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 64
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 64
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 64
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At the elose of the war Mr. Smith re- turned home and engaged in farming, which he continued on a farm of his own until 1872, when he sold out and emigrated to Nebraska. He there took up a Government elaim of 160 acres, and improved the land by erecting buildings, etc., and resided there eleven years. His health failed at that time, his disease be- ing asthma, and his physician advised a change of elimate. In 1883 he disposed of
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his property and came to California, first to Los Angeles, and a few months later to Ven- tura County. Finding the climate of the Ojai Valley conducive to his health, he purchased forty acres of land, upon which he has erected a neat and conunodions home. He has planted trees, which have grown rapidly, and his place has become an attractive one. His property joins the town of Nordhoff on the east, and he enjoys the advantages of schools, churches, postoffice and stores. Mr. Sinith is engaged in raising poultry, horses and cat- tle, and he also produces large quantities of hay. The balmy air of this delightful climate has restored him to health, and life that had become a burden is now a pleasure.
In 1867 the subject of this sketch was united in marriage with Miss Ann G. Eddy, a native of Athens County, Ohio, and a daughter of Thomas Eddy, a farmer of that county. They have five children, all living, two born in Ohio, two in Nebraska, and one in Ventura County, California, viz .: Clara H., Fanny A., Winnie V., Ira Blaine, and Ellsworth, named for Colonel Ellsworth, who pulled down the rebel flag and was shot.
Mr. Smith was a delegate to the Republi- can National Convention, from Nebraska, in 1884; was sent as a Grant man, but, under the unit rule, voted for Mr. Blaine. Mr. Smith, like James K. Polk, enjoys the dis- tinction of being Roadmaster of his district, and the district enjoys the convenience of first-class roads. He is a temperance man, a Republican, a member of the I. O. O. F., and a member of the Temple of Honor.
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A. SIMPSON came to California in 1860 and to Ventura in 1861 when there were only three or four other Americans in the place, namely, William
Hobson, James Beebee and Alex. Cameron. He was born in York Township, Jefferson County, New York, August 27, 1825. His father, Sylvanus Simpson, was a native of the State of New York, of Scotch descent; and his mother, nee Susan Harrington, was a native of Vermont. They had four sons and two daughters, and moved from New York to Ohio when the subject of this sketch, the fourth child, was eleven years old, and settled on a farm in Sandusky County. Mr. Simp- son was therefore reared upon a farm, and began agriculture on his own account on a quarter section of land in Indiana, upon which he moved directly after his marriage. His wife died five years afterward, and then, in 1852, he came to California, spent two years in Los Angeles County, stopping a short time in San Francisco and then re- turned East, married again, and in 1859 sold his place and came again to California. This time he settled first in Santa Barbara County, in that portion which is now Ventura County. He brought with him across the plains forty head of American cows, three yoke of cattle, three mares and two wagons. In Ventura he opened the first hotel, in an adobe building on West Main street, on the sonth side, and west of Ventura avenne. He was also the first Postmaster of Ventura, holding the office four years. His hotel, called the American House, he sold, and also his cattle and other live-stock, and in 1865 bought his present homestead property of 150 acres, of which he has since sold fifty acres: forty acres are on the other side of the avenue. Previously he speculated to some extent until 1872, when he built his present nice residence, which he occupies with his children, whom he has given a good education at San Francisco and Oakland. Of the homestead there are twenty- five acres of fifteen-year-old bearing walnut . trees, which now yield from fifty to 200
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pounds to each tree. He has also twenty acres of apricots, apples and other fruit. The apples are of the varieties Pearmain, Bell- flower, Rhode Island Greening, etc., and they all do well. The fruit sells at from one to two cents a pound. The remainder of the farm is devoted to general agriculture,-corn, barley, alfalfa hay and potatoes. Mr. Simp- son is a member of the three principal branches of Freemasonry, in good standing; and as a citizen he has seen the country grow from its pioneer condition to its present paradisical proportions.
