Without the Abbeys there wouldn't be a Jardine Ranch. Thomas Francis Abbey Senior is the homesteader of Jardine Ranch. The two Jardine boys, John Thomas Jardine and William Robert Jardine, married the daughters of Thomas Francis Abbey Senior. William married Elizabeth Nicholson Abbey and John married Eleanor Nicholson Abbey.
Thomas Francis Abbey Senior was a miller by trade in Stockton on Tee England and decided that he wanted to move to the United States in 1874. He didn't move to California straight away but had jobs as a farmer and miller in the mid west. Here is a picture of Diamond Mills in Kansas City Missouri where he was the head miller.
While in the mid west they became friends of a family called Exlines. The Exlines moved to Paso Robles California and invited the Abbeys to come on out and join them. By the way the Exlines are still the neighbors of the Jardines and the Abbeys.
The Abbeys moved to Paso Robles in 1886 and Thomas Francis Abbey Senior went to work in the local flour mill here in town. Here is a picture of him standing in the door of the flour mill. The building still stands today as the Cool Hand Luke's Restaurant.
Thomas Francis Abbey Senior died in 1891 and his wife kept the homestead until she died in 1902. Elizabeth Nicholson Jardine inherited the homestead at that time from her parents. She said that she had to give $50 to her brother and sisters for the land. Here are the pictures of Thomas Francis Abbey Senior and his wife Eleanor Constable Nicholson Abbey.
