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


WALTER I. LANGDELL. The economic situation in Ventura County has been vastly changed since 
the first American came into this region and new people have indeed brought about new 
conditions. It is as a representative of the intensely modern industrial activities of the county 
that Walter I. Langdell is known.
Mr. Langdell is an expert agriculturist. His training has been partly learned from books and 
laboratories and partly from practical experience. He has been connected with demonstration 
and experimental work in several states, and for a number of years has had important 
responsibilities in connection with the American Beet Sugar Company in and around Oxnard.
He was born in one of the northern counties of Wisconsin, Dunn County, April 13, 1882, a son of 
Austin H. and Laura Langdell. His education begun in the public schools was continued in the 
Dunn County Agricultural School at Menominee, from which he was graduated in 1904. The 
following six months were spent with a large threshing ma- chine outfit at Flandreau, South 
Dakota. Returning to his native county, he was put in charge of the experimental work at the 
agricultural school, and from there went to Thornton, Arkansas, where he was in charge of the 
demonstration farms and superintendent of development for the Stout Greer Lumber Company 
until January 1, 1907.
The next scene of his labors was in the East. At Rectorton, Virginia, he was made 
superintendent of the Blue Ridge Farm owned by Henry T. Oxnard, one of the founders of the 
great industry at Oxnard, California. He remained on the Virginia farm for two years, and his 
association with the Oxnard interests then brought him out to the Pacific Coast, to Ventura 
County. He was employed here as agriculturist for the American Beet Sugar Company at 
Hueneme for two years, and since then has been superintendent of the Springville Ranch owned 
by the American Beet Sugar Company. This ranch contained 1,500 acres and Low additional 
acres are rented and are also under the supervision of Mr. Langdell. As business manager and 
agriculturist he ranks as one of the very successful men in his profession in California. The crops 
which he superintends are 600 acres of beets, 600 acres of beans and the remainder of the land 
is devoted to barley. The equipment for work is of the very best, including 100 head of work 
mules and twenty-three people are under his direction.
Mr. Langdell is a member of Oxnard Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of Oxnard 
Lodge Free and Accepted Masons, Royal Arch Chapter, the Maccabees, and in politics is a 
republican. At Eau Claire, Wisconsin, December 27, 1909, he married Miss Blanche Young.