The Albert H Beach House

Matthew and Martha Cassou

Rancher, Hardware Store Owner, Mayor

Owned the House from 1917 to 1945

Matthew and Martha Cassou owned the house from 1917 to 1945. Cassou was the son of Peter and Mary McCole Cassou, Escondido pioneers.
When Peter Cassou arrived in California from his native France in 1853, he was sixteen years old and had one French franc in his pocket. He was one of eight children of Louis and Mary J. Cassou, also natives of France, and was educated in that country before sailing for San Francisco. Immediately after his arrival there he obtained a job in a dairy, where he worked for four years. At twenty, he purchased his own business and successfully conducted it for eleven years. In 1868, he and his brother, John, who later moved to Anaheim, came to the Wolfskill Ranch, where present-day Escondido is located, and joined Pierre Hagata in running sheep. In 1874, Peter Cassou and his wife Mary, a native of Ireland, took up 320 acres of land on the southwest side of the trail to San Marcos, which now is called Mission Road. There they raised sheep, cattle and horses. Members of the Cassou family were prominent in the early days of Escondido. Robertson and Cassou hardware, and later Churchill and Cassou hardware, were owned by members of the family. Two of the older sons, Louis Cassou and Matthew Cassou, were active in these Escondido business firms. Matthew Cassou was also one of the founders of Churchill & Cassou, a hardware and home furnishing company which was one of Escondido's leading businesses until it went out of business in the late 1960s. Both the
Baldridge and Cassou families were pioneers in Escondido. The Cassous, who are cited by McGrew as one of the earliest families were Basque who came to "run sheep" and later ran businesses.