Tulare & Kings Counties
California
Biographies
1913
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CUTLER, JOHN  & A R     A native of Indiana Judge Cutler was born in 1819, in the town of Newport, Vermilion County. A predilection for the medical profession led him to take up studies with that object in view at an early age, and he completed his studies and received his diploma in Iowa. In the last mentioned state he followed his profession until the memorable year of 1849, when he crossed the plains to California and made settlement in Eldorado County, While a resident of that County he served as a representative to the state legislature.

      Judge Cutler’s residence in Tulare County began with the year 1852, at which time he engaged in agriculture on a large scale, farming one thousand acres five miles northeast of Visalia, on the St. John’s river. Here as in his former place of residence, his fellow-citizens recognized his unusual ability and fitness for public office and for two terms he served them efficiently as judge of Tulare County. The marriage of Judge Cutler united him with Mrs. Nancy (Rice) Reynolds, a widow with two daughters, Amelia and Celeste. Seven children were born of her marriage with Judge Cutler, three sons, and four daughters, as follows: Mrs. V. D. Knupp of Porterville; A. R.; John; Mary; Loyal O.; Ida, and Mrs. Edna Hartley. Judge Cutler passed away on the family homestead near Visalia July 12, 1902, and his wife died in Santa Cruz several years prior to his demise.

     The second child born to Judge and Nancy (Rice) Cutler was A. R. Cutler, a native of Tulare County, born in 1860. When his school days were over he assisted his father in the care and management of the home ranch, and later undertook ranching on his own account. At the present time he is ranching on a large scale in Tulare County, having under his immediate supervision the Venice Cove, Monson, and Hills Valley ranches. His stock now numbers four hundred head. Fruit is raised on one hundred acres—raisin grapes, peaches, apricots and oranges predominating—besides which he has twenty acres in prunes, and the remainder of the land is in alfalfa.

     Following a service of four years as deputy County clerk, Mr. Cutler received still greater honors in April, 1911, when he was elected mayor of Visalia, an office which he is well qualified to fill. His marriage in 1988 united him with Miss Nimmie Pringle, and they have two sons, John F. and Albert R. Pages 420 - 423

 ADAMS, WILLIAM J     The life of the late William J. Adams of Visalia, Tulare County, spanned the period from April 4, 1837, to June 8, 1909. He was born in Graves County, Ky., and died at his California home. Reared and educated in his native state he left there with a herd of cattle he drove to Texas and from there across the plains to California, arriving in 1859. Settling near Tulare Lake in Tulare County, he ranged cattle for many years and later removed them to the mountains on Adams Flat, where he expanded his enterprise by raising both cattle and horses.  

     In 1871 Mr. Adams disposed of his cattle and horse interests and gave his attention to sheep herding. For two years he operated in Oregon, then came back to California and settled near Madera on the Fresno river, in Madera County, but after two years spent there, he returned to Tulare County and for twelve years farmed the old Murray ranch, near Visalia.

     In January, 1865, Mr. Adams married Miss Mary Fannie Murray, a native of Missouri, a daughter of Abram H. Murray, who crossed the plains in 1852 and settled his family in the Visalia neighborhood, There their children have since become known and respected. They are Sarah, Mrs. E. Hilton, of Porterville; Abram P.; Frank C., a biographical sketch of whom is elsewhere in these pages, and Russell, who has passed away.

     A man of strong character, upright in his dealing with all, ready at all times to do all in his power for the uplift or development of the community, Mr. Adams was a helpful citizen and the County and its people are benefited by his influence among them. Pages 423 - 424

 

 ADAMS, FRANK C     The well-known and successful builder whose name is above is a native of Visalia, Tulare County, Cal, born February 28, 1873, son of William J. Adams. He gained his education in the excellent schools of that town and began his business career as an employee of the Seeded Raisin Packing Company of Fresno, Cal. From Fresno he went to Stockton where he learned the carpenter’s trade, at which he worked for three years. Later he was for a time located in Angel’s Camp, Calaveras County, whence he returned to Visalia, and in the fall of 1908 entered the contracting and building business on his own account.

     Among the structures which serve to call attention to the skill and enterprise of Mr. Adams are the Charles Berry residence, the A. D. Wilson home, the addition to the E. O. Miller residence, the Simon Levy brick block, the Dr. W. W. Squires residence, the Meyer Iseman residence, the Howard Parish residence, and numerous others of different classes of equal importance at and near Visalia. On January 17m 1911, Mr. Adams formed a partnership with J. H. Johnson in order to give attention particularly to the architectural department of his enterprise, but the firm was dissolved October 26, the following, and since that time Mr. Adams has been in sole control of the business which he has built up. Of the buildings erected by Adams and Johnson, the following mentioned, perhaps as conspicuous as any others, are the residences of Tug Wilson, John C. Hayes, Harry Hayes, D. E. Perkins and Ralph Goldstein.

     May 1, 1912, marks a very important epoch in Mr. Adams career. He then became the builder for the Mt. Whitney Power & Electric Co. of Visalia. His first work was the building of a large brick and iron addition to the steam plant at Visalia, and on June 25, 1912, he began the construction of the Mt. Whitney Power Plant and cottages at No. 3 on the Kaweah river.

     In the National Association of American Engineers Mr. Adams holds membership and he affiliates fraternally with Four Creek lodge, No. 94, I. O. O. F. He married October 7, 1894, Miss Mary A. Nichols, a native of Missouri, who has borne him three children, Willard, Merle, and Russell. As a citizen Mr. Adams has commended himself to all who know him as a man of public spirit who has the welfare of the community at heart and is ready at all time to respond promptly and liberally to any call on behalf of the general good.  Pages 424 - 425

AKIN, JAMES M      The Akin family is an old English one and the American branch of it was established before 1700. Still other Akins have come over from England since, and it was from pilgrims and pioneers that James M. Akin, who lives near Springville, Cal., was brought down through Successive generations to his own. He was born in the state of New York in 1850, his mother dying at his birth, and in 1852 his father came overland to California. The boy was reared as a member of the family of an uncle in his native state, attended school there and did chores on the farm until he was eighteen years old. Then he came to California, where his father had preceded him by about sixteen years. Locating in Sacramento, he remained there about one year, then came to Tulare County. His life here began in 1870 and for two years thereafter his home was in the vicinity of Visalia. In 1880 he settled on his ranch of three hundred and twenty acres three miles from Springville. Early in his career here he engaged in stock-raising, in which he made so much success that he is considered one of the substantial men of his neighborhood. The confidence reposes by his fellow townsmen in his ability and intelligence is shown in the fact that they have conferred upon him for twenty years the honor of the office of school trustee.

      Farming and stock-raising have not commanded all of Mr. Akin’s attention. He and his son Claude have twelve mining claims, which will be developed soon, and the latter has copper and zinc mines near Springville. In 1911 Mr. Akin started a nursery known as Akin’s nursery, which is devoted to the raising of oranges. He makes a specialty of Washington navels, of which he has twenty thousand two-year-old budded trees. In 1913 thirty thousand more will be planted, the new industry promising to become very important to this section. It was in 1880 that Mr. Akin married Sarah Hudson, who was born in California and who bore him five children, all of whom, except the youngest, are married. Their names are Claude, Lola, Lerta, Leeta and Melva. They are native children of California. All of them were born in Tulare County, and four of them were educated at Springville, and the fifth is being educated there. Their mother died February 2, 1911, and was buried near Springville. It will be interesting to note that Mr. Akin was induced to come to California in quest of health. In order to be in the open air as much as possible he spent his first six years in the state hunting in the woods and on the plains. He relates that within a comparatively short time he and his brother-in-law killed seven bears. He has literally grown up with the country, and being a man of public spirit has done much for the general welfare. Fraternally he is a member of the Court of Honor. Pages 364-367

 

BAKER, SANDS     It was in the lovely country along the Hudson river, in the state of New York, that Sands Baker, of Dunlap, Fresno County, Cal., was born December 19, 1837. His parents were George and Martha N. (Bentley) Baker, of English ancestry, who had emigrated to New York state from Massachusetts. His father died when the boy was yet very young, and at fifteen years old Sands Baker was taken to Oconto County, Wis., by an uncle who was in the lumber business there. He early obtained a good knowledge of that industry, for which, however he had no liking, his inclinations being for the acquisition of an education. He managed to attend a public school and then entered a seminary near Albany, N. Y., where one thousand students were being prepared for professional careers. From there he went to Madison, Wis., where he entered the high school, giving particular attention to the English course until because of failing eyesight, he was obliged for a time to give up study. However, he soon found a field of usefulness at Green Bay, Wis., where he taught three years in the public school, and he was the author of several innovations the wisdom of which was soon evident to the school officials and the public generally. One of these was the closing of the doors of the school house at nine a.m. , thus enforcing punctuality or absence. Then came a period of travel for health and recreation. He wandered through Minnesota and Iowa and down to St. Joseph, Mo., where he met a man who so vividly pictured the beauties and opportunities of California that he quickly decided to seek fortune here, and accordingly he left St. Joseph in the spring of 1860 with a party which made the journey with American horses and California mustang, by way of Salt Lake. Finding feed scarce they abandoned their original course and came through Salt Lake valley. Indians were menacing but wrought them no harm and they arrived in Los Angeles in September. From Los Angeles Mr. Baker came on to Visalia. At Rockyford, while he was helping to bale one hundred tons of hay, he met a County superintendent of schools who wanted to employ a teacher. There were at that time only two public schools in the County and Mr. Baker established a private school which he taught two years. After this he went north to investigate the mines of eastern California and was soon employed as principal of the public school at Downieville, Sierra County. He closed the school daily at one p.m., and spent the afternoons in the mines, but careful study of conditions and results convinced him that there was nothing in mining for gold without the investment of considerable capital. So successful was he there as a teacher that he was given an increase of salary of $40 a month to continue his work. Returning to Visalia, he taught a private school for about six months. For some time he filled the offices of revenue assessor, gauger of liquors and inspector of tobacco with increasing responsibility and emolument, meanwhile serving four years on the board of education of Visalia. He acted one year as deputy County assessor and soon became known as an expert mathematician and was often called upon to figure interest on notes and accounts and to straighten out tangled bookkeeping, for which services he was well paid. This work he continued until his health began to fail. 

