Tulare and Kings Counties, California Biographies DANIEL G. OVERALL. Daniel G. Overall (deceased) was a native of the Lone Star state, born in Texas in 1857. His father, whose name was also Daniel G., was one of a party of Argonauts who sailed around the Horn in 1849 and came to California in quest of gold. After a brief stay on the Pacific coast, he returned to Missouri and was married to Miss Charity Mason. From Missouri, Mr. Overall went to Texas, where he collected a large herd of cattle, which he drove overland to Tulare county, California, in 1859. A little later he brought his family, and until his death was active in the development of this section of the state. Daniel G. Overall, Jr., the son of this worthy pioneer couple, was educated in the schools of Tulare county. Upon completing his early education he became associated with W. H. Hammond and John F. Jordan in the real estate business. In 1887 he was elected sheriff of Tulare county and held that office until 1891. He then followed ranching and stock raising for some time. During this period he became greatly interested in fruit-growing in the citrus belt of Tulare county. Probably no other man did more to encourage orange culture in this part of the state. He was for several years president of the Central California Citrus Fruit Exchange, and was the principal owner and manager of the Kaweah Lemon Company. He was also a director in the First National Bank of Visalia, president of the Visalia Abstract Company, and for thirteen years was the proprietor of the Palace Hotel in Visalia. He also had extensive oil interests in Kern county. Mr. Overall was prominent in fraternal organizations, being a Knight Templar, a thirty-second degree Mason in the Scottish Rite, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Overall has been twice married. His first wife was a Miss Maup, and to them was born one son, Orval, a sketch of whom appears else where in this volume. His second wife was a Miss Van Loan, who has passed away. WILLIAM E. DUNLAP. Among those who have witnessed the progress of development of the thriving little city of Tulare during the past twenty years and more there are few who have been more active participants in that development than William E. Dunlap, vice president and manager of the First National Bank of Tulare and long recognized as one of the leaders in the general commercial life of the community. Mr. Dunlap has been connected with the affairs of that bank for almost twenty years and has thus been a factor in its expansion almost from the time this now substantial financial institution was established. This is the pioneer bank in Tulare, set up for local banking accommodation on August 2, 1902. It was on January 16, 1906, that Mr. Dunlap came into the bank with some bookkeeping experience behind him, being there employed as bookkeeper, teller and general utility man, he and H. M. Shreve, now president of the bank, constituting the banking staff, Mr. Shreve taking care of the duties of cashier and general manager. On April 1, 1907, this bank, which had been carrying on as a private bank, secured a charter as a national bank and has since been doing business as the First National Bank of Tulare, one of the solidest financial institutions in this section of the state, with a substantial and well equipped banking house on the corner of K and Kern streets, and resources in excess of a million and quarter dollars. As the pioneer banks business expanded with the gradual development and expansion of the trade area comprised within the sphere of its activities, Mr. Dunlaps duties also expanded and two years after he entered the bank he was made assistant cashier. In 1912 he was advanced to the position of cashier and in 1920 was elected vice president and was made general manager, a position he since has occupied. H. M. Shreve is president of the bank and A. C. Rosenthal is the cashier. When Mr. Dunlap began his labors there he did all the bookkeeping necessary to be carried on in the bank. The bank staff now numbers eleven, five of whom are bookkeepers, with all the mechanical aids to efficiency and expedition that modern computing machines and the like can provide, a visible evidence of the expansion of the banks resources and facilities as convincing as a long row of figures carrying a formal statement of the condition of the bank, and by reason of his long and continuous connection with the affairs of this institution Mr. Dunlap is entitled to indulge in a bit of quite pardonable pride in the part he has taken in bringing about this expansion. William E. Dunlap is a native son of California and has been a resident of this state all his life. He was born on a farm in Colusa county, February 6, 1882, and was but a babe when in 1883, his parents, John W. and Lilly (Green) Dunlap, closed out their holdings in that county and came to Tulare county, establishing their home on a ranch in the vicinity of Tulare. There John W. Dunlap carried on his farming operations for nearly forty years, or until his death in July, 1922, one of the best known citizens in this section of the county. He was a native of Hannibal, Missouri, and had been a resident of California since 1869. His widow, who was born in California, is still living, now making her home in Tulare. Reared on the home farm, William E. Dunlap supplemented the education he received in the rural schools in the vicinity of his home by a year of high school work in Tulare and by a year of work in the business college at Stockton and then started out as a bookkeeper, presently taking employment in the office of the Hanford Lumber Company in Hanford, and was thus employed until 1906 when, as noted above, he began his connection with the bank in Tulare, then and for years afterward the only bank in town. Mr. Dunlap then was twenty-four years of age and the youthful enthusiasm which he injected into his labors in behalf of the bank has never abated, for the interests of this institution have ever since been uppermost in his thoughts. Since becoming administrative head of the bank Mr. Dunlap has done much to further the interests of the institution with which he for so many years has been connected and he has long been regarded as one of the leaders in local financial circles as well as one of the veteran bankers of this section of the state. On August 1, 1923, in Tulare, Mr. Dunlap was united in marriage to Miss Pauline Meyers, who was born in Jefferson City, Missouri, a daughter of G. W. Meyers. Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap have a pleasant home in Tulare. They take a proper interest in the general social and cultural activities of the community and are helpful in local good works. They are republicans and give proper attention to local civic affairs, ever interested in promoting such movements as have to do with the advancement of the common welfare hereabout. Mr. Dunlap is a member of the Masonic order and is affiliated with the locally influential Rotary Club in Tulare. CHESTER B. BOWKER. For the past eighteen years Chester B. Bowker has ably filled the position of general manager of the Lindsay Mercantile Company. He was born in Beloit, Kansas, August 17, 1874. His father, George C. Bowker, was born in Illinois, and his mother, whose maiden name was Olive Hamilton, was a native of Indiana. Both were from down east Yankee families. They went to Kansas in 1869, where they fought Indians, grasshoppers and drought with true New England stoicism until success finally crowned their efforts. Chester B. Bowker completed the course in the local high school, after which he attended the Central State Normal School, where he qualified himself for a teacher in the public schools and followed that occupation for several years. Mr. Bowkers first position in California was with Fox & Sweetly of Lemoore, in whose employ he remained for two years. In 1906 he came to Lindsay to accept the position of manager of the Lindsay Mercantile Company, then as now the largest store in the city, employing from ten to fifteen salespeople, owing to the season. Since then Mr. Bowker has become a stockholder in the business and is a member of the board of directors. He is also a stockholder in the Lindsay Savings Bank. In 1900 Mr. Bowker was married to Miss Delia Steere, a native of Kansas, and they have four children: Elvira is now Mrs. H. M. Buchanan of Lindsay; Lois is the wife of Ernest Bremlett of Palo Alto, California; Bessie is a student in the Lindsay high school; and Katherine is also attending the high school in that city. Fraternally Mr. Bowker is a Master Mason in good standing, a member of Lindsay Lodge. JOHN B. ROSSON, M. D. Dr. John B. Rosson, dean of the medical profession in Tulare county, health officer in and for the city of Tulare and long recognized as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of this section of California, has been a resident of Tulare for more than thirty years and has thus been a witness to and a participant in the development of that thriving commercial center during the whole of what may be regarded as the modern period of that notable development, concerning which he very properly may say, quoting the words of another : All of which I saw and part of which I was. His long residence here and his active participation in the general good works of the community have given Dr. Rosson an unusually wide acquaintance hereabout and he ever has been recognized as a loyal guardian of the best interests of the place to which for so many years he has been devoted, his friends regarding him as one of the mainstays to the general social structure and an important factor in community affairs, as well as a helpful contributor to local good works. Though now (1925) in his eightieth year Dr. Rosson continues hale and hearty, keeps up an active general professional practice and maintains a continuing and hearty interest in general affairs, his present service as local health officer attesting his abiding concern in the promotion of the common welfare. For eight years Dr. Rosson also rendered public service as a member of the local school board and in that capacity did much to enhance the interests of the schools hereabout. John B. Rosson was born on a plantation in the Lewisburg settlement in Marshall county, Tennessee, November 30, 1845, a son of Osborn and Rebecca (Patton) Rosson, both members of pioneer families in that state and the former of whom was a substantial planter and landowner. Reared amid an excellent social environment, John B. Rosson was given good schooling in his youth, which he supplemented by attendance at school in Cincinnati, carrying his studies there on into the University of Cincinnati. Early becoming seriously interested in the study of medicine, he was prepared for medical college under capable local preceptorship and then entered the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, from which institution he was graduated in 1872, with the degree of M. D. Thus admirably equipped for the practice of the profession to which he had elected to devote his life and his talents, Dr. Rosson became established in practice in southern Illinois, presently locating in Ava, that state, and was there until in 1894, in which year he closed out his holdings in the east and came to California, locating in Tulare, where he ever since has been engaged in practice and is now recognized as the dean of his profession in this county, the oldest physician in continuous practice in the county. The Doctor has two sons also engaged in medical-practice Dr. Charles T. Rosson at Hanford, in the neighboring county of :Kings, and Dr. Ray W. Rosson at Tulare. He also has three daughters. In the days of his youth Dr. Rosson was an alert student of stenography and mastered the theory and practice of shorthand writing, becoming a skilled stenographer, and was for some time prior to taking up the study of medicine employed as a court reporter and during this period of his activities made reports of political debates and other public speeches of large public concern in his home community, these reports including the locally celebrated Braden-Detzler debate which in 1866, the year following the close of the Civil war and the beginning of the reconstruction period in the south, attracted much attention in Tennessee and generally throughout the southland. The Doctor is a democrat, for many years looked upon as one of the leaders of that party in this section of the state, and is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. JAMES SHIPP CALDWELL. James Shipp Caldwell, president of the Valley Paving & Construction Company of Visalia, is a native of Cave City, Kentucky, born January 26, 1881. His father, Richard G. Caldwell, died some years ago. His mother, whose maiden name was Fanny Davis, is now living in Visalia, California. James Shipp Caldwell acquired his elementary education in the public schools, after which he attended the State University of Kentucky. Upon completing his education he went to work for the United States government on the survey of the Chesapeake bay coast, remaining with the government surveys for twelve years. At the end of that time he came to California, first locating in Point Richmond. During the next few years he was employed in construction work in. different parts of the state. In 1918 he came to Visalia in connection with the construction of the county highway and liking the place, decided to become a permanent resident. When the Valley Paving & Construction Company was formed in 1921 he was chosen secretary of the corporation. This company has already built many miles of improved highway in Tulare and Merced counties. It is one of the largest companies of the kind in the south central part of California. In 1922 Mr. .Caldwell was chosen president of the corporation. On December 20, 1902, Mr. Caldwell was married to Miss Laura G. Gracey, a native of Kentucky, and they reside at No. 817 West Mineral King avenue, Visalia. Mr. Caldwells interest in the development of Visalia and the surrounding territory is shown by his membership in the Rotary Club and the Contractors Association. Although a consistent supporter of the principles of the democratic party and interested in all questions affecting the public welfare, he has never been an aspirant for political honors, preferring to devote his time and talents to the construction of public works. In the Masonic order he is a Knight Templar and he is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine and a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. WILLIAM PORTER BOWEN, M. D. Dr. William Porter Bowen, physician and surgeon of Lindsay, California, was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1887, a son of Marshall Polk and Eudora (Conyers) Bowen, and grew to manhood on his fathers farm. After attending the local public schools and the high school, he spent two years as a student in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Returning to Nashville, he continued his studies for two years in the University of Nashville, then entered the medical department of Vanderbilt University, from which he graduated with the class of 1915. During the two years following his graduation, Dr. Bowen served as an interne in the Mount Zion and French hospitals of San Francisco, and in the New York Nursery and Childrens Hospital, New York city. In March, 1917, he enlisted as a first lieutenant in the British Red Cross and was stationed at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, England, until after the United States declared war against the imperial government of Germany. He then joined the American forces, but was loaned to the British because they were short of doctors, and served at the front until after the signing of the armistice in November, 1918. On November 8, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of captain. Then, attached to the Fifty-ninth British Division (of Bristol), he entered Germany with the Army of Occupation and remained there until July 19, 1919, when with other American troops he was ordered back to the United States and was mustered out at Atlanta, Georgia, on September 19, 1919. Upon receiving his discharge from military service, Dr. Bowen practiced for about a year in Nashville. At the end of that time he came to California and located in Visalia, where he was associated with Dr. White until he came td Lindsay in 1921. His thorough training in school, as an interne in some of the countrys leading hospitals, and his work as an army surgeon, have given him a broad and comprehensive view of his profession. The result is that he has taken a high rank as a physician and surgeon, enjoying alike the confidence of his fellow practitioners and the general public. On October 7, 1923, Dr. Bowen was united in marriage to Miss Veronica Wiemals of North Dakota, and they have one son : William Porter. They are members of the Presbyterian church. Dr. Bowen is a member of the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce, and of the Tulare county Golf and Country Club, where he finds the greater part of his recreation. MAURICE EDWARD POWER. For more than thirty-five years Maurice Edward Power, senior partÂner in the law firm of Power & McFadzean, has been a member of the Visalia bar. He was born December 14, 1860, in Santa Clara county, California. His father, John Power, came to this state by the Isthmus route in 1852, from far-off Maine, where he had been a lumberman. His first work in California was as a miner, which occupation he followed until 1858. He then located in Santa Clara county, where he procured a good farm, upon which he continued to reside until 1876, when he took up his abode on a farm in Alameda county, where he remained to the time of his death in 1894. It was in San Jose, California, in November, 1859, that he wedded Mary A. Walsh, who departed this life on the 8th of November, 1871. Their children were five in number, as follows: Maurice E., of this review; Mary J., who is deceased; Rucinda A. ; Catharine McTwohig of Alameda county ; and Thomas J., who resides in Irvington, Alameda county, and is a lawyer by profession. Maurice Edward Power obtained his elementary education in the public schools of Santa Clara and Alameda counties. He then attended the Washington College at Irvington and completed his schooling at Santa Clara College. Soon after leaving college he entered the law office of J. B. Lamar as a student and in 1885 was admitted to the bar. He then practiced in San Jose until 1888, when he came to Visalia. Since that time he has served for two terms as district attorney and has been connected with much of the important litigation of Tulare county. In his earlier professional experience he gained a well-merited reputation as a successful criminal lawyer. Mr. Power serves as attorney for the Pacific Southwest Trust & Savings Bank, of which he is a stockholder, and is also the local representative of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, as well as the representative of the Lindsay-Strathmore irrigation district and the Alta irrigation district. The latter, organized in 1888, was the first successful irrigation district in California. On the 14th of June, 1897, in Visalia, Mr. Power was united in marriage to Miss Nellie Kilbreath, a native daughter of Tulare county. She died in 1914, leaving two children : Ellen, the wife of W. E. Baird, an ex-service man who is now a bond salesman of San Francisco ; and John K., a student in the University of California. Mr. Power is an unswerving democrat in his political views, but aside from his public service as district attorney, he has never sought nor held public office. His fraternal relations are with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. WILLIAM DE CARTERET. William De Carteret, sole owner and manager of the Exeter Telephone & Telegraph Company, of Exeter, California, was born in 1870, on the Island of Jersey, one of the group of islands at the entrance to the English Channel, a son of John Peter and Rachel (Baker) De Carteret. His father was a seafaring man, captain of his own vessel, and went down with his ship off the coast of Newfoundland in 1874. At the age of twelve years William De Carteret entered the British navy. One of his objects in taking up this kind of a life was to obtain an education. He served in the navy until he was eighteen years old and when mustered out went to Victoria, British Columbia. Soon after arriving there he heard of a position open with the Bell Telephone Company of Seattle. He at once applied for the place, securing it, and this was the beginning of a career which has lasted until the present time. During the thirty-four years he was with this company he was sent to various cities to build up run-down telephone exchanges. In the great earthquake and fire in San Francisco in 1906 the records of the company were destroyed. Mr. De Carteret was one of the few men who, from his own notes, could supply much of the information to rewrite the history of the telephone business on the Pacific coast. In 1922 he severed his connection with the Bell company. At that time he was one of the oldest and recognized as one of the best telephone men on the coast a reputation won purely by strict attention to business. On April 1, 1922, he purchased the telephone system in Exeter and became a resident of that city. When he took possession the company had about three hundred subscribers. Mr. De Carteret has almost doubled that number and in many ways has improved the service. All subscribers are now on what is known as the selective system. In addition to his telephone interests he carries a complete stock of electrical goods. He was one of the early experimenters in radio activity and it is believed he is the only man in the United States to be the exclusive owner of as large a telephone system as that of Exeter. Mrs. De Carteret was formerly Miss Maud Lang, of Napa, California, where her family was numbered among the pioneers. Mr. and Mrs. De Carteret have one son : Percy De Carteret, who is associated with his father in business. Mr. De Carteret is a member of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce and takes a commendable interest in its work. He also belongs to the Loyal Order of Moose and is especially prominent in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is probably the only Odd Fellow who at the same time was noble grand of a subordinate lodge, chief patriarch of an encampment, and captain of a canton of the Patriarchs Militant. The same year he held these positions he received his decoration of chivalry. NATHANIEL FORSYTH BRADLEY. For more than half a century the name of Bradley has been inseparably connected with the bar of Tulare county, the father of the subject of this review having begun the practice of law in Visalia in 1867. Nathaniel Forsyth Bradley was born in Visalia, August 6, 1883. He was educated in the public schools of the city and in 1903 received the degree of Bachelor of Arts from St. Marys College of Oakland, California. He then enrolled as a student in the law department of Leland Stanford University, from which celebrated institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1906. While in the university he became a member of the Delta Chi fraternity. Shortly after receiving his degree in 1906 he was admitted to practice in all the courts of the state and began active practice as a partner of his father, N. 0. Bradley of Visalia. From his earliest manhood Mr. Bradley has been interested in the growth and progress of his native city. From 1919 to 1923 he was a member of the board of trustees, and is now (1925) president of the Visalia fire department. He is a member of the Tulare County Bar Association ; the Modern Woodmen, of which he is past state president; the Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler; the Eagles, of which he is past worthy president; and the Knights of Columbus. He is fond of outdoor sports and finds his recreation in hunting, fishing and tennis. On September 1, 1916, Mr. Bradley was married to Miss Leila Lawrence, daughter of Lewis Lawrence, formerly assistant cashier of the Bank of Italy, of Visalia. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley have three children: a son named Lawrence F.; and two daughters, Jeanne Elizabeth and Margaret Adele. Mr. Bradley is a democrat and has acted as chairman of the county central committee. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley are members of the Catholic church. WILLIAM A. FERGUSON. For more than a decade William A. Ferguson, principal of the Union high school in Porterville, has been a factor in the development of the social and cultural activities of this community and during that time has rendered a notable service in behalf of the schools of the district centering in Porterville. When he took charge of the high school there in 1913 this school consisted of the old high school of the city and that of one of the adjacent districts that not long before had been consolidated with the Porterville school. Recognizing the advantage of the system of school consolidation and the effective cooperation of all the school forces within a convenient territory, Mr. Ferguson began to work toward a further consolidation of the schools, arguing along the lines of the proper theory of the greatest good to the greatest number, and gradually has brought about an extension of this consolidation of school interests until now (1925) there are no fewer than twenty-two districts represented among the pupils of the wonderful new Union high school in Porterville. Elsewhere in this work there is shown a picture of this fine new modern high school building, a presentation that reveals in more graphic style than any word picture possibly could do something of the splendid character of the high school plant. It is needless to say that in its interior equipment and arrangement this building is in full accord with .its splendid exterior and that there is nothing lacking in the plant to furnish to the high school pupils of these consolidated districts the best that is available in the way of modern schooling. In all of this development Mr. Ferguson naturally takes a proper and wholly pardonable pride, for this consolidation was brought about and the building erected during the period of his incumbency as principal and he thus has been familiar with every step taken in this behalf and a vital factor in bringing about this very desirable end. William A. Ferguson is a native of the Dominion of Canada, but has been a resident of the United States since the days of his boyhood. He was born in the city of Winnipeg, the capital of the province of Manitoba, April 8, 1879, a son of the Rev. Andrew J. and Emily (Reynolds) Ferguson, who later became residents of the state of Michigan and both of whom are deceased. The Rev. Andrew J. Ferguson, a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, was a native of Canada, but upon taking up his residence in Michigan became an American citizen. He was influential in the councils of his communion and became a district superintendent (presiding elder) of the church in the state of Michigan. Having been but a child when his parents moved from Canada down into Michigan, William A. Ferguson was reared in that state and had his initial education there, his schooling having been varied by the circumstances of his fathers pastoral itinerary, his youth thus having been spent as a resident at one time and another of several communities in the state. He was early graduated from the high school and then entered the Michigan State Normal School at Ypsilanti, from which institution he was graduated in 1900, the year in which he attained his majority. Meantime, he had been teaching in district schools during the winters, and following his graduation from the normal school he continued teaching for two winters and then entered the University of Michigan, from which institution he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904. Following his graduation from the university Mr. Ferguson was employed as a teacher in the schools of the city of Hancock in upper Michigan and two years later his services were engaged by the board of education of the city of Duluth, Minnesota, and for three years thereafter he was employed as a teacher in the schools of that city. He then received a call to return to his home state and accept the principalship of the schools of Traverse City (Michigan). For two years Mr. Ferguson served as principal of these schools and then accepted a call to enter upon a similar service in behalf of the schools of the city of Reno, Nevada. For four years Mr. Ferguson served as principal of the Reno high school and during that time, in 1912, received his Master of Arts degree from the University of Michigan. In the next year (1913) he accepted the call to his present position as principal of the Union high school in Porterville, a position he since has occupied, and it was thus that he became a resident of California, a pleasant turning point in his life that he never has had cause to regret, for he has found conditions here very much to his liking. As noted above, during this long term of service as principal of the high school Mr. Ferguson has had the gratification of witnessing the development of this school to its present admirable status and in that development he has been a very important personal factor. He is an active and influential member of the Tulare County Principals Association, the California High School Principals Association, the California State Teachers Association and the National Education Association and in the deliberations and activities of these several bodies has taken an earnest interest, long having been recognized as one of the real progressive factors in the general advancement of the educational interests of this state. On August 24, 1911, in Mount Gilead, Ohio, Mr. Ferguson was united in marriage to Miss Emma Booher, who was born in Mount Gilead, daughter of D. D. Booher. Mr. Ferguson met her for the first time while engaged in teaching in Duluth. They have one child: a daughter, Helen Lauretta Ferguson. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are democrats. They have a pleasant home in Porterville and are helpful factors in the promotion of the citys general social and cultural activities. Mr. Ferguson is a member of the Masonic order and is also an influential member of the local Rotary Club. FRANK O. SHELDON. The interesting industry established in Porterville by Frank 0. Sheldon, an enterprising and progressive young carpenter and builder, has proved quite a valuable addition to the general building trades hereabout and is contributing no little to the substantial development of this section. Mr. Sheldons specialty is the manufacture and sale of houses cut and fitted ready to be put together and he has made a very gratifying success with his enterprise, no fewer than seventy-five houses in and about Porterville and in the vicinity of Strathmore having thus been erected by him during the time of his operations here. He has a well equipped plant for the carrying on of his operations and is recognized as one of the leaders in his line in this section of the state. Frank 0. Sheldon was born in the city of Charleston, West Virginia, July 11, 1891, and is a son of William Newton and Sarah (Morton) Sheldon, the latter of whom is still living, now making her home in Lamont, Nebraska. The late William Newton Sheldon moved with his family from West Virginia to Nebraska in the early â90s and in this latter state became a farmer. He died in 1923, and his widow with her family still resides there. Frank 0. Sheldons education was completed in the high school at Hollywood, where he lived with an aunt. He then returned to Nebraska and in Lamont in that state took up merchandising in the hardware and farm implement line, but not long afterward abandoned the mercantile business to take up the trade of carpenter and soon became a skilled workman. When twenty years of age, in 1911, Mr. Sheldon returned to California and at Strathmore, Tulare county, began working at his trade as a journeyman carpenter. He continued thus until 1918, when he set up in business for himself as a contractor, with headquarters in Strathmore. Four years later he moved to Porterville and has since been in business in that city, with a well equipped finishing mill and offices at No. 5104 Second street, where he is prepared to take care of all demands in his line of construction, his specialty, as noted above, being the modern style of houses cut and fit to order and ready for erection, a process which simplifies the operation and eliminates a considerable amount of what otherwise must be regarded as lost motion in the building trades. In addition to this factory equipment Mr. Sheldon also carries in his establishment a full line of paints and certain builders supplies and is doing a fine business. In addition to ready cut houses Mr. Sheldon contracts to erect houses from the ground up, including painting, etc. He makes a specialty of the Sheldon built home, which is of better material and workmanship than any ready-cut home. On March 3, 1917, in Strathmore, Mr. Sheldon was united in marriage to Miss May King, who was born in Arizona, daughter of Ulric King, but who was reared in California. Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon have one child, a son, Frank William Sheldon, born August 5, 1919. Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon are republicans and are members of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star. Mr. Sheldon is a Royal Arch Mason, is an active member of the locally influential Rotary Club and is also affiliated with the fraternal societies the Knights of Pythias, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Yeomen. CHARLES W. BERRY. Charles W. Berry, proprietor of the Hotel Johnson at Visalia and one of the best known men in Tulare county, was born in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, January 9, 1875, and is a son of James M. and Martha L. Berry, both of whom also were born in that city, members of old families there. Reared at Atlanta, Mr. Berry had a high school education and then became engaged in newspaper work, a line which occupied his attention until in the summer of 1903, when he left his home town and came to California. On November 17, 1917, he assumed a proprietary interest in the Hotel Johnson, which he opened with new equipment, and has since been engaged in the hotel business. In addition to his hotel interests Mr. Berry has other interests of a substantial character and has considerable investments in the oil fields, in the mining fields, and in ranch property in this county. On April 29, 1896, at Atlanta, Mr. Berry was united in marriage to Miss Kate Shivers, who also was born in Atlanta, and they have one child, a daughter, Elma, wife of George W. West of Atlanta. Politically Mr. and Mrs. Berry are democrats. Mr. Berry is an active member of the locally influential Rotary Club of Visalia and is also affiliated with the local lodges of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and of the Loyal Order of Moose. He is an ardent devotee of outdoor sports and his prowess as a golfer, hunter and fisherman is widely recognized among his friends. JOHN C. PAINE, M. D. The old English Paine family dates back to the Norman conquest. In 1630 some of the family came to America. During the colonial era, and especially at the time of the Revolution, a number of the Paines were active in behalf of colonial independence. Robert Treat Paine was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from the Massachusetts Bay colony. Albert G. Paine, born in Connecticut, married Mary M. Colwell, a native of New York, and Dr. John C. Paine is the only child of this union. His father is now living retired at Pasadena, California. John C. Paine was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was educated in the public schools of that city, was graduated from the University of Chicago and later received the degree of M. D. from Rush Medical College. His first year of practice was as an interne in the hospital of the Copper Range Consolidated Mining Company of Northern Michigan. At the end of that time, which was in 1910, he came to California and practiced for five years in South Pasadena. In 1915 he located in Exeter, where he has built up a lucrative practice and acquired a high standing as a physician and surgeon. Dr. Paine has been president of the Tulare County Medical Society and is now its secretary. He is also a member of the California State and the American Medical Associations ; is chairman of the Tulare County Health Center, and one of its trustees ; and is health officer of the city of Exeter. When the United States entered the World war in 1917, he was the first physician in Tulare county to be commissioned first lieutenant in the Medical Corps, but was later discharged on account of physical disability, after which he served on the examining board. While a student in the University of Chicago Dr. Paine joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. As a medical student he became affiliated with the Nu Sigma Nu medical fraternity. He still holds membership in those fraternities ; is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine; belongs to the Kiwanis Club of Exeter, and is a member of the Boy Scouts Council of Tulare, Kings, Madera and Fresno counties. In 1912 he married Miss Alta Kathryn Green, of Webster City, Iowa, and they have two sons : John Robert, aged twelve years, and Howard Willis, aged nine. Mrs. Paine, who is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, the Exeter Womens Club and the Daughters of the American Revolution, was graduated from the University of Chicago. RALPH VAN HASSEL. One of the most efficient and popular employes of the California Hot Springs is the gentleman whose name appears above, who has been connected with this well known institution since 1918. He was born in Germany, on the border of Holland, on the 22d day of October, 1871, and is the son of Bernard and Gertrude (Garlings) Van Hassel. His father was a farmer by vocation and Ralph assisted in the farm work and attended school until reaching the age for military service. After spending the required six months in the army, he went to Cologne, where he entered a hospital and learned massage and general hospital work, receiving a diploma as a masseur. For a time he was thus employed in a large bath-house in Cologne, but in 1906 he came to America, going at once to Montreal, Canada, where he put in four years in a hospital. He then became connected with Tulane Medical School at New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was employed six years in the laboratory as a bacteriologist and pathologist. Having determined to locate on the Pacific coast he started westward, but en route stopped one year in San Antonio, Texas. Then he became connected with the sanitarium at Paso Robles, California, and a year later came to California Hot Springs. He has been eminently successful in his work here and is one of the best liked and most competent members of the sanitarium force. Mr. Van Hassel was married to Miss Elsie Patscheck of Houston, Texas, and they have two daughters : Martha and Ruth. R. A. FREEMAN. One of the most progressive and enterprising orchardists and ranchers in Tulare county is the man whose name heads this review. He has shown initiative and originality in his plans and methods that stamp him as a thinker as well as a doer. Mr. Freeman was born at Flushing, Michigan, and is of sterling old New England Yankee stock, his parents, Allen and Carrie (Harlan) Freeman, having been natives of Vermont, where several generations of the family had lived before them. The Harlan family migrated to the state of Michigan as early as 1827, while the subjects father went to that state in young manhood and there followed the vocation of farming. R. A. Freeman attended the public schools, but at the age of twelve years he entered a printing office to learn the trade. He became an expert printer and followed that line of work in Grand Rapids and Chicago until 1890. He then went on the road as a salesman of printing presses, confining his efforts mainly to Chicago and New York city. He had been interested in various phases of printing and met a long felt need when he invented and put on the market the first automatic printing press which came into extensive use. He entered the employ of the Harper Publishing Company, of New York, as master mechanic and remained with them ten years. He then went to Chicago, where he worked for the Miehle Printing Press Company and was later sent to New York city as their representative. During these years his inventive genius was actively at work and he designed several special machines for different printing houses. For years Mr. Freeman had cherished a longing to become the owner of a walnut grove and in 1919 he came to California to look for a location. Selecting Tulare county as best suited for his purpose, he bought forty acres of land, which he at once set out to fruit and walnuts. He has been very successful in his efforts thus far, and has installed and operates a dehydrating plant on his ranch. He dehydrates his own fruit and also does some custom work, amounting altogether to about a thousand tons annually. He has made many permanent and substantial improvements on the place, which is one of the most attractive ranches in his section. He is also engaged quite extensively in the buying and selling of green and dried fruit. Mr. Freeman is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Tulare Farm Bureau and the Visalia Chamber of Commerce. He was married to Miss Edna Hines, of Iona, California, and they are the parents of three children : Joseph, who spent two and a half years in Michigan State University at Ann Arbor and one year at the California School of Technology at Pasadena, is now in the employ of the Los Angeles Planning Commission ; Ralph is a student in the California School of Technology ; and Effie is the wife of C. W. Metcalf, of Visalia. Mr. Freeman, though a comparative newcomer to Tulare county, has made a definite and favorable impression on the people of his community, who appreciate his genuine worth and ability, as well as his public-spirited interest in local affairs. Genial and approachable, he has made many warm and loyal friends. MURREY C. CHASE. Murrey C. Chase, former recorder of the city of Dinuba and one of the best known young lawyers in Tulare county, engaged in practice at Dinuba, chose California as a place of residence and practice when he finished law school and he never has had occasion to doubt the wisdom of his judgment in making such a choice. Mr. Chase is a native of Minnesota, born on a farm in Eureka township in Dakota county, that state, March 28, 1891, and was reared there. He finished his local schooling in the high school in the neighboring city of Northfield, from which he was graduated in 1911, then took a course in Carleton College and subsequently entered the law school of the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. In the spring of 1916 he was graduated from that instituÂtion with the degree of Bachelor of Laws and was admitted to the bar. Thus qualified for the practice of the profession to which he had devoted his life and his talents, Mr. Chase came to California and in October, 1916, opened an office for practice at Porterville, where he remained until in May of the following year, when he established himself in practice at Dinuba, where he ever since has been thus engaged, with present offices in the United States National Bank building. For a year following his arrival at Dinuba Mr. Chase was associated in practice with Amer Peterson, the partners carrying on under the firm name of Chase & Peterson, but since then he has been practicing independently. Mr. Chase was fortunate in establishing himself at Dinuba at a time when such rapid advance was being made there and throughout that community in the way of material progress, and his services as an advisor on points of law with relation to some of the most important of the problems that then were confronting the community were found valuable. Not long after he became a resident of Dinuba he was appointed city recorder and by successive reappointments was maintained in that public office for seven years, or until the increasing stress of his private business necessitated his declination of the further honor. In addition to looking after the extensive law practice he has built up since coming to Dinuba, Mr. Chase has found time to give a good citizens attention to the general civic and material interests of the city and community and has developed considerable interests of a substantial character, including a place on the directorate of the Dinuba Improvement and Investment Company. He is the attorney for the Dinuba Richdale Company and is also one of the attorneys for the First National Bank of Dinuba. His property interests include the possession of a well developed vineyard tract and he has found much pleasure in bringing that place up to its present high state of cultivation and production. On October 28, 1917, at Los Angeles, Murrey C. Chase was united in marriage to Miss Laura Mary Austin, who was born at Rockford, Illinois, and they have a son and a daughter : Maurice Gordon and Majel Marie. The Chases have a pleasant home at Dinuba and take an interested and helpful part in the general social and cultural activities of that flourishing little city. Mr. Chase is a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and is a member of the college fraternity (law), Phi Alpha Delta. VAL MOORE. Among the successful and enterprising ranchers of Tulare county stands Val Moore, who also operates a greenhouse at Venice Cove. He was born in this county in 1882, the son of Henry and Amelia (Reynolds) Moore. The parents were born, reared and married in the state of Missouri, and after their removal to California the father engaged in ranching. Val Moore received his education in the public schools and has worked at ranching during practically all his active years. In 1917 he bought a fourteen-acre tract, comprising his present home place, and this he has improved and developed into a fine fruit ranch, in the operation of which he has been very successful. He also constructed a greenhouse and gives considerable time to the raising of potted plants and small flowering plants. The property is very attractive, the grounds being well laid out and ornamented with shrubbery, while on the place is a fine swimming pool, the use of which Mr. Moore grants freely to his neighbors and. customers. Mr. Moore is a typical optimist, whose mission seems to be to help people look up instead of down, and smile instead of frown, and he himself sets a good example, for his genial and courteous manners are contagious. Because of his fine success here, his urbanity of disposition and his helpful public spirit, he enjoys to a marked degree the good will and respect of all who know him. He is a member of the Court of Honor. Mr. Moore was married to Miss Mabel Clark, who was born in Cripple Creek, Colorado, the daughter of James W. and Ollie (Porter) Clark. Mr. Clark is a rancher on the Klink highway, near Visalia. To Mr. and Mrs. Moore have been born four children : Ollie, Kenneth, Roland and Bertha. ADOLPH D. SWEET. Adolph D. Sweet, president of the S. Sweet Company and general manager of that concerns old established department store at Visalia, and one of the best known and most substantial merchants in this section of California, is a native son of California and his interests always have centered here, having been engaged in business at Visalia for almost thirty years. Mr. Sweet was born in the city of San Francisco on July 24, 1876, and is a son of Solomon and Annie E. (Phillips) Sweet, the latter of whom was born in the city of New York on December 28, 1845, and who became a resident of California in 1859. The late Solomon Sweet, founder of the department store at Visalia which bears his name, was a native of Germany, born at Kriegsheim on October 18, 1827. He became one of the pioneers of California and in 1854 became engaged in the mercantile business at Aqua Frio in Mariposa county. Three years later, in 1857, he moved his business to Visalia and established there the store now operated by the S. Sweet Company, this being the oldest department store in the San Joaquin valley. Solomon Sweet, who died in 1899, was a strong and helpful influence in local mercantile circles in his generation and at his passing left a good memory in the community with whose interests he had long been identified. Adolph D. Sweet was graduated with the degree of Ph. B. from the University of California in 1898 and then became actively identified with the operations of his fatherâs store at Visalia, where he ever since has remained, going on up in the service of that store to the administrative department and to the position of general manager and in 1918 was elected president of the company. In addition to his interest in this old established and well stocked store Mr. Sweet has other interests of a substantial character, these including a place on the directorate of the recently organized First National Bank of Visalia. He is a republican and is a Mason of high degree, affiliated with Visalia Lodge No. 128, Free and Accepted Masons ; with Visalia Chapter No. 44, Royal Arch Masons ; with Oakland Consistory No. 2, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite (thirty-second degree) Masons, and with Islam Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at San Francisco. He also is a member of Visalia Lodge No. 1298, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and of Visalia Pyramid No. 26, Ancient Egyptian Order of Sciots, and in the affairs of these several fraternal orders takes an earnest interest. On April 17, 1904, at Visalia, Mr. Sweet was united in marriage to Miss Caroline Weathers of that city and they have two children : A son, Solomon Sweet, who now (1925) is a student in the University of California at Berkeley, and a daughter, Miss Mabel Esther Sweet, who is attending Wills College. ELDRIDGE C. W. SCRUGGS. Eldridge C. W. Scruggs, a member of the board of trustees of the city of Dinuba and for years prominently identified with the affairs of that city, one of the leading figures in the general. commercial life of the community, now local representative for the Central California Ice Company at that place and also a dealer in fuel, is a native of the Panhandle state but has been a resident of California since the days of his young manhood and is thus thoroughly familiar with conditions here. Mr. Scruggs was born on May 25, 1877, at Alderson in Monroe county on the southern border of West Virginia, that part of the Old Dominion that was set off from Virginia during the time of the Civil war, and he was but a lad when his parents moved from that place down into Fluvanna county in central Virginia, where he was reared and had his schooling. When twenty years of age, in 1897, Mr. Scruggs came to California and settled in Tulare county and for a time worked on the grain ranch of H. T. Haden. He learned the art and mystery of telegraphing and then he was made the station agent and telegraph operator for the San Joaquin division of the Southern Pacific railroad at various places. For seven years Mr. Scruggs remained with the Southern Pacific company. In 1907 he became established in business on his own account, locating at Dinuba as express agent, and later in the fuel business. About 1917 he was appointed local agent for the Central California Ice Company at Dinuba and is thus now engaged in the distribution of both fuel and ice in this trade area. In 1923 the Central California Ice Company erected at Dinuba a thoroughly modern ice plant, with a capacity of manufactured product running to about eighteen tons daily, and it thus is able to take care of all calls in the district served. This is but one of the numerous enterprises that mark the transition from conditions as Mr. Scruggs found them upon his arrival here nearly twenty years ago to what they now are. Then the Dinuba country was given over to the cultivation of cereal crops, and vast grain fields revealed the fertility of the land. Since then it has been discovered that the real wealth of these fertile lands lay in the cultivation of orchard and vineyard products and the whole aspect of the land was changed, wonderful orchards and vineyards now growing where once waved the golden grain. Mr. Scruggs has ever given a good citizens attention to local civic affairs and in April, 1924, was elected to represent his ward on the board of trustees of the city of Dinuba and is now serving in that important public behalf, chairman of the committee on sewers. On December 17, 1903, at Sanger, California, Eldridge C. W. Scruggs was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte M. Bailey, who was born at Muncie, Indiana, and who has been a resident of California since 1902. They have two sons: Keith Scruggs, born in 1908, and Garth Scruggs, born in 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Scruggs are charter members of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mr. Scruggs served for two terms as patron. He is one of the active members of Dinuba Lodge No. 385, Free and Accepted Masons, and is also affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias. He is attentive to the general community activities in the way of local improvement and finds additional opportunity for service along those lines through membership in the local Lions Club, an organization that has rendered some quite effective service in behalf of the general welfare hereabout. LEN EUGENE HAYES. For thirty years Len Eugene Hayes, vice president and general manager of the S. P. Brick Company, Incorporated, of Exeter, has been connected with the brick and tile industry in California and is now regarded as one of the veterans in that line in this section. He came to California as a young man and became employed in the brick industry in Visalia, a line which ever since has held him, and he thus early became familiar with the details of the manufacture and distribution of brick and tile, gradually going on up in business until he came into his present responsible administrative position, one of the experts in this line of production in California. He is a native of the old Buckeye state but has been a resident of California since the days of his boyhood. He was born in the city of Zanesville, the county seat of Muskingum county, September 12, 1870, a son of John and Susan (Francis) Hayes, the former of whom also was born in Zanesville, a son of Edwin Hayes, who was killed while serving as a soldier in General Scotts army during the time of the Mexican war. Edwin Hayes was a son of Peter Holmes Hayes, who was a soldier of the Patriot army during the time of the War of the Revolution and who became one of the pioneers of the Zanesville settlement, moving over there from Virginia, where the Hayes family has been represented since early colonial times. John Hayes was a merchant in Zanesville and also had an interest in the great pottery and clay products industry there. He was an amateur chemist and in his experiments along that line worked out a process in the early 80s that led to a complete revolution in the practical manufacture of glazed brick and tile, thus becoming a figure in that industry whose name will ever stand high in the history of its development, for it was due to his researches and patient practical experiments that the way was opened for the gradual perfection of the processes which have made the glazed brick industry what it is today. Reared in Zanesville, Len Eugene Hayes attended the schools of that city and as a boy became familiar with brick kiln operations there. When seventeen years of age, in 1890, he came to California and in Visalia became employed in a brick yard, thus becoming connected with the brick and tile industry in this state, a line which ever since has occupied his attention. He later was employed in this industry in San Francisco and from there went to Richmond, Contra Costa county, and then, in 1908, became located in the brick industry in Exeter, where he ever since has made his home, now the general manager of what is recognized as the biggest and best plant for the manufacture and distribution of brick in the San Joaquin valley. The S. P. Brick Company, Incorporated, of Exeter, is a branch of the S. P. Brick & Tile Company, Incorporated, of Fresno and is a widely recognized leader in its line. W. D. Trewhitt of Hanford is the president of the Exeter company, Harry Shields of Fresno is the secretary and treasurer and Mr. Hayes is the vice president and general manager. This company has a twenty-acre tract in Exeter, on which there are apparently inexhaustible supplies of choice brick clay. Its plant is a thoroughly modern one, equipped with the latest devices for the most efficient production, including a heating oven for winter uses, and represents an investment in excess of one hundred thousand dollars. The excellence of the products of this plant long has recommended them to discriminating builders and a wide market has been created for the brick turned out in Exeter. The company also manufactures tile and these latter products also are in wide demand. Mr. Hayes and two others, own and operate three eighty-acre ranches one of grapes, one fruit, deciduous, and one alfalfa. On August 11, 1915, in Exeter, Mr. Hayes was united in marriage to Miss Ella Jackson, who also is a native of Ohio, born in Decatur, Brown county, in the old Buckeye state, daughter of Winfield Jackson. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have one child: A son, Len Eugene Hayes, born in 1917. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have a pleasant home in Exeter and take an interested and helpful part in the communitys general social activities. Mrs. Hayes is a member of the locally influential Womans Club of Exeter and she and Mr. Hayes are active members of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mr. Hayes is a past patron. He also is a past worshipful master of the local lodge of the Masonic order and in that order has attained to the highest degrees available to the inquirer, up through the Scottish Rite to the thirty-second degree and including also the Royal Arch and Knights Templar (York Rite) degrees ; present scribe of the Royal Arch Masons; and also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise is affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias, and with the Exeter Kiwanis Club. TALDIE THOMAS GODSEY. Back in the days of 1849, gold-seekers came from every part of the country to California. That immigration has continued, with the result that the state has one of the most cosmopolitan populations in the galaxy of American commonwealths. Illinois has contributed its share, among whom is Taldie Thomas Godsey, who was born in Fayette county, Illinois, May 23, 1885, a son of J. W. and Edith (Barnhart) Godsey, the former of whom was a carpenter by trade. Taldie Thothas Godsey attended the public schools of his native county until he was sixteen years of age, when he left high school and began learning the carpenters trade with his father. Soon after reaching his. majority he was united in marriage to Miss Alsie Pryor of Fayette county, Illinois, and the next four years of his life were spent on a farm. In 1910 he accompanied his parents to California, bringing with him his own family also. For the first five years after coming to California he worked as a journeyman carpenter. He then began contracting and during the ten years he has been actively engaged in this line of activity he has erected some of the finest buildings in Visalia, and remodeled a number of the older residences. His parents are still living and from his father he has received many timely suggestions regarding his work. Two children, Virgil and Lois, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Godsey. The former is now a student in the Visalia high school. Mr. Godsey owns six residence properties in Visalia, five of which are rented. Politically Mr. Godsey is a democrat and after locating in Visalia he lost no time in demonstrating his interest in municipal affairs, with the result that he was elected city commissioner. He belongs to the Rotary Club and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. EMMETT MEYERS. Emmett Meyers, dealer in automobile accessories and owner of a. filling station in Exeter, California, was born in Mount Sterling, Kentucky, in 1876. When he was about two years old his mother died and his father, John Meyers, a stone mason by trade, removed to Fayette county, Indiana, where Emmett attended the public schools. He continued to live with his father until the spring of 1898, when congress declared war against Spain. Then he enlisted in Company I, Fourth United States Infantry, for a term of three years. His regiment was ordered to the Philippine Islands and went on transports from New York city via the Suez canal. At the expiration of his term of enlistment he returned home, having been discharged in Nagasaki, Japan, but after a short visit he again enlisted in the regular army for another three-year term. His first year of this term was spent at San Antonio, Texas, when his regiment was ordered to the Philippines, where he spent the remaining two years, chiefly on garrison duty. He was mustered out as a sergeant, being discharged at Angel Island, California, January 15, 1905, and in that year came to California. For the next twelve years he was in the employ of the Fresno Lumber Company during the summer months, working on the neighboring ranches in the winter time. In 1918 he came to Exeter and purchased his present building and filling station, where he has since built up a profitable business. Fraternally Mr. Meyers is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Improved Order of Red Men and the Yeomen. In April, 1921, he was elected a member of the city council for a term of four years. He married Miss Ivy B. Mason, of Connersville, Indiana, April 4, 1910, and they have one son, Herschel Harry, born November 12, 1912, now attending the public schools in Exeter. Mrs. Meyers is an active member of the Methodist church and the Womans Christian Temperance Union and is the county superintendent on antinarcotics and tobacco and one of the committee on law enforcement. In addition to his business property, Mr. Meyers owns a comfortable home. HON. FRANK W. MIXTER. Hon. Frank W. Mixter, state representative for Tulare county, who came to Exeter, California, in 1905, has by his diligence in business built up a large trade in drugs and medicines and is still the owner of one of the principal drug stores in the city, besides owning a lemon and grape ranch at Lemon Cove and having capital invested in other enterprises. Mr. Mixter was born in Pekin, Illinois, December 30, 1873. His father, Horace L. Mixter, was a school teacher in his early manhood, later learning the cooperâtes trade and becoming a master cooper. Horace L. Mixter married Mary K. Sumner, who, like himself, was a member of one of the old Yankee families of Massachusetts. Their son was educated in the public schools of St. Louis, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas, to which place they removed while he was still in his boyhood. At the age of fifteen years Frank W. Mixter left home and came to Visalia, California. There he began his business career as a clerk in Nanscawens drug store, where he was employed for five and a half years. He then entered the employ of N. W. Kibler, in whose drug store he worked for about the same length of time. Then he and Ernest L. Smith, another clerk in the store, bought out their employer and conducted the business until 1903, when Mr. Mixter sold his interest and went to San Francisco, where he conducted a drug store for about two years, after which he came to Exeter and purchased the drug store of T. C. Ostrander. Late in the year 1909 he began the erection of a substantial brick building, now the well known Mixter building, one of the citys landmarks. When it was completed in the spring of 1910 he removed his drug store into the corner room, where it is still located. Since becoming a resident of Exeter, Mr. Mixter has been an active participant in various movements intended to promote the civic welfare and commercial interests of the city. In 1907 he was one of the organizers of the Exeter high school district and for several years served on the board of trustees. Soon after locating in the city he became identified with the Board of Trade and in 1912 was president of that body. When the Board of Trade was reorganized as the Chamber of Commerce he was made one of the directors. In 1923 he was elected president of that body and when the Kiwanis Club was organized in that year he was chosen president of the new organization. He was again elected president of the Kiwanis Club in 1924. Politically he is a republican and he has always been active in furthering the principles of his party. In 1924 he was elected assemblyman from the fifty-fifth district to represent Tulare county in the state legislature. He was appointed chairman of the committee on irrigation and member of the committees on agriculture, corrections, county government, governmental efficiency and economy, public utilities, public charities and ways and means. Mr. Mixter was the author of a bill to provide for an appropriation to carry on the survey of the water resources of the state of California, which bill was passed by both houses and approved by the governor, and the survey is now being made. Another bill which he initiated was that regulating the hours of employment of drug clerks, which was also passed and approved. Mr. Mixter has always been fond of outdoor sports. While in Visalia he was for several years a member of the baseball team and he is now a member of the Tulare County Golf and Country Club. From 1891 to 1903 he was a member of the California National Guard, enlisting as a private and rising by successive promotions to the rank of captain. When his regiment was mustered into the United States service for the Spanish-American war in 1898, he was commissioned second lieutenant. His company did not leave the United States, having been quartered most of the time at the Presidio (now Fort Winfield Scott), at San Francisco. He is now historian for Ed S. Beam Camp-No. 7, Spanish War Veterans, and is district inspector for the camps in Tulare, Kings, and Kern counties. In Masonic circles Mr. Mixter is a prominent figure. He is a past master of Exeter Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; a past high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter ; a Knight Templar ; a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason ; a member of the Eastern Star and a Noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. For eight years he has been district inspector of the Masonic lodges in Visalia, Tulare, Corcoran, Exeter, Lindsay and Porterville. He is also president of the Tulare County Council of Boy Scouts. Commercially, he is connected with the First National Bank and the Security Savings Bank of Exeter as a director. While living in Visalia Mr Mixter was united in marriage, in 1897, with Miss Olive Pogue, a daughter of one of the prominent citizens of the county. Six children have been born to this union : Norbert W. and Earl, the two oldest sons, are both graduates in pharmacy of the University of California and are now in charge of the drug store ; Willard was graduated as a mechanical engineer from the University of California and is now engineer for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, of San Francisco ; Thomas is a senior in the University of California ; Olive and Chester are attending the Exeter public schools. Mrs. Mixter is a past worthy matron of the Eastern Star Chapter of Exeter and is active in the work of the Exeter Womens Club. THOMAS A. CHATTEN. Thomas A. Chatten, a prominent and well known retired ranchman and the vice president of the Wutchumna Water Company, Visalia, California, is a native son of Tulare county and his interests always have centered here. Mr. Chatten was born at Visalia in 1858 and is a son of Richard C. and Margaret (Glenn) Chatten, who were among the pioneers of this county. The late Richard Chatten of Ontario, Canada, came to California in the spring of 1850 and after a period of prospecting in the northern part of the state came to Tulare county, in 1852, and here began to buy lands at the government rate, becoming one of the large landowners of the county in the days when an orderly establishment was being created here. Among the ranches he thus developed was the famous Mineral King ranch. Besides this he had others which also proved very successful and he thus became one of the most substantial property owners in this county. He died in 1906. Reared to the life of the ranch, Thomas A. Chatten for years followed that line and in time became a large landowner on his own account, continuing his ranch operations actively until his retirement and removed to Visalia, where he now makes his home, he and his wife, who was Julia Eagleson, being very pleasantly situated there. For the past six years or more Mr. Chatten has been managing the affairs of the Wutchumna Water Company, of which concern he is the vice president and a director, and he is making a success in that line. In addition to his farm lands he has considerable valuable town property. Mr. Chatten is a Knight Templar and Scottish Rite Mason and also belongs to the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise is an active member of the Woodmen of the World. PAUL R. JONES. Few men have made more valuable contributions to the successful propagation and culture of fruit than the man whose name initiates this paragraph, and that his efforts and success have been duly appreciated is evidenced by the universal respect which is accorded him by all who know him and are familiar with his scientific accomplishments. Paul R. Jones was born in the state of South .Dakota on the 20th of November, 1884. His father, Thomas J. Jones, was a lawyer by profession and had also been very successful as a teacher. Paul R. Jones secured the elements of his education in the public schools and after graduating from high school entered the University of Nebraska, where he was graduated in 1907 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts specializing in both science and modern languages. Immediately after leaving college, he joined the bureau of entomology in the department of agriculture at Washington, D. C., and was soon afterward sent by the department to California as an entomologist. He continued with the government in this capacity until 1912, when he joined Balfour Guthrie & Company, for whom he now serves as entomologist and manager of the insecticide department for the Pacific coast. The Balfour Guthrie & Company warehouse at Lindsay is the largest and best equipped insecticide plant on the Pacific coast and has been instrumental in accomplishing wonders for the fruit industry of this section of the state. Mr. Joness accomplishments in his special fields of science are so well known to the people of this section as hardly to need recital, but it is no more than the simple truth to say that he has done more probably than any other one man to rid this locality of insects and show how it should be done. He has invented and secured several patents on formulas for insecticides. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and in the Society of Economic Entomologists. Personally he is genial and approachable, takes a keen and commendable interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the community in which he lives and enjoys a high place in the confidence and respect of all who know him. Paul R. Jones was married to Madame La Estrellita, an internationally known dancer and artist. She is a daughter of Millie Davenport, who also has national recognition as an actress, and was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Spanish blood predominates in her veins and it is probably from this strain that she inherits her natural grace and skill as a dancer. In childhood she was weak and underdeveloped physically, but by persistent exercises and methods of her own she became what she is today, one of the most perfectly formed women in the world, being often compared to the Venus de Milo. Paintings and statues of her have been made by the worlds most celebrated artists and her likeness in marble and on canvas may be found in several of the famous art galleries of the world. Madame La Estrellita began dancing at the age of four years and for years she and her sister Edna, now Mrs. Frank Tinney, toured the country as Stella and Edna Davenport. As La Estrellita she made several trips abroad, touring Europe and Africa and for years she was a headliner on both the Keith and Orpheum vaudeville circuits. She did all her own designing of costumes and carried a wardrobe conservatively valued at twenty-five thousand dollars. She played twelve months at the Portola in San Francisco during the season of 1910-11. She is a discriminating collector of art, of which she is a connoisseur, and carried a large collection with her on her tours, giving lectures on art to appreciative audiences in many cities. She has written and is still a contributor to the magazines. She possesses a charming grace of manner and a winning personality, and she is extremely popular in the social circles in which she moves. HARLEY R. SLONAKER. Harley R. Slonaker, manager of the. plant of the Central California Ice Company at Dinuba and a figure of recognized importance in the general commercial and industrial life of that city, is a native of the old Buckeye state but has been familiar with California conditions since the days of his youth, his first acquaintance with this state and its manifold advantages having been acquired as a young soldier of the United States regular army, stationed at the Presidio, San Francisco. Mr. Slonaker was born January 31, 1888, in the interesting and historic old town of Greenville in Darke county, Ohio, a frontier station of large importance prior to and during the War of 1812, and the center of much of the operations of General William Henry Harrison during that period, and he was but a lad when his parents moved from that place to the city of Zanesville in Muskingum county in central Ohio, another point of historic interest during the frontier period in the middle west. Reared at Zanesville, Harley Slonaker received his schooling there and was then for a time employed in a mechanical capacity in the plant of the Brown Manufacturing Company at that place. When eighteen years of age, in 1906, he came to California and at the Presidio, San Francisco, enlisted for service in the United States army and was assigned to duty with the Twenty-seventh Coast Artillery. From the days of his boyhood Mr. Slonaker had displayed marked musical talent and it was not long after he entered the army that this talent was recognized by his officers and he was transferred to the coast artillery band, with which fine musical organization he was connected until the end of his three-year term of enlistment in 1909. He at once reenlisted and was assigned to the Thirtieth United States Infantry at the Presidio, but a year later, concluding he had had enough of army life, he secured a discharge and began working on a ranch in Stanislaus county, presently going from there to Stockton, where he became connected with the operations of the Central California Ice Company. From that place he presently was transferred to the service of this same company at Oakland and was thus connected there until in 1923, when the Central California Ice Company erected its plant at Dinuba and he then was made manager of this latter plant, a position he since has occupied. It thus will be noted that Mr. Slonaker has for many years been actively engaged in the manufacture of ice and is one of the veterans in that line in this state, thoroughly familiar with the details of manufacture and distribution of this important product. The Dinuba plant of this big corporation has a capacity of around fifteen or eighteen tons of ice daily and under Mr. Slonakers efficient direction this product is as excellent as can be made. The plant is located at 288 South Main street and is thoroughly up-to-date in all its equipment and appointments. In 1909 Harley R. Slonaker was united in marriage to Miss Myrtle W. Messick, a native daughter of California, and they have three children : Emma, Jessie and Paul. The Slonakers have a pleasant home at Dinuba and take a proper and interested part in the communitys general affairs. Mr. Slonaker is a member of the fraternal order of the Woodmen of the World, having become connected with that organization during the time of his residence in Oakland. WILFRED S. SIBLEY. Wilfred S. Sibley, former mayor of the city of Porterville and a well established fruit packer and shipper of that city, one of the best known citizens of Tulare county, is a native of this county, a member of one of the real pioneer families here, and has been a resident of this county all his life, thus having been a witness to and a participant in the development of this section of the state for the past half century and more. He was born on a pioneer farm in the Milo neighborhood in Tulare county, June 3, 1870, the only son of Stephen and Emma (Stroud) Sibley, both now deceased, who had come to California in 1864 from the state of Maine. Upon coming to Tulare county Stephen Sibley started in as a farmer and stockman in the Milo neighborhood and then moved to a ranch northeast of Porterville, where he established his home, becoming there a considerable landowner and a large dealer in live stock, and on that place his last days were spent, his death occurring there in 1876. His widow survived him for many years, her death occurring in 1917. Besides the son here referred to this pioneer couple also had a daughter, Wilfred S. Sibley having a sister, Mrs. Angie Tyler of Ducor. Wilfred S. Sibley was but six years of age when his father died. He was reared on the home ranch northeast of Porterville and attended the neighborhood district school. As the only son of his widowed mother he early began to assume mature responsibilities in connection with the home place and was thus engaged in directing the operations of the farm and in raising live stock until 1900, when he retired from the farm and became connected with the operations of the Earl Fruit Company and in this connection became a thoroughly experienced fruit packer and shipper. In 1919 Mr. Sibley set up a packing establishment of his own in Porterville and has since been in business as a packer and shipper on his own account, one of the best known and most substantial of those thus engaged in that line in Tulare county. He sells the products of his packing plant through the Randolph Marketing Company of Riverside and is doing very well, his plant requiring the services of sixty or seventy persons during the season. Not only has Mr. Sibley been diligent in his own business but he has found time to give a good citizens attention to local civic affairs and for four years (1919 to 1922, inclusive), rendered effective service as mayor of the city of Porterville. In 1895, in Porterville, Wilfred S. Sibley was united in marriage to Miss Eva Kling, who was born in New York and who has been a resident of California since 1893. Mr. and Mrs. Sibley are democrats, the former for years having been recognized as one of the leaders of that party in this county, and they have ever taken a proper interest in such movements and measures as have to do with the general progress of their home town. Mr. Sibley owns forty acres of land, all in oranges. HENRY A. SCHLOTTHAUER. The White Plumage Poultry Farm and Hatchery at Venice Hill, eight miles east of Visalia, California, is owned by Henry A. Schlotthauer, who was born in 1874 in the valley of the Volga river in Russia, of German parentage. When he was about a year old his parents, Adam and Maria (Schmidt) Schlotthauer, came to America and located on a farm in Marion county, Kansas. There Henry grew up and obtained a practical education in the public schools. Later the family removed to eastern Washington and still later to the Barstow district, near Fresno, California, where Adam Schlotthauer passed the closing years of his life. At all these places in the United States he was a prosperous farmer. Henry A. Schlotthauer remained at home with his parents until his marriage. In 1910 he bought one hundred and forty acres of wild, uncultivated land, where he now lives, and spent thousands of dollars in improvements. For a few years he followed dairy farming and then engaged in the poultry business. Having more land than necessary for this line of activity, he sold all of his original purchase except ten acres. He has never been very much interested in fancy breeding of chickens but confines himself more to the commercial end of the poultry farming, to which the White Leghorns are best adapted, which he has learned by experience are good producers, of both eggs and young chickens for market. His hatchery turns out from twenty-five to thirty thousand marketable baby chickens every year, besides the seven to ten thousand he retains for his own use. He has three thousand laying hens constantly and has certainly demonstrated his success as a poultry raiser, being one of the largest in Tulare county. Mr. Schlotthauer was married to Miss Katie Siegfried, who was born in Russia but of German descent. She came to Washington as a young girl with her parents and was educated in the public schools. Their eleven children are all living, in good health, and it is a source of congratulation that he has never had to pay a doctors bill. Of these children, Annie is Mrs. Thomas Anderson, of Visalia ; Daniel is in Bakersfield ; Eugenia is Mrs. Charles Roemer, of Visalia ; Paul is in Santa Cruz ; Walter is at home ; Mary is Mrs. Pementel of Niles, California ; Wenona is a nurse in the Glendale Sanitarium, Glendale, California ; Viola, Bernice and Eugene are students in the Exeter high school and Juanita is attending the grade school. The family belongs to the Seventh Day Adventist church, in which Mr. Schlotthauer was formerly an elder. NELS JORGENSEN: Distinguished for their thrift and honesty, which two qualities in the inhabitants of any country will in the end make that country great, no people who have cast their lot in Tulare county are more worthy of esteem than those of Danish blood. Of this excellent class is Nels Jorgensen, the efficient and popular general manager for the United Creamery Association of Arcata, California. In all the relations of life he has shown himself a man of sterling characteristics and he enjoys to a marked degree the confidence and esteem of the people. Mr. Jorgensen was born on his fathers farm in Denmark on the 10th of November, 1881, the son of Peter and Kirstine (Jensen) Jorgensen, both of whom died in their native land. After securing his elementary education in the grammar and high schools, Mr. Jorgensen attended the University of Denmark. He then became identified with the creamery business and for ten years served as manager of a large creamery there, after which he came to the United States and at once went to Wisconsin, where during the ensuing nine and a half years he was in the employ of three different creamery concerns. In November, 1923, Mr. Jorgensen came to Tulare, California, his initial employment here being as a tester with J. H. A. Jorgensen, with whom he remained four months. He then went to work for the Co-operative Creamery and soon demonstrated his thorough knowledge of the creamery business and his faithful attention to his duties won him a well deserved promotion. In 1924 he was made superintendent of the two plants belonging to this association, one at Tulare and one at Visalia. Thoroughly competent and trustworthy, he managed the plants to the entire satisfaction of the stockholders and he enjoys their unqualified approval. On the 1st of March, 1925, he was made general manager of the United Creamery Association at Arcata, and has brought the business to a position so that it is now considered the best creamery in Humboldt county. It captured the first prize for butter at the California State Fair at Sacramento in 1925. Mr. Jorgensen is a democrat in his political views and gives his earnest support to every movement for the advancement of the general good. Courteous and accommodating, he has won the good will and respect of all who have dealings with him. LAWRENCE A. EDWARDS. Lawrence A. Edwards, an enterprising and progressive young merchant of Porterville, dealer in electrical supplies, a veteran of the World war and one of the well known young men of Tulare county, is a native of the old Hawkeye state but is a resident of California by choice and inclination. Mr. Edwards was born in the city of Maquoketa, the county seat of the county of Jackson in eastern Iowa, January 4, 1894, and is a son of L. L. and Mary Edwards, who are still living in that city, where L. L. Edwards has for years been engaged in mechanical operations. Reared at Maquoketa, Lawrence A. Edwards acquired his education in the schools of that city and under the expert direction of his father early became skilled in the mechanical trade, with particular reference to tool making and designing, and for some time was engaged as a workman along those lines. He then became connected with the operations of a crew of well drillers and later became a stage driver in Montana. After some further experience in the industrial field Mr. Edwards came to California in May, 1917, and became employed as a clerk in the Porterville hotel. In the following May he joined the army and for nine months thereafter rendered military service in connection -with this countrys operations in the World war. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Edwards became connected with the operations of the Southern California Edison Company, with which he was connected for a year, at the end of which time he transferred his services to the Ulmer Machinery Company at Porterville. Two years later he became engaged in business on his own account, opening his present establishment . in the Home Bank building at Porterville, and has since been thus engaged, having developed a very good business. Mr. Edwards handles all kinds of electrical goods serviceable in the trade area which his operations cover and also is equipped for installation work, armature winding and the like, a recognized expert in the electrical line. Lawrence A. Edwards was united in marriage to Miss Lilly Briner, daughter of E. D. Briner, and to that union one child has been born, a daughter, Helen. Mrs. Edwards was born in the state of Missouri but has been a resident of Porterville since the days of her childhood. KATHLEEN EDWARDS SMALL. Kathleen Edwards Small, a representative young native daughter of Tulare county, has been active in the field of journalism in connection with the Visalia Daily Times for the past seven years and is also well known in musical circles by reason of her talent as a vocalist. She was born in Visalia, this state, on the 25th of July, 1891, her parents being George Follette Wilson and Mary Katharine (Dafter) Small, the former of Oconomowoc and the latter of Watertown, Wisconsin. It was in January, 1891. that Mr. and Mrs. George F. W. Small made their way westward to California and took up their abode in Visalia, where their daughter Kathleen was born six months later. The father, a mining engineer by profession, died in the City of Mexico in 1913. Kathleen E. Small supplemented her grammar school education by a high school course, which she completed by graduation in 1911. The study of music had always been of delight and interest to her, and it was with the purpose of developing her talent in this direction that she left Visalia and entered Northwestern University of Evanston, Illinois. Miss Small still continues her musical studies and has gained more than local renown for her manifest ability therein, particularly excelling as a vocalist. Since October, 1918, she has been identified with the Visalia Daily Times and her efforts in the field of journalism during the intervening period of seven years have been attended with marked and well merited success. Miss Small makes her home with her mother and her brother at No. 313 West School street in Visalia, where she is deservedly popular in social circles. HENRY N. WHITE. Since the beginning of the present century the automobile industry has given employment to a constantly increasing number of persons, not only in the various establishments that manufacture motor cars and trucks, but also in the multitude of garages, repair shops, etc., that have sprung up all over the country for the accommodation of tourists. One of those engaged in the business of conducting a repair shop is Henry N. White, who is located at 110 North Willis street, Visalia, California. Mr. White was born in St. Paul, Nebraska, January 7, 1889, and was only five years old when his parents removed to California. He received his education in the public schools of North Ontario, California, and then learned the trade of plumber and tinner in the shop of Robert Weiss of Uplands. While learning his trade he earned enough to pay his way through Pomona College. Upon leaving college he was employed for some time in the plumbing establishment of Lerch & Ackey, of Ontario, and later worked at the trade in Pasadena. In 1906 he entered the employ of the Lord Motor Company, of Los Angeles where he learned all branches of the business, the construction of the various makes of automobiles and how to repair all ordinary defects. In 1908 he came to Visalia to take charge of the garage and do the repair work for the Mount Whitney Power Company. After some time with this company he opened a sporting goods store in Visalia. In November, 1917, Mr. White enlisted in the United States service for the World war and was stationed at Camp Lewis, Washington, in charge of the garage. He was mustered out in November, 1919, as a sergeant of the first class, returned to Visalia and opened his present place of business. His past experience proved a great asset in building up a patronage, and he has purchased the property at the corner of Main and Willis streets. Besides his well equipped repair shop, he is agent for the Nash automobile and owns a half interest in a ranch of one hundred and ten acres. Mr. White is a member of Visalia Post No. 28, American Legion, and of Visalia Lodge No. 1298, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He married Miss Mabel A. Dean, who was born and reared in Visalia, and they have two sons : Gerald T. and Henry N., Jr. R. 0. MAcDONALD. R. 0. MacDonald was born in the city of San Francisco, but while he was still a small child his parents removed to Porterville. There he received a good public school education and at an early age became connected with the fruit packing industry. With the exception of a brief period when he was outside man for the Pioneer Water Company, of Porterville, and two years in charge of the receiving department of the General Electric Company, of San Francisco, his entire business career has been intimately associated with citrus fruits. Beginning in a subordinate position he kept his eyes and ears open, gradually working his way upward to the position of manager. Among other places where he was thus employed was the Earl Fruit Company, with which he remained for two years, later becoming district manager for the Mutual Orange Distributors. In 1917 Mr. MacDonald built the packing house known as the Native Son Orchards Company at Lindsay, of which he is the owner. This is one of the large packing and shipping companies of the city, having a capacity of fifteen cars daily. Most of the products of the Native Son Orchards Company are marketed through the Mutual Orange Distributors. Mr. MacDonald is a member of the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce, the Masonic fraternity and the Tulare County Golf and Country Club. Mrs. MacDonald before her marriage was Miss Ethel Giddings, of Porterville, California. She is the mother of two children : George and Olive. EMERY BARRIS. When one views the many substantial evidences of the modern development of the material interests of that favored region centering at Dinuba it is difficult to realize that men still active in business were among the pioneers in that development, for it is well nigh incomprehensible that all this should have been accomplished within so comparatively recent a period. In the progress of civilization a quarter of a century or a half century is not a long time, but in the opening to the uses of civilization of a new district, much may be accomplished within such a period. For over forty years Emery Barris, builder, promoter and capitalist at Dinuba, has been a resident of Tulare county and for some twenty-five years a resident of Dinuba. When he came here in 1885 the northern section of Tulare county was either wholly undeveloped or given over to the operations of large grain ranchers, controlling individual tracts of thousands of acres, and the houses thus were few and far between and of roads there were none that properly might be so designated, most of the lines of travel being mere trails. Much has been done since then and in this development there are few men who have had a more active and influential part than Mr. Barris, one of the honored pioneers of northern Tulare county. Emery Barris is a native of the old Empire state but ever since he attained his majority his operations have been connected with the west and the middle west and for almost fifty years he has been a resident of California. Mr. Barris was born on a farm in Chautauqua county in the state of New York in the year 1847 and was there reared, becoming a practical and experienced carpenter. In 1869, during that period immediately following the Civil war when Kansas was making such amazing strides in the way of material development he cast his lot with that of the people of the Sunflower state and there took part in the building operations then going on at Wyandotte and at Great Bend. Four years later, in 1873, he came to California, arriving here on August 18 of that year, and became employed as a carpenter at San Jose. While thus employed in that city he took advantage of the opportunity to further his schooling and took a course in the University of the Pacific at that place. For three years Mr. Barris remained at San Jose and then he back-tracked, going to Laporte in Hubbard county in the beautiful lake region of Minnesota, where he became engaged in building operations and where he remained until 1884, when he returned to California, in which state he ever since has been quite content to make his home. Upon his return to California in 1884 Mr. Barris was for a while engaged working at his trade as a builder at Los Angeles and then in the next year (1885) came to Tulare county, where he ever since has resided, a period of over forty years. Mr. Barris first contract job in this county was the erection of a hotel building at Traver, a building that still is standing. He then became the local agent for this district for the San Joaquin Lumber Company and three years later bought that companys lumber yard and became engaged in business on his own account, thus carrying on a general lumber and builders supplies trade in addition to his activities as a building contractor. As a contractor Mr. Barris not only built many of the most substantial buildings erected in this section of the county during that period but he also had an active hand in construction work in the setting up of the local irrigation systems. lie built the timber work of the Tulare river irrigation project in 1893 and later constructed the concrete head gate for the Alta irrigation project. He established branch lumber yards at Reedley and at Sultana and was thus able to extend his operations in more directions than one, becoming a very important personal factor in the building operations then going on at the time this region was making such a brave start along the path of modern development. In 1900 Mr. Barris moved his chief lumber plant to Dinuba and has since been a resident of that place. In 1903 he sold his lumber yard and thereafter gave his whole attention to his operations as a building contractor and to the development of such other interests as naturally accumulated in his hands. It was in 1900, the year in which Mr. Barris took up his residence at Dinuba, that the telephone also reached that place and he recalls with interest that he was one of the original subscribers (only ten in number) whose enterprise brought about the establishment of the local telephone exchange. In other ways he also was a leader. When in 1902 the First National Bank of Dinuba was organized he became one of the chief stockholders in that pioneer financial institution, was elected a member of the board of directors and has ever since been retained on that board. He was one of the first to recognize the possibilities of citrus fruit culture in this district. He bought a tract of eighty acres of raw land east of Dinuba, planted it to oranges and cultivated it until it was a profitably bearing grove, making a beauty spot out of the place. That grove he retained until in the fall of 1923, when he traded it for an apartment house at the corner of Catalina and Fourth streets in Los Angeles. He also for some time owned a sixty-acre ranch west of Dinuba, but some time ago sold it. It will be interesting to the present generation to know that Mr. Barris pioneer lumberyard at Dinuba was located at what is now the corner of L and Tulare streets, one of the most advantageous business sites in the city, now occupied by one of the citys leading drug stores. He bought that lot, one hundred feet facing on L street and one hundred feet facing on Tulare street, for four hundred dollars, and the owner of the townsite was quite content with the price. Among the buildings erected at Dinuba by Mr. Barris may be mentioned the Lucy Stone school building, the United States National Bank building, the Central block, the Hotel Albany building and others of that class besides any number of residences in that city and at Reedley and other neighboring places, for at the height of his operations here he was one of the leading building contractors in this section of the state. Emery Barris was united in marriage to Miss Emma Green, who was born in Iowa and who passed away at her home in Dinuba on the day before Christmas in 1905. Although now living practically retired from the more active of the operations which for so long occupied his time, Mr. Barris retains considerable interests of a substantial character in and about Dinuba and continues to take a warm interest in general communal affairs. He is a Mason of many years standing and has also been an Odd Fellow for many years, in the latter order having attained to both the canton and the encampment. He likewise is a member of the local organizations of the Order of the Eastern Star and of the Daughters of Rebekah. FRANK JOSEPH KLINDERA. For nearly fifteen years Frank Joseph Klindera has been postmaster of the pleasant village of Tipton and there is perhaps no man in that section of Tulare county who has a wider acquaintance than he or who is held in higher esteem. Though of European birth, Mr. Klindera has been a resident of this country since the days of his infancy and of California for more than twenty years. He was born in the province of Bohemia, in the dual kingdom of Austria-Hungary, December 16, 1870, and was but a babe in arms when a few months later his parents came to this country and by prior arrangement settled on a farm in the Prairie du Chien neighborhood in Crawford county, Wisconsin, where they remained for some time and then moved to Chicago, where they established their home. Mr. Klinderas grandfather, Joseph Frank Klindera, had come to this country years before the date here referred to and had become one of the pioneers of the Prairie du Chien settlement. Having been but a child when he moved with his parents from the prairie farm in Wisconsin to Chicago, Frank Joseph Klindera completed his schooling in that city and early became connected with the printing trades, particularly with reference to book publications, and was for twenty-five years thus employed in that city, connected at various times with the old book publishing house of Belford, Clarke & Company, with the continuing house of Rand McNally & Company, with the George M. Hill concern and with the Metropolitan and others, his services being rendered in various capacities but chiefly as an outside man in the distribution and collection departments, and thus he was long a familiar figure in publishing circles in that city, one of the best known men in that line there. For years during this period of his activities he was a member of the Chicago Athletic Club, took an interested part in Masonic affairs and was otherwise an active participant in the social and civic affairs of the city. In 1904, attracted by the climatic and other advantages of California as a place of residence, Mr. Klindera came to this state and bought a tract of land in the immediate vicinity of the promising village of Tipton, where he began to develop an orange grove and where he established his home. Stimulated by memories of his former and long connection with the printing trades, he started a weekly newspaper in Tipton, giving the name Enterprise to this ambitious publication, but after two or three years of ineffectual struggle against the handicap of a too limited field, abandoned the enterprise as well as the Enterprise and neither has since been revised. In 1912 Mr. Klindera was commissioned postmaster at Tipton and since has been serving in that important public capacity. He owns twenty acres in Orange county, near Santa Ana. In August, 1891, in Chicago, Frank J. Klindera was united in marriage to Miss Mamie Keifer of that city, who died in 1920, leaving three daughters : Georgiana, wife of W. G. Smith of Los Angeles ; Blanche, wife of Jack Ryon of Seal Beach ; and Isabella, wife of Major Joseph Dyer of Delano. Mr. Klindera is a member of many years standing of the Masonic fraternity and is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and with the local Grove of the United Ancient Order of Druids. VICTOR STOLTZ. In the development of our complex civilization new demands arise and new occupations come into existence to meet the changed conditions. Thus it happens that land occupied by small buildings is often needed for a larger purpose. Such a situation brought into existence the house mover. Victor Stoltz was the first man to engage in this line of activity in Visalia, California ; in fact, the first in Tulare county. He was born in Canton, Ohio, March 2, 1855, and in his youthful days was a schoolmate of the late President William McKinley. At an early age Mr. Stoltz went to South Bend, Indiana, where he was employed by a house mover and became familiar with the details of the business, though it was not until several years later that he adopted it as his vocation. From South Bend he went to St. Charles county, Missouri, where for ten years he followed agricultural pursuits. He then went to Arizona and started in the cattle business. Drought and Indian troubles compelled him to give up the attempt in 1883 and the following year he came to Visalia. For three years after becoming a resident of Visalia Mr. Stoltz was employed as a carpenter. In 1887 he undertook the removal of a house and with the knowledge acquired in South Bend, Indiana, years before, the work was successfully accomplished. This started him in the business which he has since followed. The greatest distance he has moved a house in California was thirty-two miles, when he removed a five-room house from Tulare to Dinuba in 1890. The shortest distance was the moving of a business block in Visalia three and one-half inches, the building having been erected that far over the line on another lot. When the railroad shops , were removed from Tulare Mr. Stoltz found a great demand for his services. During the weeks immediately following the removal of the shops he moved fifty-three small houses sold in those days for from one hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty dollars. Most of these cottages were taken to Visalia, where twenty-five of them are still standing. Mr. Stoltz has a complete outfit and his services have been in demand in Tulare, Kings and Fresno counties on numerous occasions. At Lost Hills, Kern county, he removed the post office and store building to a new site. Recently he completed a large contract in the removal of the house, barns and other structures on the Nanse ranch to a new location some distance east of the old one. In addition to his contract work Mr. Stoltz has engaged in buying houses that had to be removed from premises, taken them to a new location, repaired and resold them. In this way he has not only made a profit for himself, but he has also enabled someone to obtain a comfortable home for much less than it would cost to build a new one. Mr. Stoltz is married and has three sons and two daughters : George M., Grover, Mrs. Annie Wescott, Elsie and John L. J. D. CAMERON. The biography of a man is of importance and interest to other men just to the degree that his life and his work touch and influence the life of his community and the interests of his fellow citizens. The subject of this sketch has been a large factor in the prosperity of the community where he lives and he is therefore entitled to specific mention among those who have conserved the prosperity of this locality. J. D. Cameron, manager of the Tulare County Refinery, at Tulare, was born in Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, in 1882, and is the son of William D. and Mamie A. (MacLeman) Cameron. In 1893, when he was eleven years of age, he and his mother came to Los Angeles and he attended the public schools, graduating from the Los Angeles high school. Later he was a student in the University of Southern California. During the following five years he was employed in electrical work in the capacity of a telegraph engineer. Subsequently he was engaged in the real estate business in Los Angeles for five years, and the ensuing three years were spent in the Hawaiian Islands. Mr. Cameron then organized an oil company and for eight years was engaged in the drilling of oil wells in the Sunset field, thus obtaining at first hand a practical working knowlÂedge of the oil business. In 1922, with several associates, he bought the Tulare County Refinery and in the operation of this plant and the marketing of its products they have achieved a splendid success. Their product, known commercially as Giant gasoline, is a high grade product and is sold throughout the San Joaquin valley, where the company maintains twelve service stations. The headquarters of the company is in Tulare and the business is enjoying a steady and constant growth. Mr. Cameron, as manager of the business, is devoting himself indefatigably to the enterprise, which has risen to front rank among the successful and important concerns of Tulare county. Mr. Cameron was married to Miss Florence Maine, of Riverside, California, and they are the parents of two children, Donald and Ruth. Politically Mr. Cameron is a republican. He is fond of golf and other outdoor recreation and because of his upright life, his business ability and his genial personality he enjoys the good will and esteem of all who know him. WALTER WALLACE TOURTILLOTT, M. D. Dr. Walter Wallace Tourtillott, one of the veteran physicians of the valley and well established in practice in Porterville, is a native son of California and has been a resident of this state all his life, a resident of Tulare county for almost twenty years, and is thus widely known here about. He was born on a ranch in Santa Clara county, May 16, 1872, a son of L. L. and Jane Augusta (Holbrook) Tourtillott, both members. of pioneer families of California. L. L. Tourtillott was born in Maine and was but a lad when he came to California with his parents, the family settling in Santa Clara county. For some time L. L. Tourtillott was engaged in the lumber business in the Santa Cruz mountain country and after his marriage established his home on a ranch in Santa Clara county, where his last days were spent, his death occurring in 1876. His widow survived him for many years and lived to be eighty- four years of age, her last days being spent in Santa Clara county. She. was born in Ohio and came to California early in life. Walter Wallace Tourtillott was but four years of age when his father died. His early education was acquired in the schools of Santa Clara county and he supplemented this by a course in the University of the Pacific. Becoming seriously interested in the study of medicine he turned his thoughts toward a professional career and after a course of preparation under local preceptorship entered Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, from which he was graduated in 1904. Upon receiving his diploma Dr. Tourtillott was appointed to an interneship in San Francisco and after a period of intensive and valuable practical experience in professional practice in that connection engaged in practice in Morgan Hill, Santa Clara county. Not long afterward he located for practice in Lindsay, Tulare county, and there practiced for fourteen years, or until 1922, when he took up his residence in Porterville and in this latter city has since been quite successful, with present offices in the Monoch building on Main street. Dr. Tourtillott is widely known throughout the county and has a well established practice. By continual study and by postgraduate work in New York city he has kept abreast of the notable advances made in medical research since his college days and is held in high esteem, in his profession. Dr. Tourtillott has been twice married. On August 28, 1907, he was married to Alice Somers of San Francisco, who died August 27, 1923. On February 21, 1925, in Santa Paula, Dr. Tourtillott was united in marriage to Miss Mary L. Smith of Lindsay. Dr. and Mrs. Tourtillott have a pleasant home in Porterville and take a proper part in the general social and cultural activities of the community, helpful in promoting such measures as are designed to advance the common interest hereabout. The Doctor is a member of the Tulare County Medical Society, the California State Medical Association and the American Medical Association, and in the deliberations of these learned bodies has for years taken an earnest and helpful interest. He is a veteran member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is also affiliated with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In 1917 Dr. Tourtillott enlisted in the Medical Corps for service in the World war and was commissioned captain of the Eighty-first Regiment of the Sixteenth Division, and stationed at Camp Kearney, San Diego. He served until the spring of 1919. He was not sent out of the state. JOHN FERGUSON DAVIDSON. John Ferguson Davidson of Craigmillar House, Lindsay, California, has been a resident of this district and a merchant for ten years, coming here from the United States service and the Presidio, San Francisco, a civil appointee, superintendent of the laundry and cleaning department. He has filled various important positions, employed by large machinery houses as a demonstrator, in Australia, New Zealand and Canada; saw active service in the Boer war and was employed with the Hudson Bay Companys operations in the far west, and for many years held excellent positions with large concerns in Canada. Mr. Davidson has worked all over the world, is a keen reader and has traveled over Europe as a gentleman companion. He studied international affairs from various angles, and was for thirty-five years a sojourner in many lands among many races. He is a representative of an old Scottish family, the Davidsons of Badenoch. His father was one of the founders of the Philharmonic Society of Scotland and his mother for forty years was a well known singer of Scottish songs and ballads. Mrs. Clara Davidson is from London, England, a representative of a family that has served for four generations with the London Coke and Gas Company, and owners of land in Kent, England. Her brother is a naturalist, taxidermist and sportsman to the National Museum, London. JOHN J. DUGGAN. John J. Duggan, of the firm of Duggan & Roberts, morticians at Porterville and proprietors of a well appointed undertaking establishment and funeral parlors in that city, is a native of Ireland but has been a resident of the United States since the days of his boyhood, having come to these shores when seventeen years of age, and after residing in Bos. ton and in Chicago for a time made his way out to California where he since has been quite content to remain, having now been a resident of this state for about a quarter of a century. Mr. Duggan was born June 24, 1877, and is a son of Patrick and Bridget (Crowley) Duggan, both of whom also were natives of the Emerald Isle and are now deceased. In his day Patrick Duggan was quite a rambler and his operations in various parts of the world included a series of quite interesting adventures in the gold fields of Australia. Reared in his homeland, working on farms during the summers, John J. Duggan had his schooling in Ireland and remained there until he was seventeen years of age when, in 1894, he came to the United States, his objective by prior arrangement being Quincy, Massachusetts. fie presently left that place and found employment in the city of Boston, where he remained about five years, at the end of which time he went to the city of Chicago and was there employed for three years. He then headed for the Pacific coast and was for some time a resident of Los Angeles, going thence to San Francisco. In 1903 he became employed by the board of park commissioners of San Francisco and was thus employed when in the spring of 1906 that city faced the task of reconstruction. Following the fire Mr. Duggan was appointed an inspector to examine the condition of standing chimneys and was thus engaged for six months or more until the