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 91

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 91
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 91
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 91

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Mr. Thompson was married in 1863, in England, to Miss Craiton, an English lady. Two of their children, Walter and William, were born in England, and in infancy came with their parents to California. Esther A. was born in San Luis Obispo, and is the wife of Mr. Higgin McFadden. After seventeen years of wedded life Mr. Thompson had the misfortune to lose his wife by deatlı, and since that time, 1880, he has remained single.

As a hotel manager Mr. Thompson is courteous and obliging. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He prefers the Democracy, but is independent in local poli- ties, and is well informed in the affairs of his country. He is a hospitable gentleman, of pleasing address and kind impulses.

UDGE AYLETT RAINS COTTON, of San Francisco, owning a beautiful ranch in San Luis Obispo County, was born at Austintown, Ohio, November 29, 1826. His father, John Cotton, was a pioneer of Ohio, and also of Iowa, having moved there when it was a Territory. Judge Cotton, our snb- ject, accompanied his father to Iowa in 1844, crossed the plains to California in 1849, and after working in the mines returned to Iowa in 1851, and resumed the practice of law; was elected County Judge of Clinton County, Iowa.

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in 1851, resigned the office in 1853 to return to the law practice; was a member of the Con- vention in 1857 to revise the Constitution of Iowa; was a member of the Iowa Legislature in 1868 and in 1870, and occupied the posi- tion of Speaker of the House at the last ses- sion. He was a member of Congress from the Second Iowa District from 1871 to 1875. In 1883 he removed with his family to Cali- fornia and engaged in the practice of law in San Francisco. He has also taken an inter- est in fruit-tree culture, having planted some 160 acres in San Luis Obispo County, where he made purchase of several tracts of land, with French prunes, apricots, peaches, and other varieties.

Judge Cotton has also attained a high position in the Masonic order, having been Grand Master of Masons in Iowa in 1855-'56, and been honored with the thirty-third de- gree in Scottish Rite Masonry.

In 1873 he was nnited in marriage with Miss Hattie E. Walker, a native of Williams- port, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of J. T. Walker, also a native of that State. They have two sons, Aylett R. and Stewart W., and a native California daughter, Claudine.

ALTER M. JEFFREYS, deceased, a prominent citizen and early settler of San Miguel, was born of English parents, in the great seaport town of Liver- pool, England, January 15, 1848. He re- ceived his education in his native land, and in 1868, when twenty years of age, was mar- ried to Miss Margaret Wilson, a native of England. They sailed for the United States and arrived at San Luis Obispo in the latter part of the same year.

Sheep-raising was very profitable, and the prevailing business of Southern California at

that time; he embarked in it and was very successful. He purchased a valuable tract of land, 500 acres in extent, adjoining the town, near the old mission building. In 1874 he built the Jeffreys Hotel, the pioneer hotel of the town, and for sixteen years, up to the time of his death, was its owner and mana- ger. He was a very popular. landlord, and enjoyed the patronage and confidence of the oldest and most prominent residents and set- tlers in the county, and was considered by all as a man of the strictest business integrity. In politics he was an active and enthusiastic Democrat, was a leader of his party in the county, and did much toward its success in many a campaign He took a great interest in the affairs of San Miguel and especially in educational matters, serving as School Trus- tee several terms. For twelve successive years he was elected Justice of the Peace by his party.

In the midst of his business career, and in the prime of life, January 11, 1890, he was taken suddenly ill and in a few hours the spirit of Walter M. Jeffreys had fled-the warm hearted friend, the public- spirited citi- zen was no more, and the whole community had met with an irreparable loss. He was a prominent chapter Mason and a charter member of San Miguel Lodge, No. 265, F. & A. M. His Masonic friends gathered around his bier and, with their beautiful and impressive ceremony, performed the last sad rites, and dropped into the grave of their departed brother the emblem of eternal life. The day of his burial was just forty-two years after the day of his birth; and he was the first Mason buried by the lodge of which he was a worthy member. His funeral was at- tended by a very large circle of acquaint- ances and friends, and by all was his loss deeply felt.

Mr. John Thompson, his life-long ac-

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quaintance and intimate friend and brother Mason, was with him in his illness and at the hour of death; and was very appropriately appointed has administrator. Mr. Thompson has charge of and is conducting his business and the hotel.

