Contra Costa County Biography

ROBERT LOVE

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

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

 
                 Robert Love, one of the pioneer settlers of Lone Tree Valley, 
eastern Contra Costa County, was born in Kilburnie, Scotland, on September 10, 
1828. He was the recipient of a limited education, as his parents died when he 
was young and he was brought up by his wife's people in the Highlands of 
Scotland. At the age of seventeen he decided to cast his lot in the New World, 
and came to America, settling in Kentucky and Pennsylvania, and readily found 
employment in the coal mines, where he remained for some time. He came to 
California in 1852 and worked at quartz-mining in Placer County, and was 
interested with partners in a large quartz-mill near Michigan Bluff and Forest 
Hill. He owned a farm in Napa County, near Suscol, known as the Stanley Ranch. 
He paid a visit to Scotland, and later, on his return to California, he sent for 
his intended bride, and was married to Elizabeth McKinnon, on March 21, 1861, in 
San Francisco. They made their home in Napa County, and conducted a dairy while 
interested in the mines. Eventually, he sold his farm, gave up mining, and moved 
to Contra Costa County. In 1867, he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of 
Government Land in Lone Tree Valley, which he farmed, and also worked at 
different times in the mines of Somersville, Stewartville, and Judsonville. Mr. 
Love died in 1900, and his wife passed away in November, 1904. The family 
consisted of four sons and four daughters - Janet Montgomerie, born at Napa, 
January 9, 1862, died November 16, 1874,; Archibald, born February 8, 1863; 
Annie Elizabeth, born April 21, 1865; Robert, born November 21, 1866,  in Napa, 
died May 1, 1893;  John, born August 9, 1869; Lizzie, born October 4, 1871, died 
in December, 1894; Flora, born 1873; Dugald, born March 30, 1875, died in 
October, 1886. Archibald and John are still on the home place, and are numbered 
among the representative ranchers in their locality.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California," Elms Publ. Co.,  1917, 
pp. 587-588.