menace from that direction had subsided. He then became engaged in concrete work in building operations, in which he continued until in the spring of 1911, when he and his family started out on an automobile tour over the state, Mr. Duggan finding pleasant relaxation by working along the way in the fruit orchards. It was thus that in the fall of that year (1911) the Duggans came to Porterville, which ever since has been their home, for they found here a very pleasant and wholly desirable place in which to take up their permanent abode. Upon his arrival in Porterville Mr. Duggan became connected with the concrete operations of the Ball plant and was thus occupied until in 1918, when he became engaged on his own account in the manufacture of irrigation pipe and in general concrete work. In August, 1924, he sold that business and formed his present connection with the undertaking operations of W. I. Roberts and has since been engaged in the undertaking business at Porterville, this concern carrying on its work under the firm name of Duggan & Roberts. While at Boston, John J. Duggan was united in marriage to Miss Maria Buckley, who also was born in Ireland, and they have five children : Dorothy, Catherine, John Joseph, Hugh and May. The Duggans are republicans and are members of the Roman Catholic church. Mr. Duggan is a grand knight of the local council of the Knights of Columbus and is also affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and with the local aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. R. W. BREESE. The development of the oil fields in California brought into more or less prominence a number of men who have since been actively identified with the business interests of the San Joaquin valley. Among these is R. W. Breese, agent of the Associated Oil Company of. Visalia. He was born at La Grange, Illinois, July 22, 1888, and attended the schools of his native town until he was eighteen years of age. In the spring of 1906 he came to California, located at Riverside and there embarked in the automobile business. Later he was engaged in the same line at Fresno. In 1913 he entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company at Fresno, where he remained until the United States entered the World war. He then entered the army, was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Aviation Corps, in charge of lubrication, and was stationed first at Barry Field, near Fort Worth, Texas, and later at San Diego, California. After the armistice was signed in the fall of 1918 he received his honorable discharge and returned to his position with the Standard Oil Company at Fresno, where he remained until 1921, when he left their employ and became a salesman for the Associated Oil Company in Merced, California. This company established a branch at Visalia in July, 1922, but the business was managed from the Hanford plant until May 11, 1923, when Mr. Breese came to Visalia and took control of the business at that point. He has proved to be a go-getter, as the business of the Visalia plant has shown an increase every month since he took charge. Mr. Breese has identified himself with several of Visalias civic and, social organizations. He is a member of the Commercial Club, the Visalia Golf Club and Visalia Lodge, No. 1298, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. While at Fresno he was united in marriage with Miss Jemima Ferguson, a native of Fresno county, and they have one son, James S. CARL A. NELSON. The California seedless orange finds its way into every village and hamlet of the United States, as well as into foreign countries. As the millions of people enjoy this delicious fruit, how many of them pause to consider the immense amount of capital or the thousands of employees needed to supply them with their daily delicacy. They know in a general way that California is a great fruit producing state not only oranges, but also prunes, grapes, lemons and other fruits but those who have not visited the state and seen the great packing plants in actual operation can hardly form an estimate of the magnitude of the industry. Carl A. Nelson, manager of the Lindsay Packing House Company, has been intimately associated with this great enterprise for a number of years. He was born in Whitehall, Muskegon county, Michigan, October 30, 1883, a son of Charles P. and Sophie (Kelsey) Nelson. His father was a lumberman and timber contractor. After attending the local high school and a business college in Muskegon, the son also became interested in the lumber and timber business. Beginning as a tally boy, he was promoted to clerk, then to lumber inspector. He continued in this occupation working for various concerns allied to the lumber industry, principally in Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. Later he was employed as lumber inspector by the Kansas City Packing Box Company for about a year. Being troubled with hay fever, Mr. Nelson decided to try the California climate, hoping to be benefited thereby. Locating in Highlands, San Bernardino county, he was for a short time employed in making orange boxes for the Highlands Fruit Exchange. He then became a foreman in the packing plant. From Highlands he went to Placentia, where he was foreman and later assistant manager of the packing plant of the Placentia Orange Growers Association, remaining there until 1918. In the fall of that year the California Fruit Exchange sent him to Lindsay to manage the Drake Packing Company, since then known as the Lindsay Cooperative Association, being owned and controlled by seventy orange growers, representing 1,700 acres of orange groves. It is the largest institution of the kind in Tulare county, having a daily capacity during the shipping season of twenty cars. Under Mr. Nelsons management the business has prospered and the future holds bright prospects for the companys welfare. Mr. Nelson is a charter member of the Elks at Anaheim. He assisted in the organization of the Elks lodges in Santa Ana and Anaheim, and is now a member of the lodge in Porterville. Mr. Nelson holds membership in the Masonic order at Fullerton. He has made many friends by his genial ways, and in business circles he is regarded as one of Lindsays substantial citizens. On November 7, 1917, at Pasadena, Mr. Nelson was united in marriage to Miss Ethel Gillie of Montana. Mr. Nelson owns twenty acres of oranges and is also interested in the growing of cotton. This year he, in company with Robert Eddy and Earl Smith, have one hundred acres. He has great faith in the future of Tulare county. In politics he is a republican. JAMES R. ORR. This representative and honored citizen of Tulare county has been distinctively the architect of his own fortunes, has been true and loyal in all the relations of life and stands as a type of that sterling manhood which ever commands respect and honor. J. R. Orr, who owns a splendid and well improved ranch near Pixley, is a native of the state now honored by his citizenship, born in Norwalk, California, a son of W. W. and Sarah E. (Ryle) Orr, both of whom were natives of Kentucky, the former born in Union county and the latter in Oldham county. Mr. Orrs paternal grandparents, William and Susan (Stone) Orr, also were natives of the Blue Grass state, while his maternal grandfather, John Ryle, was a native of Ireland and was a surveyor by profession. W. W. Orr was bereft of his father when but five years of age and, being one of seven children, it then became necessary for him to remain at home and assist his mother in caring for his brothers and sisters. At the age of nineteen years, however, he started out on his own account and accompanied one of the early ox team caravans across the plains to San Francisco. His first permanent location was in Eldorado, where he leased a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, which he operated for five years. Then for a few years he operated a stock ranch in Contra Costa county. His next venture was as proprietor of the La Fayette Hotel, at La Fayette, of which he was host for ten years. He then became associated with Judge Venable, with whom he went to Nevada and engaged in the lumber business, which commanded his attention for three years. At the termination of their partnership Mr. Orr returned to Kentucky, making the trip by way of the Isthmus of Panama. About a year afterward he was married and in 1869 he and his young wife started on the long journey overland to the Golden state. In Waco, Texas, their first child was born, but after a short halt there they resumed their journey and in due time arrived in San Diego, broke but happy. Here Mr. Orr received a letter from Judge Venable, advising him to go to Los Angeles, which he did and was soon engaged in ranching as a renter. He was successful and before long bought land and eventually became the owner of much land and acquired considerable prominence and influence in Norwalk. In connection with general farming he raised thoroughbred horses and ran a high class dairy. His death occurred on his ranch in November, 1917, and his wife died there on August 21, 1905. James R. Orr received a good public school education and after graduating from the high school he took a course in a business college. He has followed ranching during all of his active years, first for a short time in Tipton, after which he rented the Dr. Alford ranch, west of Pixley. Eventually he bought six hundred and forty acres of land, comprising the nucleus of his present holdings, which amount to approximately fifteen hundred acres. Since acquiring this ranch Mr. Orr has made many permanent and substantial improvements, not the least of which is the beautiful and well arranged stucco home, situated in the midst of a eucalyptus grove, and which he has occupied since 1923. He has been successful in all his operations and his record is too well known to the readers of this work to require any fulsome encomium here. Mr. Orr was one of the organizers of the bank in Pixley, which he served at various times as president, vice-president and director. A progressive, scientific and industrious agriculturist, he is also a public spirited citizen, giving his earnest support to every movement for the advancement of the community along all normal lines. Genial and accommodating, he has won and retains a host of warm and loyal friends throughout the locality where he lives. Mr. Orr was married on June 27, 1906, to Miss Mabel Miller, the daughter of W. S. Miller, a pioneer ranchman of Pixley. Mr. and Mrs. Orr have two sons : Edgar and Ashley. Mr. Orr is a Mason and also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. RUSSELL L. TODD. In the year 1907 F. E. Todd brought his family from Kansas and located in Visalia, California, where he became widely known as a breeder of fine horses. In this line he did not confine himself to any one class of horses, draft, saddle and racing steeds all being numbered among his stock. His stable at the corner of Acequia and Locust streets was frequented by horse buyers from all parts of the country. Mr. Todd is now living retired. He was born in Illinois but went to Kansas as a young man and there married Miss Minnie Coleman, a native of Missouri. They became the parents of five children, all of whom live in California, namely : Dr. H. A. Todd, a physician of Visalia ; 0. V. Todd, a resident of Hanford ; Mrs. Lena McCracken, of Paterson ; Russell L., the subject of this sketch ; and Bartell, who resides in Visalia. Russell L. Todd was born in Montgomery county, Kansas, July 12, 1890, and was therefore seventeen years of age when he came with his parents to California. He had attended the public schools of Kansas and finished his education in the schools of Visalia. His first business position was as bookkeeper for the firm of Goldstein & Iseman. In 1910 he became bookkeeper for the Spalding Lumber Company and later started in business for himself as a public accountant. He was deputy county clerk under George Prestige and also served as clerk of the board of supervisors of Tulare county. Since 1920 he has been engaged in the automobile business, having the Visalia agency for the Hudson and Essex motor cars. His place of business is on the corner of Acequia and Locust streets in the building formerly occupied by his father, which has been remodeled for a salesroom and garage: Mr. Todd thoroughly understands the construction of the cars he handles and through this knowledge and his ability as a salesman he has built up a successful business. In fraternal circles Mr. Todd is a member of the Visalia Lodge No. 1298, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and of the Modern Woodmen, to which his father also belongs. He married Miss Myrtle Ferguson, who was born in the state of Missouri, and they have three sons : Jack, Russell L., Jr., and Rex. B. M. HAIG, JR. B. M. Haig, Jr., proprietor of the Dinuba Sanitary Laundry at Dinuba and one of the best known and most energetic young business men of that city, is an experienced man in his line and is doing very well. Though not a native of California Mr. Haig has been a resident of this state since the days of his childhood and thus counts himself as much a Californian as any. He was born on a farm in Fremont county, Idaho, December 31, 1900, and was but twelve years of age when he came to California with his parents in 1912, the family settling at Visalia. He attended the Visalia schools, going on into the high school there, and then had some further schooling in the high school at San Jose. As a lad he became employed as a clerk in the shoe department of the S. Sweet store at Visalia but after awhile returned to his old home county in Idaho and was there for a year engaged in farming. In the next year Mr. Haig returned to California and was for two years employed at San Francisco and San Jose. He then, in 1920, became employed in the office of the Dinuba Sanitary Laundry and there had his initial experience in the business which now is engaging his chief attention. Later and for a time he was connected with the operations of the Associated Oil Company at Visalia and with the operations of the Tulare Refining Company, and then, on February 1, 1925, he bought the Dinuba Sanitary Laundry and has since been quite successfully engaged in carrying on the affairs of that flourishing industry. This laundry plant was established at Dinuba in 1915 and is one of the best equipped plants of its kind in this section of the state, Mr. Haig thus being able to take care of a large volume of the laundry business in this trade area. Mr. Haig is an energetic young business man and since taking over the affairs of this old established concern has done much not only to extend the trade but to increase the facilities of the plant and he even now has in hand a definite program of further improvement. V. E. BYERS. As one of the enterprising and public spirited citizens of Tulare county, the subject of this sketch is entitled to specific mention in this work. V. E. Byers, of the Dinuba Electric Company, was born at Princeton, Indiana, on the 9th day of March, 1884, and is the son of Benjamin and Malinda (Redmond) Byers. His father was for many years a successful farrner in Gibson county, Indiana, but is now retired from active labor and is living at Whittier, California. After completing his studies in the public schools, V. E. Byers took a course in a business college, and then entered Purdue University, at Lafayette, Indiana, where he took the course in electrical engineering. Immediately after receiving his degree he entered the shops of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, where he was employed for a few years, and was then placed in charge of all electrical work in the shops of the Evansville & Eastern Electric Railway. Resigning that position, he came to Whittier, California, and for three and a half years was engaged in electrical contracting on his own account. He came to Dinuba in 1914 and for four years was employed in garage work. In 1918 he went into partnership with others and took over the Ford agency for this locality. In 1922 he sold his interests in that agency to the present owners and formed a partnership with Byron Lighty, under the name of the Dinuba Electric Company. They are engaged in general electrical construction work, repairing and other work along their line, and also conduct a store where they carry everything in the line of electrical supplies. By prompt service and honest work they have won a fine reputation and are getting their full share of the local custom in their line. Mr. Byers is part owner of the building occupied on the first floor by the Ford agency. It is a three-story building, seventy-five by one hundred and fifty feet with a large assembly hall on the second floor and a banquet room on the third floor. Mr. Byers is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, in which he has taken the degrees of the Scottish Rite ; the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and the Knights of Pythias. He is a director of the Dinuba Chamber of Commerce and is a charter member of the Rotary Club. He was married to Miss Edith Mackleman, who was born and reared in Rockport, Indiana, and they are the parents of four children ; Sheldon, Eloise, Josephine and Dorothy. Mr. Byers stands for the best interests of the community at all times and withholds his support from no worthy enterprise for the advancement of the public welfare. Genial and unassuming, he enjoys the good will and respect of all who know him. JAMES T. COMPTON. During the past twenty years there has been built up at Pixley an industry that has come to be recognized as one of the leading industrial enterprises in Tulare county and throughout this section of the valley. When in 1908 James T. Compton, an experienced designer and worker in iron, with years of practical experience in the east behind him, came to California and settled at Pixley he set up there a smithy and began the manufacture of agricultural implement specialties. The demand for these implements of his design and invention grew and he presently was compelled to increase his manufacturing facilities. For some years his product was confined to devices for horse drawn implements and then, in 1917, he made a further extension to his plant and began the manufacture of implements for farm tractor use, particularly tractor scrapers. From 1917 to 1920 Mr. Compton manufactured and distributed more tractor scrapers than did all the other manufacturers in the United States, creating a wide market for the sale of his Pixley product. The business has been further extended and is now carried on under the name of the Compton Scraper Company, of which Mr. Compton is the president and general manager. This concern, in addition to its widely distributed tractor scrapers, manufactures several other implements for Fordson and other tractors, plows, subsoilers and the like, and is doing a large and growing business. Mr. Compton, head of this enterprise, invented and put on the market the first adjustable bit subsoiler manufactured in the United States. He does his own designing and pattern making and as an inventor has quite a number of ingenious and useful farm implements to his credit. One of the latest of these is his celebrated heavy duty scraper, recently put on the market, which attained an instant popularity and which is being widely distributed from the Pixley plant. This scraper is especially adapted for road work, has been adopted by the supervisors of the San Joaquin valley and is being used extensively for land leveling. The scraper is built in sizes from four to ten feet and has a capacity of from three-fourths to seven yards of dirt at a load and a strength to stand the strain of the most powerful tractor built. Mr. Compton has been the recipient of many flattering testimonials concerning the effectiveness of this new scraper, an example of which is one written from the Los Angeles Athletic Club by H. S. Birdsell, superintendent of the Los Angeles Athletic Club ranch at Connor Station, which points out that the scraper is doing all you claimed for it. I am moving between nine hundred and one thousand yards of dirt in nine hours at an estimated cost of three cents per yard. I am hauling some of the dirt as far as five hundred feet and am loading just as I find it; that is, we are not plowing up loose dirt. I consulted with my engineer tonight and he said the scraper was showing no wear after two weeks of continuous work. One of the great advantages of this scraper is that it is operated from the seat of the tractor, making it a one man tool. James T. Compton is a native of the old Blue Grass state, born in historic Pike county on the eastern border of Kentucky, June 20, 1874, and is a son of Isaac and Caroline (Robinson) Compton, both of whom were members of old families in that section. Isaac Compton was a harness maker and general worker in leather and the son James grew up familiar with the use of tools, early becoming attracted to the mechanical trades, and presently entered the railway service. His capacity along this line led to rapid advancement and when but seventeen years of age he was made the conductor of a freight train on the Norfolk & Western railroad, running out of Kenova in Wayne county, West Virginia, a town whose name is a composite of the abbreviated names of the states of Kentucky, Ohio and Virginia. For two years he served as a conductor on this road and then transferred his services to the Chesapeake & Ohio road, with headquarters in Cincinnati, later going to Columbus (Ohio) and taking service with the C., S. & H. road. Meantime the lure of the mechanical trades was calling him in another direction and after awhile he left the railroad and at Ironton, Ohio, became employed as a blacksmith, working for five years at that place and giving his earnest attention to the development of his skill in that useful craft. He then became connected with the operations of the Spear Brothers carriage works at Marietta, Ohio ; was later and for some time connected with the Parkersburg Transfer Company at Parkersburg, West Virginia, and then became the general manager of the plant of the Huff Carriage Works at Huntington, West Virginia, and was there thus engaged when in 1908 the state of his wifes health demanded for her a change of climate. It was then, very wisely, that the Comptons came to California and settled in Tulare county, with the gratifying result that Mrs. Compton was in due time completely restored to health. As noted above, upon taking up his residence at Pixley Mr. Compton set himself up in business there as a manufacturer and he ever since has been quite successful engaged along that line, inventor and patentee of the various ingenious implements manufactured in his extensive plant. It was on June 18, 1904, at Marietta, Ohio, that James T. Compton was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary Murphy, widow of Charles Murphy, and they have two daughters : Caroline, wife of V. F. Nichols of Port Angeles, Washington; and Frances, wife of Dallas Highsmith of Bakersfield. Mr. and Mrs. Compton have a pleasant home at Pixley and ever since taking up their residence there have been interested and helpful participants in the general social activities of the community. In addition to his home place Mr. Compton owns several other residence properties in the town, a business building there, several vacant lots and a five-acre vineyard. He has long been looked upon as one of the leading men of affairs in Pixley and has been helpful in promoting the general interests of that place. He is an active member of the local organization of the Modern Woodmen of America. SHERMAN ROGERS, M. D. Dr. Sherman Rogers, one of the younger physicians and surgeons of Tulare, California, was born in Rogersville, Webster County, Missouri, September 2, 1891. His father and grandfather were both physicians. He attended the Castle high school at Lebanon, Tennessee, and the University of Oklahoma, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1915. He then matriculated as a student in the medical department of the University of Southern California, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1917, receiving the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Upon receiving his degree Dr. Rogers was made an intern in the Kings County Hospital. When the United States entered the World war in April, 1917, there was a call for volunteer physicians to act as army surgeons. Dr. Rogers answered the call and was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the United States army. He was stationed at the base hospital at Camp Lewis, Washington, where he served until mustered out after the signing Of the armistice in November, 1918. For about a year after leaving the Medical Corps Dr. Rogers practiced his profession in Seattle, Washington. He came to Tulare in 1921 and is now located at 147 South K street, where his office is well equipped for the reception and treatment of patients. He is a member of the Tulare County, California State and American Medical Associations. Fraternally he is a member of Tulare Lodge No. 1424, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. JEFFERSON D. REED. Jefferson D. Reed, constable of Tulare, Tulare county, California, was born on a farm near Goshen, Washington county, Arkansas, December 20, 1878. On that farm he grew to manhood, attending the common schools of the neighborhood, where he received an education sufficient for one in the ordinary walks of life. In 1911 he came to California, located at Tulare and for the next three years was employed by ranchmen in the valley. He was then for three years one of the night watchmen of the city of Tulare. In 1922 he was elected constable and took office on January 8, 1923. The office of constable is not an exalted one, but it requires certain qualifications in the person who holds it, if he would prove to be an efficient officer. These qualifications are possessed in an unusual degree by Mr. Reed. His judgment and skill have been severely tested since he came into office and it is no idle boast to say that he has never been found wanting. On March 5, 1923, only about two months after he was sworn in as constable, he was wounded by a pistol shot while trying to arrest a hold-up man, but even this did not deter him from performing his duty. He has personally arrested a number of criminals, and in association with R. H. Hill, sheriff of the county, he has assisted in the apprehension of several others. Bad men know Constable Reed and are not at all desirous of meeting him. They know his record for fearlessness and his fidelity to duty, hence they avoid him whenever it is possible, preferring to operate in other localities. Mr. Reed is a member of the Kaweah Tribe No. 151, Improved Order of Red Men, and has been a member of the Woodmen of the World since 1916. He married Miss Sarah Jane Steadman, who was born in Indiana, and they have one son, Homer L. Reed. HERMAN EGER. In that fine band of ardent young easterners who of late years have (lone so much to aid in the development of the wonderful horticultural interests of this favored valley there is none perhaps more enthusiastic in his praise of the development here being brought about or who has taken a more earnest interest in the work thus undertaken than Herman Eger of Porterville, one of the members of the progressive Alta Vista colony of fruit growers in the vicinity of that city. By profession Mr. Eger is a civil engineer but he has become an enthusiastic booster of the great citrus fruit industry hereabout and is doing well his part in the general development of that industry, during the comparatively short period of his residence in Tulare county, having come to be recognized as one of the most alert and energetic promoters of the general commercial and industrial interests of the county and particularly of the Porterville district, in which he has elected to carry on his operations. Herman Eger was born in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, June 28, 1895, and was given excellent schooling there. He early became interested in the study of engineering and in due time became a duly qualified civil engineer. Until in 1917 Mr. Eger was associated with the operations of the great Firestone Tire & Rubber Company at Akron, Ohio, connected with the engineering staff of that concern. He then became connected with the engineering staff of the Santa Fe Railway Company and in that capacity was sent to California and stationed at San Bernardino. Two years later, in 1919, he transferred his services to the engineering department of the city of Los Angeles and while there began to study the possibilities of the citrus fruit industry in this state. The more he looked into the matter the more interested he became and in December, 1923, he severed his connection with the staff of the city engineers office at Los Angeles and cast his lot definitely with that of the fruit growers in Tulare county. Upon his arrival here Mr. Eger bought a twenty-acre tract of bearing orchard land in the Alta Vista colony in the vicinity of Porterville, a tract that had been planted for nine years, and he started into become a fruit grower in this favored frostless zone. Fifteen acres of his tract are devoted to lemons and the remainder to naval oranges. During the first year of his operations Mr. Eger shipped two thousand boxes of lemons (Sunkist) as products of his grove and he is amply satisfied that he is on the right track, ready to extend his operations. Like all who have come into Tulare county during recent years Mr. Eger is enthusiastic in his praise of local conditions, is thoroughly sold on the enterprise he has undertaken and is one of the most ardent boosters of the community, a real live wire who has come to be recognized as a valuable acquisition to the general social and civic life of the city of Porterville and of the community at large. LAURENCE ALFRED MOYE. Laurence Alfred Moye, county surveyor of Tulare county, was born in Stockton, California, January 30, 1883. His father, Leroy Alfred Moye, came to California as a young man and was engaged in the furniture and piano business in Stockton. He married Miss Laura Hartley, a native of Tulare county and a daughter of Henry Hartley, one of the pioneers of that county. Subsequently the father was engaged in the real estate business in Santa Ana. Laurence Alfred Moye was educated in the public schools of Santa Ana and Visalia. After completing the course in the high school at the latter place he decided to qualify himself for the work of surveyor and civil engineer. He spent two years in the Oakland Polytechnic School, but most of his professional training was in the field as a practical surveyor. His first important position was with the San Joaquin Light & Power Company, in the location and construction of its hydro-electric plants on the San Joaquin and Tule rivers. After three years with that company he was appointed deputy county surveyor by Seth Smith, and served in that position for six years. He was then engaged in private surveys for eight years except the two years he was city engineer of Visalia when he was elected county surveyor. He is now serving his second term in that office. Mr. Moye is a republican in his political affiliations and while he takes a keen interest in public matters, especially those of a local character, he can hardly be classed as an intense partisan. A lover of outdoor life, he finds congenial employment in his profession, and his well known public spirit makes him deservedly popular with members of all political parties. After becoming firmly established in his chosen calling in Visalia, in 1909, Mr. Moye was married to Miss Leeta Akin, a native of Tulare county, and they have three children: James, Lora and Henry. Mr. Moye has a forty-acre vineyard northeast of Exeter, this being the third ranch developed by Mr. Moye, the others being sold at profit. He also owns one hundred and twenty acres of land which is leased to the Exeter Golf Club. REV. THEODORE C. SCHOESSOW. On February 12, 1912, Rev. Theodore C. Schoessow came to Visalia, California, to assume the duties of pastor of the Grace Evangelical Lutheran church. In point of service be is now the oldest pastor in Visalia, having seen changes of the ministers in all the other religious societies in the city some of them more than once. Mr. Schoessow was born in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 12, 1883. He received his elementary education in the public schools of his native city, after which he enrolled as a student in the Concordia Seminary, of St. Louis, Missouri, where he was graduated in 1906. Entering the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran church, he then spent six years in missionary work in North Dakota and Montana. That section of the country was then comparatively sparsely settled and he was one of the first Lutheran ministers to enter the field. During his six years of service as a missionary he had eleven small charges in North Dakota and covered a large part of that state in ministering to these pioneer congregations. When Mr. Schoessow came to the Grace church at Visalia in February, 1912, the voting membership was but fifteen. The church was organized in 1906 and the house of worship was erected in 1908. Rev. T. Bauer was the first pastor. He walked the six miles from Goshen to hold services in Visalia. In 1907 he was succeeded by Rev. W. Grunow, who occupied the pulpit until 1911. Then. Mr. Schoessow took charge as pastor and his work has borne fruit in a substantial growth of the church. A debt of two thousand five hundred eighty dollars hanging over the society when he became pastor has been discharged, a parsonage was built in 1913, the church edifice was enlarged in 1917, and the voting membership has been increased to forty-three. There are now ninety families associated with the congregation and the attendance is about three hundred. Ladies aid and sewing circles have been organized and a well attended Sunday school is maintained. In his clerical labors Mr. Schoessow has been ably assisted by his wife, who before her marriage was Miss Emma Yde. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, a descendant of a Saxon family which came to that city in 1847. They have one son, Theodore, who was born in North Dakota. BOLTON E. MINISTER. Bolton E. Minister, proprietor of Ministers, Incorporated, in Porterville, one of the best outfitted and most popular dry goods and department stores in this section of California; president of the Porterville Chamber of Commerce, and recognized as one of the most energetic and enterprising young business men hereabout ; an enthusiastic promoter of all movements having to do with the betterment of local conditions and a community booster every minute of the day, is a native of California and has been a resident of this state all his life. He was born in the city of Los Angeles, August 20, 1892, and attended the schools of that city and Santa Monica, going on through the high school. With native energy Bolton E. Minister started out at an unusually early age to do for himself. He recalls that his first gainful labor was performed at the tender age of eight years, when he spent his school vacation period working on a ranch in Los Angeles county. When fifteen years of age he was put in charge of a considerable alfalfa development project in San Bernardino county. His was a busy boyhood, even as his maturer years have been filled with activity, and his friends vouch for the vim he has always injected into these activities, whether as a boy working on a ranch; as a promoter engaged in putting over extensive operations; or as a merchant developing a going department store. Mr. Ministers first mercantile operations were carried on in the Coachella valley in Riverside county, where as a young man he started a general store in the village of Indio and not long afterward was made postmaster of that place. He also carried on, incidental to this enterprise, a livery stable, and between times figured out plans for the extension of the budding interests of Indio. Recognizing what seemed a more promising opportunity in the neighboring village of Coachella, down the line a few miles on the Southern Pacific, in the great valley between the San Bernardino and the San Jacinto mountains, he took a stock of store goods to the latter place and there established a business. While thus engaged in the mercantile business in Indio and Coachella, Mr. Minister inaugurated the movement which led to the construction of the great Coachella storm water ditch, a half million dollar drainage project which has since played a very important part in the development of that valley. He was one of the prime movers in this project and was elected president of the association that put it through. In the spring of 1922 Mr. Minister closed out his interests in Coachella and in May of that year became established in business in Porterville, head of the flourishing mercantile firm of Ministers, Incorporated, proprietors of a very well stocked department store at No. 519 North Main street, and one of the most energetic business men in that city. It was Mr. Minister who recognized the possibilities of cotton culture in this valley and it was through his encouragement and stimulation of the movement that the first cotton was planted in the Porterville and Terra Bella districts and the cotton gin set up in Porterville, thus creating a new industry here that promises to become a very profitable one. In 1924 Mr. Minister was elected president of the Porterville Chamber of Commerce and in 1925 was reelected to that position, a compliment which his friends appreciated very much, for it usually has been the custom in this chamber to pass the office of executive around. In this instance the members of this energetic commercial body evidently realized that they had found the right man for the place and were quite content to retain him. As a director of the locally popular and influential Lions Club, an organization based upon a desire for the promotion of better general civic conditions, Mr. Minister also has been able to help further certain important projects looking to the advancement of the common good hereabout. On April 25, 1917, Bolton E. Minister was united in marriage to Miss Georgia Walters of San Bernardino and to this union two children have been born, sons both: Bolton E., Jr., and Rob Roy. Mr. and Mrs. Minister are members of the Roman Catholic church and Mr. Minister is a member of Porterville Council No. 2329, Knights of Columbus. He also is a member of Lodge No. 1342, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. EDGAR L. BRANDON. About 1908 Edward Brandon and his son, Edgar L., came to California from their native state of Ohio. The father entered the employ of the firm of White & Green, owners of the Porterville Gas Company, as foreman of the gas works. Later he went to Coalinga, Fresno county, where for two years he was in charge of the local gas plant. He then came to Visalia to accept the position of foreman of the gas works at that place. Subsequently he was made district superintendent for the Central Counties Gas Company, with supervision over the gas plants at Visalia, Exeter, Porterville and Tulare. Edgar L. Brandon was about fourteen years of age when he accompanied his father to California, having been born in Auglaize, Ohio, May 2, 1894. He had attended the public schools in Auglaize and completed his education in the public schools of Porterville after coming to California. Upon leaving school he started in to work for the gas company at Porterville. His first job was with the pick and shovel, which he was not too proud to use, hence it may be said that he began at the lowest round of the ladder and has learned the business from the bottom up. After a time he was made service man, in which position he faithfully discharged his duties, and he was then promoted to his present position as superintendent of the Visalia plant of the Central Counties Gas Company. Although Mr. Brandon takes an interest in all questions affecting the general good of Visalia and Tulare county, the greater part of his time is devoted to his business, improving the service of the gas company, studying methods of reducing the overhead expenses, etc. His wife, whose maiden name was Clother, was born in Orange county, California. They have three children: Catherine, Edna and Orval. WILLIAM NEWELL DAVIS. William Newell Davis, district superintendent of schools, with offices at Dinuba and recognized as one of the most efficient factors in elementary school administration in this section of California as well as a student of general communal and social welfare problems, is a native son of the old Buckeye state, a fact of which he never ceases to be proud, but is a citizen of California by choice and inclination and is quite content to regard himself as much a Californian as any, a resident of this state for almost fifteen years and enthusiastic in his praise of the manifold merits and advantages of the Golden state as a desirable place of residence and a wonderful field for effective and appreciated personal service along the lines to which he has been devoted from the days of his youth. It was in 1911 that Mr. Davis, with an established record of effective service in school administration in Ohio, came to California to accept the position of principal of the Court school at San Luis Obispo. In the next year his services were secured by the school board of Kingsburg in Fresno county and for five years thereafter (1912-17) he served as principal of the grammar school at that place. It was then, in 1917, after six years of effective labor in this state, that his services were secured in behalf of the schools of Tulare county and he has since been serving as district superintendent of schools here, attached to the schools of Dinuba. Mr. Davis favorite theme during the many years he was engaged in high school work in Ohio was mathematics. For years during the period of his service in Ohio he was a staff contributor to the mathematical department of The Ohio Teacher and he attained a considerable reputation as a master of higher mathematics. During the period of his service in California he has specialized in the problems of elementary school administration and is frequently called on to speak before public gatherings in a presentation of such problems and the policies essential to their proper solution as well as on topics of general communal interest. Mr. Davis has always taken an active part in the civic affairs of the communities in which he has lived and has been closely identified with such welfare movements as those fostered by the Young Mens Christian Association and the Boy Scouts of America. He is a firm believer in the theory of education which emphasizes training for citizenship and which places character building above the so-called fundamentals. Mr. Davis was born on a farm in Hamilton township in Jackson county in southern Ohio, May 8, 1882, and is a son of Joseph W. and Eliza Ann (Parks) Davis, both of whom were born in that same county, the latter in 1855 and the former in 1856, members of pioneer families in that section of the Buckeye state, the Davises having entered there from Pennsylvania and the Parkses from Virginia. An instinctive and thoughtful student, William Newell Davis had so far progressed in his studies that when fifteen years of age he was enabled to pass the examination for teachers and was granted a certificate to teach school. The school authorities, however, could not see their way clear to giving a fifteen year old boy a school and his ambition to become a teacher was restrained until he was seventeen years of age, when (in 1899) he began teaching in the public schools of his home county. For five years he continued teaching in the rural schools, meanwhile carrying on his own schooling by spring and summer courses in Ohio University, and then, in 1904, when but twenty-two years of age, was made principal of the high school at Oak Hill, a town of about fifteen hundred population in his home county. Two years later he was made superintendent of the schools of that place and was thus engaged until in 1911, when he came to California and entered upon his useful educational career in this state, principal of the Court school at San Luis Obispo, as has been set out above. During the time of his service in the schools of his home county back in Ohio, Mr. Davis was an influential factor in the work of the schools there. In 1906, under appointment of the court of that county, he was made county school examiner, charged with the examination and licensing of teachers, and for five years occupied that important position. For a year or more (1906-07) he rendered further local communal service as the assistant editor of the Jackson Sun, the leading newspaper in the county seat, and made his presence felt in the political affairs of the county, a leader in the promotion of the cause of the republican party there. He was a member of the executive committee of the Southeastern Ohio Teachers Association, widely and favorably known in his profession, and was for several years in charge of the Teachers Institute of his home county. Since coming to California Mr. Davis has attended several terms of summer course work in the University of California and has also taken extension work with that institution, ever keeping abreast of the amazing advances that are being made in his profession. On August 12, 1912, at San Francisco, William Newell Davis was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Alice Glenn, his back-home sweetheart who had come to California to fulfill the troth they had plighted before his departure for this state the year before, and to this happy union five children have been born, four daughters: Louise Glenn, Mary Grace, Alice Anita and Barbara Kimball, and a son, William Newell Davis (II). Mrs. Davis was born in Coalton in Jackson county, Ohio, June 5, 1887, and is a daughter of Milton Kimball and Alice (Phillips) Glenn, both also natives of Ohio and members of old families in that state, the former born in 1855 and the latter in 1860. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are members of the Dinuba Presbyterian church and Mr. Davis is a member of the session (an elder) of that congregation. He also is the superintendent of the Sunday school. In April, 1923, he became a member of the locally influential Rotary Club of that city and during the term 1924-25 was president of the same. He is a member of the fraternal organization of the Knights of Pythias, having become affiliated with the Oak Hill (Ohio) lodge of that order in 1904, and is a past chancellor commander of the lodge. JOHN C. STANSFIELD. One of the important manufacturing concerns of Lindsay, California, is that of Stansfield & McKnight, Incorporated. The factory is located at the corner of Ashland and Hermosa streets, and the officers of the company at the close of the year 1924 were: John C. Stansfield, president ; Charles McKnight, vice president F. F. Pollock, secretary; Chester Dowell, treasurer. The building now occupied was erected in 1921. It contains about fifteen thousand square feet of floor space, is equipped with up-to-date machinery for turning out pumping plants, motors, engines, agricultural implements, pipes and fittings, casings, accessories, the Stansfield high pressure power sprayer, and for doing a general machine shop business. John C. Stansfield, the president and one of the founders of this business, was born in Morgan county, Illinois, January 8, 1869. His parents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Ayres) Stansfield, were both natives of England and were married in that country before coming to America in 1857. The father was a farmer and blacksmith in Illinois. While still in his boyhood, John C. Stansfield came to California. For many years he was employed by the logging and lumber companies, working in camps of northern California from the Tehachapi to the Oregon line. Shortly after the beginning of the present century Mr. Stansfield came to Lindsay, where he quickly became identified with machine shop work. In 1906 he formed a partnership with Charles McKnight, who is now vice president. The business was incorporated in 1914 under the old firm name of Stansfield & McKnight, and Mr. Stansfield has been president since that time. Compared with some of the big manufacturing concerns in the larger cities, the plant of Stansfield & McKnight might be considered a small affair, but it is the largest shop of its kind in Lindsay, employing from twenty to twenty-five men constantly, and the well known high quality of the output has enabled the proprietors to build up a large and growing business. Mr. Stansfield is a member of the Masonic fraternity and his company affiliates with the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce. He is married and has two daughters: Evalyn and Jeanne. Mrs. Stansfield was formerly Gladys Rea, a native of Iowa. JOHN KINGSLEY MACOMBER. An enumeration of the representative citizens of Tulare county who have won recognition and success for themselves and at the same time have honored the community where they live, would be incomplete were there failure to make definite mention of the man whose name introduces this review, John Kingsley Macomber, successful banker, chairman of the board of county supervisors and member of the state board of agriculture. Mr. Macomber was born in Ames, Iowa, on the 10th of December, 1883, and is the son of John Kingsley and Mattie (Locke) Macomber, the former born in Northampton, Massachusetts, and the latter in Binghamton, New York. The subject is the scion of a long line of sterling ancestors, through whom he traces direct descent from John and Priscilla Alden, famous in early colonial history. The Macomber family is of Scottish origin and members of the family took an active part in the stirring events of the American Revolution. The Locke family, which also figured in our colonial history, is of English and French extraction. John Kingsley Macomber, who died in 1909 at the age of sixty-one, was for many years a successful and prominent lawyer in Des Moines, Iowa, having served many years respectively as city attorney and district attorney. To him and his wife were born eight children, three sons and five daughters. The subject of this sketch received a good grammar and high school education and then took a special course in Drake University, at Des Moines. During the ensuing two years he was employed in the factory of the Chamberlain Medicine Company at Des Moines. Then he went to Mexico for John R. Blocker, of San Antonio, one of the biggest cattle men of Texas. Mr. Macomber spent some time in Mexico as a general cattle and ranch hand and then was induced to go to Pasadena, California, where he had a number of relatives living. His first employment here was with the Los Angeles Trust Company, which had been organized by A. K. Macomber, a cousin of the subject, also its first president. This company is now the Pacific-Southwest Trust and Savings Bank and is one of the largest banks in California. Mr. Macomber remained connected with this bank for five years, from January, 1903, to April, 1908, when he resigned he was in charge of the real estate department. He then came to Delano, Kern county, as manager of the S. F. B. Morse Development Company, who were the real developers of the modern Delano. This company later became the Central California Land ComÂpany, of which Mr. Macomber served as president for two years. He then sold his interests in it and came to Tulare county, investing his money in land near Tipton. He is now the owner of one thousand acres of splendid land in that section, which is devoted to dairying, farming, live stock, alfalfa and cotton. He is deeply interested in the agricultural welfare of the section and was one of the organizers and the first president of the Tulare County Farm Bureau. He served two years as president and is now a director at large. In 1918 Mr. Macomber was elected a member of the county board of supervisors, was reelected to that position in 1922, and since the latter date has served as chairman of the board. He was one of the organizers and has served continuously since as vice president of the Farmers State Bank. In 1922 Mr. Macomber was appointed by Governor Stephens a members of the state board of agriculture, and was reappointed to that position by Governor Richardson, being still a member of that body. Fraternally, Mr. Macomber is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Sciots. He was married to Miss Pearl Seeley of Los Angeles, who was born in San Francisco. Mr. Macomber is recognized as a man of strong and alert mentality, deeply interested in everything pertaining to the advancement of the community along material, civic and moral lines, and he is generally known as one of the progressive and representative men of his city and county. The splendid success which has crowned his life work has been directly traceable to the salient points in his character, which have won for him the confidence and respect of the entire community honored by his citizenship. WILLIS MERRIMAN THOMSON. Could the lives of the pioneers and early settlers be fully and truthfully written what an interesting, thrilling and wonderful tale it would be. Wondrous, indeed, has been the transformation of the Golden state since it was first beheld by Willis Merriman Thomson and his father, and in this marvelous change they were active participants and not unimportant factors. The period to which reference is made cannot be too well written up and the most satisfactory way to do justice to the subject is to record the lives of the actors in the great drama which has been enacted here. W. M. Thomson, who came to California more than a half century ago, and who is now prominent among the ranchmen of Tulare county, is a native of the state of Ohio, born on the 4th day of September, 1859. He is the son of William and Plumey Jane (Tilton) Thomson, and the grandson of John Alexander Thomson, who was the first clerk of the courts of Hardin county, Ohio. William Thomson brought his family from his Ohio farm to California in 1867, coming by the way of the Isthmus of Panama, thence up the coast and through the Golden Gate and up the Sacramento river to Stockton, by boat on the San Joaquin river to Fresno city, then to Visalia by stage, stopping in Visalia a short time, and then locating near Porterville, where he homeÂsteaded land. He also established the first store and hotel in Plano. Before going to Plano he had been the government farmer on the Indian reservation. He was a real pioneer of southern Tulare county and took an important part in the development of that region, giving his support to every movement for the advancement of the public welfare. He was active in advancing educational facilities and, practically at his own expense, built a church, which was occupied by the Presbyterian denomination. He was born September 27, 1825, and died in 1909, at the advanced age of eighty-four years, revered and respected by all who knew him. Willis Merriman Thomson secured a common school education and began to work early in life. For a while he hauled freight and drove stage from Tulare to Porterville, and then was successively a sheepman, farmer and cattleman. In 1886 he came to Tipton and was engaged in the operation of a livery stable there for many years, or until the advent of the automobile killed the livery business. From time to time as he was prospered he bought farm land and is now the holder of extensive land interests, on which for many years he carried on diversified farming operations, raising live stock and alfalfa, and dairying. He was actively engaged in handling cattle with his son-in-law, W. E. Holliday, and the latters brother, Carter Holliday, under the firm name of Thomson & Holliday Brothers, but he is now practically retired from active business. In the early days in Tipton he served as deputy sheriff of Tulare county for a number of years. On the fiftieth anniversary of his coming to California he celebrated the event by again sailing through the Golden Gate, and at that time took great interest in noting the wonderful changes which had taken place there during the intervening years. In October, 1884, Mr. Thomson was married to Miss Martha Broughton of Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of three daughters: Nora, the wife of T. L. Gilmer of Tipton; Gladys, the wife of W. E. Holliday of Tipton ; and Mrs. Leo Smith of Tulare. Mrs. Martha Thomson died in August, 1902. On September 16, 1905, Mr. Thomson was married to Mrs. Helen Hewitt, widow of Henry M. Hewitt of Hayward, Wisconsin. Mrs. Thomson is a member of the Order of the Eastern. Star. Fraternally Mr. Thomson is a Royal Arch Mason and also a Woodman of the World. Mr. Thomson, while laboring for his individual advancement, never shrank from his larger duties to civilization, and now, in the golden Indian summer of his years, he can look back over a career well spent, in which duty was well and conscientiously performed, and know that he has the good will and hearty esteem of all who know him. LINDSAY RIPE OLIVE COMPANY. Early in the development of the fruit growing industry in California, it was discovered that olives could be successfully grown in the San Joaquin valley. Now the Lindsay, Strathmore, Exeter, Lemon Cove and Woodlake districts claim to produce the finest olives in the world. After numerous experiments, Vernon Campbell worked out a method of putting up ripe olives in such a way that the natural flavor could be preserved. This gave stimulus to olive culture in the valley and resulted in the organization of the Lindsay Ripe Olive Company early in the present century. The officers of the company at the close of the year 1924 were as follows: C. E. Goodale, president; A. M. Drew, vice president; L. M. Drew, secretary and treasurer; W. 0. Johnson, manager. The plants of the company are owned and controlled by the olive growers of the districts mentioned above, the plant at Lindsay being the largest institution of its kind in the world. It is modern in every respect, most of the buildings having been erected since 1920. The equipment includes all the necessary machinery and appliances for preparing olives in practically every known style and for extracting olive oil. As the name of the company indicates, canned ripe olives stand first in the list of its products. W. 0. Johnson, manager of the Lindsay Ripe Olive Company, is a native of Ipswich, Massachusetts, where members of the family have for generations been prominent in the manufacture of shoes. After graduating at the Manning Academy he spent one year in the Boston School of Technology. In 1892 he came to Los Angeles, California, as the representative of the Cudahy Packing Company. For a time he was assistant manager, then manager for that company, after which he joined the American Olive Company, of Los Angeles, with which he was associated for twenty-two years, first as sales manager and later as general manager. While with the American Olive Company he was fortunate enough to form the acquaintance of and work with Vernon Campbell, the discoverer of the process of canning ripe olives. In 1920 he came to Lindsay to accept the management of the Lindsay Ripe Olive Company and under his direction many improvements have been installed. He is a member of the Tulare Golf and Country Club. His wife, who was formerly Miss Nellie I. Kalloch, a native of Kansas, died in 1922. Closely associated with Mr. Johnson is Charles Osborne, superintendent of the Lindsay plant of the company, who has been interested in the affairs of the company since its formation. He was born in Davis county, Missouri, but came to California in infancy with his parents. His father, Frank Osborne, located on a ranch near Porterville, where he lived until 1905. For many years he was manager of the Tulare County Hospital, until his death in 1915. Charles Osborne received a good education and began his business career as clerk in a hardware house for which he afterward became a traveling salesman. In 1900 Mr. Osborne married Miss Minta, daughter of Senator George Stockton Barry. Upon the death of his father-in-law he took charge of the ranch. He was one of those to cooperate in the organization of the Lindsay Ripe Olive Company and in 1915 left the ranch to become superintendent of the plant at Lindsay. Mr. and Mrs. Osborne have two daughters: Audra and Irma. LESLIE A. CLEARY. One of the younger law firms of Tulare county is that of Feemster & Cleary, which was formed in 1922. The junior member of this firm, Leslie A. Cleary, was born in Coalinga, Fresno county, California, September 13, 1895. His grandparents on both sides were among the pioneers, crossing the plains before transcontinental railway facilities were provided. His parents, Frank and Mary (Cooper) Cleary, were both born in Calaveras county, California. They were early settlers in the Coalinga district, where Frank Cleary assisted in drilling the first oil well in that field. Further mention as to his activities may be found in the sketch of Charles W. Cleary, which appears elsewhere in this work. Leslie A. Cleary acquired his elementary education in the public schools of Coalinga, Santa Cruz and Lindsay. He then entered the University of California and graduated with the class of 1918, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During the World war he served in the Eighth Aero Squadron, with the rank of second lieutenant, and saw active service in France as pilot of an observation plane. Upon being discharged from military service, he enrolled as a student in the law departÂment of the University of California, from which he was graduated in 1921, with the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence. The same year he was admitted to the bar and began practice in the office of Jesse Steinhart of San Francisco.The following year he came to Visalia, where he formed a partnership with E. I. Feemster, under the firm name of Feemster & Cleary. In October, 1924, he was appointed deputy district attorney for Tulare county, but retained his membership in the firm. Mr. Cleary is a member of the American Legion, in which he keeps in touch with his comrades of war days. On March 30, 1918, Mr. Cleary was married to Miss Irma Tourtillott, a native of California. Mr. Cleary is president of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian church and a member of the Tulare County Bar Association. GEORGE G. ANDERSON. George G. Anderson, county forester and park superintendent of Tulare county, California, is a native of the Hawkeye state, having been born on a farm near Clarinda, Iowa, February 27, 1871. His parents, Alfred and Mary (Wiberg) Anderson, were both born and reared in Sweden, where they were married. In 1870 they came to the United States, selecting. Iowa for their home, and there the father engaged in farming. In 1884 the family removed to Nebraska and in 1902 went to Alberta, Canada, where the father died in 1921. His widow is still living. George G. Anderson attended the public schools of Iowa and Nebraska. He assisted his father on the farm and followed agricultural pursuits until 1915, spending the last thirteen years of that period at Porterville, California, where he settled in 1902, and while there he was also interested in fruit culture. In 1915 he was appointed to his present position. Tulare county has four parks, the largest of which is Mooney park, at Visalia, where Mr. Anderson makes his headquarters. Since he came into the office of county forester and park superintendent he has made many improvements, constructing artificial lakes, introducing collections of wild animals and birds, especially in Mooney park, and in the care of the trees and flowers, etc. He acts under the county forestry board and has as part of his duties the supervision of the roadside trees along the county highways. Politically Mr. Anderson is a republican and as such takes an interest in public affairs. He married Miss Elizabeth Sandilands, a native of Indiana, and four children have been born to them: Dorothy, now Mrs. Ray Powell, deputy county recorded; Mildred, at home with her parents; Warren and Edna, students in the Visalia high school. ZEBEDEE M. HINDSMAN. When years ago out in Iowa his interest was aroused in a prospectus of a promising bit of land speculation then opening up in Tulare county, Zebedee M. Hindsman took a chance and bought sight unseen a lot in the projected town of Allensworth, an ambitious real estate project promoted by Colonel Allen Allensworth, a retired officer of the United States army, who had become the owner of a considerable landholding in this county. On April 16, 1909, Mr. Hindsman came here to take a look at his investment. As is everyone who forms an acquaintance with this section of California, he was charmed and delighted with the prospect and outlook and straightaway began to make arrangements to become a permanent resident. Closing out his interests in Iowa he established himself here and has ever since been a resident of this favored county, one of the real pioneers of Allensworth, for he was the fifth man interested in that early promotion plan to become a resident of the town-site and he thus has been a witness to and a participant in the development of that now pleasant and flourishing village almost from the time of its inception. Mrs. Hindsman was the third woman proprietor of the villages general store. For years Mr. Hindsman has been justice of the peace in and for that district; is a leader in local promotion work, a former officer of the local school board and in other and useful ways one of the decisive factors in the general development of the community and one of the best known men in that section of the valley, where he is a licensed real estate broker. Zebedee M. Hindsman is a native of the southland, born at Palmetto in the state of Georgia on March 15, 1871, and is the only son born to William Riley and Amanda (Jones) Hindsman, both members of old families in Georgia and the former of whom was by trade a blacksmith. His parents being divorced when Zebedee was but an infant he was reared in Georgia by his mother, receiving his early education in the Palmetto schools. He was employed at farm labor in Coweta county and thus aided in the support of the family. When he was eighteen years of age he struck out for himself and gradually made his way westward and northward, working his way up through Tennessee, Kentucky and Illinois into Iowa and after awhile became employed at Des Moines in the latter state, where for some years he made his home. It was while living at Albia, Iowa, that Mr. Hindsman became attracted to the alluring prospectus upon which the proposed townsite of Aliens- worth was based and made an investment in that behalf, more to accommodate the desires of a friend than with any immediate view to entering upon personal possession of his new estate. In 1909, however, he came here to look over the ground and, as noted above, was so charmed with the outlook that he became a resident and has never since had occasion to regret the choice made at that time. In 1912 Mr. Hindsman secured a commission as a notary public and in that official capacity came in touch with many of the details of development work here. In 1918 he was elected justice of the peace in and for his home district for the term of four years and in 1922 was reelected to that magisterial position and is thus now serving his second term in the justices office, this term to run until in 1926. It was in February, 1911, that Mr. Hindsman opened his general store at Allensworth and he ever since has been recognized as one of the leading merchants of that place, proprietor of a well stocked and well appointed general store, prepared to cater to the needs of the local trade area in a variety of lines. Besides his public duties as justice of the peace he also has rendered effective service as a member of the local school board and has served at one time and another as secretary of that body and as advisor of the same. On June 6, 1900, Mr. Hindsman was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Miller of Virginia, and he and his wife have a pleasant and hospitable home at Allensworth. ROBERT A. McDANIEL. For sixty-five years the name McDaniel was closely interwoven with the growth and development of Tulare county, California; not in the sense that members of the family were prominent as office holders or active in political affairs, but that they, and Robert A. McDaniel especially, played an important part in the development of the countys natural resources, building up its schools, improving the highways, etc. Mr. McDaniel was a son of James McDaniel, who was born in the state of Tennessee, married Margaret Stevens, a native of Missouri, and went to Lamar county, Texas, where their son Robert was born on November 11, 1850, the youngest of seven children, the other six being girls. James McDaniel died while Robert was still a small child and his widow decided to go to California. At that time the Indians were inclined to be troublesome on the plains and emigrants bound for the Pacific coast usually traveled in large companies for protection. Mrs. McDaniel joined a party of forty-two people bound for the San Joaquin valley, with four of her children and a few necessary household articles in a two-horse spring wagon. The party left Texas in the spring of 1859, driving one thousand seven hundred head of cattle, and did not reach Visalia until the 15th of the following September, having been about seven months en route. At the age of sixteen years Robert A. McDaniel started in to earn his own living. For many years he was employed as a cowboy and rode the range over a large part of the San Joaquin valley. The country was then almost entirely uncultivated and he frequently saw herds of antelope on the plains or deer in the lowlands. In 1877, while still working as a cowboy, he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of government land near Woodville, which he afterward developed into one of the best dairy ranches in the county, capable of raising large crops of alfalfa and sustaining a large herd of dairy cattle. This land is now valued at two hundred dollars an acre. He also bought three hundred and twenty acres of land from the railroad company, which he partially developed. For this land he paid four and a half dollars an acre and sold it for fifty dollars an acre, making it a rather profitable investment. After he had passed his Scriptural allotment of three score years and ten, he rented his ranch near Woodville and moved to Tulare, where he lived until his death, which occurred January 6, 1925. John Graham, a member of the party with which the McDaniel family came from Texas, married Mr. McDaniels oldest sister, entered land east of Visalia and there passed his life as a farmer. Both Mr. and Mrs. Graham have been dead for a number of years. While living at Woodville Mr. McDaniel served for some time as a member of the school board and was influential in improving the character of the public schools of that district. He was a member of Tulare City Lodge No. 306, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and belonged to the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1884 Miss Carrie E. Besse came to Tulare county from her native state of Illinois. She became acquainted with Mr. McDaniel soon after her arrival in California and in 1888 they were united in marriage. Two children were born to this union: Robert M. and Martha Eleanor. The latter died at the age of fifteen years. Mrs. McDaniel is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and is interested in the work of the Womans Christian Temperance Union. DR. GEORGE S. REY. Dr. George S. Rey, the oldest veterinary surgeon in Visalia, California, in point of service, is a native of Tulare county, where he was born, March 12, 1879. His father, Samuel Rey, came from Switzerland in his boyhood, grew to manhood in California, learned the barbers trade and opened the first barber shop in the town of Traver, Tulare county. He married Louise Zabrist and after his marriage became interested in farming, though he also continued to work at his trade. His death occurred in 1908. His widow is still living. George S. Rey was born five miles east of Hanford (now in Kings county) ; was educated in the public schools of Tulare and Kings counties and at San Jose and later entered the San Francisco Veterinary College, from which he was graduated in 1913. He first practiced in Dinuba, where he was located for three years, when he came to Visalia. For ten years he was county live stock inspector, which made it necessary for him to make frequent visits to all sections of the county. While holding that position he made such a vigorous fight against glanders that the disease has disappeared from the county. Dr. Rey owns twenty acres of ground on East Mineral King street, where in 1923 he built one of the finest residences in Visalia. He also owns sixty acres on Bliss street, upon which he conducts a model ranch, to which he devotes his spare time and of which he is especially fond. He now holds the offices of city veterinarian and deputy state meat inspector, is a member of the San Joaquin, California State and American Veterinary Associations, and belongs to the Visalia Lodge, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He married Miss Mabel Smith, daughter of George Smith, a well known citizen of Tulare county. This union has been blessed with a daughter and two sons : Dorothy Ann, Erwin George and Robert Smith Rey. LIEUTENANT COLONEL ALLEN ALLENSWORTH. When Lieutenant Colonel Allen Allensworth passed away one more name was added to the list of honored dead whose earthly records closed with the words, Well done, thou good and faithful servant, but so long as memory remains to those who knew him the influence of his noble life will remain as a source of encouragement and inspiration. Allen Allensworth was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in slavery, on the 7th of April, 1842, and was therefore in the seventy-third year of his age at the time of his tragic death. In his youth he was twice sold on the slave block, and during the Civil war he served with the northern forces, in both the army and the navy. After the close of the war which gave him his freedom, he and his brother, William Allensworth, returned to St. Louis and ran a restaurant for a short time. He then returned to Louisville and worked at manual labor. Joining the First Baptist church and being intensely ambitious to secure an education, he entered and worked his way through the American Missionary School, near Louisville, and on April 9, 1871, he was ordained to preach. For a while he taught school, filled pulpits and lectured in many states. On April 1, 1886, he joined the United States regular army and was sent to Fort Supply, Oklahoma (then Indian Territory) as chaplain of the Twenty- fourth Regiment, colored troops, and he remained with that regiment until his retirement with the rank of lieutenant colonel. During his eventful service he was located at different forts in the southwest and the middle and Rocky mountain west, much of the time at Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he was ordered to Kentucky and Tennessee to recruit soldiers for the Twenty- fourth Regiment, which later performed such heroic service at the battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba. In 1889 he was sent with the regiment to the Philippines and in 1900 was severely injured by being run into by a horse and buggy there, which resulted in his being given a leave of absence. He returned to the United States by way of Japan and was stationed at Fort McDowell, where he remained until April 1, 1902, when he went to Fort Harrison, near Helena, Montana. Then, having reached the age limit, he was retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was one of the most noted negro chaplains in the American army and at the time of his retirement he was the ranking commissioned officer among the colored military officials. After his retirement from the army, in order to do something of real value for his race, he promoted the townsite of Allensworth, Tulare county, and lived to see it