Tulare & Kings Counties
California
Biographies
1913

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JOSEPH W LOVELACE
A native of the Lone Star State, born in Fannin County, in 1858, Joseph W. Lovelace, now living at No. 502 S. Church Street, Visalia, is a son of John W. and Arminta (Stallard) Lovelace, natives respectively of North Carolina and of Tennessee. The family came to California, members of a Party that came across the plains with ox-teams and seventy-five wagons, consuming six months in the journey. Coming over the southern route, they stopped in the fall of 1861 at Bakersfield, where John W. Lovelace built a small cabin, which in the following winter was swept away by a flood. After the breaking up of their home there they moved to El Monte, Los Angeles County, where they lived until they .removed to Tulare County in 1863. The father fought through the Civil war in Gen. Sterling Price's Confederate army. After receiving his discharge, he brought his family back to Tulare County and engaged in nerchandising at Farmersville, where he bought the store of Crowley & Jasper and formed a partnership with T. J. Brundage. He interested himself also in stock-raising and in 1869 took up a stock ranch at Three Rivers which he improved. Returning eventually to Texas, he died there in 1.875 ; his wife also has passed away. During his residence at El Monte, Los Angeles County, this pioneer became a member of the local lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. As a citizen he was public-spirited and helpful to all good interests of the community.

Following are the names of the living children of John W. and Arminta (Stallard) Lovelace: Martin F., Charles P., Willis R. and Joseph W.The last named was but a lad when his father brought his family to Tulare County during the war of the states. He grew to manhood at Visalia and there finished his schooling. For twelve years he was engaged in stock-raising in the Three Riv­ers district of Tulare County, and in 1900 he moved to Visalia in order to give his children better educational training. He is interested in real* estate in that city and owns besides a one hundred and twenty acre grain ranch fifteen miles east of Lemon Cove. Socially he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. He married, in Texas, Miss Helen Schlichting, a native of Wisconsin, who has borne him children as follows: Byron 0., County surveyor of Tulare County; Nathaniel F.; Clay; Walter; and Lee. Mr. Lovelace is well known for his helpful public spirit.

Mr. Lovelace's deceased -brothers and sisters were: Mollie, who died about the year 1884, was the wife of the late Hon. J. C. Brown, who represented Tulare County in the legislature several times and was a member of the Constitutional committee which revised the state constitution of California in 1876; John Almer, who was married, died in Texas in 1889; and Lillian Josephine, who also was married, died in Texas in 1882, leaving no children.
                                                          

JOHN CHATTEN
A resident of California from1868 to 1907, when he passed away, the late John Chatten was of English extraction and a native of Canada. Thomas Chatten, his grandfather, brought his family from Norfolk, Eng., and settled in Ontario, where his son Robert Chatten, father of John, farmed near Colborne till 1896, when he died aged seventy-eight. Robert's wife, Betsy Doe, a native of Ontario, died there aged seventy-two. She was of English ancestry, a daughter of James Doe, who was a Canadian settler and farmer. John Chatten was their second oldest child and the oldest son in a family of nine children, all of whom attained to maturity. He was born near Colborne, Northumberland County, Ont., December 8, 1848, and grew up where the work was hard and the living not the best. From the time he was eleven, when he was taken out of school, he worked on the farm and one of his tiresome and painful tasks was the picking up of stones, which made his back ache and wore the skin off his fingers. His uncle Richard Chatten had' come to California as a 49er, and his accounts of the climate and the ease with which a living might be earned or a competency secured were alluring reading to the folks in the bleak Canadian backwoods. This finally lured John Chatten to the state and for two years after his arrival he worked for his uncle. After his marriage he took up independent farming and stock-raising on one hundred and fifty acres of his uncle's land, and a year later bought an unimproved tract which he transformed into an attractive homestead.

More than ordinary success rewarded Mr. Chatten's efforts as a farmer, and late in life he made a profitable specialty of dairying. His activity in local affairs was displayed in efficient service as a member of the County central committee of his Party, and his interest in education impelled him to accept the trusteeship of the Elbow school district, the duties of which he discharged for thirty years, assisting to build a school house and to put the home school on a firm and substantial basis. Other praiseworthy measures were given his aid and counsel, and he was recognized as one of the leading men of the County.

Miss Celeste Reynolds, who became the wife of Mr. Chatten December 11, 1870, was born in Iowa and brought across the plains to California by her parents when she was but seven months old. They came in an ox-train and seven months were consumed in the journey. Her entire life in California has been lived in Tulare County. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Chatten were: Wesley, an engraver in Portland, Ore.; Arthur ; Wilmot L.; Ray, deceased; Fred, and Elsie. The family residence was built in 1903 and the homestead includes a hundred and seventy-two acres on Elbow creek, irrigated by the Wutchumna ditch, Mr. Chatten having been a direc­tor in the ditch company. Every acre of this homestead is tillable, and he also owned a quarter-section of adjoining land which lie devoted to grazing.

The third in order of birth of the children of John and Celeste (Reynolds) Chatten, Wilmot L. Chatten was born near Visalia, November 11, 1878. He began his active career by ranching with his father. In 1902 he bought land, which he farmed until after his father's death. He now rents of his mother the home place and the adjoining land. He has twenty-five acres in barley and twenty acres in alfalfa, the remainder being pasture, and he maintains a dairy—of -­twenty cows and keeps an average of about a hundred hogs. His family orchard is one of the best in its vicinity, and he gives some attention to chicken-raising. He is a man of public spirit and, as was his father, is a Republican. In 1902 he married Miss Iola Fudge, daughter of William Fudge, an early settler in the County. They have two children, Meredith and Dallas.
                                                         

HARRISON A POWELL
Most of the sons of Kentucky who have come to California have developed into citizens of whom Californians are proud and they have exacted from California the full reward of enterprise and industry. This is true in the case of Harrison A. Powell, one of the best known citizens in the Exeter district in Tulare County, who was born in Henderson County, Ky., August 11, 1859, and lived there until 1902. He came to California at this time and located at Exeter, where he has made his home up to this time. He had passed the earlier years of his life as a farmer and it was but natural that he should have continued here to woo fortune after the manner of his youth. But at first he had not the capital with which to establish himself as he planned to do. He went to work, saved money and invested it in land, and while the land was increasing in value added to his fund by continuing his labors. Then when the land was worth selling he converted it into money and put the money where it would draw interest, and as a financier he has perhaps prospered as well as he would have done had he carried out his original intention to become a farmer.

In 1879 Mr. Powell married Leurah Cottingham, a native of Kentucky, and they had six children: Chester E., Ernest C., Judith A., Mary, Rhea and Earl. Mrs. Powell died in 1891 and in 1909 Mr. Powell married (second) Martha Ficklen, a native of Missouri. His father was born in Virginia, while his mother was a native of Kentucky. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel­lows, affiliating with both lodge and encampment, and was vice grand of his lodge in 1911. Politically he adheres to the Democratic faith. Having at heart the welfare of the community, he is public- spirited in such measure as to make for the very best citizenship. He is essentially a self-made man who has prospered by industry and frugality at the expense of his brain and brawn and not to the cost of any of his fellow citizens. Some idea of his quality may be inferred from his recent assertion, not boastful yet delivered with an air of satisfaction: "I am fifty-three years of age and have never been under the influence of liquor."
                                                        

WILLIAM WHITAKER
In Connecticut William Whitaker, now of the Dinuba district in Tulare County, Cal., was born in November, 1833. His start in business life was as an axe-maker. Later he manufactured clothes­pins until about the time of the beginning of the Civil War. Responding to President Lincoln's first call for seventy-five thousand three months' troops, he enlisted in the First Regiment, New Hamp­shire Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into the service of the United States at Concord, N. H., in April, 1861. Later he re- enlisted in the Fifth Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war. During the period of his service he held all ranks from private to captain of his company, having been commissioned for the latter office just before his dis­charge. His first experience in battle was in June, 1861, and he was in thirty regular engagements with the Army of the Potomac, in­cluding the fighting at Petersburg and Gettysburg and in many skirm­ishes, passing through many perils, not the least of which were those incident to an explosion which he is not likely ever to forget. After the war he engaged in the lumber and sawmill business in Ashford, Conn. Later he devoted himself to farming, which he fol­lowed there until in 1899, when he came to Tulare County, where he has since made his home. His first purChase of land here was five acres, which he has since sold in town lots from time to time. He owned twenty acres at Yettem, eleven of which is in Muscat grapes, also five acres of Malagas. At this time he is practically retired from active business life. He keeps alive memories of the Civil war by membership with Shafter Post No. 92, G. A. R. Politically he is a Socialist. In his religious affiliation he is a Seventh Day Adventist. Besides his home at Dinuba he is the . owner of consid­erable valuable property in the East. His brother Edward W. Whitaker was promoted from his original place as private in the ranks, by successive advancements, to the office of brigadier-general in the Federal army in the Civil war and is now stationed at Wash­ington, D. C. Daniel Whitaker, another of his brothers, rose to be a captain and was killed June 17, 1863. He had another brother, George, in the Union Army, enlisting from California. Another brother, Horace Whitaker, who died in Stokes valley in October, 1910, unmarried, came to California in 1856, via Isthmus of Panama. He followed the stock business in Tulare County from 1858, and became a well known factor throughout the County, having won a suit over land title from the Southern Pacific Railway Company after being in litigation about twenty years.

In 1866 Mr. Whitaker married Ada Ferguson, a native of Penn­sylvania and she bore him six children: Mary J. married Wilbur Devoll and has four children. Ada became Mrs. Clifton Wright and died leaving three children. Eva married Clifton Church and they have two children. Etta married Charles McDonald and they have three children. Helen is Mrs. William Heffron, who is the only one of the children residing in California. Jesse L., the fourth in order of birth and the only son, met an accidental death in December, 1909. The wife and mother passed away in 1899 and in 1901 Mr. Whitaker married Mrs. Frances C. White.

                                                      

SIDNEY H WOOKEY
Among Hanford's most progressive business men is Sidney H. Wookey, proprietor of an enterprising hay and feed trade. It was at Fond du Lac, Wis., that Mr. Wookey was born November 19, 1861, and there he grew to manhood and obtained his education both in books and in the business which engaged his attention for many years. He began his active career in his native town as a contrac­tor • and builder and engaged also in the fuel trade. The latter became his sole business and he followed it with success until October, 1901, when he again turned his attention to contracting and building until 1906, when he located at Hanford,where he established a wood-yard and operated it until July, 1911, then selling it to the Hanford Fuel Company.

