Solomon Jewett

He was born in Weybridge, Vermont on March 13, 1835.^[2] His father Solomon Wright Jewett had been a sheep famer and dealer in Weybridge, who travelled to Europe to import sheep to the United States.^[3]

In his early career, Solomon Jewett worked as a schoolteacher in Racine, Wisconsin, and as a ferryboat operator on the Missouri River in Nebraska in 1858, and undertook an aborted journey to Pike's Peak in 1859.^[2]

At the age of eight, he drove a flock of sheep from Vermont, where he was born, to Albany, New York.^[1] He arrived in San Joaquin Valley, California, in 1860, and from there moved to Kern County.^[1] Jewett trailed herds of Merino sheep into California,^[4] first raising sheep on the Tejon ranch.^[1] He then formed a partnership with his brother Philo D. Jewett, at the 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) Rio Bravo ranch north of Kern.^[1] In 1874, they sold their land and flocks to the Wool Growers' Association,^[1] and moved to land north of Bakersfield, which became known as Jewett's Lane.^[2][5]

Solomon then bought land north of Bakersfield and large flocks of sheep, which he finally sold in 1899, after which he switched to cattle.^[1]

In 1865, Jewett planted cotton and built a cotton gin in Kern County, shipping the output to Alameda to be manufactured into fabric.^[6] In 1865 they were growing 130 acres (53 ha) of cotton there, sending it to Oakland for ginning.^[7]

He had in the meantime diversified into alfalfa farming, at three plots: one 640 acres (260 ha) at the Beardsley Canal, one 640 acres (260 ha) one at the McCaffery Canal, and one 320 acres (130 ha) one at the Emory ditch.^[2]

In addition, he opened the first general store in Bakersfield, established its first bank, and founded the Buena Vista Oil Company, which later became the Jewett Oil Company.^[1] He was founding co-president of the Kern Valley Bank, which opened in 1874 on the corner of 18th Street and Chester Avenue in Bakersfield.^[2]

His partnership Jewett & Blodgett secured rights of way for railroads to be laid to the oil field in McKittrick to Maricopa.^[2]

In 1872 he was chairman of the county board of supervisors in Bakersfield, when the county seat moved there.^[2]

He died in Bakersfield, California on 1905-12-06.^[2]

The Kern County Wool Growers' Association sold Rio Bravo on to Louis C. Olcese and John Barker,^[5] and after operating as a sheep ranch into the 20th century^[7] it was later the home of Merle Haggard.^{[5][dubious – discuss]}

• Fidelia Jewett — Solomon's half-sister by his father's second wife^[2]