B. F. Townsend a prosperous farmer near Garden Grove, was born in Bowdoinham, Maine, in 1834, educated at the high school there, and in 1855 left home to take care of himself. For nine years he worked in a wholesale boot and shoe store in Massachusetts, and from there, January 13, 1864, he went to Chicago, Milwaukee, Sioux City and other places; then to Omaha, and to Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas, where he worked on a farm until 1866, teaching school during the winter seasons. Then he went to Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, Kansas, engaging in the manufacture and sale of boots and shoes for five years; then he followed farming three years, and in 1874 came across the plains with a mule team to California. Here he first bought an interest in a mining camp in San Bernardino County, and spent one year with it. Subsequently he bought 160 acres at Garden Grove, where he has made a fine farm and on which he has a beautiful residence. He has also recently purchased 240 acres of peat land in the Bolsa and Chico tract. This land is very productive. The peat beds are from two to twenty feet deep, and very rich. For this land Mr. Townsend has refused $300 per acre. As a business man Mr. Townsend has been eminently successful. In his political sympathies he is a Prohibitionist and in favor of woman suffrage, and socially he is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
December 5, 1869, is the date of his marriage to Miss Anna E., daughter of Captain Isaiah Cooper, a veteran of the last war, who lost his arm at the battle of Vicksburg. Mrs. Town-send is a native of Illinois. The children are Mabel A. and Ernest F.