The retail hay and feed trade at Hanford now commands Mr. Wookey's ability and attention. His warehouse, which he erected in August, 1911, occupies a ground space of forty by ninety feet and af­fords storage for three hundred tons of hay. With his office, it con­stitutes a thoroughly adequate and up-to-date business plant, well appointed in every detail and equipped for the successful transac­tion of his large and constantly growing enterprise.

By his personal geniality and his "live and let-live" business methods Mr. Wookey has commended himself to the good opinion of the people living at Hanford and throughout its tributary territory, and the success which he has obtained is popularly regarded as but an earnest of the still greater successes which will come to him in the future. As a citizen he has in many ways manifested his loyalty and public spirit, and his neighbors at Hanford find him ever ready to yield generous support to any measure proposed for the develop­ment of the town or for the improvement of general conditions through the introduction of such economic provisions as seem to him possible. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
                                                     

BENJAMIN DONAGER, SR
Natives of Ireland have always been peculiarly welcome as immi­grants to this country and their prosperity here has equaled that of our native-born citizens. One of those who have been successful in the quest for home and prosperity in Kings County, Cal., was the late Benjamin Donager, whose widow and son own and operate the New Method Laundry in Hanford. Mr. Donager came to the United States in 1874 and after stopping for a time in Sacramento, came on to Tulare County and located at the site of Hanford, in the portion of that old County which is now known as Kings County. At that time Hanford had just been platted and offered for sale in lots convenient for building purposes. Mr. Donager became the local station agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and filled that poition ably and honorably until September 25, 1882, when he died. His marriage occurred in 1879 to Miss Hattie Coe, a daughter of Julius T. Coe.

It will be of interest here to say something of the career of Mrs. Donager's father. Julius T. Coe was born in Fulton County, N. Y., where he farmed in early life and later manufactured gloves. In 1874 he was attracted to California as offering a field for larger oppor‑
trinities and brought his family to a farm near Vacaville, Solano County. In 1876 he came to a tract of government land two miles south of the site of Hanford and his original purchase of one hun­dred and sixty acres of land was increased by the acquisition of other tracts until he owned two hundred and forty acres, which he managed and cultivated with fair success and which was his home until in 1884, when he died, aged sixty-four years. In his religious belief he was a Presbyterian, and politically he allied himself with the Re­publican Party. His wife, who before their marriage was Miss Cath­erine Simpson, also a native of Fulton County, N. Y., survived him, making her home in Hanford, until 1909.

To Mr. and Mrs. Donager was born a son Benjamin, Jr., June 10, 1880. He began his education in the public schools in Hanford, continued it at Santa Cruz and at Oakland, and took a commercial course at Heald 's Business College. He then found employment for two years with George West & Son and later for three years with Schnerger & Downing. In 1906 he married Miss Frances Kuntz of Hanford. Fraternally he affiliates with the Hanford organizations of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Improved Order of Red Men, the Woodmen of the World and the Native Sons of the Golden West.

In 1906 Mrs. Donager and her son started their enterprise, the New Method Laundry, installing it in a building fifty by ninety-two feet, which was erected for the purpose. It is a modern, well-ap­pointed structure, occupied entirely by their flourishing and constantly growing business. Besides doing fine laundry work they have a cleaning and pressing line. Their methods and machinery are thor­oughly up-to-date; they employ only experienced help and their relations with the public are based on the idea of the square deal. Their prosperity is in every way richly deserved.
 

FREEMAN RICHARDSON
During the last half century the laundry business has been developed to proportions which make it, in its peculiar way, one of the important industrial interests of the country. Among the leaders in this industry are many Californians, and among the best known of these in the central part of the state is Freeman Richardson, proprietor of the Hanford Steam Laundry, an auxiliary feature of which is his establishment for the cleaning and pressing of tailor-made clothing.

Mr. Richardson first saw the light of day in 1868, over the Cana­dian border line, in New Brunswick. There he was reared and edu‑
cated and from there he came in 1889, when he was about twenty-one years old, to California, locating at Fresno, where he worked in a laundry until. 1893. He then made his advent in Hanford and established the Hanford Steam Laundry, until 1900 occupying quarters on Front Street, which by that time became too small for his enter­prise, and he then moved into his present principal building on West Seventh Street. Later he erected an adjoining building and now has a ground space of fifty-eight by one hundred feet, equipped with modern machinery which is operated only by skillful laundry workers. His pressing and cleaning plant for gasoline work is located on Second Street, beyond the fire limit, and his laundry work as well as cleaning and pressing process are equally satisfactory to his large and growing list of patrons.

In 1903 Mr. Richardson married Miss Lola Manning of Han­ford and they have a daughter named Mary Eleanor. Fraternally, he is a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Benevolent and Pro­tective Order of Elks. As a citizen he has proven himself to be most patriotic and public spirited.
                                                     

J GRABOW
In the promotion of irrigation in central California the sinking of wells is an important factor and among the enterprising men giving attention to this industry is J. Grabow, of Hanford, Kings County, a native of Denmark, born in 1841, who came to the United States in 1881. He had learned the trade of well borer in his native country; his first employment here was as a farm hand, but it was not long before he was called upon to help bore for water, and the possibilities of well-drilling at once became apparent to him. Lo­cating at Paso Robles, he gave his attention to this work and was one of the first, if not the first, in the state to develop water by the hydraulic process for domestic use. He operated in that vicin­ity until 1903, then came to Hanford, where he has devoted himself to well-boring on a larger scale than before, having put down more than a thousand wells, among which were those of the Ogdens, the Armona Winery, Dr. Miller (on his dairy ranch), Mecfusse1-42f Hardwick), Richards (of Grangeville), fourteen on the Floribel ranch and others, all of which have been so successful in operation that they have attracted wide attention to his enterprise. Mr. Grabow finds that in this vicinity good water for domestic uses is reached sixty to one hundred feet below the surface of the ground.

In 1876 Mr. Grabow married Miss Nanny Heger, a native of Sweden, who has borne him seven children : Fannie is a school teacher at Coalinga ; Hans is his father's assistant in the latter's well-drilling operations ; Ellen married Fred Donohoo; Esther is a student at the Conservatory of Music at San Jose; two died in in­fancy; and Anna died at the age of twenty-one years.

The progressive spirit which has marked Mr. Grabow's persistent development of his enterprise commends him to the general public as one of the leading business men in the country round about Hanford. He has established a shop in which, during the past two years, he has made all the casing he has used in his wells. The metal which he most favors for use for this purpose is gal­vanized iron. In municipal affairs he favors and supports those measures for the betterment of local interests, and has come to be known as a most helpful and up-to-date citizen, who has the welfare of the community at heart.
                                                     

NAPOLEON PETER KANAWYER
Peter Kanawyer, the first of the name to come to California, brought hither his son, Napoleon Peter Kanawyer, when he was a lad of fourteen years. He was born in Indiana in December, 1849, and was a small child when the family moved to the frontier of Iowa and from that state came to California. The family settled near Sacramento and later were pioneers at Grangeville in Kings County, where they became well and favorably known. Mr. Kanawyer married Viola Blunt and she bore him three children. Napoleon mar­ried Cisly Collins and they have seven children: Napoleon, Doris, Cyril, Gertrude, Mervin, and twin babies, and they reside at Sanger in Fresno County. Thomas is next in order. Frances is the wife of Jay Robinson. Mr. Kanawyer died in 1908.

Thomas Kanawyer, the second son, was born in Tulare County, the part now set aside as Kings County, on September 26, 1.879. He was reared and educated in the common schools and with the family moved to Fresno County, settling near Dunlap. He married Miss Margaret Main, born in Fresno County February 20, 1882. They are the parents of two children, Viola Frances and Margaret Ruth. In 1910 Thomas Kanawyer purchased three hundred and ninety-five acres of land which he is clearing and developing. One hundred and twenty acres of it is tillable and the balance is in timber and pasture. He keeps about one hundred head of stock on his place and has about thirty-five hundred cords of marketable wood.

With his mother he is the owner of several jenneys which are used for pack animals, and he is otherwise assisting his mother in the care of the family homestead. As a farmer he has won a place for himself in his neighborhood and as a citizen has proven his worth as helpful to the general interests. He is a Republican in politics but has never sought office. Like his father, who was a well known citizen, he is giving his attention to the building up of his own fortunes and in aiding public movements to the best of his ability.
                                                   

HARVEY N DENNY
Born in Putnam County, Ind., June 25, 1834, Harvey N. Denny. whose residence is now at No. 602 North Church Street, Visalia, Tulare County, Cal., passed his early life on a farm in his native state. He and two of his brothers did duty as soldiers in the Federal army in the Civil war. Enlisting in the Fifty-first Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, he served under Major-General George H. Thomas until he was mustered out at Nashville, Tenn., June 18, 1865, during his service participating in many historic battles and in numerous minor engagements. Returning to his old home in In-. diana he was given charge of the old Denny homestead, which he operated six years, clearing $1,000 annually.
In1870 Mr. Denny married Miss Melissa D. II °skins. His wife's health failing, he sought relief for her in California, arriving in the spring of 1873, and here for twenty years, until his retirement a few years ago, he was engaged successfully in the undertaking business at Visalia. Mrs. Denny died in March, 1875, leaving a daughter, Carrie A. In a patriotic way Mr. Denny is deeply interested in everything that makes for the betterment of the community. He is a charter member of the Visalia organization of the Grand Army of the Republic and because of his many sterling qualities of head and heart is popular with the leading citizens of all sections of the County.
                                                     

C E FREEMAN
In Boone County, Mo., which has given several prominent citizens to this part of California, Clorie Elmer Freeman has horn March 20, 1879. When he was about twenty years old he came to California. His parents, James Monroe and Sarah Rosanna (Green) Freeman, natives of Missouri, are living in Callaway County. His father enlisted in 1862 in a Confederate regiment under Captain Price and served in the infantry until the end of the Civil war. When C. E. Freeman arrived at Dinuba, which is now a town of two thousand people, he found only one hotel, two general merchan­dise stores, a drug store, a livery barn and a few dwellings. The country round about was all under grain and the fields stretched clear down to the village limits. In 1902 Mr. Freeman bought fifteen acres near Orosi at $50 an acre. It was just plain wheat land with no vines. He has since planted thirteen acres to grapes, eight to Muscats, five to Sultanas, and in 1911. he sold eight-and-a-half tons of Muscats and five of Sultanas. He keeps ten head of live stock and has a small family orchard. Among the many improvements which he has witnessed in the country round about has been the introduction of a telephone system. When he came there was not a yard of telephone wire to be seen in any direction and now neatly every house is reached by this means.

