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

O. A. WADLEIGH. For over forty years members of the Wadleigh family have been identified 
with the fortunes of this section of California and two of the most prosperous ranchers and 
planters in this locality are Mr. O. A. Wadleigh and his son, Mr. Frank Wadleigh. The latter has 
an extensive bean plantation in the vicinity of Somis, in Ventura County.
O. A. Wadleigh was born in Canada January 6, 1852, a son of Henry L. and Annis (Austin) 
Wadleigh. His father died in East Bolton, Canada, in 1882, aged sixty-six, and the mother lived 
to attain her eightieth year, dying in California. Both parents were members of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church at Bolton.
Next to the oldest in a family of four children, O. A. Wadleigh received a substantial education, 
graduating from high school at the age of twenty. In the meantime his interests had been 
turned in the direction of the Far West, and he soon afterward arrived in California. For some 
years he was engaged in ranching in Santa Barbara County, but has lived in Ventura County 
since 1889. He is one of the men who began on limited capital and have come to a place where 
they command and direct some of the important resources of the county. His plan of farming 
for some years was renting, but eventually he made enough to purchase, and he is now owner 
of an estate of 14,000 acres not far from Newbury Park.
November 26, 1882, O. A. Wadleigh married Gertrude Kleckner, who is a native of 
Pennsylvania. Their three children are Frank 0., Fred H. and Dacy G. O. A. Wadleigh is a 
republican and fraternally is affiliated with Oxnard Lodge No. 341, Ancient Free and Accepted 
Masons.
Mr. Frank O. Wadleigh was born in Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, September 24, 1884. He 
was reared in Ventura County, attended the public schools there until sixteen, following which 
he had a six months' course in a business college at Los Angeles. His first practical business 
experience was one year spent in the Llewellyn Iron Works at Los Angeles, but he gave up 
industry or commerce in favor of ranching and agriculture. Returning to Ventura County, he 
found employment on his father's ranch on the Del Norte Mesa grant, consisting of 200 acres. 
for a period of nine years, and has since been farming that fertile and valuable tract for 
himself, half of which he has recently purchased. His crop is almost exclusively beans and he is 
one of the practical and expert bean growers in Ventura County.
Fraternally he is affiliated with Oxnard Lodge of Masons, Oxnard Chapter Royal Arch Masons, 
the Knights Templar Commandery of Ventura, the Mystic Shrine of Los Angeles and the Order 
of the Eastern Star. In political matters he is a republican. In Chatsworth, California, Frank 
Wadleigh married Rosa Glasscock. They were married January 4, 1907, and have two children : 
Vena, now eight years of age and in the, public schools, and Orville, aged six years. Mrs. 
Wadleigh is a native of Southern California and a daughter of L. V. Glasscock, who has been a 
resident of California since 1874 and is now ranching near Santa Paula. He is a nephew of the 
late Dr. A. A. Glasscock of Ventura. Mrs. Wadleigh is a member of the Order of the Eastern 
Star.