History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches 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, Volume I, Part 108

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362

USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches 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, Volume I > Part 108

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Mr. Shuey was born near Quincy, Adams County, Ill., Tune 23, 1852. His father. John Shuey, was born in Ohio, but early went to Illinois and was a pioneer farmer near Quincy. In 1847 he came to California with one comrade, crossing the plains on horseback and with pack animals, but went back East again. In 1850 he started a second time for the Great West, as before on horseback and with pack horses, trading in stock. Again he returned East, this time via Cape Horn and New York, and in 1856 brought his family. consisting of wife and eight children, to San Francisco via Panama. They landed in the northern city the day Casey and Corey were hung. He located in Contra Costa County, buying a farm in the Moraga Valley, where they remained four years. He bought land in Fruitvale, 100 acres, where he resided until his death. The grandfather was Colonel Martin Shuey, who was a native of Pennsylvania ; he gained his title of Colonel in the War of 1812. He enlisted in the War with Mexico, but was not sent out. Colonel Shuey, accompanied by his wife, drove a horse team across the plains in 1862, when he was seventy- five years old. He died in Oakland at the age of ninety-three years. The mother was Lucinda Stowe, a native of Massachusetts. They were married in Illinois, and to them were born six boys and four girls; two boys and three girls are living. Mrs. Shuey died in Berkeley.

John W. Shuey and brother Henry were twins, the youngest in the fam- ily. The brother now resides at San Lucas, San Luis Obispo County. John was brought up in Alameda County, getting his education in the public schools and at the same time working on the farm. He stayed at home until he was twenty-two years of age, when he went to Crow Canyon, near Hayward, where he and his twin brother bought a farm and engaged in raising grain and stock from 1875 to 1883, when they sold and dissolved partnership. Dur- ing one of the years they farmed together they raised 38,000 sacks of wheat. John then went to Green Valley, Contra Costa County, and bought a ranch. In 1881 he made a trip to Fresno and never forgot it, and in 1887 returned there and engaged in farming on land owned by the California Bank. He was the first man to lease lands in this district, which is now Barstow District. He remained here three years, and then removed to Douglas County, Ore. He and his brother Henry bought a ranch near Oakland, and engaged in stock- raising, continuing there for five years. They lost out in the panic of 1893.

After the panic, Mr. Shuey returned to Fresno County and located on the Sharon estate, leased about 1,000 acres and engaged in grain-raising the first year ; the second year he added another section where Biola is located ; he drove two eight-horse teams and continued on the Sharon estate for three years and on the Biola six years, and was reasonably successful. In 1898 he

So. BOtis

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

bought his present place, beginning with twenty acres in the Empire Colony; upon this he raised alfalfa and also ran the Biola ranch and other land upon which he raised grain. This he continued until 1902 when he gave this up and farmed on the Jeff James tract five years, retaining his original twenty, to which he added twenty acres. In 1907 he came back to his home place and has since given his entire attention to it. In 1905 he had set out ten acres to a vineyard. He bought more land, and now has sixty acres, all well improved. There are thirty-five acres in Thompson seedless grapes, and the balance is in alfalfa. One year, at the Fresno County Fair, he exhibited in the Kerman booth a cane, about thirty inches long, cut from his vineyard, that had bunches of grapes attached, weighing forty pounds. At another time he exhibited a bunch weighing eight one-half pounds.

Mr. Shuey was married in Alameda County, Cal., to Miss Mary Cull, who was born in Kentucky, but came to California early in life. She is the daughter of S. T. Cull, one of the early settlers of Alameda. Mrs. Shuey was educated in the public schools of Alameda. They have four children: Bertha, now Mrs. Wm. Harrison, rancher in the Vinland District; Harry A., rancher near home, where he owns sixty acres in the Empire Colony ; Grace, now Mrs. Arch Boucher, of Clovis, whose husband served in the Field Artillery. Ninety- first Division, U. S. A. ; and Mary, wife of A. G. Wetmore of Kerman.

Mr. Shuey was at one time a member of the Board of Trustees of the Empire School District, and is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company. A descendant of one of the oldest families in the State, Mr. Shuey is maintaining the reputation of his forbears. He has seen his district develop, from barren sheep-ranges, sand hills and weed patches, to one of the most productive in the state and one of the best known in the world. He has seen prices so low that he could not make expenses, but he stuck to it and has been very successful.

GEORGE BUELL OTIS .- Historically interesting as a member of one of the oldest and most notable families in America, and himself locally dis- tinguished as the last of the four original townsite men who laid out the city of Selma, George Buell Otis, when he breathed his last at twenty minutes after ten on April 30, 1918, both merited and enjoyed the hearty good-will as well as the highest esteem of everyone. To the last he retained his mental faculties; and having been the author himself of some reminiscences of "Early Days," published in July, 1911, and dealing with the pioneer events of Selma and the surrounding country, he never lost his interest in and advocacy of every responsible movement for the collection and publication of pioneer data and records. He lived on a farm in Santa Clara County when the Stockton and Fresno branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad was built through, and he never forgot the stir that the coming of the iron horse made among the expectant settlers in the sparsely populated district.

Born near Bolton, Vt., on September 16, 1844, George B. Otis lived in that state until 1856, when the family came to California and settled in Sonoma County. They crossed the Isthmus and landed in December of that year at San Francisco, and almost immediately pushed on inland to Sonoma County where the father, having a good deal of the spirit characteristic of the typical Yankee soon acquired land for himself.

It was during the centennial ycar that George B. Otis came to Fresno County, then a forbidding desert, and having looked over various districts, he took up the northern half of the northwest quarter of Section 8-16 S .. Range 22 E., and settled upon it as his homestead. It was rough land at best, and a doubtful project ; but he commenced the improvements and little by little worked the transformation for which he was widely known. There was no railroad depot at Selma then, and no switch between Kingsburg on the south and Fowler's switch on the north ; and he was compelled to haul water twenty-two miles from King's River. It took courage in those days

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to start anything new involving much labor and expense, for one hadn't the remotest idea as to where such a beginning or those making it would end. George Buell Otis, E. J. Whitson, Monroe Snyder, and E. H. Tucker had the honor of laying out the original townsite, although since then thirteen addi- tions have been made by subsequent platters; and how the town started is a story of more than passing moment.

The establishing of the Selma Flouring Mill, by Samuel, John and William Frey, and the consequent necessity for a shipping point, were the primary causes for the building up of the new town of Selma, a name selected by Mr. Otis at the suggestion of the Freys. There had been some controversy regarding the best name for the proposed community, and it had finally nar- rowed down to Dalton, Weymouth. Sandwich and Selma; and on the mill owners' stating that "Selma" was a name often very fondly used in German Switzerland to denote a beautiful, amiable and sweet-tempered maiden. the gallant Mr. Otis threw his influence in the balance, and "Selma" was the appellation unanimously chosen by the committee and approved by the railroad company. Now there are a dozen post-offices by the same name in as many different states.

The first wells were not very deep, reaching down only about forty or fifty feet, but thanks to efforts of Mr. Otis and others, the water supply has been much increased and improved. The water table has been raised many feet since water from Kings River has been introduced, and now Selma has the cheapest water system on the Pacific Coast. the rate being only seventy- five cents per acre a year. In many ways. as might have been expected from one who was here at the beginning of things, Mr. Otis was identified with the development of the fast-growing town.

George Buell Otis was the son of Albert Hinsdale Otis, a native of Massachusetts and the only child of Joseph and Viola (Hinsdale) Otis, of English ancestry. Albert Hinsdale Otis was reared and educated in Massa- chusetts, and was graduated from the Wesleyan University, where he re- ceived the degree of Doctor of Divinity. His wife was a daughter of Jesse Jewell, one of Bolton's earliest settlers. . In 1838, with his wife, he migrated west to Wisconsin and bought government land at Southport, near what is now Kenosha. He was a circuit-rider in the Methodist ministry : but as the missionary clergy of those days generally had to support themselves from other sources than the church, he followed millwrighting for years, and with success. He improved a farm in Wisconsin, and gave it up to his father, at the same time preparing another home for himself on an adjoining farm. Both sides of the family had interesting forebears. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Albert Hinsdale Otis. One, a daughter Ruby, died in early childhood. Charles Wesley, the eldest, became a teacher; Sarah Anna mar- ried George P. Laird ; Philo J. was a farmer, having in early manhood been a teacher ; and George B. is the subject of this sketch. The father came to California in 1851, and located in Grass Valley. He assisted in putting up the first quartz mill in California, and for some time after that was engaged in mill building. On his way to California, he crossed the great plains: but in 1854 he went back to Wisconsin, this time traveling via the Isthmus of Panama. It was two years later when he brought his familv to California and settled down to farming in Sonoma County. When he died, in 1865, he breathed his last on what is now a part of the site of the University of Cali- fornia. Mrs. Otis died in 1887, and both are interred in Petaluma.

After coming to California, George B. Otis took a six months' course at the University of the Pacific. In 1864 he went to Nevada and followed mining for a time, but not being altogether successful he returned to California-a choice he never regretted- and with his brother purchased 160 acres of land near Petaluma. Having later disposed of the ranch, in 1866 they drove a band of dairy stock to Salinas Valley and there leased a part of a Spanish

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HISTORY OF FRESNO. COUNTY

grant near Castroville. They added to their herd and continued dairying for some years with success.

It was at that time and place that Mr. Otis met the lady who became his wife. She was Elizabeth Roadhouse, a daughter of Joseph and Charlotte ( Norriss) Roadhouse, and she was born near Stockton on November 20, 1851, and was the first white girl born there. Four children were born to the happy couple. Albert Joseph is proprietor of the Los Angeles Fencing Company, and resides in that city; George Fredron is a well-known bean-grower of Marysville; Elizabeth married Jacob Boehler of Watsonville, and is now deceased ; and Earl Norriss is in the real estate business at Selma.

In 1872 the lease of the Otis brothers terminated and they removed to Santa Clara County. There they followed the dairy business, as previously. but four years later they dissolved partnership. It was then that George B. Otis removed to Fresno County, where in time he acquired several hundred acres of land, and also participated, as has been told, in the laying out of Selma. He erected a comfortable home, and he and his family became closely identified with the life of the town.

Mr. Otis was a Republican in national politics, deeply interested in the elevation of the ballot, but was disinclined to accept any public office, al- though often solicited to be a candidate. In his church affiliations he was an Episcopalian, with broad religious views and responsive sympathies. He had a desire for good schools and became an active spirit in working up a senti- ment for the founding of the Selma Union High School District and the organization of the Selma High School. He was also one of the prime movers in the establishment of the Selma Carnegie Library, to which he donated largely both money and books. He laid out South Park Addition to Selma. opened and successfully conducted a real estate office, and was one of the pioneers in the packing of raisins, having built a packing house for his own vineyard and organized the Otis Fruit Packing Company, which he operated for several years. The motto of his life was well expressed in his admonition, "Be sincere in your undertakings and absolutely honest in all your transac- tions," and he lived up to this ideal to the letter. He was one of the six charter members of Selma Lodge, No. 309, I. O. O. F., where he had passed through all the chairs, and when his funeral took place from St. Luke's Episcopal Church on May 2, 1918, that fraternity conducted short services at the Odd Fellows' Cemetery. He was seventy-three years, seven months and fourteen days old when he died, and was counted one of the really dis- tinguished citizens of Selma and of Fresno County.

STEPHEN E. BENNETT .- Representing some of the finest of South- ern families, and the personification of all that is associated with the name of gentleman, as well as of that type of sturdy Californian rancher who is able to get down to hard work and sacrifice when it is necessary, and one who had, as his wife, a native daughter, interested, like himself, in California annals and especially in the early history of Millerton, was Stephen E. Bennett, who was born near West Point, in what is now called Clay County, Miss., on January 31, 1858, the son of Stephen Dudley Bennett, a native of Alabama, who had married Ann Dorsey Appling, who was born at Atlanta, Ga. Their marriage took place in Mississippi, after which the father served in the Confederate Army and shared all the hardships of campaigning. The parents had four children, the eldest of whom was Martha Corinne, now the widow of B. G. Plaskett. She lives near Salinas, with her ten children, and owns a ranch at Gordo. John M. resides at Madera, is married to a second wife, and has three children living. Sarah P. also lives at Madera, the wife of S. P. Hensley, and the mother of three children.

