SHAW, ASBURY J. -- Numbered among the successful ranchers of the El Toro district is Asbury J. Shaw, who is equally proficient as a machinist, as he does a great deal of work on automobiles, gasoline engines, threshers and all kinds of farm machinery, maintaining a well-equipped blacksmith shop on his place. A native son of California, Mr. Shaw was born on the original El Toro ranch in Aliso Canyon on October 2, 1891. His parents were R. L. and Catherine Ellen (Little) Shaw, natives, respectively, of Texas and Georgia. Besides the subject of this review, a daughter, Fannie Pearl, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Shaw and she is now the wife of Albert Gibson, a rancher on the Irvine ranch. R. L. Shaw was twice married; by his first marriage he had two children, one of whom is living, Frank Shaw of Laguna Beach. Catherine Ellen Little was also married twice, her first husband being Peter Fraser Groover, who was born in Georgia. They came to California about 1872, and located in Fresno County, where they were engaged in sheep raising; afterwards they came to Gospel Swamp, now Talbert, and later to Aliso Canyon, where they homesteaded and farmed. Mr. Groover died at Downey in 1881. Of this marriage there were five children: Frank, who is a mechanic, resides in Arizona; H. L., also a mechanic, makes his home in Santa Ana; F. E. farms on the Irvine ranch; Hattie Gertrude is Mrs. Boxley of Los Angeles; V. D. also farms on the Irvine ranch. About three years after her husband's death, Mrs. Groover married Robert L. Shaw, who came with his parents across the plains in an ox-team train, in the early fifties. He followed ranching in Los Angeles and Orange counties and he and Mrs. Shaw still make their home in Orange County.
Asbury J. Shaw spent his boyhood days on the Aliso Canyon ranch, and early in life started to earn his own way, working out as a farm hand on the neighboring ranches, earning at first only ten dollars a month. He became expert at handling mules when he was only a boy and this helped him to get employment in hauling cement and other heavy freight at the time of the building of the great Los Angeles Aqueduct. He was considered one of the best drivers on the entire job and handled a team of twelve mules perfectly.
In 1913 Mr. Shaw began ranching operations for himself by leasing 150 acres of the Santa Margarita ranch, the property of James O'Neill. Since then he has added to his acreage and now has 275 acres, all plow land, which he devotes to grain, barley and hay being his principal crop. He has a $5,000 equipment on his place, owning ten head of horses, six mules, a twelve-foot Deering header, a fifteen horsepower Fairbanks-Morse portable engine and a separator for threshing either grain or beans. Recently he has been engaged in rebuilding a Ventura threshing machine and putting a gasoline engine in shape, and with this combination he will thresh his own crop of barley and beans, as well as threshing for others in the neighborhood. Mr. Shaw's blacksmith shop is also equipped with wood-working machinery and with his natural aptitude toward everything mechanical he does considerable work in this line. For several months he was at Yuma, Ariz., where he was engaged in running a gasoline hoist at the old Pecachio gold and silver mines.
Mr. Shaw's marriage, which occurred in October, 1916, united him with Miss Ruby Leona Alsbach and one child, Marion Lucine, has added to their happy home life. Of a genial disposition, Mr. Shaw has many friends who admire him for his integrity and his sterling, industrious character. While generally voting the Democratic ticket in national elections, Mr. Shaw is broad-minded and nonpartisan in local affairs, aiming to vote for the best men and measures.
