USA > California > Merced County > A history of Merced County, California : with a biographical review of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 49
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Since locating in Los Banos Mr. Dismukes has entered into the spirit of the growing West and served as city treasurer when the town was first incorporated. He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board of trustees twice and was then elected to the position; and so favorably have his efforts impressed the citizens that they have re- elected him to the position three different times. During his terms in office nearly all of the important movements have been pushed through to completion, the new sewer system installed, the streets paved, and the water system purchased from the Miller & Lux interests, greatly extended and improved. When the sewer bond issue of $30,000 was passed, his name was written 4800 times on the bonds.
Mr. Dismukes was married in Athens, Ga., in 1894, to Miss Susie Mae Patman. There was one daughter born to them, now Mrs. Agnes Ethleen Sneed, of Stockton, Cal. Mr. Dismukes is a prominent Odd Fellow, holding membership in Mountain Brow Lodge No. 82, I. O. O. F., in Los Banos, and is also a member of Newman Encamp- ment, Modesto Canton, and Los Olivas Rebekah Lodge No. 214, of Los Banos. He was the prime mover in organizing the I. O. O. F. Hall Association, and was selected for its first president in 1917. He was the moving spirit in raising the money to build the first unit of their fine hall in 1917, erected on lots purchased by the Odd Fel- lows some years previously ; and in 1921 he negotiated the loan from the Bank of Italy to erect the second unit of their building and make a home for the postoffice, which occupies the building under a ten-year lease. When the office was moved from the shack it had been occupy- ing for about two years to the new location that year, he mailed the first letter posted in the new office in December. The financial arrange- ments of the Odd Fellows building have been such that the debt is being fast reduced and there will be a surplus on hand to meet neces- sary repairs and purchase equipment for the lodge when the debt shall have been lifted. Mr. Dismukes has served as clerk of the Los Banos High School board for nine years. He is treasurer of the board of stewards of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, served as super- intendent of the Sunday school for fifteen years, and assisted in financ-
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ing the erection of the new church edifice in Los Banos. In fact, his standing as a responsible business man has had much to do with his selection by his fellow citizens to assist in almost every movement for bettering conditions in general; and his friends are legion.
WALTER B. COOPER
A citizen of much worth, Walter B. Cooper is highly esteemed by all who know him. Since coming to Gustine in 1907 his influence has been felt in the upbuilding of the best interests of the town and he has won a position of prominence among the representative men of the community. He was born in Berlin, Wis., on March 11, 1861, a son of George and Lucy M. (Frankish) Cooper. George Cooper was born in Derbyshire, but reared in Nottinghamshire, England, was a wagon-maker by trade and came to the United States in 1848, landing in Buffalo, N. Y. He removed to Rochester, Wis., where he followed wagon making. Still later he went to Berlin, Wis., and engaged in the wagon and carriage making trade; he built 3000 wagons in Berlin, and he was the inventor of the hub machine used in turning out wooden hubs for wagons and which was very generally adopted and used by wagon manufacturers throughout the United States. In connection with his trade he built a sawmill, at that time the largest in the State, at Winneconne, Wis., operating it success- fully. His wife came from Lincolnshire, England. The Cooper family left Wisconsin and settled in Mantorville, Minn., where the father continued his wagon and carriage manufacturing. One year later he lost his factory by fire, and in 1865 the family settled in Kasson, Minn., where Mr. Cooper operated a manufactory. Sixteen children were born to this worthy couple, of whom but four survive, namely : Frank M .; Tryphena, now the wife of William Hall ; Minnie, now Mrs. Anderson; and Walter B., our subject. In 1884 the father retired from active business cares and in July of the same year passed away at the age of seventy-one, the mother lived to be seventy-five years old, passing away in 1894.
Walter B. Cooper received a grammar and high school education in the schools of Kasson, Minn., and while growing up learned the wagon and carriage-making trades. After his father's death he took charge of his eighty-acre farm in Minnesota, which he conducted for one year. After leaving the farm he opened up a paint shop in the building formerly occupied by his father. In 1904 he came to Cali- fornia and first located at Fresno, where he followed the painter's trade three years. Then he located in Gustine and that year built the first section of his paint shop and as his business expanded, the fol-
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lowing year he built another section; he has since followed painting contracting and enjoys a good business in his line. He is an inventor of note, having five valuable inventions to his credit. He is now working on a new electric sign and four other inventions.