In his politics Mr. Freeman is a Democrat, devoted heart and soul to the principles of his Party. He and Mrs. Freeman are members of the Baptist Church. She was Miss Lena Johnson, a native of Missouri, and they were married in Visalia in 1904. They have one daughter, Grace Ellen.
                                                    

EARL POWERS FOSTER
Not only a native Californian but a native of Tulare County, where he now lives, Earl Powers Foster was born November 4, 1867, the oldest of the six children of Leander P. and Hattie (Munson) Foster, four of whom survive. His father, who first saw the light of day in Vermont, settled early in life on a stock ranch in Tulare County, but later moved to a farm of three hundred and twenty acres near Atlanta, San Joaquin County, where he grew grain until in 1875, when he died. His wife, Miss Munson, whom he married in California, was a native of Maine. She came to the coast in her girlhood with Nathan Munson, her father, who lived out his days and passed away in Humboldt County. For some years she has made her home at Pacific Grove. She died November 26, 1912.

Only eight years old when his father died, Earl Powers Foster grew to manhood and gained a knowledge of farming on the Foster home­stead near Atlanta and later was a student at Woodbridge College. He came to Tulare County in 1894 and engaged in stockfarming and grain raising in which he has since been successful. He rented two thousand acres, two miles and a half southeast of Tulare, the property of James Turner, of San Joaquin County and popularly known as the Turner ranch. He farms six hundred and forty acres to grain, summer-fallows about two hundred and fifty acres a year and uses the remainder of the .property for pasturage, carry­ing about one hundred head of cows year after year.

The marriage, in 1892, of Mr. Foster and Sarah, daughter of James Turner and a native of San Joaquin County, has resulted in the birth of three sons, James, Powers and Forest Frederick. Their wedding was celebrated at French Camp, San Joaquin County. This California family of Turners was founded by John Turner, an Englishman, who settled in San Joaquin County, lived afterward in Stanislaus County and died in Tulare County at the advanced age of ninety-two years. His son James was a California pioneer of 1850, who came into this country with a Party that had made its way across the plains with an ox-team outfit. In his first winter here the mines yielded him $400, but he later engaged in teaming and in the spring of 1852 settled on a quarter section of land near Stock­ton, which he bought. He now owns two thousand acres of tillable land there, on a part of which he makes his home. In his politics he is a Republican, in his religion a Methodist. His wife was Hannah Blosser, a native of Pennsylvania, who died on their California home­stead in 1882. Jacob Blosser, her father, came overland from the east with oxen in 1850 and settled on raw land in San Joaquin County, and the closing years of his life were passed in Mendocino County.

Fraternally Mr.Foster affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and with the order of Fraternal Aid, holding membership in local organizations of these bodies whose stated meetings are held in Tulare. He has achieved remarkable success in his efficient handling of such extensive tracts of land and has taken rank among the leading business men in this part of the County, and is known to his fellow citizens as a man of public spirit who aids to the extent of his ability every measure proposed for the general uplift or for the advancement of the prosperity of his community.
                                                    

R M GRAHAM
It was in the Hoosier State that R. M. Graham was born in 1849. In the years of his young manhood he was a successful schglal teacher, then for many years he published the Boonville Standard, a weekly paper, at Boonville, in his native state, disposing of it in 1886 to come to California. Here, finding no opening in the pub­lishing line, he worked by the day on ranches and as a carpenter until eight years ago, when he went into the real estate business at Visalia, maintaining his residence at Lindsay. Three years later he established his office at Lindsay, where he has done a successful business to the present time. He has a beautiful orange grove of twenty-five acres and has given considerable attention to the growth of olives. As a citizen he is public-spirited to an eminent degree, and in a business way and otherwise he has done much for the pro­motion of the best interests of the community. In 1873 he married Miss Mary J. Hunsaker, a native of Indiana, who has borne him two children, one of whom has passed away. Joseph B. Graham, his father, was a native of Ohio ; his mother was born in Pennsylvania; both have passed away. He is the present city recorder of Lindsay, which office he has held since the summer of 1912. When he accepted this office he resigned as a member of the Board of Health of Lindsay. He is also ex-president of the Board of Trade and has ably filled the office of justice of the peace. Fraternally he has affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Lindsay since lie came to the town. He became a member of the order in Indiana in 1872 and has passed all the chairs of the subordinate lodge and been a representative in the Grand Lodge. In real estate circles he is widely known through his efficient management of the Central California Realty Company of Lindsay.
                                                       

DAVID H HICKIVIAN
Born in Missouri, March 6, 1877, the subject of this sketch is a son of Anthony G. and Louisa (Rose) Hickman, natives respectively of Kentucky and of Missouri. He lived in his native state, acquiring a good common school education, until he was about twenty years old, and then, in 1897, came to Tulare County, Cal., where he has lived during the past fifteen years, making an enviable record as a citizen, as a farmer, and as a man of affairs. The days of his youth were spent on a farm and in his new environment he naturally depended on the land as a source of livelihood. On coming to the state he at once apprehended the wonderful opportunities that it presented. In 1901 he bought forty-one and one-half acres, most of which he devoted to hay and alfalfa, reserving a few acres for pasturage. He bought a number of cows and began feeding them for their product. Later he made another purchase of eighty acres, of which he devoted thirty-five acres to hay, thirty to alfalfa and fifteen to pasture. During the last four years he has operated a cheese factory, and he manufactures thirty-six pounds of cheese per day from the milk of fifteen cows, keeping about this number of cows year to year and selling the increase for veal. His cows produce an average of fifty cents a day the year around for each animal, paving for themselves in about twelve months. Mr. Hickman is the owner of two of the finest mammoth jacks to be found in the County, each of which commands from $10 to $15 for service. He gives considerable attention to mules and during the past two years has sold ten mule teams at from $350 to $450 per team. Keeping seven good brood mares and eleven head of young horses he raises several good mule teams each year. One of the most notable of the animals owned by Mr. Hickman is an Australian shepherd pup which has but three legs, being minus one leg and shoulder in front.

In politics a Republican, Mr. Hickman is also a Prohibitionist. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World and he and members of his family are communicants of the Baptist Church. He was married at Orosi to Eunice Dye, who bore him three children: Marie, Kathleen and Rita May. Marie is a student in the public school at Orosi. Mrs. Hickman died January 6, 1912.
                                                         

WALTER D MURRAY
Near Palo, Linn County, Iowa, Walter D. Murray, a son of Alex­ander and Jane (Morris) Murray, natives of Ohio and Massachu­setts, respectively, was born March 8, 1865. When he was twenty years old he went to Beadle County, S. Dak., where he lived five years. In three successive years during that time he did all that was possible for him to do as a farmer. The first year his crops were destroyed by hail; the second they were killed by drought. In the third year he garnered a good crop, with the proceeds of which, minus what he used to pay his debts with, he came to Cali­fornia. Locating in Tulare County, he engaged in the raising of goats, in which he continued six years, at one time owning twelve hundred Angoras, ranging them in the Sierra Nevada's on eight hundred acres he owned. Later he bought thirty acres of land one mile east of Sultana. During the last ten years much of his land has been under alfalfa, which he has been able to cut four times each season without irrigation. He runs a dairy of eight cows and keeps twenty head of horses and mules and about thirty-five hogs. When he started in the goat business he had one hundred and twenty-five head, for some of which he paid as high as $7.50 each and the others cost him $3 a head. He sold the mohair at thirty- five cents per pound, the larger animals yielding twelve and the others eight pounds each. Politically Mr. Murray is a Republican, and as a citizen he has demonstrated a fine public spirit. Frater­nally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, Mrs. Murray with the Women of Woodcraft. They were married in South Dakota in 1886, and she has borne him four children, Florence, Lionel, Samuel and Reba. Florence and Lionel are graduates of the public school and Samuel and Reba are now acquiring their education. Mrs. Murray was, before her marriage, Miss Nina Perry. She was born in Wisconsin.
                                                       

ALEXANDER W WHEELER
Sons of Illinois, a field of enterprise and of patriotism, have with few exceptions done well in California. In La Salle County, in the Prairie State, Alexander W. Wheeler was born October 7, 1859, a son of William and Elizabeth (Brown) Wheeler. His parents were na­tives of England and his father was a graduate of Oriel College at Oxford.

In public schools near his boyhood home, under his father's able direction, Alexander W. Wheeler obtained a practical education. In 1880 he came to California and was employed for a time in a fruit orchard at San Leandro, Alameda County. Later he was in the ser­vice of the Baker & Hamilton Company at Benicia. He came to Tulare City with his brother February 1, 1882, and bought a carriage and blacksmith shop which was doing business in the town, his brother hav­ing been his partner in the enterprise. Later they sold the plant and Alexander W. Wheeler went to a point near Tipton, on the plains south of Tulare City, and devoted nine years to grain farming Re­turning to the town he was in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company until, in 1893, he bought a furniture business in Tulare, which he has conducted with increasing success till the pres­ent time. He has recently erected a fine business building, after his own designs, on North K Street. The structure occupies a ground space of fifty by one hundred and twenty-five feet, and his store room is eighteen feet from floor to ceiling without any obstructing posts. The building is thoroughly modern, with attractive plate glass show windows. He carries an extensive line of fine furniture, and sells not only to people of Tulare but to hundreds of families in all the country round about who come to him confidently for good goods at fair prices.

In his fraternal relations Mr. Wheeler affiliates with the Masons and the Odd Fellows and has passed nearly all the chairs in Olive Branch Lodge No. 269, F. & A. M., and Tulare City Lodge No. 306, 1. 0. 0. F. He has from time to time been brought to general notice through participation in public affairs, notably as a juryman at the trial of the Dalton brothers, train wreckers, some twenty years ago. In 1883 he married Miss Mattie B. Holcombe, a native of Ohio. Her father, who came to Tulare County in the early '70s, was a pioneer merchant at Tulare City and was for a time identified with the interests of the Southern Pacific railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have a daughter, Claire J.
                                                  

CHARLES F STAYTON
In San Joaquin County, Cal., Charles F. Stayton was born October 29, 1859, a son of John F. and Martha (Hawkins) Stayton, natives. respectively, of Missouri and Tennessee. His father, who had fought in the Mexican war, crossed the plains with ox-teams in 1852 from Independence, Mo., by way of Westport and old Fort Bridger, thence on by way of the Sublett cut-off and the sink of the Humboldt to Hangtown and Sacramento, the trip consuming between five and six months' time. Indians were a constant menace, but did the Party little damage. After his arrival in California he began to buy stock, which he drove to the mining camps and sold. In 1869, five years after he had come to California, he went to Utah, where he mined till in 1887. Next he traveled to the White Mountains in New Mexico, where he was engaged in lumbering and mining. He died December 31, 1911. at the home of his daughter at Kingsbury while on a visit in California, aged eighty-seven.

