San Diego County Biographies
 
ROBERT H. LONG

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


rancher near Perris, was born ten miles south of Corydon (the former capital of 
the State, and now the capital of Harrison County), Indiana, July 13, 1841. His 
father was Thomas Long, and his grandfather, James Long, was a Baptist minister. 
Mr. Long was born in the house that was built by his grandfather. The family 
were originally from Tennessee. Mr. Long's mother was Anna (Allison) Long. Her 
parents were pioneers of Allison prairie, eastern Illinois, which was named 
after them. His parents had eleven children, the subject of this sketch being 
the youngest. He was educated in the public schools of his State, and when he 
was twenty‑
six years of age he removed to Kansas and purchased 160 acres of land in Coffee 
County. He remained on it three years and then sold it and removed to Indiana. 
While there he was married to Miss Sarah C. Rickard, February 21, 1871. She was 
a daughter of Noah and Jane Rickard, and was born May 23, 1851, near her
husband's residence in Harrison County, Indiana. Her father, Noah Rickard, was a 
soldier in the great war of the Rebellion. He was a member of the Fifty-third 
Regiment, Indiana Infantry, and died at Vicksburg, where he was buried. Her 
brother, Fielden B. Rickard, also volunteered in defense of his country. He 
served in the Seventeenth Indiana and was wounded, but lived through it, 
re-enlisted and served his country honorably until the close of the war. In 1871 
Mr. Long returned to Kansas and bought eighty acres of prairie land and made a 
farm of it. He remained there until 1880, when he sold it. Here they lost their 
daughter, Laura C., by diphtheria, and they went to California to get relief 
from their sorrows. They traveled through the northern part of the State and 
Oregon. They remained in Lynn County, Oregon, about six weeks, afterward went 
back to Sacramento by team and returned by train to Iowa and from there to 
Indiana, where they spent the winter and then returned to Kansas, where they 
remained four years. In November, 1884, they came to Los Angeles and from there 
to Colton and then to Perris, where he took up 157 acres of Government land, and 
has made his home here since. It is a nice tract of land, east of the railroad 
track and three miles southwest of Perris, on which he raises stock and deals in 
all kinds of fruit. The births occurring in their family are as follows: The 
child that died, Laura C., was born February 10, 1872; Emma J., in Kansas, June 
20, 1874; Ollie, October 2, 1878; Ida May, March 13, 1880; James A., January 27, 
1883, and R. H., January 14, 1886, in Perris. While in Kansas Mr. Long was 
elected for two terms township trustee. They are very honest, nice people.
 
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.-  314