Stephen E. came to California in 1867 with his parents, when he was nine years old, having attended school awhile in Mississippi, and there felt the pinch of the terrible Civil War. The family settled at the junction of Fresno, Merced and Mariposa Counties; and there, while the father went to

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

ranching and stock-raising, improving and proving up a homestead of 160 acres, the mother taught school and was one of the first school-teachers in Fresno County. Stephen enjoyed some schooling here also, but he acquired much of his formal learning in the office of the Expositor when it was printed at Millerton. In 1870 he was apprenticed there under J. W. Ferguson and C. A. Heaton, now both deceased, but then editors and proprietors of what was the pioneer newspaper of the county. Ferguson was elected to the assem- bly and bought Heaton out; and then he moved the Expositor to Fresno. For eight months Stephen worked on the newspaper as typesetter, job-printer and reporter, while it was established at Millerton, and for another eight months he was with the paper after it had been removed to Fresno. His apprenticeship then being concluded, however, he embarked in the sheep business; and as he was single and able to give it his whole attention, he made money for six or eight years. Then he came to Selma and, in 1888, bought a farm; and about that time he was married.

The lady who consented to share his joys and responsibilities was Miss Martha A. Mullins, a native of Mariposa County and the daughter of A. and Angeline (Castell) Mullins, born in Tennessee and Missouri respectively. Both came to California in the real pioneer days: the father crossing with ox teams in 1851, and the mother in 1852, and eventually marrying at Diamond Springs. At first Mr. Mullins engaged in mining, but later he became a stockman in Mariposa County, and there developed and owned a large stock-ranch. Mrs. Mullins died in 1881, in her forty-eighth year, when Martha A. was only sixteen, and left ten children: John married Frances Beevers, and was a laborer in Fresno, where he died, the father of ten children. May became the wife of J. T. Elam, now deceased, and lived in Mariposa County. Amasa, who married Mollie Appling and has made a success of the automobile busi- ness, resides at Madera. Martha Adeline is the wife of our subject. Burrell married Kate Elam, by whom he has had four children, and is a dairy rancher at Kerman. Emily is the wife of A. A. Parsley, a rancher, and is the mother of six children, at Los Banos. Janie resides with her two children in Selma, and is the wife of V. Reed, who is in business in Visalia. Lucy married J. B. Cook, a rancher west of Selma, and has four children. Lilly lives in Phoenix, Ariz., where she is married to C. A. Orr, who owns a garage, and she has one child. James is a rancher and teamster at Kerman, where he lives with his wife, formerly Belle Underwood, and her three children.

Mr. Bennett rented several farms, and also bought ranches and developed them. In 1891 he bought thirty acres which became his home place; he first purchased and improved ten acres, and then he added twenty acres more, until he had fourteen acres devoted to peaches, eight acres of raisin grapes and three acres planted to alfalfa, all nicely located one mile and a half east of Selma, on the Canal School Road. He was an active member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and of the Peach Growers, Inc.

Mr. Bennett was prominent in the activities of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, of which he was a steward. He was also a member of the Woodmen of the World, at Selma. Mrs. Bennett is a teacher in the Sunday School and a particularly active church worker. Three children came to share with them, from time to time, this religious and social life: Lorenzo, who married Emma Campbell, and has a ranch one mile west of Selma, and there they live with their four children-Steve, Jewell, Orville, and Verna. Earl, who married Maggie Kienitz, by whom he has had three children -- Roberta, Eunice, and Earlita; and they are ranchers on the State Highway one mile north of Selma. Marion, single, is at home, and helps run the ranch.

Mr. Bennett died a victim of influenza, on November 18, 1918, and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery south of Selma. Notwithstanding the contagious nature of his disease, his funeral was one of the largest held at Selma for years. Two truck-loads of floral offerings attested the love and esteem in which he was held.