     In October, 1872, Mr. Baker married Sarah Josephine Drake, a native of Ohio, whose parents came to California in 1870, settling near Tulare lake and later at Squaw valley. On her mother’s side she was descended from Virginia ancestry. Seven children were born to them: Martha A., Royal R., Chauncey M., Lulu M., Blanche C., Pearl A., and Elsie F., and Mrs. Baker and her husband adopted a boy, who became known as William M. Baker. Martha A. married L. B. King and bore him four children. Royal R. married Nellie J. Hodges and they live at Farmersville, and have a son and a daughter. Chauncey M. married Olive E. Hargraves of Mendocino County, who taught school at Dunlap. Lulu M. married J. A. Mitchell, postmaster at Dunlap, and they have a son and a daughter. Blanche C. married Charles F. Hubbard, of Stockton. Elsie F. married James R. Hinds. Pearl A. is teaching in the Merriman school at Exeter. William M. is ranching near Exeter. Most of Mr. Baker’s children have attended the high school at Visalia. Blanche C. was graduated from a business college at Stockton in 1902 and is a competent stenographer and bookkeeper.

     From Visalia Mr. baker removed to Shipes valley, now popularly known as the Foot of Baker mountain. He took up a squatter’s claim and pre-empted and homesteaded land and has added to his holdings from time to time until he has a fine stock ranch of two thousand acres, much of it well improved, some of it under valuable timber. He has one hundred and twenty acres of valley land devoted to fruit and alfalfa. He could very easily farm five hundred acres, but he gives his attention principally to stock. He has on his property fully five thousand cords of wood and individual oak trees which would cut fifty cords each. He keeps about two hundred head of stock and twenty horses. He has sold many cattle at Hume Mills, about twenty miles away. His hogs have brought him ten to twelve and a half cents a pound on the hoof at times. He has a stallion, thoroughbred and a Percheron, and has raised fine stock for market, always finding ready sale, and Mr. Baker has maintained a high reputation for grade and quality.

     In politics, Mr. Baker is a Republican who is proud of the fact the he cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and he has for many years filled the offices of school trustee and clerk of the local school board. Formerly he was an active member of the Masonic order. Pages 357-359

 

BAUMANN, GEORGE W     In Iowa George W. Baumann lived until he was five years old, and after that he lived in Kansas until 1878, when he came to Visalia, cal. He was born in the Hawkeye Sate March 10, 1859. February , 1890, he married Miss Martha A. Lathrop, daughter of Ezra Lathrop, a California pioneer, and she bore him two sons, Grover Cleveland and Ezra Gottfried Baumann. A separate biographical sketch of Ezra Lathrop appears elsewhere in the pages.

     Soon after Mr. Baumann located at Visalia he began farming, but three years later returned to the East, to come back a few months later bringing his parents. The family located near Farmersville, where he operated rented land. Soon after his marriage he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres near Lindsay, where Mr. and Mrs. Baumann settled, and at the same time engaged in the stock-raising business in the mountains. Later on he bought three hundred and twenty acres at Poplar, where they engaged in running a good size dairy in connection with the farming and stock business. In 1906 he rented his farm and moved to Lindsay, whence in the following year he moved to Tulare, which was his home as long as he lived. His death occurred January 16, 1909. A man of much public spirit, he was a helpful friend to every good movement for the benefit of the community. Fraternally he affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Ancient Order of United Workmen through their local organization in Tulare.

     Mrs. Baumann is identified with the order of Royal Neighbors, is a stockholder in the Tulare National Bank and is extensively engaged in stockraising on twenty-two hundred acres of land, carrying an average of three hundred to four hundred head of stock. She was one of the pioneers of Tulare City, coming here with her parents before either a schoolhouse or a church had been erected here, and later for eleven years she taught in the pubic schools of Tulare County and city. She has a distinct recollection of the diggings of the first grave, so far as the white population is concerned, at Tulare, when her schoolteacher’s wife, Mrs. Haslip, was buried, she being the first white person who was laid to rest in the city of Tulare. She remembers when religious meetings were held in the waiting room of the depot and has a vivid recollection of a Christmas tree, gifts from which were distributed in that same room. A woman of forceful character and of winning personality, she does much good and has many friends. Pages 380 - 381

 

BELZ, ANDREW G As far back as the ancestral records can be traced the home of the Belz family has been in Germany. Christoff Belz, a Saxon by birth and a machinist by trade, came to the United States and settled in Rome, N. Y., in 1854, and in that city he followed his trade throughout the remainder of his life. He married Margaret Schnuer, also a native of Saxony, who died at the home of her son, Andrew G., when she had reached the advance age of eighty-nine years. She bore her husband four children, of whom Andrew G., the eldest, was the only one to make his home in California. In their religious belief Christoff Belz and his wife were Lutherans, devoted to their church and contributing to the limit of their ability to all its various interests. 

     In Saxe-Meinigen, Germany, Andrew G. Belz was born January 31, 1832. In his youth he learned the machinist’s trade, attending a mechanical school in which he specialized as an ironworker and a locksmith. Subsequently he served for two years in the army of his native country, as required by law, but the service was so distasteful to him that he fled to the United States to escape the third and last year. In 1854 he accompanied his father to the United States, settling in Rome, N. Y., where his first occupation was burning charcoal. From New York state he went to Pennsylvania, subsequently to Jefferson County, Wis., and finally in 1862, he came to California. In 1864 he became a pioneer settler in Visalia, where he set up the first blacksmith shop, and here it was that he welded the first four-inch wagon tire that was made in the County. He continued to follow the blacksmith business here with good success until the ‘80s, when the failure of his eyesight made it necessary for him to give it up. Following this he became interested in the hotel business, and on the site of his blacksmith shop he erected the Pacific lodging house. As this was near the Southern Pacific depot it had good patronage from the first and is still dispensing hospitality to the weary wayfarer.

     At Watertown, Wis., August 17, 1874, Mr. Belz was married to Miss Caroline Wegman, a daughter of George J. and Caroline (Wennerholdt) Wegman. A sketch of the former will be found elsewhere in this volume. Three children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Belz, as follows: George A., Frank A. and Eliza M., the latter the wife E. Blair. George A. is a graduate of the San Jose state normal school class of 1902. Frank attended the grammar school, passed three years of high school, and then attended Santa Clara college. Finally both sons entered the University of Wisconsin, and graduated from the college of agricultural connected with that well-known institution. They are now engaged in carrying on scientific farming and dairying on the old Wegman estate, and associated with them are Mr. and Mrs. Blair. The sons are young men of much ability and of the highest integrity, who carry into their business the high ideals that made the names of their father and grandfather honored wherever they were known. Mr. and Mrs. Wegman followed their daughter to California in 1875 and settled on what is now known as the Wegman ranch, three and one-half miles north-east of Visalia.

     Just fifty years have passed since Mr. Belz came to California by way of Panama in 1862. From San Francisco, where he landed, he first went to Sacramento and then to Stockton, where he stacked about one thousand acres of wheat for Mr. Newton. All was destroyed in a flood, a circumstance which discourages Mr. Belz with any future attempt at farming. After coming to Visalia in 1864 he worked for several men in the capacity of blacksmith before setting up a shop of his own. The passing of years has obliterated the memory of early discouragements and disappointments, and in the enjoyment of his present prosperity he rejoices that he persevered, adjusting himself to circumstances and conditions.

