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.ht


JACOB PENSINGER.  A man of much ability and intelligence, industrious and thrifty, Jacob Pensinger, of 
Goleta, holds a position of note among the successful agriculturists of his community, as a grower of 
fruits and vegetables reaping abundant crops. A son of the late George Pensinger, he was born, 
December 31, 1844, in the Keystone State, where his early life was spent.
 
George Pensinger enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Twenty- sixth Pennsylvania Infantry 
during the Civil war, and served until the end of the struggle. He married Christine Raughtraff, a native 
of Pennsylvania, and three of their sons fought throughout the Civil war, Jacob, William and John 
having been members of Company K, Twenty-first Pennsylvania Cavalry. With the exception of John, 
who received a slight flesh wound, neither the father or either of the sons were injured.
 
Jacob Pensinger was educated in his native town, and after leaving worked with his father, who was a 
miller, until after the breaking out of the Civil war. Enlisting, as previously mentioned, in a company of 
cavalry, he actively participated in the engagements at the Wilderness, Antietam, Fredericksburg, 
Petersburg, and others of importance, as a soldier doing his duty most faithfully. Soon after his 
discharge from the army, Mr. Pensinger followed the tide of emigration westward, working for awhile 
in different places between the Alleghanies and the Pacific coast until 1873, when he settled in Santa 
Barbara. Immediately securing a position with Judge Ord, he remained in his employ for eleven 
months, after which he worked on the Sisters building and ranch for four consecutive years, gaining a 
valuable experience in ranching as carried on in Southern California.
 
Mr. Pensinger then took a trip to Oregon, where he remained nine months. Not content with his 
prospects in that state, he returned to Santa Barbara County and here invested his money in his 
present ranch of forty acres, lying near Goleta. With characteristic enterprise and forethought, he set 
out fruit and walnut trees on a part of his estate, while on the hill land he has been very successful in 
raising large crops of beans. His ranch, which is well improved and judiciously cultivated, constitutes 
one of the model farms of the community.
 
In 1877 Mr. Pensinger was united in marriage with Miss Hattic Glass, who was born in Goleta, where 
her father, the late John Glass, was for many years engaged in agricultural pursuits. Mr. and Mrs. 
Pensinger have three children, namely: George, residing in Santa Barbara, is bookkeeper in Eland's 
butcher shop; Jennie, wife of Robert S. Rowe, of Goleta; and Christina, wife of Ed McCaffrey, assistant 
postmaster at Santa Barbara. Mr. Pensinger is a stanch republican in politics, and an active member of 
the Grand Army of the Republic.