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 P. TROTTER. In the earlier years of his life John P. Trotter made several moves and 
changes in his occupations and saw a good deal of the country, but since 1891 has been steadily 
identified with Ventura County and has made a notable success as a homesteader, business 
man and fruit grower.
He was born at Carrollton in Carroll County, Missouri, November 30, 1859, a son of Hamilton 
and Mary Jane (Hill) Trotter. His father was also born in Carrollton, Missouri, and was a 
merchant there until he entered the army during the Civil war, and died soon after beginning 
service.
The early life of John P. Trotter was spent in his native town, where he had the advantages of 
the public schools until he was twenty years of age. He then went out to the far Northwest as it 
was forty years ago, and spent two years working on a dairy farm at Bozeman, in Gallatin 
County, Montana. Though very young at the time, he showed a capacity for responsibility, and 
was promoted to foreman of a big stock ranch, a place he retained for five years.
Following that Mr. Trotter returned to Missouri, the old home of his childhood, and was there 
married to Miss Emma Jane Paris, October 25, 1888. To this union one child was born, a son, 
who died in infancy. For three years he remained in Missouri engaged in farming and stock 
raising.
Seeking to better his condition in the Far West, Mr. Trotter came to Ventura County and was a 
homesteader on a 160 acre tract in the Pole Canyon. After farming that place five years, he 
sold it and moved to Fillmore, where he engaged in the livery business, in which he continued 
eleven years.
During this period Mr. Trotter was bereft of his faithful wife, who died July 31, 1898, while on a 
visit to her father's home in Carrollton, Missouri. Six years later, September 1, 1904, in San 
Diego, California, Mr. Trotter was united in marriage to Miss Mabel Edith Anderson. To this 
union two daughters were born, Emma and Doris. Mrs. Trotter is a native of Illinois but was 
reared in Nebraska, having the advantages of the public schools there as well as being a 
student in the State Agricultural College in Manhattan, Kansas, after which she taught in the 
public schools of Nebraska two years. She moved to California in July, 1900, with her parents, 
W. N. and Hettie L. Anderson.
In the year 1909 Mr. Trotter bought forty acres of land near Fillmore, now in the limits of 
Fillmore. This he has successfully developed as a fruit and walnut proposition. The forty acres 
when he bought it was wild land. In its virgin state it was a willow patch. His resources and 
energies have converted it into a high state of cultivation. He built the house where he now 
resides with his family. Around the home he has a family orchard of two acres, containing all 
the different kinds of fruit grown in California, and affording an abundant supply for family use. 
On the commercial side of his enterprise he has thirty acres planted in walnuts, two acres in 
avocados and five acres in lemons.
Mr. Trotter was one of the organizers and since organization has been a director of the 
Fillmore State Bank. He is also one of the organizers and a director of the Fillmore 
Improvement Company, which is now putting up a two-story brick block, part of which is 
designed as quarters for the Fillmore State Bank. Fraternally Mr. Trotter is a member of the 
Masonic order.