San Luis Obispo County Biographies

ORVILLE ROOT

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

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


ORVILLE ROOT, station agent, Post- master, etc., at Miles Station, on the railroad between 
San Luis Obispo and Port Harford, has had his present situation ever since the railroad was 
built to that point, and he also owns a ranch of forty-seven acres. The postoffice is named 
Root in his honor. He was born in Allegany County, New York, in 1821, and when of 
age he settled upon a piece of land in Indiana which his father had bought for him, and 
lived there sixteen years, and while a resident there he married Miss Elizabeth Hurd, in 
1843. In 1857 he moved to Kansas and was engaged there in mercantile life for a time, and 
in 1863 he came to Santa Cruz County, California. Here he first engaged extensively in the 
lumber trade, as he did also at Port Harford tor a year. In Santa Cruz County lie was Under 
Sheriff six years. In 1870 he came to his present place, already mentioned. His ranch near 
by is well located and is very productive. 

His children are five in number, viz.; Ruth, now Mrs. George T. Gragg; Hazard; Eliza, now 
Mrs. J. A. Mercer; Mary, now the wife of J. D. Armstrong; and Orville, Jr. 

History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California  - by 
C.M. Gidney, Benjamin Brooks, Edwin M. Sheridan, Vol I, II.  -Lewis Publ. Co., 
Chicago, 1917.