Mr. Jeffreys left no son to continne the name, and this brief and imperfect history is intended to perpetnate the memory of Walter M. Jeffreys, an esteemed citizen and one of the founders of San Miguel.

OAQUIN QUINTANA was born on the Quintana ranch, San Luis Obispo County, December 19, 1862, and is a son of Pedro and Luz, nee Herrera, Quin- tana. The subject of this sketch passed his childhood on the ranch, after which he at- tended school at Santa Barbara and Los An- geles, receiving a good education in these cities. In August, 1889, in company with his brother and Mr. Masterson, he engaged in the general merchandise business, under the firm name of Quintana Brothers & Mas- terson, their establishment being located at the corner of Chorro and Monterey streets. Mr. Quintana is the senior member of this firm, a firm which merits the respect and confidenee of all who have dealings with them.

Mr. Quintana was married in 1884, and lias three children.

C. CASTRO, son of José T. Castro, was born in Monterey, California, Decem- ber 18, 1845. He received a good common-school education in his native town, and after engaging in business at various times in that city, moved to San Luis Obispo

in 1866, and has continued his residence there since that time. Mr. Castro is a gen- tleman prominent in business matters and a general favorite throughout the county and wherever he is known.

He was married in 1872 to F. Maria Jaxoli. They are the parents of five children.

EDRO QUINTANA was born in New Mexico, January 29, 1833, and is one of the pioneers of this county. He came to San Luis Obispo County in 1843, there being at that time only three or four families residing in this vicinity. Mr. Quintana owns a fine ranch twelve miles from the city, where he has spent an active and useful life engaged in ranehing, and where he is now living, quiet and retired, a gentleman universally popular wherever he is known.

He was married in 1856, to Luz Herrera, and has seven children. Three of the sons, one of whom forms the subject of a preced- ing sketch, are actively engaged in merean- tile life in the city.

EORGE VAN GORDEN is a pioneer, of California, who came to the State in 1846, lacking only one year of being a native son of the Golden West. He was born September 8, 1845, near Buchanan, Berrien County, Michigan. His mother died in 1848, and he was raised by his aunt, Mrs. H. C. Smith, of Alameda County. Mr. Smith, his uncle, was a Representative of Alameda County to the first State Legisla- ture. Mr. Van Gorden attended school in Alameda County, and Visalia, Tulare County. He was raised on a farm, and, with his father,

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has been twenty years in the cattle business, and nine years in the same business on the ranch of Senator Hearst, the Piedro Blanco Ranhce of 46,000 acres. Mr. Van Gorden has had the care and management of it for nine years. They are doing a large dairy business, and have 1,000 cows. They are also engaged in raising horses and mules; they have 300 head of trotters, runners and draft horses. Their stock horses are of the very best breeds, and several of them are very valuable. The ranch contains a race course, and everything connected with the business. They also have the Santa Rosa ranch, of 1,500 acres, one of the best ranches in the county, on which they are breeding and rais- ing their running horses. In the forty-four years that Mr. Van Gorden has been in this county, is comprised nearly all the American history of the State, from the formation of the government to the present time. At one time his uncle, Il. E. Smith, kept a pris- oner, Thomas Bell, in his house for three weeks. Bell was a noted horse-thief and a desperado, had stolen two of their horses, was pursned and captured, and when they brought him to their house the high water prevented their taking him to San José. After he was taken to San José he made his escape, and after many depredations he was finally killed. Mr. Van Gordon's people were at the San José mission when the cholera broke out, and hundreds of Indians died with it.

He was married in 1868, to Miss Annie Stiner, a native of California, born at Mari posa. She is a daughter of Mr. Calvin M. Stiner, a native of Mississippi, and a veteran of the Mexican war. Thay have three chil- dren, born in California, viz .: Annie R., George M. and Lanra Emma. Mr. Van Gorden is a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity, and in politics is a Republican. While he may be called an " old-timer " and

a pioneer, still he is a young man, and in the business in which he is engaged he is the right man in the right place. He is a great lover of horses, and is producing some very fine ones. He has lived in San Luis Obispo County twenty-two years, and considers it the best stock county in the State.