 

BEQUETTE, CHARLES C     The name Bequette has long been honored not only in Tulare County, but in the state at large. In these pages appears a biographical sketch of Paschal Bequette Jr., in which is given some of the history of Col. Paschal Bequette Sr., a native of Missouri who rose to eminence on the Pacific coast. Charles C. Bequette was born at Saint Genevieve, Mo., in 1834. His parents dying while he was yet but an infant, when he was five years old he was taken to Wisconsin, where he became a member of the family of his uncle. In 1850, when he was about sixteen years old, he and his brother crossed the plains to California and located at Hangtown. Later in 1852, they went to Sierra County, where they mined until 1857. In 1859 Mr. Bequette drove a band of cattle from Yolo County to Tulare County and settled on land near Lemon Cove, where he was successful in the breeding of cattle and horses for fifteen years, until he took up his residence at Visalia, where he has since lived, continuing an active interest in the political affairs of the County. His public spirit and his capacity for public business have been recognized by his appointment to various responsible offices, he having served two terms as deputy recorder and auditor of Tulare County, of which he has also served as deputy County treasurer and deputy County assessor. Pages 419-420

 

BIDDLE, JOSEPH D     The forceful character of the citizenship of J. D. Biddle during the past quarter of a century has given him for all time a place in the annals of the state as well as Hanford, which has been his permanent home during this time and the scene of his activities to a large extent. A native of Tennessee, born in Bedford County, April 30, 1852, he passed his boyhood, youth and young manhood in the vicinity of his birth and the home of his parents, and at the age of twenty-seven, 1879, made his first trip to the west. After a stay of two months he returned to the south, but in 1882 retraced his steps and this time remained six months. It was in 1887 that he made his third and last journey to California, his prior two trips of inspection thoroughly satisfying him that here as nowhere else were opportunities awaiting the young man of push and determination. Having disposed of his merchandise and milling business in Shelbyville, Tenn., in 1887 he came that year to California and located in Hanford, his first work here being as auctioneer of livestock. As an adjunct to this business he bought livestock and sheep, as well as wool, the latter being gathered from a large territory, extending from Mexico to the Oregon line. His shipments of this commodity are large, being made to all parts of this country, as well as to Canada. His first experience in the wool business was in his early days in the west, when he was a representative for the Thomas Dunnigan & Son Co., a well-known wool house of San Francisco. The live stock which Mr. Biddle handles he secures from all parts of the state, and he has had as high as twenty-five thousand sheep in his possession at one time.

     In financial circles throughout the San Joaquin valley few names are better known than that of Joseph D. Biddle, and to his splendid judgment and conservatism may be given much credit for the substantial character of the monetary institutions with which he has had to do. Among the latter may be mentioned the Sacramento Bank, German Savings & Loan Society of San Francisco, Savings Union Bank of San Francisco, Union Trust of San Francisco, and he has also made large loans of money through independent capitalists. He also represents several of the largest and best insurance companies of San Francisco, and is largely interested in the oil industry. His first venture in this field was the purchase of some of the best oil lands in the Coalinga district, and following this he organized several oil companies which are now organizations controlling great wealth these and the banks through which the business is carried on representing a combined capital of over $150,000,000. Mr. Biddle made large expenditures in drilling on his oil fields, but owing to the low prices of oil at the time it was deemed advisable to suspend operations until it demanded a better price. The property is still owned by the various companies in all of which Mr. Biddle is a director as follows: Investment Oil Company and the Phoenix Oil Company. Other companies were also organized in the Bakersfield district, but these have since been disposed of.

     Not only was Mr. Biddle a pioneer and moving spirit in the industries above mentioned but he has been equally forceful along agricultural lines. During his early years here he bought and platted the Bonanza vineyard, embracing a tract of three hundred acres, Later acquisitions were the Silva ranch of one hundred acres, the Griswold apricot orchard of eighty acres (at that time the largest orchard of the kind in that section, but which has been sub-divided into small holdings), the Haywood vineyard of eighty acres, the Redwood vineyard and orchard of one hundred and twenty acres, the Savings Bank vineyard and orchard, consisting of eighty acres south of Hanford, which has since been sold, the Happy Home vineyard of twenty acres and the A. P. Dickenson ranch of eighty acres. For five years he also leased and operated the Banner vineyard of three hundred and twenty acres and for a number of years also leased Mrs. M. S. Templeton’s vineyard of one hundred and sixty acres northeast of Hanford. In connection with his large fruit interests Mr. Biddle erected a grading plant on the Bonanza ranch, where he was prepared to dry, cure and bleach the fruits from his various ranches, all of which found a ready sale in eastern markets. Besides handling and shipping all of his own fruit, be also bought raisins and peaches all over this section, paying the local packers in the country to pack his raisins and peaches under his own brand and ship them direct to the eastern markets. In order that the fruit should be wasted, he bought peaches and sacked them at the depots when the packing house was filled to its capacity.

     Mr. Biddle’s interests in another direction are apparent in a number of substantial structures in Hanford, One of his first ventures along this line was the rebuilding of the block formerly occupied by the city stables, the site now occupied by the Old Bank. He also owns the building occupied by the Hanford Mercantile Corporation. This organization is capitalized for $100,000, and Mr. Biddle is one of the largest stockholders and secretary, and a director also. He was also one of the prime movers in the organization of the Hotel Artesia, which was built by the corporation of which he was a member and subsequently sold to B. J. Turner. Through an exchange of property Mr. Biddle became the owner of the Axtell block at the corner of Seventh and Irwin streets, the name of which has been change to the Sharpless block. He also moved the postoffice from its old site and placed it on Irwin street; and he moved both the telegraph offices into the Hotel Artesia, their present location. He at one time owned what is now the Vendome hotel, and he also bought and moved the first hotel erected in Hanford to the corner of Fifth and Douty streets, remodeling it and ultimately selling it to B. J. Turner.

     Reference has elsewhere been made to Mr. Biddle’s interest and activities in the stock business. It was no uncommon thing for him to have on hand from ten to twenty thousand hogs on the McJunkin ranch, one and a half miles north of Hanford. It was during his earliest experiences in the business that he attempted to fatten his hogs on grain that had been salvage from a large fire in Stockton. He purchased the damage grain to the extent of one hundred thousand sacks, or one hundred cars, and shipped it to Hanford. It required all of the vehicles available to haul the grain to the Bonanza vineyard, where it was spread over eight acres of ground to dry in the sun. It was then resacked and stacked in the dry yard, the whole presenting the appearance of hay stacks in a field. He then bought steam engines and large tanks in which to steam the wheat, after which he fed the grain thus treated to the seven or eight thousand hogs which he had on his ranch at the time. The experiment proved a failure, it being demonstrated that charred grain was injurious to hogs, as they sickened and died under the diet. The experience was a costly one, but it did not deter Mr. Biddle from making further investigations as to the most desirable methods of feeding. 

     Owing to his wide experience and versatile knowledge it is not surprising that Mr. Biddle has been called upon from time to time to act in the capacity of administrator and transact other business of a similar nature. On numerous occasions when a difference of opinion arose as to the proper settlement of legal matters he has been called into consultation with attorneys, not only in Hanford, but also in Fresno, Visalia, Sacramento and even to San Francisco. At one time he was called to Portland, Ore., to settle a law suit involving $30,000, and he was also called to Nevada in the adjustment of a suit with Carmen & Richey involving $1,000,000, and this also was equably adjusted. At the present time Mr. Biddle is interested in the live stock, wool, oil, insurance, real estate and merchandise business, being in close touch with all the details of each, and he is also actively interested in all of the organizations of his home city which have for their objects the uplifting of the citizens and the general welfare of town and County. He is a valued member of the Chamber of Commerce and he was also a member of the committee appointed to attend the convention held in Los Angeles for the purpose of discussing matters relative to the Panama canal. He has also been an active member of a committee appointed by the supervisors of Kings County for the purpose of preparing a petition for bringing the main highway through Hanford, the County seat, through Visalia to Bakersfield. He has also been appointed a member of the highway commission to meet in Sacramento in January, 1913, when the above matter will come before the commission for discussion and settlement.

     In the early days of Hanford did not boast a railroad Mr. Biddle started a donation to get the Santa Fe to run its road through Hanford and the valley. The completion of the road was celebrated in royal style, and in this too Mr. Biddle took the lead. In the display was one wagon to which were attached twenty-four large white horses, followed by three large wagons loaded with hundred bales of wool, another wagon showing the quality of sheep and hogs, and still another containing a large prune tree which Mr. Biddle dug from his orchard, full of growing prunes. Mr. Biddle had the honor of shipping the first three carloads of wool from Hanford over the road, the cars bearing large banners on which was printed in large letter, “Hanford the first city to patronize the Santa Fe railroad out of the Valley.”

     On May 1, 1878, Mr. Biddle was united in marriage with Miss Sallie M. Landis, a native of Tennessee. The success that has rewarded Mr. Biddle’s efforts is commensurate with his industry and perseverance. It is rare indeed that one is privileged to meet a man of such versatility, resolute character and determined will as Mr. Biddle possesses, and Hanford is proud to claim his citizenship.  Pages 315 - 319

 

BIDDLE, SAMUEL EDWARD    The death of Hanford’s most prominent banker, who had been identified with its financial, commercial and political circles for man years, proved a great shock to the people here and was deeply felt throughout the entire County, whose welfare had been of so much importance to him. Samuel Edward Biddle had more to do with things pertaining to the business life here and in this County than any other citizen of the city. His death, which occurred May 7, 1908, at the St. Helena Sanitarium at Hanford, removed from their midst one of the people’s best friends.

     Mr. Biddle was a native of Normandie, Bedford County, Tenn., born there September 15, 1845, the son of J. V. and Eliza Biddle. He received his educational training in the schools there and in 1874 came to California to ever afterward make it his home. When but fifteen years of age he had enlisted in the Confederate army, seeing active service, but he was finally incapacitated by a wound and received his discharge, returning to Tennessee. Here in his native town he was married on January 6, 1870, to Miss Achsah A. McQuiddy, daughter of Major T. J. McQuiddy, who is a well known pioneer of Tulare County, and is still living in Hanford. Major McQuiddy made his first trip to California in the early ‘70s and selected land for himself and other members of the party of emigrants who came overland with him in 1874 and settled in Tulare County. This said party consisted of eighteen people, including Samuel E. Biddle and his family, M. P. Troxler and family and Major Cartner and wife, Major McQuiddy also bringing his family.

