Napa County Biographies

CHARLES ROBINSON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
whose ranch is in Brown�s Valley about three miles from Napa, has lived in  
California since 1850, and in Napa County since 1855.  His ranch comprises 450 
acres, of which about forty acres is in vineyard.  Ten acres of this is in 
resistant vines, and he will gradually replant the remainder.  He has about six 
acres in orchard, and the main part of his business is general farming, dairying 
and stock-raising.  He was born in Helsingborg, Sweden, in 1831.  His parents 
dying in his early infancy, he was brought up by relatives, taking the name of 
an aunt.  He attended the local schools until fourteen years of age, and after 
passing some time in Stockholm he came to America with his uncle in 1848.  He 
arrived in San Francisco on October 12, 1860, coming by way of Cape Horn as 
cabin boy in a sailing vessel.  After a short experience in the mines he settled 
in Napa County, and began the business of buying cattle from the immigrants who 
came into this valley across the plains.  He continued trading until 1861, when 
he bought a ranch of 200 acres on Coneros Creek and engaged in wheat-raising.  
At the same time he purchased a horse-power threshing-machine, and later a steam 
thresher, which he operated in connection with his farming up to the time he 
bought his present home in 1880.  He has recently completed an elegant house of 
nine rooms on the place, with modern conveniences, water being introduced under 
pressure from a neighboring hill.  Mr. Robinson has a wine-cellar, 62x32, and 
two stories in height, stone below and frame above, and of a capacity of 35,000 
gallons.  He has still on hand all the wine of last year�s vintage, to the 
amount of about 25,000 gallons.  He is the owner of one-fifth of the Palace 
Hotel and of the East Napa Land Company.  He is a member of the I.O.O.F., Napa 
Lodge, No. 18.
 
Memorial & Biographical History of Northern California, The Lewis Publishing 
Co., 1891, pp 556-557