In 1869, when his father left Tulare County, Charles F. Stayton was ten years old. In 1873 he went to herding sheep for John Tuohy, a pioneer in San Joaquin and Tulare counties, who owned at different times from five thousand to fifty thousand sheep. His favorite breed was the Spanish Merino, and he paid as high as $50 for single animals of pure blood and often sold rams for $50 each, ewes for $10 each. The thoroughbred sheep yielded an average of twelve pounds of wool to the fleece, and the others eight. After packing and herding for about eight years Mr. Stayton turned his attention to grain farming. and after ten years of that he went into the stock business. After another ten years of success in that field he took up vine and fruit growing in Tulare County, buying twenty acres, fifteen of which is in Muscat grapes. He has a small family orchard started, and from four-year-old vines made a satisfactory crop of grapes in 1911, selling eighteen tons of raisins and three tons of other grapes. A private means of irrigation cheapens his production quite materially.

Politically Mr. Stayton affiliates with the Republican Party and his active public spirit makes him very useful to the community. He married, near Porterville, Ella M. Mankins, a native of California, whose father was a pioneer here in 1852. Following are the names of their nine children: Lawrence, Clarence, C. Forest, Arthur, Mary, Belle, George Gordon and Ruby and Ruth (twins). Lawrence lives at Klamath Falls, Ore. All the others are residents of Tulare County. Arthur was accidentally killed by drowning in 1910.
                                                      
CHARLES J CARLE
It was in Mariposa County, Cal., that Charles J. Carle, now of Lindsay, Tulare County, was born in 1858, a son of Andrew Jackson Carle, a pioneer of 1849, who died in San Francisco in 1866, and whose wife died in 1878. He was a small child when he was taken from Mariposa County to San Francisco by his parents. In 1868 he was taken to Sonoma County and lived at Healdsburg until 1869, then went to Illinois. where he remained two years. After that he was employed three years on his uncle's farm at Newcastle, Pa. Returning to Illinois, lie remained there five years, during which period he was for a time a student at Butler University. Coming back to California, lie lived in San Francisco in 1879 and 1880. The ensuing two years he passed as a clerk in the employ of different merchants in Inyo County. The next two years he spent in the market business in San Francisco, whence be moved to Santa Clara County, where he remained twelve or fourteen years, including eight years at Milpitas. In 1893 he bought twenty acres of land at Lindsay and planted five acres of it. Four years later he removed to Lindsay. That was in the fall of 1897. He settled on his place near there and has planted it gradually to the present time, having at this time one hundred and twenty-five acres of orange orchard and about four hundred and fifty acres of raw land. He was an original stockholder and a manager of the El Mirador Land Company, which was organized about 1904, and has been handling about five thousand acres of land. He helped also to promote the Lindsay Orchard and Vineyard Tract of fifteen hundred acres, in which lie owns a one-sixth interest.

The sons of Mr. Carle are named William Ashley and Jackson Tyler Carle. Both were born at Lindsay. The former is thirteen years old, the latter is ten years old, and they are both in school at Lindsay. The father has served as a school director and has in many ways demonstrated a helpful public spirit. Fraternally he is a Mason of the Royal Arch degree and is a Knight Templar of Visalia. When he came to Lindsay there were no orchards in this part of the County except one of forty acres that had been planted by Mr. Cairns.
                                                 

FRED M BARNEY
In Gouverneur, St. Lawrence County, N. Y., Mr. Barney was born September 10, 1884, a son of B. L. Barney. He came to Kings County, Cal., in 1891, when a boy of seven years, and attended the public and high school until he was twenty, graduating from Hanford high school in 1905. He then took up a government homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, to which he has long since obtained title, and he farms one hundred and sixty acres of land owned by his father, located three miles east of the city. While devoting himself somewhat to general farming, he raises fruits and grapes and specializes on hog raising, the breeding of mules and dairying. The farm is outfitted with a good residence, ample barns, stables and other outbuildings and up- to-date appointments such as are required. Mr. Barney studies his business very carefully, gives close attention to every detail and is very successful in his business operations.

Mr. Barney takes an intelligent interest in all that pertains to the welfare of the township and County, and is well informed and has decided opinions concerning all matters of public policy, state or national. He has in many ways demonstrated a helpful public spirit. On November 16, 1911, he married Margaret Kautenberg. He is a Master Mason, belongs to the Eastern Star and is devoted to Masonic principles and mindful of all precepts of the order.
                                                    

ALBERT GALLATIN OGILVIE
Ohio has contributed as generously to the good citizenship of California as any other state in the Union, and the quality of its contribution does not suffer by comparison with that of any other. Albert Gallatin Ogilvie, a son of Ohio, who has become successful in Tulare County, Cal., was born in Delaware County March 25, 1856, a son of Johnson and Margaret (Norman) Ogilvie, who were born and brought up in Coshocton County, in the Buckeye state. He was an attendant of a country grammar school near his home until in 1874, when he was eighteen years old.

Early in life Mr. Ogilvie familiarized himself with the details of farming and of the development, handling and sale of nursery stock, and these interests have commanded his attention during most of his active life. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, the Knights of Pythias and the Artisans. In his religious ad­herence he is a Methodist, having identified himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Alhambra, Los Angeles County, Cal. Politically his alliances are with the Republican Party. Taking a deep and abid­ing interest in everything that pertains to the welfare and prosperity of the people of California and the United States, he has believed that they could be promoted better through the activities of that Party than by means of any other influence. Personally his public spirit has been many times exerted for the good of the community. In fact he is responsive to every legitimate demand upon him in behalf of the general prosperity.

June 21, 1896, Mr. Ogilvie married Mrs. Sarah Frances (Jasper) Askin, daughter of James A. and Margaret E. Jasper, their marriage
having been solemnized at Lemon Cove, Cal. He has children named as follows: Harry J., who married Cora Blackburn; Addie F., Howard J., Laura A., Benjamin A., William J., Oscar 0., Fred N., J. Raymond and J. Alden. Harry J. and Addie F. were born of a former mar­riage. By her first marriage Mrs. Ogilvie had three children: Elbert Leroy Askin ; Margaret Myrl, now the wife of Frank L. Atwood, and Dora Bernice.
                                                      

BYRON GLOYD COMFORT
One of the successful and scientific farmers in the vicinity of Han­ford, Kings County, is Byron G. Comfort, who has been a resident of the County since 1887. He was born at Palatine, Ill., June 17, 1863, and attended public schools near his home until he was seventeen years old. Then he found employment on farms and saved a little money with which he came to California and eventually settled near Hanford. His farming here was successful and he was soon enabled to buy a ranch of one hundred acres on which he has lived since 1902. He gives his attention to hog raising, dairying and general farming, making a study of his land, the climate, the crops and of everything that can in any way influence productiveness, and it is probable that he has met with as few failures as any farmer in his vicinity.

In 1886 Mr. Comfort married Miss Carrie H. Drullard, who was born in Stockton, Cal., February 22, 1864. They have four children living, here named in the order of their nativity: Elvira G., Almer B., Ward R and Wayne M. Of much public spirit and with a real desire for the uplift of his community, Mr. Comfort has commended himself to his fellow townsmen as one who may be depended on to advance to the extent of his ability any movement which in his opinion tends to the general good.
                                                    

LEVI BLOYD
The prominent contractor and builder of Hanford whose name is above was born in Sutter County, Cal., April 22, 1864, and was quite young when his parents came to what is now Kings County and located four miles west of Hanford, where his father homesteaded a quarter­section of land and bought a quarter-section of railroad land. There Levi grew up and attended the public schools and later farmed until 1898, since when he has lived at Hanford. He learned the carpenter's trade with David Gamble and was with him seven years as foreman.

For a time he was employed at cement work and afterward with the San Joaquin Light and Power Company. Because the latter employ­ment kept him much of the time away from home, he gave it up and turned his attention to contracting and building, and since that time has built many residences, among which are some of the finest in Hanford and vicinity, those of Lyman Farmer, I. R. Horton and E. Pickrell being among them. While his operations have been confined principally to buildings of this class, he has done other work, including the fixtures and show windows in the Brown & Nieson store, those of the Hanford Hardware Co., and improvements on the Stewart pack­ing house. In the cement department of his work he has his brother, Winfield S. Bloyd, as a partner. He employs several carpenters and several cement workers. As his merits as a contractor and builder become known he is brought constantly into a larger and yet larger demand, and there are those who predict that his operations will in time surpass in volume those of any other builder in the County in his peculiar fields.

On March 4, 1886, Mr. Bloyd married Miss Rose Ellis, a native of Stanislaus County, Cat, who had come to Kings County, and they have a daughter and two, sons. Hazel married William Tyler, and they re­side in Kings County ; they have a daughter, Rosalee. Raymond is becoming a machinist at Hanford. Stanley is a student. Mr. Bloyd is a member of the Fraternal Aid and of the Improved Order of Red Men. As a citizen he is public-spiritedly helpful.
                                                  

R J ESTES
In Alabama, January 16, 1865, was born R. J. Estes, who lives on the Orosi rural free delivery route No. 1, Box 64, Tulare County, Cal., a son of Jack and Jane (Berry) Estes, who when he was about a year old took him to Mississippi, where they were early pioneers, settling thirty miles from any other human inhabitant. There young Estes grew to manhood, obtained some little education and was initiated into the mysteries of backwoods farming and familiarized with all the sports of a new country, including hunting, of which he became very fond. His father procured most of the living for the family in the woods. It has been estimated that he killed thousands of deer and many thousands of turkeys. It is certain that he made quite a deal of money from deerskins. He attended many turkey shoots and was usually the winner of most or all of the prizes offered. He lived out his days there and died in 1901. His wife survives him and is now living on their old homestead in Mississippi.