     After his marriage and before coming to California, Mr. Biddle took his bride to live in Gibson County, Tenn., where they stayed for some time, later being at Brazil, Trenton and Humboldt. He had learned the milling business and ran a flouring mill at Trenton, later at Humboldt, and the experience proved most helpful; to him upon coming to the new country. When he came to California his family consisted of his wife and two children, a son and a daughter, and they settled upon a railroad quarter-section of land a mile and a half north and three miles east of the present site of Hanford, which Mrs. Biddle’s father, Major McQuiddy, had selected for them. They here built a board and batten house, Mr. Biddle immediately seeing the necessity for any improvements which he started to make. Irrigation ditches were erected and the land was prepared for cultivation, and in the year 1876 he harvested his first crop, which was wheat.

     In the meantime Mr. Biddle found that all this had taken much of his resources, and he accordingly went to work for I. H. Ham, the pioneer miller of Tulare County, taking charge of the mill at Tulare, and as agriculturists in the surrounding country were meeting with good success in the cultivation of grain, he found much work and demand for his milling. At this time his means were practically exhausted, he having only $3.75 in his pocket. Accepting the first land job that offered, he began as a roustabout at the Tulare mill. Leaving his family at home, he walked six miles and worked all day on Cross Creek bridge, and then proceeded to Tulare, where he took his position as roustabout. Mr. Ham soon recognized his ability, for in less than a week he was made a miller, and from this time a very close intimacy grew between Mr. Ham and himself. It was in 1877 that he, in partnership with Mr. Ham, built the Lemoore mill, of which he took charge and built up a prosperous business in 1880 selling it at a handsome profit. He then came to Hanford and built a grain warehouse which he operated himself. This warehouse was so much in demand that it became filled to capacity, and finally, under the stress of too heavy a weight of grain, it collapsed and Mr. Biddle was greatly inconvenienced financially by the disaster. He turned to R. E. Hyde, the banker at Visalia for assistance, and the latter proved his true friendship for Mr. Biddle when he came forward and supplied the means to rebuild the warehouse, which was immediately done. From this time on is chronicled for Mr. Biddle one success after another. In 1883 he built a large brick building on the corner of Sixth and Irwin streets in Hanford, where in association with his brother he conducted a profitable farm implement business until 1887, at which time his banking interests became his most vital business.

     On April 11, 1887, was launched the Bank of Hanford, in whose incorporation Mr. Biddle was most actively interested. It was the first bank established in Hanford and he was installed as its cashier and manager, serving in this capacity for a long period, and when this was succeeded by the First National Bank of Hanford, Mr. Biddle severed his connection therewith and organized in November, 1901, what is now the Old Bank, and of this establishment he was president and manager up to the time of his death, being a heavy stockholder. His wide reputation for strict integrity of character and honesty in all his dealings made him sought out by many for advice and the handling of their capital, and he had always proved himself to be a clever and shrewd business man in making investments and in the execution of his duties in general.

     Along with these heavy business cares, Mr. Biddle had found time to give himself to public service, having served as supervisor for this part of Tulare County for one term, and at the time the fight was made for the independence of Kings County he was one of the earnest workers, was one of the commissioners, and afterward served as a member of the first board of supervisors of Kings County. Associated with him in the organization of the new County government were, J. H. Malone, W. H. Newport. William Ogden, E. E. Bush and G. X. Wendling. Later he was president of the Hanford Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, and in all these offices he had ever held the advance and the development of his town and County foremost in mind. His exceptional activity as a public-spirited citizen and a charitable and well-wishing friend to all with whom he came in contact caused his death to cast a shadow over the entire public of this city and County.

     Samuel E. Biddle and his wife were the parents of three sons and four daughters, viz: Tolbert Vance, who resides in Coalinga, Cal.; Eliza Jane, wife of I. C. Taylor, of Berkeley; Samuel Edward, Jr., cashier and manger of the Citizens’ Bank of Alameda; Reta H., wife of Robert Crawford, of Hanford; Wallace J., a plasterer, with residence at Oakland; Kate J., wife of Dallas H. Gray, of Armona, Kings County; Annie Dale, Mrs. William S. Andrews, of Berkeley. Pages 326 - 329

 

 

BLAIR, THOMAS H     The character of any people is usually well indicated by that of its public officials. Throughout its history Tulare County has represented has quite generally commanded the confidence of the public through the representative men who have been called to fill its offices. Judged by capacity and by zealous devotion to the interests in his charge, none has gained higher place in popular regards than Thomas H. Blair, County assessor. In qualifications essential to the proper discharge of his difficult duties he is adequate to all demands upon him, and by keeping himself with all current improvements he is able to judge accurately as to proper assessment to place upon a given piece of property. Looking solely to the interests of the County, he complies with the law in the performance of his duties, manifesting always a conscientious regard for the rights of the taxpayer.

     In Randolph County, Mo., Thomas H. Blair was born in 1864, a son of Calvin H. and Mary E. (Moffett) Blair, natives respectively of Arkansas and of Tennessee, and was brought to California by his parents, who settled in Sonoma County, in 1865 and in Tulare County about a year later. Calvin H. Blair crossed the plains first in 1850 and after mining two years in California went back to Missouri in 1852. There he married in 1856 and about ten years later he moved to Iowa, where he remained about three months, losing all his worldly possessions except an ox-team and a saddle horse, which he sold for just enough money to take him to California by way of New York and the Isthmus of Panama. He moved from Sonoma County to Tulare County, bringing his family and belongings in wagons, and settled on Dry Creek. From there he moved to near Exeter, in the Yokohl valley, where he farmed for some years. In 1875 he went to Orosi, in the northern part of the County, and bought land there which he farmed until 1896, when his death occurred. Following are the names of the children of this pioneer and his wife, Mary E. (Moffett) Blair, who died January 14, 1912: William M., Thomas H., Mattie, wife of H. Meyers of Fresno County, Cal., Laura, Caledonia, Sarah, wife of George Hedgepeth, Frank L., James I., Finis E., and Clarence Holmes.

     On his father’s stock ranch, Thomas H. Blair was reared, acquiring a good knowledge of cattle raising, meanwhile attending public schools as opportunity afforded. After the death of his father he associated himself with his brothers in the management of the home ranch. From his early manhood he has been active as a Democrat in local political affairs, and in 1902 was elected County auditor of Tulare County. He was re-elected to that office in 1906 and in 1910 was elected County assessor. The work of the County assessor is of such a character that his duties are not to be compared with those of any other officer. His success depends largely upon the accuracy of his judgment; he comes in direct contact with all classes of people and in designating property valuations he must treat all with impartial fairness. That such is the spirit of Mr. Blair’s official conduct is well known to all, and he is personally acquainted with nearly every old citizen of the County and no man or official is held in higher esteem. Socially he affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Pages 418-419

 

BLOWERS, CASSIUS M     This pioneer farmer and business man, whose ranch is three miles northwest of Hanford, Kings County, Cal., has come to his present prominence only after a struggle in which he wrung success out of a situation that to many another man would have spelled ruin. When he first saw Kings County, in 1874, it was a desert, sandy and practically worthless, but irrigation, which he long advocated, has resulted in its reclamation. The land, then worth next to nothing, is now valued at $250 an acre and upward.

     To the student of history genealogy is a fascinating pursuit and it is to be regretted that the lack of printing in the earlier ages rendered an interesting work so difficult. Cassius M. Blowers is descended from an Englishman, John O. Blowers, his grandfather, who early settled Crawford County, Ohio, where he pre-empted government land on which he died in his eighty-fifth year. Not only was he a pioneer farmer, but he was a pioneer preacher of the Methodist faith, who often discourse to the people of Bucyrus. His son, Lemuel Lane Blowers, born on the pioneer’s Ohio farm, came to California in 1850, making the trip overland. For a time he mined on the American river, but in 1854 he took up land in Yolo County, where he died in 1855. He had married Caroline Foster, of Ohio birth, and she had died in 1849, leaving five children, of whom Cassius M., born December 20, 1845, was the fourth. The boy was about four year old when his mother died and between nine and ten years old when his father passed away, aged thirty-eight years.

     When Mr. Blowers was ten years old he was brought to California by his uncle, R. B. Blowers, who became a pioneer fruit grower in this state and grew the first California raisins. The boy lived on his uncle’s ranch near Woodland, Yolo County, then began business for himself, teaming to Nevada and the mountain district when he was but fifteen years old.

     His next venture was as a farmer in Yolo County, but in 1874 he transferred his interest to Kings County, where he has since lived. He bought a railroad and claim for $600, but the land was a waste of desert sand, unfit for cultivation. In doing so he was planning for the future and he soon became one of the promoters of the Lower Kings river, Last Chance and People’s irrigation ditches which were completed in 1877. Then Mr. Blowers sowed his land to wheat and the next year he set out a few vines. In 1883 he shipped the first raisins which were boxed in Tulare County, which then included the present Kings County, and he originated the system of employing fruit cutters at piece prices instead of on salary. At that time there were but three canneries in the state, San Jose, San Francisco, and Sacramento. All had been paying day wages for employees, and Chinese and white workers were intermingled in one large room. In 1886 Mr. Blowers went to Sacramento and induced the management of the cannery their to try piece work, which was done. The orientals were separated from the whites and so successful was this method that it has been generally adopted by all the fruit growers throughout the state.

