Napa County Biographies

Henry W. Crabb

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
the owner of the celebrated To Kalon vineyard at Oakville, Napa County, is one 
of the leading and most experienced and successful viticulturists of California. 
 While others, such as Messrs. Krug and Pellatt, preceded him by a few years in 
the actual manufacture of wine, he is yet a true pioneer in the business, by 
virtue of the fact that he was the first to introduce machinery into the working 
of grapes (in 1874), and was one of the very earliest to import foreign 
varieties and improve the California stock.  He searched all over the world, 
bringing in about 300 varieties, and as a result of his experience, finds that 
about the best white wine grapes are the Sauvignon Vert and Golden Chasselas, 
while in red wine grapes come Black Burgundy, Verdot and Cabernet Sauvignon.  In 
addition to the grapes from the 360 acres of his own vineyard, Mr. Crabb buys 
extensively from the surrounding country, and his vintages range from 200,000 to 
500,000 gallons, according to the season.  The cellars at To Kalon are plain and 
unpretentious, but very spacious and scrupulously clean, the machinery and 
appliances of the most approved pattern; and the very greatest care is taken in 
every process, from picking the grape to sending out the finest wines.  
Comparatively little wine is bottled at the cellar, most of it being shipped in 
bulk.  What is bottled is all three years old and must be perfect in every 
regard.  The fine display at Platt�s Hall, San Francisco, bearing the To Kalon 
trade-mark, will give an idea of the fine wines bottled at this winery.  Mr. 
Crabb has agencies as follows:  Pohndorff & Co., Washington, District of 
Columbia; G. Zoll, Chicago; Napa Valley Wine Company, Minneapolis; Connor & 
Hughes, Kansas City, Missouri, and B. Forget, New Orleans.  Through these he has 
a large and increasing trade throughout the United States.  The estate is a fine 
one, stretching from the county road back to the foothills, and has all kinds of 
soil from which to select the most suitable for the different wines.  Abundant 
supplies of pure water for all purposes is obtained in the hills.  Besides the 
vines, there are also thriving orchards of almonds, oranges and lemons, 
persimmons and general fruits � the whole place, indeed, being an orderly 
wilderness of vines and trees.  The vines are chiefly foreign varieties grafted 
on resistant stocks, and the most celebrated wine is a Burgundy, produced from 
what is known as Crabb�s Black Burgundy Grape, whose virtues Mr. Crabb was the 
first to discover.  Most of the vines are from twelve to eighteen years old, and 
are well sheltered.  As a successful wine-maker Mr. Crabb is without a peer in 
the State, and his ideas are frequently embodied in papers which are read at the 
meetings of the Grape-Growers� and Wine-Makers� Association in San Francisco, 
exciting much favorable comment.  There is also a very complete distillery, with 
appurtenances.  It should be stated further than Mr. Crabb ships the To Kalon 
wines frequently to England, Belgium and other European countries.  He carried 
away a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition in 1889, and has taken gold and 
silver medals and awards of merit at every local or State fair at which he has 
exhibited.
            Mr. Crabb was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, January 1, 1828, and 
is the eldest child of Henry and Esther (Walker) Crabb.  When twelve years old 
the family removed to Adams County, Ohio, where he received his education at the 
schools of the district.  January 4, 1853, he sailed from New Orleans for 
California, arriving in this State on the last day of that month.  He went at 
once to the mines, and for six months worked in Placer and Nevada counties.  He 
then settled in Alameda County, near Haywards, and followed farming, until in 
1865 he came to Napa County and purchased his present beautiful and valuable 
property.  He was married in 1851 to Miss Rebecca A. Donohoe, who died in 1862, 
leaving three children:  Amanda M., now Mrs. W. T. Johnson; and Adda H. and 
Horace A., both of whom assist their father.  He married, secondly, Miss 
Elizabeth P. Carmer, a native of New York, and by this union they have one 
daughter, Cora Carmer.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing 
Co., 1891