San Luis Obispo County Biographies

ALBERT F. BENTON

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

ALBERT F. BENTON, foreman and former owner of the Eagle ranch, now owned by 
Baron von Schroder, was born in Germany, in 1848. When he was six years old his 
parents moved to America, the family then consisting of four children. As soon as 
he was old enough he engaged in business with his brother who kept a wholesale 
grocery house in New York city. In 1866 he came to California, and for three years 
was employed in a wholesale liquor house in San Francisco. He then came to Paso 
Robles and bought a tract of 1,000 acres of land, five miles west of the town, and 
engaged in sheep- raising. He still owns and leases 640 acres of this property. It was 
in 1876 that he acquired possession of the Eagle ranch, and for six years was 
principally engaged in cattle-raising. At the end of that time he sold the property to 
its present owner, and is now the foreman. 

Mr. Benton was married in 1869 to Miss Hannah Menton, of English ancestry,  
although born and brought up in the Santa Clara Valley, California. Mr. and Mrs. 
Benton are the parents of four children. 

During Mr. Benton's ownership of the Eagle ranch, everything was in its wild state. 
Bears were very plenty and also extremely troublesome to the cattle raiser. Mr. Benton 
describes very graphically the loss of much of his stock, and "bruin" is responsible in 
each case. So uncivilized was this part of the country at that time that Mrs. Benton's 
father strongly objected to his daughter making it her home, insisting that it was no place 
for women. She did not, however, seem at all distressed at the outlook, and the Eagle 
ranch has been her home since 1876. In early times this property must have been a 
favorite resort for Indians, as many relics of their curious implements have been found 
and preserved, among them a splendid and perfect specimen of a mortar and pestle, used 
by them for pounding acorns for bread, etc. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.