Mr. Simpson was first married in 1847, to Miss Eliza Smith, a native of Ohio, and they have one child, Helen L. Mrs. Simpson died, as before stated, and he afterward mar- ried Miss Sarah Bisby, a native of Canandai- gua, New York, and they had two sons and one daughter: George B., Charlie C. and Sarah B. This Mrs. Simpson died in 1864, and since then Mr. Simpson has not again married. Mr. Simpson's daughter Helen is married to J. H. Walker and resides in Ta- coma, Washington; George is married and lives in San Francisco; Charles is at home with his father; Sarah B. is married to G. W. Huston, a son of Dr. George Huston of San Francisco, ex-Mayor of that city.
ATHAN W. BLANCHARD, a promi- nent pioneer of Ventura County and founder of the town of Santa Paula, was born in Madison, Maine, July 24, 1831. His father, Merrill Blanchard, was born in Abington, Massachusetts, July 18, 1806. His grandfather, Dean Blanchard, and his great-grandfather, Captain Thomas Blanch- ard, and his ancestors two generations farther back were natives of the same State. His ancestor was of French Huguenot stock, who |
settled near London, having been driven from his own country by persecution. His ancestor, Thomas Blanchard, the ancestor of a large part of the New England families of that name, came from London in 1639. In the manufacturing interest of that Com- monwealth they have been active as ma- chinists and inventors, doing a large share in the production of labor-saving machinery. Mr. Blanchard's mother, nee Eunice Weston, was born in Madison, Maine, on the Kenne- bec River, in 1804, the danghter of Deacon Benjamin Weston. At that point two gener- ations of the family had resided. Mr. Blanch- ard's parents had six children, three daughters and three sons, and they are all living. Mr. Blanchard was educated at Honlton Academy and Waterville College-now Colby Uni- versity-where he received his degrees.
In 1854 he came to California and en . gaged in mining for a season near Columbia, Tuolumne County, and in the fall went to Iowa Hill, Placer County, and conducted a meat market there for four years; then he went to Dutch Flat, continuing in part in the same business several years longer. From 1864 to 1872 he was engaged in lumbering with excellent success. Selling out he came to Ventura County and in partnership with E. B. Higgins purchased the site of the town of Santa Paula-2,700 acres. In the fall of 1872 be bought Mr. Higgins' interest and sold it to E. L. Bradley. The firm at once began to make valuable improvements on the property, in fencing and conducting water to it from the bed of the creek two miles above the town. From it they also ob- tained water for the lands and power for their flouring-mill, which they built. This mill and all the property were managed by Mr. Blanchard, Mr. Bradley being a non- resident. In 1885 the property was parti- tioned, and Mr. Blanchard now gives his
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whole attention to the production of citrus fruits. In 1874 he had an orange grove of 100 acres, planted by Mr. Clark, who did the work for an interest on the same; and they afterward bought Mr. Clark's interest. In 1876 they budded 1,000 trees to lemons and as many more to different varieties of oranges. The orchard remained so long in an unbearing condition that most people had decided that it would never bear; and not until 1888 did the orchard return a profit. In 1889 Mr. Blanchard shipped 8,386 boxes of oranges and 2,540 boxes of lemons. The prospects now are that it will continue to in- crease in productiveness for many years. No fertilizer has been used; the soil being a very deep, rich loam.
The family are delightfully situated in their California home, surrounded with the trees and flowers of their own planting, and overlooking the town which Mr. Blanchard platted and with which he has had so much to do in its improvement and growth, He has also aided materially in the construction of the academy, and is now president of its board of trustees; has also taken a lively in- terest in the public schools, serving as trus- tee of the same several years. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the three principal branches of Freemasonry, having passed the chairs in both the blue lodge and the commaudery and also the lodge of Odd Fellows. In his religious views he is a Congregationalist, and in his political a Republican. He is a good, straight-forward business man and unassum- in his manner. While in Placer County, he was elected District Collector and served two years, then was elected to the State Legis- lature, and subsequently declined a nomi- nation tendered him, when the nomination insured an election. In the Legislature he served efficiently on the Committee on Edu-
cation, and was author of a bill enacted into a law which suppressed an immorality prev- alent in the mining towns of the State, namely, bands of dancing girls, who period- ically visited the mining communities, played the tambourine and made the drinking sa- loons their headquarters.
In the fall of 1864 he went East on a visit, and December 21, married Miss Ann Eliza- beth Hobbs, a native of North Berwick, Maine, and daughter of Wilson Hobbs, an old resident of that State. They have two daughters and one son, all born in Califor- nia, namely: Sarah E., Eunice W. and Nathan W. The elder daughter is now in San Francisco studying art.