At Kasson, Minn., April 28, 1900, Mr. Cooper was married to Miss Lydia G. Johnson, native of Sweden, daughter of Peter and Caroline (Hallstrom) Johnson, farmer folk in their native land of Sweden. There were ten children in this family : Emma C .; Maria W., deceased; Albert; Alfred; Johannes; Lydia G., wife of our subject; Trofit; Axel, deceased; Leonard, deceased; and Hjalmar, deceased. Both parents are now deceased. Mrs. Cooper received her education in the public schools of Sweden. Upon her arrival in the United States she located in Nebraska, then resided in Cheyenne, Wyo., and later in Big Timber, Mont. In 1899 she returned to Sweden for a visit, remaining for one year, when she came to Kasson, Minn., and the same year was married to Mr. Cooper. Mr. Cooper is a Republican in politics, and fraternally is affiliated with Romero Lodge No. 413, I. O. O. F. of Gustine. Mrs. Cooper is a member of the Rebekah Lodge of Gustine.
LEWIS HAMER APPLEGATE
A retired rancher and banker of Merced County, who had a pro- minent part in the development of ranch land and farming in the county, Lewis Hamer Applegate is a native of Ohio, born December 21, 1844, the son of Perrine and Susan (Frybarger) Applegate, natives of New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, respectively, who became the parents of sixteen children. Lewis H. was reared on his father's ranch and attended the common schools of the district, and the Go- shen Seminary, after which he taught school until he came to Cali- fornia, in 1870. His first year after arriving in this State he spent in and about Stockton. In 1872, he came to Merced County, but stayed only a short time and later farmed near Turlock, Stanislaus County, until 1875. That year he returned to Merced County to stay, and rented land six miles east of Merced. In partnership with David Toal, he next leased the George Fancher ranch of 1160 acres on Bear Creek, and raised grain. This was nine miles east of Mer- ced, and was his home and the center of his operations for thirty years. Mr. Applegate became a large landowner, having 1340 acres at one time. He owned a section of land one mile from Atwater, a forty-acre alfalfa ranch in Fresno County, and a twenty-acre ranch in Yosemite Colony. His present holdings are the Muller and the Kerry places, 600 acres, and a forty-acre ranch on Bear Creek. He made many improvements on the above ranches, erecting ranch build-
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ings and adding to the conveniences of the houses. His ranch pro- perty is now rented and he lives retired from active business cares, though still acting as a director of the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Merced.
Always active in the upbuilding of his section, Mr. Applegate was prominent in the Grange, serving as Master for three years, and is a Past Master and Overseer. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a man to be relied upon at all times to help in the general advancement of his community. Two brothers and a sister of Mr. Applegate were residents of Merced County. William Applegate, now deceased, farmed a part of his brother's land, and was prominent in politics, being at one time a candidate for sheriff of Merced County. John P. Applegate, another brother, now de- ceased, also farmed a part of Mr. Applegate's land. One sister, Miss Addie Applegate, now residing in the East, was prominent in church work, being a deaconess of the Methodist Episcopal Church for over twenty years.
It is men like Lewis H. Applegate who are the bulwarks of our nation, and in their lives and labors are found the real reason why we have advanced to such a leading part in world affairs in the past half century; for the work of each individual of his caliber goes to make up the whole of a prosperous country, and nothing is impossible of accomplishment with such shoulders to the wheel.
LEWIS B. WILSON
A prominent rancher and stockman of Merced County, and the descendant of a pioneer of '49, Lewis B. Wilson was born in Stock- ton, Cal., April 10, 1883, the only child of L. P. and Martha A. (Field) Wilson. A résumé of their lives will be gained from the fol- lowing extracts, copied from newspaper items, printed in memoriam of the late L. P. Wilson at the time of his death, in 1907, and show- ing the high esteem in which this venerable pioneer of the San Joaquin was held :- -
"Pioneer of '49 Joins Silent Majority on the Other Shore
"L. P. Wilson, known among his friends all over the county as 'Hookey' Wilson, died this morning at his home on the Bouquet ranch, ten miles north of Snelling. Mr. Wilson had been quite sick for some time, and as he was eighty years old, his passing was not un- expected.
"The deceased was born in New York, but came to California with the gold-seekers in 1849, across the plains. He first settled on the San Joaquin River, but after a short time moved to Merced Falls,
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where he ran the ferry. Later he moved to Snelling and engaged in the hotel business, and a few years afterward located on the Bouquet ranch, between Snelling and La Grange, which was his until the time of his death.
