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 90

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 90

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VOLUNTEER WAR NURSES

OVERSEAS-Elizabeth Holcomb, Carrie Woolsey, Margaret Sinclair, Laura Main, Lillian Hoffman, Christine and Anne Pilegard, Julia Tra- bucco, Phillipa Nelson, Lena Young, Marian Smith, Lou Adams, Evelyn McClure, Miss Curtis, Alberta Johnson of Parlier, Mathilda Frost, Esther Roach, Jeanne Beveridge,' Nora Day, Emma Legros, Dorothea Peterson. Wilhelmina Miller, Maude Nicholson and Edith Evans.

IN HOME CANTONMENTS-Florence M. Paton, Effie Foltz, Virl McFarland (died), Mary W. McMahon, Harriette Erickson, Matilda Brooks,

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Nellie Sessions, Minnie Gitchell, Dorothy Harrison, Bertha Eva, Millie Webster, Ada Woodward, Mildred Alexander, Adelaide Peyton, Laura Smith, Elizabeth Beveridge, Frances Elwell, Hallie Scott, Freda Russ (died).

AWAITING CALL-Dora Bangs, Helen Wager, Frieda Peterson, Magdeline Neilson, Mabel Kish, Lottie Parnell, Edith Hanson, Rachel Dale, Anna Marie Sackle, Olga Weisse, Letitia Tonsea, Frances Simi, Deborah Bell, Emily Satterberg, Pauline Nelson, Anna Edland, Hilda Burton and Ida Carlson of Kingsburg.

HONORABLY DISCHARGED-Nora Kenyon.

Ile Hoxú

BIOGRAPHICAL

JOHN C. HOXIE .- Eminent among the early pioneers of real accom- plishment who will be long and pleasantly remembered for what they contributed to the general advancement of California life, while carving out a fortune for themselves, must be mentioned John C. Hoxie, who was born on March 15, 1848, and died on November 21, just seventy years later. The end came at his home at L and Stanislaus Streets at ten o'clock in the evening after an illness of several months caused by a sunstroke sustained on a trip to the mountains the preceding June.

Mr. Hoxie's family was of English ancestry, and members resided for many years in Massachusetts. There the paternal grandfather died, leaving among others in his family a son named Clark Hoxie. He was born in Sand- wich, Barnstable County, and in young manhood became a contractor and builder. In 1852, following the westward trend of civilization, he came to California via the Isthmus of Panama and located in Tuttletown, Tuolumne County, erecting the first quartz mill ever built in that vicinity. He also en- gaged in mining for some time, and served as justice of the peace there. In 1856 he located on the Indian reservation, where he was employed to teach carpenter work, but in 1858 he had moved to Millerton, where he conducted a blacksmith and wagon shop. He became one of the most influential men in that community and took a prominent part in local affairs, serving as a member of the first board of supervisors and also as a justice of the peace. Returning to Massachusetts in 1866 via the Isthmus, he died at the old family home-place in Sandwich. His wife, before her marriage, was Susan Fessenden. She was born in Sandwich, a daughter of Capt. Sewell Fessen- den, a sea captain and hotel man there. He was a doughty patriot, and during the Revolutionary War rendered valiant service to his country as captain of the state militia.

Born at Sandwich in the year when struggles for liberty were rocking the thrones of Europe, John C. Hoxie was only ten years old when he accom- panied his family to California. The journey was made via the Isthmus, and then on the steamer Golden Age to San Francisco, by boat to Stockton, and thence by stage to Millerton. There were no schools in that locality at the time, but Mr. Hoxie was fortunate in having a mother of rare intellect and many accomplishments, who taught him instead. Mrs. Hoxie taught a small class, privately, in Millerton in 1859-1860, and at the same time had charge of the postoffice at Millerton. Inspired with the pioneer spirit of the region and age, John Hoxie, at the age of fifteen, engaged in the stock business, and in that field he continued successfully for many years. In time hie located on a ranch, which he purchased near Millerton, and engaged in farming and the raising of cattle and sheep until he had so increased his holdings that he owned several thousand acres. In 1874 he removed to Fresno, bought a block, and built the residence later occupied by Frank H. Short: and still later he erected a residence at the corner of L and Stanislaus Streets, where he was living at the time of his death.

