Robert Strathearn — Early California Christadelphian

The red-haired Scotsman gazed up at the 300-foot­long ship anchored in Glasgow harbor in early July, 1874. Emblazoned on the side of the iron hull was the ship’s name, The State of Georgia. As the wind blew in his face and sea spray filled his senses, 49­ year-old Robert Strathearn boarded the vessel that would change his life.1He would soon be leaving his native Scotland behind and emigrating to a wild and unsettled place called California. Walking beside him were his 54-year-old sister Isabella and his 18­ year-old future daughter-in-law, Mary Lamb. After a two-week voyage across the Atlantic to New York, Robert, Isabella, and Mary headed out to Southern California. Their new home would be in Carpenteria, near Santa Barbara.

Robert had lost his wife a number of years before, and his only child, Robert Perkins Strathearn, had made this same journey two years earlier. Robert was eager to see his son again but he worried about leaving his established ecclesia in Tranent, Scotland, to settle in a land of relative isolation. Robert would not be the only, or even the first, Christadelphian in California. In fact, he was not even the first Scottish Christadelphian to emigrate to the Golden State. That distinction belonged to a widow credited with introducing Robert to the truth: Sis. Helen Shiells, who had sailed to California with her son in 1872. In 1870, Helen’s daugh­ter, Jane Rosenberg, had become the first Christadelphian in Southern California when she was baptized by her husband at Santa Barbara. Robert was, however, the first prominent brother to emigrate to California.

The history of Christadelphians in California is a tale of hardship and struggle, but it is also a story of endurance. There have been Christadelphians in the Golden State for nearly 140 of the 160 years that California has been a part of this nation. Our history here is so deep-rooted that John Thomas himself had an impact on it, along with many other brothers and sisters who, though less well known than he, contributed to the growth of our community and left the Christadelphian legacy that the state enjoys today.

One man who played a large role in the early days of California Christadelphians might have been forgotten if not for the fact that his son was a pioneer in the his­tory of one of California’s cities. That man’s name was Robert Strathearn.

Early life

Robert Strathearn was born the son of a coal miner in Pencaitland, Scotland, on July 21, 1824.2In the 1830s Robert’s family packed up and moved from Pencaitland to Tranent, a mining village about ten miles from Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. By 1851, Robert had taken a bride named Jessie Perkins, and she gave birth to their only child, Robert Perkins Strathearn, in 1853.3Robert P. Strathearn had only reached his eighth birthday when his mother died, so Robert, Sr., moved in with his brother George and sister Isabella. Also living with the family was Robert’s niece, Margaret Stocks. Margaret’s parents were Alexander Stocks and Christine Stocks (Robert Strathearn’s sister). Isabella Strathearn and Alexander Stocks would later become early California Christadelphians.

A Christadelphian in Scotland

About the time Robert Strathearn was getting married, he was also reading a brand new book by John Thomas that would alter the course of his life. Bro. Thomas had traveled to Scotland in 1848 on a lecture tour that resulted in the publication of Elpis Israel. One of the cities where John Thomas lectured was Edinburgh. In the audience one night was a 27-year-old farmer’s wife named Helen Shiells. Helen was so moved by what she heard that she was soon baptized into Christ. While Sis. Shiells would have a large impact on California Christadelphian history herself, she also impacted Robert’s life by getting him to read Elpis Israel.4This effort on her part led to Robert becoming a Christadelphian.

Robert Strathearn is first recorded as a brother in Christ in 1867, when the Christadelphian Magazine notes that he gave a lecture on resurrection at the Edinburgh gathering on July 14 of that year.5A member of the Tranent ecclesia, Bro. Strathearn knew both John Thomas and Robert Roberts.6In 1867, Bro. Robert Roberts had the following to say about Robert Strathearn: “The brethren in Tranent, principally through the intelligence and zeal of Bro. R. Strathearn, are very active in spreading the truth.”7The Christadelphians in Tranent were a powerful preaching force at this time and attracted the ire of local ministers, who began to attack Christadelphian beliefs in public discourse and written word.