Until he was twenty-six years old, R. J. Estes lived in Mississippi. He married there Miss Anna Watson, who was born in Alabama and who has borne him a daughter, Troy Estes, who was graduated from the Visalia high school in 1902 and is married to Van La Port, a native of Iowa, and has a son, Wytbal La Port, who is a student in the public school of Bakersfield. Mr. Estes came to California in 1890 and began farming in Tulare County. He is working eighty acres of the Vacovich land, having sixty acres devoted to grapes, twenty acres to oranges. His ranch is outfitted with everything essential to its successful cultivation and all the improvements have been installed by himself. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and with the Fraternal Aid. He is a member of the Christian Church, generous in support of all its interests. Politically he is a Democrat, thoroughly alive to all economic questions of the day and public spiritedly solicitous for the welfare of the community.
                                                    

MIKE V GARCIA
A native of the Azores, M. V. Garcia was born June, 1861. He is now a highly esteemed citizen of Tulare County, living one mile south of Sultana. He grew up and was educated near the place of his birth and in 1882, when he was twenty-one years old, came to the United States, landing at Boston. From there he came to Alameda County, Cal., where lie raised sheep two years. Then he made his advent in Tulare County and broadened his operations until he had one of the notable sheep-herding enterprises in his vicinity, handling French and Spanish Merinos and other fine grades, which he was able to dispose of at a large profit. At one time he owned five thousand sheep, at another he raised twenty-five hundred lambs in one season. In those days the sheep industry was at high tide. The country was new and unimproved and antelope, bear and deer were to be seen in all directions and all kinds of game were plentiful in the mountains. He remembers having made what he calls "a summer trip" into the Blue mountains and back to Fresno. His outdoor life brought hini many strange acquaintances, and he knew Sontag and Evans very well and was the only witness of their capture. He relates how Evans went over to Mrs. Beekin's and Sontag was killed. These desperadoes were often at Coalinga, and menaced every good citizen. Though they did not molest Mr. Garcia personally, he has said: "I was glad to get out—I did not know what was under ground." He often saw the Dalton brothers and he remembers when they went through Antelope valley.
Eventually Mr. Garcia sold his sheep, five thousand head, at from $3.75 to $5 a head, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he operated from 1901 to 1910, then sold for $24,800 cash. In all the business transactions here referred to Mr. Garcia demonstrated that he was a man of ability for large affairs. He has identi­fied himself with American institutions and is a member of the Re­publican Party, but inclined to be independent. Fraternally he affili­ates with the Masons and with the U. P. E. C. As a citizen lie is public-spiritedly helpful to all good interests of the community.

On the day of the San Francisco earthquake, April 18, 1906, Mr. Garcia was married by telegraph to Francisca Silva, an old sweetheart in the Azores, at an expense of $36. She died December 30, 1907. His present wife, whom he married December 2, 1911, was before their marriage Miss Mariana Tavaz, also a native of the Azores, who had come to the United States on the same vessel as her husband .and was married in Boston. In 1911 Mr. Garcia left California and began a year of travel through the United States and the old country, meeting with many people and investigating social conditions. He finally came to the conclusion that California offered inducements unsurpassed and returned here and purchased twenty acres of land, part of a tract he had formerly owned. Here lie has begun improvements and is making a comfortable home.
                                                     

CHRIST S HANSEN
Many natives of Denmark have made good in central California and in Tulare County, though not one has achieved higher repute for all that makes for the best American citizenship than Christ S. Hansen, who is making a success of vines and fruit trees two miles and a half northwest of Orosi. Descended from old Danish families. Mr. Hansen was born December 23, 1874, and was reared and educated in his native land. He was about thirty years old when, in 1904. he came to the United States. California was his objective point and he lived a year in Fresno, where lie arrived with his wife and two children with a cash capital of $50. However, he bought his present ranch of forty acres at $125 an acre and has partly paid for it and in many ways improved it. He has thirty acres in Muscats, Thompson and Emperor grapes, a peach orchard of one and one-half acres, and sold in 1910 twelve tons of Thompson and Muscat raisins and about thirty tons of Emperor table grapes. He has five head of stoek on his place. As a farmer he is proceeding along scientific lines and is winning an enviable success. Politically he is a Republican, and Mrs. Hansen is a voter in the same Party. They are members of the Presbyterian Church. His public spirit makes him helpful to all good interests of the community. He married, in 1899, in his native land, Miss Sene Nelson, and they have children named Carla M. and Ester, who are students in the public school at Orosi.
                                                       

LEWIS BRUCE
The science of osteopathy has made a place for itself among recognized curative agencies, and the practitioner of osteopathy is en- trenched as firmly in the good opinion of the general public as are the regular practitioners of medicine and surgery. A leader in its field in Kings County, Cal., is Lewis Bruce, whose office is in the Shar­pies building in Hanford. A native of Cass County, Iowa, born De­cember 5, 1878, he received his elementary education in public schools near the home of his youth. In 1899, just before he became of age, he entered the Dr. S. S. Still College of Osteopathy, at Des Moines, Iowa, where he was graduated in 1902, and during the vacation which followed he took special courses in orificial surgery and gynecology. He began the practice of his profession at Greenfield, Iowa, in Feb­ruary, 1902; and in June, 1903, came to Hanford, where he has devoted himself to general practice with much success, specializing in chronic diseases.

As a business man the subject of this notice is coming to the front in different ways. He is a director of the Lindsay National Bank at Lindsay, Tulare County, and owns an interest in a citrus nursery near Riverside, Riverside County, on which are thirty thousand trees. For a time he was engaged in raising racing horses of good blood and capabilities. He owned Beauty N. (trotting record, 2:23), also Sir Valentine, a three-year-old colt which in 1911 took the first premium as a two-year-old and holds the championship over all other standard-bred stallions of any age. Dr. Bruce was one of the incorporators in 1912 of the Blue Ribbon Manufacturing Company, with $100,000 capital, to be located in Hanford; the principal article for manufacture will be the Blue Ribbon pump.
By his marriage with Olive L. Peterson, of Iowa, in 1903, Dr. Bruce has a daughter, LaVerne Gloria. As a private citizen he takes a deep and abiding interest in all that pertains to the advancement of his city, County and state, and he has often manifested a public spirit responsive to all reasonable demands upon it.
                                                      

ELIAS T COSPER
Indiana has given to California many popular and successful men, among them the prominent lawyer and man of public affairs whose name is above. It was in Noble County, that state, that Elias T. Cosper was born, May 12, 1849. He was educated in public schools in his native County and at the LaGrange Collegiate Institute at Ontario, LaGrange County, Ind., having been graduated from the last-­named institution about 1870. For a time thereafter he taught school in Indiana, Ohio and Iowa, and so successful was he in this calling that he was made superintendent of the school at Lima, Ind. By this time his reputation was so well established that his services were sought as superintendent of the schools of LaGrange County, in which office he served two terms with efficiency and honor. Meanwhile he had determined to become a lawyer and was already well read in the principles of the profession. Finishing his law studies under the preceptorship of J. D. Ferrall of LaGrange, he was admitted to the bar of Indiana in 1878. After eight years' successful practice there he located in Tulare, Cal., in 1886, opening an office, afterwards asso­ciating J. F. Boller with him as partner, and this relationship con­tinued four years. He was elected to represent his district in the thirty-third session of the California legislative assembly, in which, as well as in the special session in which the Hon. Thomas Bard was elected United States senator, he served with distinguished ability and credit. Meanwhile he had moved from Tulare to Hanford, where, after the expiration of his legislative service, he formed a law part­nership with H. P. Brown, which existed two years, since when he has been in independent practice with offices located in the Emporium building. From the time of his settlement at Tulare he was promi­nent in Republican politics and eventually was made chairman of the County Republican central committee, an office which he filled for sev­eral years while acting as a member of important committees of that body.

As a lawyer Mr. Cosper has had to do with a large number of important cases. His defense of Ike Daly, the murderer, is a matter of record as well as of history. He also appeared in the defense of Frank Smith and of Ward, the burglar, and bore a conspicuous part in the water cases of Lovelace versus the Empire Insurance Company and the C. A. Reagan and Patrick Talent will contests.
In 1884 Mr. Cosper married Miss Sarah Moore, at LaGrange, Ind. Their son, Volney B., of San Francisco, is superintendent of the Sartorious Structural Steel and Iron Company's works. Their (laughter, Laura M., is the wife of H. L. Bradley of San Antonio, Tex. Mr. Cosper became a Mason at LaGrange, Ind., and is a member of Hanford Lodge No. 279, F. & A. M. It was at LaGrange, too, that he became an Odd Fellow. Here he affiliates with Hanford Lodge No. 264 and with Encampment No. 68, and with Truth Rebekah Degree Lodge No. 326. Court Reges of the Independent Order of Forestetf includes him in its membership. His interests in the advancement and development of Hanford early made him a promoter of the Chamber of Commerce idea for the town and he is a member of the present local body, as he was also of earlier organizations of similar aims. As a communicant of the Episcopal Church he has at heart the various interests of the local organization and has for some time been an active member of its vestry.
                                                     

HENRY AND PHILENA A MURPHY
The well-known breeder of horses, hogs, sheep and cattle, whose name introduces this brief notice, was born in Dennison, Clark County, Ill., in 1836, and when lie was three years old he was taken to Wood­ford County, in the same state, where his parents established a new home. There they lived until 1854, when Henry was eighteen years old. Meanwhile he had attended school as opportunity offered and had acquired a practical knowledge of farming as then prosecuted in that part of the country. In the year last mentioned the family went to Iowa. There Mr. Murphy lived until 1860, when he went to Pike's Peak, Colo. After leaving Colorado in May, 1863, he took a pack train to the gold mines in Montana, and after selling his outfit took up mining. In February, 1864, he opened up the first paying claim on Alder creek, in Pine Grove district, six miles above Vir­ginia city. The claim was a good one, yielding $40,000 returns. He took his gold to Philadelphia to the mint to be coined, and was there when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. After disposing of his gold to a Broadway banker in New York city, Mr. Murphy went to Barton County, Mo., where he purchased considerable land and erected two stoneware pottery plants at Lamar, Mo. In 1880 he erected the finest cut-stone building in Barton County. Two years later he engaged in the grocery business in Lamar and subsequently he removed to Volsey, S. Dak., remaining there two years, when lie came to California and settled on the north fork of 'Pule River, where be now makes his home. This property was inherited by Mrs. Murphy, it formerly belonging to her father. The property comprises eight hundred acres, and this Mr. Murphy is operating with much profit. giving special attention to horses, hogs, sheep and cattle. So exten­sive is his business that he has become known as one of the leading stockmen in his part of the County.

