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


ROBERT S. ROWE is a business-like farmer and rancher in the rich and attractive country around Goleta 
in Santa Barbara County.  To farm and make a success of it in California requires those same 
qualifications of energy, enterprise and intelligent direction which are at the foundation of a business 
success in any line of endeavor.  Mr. Rowe is abundantly equipped in that respect, and although 
already independently situated is quite a young man in years.
 
A resident of California since he was five years of age, he was born in Plymouth, England, January 15, 
1878, a son of Herbert William and Eliza (Popplestone) Rowe.  Both parents were born in England and 
are now deceased, and both represented some old families of Southwestern Britain His father came 
to America and settled at Goleta in 1883, and there afterward engaged in farming and stock-raising.
 
While growing up Robert S. Rowe attended the public schools at Goleta, and at the same time secured 
a practical training in the vocation which has been the object of his best endeavors for a number of 
years.  No time was lost after he left school before he and his brother Russell engaged in farming.  
Subsequently they bought ninety-three acres near Goleta, and that land they have since developed as 
a valuable olive, lemon and walnut plantation.  The brothers conducted this ranch in a highly profitable 
manner, and in 1910 they were able to extend their enterprise on a larger scale.  They then bought an 
additional 138 acres, known as the Buck Place and a quarter of a mile from the original ranch.  Russell 
Rowe is now the active manager of the second ranch, and that is devoted to walnuts and beans.  Mr. 
Robert Rowe still gives his active supervision to the ninety-three acre place.
 
Not yet forty years of age, and extremely busy with his successful farming, Mr. Rowe has found little 
time for outside interests.  He is a democrat, is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of 
Elks and the Fraternal Brotherhood of Santa Barbara, and with his family worships in the Catholic 
Church.
 
On May 24, 1903, he married Miss Genevieve Pensinger.  Her father, Jacob Pensinger, was one of the 
old settlers and ranchers at Goleta.  Two children have been born of their union: Barbara and Robert