In the early eighties Mr. Hoxie became interested in mining properties and in extensive mining operations in the mountains of Fresno and Madera Counties, and also in Inyo and Mono Counties. In conjunction with W. H. Mckenzie and T. C. Hart he purchased the Mud Spring Mine, developed and operated it, and made it one of the finest mining properties in this part

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of the Pacific Slope. He acted for some time as superintendent of the prop- erty, and by his rare skill and wise management did much to further the best interests of the company. His final illness was caused by a trip he was taking in the exceptionally hot weather of June to a mine beyond Piedra, on Hughes Creek.

To his many friends, Mr. Hoxie was a source of interesting reminiscence of the details of life in the days when Millerton was the leading town in Cen- tral California ; for he had a marvelous memory for details, and could recount many circumstances connected with the early struggles of the pioneer miners and settlers, both in their efforts to win a livelihood and in the factional dif- ferences incident to politics, in which he was always actively engaged as a thoroughgoing Democrat. For half a century he was known to everyone as a kindly, helpful member of the community, his activity continuing up to the time of his illness. A shrewd judge of human nature, reserved in tem- perament, quiet in demeanor, and of much personal dignity, he was loyal and helpful to his friends and charitable towards the errors of his fellow men. With a quiet humor that recognized the inconsistencies and follies of others, he gave expression to comment without the sting of censure. John C. Hoxie will be long and kindly remembered by his intimates, and admired as a historic figure by those who knew of his large experience of affairs and his close association with the times of the pioneers. Among the many public services that he rendered, perhaps none pleased him more to remember than his part in the Panama Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco. He was engaged by the directors to make a collection of minerals and metals of Central California for the California building, and in this work he spent about a year in traveling through Central California gathering specimens from mining men and collectors. His intimate knowledge of mining condi- tions for fifty years enabled him to make a collection that was remarkably extensive and that commanded wide-spread attention.

On December 18, 1873, Mr. Hoxie was married at Fort Miller to Miss Mary J. Mckenzie, who was born at the Fort. a member of a Scotch-Irish family hailing from County Sligo, Ireland, where their home was for several generations. Alexander McKenzie was a large landowner there, a gentle- man of means and education, who provided every possible advantage for his family. A son, James McKenzie, who was born in County Sligo, came to New York about 1848, and in 1853 joined the United States Army. The regiment was ordered to the Pacific Coast in 1854 to subdue the Indians. They traveled by steamer to Aspinwall, thence across the Isthmus on mule back, thence by steamer to San Francisco, and from there to Benicia and by land to Fort Miller. Mr. Mckenzie became sergeant of his company, which was commanded by Captain Loeser, and remained at Fort Miller until the company was ordered north to Oregon to serve in the Indian wars there. Having been honorably discharged in 1858, Mr. Mckenzie engaged in the raising of cattle and sheep on a ranch just above the Fort, and there he remained until his death, which occurred at the early age of thirty-three, on January 1, 1864. Ten years before he had been married in New York City to Ann Brennan, also a native of County Sligo, where she was born Novem- ber 7, 1826. She came to the United States in 1848 to visit a sister, and her wedding journey proved a trip to the far West. Like her husband, she rode a mule across the Isthmus and passed through many experiences incidental to pioneer life. She and her husband made their home at the Fort until 1861. when they located upon a ranch a few miles distant. It was here that Mr. McKenzie died, and thereupon the widow and her children returned to the Fort to live. She afterwards became the wife of Judge Charles A. Hart, a pioneer of California and the first judge of Fresno County. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie: Mary J., who became Mrs. John C. Hoxie : William H., who married Carrie E. Hoxie ; and Edward P., who be- came a merchant at Pollasky and later died in Fresno. Another surviving

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sister of Mr. Hoxie is Mrs. L. Z. Barth of San Francisco; and there are two surviving brothers, Sewell F. Hoxie, of Pasadena, and George L. Hoxie, for many years county surveyor and city engineer of Fresno.

Mrs. John C. Hoxie was the first school teacher in Fresno City and will thus always enjoy an enviable relation to the cause of popular educa- tion here. After her graduation from the San Jose Normal School in 1872, she returned to Fresno County and taught the first school-a private one- in 1873. This was done to demonstrate the need of a public school and as a requirement of the law at that time before county money could be appor- tioned for school purposes, the county schools not yet having been opened. The school was held over a grocery store owned by B. S. Booker and located at the corner of Tulare and I Streets, where the Hughes Hotel now stands, and was attended by fifteen pupils. Mrs. Hoxie also helped to organize the Catholic Church in Fresno and the Leisure Hour Club, devoted to the study of literature. That was twenty-five years ago, and Mrs. Hoxie was president of the club for four years.

HENRY CLAY DAULTON .- An early pioneer of real accomplishment in California, whose memory deserves especial recognition at the shrine of American patriotism, because of his membership in a family noted for its association with American history and the building of a nation, was Henry Clay Daulton, the son of a soldier who went through the campaigns of 1812 and the grandson of a soldier who was among the first to seize his musket and fight in the War of the Revolution, for the freedom and founding of our country. The eighth among ten children, he was born at Marysville, Ky., April 7. 1829; but remained only a short time in his native state, inasmuch as the family moved to Hannibal, Mo., while he was yet a child, making their home near what was to be immortalized by the famous humorist, Mark Twain.

The death of his parents, when he was only fourteen, threw him entirely upon his own resources, and for a while he worked for wages as a farm laborer. On the anniversary of his birth in 1850 he started across the plains for the Pacific Coast. He was accompanied by his brother, and they traveled with ox-teams. They had the usual experiences, sometimes thrilling, some- times amusing, often calling upon them in one way or another to show the stuff that was in them, but, on August 11, luckily arrived all right at Placer- ville, in Eldorado County, and there, for a couple of years, Mr. Daulton tried his luck at mining. In 1852, when it was evident to him that the steady in- flux of gold-seekers would demand, more and more, supplies with which to subsist, he returned East by way of Panama to buy sheep and cattle, and the following year, driving his stock before him, he once more crossed the plains. Again it was necessary to show bravery, endurance and the capacity to meet and overcome obstacles not generally contended with in the more settled and comfortable East ; but the party arrived safely in Los Angeles early in November, and for a few years he remained in the San Gabriel Valley.

Later Mr. Daulton settled on a farm twelve miles northeast of Madera, where he purchased a large tract of Government land. He had served as jus- tice of the peace in Los Angeles during his stay in the Southland, and when he came North he brought with him a certain dignity and status that was helpful and enabled him more easily to lead and help others.

In 1857, feeling that another change was desirable, Mr. Daulton settled on what is known as the Santa Rita ranch in Fresno County, and later pur- chased the "Shepherd's Home," an attractive farm that he made his home- place. Used to develop everything to a high standard whenever it was pos- sible to do so, Mr. Daulton made both the necessary improvements and such as appealed to his fancy, and so made of his property such attractive places that many came from a distance to enjoy the scene and to get the benefit of whatever was new in plans or devices.

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But it was not only as a successful rancher that Mr. Daulton was entitled to recognition : he held public office, and he discharged his responsibility as a public trust that had been solemnly committed to him. In 1860 he was elected supervisor of Fresno County, and held that position until 1875. He helped to organize Madera County, and was chairman of the commission when Madera County was formed on May 20, 1893. He was also elected supervisor of Madera County, was chairman of the first board, and was in office at the time of his death, on October 28, 1893.

At the San Gabriel Mission, in 1854, Mr. Daulton married Mary Jane Hildreth, a daughter of Jesse and a sister of Thomas Hildreth, who had crossed the plains in the same party with her husband. She was a woman of sterling character, and her demise in 1907 was widely regretted. Ten children were born of the union, and five are still living: Mrs. Ida Saxe of Fresno; Mrs. Maude L. Mann of Oakland; John, Jr., and Jonathan of Madera ; and James William.

A self-made man, Mr. Daulton started in life very poor, yet when he died he left an estate of 18,000 acres, all in Madera land. He had, besides, a beautiful home in Oakland.

SAMUEL BROWN .- One of the first pioneers of Fresno County, Samuel Brown accomplished much good work toward starting this section of the state on its upward course of development. A prominent sheep and cattleman of the county, he reached success in life through habits of in- dustry and thrift, as did the majority of our pioneers. Samuel Brown was born in Augusta, Maine, January 4, 1832. When twenty-one years old, in 1853, he sailed with a party of friends around Cape Horn for California, the trip, an arduous one of eleven months, costing two hundred dollars from Boston to San Francisco.

