California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


ROBERT BOOT. Few if any organizations have proved more beneficial to fruit specialists 
of California than the Raisin Growers Association, which since its inception afforded valuable 
assistance in the development of one of the most important industries in the state, and has also 
been the means of bringing into fraternal relations the men and women who are devoting them- 
selves to this occupation. On the occasion of the first meeting of this body Mr. Boot, who had 
been an enthusiastic promoter of the movement, was chosen a director and was re-elected to the 
office each succeeding year. During the first three years of the association's history he filled 
the office of secretary, after which he served as general inspector for a year and then, in the 
spring of 1902. was elected its president, which responsible position he filled till 1904. 

By birth and ancestry Mr. Boot is an Englishman. His parents, Isaac and Rebecca (Sutton) 
Boot, spent their entire lives in Nottinghamshire, where the former engaged in the manufacture 
and sale of merchandise, his specialty being laces. In their family were two daughters and 
a son, the latter, the subject of this narrative, having been the second in order of birth. He 
was born in Nottingham January 10, 1839, and received his education principally in the Ack- 
worth high school. After leaving school he entered a counting-house in his native city, where 
he was employed for two years. During the ensuing four years he served an apprenticeship 
to the dry-goods business in Hempstead. During 1859 he came to America for the first time 
and for a year acted as manager of the Manchester department of a wholesale dry-goods 
house in Toronto. Coming from Canada to the United States, he engaged in farming in 
Baltimore county, Md. In 1863 he returned to England and sailed from London on the Tibernia, 
which rounded the Cape of Good Hope and after a voyage of ninety-four days anchored at Auck- 
land, New Zealand. Settling in that growing city, he turned his attention to the manufacture 
and export of Kauri pine lumber and spar timber. Coming from New Zealand to California in 
1880, Mr. Boot settled in Fresno county, where he has since made his home. He was among the 
first to purchase property in the Oleander district, where he bought a tract of new land, 
leveled and prepared it for irrigation, then set it to a vineyard and orchard. The original tract 
he still owns, but has also purchased other land, having acquired eighty acres altogether, of which 
he improved forty acres himself. While giving close attention to his fruit interests, at the same 
time he did much to promote and secure the organization of the Oleander Packing Company, 
of which he acted as secretary and manager until he resigned to associate himself with the organi- 
zation of which he is now the chief executive. In 1899 he came to Fresno, where he now has 
his residence. He is a member of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, the Congregational 
Church of this city, and the California State Horticultural Society. Since becoming a citizen 
of the United States he has affiliated with the Republican party. His marriage was solemnized 
while he was in New Zealand and united him with Gertrude Hurndall, a native of Somerset, 
England. By this union he has nine children, all of whom are residents of Fresno county. Per- 
sonally Mr. Boot is a man of many admirable qualities. His travels in many lands have made 
him a cosmopolitan in his views and given him an education not possible to be acquired in any 
other way. Though he has seen many lands and become familiar with many climates, he believes 
California to be the peer of all in offering to settlers those attractions which enhance the joys 
of existence.