron Angel, is raising a company of infantry in obedience to the call of the General Government, hav- ing received official authority from Governor Downey so to do. This furnishes an addi- tional opportunity to all who are willing to serve their country in the hour of her need, to enroll their names.

" Mr. Angel received a thorough military education as a student at West Point, and knows well the dnties belonging to an officer. He is a gentleman, too, in whom recruits can repose implicit confidence. Their neces- sities, under his care, will be promptly at- tended to and their rights strictly guarded."

No fund had been supplied for maintain- ing and forwarding recruits, and this Mr. Angel did until his own funds were ex- hausted. Then came the pressing demand for his time to attend to the business of a failing mining enterprise, in which his all was invested, and although appealed to by Colonel Judah, a West Point friend, who then had command of the Fourth California Volunteers, he was compelled to withdraw from the service, hoping for another appor- tunity when his business would be better ar- ranged. That time, however, did not offer.

After writing for various papers, in 1863 he became editor of the Reese River Réveille, at Austin, Nevada. While in that position he wrote several reports on the mines of Eastern Nevada, assisting Mr. J. Ross Brown in his " Report on the Mineral Resources west of the Rocky Mountains." A little book he wrote about this time on his favorite

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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