"Mr. Wilson cast his first vote at Snelling in 1850. He was an Odd Fellow for forty-four years, and was a man highly esteemed and respected by all who knew him. He leaves a widow and one son, L. B. Wilson. A more extended account of his life will appear in the Sun in a few days. The funeral will be held in Snelling tomorrow (Thursday ) morning at 10 o'clock."
The following is an account of a visit made by Mr. Wilson to Stockton, in 1906 :- "L. P. Wilson of Merced, the man who built the first schooner to sail the upper San Joaquin River, is in Stockton on a visit to his brother-in-law, A. D. March, and to old friends. Mr. Wilson is 79 years of age and is familiarly known to old-timers as 'Hookey' Wilson. He came to Stockton before there were any houses here and when the only residents of the place were camping in tents along the levee. He is an old-time friend of Andrew Wolf, and the two pioneers spent last evening in driving about the city, Mr. Wolf pointing out the many improvements to Mr. Wilson. Mr. March's wife is the sister of Mr. Wilson's wife.
"Messrs. Wilson and March visited the Record office last evening and the pioneer recounted many interesting experiences here.
"Mr. Wilson, then but a boy, came to Monterey on the United States man-of-war Ohio in 1848. With some of the other jackies, who had caught the gold fever, he deserted, and they made their way on foot toward San Jose and then through the Livermore pass to this valley. The others went on to the mines, but Mr. Wilson re- mained on the San Joaquin River, where now the steel bridge is at what, up to the time the bridge was built, was known as Shepherd's ferry. Three men-Doak, Bonsal, and Scott-were then operating a ferry-boat across the river at that point, and Mr. Wilson hired out to them to operate their ferry-boat. They charged $1 each for ferry- ing men, mules, or packs over the river. For six weeks Mr. Wilson operated the ferry and took in $600 a day during all of that time, in- cluding Sundays.
"Then he and Mr. Scott cut down oak trees growing on the river bank there and whipsawed the logs into lumber and built a trim little oak schooner, which they christened 'San Joaquin.' In their schooner they sailed down the river, which in those days was a broad, deep stream, to San Francisco, where they sold the craft for $3000 in gold dust, and with the gold on their backs started to walk back. They ar- rived with their gold safely after many hardships and adventures,
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during which Mr. Wilson lost one boot and was forced to walk with one foot bare.
"About that time a lumber vessel sailed up the San Joaquin to the mouth of Marsh Creek on the West Side near Byron, and Mr. Wilson went there and bought a part of the cargo. He lashed the lumber into a raft and floated it up to Stockton on the tides, eight days being consumed in the trip. He had 110,000 feet of lumber in his raft, and he sold it for a good price in this city, which was then but a camp. It was the first lumber brought here, and from it the St. Charles Ho- tel, the first hostelry in Stockton, was built. It stood where the C. N. & I. Co.'s steamer landing now is."
In the spring of 1850 Mr. Wilson moved from Stockton to Mer- ced County, where he resided until his death. He took the first threshing outfit to that county, having purchased the machine in Stockton, and he also established the oldest ferry in the county, at Merced Falls. Later he moved to Snelling and engaged in the hotel business, and a few years afterward located on the Bouquet ranch, which remained his home and still is the family home. On December 13, 1874, occurred the marriage of L. P. Wilson and Martha A. Field, and Mr. and Mrs. Wilson resided in Snelling until 1878, when they moved to the Bouquet ranch. Mr. Wilson cast his first vote in Snelling in 1850; in 1865 he became a member of Willow Lodge, No. 121, I. O. O. F., of Snelling, and continued as a member of high standing in the order until his death, which occurred in his eightieth year, leaving a widow and one son, Lewis B. Wilson.
Lewis B. Wilson was brought to Merced County as a boy, and at- tended the Anderson district school. Brought up on the home ranch, he early learned the rudiments of ranching, and has brought the property to a high state of cultivation; it comprises 320 acres, a por- tion of the old Bouquet Rancho, and is now owned by his mother, who has a life interest in the estate.
