LAMB, WALTER De WITT -- The descendant of two generations of California pioneers, Walter D. Lamb can well take pride in the achievements of his progenitors, for it is to their unbounded faith in the future of this part of the country and their many years of arduous labor, not unmixed with hardship, that much of the present prosperity of this generation is due. Mr. Lamb's grandfather, Anson D. Lamb, and his father, William D. Lamb, came to California in 1869 and a record of their lives will be found elsewhere in this volume.
Walter D. Lamb was born November 28, 1878, on his father's ranch in Fountain Valley and grew up there, attending school in the Newhope school district and later at Santa Ana. From his early youth he was gifted with unusual mechanical ability, and has always been especially successful in operating farm machinery of all kinds, a decided asset in these days when more and more of the farm work is being performed mechanically. Under his father's supervision he early acquired a thorough knowledge of agricultural processes and when quite young went into celery raising, operating on an extensive scale when that industry was at its height. As his father always kept a great many cattle, horses, mules and hogs on his large ranches, Walter Lamb became accustomed to their care in his boyhood and thus became familiar with every detail of the live stock business, especially in feeding and fattening steers on sugar beet tops. He makes a practice of feeding a large drove of cattle for the market each fall and in this he is expert and has few equals in judging beef cattle in Southern California.
In 1917 Mr. lamb purchased his extensive stock ranch comprising 1,000 acres, 160 acres of which is leased to an oil company, located ten miles southwest of Chino, and here he has a herd of high grade Whiteface cattle, headed with thoroughbred stock. His first holdings consisted of a tract of twenty acres in Fountain Valley, near one of his father's ranches, and this he farms to alfalfa. He also cultivates a ranch of 144 acres in this locality; this is still the property of his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth lamb, but she has given each of her children this amount of land for their use. On this ranch Mr. Lamb raises large quantities of sugar beets, lima beans and barley, and in the production of all of these crops he has had signal success.
On March 14, 1900, Mr. Lamb was married to Miss Gertrude DuBois, the daughter of Valentine DuBois, one of Orange County's well-known and influential citizens. Mrs. Lamb, who is a native of Indiana, came here in 1897, graduating later from the Santa Ana high school. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lamb; Velda May graduated from the Santa Ana high school in the class of 1919; Inez Loretta died at the age of two years and five months; and Walter Kenneth. For a number of years Mr. and Mrs. Lamb resided on their twenty-acre ranch in Fountain Valley, but since October, 1916, they have made their home in Santa Ana, in the attractive residence which Mr. Lamb purchased at 415 West Walnut Street.
