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.htm


ARCHIE CONNELLY, one of Ventura County's most successful and respected citizens, is a man 
who has raised himself to a position of influence and material means by sheer force of ability 
and hard work. At one time he was a hod carrier in New York City. His life has been one of 
rugged adventure and experience since early years, and he never had the opportunities of 
obtaining a literary education, but by practical efforts and doing everything well whether 
employed by others or directing his own property has found real success in a higher degree 
than most men who start life under more auspicious circumstances.
He was born in County Monaghan, Ireland, in March, 1841, and at the end of three-quarters of 
a century of life has a retrospect that cannot but give him an immense degree of satisfaction. 
His parents were Owen and Nancy Connelly. The records of his life show that Mr. Connelly 
never attended school though in the university of hard experience he acquired an education 
fitting him for all the rough and tumble adventure of the world. He was employed on his 
father's farm in Ireland until he was fifteen. Then going to Scotland he worked at different 
places and in any honorable employment until he was twenty.
He was thus a young man, quite old in experience, when he arrived in New York City. There for 
four years he worked as a helper at the mason's trade, carrying a hod. His next location was in 
Woodbridge, New Jersey, working on a farm near there until 1868.
Mr. Connelly is an old timer in California, having been in this state almost half a century. When 
he arrived in 1868 he found work on a farm in Sonoma County for a year, then in similar 
employment for five months in Contra Costa County, and from there came to Santa Barbara 
County. Here he worked six weeks on a farm, and then in Ventura County was employed by 
James Leonard on a farm for sixteen months. His next experience was on the Jack Hill ranch, 
which included within its limits the site of the present Town of Oxnard. He remained there a 
year, was then on the Snodgrass ranch eight months, on the Peter Donlon ranch eight months, 
and having by that time fitted himself by experience and training for the responsibilities of an 
independent career, he made his first start as a farmer and rancher.
He began with leasing too acres. A year later he leased an additional 100, and this land he 
operated with more or less increasing success until 1876. Giving up his leases, he then bought 
his present home ranch of 267 acres in CoIonia Township of Ventura County. That has been his 
home now for nearly forty years, and he should be reckoned as one of the pioneers in 
agriculture in Ventura County. His principal crops at present are lima beans and sugar beets.
While his home ranch constitutes an attractive and valuable property Mr. Connelly has much 
more extensive possessions. In 1905 he bought 300 acres of the Conejo Rancho in Hueneme 
Township, and that is now being farmed by his son Frank. Then in 1910 he bought eighty acres 
in Hueneme Township, devoted to the raising of beets, and in 1912 another purchase of eighty 
acres in the same township, and that is also growing a sugar beet crop and lima beans. His 
investments have also extended to the famous Imperial Valley of Southern California where he 
owns 160 acres in Imperial County. The manager of this property is his oldest son John.
Mr. Connelly was reared a Catholic and has always been a member of that faith. He is affiliated 
with the Knights of Columbus and in politics is a democrat. In Ventura County in April, 1877, 
soon after he started out as an independent rancher, he married Miss Liza Cline. Mr. and Mrs. 
Connelly have had ten children born to them, and most of these are now well established in 
homes of their own and the family on the whole is a distinct credit to the parents. John B., the 
oldest, now aged thirty-eight, has already been referred to as a rancher in Imperial County. 
Anna is still at home. Mrs. James Casey lives in Ventura County. Joseph, aged thirty, operates 
one of his father's ranches, as does Frank, who is next in age. Peter, aged twenty-six, is farming 
for himself. James is twenty-four, and is associated with his brother Peter in farming. Charles, 
aged twenty-two, is a blacksmith and is connected with an automobile garage at Oxnard. 
Thomas, aged twenty, is on his father's home ranch, and the youngest of the family is Ray, also 
assisting his father.