become a thriving community of several hundred souls. Colonel Allensworth was a brilliant orator and his lectures were well received by all classes who heard him. He was the author of a book, The Battles and Victories of Allen Allensworth, which was in press at the time of his death and which contains many vitally interesting accounts of events in his extraordinary life. The introduction to this work was written by John Stephen McGroarty, the well known author of southern California and founder of the Mission Play. Colonel Allensworth met with injuries in an accident in Los Angeles on September 14, 1914, being run over by a motorcycle, which caused his death on the following day. Colonel Allensworth was connected with a number of fraternal organizations, the Grand Army of the Republic and the Spanish War Veterans. On September 20, 1877, Allen Allensworth was married to Josephine Leavell, of Trenton, Kentucky, and they became the parents of two daughters : Eva, now the wife of H. P. Skanks, a clerk in the post office at Los Angeles; and Nellie, who is the wife of L. M. Blodgett, a contractor and builder in Los Angeles. THOMAS J. McCLURE. Few men under the age of forty years have seen more of the world, in the exercise of their professional duties, than has Thomas J. McClure, of the engineering and surveying firm of Lewis & McClure, of Tulare, California. Mr. McClure was born May 3, 1887, in Johnson county, Wyoming, but while he was still a baby his parents removed to Ventura county, California. From there they went to Bryan, Texas, where he was graduated from the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. Upon leaving college Mr. McClure started in to work at his profession of civil engineer. For some time he was associated with F. C. C. and A. R. Rood on construction work in the Argentine republic of South America, after which he was the chief engineer for the Rio Negro Irrigation Company, with headquarters in Buenos Aires. Crossing over to the Old World, Mr. McClure was employed by the British government on public works at Calcutta, India. Later he was one of the engineers that installed the irrigation project on the Island of Mauritius in the Indian ocean. He was then engaged in superintending the construction of railroad bridges at Bagdad, Asia Minor, and Buskin, Persia. Returning to America, Mr. McClure was employed on railroad construction work in Mexico, did some engineering work on the Panama canal and was then engaged in railroad building in Canada. When the United States entered the World war he was made a corporal in the Engineering Corps, with which he went to France. Later he was commissioned major in the Aviation Corps, with which he was in active service until the close of the war. Mr. McClure then came to California and was employed for a time in bridge building in Fresno county. Locating in Tulare he was employed by the city on engineering work and it was at this time that the firm of Lewis & McClure was formed. Mr. McClure is a member of the Tulare board of trade and takes an interest in all movements intended to promote the interests of his adopted city. Fraternally he is a member of Kaweah Tribe, No. 151, Improved Order of Red Men. He married Miss Hattie Quensel, a native of New Jersey, and they have one son, Kenneth George McClure. FRANK PINKHAM. Frank Pinkham, who owns and manages a fruit ranch of sixty acres, one mile west of Exeter, California, on the main highway leading to Visalia, was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1869. His parents, William and Esther (Minna) Pinkham, were members of the old New England families and were both natives of Maine, where William Pinkhams father also was born. Frank Pinkham grew to manhood on his fathers farm and in 1892 he came to California and located at Vacaville, Solana county, where he became interested in fruit culture, which business he followed until 1913, when he came to Exeter and bought the place where he now resides. Mr. Pinkham has made many improvements upon his ranch since it came into his possession and now has one of the best producing fruit farms in the vicinity of Exeter. In 1921 he built a modern home, in which he and his family now live. He married Miss Gertrude S. Lancaster and they have two sons: Eben, who is associated with his father on the ranch; and Herman, who is a student in the Exeter high school. Mr. Pinkham is a member of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce and a charter member of the Kiwanis Club, and he takes a commendable interest in all projects intended to promote the general welfare of the community. ARCHIBALD J. ROBERTSON. For the last quarter of a century Archibald J. Robertson has been intimately associated with the electrical interests of southern California. He was born at Cleveland, Georgia, September 19, 1876, and is a son of Rev. V. L. Robertson and his wife, whose maiden name was Huldah Logan. The mother is deceased, but the father is living retired, after many years in the active ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, part of which time was spent in California. Archibald J. Robertson received his elementary education in the public schools of his native state. He then attended the Georgia School of Technology at Atlanta and upon leaving that institution he was for one year in the employ of the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills. On May 16, 1899, he arrived in California and soon afterward entered the employ of the Mount Whitney Power Company as operator of one of their hydroelectric stations. After a year in this capacity he was made superintendent of power house No. 1, where he remained for two years. He was then made superintendent of the eastern division and held that position until the Mount Whitney Power Company was merged with the Pacific Light and Power Corporation. Under the new management Mr. Robertson was continued in his position until the Pacific Light and Power interests were taken over by the Southern California Edison Company. For some time after this change was made he occupied the position of assistant superintendent of generation and transmission of the northern division. Then the northern and southern divisions were consolidated and the San Joaquin Hydro Division formed. .Mr. Robertson was made superintendent of this division a position he still holds. Mr. Robertson is a prominent figure in Masonic circles as a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Visalia Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He married Miss H. May Wilson, of Reno, Nevada, a graduate of the University of Nevada. They have two children: Comer A. and Jamie L. R. E. WILDER. R. E. Wilder, manager of the Giant Oak ranch, two miles west of Exeter, California, was born on a farm near Parsons, Kansas, in November, 1892. His father, John T. Wilder, was a native of Kentucky, and his mother, whose maiden name was Florence Derrick, was born in Texas. In 1903 the family came to California and settled on a farm in Tulare county. There Mrs. Wilder died, but her husband is still living and is active for a man of his years. R. E. Wilder received a public school education and at the age of sixteen years went to work for an irrigation company laying pipe lines. After a year of this he went to the Merriman ranch as pump man and was there for two years. He then spent a year in a Fresno garage and at the end of that time came to the Giant Oak ranch. His first work here was in loading cars, of which he was soon placed in charge. His promotion was rapid and it was not long until he was made manager of the ranch, then consisting of eight hundred and seventy acres of fruit bearing trees. A few years later the owners, Evan R. Pinkham and Frank E. McKevitt, divided the ranch and since then Mr. Wilder has been identified with the McKevitt interests. Mr. McKevitt, a capitalist of Sacramento, owns several pieces of property in the valley. Besides the ranch of three hundred and twenty acres at Exeter (one hundred and eight-five acres of which are in grapes), he owns sixty acres southwest of Farmersville and six hundred and forty acres at Delano, all of which is under Mr. Wilders supervision. Mr. Wilder is a member of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce and. his fraternal relations are with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He married Miss Sophie Bohnert and they have one daughter, Selma. Mrs, Wilder was born in San Diego but was reared in Tulare county. AUGUSTUS E. NOBLE. Among the old California forty-niners was a young man named Noble, who came by sea around Cape Horn. Liking the country and deciding to become a permanent citizen, he returned to the east, married the young woman of his choice and brought his bride to California. That couple became the grandparents of Augustus E. Noble, whose name appears at the head of this sketch. George A. Noble, a son of this worthy pioneer, married Miss Emma M. Otto, whose people came originally from Germany. Her father was associated with Claus Spreckels in the manufacture of sugar. He built the first beet sugar factory in the city of Santa Cruz and afterward erected several sugar mills in the Hawaiian islands. Soon after his marriage George A. Noble settled in Fresno county, and it was while living there that his son, Augustus E., was born on January 18, 1883. A few years later the family removed to what is known as the Elbow district of Tulare county, where Mr. Noble purchased a tract of land and engaged in farming. Augustus E. Noble was educated in the public schools of Fresno and Tulare counties and by a correspondence course. While he was acquiring his education his father gradually gave up farming for contracting and building. In this business his sons joined him, under the firm name of G. A. Noble & Sons, with Visalia as headquarters. Among the buildings erected by this firm are the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches of Visalia. After a time the father gave up his portion of the business and returned to agricultural pursuits, but the sons continued as general contractors. In recent years they have changed the character of their work to some extent by devoting more time and attention to cement work, the construction of bridges, sidewalks, etc., though they have erected many residences and public buildings, including the recent large addition to the Visalia high school. In 1924 they constructed the large concrete bridge at Parks bar over the Yuba river, considered to be one of the finest bridges on the Pacific coast. The skill of the Nobles in construction work and their well established integrity in carrying out their contracts place them near the head of the list of contractors in southern California. Mr. Noble is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the society known as Native Sons of the Golden West. In the latter organization he has served as president of the local chapter and has several times represented the chapter in state conventions. While he takes an interest in all matters affecting the public welfare, he is especially concerned in the conservation of the natural resources of the state and in the preservation of fish and game. Being fond of hunting and fishing himself, he deplores the attitude of some so-called sportsmen who kill game simply for the sake of the slaughter and by unsportsmanlike methods destroy the fish in the streams. Before her marriage Mrs. Noble was Miss Maude Williams. She was born in Colorado, came to California as a child, and was there reared and educated. Mr. and Mrs. Noble have one daughter, Nena Ruth. DANIEL KINDLE ZUMWALT. In the memorial annals of Tulare county and of this section of California in general there are few names held in higher regard than are those of the late Daniel Kindle Zumwalt and of his wife, who for many years not only were recognized as among the most substantial citizens of Tulare county but were regarded as leaders in good works, faithful to their church obligations and to all the implied obligations of good citizenship, helpful in promoting all measures looking to the betterment of conditions in the favored community of which they long were a part. Daniel Kindle Zumwalt, realtor, abstractor, landowner and promoter, who died at his home November 2, 1904, in Visalia, had been a resident of California since the days of his boyhood, having been among those who crossed the plains in the early 50s and there was perhaps no man in this section of the state who had a more accurate acquaintance with local conditions than he. Mr. Zumwalt was born near the city of Joliet, Will county, Illinois, January 24, 1845, and was nine years of age when in 1854 his father, Jacob Zumwalt, came with his family to California, traveling across by ox team, and settled at Sutters Fort, Sacramento. For some years this family remained in Sacramento, Daniel Kindle Zumwalt there growing up intimately familiar with the growing interests of the rapidly developing, community. He evinced admirable aptitude for his studies and was sent to the then new College of the Pacific at Santa Clara and became a member of the first class graduated from that institution. During this course of instruction he had given his particular attention to the study of law and upon leaving college settled at Visalia, where he opened out in business as a land agent and was also retained as the local attorney for the Southern Pacific Railway Company. He also acted as realty agent for Tulare and adjacent counties in the apportionment of railway lands and early became widely recognized as one of the best informed men in that section of the state in matters affecting California realty values. In connection with his realty operations Mr. Zumwalt opened a set of abstrait books and was for many years recognized as an authority on land titles throughout this section. As properly became his industry and energy, his affairs prospered and he became a large landowner, among his land- holdings having been the valuable tract for fifty years known as the Zumwalt dairy ranch in the vicinity of Visalia, now owned and operated by his foster-son, Walter M. Goins. In his relations to local development work Mr. Zumwalt was enterprising and progressive and ever was regarded as one of the countys foremost promoters. Included in the projects in which he took a particularly active interest and which he promoted in his, usual energetic fashion was the Seventy-six Land and Water Company which is now the Alta Irrigation District. He also was one of the locally influential factors in having Grant park set off as a federal reserve. Mr. Zumwalt was an ardent prohibitionist and though he did not live to see the coming of national prohibition he will ever be recalled as the man who did as much as any other to bring about that condition which has given to Tulare county the name of being the dryest county in the state of California. On May 20, 1890, at Tulare, Daniel Kindle Zumwalt was united in marriage to Miss Emma Frances Blackwedel, who was born in Taycheedah, near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 29, 1852, and who in 1886 had come to California to take care of an invalid sister, Minnie I. Pillsbury, who died in Riverside, January 30, 1887. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Zumwalt established their home in Visalia and there their last days were spent. Mr. Zumwalt died on November 2, 1904, and his widow survived him for almost twenty years, her death occurring on August 29, 1923. Mr. and Mrs. Zumwalt were ardent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and for twenty- five years Mr. Zumwalt had served as superintendent of the Sunday school of that congregation. In his political alignment he was an equally ardent republican and was long recognized as one of the leaders of that party in this county. Mrs. Zumwalt shared her husbands philanthropic inclinations and following his death continued actively interested in the promotion of those welfare projects to which he had been devoted. In his memory she gave to his alma mater, the College of the Pacific, a cash gift of five hundred dollars and a tract of eighty acres of valuable land. By will she bequeathed to the conference claimants, church extension and foreign missions movements of the Methodist Episcopal church a tract of eighty acres and also bequeathed to the Presbyterian church an equal tract of land, while to her niece, Meta Pillsbury Dunbar, and her grandnephews, she bequeathed large parcels of land, as well as generous gifts to personal friends. To her foster-son, Walter M. Goins, whom she had taken into her home and heart when he was a child, was left the home ranch, a valuable property that now is being operated in a large way. In recording the events in the life of Mr. Zumwalt it is but just to state that Mrs. Zumwalt has been a most potent factor in his success, standing beside him in all trials and encouraging him with her love and devotion. Their union was an unusually happy and congenial one, and whether at home, in church or in lodge work, their interests were mutual. CHARLES H. BUTTON. Charles H. Button, secretary, treasurer and manager of the Lindsay Home Telephone and Telegraph Company, was born at Manistique, Michigan, April 19, 1884. He is a son of Charles M. and Emma (Miller) Button, the father being engaged in the insurance business at Manistique. After receiving a high school education, Charles went to work for the Manistique Telephone Company, beginning at the bottom of the ladder. Later he was in the employ of the telephone company at Alpena, Michigan. In 1906 he went to La Grande, Oregon, and entered the employ of the local telephone company, in which he later acquired a financial interest. From La Grande he went to Lebanon, Oregon, where he became a stockholder in the Lebanon Mutual Telephone Company, remaining with that concern from 1913 to 1917. In the latter year he came to Lindsay and bought a controlling interest in the Lindsay Home Telephone and Telegraph Company, which had been organized some years before by G. B. Reed, Lawton Thomas and G. C. Harris. This is one of the few independent telephone companies left in California. It has eight hundred patrons, employs ten people and has been under the manÂagement of Mr. Button since he came into the company in 1917. Besides his telephone interests, Mr. Button is a director and one of the liquidating committee of the First National Bank, and is a member of the advisory board of the Lindsay branch of the Pacific Southwest Trust and Savings Bank. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Tulare County Golf and Country Club. In 1912 he married Miss Gertrude Barry, of Massillon, Ohio, and they became the parents of two children : Robert and Priscilla. Mrs. Button passed away August 24, 1925. C. J. HAMMER. C. J. Hammer, head of the C. J. Hammer Pump & Machine Works of Visalia, California, is a native of that city, where he was born March 22, 1891. His father, Andrew Hammer, came from Germany in his boyhood and for several years was attached to Sells circus as a trapeze performer. Meeting with an accident in Los Angeles, he gave up circus life and came to Visalia, where he was associated with Hugh Mooney in the operation of a brewery for a short time. Then he and his brother, Joseph Hammer, opened a beer bottling and distributing depot, and he remained in that business until his death in 1900. He married Miss Catherine Barth, and to the union were born two sons and two daughters. The mother of these children is still living. C. J. Hammer was educated in the public schools of Visalia, but left school when he was in the seventh grade to go to work for the old cannery in the machinery department. He was then fifteen years of age. When he was eighteen he started in to learn the carpenters trade but worked at it only about one year. He was then for some time with the firm of Goldstein & Eisman, installing pumping plants, and later was employed by F. H. Whipple in the same line. In 1914 he embarked in business for himself and now specializes in centrifugal pumps and tractors. He owns his factory on West Center street and while his plant is not a large one, he keeps from four to six men constantly employed and his equipment compares favorably with that found in many larger establishments. Mr. Hammer is a splendid example of a self made man and stands high in the city where he has so far resided. In his political opinions Mr. Hammer adheres to the principles of the democratic party, but he is too busy most of the time to take any active part in political affairs. His principal recreation is an occasional fishing trip and deer hunt, and he also takes in all football games whenever possible. He married Miss Alice M. St. Claire, who was born in the Deep Creek district of Tulare county and educated in the public schools. Two children, Beatrice and Harold, have been born to them. J. P. HERMAN. Early in the fall of 1921 J. P. Herman came to Tulare, California, and on the 20th of September purchased the Ashton bakery, located at No. 236 South E street. The Ashton bakery had been in existence for some years, but under the new management it came into greater prominence. J. P. Herman was born on November 14, 1882, in Saxony, one of the states of the German empire. In 1902, when not quite twenty years of age, he came to the United States. With very little money and among strangers, he made his way to Fresno, California, where he apprenticed himself to a baker who conducted what was known as the Model Bakery. Having learned his trade thoroughly, Mr. Herman was employed for eleven years by the Graff Baking Company of Fresno. His experience during those eleven years encouraged him to go into business for himself. He, therefore, came to Tulare and bought the Ashton bakery. His first task was to make certain improvements which were necessary to increase the output. The bakery now has a daily capacity of about twelve hundred loaves, nearly one thousand of which are sold at wholesale and the remainder are held for his retail trade. His No and Faultless loaves are known in practically every household in Tulare. Besides these he makes French, rye and whole wheat bread, and all varieties of cakes and pastries everything usually turned out by a first-class bakery. In 1907 Mr. Herman and Miss Anna Wills were united in marriage. Like her husband, Mrs. Herman is a native of Germany. They have four children: Helen, Edith, Edward and Esther. Mr. Herman claims to have the largest and best appointed baking establishment in Tulare. Coming to America only a little more than twenty years ago with almost nothing, his bakery and residence represent an investment of ten thousand dollars, besides which he owns valuable real estate in Fresno and Tulare, worth some fifty thousand dollars more. He is a member of Tulare Lodge No. 1424, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks; Tulare Aerie No. 1484, Fraternal Order of Eagles; Kaweah Tribe No. 151, Improved Order of Red Men; and the Foresters. RUBEN L. NEHF. Among the ranchers of Tulare county who believe in following twentieth century methods in farming, as well as in other vocations, stands Ruben L. Nehf. A constant student of all that pertains to his life work, he has met with encouraging success and holds a high position in the esteem of his fellowmen. He was born on the 13th day of June, 1893, in Sutton, Nebraska, the son of George and Mary S. (Keller) Nehf, both of whom were natives of Wisconsin. Later they moved to Nebraska, where they made their home until their removal to Dos Palos, California, where they remained until 1900, when they bought land north of Dinuba, where they still live. Ruben L. Nehf secured a good public school education and, after graduating from high school, remained at home until he had attained his majority, since which time he has operated on his own account. His first venture was the purchase of a ranch on Orange Cove, where he lived until 1917, when he bought sixty acres of land near Sultana, nearly all of which was planted to vineyards. In the operation of this ranch he has exercised sound judgment and used progressive methods and his efforts have been rewarded with a commensurate measure of success. In 1922 he also established a packing house in Sultana and in 1924 stilted another one in Dinuba. Here he packs his own grapes and does commercial work for other growers, so that he has not only served his own interests, but has contributed to the accommodation of other ranchers in the vicinity. In 1924 enough fruit was packed in the two plants to fill one hundred and fifty-one railroad cars. Mr. Nehf has eighty acres in vineyard, and owns eighty acres in cotton in Kern county. Mr. Nehf was married to Miss Maude D. La Rue, the daughter of Supervisor La Rue of Dinuba. Mr. Nehf is deeply interested in everything pertaining to the material, moral or civic advancement of his community and is a member of the Dinuba Chamber of Commerce. Because of his success, his public spirit and his fine social qualities, he has earned and now enjoys the confidence and respect of all who know him. SWAIN THORWALDSON. On an orange ranch of thirty-four acres, one mile east of Exeter, California, lives Swain Thorwaldson, a native of Iceland, where he was born on May 25, 1875, of Old Norse stock. In 1881 his people came to the United States and settled on a farm in what is now the state of North Dakota. There he received a common school education and afterward became prominent in the agricultural, mercantile and political affairs of Pembina county. In 1908 Mr. Thorwaldson organized the Mountain State Bank, of Mountain, North Dakota, of which he was a director and cashier until 1917. In 1907 and part of 1908 he was engaged in business as a merchant, and from 1898 to 1907 he was auditor and deputy auditor of Pembina county. Upon retiring from the banking business in 1917 he took over a farm which he conducted until 1920, when he sold out and came to California. For a little while he lived in Fresno, but in June, 1920, he bought the place where he now resides and returned to North Dakota for his family. Since then he has brought his land to a high state of cultivation and raises a fine quality of oranges. He also has a small vineyard with which he has been quite successful. Mr. Thorwaldson is a director of the Mayflower Fruit Association of Exeter, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Tulare County Farm Bureau and the Modern Woodmen of America. In North Dakota he married Miss Kristbjorg Johnson, a native of Iceland, and they have six children : Waldimar S., now assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Porterville; Nicoline, at home; Alice V., a clerk in the First National Bank of Exeter; Hilda, a student in the Exeter high school, and Pauline and Annie, attending grammar school. G. R. GOLDMAN. In all that constitutes true manhood and good citizenship G. R. Goldman, one of the successful and enterprising ranchers of Tulare county, is a sterling example and none stands higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the community honored by his citizenship. Mr. Goldman was born in Falls City, Nebraska, on the 3rd day of February, 1879, the son of Jacob and Laura (Nicodemus) Goldman. The father followed the occupation of farming in Nebraska until 1888, when he came to California and located at Alila (now Earlimart), Tulare county. G. R. Goldman was reared under the parental roof and attended the public schools, after which he took a course at normal school. Subsequently he entered the employ of the Port Costa Milling Company, by whom he was employed for several years in various capacities. In 1906 he located on the ranch which he now occupies and which he owns in partnership with E. W. Nelson, chief of the government biological survey at Washington, D. C. The ranch comprises four hundred acres of finely situated land, practically all of which is planted to vineyard and citrus fruits. The ranch is operated under the name of the Nelson- Goldman Orchard Company, of which Mr. Goldman is manager, and they are achieving a splendid success here. Many permanent and substantial improvements have been made on the place, which is considered one of the finest orchard ranches in this vicinity. Mr. Goldman is thoroughly practical in all that he does and he is devoting himself indefatigably to the work of the ranch. Mr. Goldman was married to Miss Jessie Scoon, who resided in Modesto, California, at the time of her marriage, but is a native of the state of Illinois. To them have been born three children: George T., Dorothy and Helen. Mr. Goldman is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has taken all the degrees of the York Rite. He is also a member of the Tulare Farm Bureau and is president of the Orosi Foothill Citrus Association and of the Cutler Fruit Growers Association. JULIUS L. GALSIN. The subject of this sketch, who is now engaged in the automobile repair business in Visalia, California, was born in Russia on January 11, 1886. In 1903, when he was seventeen years old, his parents, Levin and Vera Galsin, came to the United States and located in the city of Chicago, Illinois, where the father died. Before leaving Russia Julius L. Galsin acquired an elementary education in the local schools and began learning the trade of watchmaking. After the family came to Chicago he attended the public schools of that city and worked for three years in a shop repairing watches. He then decided to learn the machinists trade and followed that occupation for four years. In 1908 he came to California and found a position with the Studebaker garage in Los Angeles, having had some experience in automobile repair work before leaving Chicago. Three years later he left the Studebaker garage to enter the employ of Don Lee, with whom he remained for two years. During the next four years he was employed by Anthony Packard and the Dodge Motor Car Company. In 1918 he first came to Visalia with the Joseph Moore stage line, which used Packard cars, but a year later returned to Don Lee at Fresno. He returned to Visalia in 1920 and opened his present place of business at 115 South Stevenson street, where he is equipped for the repair of all kinds of motor cars and trucks, keeping two mechanics besides himself constantly busy. While in the employ of the Dodge company at Anaheim, he was united in marriage with Miss Minnie Travis, who was born in Ohio, but grew to womanhood in California. One daughter, Dorothy, has come to bless their union. Mr. Galsin is a republican in his political opinions, though he has never been especially active in campaigns. He is a thirty-second degree Mason of the Scottish Rite, belonging to Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and he belongs to Fresno Lodge, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. R. L. SHORE. Among the active, enterprising and progressive citizens of Tulare county, none has a more enviable standing among his fellow citizens than has R. L. Shore, the well known and efficient auctioneer for the Tulare Farm Bureau. Mr. Shore was born in Lucas county, Iowa, on the 10th of January, 1881, and is the son of V. W. and Matilda (Duckworth) Shore, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Lucas county, Iowa. The subjects paternal grandparents were George N. and Anna C. (Foutz) Shore, who were reared and married in Pennsylvania, became pioneers of Illinois and in 1868 located in Chariton, Lucas county, Iowa. Eventually they came to California, locating in Orange county. V. W. Shore was a resident of Garden Grove, Orange county, California, for many years and there engaged in farming. The land which he bought at a low price in that county he later sold at a good profit and in 1908 came to Tulare county and engaged in farming, buying a tract of land near Tulare, which he still owns, though he now resides in Tulare. He is one of the oldest and most successful auctioneers in Tulare county and enjoys a high standing throughout the community. To him and his wife were born nine children, namely: Maud, George and Roy, who died in infancy; R. L., the immediate subject of this sketch; Carrie E., the wife of Roy A. Knapp; Carl V. ; Guy M.; Kathryn, the wife of L. H. McFarland; and Glenn L. R. L. Shore attended the public schools in Orange county and accompanied his father on the removal of the family to Tulare county in 1908. He engaged in ranching here and became the owner of several good tracts of land, all of which he sold in 1924, and now resides in Tulare. Mr. Shore developed fine powers as an auctioneer and for a number of years has done a great deal of that work throughout the county. Since May, 1918, he has been the official auctioneer for the Tulare Farm Bureau, having conducted sales on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month since then with the exception of three months in the spring of 1924, during the prevalence of the hoof-and-mouth epidemic. Several carloads of stock, principally hogs, are sold at each of these sales. In addition to his Farm Bureau work, Mr. Shore also conducts many private sales and is known far and wide as a careful, reliable and efficient auctioneer. He is also engaged quite extensively in the hauling of live stock by truck and trailer. Mr. Shore was married to Miss Elsie Dilley, who was born and reared in Nebraska, and they are the parents of six children, namely: Howard, Linden, Ray, Mildred, Fred and Mona. Personally, Mr. Shore is a genial, courteous and accommodating man, with whom it is a pleasure to transact business, and he is deservedly popular throughout Tulare county. W. C. MERWIN. The state of California is noted for its fruits, and within recent years the industry has profited greatly by the organization of cooperative packing and marketing associations. The officers of these institutions study the market and ship to places where the demand is greatest, thus avoiding centers where the market is likely to be glutted. By this means the supply and demand are kept in closer relation and better prices are obtained for their products by the fruit growers. One of these cooperative associations is the Lindsay Cooperative Citrus Association, which was organized by Mr. Merwin in 1921, and of which he has been manager from the beginning. Mr. Merwin was born in Waterloo, Iowa, April 17, 1881, and is one of three children born to Henry H. and Mary A. (Braman) Merwin. R. S. Merwin, the other son, is a resident of Exeter, California, and the daughter is now Mrs. Minta Barklow, of Los Angeles. The father was a cabinetmaker by trade and for years was in the employ of the Illinois Central Railroad Company as a finisher of passenger coaches. In April, 1887, he left Iowa and settled at Riverside, where he died the following November. His widow still resides at Riverside. W. C. Merwin was only six years old when his parents came to California. He attended the public schools of Riverside, working during his vacations in the orange groves and packing houses of the district. In this way he learned many things about fruit packing that prayed of advantage in later years. In 1900 he entered the employ of the Wells Fargo Express Company as driver of the delivery wagon at Riverside. About a year later he was promoted to the San Bernardino office, but remained there only a short time, after which the company made him a train messenger. In this position he made runs out of Los Angeles to Albuquerque, El Paso and other points until 1912. In that year he was placed in charge of the companys office at Covina, California, where he remained for about two years. Mr. Merwin was then with the American Fruit Growers Association at Covina until 1916. During the next five years he filled the position of manager for different packers and shippers. In 1921 he came to Lindsay and succeeded in getting a number of fruit growers interested in a cooperative project. The result was the organization of the Lindsay Cooperative Citrus Association, of which he was made manager. This association has seventy-five members, representing six hundred acres of orange orchards, and has two large warehouses and packing plants, each of which has a daily capacity of ten cars. Besides his duties as manager of the association, Mi. Merwin finds time to take part in the municipal and fraternal affairs of Lindsay. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, was appointed city trustee to fill an unexpired term and in 1922 was elected for a full term of four years. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. While living in Covina he was worshipful master of the Masonic lodge in 1914, and in 1922 he served as master of the Masonic lodge in Lindsay, of which he is now chaplain. In, 1906 he was united in marriage with Miss Lottie M. Gifford, of Los Angeles, and they have three daughters: Edith Grace, Ethel May and Dorothy June. CAPTAIN GUY V. BUCKMAN. Guy V. Buckman, proprietor of a restaurant and soft drink establishment in Visalia, California, and captain of Company M, One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Infantry, California National Guard, is a native of Visalia, born June 11, 1895, a son of E. J. and Ada (Van Loan) Buckman. His paternal grandparents were among the early settlers of Tulare county, where his father was born, educated, and for some time followed the profession of school teacher. He is now deputy county superintendent of schools. Guy V. Buckman was educated in the Visalia public schools, and after completing the course in the high school he enlisted in the United States army for service on the Mexican border. He remained in the United States infantry service during the late World war, with the rank of second lieutenant, but his command was not called on to serve in Europe. After being discharged from military service he was employed for about eighteen months in the city of San Francisco. He then returned to Visalia and for the next year he worked on a ranch. He was then with the California Packing Company for about six months, when he established his present business at 110 East Main street. When Company M was organized he took an active part in its formation and was commissioned captain. His experience on the Mexican border and in training camps during the World war gave him excellent qualifications as a company commander and his skill in this respect is reflected in the efficiency of his company. He is a graduate of the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia, class of 1925, having specialized in machine gun and machine gun tactics. Captain Buckman is a JOHN B. FLAMMANG. Among the well established industries of the enterprising little village of Pixley, one of the promising and growing trade centers of Tulare county, is the garage and automobile service station of the Flammang brothers which has come to be recognized as one of the leading concerns of its kind in this section of the state. This garage was established at Pixley in 1914 by John B. and George Flammang and has rendered good service. In 1917 the place was destroyed by fire but the proprietors immediately rebuilt on a larger and better plan and thus are in a position to feel that though the fire was an apparent misfortune they have profited in the end, for with their larger establishment and the increased facilities they installed with their new plant they have been able to extend their service and have thus increased their business. The garage is a substantial structure, fifty feet by one hundred feet in ground dimensions, and is well equipped with all the essential devices and appliances for a strictly up to the minute garage and service station, ready for any sort of demand that may be made in the way of general service or expert repair work. John B. Flammang, senior member of the firm of Flammang Bros., and a man of large experience and of years of training in his line, was born on a farm in Wisconsin in the year 1877 and was but a babe in arms when in that year he was brought by his parents, John and Tillie Flammang to California, the family settling on a ranch seven miles west of Tulare. John Flammang, who became a substantial ranchman and dairyman in this county, is a native of Germany and his wife was born in Holland. They were married in Wisconsin, to which state they had come with their respective parents in the days of their childhood. Reared on the home farm, John B. Flammang received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and remained on the place until he had grown up, when he took to other pursuits and was for some time engaged in working in the oil fields. He then became a garage mechanic and while working at Fresno and Tulare became thoroughly familiar with the garage business. In 1914, in association with his brother, George Flammang, he established the present garage at Pixley and has since been thus engaged in business at that place, as is set out above. In 1915, at Tulare, John B. Flammang was united in marriage to Mrs. .Clementine Christensen and they have two children, a son, Clarence Christensen, and a daughter, Martilda. The Flammangs have a pleasant home at Pixley, a nice piece of property owned by Mr. Flammang, and are quite comfortably situated. Mr. Flammang also owns an interest in the old home ranch west of Tulare. He is a member of Pixley Grove of the United Ancient Order of Druids and is also affiliated with the No. 1484, Tulare Aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles, in the affairs of both of which popular fraternal organizations he takes an earnest interest. OTTO W. LAKE. Otto W. Lake, proprietor of the Main Garage, located at the corner of West Main and West streets, Visalia, California, can recount more varied experiences than most men thirty-seven years of age. He was born in Rockford, Illinois, September 26, 1887, attended school and learned the blacksmith trade in his native state, after which he served for four years in the United States navy. Although an iron worker, he was made chief carpenter on the United States torpedo destroyers on the China station. His first trip to California was in 1905, but at that time he remained only a few months. A second trip was made to the Pacific coast in 1910 and a little later he worked in a blacksmith shop in Fresno. In 1913 he established a shop in Visalia, where he made a specialty of horseshoeing. During the World war he was in the government service as chief carpenters mate aviation and as leading instructor in the School of Aviation at North Island, San Diego Harbor, California, having previously disposed of his shop in Visalia. After the signing of the armistice in November, 1918, Mr. Lakes services were no longer needed in the aviation school and for the next three years he was engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1922 he purchased the Main Garage, the largest of its kind in Tulare county. He has the agency for the General Motors trucks and for the Rex automobile top, intended to convert open into closed cars. In automobile repair work his experience as a blacksmith often helps him to solve problems that otherwise might prove to be difficult of solution. The following extract from one of his advertisements will give some idea of the general character of his business :Body building, doors fitted, upholstery made and fitted, trunks and trunk racks built, etc. We have the best equipped shop in the valley. Mr. Lake was married to Miss Myrtle Baker, who was born in Traver, Tulare county. They have a son: Earl. Mr. Lake is an active member of the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Visalia Lodge No. 128, F. & A. M.; and also of the Royal Arch Chapter. He also belongs to Visalia Lodge, No. 1298, B. P. 0. E. HUGH G. ASSELSTINE. Success comes only as the result of legitimate and well applied energy, as well as unflagging perseverance in a definite course of action. This is finely exemplified in the career of Hugh G. Asselstine, the efficient manager of the Tipton branch of the Alfreds Pure Ice Cream Company. He was born in Clayton, Jefferson county, Missouri, in 1894, the son of William H. and Anna (MacLachlin) Asselstine, the former of whom was a jeweler and watchmaker by vocation. After the family came to California the subject completed his elementary education in the high- school at Eureka. He then entered the agricultural college of the University of California, from which he was graduated in the course in dairying in 1915. His first employment was as a milk and cow tester in the state department of agriculture, and he was also connected with the United States department of agriculture. He then entered the employ of the Alfreds Pure Ice Cream Company and as manager of the branch plant at Tipton he has demonstrated in a definite way that he thoroughly understands every detail of the handling of milk and cream. This preliminary work, prior to sending the product to the main plant at Los Angeles, is of the utmost importance to the future purity and wholesomeness of the ice cream into which it is to be manufactured. There are fifteen employees in the Tipton plant, where the production of four thousand cows is handled daily. Mr. Asselstine was married to Miss Sarah Collins, of Brockport, and they have a son, George. Mr. Asselstine is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a genial and courteous gentleman, with whom it is a pleasure to associate, and he enjoys to a pronounced degree the favor and good will of the people of this community. ELBERT L. ASKIN. The invention of the gasoline motor, which gave to the world the automobile and the motor bus, is responsible for the establishment of transportation lines into districts where the railroad has not yet found its way. One of these transportation routes is that operated by the Sequoia National Park Stage Company, of which Elbert L. Askin is manager. He was born at Santa Maria, Santa Barbara county, California, in April, 1889. When he was about five years old his parents, James M. and Sarah (Jasper) Askin, removed to Visalia. His father died soon after this and his mother married Albert Ogilvie, under whose care Elbert grew to manhood. After attending the Visalia high school, Elbert L. Askin studied in Healds Business College in San Francisco and the Stockton Business College at Stockton. He then took a course in electrical engineering under Oscar Kern, engineer for the Mount Whitney Power Company and nationally known among electricians. For six years Mr. Askin remained in the service of the Mount Whitney Power Company, which was the parent of the Southern California Edison Company. For two years during the World war he was field superintendent of the California Oil Company. In the meantime Thomas Luttrell had obtained a franchise to operate a line of motor busses between Lemon Cove and the Sequoia National Park, but failed to exercise the privilege. In 1918 this franchise was purchased by Mr. Askin and Orval Overall, a sketch of whom appears on another page of this volume. They also obtained a franchise to operate a bus line to the Mineral King resort, beyond the Sequoia National Park at an elevation of eight thousand five hundred feet. Fifty thousand dollars were expended upon equipment, Packard motor busses, filling stations, etc., and the line was opened. This equipment and franchise is now owned by Mr. Askin and his two half-brothers, W. J. and F. N. Ogilvie. Mr. Askin also operates a bus line between Exeter and Visalia, via Ivanhoe, Woodlake and Lemon Cove. He is also interested in a section of oil land in Kern county, in connection with Mr. Overall, Barney Oldfield and others. Mr. Askin is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Lemon Cove and Visalia Chambers of Commerce. He married May Hammond, a daughter of W. H. Hammond and a niece of John Hays Hammond, the noted mining engineer. Her father founded the Mount Whitney Power Company, which was financed largely by her uncle, John Hays Hammond. She is a native of Visalia. BUFORD E. AMYX. For more than a decade the subject of this sketch has been identified with the fruit growing and nursery interests of California, and is now holding the responsible position of district manager for the Fancher Creek Nursery, with headquarters at 104 Northwest Third street, Visalia. Mr. Amyx was born on a farm in the state of Kentucky on the 8th of October, 1884. His mother, whose maiden name was Melissa Thompson, has joined the silent majority, but his father, Russo Amyx, is still living in Kentucky. As a boy Mr. Amyx attended the public school near his fathers home, but while still in his teens he left home to carve out a career for himself. Going first to Colorado, he was employed there for a brief period in logging and mining. He was then engaged in general farm work in Nevada until 1904, when he came to Visalia, California. His first employment here was with J. K. Ormsby, but after a short time he joined the old Visalia Walnut Company, with which he remained for three years. In 1908 he was united in marriage with Miss Maude Kirkman, who was born and reared in Tulare county. After his marriage he went to Sanger, where he started a nursery and orchard for an Exeter company. About a year later he returned to Visalia and purchased a small ranch a short distance east of the city with the Delta Nursery. For the next seven years he was with T. Jacob & Brother, when he entered the employ of the Fancher Creek Nursery Company as agent. His success in this line led to his promotion and for the past five years he has been district manager over a territory extending from Fresno to Bakersfield, in which he has been reasonably successful. Mr. Amyx is a democrat in his political views, and his fraternal relations are with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is generally recognized as one of Visalias most progressive and public-spirited citizens. He and his wife are the parents of three children: Leon Kirkman, Dick A. and B-uford Verle. V. W. SHORE. V. W. Shore is one of the most widely known and most highly respected residents of Tulare county. His vocation has taken him into all parts of the surrounding country, and because of his energy, sound judgment and integrity, he has earned the confidence of all who have had dealings with him. He is the oldest auctioneer in Tulare county, where he has conducted sales continuously since 1908, and is a native of the state of Illinois, where he was born August 28, 1857. His parents, George N. and Anna C. (Foutz) Shore, were born and reared in Pennsylvania and were there married. They became pioneers of Illinois but in 1868 removed to Lucas county, Iowa, locating in the town of Chariton. Eventually the family migrated to California, locating in Orange county. V. W. Shore was but eleven years of age when the family moved to Iowa and in the schools of that state he secured the major part of his public school education. After coming to California, he engaged in farming at Garden Grove, where he remained for many years. He was a signer of the petition which resulted in the separation of Orange county from Los Angeles and San Diego counties. He was able to buy land cheaply in Orange county, which in later years he sold at a good profit. In 1908 he came to Tulare county and here engaged in farming, buying a fine tract of land near Tulare, which he still owns. While living in Orange county, Mr. Shore had been employed to a considerable extent as an auctioneer and since coming to Tulare county he has given much of his attention to this work, in which he is recognized as unusually successful. Mr. Shore is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and was a charter member of the camp at Garden Grove. He is now residing at No. 425 Inyo street, Tulare. He was married to Miss Matilda F. Duckworth, who was born and reared in Lucas county, Iowa, and they have six children, namely: R. L., who is associated with his father in farming and auctioneering and who has been auctioneer for the Tulare County Farm Bureau since its organization in 1918; Carrie E., who is the wife of Roy A. Knapp ; Carl V. ; Guy M. ; Kathryn, who is the wife of L. H. McFarland, and Glenn L. The children have received good public school educations and are popular members of the social circles in which they move. Mr. Shore is deeply interested in the welfare of the community in which he lives and gives his support to all enterprises for the public benefit. F. W. NAUMANN. Among the able, trustworthy and highly respected citizens of Tulare county stands F. W. Naumann, a successful rancher and the efficient superintendent of roads, under County Supervisor J. K. Macomber. Mr. Naumann is a German by nativity and was born on September 28, 1884. In young childhood he was brought to the United States by his parents, who located first in San Francisco and later at Santa Monica; where the father followed his profession, that of a physician. F. W. Naumann secured a good practical education in the public schools and during his young manhood he was employed at various occupations. For eight years he was the stockman for Haywood Bros. & Wakefield, manufacturers of and dealers in furniture. Then he went to the Bakersfield oil field and for two years was employed at newspaper work. In 1912 Mr. Naumann came to Tulare county and for a few years was manager of several ranches in this section, after which he became associated in the real estate business with J. K. Macomber. He acquired a ranch of four hundred acres of splendid land, which is well equipped and which he now leases out. In 1920 he was appointed superintendent of roads, in which position he has made a fine record and gained a high reputation as a man of sound judgment and persistent energy. He has an average of eighteen men under him the year through and cares for two thousand miles of highway. The position is a responsible one, and one that calls for sound discretion and the exercise of good judgment, but he has so conducted the operations under his direction as to receive the approval and commendation of all who know what he has done. Mr. Naumann is a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and is recognized as a splendid citizen and a man who gives his support to every movement for the advancement of the community welfare along all lines. Because of his ability and genial disposition he has won and retains a host of warm and loyal friends. ORVAL E. STEWART. Orval E. Stewart was born in the state of Nebraska, March 11, 1886. When he was eight years of age his parents, S. E. and Kate Stewart, came to California and located at San Bernardino, where the father carried on business as a contractor for a long term of years. Orval E. Stewart was educated in the public schools of San Bernardino and at the age of fourteen years began learning the carpenters trade under his fathers instructions. Subsequently he attended the San Bernardino Business College. When he had learned his trade he entered into partnership with his father, with whom he was associated for four years. He then worked as a journeyman in various cities of California, later serving as foreman for a large construction company in Saco and in Los Angeles. In 1915 he located in Visalia and since that time has built a considerable number of the finest residences in the city, besides remodeling and erecting many other buildings. In 1922 he built twenty- two houses. His well known integrity in carrying out his contracts and the general character of his work are his best advertisements. The result is that his business is constantly growing and each successive season he employs a larger number of workmen. Mr. Stewart is a member of the Loyal Order of Moose and the Visalia Kiwanis Club. While he is a firm believer in the principles advocated by the democratic party, he is first of all a contractor and rarely takes an active hand in political affairs. He married Miss Ina Glasgow, .who was born and reared in Visalia, and they have one son named Stanley Stewart. ALFREDS PURE ICE CREAM COMPANY. One of the largest and most popular products in the line of food and refreshments today is that of ice cream, which in the last fifteen years has so grown in popular favor that the amount manufactured has jumped from twenty million gallons to two hundred and three million gallons. One of the pioneers in the improved methods of manufacture of this delicious product in the United States is C. J. Alfred, president of Alfreds Pure Ice Cream Company, of Los Angeles, which has a large and well equipped branch plant at Tipton, Tulare county. The business had formerly been conducted by Mr. Alfred in northwestern Pennsylvania, and it is a noteworthy fact that he was the first manufacturer to dry harden ice cream by the cold air blast system, now used all over the country. In 1913 Mr. Alfred came to California and established a plant in. Los Angeles, which has enjoyed a steady and continuous growth until now it is one of the largest plants of its kind in the west. To the end that ultimate perfection in the manufacture of its ice cream might be attained, the company established its own creamery at Tipton, where twice daily the milk and cream is brought in from farmers, pre-cooled and shipped in iced cars to the main plant, where, by the most improved methods of handling a product which is so susceptible to contamination, it is mixed and frozen ready for shipment to dealers. It is very seldom that the milk and cream ever reach the ice cream plant in anything but first class condition. Milk from four thousand cows is used, the payroll to local dairymen amounting to an average of forty thousand dollars monthly. Express charges alone on condensed milk, cream, etc., sent to the Los Angeles plant, amount to forty thousand dollars a year. The company employs one hundred men in all its plants, including also the branch plant at. San Bernardino, California. The Alfreds Pure Ice Cream Company has been a pioneer ice cream manufacturer in the entire citrus belt, first instituting cabinet service to the dealers, which enables them to carry a convenient assortment of flavors at all times. The president of the company, C. J. Alfred, who has been in the ice cream industry for thirty years, is a prominent member of the Jonathan and Uplifters Clubs. He is an active member of the Masonic order, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. M. I. Alfred, who is in active charge of the production end of the business, is a graduate of one of the largest dairy colleges in the state and is thoroughly qualified in every way to insure nothing but the highest grade product, bacteria tests and testing the butter fat contents, milk solids and serum solids, being part of his everyday work. He is constantly and vigilantly watching that each and every batch of ice cream shall be up to standard, uniform in quality and wholesomeness. J. NEWTON YOUNG. For over three-score years the Young family has been intimately associated with the growth and development of Visalia and Tulare county, for in the year 1864 Newton Young came from Iowa and settled at Visalia. There he married Miss Mary Price, a native of Wales, whose relatives family named Evans were among the Visalia pioneers. Newton Young lost his life by an accident in a sawmill a short time before his son, the subject of this sketch, was born. His widow survived until 1909. Of their two children the daughter, Ida, married a Mr. Agnew and died in 1923, leaving J. Newton the only surviving member of the family. Mr. Young was born in Visalia, California, April 24, 1872. He received his elementary education in the common schools, after which he attended the Visalia high school for two years, and then spent one year as a student in the University of the Pacific and one year in the Leland Stanford University. Upon leaving school he returned to Visalia and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He has forty acres of the old homestead (now within the limits of the city of Visalia) , and the house in which he and his sister were born is still standing. In recent years he has turned his attention to walnut culture and has demonstrated that walnuts can be successfully grown in this section of the state. Politically Mr. Young is a republican and he takes an interest in all questions of a public character, particularly those of a local significance. From 1915 to 1919 he was a member of the Visalia city council and from 1917 to 1921 he served as supervisor. His fraternal relations are with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Loyal Order of Moose, and he finds his recreation on the golf links or in hunting or fishing. He married Miss Maude S. Schuman, a native of Nevada. They have no children. W. L. LINE. Another of the enterprising and progressive men who have contributed their quota in advancing the development and welfare of Tulare county is W. L. Line, of Ivanhoe, who has been very successful as a raiser of grapes and olives. He is a native of Dallas county, Missouri, where he was born on the 16th of February, 1882. He is the son of Newton and Alice (White) Line, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter born and reared in Missouri. W. L. Line was reared on his fathers farm and secured his education in the common schools. In 1905 he came to California, locating in San Bernardino county, where he obtained work in the orange groves. Later he leased orange groves and for a number of years operated them successfully on his own account. In 1918 he came to Tulare county and accepted the position of manager of the Venice Cove ranch, holding that position until 1922, when he began ranching for himself. He has met with gratifying success and now has seventeen acres in vineyards and seven acres in olives. Energetic in his work and progressive in his methods, he has made a splendid impression on his neighboring ranchers, among whom he is held in high regard. Mr. Line is a member of the Tulare Farm Bureau, and is a stockholder in the Klink Citrus Association and the Ivanhoe Green Fruit Association. He lives in the town of Ivanhoe, where he owns an attractive and comfortable home. Mr. Line was married first to Miss Minnie Miller, and after her death he married Miss Alice Glynn. The children of these marriages are: Mary, Virginia, William, Olive, Alice, Margaret and Walter. Public-spirited in his attitude toward local affairs, Mr. Line has been a consistent supporter of every movement for the advancement of the general welfare and stands on the right side of every moral issue. ARTHUR R. SCHELLING. Arthur R. Schelling was born in the city of Exeter, California, and is a son of J. E. and Mattie (Wilson) Schelling. The father came to California as a young man and passed the active years of his life as a ranch man. He is now living retired in Exeter. Arthur was graduated from the high school and while attending school was employed in his spare time in Mixters drug store in Exeter. After completing the high school course he entered the pharmacal department of the University of Southern California, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1911. Immediately after leaving the university Mr. Schelling went to work in a drug store at Lindsay, remaining there until he came to Woodlake and opened the Woodlake Drug Store an entirely new enterprise. F. W. Mixter, of Exeter, was a silent partner in the undertaking until 1922, when Mr. Schelling purchased his interest and became sole proprietor, though no change was made in the name, which is still Woodlake Drug Store. Being a graduate pharmacist, with years of experience, Mr. Schelling takes pride in keeping his stock up-to-date, which has given the store a wide reputation and a generous patronage. Mr. Schelling was one of the organizers of the Woodlake Valley Chamber of Commerce, and is now its secretary. He takes a keen interest in every movement for the good of the community, is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Woodmen of the World, and is regarded as one of Woodlakes most progressive citizens. He married Margaret Dungan, of Exeter, and they have one son, Arthur Raymond, Jr. Mrs. Schelling is a member of the Woodlake Parent-Teachers Association. CHARLES D. PRUNER. Charles D. Pruner, one of the largest grape growers of Tulare county, California, was born in Lodi, Virginia, July 29, 1884. His father, A. E. Pruner, was a farmer near Lodi. In 1901 the family removed to California and located near Exeter, where the father continued in business as a vineyardist until his death in 1916. His widow is still living. Charles D. Pruner received a high school education in Virginia. After coming to California he spent a year and a half in the Polytechnic College at Oakland, taking the engineering course. As soon as he was out of college he started into the grape culture by purchasing twenty acres of raw land. That was in 1908. Since then he has added two hundred and thirty acres to his original tract. Of this land fifty acres are planted to peaches, plums and pomegranates and two hundred acres to grapes, mostly Emperors. His grape crop of 1924 aggregated over one hundred carloads. The magnitude of his own crops induced him to establish a packing house, in which he now takes care of not only his own products, but also does a commercial packing business. A large part of his immense vineyard and orchard was raw land only a few years ago, but by his skill and industry he has brought the land under cultivation and made it one of the most valuable pieces of property in the county. Mr. Pruners packing house has a pre-cooling plant, with six car capacity daily, and storage of seventeen cars. He uses the blast system. This is the only one in the San Joaquin valley. Mr. Pruner was married to Miss Flora Snodgrass, a native of Virginia, and they have one son, Charles, aged twelve years. Mr. Pruner is a republican in his political convictions. In 1916 he was nominated by his party for supervisor, but was defeated. Mr. Pruner was one of the organizers of the Exeter Ice Company, manufacturers of ice and soft drinks. This company started on a comparatively small scale, but is now doing a large business. He is a member of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce, belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and is a liberal supporter of all worthy organizations, such as the Red Cross and the Boy Scouts. CHARLES W. CLEARY. Charles W. Cleary, former assemblyman from this district in the legislature of the state of California, a substantial rancher and orchardist of the Lindsay neighborhood, a director of the Tulare county farm bureau, a director of the local Chamber of Commerce, a director of the local cooperative citrus marketing agency and in other ways an active and influential factor in the general social, civic and industrial life of the community, is a native son of California and his interests have ever centered here. Mr. Cleary was born on a ranch in Calaveras county, December 4, 1884, and is a son of Frank and Mary (Cooper) Cleary, both of whom were born in that same county, members of pioneer families there, and the latter of whom is still living, making her home on the home ranch in the vicinity of Lindsay. She is a daughter of Robert Bruce and Alta Zara (Lewis) Cooper, both natives of Mississippi. Mr. Cooper came into California by way of the Isthmus in the mining days and had established his residence in Calaveras county, where he was joined in marriage in October, 1853, to Alta Zara Lewis, who made the trip across the plains in an immigrant train, the wagons of which were drawn by plodding oxen. The Coopers of this line are of an old southern family and of Revolutionary stock, descending from Captain Thomas Cooper, an officer in the Continental army during the time the colonies were fighting for their independence from foreign rule. Along another line this family also is akin to that of the Hamiltons which during that period of stress was represented in so distinguished a fashion by Alexander Hamilton, on whose tomb in Trinity churchyard, New York, the following notable memorial is inscribed: The patriot of incorruptible integrity, the soldier of approved valor, the statesman of consummate wisdom, whose talents and virtues will be remembered by a grateful posterity long after this marble shall have mouldered into dust. Mrs. Cleary was reared in Calaveras county and for some time prior to her marriage was engaged in teaching school there. For nearly twenty years she has been a resident of this county and has a wide and agreeable acquaintance here. The late Frank Cleary, who died at his home on his Lindsay ranch in 1915, was born in Calaveras county in 1862 and was a son of Charles W. and Katharine A. (Harkins) Cleary, who were married in Calaveras county in early mining days, having come here, he from New Brunswick, Canada, and she from Pennsylvania, and were among the pioneers of that county. He grew up in the county of his birth and after his marriage continued to make his home there until in 1888, when he moved with his family to Fresno county, where he had taken up a quarter section of land and where he became engaged extensively in grain farming. He was a leader for the farmers of the vicinity in the early day desert land entry contests and always wherever he resided was a recognized leader in civic and community affairs. When the development of the oil fields began he took an active part in those operations, became one of the incorporators of the Confidence Oil Company, pioneer company of the west side Coalinga oil field, and presently was elected president of the same. He also was one of the incorporators of the Ajax Oil Company and of the New San Francisco Crude Oil Company and became widely known in the old fields as a successful operator. In 1908 Mr. Cleary moved to the ranch in the Lindsay neighborhood that he had bought in this county and here his last days were spent, his death occurring in 1915, he then being fifty-three years of age, and where, as noted above, his widow still is living. During his seven years of residence in Tulare county Frank Cleary took a most active part in all civic affairs. His example and influence were felt to such an extent in the community of his residence that his untimely removal by death came as a serious shock and loss to a very wide circle of associates and friends. He was a director of the Central California Citrus Exchange for several years and an organizer and president of an affiliated orange packing house. He was an organizer for some time president and at the time of his death still a director of the Tulare County Power Company, a consumers company of magnitude, being composed of some five hundred local consumer stockholders and succeeding in breaking the theretofore commercial concern furnishing power to the farmers and orchardists. The life of the Tulare County Power Company was a strenuous one and calculated to try the souls of men, especially the men on whom the burden of administration of the companys affairs rested. After his death, in introducing and moving the adoption of a resolution in his memory at a meeting of over four hundred and fifty stockholders of the Tulare County Power Company, a fellow director and general manager of the company said of him: By the death of Frank Cleary Tulare county lost one of her best citizens, Lindsay lost her best citizen, the men of Lindsay lost their best example and the boys growing up in Lindsay lost their best example : the Tulare County Power Company lost one of her best stockholders and her best director. My association with Frank Cleary has meant much to me; he had an influence on me greater than that of any other man of my association; he changed my attitude toward life and I shall make it my aim to live up to the example set by him. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Cleary were the parents of five children, four sons and a daughter, the latter of whom died in infancy. One of the sons, Frank Robert Cleary, met his death through an accident in the oil fields in 1904 when he was twenty-one years of age. The other sons, besides the immediate subject of this sketch, are Leslie A. Cleary, well known lawyer and present (1925) assistant district attorney in and for Tulare county, and Dr. E. W. Cleary, prominent orthopedic surgeon of San Francisco. As will be observed by a comparison of above dates, Charles W. Cleary was but three years of age when in 1888 his parents moved from his native county of Calaveras into Fresno county and in this latter county he grew to manhood, supplementing the schooling received in the local schools by a course in Chestnutwoods Business College of Santa Cruz. He early became interested in operations in the oil fields, starting in as a pumper and tool dresser, and after becoming thoroughly familiar with operations was made superintendent of the operations of the Confidence Oil Company, of which his father was the president. He married when twenty-three years of age, the year in which the family moved to Tulare county, and he then abandoned the oil fields and has since given his chief attention to the cultivation of citrus fruits, now operating the home orchards in the vicinity of Lindsay, the Cleary ranch there having been developed from a barren waste into one of the productive tracts in the county, well improved with modern buildings, adequately irrigated and carrying besides the grove of thirty acres of orange trees-a -five acre olive orchard and an ample family orchard. Mr. Cleary long has been recognized as one of the leading citizens of this district and has done much to promote the local horticultural development. He was one of the organizers of the Drake Packing Company of Lindsay, later reorganized as the Lindsay Co-Operative Citrus Association, of which he was the first president, and has always been affiliated with the California Fruit Growers Exchange through the Central California Citrus. Exchange, of which for a number of years he was one of the directors. He also has been a member of the board of directors of the Tulare county farm bureau since the organization of that mutually helpful body and was one of the prime movers in the work of getting the bureau on its feet. A republican of progressive thought, Mr. Cleary has from the days of his young manhood taken an earnest interest in civic affairs, is one of the acknowledged leaders of his party in this county, and in 1918 was elected to represent this assembly district in the state legislature. By successive reelections he was kept in the house for three terms and during that period of service not only became recognized as one of the leaders in the lower house but succeeded in rendering a very real service to the state. During his second term of service he was vice chairman of the legislative committee appointed in 1921 to investigate the operations of the state railroad commission and in that same year was chairman of the house committee on irrigation, the importance of which committee in that year was so generally recognized that its membership was increased from thirteen to twenty-one. It was while thus serving as chairman of that committee that Mr. Cleary succeeded in securing the passage of a bill for an initial appropriation for a comprehensive investigation and survey of the water resources of the state, a very valuable service. It was he also who led the fight both in and out of the legislature to prevent a reappointment of the legislative districts which would have given the three most populous counties of . the state (Alameda, Los Angeles and San Francisco) control of the law making power, and the defeat of this project he regards as his greatest political service. His measure, offered as a substitute bill the so-called three-eighths five- eighths plan of apportionment, which following a strenuous fight in the assembly lost by a very close vote would, if adopted, give to the rural territory of the state control of one house of the legislature and the urban districts control of the other, thus creating a political equilibrium in the state, and it is still being pushed for adoption by the agricultural organizations of the state. The following newspaper comments, which were written in 1924, indicate the regard felt for Mr. Cleary by his fellow citizens: Assemblyman Cleary Tulare county has all that any assemblyman should be, an honest, courageous, right-minded, level-headed man, of sound judgment. He is a man who has a strong affinity for common sense and the right, and he is not the tool of any man or set of men. He does his own thinking and his conclusions are honest and almost always right. Assemblyman Cleary can be depended upon to do right at all times but he will not trade his principles for political advantage. He is the only kind of man to be trusted with legislative authority. If the entire state government were made up of men of like ideals we would have the best government that any body of people could wish for. On September 5, 1908, Mr. Cleary was united in marriage to Miss Elsie Hoagland of Santa Cruz and they have three children: A son, Charles W. Cleary, Jr., and two daughters, Ilah Frances and Genevieve, representatives in the fourth generation of the Cleary family in California. Mr. and Mrs. Cleary are members of the Presbyterian church and are active workers therein, Mr. Cleary being formerly a member of the session (an elder) of the local congregation and Mrs. Cleary being - one of the Sunday school teachers. He is a member and past chairman of the county committee for the promotion of the work of the Young Mens Christian Association and also since its organization a member of the local council acting in behalf of the Boy Scouts of America. EMIL DEPPE, JR. Among the young men of Visalia who occupy prominent positions in business circles is Emil Deppe, Jr., assistant manager of the Visalia Meat Company. He was born in Germany on April 16, 1901, but when still very young he was brought to the United States by his parents, Emil F. and Doris (Keine) Deppe. He was educated in the public schools of Tipton and Visalia, California, and upon leaving school entered the employ of the Visalia Meat Company, of which his father was the founder and is still the active manager. A description of this company will be found in the sketch of Emil F. Deppe on another page of this work. When the company was first incorporated on June 26, 1921, young Deppe was made assistant manager. Although not yet twenty-one years old, he entered upon his duties with such earnestness and intelligence that he made good. In the reorganization of the company in 1924 he was continued in the position an evidence that his work was entirely satisfactory to the directors and stockholders. Mr. Deppe is a republican in his political affiliations and takes a reasonable interest in public questions, particularly those affecting the welfare of Visalia and Tulare county. While he is fond of fishing and hunting, the requirements of the Visalia Meat Company are his first consideration, hence he never neglects his business for the pastime of the rod or gun. He married Miss Sarah Clore, who was born in Visalia, and they have one son, Harold Frederick. FRANCIS W. HUNTER. Francis W. Hunter, president and manager of the Central Counties Gas Company, was born on a farm in the state of Tennessee on July 27, 1880, and is a son of W. T. and Susan Hunter. After attending the district schools he spent some time in a preparatory college as a student but left school to accept a position in a department store owned by his uncle, with whom he remained for four years. During that time, by private study, he qualified himself to meet and solve about all the problems likely to confront the civil engineer. The next twenty years of Mr. Hunters life were spent in engineering work in various parts of the world. This period included two years of railroad construction in China; two years as a mining engineer in Northern California and Nevada ; one year in superintending the construction of the Deer Creek plant of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company ; two years with the Great Western Power Company as superintendent of construction in the installation of the great Feather River project; and eight years as chief engineer, vice president and general manager of the Ventura Power Company at Ventura. In 1918 Mr. Hunter was one of the active organizers of the Central Counties Gas Company, of which he was elected vice president and general manager, with headquarters in Visalia. The second annual report of the company made such a handsome showing under his management that he was elected to the presidency of the company, still retaining the active management of its affairs. He is a charter member of the Visalia Rotary Club and belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Politically he is a republican and as a citizen he takes a commendable interest in all public affairs, though he has never been an active participant. On December 12, 1911, he was united in marriage to Miss Merril Rice, of Ventura county, and they have two daughters, Susan Flournoy and Merril Flournoy. C. H. HOLLEY. C. H. Holley, civil and electrical engineer and ranchman living near Exeter, California, is a native of the Green Mountain state, having been born September 27, 1873, at Dorset, Vermont, just over the hill from the Coolidge homestead. His parents, Hiland H. and Mary S. (Sykes) Holley, were descendants of old New England families. Senator Holley, of Connecticut, and Dr. David Starr Jordan, of Stanford University, are related to the same family. Hiland H. Holley was for years in charge of the Vermont Marble Company before removing with his wife and three sons to California in 1888 and locating in Los Angeles. Harry H. Holley lives in Visalia ; Edward L., in Los Angeles, and the third son is the subject of this sketch. C. H. Holley graduated in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 1898 and accepted a position as draftsman with an electric company in San Francisco. A little later he was sent north to oversee the construction of a hydroelectric plant on the Yuba river. Here he installed the largest generator ever used up to that time a twelve hundred kilowatt machine for the Yuba Power Company, which was the nucleus of the present Pacific Gas & Electric Company. In 1900 he came to Visalia as superintendent of the Mount Whitney Power Company, the predecessor of the Southern California Edison Company. After seven years with this company he engaged in private practice. A little later he organized the Tulare County Power Company, most of the stockholders of which lived in Lindsay, and was manager of it until it was sold to the Mount Whitney Power & Electric Company in 1915. In April, 1924, he gave up his private practice and was then employed by the Edison Company as hydrographic engineer, to make a water survey of Tulare county, the first time such a work was ever undertaken. In 1900, shortly after coming to Tulare county, he had bought ten acres of land a short distance east of Exeter. This land he improved and later added thirty acres, which is now all planted to oranges, figs and grapes. In 1918 he built a modern residence on his ranch, where he now resides with his family. Mr. Holley married Miss Grace Woodward, daughter of Augustus G. Woodward, of Tulare county. They have two daughters: Gloria Eileen, who in 1923 married James L. Giffin, an attorney of Long Beach, California, where she now resides; and Dorothy Jean, who is at home. Mr. Holley belongs to the Exeter Chamber of Commerce, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Tulare County Farm Bureau. Mrs. Holley is a member of the Womens Club of Exeter. I. H. COOK. The enterprise of I. H. Cook, well known business man of Cutler, has been crowned with success as a result of rightly applied principles. Integrity, ability and a congenial disposition have combined to give him an enviable standing among his fellow citizens and he is today recognized as one of the truly representative men of his locality. Mr. Cook is a native of the province of New Brunswick, Canada, where he was born on the 3d of January, 1869, the son of John and Mary Cook. While still a lad he was left an orphan and was thereafter cared for by an older sister. Since he was twelve years of age he has practically made his own way and that he has succeeded shows that he possessed the right sort of principles. He early learned the carpenters trade, which vocation he followed in Massachusetts and Connecticut, mainly in Worcester, Hartford and New Haven. In 1906 he came to California with his sister, locating first in Los Angeles, but a few years later he went to San Jose. In 1915 Mr. Cook came to Cutler and at once went to work to establish himself permanently. He engaged in the feed business and also did hauling and transfer work. He prospered in his operations and has improved his equipment from time to time until now he owns four big trucks, with which he makes a specialty of heavy hauling. During the years since he has lived here he has also done considerable carpenter work. He has built and owns eight stores under one roof, two of the stores being occupied by himself and the others being for rent. The building, which is two stories high, has a frontage of two hundred feet and is built of rock, bead and tuck faced walls and concrete floors. These stores are nicely located and convenient in size and arrangement. Mr. Cook is also the owner of a gas filling station here and is a stockholder in the Bank of Cutler. He is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce and contributes in every possible way to the advancement of the citys best interests. He was married to Miss Rachel Bowers, who was born and reared in San Jose, California. BILLIE A. LANDIS. The cleaning of clothing for both men and women has become a fine art in recent years, and year by year the number of garments sent to the cleaners is constantly increasing. People have found that renovating clothing adds to its life and service and suits which once would have been discarded as worn out are cleaned by scientific methods which make them look almost as good as new. The Parisian Cleaners, of Visalia, is one of the concerns engaged in this business, and it is owned and conducted by Billie A. Landis. Mr. Landis is a native of the Keystone state, having been born at Scranton, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1889, a son of Calvin and Nellie Landis. While he was still in his early childhood his parents moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where the mother soon afterward died, and there the father became an official of one of the large steel works of the city. Billie A. Landis was educated in the public schools of Cleveland and after completing the course in the high school attended the preparatory college for a time. He then obtained a position in the steel works with which his father was associated but upon reaching his majority started out to seek his fortune in his own way. After working as a miner and in other occupations in different sections of the country he finally arrived in California. He worked in several cities of the state before coming to Visalia in 1911, where he entered the employ of the Star Laundry. During the ten years he was connected with this concern he studied a number of ways of cleaning clothing and for a large part of the time he was manager of the laundry. In 1921 he took a partner and bought the business of which he is now the head, and a little later he purchased his partners interest. His business has grown with the general growth of the community, though much of the increase in his patronage is due to the superior character of his work. The building in which he is located has been outgrown and he has in contemplation the erection of a new one better adapted to his needs and in which a better equipment will be installed. Mr. Landis is a republican politically and is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Order of Sciots. He married Miss Inez Clotfelter, who was born in Visalia, and they have one son, Calvin A. If Mr. Landis has any hobbies they are his interest in the work of the Masonic fraternity and his love for a good football game. COMMODORE W. SIMS. In 1869 William Augustus Sims left his native Greene county, in Illinois, and came to California. He had been a successful farmer in that county, where he married Miss Josephine Woodman, who accompanied him to California. They settled first on a farm near Sacramento, where they resided for five years. They then removed to Sonoma county and after a year there came to Tulare county in 1875, where Mr. Sims purchased a ranch of four hundred acres, one-half of which he planted to peaches and prunes and the other half used for general farming purposes. He was one of the early advocates of prohibition, one of the largest landowners in the vicinity and a prominent citizen. In 1908 he retired from the active management of his ranch, but two years later he organized the Tulare Peach Canning Association, of which he was president for several years. His death occurred in November, 1924. Commodore W. Sims, a son of William A. and Josephine Sims, was born on his fathers ranch, one mile south of Farmersville, January 26, 1885. He now resides on the ranch where he was born. After receiving a high school education he assisted his father on the ranch and with the exception of three years he has been a ranchman all his active life. Those three years were spent in Oregon as foreman for the Warren Construction Company, from 1908 to 1911. Returning to Farmersville in 1911 he was associated with his brother Volney in the management of the ranch for one year and since then has managed it alone. Mr. Sims is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, which is the only fraternal society to claim his allegiance. Mrs. Sims was formerly Miss Neva Pearl Wood, a native of Kansas. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sims: Melba, Agnes, Francis and James. J. A. SUTTEN J. A. Sutten, proprietor of the Home Bakery in Visalia, is a native rah of California, having been born in San Benito county on November 14, 1887. His parents, G. D. and Laura J. (Singleton) Sutten, crossed the plains in the early days and resided at various places in California. The mother is now deceased but the father is still living, being over eighty- four years of age. The subject of this sketch is the youngest in a family of seven children. He received his education in the public schools and at the age of thirteen years started to learn the bakers trade in the city of San Francisco. He worked in that city for several years, mastering all the details of the baking business, after which he operated bakeries in Hollister, San Jose and other places until February, 1921, when he came to Visalia and purchased the Home Bakery. The business of this establishment had been allowed to run down, but Mr. Sutten went to work to reinstate its popularity, with the result that he is now doing a business amounting to around two hundred thousand dollars annually. He does only a wholesale business, has fourteen men constantly employed and six trucks conveying the products of the bakery to towns in Tulare, Kings and Kern counties. In 1924 plans were made contemplating the .erection of a new plant, to be equipped with the most modern appliances. Mr. Sutten is aligned with the republican party politically and takes an interest in public affairs. Soon after becoming a resident of Visalia he joined the Commercial Club, and he can always be counted on to aid any project for the betterment of the public health, morals or material progress. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Loyal Order of Moose, and finds his recreation in hunting and in fishing. He married Miss Ora L. Thompson, a native of Madera, California, and they have two children; Artice and Lorraine. J. W. CAMPBELL. In all that constitutes true manhood and good citizenship, J. W. Campbell, live stock dealer and manager of the stockyards at Tulare, is a notable example, and none stands higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the community. Mr. Campbell was born at Springfield, Missouri, and is the son of E. A. and Ella B. (Townsend) Campbell. He was reared in his native town and secured his educational training in the public and high schools of that city. Some time later he came to Tulare and became associated with his uncle, F. L. Campbell, in the live stock business and eventually went into the same line of trade on his own account. He owns and operates the stockyards on the Southern Pacific railroad at Tulare and does a large and constantly increasing business. He is widely known for his square dealing and now controls his full share of the local business in his line. During the world war Mr. Campbell was in the military service of his country from October, 1917, to June, 1919, entering the service at Camp Lewis and being discharged at the Presidio, San Francisco. He was with the ammunition train and saw eleven months of service in France. He is a charter member of the American Legion post at Tulare. His business success is but the legitimate result of consecutive effort, directed and controlled by good judgment and correct moral principles. He has sought to perform the duties of a progressive citizen while advancing his own interests, and his support can always be depended upon in the furtherance of any laudable movement having for its object the welfare of the general public. CLAUDE H. SONDERICKER. Claude H. Sondericker, manager of the Bonnie Brae Packing House at Merryman, California, was born at Royal, Antelope county, Nebraska, October 1, 1890. His parents, Henry and Delia (Daly) Sondericker, are both natives of the state of New York. His maternal grandfather, Peleg Daly, was a veteran of the Civil war, who was with General Sherman on the famous march to the sea and after the war was a farmer near Greenwood, Illinois. While Claude H. Sondericker was still a small child his parents removed to Woodstock, Illinois, where he grew up and was graduated from the high school. In 1907 the family came to California and located at Uplands, where Henry Sondericker followed farming for a number of years. He and his wife are now living retired at San Bernardino. Soon after coming to California Claude found employment in the orange packing houses in the southern part of the state. Foremost among his employers was R. C. Merryman, a pioneer orange grower and principal owner of the Bonnie Brae packing business, now a resident of Pasadena. In 1909 Mr. Sondericker came to Exeter to work for the Merryman Fruit, Land and Lumber Company, which owns the Bonnie Brae packing plant, as well as extensive orchards and vineyards in Tulare county. Five years later he was promoted to the position of manager, which he still holds. The plant handles both oranges and grapes. Besides taking care of the fruit of the owners, the company does a commercial business, one house handling grapes and the other oranges. Mr. Sondericker is a member of the Exeter Chamber of Commerce and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He married Miss Lilith Armitage, of Elgin, Illinois, and they have two daughters: Dorothy and Elsie. The family resides on a ranch belonging to the Merryman Fruit, Land and Lumber Company. JOE X. BETTENCUT. One of the most enterprising of Tulare countys younger generation of successful business men is he whose name appears at the head of this article. Although not a native of this country he has come closely in touch with the customs of his adopted land and is now a loyal supporter of our institutions. Joe X. Bettencut, who operates a successful dairy farm six miles west of Tipton, is a native of the Azores islands, where he was born on the 28th of December, 1896. He was reared on his fathers farm and secured his education in the public schools of his native place. In 1914 he came to the United States, locating at once in California. He obtained employment on dairy farms, where he thoroughly learned the business, and a few years later went into business for himself. He first located at Visalia but since 1920 he has operated the F. W. Naumann ranch, consisting of two hundred and forty acres of good land. He has one hundred and four head of cattle, of which number he always has eighty or more milkers. They are high grade Holstein stock and he is meeting with splendid success in his enterprise. Mr. Bettencut also raises hogs, keeping from forty to sixty head which he fattens on the skim milk from the separators. He is a member of the Tulare County Dairymens Association and the Tulare County Farm Bureau. Mr. Bettencuts brother, John, who came to this country from the Azores in 1918, is associated with him in the business. Mr. Bettencut was married to Miss Mary Nunas, who also is a native of the Azores islands. She was a schoolmate of Mr. Bettencut and at the age of fifteen years came to the United States alone. To Mr. and Mrs. Bettencut have been born four children, namely: Eva X., Ina X., Mary X. and Armour X. Mr. Bettencuts well directed efforts in the practical affairs of life, his capable management of his own business interests and his sound judgment have brought to him prosperity, and this together with his kindly disposition and public spirit have gained for him the respect and good will of the entire community. CLEO V. KIGER. In an enumeration of the successful and progressive business men of Tulare county, the name of Cleo V. Kiger must be included, for his accomplishments here in the comparatively short space of five years have indicated him to be a man of keen discernment, sound judgment and indefatigable industry. He is a native of Des Moines county, Iowa, born on the 17th day of December, 1888. His parents are Lewis and Julia (Matheny) Kiger, the former a native of West Virginia and the latter of southern Ohio. Cleo V. Kiger secured a good public school education and after graduating from high school, entered the Elliott Business College, at Burlington, Iowa, from which he was graduated. Thereafter for several years he was employed at office clerical work and accounting, and for three years was with the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company in Buffalo, New York. In 1913 Mr. Kiger came to California and in 1916 bought a small ranch near Bellflower, where he engaged in the raising of chickens. During the World war he turned the care of the ranch and the chickens over to his wife and went to work in the shipyards at San Pedro. In 1920 Mr. Kiger came to Tulare county and bought ten acres of land southeast of Terra Bella and again engaged in the poultry business. He has been very successful and has made improvements on the ranch in the way of buildings and other equipment aggregating between twelve thousand and fifteen thousand dollars. Mr. Kiger specializes in the raising of white Leghorns, though as secondary breeds he raises Rhole Island reds, barred Plymouth Rocks and Anconas. Starting this ranch with two hundred chickens, he now has between two thousand and three thousand hens and one hundred male birds, and from them he hatches ten thousand chicks every three weeks during the season, which are sold as baby chicks. He also raises about ten thousand more. The chicken unit consists of nineteen pens and two brooder houses. Besides the pullets which are sold, there is an immense sale of eggs and baby chicks, for which there is a large and constantly increasing demand. Mr. Kiger shows his sound judgment in raising his own green feed for the baby chicks, consisting mainly of lettuce, chard and kale. An interesting feature of his plan is that he aims at a minimum production of two hundred eggs for each bird. Many are exceeding this number and one white Leghorn turned in a score of three hundred and ten eggs in 1924. The reputation of the Kiger poultry farm has extended far beyond local boundaries and inquiries have come from as far away as Old Mexico. All the work on the ranch is done by Mr. and Mrs. Kiger and their son and they have derived great pleasure as well as profit from their enterprise. Besides the poultry equipment on the ranch, Mr. Kiger has planted shade, fig, peach, apricot and plum trees and a nice orchard. He is very comfortably situated and is now realizing gratifying returns from the labor and money he has put into the ranch. Mr. Kiger was married on July 22, 1907, to Miss Ruth McBride, who was born in Wellington, Kansas, and reared in Burlington, Iowa, the daughter of James and Bertha (Sikes) McBride. Mr. and Mrs. Kiger have a son, Jack. Mr. Kiger takes a keen interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of the community and is an active member of the Tulare County Farm Bureau and the Tulare County Poultry Association. Because of his business ability and fine personal qualities he is deservedly popular in the community where he lives. EDWARD R. PUTZ, JR. The subject of this sketch was born in the city of San Francisco, November 9, 1892. His father, Edward R. Putz, Sr., came there as a young man and about the same time, or perhaps a little later, a seventeen-year-old girl named Anna Trethar came to the city. She and Mr. Putz became. acquainted and were married. They continued to live in San Francisco until after the earthquake and fire of 1906, when they went to Hanford, a few miles west of Visalia on a branch of the Southern Pacific railroad, where Mr. Putz embarked in the business of fruit growing, in which he has since continued. Edward R. Putz, Jr., was educated in the public schools and in the business college at Hanford. Upon completing his course in the latter institution he entered the employ of the Kings County Packing Company at Hanford as a bookkeeper. His first business venture on his own responsibility was in the fuel business in Hanford. While thus engaged he saw an opportunity to establish himself in Visalia in the same line of business. Together with a partner he established the Visalia Fuel Company, but Mr. Putz soon bought his partners interest and became the sole proprietor. Upon coming into full possession he set about enlarging the plant and improving the general conditions of the business, which now represents a considerable investment. He handles all kinds of fuel and probably has the largest exclusively fuel establishment in Tulare county. Several people are constantly employed in filling orders, delivering fuel to customers in various parts of Visalia and its immediate environs. His trade has been built up mainly through square dealing and by handling only the best qualities of fuel to be found on the market. Mr. Putz is a member of the Visalia Kiwanis Club and belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Politically he is a republican, and while he takes an interest in public affairs, he concentrates his energies upon his business. He married Miss Lilly Lofgren, a native of New York state, and they have one daughter named June. B. F. LONGAN. The subject of this review enjoys distinctive prestige among the citizens of Tulare county, where he now lives in honorable retirement after a life of unusual industry, which was crowned with gratifying success, and as a neighbor and citizen he is highly esteemed by all who know him. He clearly earned the right to be called a progressive man, having fought his way onward and upward to a position of independence and honor, and the enviable position which he occupies today has been richly deserved. Mr. Longan, owner of the Toleco stock and fruit ranch, on the state highway between Tulare and Visalia, is a native of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and is a son of Captain John and Johanna (Whalen) Longan, both of whom were natives of Ireland but came to the United States in their youth. John Longan was a seafaring man, the owner of his own vessel, and during the Civil war he rendered very appreciated service to his adopted country by teaching seamanship to young men. He was enterprising in his methods and he was the first to bring to New York city fresh fish from off the coast of Ireland. B. F. Longan attended the public and high schools in his native city, supplementing this by a course in a business college. He then applied himself to farming and dairying in his native state, in which he was more than ordinarily successful, so that in 1918 he was enabled to sell his farm interests and retire to private life. He then came to California and bought two hundred and twenty acres of splendid land near Tulare and on this land he has made many substantial improvements, including first-class barns and a beautiful residence, which cost approximately one hundred thousand dollars. The farm is devoted mainly to the raising of grapes, fruit, grain and alfalfa. A thoroughbred dairy herd is maintained on the farm, headed by Sir Aggie Meal, an animal worth a fortune alone. Of the one hundred and twenty-five head of cattle, some of the milch cows produce over one hundred pounds of milk daily. This is blue-ribbon stock and it is cared for in a way that proves the owners sound judgment in the successful handling of live stock. The barns are absolutely up-to-the minute in design and are sanitary in every way, the dairy having been rated at ninety-eight per cent by the Los Angeles county dairy inspector. Mr. Longan was married to Miss Julia Glover, member of an old and prominent Massachusetts family, and to them have been born three sons: W. Chester, prior to the entry of the United States into the World war, was an engineer for the Mount Whitney Power Company. During the war he served with the army in France and for several months was chief electrician for all the telegraph and telephone lines in Bordeaux. He is now traveling engineer for the International Petroleum Company, of New York city, of which his uncle, Patrick Longan, is vice president and general manager; Daniel D. Longan, who is associated with his father on the ranch, also served overseas during the war, being a truck driver with the supply train, and spent several months at the front; George P. Longan is a junior in the Tulare high school. Since coming to California, Mr. Longan has shown a commendable interest in the public affairs of the state, county and community and has invariably lent his support to every movement for the betterment of the locality in which he lives. He has so ordered his own life that now, after his years of honest and faithful endeavor, he can spend his last years in peace, quiet and plenty. MAURICE GILL. Maurice Gill, manager of one of the Gill ranches in the vicinity of Springville and one of the best known young ranchmen in this county, was born on that place in 1890 and is a son of Charles Gill, veteran cattleman, who is now living retired at Strathmore. The Gill interests in the cattle business in this section of California have been prominently represented here for the past fifty years, dating from the coming of Levi Gill about the year 1874. Levi Gill, who homesteaded considerable tracts in the Yokohl and Frazier valleys, had six sons who helped him to promote his business on the range and he and these sons became recognized leaders in their line, as is a matter of common knowledge throughout this section. Charles Gill continued active in the business until his retirement and is now, as noted above, living at Strathmore. Reared to the life of the ranch, Maurice Gill early became an experienced cattleman and since his fathers retirement has been in charge of the Springville ranch, where after his marriage to Clementine Anderson he established his home and where he is doing very well in his operations. JOHN F. WILSON. In the year 1919 the Irrigation Equipment Company, of Visalia, California, was organized by John F. Wilson, R. C. Oram and W. F. Sanders. These men saw the necessity for a more systematic method of irrigating the lands of Tulare and adjacent counties and formed their company for the purpose of meeting that necessity. They began on a moderate scale, but after the character of their work became better known their business increased and new departments were added. The company now is prepared to install complete water systems, both for domestic and irrigation purposes, does electrical work, carries in stock milking machines and separators for the accommodation of dairymen, and does contract work in leveling and grading land in connection with the installation of the irrigating system. During the last five years this company has been an important factor in the development of ranch lands in the vicinity of Visalia. Among the work done in that time may be mentioned the irrigating system and piping plants on the Richard Corporation chain of ranches, the development work and irrigation on the ranches owned by the Bank of Italy, the fine water system placed in the packing house of the Klink Packing Company, and the domestic water supply system installed on the Orval Overall ranch. As the business of the company grows to greater proportions, its founders take a just pride in their achievements and derive great pleasure in the prospects for the future. John F. Wilson, president and manager of the company, is a man well qualified for the position he occupies. He was born at Streator, Illinois, September 1, 1890, but while still in his boyhood went to Portland, Oregon. After attending the public schools of that city he took a course in civil engineering in Cornell University, at Ithaca, New York, and also studied engineering in the University of California. Upon completing his education he was with the engineering department of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company for a time, after which he was with the engineering department of the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Company of San Francisco, and then worked in the pump department of the Pelton Water Wheel Company. His technical training in the universities and his experience with these several corporations gave him the ability to solve almost any problem likely to arise in engineering. In 1919 he came to Visalia, where he formed the association with Messrs. Oram and Sanders, already mentioned. Much of the success of the company is due to his tireless energy and his skill in engineering. Mr. Wilson is still a young man, with a prosperous and useful career before him. He is a member of the Tulare County Board of Trade and of the Visalia Commercial Club, organizations interested in the development of the natural resources of the San Joaquin valley, and takes an active interest in their doings. He married Miss Helen M. Barber, a native of Boston, Massachusetts, and they have two daughters: Jacqueline and Edith. CHARLES E. BIGHAM. For nearly twenty years Charles E. Bigham, superintendent of the grammar schools department of the Porterville city schools, has been a member of the county board of education in Tulare county, now the senior member of that body, and the impress of his vigorous personality is thus indelibly fixed upon its excellent school system. No less firmly fixed is the influence of his intelligent efforts in this behalf, that influence ever having been exerted in the extension of the countys educational facilities, so that the future historian in making up a roster of those who have done much for the social and cultural development of the county certainly will find the name of Charles E. Bigham very near the top of that illustrious roll. Charles E. Bigham is a native son of Tulare county and his interests ever have centered here. He was born on a farm in the Woodville neighborhood, July 31, 1880, and is a son of J. C. and Elizabeth Jane (Wesse) Bigham, the latter of whom is still living, now making her home at Pasadena. She came to California in 1873 to make her home with an uncle, who was one of the early settlers in the Woodville settlement. The late J. C. Bigham, who in his generation was one of the useful and influential factors in the development of the Woodville section of Tulare county, came to California in 1857, crossing the plains by ox team, and his first location was at San Diego. Later he went to San Francisco and from there went to Nevada, where he engaged in gold mining, but California was his first choice and he not long afterward returned to this state and in 1874, following his marriage, established his home on a farm in the vicinity of Woodville, Tulare county, where he developed a good property and where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there in 1903, and at his passing he left a good memory. Reared on the home farm near Woodville, Charles E. Bigham received his initial schooling in that village and early became a school teacher, his first labors in this exacting profession having been performed in the Salem district. Later he attended school in Los Angeles and supplemented this by a course in the normal school at San Diego, from which institution he was graduated in 1903. Subsequently he was graduated from the University of California. For two years Mr. Bigham was employed as a teacher in the Harmony school district and then was made principal of the Orosi schools, a position he occupied for three years. In 1909 he was made principal of the schools of Porterville and three years later, in 1912, was promoted to the position of superintendent of the grammar schools of that city, a position of responsibility he ever since has occupied and in the performance of its duties he has done much to advance the general interests of the schools. At that time Mr. Bigham had under his jurisdiction an aggregate, of four hundred and sixty-five pupils in the grammar schools of Porterville, with one eight-room building and two two-room buildings. Today the admirable school plant of the city has seven up-to-date school buildings and the enrollment in the grammar grades aggregates fifteen hundred. As noted above, Mr. Bigham has been for nearly twenty years a member of the county board of education, for ten years and more the president of that body, and during that long period of useful public service has proved an invaluable personal factor in the extension of the interests of the countys schools. He is a veteran member of the California State Teachers Association and in the deliberations and activities of that body has for years taken an active and helpful interest. Mr. Bigham married Miss Violet G. Milligan, who has been a valuable helpmate to him in the labors of his profession. She was born in the state of Nebraska but was reared in California. Mr. and Mrs. Bigham are members of the local chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star and he is the present worthy patron of that organization. He is a member of the local Rotary Club, is a Mason and is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and with the Woodmen of the World. He and Mrs. Bigham are democrats and take a proper interest in the general civic affairs of the community.
History of Tulare County California: By Kathleen Edwards Small Transcribed by: Martha A Crosley Graham, Pages: 371 - 500
Updated: 25 April 2021 Copyright © 1996-2021 |