San Diego County Biographies
 
W. C. FERRIS

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


was born in West Flamboro, near Hamilton City, Wentworth County, Canada, May 24, 
1855. In 1861 the family moved to Owen Sound, Grey County, Canada, and in 1871 
came to California. They located in Emigrant Gap, where the subject of this 
sketch remained one year, when he went to Sacramento, where he learned the 
carpenter's trade. The next year he was joined by his parents, and the family 
remained in Sacramento ten years. From there they removed to San Francisco and 
Oakland. From the latter place Mr. Ferris went to Woodland, in Yolo County, 
where he engaged in the real estate and insurance business, and remained for two 
years, when, the business not being satisfactory, he closed it up and traveled 
down the coast, stopping a short time at several different places, until he 
reached San Bernardino. Here he remained one year, then went to San Diego and 
worked at his trade a little over two years. He took up a Government claim of 
160 acres in San Clemente valley, on which he has recently proved up. He is now 
engaged in improving his place, and will soon have forty acres of orchard and 
vineyard. He will have a choice variety of citrus and deciduous fruits, but 
makes a specialty of figs. His supply of water will be obtained from a 
neighboring ca�on, across which he is putting a dam. The reservoir thus made 
will contain 1,500,000 gallons of water.
 
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.-  245-246