Thomas Benjamin Ward
There is in the whole world no higher field of usefulness than that of educational activity, and the men and women who give their lives to the training of the young are of all others the most helpful factors in the development of the race. In laying down the work which he has followed with such zest and success throughout the greater part of his life, Mr. Ward does so with the assurance that he has performed his duties faithfully and well. Since retiring to private life, in 1909, he has given his attention to the cultivation of ranch of thirteen and a-half acres near Santa Rosa, where as a horticulturist and vineyardist, as well as a raiser of chickens, he is meeting with a success which exceeds his expectations.
On both sides of the family Mr. Ward is a descendant of southern ancestors, both his father and mother being natives of Scott county, Ky. However, they were reared and educated in Fountain county, Ind., and there their marriage occurred in January, 1844. The mother passed away in 1905, at the age of seventy-seven, and the fther in 1901, at the advanced age of ninety-five years, seven months and six days. Much of the early married life of this worthy couple was passed in Missouri, and in DeKalb county, that state, their son Thomas was born December 16, 1849. There he was reared and educated and under the wise and careful training of his cultured parents was fitted as few are privileged to be for the special work which he was to follow in life. In 1874, at the age of twenty-four years, he came to California and during that season worked as a ranch hand in Sonoma county. With the opening of the term he became a pupil at the George W. Jones Academy at Santa Rosa, and as soon as he received his certificate, took up the work of teaching in this vicinity. From July, 1875, until 1882, he followed his profession uninterruptedly, but failing health in the latter year made a change of employment imperative. Appreciating the value of outdoor life as a restorative to one impoverished from too close confinement, he again undertook ranch life and followed this steadily until 1890, when he was enabled to resume his profession, following it steadily up to the year 1909, when he resigned his position and retired from the profession. Since then he has turned his attention to the care of his ranch, which is largely devoted to the raising of fruits common to this locality, apples, prunes and peaches, besides which he has a very flourishing vineyard. This however does not represent the limit of his abilities as an agriculturist, for he raises chickens on a large scale, and at the present time his flock numbers seven hundred. Besides the home ranch of thirteen and one-half acres, he also owns a ranch of ten acres, which is also under cultivation and under his immediate supervision.
Mr. Ward’s first marriage occurred in 1878 uniting him with Miss Mattie K. Crane, a native of California, and the daughter of Robert and Susan (Davidson) Crane, natives of Kentucky and Missouri respectively. Six children, evenly divided as to sons and daughters, were born to Mr. and Mrs. Ward, but the two youngest are deceased. Harry Robert, born July 12, 1879, is interested in mines in Nevada City; Charles D., born July 5, 1881, is established in the chicken business in the Rincon valley; by his marriage with Miss Nellie Van Keppel, of Bennett valley, his the father of one child; Ellen Forrest, born December 9, 1882, was married in 1906 to Fred Warner, of Clinton county; Mo., where they make their home with their two children, a son and daughter; Stella May, born May 5, 1884, is following in the footsteps of her father in the choice of a life work; she is a graduate of the Santa Rosa high school and has also taken a five-year course in the state university at Berkeley; all of her training has been with the idea of teaching in the higher grades, and she is now in her second year as instructor in the Corning high school. The death of Mr. Ward’s first wife occurred June 24, 1888, and on August 19, 1893, he was united in marriage with Miss Laura E. Benson, who is a graduate of the Petaluma high school and had taught in Sonoma county for twelve years. A son and daughter were born of this marriage. Mary Benson was born December 25, 1894, and is now a student in the Santa Rosa high school. The son, William Benson, born July 22, 1898, died when sixteen months old. Mr. Ward is held in high esteem for the good that he has accomplished in Sonoma county, both in the line of his profession through a long course of years, and also as a citizen.
History of Sonoma
County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
January 3, 2012 Pages 910-911
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