John Thomas visited Tranent in December of 1870. While there, he gave three lectures, each attended by 200 to 250. At this time there were 41 members in the Tranent ecclesia.8In 1873 Robert Roberts visited Tranent and found the ecclesia strong but losing members due to transfer.9In the 1870s, California’s warm Medi­terranean climate was touted around the world as a cure for numerous illnesses. A number of Scottish brothers and sisters would eventually make their way to California for that reason, and they were very important in establishing several of the 21 ecclesias that exist in California today.

In 1872, Bro. Strathearn’s son, R.P. Strathearn, was warned by his doctor that his poor health demanded a sunnier climate like that of Australia or California. Robert P. took his doctor’s advice and moved to Santa Barbara, California, be­cause he had friends there.10Those friends may have included Sis. Shiells, who also moved there in 1872, following the death of her husband and son. In 1874 Bro. Strathearn, who was also in poor health, sold his wholesale tea business in Scotland and followed his son to California. He brought R.P.’s fiancé, Mary Grey Lamb, with him on the arduous journey.11The brothers and sisters of the Tranent ecclesia sent Bro. Strathearn off to Cali­fornia with a tangible token of their love for him: a beautiful mantle clock inscribed with their well wishes for his new life in America.

Bro. Strathearn’s first home in California was in Carpenteria, eight miles from Santa Barbara. He purchased 80 acres by the ocean with his son, R.P. Strathearn.

R.P.’s physical health had improved, but Bro. Robert Strathearn was down spiritu­ally. He had left a thriving ecclesia in Scotland to come to virtual isolation in an “uncivilized” environment. An idea of how Bro. Strathearn felt about California in these frontier-like days can be gathered from what he wrote to the Christa­delphian Magazine in 1875:

“The change has done us all great good in health of body, but we feel our separation from those who are fellow heirs of the exceedingly great and pre­cious promises. It would greatly add to our comfort if any of that peculiar people who are zealous of good works were to come to this quarter. But the field is far from being fruitful, but in that of evil. It is in some such country as this where you have what is called civilization, without the fear of God, that human nature is seen in its true character… My impression is that this is an unfruitful land in the things of the spirit. Even when the seed has taken root, it seems difficult to keep it alive. The love of truth (not to speak of the love of the truth as it is in Jesus) is almost a thing unknown in the land.”

Despite his poor opinion of the spiritual soil in this area, Bro. Strathearn baptized two new brothers within two years of his arrival here. On October 21, 1877, Bro. Edward Green and Bro. D. Whitaker were added to the small Santa Barbara flock that numbered about ten. Bro. Strathearn was greatly encouraged by this as he proclaimed in the Christadelphian magazine, “The event has filled our hearts with joy and gladness; for our hope was nigh gone of seeing any fruit of the truth in these parts.”

The year 1879 saw the addition of another believer with the baptism of Mary Rutherford. Bro. Strathearn had moved to Saticoy by this time and had to make a 70-mile trip to Mary Rutherford’s home to baptize her. Following the baptism, the brothers and sisters broke bread, and then Bro. Strathearn addressed those who had come to the baptism, a number of whom were not in the truth.

There had been a fire at Bro. Strathearn’s home just before he left to attend Sis. Rutherford’s baptism. His faith remained strong and his perspective true however, as he stated that he carried out “this little service in behalf of the glorious name of the Lord of Hosts. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose, so we were enabled to return to the scene of destruction with more joy than we had left with sorrow.”12

While there were never more than a dozen Christadelphians in Ventura County, California, in the late 1800s, they were a tight-knit group. The Ventura County “ecclesia” included Robert Strathearn, Helen Shiells, Edward Greene, J.K. Magill, Henry and Jessie Brinkerhoff, John and Elizabeth Reith, and Robert and Marian Stocks. Even today, over 100 years later, there are Christadelphian Brinkerhoffs, Stocks, and Magills living in Southern California.

