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


JOHN THOMAS TORRENCE.  One of the old timers of Santa Barbara County, where he has 
lived for more than thirty-five years, John Thomas Torrence has made a success of life both as 
a rancher and as a business man. His interests are now of considerable importance and of 
wide scope in the vicinity of Santa Ynez, and everyone in that section knows and respects Mr. 
Torrence for what he has achieved and also for what he is.
 
Born in Springfield, Illinois, March 7, 1855, a son of James W. and Elizabeth (Skeefe) Torrence, 
he attended the public schools of Illinois as a boy and then came to California with his parents. 
The family first located in Stanislaus County, where John T. Torrence was employed on his 
fathers' farm. In 1880 he came to Santa Ynez and with his brother assumed the active 
management of his father's farm for two years.
 
In the meantime having been thrifty and having confidence in the future, John T. Torrence 
bought 160 acres of his own, and that was the basis of his independent career as a rancher. 
Besides farming his quarter section he also was associated with his father in the ownership of 
800 acres of mountain land, but this was subsequently sold. For more than thirty years Mr. 
Torrence has looked after the improvement and cultivation of his 160 acre ranch, and in the 
meantime his interests have extended to several financial enterprises. He is a director of the 
Solvang Bank and of the Santa Ynez Valley Bank. In the election of November 7, 1916, by a 
vote of almost 2 to 1, he was elected to the office of supervisor of Santa Barbara County. 
Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, a Presbyterian in church faith, and 
politically a democrat.
 
In Santa Barbara October 3, 1883, he married Miss Mary Agnes Hails, a daughter of James R. 
and Abbey (Jones) Hails. Mr. and Mrs. Torrence are the parents of four children: Mary; James 
R., who married Gertrude Connell; Samuel P.; and Margaret I.