L. WOLFF, the senior partner of the firm of Wolff & Lehmann, gen- " eral merchants of Hueneme, is a native of France, born March 2, 1855. After the German and French war, in 1871, he came to California, and was one year in San Francisco, attending a business college and learning the English language. He then went to San Luis Obispo, and clerked for A. Blochman & Co., three years. In 1875 he came to Hneneme and formed the firm of Wolff & Levy, in the general merchandise business, doing a successful business for ten years, until 1885, when Mr. Wolff bonght out his partner, Mr. Levy, and gave an in- terest to Mr. Lehmann, who had formerly been one of the clerks of the firm. Since then the business has continued to prosper. They have a large double store, and include in their stock everything in the general mer- chandise line; the stock is so complete that scarcely anything in any department of trade or business is left out. The store is well equipped with the conveniences necessary to
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handle so large a stock, and the arrangements of the different departments is first-class in every respect. They buy wool, grain and beans in large quantities, and have excellent storage and shipping facilities; the trade of the house extends from twenty five to thirty- five miles. The store is 90 x 100 feet, and two stories high.
Mr. Wolff was married in 1887, to Miss B. Levy, a native of San Francisco, and of French ancestry. They have one daughter, Jeannette, born in Hueneme, May 10, 1889. While he has been very assidnous in business, he has not neglected the social side of life, and has built himself and family a beautiful home, surrounded with flowers and rare plants. He spends his evenings with his wife and little daughter. Mr. Wolff is a very evenly developed business man, not an extremist in any respect, and his e rinent success shows his financial ability. In his political views he is a Democrat.
M. JONES, proprietor of the Santa Clara Hotel and an old resident of San Buenaventura, came to this State in 1852. He was born in Manchester, England, February 14, 1839. His parents, Edward and Elizabeth (Markland) Jones, were Eng- lish, but his father's ancestors were Welsh. They came to America in 1847, settling in New Hampshire, where Mr. Jones received his education. He also attended school in Baltimore. His first business was in 1856, when lie drove a six-horse stage-coach from old San Pedro to old Los Angeles, which business he continned until 1868, when the railroad was built. While driving stage he carried the United States Mail and the Wells- Fargo packages. His next business was buy .. ing, selling and raising sleep, which he
followed until 1871, when he came to San Buenaventura and bought the hotel. He has since built additions to it, and is conducting it in a very obliging and satisfactory manner. The building was first erected in 1869, then in the center of the town, by Pearson Horn- beck and Pedro Cunstanza, and for many years was the principal hotel of the place. It was leased from 1873 to 1877, but Mr. Jones has been its landlord since 1871. It con- tains thirty five well furnished rooms, is located on Main street nearly opposite the old Mission church, and a free bus is run to all trains.
Since locating here Mr. Jones lias made an extended journey to the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, Feejee Islands, etc., being gone nearly a year. He stands high as a man of good business capacity and excellent judg- ment. For many years he has been City Trustee, being greatly interested in the bnsi- ness interests of the place and efficient in aid- ing in its development. He was married in May, 1873, to Miss Flora Preble, a native of Maine, of which State her father, Charles Preble, was an old settler. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have three children, all born in Sau Buenaventura, namely, Minnie P., Charles E. and Walter M.
AYETTE BENNETT, a rancher near Lompoc, was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1830, and lived with his par- ents, who carried on farming and stock-rais- ing, until 1852, when he started for California, going first to New York, and froin there by steamer to the Isthmus of Panama. He landed in San Francisco, May 1, 1852, and went to the mines at Hangtown, now Placer- ville, and was engaged in mining for thirteen years, being engaged all through the mining
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district and in every kind of mining. He passed through the usual vicissitudes of this life with the usual success, often gaining a pound of gold per day; but the heavy ex- penses and losses were often very great. In 1867 he gave up mining and began lumber- ing in the redwoods in Santa Clara County, and also carried on general farming until 1873, when he secured a contract from a pa- per manufactory at Saratoga, Santa Clara County, and for four years he had charge of their bleaching apartment. In 1877 he went to Fresno County, where he took up a Gov- ernment claim and engaged in the sheep in- dustry, keeping about 500 head, and which he continued very successfully until 1880, when he came to Lompoc. He then bought eighty acres northwest of town, covered with brush and timber; he has since cleared forty acres, where he has established a comfortable home, and carries on general farming, making beans and mustard the principal crop, with barley sufficient for feeding purposes. He keeps twenty head of cattle and ten head of horses, breeding from a fine grade of mares, and securing some rare colts.
