Ventura County Biographies

William M. Zeller

Submitted by Sandy Neder

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

 
William M. Zeller was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, December 22, 1853. His 
father, David Zeller, was also a native of the same State, born in 1802. He had 
large real estate interests there, and was the senior member of the firm of D. 
Zeller & Co., in the wholesale commission business, Hon. Thomas R. Bard being 
the junior partner. His death occurred in 1884. Mr. Zeller's grandfather, Jacob 
Zeller, was a Maryland planter, and the ancestors of the family came from 
Switzerland. Mr. Zeller's mother was Mary Parker (Little) Zeller. The maternal 
ancestry is the same as Mr. Bard's, which appears on another page of this book. 
The subject of this sketch is the youngest of a family of three children. His 
early education was obtained at Hagerstown, where his boyhood days were spent, 
and in 1869 he attended the Mercersburg College. He finished his education at 
the Massachusetts Agricultural College at Amherst, after which he was engaged in 
farming in Maryland for four years. He then came to California and engaged in 
farming on the Colonia and Las Posas Ranches. Mr. Zeller is still conducting his 
farming operations on a large scale, having 1,800 acres of land devoted to the 
cultivation of barley, alfalfa and beans.
    In 1885 he was married to a San Francisco lady. Mr. Zeller is a member of 
the A. O. U. W. He is a strictly temperate man, and politically is a Republican.
    In speaking of Mr. Zeller's father, it is just to his memory to say that 
while he was a Southern gentleman and at one time had numerous slaves, he never 
sold one, and often arranged with them, giving them wages whereby they were 
permitted to buy their liberty. He was a man very correct and methodical in his 
business habits, as well as at his home and on his premises. Seldom do we find a 
man in these days possessing such admirable traits of character.
 
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF THE COUNTIES OF SANTA BARBARA, SAN LUIS 
OBISPO, AND VENTURA, CALIF. by Ida Addis Storke, 1891, p 467