Yolo-Solano County CA Archives Biographies.....Cecil, Burlin 1845 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 10, 2005, 10:46 am

Author: Tom Gregory

BURLIN CECIL

    Throughout the development of California, Yolo county has ever been to the
front, her citizens, substantial and progressive, having exerted in her behalf
all the assistance in their power to make her one of the most highly cultivated
and modernized counties in the state. Burlin Cecil, a retired farmer of Yolo
county, has done much toward the improvement of this section and, in
retrospection, views a life well spent and holding few regrets. He was born
January 20, 1845, in Scotland county, Mo., the son of Samuel Stewart and Lillie
B. (Richardson) Cecil, natives of Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively. The
Cecil family came originally from England, where the grandfather, John Cecil,
was born, being closely related to Lord Burleigh and Lord Salisbury, who were
both Cecils. Samuel S. Cecil was reared in Scotland county, Mo., attending
public schools there and also Fayette College, and afterward he took up farming
there. On April 10, 1863, with his family he joined a train of one hundred and
five wagons en route to California, the journey holding one event which the
emigrants never forgot. At Deep Creek, Utah, they came upon a party of United
States soldiers engaged in conflict with a large band of Indians, who had
already killed several of the white men. The pioneers promptly took a hand in
the battle, routing the red men and safely guarding their own company until
reinforcements arrived. Proceeding on their way without further incident, they
reached their goal in July, then separated to locate in various sections of the
country. The Cecil party went to the Robert Armstrong ranch in Solano county,
arriving there July 23, and thereupon the father and son took charge of the farm
until their removal to Oregon with their stock. They remained in the Upper
Willamette valley about eighteen months, after which they returned to Yolo
county by horse teams. For one year after their return they were located on the
Ike Chiles ranch of five hundred acres near Davis. About one year after this the
father purchased a farm which his sons managed until 1870, when Burlin Cecil
withdrew to take up clerking in a mercantile store in Davis, remaining thus
engaged for two years. Later he farmed the well-known Lillard ranch and
subsequently, in 1882, bought one hundred and sixty acres which he later sold.
He then purchased two hundred and fifty-one acres northwest of Davis, upon which
he resided until December 22, 1910, when he sold it and retired from active farm
life to a comfortable home in Davis, and has since then devoted his attention to
the real estate business, making a specialty of buying and selling farm lands.

    In speaking of his agricultural success Mr. Cecil remarked that he had
secured as high as twenty-one sacks of wheat to the acre, each sack weighing one
hundred and fifty-one pounds. Barley crops frequently ran twenty-five sacks to
the acre, also an exceptional record. In connection with his general farming
pursuits, he raised also cattle, hogs and mules with profit.

    Mr. Cecil was united in marriage May 12, 1872, with Miss Eliza A. Lillard,
who passed away in Davis December 22, 1908. Eight children were born to them, as
follows: Bertha, now Mrs. George A. Gordon, of Davis, who has two children,
George and Beryl; Burlin, Jr., farming near Davis, who wedded Miss Grace Rogers,
and who has a daughter, Merrea; Ida Belle, the wife of William P. Gordon, of
Davis, who has a daughter and a son, Cecil and Burleigh; Lola, now Mrs. W. H.
Pike, of Oakland, who has two daughters, Ruby and Buryl; Grace, Mrs. Roy Alter,
of Roseville, who has a son, Wesley; Lillard, of Oakland, who married Jessie
McIntyre; Hazel, Mrs. R. Hildebrand, of Sacramento, who has a daughter, Helen;
and Granville. Mr. Cecil has been much interested in education and has been an
advocate of and liberal contributor toward the upbuilding of churches and
schools. Politically he is a stanch Democrat.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]


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