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


EDWARD B. WILLIAMS of Fillmore is one of the few men who can review the history of Ventura 
County from the standpoint of personal experience and recollection. His view covers almost 
half a century. He knew the county when its lands were divided only among the large ranchers 
and he was a rancher himself in earlier years. He has kept himself abreast of the times in the 
gradual development of the fruit industry and has developed a number of orchards in different 
sections of the county.
While Mr. Williams is an eastern man by birth, almost his first recollections concern 
themselves with California. He was born at New London in Oneida County, New York, 
December 21, 1851. His parents, Edward B. and Elizabeth (Rogers) Williams, were both natives 
of the same place, and they came out to California in 1857. For ten years they lived in San 
Francisco, and on December 15, 1867, arrived in Ventura County. Their home for sixteen years 
was at Saticoy. In 1884 they removed to Santa Paula and lived there until their death. They both 
passed away in the same year, 1907. Edward B. Williams, Sr., was a miller and rancher, and 
followed milling in Northern, and ranching in Southern California.
The education of Edward B. Williams, Jr., was acquired in the San Francisco grammar and high 
schools. He was sixteen years of age when the family moved to Saticoy in December, 1867, and 
he assisted his father in the latter's various operations for a number of years. On December 3, 
1883, he moved to Santa Paula, and engaged independently as a rancher. He and his brother 
had bought 700 acres, a part of the Sewell ranch lying west of the Blanchard lemon orchard. 
For this immense tract they paid only $6,000. A part of the land they devoted to lima beans, 
fourteen acres were in apricots, 6?? acres in lemons, and the rest was in grain, some hay and a 
large portion was cattle range. Mr. Williams directed his efforts to the management of that 
ranch for twenty-eight years. It was sold off in smaller subdivisions. In December, 1911, Mr. 
Williams bought in the Sespe three tracts of twenty-five acres. Most of it is planted in lemons 
and oranges, and many of the trees were set out by Mr. Williams' own hands. All are now in 
bearing condition.
When the Williams family arrived in Ventura County there were neither railways nor 
steamships. Transportation was still by the primitive methods and almost the only products that 
went out of the county were driven out on foot in the shape of livestock raised on the ranges. 
The only boats that came near were schooners, and goods were lightered to the beach at what 
is now the Town of Ventura. The nearest railway point was at Saugus, about forty-five miles 
away, and the nearest steam- ship landing was at Santa Barbara, thirty-seven miles from 
Saticoy. Under such conditions the local production was almost necessarily restricted to 
livestock and barley. The greatest difficulty was found in marketing the grain or fruit crops. 
About 1874 a wharf was put in at Ventura, and while that gave a direct outlet to the farmers of 
the county the freight rates were prohibitive and few of the expected benefits were derived. 
The real relief came with the railway in 1886.
Mr. Williams is an active member of the Fillmore Citrus Growers Association. He belongs to the 
Fraternal Aid Society, to the Presbyterian Church, is a republican in politics, and has 
represented his party in various county conventions.
At Santa Paula, on December 29, 1881, he married Miss Elizabeth Butcher. Mrs. Williams was 
born in New London, Canada, a daughter of Richard and Annie Butcher, who came to Santa 
Paula in 1876. Mr. Butcher was a business man. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are the parents of three 
children: Anita, Howard Edward and Edna B. Anita is the wife of Henry Proctor, Jr., of Santa 
Paula, and they operate the old Williams farm which Mr. Williams sold to them. The son 
Howard Edward is an orange grower in the Sespe Canyon on a place adjoining that of his 
father. He married Susan Mayhew, who was born in California, a daughter of M. R. Mayhew of 
Bardsdale. Mr. and Mrs. Howard Williams have one child. Miss 'Edna B. Williams, the third 
child, is a teacher at Pomona, California.