California Biographies 

Source:
History of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura Counties, California
by: C M Gidney - Santa Barbara. Benjamin Brooks - San Luis Obispo. 
Edwin M Sheridan - Ventura
Volumes II - Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL., 1917

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

 
EZRA CATLETT.  Actively engaged in the prosecution of a calling upon which the wealth of a nation 
largely depends, Ezra Catlett occupies a position of importance among the thriving agriculturists of the 
Goleta Valley, where he has a large and well appointed ranch, which, with its excellent improvements 
constitutes one of the most desirable pieces of property in the neighborhood. A son of Lewis H. and 
Eliza Ann (Kefote) Catlett, he was born January 1, 1842, in Texas, on the banks of the Trinity River in 
Fort Houston.
 
His parents having moved to Louisiana when he was a child, Ezra Catlett received the rudiments of his 
education in the public schools of Shreveport, and later continued his studies in the district schools of 
Northeastern Missouri. Soon after the breaking out of the Civil war in 1861, Mr. Catlett joined 
Company C, Tenth Missouri Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned to Gen. Stirling Price's army, and 
served until the close of the conflict. The ensuing few years he spent in the Middle West, being 
principally employed while there in agricultural pursuits. Ambitious to improve every offered 
opportunity for advancing his fortunes, Mr. Catlett followed the march of civilization to the Pacific 
coast, and on the tenth day of March, 1869, located in Goleta Valley. Securing title to 160 acres of land, 
he immediately began its improvement. He met with excellent results in general farming, and has 
since bought other land, now owning and managing between 700 and 800 acres, on which he is 
successfully pursuing his pleasant and independent occupation.
 
Mr. Catlett married, November 24, 1873, in Goleta, Miss Annette Smith, who came from Kendall 
County, Illinois, the place of her birth, to California in 1872, and subsequently taught school until her 
marriage. Six children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Catlett, namely: Ida, who married M. B. 
Neff, and is now living in Portland, Oregon; Otis Ezra, of Vancouver, British Columbia; Jessie, wife of 
Elmer Kellogg, of Goleta; Leonora, wife of Jerome Roberts, of Fresno, California; Earl, unmarried; and 
Nina, who married a cousin. E. M. Catlett, and is living in Chino, California. Mr. Catlett is independent in 
politics, voting for what he considers the men best qualified for the office, and for those measures 
most conducive to the public welfare.