After his arrival here Mr. Brown went to work on the Dr. Marsh stock ranch, ten miles south of Antioch, Contra Costa County. During the last six years in their employ he was foreman of this vast stock ranch, over a league in extent. He next engaged in the butcher business, in Antioch, remaining there five years. At the end of that period, he sold out his inter- ests and drove a band of sheep into Fresno County, in 1869, when this section of the state was one vast plain, with no sign of the present teeming city of Fresno, nor her surrounding tributaries of commerce. Here he ran sheep over the valley for many years. He homesteaded 160 acres of land, and bought an additional like amount, four miles south of Millerton, and engaged in grain farming and stock raising, also leasing three sections of land in the Garfield school district, and farmed this extensive acreage for twelve years.

The marriage of Mr. Samuel Brown, which occurred in Martinez, Con- tra Costa County, in 1868, united him with Sarah Jane Gift, who was born in Memphis, Tenn., June 28, 1849. She came to California with her parents, via the Isthmus of Panama, in 1856. Her father, William A. J. Gift, was a pioneer of the state, a prominent rancher and cattleman, and served as deputy sheriff of Contra Costa County. Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Brown, as follows: Charles, born May 21, 1870, now deceased ; George, born October 2, 1871, resides in Alpio; Mary, born January 9, 1873, is the wife of E. M. Kenneson of Fresno; John H., born September 17, 1875, now deceased; Maude S., born November 17, 1882, wife of C. A. Sample; Mrs. George Cobb, of Fresno, born December 2, 1885; and Mrs. Nellie Cole- man, born April 17, 1886. Mr. Brown died on August 5, 1897.

Mrs. Brown lived near Millerton on the stock ranch until 1917, which year she moved into Fresno and bought the property at 394 Glenn Avenue, where she now makes her home. Always a devoted wife and mother, she has borne her full share of the labor and hardships encumbent on the pioneer men and women in building up our commonwealth, and to the women, no less than the men, is due our appreciation for the work so nobly done.

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FRANK H. SHORT .- Among the leading attorneys and business men of the San Joaquin Valley, is Frank H. Short, who is prominent in legal, finan- cial and social circles. Of a strong personality, great force of character and rare mental attainments, he is justly entitled to the honorable position that he holds as one of the most brilliant lawyers, and energetic and safe business men of this part of California. Through persistency of purpose and zeal, in- telligently and unerringly directed, he has achieved success at the bar and in financial circles, the influence of his masterful intellect being felt by judge and jury as well as by his associates and clientele. He is and always has been an inveterate worker, deep thinker and great traveler; has a high sense of honor and integrity, belongs to a good family and is of a genial and hospitable nature. He is philanthropic, large-minded, liberal and public spirited, and has always been in advance of the times in matters relating to the public welfare, and for many years has been recognized as one of the leaders of the Repub- lican party of this state.

Mr. Short was born on September 12, 1862, in Shelby County, Mo., a son of Hamilton and Emily (Wharton) Short. His father, Hamilton Short, and his grandfather, John Short were both born in Delaware, of English ancestry, who immigrated to Shelby County and became pioneers. Hamilton Short was a farmer : upon the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Missouri state troops, and while serving in the army died from drinking poisoned water, being but twenty-nine years old at the time. His wife, who was born in Mount Pleasant, Ohio, spent many years of her life in Fresno, Cal. Her father, Wil- liam Sayre Wharton, was a descendant of one of the early families in Dela- ware and was born and reared in Ohio, where he learned the trade of saddler. He located in Shelby County, Mo., and farmed until removing to California, where he spent his declining years, dying in Fresno in 1900, aged eighty- eight years. Two of his sons, Frank and F. A., served in the Union Army during the Civil War. Frank Wharton, who held a commission as lieutenant, removed to Fresno in the early days of its history, and until his death in 1889 was one of its leading citizens, being a prominent attorney, and at one time served in the state legislature.

