Captain Richard Robinson

Captain Richard Robinson is one of Ventura County's prominent horticulturists and stock-raisers, having 2,440 acres of land devoted to the above mentioned pursuits. He was for forty years, the best of his life, a seafaring man, most of that time master of a vessel, and has therefore honorably earned the title of Captain.  The past eighteen years he has been identified with Ventura County and its interests. It is not a little surprising that a man who had followed the sea for forty years, should at once be transformed into a successful horticulturist, and that, too, in a county where the raising of fruit, when he began, was but an experiment. Mr. Hobart and himself were the pioneers in the business in the Upper Ojai Valley. In 1872 the Captain purchased 440 acres of land, on which he built and planted and improved. He now has forty-five acres in fruit, apricots, nectarines, prunes, peaches, apples, olives, walnuts and oranges, all yielding large returns. He has his own dryer on the ranch. In addition to his fruit interests, he is also raising horses, cattle and hay on this ranch. This property is being managed by his son, Richard O. Captain Robinson has bought 2,000 acres of land on the Santa Ana ranch, ten miles north of Ventura, where he is raising Hambletonian horses and grade Holstein and Durham cattle. He has imported a fine Hambletonian horse and several thoroughbred brood mares, and now has about 150 head of cattle and sixty horses. He also raises hay on this place.

    Captain Robinson was born in Thomaston, Knox County, Maine, August 13, 1817. His father, Richard Robinson, was born in North Wales, in 1787, came to Maine when a boy fourteen years old, and was a sea captain, most of his life a master of merchant ships, principally in the cotton trade between New Orleans and different ports in Europe. The last twenty years of his life he was President of the Thomaston Bank. He married Miss Jane Wyllie, a native of Bristol, Maine, daughter of Captain John Wyllie, also a ship owner. They had a family of ten children, four of whom are living, two in California, one in Brooklyn, New York, and one at the old home in Maine. Captain Robinson received his early education in his native State, and at the age of seventeen years began to sail with his father; was two years before the mast, six months second officer, three years chief mate, and after that was mater of the ship Catharine, of which both he and his father owned a part. She sailed between the South ports and New York, Boston, and Europe. The Captain has seen much rough weather, but never lost a ship or had a serious accident. He was married, in 1840, to Miss Mary Wentworth, of Lincolnville, Maine, and daughter of Captain John Wentworth, also a native of that State, and a seaman. Mrs. Robinson sailed with her husband during the greater part of his seafaring life, so he was not deprived of the company of his family. Their union has been blessed with two sons, Richard O. and Charles W., both born at Thomaston, Maine. Charles is now devoting his time to the study of music in Boston at the New England Conservatory of Music. Both the sons are married. The Captain and his family retired from the sea in 1872, after a most successful career, and settled in Ventura County, where they have since resided. In politics Captain Robinson is Republican. He is a quiet, unobtrusive man, never seeking notoriety. He has purchased a neat home on Oak street, Ventura, where he and the partner of his life are quietly spending the evening of their voyage of life's tempestuous sea.

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