Ventura County
Biographies
J. B. Alvord
J. B. Alvord, a prominent rancher and educator of Ventura County, was born in New York, November 10, 1849. He is the son of Alvin W. Alvord, a native of Vermont, and the grandson of Julius Alvord, who was born in Massachusetts. Their ancestors were English. His great-grandfather was Seth Alvord, whose grandparents came to America in the year 1700. Mr. Alvord's mother, Electa R. (Todd) Alvord, came from Scotch ancestors. She was born in Herkimer County, New York, daughter of Mr. Bela Todd. The subject of this sketch is the only son in a family of three children. he received his early education in the public schools of New York and Ohio, and was a student at the Northwest Normal School of Pennsylvania. he began teaching at the age of nineteen years, and has been a teacher almost continuously for fifteen years.
On coming to Ventura County, Mr. Alvord bought a small farm, but afterward sold it. In 1884, he purchased his present fine ranch of 160 acres, seventy acres of which he sold for more than the whole cost him. He remodeled the house and made many improvements, and the land is now under a high state of cultivation, his principal crops being beans and potatoes. The beans averaged a ton to the acre, and a portion of the land produced as high as 3,500 pounds per acre.
Mr. Alvord was married, in 1879, to Miss Ida Ricker, a native of Iowa, and daughter of John G. Ricker, who was born in Maine. They have four sons, all born in Ventura County, the three eldest named respectively Hartwell, Vernon M. and David E. Mr. and Mrs. Alvord are refined and intelligent people. They are members of the Universalist church of Santa Paula. In his political views, Mr. Alvord is a Republican. For eight years he has been a member of the Board of Education of the county. As a teacher he has been very successful, but is at present devoting his attention to agricultural pursuits.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 344 Transcribed by Sandy Neder
Samuel D. Anderson
Samuel D. Anderson was born in the State of Pennsylvania, May 4, 1830, the son of John and Elizabeth C. (Roe) Anderson, both natives of Ohio. They had a family of nine children, eight of whom are living, Samuel D. being the oldest. When he was a boy the family removed to Iowa. He attended the public schools of that place and finished his education at a college at Princeton, Kentucky. After reaching the years of maturity, his first work was in the milling business. he soon afterward turned his attention to theology, and became a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and was pastor of a charge. The church prospered under his ministry for a number of years, and he has ever been a worthy Christian man. The greater part of his life, however, has been spent on a farm.
Mr. Anderson was married in 1854, to Miss Nancy J. McClaran, a native of Ohio, who removed to Iowa when quite young. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson had one child, Mary Elizabeth, born September 24, 1855, and died October 15, 1858. Having no family of their own left, they adopted a little girl, Elizabeth Jane Hill, taking their own name, and a boy, Thomas Thurman. The former, at the age of twelve and a half years, sickened and died. The latter, Thomas Anderson, is still with them, and is now twenty-five years of age.
Mr. Anderson is the owner of a beautiful home in the prosperous town of Santa Paula; and here his cozy home, like its possessor, has an unassuming appearance; but its neatness and thrift and the flowers in the well-kept yard, all indicate peace and contentment - a fitting place in which to pass the closing days of a well-spent life. Mr. Anderson and his son are farming ninety acres of land, seventy acres of which they devote to beans, a crop for which the soil of this country is so well adapted. Mr. Anderson has been a Republican since the formation of that party. he was made a Mason in 1860, and was one of the charter members of Santa Paula Lodge, No. 291.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 333 Transcribed by Sandy Neder