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 99

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 99

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In Vaca Valley, Solano County, April 29, 1860, Perry C. Phillips was united in marriage with Elizabeth Hildebrand, a native of Flat Rock, Shelby County, Ind., where she was born October 22, 1840. Her father, Joseph Hildebrand, a native of Lancaster County, Pa., and a farmer of that state, was married in Montgomery County, Ohio, to Anna Harkarader, a native of the Buckeye State, whose father was a miller at Miamisburg, on the Miami River near Dayton. Mrs. Phillips' grand-parents were natives of Pennsyl- vania but moved to Ohio and later to Shelby County, Ind., where Grand- father Hildebrand died, when she was four years of age. Grandfather Hilde-

t. C. Phillips

Elizabeth Phillips

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

brand was in the War of 1812, when Mrs. Phillips' father was born. During the Mexican War, Joseph Hildebrand, Mrs. Phillips' father, was a drill- master and she well remembers seeing him in uniform, drilling soldiers for the war. When she was eight years of age her parents removed to Iowa and in 1853 she accompanied them across the plains with ox teams to California. At first the family settled in Sierra County where the father followed mining, and in 1854 she moved with her parents to Nevada County, and it was at Grizzly Hill, in this county, that she first met Mr. Phillips, who was then a young man of about seventeen, while she was about fourteen years of age. Their acquaintance soon developed into courtship and on April 29, 1860, their wedding ceremony was solemnized in Vaca Valley, Solano County, where her parents were then residing.

In October of this same year the young couple journeyed to Fresno County, seeking a place to locate and establish a home. On October 23, 1860, after driving the team all day, Mrs. Phillips had become very tired and said : "This is as far as I am going," and that sentence was the determining act in fixing upon the place of their settlement, for at the time of writing this sketch, over fifty-eight years afterwards, this happy couple are still living in the same place. Mr. Phillips' initial purchase of land was eighty acres from Oliver Childers, which is part of the present Woodlawn Ranch, the Phillips' home place, and was the nucleus of his later extensive land- holdings. At the time of their settlement here their principal trading-place was Visalia, twenty-five miles away. By efficient management and industrious efforts Mr. Phillips subsequently added to his initial purchase of eighty acres until the home place contains 240 acres. As he prospered in ranching he purchased more land until at present he owns several ranches, and in July, 1918, the P. C. Phillips Corporation Company was incorporated under the laws of the state of California, and this company now has charge of his entire land holdings. Besides the home place Mr. and Mrs. Phillips own the follow- ing ranches which are controlled and operated by the P. C. Phillips Cor- poration Company: Fairview Ranch, on Last Chance Ditch, one and one- half miles up the Kings River, which contains 280 acres. Oakdale Ranch, containing 360 acres located one-half mile down the Kings River from the home ranch. On this ranch, in 1860, when Mr. and Mrs. Phillips first settled in Fresno County, there were about 250 Digger Indians, but they were us- ually quiet and peaceable. Lakeside Ranch is situated east of Guernsey, in Kings County, and contains 400 acres. Cross Creek Ranch contains 2,900 acres and is located six miles east of Hanford, the State Highway running through this property. Ducor Ranch contains 320 acres and is located near Ducor, Tulare County.

The officers of the company are: P. C. Phillips, president; Robert H. Phillips, vice-president; George H. Phillips, secretary ; First National Bank, of Hanford, Cal., treasurer. The board of directors comprise: P. C., George H., and Robert H. Phillips. In the early days of the irrigation movement Mr. Phillips became very prominent and was one of the men of foresight who saw that by constructing irrigation ditches water could be conducted from the river to irrigate a large area of unproductive land and by which means this section could be converted into one of the world's garden spots. How well he and his associates planned is evidenced by today's history of this whole region. Mr. Phillips served as a director of the People's Ditch Com- pany for one year.

In 1869, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips built their home and have occupied it all of these years. Today it is as cozy as ever, with its large and cheerful fire- place ; and their home has been a center of hospitality for visitors, and for many social and musical functions and happy family reunions.

Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are the parents of eight children of whom they are justly proud : Florence Ellen, who is the wife of Edward Morton, form-

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erly of Bremerton, Wash., but now living in Kings County where he is an orchardist, and who has two children-William P. and Carrie, both of whom are married and have children; Isabelle L., who is the wife of W. D. Run- yon, a rancher living one mile east of Lemoore, Kings County, and who is the mother of two living children by her first husband; Carrie Winifred, who is the wife of L. L. Lowe, and the mother of one child, they residing on a ranch northeast of Hanford; Ada Bianca, who is single and makes her home with her parents; Dora Elizabeth, who passed away at the age of twenty years; George Hudson, who is a graduate of the University of Cali- fornia, class of 1900, and for several years was a leading dentist of Hanford but is now the manager of the Cross Creek Ranch of 2,900 acres near Han- ford, and who married Miss Annie Rey, of Kings County, and who has two children ; Robert H., who is single and is the enterprising proprietor of the Phillips Mercantile Company at Laton, the principal general store of this thriving new town; and Oscar Le Roy, who is an extensive sheep-raiser and operates a large ranch near Laton, and who married Miss Gladys Irene Darby of Kings County, and who has one child. In addition to their own large family, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips have brought up in their home Miss Lil- lian Emmett, who still resides with them.

Although advanced in years, Mr. Phillips being past eighty-one, and his wife in her seventy-ninth year, they are both well and active and still take a great interest in life. Mr. Phillips is a large and dignified man and is still engaged in general farming, raising hogs, sheep, cattle and conducting a dairy. He has owned and sold valuable oil lands at Coalinga ; one piece of property consisting of eighty acres brought the handsome sum of $40,000. At one time he also owned the tract consisting of 1,780 acres, 960 of which now constitutes the celebrated Lucerne Vineyard, the largest raisin-grape vineyard in the world and at present owned by Wylie Giffen, president of the California Associated Raisin Company.

Mrs. Phillips has a most remarkable memory concerning interesting events of pioneer days in Fresno and Kings Counties. She well remembers the Mussel Slough Fight, which occurred May 11, 1881, when five men were killed and two wounded over a land controversy between the settlers of that section and the railway company. She also remembers the early owners of the Laguna de Tache Grant, Messrs. Poley, Clayburg, and S. C. Lillis, also a Mr. Heilbron, who owned but one share. This original grant from the' Spanish government comprised 67,000 acres of land in Fresno and Kings Counties and was purchased in 1900 by Nares and Saunders. W. E. G. Saunders was a resident of Emmetsburg, Iowa, and has been a most wel- come visitor at the Phillips' home. This great tract has been opened to settlers and sold in small ranches, the enterprise having been very successful and having developed this section of the state to the great advantage of landowners, Mrs. Phillips has the distinction of having been one of the first passengers on the first regular passenger train on the Southern Pacific Rail- way in Fresno County, when she rode from Fresno to Goshen Junction, in September, 1872.

The interesting record of this honored pioneer couple's useful and suc- cessful career, perpetuated in the annals of Fresno County, should prove a source of inspiration to the younger generations and of gratification and pride to their descendants.

CAPTAIN EZRA M. RUSSELL .- An honored place among the pioneers of Fresno County is due Ezra M. Russell, who has been privileged to live through years marked by great growth, wonderful changes and marvelous development along all lines of industry in Fresno County. He is a native of the Empire State, having been born in Oswego County, N. Y., on January 16, 1841, a son of Jonathan W. and Elizabeth (Secner) Russell. Ezra's

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grandfather was an English sea captain who settled in New York State, and his maternal ancestors, the Secner family, were of Dutch origin.

Jonathan W. Russell, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a brick mason by trade and, in 1847, when Ezra was but a small boy, he re- moved from New York to Illinois where he resided until 1853, when he moved to Iowa. There he engaged in farming and also worked at his trade. In 1866, he sold out and started to cross the plains, but owing to the activi- ties of the Indians he was compelled to abandon his venture and, having reached Denver, remained there for a short time, but subsequently re- turned to Iowa. He remained in Iowa until 1872, when he migrated to Cali- fornia. locating near what is now Kingsburg, where he purchased land and followed farming and fruit-raising until his death. His wife also passed away in California. Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan W. Russell were the parents of ten children, Ezra M. being the fifth child.

