W. H. Osborn attended school in Amador, San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties and when twenty-one took to ranching on 1600 acres leased from J. W. Mitchell four miles east of Turlock, raising wheat and rye, and for seven seasons he met with fair success. In 1884 he went to Madera County, and eight miles south of the town of that name, farmed 1700 acres of the Mitchell property, but did not meet with even fair returns and he came to Atwater, where he has since lived and become a potent factor in the progress of the town. He owns fifty acres in his home place and twenty acres near by. About thirty years ago Mr. Osborn set out his first orchard and planted alfalfa. He has made his second setting of peaches and has exhibited his fruit at the various fairs in the State. His entire property has been brought to a high state of cultivation.
Mr. Osborn was married on December 25, 1878, to Miss Lucinda E. Bonnett, a native of Iowa, who came to California in 1864 with her parents, David D. and Elizabeth (Ronk) Bonnett. Her father was born in West Virginia on March 21, 1835 and went to Okaloosa, Iowa, as a pioneer farmer in 1858. With a party of emigrants and with a four-horse covered wagon he came with his family to Utah Territory, and then with ox-teams via Salt Lake, to California. He resided in Lockeford for four years, cleared his land of the timber, which he hauled to the fuel yards in Stockton, for the tan bark, and was engaged in farming. Between 1870 and 1880 he farmed rented land, some 1120 acres, on the present site of Denair, Stanislaus County. He retired from active work about five years before he died, being one of the last of the old pioneers to give up. He prospered and invested in 640 acres, which is now under the Turlock Irrigation District and has been colonized. He was twice married. His first wife, Elizabeth Ronk, was born in Indiana on February 6, 1839, and died in Turlock. His second marriage united him with a Mrs. Bradley, who now resides in Minnesota. Mrs. Osborn attended the same school as did her husband, a pioneer school house with but one room where all grades were taught. Of this union of Mr. and Mrs. Osborn five children were born, viz : Oro E., who married Frank E. Smith and died leaving three children, Bertha, Elvira and Richard; Eathel E., Mrs. W. H. Hurd of Patterson, the mother of three children, Elta, Fern and Erma ; W. Lloyd, of Atwater, married Ethel Oswalt and they have six children, Hazel, Ellen, Lester Lloyd, Pauline, Verna and Walter William ; Nathaniel Dade, of Atwater, married Ruby Herrod and they have a son Dean. Nathaniel Dade enlisted for service in the World War but never got over seas. And Arita E., Mrs. Perry Deardorff of Patterson and the mother of a son, Alvin. A great-grandchild, Marvin M. Simpson, son of Bertha Smith Simpson of Tulare, brightens the home circle of the Osborn family. The Christmas holidays always find at the Osborn family home in Atwater the forgathering of the Osborn clan. Mr. Osborn has always been an active Republican and since 1900 has been a member of the County Central Committee. On the organization of Township 8, in February, 1914, he was appointed by the supervisors the justice of the peace. He tried his first case on March 7. He established his real estate office on Front Street in February, 1907, and with the exception of a few months in 1908, when he was a partner with Owen Brothers, has operated alone. He was the local agent for the Jordan-Atwater Tract, Merced Colony Tract No. 2, and the Wood-Arena Tract. He has seen prices go from $25.00 and $40.00 per acre for raw land in 1908, to $200.00 per acre in 1920 and $250.00 and over per acre in 1925, and says that about fifty per cent of the first settlers made good. He has been an eye witness to the changes that have taken place in the last half century, for in 1870 he drove a supply wagon through here to the sheep camps on Owens Creek when he was working for J. W. Mitchell for $1.00 per day, and he has implicit faith in the future of the county. There were then only three ranches, the Atwater, the Dillon and the Ritchie ranches in this section and the roads were, according to Mr. Osborn, "wherever you took a notion to drive." In March, 1925, Mr. Osborn had the pleasure of a visit with his school teacher of 1870, Fanny Walsh, now seventy-nine years of age, who taught fifty-three terms in the schools of the State.