In 1879 Mr. Murphy married Philena A. Bailey, a native of Ohio. When he came to the County it was mostly wild land and he was one of the pioneers in improvement in his vicinity. He has watched the development of this now rich region and has done whatever was pos­sible to encourage and promote it. To those who best know hiin it is well known that no. legitimate appeal to his public spirit is .unheeded. While he is not active in political work he entertains very definite convictions concerning all questions of public policy, and always favors such men and measures as he believes promise to confer the greatest good upon the greatest number. Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have no children of their own, but have taken into their home and brought up and educated ten orphan children.
                                                             

CHARLES HENRY HOWARD
A man who is well regarded in Hanford and Kings County is Charles Henry Howard, who formerly had to do with ranching and with the oil industry, and who will be remembered for his prominence in the partition of the County. Maine is the native state of Mr. How­ard, his birth occurring February 3, 1850. He attended the common schools of the Pine Tree State, which from time immemorial has been famous for its public educational system. When he laid away his school books it was to take up the implements of the carriage builder and in time he became expert in their use, setting up for himself as a carriage builder at Brownsfield in Oxford County, western Maine, where he prospered until the spring of 1884, when he came to California. In the fall of the same year he located in Hanford and for the succeeding eighteen years he most efficiently filled the position of superintendent of A. L. Cressy's ranch, a mile from the city. His principal concern there was with respect to stockraising, and he soon developed into one of the best informed, most careful and most pro­ficient stockmen in central California.

While Mr. Howard was thus employed he bought forty acres of land three and a half miles southwest of Hanford which he developed into a profitable vineyard and which has been for some time operated by tenants on sharing terms. He also made some investments in oil property which turned out quite well. In 1884 he married Miss Addie F. Harmon, a native of Maine, who passed away December 21, 1910. Gifted with all of the natural progressiveness of the down-east Yankee and imbued with the spirit of western progress, Mr. Howard has been interested in everything pertaining to the development of his community and helpful to all local interests.
                                                            

CLAUDE D COATS
One of the prominent farmers and stockmen in the Paddock dis­trict, eight miles southwest of Hanford, Kings County, Cal., is Claude D. Coats. Mr. Coats was born at Dayton, Nev., December 9, 1860. a son of Thomas Coats, who was until the end of his career a leader in mining enterprises in that part of the country. The family II-adbeen at Fort Churchill four months during Indian troubles and were returning to their home in Virginia City, stopping at Dayton to look after some mining business when their son was born. In October, 1881, after his father's death, Claude located a mile east of his present ranch. He and his brother L. B. Coats rented one hundred and sixty acres and were associated in farming and stock-raising for fifteen years. Meanwhile Claude D. Coats bought two hundred and forty acres, which is included in his present home property. He moved onto the ranch in 1890 and has since made all the improve­ments for which the property is well known throughout the County. While his principal business is the raising of horses and hogs, he does some farming and has one hundred and twenty acres in alfalfa. Some years ago he bought and sold seventy-three and one-half acres about a mile distant from his homestead.

By his marriage in June, 1902, Mr. Coats united his life and fortunes with those of Miss Mattie Finley, a native of Contra Costa County, August 29, 1864, but a resident of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County. They have many friends in the country round about Han­ford who rejoice in their success thus far and express the firmest faith in their future. Mr. Coats is a man of much natural public spirit who is interested in the growth and development of Kings County.
                                                     

JOHN V CREATH
In his successful career as a contractor and builder, John V. Creath, whose place is at the corner of I and King Streets, Tulare, in the California County of that name, has demonstrated the value of originality and initiative. He is a native-born Californian and his life- began in Merced County in 1873. He was only a baby when his family moved back to the place in the East whence they had come out to the West. In 1888, when he was about fifteen years old, he went to Phoenix, Arizona, where he engaged in mining and as opportunity offered worked at the carpenter's trade. He came to Tulare in 1906 and has risen to prominence as a contractor and builder. Among the structures which are monuments to his enter­prise and industry are the Post Office building at Tulare, the Moore block and the Dairymen's Co-operative Creamery building. He con­structed the concrete dam across the Tule River near Porterville, built twelve buildings on the Tagus ranch, built several houses in Lindsay, built a set of buildings on the R. F. Gearing ranch and another on the MeGarver and Walker ranch. In fact, he makes a specialty of designing plans for complete sets of ranch buildings which he erects so substantially and artistically that they attract attention and pro­claim his talent and skill as nothing else could do. In addition to the achievements mentioned he has erected many buildings of differ­ent kinds throughout the country. In 1911 he built twelve houses on unimproved property in Tulare City. His business gives constant employment to from ten to twenty-five men and requires the use of two automobiles. In the winter of 1912 he built the town of Graham, twenty-five miles west of Fresno, for B. F. Graham.

October 9, 1895, Mr. Creath married Miss June B. Allison, who was born in Illinois, and they have children named Ralph, James, Florence and Donald. Mr. Creath is identified with local lodges of Eagles, Red Men and Woodmen of the World. He is too busy to take active part in political work, but has a good knowledge of public questions, local and general, and a well defined opinion as to how he should vote in order to further the best interests of the people at large.
                                                  

MRS. CATHERINE LOUISA TRAUT
In Livingston County, state of New York, June 10, 1836, the lady mentioned above, a citizen of Hanford, Kings County, Cal., was born and in the state of Pennsylvania she grew to womanhood. May 23, 1860, she married Henry A. Traut, a native of Girard, Erie County, Pa., born August 14, 1830. In 1890 they settled at Texarkana, Ark., whence in 1898 they came to Kings County, Cal. They lived at Grangeville when they came to the County and later bought five acres of land in the Emma Lee Colony and remained for about seven years, engaged in raising fruit and farming. In 1903 they sold out their California interests and returned to their old home in Pennsylvania for a visit, but came back to California before the end of that year, and in 1904 bought twenty acres half a mile north of the north limits of Hanford, a portion of which was in orchard, the balance pasture land. In 1906 they sold ten acres of this tract, retaining ten acres, which is now the home of Mrs. Traut.

It was at Girard, Pa., already mentioned as his birthplace, that Henry A. Traut was raised. When he was twenty-one years old he came to California, where he mined for eight years. Then, returning to Pennsylvania, lie married and engaged in farming and merchandising. Eventually he removed to Arkansas, where he con­tinued to sell goods until his failing health made it necessary for him to come back to California. Here he gave his attention to fruit growing until his death, which occurred May 7, 1907. Socially he affiliated with the Masons, and lie and his wife were identified with the order of the Eastern Star from the time of coming to Kings County. They early identified themselves with the Methodist Episcopal chitvgll. -­Their one child, Minnie, died aged five years, in 1866. Mrs. Traut was a daughter of Samuel L. and Hannah (Crooks) Buckbee. Her father died soon after the beginning of the Civil war. There were many bushwhackers in the neighborhood at the time of his funeral and his family found it advisable to conceal from them the fact of his death. Those were strtnuous times in Missouri, when the Buckbee family was then living, and it was understood by Mrs. Traut and her friends that Confederate marauders had decorated their bridle reins with scalps of Federal sympathizers. Thomas J. Buckbee enlisted at Chillicothe, Mo., in 1861, in the Federal cavalry, with which he served during the war. His brother David enlisted in 1861 also and served three years in the same Missouri regiment, then, instead of re-enlisting, came home to care for his aged mother. Thomas was the eldest and David was the second brother of Mrs. Traut.
                                                           

PARKER RICE BROOKS
In the old state of Georgia, in the heart of the South, P. R. Brooks, now of Sultana, Tulare County, Cal., was born September 24, 1857, a son of Micager and Susan (Sansing) Brooks, both natives of Georgia. While he was yet an infant he was taken by his parents to Texas, where the family lived a short time. In 1858, with ox- teams, they made a six months' journey across the plains to Califor­nia. They met many Indians, but were not seriously molested by them. Young Hambrite of the Party was drowned in crossing the Colorado River. The Brooks family arrived at Porterville in the fall of the same year and they have lived in this part of the state ever since. The father of the family was a stock-raiser and for some time owned many sheep.

P. R. Brooks was a stockman from 1868 to 1893. Later lie bought a homestead in Yokohl valley, one hundred and sixty acres of new land, and from time to time other tracts in the valley and in the hills near by. At the time he was proving up on his land the country was new and wild, with cattle, sheep and horses ranging in all directions. He has watched the progress of civilization and the agricultural changes that have developed Tulare County into vast fields of grain with vines and trees that are making it famous, not only as a farming district, but as a wonderful land of grapes and oranges. For several years past he has lived in Sultana, but has given his attention to important interests in the vicinity. On two tracts of leased land, one of one hundred and twenty acres, the other of three hundred and twenty acres, lying in the valley, he has hatched twenty-five hundred turkeys and has at this time fourteen hundred and fifty. He has forty acres near Sultana, purchased in 1901, which he calls his home, thirty acres of it in vineyard and orchard, the remainder in pasture. For the past thirty years he has given attention to turkeys, raising many each season. Since Jan­uary, 1912, he has resided upon his home place and is looking after that with the care he has always displayed. When he began here there was plenty of wild game in the country, including elk, of which he saw more than one thousand specimens, and the territory now within the limits of the County had not a population of more than two thousand souls.

In his politics, Mr. Brooks, formerly a Democrat, now inclines to Socialism. He married, near Hanford, Miss Ellen Burr, a native of Shasta County, Cal., who has borne him seven children:Myrtle the wife of Clyde Bursford, Harry, Lillie, Dwight, Minnie, Josephine and Carmen. Josephine is attending school at Fresno.
                                                            

JAMES MAXWELL CANN
September 1, 1861, James Maxwell Cann was born in Kentucky. In 1880, when he was not yet twenty years old, he went to Missouri, where he remained until 1886. His parents were John Miller and Margaret Franklin (Calhoun) Cann, of English ancestry. He mar­ried, near Visalia, Tulare County, Miss Lizzie L. Howell, who was born near Bozeman, Mont., and they have two children. Lewis H. studied at St. Mary's College, Oakland, and is playing professional baseball known as "Mike" Cann; Margaret J. is attending the State Normal school at Fresno.