Mr. Bennett was married in Santa Clara in 1868 , to Miss Malinda Orr, a native of Ohio, and they have three children.
AMES WALKER, one of the business men of San Buenaventura who in a quiet way is doing a large grocery bus- iness, both wholesale and retail, was born in Wilmington, Illinois, March 13, 1843, a son of Elijah and Eliza (Craig) Walker, the for- mer a native of New York and the latter of Indiana. Of their ten children four are liv- ing. James, the second child, was educated principally in the public schools of his State, removed to Monona County, Iowa, in 1860,
opened a general merchandise store and con- ducted it successfully for several years. From 1874 to 1886 he was Sheriff of that county, giving complete satisfaction. He then came to San Buenaventura, bought property, built a house, and purchased the stock and good will of T. H. Morrison, and has since then been carrying on the grocery trade with fine success. Hís establishment is located in the best part of the town, but he also sends many articles to order out of town. He was mar- ried in 1867 to Miss Sarah Myers, a native of Iowa and a daughter of J. K. Myers, who was a native of West Virginia. They have three children living: Harley M., Mary E. and James H., all born in Iowa. Mr. Walker is a member of San Buenaventura Lodge, No. 214, F. & A. M., and he is also a member of the chapter.
ARRISON BISH, a rancher of Lompoc, was born in Giles County, Virginia, October 10, 1828. His father emi- grated to Shelby County, Ohio, in 1830, and from there to Grant County, Indiana, in 1834, and there purchased a farm of 240 acres, where he carried on general farming, and also raised a great many hogs, which was a very profitable industry. Our subject lived at home until he was nineteen years of age. He was educated in what was known as the subscription schools. At the age of nineteen years he began teaching school at Logansport, where he remained until 1852, when he started for California, in a prairie schooner, across the plains. They had a quiet trip but were six months in crossing; they came by the way of the Truckee route and the Beck- with pass. He then came to Sacramento and engaged in cutting cord wood until the spring of 1853, and then located a ranch of 160
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acres, which he fenced and worked for two and a half years. He was then obliged to surrender it, through the pernicious influence of a Spanish grant, which was a curse to so many of the early settlers of California. He then went to San José and engaged in arte- sian well boring until 1857, then opened a fruit store and ran it for four years, and then began again the business of well-boring, which he continued very successfully for fourteen years, and also engaged in mining more or less during the same time. In 1871 Mr. Bish went East to visit his father, and was married in Grant County, Indiana, Feb- rnary 22, 1872, to Miss Rachel Ann Wiles, a native of Indiana. In the spring of 1872 they went to Greene County, Missouri, where our subject bought 160 acres of land, and continued farming, remaining until 1875, when he again started for California, settling at San José, where he was engaged in farm- ing nntil 1880. He then came to Lompoc and bought 111 acres, sixty five of which he has since cleared, and raises beans and mus- tard. He has also planted ten acres to a variety of fruits, mainly winter apples, all of which are in bearing.
Mr. and Mrs. Bish have six children. They are the happy possessors of their own home, with no danger of creditors or Spanish grants robbing them of their possessions.
OHN G. HILL, one of the most promi- nent men of Ventura, who by his intelli- gence and ability stepped to the front in the ranch and stock-producing interests of this county, is a fine illustration of what can be done in a country so wonderfully fertile. Ilis birth occurred in Paris, Monroe County, Missouri, March 14, 1845. His father, James Ilill, was a native of Kentucky, as were also
his ancestry, as far back as it can be traced. His mother, nee Nancy Gray, was also born in Kentucky, of parents whose ancestors were also Kentuckians.
