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 4

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 4

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

state's oil producing region. Irrigation has transformed Fresno from a desert to an annual producer of over thirty millions.

Its potentialities are boundless almost. It is no dream that in the cultiva- tion of rice and cotton as the latest taken up enterprises of the soil with demonstrated successes in the experimental efforts, California and its great interior valley are preparing to furnish the world with more surprises. Such an eminent authority as George C. Roeding has declared that Fresno must wake up and teach the world that "here in the central portion of the Golden State there is an empire worthy the attention of the man with the dollar." And there is a wonderful past to substantiate him.

The history of Fresno, and for that matter of the great interior valley also, was little influenced by the Spaniards or the Mexicans in so far as leav- ing imperishable impress upon the region that the gold seekers brought to the world's knowledge. There was no Spanish sub-stratum with the pictured life and customs as at the coastal mission establishments, so suggestive of medievalism and even feudalism, to give the quaint and picturesque setting for the American superstructure to follow and to recall the days before the Gringo came.

Of the Spanish and Mexican rule there is no lasting memorial, save perhaps in the melodious nomenclature of landmarks, and in the foreign words grafted on the English language. The name "Fresno," from the Spanish meaning "ash tree," was applied because of the abundance of the tree in the mountains of the county. It was first given to identify the river tributary to the San Joaquin and once embraced within the county, but now in Madera. It was so applied before Fresno County was organized, and even before the territory now so named had distinctive appellation as a part of Mariposa County. It was so appropriated to name the first big trees discovered by James Burney of Mariposa and John Macauley of Defiance, Ohio, in 1849. They were in Fresno territory that is now part of Madera County. Burney was of North Carolina and the first sheriff of Mariposa, elected after organiza- tion in February, 1850. The above named and two others made the find in the latter part of October on the Fresno-San Joaquin divide while pursuing animals that the Indians had stolen. This was at a time when Mariposa em- braced, as one of the original twenty-seven counties of the state, nearly the entire San Joaquin Valley, south of the Tuolumne River.

CHAPTER II

CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE MUTATION OF TIME. LINKING THE PRESENT LIVING WITH THE REMOTE DEAD PAST. THE DAYS OF THE SQUAWMAN. SURVIVING PIONEERS ANTEDATING DAYS BEFORE COUNTY ORGANIZATION. A FREQUENTLY CHANG- ING AND EVER SHRINKING ROSTER. CASUAL MENTION OF SOME OF THE LISTED PICTURESQUE CHARACTERS THAT HAVE PASSED AWAY. PIONEERS OF THE MINING PERIOD OF THE DECADE OF THE '50's.

As a political entity, Fresno's history runs back to 1856. Prior to that and territorially long before that, it was unpeopled during the period that Bret Harte has so poetically described as "that bland, indolent autumn of Spanish rule, so soon to be followed by the wintry storms of Mexican indepen- dence." It was the undisputed domain of the Indian-the Digger as he was called, because he digged the ground for edible roots, bulbs and insect larvae.

It was indefinitely located as the remote and farthermost outpost of "that section of the mining region known as the Southern Mines" after carving

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

out from Mariposa and with it claiming Utah Territory as easternmost bound- ary. The Mother of Counties embraced almost everything in the easternmost interior between the Coast and Sierra ranges from Tuolumne on the north to San Luis Obispo on the south, with its celebrated central Fremont Grant concerning which alone a book might be written, its four great central gold abounding sections and quartz veins throughout the county, Mariposa as one of the original organized with formation of the state in 1850, was so rich in mining wealth that it was estimated as formed in 1856 that over 500 mills could be supplied with rock paying from sixteen dollars to twenty dollars per ton.

As to Fresno, years elapsed before "the reviving spirit of American con- quest," gripped the land. With successive industrial evolutions, the trans- formation has been short of the marvelous. From the early primitive mining camps in canyons and gulches or along river banks, the transition from an inland cow county has been to a vast agricultural domain, the future seat of fullest activities in that line of a great commonwealth, and the upbuilding of an interior community that every prophecy holds out as destined to become one of the largest, most populous, influential and richest. It is well on its way to reach that goal.

Jonathan Swift, the greatest satirist of his age, philosophises through one of his characters that "he gave it as his opinion that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of philosophers put together." What then of the pioneers who on the barren nothingness of 1856 laid the basis of what is the wonderful Fresno county of 1919?