     In his home ranch Mr. Blowers has two hundred and forty acres, forty acres devoted to vines, seventy to peaches, apricots and other fruits, the remainder to grain and alfalfa. He owns also a stock and alfalfa ranch on two hundred acres in Kings County, formerly in Fresno County prior to the annexation, and a fruit, vine and alfalfa farm of eighty acres near Lemoore.

     The marriage of Mr. Blowers, January 19, 1875, united him with Miss Susie McLaughlin, and their eight children were born on the home ranch in Kings County. Hubert Lane is operating a ranch of thirty acres not far from his father’s. Russell M. is farming and growing fruit on thirty acres of land given to him by Mr. Blowers. Olive G. married George Blowers, who is the proprietor of a machine shop in San Francisco. Francis is ranching on fifty acres of land given him by his father. Bessie, who died in 1905, was the wife of Fred Arthur, who is farming in Kings County. Mary, Ralph and Viola Susan are members of their parent’s household. Mr. Blowers has long taken an active part in the affairs of the Raisin Grower’s association and has been for about a quarter of a century president of the Last Chance Ditch Corporation. Politically he is a Republican. His interests in school affairs impelled him to fill the duties of school trustee about twenty years, and his public spirit, many times tried, has not been found wanting. Page 241

 

BLOYD, WINFIELD SCOTT     In Colchester, McDonough County, Ill., Winfield Scott Bloyd, now a prominent business man of Hanford, Kings County, Cal., was born November 18, 1858, son of W. Washington Bloyd, of whom a sketch appears elsewhere in this publication. In 1861 his parents brought him across the plains to California and settled in Tehama County, removing from there to the San Joaquin valley, and in 1871 located in Kings County. Here they made their home until after the Mussel Slough fight, when they turned their faces towards the Northwest and for a year and a half resided in Oregon. Then they returned to California and bought a ranch at Summit Lake, in Fresno County, which they operated two years and sold out, in 1892 coming to Grangeville, Kings County, where they began raising fruit.

     In 1905 Mr. Bloyd came from the ranch to Hanford, and he has since made his home in that city. For three years he bought and sold hay and he and his brother Levi are now contractors of cement work, doing an increasing volume of business, which requires the investment of considerable capital and the employment from time to time of a number of skilled workmen. In different parts of the city are to be seen evidences of their handicraft and enterprise.

     Mr. Bloyd affiliates with the Fraternal Aid and the Woodmen of the World. As a citizen he is public-spirited and helpful to all the interests of the community and in political principles is Republican. In 1881 he married Miss Louisa Samuels, a native of California, who died in 1900. In 1902 he married Mrs. E. Biddy. He has two daughters, Mrs. John Bassett and Miss Ruby Bloyd. Pages 382 - 383

 

BLOYD, WILLIAM WASHINGTON     The life of the late William Washington Bloyd extended from July 18, 1835, when he was born in Illinois, until November, 1908, when he died at his home in Hanford, Kings County, Cal. He grew to manhood on the farm in Hancock County, Ill., and was married April 14, 1855 to Miss Elizabeth Cowan, who was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, April 18, 1835, and had come to Illinois. After his marriage he lived four years in his native state, then sold out his interests there and moved to Appanoose County, Iowa, where he made his home until 1861, when he came with a train of eight wagons drawn by oxen over the southern route to California. For two years he lived at Red Bluff, Tehama County, and afterwards until 1874 in San Joaquin County, where he bought a ranch. Then because he could not do well in so dry a country he sold out and came to what is now Kings County, settling on railroad land in the Grangeville section four miles west of Hanford, homesteading at the same time one hundred and sixty acres nearby. It was not until after the rioting at Mussel Slough that he finally paid out on his railroad land. He naturally sided with the settlers, and was at Hanford at the time of the historic fight. Mrs. Bloyd, hearing of it, hurried to the scene of action, but did not arrive until the conflict was over and one man lay dead and two wounded on the ground; Mr. Bloyd arrived a few minutes afterward. It was not cheerfully that the settlers later gave up so much good money for their land, but the courts compelled them to do it and they made the best of the situation. After a time Mr. Bloyd sold out here and lived for a year in Oregon. Returning then, he bought back his old ranch and lived on it until 1907, when he sold it to move to Hanford, where he had bought a residence at 115 West Elm street. As an investment he owned several other houses in the city.

     Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bloyd, viz: Rosalie Adeline, deceased; Winfield Scott, mentioned elsewhere in this work; Charles S., who lives at Hanford; Clara Ellen, who is the wife of K. L. Wilcox of Los Angeles; Ida Belle, who married Ed Parsons, of Hanford; Elizabeth Jane, deceased, Levi, who is also mentioned fully in this publication; and Willie Wilford, who lives in Kings County. Of these children Adeline and Winfield were born in Illinois, the others being natives of California.

     The fraternal affiliations of Mr. Bloyd were with the Masons and the Ancient Order of United Workmen and his religious convictions drew him to the Christian church. His early experiences in California included some in the mines in Placer County. He superintended the construction of the People’s Ditch in Kings County. When he came to that County it was an open plain on which wild horses and cattle roamed at will and in all the development down to a comparatively recent time he manfully did his part, for he was public spirited to a degree that made him a most useful citizen.  Pages 323 – 324

BOOKER, SANFORD     A native of Gardiner, Me., Sanford Booker was born October 12, 1833, and there reared to manhood, educated and given a knowledge of the ship carpenter’s trade, and later learned house building. When he was twenty years old he moved to Medford, Mass., where he worked as a carpenter about fifteen years. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Lawrence Light Guards of Medford, a militia company, which , as Company E, Fifth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, was mustered into the government service after President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers, April 15, 1861. Next day the company was ordered to be in readiness, and on the eighteenth an order to march was issued by Col. Samuel C. Lawrence, this order being taken to the member of the organization by the Colonel’s brother, Daniel W. Lawrence, who in the night of the eighteenth rode from town to town for that purpose. Among these soldiers of 1861 there was a strong conviction that Lawrence rode over the same route that Paul Revere had followed on a similar errand eighty-six years before. The regiment was quartered at Faneuil Hall, Boston, until the morning of April 21, when it left for New York. When Lawrence brought the order to Mr. Booker the latter was running a mill. Going home immediately, he reported that he was ordered out and would have to go to Washington, and he went to Boston and slept that night at Faneuil Hall with his comrades; on that same night the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment was mobbed in the streets of Baltimore. At Washington the Fifth was mustered into service for three months from May 1, and it participated in the fight at Bull Run, where Colonel Lawrence was wounded and the regimental color-bearer was shot down. Ten days later the Fifth Massachusetts was mustered out of the service and soon afterwards Corporal Booker’s company was mustered out at Medford. His corporal’s commission is dated February 12, 1861.

     About 1868 Mr. Booker moved to De Kalb County, Mo., and engaged in building until 1874 when he came to California. He stopped at Los Angeles, but soon settled at San Bernardino, where he lived seven years operating extensively as a contractor and builder and he erected there the County court house, the Congregational and Baptist churches, some school houses and several fine residences. He was the builder of the first house at Redlands, the latter the property of Frank Brown, civil engineer, who constructed the reservoir through which Redland is supplied with water. Mr. Booker had to grub out sage brush before he could lay the foundation of the building, and he and his men boarded themselves, for there was no one living in the vicinity. In 1887 he sold his property at San Bernardino and removed to Hanford, buying a one hundred and sixty-acre ranch northeast of the town, where he farmed until 1892, and then sold his land and built himself a residence in town. He was very active in securing County division of Tulare County and the partition of Kings County in that year, and assisted with his own means to finance the movements. Indeed there was no other man at Hanford who was more influential to these ends than was he. He personally canvassed every home in the County to ascertain if a two-thirds vote for the new County would be possible if a favorable bill should be passed by the legislature. After this matter was settled he visited the World’s Fair at Chicago. Since then he has lived in Hanford, which when he first saw it in 1887 was a mere hamlet containing but one store and in the prosperity of which he has been a potent factor. In 1893 he bought twelve acres of fruit land and; having suffered a stroke of paralysis which incapacitated him for work, retired from active business. When the “Old Bank” at Hanford was established he was its first depositor, having until then done his banking at Visalia.

     On November 27, 1854, Mr. Booker married Miss Sarah E. Carr, at Medford, Mass. Mrs. Booker, who was a native of Massachusetts, bore her husband two children, Everett S., of Hanford, and Sarah Elizabeth, who has passed away. Everett S. Booker married Edith O’Brien, and they have a daughter, Mary Florence. Mr. Booker is identified with McPherson Post, G. A. R., of Hanford, and is a Blue Lodge and Royal Arch Mason, and he an d Mrs. Booker were charter members of the Eastern Star, Mrs. Booker being past worthy matron.

