Cawston Ostrich Farm, South Pasadena, California

In 1885 Edwin Cawston chartered a ship and made a voyage to Africa to buy the best ostriches he could find. He bought 50 birds but by the height of the farm's fame there were 1000. Ostriches were plucked every eight or nine months to supply feathers for the hat industry. In 1900 at the World's Fair in Paris feathers from the farm won first prize. Edwin Cawston was reported to have made £500,000 from the business between 1904 and 1912. He sold them and moved back to his birthplace in Cobham, England, where he died in 1920. Demand for feathers declined and in 1916 it became just a tourist attraction until 1935, when it was sold.

Edwin Cawston senior and Herbert Vatcher senior (manager)