[3] In his early career, Solomon Jewett worked as a schoolteacher in Racine, Wisconsin, and as a ferryboat operator on the Missouri River in Nebraska in 1858, and undertook an aborted journey to Pike's Peak in 1859.
[1] He then formed a partnershp with his brother Philo D. Jewett, at the 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) Rio Bravo ranch north of Kern.
[2][5] Solomon then bought land north of Bakersfield and large flocks of sheep, which he finally sold in 1899, after which he switched to cattle.
[2] His partnership Jewett & Blodgett secured rights of way for railroads to be laid to the oil field in McKittrick to Maricopa.
[2] The Kern County Wool Growers' Association sold Rio Bravo on to Louis C. Olcese and John Barker,[5] and after operating as a sheep ranch into the 20th century[7] it was later the home of Merle Haggard.