AMES TAYLOR, one of the influential and well-to-de ranchers of Cambria, hav- ing one of the finest ranches in that sec- 5 tion. He came to California in 1869, and is a native of Scotland, børn October 1, 1842. His father, John Taylor, was born in the city of Cork, Ireland, January 26, 1810, while his father, Peter Taylor, a Scotchman and a British soldier, was stationed in Ireland. The grandfather, Peter Taylor, was promoted as Sergeant, which was as high as could be attained in the British army, without buy- ing a commission. At the time of the battle of Waterloo, he was a recruiting officer for the army. Ile was born in Scotland, March 28, 1779, and died October 1, 1856. Mr. Taylor's father was a Presbyterian elder in the Westminster Church of Los Angeles for several years, and held the same office in the church at Cambria, where he died, December 7, 1881. Mr. Taylor's mother was Jenette (Crerer) Taylor, a native of Perthshire, Scot- land. Her father was James Crerer, also a native of Scotland.

James Taylor, our subject, is the third in a family of six children, viz .: Peter, Lillis, James, Ellen, John and Jannet; the last mentioned died May 20, 1860; their mother died in Scotland July 6, 1850, and the family came to America in 1851, and engaged in farming in Delaware County, New York. It was a timbered farm, but they cleared the land and lived there until 1869, when they

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came to California; the family are settled within a few miles of each other. They located Government land in the mountains, and engaged in stock-raising; one of the brothers remained at the ranch and looked after the stock while others worked out. Mr. Taylor was an excellent sheep-shearer and followed that occupation in the season for four years after coming to Cambria; in that time he sheared 24,000 sheep, and the last year sheared 7.000. Mr. Taylor took 120 cows to their ranch in Los Angeles County, and with Robert McFadden engaged in mak- ing butter and cheese, which they sold in Los Angeles and San Diego. In two years he sold out, and, considering San Luis Obispo the best stock county, came back and bought 160 acres of land, where he raised stock, potatoes and vegetables, which he sold to the quicksilver miners. From time to time he has added to his ranch until he now has 640 acres of land, on which he has a dairy, and is raising grain, cattle and horses. His specialty in horses is the Norman Percheron, of which he has several splendid teams, and is also breeding roadsters. He has among many other fine horses a large gray team, which weighs 1,560 pounds each. He has property in many other places, and is one of the men who are a credit to any county in which they reside. By industry and honesty, for which his country men are noted, he has steadily risen from hard and steady work, of which he is not ashamed, to be one of the foremost ranchers in this part of the country.

James Taylor was a volunteer soldier in the civil war; was drafted September 2, 1863, at the age of twenty. On finding drafted men could not join the company of their choice, he borrowed the money and furnished a sub- stitute; and three months later he, with eight of his neighbors' boys, volunteered and joined the Eighth New York Independent Battery,

stationed then at Yorktown, Virginia, and was in active service in all the raids and en- gagements of the Eighth Battery till the close of the war; was discharged June 30, 1865, at Norfolk, Virginia.

Mr. Taylor was married November 18, 1875, to Miss Jennett Mc Dougal, a native of Delaware County, New York, and daughter of Archibald and Agnes McDougal, natives of Scotland. They have had six children, only three of whom are living, and born in San Luis Obispo County, viz .: Jannie, Katie and Archibald. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are mem - bers of the first Presbyterian Church at Cam- bria; Mr. Taylor is an elder, and aided in the erection of the church edifice. In his poli- tical relations Mr. Taylor is a Republican.

UGUST LOOSE, one of the promising ranchers of his district, has 120 acres of land on the banks of the San Marcos Creek, three miles southeast of San Miguel. The nice young trees, the growing crops, and the appearance of thrift all bear testimony to the enterprise and industry of Mr. and Mrs. Loose, who are united in their efforts to make a comfortable and attractive home. Mr. Loose is a native of Germany, born July 7, 1848, of German parents. He was reared on a farm and attended school until seventeen years of age, when, in 1866, he came to Cali- fornia, to escape the oppressive military laws of Germany, and also to make a home and a fortune in a land of free institutions. He first settled in Mendocino County and was in the timber business for some years. While there he took up 350 acres of land, built a house and planted an orchard. He afterward sold out, made some money, and came to San Luis Obispo County, October 6, 1887, and purchased 120 acres of new land. On this

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he has built a house, planted trees and vines, and is engaged in raising wheat, corn and vegetables, being very successful.