"JosiahHall

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

COLONEL JOSIAH HALL .- It is appropriate in this instance to men- tion the great service rendered the America of today, not only by the pioneer who broke new paths, but by the citizen who, having by the hardest of labor established a certain amount of prosperity and home comfort, left fireside, family and all that was dear, at the call of his country, justice and right, fought the good fight, and then, when war was no more, returned to the avocations of peace, taking up the usual responsibilities of life, side by side and in friendliest relations with those who were once enlisted in the ranks of the enemy. Foremost among such sterling citizens must be mentioned Col. Josiah Hall, a native of Westminster, Vt., and the son of Capt. Edward Hall who was born on Cape Cod, Mass., and who was taken as a child to Vermont, where he grew up and became a farmer, proud of the traditions of his old New England family, and always ambitious to have one of the best of farms anywhere to be found.

Colonel Hall was a graduate of Norwich University, Vermont, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Finishing his studies, he taught school and also served on the Staff of the Governor as Major of the Second Regiment of Vermont Troops. In course of time he came West to Greenfield, Mo., and with his cousin, George McClure, he bought a herd of cattle in Missouri and Indian Territory, and drove them across the plains to California in the fifties. They themselves traveled on horseback and, reaching California, they disposed of the cattle in the Sacramento Valley. Afterward, Colonel Hall returned East by way of Panama and went back to Greenfield, Mo., where he remained until the clouds of war obscured the heavens. Then by wise precaution, he managed to get away from the state in safety.

On his return to his native Vermont, Mr. Hall enlisted as a private in the First Vermont Cavalry, and such was his preeminent ability that he was commissioned captain before he left the state. He was in active service and was promoted, from time to time, until he was commissioned colonel of his regiment. He was captured and imprisoned in both Libby and Anderson- ville prisons, and served a combined period of ten months. Then he was exchanged and returned to his regiment; and, fighting to the last, he was in the latest big battle of the war, at Appomattox, and afterwards took part in the Grand Review. On June 21, 1865, he was mustered out of service. His regiment was in .seventy-eight battles ; and at the reunion of the First Ver- mont Cavalry in November, 1917, at their headquarters in Norwich Univer- sity, a large portrait of Colonel Hall was presented by his nephew, Dr. Ed- ward Campbell, to Norwich University, and hung in Dewey Hall. The fol- lowing verbatim "Report" of Colonel Hall constitutes an interesting docu- ment of the Civil War:

"Report of Col. Josiah Hall, First Vermont Cavalry, to Peter T. Washburn, Adjutant and Inspector General.

"On the 7th inst. (April, 1865), we passed through Prince Ed- wards, C. H., on our way to Appomattox Station, which we reached on the evening of the 8th. Here we met the enemy again, and after a most stubborn and hotly contested fight, he was driven from the field, leaving trains of cars, wagons, ambulances and artillery in our possession. The casualties of this day's work were one killed and five wounded. We went into camp just in rear of the battlefield and re- mained until morning, being relieved from picket duty by other divi- sions which came up after we had become masters of the field. On the 9th the fighting commenced by sunrise and, as the infantry had arrived during the night, we were soon in motion. Our brigade was in advance and my regiment in front, the Eighth New York Regi- ment having been placed on the skirmish line. We moved out on the trot, forcing the enemy's skirmish line back rapidly, leaving the

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ground to be taken up by the Fifth Corps, which came up at the double quick. After passing the enemy's entire front, and running the gauntlet from the united fire of two batteries, we came around on their flank and rear, and in full sight of their supply trains. At this point General Custer ordered me to charge the train with my regi- ment. I immediately made the proper disposition of the command. The front battalion had already broken into the gallop, and the others were following at a fast trot, when a staff officer of General Custer came charging down and ordered me to halt the regiment. saying that General Lee had sent in a flag of truce, offering to sur- render his army. The two rear battalions were immediately halted, but the front one had got so far that they captured the last post be- tween us and the train before they could be halted. The regiment was at once formed and brought up into line of battle, while the preliminaries of the surrender were being gone through with. At about 5 P. M. General Custer rode along the lines and announced that the terms of the surrender had been agreed upon, and signed. and directed us to go into camp where we were. This was the last time the regiment was called upon to face the enemy and it was the source of much gratification to the regiment, as well as myself, to know that we were present to see the grand rebel army of North- ern Virginia find the 'last ditch.'"

(Signed) "JOSIAH HALL, Colonel First Vermont Cavalry."

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History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches 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, Volume I, Part 108

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1362

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362