The changes that the mutations of time have wrought in the span of sixty-two years are not appreciated until they are brought to a realization by some homely yet startling illustration. The reader may measurably con- ceive the changes when contemplating the concrete fact that there are less than a dozen known living persons that have risen out of all obscurity in the growth of the county, or who, having removed from California, trace has been lost of them, and who were residents of the territory before and at the period of the county's organization in the year 1856.

ROSTER OF LIVING EARLIEST PIONEERS

The following roster of surviving pioneers of pioneers was first compiled nearly two years ago. It has undergone five revisions to leave today in- January, 1919, the submitted names, for be it borne in mind that the adult pioneer in the territory in 1856, or before county organization, must have been at twenty-one majority or close thereto, and with the sixty-two years added since, would need be, if surviving today, at an advanced age in the 80's. The living are believed to be the following named according to best research :

Henry F. Akers, of near Sanger; William Albertus Akers, of near Coal- inga ; Mrs. Sarah Akers-Chambers, of San Benito; Mrs. Mary Agnes Burns, of near Sanger; Mrs. C. P. Converse that was Mrs. Stephen Gaster, whose home is in Ishom Valley, Tulare County; Mrs. Lewis Leach, who was the first Mrs. C. P. Converse, and is a resident of Fresno City; Mrs. Mary Mc- Kenzie-Hoxie, born at Millerton in 1855; Hiram McDonald, who was chief of police of 5-Point Precinct, Phoenix, Ariz, at last accounts. The last two were in the county as juveniles at organization date.

Jasper N. Musick 1154033

Jasper N. Musick headed the above list for more than a year and a half as perhaps the widest known of the early pioneers, though the Akers family preceded him in the territory by some three years. Death removed Musick at

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

the age of eighty-five years on June 4, 1918, and two days later his remains were laid away in the little rural cemetery at Academy, where sleepeth so many of the pioneer men and women of the county.

Familiarly known as "Uncle Jess" because of his lovable character, Jasper N. Musick had experienced all the vicissitudes of early day pioneering, and as a boy the family located at what is now Jefferson City, Mo., at a period when St. Louis was on the map as a trading post. He was the sixth of fifteen children. A brother, Jeremiah, for whom a Fresno residence addition was named (he died in 1904) came to California after the war and engaged in stock raising.

Jasper and a brother crossed the plains, arriving in the fall of 1850. They made the journey to Salt Lake City with ox teams, but traded for horses as ,a swifter means of progress. Arriving at Hangtown (Placerville, Cal.), they were surprised to behold the traded off oxen that had previously arrived and in a much better condition than the horses. For six years, Musick mined in Amador County with reasonable success, in 1856 settled in Mariposa County, engaged incidentally in Indian warfare and participated in the skirm- ish on Tule River which quelled the outbreak. Settling at Millerton, he teamed to and from Stockton and the mines, hauling provisions to the latter for five cents a pound with ten days required on the round trip. In 1858 he moved the Fort Miller soldiers to Benicia Barracks on evacuation.

Later he located on Dry Creek in the- stock business with J. G. Simpson, conducting a Millerton meat shop, and each spring drove a band of cattle to Sonora and other mining centers at profit. This partnership continued until 1865, when he took up the sheep business with ranch at Letcher. There he also pioneered in orange and deciduous fruit growing. His residence in Fresno city dated from 1892, and here in comparative affluence he lived a retired life after the whirl and excitement of his younger years. By a first marriage at Dry Creek with a native born of Millerton, Rebecca, daughter of James Richards, a pioneer settler, five children were born, three of whom attained majority. The second marriage in December, 1878, was at Lemoore to Nancy J. Messersmith, whose family came from Cole County, Mo., after the war.

Mr. Musick was for two terms a county supervisor and chairman of the board for a time. It was during his incumbency that the county-seat removal was effected, a change that he had championed. While a Dry Creeker, he was in 1872 one of the incorporators and organizers and the treasurer of the Dry Creek Academy with ex-Sheriff J. D. Collins as the first teacher, a school of acknowledged repute. Later, building and grounds were deeded to the school district of which Mr. Musick was a trustee for years, and school has never closed doors to its original purpose. In his younger days Mr. Musick was a leader of the Democracy.