 

BROWN, HON. JOSEPH C     In 1849, during the days of the gold excitement, which was the booming of California and the misfortune of many of its pioneer who had not learned that grain is more golden than gold, Joseph C. Brown, a native of Kentucky and a man of unusual ability, came across the plains in the historic wearisome way and mined for a time at Placerville. Then he bettered his fortunes by turning school teacher, holding forth to a few pupils in the Deep Creek school-house in Tulare County, a structure which can be dignified only by describing it as a log cabin. But there was a career before him. He had a taste for politics and was a forcible and convincing public speaker, and in those times and in this then remote region the public speaker had a distinct advantage over his less voluble neighbor. He represented Tulare County in the California legislature in 1866, 1867 and 1868, and the record show that he served on important committees and did good work for his constituency. 

      Later Mr. Brown ranched in the White River mountains, near Exeter, Tulare County, where he operated two hundred and forty acres of and in the raising of hogs, the bacon from which he enterprisingly sold in the mines. He homesteaded a one hundred and sixty-acre ranch of government land, two and one-half miles south-east of Exeter, which he developed into a productive farm on which he lived out his life and died April 25, 1896.

     Of the California constitutional convention of 1876 Mr. Brown was an active and influential member, representing Tulare County, and in political circles he was widely and favorably known throughout the state. At the time of the flood of 1868, when he was living in the White River mountains, his food supply was cut off temporarily and for a while he had nothing to eat but boiled barley. He married Mollie M. Lovelace, who bore him children as follows: Stanly B., Volney A. and Lucretia E., now Mrs. L. Martin.

     On his father’s ranch near Farmersville, Volney A. Brown grew to manhood, and in the public schools near home of his boyhood days he acquired his education. When his father’s estate was divided, eighty acres fell to his share and it is now his home, and he has improved it and made of it such an up-to-date ranch as would be the pride of any farmer in his district. He has set out a new prune orchard, which produced eleven tons in 1911, and raises barley, hogs and stock cattle. In connection with his homestead he farms a ranch in the hills under lease. He has also invested in valuable town lots in Exeter, and has just completed a fine residence on his premises, where he and his wife and one son, Joseph C. Brown, enjoy all the comforts of a happy home.

     Some of his father’s public spirit and concern in public affairs was inherited by Mr. Brown, who has an enviable reputation as a liberal-minded and very helpful citizen who has at heart the best interests of the community.

BURKE, IVAN C (D. D. S.)     The profession of dentistry approaches nearer and nearer to the realm of exact science with each passing decade and only those of its devotees who keep informed of the details of its progress win permanent success. One of the up-to-date doctors of dental surgery of central California is Ivan C. Burke, of Hanford, Kings County. Dr. Burke is a progressive son of a progressive state, having been born in Crawford County, Kans., September 21, 1885. When he was about five years old he was taken to Walla Walla, Wash., in the public schools of which city he received his practical English education. Desiring to follow a professional career, in 1904, when about nineteen years old, he entered the dental department of the College of Physician and Surgeons of San Francisco, from which he was duly graduated, with the D. D. S. degree in June, 1904, immediately after which Dr. Burke began the practice of his profession in Seattle, Wash. In 1908 he came to Hanford and opened an office in the First National Bank building where he has since devoted himself with much success to the general practice of his profession, keeping abreast of the times, employing the best facilities in the way of instruments and appliances, and his work is of a class well calculated to give permanent satisfaction. 

     As he has prospered in his profession Dr. Burke has from time to time made judicious investments in real estate. Besides some good town property, his holdings include one hundred and sixty acres near Walla Walla, Wash., which under the superintendency of a hired farmer is producing good alfalfa in paying quantities. At Hanford Dr. Burke is popular in all circles, political, professional, social and fraternal, and his public spirit has brought him high esteem as a citizen. He is a member of the Independence Order of Red Men and is devoted heart and soul to all the interests of that beneficent order. His marriage in 1909 united him with Miss Vera A. Donaldson, of Kansas, a charming woman of many accomplishments, who is bravely aiding him in his struggle for professional and social advancement. Pages 374 - 375

 

BYRON, E H (DR.)     The birth of Dr. E. H. Byron occurred at Lemoore, September 17, 1877, the son of H. W. Byron. He was educated in the common school and in the Union high school at Santa Paula, Ventura County, graduating in 1896, when he entered the California Medical College at San Francisco, where he was graduated in medicine in 1900. There he took the pharmaceutical course at the College of Physicians and surgeon of the same city, and was graduated as a pharmacist from that institution in 1907.

     After leaving college Dr. Byron was in charge of McLean hospital, San Francisco, for a year, and during the ensuing two years he was in practice of his profession with offices in that city. Then, going to Guerneville, he opened an office and was in practice there two years and during the next two years he was in professional work at Wheatland, Yuba County. He then opened a drug store in Oakland which he conducted in connection with professional practice until in 1909. In November of that year, he entered into professional partnership with his brother at Lemoore, and in the month of November,1912, opened up his present office in the Boltman block in the city of Lemoore. He is a member if the San Joaquin Valley Health Association, the California State Medical Society and the American Society of Medicine and is the health officer and a member of the city board of health. He affiliates socially with most of the fraternal orders represented at Lemoore. To a general practice Dr. E. H. Byron has consistently devoted himself with such success that his services are in demand not only in town but also in its tributary country and as a citizen he has demonstrated much public spirit. In 1902 he married Miss Harriet Freeman of San Jose. Their son Herbert Freeman Byron celebrated his seventh birthday May, 1912. Page 404

 

 BYRON, WILLIAM P (DR.)     The able and popular medical man of Kings County, Cal., Dr. William P. Byron of Lemoore, was born in that town, October 22, 1878, and there reared and educated in the public schools, He is the son of H. W. Byron, one of the first pioneers of this part of the state. In 1900 Dr. Byron became a student at the California Medical College, San Francisco, and in 1904 was graduated from that institution with the degree of M. D. He began the practice of his profession at Ridgefield, Wash., and continued it there with considerable success until 1906, when he returned to Lemoore and opened an office there. He was successful from the outset and soon became on of the most popular physicians in that part of the County. In November, 1909, Dr. E. H. Byron, his brother, became his professional partner, and this partnership continued until November, 1912. He has always devoted himself to general practice and is in much favor as a family physician. He was made district surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad Co. in 1907, and is still holding that responsible position. He is the city health officer of Lemoore; County physician for Western Kings County, and a member of the San Joaquin Valley Health Association, the California State Medical Society and the American Society of Medicine. Socially he affiliates with the Masons, Odd Fellows, Red Men, Knights of Pythias, Foresters, Woodsmen and the Fraternal Brotherhood; also the orders of I. D. E. S. and U. P. E. C. Companions, Rebekahs and the Order of the Eastern Star, and with all women’s auxiliary lodge as in the city of which specific mention has not been made. 

     In 1910 Dr. Byron married Miss Ruby E. Fassett of Iowa and they lived on Heinlin street, opposite the park. Exacting as are the demands that are made upon him professionally he gives much time to promotion of the general interests of Lemoore, and has proven himself a public-spirited citizen, to be confidently depended upon in an emergency. Pages 426- 427

 

CAMPBELL, F D It was in that old southern town, Yazoo City, Miss., that F. D. Campbell was born in 1861. But a child when his parents moved to Texas, it was in that state that he was reared and went to school, and there he became a cowboy, and he lived the wild life of the plains and ranges in Texas, New Mexico, Missouri and Montana. He was for three years a Texas ranger, a sworn member of the long-famous organization so potent in the preservation of order in the country along the border. Then it comprised six companies, of twenty-one men each, all under command of Greneral King, each company having a captain, a lieutenant and a sergeant. The members were men of proven bravery, picked from among the boldest and truest spirits on the frontier. Much of their work was against smugglers along the Mexican border, and some interesting experiences were had in pursuit of cattle rustlers. One band of smugglers was pursued  relentlessly by the rangers five years, and was captured at length by Mr. Campbell’s company at Persimmons Gap, Tex. The head-quarters of the rangers was at Austin, Tex., and companies were stationed at Sunset Water, Aberdeen, Colorado City and Fort Davis, all points of strategic importance on the frontier. Mr. Campbell, who was twice wounded in this arduous and exciting service, received his honorable discharge November, 1883.

 

Going to Kansas City, Mo., after leaving the frontier service in Texas, Mr. Campbell shipped all kinds of livestock from that point, till in 1910, when he came to Tulare, to engage in the buying and selling of livestock. His business at once assumed important proportions and he was shipping $30,000 worth of cattle and hogs each month, as the months averaged. In no department has there been a falling off, and in some departments a wonderful growth has been recorded. He is also part owner of and a director in the Kern

Street Market of Tulare, one of the conspicuous concerns of its kind in this part of the state.

 

In 1896 Mr. Campbell married Miss Alice Landers, a native of  Mississippi, and they have the following children, mentioned in the order of their birth : Ethel, Gladys, Argyle, Blanche and Theodora. Since taking up his residence in Tulare he has in many ways

demonstrated that he is a helpful and dependable citizen, patriotically devoted to the general interests of the community and ready and able at all times to respond to demands in behalf of measures under promotion, with a view to the advancement of the public welfare. Pages 427 - 428

 

 

 

CARTMILL, WOOSTER B     The Tulare County Co-operative Creamery Association, the largest institution of the kind in the country, was organized in 1903 and has branches at Visalia and at Corcoran. Its officers are: S. B. Anderson, president; P. E. Reinhart, vice –president; M. G. Cottle, secretary; the above mentioned and William Small and Charles Meador, directors; Wooster B. Cartmill, manager. The main station, at Tulare, occupies a modern brick building, which is equipped with up-to-date machinery and appliances of all kinds necessary to its successful operation. Its output of two tons of butter daily is sold in bulk to the Los Angeles Creamery. The milk consumed, that of four thousand cow, is supplied by dairymen in the vicinity of Tulare.

