|
|
L. G. OLIVER, who owns and cultivates a beautiful farm on the mesa, overlooking the sea, was born in Clermont
County, Ohio, in 1826. His father was a farmer, and in 1841 moved to Des Moines County, Iowa, and there continued
farming. The subject of this sketch worked at home until twenty one years of age; then, in 1850, he bought the
farm of 160 acres of his father, and continued in general farming until 1854, when he sold out and erected a steam
saw and grist mill at Kossuth, Iowa, which he operated for two years; then sold out and returned to farm life,
purchasing eighty acres on Round Prairie. In the Pike's Peak excitement he fitted out an expedition for the mines,
driving five yoke of oxen and taking four persons. After traveling 130 miles west of the Missouri River, they were
discouraged by the tide of emigration returning, so abandoned the project and spent the summer near Brownsville,
Nebraska, in breaking prairie, and in the fall he returned to his home at Kossuth. In 1861 he sold his farm and
eame to California, across the plains, driving a team composed of four yoke of oxen and one yoke of cows. He started
April 10, 1861, with his family, and joined other emigrants at the Missouri River. They were five months and a
half en route. He sold his team at Little Lake Valley and at Marysville took steamer for San Francisco. He then
went to Humboldt Bay and engaged in farming near the town of Arcata; but, owing to frequent depredations by hostile
Indians, he sold out in 1864 and went into the Napa Valley, where he engaged in farming, and later, in Solace County,
until the fall of 1868, when he came to Santa Barbara. He then purchased 104 acres on the mesa, at $20 per acre,
and engaged in general farming, being one of the pioneer farmers on the mesa. He continued farming about twelve
years, then went into the hog business, breeding the Essex, Poland China and Berkshire breeds, fattening about
100 hogs each year, which he manufactured into lard and bacon For the past two years he has sold his increase to
the butchers, as, with the increasing years, the responsibility was greater than he cared to assume. He now devotes
more time to farming, and grows extensively the Chevalier barley, with soft beard, which is more suitable for hay.
Mr. Oliver was married in Kossuth, Iowa, in the spring of 1851, to Miss Catharine J. Blair. This union has been
blessed with three children, two of whom survive: C. A. Oliver, a doctor in Chico, Califo rnia, and J. B. Oliver,
who is foreman of a stock ranch in Sonora, Mexico.
From:
A Memorial and Biographical History
of the counties of
Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo
and Ventura, California
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago 1891
Privacy Policy for
OnlineBiographies
|
NAVIGATION
California
Biographies
Online
Biographies
New York
Histories
New York
Biographies
Maine
Histories
Pennsylvania
Histories
Pennsylvania
Biographies
For all your genealogy needs visit Linkpendium
|