In July, 1881, Mr. Loose was married to Mrs. Bleehan, a native of Germany. She had three children by her first husband, born in Mendocino County: Charles, Louisa and George. By her present husband she has two sons, also born in Mendocino County: August and Henry. Mr. Loose was reared a Lutheran and Mrs. Loose an Episcopalian. They speak the English language in their family, and are completed Americanized. He is a Republican and an excellent citizen.

OLONEL RUSSELL GARRETT, a resident of Ventura, had seen this por- tion of the State in 1849-'50, and was so impressed with the desirability of Ventura that he never lost sight of it, and in 1880 bought the property on Ventura avenne, which is his home. He has also bought a ranch of 600 acres, where he raises wheat and barley. He has built on the ranch and planted fruit trees tor home consumption.

Mr. Garrett was born in Ohio, September 29, 1829. His father, Charles B. Garrett, was born in Virginia, in 1794, and was in the war of 1812, under General Scott. IIis grandfather, William Garrett, born also in the Old Diminion, was a soldier in the Revolution under Washington, in Lee's army. The family in early day had its origin in Ireland, whence they emigrated to France and became Huguenots. Mr. Garrett's mother, Maria Walker, was born in Detroit, Michigan, August 9, 1807. Iler father, William Walker, was born in Virginia, cap- tured by the Indians when a boy and taken to Michigan. Governor William Walker, of Kansas, was her brother, and R. J. Walker,

Secretary of the Virginia State Treasury, was another brother. Mr. Garrett, our subject, is the third child in a family of six sons and three daughters, of whom two are now living. After finishing his education at Chapel Hill College, Missouri, he came in 1849 to Cali- fornia overland, and spent two years in the mines, he and his associate being the first white miners on the north fork of Feather River. They obtained on an average about $4 worth of gold to the pan of dirt, and they took out sometimes as much as $500 a day. The deep snow and mountain fever drove them from those rich mines. Returning to Missouri, Mr. Garrett engaged in farming, and when the war commenced he had a nuin- ber of negroes, and in order to preserve his property he enlisted under General Rosser, of Virginia, and they were drilled all winter before the war. During the war they formed a portion of the army of General Price and participated in the battles of Lexington, Oak Grove, Pea Ridge and in the retreat from Springfield, Missouri, and at the engagement at Boston Mountain, - Hill, Helena, and on the Red River and at Campden,-at all of which the Confederates were victorious except at Helena, where they were badly whipped by General Grant's lively regiment. Mr. Garrett was of course in many minor engage- ments besides the above named. Ile enlisted as a private; at the battle of Lexington he was promoted to the Colonelcy, when he was permitted to raise a regiment, General Jack- son appointing him to that position. After the war closed, according to the advice of General Price, he went to Springfield, Mis- souri, with 300 of his men, intending to en- list under Colonel Grovely to go out and subdne Indians; but he was the only one of the 300 who enlisted. He was in that service from March 13, 1865, to October 26 follow- ing. Being discharged, he went to Kansas

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City and engaged in agriculture upon a farm of his own; in 1880 he sold this and came to Ventura, where he has since resided. He was appointed by President Cleveland Deputy Revenue Collector of this district. In his fraternal relations he is a Master Mason.

The Colonel was married in 1860, to Miss E. J. Lane, a daughter of Isaac W. Lane, of Utica, New York, of English descent; she was born in Ohio in 1839. Mr. and Mrs. Garrett have had no children of their own, but have brought up three. The girl is now Mrs. Honeywell, and the boys are Charles M. Garrett and John McMullen, all grown up. Mrs. Garrett is a member of the Chris- tian Church. During the war she gave her services one year to the hospital at St. Louis, and afterward had the care of the sick and wounded at Gajoso Hospital in Tennessee.

ASHINGTON WOODBERRY, de- ceased, formerly a lumber merchant at Ventura, was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts, in 1838, of Massachusetts an- cestry. At the age of nineteen years he went to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and thence to Lead- ville, Colorado, and prospected for a time. Then he engaged in freighting and also dealt in produce; next he was in the cattle business in Idaho, driving stock to Nevada; and in Nevada he controlled the business. While in that State he was elected Assessor of White Pine County, which position he filled for three successive terms. In 1884 he came to Ventura for a better climate, and bought ont the lumber firm of Saxby & Collins, and carried on the business successfully until the time of his death, January 13, 1890, of rheumn- atism of the heart, which was only of five days' duration. As he was a man of high

character, his sudden death cast a heavy gloom over the community. He had just completed a fine residence in Ventura. He was married December 13, 1881, to Miss Ida Kilburn, in Eureka, Nevada. She was born in Nevada City, a daughter of Governor (). Kilburn, a native of St. Albans, Vermont. Mrs. Woodberry is a member of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, and has made many warm friends during her residence here.

