Yolo-Sacramento-Shasta County CA Archives Biographies.....Ogden, Robert L. 1861 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 22, 2006, 9:29 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

ROBERT L. OGDEN

    Extensive operations mark the agricultural identification of Mr. Ogden with
Yolo county. For many years he has been operating the Spanish ranch, the Clark
ranch and the Bend ranches near Dunnigan, and his lease of the property gives to
him the use of three thousand acres, a vast area embracing some land that is
well adapted to the raising of grain. With the comprehensive equipment provided
for his ranch he is enabled to harvest large crops with promptness and
efficiency. As a rule he sows from fifteen hundred to two thousand acres in
wheat and barley and the average yield is from twelve to fifteen sacks per acre.
In addition to the care of the grain and the other crops raised on the ranch, he
has given considerable attention to stock and raises standard bred horses and
also mules, finding in this department of agriculture a remunerative adjunct to
the grain business.

    The distinction of being a native son of the state belongs to Mr. Ogden, who
was born in the city of Sacramento March 20, 1861, and is a son of the late
Andrew J. and Georgia Ann (Blair) Ogden, natives respectively of Indiana and
Texas. The father, who descended from English ancestry and claimed England as
the native country of his parents, left Indiana during young manhood and came
via the Panama route to California about 1850, very shortly after the discovery
of gold. For a time he engaged in hauling freight to and from the mines. As soon
as he married he established a home in Sacramento. Later he came to Yolo county
and took up one hundred and sixty acres of raw land from the government. The
tract was in the vicinity of Woodland, then a mere cross-roads hamlet. After he
had developed and improved the ranch he sold it and removed to Colusa county,
where he followed general farming. Eventually he returned to Yolo county and
bought land near Plainfield, where he developed a new farm from the primeval
condition of nature. In 1888 he died while still carrying on that place. Since
his demise Mrs. Ogden has made Woodland her home.

    The parental family comprised four sons and four daughters, all of whom
attained mature years. Robert L., the second oldest in order of birth, passed
the years of boyhood principally in Yolo county, where he received his early
education in the public schools. After he left these schools he entered
Hesperian College and took one year of study, later completing a commercial
course at Sacramento, his native city. From an early age he has regarded
agriculture as his life work. The occupation of farming has proved congenial and
even its most monotonous duties he does not find irksome, for every detail
interests him. In Woodland, July 8, 1883, occurred his marriage to Miss Laura
Elizabeth Murray, who was born near Davis, Yolo county, and attended the
Woodland public schools during girlhood years. She is the daughter of Conkling
B. and Emma J. (Wright) Murray, natives of Scotland and England respectively.
They both crossed the plains with ox-teams in the early '50s, the father
following farming and blacksmithing near Davis. The young couple began
housekeeping on a ranch in Shasta county, where Mr. Ogden assisted his father
and a brother in the cultivation of a tract of one thousand acres. At the
expiration of eighteen months he returned to Yolo county and settled on the old
homestead at Plainfield, where he carried forward agricultural operations during
the ensuing six years. From the old homestead in 1893 he removed to the Spanish
ranch near Dunnigan, his present headquarters and the center of his large grain
and stock interests.

    The political views of Mr. Ogden bring him into sympathy with the Republican
party, whose men and measures he upholds with ballot and influence. Averse to
office-holding he has never consented to fill any of the local positions for
which he is so admirably adapted, but prefers to concentrate his attention upon
the cultivation of the ranch and the care of his stock, leaving to others the
anxieties incident to official life. In fraternal relations he holds membership
with the lodge of Odd Fellows at Davis. Three children came to bless his
marriage and the deepest sorrow that has fallen to the wedded life of himself
and wife is the loss of their daughter, Oleta, who passed away in 1898 at the
age of ten years. Another daughter, Laura, is spared to bring sunshine and
happiness into the home. The only son, Fred, a young man of excellent education,
is married and resides on the ranch, of which he acts as foreman.


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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