Los Angeles-Statewide County CA Archives Biographies.....Bixby, Jotham January 25, 1831 - February 9, 1917
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com July 11, 2010, 12:40 pm

Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Pages 53 - 54
Author: The Lewis Publishing Company

     JOTHAM BIXBY was one of the men of great power and resourcefulness among 
the first generation of Americans in Southern California.

     In part, at least, he inherited his energy and vision from his ancestors, 
who for generations had been woodsmen, pioneers and farmers of old New 
England. He was born at Norridgewock, Maine, January 25, 1831, son of Amasa 
and Fanny (Weston) Bixby. His grandfather, Joseph Weston, was a pioneer of 
Maine and was one of the ill fated expedition of Benedict Arnold to Quebec in 
the first year of the American Revolution. He died as the result of exposure. 
Jotham Bixby was one of a family of twelve children. Like thousands of other 
hardy New England youths, he was stirred to venture by the tales that came 
from California early in 1849. In 1852 he and his older brother, Marcellus, 
started for California, going around the Horn and landing at San Francisco. 
For five years he worked in the placer mining district of Amador County, and 
in 1856 came south, putting his capital into a flock of sheep, and for nine 
years, was a sheep grower and wool dealer in San Luis Obispo County.

     In 1866 his older brother, Llewellyn Bixby, and their cousins, Benjamin 
and Thomas Flint, acquired Rancho Los Cerritos, of 27,000 acres, in the 
vicinity of Los Angeles, and in 1869 Jotham Bixby acquired a half interest in 
this ranch, which thereafter was held under the partnership name of J. Bixby & 
Company. This was one of many great land grants in Southern California that 
had been for years largely unproductive under the methods of the old regime of 
Spanish and Mexican owners, and it was due to the quality of American 
enterprise displayed by such men as Bixby and his associates that a new era 
dawned for Southern California stock raising and agriculture. From that time 
forward Jotham Bixby was rated as one of the largest and wealthiest stock men 
in this part of the state. Afterwards he and his associates purchased 17,000 
acres of Rancho Palos Verdes, a third interest in Rancho Los Alamitos of 
29,000 acres, and Mr. Bixby acquired as an individual 7,000 acres in the 
Ranchos Santiago de Santa Ana. At one time he had 30,000 head of sheep on the 
range, and sheared 200,000 pounds of wool annually. During the later years of 
his life his ranching was more concentrated, and he specialized in a splendid 
herd of Holstein-Friesian cattle for dairying purposes. Jotham Bixby was 
president of the Bixby Land Company, the Palos Verdes Company, the Jotham 
Bixby Company, was vice president of the Alamitos Land Company, the Alamitos 
Water Company, was president of the Chino Valley Cattle Company of Arizona, 
and was one of the organizers and president of the Pacific Creamery Company at 
Buena Park, in Orange County, manufacturing condensed milk and cream. He was 
president of the National Bank of Long Beach and vice president of the Long 
Beach Savings Bank & Trust Company. He was a close financial associate of 
Isaias W. Hellman.

     Today in Southern California are hundreds of thousands of home and 
property owners whose chain of title runs through holdings once owned by 
Jotham Bixby. From the Los Cerritos Rancho alone was taken the land for the 
sites of Long Beach, Clearwater, Hynes, Somerset and Bellflower. In the 
founding and upbuilding of Long Beach Mr. Bixby well earned the honorary title 
of father of the town. He was one of its original incorporators, aided in 
laying out its streets and avenues, organized the first bank and other 
business enterprises, and through all the years that followed he made his 
influence potent in shaping the development of the city, so that it has become 
one of the most famous resorts of the world. His abilities were always on the 
constructive side, and in this he had sufficient work to satisfy all his 
ambitions without resorting to politics, and was never a candidate for any 
public office.

     Jotham Bixby was eighty-six years of age when he died, at Long Beach, 
February 9, 1917. He married at San Juan Bautista, California, December 4, 
1862, Margaret Winslow Hathaway, whose father was Rev. George W. Hathaway, of 
Skowhegan, Maine. Mrs. Bixby died at Monrovia, California, in February, 1927. 
They had celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1912. The seven 
children born to their marriage were: George Hathaway, Mary Hathaway, Margaret 
Hathaway, Henry Llewellyn, Rosamond Read, Fanny Weston and Jotham Winslow. 
Only three survived their father, George Hathaway, Fanny Weston and Jotham 
Winslow.

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