Contra Costa County Biography

COLBURN JOHNSON PRESTON

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta, December, 2006.

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

 
               Conspicuous among the most capable and successful ranchers of 
Contra Costa County is Colburn Johnson Preston. He is a man of enterprise and 
keen foresight. He is among the early settlers worthy of representation in the 
history of his chosen county, and has been actively identified with the 
development of the eastern part of the county for many years. Mr. Preston was 
born in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, on July 16, 1837. He received his 
education in the public school of his native State, and was reared on a farm. In 
1864 he came west via the Isthmus of Panama and found employment at ranching in 
Nevada. On election day, 1864, he came to California, and in 1865 he located in 
eastern Contra Costa County. When he located on his present farm there were no 
houses between his place and Antioch. Mr. Preston was united in marriage to 
Melissa Woodard, a native of Pennsylvania, in October, 1859, and her death 
occurred in February 1, 1917. To this union there were seven children - Francis 
M., born January 23, 1861, married Ida Buress of Bay Point, and their two 
children are Marion and Lloyd; Eva Sarah, born October 23, 1869, was united in 
marriage to Frank M. May, and their children are Marjorie and Evelyn; Rosa May, 
born February 13, 1872, and married George Daunt of Petaluma, and they have one 
daughter, Dorothea; Ida, wife of W. H. Engle, of Oakland, was born November 20, 
1873; Jennie, born November 10, 1875 and died September 8, 1902; Bertha Anna, 
born March 8, 1879, and married Leslie V. Richardson on August 27, 1902, and has 
two children, Reginald and Gwendolyn; Mott C., born July 16, 1882, and married 
Winifred Shafer on October 12, 1904. Mr. Preston has always been energetic and 
ambitious, and is a typical representative of a self-made man, and has always 
had the respect and esteem of his fellow-men. In 1904 Mr. Preston retired, and 
has spent some years in Berkeley, Antioch, Stockton, and now makes his home in 
Brentwood. He was one of the first ranchers to put in Alfalfa in his locality. 
He set out every tree on his ranch, and in 1867 reaped all the grain on the west 
side from Bay Point to Visalia. In politics he is a Republican, and for many 
years served as a school trustee in the Excelsior district. He also served on 
the high-school board of Brentwood.
 
Source: "The History of Contra Costa County, California, Elms Publ. Co., 1917, 
pp. 574-575.