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


MARTIN C. HEMENWAY. When the subject of consideration is those men who have through a 
number of years consistently promoted the development of Southern California and have made 
that portion of the state the main contributing force of the world's fine fruit supply, there 
should be at least some mention made of the part played by Martin C. Hemenway. In Santa 
Barbara County Mr. Hemenway is one of the leading horticulturists and farmers, and has one of 
the beautiful and valuable ranch properties in the vicinity of Goleta.
A man of eastern birth, he has spent practically all his life in California. He was born at Clinton, 
Wisconsin, September 16, 1869. His father, Levi A. Hemenway, now deceased, was a 
Pennsylvanian, a farmer by occupation, and of an old American family of English descent, some 
of his ancestors having taken part in the Revolutionary war. Levi A. Hemenway himself was a 
soldier in the Civil war, having been first sergeant in Company D of the Thirteenth United States 
Regiment, and going through many of the hardest fought campaigns of the war, including the 
sieges of Vicksburg and of Arkansas Post. In 1877 he came out to California, and after farming 
for many years died In 1902. His wife, Melvina (Wilbur) Hemenway, was born in New York 
State, of Welsh and English descent, and likewise of Revolutionary stock, is still living, making 
her home with her son Martin.
For the foundation of his career as a successful horticulturist Martin C. Hemenway had a liberal 
literary education. He attended the grammar and high schools of Santa Barbara, and his 
education was completed in the University of the Pacific at San Jose. On completing his 
schooling he felt that his duty lay on the home place, since his father was then suffering from ill 
health. Returning home, he took charge of affairs at the ranch at the foot of San Marcos Pass. 
This ranch is in what was known as Indian Orchard Canyon. There he lived and carried on his 
work for a number of years, finally selling out in November, 1911, and buying twenty-six acres 
near Goleta, where he has since been a successful grower of walnuts, beans and alfalfa. While 
conducting the ranch at San Marcos Pass he cultivated the largest acreage of strawberries 
probably in all Southern California. His plantation to this crop contained five acres. For twenty 
years he was one of the heaviest growers of this fruit, and as it is a crop requiring a great deal 
of care during the producing season he kept at times as many as ten hands busy. His aim was to 
produce berries not only in large quantities but of the highest quality, and naturally there was a 
ready market for his entire crop. The hundreds of crates sent from his place those years were 
sold through Mr. John Diehl at Santa Barbara, and this was a relationship mutually profitable 
and agreeable.
In every locality in which he has lived in California Mr. Hemenway has proved a booster for 
good roads and all public improvements. He has been too busy to make politics a diversion or a 
vocation, and is a man if independence in his views and voting. For three terms of two years 
each he served as school trustee.
On June 8, 1892, in the house where he is now living in Goleta, on the old George W. Hill estate, 
Mr. Hemenway married Miss Minnie Hill. Her father, George W. Hill, settled at Goleta in the 
early '70s and was one of the pioneers in this section of Santa Barbara County. The Hills are an 
old American family of English descent.