Ventura County
Biographies
Oliver C. Carle
Oliver C. Carle was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, August 29, 1838. His father, Joshua Carle, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1800; passed his life as a farmer, and died in Illinois, in 1884. His ancestors were Germans. Mr. Carle's mother, Margaret (Oliver) Carle, was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, and was of Scotch descent. Of the thirteen children born to them, Oliver C. was the seventh. He attended school at Hopedale and finished his educated at the State Normal School.
His young manhood was reached at a time when his country was in great danger and engaged in the most sanguinary struggle of its history. In August, 1862, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Ohio Volunteers, and did his duty with bravery all through the conflict. He was in the battle at Winchester, Frederick, and other places, and his division was sent to New York to quell the riots at that place. He participated in the battles of the Army of the Potomac, and at the battle of the Wilderness was captured and taken to Andersonville, where he remained from May until September. At that time they were being moved by train to Florence, when Mr. Carle and three others escaped. They spent days and weeks in the woods, traveling by night and hiding by day. They were at times defended by Union men and made many escapes, and only one of their men was recaptured. In the dark one night they were halted by seven men, with guns, and they themselves were only armed with clubs. They represented that they were Confederates going to the command, and produced a pass which Mr. Carle had written. When they were trying to light a match two or three of them were knocked down at once, and the escaped prisoners broke away in the dark, followed by shots, and made good their escape. They reached the Union lines at Knoxville, Tennessee, January 12, 1865. In the charge on Petersburg, Mr. Carle was wounded in the foot, and was at the hospital in Washington when President Lincoln was killed. Mr. Carle saw his full share of the horrors and sufferings of the war.
When peace was declared, the subject of this sketch was mustered out of the service, and engaged in agricultural pursuits, happy in knowing that the old flag waved over a united country. He bought a large farm in the vicinity of Kansas City, on which he remained about seven years, a greater part of the time engaged in farming, and for a while conducted a dairy. A portion of that ranch is now included in the limits of Kansas City, and his son, Edwin T. Carle, resides on the portion which they still retain.
When Mr. Carle came to Ventura, California, he purchased 120 acres of land, where he has a most delightful home and where he now resides. The rare taste displayed in the arrangement of the grounds and the perfect neatness which pervade the whole premises, make it one of those attractive homes for which California is noted far and wide. Its cost was $26,000. Mr. Carle has also invested in other real estate in different parts of Southern California. On his home ranch he has many fruit trees of different kinds: among them are 500 walnut and 500 apricot trees.
April 14, 1860, he was married to Miss Jennie Taylor, who was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1840. This union was blessed with two children: Edwin T., born March 20, 1861, in McLean County, Illinois; and Ethbert D., born May 20, 1866, now at home on the farm. Mrs. Carle was stricken with consumption and after a protracted illness, in which all efforts to save her life proved futile, died January 26, 1867. After living single four years, Mr. Carle was again married, January 12, 1871, to Miss Adelaide M. Maitland, a native of Lawrence County, Pennsylvania. She is the daughter of William Maitland, of Lawrence County. They have had one child, which they lost. Mrs. Carle is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. Carle's parents were members of the Disciples'. While at New Castle, Pennsylvania, he united with the I. O. O. F. His political views are in harmony with Republican principles.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 557 Transcribed by Sandy Neder
Walter Scott Chaffee
Walter Scott Chaffee, a pioneer and one of the most prosperous business men of San Buenaventura, was born in Madison County, New York, February 2, 1834. His ancestors were from Massachusetts, but his father, E. H. Chaffee, was a native of Madison County, and was a farmer in the "town" (township) of Petersburg, where the celebrated Gerrit Smith was brought up; they were playmates together. During the great slavery excitement Messrs. Smith and Chaffee were "under-ground railroad" men, and many a one of God's poor they helped along the road to liberty. Mr. Chaffee's mother, whose maiden name was Celinda M. Stranahan, was a native of Cooperstown, New York. He was the third child in a family of seven children, and at the early age of fourteen years he began his mercantile career, being ten years a clerk in the city of Syracuse, New York. In 1858 he went to Portage City, Wisconsin, and opened a general merchandise store; but a year afterward he sold out and returned to his home in New York, where he remained a year. Then, in company with Jerome B. Chaffee, he went to Pike's Peak and bought two claims at Leadville, where he was a miner for one season. The following year, 1861, he came to San Buenaventura, when there were but three American settlers in what is now Ventura County. Two of them still reside here, - V. A. Simpson and W. D. Hobson. Mr. Chaffee started a ranch on T. Moore's grant and engaged in raising hogs. Six months afterward he sold his interest and opened a general merchandise store, and has ever since been in mercantile life excepting two years. When he began here there was but one other store in the place. He purchased his goods in San Francisco, and had them brought here by schooner. He has also been engaged meanwhile in general farming and stock-raising. He was one of the original incorporators of the Bank of Ventura, and is at present one of its directors. When the town was incorporated he was appointed by the Legislature a member of the first Board of Trustees. During the late war he kept the United States flag flying night and day upon a liberty pole in front of his store. After several of the flags had been stolen, he guarded the next one with a shot-gun for several nights. It was the only flag south of San Jose that was placed at half-mast when the news of President Lincoln's assassination reached the coast. Although interested in the political welfare of the country, he has never accepted office.
He built his present brick store, 30 x 100 feet, on East Main and Palm streets, with a store-house in the rear, another 100 feet in depth. He has also built an elegant residence on a 100-acre ranch near town, and he has a 3,000 acre farm and stock ranch on the Santa Clara River, thirty four miles from Ventura, where he has several hundred head of sheep, cattle and horses, and is constantly improving the stock. Parties are now sinking the fifth oil well on this land, the four already in operation yielding an average of twenty-five barrels per day each. Mr. Chaffee, notwithstanding the fact that he has seen forty years of active business life, appears like a man in the prime of life about forty-five years of age. He has truly seen a "wilderness bloom as the rose." From a little Spanish settlement the city of San Buenaventura has sprung up to a place of 3,000 inhabitants living in homes of beauty and refinement, with their numerous business blocks, metropolitan hotels, fine churches, model school buildings, etc. San Buenaventura has indeed been to him what the name implies, - "Good Luck."
For his wife, Mr. Chaffee married Miss Rebecca Nidever, a native of Texas, born 1846, and of their nine children all are living save one. Walter Scott, Jr. was born in Santa Barbara, in his grandfather's house, and now has charge of his father's ranch. The following children were born in San Buenaventura: John Hyde, now teller of the Ventura Bank; Arthur Leslie, his father's bookkeeper; and Helen L., Ethel, Lawrence, Chester and Margareta, all of whom are at home with their parents. Mrs. Chaffee is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr. Chaffee, although brought up a Presbyterian, has never joined any church. He is a Master Mason and a Knight Templar.
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 484 Transcribed by Sandy Neder