Ezra M. Russell was reared in Iowa, near Fredericksburg, Chickasaw County, and received his early education in the district school. From early manhood he has made his own way in the world, his success being the re- sult of hard work and persevering efforts. In 1862, fired by the true spirit of patriotism, he volunteered his services in the defense of his country and in the month of January he enlisted in Company B, Thirteenth Regiment. United States Volunteer Infantry, being mustered in at Dubuque, Iowa, but was sent to Jefferson Barracks, Mo., for training. His company was as- signed to the Army of the West and he fought valiantly under General Sherman, until he was severely wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg, where, on May 19, 1863, he received seven different wounds, in making the charge on the stockade, being seriously wounded in the left foot, which crippled him for life. On account of his disability he was honorably discharged in 1864, but in the spring of 1865, he assisted in organizing a company of which he was elected the captain.

After returning to Iowa, Ezra M. Russell was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Jane Jones, a native of Lake County, Ill., where she was born on January 12, 1845. Her father, Jonathan Jones, was a native of the state of New York, but who migrated westward and first settled in Illinois, after- wards he located in Iowa and it was in this state that he passed away. After his marriage, Mr. Russell, although badly crippled and for five years com- pelled to use crutches, did what work he could as a brickmason, having learned the trade in his younger days from his father.

In 1873, the year after his father had located in California, Ezra made the trip to the Golden State and at first settled at Oakland, where he worked at his trade. While in Oakland he became acquainted with Leland Stan- ford, who told him about the new railroad and of the country around Kings- burg, Later, Ezra, with his family, moved to Fresno County, arriving in 1874. Soon after his arrival he took up a soldier's homestead claim of 160 acres of land near Kingsburg and has lived on this place ever since, making over forty years' continuous residence in Fresno County. He still retains sixty acres of the original ranch and also owns an eighty-acre ranch about a quarter of a mile south of his home. Many acres of his ranches are de- voted to vines and fruit. His home is located two one-half miles west of Kingsburg, near the Franklin School. At the time he located here the rail- road was finished only as far as Kingsburg, which had only two stores, and the Kings River was crossed on a temporary bridge; and Selma consisted of a section house where the Chinese laborers for the railway company lived. Mr. Russell says that, in taking a trip across the country to Fresno, you would not see a single home, but here and there you would see a sheep corral.

Mr. and Mrs. Ezra M. Russell are the parents of eight children, seven of whom are living. One son, Adrian, when a boy of twelve years, was ac- cidently killed by a saddle-horse. The seven children still living are: Alice,

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who is now Mrs. Enos Sylvia, residing in Selma, is the mother of three children : Rena, the wife of Elias Van Winkle, a rancher near Fresno, has one child, Newton; Nellie, who is the widow of Charles Brown, resides at Hanford; Benjamin at home with his father; Cassie the widow of O. N. Healton, who died November 14, 1918, has one child, Russell V., and now lives with her father; Clark, married Miss Lottie Grimshaw, from Hanford, and is operating a ranch near Selma, and they have three children, Ezra, Evalena, and Richard; Chester, who is a rancher near Kingsburg, married Addie Mayfield and they are the parents of three children, Louise, Pauline and Clark, Jr.

On December 27, 1917, Mr. Russell was bereft of the loving com- panionship of his estimable wife, who passed away at the age of seventy-three years. Mr. Russell is an honored member of Atlanta Post, No. 90, G. A. R., at Selma. Fraternally, he belongs to the Knights of Pythias. For nine years he was a director of the high school in his district. He is highly esteemed in the community where he has lived for so many years and is always willing to do his share in promoting the best interests of his section.

RICHARD NASON BARSTOW .- Over forty years ago Richard Nason Barstow cast in his lot with other California homeseekers and for nearly thirty-two years of that time he has lived in Fresno County, and has been interested in its development. A native of New Hampshire, he was born at Haverhill, February 3, 1853, a son of the late Hon. James Townsend and Sarah J. (Brown) Barstow, both life-long residents of Haverhill, and farm- ers by occupation. The elder Barstow was active in the management of public affairs, for many years serving as town clerk, and for two terms repre- sented his district in the state legislature. He died at the age of seventy- six years. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Barstow, four reached maturity, and two are still living. Many members of the Barstow family have acquired distinction in professional, business, political and military circles. William Barstow, great-grandfather of Richard Nason, was a pioneer of Haverhill, and served in the War of the Revolution. William Barstow, Jr., grandfather of R. N., was born, lived and died there; he served for many years as postmaster and was the leading merchant of Haverhill. He served in the War of 1812. One of his sons, George Barstow, was a prominent at- torney in San Francisco during the fifties, and was a member of the Cali- fornia state legislature, where he served as speaker of the house for one term.

The eldest child of his parents, Richard Nason Barstow, was reared in his native town and acquired his education in the public schools and the village academy, as well as the school of practical experience. At the age of eighteen he left home to accept a position in a wholesale oil store in Boston, remaining for five years. In 1880 he came to California as superin- tendent of the Jones-Hill Hydraulic Mining Company, at Georgetown, Eldo- rado County, where he had charge of two giants until the passage of the Anti-Slickens law, and was subsequently general manager until the business was closed up. In 1887 he came to Fresno County and bought a lot in Central Colony where he immediately began setting out a vineyard and after he had developed it to a high state he sold out in 1895. His next venture along agricultural lines was the leasing of 3,000 acres of California Bank land in the county, and upon this property he was successful as a wheat and barley raiser. In 1901 he purchased 320 acres of land in what is now called Barstow Colony, being named for him as he was the founder. He put it under irrigation and began raising alfalfa ; being the first to start intensive farming in that section. He found it uphill work and was ridiculed by others for his attempt. In spite of this he persevered and demonstrated that it could be done, and through his successful efforts Barstow Colony is today a thriving agricultural, horticultural and viticultural section. He has cut five crops of alfalfa a year, which yielded an average of one and one-quarter

P. M.Barstow

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to one and one-half tons to the acre per cutting. In 1902 Mr. Barstow was nominated as a candidate on the Republican ticket, for the office of county recorder, and was elected by over one hundred majority, and assumed the duties of the office in January of the following year. He was reelected in 1904 and each succeeding four years; the last time being in 1918, and at the close of this term will have held county office longer than any former county official of Fresno County. In the system of keeping records he has introduced the latest devices and methods for transcribing, such as typewriters and loose-leaf record books. His system has been appreciated by other county recorders, who have introduced it in their offices.

Mr. Barstow has watched with much interest the development of Fresno County, and has played a prominent part in its business, social and political life. He still contends that the great resources of the county have hardly been touched. Mr. Barstow is still interested in agricultural pursuits, having 250 acres in alfalfa, a large vineyard, and a dairy of seventy-five fine cows, all of which adds handsomely to his annual income. He devotes the greater part of his time to the duties of his office, and prides himself in the knowl- edge that it is efficiently and carefully conducted.

In 1881, at Auburn, Cal., Richard Nason Barstow was united in mar- riage with Agnes H. Baldwin, a native daughter, born in Coulterville, Mari- posa County, and a member of a pioneer family who came from Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Barstow are the parents of two sons: George, a graduate of Fresno High School, is deputy county recorder under his father : James Town- send, graduated from the University of California with the degree of LL.B. and during the World War served in the United States Navy until his honor- able discharge with the commission of ensign, and is now practicing law in Fresno. Mr. Barstow is a stanch Republican, and has served as a member of the state central committee. He is a member of Fresno Lodge No. 186, I. O. O. F., and an active member of the County Recorders Association of California. He is one of the most highly esteemed residents of Fresno County, is a self-made man in every sense of the term, and owes his position in the community to his own personal efforts and integrity of character.

JAMES PATRICK FARLEY .- The able blacksmith at the Hub. a little station on the Hardwick & Summit Lake Branch of the Southern Pacific Rail- way, the next station to Riverdale, is James Patrick Farley, who came here in 1911, just when this line of railroad was completed. He bought an acre lot upon which he built his blacksmith's shop, and nearby a comfortable dwelling. and these have been his home and workshop ever since. He has bought an- other half-acre lot, which he may improve in time. when the growth of this little but promising place justifies it. He has worked at his trade with success, a matter of more than ordinary satisfaction, for Mr. Farley not only came here to make a living and establish a home but he was ambitious also to help build up the town. He does horse-shoeing and general blacksmithing, and is now working into auto truck and tractor work and accessories in order to meet the demands of the time.