Mr. Hill, the subject of this sketchi, was the fourth child of ten children. The family crossed the plains to California in 1852, set- tling in Napa County, where the senior Hill bought a ranch of 160 acres, and afterward added to it by purchase 1,400 acres. On this ranch Mr. Hill acquired his knowledge and experience in farming, which has proved to be of so mneh valne to him and his brothers in the production of the finest horses in the State, if not in the world. Mr. Ben Hill, the noted horse man in California residing at El Cajon, is one of the brothers. In 1866 he began farming upon his own account, on his father's ranclı, and after two years' work he removed to Ventura, in 1868, and bought part of the Colonia grant, 630 acres. On this property Mr. Hill has built one of the finest houses in Ventura County, planted orchards of fruit trees and groves of orna- mental trees, and has made a delightful home. He is also raising fine thoroughbred Berk- shire hogs, Durham cattle, etc., and he now has 150 head of blooded colts, of the Rich- mond, Wild Idler, Joe Daniels and Reveille strains. His young horses are not only of the best blood now in the county, but by his management they are the best developed specimens of their kind. Every lover of the horse is filled with admiration at the sight of his stock. In connection with Mr. Chrisman as partner, Mr. Hill is owner of several other fine places. At Montalvo they have a town site of 350 acres, fifty acres of land near Santa Paula, 108 acres sown to alfalfa on the Colonia grant, four-fifths of 260 acres planted in walnuts, one-third interest in 842 acres rented and sown to barley, and four-tentlis of the Ventura waterworks. Mr. Ilill
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stands high as a business man and gentleman in his county. He has witnessed and aided in the development of his locality; is an enthusiast as regards the fertility of the soil, and he really has good reasons to expect most lavish returns for his investments.
He was married, in 1866, to Miss Ara- netta Rice, of Contra Costa County, and they have two sons, Ernest R. and Ralph N., both born in Ventura County. Mrs. Hill is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
297 EORGE R. WALDEN is a native son of the Golden West, and a business man of Saticoy. He was born in the city of Sacramento, December 18, 1857. His father, Jerome B. Walden, was a native of Canandaigna, New York, born March 20, 1829, and was a pioneer of the far West, hav- ing arrived in California before it became a State. For many years he was a Sheriff and detective, and is now a Justice of the Peace at his home in Sisson, this State. Twenty- two years of his life, as Sheriff and detective, were spent in Napa County, where in early days he rendered efficient service in breaking up the gangs of desperados that infested the country at that time. He was united in wed- lock to Miss Mira A. Harrington, daughter of a pioneer Methodist minister of Wiscon- sin, a member of the first Legislature and also of the first Constitutional Convention of that State. The subject of this sketch was the first son and the second of a family of tive children. He finished his education in the Napa Methodist College, and also studied two years at the State University at Berkeley. His parents were desirous of having him be- come a physician, and at fourteen years of age he began to learn the drug business. From that time until 1880 his time was di-
vided between working and going to school. He was then elected apothecary of the Napa Insane Asylum, and held the position tive years, during which time he componnded 47,560 prescriptions. On account of ill health he resigned the position, and from the officials of the institution received testimo- nials for faithful and competent discharge of his duties. In 1886 he removed to San Buenaventura, and engaged in the real-estate business with Mr. B. E. Hunt. They organ- ized the Montalvo Land and Water Company. Eight hundred acres of land in the Santa Clara valley were purchased, and at a meet- ing of the directors of the company Mr. . Walden presented the name of Montalvo for the town, in honor of Ordenez de Montalvo, who had the credit of first writing and pub- lishing the name "California." The nanie proposed was unanimously adopted. The rush for new towns soon after collapsed, and the company allowed the land to go back, losing their first payment. Mr. Walden hap- pily consoled himself for the loss of several thousand dollars with the fact that he had the honor of having suggested the name of the town that in the growth of the country is destined some time in the future to become a place of importance and fame.
In the summer of 1887 Mr. Walden cir- culated a list for signatures, and secured twenty names of native sons to organize a parlor of that order at San Buenaventura; and at the meeting at which the name to be given the parlor was discussed, Mr. Walden proposed the name of Cabrillo, the pioncer of pioneers. After giving a brief sketch of Cabrillo's life the name was readily adopted, the parlor was organized, and is still growing. It was decided at that meeting to take initia- tory steps to build some day a monument to Cabrillo. In 1888 Mr. Walden came to Sat- icoy and opened a drng store. In 1889 he
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was appointed Postmaster of Saticoy by Post- master-General Wanamaker, which position he now fills.
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