Like his esteemed father, Mr. Wilson has been prominent in Odd Fellowship, having joined in 1904, and he is a Past Grand of Wil- low Lodge No. 121, and has served as a delegate to Grand Lodge conventions many times. He is a Past District Deputy, serving in 1909-10 in District No. 56 under Grove L. Johnson. Deeply and actively interested in the advancement of his home town and county, he votes on all questions which come up before the public, and gives his support to those measures he thinks best calculated to further de- velop its resources and advance its general welfare. He has one daughter, Miss Grace Wilson, now attending the Modesto schools.
JOHN WESLEY GIBBONS
A worthy pioneer whose record for public service will long be remembered was John Wesley Gibbons, owner of one hundred acres
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of choice land near the edge of Merced Falls, where he resided and engaged in stock and poultry raising. He was born in Mississippi, on October 27, 1858, the fourth of seven children, and the eldest son of Walter Seth and Martha (Appling) Gibbons. Walter Seth Gibbons was a planter, slave-holder and a veteran of Lee's army, having lost his left eye in battle. He served throughout the war, and then married Martha Appling, whose three brothers, R., Edwin and John, were Forty-niners in California. Edwin Appling returned to Mississippi at the close of the war and in 1868 removed to California with this family and relatives, the party being twenty-eight in number. They came via Panama and on the Pacific side were passengers on the steamship San Diego. This proved to be her last successful voyage, for on the next trip she went down when well out of San Francisco, many lives being lost. The party came direct to Stockton, then pro- ceeded overland through the San Joaquin Valley to the Appling ranch near Chowchilla. The sociability of the pioneer life of that period was made agreeably conspicuous by the liberal hospitality of the Appling Brothers, who were prominent and well-to-do.
After securing a public school education in Mississippi and Cali- fornia John Wesley Gibbons began his participation in business affairs by peddling fruit and produce from his wagon throughout the mines and to Yosemite Valley. He had been reared on the valley and mountain ranch of his parents, and he decided to move to Mariposa County, where he engaged in teaming and freighting. Incidentally, he took up the study of horse and cattle diseases, for in 1870 there was a terrible epidemic in the valley and thousands of heads of stock died. He purchased standard works on veterinary science, mastered them and soon became an authority on the diseases of live stock. By self application and study he advanced his knowledge to a point where, in a few years, he became the leading veterinarian at Merced Falls, being active in this profession for thirty-five years. In the meantime, he invested in one hundred acres of land near Merced Falls, where he built and conducted a livery stable and hospital for animals, and he resided there from 1876 to the time of his death. He trained horses for the stockmen and cattlemen of the seventies, eighties and nineties, being well-known as an authority on horses; his best work in this line was in horse dentistry.
At the Cosmopolitan Hotel, in Merced, on April 4, 1881, Mr. Gibbons and Miss Helen L. Turner were united in marriage. The bride was born at St. Johns, New Brunswick, a daughter of Captain Turner, a fur dealer, who lost his life at sea. She came west with her mother to the home of their uncle William Nelson, a millman of Merced Falls, in 1867. Her mother's relatives, the Nelson family, were the pioneers of Merced Falls, and made early history in the
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milling business, being owners of the Nelson Flour Mill, which they conducted many years; they also owned the townsite, built the first mill dam and iron foundry, and owned stock in the woolen mill. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbons had seven children : Warren, who lives in Oakland; Mrs. Ava Platt, of Merced Falls; Jesse, who died at the age of eighteen; Norman, of Stockton, is an ex-service man and was a member of the A. E. F., having been a mechanic in the aviation corps of the United States Army; Paul and Arline live in Merced; and Mrs. Ruth Orton, who resides in Kings County.
The reminiscences of Mr. Gibbons tell the history of the section in which his services were rendered. He recalled the Merced Falls of the seventies as a place of much activity, with a woolen mill and flour mill, two Chinatowns with over 200 Chinese and their. usual gambling-houses, the store owned by Simon-Jacobs and Co., Hotel Murray, the row of adobe houses and one tailor shop owned by Abe Rosenthal. Church was held every three weeks, although a Sunday School was conducted in private homes every Sunday. The venerable pioneer woman, Mrs. Nelson, was the active leader. Mr. Gibbons was also an eye-witness of the rise and fall of Merced Falls as a town, its life and growth from a center of thirty inhabitants to a lively mining and freighting point of hundreds of people, its sudden decline to practically nothing, and the subsequent revival of community spirit to its present state of prosperity.
As a public servant Mr. Gibbons served as school trustee of Merced Falls for many years, and of later years he served on the election boards. His vote was counted on the side which chooses the best man for the place, regardless of party lines. He died at Dam- eron's in Stockton on June 20, 1924.