     As stated above, the active and practical management of this great industry is in the hands of Wooster B. Cartmill. This gentleman, well know personally or by reputation in dairy circles throughout the San Joaquin Valley, is a native son of California, He was born in Amamdor County, Cal., in 1857, a son of Dr. W. F. and Sophia (Barnes) Cartmill. His father was a native of Ohio; his mother was born in Missouri. In 1861, when the immediate subject of this notice was four years old, his family moved to Tulare County. There he was reared and educated and there he obtained a practical knowledge of California farming, under his father’s thorough instruction. For years he assisted the elder Cartmill on the family’s big ranch of twelve hundred acres, and later took charge of it and managed it successfully until about 1898. It included eighty acres of prunes, peaches and grapes, a hundred and sixty acres of alfalfa and a fine dairy. His father upon coming to Tulare County made his beginning as a dairyman, by running a farm dairy from 1862 to 1870. He made butter which he sold at the mines in Tulare and Inyo counties in the early and interesting days, and became one of the leaders in the industry. Naturally, the younger Cartmill early in life acquired a practical knowledge of dairying. He operated the old D. K. Zumwalt creamery from 1889 to 1900, and in the latter year established a skimming station of his own at Tulare, which was really the beginning of the history of the Tulare Co-operative Creamery Association, as the company took over that enterprise and its visible property in October, 1903. Mr. Cartmill was one of the original directors of the Tulare Irrigation Ditch District. He is the owner of a two hundred and forty-acre tract near Tulare, which he rents out. In all the interests of the city and County he takes a public-spirited interest. He is a Mason and as such is identified with local organizations of the order, and he is also affiliated with the order of Woodmen of the World.

     Twice has Mr. Cartmill married, the first time, in 1883, to Miss Hatch, and she bore him a daughter, who is Mrs. W. C. Eldridge. His present wife, whom he married in 1894, was Mrs. Jane Henry. They have three children—May, Eva, and William G. Cartmill.

     Mrs. Cartmill’s maiden name was Jane Gilmer. She is the daughter of Rufus Gilmer of Visalia. By her first husband, Albert Henry, who died in 1891, she had two children. Rufus and Albert are farmers, operating the old Henry farm near Porterville.  Pages 296 - 298

 

CHANCE, EDWARD H     One of the extensive agriculturists of his County, who has been closely identified with its development for many years id Edward H. Chance, who now lives near Sultana in Tulare County. He was born near Versailles, Ind., March 24, 1860, a son of Henry and Louisa (Nuckles) Chance, and has not seen his mother since he was four years old. His father was a pioneer in Oregon, living for a time in Cottage Grove. There Edward H. went in 1887, having spent his life in Indiana and Kentucky until that time. He was employed at logging and lumbering nine years in that part of Oregon, then came to Fresno County, Cal., where he remained one year before settling in Tulare County.

Soon after his arrival in this County Mr. Chance bought forty acres of the Bump tract, paying $800 for twenty acres and $35 an acre for the other twenty. He has five acres planted to a peach orchard, fourteen acres under alfalfa and a good acreage of corn. He keeps seven head of stock and a few hogs, and has gradually improved his ranch from a wheat field until it is one of the best in the neighborhood. By bringing it to a high state of cultivation he is securing crops which do not suffer by comparison with any other of their respective kinds raised in the vicinity of Sultana. As a progressive farmer and citizen he enjoys a high reputation. His public spirit impels him to help all movements for the benefit of his community to the extent of his ability. In politics he is a Republican but has never sought public office. While living in Oregon he was road supervisor for two years in Crawfordsville, and deputy constable in the Sultana district. Fraternally he affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of America, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Beavers.

     In Indiana, March 24, 1883, Mr. Chance married Miss Martha Carson, who was born sixty miles north of Indianapolis, and they have four children living, Percy E., Lester Carl, Eddie Frank, and Bruce Allen. Pearl is the only daughter, is deceased. Percy married Mollie Ramsey; later he married Sadie Carter and they have one child and are living in Benton County, Oregon.   Pages 399 - 401

 

CLARKE, ROBERT C     A native Canadian, Robert C. Clarke, of Tulare, Tulare County, Cal., was born in New Brunswick, in quaint St. John, December 29, 1829, and when this is written is in his eighty-four year. He was educated in his native town and there he learned the carpenter’s trade. In 1852 he boarded the ship Java, an old whaler, bound for San Francisco by way of Cape Horn, under an arrangement permitting him to earn his passage. Richly he earned the money he might have saved in that way—if he had had it. At Valparaiso he went ashore when the cargo, consisting of building materials, was sold, to be delivered at Caldera. Finding employment at his trade in the Chilian port, he earned enough money to pay his fare from there to his objective point, but it took him about half a year to do it under labor conditions prevailing there at the time; he arrived at San Francisco in the fall of that year and went almost immediately to the mines.

     In the diggings at Sonora, Tuolumne County, he labored a short time with such indifferent success that when he was offered eight dollars a day to work at his trade at Stockton he fairly jumped at a chance to better his condition. Two years he was employed at Stockton, then went to Knight’s Ferry, Stanislaus County, and resumed mining and, not altogether expectedly met with some success. He constructed an irrigation conduit for running water into his claim, and his crude and primitive ditch was the beginning of the extensive irrigation system now being completed in that section, down through the San Joaquin country. That his part of this great work may have a historical record it should be said that his work on his ditch was begun in the early ‘50s. Mining some of the time in Amador County, as well as at Knight’s Ferry, he made the latter place his headquarters for ten years. For a time he was in the mercantile business with James Allen as a partner. Sheep raising on the ranges along the Tuolumne river also commanded his attention temporarily. It was in 1875 that he came to Tulare County and bought one hundred and sixty acres, three miles north of Tipton, where he ranched successfully till 1909, when he retired from active life and came to Tulare City to pass the years of rest that were before him. In the earlier period of his farming he grew grain and alfalfa. Later he ran a dairy and had an annual average of fifty acres of alfalfa. Alfalfa seed also he made a source of revenue. He bred some fine horses, ranging in weight from fourteen hundred to eighteen hundred pounds.

     Tulare City Lodge No. 326 includes Mr. Clarke in its membership. He married, in 1887, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, a native of Pennsylvania, and they have children named Nettie A. and Roberta C. Samuel Sampson, Mrs. Clarke’s father, was born in Ireland and eventually made the United States his adopted country. Twice he came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, first in 1851. He mined for gold in Tuolumne County and went back to Pennsylvania, whence he had come, in the late ‘50s. There he spent the declining years of his life and passed to his reward. His wife was, before her marriage, Miss McKewon. In 1859 she and Mrs. Clarke, her only child, came to California by way of the isthmus and established a home in Stanislaus County, where Mrs. Clarke grew to womanhood and was married. Pages 381 - 382      

 

COLLINS, WILLIAM W     The present sheriff of Tulare County is William W. Collins, now serving his third term in that important office. Mr. Collins is a son of Albert O. and Sarah J. (Cochran) Collins, natives of Ohio. In 1862, Albert O. Collins enlisted in Company C, Eighty-fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he served continuously from April that year until the end of the Civil war, rising to the rank of captain. Returning to Ohio he taught school there until the spring of 1866, when he moved to Putnam County, Mo., where he lived until May, 1873, at which time he came to California and located in Bakersfield, Kern County. There he was for a time in the meat trade and later conducted a large ranch until 1887, when he took up his residence in Inyo County and engaged in stock-raising near Bishop. Mrs. Collins passed away in San Francisco in 1910, aged sixty-eight years.

 

     To Albert O. and Sarah J. (Cochran) were born three sons and two daughters: Charles A., sheriff of Inyo County; William W. Collins; John L.; Minnie, widow of W. L. Blythe of Palo Alto, Cal.; and Lenora, who is the wife of Bertrand Rhine of Bishop, Cal.

 

     William W. Collins was born on the old Collins homestead, near Coshocton, Ohio, June 23, 1865, and was eight years old when his father removed to California. He was educated in the public schools of Kern County, at the Visalia Normal school and at the California State Normal school at Los Angeles. After his graduation he assisted his father for a time in the latter’s cattle business. In 1889 he entered business life for himself as a wheat grower and as the proprietor of a livery stable at Tulare, and in 1895, began buying wheat in Tulare and Kern counties for the Farmers’ Union Milling Co. of Stockton. The next year he accepted a position with J. Goldman & Co. of Tulare as foreman, in charge of their hands, orchards and stock. He has recently set out, at Lemon Cove, a forty-acre orange grove.

