Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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


JAMES C. PRESTON.
 
        Among the well known residents of the Upper San Gabriel Valley is the 
subject of this sketch. Mr. Preston dates his birth in Washington County, 
Virginia, November 22, 1831. His parents were Thomas M. and Jane (Orr) Preston, 
both natives of that State, and descendants of prominent families of the Old 
Dominion. Mr. Preston was reared to farm life, and given the advantages of a 
good education, until about nineteen years of age. He then engaged in teaching 
school. In 1855 he engaged in mercantile pursuits, which he conducted until 
1860. In that year he went to Texas, and from there to Missouri, where he 
purchased a band of sheep, which he drove to Texas, and located in Hunt County. 
He was there engaged in stock-growing until the breaking out of the civil war. 
In 1862 he entered the Confederate military service as a Quartermaster and 
Commissary Sergeant of Major Burnett's well-known battalion of sharp-shooters. 
He served in the armies east of the Mississippi, at Port Hudson, Jackson and 
other points, until after the fall of Vicksburg. His command was then ordered 
back to the trans-Mississippi department, in which he served until the close of 
the war in 1865. At the cessation of hostilities, Mr. Preston gladly accepted 
the situation, and retired to his home in Hunt County. Resuming his farming 
operations, he was there engaged until the spring of 1868, when he started by 
emigrant teams overland for California. It was not until September of that year 
that his long journey over the deserts and mountains ended by his arrival at San 
Bernardino. After a short stay there, he located at El Monte, in Los Angeles 
County, where he remained until the next year. He then went to San Bernardino, 
and the next two years was engaged in farming upon rented lands near that city. 
In 1871 he returned to Los Angeles County, and took up his residence about a 
mile and a quarter west of the present site of Glendora. There he entered 160 
acres of Government land. Years of litigation with the Azusa grant holders over 
the ownership of this land followed, and it was not until about 1880 that the 
court decisions gave him his title. This retarded many of his projected 
improvements, and he confined his operations principally to grain-raising. Since 
1885 he has sold his lands, until at this writing (1889) he is the owner of 
twenty acres which he is putting under a fine state of improvement and 
cultivation. In 1886 he established a nursery of citrus fruits, an enterprise 
that he has made successful, and produced some of the finest trees in his 
section. His land will be devoted to citrus and deciduous fruits, the soil being 
specially adapted to that branch of horticultural products. Water for irrigation 
purposes is supplied from the ditches of the Azusa Water Development and 
Irrigation Company, which pass through his land. Mr. Preston's long residence, 
and the prominent stand he took in the various land contests affecting the 
titles in the Upper San Gabriel Valley, has made him well known, and gained him 
a large circle of friends. He has always been a strong supporter of such 
enterprises as would develop the resources and encourage the settling up of his 
section. He is an earnest advocate of the public-school system, and for many 
years was a school trustee of his district. In 1871 he was elected constable of 
the San Jose Township, and in the year 1872 -'73, after his section was embodied 
in Azusa Township, served in the same capacity in that township. He was one of 
the incorporators and is now (1889) the treasurer of the Azusa Water Development 
Company. In political matters he is a Democrat, but is liberal and conservative 
in his views. In 1864 Mr. Preston wedded Miss Mary Dougherty, a native of 
Virginia. She is the daughter of Charles and Rosamond J. (Hale) Dougherty. Her 
father was a native of North Carolina, and her mother of Virginia. Mrs. 
Preston's parents came to Los Angeles County in 1868. Her father died at the 
Azusa in 1879. Her mother is now a resident of San Bernardino County. From the 
marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Preston there are living the following-named children: 
Charles Thomas, William T., John L., Mary Myrtle, James L., Carrie V. and Ralph, 
all of whom are members of their father's household.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 592
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler