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 52
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"Whene'er a task is set to you, Don't idly sit and view it, Nor be content to wish it done ; Begin at once and do it."
GEORGE S. BLOSS, Sr.
One of the first settlers in Atwater, Merced County, who is still living to recount the events of earlier days of the struggle of the little city to attain to its present prominence in the county, is George S. Bloss, Sr., pioneer banker and well-known financier of the San Joaquin Valley. He was born in Bethlehem, Ct., November 26, 1847, and is the only survivor of the immediate family of George T. and Emily (Brown) Bloss, both born in Bethlehem, the former of French and the latter of Scotch parentage. The paternal ancestors settled in Killingly, Ct., when they arrived from France, and it was in that state George T. Bloss followed farming until he died at the age of forty-one, in 1848; the good wife lived to enjoy life until 1866.
George S. Bloss, Sr., spent his boyhood on the home farm and attended the local schools. In manhood he engaged in farming and
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lived in his native state until 1884, when he decided he would come West. He brought his family with him and upon arrival he bought some land near Atwater and at once embarked in raising grain and stock. In time he became so successful that he kept adding to his hold- ings until he owned two sections of land. He made his home in a house that stood on the corner where now is located the Bloss Block in Atwater. He has continually kept up with the advancement of this district and has erected several residences and business blocks, among which is the Atwater Hotel building; and with his son, he is interested in other properties. In 1897 Mr. Bloss and H. F. Geer as executors of the Mitchell estate subdivided 480 acres into twenty-acre tracts, giving the name of the Atwater Colony to the location. This was sold at $40.00 per acre to settlers, and although times were hard and the promotors had a difficult task before them, they put the place on the map and today those settlers who were carried by the promotors of the project have repaid their indebtedness and have become well- to-do and many are now independent landowners. The first subdivi- sion was followed later by others, all of them successful and satisfac- tory to all parties concerned, due largely to the careful supervision of every detail looking for the comfort and interests of the purchasers by Mr. Bloss and his associates. The company was known as the Fin- de-Siecle Investment Company, of which Mr. Bloss was president, and it remained intact until 1904, when it was divided into thirds and sold; one portion to the Bloss Land and Cattle Company; one to Crane Brothers Company; and the other to the Geer-Dallas Invest- ment Company.
In 1898 Mr. Bloss leveled a small tract of land south of his home and put in alfalfa, the tract bordering on the railroad. This spot of greenery was a great attraction in the vast stretch of sandy, desert- looking land through which the railroad ran, being about the only green spot from Tracy to Fresno. This attempt in a small way showed what the future of this section might attain to, and well has the judgment of Mr. Bloss been justified, for today this is one of the richest sections in the whole of the San Joaquin Valley. As early as 1892 Mr. Bloss became a director in the Merced Security Savings Bank, serving as its president for nine consecutive years; much of the success of this institution is due to the cooperative efforts of Mr. Bloss and Mr. Carlson, the cashier, who was formerly an employe of the Southern Pacific and was well-known in Merced. In 1911 Mr. Bloss was instrumental in having a branch of the Merced Security Savings Bank established at Atwater, and with the growth of the community the bank has also prospered. Mr. Bloss is a fine judge of land values and this has stood the bank in good stead when it has made loans, as well as those making investments outside of the
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banks. One of the first official duties taken on by Mr. Bioss was as administrator of the Mitchell Estate, which he served for eleven years.
Mr. Bloss has been twice married, his first union having taken place in 1873, when he was united with Ella Stone, formerly of Wood- bury, Ct., and niece of the late John W. Mitchell. She died in 1893, leaving two children, Edna, who became the wife of Julian Thorne and lives in San Francisco; and George Stone Bloss, Jr., prominent stockman of Atwater, also having served as a director of the Merced Security Savings Bank and one of the leading men of the younger generation in the county. On February 2, 1904, Mr. Bloss was again married, this time being united with Mrs. Edna (Thompson) Hull, whom he had known in boyhood, she being born in Bethlehem, Ct. A Californian hospitality is dispensed from the Bloss home, which is the center of social happenings in Atwater. Mr. Bloss has never let his interest in the upbuilding of Merced County diminish, but is al- ways found in the van helping all meritorious enterprises.
WILLIAM J. McCORRY
A descendant of an ancient and honored Irish family, and a pioneer grain rancher of Merced County, William J. McCorry is the owner of a ranch comprising 1,258 acres, five miles northeast of Planada. which represents a lifetime of honest and hard work; for he came to this country a poor boy, and with his own way to make in the world. Born in County Antrim, Ireland, on March 17, 1853, he is the only surviving member of the family born to his parents, Patrick and Marie (Crossey) McCorry. The McCorry family have records showing their occupancy of the same home in Ireland for 420 years, up to the time William J. left home, in 1872.
Reared and educated in his native land, at the age of eighteen his youthful ambition led him to seek to better his condition by coming to the new world. He was nine days en route to New York on the S. S. City of Paris; and from there he made his way to Buffalo, and then on up the lakes to Marquette, Mich., where he worked two and one-half years in the iron foundries, at $2.25 a day for ten hours' work. In 1875 he came west to California, first locating in Knoxville, Napa County, working as a wage-earner in the quicksilver mines.
Twelve months later, in 1876, Mr. McCorry arrived at the Huffman ranch, in Merced County, and worked the first season in haying and harvesting. He preferred the rural life, and put in the dry seasons of 1877-1879 at Stony Creek, Colusa County, in the Sacramento Valley, and also spent a short time in Butte County. As
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an example of the obstacles to be overcome in those days, M :. McCorry planted grain in 1877, but the weather continued so dry that the grain did not come up until the winter of 1878-1879. With the exception of these seasons, he has resided in Merced County ever since his first arrival here. From 1876 until 1881, he continued to work out on the farms southeast of Merced. The following year, in com- pany with Dan Reilly, he started grain-farming, and for four seasons had splendid success. In 1885 he bought 200 acres of the Reilly lands, and by a number of subsequent purchases increased his acreage up to 1,280 acres. In 1919 he donated to the county a portion of the north edge of his ranch, for the Yosemite Boulevard, but retains 1,258 acres of it still.
As a pioneer Mr. McCorry introduced modern ways and methods of ranching and thus set an example which has been followed by others; and as a man, he set an example for honesty and integrity which has been a strong factor for good in his community. By all who know him he is called one of the finest and squarest of men. His reminiscences of early days are most interesting and show the sturdy character of the man. He says, "I sold barley for four bits a hundred, and wheat at seventy-nine cents, but in some way managed to pay my debts at those prices, though it took some figuring!" He states that "usually the ranchers lived well, having plenty on the table, and as a general thing enjoyed life." This is particularly true of Mr. McCorry, for his family have staid on the home place to a large extent, carrying on the work so well started by their sire. His sons are enterprising men and have loyally taken up the operation of the ranch, cultivating 2,000 acres to grain.
The marriage of Mr. McCorry, which occurred on February 5, 1884, united him with Mary O'Dea, a native of County Claire, Ire- land, who came to California about 1881. They were blessed with eleven children, nine of whom have grown to maturity: John J., of Planada; Marie, at home; Hugh; William F .; Margaret, of San Francisco; Elizabeth, now Mrs. W. J. Angelich of Fresno; James, of Planada ; Anne, of Fresno; and Daniel, with the Central National Bank of Oakland; and a son of Mrs. McCorry's twin sister, Frank, has been reared from babyhood at their own son.
Mr. McCorry is a stockholder in the Merced Security Savings Bank. For twenty years he has served as a trustee for the Cunning- ham school district; and he has also served many times on election boards. He has always taken an active interest in furthering the best interests of the county, and in all his development work has had that end in view. Fraternally, he is a member of Merced Lodge No. 1240, B. P. O. E., as are also his sons John J. and William F.
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WILLIAM WILLIS ABBOTT
Among the successful and energetic business men of Livingston is William Willis Abbott, senior member of the firm of Abbott & Sons Garage; he has spent the greater part of his life in Merced County, for he was only ten years old when his parents located in the county. His birth occurred near Knights Ferry, on December 2, 1872, a son of George W. and Mary (Smith) Abbott, the former born in Belfast, Maine, and the latter born in Trinity County, Cal. The maternal grandfather drove an ox-team across the plains to California in 1852 from St. Louis, Mo. Settling at Placerville in the spring of that year, he went into the cattle and sheep business, but later engaged in teaming and freighting in Tuolumne County. The father, George W. Abbott, came to California via the Isthmus of Panama in 1861 and engaged in farming and stock-raising in Stani- slaus County, near Knights Ferry. The paternal grandfather was a stone mason and built the first piers for the first permanent bridge across the Stanislaus River, at Burns Ferry; he also built the stone wall on the hill at Knights Ferry. When William Abbott was four years old his parents moved to Stockton, where the father found employment in the lumber yard now known as the Stockton Lumber Company. There were two children in the family: Dora is now the wife of W. P. McConnell, a farmer at Livingston; and William Willis, our subject.
William Willis Abbott received his first schooling at the old Jef- ferson School at Stockton; when he was ten years old the family removed to Merced County and settled on Merced River bottom land, where the father farmed about 2000 acres of what is now known as the Collier ranch. Not being particularly drawn to agricultural pursuits, Mr. Abbott left his father's ranch in 1885 and went to Oak- land where he began firing for the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany; he remained with this company for five years when he went to San Francisco and found employment in the boiler-making depart- ment of the Union Iron Works. This was during the Spanish-Ameri- can War. He then went to work for the San Joaquin Valley Railroad as a machinist. When this road was absorbed by the Santa Fe Rail- road Company, the machine shops were removed to Point Richmond and Mr. Abbott continued in the capacity of machinist until 1909. He then returned to Merced County and farmed in partnership with his father.
In 1896, at Atwater, Mr. Abbott was married to Miss Elizabeth Ritchie, a daughter of the late pioneer, William Calhoun Ritchie, who came across the plains from Missouri in 1852, first settling in Sutter County, later removing to Amador County and in 1883 locating in
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Merced County where he became an extensive grain farmer. He retired in 1908 and passed away at the age of eighty-three years. Mr. Abbott sold the Merced River ranch and removed to western Yolo County, where he farmed for five years on a half section of land; when this was sold he returned to Merced County and followed con- tracting and building at Turlock until 1914. In 1915 he bought out the Pioneer Garage at Livingston; and when his lease expired in 1918 he established the Abbott Garage on First Street. Mr. and Mrs. Abbott are the parents of two children: Mildred is the wife of Edward Schultz, a member of the firm of Abbott & Sons Garage; and George W. married Miss Pearl Leitzky, of Turlock, and he is also a member of the firm of Abbott & Sons Garage. The Abbott & Sons Garage is a first-class machine shop, modernly equipped to do all kinds of repair work on automobiles and farm tractors. Mr. Abbott served as constable for four years, and also was a deputy sheriff under Mr. Warfield. He helped to organize the Boosters' Club at Livingston and is now serving as the chairman of the Mer- chants Association, which was organized in 1921. It was largely through the efforts of Mr. Abbott that a tract of six acres was acquired for a park, now known as Hammatt Park. Mr. Abbott is a progres- sive Republican in politics. Fraternally, he is a Past Master of Tur- lock Lodge No. 395, F. & A. M., and is district inspector, having supervision over all the lodges in the 55th district; he also belongs to the Merced Chapter No. 12, R. A. M. In 1919 Mr. Abbott bought a two-acre tract of land in the southern part of Livingston where he and his family reside.
JOHN V. AZEVEDO
A successful merchant, John V. Azevedo commands the respect and esteem of all who have witnessed his steady progress up the ladder of success since he located in Gustine in 1907. He had located in the State twenty years earlier, having emigrated from St. George, in the Azores Islands, where he was born on March 14, 1868, settling first in Monterey. He is the son of Viresimo Jose and Anna ( Can- dada) Azevedo, both natives of St. George, where the father spent his entire life as a farm laborer. There were eight children in this family, namely : Manuel; a second child, died in infancy; John V., our subject; Mary, deceased; Jose V., deceased; Jose V., resides in Patterson, Cal .; Rose, deceased; and Antone. The father passed away at St. George at the age of seventy years, the mother now makes her home with John V. at Gustine, aged eighty-three years.
John V. Azevedo had little chance of obtaining an education. He left home at the age of nineteen and came to the United States, land-
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ing in Boston, Mass., and came direct to California and stopped at Monterey, where he soon found work on a dairy ranch in that vicinity and continued for four years ; then he rented a farm of 400 acres and, with his brother Manuel, conducted a dairy of fifty cows for the next five years at San Juan. When the brothers divided the herd our subject came to Crow's Landing in the San Joaquin Valley, and with his brother Joseph and a cousin, John Borba, conducted a dairy for two years. He came to Merced County in 1901 and bought a farm of 155 acres where he ran a dairy six years, being one of the pioneer Portuguese settlers in this section. When Gustine was laid out as a town he purchased two lots on which he erected the West Side Store and he carries a full line of groceries, dry goods, shoes, hardware, grain and mill feed, some farm machinery and household furniture. Since then he has bought considerable real estate in Gustine.
At Salinas, on February 11, 1898, Mr. Azevedo was married to Miss Ida Victorina Azevedo, born at Sausalito, daughter of Manuel V. and Mary (Cunha) Azevedo, both natives of St. George, Azores Islands. Her father, Manuel V. Azevedo, came to California at the age of fourteen years on a whaling vessel. He was married in Sau- salito, where he engaged in the dairy business and also followed the carpenter's trade; both parents are now living in Newman. There were nine children in this family; Angeline, Manuel, Mary, Ida (the wife of our subject), Ellen, Anna and Marianna (twins), Rosa, and the ninth child (died in infancy). Mr. and Mrs. Azevedo have had four children : Manuel ; Mamie, now Mrs. Antone S. Balthazer ; Anna, deceased; and John. The son Manuel married Miss Leonora Car- doza and they had one son, Adolph, who died; the daughter, Mamie, Mrs. Balthazer, has one daughter, Geraldine. Mr. Azevedo votes the Republican ticket. Fraternally, he is a member of the U. P. E. C., of Gustine, and Past President of the I. D. E. S. Lodge of Gustine, hav- ing been elected president when the lodge was organized.
DAN McCOY
Among the substantial and respected residents of Merced County is Dan McCoy, a successful rancher residing on his twenty-acre farm one mile west and three-quarters of a mile south of Livingston. He was born at Bloomfield, Iowa, on April 13, 1843, a son of Joseph and Nancy (Pelly ) McCoy, both natives of Virginia. Joseph McCoy went to Iowa in the early days and became the owner of 1000 acres of land in Davis County, which he farmed successfully. In 1858. with his family, he joined a train of emigrants and started across the plains to California. There were sixty persons in the company, bring-
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ing 2000 head of loose stock. They lost 1000 head in the first Indian encounter. Eight persons were killed by the Indians during six hard fights ; one woman and three little girls were taken prisoners and were never heard of again. The last fight occurred on the Colorado River at the California-Arizona line. The company was forced to return to Santa Fe, N. M., where they remained until the following year when they came through to California, but not without suffering indescribable hardships, many of the company dying of starvation. Of the remaining 1000 head of stock, very few got through to Cali- fornia. Joseph McCoy settled near Visalia and became a rancher and teamster.
Dan McCoy was a young lad when he went to work earning his own living; he first herded sheep for a year and a half; then began driving a ten-horse team for his father from Visalia to the mines in the mountains east of this place. In 1862 he removed to Santa Clara County and settled at Los Gatos, where he engaged in hauling lumber from the Santa Cruz mountains until 1913, when he came to Merced County and settled on his present ranch home.
On November 12, 1871, Mr. McCoy was married to Miss Sarah Crews, who was born in Harrison County, Mo., on March 31, 1853. To them have been born ten children, viz .: Burton, of San Jose; George, deceased; Oscar, at Cressey; Mrs. Adah Grove, in San Fran- cisco; Mrs. May Love, of Livingston; Perley, deceased; Stella, Mrs. Watson, of Santa Barbara ; Elsie, deceased; Mattie, married Alfred Baker and lives in Altadena ; and Philip L., who is at home and assists his father with the ranch work. Mr. McCoy has now reached the age of eighty-two years and still takes a great pride in raising fine horses, which he learned to love when a young man and which he still drives with the greatest ease and pleasure.
E. S. WILLETT
One of the earliest settlers in the Atwater District, Mr. Willett is one of the few who went through every vicissitude of this pioneer region, and has made good in the face of seemingly unsurmountable obstacles. And in this work he has helped greatly in the development of the country surrounding, showing by concrete example what can be done, if the doer brings to the task the right spirit of industry and integrity of purpose. A native of Manchester, Ohio, Mr. Willett was born September 14, 1866, the second of four sons born to W. M. and Mary Malisse (Brownfield) Willett, the former a native of Kentucky, and the latter of Ohio. In 1870 the family moved out to Kansas, settling near Elmdale, Chase County, and crossing the Santa Fe trail ahead of the track-layer crew on the construction of the A.
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T. & S. F. Railway. They went through the grasshopper raids and all the hardships incident to the early settling of Kansas during the early seventies. In 1876 they went back to Ohio, where the wife and mother died in 1877, aged thirty-three years. The father married again, in Ohio. Thus it will be seen that the family experienced life on the frontier and this fact has been indelibly stamped on the mind of our subject.
Educated in the public schools of Ohio and Kansas, E. S. Willett supplemented his early schooling by attending Hazeldell Academy at Newton, Iowa, but due to eye trouble he had to leave the academy and go into the country and he grew up on the farm in the intervals. He left home at the age of nineteen and worked for wages, receiving eighteen dollars a month driving a creamery wagon. He later moved to Lake Charles, La., where he homesteaded 160 acres in 1890, and this property he owns today, situated in the heart of the rice-growing region; recent developments indicate that it may become an oil field.
For seven years Mr. Willett taught school in Louisiana, receiving forty dollars per month, the greater portion of the population of the region being descendants of the exiles of Arcadia, immortalized by Longfellow in his poem, "Evangeline." His next move was to Mena, Ark., where he became agent for the Walter Pearce Oil Company, and from there he moved to Fresno, Cal., and May 4, 1909, came with his family to Atwater, in July of that year purchasing twenty- four acres at Yam Station on the Santa Fe Railway. At the time of his arrival this region was sparsely settled, used mostly by holding companies as grain fields and stock pasture, there being less than a half dozen settlers at that time, where now reside in the same section some forty families ; and it may be even now said to be just begin- ning to grow, for the tide has turned toward the rapid settling up of all California lands which can show the soil and water conditions of Atwater and surrounding country. But fifteen or more years ago things were not so easy, and the settler then had to be both a hustler and a rustler to make good. Mr. Willett's first efforts in planting and caring for such fruits as peaches and grapes were put to the test. but he "stuck," and has proven both the fertility of the district and his own indomitable spirit, for which much credit is due him. He is one of the charter members of the Atwater Fruit Exchange, and his early efforts included the selling of fruits from Merced Falls to Los Banos. He now is the owner of a twenty-four-acre ranch, devoted to a highly developed orchard and vineyard, this constituting his home place; and he also owns eleven acres of open land two and one-half miles north of there. Mr. Willett established the R. F. D. route out of Winton in the earlier days of the district's development, conduct- ing it himself for two months during the earlier part of the year 1913.
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The marriage of Mr. Willett united him with Miss Anna R. Wright, born in Texas, a daughter of the late Dr. Wright and his wife, who has since become Mrs. W. R. Davis. Four children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Willett: Ezra J., a student in the Armstrong School of Foreign Trade; Maudine, a student at the University of California, Class of 1927; Cleone Monett, attending Merced Union High School, Class 1925 ; and Nona M., attending Arundel School. The family attend the Winton Presbyterian Church. Mr. Willett was formerly active in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Mena, Ark. Active fraternally, he joined Anchor Lodge, I. O. O.F., in Lake Charles, and the Rebekah Lodge at Mena, Ark., being a Past Grand of the Lake Charles Lodge, and Past District Deputy. He is a Republican in politics, and a worker for all civic betterment. He is a member of the Winton Farm Bureau and was secretary for the organization for two years. He is now a director of the Merced County Farm Bureau and is a member of the California Peach & Fig Growers Association.
ELISHA HALES
Prominent among the early settlers of Gustine, Merced County is Elisha Hales, one of its most respected and valued citizens. Coming to Gustine many years ago he bought forty acres of land just outside the town limits, where he established a dairy and in connection raised alfalfa. When the town of Gustine was laid out he was one of the first to build a residence and he has been an active and influential force in the advancement of this section ever since. He was born April 12, 1867, at Soulsbyville, Tuolumne County, a son of Jack and May (Trengrove) Hales, both natives of Cornwall, England. His father came to California during the gold excitement of 1849 and engaged in mining in Tuolumne County. There were eight children in the family : Mary Jane, wife of Alex Davis of Soulsbyville; Wil- liam John, deceased; Richard; Bessie, deceased; Thomas; Elisha, our subject; Emily and Jose, both deceased. Both parents passed away at the age of fifty years in Tuolumne County.
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