San Diego County Biographies
 
CAVE J. COUTS, JR.

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


A native of California, was born on the Gua Joine ranch, situated eight miles 
east of Oceanside, June 5, 1856. The biography of his father, Colonel Cave J. 
Couts, appears in this history. The education of Cave J., Jr., was first by 
private tutor on the ranch. He was then at school at Los Angeles for three 
years, and then attended the Southwestern Presbyterian University at 
Clarksville, Tennessee, taking the classical course as well as a common course 
in civil engineering, passing his final examinations in 1874 with marks of 
distinction. He then returned home and began the practice of his profession in 
1877 at Los Angeles, as assistant to Michael Kellehar, who was then City 
Engineer. He has also been largely connected with railroad work with the 
California Southern and Southern Pacific, and in the interests of the latter 
road assisted in surveying a line from Yuma to Port Isabel, under the management 
of Colonel Chalmers Scott. In 1883 he accompanied Colonel Scott to Central 
America in the interests of the same road, and in 1884 was resident engineer of 
the Salvador Central Railway, and was also the accredited representative for the 
Central American Pacific Railway and Transportation Company in the city of San 
Salvador, remaining in Central America until October, 1884, when he was driven 
out by yellow fever, and was the only one in five who recovered and reached 
home. In 1885 he laid out and subdivided the ranch of A. J. Myesr, upon which is 
now built the city of Oceanside. Mr. Couts is now the only United States Deputy 
Surveyor in San Diego County.
        He was married in January, 1887, to Miss Lily Bell Clemens, a lineal 
descendent of John Mullanphy, who was one of the pioneers and founders of St. 
Louis, Missouri, a noted philanthropist who established many homes and hospitals 
in that city. Mr. and Mrs. Couts have one son, Cave J., born October 15,1887. 
Mr. Couts has a pleasant home at San Diego, and also owns a ranch of 160 acres 
within one mile of his birthplace, where he passes much of his time.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  277-278