Soon after his arrival in this County, in the spring of 1886, Mr. Cann found employment in cutting grain with a combined harvester. In 1887 he was employed in a flouring mill and for several years thereafter was in the grain business, for different companies. There was little business then in the country round about except the rais­ing of grain. At Sultana he was later employed in a grain warehouse until his fruit on his ranch had grown to the paying point, he having carefully nursed it in the meantime and done something toward the development of his land otherwise. His property is located in the Alta Irrigation district, the ditch for which was completed about twenty years ago. The district itself was established in 1889. Before the days of irrigation, land could have been bought for $2.50 an acre. With irrigation started, land cost Mr. Calm $37.50 an acre for open stubble field without improvement. He planted thirty acres to Malaga and Sultana grapes and has five acres of Elberta peaches. His Malagas have brought him $200 to $300 per acre, his Sultanas have yielded a ton and a quarter to the acre. His experience covers all of the latter-day development of this district, he having seen raw land hereabouts increase in price from $2.50 to $200 and $250 an acre in twenty-five years.

Having cast his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland in 1884, Mr. Cann has been a consistent Democrat to the present time. In a fraternal way he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. Mrs. Cann is identified with the Women of Woodcraft and with the Eastern Star, and is a communicant of the Christian Church.
                                                       

L W BARDSLEY
This native of Missouri was brought to California by his parents when he was seven years old, when the family of Lafayette and Mary Bardsley, after a short stop in Sonoma County and another in San Diego, located in Poway valley. There young Bardsley grew to man­hood and obtained an education in the public schools. He labored there principally at farming until he was twenty-five years old, when he rented a ranch near Santa Ana, Orange County, which he de­veloped and operated with profit in connection with several pieces of land which he had rented, raising alfalfa and conducting a dairy until December, 1904, when he came to the neighborhood of Tulare. He bought eighty acres of the E. DeWitt ranch, on which he put all improvements including a residence, farm buildings and fences and made of it ,a fine dairy on which he keeps about twenty-five cows and raises and handles calves and horses for the market, incidentally keep­ing about twenty hogs ; he is well known for his fine Holstein cattle. Sixty acres of his land is in alfalfa and he has a two-acre peach orch­ard, and the remainder is devoted to his stock. He was one of the organizers and is now one of the directors of the Dairymen's Co­operative Creamery company of Tulare and is a stockholder in the Tulare Rochdale association. Besides having achieved success as farmer and dairyman, considerable notice is given to his fine Percheron horses, which he is breeding more and more extensively each year.

In 1895 Mr. Bardsley married Miss Maude E. Hartzell, a native of Iowa, daughter of the late Capt. T. B. Hartzell of San Diego, and who had become a resident in the Poway valley. They have a daughter, Zoe L. Bardsley. Fraternally Mr. Bardsley associates with the Red Men, the Woodmen of the World, the Eagles, and with the Indepen­dent Order of Odd Fellows, in which last order he holds member­ship in lodge and encampment and with the Rebekahs. As a citizen he is helpfully public-spirited.
                                                       

WILLIAM B WEST
The late William B. West, of Tulare County, Cal., was born in Henry County, Mo., in September, 1837, and died at his home in Por­terville, October 13, 1903. He was reared in his native state and remained there until 1875, devoting himself to farming. His parents were natives of Kentucky, representatives of that old Southern stock that has done so much honor to American citizenship in successive generations. His wife, Ellen M. Gordon, also of Kentucky ancestry, was born in November, 1841, in Johnson County, Mo., a daughter Dr. Presley and Margaret (Wingfield) Gordon, and their union dated from March, 1857. She bore him five children, of whom only one is living. Rowena married William Moore and died in Tulare County; Thomas G. died at Visalia; William P. died in Tulare County as the result of a railroad accident, and Eunice also passed away in Tulare County. Nancy E. married Elias McDarment and is living near the Indian agency in Tulare County.

Mr. West and family settled near Porterville in 1875 and re­mained here up to the time of his death. He owned forty acres of land on Deer Creek, remained there six years, then moved to Porter­ville, which remained their home until he located on eighty acres in the Poplar district. He also invested in business and residence prop­erty in town. Mrs. West managed the ranch after her husband's death until September, 1912, when she sold out and moved to Porter- vine. When she and her husband came to California, in 1875, the country round about Porterville was very thinly settled and im­provements in that part of the County were very few. Together they watched and assisted in the wonderful development that transformed Central California from raw territory to a vast garden of almost incalculable riches. She has seen the price of land in her vicinity advance from $20 an acre to $200 an acre and she owns town property at Porterville worth now more than $10,000, for which her husband paid $450 in the latter part of the '80s. Mr. West was highly respected by the many who came to know him and won an enviable reputation as a man of public spirit who was ready at any time to do anything within his ability for the uplift and development of his community. He was road overseer and helped build the roads in his locality. His widow is maintaining his enlightened and liberal policies.
                                                        

SCHNEREGER & DOWNING
The house of Schnereger & Downing, bottlers and distributors of beer at Hanford, is one of the leading concerns of its kind in Kings County, Cal., the partners in the enterprise being Joseph Schnereger and Thomas Downing. Mr. Schnereger came to Hanford in,1885 and bought the soda bottling works of M. Hegele, which he con- ducted with success until 1899. It was in 1890 that Mr. Downing came to the town. For several months after his arrival he worked at his trade as a bricklayer, but in 1891 he began to bottle and whole­sale beer and his business was increasingly profitable until 1899, and at that time Messrs. Schnereger and Downing combined their interests and consolidated their two establishments. So wise was this departure that they not only abolished mutual competition, but put them­selves in a way materially to enlarge their combined interests. They have the local agency for the Wielands and Rainier beers, which they bottle and distribute throughout Hanford and its trade territory. They are owners of valuable business property in Hanford and Mr. Schnereger is a director of the Old Bank. There is no interest of the town, no proposition for the public uplift that does not have the moral and financial support of these two enterprising and progressive citizens.
                                                        

WILLIAM STANTON BROWN
January 9, 1859, William Stanton Brown, who now lives a mile west of Hanford, Kings County, Cal., was born in Henry County, Mo., a son of William and Sallie Ann (Davis) Brown. They had a daughter, Mattie, who is the wife of David Pearson, of Hollister, Cal. The father died in Callaway County, Mo., in 1864. In 1865, W. H. Davis, Mrs. Brown's father, came across the plains to California, and in 1867 Mrs. Brown came out by way of the Isthmus of Panama, bringing her son and daughter. They had to take the train from Mexico, Mo., for New York, via St. Louis and Chicago, and embarked on the Henry Chaucer for Panama, thence to San Francisco on the Sacramento, arriving on December 3, 1867. They located in Stanislaus County, where Mr. Davis farmed and later he established a ferry across the Tuolumne River, which was in operation before the bridge was built at Modesto, in 1869. He had made his first stop in California at Stockton, farming one year, then he took up a half-section of land, in 1867, and farmed in Stanislaus County.

From 1872 to 1875 W. S. Brown did farm work near Woodville, in Tulare County, then lived a year with his grandfather at Modesto, attending school. Returning to Tulare County, he located at Grangeville and was employed on different farms until 1887. During the period, 1887-90, he rented what is now the Kimble prune orchard. Then he set out and improved a prune orchard of two hundred and forty acres, of which he was foreman until 1893. In 1893-94 he worked the Ayers ranch near Grangeville, and in 1894 moved onto twenty-three acres two miles west of Hanford, which he had bought in 1891. After two years' residence there he rented the Bardin ranch of four hundred acres, which he farmed 1897-1903. About that time he bought eighty acres of that property. In 1905 he bought forty-six acres adjoining his other ranch. In 1909 he built a fine two-story house on his eighty-acre tract. In 1912, with Lee Camp, he bought eighty acres of the S. W. Hall ranch, two and one-half miles south of Hanford, all in peaches, prunes and vineyard. He has fifty acres in vineyard, forty-five acres in peaches and apricots, has improved his property in every way, and gives attention to general farming. From time to time he has interested himself in noteworthy enterprises and he is now a stockholder in the California State Life Insurance company. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. In 1891 he married Miss Jennie McCamish, a native of Henry County, Iowa, and a daughter of the late R. B. McCamish, of Orange County, Cal.
                                                     

LEO LEONI
One of the successful farmers of Hanford and vicinity is Leo Leoni, who was born in Canton Ticino, Switzerland, in 1865. He remained in his native land until 1884, when he came to California and located in what is now Kings County. For five years after his arrival he was employed as a farm hand, then renting land in various parts of the County at different times, engaged in grain farming for himself. After several successful years he made his first purchase of land, consisting of twenty acres near Grangeville, which he set out to fruit and grapes. As he prospered he kept adding to his holdings from time to time, buying, improving and selling, and in 1906, purchased forty-two and one-half acres west of the city limits of Hanford, which is now known as the Pfeil tract. At intervals he sold a greater part of this acreage, retaining his home place, which he now occupies with his family. Mr. Leoni buys and sells real estate, is a stock­holder in the Farmers' and Merchants' bank of Hanford, has other interests of various kinds; and in many ways shows his public spirit.

In 1906 Mr. Leoni was united in marriage with Lena Onesti, a daughter of A. Onesti, and a native of Tulare County. They are the parents of two children, Milton and Verna.
                                                   

HON. E DEWITT
The busy, useful and patriotic citizen of Tulare County whose patriotic interests and unusual executive ability have won him much commendation throughout the County, is E. DeWitt, who was born in Kentucky, February 5, 1844. His family left that state when he was a mere boy, and coming to California in 1859, his father lo­cated with his household at Red Bluff, whence removal was later made to Colusa County. There young DeWitt lived until 1872, when he was about twenty-eight years old, and from that time until in 1877 he was in the dairy business in Nevada. Then, coming to Tulare County, he located on government land near Deer creek, where he lived two years. In 1879 he settled on eighty acres just east of Tulare on which he lived until 1893, when he moved into the city and made his home until in 1908, farming meanwhile near that town. In the year last mentioned he moved to his present location, two miles and a half southwest of Tulare, which consists of three hundred and sixty acres of land which he had bought in 1903. He has since sold all but one hundred and twenty acres of this land and now has eighty acres in alfalfa, the balance in grazing land.

Politics from the point of view of the Democrat has commanded Mr. DeWitt's attention since he was a young man. He has served many years as a member of the Democratic County Central committee and was elected to represent his district in the state legis­lature at the session of 1885 and the extra session of 1886. He is a member of the board of directors of the Tulare Irrigation district, and as such has served ably for eight years, and he superintended the building of the Kaweah canal and in a general way has been influential in the work of canal and ditch construction.

