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


CHARLES C. TEAGUE. “From Maine to California” is a familiar rhetorical flourish often employed to 
signify the extent of the United States or of an individual mans interests and travels therein.  It also 
serves in this particular case to describe the progress of Mr. Charles C. Teague from birth to the 
present time.  He was born at Caribou, Maine, June 11, 1873, but since early manhood has found his 
home and interests in California.
 
To those familiar with the citrus and nut growing industries of California, the name of Charles C. 
Teague needs no introduction.  He has been one of the most aggressive leaders in the co-operative 
movement which has been developed to its highest point of efficiency in California for the purpose of 
marketing fruit crops.  Mr. Teague is an old and experienced fruit grower, and as a business man ranks 
among the foremost in the state.
 
His parents were Milton D. and Clara (Collins) Teague.  His father, who was born in Caribou, Maine, in 
1849, was educated and became a merchant there, but in 1880 brought his family to the Middle West 
and at Salina, Kansas, organized the First National Bank, of which he was cashier and manager until 
about two years before coming to California.
In 1893 he completed the journey which he had begun on the Atlantic side of our country and arrived 
in Ventura County.  His death occurred in this state in August of that year.
 
Charles C. Teague received his early education chiefly in the schools of Kansas and in St. John’s Military 
Academy at Salina In 1893 he came with his father and mother to Santa Paula, California, and spent 
one year working in the orchards of N. W. Blanchard.  While Mr. Teague is not “to the manner born” in 
California, he is today as prominently identified with some of its horticultural operations, more 
particularly as a lemon grower, as any other man in the West.
 
His first independent venture on leaving the Blanchard orchards was with his father in the purchase of 
twenty acres near Santa Paula, which he planted in a lemon grove and which is still in the possession of 
the family.  His intimate knowledge of fruit growing and his executive ability have brought him many 
large interests. In 1896 he was made manager of the Santa Paula Horse and Cattle Company.  He also 
took the management of W. L. Hardison’s extensive interests in Ventura County, and managed them 
until Mr. Hardison gradually sold his holdings there.
 
In 1898 Mr. Teague was made vice president and general manager of the Limonera Company, which at 
that time owned 412 acres planted in lemons.  In 1907, when 100 acres of this lemon grove were 
nipped by the frost, the acreage was replanted in walnuts.  In 1906 the company bought the Oliveland 
Ranch, comprising of 2,300 acres.  Of this 600 acres are planted in lemons, 500 acres in hay, 240 acres in 
English walnuts, and the rest in grazing land. The company employs an average of 300 men 
continuously, and during the last season shipped 400 carloads of lemons.  Mr. Teague has the active 
management of one of the largest lemon groves in the world, and the high degree of success which 
has come to the company can safely be credited to Mr. Teague more than to any other individual.
 
The Limonera Company is of such importance in Southern California that it deserves more than 
incidental description.  From an article which appeared in the California Citrograph in December, 1915, 
are taken some facts which are of general interest to all the people of Ventura County.  The Limonera 
Company was organized by Nathan W. Blanchard and N. L. Hardison in 1892 and the first plantings to 
lemons were made in 1893, the original grove consisting of 260 acres of lemons, which at the time 
came near being the worlds record for one orchard.  This was the nucleus of the great Limonera 
orchards, which have since been developed under Mr. Teague’s management until there are now 900 
acres in lemons, of various ages.  The Limonera properties lie along the foothills four miles west of 
Santa Paula.  The company has private wells available for irrigation, and also has 200 inches of water 
from the farmers ditch.  There is every facility for the handling and care of the trees, including 
fumigation and spraying outfits.  The Limonera brands are justly famous, and are shipped and 
marketed through the California Fruit Growers Exchange.  The principal brands are “Selected,” “Loma”, 
”Bridal Veil” and “White Cross.”  A special characteristic of these lemons is their fine keeping quality, 
and this and other reasons account for the premium of from 50 to 75 cents per box which the 
Limonera brands command in the markets.
 
The company has about $90,000 invested in “frost insurance”.  About 65,000 oil heaters are used in the 
groves, averaging about 112 pots to the acre in the full grown orchards.  The system was so complete 
that in 1913, when the frost destroyed many of the California groves, the company shipped a large 
crop.  To furnish oil for the heaters the company has two great cement reservoirs with a capacity of 
100,000 gallons each and also two 5,000-barrel tanks, located on the higher ground, from which oil 
flows by gravity to the orchards.  Not only is the equipment as nearly perfect as any, but there is a 
complete discipline of the forces of men in the employ of the company, and when frost threatens a 
small army are available to keep the pots burning and regular reports are made from all sections of the 
grove by telephone to the central offices.
 
