Ventura County Republican Project: History and Genealogy

Ventura County Republican Project: History and Genealogy

"A Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura, California" (1891), page 459.

Nathan W. Blanchard

Nathan W. Blanchard, a prominent pioneer of Ventura County and founder of the town of Santa Paula, was born in Madison, Maine, July 24, 1831. His father, Merrill Blanchard, was born in Abington, Massachusetts, July 18, 1806. His grandfather, Dean Blanchard, and his great-grandfather, Captain Thomas Blanchard, and his ancestors two generations back were natives of the same State. His ancestor was of French Huguenot stock, who settled near London, having been driven from his own country by persecution. His ancestor, Thomas Blanchard, the ancestor of a large part of the New England families of that name, came from London in 1639. In the manufacturing interest of that Commonwealth they have been active as machinists and inventors, doing a large share in the production of labor-saving machinery. Mr. Blanchard's mother, nee Eunice Weston, was born in Madison, Maine, on the Kennebec River, in 1804, the daughter of Deacon Benjamin Weston. At that point two generations of the family had resided. Mr. Blanchard's parents had six children, three daughters and three sons, and they are all living. Mr. Blanchard was educated at Houlton Academy and Waterville College - now Colby University - where he received his degrees.

In 1854 he came to California and engaged in mining for a season near Columbia, Tuolumne County, and in the fall went to Iowa Hill, Placer county, and conducted a meat market there for four years; then he went to Dutch Flat, continuing in part in the same business several years longer. From 1864 to 1872 he was engaged in lumbering with excellent success. Selling out he came to Ventura County and in partnership with E. B. Higgins purchased the site of the town of Santa Paula - 2,700 acres. In the fall of 1872 he bought Mr. Higgins' interest and sold it to E. L. Bradley. The first at once began to make valuable improvements on the property, in fencing and conducting water to it from the bed of the creek two miles above the town. From it they also obtained water for the lands and power for their flouring-mill, which they built. This mill and all the property were managed by Mr. Blanchard, Mr. Bradley being a non-resident. In 1885 the property was partitioned, and Mr. Blanchard now gives his whole attention to the production of citrus fruits. In 1874 he had an orange grove of 100 acres, planted by Mr. Clark, who did the work for an interest on the same; and they afterward bought Mr. Clark's interest. In 1876 they budded 1,000 trees to lemons and as many more to different varieties of oranges. The orchard remained so long in an unbearing condition that most people had decided that it would never bear; and not until 1888 did the orchard return a profit. In 1889 Mr. Blanchard shipped 8,386 boxes of oranges and 2,540 boxes of lemons. The prospects now are that it will continue to increase in productiveness for many years. No fertilizer has been used; the soil being a very deep, rich loam.

The family are delightfully situated in their California home, surrounded with the trees and flowers of their own planting, and overlooking the town which Mr. Blanchard platted and with which he has had so much to do in its improvement and growth. He has also aided materially in the construction of the academy; and is now president of its board of trustees; has also taken a lively interest in the public schools, serving as trustee of the same several years. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the three principal branches of Freemasonry, having passed the chairs in both the blue lodge and the commandery and also the lodge of Odd Fellows. In his religious views he is a Congregationalist, and in his political a Republican. He is a good, straight-forward business man and unassuming in his manner. While in Placer County, he was elected District Collector and served two years, then was elected to the State Legislature, and subsequently declined a nomination tendered him, when the nomination insured an election. In the Legislature he served efficiently on the Committee on Education, and was author of a bill enacted into a law which suppressed an immorality prevalent in the mining towns of the State, namely, bands of dancing girls, who periodically visited the mining communities, played the tambourine and made the drinking saloons their headquarters.

In the fall of 1864 he went East on a visit, and December 21, married Miss Ann Elizabeth Hobbs, a native of North Berwick Maine, and daughter of Wilson Hobbs, an old resident of that state. They have two daughters and one son, all born in California, namely: Sarah E., Eunice W. and Nathan W. The elder daughter is now in San Francisco studying art.

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Descendants of Nathan Weston Blanchard

1 Nathan Weston Blanchard b: 24 Jul 1831 in Madison, Maine d: Aft. 1910 in Ventura County, California
.. +Anne Elizabeth Hobbs b: 1838 in Maine m: 03 Dec 1864 in Maine d: Aft. 1910 in Ventura County, California
........ 2 Eunice Blanchard b: Sep 1871 in California
........ 2 Nathan Weston Blanchard, Jr. b: 16 Oct 1873 in California d: 05 Feb 1932 in Santa Paula, California
............ +Josephine Ester McClelland b: 07 Jan 1884 in Oakland, California m: 1908 in California d: 07 Apr 1981 in Santa Paula, Ventura County, California
................... 3 Nathan W. Blanchard b: 1909 in Ventura County, California
................... 3 Dean Hobbs Blanchard b: 1912 in Ventura County, California
................... 3 Thomas Goodwin Blanchard b: 1916 in Ventura County, California
................... 3 Eliot McClelland Blanchard b: 07 Jul 1914 in Ventura County, California d: 20 Jul 1965 in Santa Paula, Ventura County, California
....................... +Elizabeth Irene Manger
............................. 4 Living Blanchard
................................. +Living Chess
............................. 4 Living Blanchard
................................. +Living Hennoste
........................................ 5 Living Blanchard
............................. 4 Living Blanchard
........ 2 Sarah Blanchard b: 1869 in California



Ventura County Republican Project: History and Rootsweb Genealogy posted by Jon Miller and Tony Larson.