In 1870 Mr. DeWitt. married Margaret Ford, of Yolo County, and they have children as follows : Marcus of Porterville ; Mrs. Edmondson of Tulare; Mrs. Frank Ellsworth of Tulare ; Mrs. Joseph Sherman of Visalia ; Mrs. Gertrude Evans of San Francisco, and H. C. DeWitt.
                                                    

ROBERT P FINCHER
It was in Kansas, the Sunflower state, that Robert P. Fincher was born June 3, 1857, son of Nelson and Paulina (Moore) Fincher, and there he lived until in 1862, when the family removed to California. As a forty-niner the father had visited that state before, coming overland and returning by way of the Isthmus, and had mined three years in Shasta, Sacramento and Placer counties. Now he brought his family overland, with a train of one hundred and eight wagons. Homesteading one hundred and sixty acres of land in Stanislaus County, seven miles northeast of Modesto, he lived there twenty-five years. He then sold out and went to Fresno, where he passed away April, 1908. He was a native of North Carolina; his wife, who died in 1887, was born in Tennessee. There were born to them six daughters and five sons, all of whom are living. Alice is the wife of Prof. C. P. Evans of San Diego. Mary married G. D. \Vootten, of Santa Cruz. Jesse M. lives at Madera and Nancy is the wife of John High of that city. James, Letitia, Francis, Elizabeth, Vetal and Matilda live at Fresno.

Robert P. was reared at Modesto, where he remained until 1876, when at the age of nineteen he took up the battle of life for him­self in Modoc County, where he was employed by Captain Barnes for a year as a buyer of cattle and a breaker of horses. After that he came home and in 1879 went to Nevada, where he bought and sold cattle until in 1881, when he came back to Modesto and purchased a ranch near Oakdale, where he farmed five years. Mean­time, in 1882, a dry year, he went to British Columbia and for a time worked on a railroad near Westminster. Later he was employed for a while in a lumber camp near Seattle. Returning to Modesto in 1885 he worked his land until 1888, when he sold it and removed to Fresno, where he farmed until in 1890. Then he came to Tulare, now Kings' County, and during the succeeding eighteen months was surveying land and locating settlers, until he took up land for himself near the lake. This he soon sold to William Hammond and went to work for L. Hansen. Then for three years he farmed land which belonged to Mr. Sharples. Next he moved onto the Woodgate place, which adjoins the Sharples ranch, where he lived until he bought ten acres of Mr. Hansen near his present home­stead. He let this land go back and moved to Fresno and man­aged his father's ranch one year. Returning to Kings County he farmed Judge Neiswanger's place ten years. In the meantime he bought one hundred and sixty acres of the Stone ranch, on which he. raised cattle three years, developing the land as rapidly as he was able. He sold this property and in 1908 bought his present ranch of eighty acres, eight miles southwest of Hanford. He has eight acres under vines and the remainder of the land is given over to alfalfa and pasturage. He has erected a fine residence, a good barn and other farm buildings and gives much attention to the breeding of cattle and hogs. In 1912 he purchased eighty acres five miles from his home place, which he intends putting in alfalfa.

In 1888 Mr. Fincher married Miss Minnie Hansen, a native of Germany, who had lived at Stockton and Modesto. They have had four children : Nelson, Mabel, Edna and Forrest. Nelson and Mabel died in Fresno. Edna was born in 1889 in Tulare couty, and Forrest was born in 1891.

Of the first Sunday school of the Methodist Church organized northeast of Modesto, Mr. Fincher was a member. It was organized in his father's house and his parents were influential in bringing it into existence. He was a student in the McHenry district school, the first school organized in Stanislaus County, and has during all his active life been a friend of education and a man of public
spirit. Fraternally he affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the encampment and canton, and passed through the chairs of these organizations.
                                                           

MARTHA J BUCKBEE
Since Martha J. Buckbee has made her home with her cousin, Mrs. Catherine Louisa Traut, of Hanford, Kings County, Cal., she has been known and beloved by many citizens of Hanford and vicinity. She was born in Livingston County, N. Y., and was reared there on one of the large farms for which the Genesee valley is famous. Her parents were Edmund and Hannah (Clark) Buckbee. She has lived at the Traut homestead since October, 1909, when she took up her residence in Kings County. In 1905 Mary E. Buckbee, a sister, came to California, hoping to benefit her health, and found a home with Mrs. Traut, who cared for her with more than sisterly solicitude until her death, which occurred August 25, 1910. Before coming west the sisters Martha J. and Mary E. sold the old Buckbee homestead in New York. The former is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and during her residence here has affiliated with the Hanford congregation.

The only brother, Charles Buckbee, enlisted at the beginning of the Civil war in Company E, Eighty-fifth Regiment, New York Vol­unteer Infantry, which regiment contained many recruits from Livingston County. After three years' service he veteranized by reen­listment, and was soon taken prisoner and confined in Andersonville prison, where he was kept for more than a year, and while being removed to another prison died as the result of starvation. During a portion of his service his regimental commander was Col. T. J. Thorpe, who is now at the Soldiers' Home at Sawtelle.
                                                        

JESSE THOMAS TURNER
The native son of California whose name is above is a son of an overland pioneer of 1849 who is now living in San Joaquin County, and was born near Stockton, September 8, 1850. His education was ob­tained in the public schools and at a business college at Stockton. He assisted his father, James Turner, in the latter's farming operations, until in December, 1884. The elder Turner had bought the Hyde tract of fourteen hundred acres in 1881 and another tract of nine hundred acres in 1884. From the beginning of 1885 until 1897, Jesse Thomas Turner farmed an average of about one thousand acres of his father's land on shares, the remainder of the large holding being devoted to livestock, including cattle and hogs, and to summer fallow. In the fall of 1889 he bought four hundred and seven acres east of the Porterville road, and later he bought thirty acres more adjoining his first purchase. In 1897 he improved the place with a residence and other necessary buildings and has since made it his home and his sole field of agricultural enterprise. He has thirty acres of alfalfa and twenty acres of vineyard and usually devotes one hundred and ten acres to grain, though in some seasons he has given a good deal of attention to black-eyed beans His vineyard produces fine raisin- grapes which he dries, selling an average of twenty tons annually. Though not making much of a specialty of stock, he raises cattle, horses and a few good hogs. During recent years he has rented one hundred and ten acres of his father's land, across the road from his own property, on which he has grown grain.

November 30, 1907, Mr. Turner married Mrs. Ada Ellis, who has a son by a former marriage. As a Mason he affiliates with Olive Branch lodge, F. & A. M., of Tulare, and is included in a Royal Arch chapter.
                                                         

JAMES R BEQUETTE
Conspicuous among those ambitious men who are fast coming to the front in Tulare County is that native son of the County, James R. Bequette of Lemon Cove, who was born near Farmersville, in 1861. His education in the public school, which was well begun, was interrupted when he was fourteen years old by the death of his father, a native of Missouri, who was a California pioneer of 1852. The years after that event which otherwise would have been devoted to his books he was obliged to spend in laboring for his living. His first independent ventures were in stock-raising, with which he was long successful. In 1909 he went into the fruit business and has since set out many orange trees, his entire place being now devoted to that fruit.

In 1891 Mr. Bequette married Miss Carrie McKee, a native of Missouri and a daughter of the late John McKee. Mrs. Bequette has borne her husband two daughters, Rita and Velma. The former was educated at the Lemon Cove public school. and at the Exeter high school and is now in her seventeenth year. The latter, now n his fourteenth year, is attending school at Lemon Cove. Mr. Bequette's mother was a native of the state of New York. Mrs. Bequette's mother lives at Lemon Cove.

Fraternally Mr. Bequette affiliates with the organization of Artisans at Lemon Cove. While he is interested in political questions from the point of view of the intelligent voter, he is not a practical politician and has never aspired to public preferment. He votes at all elections and usually deposits a Democratic ticket. In a public-spirited way he has always been devoted to the general interests of the community.
                                                              

JACOB V HUFFAKER
In Morgan County, Ill., Jacob V. Huffaker was born February 23, 1845, the eleventh in a family of thirteen, and passed away at Visalia, June 16, 1909, in his sixty-fifth year. His mother died when he was young and he was early compelled in a measure to look out for himself. He accompanied his father to Texas, where he herded cattle until in the spring of 1861, passing most of his time in the saddle. As a member of Captain White's company of three hundred and sixty-six wagons, he made the overland journey to California by way of the Platte and Snake Rivers through Western Washington and Oregon, and arrived in California seven months after leaving his old home, having experienced many hardships on the way. The Party was three days and nights crossing the Snake River, which they accomplished by caulking their wagons, thus transforming them practically into skiffs, which not without considerable difficulty they ferried over the stream. From time to time they met wandering bands of Indians, with whom they had fierce encounters, and Mr. Huffaker, being an experienced sharp-shooter, was able at one time to save the life of a companion named Wells.

At Visalia, Mr. Huffaker began his career in California as a breaker of wild horses and a herder of wild cattle, and in 1871 he rented an old stable at $25 a month and embarked in the livery business. In 1882 he bought property of S. C. Brown on South Church Street for $1600. From time to time he took an interest in important enterprises at Visalia, where he was regarded as a representative citizen of much spirit and where he built up an enviable reputation as an honest, energetic, enterprising man of affairs. Fraternally he affiliated with Four Creek lodge No. 94, I. 0. 0. F., and with the Ancient Order of United Workmen.

In 1871 Mr. Huffaker married Miss Palestine Downing, a native of Missouri, and a daughter of Joseph and Louisa (Bell) Downing. Her father settled in Sacramento County and later farmed a year near Visalia. He died in Squaw Valley, in 1894, aged seventy-five years, his wife passing away in 1909, aged eighty-six years. Following are the names of their children: Mrs. Jacob V. Huffaker and Mrs. Clementine Weishar, twins; Mrs. Sarah Stout, of Fresno ; William; Eli; and James. Mrs. Huffaker bore her husband these children:   William H.; Frederick E.; Joseph Edward ; J. Arthur ; Mrs. Elsie L. Dollner, and Harold P. Surrounded by children and friends, highly respected by all who know her, she is passing her declining years in her home at No. 530 North Court Street, Visalia.

 

History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches
History By Eugene L Menefee and Fred A Dodge
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
Transcribed by: Martha A Crosley Graham - Pages  631 - 671

                                                              Site Created: 14 January 2009
                                                                  Martha A Crosley Graham
                                                                    Rights Reserved - 2021                                                                              

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