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

EDMUND C. CONVERSE, JR. The Santa Paula y Saticoy Ranch of 5,000 acres, an old Spanish 
grant in the County of Ventura, is the property of Edmund C. Converse, Jr., an easterner who 
came to California in 1908 to devote himself to ranch life. He was what might be called in 
certain circles a tenderfoot, for he was a business man and a young man as well. He brought to 
his new task, however, the same determination that had brought him unusual success in his 
business career, and the Santa Paula y Saticoy Ranch has proved an unqualified success.
Edmund C. Converse, Jr., is the son of Edmund C. and Jessie M. Converse, and he was born in 
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 21, 1882. The father was a Massachusetts product, born in 
Cambridge on November 7, 1849, and the son of J. C. Converse, a prosperous business man of 
that city. When he had finished his schooling, in about 1861, young Converse entered his 
father's firm, known as Converse, Blagden & Company, in the capacity of errand boy, it being 
the purpose of the father to give him a thorough training in the business. He made rapid 
advancement and in 1867 was transferred to the New York City branch of the firm, there taking 
charge of the receiving department. Five years later he withdrew from the employ of his 
father's house and applied to his brother-in-law, Mr. J. H. Flagler, who was then general 
manager of the National Tube Works Company at McKeesport, Pennsylvania, for the position of 
storekeeper at a salary of $450 a year. He was granted the post, and in that position he very 
rapidly gathered an insight into the business that made possible his advancement into other and 
more prominent positions. His next position was that of iron inspector, and he advanced rapidly 
until he reached the office of vice president and general manager of the company, which 
position he held until 1898, when the business was consolidated with the United States Steel 
Corporation. He has since that time been a director of that mammoth concern. He is also a 
director of the Bankers Trust Company of New York City, the Astor Trust Company of New York, 
the Liberty National Bank of New York, and other concerns of similar importance in the banking 
world.
In 1915 Mr. Converse retired from active participation in business life and is now devoting 
himself to other interests. He was married on January 2, 1879, to Miss Jessie M. Green, and 
three children have been born to them. Antonette, the eldest, is the widow of a German army 
officer, Maxmillian von Ronberg, and is living in Weisbaden, Germany. Edmund C. Jr., of this 
review, is the second born, and the youngest is Mrs. Katherine Peabody Strong, of New York 
City.
Edmund C. Converse, Jr., was born in Pittsburg, as already stated. and he attended a private 
school for boys at Concord, New Hampshire. He entered Yale University in 1899, and when he 
was graduated from that institution entered the service of the American Bank Note Company of 
New York City, beginning in a minor capacity and working up from the bottom to the post of 
general sales manager. In 1908 he resigned from that position of honor and came to Ventura 
County, here purchasing the famous old ranch known as the Santa Paula y Saticoy, which he has 
since given his time and attention to.
The ranch, itself an historic. old Spanish possession, is one of the show places of the county, and 
cattle raising is carried on on a large scale. As many as 600 head of cattle are wintered there 
annually. Many old Indian relics have been unearthed on the place during their operations on it, 
many of them bearing evidence of great age, and showing forth the primitive methods 
employed by the red men of California in the early days.
Mr. Converse is a leader in his community and is president of the Ventura Live Stock and 
Protective Association. He has done much to promote the live-stock industry in his county in the 
few years of his residence there and is always largely represented in the live-stock exhibits of 
the state. The Ventura County Fair, held annually in September, is an event that claims his 
attention in a large degree and in 1916 he presented a number of handsome silver cups for 
prize stock exhibits.
Mr. Converse, is a republican, as was also his father, but has never given any especial attention 
to political affairs beyond his duties as a citizen. He was married in New York City on November 
9, 1904, to Miss Judith Adams, a daughter of an old Kentucky family. Their two children are 
Edmond C. III, born in New York City April 9, 1906, and now attending Urban Military Academy 
in Los Angeles, and Roger Adams, born in Santa Barbara, California, June 25, 1911.
The Converses have entered freely into the community life of Santa Paula and are well known 
throughout the county, where they have made many stanch friends in the few years of their 
residence here.