To reach the venerable age of four score and two years, and still retain all of one's faculties, is evidence of right living. In the life of Peter Asbury Earp, this is aptly demonstrated. As a farmer and fruit-grower he has been an eye-witness of all the changes that have taken place with the passing of the years during his residence in the Sacramento Valley. He was born in Ohio County, Ky., September 12, 1835, the oldest child in a family of eighteen children by the two marriages of his father. His parents were Lorenzo Dow and Nancy (Storm), Earp, the former born in North Carolina, a son of Walter Earp, who in turn was a son of Philip Earp, a Virginian, who served from his colony in the Revolutionary War. Walter Earp, also a Virginian, went to North Carolina in young manhood, and in 1814 removed to Ohio County, Ky., and settled there. The record of this trip has been preserved in the family annals, and is indicative of the hardships and privations endured by the early pioneers. All the household goods taken were carried on a pack-horse over the mountains, while the family walked the entire distance. From day to day they preserved their live coals for fire, stopping at times to revive them until they were ready to start a fire. In due time they arrived safely. Mr. Earp was a school-teacher, and followed his profession in the primitive schools of his time for many years. In 1846 he moved to Monmouth, ILL., where he died at the age of sixty-eight. One of the pioneer experiences of the family was the baking of bread on a flat rock that had been heated in the tire. Their corn meal was ground in a hand-mill or beaten in a mortar.

Lorenzo Dow Earp grew to manhood in Kentucky, and went with the family to Illinois in 1846, where he lived until 1853, when he removed to near Newton, Jasper County, Iowa, and farmed there until his death in 1893, at the age of eighty-four years. He served as justice of the peace and postmaster of Galesburg, Iowa. In politics he was a Republican. During the Civil War he was active in raising troops for the Union cause. He was a member of the Methodist Church, and lived the life of a true Christian. He was twice married, and had nine children by each wife. His first wife, Nancy Storm, was a daughter of Peter and Ann Maria (Souders) Storm. Peter Storm was a son of John Storm of Virginia, who migrated to Kentucky. "While hunting in the vicinity of what is now Louisville, John Storm was captured by Indians, by whom he was held prisoner for two years. His boldness won him his freedom, the Indians making him a chief. He escaped while out hunting, and returned to his home in Kentucky. Nancy Earp died in Illinois, aged thirty-four years.

Peter A. Earp was reared in Kentucky until he was eleven, and then accompanied his parents to Illinois. He received his education in both the free and the subscription schools in the two states, and was early trained to the duties of a farmer. In 1853 he went to Iowa with his father, and remained at home until he was of age, after which he worked as a farm hand for wages. The tales of the riches to be found at Pike‘s Peak fired the young man with a desire to try his luck; and with some friends he outfitted with ox teams and provisions, and on May 11, 1859, started to seek his Eldorado. Before they had got beyond the boundary of their state, they met parties returning who said nothing was to be gained by going to Colorado. They were then induced to go on to California; and after six mouths of traveling they arrived at Hangtown, now Placerville, on September 2. Mr. Earp did not go to the mines for his fortune, however, but sought employment at chopping wood, as the first opportunity that came to his hand; this wood he sold to the boats plying the Sacramento River. This was in Sutter County, just across from Colusa County. He continued in this occupation until 1863, when he bought a part of his present ranch, two and one half miles south of Meridian, and began farming, and improving the property. He set out apple trees, peach trees, prune trees and apricot trees, and raised hay and live stock; and he also had an aviary. He has over thirty acres in prunes and six acres in mixed fruits. The first year he was in this part of the country he cradled seventy acres of grain, in Sutter County. His one hundred sixty acres on the Sacramento River is well improved with good buildings, and is a model ranch property His orchard of thirty acres, principally prunes, is irrigated by a pumping plant; and he has about twenty-five acres in alfalfa, from which he cuts four crops without irrigation.

In 1864, near Grimes, Mr. Earp was married to Martha Helton, of Missouri, who came to California in 1852, crossing the plains with her parents, William and Esther Helton. Mr. and Mrs. Earp have had eleven children, eight of whom grew up : William H., who married Agnes Woodland and died in 1915, leaving eight children; Walter, who manages the home ranch; Nancy Maria, Mrs. J. E. Starnater; George, of Sacramento ; Mary A., the wife of J. A. Messick, of Sycamore; James, in San Joaquin County ; Emma J., the wife of Robert McMahon [McMains], of Gridley; and Bertha E., at home. Mrs. Earp died in 1888; and Mr. Earp reared and educated the children. He is a great reader of current literature. For many years he served as a school trustee. He was also connected with the Good Templars for years. He is an elder and deacon in the Christian Church at Sycamore, and was its first Sunday school superintendent [History Of Colusa and Glenn Counties, California History by: Charles Davis McCormish and Mrs. Rebecca T. Lambert; Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1918; Pages: 404-527].