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


FOXEN, THOMAS  
Having accomplished a satisfactory work in the free and independent calling to which he was 
reared, Thomas Foxen, of the Town of Los Alamos, Santa Barbara County, has accumulated a 
handsome competency, and is now enjoying to the utmost the well merited reward of his 
earlier years of toil. A son of Benjamin Foxen, he was born in Santa Barbara, March 9, 1852. His 
father was a pioneer settler of this section of Southern California, coming to the Pacific Coast 
from England, his native land, and here obtaining title to about 8,000 acres of land in Foxen, or 
the Sisquoc Canyon; at his death this land was divided among his eleven children, 800 acres of 
the estate going to his son Thomas, the special subject of this brief sketch.  

Although one of a large family of children, Thomas Foxen had excellent educational 
advantages, attending first the public schools, later continuing his studies in the college at Santa 
Ynez, and at Saint Mary's College. Settling in life as an agriculturist after his marriage, he 
began farming on his own large tract of land, also having in charge a 100-acre ranch which 
belonged to his bride. Mr. Foxen diligently improved his property, each season adding to its 
value. Subsequently, wishing to be relieved of the heavy responsibilities devolving upon him as 
such an extensive landholder, he disposed of his interests in the Foxen Canyoq [sic] and 
purchased his present home place of three acres in Los Alamos, where for the past twenty-five 
years he has lived a quiet and pleasant life with his wife and children.  

On September 8, 1878, Mr. Foxen married Miss Adelaide Bottiller, who was born in Santa 
Barbara, and was there brought up and educated. Her father, Thomas Bottiller, a native of Los 
Angeles, was a pioneer jeweler of Santa Barbara, where his death occurred when his daughter 
Adelaide was a little girl. Mr. Bottiller married Marie Olivas, who was born in Santa Barbara, 
and her mother was one of Governor Pico's family, who was for many years the administrator 
of what is now Santa Barbara County.  

Mr. and Mrs. Foxen have seven children, namely: Gerald, a paper hanger by trade ; Helen, wife 
of Joseph Sepulveda, a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles, where he won a gold star for making the 
greatest number of arrests; Annie, wife of Joseph McCartney, engaged in farming on the Buell 
Ranch; Leonard, of Los Angeles; Clara, wife of Leonard Simons, of Pismo, San Luis Obispo 
County ; Margaret, living with her parents : and Edmund, working in the oil fields at Dome, 
California. By a previous marriage Mrs. Foxen has one son, Alexander, a carpenter in Los 
Angeles. Mr. Foxen invariably casts his vote in favor of the republican party, but is never active 
in politics. He is a member of the Catholic Church.