STEPHEN M. PATE
Himself a pioneer of California, and the descendant of one of the earliest settlers in this part of the State, Stephen M. Pate was born on the old Pate ranch, in Mariposa County, on February 19, 1859, the youngest child born to his parents, Francis Marion and Lorinda (Cornett) Pate. Francis Marion Pate was a native of Alabama, the son of a planter; he entered the U. S. Army under Taylor, in the Mexican War, and after the war continued on to Cal- ifornia, reaching Los Angeles in 1848, with his horse, saddle, and a few personal effects as his only resources. On hearing the news of the gold discovery, he came to this part of the State, and went into the Southern Mines. He later joined the military company which
Lattic Wilson Pate Stephen M Pate
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was responsible for the quelling of the Yosemite Indian troubles, be- ing stationed at Fort Miller. His marriage, in 1852, at Agua Fria, Mariposa County, united him with Lorinda Cornett, née Binge, who was born in Kentucky and married in Missouri. Her first husband died in 1850, and she, with her two sons and a daughter, accompanied a party of immigrants across the plains, in 1850, settling in Mariposa.
With his new family, the hardy pioneer settled on 160 acres of land in Mariposa County; this land was not then surveyed, but it proved to be the home place of the Pate family where Stephen M. was born. His father built with rude tools the first home, a cabin on the land they had chosen as a heritage; titles to land were ques- tionable, but he stayed, and won the right to his acreage. They had many bad years, and making a livelihood was very hard and strenuous for the pioneers of that early day; stock sold as high as twenty dol- lars per steer to the butcher; they made butter and sold eggs, and this brought the only medium of exchange for many years. Mr. Pate, Sr. made journeys to Stockton for supplies before the railway was put in and these trips took seven days of hard traveling. He engaged in livestock, sheep and wool growing, and in the fifties, started with grain raising, and single-handed and by unremitting toil, strict in- tegrity, and keen foresight, he added to his holdings by subsequent purchases until he owned 3000 acres at the time of his death. He was a staunch Republican, though born in the South, and was an act- ive participant in the building up of his community in the days when each man had to stand on his own feet, or fail.
Stephen M. Pate received much of his schooling in private school, kept usually in the home, and attended for a time the Cathey Valley district school. Large for his age, much of his early life was spent in the saddle on the stock range, and as soon as he became old enough he followed the teaming and freighting business from Merced to Hornitos and the mines for six years; he at one time owned five ten- animal teams all closely matched which were the pride of the young man; none on the road at that time had better stock and his teams were conspicuous on the highways, fine large mules, and large white draft horses. He conducted a stable, and owned his own blacksmith shop at Mt. Bullion, and before he reached his majority he was em- ploying at times as high as twenty men. Mr. Pate later entered the stock and ranching business on his father's ranch. Finally buying the home place, he engaged in the cattle and hog-raising business. Cholera at one time struck down 500 head of his hogs in a season. He branched into extensive business, but never over-reached in his deal- ings, and was always known to be honest and straightforward, all of which no doubt contributed largely to his success. By subsequent pur- chases, he added lands until he owned 5000 acres, of which 2000 acres
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were farming lands. He raised mules and horses for his own use, as well as for the market, and he engaged for six years in the sheep and wool business, as a breeder of Merino sheep.
In 1918, Mr. Pate moved to Le Grand, Merced County, after selling the old Pate ranch in 1917, and here he owns a fine home, con- structed on the old Mission style of architecture, the property em- bracing eighty acres on the edge of town. In the meantime he has invested in other properties in Merced County, and his success has been remarkable. He built up the well-known Lone Tree Dairy, which sold nine years ago for $64,000. He owns 443 acres in the Merced Irrigation District, nine miles southwest of Merced, which is being farmed by his son, Harvey, who lives there with his wife and two daughters. Of late years Mr. Pate has become an ex- extensive feeder of livestock for market, and rents range lands in Mariposa and Merced counties. One of the very rarest incidents in his life occurred in 1917, when for a period of twenty-four hours he was entirely out of business; had no employees, etc., and it was the only like period in his entire business career of over forty-six years. Many of the men whom he employed during this long stretch of time have become successful, like himself, and this is one of his greatest sources of gratification : to see others prosper, too, and in building up their success, aid in the upbuilding of the district.
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