John Outcalt's 1925 "History of Merced County" pages 447-449
W. H. Osborn attended school in Amador, San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties and when twenty-one took to ranching on 1600 acres leased from J. W. Mitchell four miles east of Turlock, raising wheat and rye, and for seven seasons he met with fair success. In 1884 he went to Madera County, and eight miles south of the town of that name, farmed 1700 acres of the Mitchell property, but did not meet with even fair returns and he came to Atwater, where he has since lived and become a potent factor in the progress of the town. He owns fifty acres in his home place and twenty acres near by. About thirty years ago Mr. Osborn set out his first orchard and planted alfalfa. He has made his second setting of peaches and has exhibited his fruit at the various fairs in the State. His entire property has been brought to a high state of cultivation.
Mr. Osborn was married on December 25, 1878, to Miss Lucinda E. Bonnett, a native of Iowa, who came to California in 1864 with her parents, David D. and Elizabeth (Ronk) Bonnett. Her father was born in West Virginia on March 21, 1835 and went to Okaloosa, Iowa, as a pioneer farmer in 1858. With a party of emigrants and with a four-horse covered wagon he came with his family to Utah Territory, and then with ox-teams via Salt Lake, to California. He resided in Lockeford for four years, cleared his land of the timber, which he hauled to the fuel yards in Stockton, for the tan bark, and was engaged in farming. Between 1870 and 1880 he farmed rented land, some 1120 acres, on the present site of Denair, Stanislaus County. He retired from active work about five years before he died, being one of the last of the old pioneers to give up. He prospered and invested in 640 acres, which is now under the Turlock Irrigation District and has been colonized. He was twice married. His first wife, Elizabeth Ronk, was born in Indiana on February 6, 1839, and died in Turlock. His second marriage united him with a Mrs. Bradley, who now resides in Minnesota. Mrs. Osborn attended the same school as did her husband, a pioneer school house with but one room where all grades were taught. Of this union of Mr. and Mrs. Osborn five children were born, viz : Oro E., who married Frank E. Smith and died leaving three children, Bertha, Elvira and Richard; Eathel E., Mrs. W. H. Hurd of Patterson, the mother of three children, Elta, Fern and Erma ; W. Lloyd, of Atwater, married Ethel Oswalt and they have six children, Hazel, Ellen, Lester Lloyd, Pauline, Verna and Walter William ; Nathaniel Dade, of Atwater, married Ruby Herrod and they have a son Dean. Nathaniel Dade enlisted for service in the World War but never got over seas. And Arita E., Mrs. Perry Deardorff of Patterson and the mother of a son, Alvin. A great-grandchild, Marvin M. Simpson, son of Bertha Smith Simpson of Tulare, brightens the home circle of the Osborn family. The Christmas holidays always find at the Osborn family home in Atwater the forgathering of the Osborn clan. Mr. Osborn has always been an active Republican and since 1900 has been a member of the County Central Committee. On the organization of Township 8, in February, 1914, he was appointed by the supervisors the justice of the peace. He tried his first case on March 7. He established his real estate office on Front Street in February, 1907, and with the exception of a few months in 1908, when he was a partner with Owen Brothers, has operated alone. He was the local agent for the Jordan-Atwater Tract, Merced Colony Tract No. 2, and the Wood-Arena Tract. He has seen prices go from $25.00 and $40.00 per acre for raw land in 1908, to $200.00 per acre in 1920 and $250.00 and over per acre in 1925, and says that about fifty per cent of the first settlers made good. He has been an eye witness to the changes that have taken place in the last half century, for in 1870 he drove a supply wagon through here to the sheep camps on Owens Creek when he was working for J. W. Mitchell for $1.00 per day, and he has implicit faith in the future of the county. There were then only three ranches, the Atwater, the Dillon and the Ritchie ranches in this section and the roads were, according to Mr. Osborn, "wherever you took a notion to drive." In March, 1925, Mr. Osborn had the pleasure of a visit with his school teacher of 1870, Fanny Walsh, now seventy-nine years of age, who taught fifty-three terms in the schools of the State.
John Outcalt's 1925 "History of Merced County" pages 447-449
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