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



FRED H. SHELDON belongs almost to the pioneer class of residents in Ventura County. This has 
been his principal home for more than forty years and his interests and business identify him 
with the rich and fertile Ojai Valley around Nordhoff, where he owns one of the highly 
improved and valuable orange groves and ranches.
He is a son of Charles H. Sheldon, whose name also belongs among the early settlers of Ventura 
County. Charles H. Sheldon was born at Comstock, Michigan, June 9, 1839, and represented a 
family that was among the earliest settlers in that district of Southwestern Michigan. At 
Kalamazoo, Michigan, he learned the trade of blacksmith, and followed it as a journeyman until 
1875. In that year coming to California, he worked at his trade in Santa Barbara for a year, and 
then moved to Ventura, where he formed a partnership with N. Vickers. They conducted one of 
the chief blacksmithing concerns of the city until Mr. Sheldon retired in 1900. At Decatur, 
Michigan, he married Miss Elizabeth Young. Their four children are: C. L. Sheldon of Santa 
Paula; Mrs. Tyson of Pasadena ; Mrs. McPhail of Oakland, California; and Fred H.
Fred H. Sheldon was born in Decatur, Michigan, April 26, 1862, was educated in the public 
schools there, but in 1876 at the age of twelve joined his father in Ventura. He continued to 
attend the Ventura public schools until 1880, and then with a view to a better preparation for 
business life he spent two years in the Pacific Business College at San Francisco. On returning to 
Ventura County, he accepted employment as bookeeper with the Blanchard & Bradley flour 
mill at Santa Paula, remaining two years in their service. After that he engaged in ranching in 
different locations in Ventura County, and in 1887 he went to the Matilija Canyon, north of 
Nordhoff and bought the eighty acres upon which he still concentrates his efforts as a farmer 
and fruit grower. Ten acres have been planted in oranges and the balance is hill land used 
chiefly for grazing purposes.
Mr. Sheldon is a member of the Jack Boyd Club of Nordhoff. He is secretary of the board of 
education of Nordhoff, and has been a member of that board since its organization. He has also 
been a trustee of the Matilija Grammar School for thirty years. He is a republican. In Berry 
County, Michigan, October 20, 1901, he married Miss Lillian Pope, a native of Michigan and a 
daughter of A. C. Pope. They have two children: Fred H. Jr., aged sixteen, is a student in the 
University of California, and Kenneth P., aged twelve, is attending the public school at Nordhoff.