Charles H. Sheldon

Charles H. Sheldon was born in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, June 9, 1839, and is a descendant of an English family. His grandfather, Timothy Sheldon, was long a resident of Gouverneur, St. Lawrence County, New York, and his father, Henry Sheldon, was a native of that place, born July 2, 1814. Mr. Sheldon's mother, nee Betsey Botsford, was born in Darien, New York, September 14, 1817, her ancestors being English and Welsh. The subject of this sketch was the oldest of three children. He finished his educated in the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary. His uncle, Robert Botsford, being a blacksmith, Mr. Sheldon, early in life, conceived a liking for that trade, learned it with his uncle, and has made it his life work.

    At President Lincoln's first call for troops, Mr. Sheldon enlisted; but, the quota of his State, Michigan, being full before he was mustered in, and being determined to engaged in the great struggle, he went to Chicago and joined Battery C, Chicago Light Artillery. He went to Washington, where the Captain, Richard Busteed, Jr., was taken with inflammatory rheumatism. General Berry, then Chief of Artillery, went over to their camp on East Capitol Hill, and informed them that they were at liberty to join any branch of the service or go home, as they liked, the battery not having been mustered into the United States service. Mr. Sheldon then enlisted in the First New York Light Artillery, Battery G, and served three years without receiving a wound or being a day from duty. He participated in the following battles: Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Auburn Hill, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Habor, and several others; and during all this time he was blacksmith for his battery, shoeing all the horses and keeping every thing in repair.

    In 1875 Mr. Sheldon came to Ventura County, California, and in partnership with Mr. Vickers built their present shop. They are also engaged in the manufacture of wagons and carriages, and are doing a thorough and reliable business. Mr. Sheldon owns a ranch of eighty acres, sixteen miles from town, which he is devoting, principally, to the cultivation of orange trees, Washington Navels. Water is flumed to this place. He is also interested in bees, having 200 stands on his ranch.

    In 1861, Mr. Sheldon was married to Miss Elizabeth Young, a native of England, by whom he had six children, four born in Michigan, viz.: Frederick Henry, Emma C., Sarah S., Charles Leroy, and two born in Ventura County, Harriet E. and Maudie. Mrs. Sheldon having died in 1881, Mr. Sheldon was married, in 1883, to Mrs. Nellie Bradley, a native of Indiana, and daughter of Gabriel Newby, a Quaker of that State. Mrs. Bradley had two daughters, Edith R., born in Santa Barbara, California, in 1869 and Effie N., born in Ventura, in 1873. Mrs. Sheldon is the owner of a good home in Ventura, in which they reside. The subject of this sketch is a member of the Masonic fraternity; and was a charter member of the Grand Army of the Republic, in Ventura. Mr. Sheldon is a respected and worthy citizen, and no man is more entitled to respect than he, who by honest industry makes a livelihood and a competency.

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