Napa County Biographies

T. M. ROBERTS

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
In the course of a very thorough examination of Napa County for the purpose of 
this work, no more beautiful or genuinely attractive place was found anywhere 
than Valley View Ranch, the lovely country home of Mr. J. W. Roberts, the 
well-known mining man.  It is romantically situated just at the crest of the 
hills that shut in the upper end of Napa Valley, at an elevation of about 1,000 
feet above tide level, and directly overlooking the picturesque town of 
Calistoga.  Nature has been lavish with her charms about the spot, and she has 
been so admirably helped out by art that it seems hard to imagine any 
improvement over what now exists.  The estate is not a very large one, 
comprising only ninety acres, but every inch of it is made to tell, either in a 
way of attractive surroundings and the development of the magnificent and 
unequaled view, or of practical and successful fruit-growing.  The residence, a 
cottage that devotes more attention to the comforts of living than to making an 
external show, stands at the edge of a veritable forest grove of pines and other 
trees that stretch off along the ridge that extends behind.  In front of it is a 
sloping flower-garden, in which appears, besides flowers and ornamental shrubs, 
many semi-tropical and exotic plants and trees.  Some orange-trees growing here 
were of exceedingly thrifty growth, while the Abyssinian banana, Japanese 
palonia, and many other striking examples, showed clearly that Valley View is in 
the thermal belt and rarely knows of frost.  Over the tops of these trees and 
shrubs, as well as the pines, oaks, etc., of the mountain side lower down, is 
caught that ever wonderful and attractive view, up the valley to Mount St. 
Helena, down the valley a long distance, and into the valley where Calistoga 
seems a collection of dolls� houses.  It would seem that one could never tire of 
such a prospect.
 
The fruit orchards stretch off to the right and behind the residence, and were 
formed with equal interest with the parts already described.  In all there are 
about 5,000 trees, most of them in bearing.  Otherwise about 2,500 are the 
silver prune, 1,000 the royal apricot, 400 apples, and the balance chiefly the 
Crawford peach.  It was observed that the trees had a most thrifty and 
well-cared-for appearance, comparing favorably in this regard with anything in 
the valley; indeed it is one of the largest and best conducted and therefore 
important orchards in the county.  It was noticed that in some parts the trees 
were somewhat close together; Mr. Roberts finds that thus the ground is better 
shaded, thus retaining the moisture in the soil and helping stifle the weeds.  
In the upper part of the orchard is the reservoir, an excavation 10 feet deep, 
capable of containing 250,000 gallons of water, thus affording a most abundant 
supply, which is piped to the house, grounds, fountains, etc., for irrigating 
purposes, and another spring of clear, cold water for the house.  Mr. Roberts 
has a large fruit-dryer on the back end of the place, just above the road that 
winds up the hills and over toward the Petrified Forest.  Above is the hot 
chamber, where the dried fruit is sweated before shipping.  Below is the dryer, 
a No. 4 California Acme, of very large capacity and good construction.  It has 
124 trays, which will take, on the average, twenty-five pounds of fruit to the 
tray.  The product is chiefly packed in boxes before shipping, and has won a 
name for excellence wherever it is introduced.  The market is famed throughout 
the East generally, -- Omaha, Baltimore, New York, Denver, etc., -- at top 
prices ruling for dried fruits.
 
It hardly seems possible that this beautiful and well-improved place would be 
the work of only seven or eight years, yet such is the case, for Mr. Roberts 
only in 1883 took the place, then in a state of nature, and began its 
improvement.  It shows what an intelligent appreciation of the possibilities of 
the location, coupled with an artistic eye and backed by ample means can do.  No 
wonder that Mr. Roberts� children are the pictures of healthful youth and vigor, 
and that the place should be a popular one with visitors from the valley and 
from the cities.
 
Mr. Roberts is a native of Ohio, the home of the Presidents.  He was born in 
1837, near Columbus.  In 1857 he came to California, and until he purchased and 
began the improvement of Valley View, was engaged in mining enterprises in 
different parts of the coast.  His brother, George D. Roberts, is the well-known 
mining operator of New York city, having been a partner with the most famous 
Californians, such as Hearst, Gashweiler, Charles Felton, R. B. Monon, etc.  Mr. 
Roberts is a hearty, whole-souled gentleman whom it is a genuine pleasure to 
meet, a man of unusual energy and enterprise who accomplishes a great deal more 
than he talks.  In the best source of the term he is a representative citizen of 
Napa County.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing 
Co., 1891