Santa Barbara County Biographies

SEBERN STEELE

Submitted by Peggy Hooper

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


SEBERN STEELE, a rancher of Lompoc, was born in Randolph County, 
Illinois, June 2, 1844, His father was a farmer of that county, and in 1851 moved 
to Mount Vernon, Missouri. In 1853 lie came to California, driving an ox team across 
the plains and being exactly five months on the road, arriving at Stockton, September 17, 
where he settled and for the following nine years passed much of his time at the mines. 
Sebern graduated at Benicia College, in 1864, and began the business of building in 1865. 
He was in the employ of S. E. Hoisington, who was a very superior mechanic, and with 
whom he remained about eighteen months, lie then started out independently, and has 
since been alone in business. He worked at building and contracting in Stockton and 
Santa Barbara until the spring of 1875, when he came to Lompoc, and followed his 
trade about fifteen months. He bought 2,110 acres, on August 12, 1876, which was a 
part of the Lompoc grant, then a wild howling wilderness, covered with brush and  
timber, which by persistent energy has been transformed into beautiful farming and 
grazing land, with about 1,400 acres cleared. He sows a large acreage to barley, and raises 
horses, cattle and hogs. His land fronts upon the ocean, about two miles in extent, and is 
near the memorable spot upon which was wrecked the steamship Yankee Blade, in 
1853. His residence overlooks the sea, and he has three other dwelling houses on his ranch, 
with the necessary out-buildings. Mr. Steele engaged in building until 1882, but since 
then his contracting has been in the nature of road-building or clearing timber land. He 
now has a contract for clearing 300 acres of brush and timber, upon which he uses the 
Hawkeye stump puller, pulling out large trees by the roots, saving time and labor of 
cutting them down or digging about. 

Mr. Steele was married at Stockton, December 23, 1868, to Miss Laura J. Parnell, whose
 parents were natives of Cornwall, England. Her father was a pioneer of 1849 to 
California, and a member of the Society of California Pioneers of Stockton. She died 
December 25, 1889, leaving six children, � four sons and two daughters. 

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.