Imperial-Los Angeles-Santa Barbara County CA Archives Biographies.....Rockwood, Charles Robinson 
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Author: F. C. Farr (editor, 1918)

   CHARLES ROBINSON ROCKWOOD.—It has been the portion of this honored and
representative citizen of Imperial County, California, to gain more than a usual
quota of experience as a pioneer of the West and especially Southern California,
and he has marked the passing years with worthy accomplishment. He has had many
experiences, which give him a wonderful store of interesting reminiscences.
Genial, kindly, generous and broad minded, he is held by the closest of ties to
a veritable army of friends, and as the first man and permanent settler in the
beautiful Imperial Valley, as well as one who has contributed in splendid
measure to the development and upbuilding of this favored section, he is
specially entitled to be called the "Father of Imperial County." Charles
Robinson Rockwood was born on a farm near Flint, Michigan, May 14, i860. His
parents were of old Puritan stock. His mother was a descendant of John Robinson,
who was the organizer of the Mayflower expedition in 1620. As a boy Mr. Robinson
became inured to the arduous duties of the farm, and in the meanwhile he
attended the primitive schools of his home neighborhood. He thus laid the solid
foundation for the broad fund of knowledge which he has gained through
self-discipline. Bent upon having a better education, he entered the high school
of Flint, Michigan, at the age of fifteen and graduated at the head of his class
in 1878. His father being unable to furnish him with sufficient money to
continue his education, Mr. Rockwood borrowed funds and entered the University
of Michigan in the fall of 1878, and took a course in engineering. He studied
too hard and his eyes failed him before he finished. For three months he was
obliged to wear a bandage while at study. Finally he was obliged to quit the
university and get out into the open. On May 13, 1881, he left home and went to
Denver, Colorado. This was the day before his twenty-first birthday. Upon
reaching Denver he became identified with the engineering department of the
Denver and Rio Grande Railway as assistant engineer. The first engineering work
done by Mr. Rockwood was on the Blue and Grand rivers in Colorado. The following
winter he made a survey in Utah, down the Green River, the other great tributary
of the Colorado. In 1882 he came to California and entered the services of the
Southern Pacific Railway. His first work in their service was in July, 1882,
when he went to Yuma and from there up the Colorado to the Needles, and from
there on surveyed (under William Hood, chief engineer) to Mojave and across the
Mojave Desert. Mr. Rockwood remained in the employ of the Southern Pacific until
1889. During 1889-1890 he served as assistant engineer in the U.S. Geological
Survey on the first irrigation investigations undertaken by the Government.
1890-1892 he was chief engineer for the Northern Pacific Railroad in a project
to irrigate the Yakima Valley, Washington. He left the Yakima Valley in October,
1892, and came to the Colorado Desert for the Arizona and Sonora Land and
Irrigation Company to investigate the Sonora project of that concern. He
reported unfavorably on that project and turned his attention to the canals in
Lower California and California, since known as the Imperial Valley. Rockwood's
reports on this project being favorable, the Denver company decided to go ahead
with it, and organized the Colorado River Land and Irrigation Company for this
purpose. This company failed in the panic of 1893, and in 1895 Mr. Rockwood
decided to undertake the promotion of the project, organizing for this purpose
the California Development Company. He found the work of financing an irrigation
project in the Colorado Desert more difficult than he anticipated, but after
numerous failures, succeeded in starting construction in August, 1900. He
remained with the work as chief engineer until 1906, when due to the breaking
into the Valley of the entire river, the project was thrown under the control of
the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, and Mr. Rockwood resigned. From 1906 to
1909 he lived in Los Angeles, developing land interests in the Valley and
fighting the Southern Pacific Company to get something for himself and
associates out of the stock of the California Development Company, which failed,
the stockholders never receiving a cent. Mr. Rockwood was identified with the
oil and railroad development work in the Santa Maria Valley. As chief engineer,
he located and built the Santa Maria Valley Railroad. In November, 1914, he
returned to the Imperial Valley as chief engineer and general manager of the
Imperial Irrigation District, remaining in this capacity until January 1, 1917.
The work now being projected is practically all in the plans outlined by Mr.
Rockwood. He is now engaged for himself in developing a nine-thousand-acre
cotton ranch under the canal system in Lower California. Mr. Rockwood was twice
married, the first union being to Katherine Davenport of Vacaville, California.
To this union one daughter was born, Estelle, born in 1888. The second marriage
occurred in 1906 to Mrs. Mildred Cassin, a native of St. John, New Brunswick,
Canada. In his political views Mr. Rockwood is a Republican, but has never
aspired to office.



Additional Comments:
From:

THE HISTORY
OF
IMPERIAL COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
EDITED BY
F. C. FARR

IN ONE VOLUME
ILLUSTRATED
Published by ELMS AND FRANKS
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 1918


Printed by Taylor & Taylor, San Francisco


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