The land now used by the Limonera Company was formerly bean growing land, and only two or three 
men were required to handle the crop of beans, whereas now several hundred are continuously 
employed in the lemon groves, and the value of the crop taken from the orchards is proportionately as 
many times more valuable as the old crop of lima beans.
 
The officers of the Limonera Company are: N. W. Blanchard, president; C. C. Teague, vice president 
and general manager; N. W. Blanchard, Jr., secretary; R. L. Churchill, treasurer and sales manager.  The 
directors are N. W. Blanchard, Sr., N. W. Blanchard, Jr., A. C. Hardison, Guy Hardison and C. C. Teague.
 
When Mr. Teague took the management of the Limonera Company eighteen years ago the methods 
were crude and he developed the method of curing lemons which is largely used throughout the 
state.  It is known as “The Tent System”.  The Limonera ranch has been an experimental farm for many 
years, and has tried out and developed the best methods of growing, curing and packing lemons.  
Under Mr. Teague’s management the ranch has become a sort of mecca for fruit growers all over 
California, and these growers come every year or so for the purpose of studying the improvements in 
production and packing.
 
Mr. Teague is now president of the First National Bank of Santa Paula, president and manager of the 
Teague McKevett Company, which owns 200 acres of lemon orchards; is general manager of the Santa 
Paula Waterworks; general manager of the Thermal Belt Walter Company.  He is a Mason, a member 
of the Los Angeles Athletic Club and a republican voter.
 
In November, 1897, Mr. Teague married Miss Harriet McKevett of Santa Paula, daughter of C. H. 
McKevett, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume.  They have three children: Alice, attending 
the Santa Paula High School; Milton M., now fourteen years of age and a student in the public schools; 
and Charles M., aged seven.
 
It is one thing to grow fine products and yet another to realize a profitable return on them.  Getting 
the value is strictly the results of co-operation on the part of growers.  For many years, Mr. Teague has 
given much of his time to developing and perfecting the co-operative organization, particularly the 
California Walnut Growers Association.  He was largely instrumental in bringing this organization, of 
which he has been and is now president.  This association markets about 70 per cent of all the walnuts 
produced in California.  It is the parent organization with twenty-two local associations which 
individually gather the nuts direct from the growers, process them and prepare them for market, 
leaving to the parent organization the greater task of distributing and marketing the nuts.
 
The association not only properly distributes the nuts so as to provide a good market condition for the 
crop, but also markets the products at cost.  Last year it saved to the growers nearly $100,000 market 
charges alone, besides making stable market condition.
 
Walnuts are standardized and shipped under one brand, and the twenty-two unit associations pack 
and ship under the supervision of the parent company.  The nuts are standardized under a uniform 
grade and packed under the brand of the parent association.  They are sold direct to grocers in the 
East, who deal direct with the trade.  As a result of this arrangement the brokerage has been reduced 
from 6 to 3 per cent.  They have also been able to establish a “crack” so that brokers can depend upon 
90 per cent good nuts.  As a result the associations products have a good standing with the trade, and 
it has been possible to maintain reasonable prices.
 
Mr. Teague is also a member and director of the California Fruit Growers Exchange, which markets the 
citrus crop of California.  The exchange last year marketed 30,000 carloads of oranges and lemons, and 
returned $28,000,000 to the growers.  Without these two strictly co-operative growers organizations 
the citrus and walnut business in California would not be worth the enterprise of the individual 
growers, since both crops for a number of years past have been nearing the point of over-production.  
It was necessary to have a large organization which would be in a position to advertise nationally and 
keep consumption apace with the production and to distribute these products properly at all times.  To 
do this intelligently and successfully requires about as high an order of business ability as can be found 
in any big business.
 
These two organizations are of greatest importance to the well being of the State of California, since 
the walnut and citrus crops are two of the most important grown in the state.  Mr. Teague has long 
recognized that only through the development of these co-operative agencies could the horticultural 
and agricultural interests be on a permanently prosperous basis.  He has given freely of his time to 
perfect both of the associations.