In the 1880s, Robert Strathearn moved in with his son and daughter-in-law on an orange grove in Piru, California. In 1889, after selling their 750-acre orange grove in Piru, Bro. Strathearn and his son R.P. purchased the 15,000-acre Simi Ranch. The ranch they established in Simi Valley included 800 head of cattle, 35 horses, and a large home for the growing family.

Today there is a thriving ecclesia of 100 members in the city where Robert Strat­hearn lived out the last few years of his life. The home that he built with his son, and where he died in 1896, has been preserved. Because of the prominence of Bro. Strathearn’s son, who sadly never become a Christadelphian, the home has become part of a six-acre historical park run by the city of Simi Valley.

Bro. Strathearn’s home has been beauti­fully restored by the Simi Valley His­torical Society, and is open for tours on Saturdays and Sundays. Evidences that a brother in Christ lived there long ago are numerous. The handsome clock that was given to Robert Strathearn when he left Scotland is sitting on the fireplace mantle in the living room. A painting of Bro. Strathearn hangs on the wall near by. On a bookshelf in the office just down the hall are a number of Bro. Strathearn’s books, including a well-worn set of Eureka, an 1890 edition of Christendom Astray, a number of books on the Greek language, and several of his Bibles. A large box filled with various early Christadelphian magazines (dating right up to his death in 1896), which were kept by his family, are also stored in the home. They have remained in the house for over 100 years as a silent witness to the faith of a true Christadelphian. There are even multiple copies of tracts that Bro. Strathearn had ready to share with anyone who showed an interest in the truth of the Gospel.

In the only known photograph taken of him (in 1895, a year before his death), Robert Strathearn can be seen sitting on the porch of his Simi Valley home while three of his grandchildren pose in the yard. Note the barn in the background to the left. This barn no longer exists, but the house is still standing.13

Robert Strathearn didn’t have the opportunity to share his love for God with many other Christadelphians, but in 1895, just a few months before Bro. Strathearn died, Bro. Cyrus Lewis visited him for six weeks in his Simi Valley home. Bro. Lewis and Bro. Strathearn broke bread for six Sundays, making this home the first place in Simi Valley where Christ was memorialized. One hundred and twelve years later, at the other end of ten-mile long Simi Valley, Christ is remembered each Sunday by the brothers and sisters of the Simi Hills ecclesia.

At Rest

Around 1892, Bro. Strathearn struck up a friendship with Bro. Henry Moore of the Pomona, California, Ecclesia. Bro. Moore was one of the founders of the Pomona ecclesia, and one of the true giants in the history of California Christadelphians. Henry Moore reported Robert Strathearn’s death in 1896 to the readers of the Christadelphian Magazine. His words tell the story of a good and faithful brother who like all of us looked for the return of his master:

“For the last four years I have enjoyed an intimate acquaintance with this good brother, and can speak of him from knowledge. He was possessed of more than ordinary intellect. Careful, conscientious, unassuming, and discerning in matters regarding the truth as in business, he was too sympathetic not to overlook the faults of enemies, [and] generous in great degree toward breth­ren in need. May the Lord reward him for his many good deeds.”

  1. Emigration Ship Registries, Ancestry.com.
  2. Parochial registers of Pencaitland, Scotland.
  3. Parochial registers of Tranent, Scotland.
  4. Robert Strathearn, personal letter, May 25, 1895.
  5. Christadelphian Magazine, 1867 (Quotations from The Christadelphian by kind permission of The Christadelphian Magazine & Publishing Association, Birmingham, UK).
  6. Robert Strathearn, personal letter, May 25, 1895.
  7. Christadelphian Magazine, 1867.
  8. Christadelphian Magazine, 1871.
  9. Christadelphian Magazine, 1873.
  10. Edwin M. Sheridan and Elizabeth K. Ritter, History of Ventura County: Its People and Its Resources. Meier Publishing, 1940, p. 383.
  11. Janet Cameron, Simi Grows Up: The Story of Simi, Ventura County, California. Anderson, Ritchie, and Simon, 1963, p. 117.
  12. Christadelphian Advocate Magazine; March, 1896.
  13. Picture courtesy of Simi Valley Historical Society.