OSEPH P. MOODY is one of the promi- nent and influential ranchers of Estrella. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov- ember 20, 1849. His father, Henry Moody, was born in Kentucky, December 15, 1818, and his grandfather, John Moody, a native of Virginia, was reared in Kentucky. His grandmother's maiden name was Catherine Porter. She was a native of Kentucky. Henry Moody spent fifteen years of his life as a farmer, in Ohio, and then came to the northern part of California, where he spent several years. He married Nancy L. Buxton, a native of Ohio, by whom he had four chil- dren. In 1852 he brought his family to California, and settled in Grass Valley, Nevada County. In 1858 they went to the Feather River, five miles south of Marysville, and remained there until 1869, when they came to San Luis Obispo County.

When the subject of this sketch was three and a half years old, his mother died, and he was thus in early life deprived of a moth- er's loving care. Having come to California when quite small, and having passed his life in pioneer districts, his educational oppor- tunities were limited; but, while he was de- prived of many early advantages, he was evidently drawn largely from the book of common sense, withont which the college

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graduate is of little account; and through many hardships and discouragements Mr. Moody has risen to a position of prominence and influence, and is regarded by his fellow citizens as a man of integrity.

In 1873 he took up a piece of land in San Luis Obispo County, and afterward found it belonged to a railroad company; then selected another claim, and also had to give that up. In 1882 he came to his present locality, six and a half miles east of San Miguel, took up 160 acres of land, and purchased 440 acres more; has since sold 180 acres, and now (1890) owns 440 acres, on which he has built a house and barn and planted a large variety of fruit trees and a fine vineyard. He is raising large quantities of wheat, and is cul- tivating a section of land in addition to his own. Last year he raised nearly 7,000 bushels of wheat. In 1872 Mr. Moody married Miss Martha M. MeClary, a native of New York. The following children have been born to them, and all are now living, viz .: Charles E., born in Marysville, and the others in San Luis Obispo County: William H., Lottie E., Mary E., Ellen, Arthur, Elmer, Joseph E., Grace I., Earl J., Hattie N. and Clara L. Mr. and Mrs. Moody are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he holds the office of trustee in the church, and in also School Trustee. His political views are in harmony with the Republican party.

L. ARGABRITE, formerly of the firm of Argabrite & Cannon, grocers of San Buenaventura, was born in West Vir- ginia, April 8, 1856. His father, l'haris Ar- gabrite, was of German descent, and his mother, nee Rosana Jerrett, was a native of West Virginia. The subject of this brief notice, the youngest of their twelve children,

was educated at Roanoke College, Virginia. When he became of age he was appointed conductor on the Ashland Coal and Iron Rail- way, and had that position five years. He is a member of the Masonic Order, a young business man of energy and integrity, and a good citizen.

He was married in 1879 to Miss Dora, daughter of Captain J. P. Mail, born in An- gusta County, Virginia. They have three children: Newton M., Joseph M., and Will- iam Wade. Mrs. Argabrite was in poor health, and he came to California with her for a change of climate; but she did not re- cover, her death occurring February 20, 1887; and in April, 1889, he married Miss Clara Cannon, who was born in Nevada City, this State, and came to Ventura in 1875 with her parents. By this marriage there is one son, named Clarence C.

EORGE W. ROBBINS, son of Thomas Robbins, of Boston, and Encarnacion (Carillo) Robbins, daughter of Governor Carillo, of Santa Barbara, was born in Santa Barbara, in February, 1847. In 1861 the fam- ily moved to Nipomo ranch, San Luis Obispo County, and in 1864, after being burned ont of their home there, moved to Arroyo Grande, where they erected the first house ever built in that locality. Young Robbins opened a general merchandise store, in 1870. Three years later he built a hotel and remained in the place until 1878, when he sold ont and came to San Luis Obispo. With Mr. II. W. Little le engaged in the saloon business, and in 1879 was elected City Marshal. In 1880 he was re-elected to that office, and later was Deputy County Assessor for three years. Mr. Robbins next took a fancy to the railroad business, and was employed at various points

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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