THE VALLEY OF HEART's DELIGHT
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AUSTIN FLEMMING UMBARGER


Bio- Sawyers
SURNAMES:BOWEN, BLACKBURN

Among the successful and highly respected pioneers of Santa Clara County who did much to improve and build up the Berryessa district as a fruit section, was the late Austin Lleming Umbarger, who was born in Wythe County, Va., on August 6, 1838, but at an early age he accompanied his parents to Marshall, Ill., where he was reared on a farm.  On the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted as member of the thirty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Second Brigade, Second Division, Fourteenth Army Corps, in which he served three years.  Soon after the war was over he started to California via Panama, arriving at San Francisco in 1866, then coming to Santa Clara County.

On November 29, 1874, Mr. Umbarger was married to Miss Josephine Bowen, a native of Barrington, Ill., and they made their home on thier ranch on the Penetencia Creek Road.  Here they set out orchards and brought the place to a high degree of cultivation so that the Umbarger ranch was considered one of the valuable properties of this locatily. They spent the remainder of their days on this ranch. Mrs. Umbarger passed away Marcyh 16, 1912, and the father died November 5, 1918.  He was a member of the Odd Feloows and the G. A. R. On the Umbarger ranch their only daughter, Nellie was born and reared, her education being acquired in the schools of this district and in the San Jose high school.  On June 27, 1911, she was married to Earl E. Balckburn, a native of Callaway County, Mo., who came to California in 1908.  They reside on the Umbarger ranch, which Mrs. Blackburn inherited at her father's death, continuing the care of this valuable property, which is in full-bearing orchards of prunes, apricots, and cherries.  Mr. and Mrs. Blackburn's marriage hsa been blessed with the birth of a daughter, Jean Evelyn, and from thier attractive home, like the Umbargers, they readiate the old-time hospitality.

Transcribed cferoben, from Eugene T. Sawyers' History of Santa Clara County,California,  published by Historic Record Co. , 1922. page 811

DAVID UMBARGER
a California '49er


Bio- Pen Pictures
SURNAMES:  COOPER,

DAVID UMBARGER, residing on the Monterey road, south of San Jose, has the honor of being one of the "Forty-niners" of California. He is a native of Wythe County, West Virginia, born in October, 1815, his parents being Leonard and Margaret (Cooper) Umbarger, both of them residents of Virginia. David was reared in his native county, and resided there until 1838, when he went to Clark County, Illinois. In 1846 he removed to Kentucky. On the second day of April, 1849, he set out for California, and at West Liberty, Missouri, he became one of a party bound for the golden coast. Their journey was a long one, the route adopted taking them by way of San Diego, from which point they went by water to San Francisco, sailing through the Golden Gate on the eleventh of January, 1850. He at once went into the mines of Mariposa County, and afterward to a camp on Curtis Creek, near Sonora. He spent the winter in San Francisco, and in the spring resumed mining at Auburn. From there he went to Nevada, and thence to the Yubas, and on Feather River. In 1853 he came to Santa Clara County, locating where he now resides, he having bought land at this place in 1851. He has made every vestige of improvement to be seen here, and has been an eye-witness to the great transformation which has since occurred in this valley. His ranch is an attractive place of 138 acres, devoted to grain and pasture. It is productive land, and is well kept up.

Mr. Umbarger is a member of the Christian Church, and is a Democrat in politics.

SOURCE:  Pen Pictures From The Garden of the World or Santa Clara County, California, Illustrated. - Edited by H.S.
Foote.- Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1888. page 253 Transcribed by Carol Lackey 


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