Santa Barbara County Biographies

L. D. GATES

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

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


L. D. GATES, proprietor of the Santa Barbara Foundry, situated on Bath street, was 
born in Valparaiso, Porter County, Indiana, January 18, 1864. His father was a farmer 
and native of Ohio. His parents moved to Chico, California, in 1875, and to Los Alamos, 
Santa Barbara County, in 1877. In 1878 Mr. L. D. left home, feeling that the occupation 
of a farmer was too narrow for his enterprising and inventive mind. He first went to 
San Francisco, and was there employed by the Pacific Rolling Mills. In 1879 he went to 
Sacramento with the Pioneer Flour Mill, and then with W. M. Guttenberger of the 
Sacramento Foundry, where L. D. learned the trade of machinist. He was there three 
years, then one year with the Mint Brass Works, in making tools. In April, 1884, he 
returned to Los Alamos on account of illness of his father, and there established a 
foundry, remaining until 1886, when he came to Santa Barbara and purchased 100 feet 
front on Bath street, between Ortega and De la Guerra, and erected a machine shop. 
He also built a foundry, where he makes all kinds of iron castings, as heavy as 1,500 
pounds, and, should business require, as heavy as three tons. He is proficient in 
boiler-making, moulding, and with his naturally inventive mind is proficient in all 
mechanical work. He has invented an attachment for burning oil, and a three-cylinder 
engine, making his own designs and castings. His first job in Santa Barbara was setting an 
engine of an electric light plant in Santa Barbara city. He owns a fifty-acre ranch of valley 
and, and with his undoubted inventive mind is sure to succeed. 

September 1, 1890, Mr. Gates married Miss Emma Brooks, " a fair maiden of nineteen 
summers past," and a resident of Santa Barbara. 

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.