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.ht


CHARLES T. WASON.  Few men have had a more varied career than Charles T. Wason. His activities 
have carried him through various stages of ranch life, beginning as a workman on his father's ranch, to 
operating a 1,000 acre ranch on his own responsibility. He has tasted the less strenuous, though 
perhaps equally trying life of a retail furniture dealer, and followed that experience with a four-year 
term as under- sheriff of his bounty. Later he came into possession of a ranch in the Santa Clara Valley, 
through inheritance, and he has since then devoted himself to life on the land.
 
Charles T. Wason was born in Solano County, California, and is thus entitled to the somewhat enviable 
appellation in his state of "Native Son." His natal day was May 6, 1859. and his parents were Milton and 
Maria A. (Borgnis) Wason.
 
Hon. Milton Wason was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on January 17, 1817. Three generations of 
the family were born and reared in that state. The father of Hon. Milton Wason was Judge Wason, 
born on November 2, 1785. , and he was one of the foremost men of his time in New Hampshire. He 
was prominent in public life, serving several terms in the state legislature, and he served as a judge for 
many years. The first of the name to settle in New Hampshire was James Wason, great-grandfather of 
Hon. Milton Wason and great-great-grandfather of the subject.
 
James Wason was the emigrant ancestor of this branch of the family, and he was born in County 
Antrim, Ireland, from which place he emigrated in 1740 with his wife, Hannah ( ) Wason. They located 
on a tract of land in New Hampshire which became the ancestral home of the family, and has 
sheltered as many as five generations of the name. The son of this family of Irish emigrants was Judge 
Wason, who married one Mary Colburn, an English girl who was born within a mile of the Wason 
home, and their son was Milton Wason, father of the subject of this family review.
 
When Milton Wason finished his training at Dartmouth College, he took a law course at the Harvard 
Law School, and followed that very excellent training with a course of reading in the offices of Philips & 
Robbins, a prominent law firm of Boston, Massachusetts, and still later was associated in a similar 
capacity with Bradford Sumner. He was admitted to the bar in 1847, practiced law on his own 
responsibility in Boston for two years and in 1849 came to California on a sailing vessel via the Horn 
route, and thereby won the title of "forty-niner."
 
In common with the prevailing custom of the time, he turned his attention to gold-mining in Eldorado 
and Calaveras counties, without regard for his professional training, and for four years he gave his best 
energies to the pursuit of the yellow-metal, enjoying a very reasonable success. He did not become 
rich, but he met with occasional successes sufficient to hold him to the task for four years. He then 
moved to Solano County and settled on a Government tract, engaging in ranching. He prospered and 
was a leader in his community for years, serving some time as county superintendent of schools. In 
1868 he left the county and came to Ventura County, purchasing 275 acres in the Santa Clara Valley, 
one of the garden spots of a wonderfully fertile and productive region. In 1874 he sold 150 acres and 
continued to operate the remaining acreage. This move was prompted partly because of his having 
been appointed county judge of Ventura County in 1873, he being the first to hold that office. In the 
same year he was elected to the post for a four year term. As incumbent of that office he made a 
name for himself and proved himself a man of great public talent, so that his election to the State 
Legislature in 1879 came as a matter of course. He gave an honorable and efficient service in that office 
and was returned to the Legislature by his constituency in 1881. In 1883 he was appointed to the post 
of deputy-revenue collector.
 
Mr. Wason retired from public life with the close of his term in that post, and retired to enjoy the 
comfort and beauty of his home in the Santa Clara Valley. This place, a 100 acre ranch which he had 
brought to a splendid state of development, was then one of the most delightful spots in the valley. 
He gave his closing years to its care and development, and died there on September 20, 1893. His 
passing was mourned throughout the county and in many parts of the state where he had become 
known in the years of his active career.
 
Mr. Wason was married on October 26, 1852, to Maria A. Borgnia, born in the City of London, England, 
on February 1, 1820. Two sons and two daughters were born to them. The eldest, Maria A., married 
Riall A. Sparks and is now a resident of Los Angeles. Mary Elizabeth is the wife of Chas. A. Deleree, of 
Santa Barbara. Charles T. is the subject of this review, and George M., who married Agnes Jones, of 
Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, and lived on the home place during the life of the father. All four were born in 
Solano County.
 
Charles T. Wason attended the public schools in his native county up to the age of nine, after which 
the family settled in Ventura County, and he continued his studies there in the public schools to the 
age of seventeen. Then he applied himself to work on his father's ranch until he was of legal age, and 
in 1880 branched out for himself. He began by renting a ranch of about 1,000 acres. It was a part of the 
well known Las Pasas Rancho, owned by the late Senator Bard, and he continued to operate the ranch 
until 1887, when he gave it up, settled in Ventura and opened a furniture store. He gave one year to 
that business, and was then appointed to the post of undersheriff, serving in that capacity four years.
 
With the death of his father Mr. Wason inherited a part of the home place, thirty-five acres comprising 
his share. This acreage he has planted to walnuts, one of the most profitable groves in the valley being 
in his possession today.
 
Mr. Wason was married on June 13, 1889, to Miss Ella B. Wason, of San Francisco, a daughter of James 
P. Wason, she being a distant cousin of the family. Three children were born to them. Grace lives at 
home. Maude is the wife of James H. Shields, Jr., of Buhl, Idaho. The youngest child, Thomas, 
seventeen years old at this writing, is a student in the Ventura High School.
 
Mr. Wason has been a republican all his mature years, but has not been active in politics after the 
manner of his father. Mr. Wason was a member of the Ventura Company of the Seventh Regiment, 
National Guard of California. He was one of the original members of that company, the first organized 
in Ventura County, and served for 3 years. With his family he has a high place in the esteem of the 
community at large.