Mr. Farley carries with him the air of good cheer and whole-heartedness -a trait no doubt inherited from his ancestors in the Emerald Isle, where his paternal grandparents, Patrick and Mary (Tiernan) Farley, were both born. The grandfather migrated to America and settled in Philadelphia, and soon after his arrival in the United States our subject's father, Philip Henry, was born. He became an operator in the woolen mills, and followed that trade until he moved west to California in 1886. He settled at Redding and tried to farm ; but being wholly unused to agriculture and to out-door life, and having spent so much of his time and vitality in the woolen mills of the East, he made no headway as a rancher and died five years after his arrival. He had bought 160 acres of railroad land in the vicinity of Redding, and this he owned at the time of his death. Philip Henry Farley was married at Utica,

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N. Y., where he worked in the woolen mills, to Miss Mary Tiernan, whose father, James Tiernan, was born in Ireland, while her mother, Mary Gray, was an own sister of Samuel Gray, the founder of Gray's Harbor, Ore.

Seven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. P. H. Farley, and James Pat- rick was ten years old when his parents came to California and fifteen years old when his father died. This bereavement meant much to him, for it com- pelled him to push out into the world for himself. It necessitated also his helping his mother and other members of the family. He did what his hands found to do, and being in close proximity to the gold mines he engaged in mining, beginning at the Calumet Mine and later working at Harrison Gulch, Old Diggings and other places in Northern California and Southern Oregon, but principally in Shasta County. In Oregon he worked in the mines adjacent to Grant's Pass, and in fact helped prospect as far south as Crescent City, in Del Norte County, Cal., a distance of fifty miles or more from Grant's Pass.

Being handy with tools and having a liking for the smithy James Patrick began as a helper around the blacksmith shops in Shasta County, and rather naturally grew into the blacksmith trade-sharpening tools, shoeing horses, building and repairing machinery, and doing a thousand and one things neces- sary to be done in and around gold-mining camps. When, therefore, he came to the new town of Hub he was a competent workman in his line and a God- send to the locality. A sister, Mrs. Charles L. Montgomery, was then as now living on a ranch near-by, and was the means of calling his attention to the attractiveness of the country in that vicinity (a very fertile dairy district, by the wav) and the advantages that might be reaped in his line of work.

Before leaving the gold mines, Mr. Farley was married at Grant's Pass to Miss Edna McManus, a native of Missouri, but a resident of Grant's Pass at the time of their meeting. After their marriage they went to Redding, where Mr. Farley worked at his trade for a year, and then he moved to Stock- ton, where he set up a shop of his own, and for two or three years carried on a successful business. Then, having decided to settle in Hub, he built his house and shop here in the Fall of 1911.

Mr. Farley takes an active interest in the upbuilding of the community, and especially in the welfare of the North Fork School in his home district ; for they have three children of their own; Philip James, Helen, and Louise.

RICHARD THOMAS OWEN .- A rancher now enjoying a well-earned period of retirement, but who in his time did much for the development, bv the most scientific methods and on a large scale, of grain-farming in California, and who also spared neither pains nor expense to improve the breeding of horses here, is Richard Thomas Owen, the son of the well-known Ohioan, George W. Owen, a pioneer who was born in Cincinnati. He grew up on a farm and followed farming and stockraising, although he had put in some years in the hard life of a river steamboatman. George W. Owen was united in marriage with Miss Eleanor Long, also a native of Ohio, and after his marriage, having a desire for more settled labor, he moved to Illinois, where he secured a farm. In 1850, he came to Iowa, and after that, removed to Nebraska. Wherever he went, he proved himself a man among men, so that one of the most valuable inheritances enjoyed by Richard has always been the good name of his father.

In 1862, George Owen fitted out the usual ox-team equipment and joined a company of about one hundred families bound for California ; and enduring all the hardships and the stirring adventure, he succeeded in reaching the promised land by means of the trails across the Plains. At first he located in Yolo County, where he embarked in general farming and stock- raising ; but later he pushed on to Sonoma County, next taking up the dairy business. In the fall of 1868, he went over into Modesto County; and it was after that when he first came to Fresno County. In 1876 he took up some Government land near the foothills, bought other land in addition; and he was still in the stock business at the time of his death, in 1880. Ten years

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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 99

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