 

     In Republican politics Mr. Collins has long been locally prominent, and in 1902 he was elected sheriff of Tulare County. He has been twice re-elected, and now in his third term, is one of the most popular sheriffs the people of the County have ever known. A man of such public spirit, he has been helpfully identified with many important home interests, and has in all things devoted himself, heart and soul, to the welfare of the community. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the local lodge and encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in the last mentioned order has been elected to different offices of importance. Sharing with him in the esteem of the people of Visalia is Mrs. Collins, a native daughter of Inyo County, who was formerly Miss Louise Clarke. She has borne him three daughters—Hazel, Vera and Blanche.  Pages 425- 426

 

 

 

COMFORT, ALMER B   Conspicuous among the prominent citizens and officials of Guernsey, Kings County, Cal., who has evidenced the power of staunch loyalty to his early training, which has materially acquired for him the success he has reached to day, is Almer B. Comfort, the well-known proprietor of the flourishing and active general store business of Guernsey, which he also serves as postmaster. Inheriting the splendid traits of his father, Byron G. Comfort, a pioneer of Kings County, who is a prosperous farmer near Hanford, he early evidenced the ability and perseverance which led him to mercantile interests, and his entire career has been indicative of thrift, energy and integrity.

 

     Born in Kings County, Cal., the son of Byron G. and Carrie H. (Drullard) Comfort, Mr. Comfort was there reared to manhood, acquiring his elementary education in the common schools, and becoming thoroughly familiar with farm work and steady, honorable and clean habits. Upon reaching manhood’s estate he rented a large dairy farm in the vicinity of Corcoran, which he operated with signal success, following that line of business for a long period until in 1912 he found himself able to purchase a business of his own. Being attracted by a chance to purchase a general merchandise business at Guernsey he went there to make investigation with the result that he bought and has since conducted it with the most gratifying results. Being naturally of a genial, optimistic disposition, he attracted many friends to him, and in his position as postmaster of Guernsey, which appointment he received in December of 1912, he finds himself the recipient of many good wishes and the good will of the entire community. In addition to the duties he has taken over the management of the lumber yard at Guernsey, which bids fair to become an important business in the near future.

 

     Mr. Comfort belongs to that circle of young men of California who have the future of the country in their hands, and who give every prophecy of taking the burden of business and political life on their shoulders with capability and splendid executive ability. Ever alert for the welfare of their interests and those of their town and County, they are public-spirited and quick to move in the direction they deem best for all concerned.

 

     Mr. Comfort is not a holder of any public office. In politics he votes the republican ticket, and his interests in the affairs and issues of his party is ever active, he is well-informed on all current topics pertaining to the advancement of his country.  Pages 417 - 418

 

 

COURTNEY, SAMUEL EDWARD     This well known nurseryman, who is an agent for the Capital City Nursery and whose residence in the Emma Lee Colony, northeast of the limits of Hanford, is a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and, was born in 1862. The Courtney progenitors came from Holland with Prince William and fought in the religious wars. On the maternal line Mr. Courtney is of Scotch and Danish extraction. He was about eighteen years old when he came across the ocean to Ontario, Canada, and lived at Oshawa for some time there after. In 1885 he volunteered for service in the suppression of the insurrection known as the Northwest rebellion. After his discharge he lived for two years at Fort William, with his brother, and they were employed in the construction of a large elevator, quartering opposite the historic battleground at Quaminisque; and they endured many hardships in that new country, the temperatures often registering as low as sixty degrees below zero. They bought property in that vicinity, but eventually went to Halifax, N. S., where Mr. Courtney married and was engaged in farming and as a builder until 1892. Then he sold out and went to Boston, where he worked six months as a carpenter. During his stay in Boston he heard much of California and the wonderful opportunities it held out to the horticulturist, and coming out in 1893 and locating at Hanford, he found employment at his trade and later as a contractor, built many residences there and throughout the country round about. In 1902 he became a salesman for the Capital City Nursery Co., of Salem, Ore., and during his second year of work in that capacity sold $16,000 worth of peach and apricot trees (most of the trees being Albertas), all of which were planted in Kings County. He has handled the line ever since, adding to it local and home grown stock, and his yearly sales during the last few years have averaged $6,000. In 1903 he bought five acres of land for a home at the northwest corner of the city, paying $100 an acre for it; it is now worth $1,000 an acre. He has built on it a fine house and other necessary buildings and has set it out to fruit trees. He is also the owner of twenty-two and a half acres in the Crowell addition, a good portion of which he has set out to fruit. Another tract which he owns is one of sixty acres, three and a half miles east of Hanford, which he intends to put in vines and trees, and he intends to improve this property still further. Having a liking for horses and cattle, he has devoted some attention to raising both and intends to go into business more extensively. In 1911-12 he bought out four small nurseries ad has disposed of their stock, his nursery business being one of the most comprehensive in this part of the sate. Its numerous offerings include twelve varieties of peaches, seven of plums, ten of such apples as do well in the San Joaquin valley country, three of prunes, three of apricots, seven of table grapes, Franquette walnuts, olives, plums, eucalyptus trees, shade trees, palms and roses.

     The place on which Mr. Courtney lives was formerly owned by one Knudson, who was shot at the time of the Mussell Slough trouble; brought home, died under an old walnut tree which is still standing in the nursery yard. In 1887 Mr. Courtney married at Halifax, N. S., Miss Annie Roper, a native of Nova Scotia, and they have had children as follows: James; Hugh. Deceased: Millicent M.; Blanche M.; and Samuel Ernest. Three of these are living. Millicent M. is the wife of Charles Fellows of Modesto, who is also in the nursery business.

     Mr. Courtney was converted to the Presbyterian church in the north of Ireland, when a boy. His father James Courtney, of French Huguenot stock, was an evangelist in his home locality. He was connected with the Salvation Army of Hanford from the start and has always been in the fight for the right and advocates and supports all worthy movements. He is a National Prohibitionist, secretary and treasurer of the Kings County delegation, and took a leading part in the fight to eliminate liquor traffic from his city.  Pages 353 - 354

 

DODGE, FRED A    A native of Illinois, Mr. Dodge was born December 2, 1858, on the farm where his parents settled in 1839, in Dunham township, McHenry County. His parents, Elisha and Susan Dodge, were pioneers of that part of the west, coming from New York state to Illinois. They were New England stock, Elisha being a native of Vermont , and his wife was Susan Smith, a native of New York state.

     The subject of this sketch was the eighth living child of their union, and was reared on the farm. His mother died in 1863 and his father subsequently married Mrs. Abigail Harkness. After the farm was sold they established a residence at Harvard, Ill., where Fred entered the public school, and remained in that city until he completed the branches taught there at the time. His father died in February, 1878, and in the following summer he drove by team to Parkersburg, Iowa, where his older brother, Frank L. Dodge, was engaged in the publication of a weekly newspaper called the Eclipse. There he entered the printing office and learned the printer’s trade. In 1880 he purchased an interest in the Eclipse, and subsequently, with his brother, established the Allison Tribune, a weekly newspaper at Allison, the County seat of Butler County, Iowa. The two brothers conducted these papers for a number of years, but finally dissolved partnership, Fred becoming sole proprietor of the Parkersburg paper, which he edited and published until August, 1887, when he sold it.

     On February 28, 1882, Mr. Dodge was united in marriage at Parkersburg, Iowa, to Miss May F. Davis, a native of Maine. A daughter was born to them in Parkersburg, and in 1887 they moved to Hanford, Cal., where they purchased five acres of land on the edge of what was then the town limit. Here they erected a cottage, and Mr. Dodge entered the office of the Hanford Sentinel, which was established by David and Frank L. Dodge in February, 1886. Subsequently he purchased the half interest of David Dodge, and the firm of Dodge Brothers continued to publish the Sentinel until 1897, when Frank L. sold out his interest to J. E. Richmond, since which time Fred A. Dodge has been the editor and Mr. Richmond the business manager of the paper.

     Mr. and Mrs. Dodge are the parents of two children, born in Hanford, George Raymond, born February 3, 1891, and Florence Mildred, born November 16, 1895.

     Mr. Dodge has for more than thirty years been in the harness of a newspaper man, most of the time engaged at editorial work. While he has served many years on boards of education, boards of library work, and on business and commercial committees, he has never sought political office.  Pages 307 - 308

 

EKLOF, CHARLES JOHN     Numbered conspicuously among the thrifty and prosperous orchardists of Tulare County is Charles John Eklof, born October 10, 1869, in Sweden. In April 1889, when he was about twenty years old, he landed in New York, equipped with a good education obtained in the public schools of his native land. His early training had laid a splendid foundation on which to enter the struggle for success in America, to which he dedicated himself, his ambitions and his energies. Mr. Eklof had been born and brought up on a farm, and it was as a farm hand in Nebraska that he passed the first year of his life in America. In 1890 he went to the Northwest, into Washington, where he remained three years and four months, and in 1894 he embarked for San Francisco, whence he soon made his way to Fresno, being here employed in a vineyard till 1907. In the year last mentioned he located near Lindsay and engaged in the nursery business, which commanded his efforts for twelve years and brought him fairly god financial recompense. Then he began to buy land, securing forty acres and then twenty, forty of which were put into an orange orchard. The estimated value of his crop in 1912 is $10,000 and he is one of the most successful men in his line in his vicinity, with promising plans for the future.

     In 1911 Mr. Eklof married Mrs. Mary B. Fraus, a native of Ohio. As a citizen he is loyal and patriotic, taking an active interest in the welfare of his community. His success has been great, for he started with nothing and could now turn his interests into $50,000 cash, but it has been the success of a self-made man, well deserved.  Page 423

History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches
History By Eugene L Menefee and Fred A Dodge
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

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                                                                  Martha A Crosley Graham
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