Samuel Bowron and his wife Martha moved to San Diego County from Kansas in 1886, settling in the Poway Valley. He started out planting orchards and vineyards for others, soon acquiring some land of his own. He did all right, as an item from the San Diego Union of November 6, 1893 indicated.

“Mr. Bowron, a thriving rancher of Poway, has constructed for use on his ranch a raisin stemmer and grader, both of which work admirably and show considerable ingenuity on the part of their inventor,” stated the article, quoting from another local paper of the day, the Nuevo Sentinel, the paper of the community which would eventually become Ramona.

Samuel obviously needed mechanical help on his ranch, as well as farmhands. The article concluded that “Mr. Bowron has about four tons of raisins in hand, as well as a large quantity of other fruits.”

Bowron Road in Poway is named for this pioneering family.

Sources for this post included historic San Diego County newspapers, the 1899 San Diego City and County Directory, the 1993 book Paguay by Louhelen Elizabeth Hassan and the research of Mary Shepardson, journalist and vice-president of the Poway Historical and Memorial Society.

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