Of the children born of the union of Hamilton and Emily (Wharton) Short, two attained maturity: John W., well-known as editor, postmaster and property owner of Fresno; and Frank H. The latter attended the public schools of Shelby County, Mo., and Hastings, Nebr., and at the age of nine- teen he was engaged to teach school for a year. Removing to Fresno, Cal., in 1881, he continued teaching, in the meantime beginning the study of law under his uncle, Frank Wharton. In 1887 he was admitted to the bar, and since that time he has been successfully engaged in practice. He has con- ducted many important cases, and has ably filled the position of attorney for various corporations. Associated with Judge Chapman of Los Angeles, he was connected with the litigation over oil lands between scrippers and the min- eral locators, and was successful in obtaining decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and from the Secretary of the Interior in favor of the mineral locators. In his earlier practice he assisted in the prosecution of Heath for the murder of McWhorter, and defended Professor Sanders, ac- cnsed of forgery and suspected of the murder of William Wooton. In pro- ceedings before the railroad commissioners he succeeded in procuring a re- duction of ten per cent. in the rates of transportation for oil, thus saving the oil-shippers about half a million a year at that time, now amounting to con- siderable more than double that sum. More recently Mr. Short has repre- sented the principal water and electric power companies of the Pacific Coast, both under state and federal laws, and many of these cases are reported in the State Courts and the United States Supreme Court. In connection with ques- tions involving use of public lands and water rights he has conducted hear- ings and appeared frequently before committees of Congress on issues of vital public importance. These are but few of the important cases with which

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Mr. Short has been identified, and the success which attended his conduct of them has given him a position among the leaders of the bar in California.

Outside of legal circles, Mr. Short is best known as one of the most ag- gressive and dependable leaders in the ranks of the Republican party in Cal- ifornia. In 1884, at the age of twenty-two and three years before he was ad- mitted to the bar, he was elected justice of the peace. He has been prominent in county and state conventions for years. In 1896 he was chosen as a delegate to the Republican National Convention at St. Louis, when Mckinley was nominated for the presidency. In 1904 he was a leading member of the Cal- ifornia delegation to the Republican National Convention at Chicago, at which Roosevelt was nominated. He took a prominent part in that convention, was one of the sub-committee chosen to frame the platform upon which the cam- paign was conducted. In 1898, Governor Gage appointed him a member of the State Board of Commissioners for the preservation of Yosemite Valley. He was for one term a member of the board of trustees of the San Jose State Normal School. Mr. Short was for years a director of the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company ; was one of the original stockholders and a director of the Fresno National Bank, besides having other property interests in city and county.

In Fresno, 1897, Mr. Short was united in marriage with Nellie C. (Curtis) Rorick, who was born in Iowa, but was reared and educated in Los Angeles. She had one daughter, Mildred. By his first wife, Emma Packard, Mr. Short has one son, Frank H. Short, Jr. Fraternally, Mr. Short is a member of Fresno Lodge, No. 127, F. & A. M .; Trigo Chapter, No. 69, R. A. M., Fresno Com- mandery, No. 29, K. T., and of Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Fran- cisco. In his social relations he is a member of Pacific Union Club, of the Union League Club, and the Bohemian Club of San Francisco, and of the Sequoia Club of Fresno. He is also a member and ex-President of the State Bar Association, and ex-President of the Fresno County Bar Association.

There is no movement projected for the upbuilding of Fresno County that does not receive his hearty support and he is looked upon as one who has been active in laying the groundwork of present-day prosperity of the San Joaquin Valley. His work has made a marked impress upon the trend of events in California, and the record of his life is entitled to a place of dis- tinction in the annals of the state.

MRS. ELIZA FINK .- If there is any corner of this highly-interesting earth and any class among its highly-favored groups which recall to one's mind the blessed words, "Their works do live after them," it is California the Golden and her worthy pioneers, so many of whom have passed hence with scarcely a memorial of their names or faces, and yet leaving behind the most precious monument a man can conceive of-the record for a life properly lived and some definite, needed work well accomplished. With little or no thought of reward other than the imperative daily wage to which it is declared in holy writ that the honest workman is always entitled, the early settler threw himself into the game, disposed of each play as best he could, and left the result to the judgment of posterity. Nor could he have entrusted his fate to better hands ; for the modern burgher looking back finds a delight in tracing the institutions and comforts of today to those who were identified here with the beginning of things, and gratitude is felt and often expressed to the men and women who did so much to start California on her wonderful course.

Among the pioneers who should thus be honored in the chronicles of the State is the late Peter W. Fink, a native of New York State where he grew up and learned the carpenter trade. By principle as well as by habit, he could not be anything else than a first-class journeyman ; and this proficiency stood him well in hand when, later, he found that he had to adapt himself to the con- ditions of a new and expanding country. When twenty years of age, Mr. Fink left home and the East and came to California; and on his arrival here, in 1849, he made haste to try his luck in the mines. The returns for labor and

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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 90

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