As an evidence of the remarkable faculty that some men are endowed with in the recollection of dates, is cited the incident that on the day of the funeral, June 6, 1918. John C. Hoxie, the late pioneer, recalled on his way to the obsequies to attend them as a pall bearer, that the day of his friend's death lacked only fortv-eight hours of the day, June 2, 1856, of his first meeting, as a small boy with Jasper N. Musick at old Millerton. Two days after the funeral was also the incident of the recording of a government land patent to Musick under date of August 30, 1877, and apparently long forgotten.

Joseph Burns

At the age of eighty-eight years and three months on December 13, 1918, Joseph Burns died after an illness of five months at his home near Sanger. He was one of the last of the Old Guard, his coming antedating county organ- ization in 1856. He had followed agricultural and pastoral pursuits nearly all his life in California, amassing a competency which permitted him to aid in the development of the county in humble fashion. He was a good citizen,

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

never in public life, never sought political preferment but remained content to follow the unobtrusive career of a farmer, drifting along with the time and the tide, his circumstances benefitted by the natural advancement and enrich- ment of the region in which he had chosen to cast his lot, undisturbed by the hurly-burly of changing epochs and living more in the historic dead past than the bustling, restless present.

Joseph Burns was a South Carolinian born, but as an infant removed with parents to Sparta, Randolph county, Ill. In early manhood and allured by the gold excitement, he came to California in 1852; according to another report in 1854. At any rate he settled in Mariposa county and was a resident of that county even after Fresno was carved out of that vast mining domain. There is little to be told of his early experiences, though after removal to Fresno after county organization it is recalled that like many others he was adopted according to a prevailing practice of the times into tribal relations through the daughter of an Indian chief with a place in history. Cowchiti, as he was known, had to do with the preliminaries of the treaty of peace signed up at Fort Barbour, April 29, 1851, with the rebellious tribes of the valley following surrender to the Mariposa Battalion under Maj. James D. Savage and with the last act in the drama-the bringing in of the captive and starved out Yosemites from the fastnesses of the valley. Chief Cowchiti was the scout and interpreter that guided Capt. Boling's company to and from the valley in the pursuit, being the first visit by white men in number to enter and explore the scenic gorge and make its fame known. Cowchiti was looked upon by the soldiery not altogether without suspicion and doubt as to his motives and purposes, but proved faithful to his trust.

Burns settled on Willow creek, a tributary of Coarse Gold Creek, in Madera county now, setting out there what is said to have been the first peach orchard in this region. In 1862 he married Mary Agnes Lewis, whose father was a herb doctor at a time when graduate practitioners were few. In the year 1869, Burns pulled up stakes and moved to Centerville in the Kings river district and engaged in stock and sheep raising and farming, and also planted one of the first orange groves in that pioneer citrus belt. He and others were associated in the co-operative Sweem ditch enterprise. It was on any scale the first practical irrigation demonstration in the county and with its inclusion in the Church irrigation plan metamorphosed the parched grazing land of the plains into vineyards, orchards and farms.

The published Burns obituary recorded several glaring inaccuracies. The death was heralded as that of the oldest citizen and pioneer. This was mani- festly incorrect. It was declared as "an outstanding circumstance" of his re- ported marriage in 1862 "that it was the first recorded in the new county of Fresno which up to that time formed a part of Mariposa County." This is obvi- ously also an absurd statement. Equally far from the truth was the statement that "for several years he was the only Republican who cast his vote in Miller- ton, then the county seat of Fresno County." The distinction of having been the historical "Lone Republican" in the county has been fastened on various per- sons, now dead, among them the late Judge Charles A. Hart and the late Supervisor H. C. Daulton. Truth is that the subject of the obituary never did vote at Millerton because there were precinct polling places at Coarse Gold and at Centerville even before the Republican party came into existence. If there is a well authenticated historical incident it is the one that the "Lone Republican" of Fresno that gained a state wide name because casting the only Republican vote in his locality for that new party's first presidential nominee was "Dad" Aldrich, or Aldridge (the spelling is varied). He gained that publicity because of his vote for Abraham Lincoln at the election November 6, 1860, at the Coarse Gold precinct. The late Capt. R. P. Mace of Madera was the presiding officer at the polling place, and the late James G. McCardle and William Cunningham (brother-in-law of Mace by the latter's second marriage), escorted and protected Aldrich to the ballot box to vote, the three

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

cognizant of the threats made by certain roughs against Aldrich that "no damned Abolitionist would vote if they could prevent it."

Burns was undoubtedly one of the earliest voting Republicans in the county as he was also one of the 100 who subscribed for small stock holdings to start the Fresno Republican newspaper under the late Dr. Chester Rowell. It is not to say that in the activities of his day and time he did not aid and encourage the movements for the development of the county, for he did do so. It is however to record history that he chose to drift with the times and while encouraging these movements did not initiate any. He was not ambitious on these lines. He did not yearn to flash in the lime light of publicity. He had a competency and was content to let well enough alone. His competency dwindled with time but to the end he pursued a life of restful peace and quiet.

A widow, two sons and four daughters survive him. A member of the Presbyterian church from childhood, he was not bound by sectarianism in religious matters. Report had it that he took comfort before death from the 23rd Psalm and at the last recited it to the end :

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me "All the days of my life ;

"And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

"Forever."

Joseph M. Kinsman

During the year, 1916, Joseph M. Kinsman of Madera, a pioneer of 1848, headed the list. He and his brother, Albert, known as "Al," were of the clan of squawmen so numerous in the days when a white woman in the mining regions was a rarity. Joseph was the surviving brother and he died December 26, 1916. The story is told that a fad of later days was his collection of news- papers and prints with storied experiences of the pioneer times. He was him- self a fountain of information and had a remarkable memory of what he had in his unclassified collection. It is said that he wantonly set fire to his shack and destroyed the collection that would have been a priceless treasure for the historian. Neither brother filled a place in public or historic life.

Joseph Kinsman died at his Northfork miner's cabin at the age of eighty- nine years and ten months. He was a sailor in youth, born in Boston in 1826, came to California in 1849 and mined on the Chowchilla, later went into busi- ness at Merced Falls, Mariposa County, and in 1875 settled at Hooker's Cove at Northfork and continued there until death. It was said of him that he was a life-long Democrat and a Southern sympathizer in the Civil War, although a Northerner born, and was known as "the Connecticut Rebel." It is recalled of him that he kept a diary of daily events from 1849 to 1875 when it was destroyed by fire, and then that he opened another.

Capt. R. P. Mace and Wife

A notable death preceding that of Kinsman's, was that of Mrs. Jennie E. Mace, pioneer of 1855-56 and widow of Capt. R. P. Mace (April 24, 1894). She died July 17, 1916; he was a California '49er. Death, in the home of over forty years of residence, removed in Mrs. Mace the oldest pioneer woman of Madera County. Her first California home was at O'Neal's, and during her sixty-one years in the valley, she saw Fresno, Merced, Mono and Madera Counties come into existence and the cities of Fresno and Madera spring out of the plains. She was a native of Ireland, born in August, 1837, and with her father, Andrew Cunningham, and her mother, came to Indiana when only a few weeks of age. She married in 1855, John Gilmore, and the honeymoon was passed on the journey to California. She settled at O'Neal's, where she lived nineteen years and where a daughter (Mrs. Tillie Gilmore-Brown) and two sons were born. Her marriage to Capt. Mace occurred in 1866. She was

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

a much beloved woman, who was noted for many acts of charity and benevo- lence, was prominent in the Methodist Church, South, and in 1869 was one with others, to organize at Fort Miller, one of the first Sunday schools in the valley, the abandoned guardhouse being the place of meeting. In pos- session of her faculties to the last, she could talk interestingly of experiences from the viewpoint of the good wife, the respected woman and the honored mother of two families.

Capt. Mace's adventurous career started with a sea voyage as a cabin boy from Boston to New Orleans, thereafter with a companion he spent a roving season with a French trader among the Comanches. At Independence, Mo., he joined the trading train of the American Fur Trading Company en route to Bent's Fort on the Arkansas. He accompanied Robert Isher, noted scout, trapper and trainer of Kit Carson, on the volunteer journey to Taos, to convey important messages for 180 miles to Charles Bent, one of the four brothers, trailing through the hostile region of the Utes. The journeying was done by night with concealment in canyons by daylight. The return to the fort was with escort of trappers and hunters. Mace continued in the employ of Charles Bent for six years as a trusty scout, carrying express from Bent's Fort to Fort George on another dangerous trail and taking his life in hand on every journey and on one occasion holding five Indians at bay.

For two years with Kit Carson he hunted the buffalo for meat for the 400 employes of the fur company, chasing the bison over the present site of Denver, Colo., and also being at Pueblo, that state, when the first adobe was raised for a trading post. At twenty-three he returned to New Orleans, con- tinued for three years as clerk in a wine house and at the outbreak of the war with Mexico was among the first to volunteer and for three months served under Gen. E. P. Gaines. Louisiana being requisitioned upon for a regiment, Mace returned to New Orleans on leave, recruited the first company for that first regiment, was appointed captain-hence the title that remained with him through life-was the senior in rank and served until the treaty of peace. He also served in quelling an Indian uprising in Yucatan. The gold discovery attracted him to California and the year 1849 saw him in San Francisco (Yerba Buena) camped in Happy Valley, south of Market street, afterward the manufacturing and foundry district, headed soon for Rose's Bar on the Yuba and with varying success mining for twenty years. Later at Millerton, he and a company spent three years building a race to turn the San Joaquin River for mining. They first struck it rich, making from a few buckets of dirt, $900 and $1,000 a day for several days, but the bed soon played out. He had also a quartz lead at Fine Gold Gulch. This was mismanaged and destroyed in his absence. The later No-Fence law practically ruined him so he killed his live stock to dispose of it. He rented and managed the hotel at the ambitious settlement at Borden which once aspired to be the county seat of Fresno County, continuing from 1874 until 1876, when Madera was founded and he was one of the first to buy town lots. Madera eventually crowded Borden off the map. In 1877 he built the Yosemite Hotel in Madera, stopping place for Yosemite Valley travel via Raymond, and when it was destroyed bv fire he erected the standing brick structure that faces the railroad depot. Capt. Mace was justice of the peace for years and served for three terms in the state legislature.

Running allusion is made to his career to emphasize the spirit and character of the men who were the prominent pioneers of Fresno. They were men that did things. It was not the period for mollycoddles.

Thomas Sprecherman, also known as "Tom Jones," who came on the Chowchilla as a miner in 1849, and John Besore, of French descent and an early pioneer, have been on the list. They and Thomas J. Dunlap, popularly known as Jeff Dunlap, all Fresnans, became Maderans after county division because they lived north of the San Joaquin River line.

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

The Akers Family

The Akers family group is a notable one of five brothers with many descendants. They came overland to the territory in 1853 via the southern route, heading straight for Millerton and settling on the Kings River at Cen- terville or Scottsburg as the first settlement was named. They were in the order of primogeniture; Harvey (died June 17, 1911), at the age of eighty- three, Smith and Anderson (both long since passed away) and the surviving two youngest, Henry F. and William Albertus. A sister is another survivor, a resident of Bitterwater in San Benito County.

The Akers made up an oxteam party of emigrants and it is related that when near where Tulare City is now located they found themselves almost out of provisions and facing starvation. Ahead of them trailed another party fairly well supplied with stock cattle. It bogged in crossing the Kings River, and what was its loss and misfortune proved the salvation of the others, for the Akers party rescued the mud imbedded cattle out of the river bottom and slaughtering them for beef was enabled to close in on the last lap of the long journey and to furnish itself with meat after arrival at destination.

James N. Walker

Another who was once listed was a pioneer of the valley, influential in his day politically and financially, James Null Walker, who died January, 1916. His closing career is tinged pitiably when he is recalled in the days of the dandified and handsome personage of younger and middle age, in contrast with his Rip Van Winkle sloven, ragged and neglected appearance of the closing days. A day had been when none was too high not to court the friend- ship and acquaintance of the Hon. James N. Walker. A Missourian, born in February, 1829, he was brought up in the handling of stock and at fifteen was sent to the New Orleans market in charge of his father's cattle, and later was taken into partnership. He made his last trip to New Orleans as a drover in 1849 and netted enough out of the joint venture to purchase an outfit to come to California in 1850 and arrived in August, after the overland oxteam journey.

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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 4

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