Edward Atherton was born in Capetown, South Africa in 1860, son of John Atherton, a prosperous merchant. In 1886, at age 26, he sailed to California to start an ostrich farm. At the time, ostrich feathers were very fashionable and valuable. Eventually, Edward settled on a sixty-acre farm in Fullerton, where he raised his ostriches, and also became an orange and walnut farmer. Atherton's ostrich farm is the inspiration for author Dora May Sim's Fullerton's history book Ostrich Eggs for Breakfast.
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| Edward Atherton and his ostriches in Fullerton. |
