Napa-Sacramento-Solano County CA Archives Biographies.....Alsip, A. B. 1819 - 
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Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1891)

A. B. ALSIP, horticulturist, near St. Helena, proprietor of Mountain Cove ranch,
one of the most beautiful in Napa County, situated as its name indicates in a
delightful bend of Conn Valley, near St. Helena. Although it has been the
property of Mr. Alsip for only some five years, he has already improved it in
such a way as to make it not only one of the most valuable ranches in the
county, but even the most valuable.

  Mr. Alsip was born in the State of Maryland, in 1819, where he was brought up
on a farm, and received a good education in the schools of the district. In 1840
he went to Indiana, settling south of the city of Indianapolis, in Morgan
County, and engaged in mercantile business: continuing this until 1853, he set
out across the plains for California, leaving Martinsville on the 12th of April.
On the way there, had a couple of brushes with the Indians, the Sioux and
Pah-Utes being the aggressors. For two hundred miles through the State of Iowa,
they did not see a house, and from Des Moines to Salt Lake no civilization. Time
has changed all that. The train consisted of nineteen persons, with 300 cattle
and horses, four wagons drawn by oxen. The time consumed in the journey was an
even six months. On arriving in this State Mr. Alsip settled first in Sacramento
and engaged in the dairying business, which he carried on until 1860, when he
bought land near Rio Vista in Solano County, still carrying on dairying and
stock-raising. For twenty-five years Mr. Alsip farmed in Solano County, being
one of the leading and prominent agriculturists in that county. In 1885 he came
to Napa County, and purchased his present beautiful estate of 240 acres in Conn
Valley, a spot blessed by nature with abundant rainfall, absolute protection
from frosts or winds by surrounding hills, and possessing a soil of the greatest
fertility. Mr. Alsip has now about fifty acres of grapes, young and old, about
four acres of French prunes, which have made a fine growth, and 200 olive trees,
young but thrifty, as well as apples, etc., all of which are found to do well.
Mr. Alsip states that he has never anywhere seen a better growth of trees than
at Mountain Cove. He has erected a fine stone wine cellar with a storage
capacity of 80,000 gallons, and finds the making of wine a profitable
employment. On the ranch are situated both sulphur and soda springs, as well as
abundant springs of pure cold water, from which the water is piped to house and
grounds.

  Mr. Alsip has been married three times, the first time in Indiana. He has one
son, Mr. E. K. Alsip, the well-known real-estate man of Sacramento. Mr. Alsip is
a Republican, but is not a partisan. He is in every respect a leading .and
representative citizen.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California.

Illustrated, Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast
from the Earliest Period of its Occupancy to the Present Time, together with
Glimpses of its Prospective Future; Full-Page Steel Portraits of its most
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers and also of
Prominent Citizens of To-day.

"A people that takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendents." – Macauley.

CHICAGO
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1891.


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