Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

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JOSEPH W. WOLFSKILL.
 
        The subject of this sketch was born at the old Wolfskill homestead, in 
Los Angeles, September 14, 1844. His father was William Wolfskill, the earliest 
Wolfskill pioneer in California, who settled in this then far-off land in the 
year 1831, of whom a further account is given on page 121 of this work. His 
mother was Do�a Magdalena Lugo de Wolfskill, of Santa Barbara, daughter of Don 
Jos� Ygnacio Lugo and Do�a Rafaela Romero de Lugo. Don Jos� and Don Antonio M. 
Lugo were brothers; their descendants are very numerous in this and other 
counties of Southern California. J. W. Wolfskill's "padrinos," or godparents, 
were Captain and Mrs. Alexander Bell. He was educated wholly in the private 
school maintained for many years in his father's house. Among his teachers were 
Rev. J. W. Douglas, founder of the Pacific newspaper; Miss Goodnow, now the wife 
of Hon. H. J. Wells, of Cambridge, Massachusetts; H. D. Barrows, of this city; 
A. F. Waldemar, and a Spanish teacher. On the death of his father, in 1866, Mr. 
Wolfskill took charge of the extensive vineyards and orchards planted by his 
father, and cultivated and improved them with great success. By persistently and 
intelligently procuring the best varieties of citrus and other fruits from 
various parts of the world, he brought his orchards to a high degree of 
perfection. The excellence of the oranges and lemons of the Wolfskill orchards 
became known far and wide. He was one of the first to send car-load lots of 
oranges of his own production east of the Mississippi River. His orchards 
yielded some seasons nearly 25,000 boxes, or over eighty car-loads.  The 
appearance in Southern California of the destructive white-scale insect several 
years ago from Australia, gradually checked production, in spite of most 
vigilant efforts to exterminate the pest. Inasmuch as his neighbors did not 
co-operate with him in fighting this dangerous citrus parasite, which multiplies 
with enormous rapidity, it seemed almost hopeless for him to try to save his 
fine groves. And so, as their proximity to the city made the land valuable for 
building lots, he reluctantly divided it up and put it on the market, in 1887. 
Thus the glory of the "Wolfskill orchards," so laboriously built up by both 
father and son, has become a thing of the past. The magnificent Continental 
Passenger Depot of the Southern Pacific Railway Company occupies a portion of 
the tract, fronting on Alameda street, where once the Wolfskill's successfully 
and for many years raised oranges, lemons, limes, grapes and other fruits. Mr. 
Wolfskill, in connection with his foreman, Mr. Alexander Craw, and Prof. D. W. 
Coquillett, of the Entomological division of the Agricultural Bureau of 
Washington, have engaged in a long series of experiments for the destruction of 
the white or fluted scale, with washes, sprays, gases, and latterly with 
parasites of the white scale which have been brought from Australia, where they 
are known to be the deadly enemy of that destructive bug. Prof. Coquillett has 
established a regular experimental station at Mr. Wolfskill's place, for the 
purpose of breeding and experimenting with this parasite of a parasite . 
September 20, 1869, Mr. Wolfskill married Do�a Elena de Pedrorena the youngest 
daughter of the late Don Miguel de Pedrorena, of San Diego (a native of Madrid, 
Spain), and Do�a Maria Antonia Estudillo. Mr. and Mrs. Wolfskill have eleven 
children. Following the example of his father, he maintains a private school in 
his own house. Mrs. Wolfskill has large landed interests in the San Jacinto 
Rancho, amounting to about 12,000 acres, in San Diego County, which she 
inherited from her father. Mr. Wolfskill has been for one or two terms an active 
and useful member of the city council. Like his father, he has never been a 
seeker for public position; but his quiet labors in his orchards and vineyards, 
like those of his father, have been invaluable to this section in demonstrating 
the wondrous fertility of its soil and its possibilities for the profitable 
cultivation of almost every variety of deciduous and semi-tropical fruits. Mr. 
Wolfskill, Sr., introduced here most of the best varieties of modern French and 
American pears; besides planting in 1858 the then largest orange orchard in the 
United States; the son has helped to introduce by budding and grafting some of 
the best varieties of citrus fruits to be had anywhere. Mr. Wolfskill has two 
sisters living: Mrs. C. J. Shepherd and Mrs. Frank Sabichi. His younger brother, 
Lewis, died in 1884.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 528
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler