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 II > Part 7
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Coming to California across the plains in his eighth year, Lorenzo was reared in Napa and educated in its public schools, and from a boy learned the blacksmith trade. As early as 1870, he came to Fresno County, remain- ing about nine months, then went to Lake County and engaged in sheep raising in Napa and Lake Counties; homesteaded and preempted also near Middletown, on Putah Creek. He bought more land, until he had over 800 acres, and continued there until the spring of 1879, when he sold out and located in Fresno County.
He immediately went to work constructing canals, and for five years he was foreman under his father, after which he was superintendent of the company that bought his father out. This was the firm of Perrin & Cheek,
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and under them and their successors he continued for about twenty-two years. Then he resigned, to look after his own interests.
Soon after he located here and bought 320 acres just west of Fresno. There be built a home and engaged in grain ranching, later laying out 100 acres in a vineyard and orchard. Still later he began renting for gardens, and for twenty years he ran the Church Dairy. He laid out Church Avenue, planting the beautiful shade trees there, and he also plotted out Fruit Ave- nue, as the eastern line of the ranch. He built a store on the corner and commenced the well-known mercantile business, which is now the property of his granddaughter, Mrs. J. D. Quick. In addition to these holdings, Mr. Church owns valuable residence and business property in Fresno. A man of affairs in the commercial world, he is also influential in politics, working for national issues under the banners of the Republican party.
At Lower Lake, October 3, 1868, Mr. Church was married to Miss Josephine Springston, who was born in the East and died July 13, 1913, the mother of five children : Carrie, was Mrs. Hickok and she died in Fresno County February 14, 1900, the mother of two children-Estella, now Mrs. Ben Brophy, who lives in Fresno; and Ina, now Mrs. J. D. Quick, of the same city; Rena, Mrs. Turnbull of Fresno, mother of three children, one still living, Lorilla, Mrs. A. T. Doore, also of Fresno; Lola died when she was twenty years of age; Leona, wife of M. Brophy of Fresno, and Lorenzo, a babe, survived only his first six months.
JOEL THOMAS ELAM .- A resident of California since 1852. Joel Thomas Elam, or "Tom" as he is called by his friends, was born on March 15, 1851, in Bell County, Texas, and from the Lone Star State was brought to California by his parents, Joel Elam, a native of either Tennessee or Vir- ginia and a member of an old Virginia family, and Sarah Frances Callis, a native of Kentucky, whom he married in Tennessee. The happy couple came to Texas, where Mr. Elam followed his trade of a machinist; but as he was in very poor health, he was advised by physicians to remove to the Pacific Coast, in the hope that a milder climate might renew his constitution. With that yearning in view, he started with his wife and five children across the plains in an ox team train; but he was destined never to see the blue waters of the Pacific, for he died en route and was buried on the trackless plains.
His widow brought the little children through to El Monte, the young- est a baby and the oldest a boy in his ninth year; and from El Monte they moved to San Juan. There she was married again to a Mr. Presley, a farmer and a stockraiser, and four children were born from this second union. After- wards Mr. and Mrs. Presley removed to San Joaquin County, then to Stanis- laus County, and then to Mariposa County, and at Mormon Bar Mrs. Presley kept a boarding house, rearing and schooling her children as best she could. When they were old enough to farm, they moved to Pea Ridge, and later to Chowchilla; and here the children, while farming and raising stock, cared for their mother in return, until she became very ill, and was taken to Stockton for treatment, where she died, in her sixty-fourth year. She was a wonderful woman, full of energy and ambition, a devout Methodist, rear- ing her family in the ways of honesty and truth, and she had the satisfaction of living to see the children stand by her to the end.
Of the five children by her first marriage, Joel Thomas was the young- est, and his earliest recollections are of the Golden West. He attended school in the wilds of Mariposa County, and as early as his eighth year went to work in a dairy at Chowchilla, where he continued until he was fifteen. Then, for four years, he raised hogs on shares, meeting with reasonable success, and after that, for eighteen months, he worked on a farm for Frank Twitch- cll. During that time, he drew only ten dollars of his wages; and when Twitchell failed, he lost all that he had earned. He then worked for other ranchers until 1876 when, with his brother, Taylor M. Elam, he bought
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some cattle and engaged in stockraising. The year 1877, however, proved one of the terrible "dry years" of Coast history, and they were compelled to drive their cattle far back into the Yosemite Valley, in order to save most of them. After that, the brothers ran their stock at Pea Ridge for seven years.
In 1879 Mr. Elam was married in Mariposa County to Miss Mary E. Mullins, a native of that county, and after that he dissolved partnership with his brother, and farmed alone at Chowchilla until 1886. There, ten years later, his wife died. In his farming operations he was successful, especially as a raiser of grain, for which he used three big teams and a combined har- vester ; but selling his outfit, he engaged in raising cattle, mules and horses. He also owned a good ranch, while he rented a stock range.
In 1901 he brought his cattle and stock to Fresno County, and leasing from M. Theo. Kearney, started a dairy on the Kearney ranch. Then, in 1902, he married a second time, choosing for his wife Mrs. Elizabeth Frances (Beevers) Mullins, a native of Mariposa County. Her father, John Beevers, had crossed the plains in pioneer days, was a good miner and then a stock raiser, making a specialty of fine horses; and by her union with Mr. Mullins she had had one daughter, Ida, now Mrs. Russell, who since her mother's death, on August 24, 1917, presides over Mr. Elam's home.
Mr. Elam bought a ranch of fifty-five acres, in 1904, on North Avenue, four miles southeast of Kerman, taking into partnership again his brother, Taylor M. Elam. This they leveled and improved to alfalfa, and then con- tinued dairying and stock-raising. They also own forty acres on Kearney Avenue, which they have improved to alfalfa, where they have installed a pumping plant for irrigating; and they have 700 acres for pasture. Here they maintain a dairy herd of sixty cows, besides many stock cattle. Ever since 1904 Mr. Elam has made his home in Fresno, superintending the ranch from there.
He is a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association, a member of the Methodist Church, South. He has been very active in church work, liberal and enterprising, and gives his support gladly to every movement that has for its object the building up of the county, and the enhancing of the com- fort and morals of the people.
BUNNIE LAWRENCE WYLLIE .- An enterprising and popular citi- zen, and the son of a prominent early settler who had the distinction of first advocating irrigation for the Helm district and of planting some of the first alfalfa there, and who was therefore a true up-builder of Central California, was Bunnie Lawrence Wyllie, a man of affairs wisely following in his father's footsteps. He was born at Fresno, on June 18, 1887, the son of Franklin Pierce Wyllie, a native of Missouri who was reared there. Grandfather Wyllie was born in Scotland, so that the family may be well-satisfied with its Scotch- American origin and blood. F. P. Wyllie was a farmer who came out to California about the middle eighties, and settling at Fresno, became a horti- culturist and viticulturist. Later he moved to Burrel, Fresno County, and leased the Burrel Estate, where he raised grain until 1900, when he bought a ranch at Helm, which he improved, planting alfalfa. He had 160 acres, and he was the first to demonstrate that this section was well adapted to the growing of alfalfa. He was prominent in the projects to irrigate Helm and the surrounding country, and built both the weir that dammed the slough and the headgate of the Stinson canal. He died there in 1910. He had mar- ried Elizabeth Harris, a native of Missouri, the ceremony taking place at Sedalia, and she now resides in San Francisco.
Seven children were born to this pioneer couple. Hattie is Mrs. Sudden of the Bay metropolis; Delta, who became Mrs. Brawner, died in Texas; Bertha is Mrs. Keep, of Ogden, Utah; Bunnie Lawrence is the subject of this sketch; Clarence, is deceased; Ruth is Mrs. Rodgers of Arizona; and Hazel is Mrs. Miller of San Francisco.
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Bunnie Lawrence was brought up in Fresno County, and attended the public schools at both Burrel and Helm, and finally graduated from the Fresno High School, being a member of the Class of '08. After graduation, he entered the Bank of Coalinga as bookkeeper, and continued there for five years. He was receiving teller and in 1914 was promoted to be assistant cashier ; and when the two banks were consolidated, he continued with the First National Bank about six months, when he resigned, to engage in ranching.
In April, 1916, he leased the old house on the home place and the land adjoining and started to raise hogs; later became a wheat farmer operating on modern lines. In January, 1917, Mr. Wyllie bought an interest in Spear Bros., the Dodge motor agency; but in March, 1918, he sold out to his partners. With Mr. Diltz he then bought out the Kratzer Service Station on E Street, which also has a fine garage in connection.
On November 29. 1911, Mr. Wyllie was married at Fresno to Miss Stella Jenkins, a native of Salinas, Cal., and the daughter of Louis B. Jenkins, a native son of the state, who was born at Hanford. Grandfather Jenkins came from Kentucky, and was a pioneer who settled at Stockton, where he was an attorney and a justice of the peace. L. B. Jenkins popularly known as Judge Jenkins, engaged in farming at Salinas, and was also an attorney and justice of the peace. He died at Salinas. He had married Carrie Pursell, a native daughter, whose father was James Pursell; he was born in Iowa and crossed the plains to California in 1852, and later he made several trips back and forth across the continent, and he also traveled widely over the state. Mrs. Jenkins, who remarried and is now Mrs. Barber, resides at Chico. She was the mother of four children, three of whom are living; and of these Mrs. Wyllie is the oldest. She is a graduate of the Hanford high school and of the San Jose State Normal, where she was a member of the Class of 1910; and later she taught school at Coalinga.
Mr. Wyllie served for two terms as city treasurer of Coalinga, and his administration of that office was such as to reflect creditably both on him- self and the constituency that placed him there. Mr. Wyllie died January 5, 1919, of influenza and was mourned by his family and many friends who admired him for his manliness and worth as a citizen.
HUGH ROBERT McCORD .- One of the early settlers of the West Side who by perseverance and close application has made a success of farm- ing is Hugh Robert McCord, a native of New York, born near Warrensburg, Warren County, December 17, 1850. His father was a farmer at Omro, Winnebago County, Wis., and served in the Fifth Wisconsin Cavalry in the Civil War until he was killed at the battle of Vicksburg, Miss., in 1863. Mr. McCord's grandfather was a native of Vermont and served in the War of 1812, while great-grandfather McCord, who was of Scotch descent, served in the Revolutionary War and experienced the terrible winter at Valley Forge. Mr. McCord had two brothers in the Civil War: Thomas, who was killed at the Battle of Perryville, Ky., while James served through the war in the Twenty-first Wisconsin Regiment, and after the war was an engineer on the Wisconsin River until his death. Mr. McCord's mother died when he was six weeks old, leaving five children, two of whom are living, he being the young- est. He was reared in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Allen Saville, where he grew up on a farm and received a good education in the public schools. In 1865 he came out to Omro, Wis., and lived with his oldest sister, Mrs. Jane A. Nye, who is still living and is now making her home in California.
He immediately apprenticed as a flour miller at Omro learning the trade in the old Burr mill run by water power. In 1868 he removed to Albany. Green County, Wis., where he met with an accident in the mill which neces- sitated his laying off and he went to school for two years. In 1871 he came gradually west, working in flour mills in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas.
Lillian M LEfever. Besley LEfever
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In the fall of 1874 he came to San Francisco and in the spring of 1875 he came to Murrays mill on the Merced River where he was manager of the mill for two years; then to Dixon, Solano County, where he ran a mill a season and in the fall of 1877 he came to Sperrys mill in Stockton where he was stonedresser until the spring of 1878, when he accepted the place as manager of the Paradise mills near Modesto, a position he filled for fourteen years. He remodeled the mill, putting in the full new roller process and built up a big business and a good trade.
As early as 1887 he located a homestead of 160 acres on the West Side, where his family resided while he continued in his position to make the money for their living expenses and homestead improvements. In 1892, how- ever, he gave up his position and turned his attention to farming. When he came here there were no water wells in the vicinity and he purchased a well rig in Stanislaus County and brought it to his home and drilled a well, then drilled for his neighbors. Then a sheep man concluded he wanted to summer on the West Side and Mr. McCord drilled a well for him, and then others caught the same fever and he continued in well drilling for twenty-two years, drilling hundreds of wells on the different farms on the West Side. He added to his holdings and now has 500 acres here where he engages in stock- raising.
Mr. McCord was married in Modesto to Miss Mary A. Baldwin, born in Manchester, England, who came with her parents to New Harmony, Ind., and in 1876 came to California. He was bereaved of his wife on July 30, 1919. She was a devout Presbyterian.
Mr. McCord became a member of the Odd Fellows in Waterville, Kans. Then was a member of the Modesto Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and now is a member of the Coalinga Lodge. He helped organize the Idlewild school district of which he was a trustee for many years. Politi- cally he is a Social Democrat.
BESLEY LEFEVER .- The efficient superintendent of the Confidence Oil Company, the oldest company in the west side oil field of Coalinga, is Besley Lefever, who has been a resident of this section of the county since 1898. He was born in Ellenville, Ulster County, N. Y., June 25, 1858, a son of Alfred and Susan (Frear) Lefever, the father being of French descent, but a native of Esopus, N. Y., the mother a native of Ellenville, the same state. The original spelling of the name was La Fevre, meaning in French "the smith," but later generations changed the spelling to Lefever.
During the Civil War the father was a member of the Fifty-sixth Regi- ment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and was killed in the Battle of Honey Hill, Va. The mother was left a widow with five children, and through all of her hardships she kept the family together, reared them to useful lives and gave them the best educational advantages she could under the circum- stances. Later in life she was affectionally cared for by her loving children, her last years being spent in Coalinga, where she passed away in 1913, at the advanced age of ninety-five years. The family consisted of: Huffman, who died about 1865; William, who died in Denver, Colo., November 28, 1918; Charles, who passed away at Livermore, Cal., in 1917, was one of the pioneer oil men of Coalinga ; Besley, the subject of this sketch; and Mary, who is now Mrs. Hamm of Coalinga.
Besley Lefever was brought up in Ellenville, N. Y., and at an early age he was obliged to go to work to help his mother support the family, there- fore his educational advantages were limited. Before he was thirteen years of age he was working on a packet, running down the Hudson River from Ellenville to New York City, and when a little more than fourteen years old had risen to be a captain of one of these boats. In that capacity he con- tinued until 1876, being then about eighteen, when he resigned and left for Mound City, Kans., where he arrived in 1877.
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In 1878 he continued his journey further westward, locating at Lead- ville, Colo., arriving there about the beginning of mining developments in that section. With his brother William in 1879, he went to Garfield, Chaffee County, Colo., where they helped start the Monarch mining district and mined until 1883. Upon the discovery of oil at Florence, he made his way to the new old field, where he gained valuable experience as an oil driller. He and his brother Charles engaged in contract drilling, and in addition to the Florence field they operated their business at Santa Fe, N. M. In December, 1897, Besley Lefever came to California and worked for a while in the Los Angeles oil field. It was in 1898 that he made his advent in the Coalinga field, and at first he was engaged with the New York Oil Company, drilling for oil on the hill above Oil City, where oil had already been dis- covered. About the same time James Gilbreath drilled for the Selma Oil Company, on the hill which was located on section 20-19-15, but when the drilling was finished it proved to be a dry hole. Mr. Gilbreath then went to the east side and drilled a well for the Independent Oil Company on section 28, which is now the property of the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Lefever was at this time engaged in drilling on the west side for the Confidence Oil Company, on section 31-19-15 and was successful in obtaining oil. This was in 1900, and marks the beginning of the west side oil field. The Confidence Oil Company continned their developments on their property which con- sists of 160 acres, and now have many good, producing wells, the original well being still in operation. Mr. Lefever is a stockholder in the company, and among the original stockholders were the following: Judge Risley, E. A. Walron, Frank Clairy, James Vincent, and David S. Ewing. Besley Lefever, in· point of service, is one of the oldest operators in the Coalinga oil field and is regarded as one of the best posted oil men in this section. His ser- vices in behalf of the Confidence Oil Company all these years have been appreciated by the officers of the company, because in 1919, the Call Oil Company (composed of practically the same personnel) made him super- intendent of their property in the Coalinga field. This mark of appreciation and confidence is a distinct compliment to Mr. Lefever.
At Florence, Colo., June 4, 1890, Besley Lefever was united in marriage with Lillian M. Widerfelt, a native of Springfield, Ill., and daughter of William and Margaret (McNelley) Widerfelt, natives of New Jersey. Mrs. Lefever went to Florence, Colo., in 1888, to visit her brother William, and there she met Mr. Lefever, an acquaintance that resulted in their marriage. They are the parents of two children: William Arnet, who served in the United States Army in the World War, is now in the Texas oil fields; Irene, is now the wife of Karl Lewis, the cashier of the First National Bank, at Dinuba, Cal.
Mr. Lefever has been a member of the Knights of Pythias since 1888, and is now a Past Commander; while his wife is a member of the Pythian Sisters of which organization she is a Past Chief, and is also past president of the Welcome Club, and chairman of the Welcome Club Auxiliary of Coal- inga Chapter of the Red Cross. Mr. and Mrs. Lefever were very patriotic and intensely interested in forwarding every movement that aided in winning the war. Religiously they are both members of the Presbyterian Church, and in Coalinga social circles are very popular and highly esteemed.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF FOWLER .- No town in California is more fortunate than Fowler in the character and caliber of the men entrusted with its financial interests, as will be seen alone from the history of the First National Bank which was organized on August 25, 1904. Another bank was organized at Fowler in January, 1913, having also been created under the Federal laws, and that was called the Fowler National Bank, an insti- tution that built the beautiful two-story brick building occupied by the First National since 1913.
Thomas Cowan
Beulah.
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
In 1914 there was a merger of the two banks mentioned, an achievement made possible by the purchase of the stock in the First National Bank by the Fowler National, whose interests were thereupon transferred to the First National Bank, which has ever since occupied the banking offices and con- tinued a general banking business under the corporate name of the First National Bank.
It is a solid financial institution, as may be seen by the examination of any of its recent official reports. On December 31, 1917, for example, it had for its resources loans and discounts to the amount of $337,580.46; United States bonds worth $96,106; municipal and other bonds totalling $59,876.67 ; $1,800 worth of Federal Reserve Bank stock; banking house and fixtures worth $27,700; $500 in other real estate; a five per cent. fund amounting to $2,500; and $162,855.82 in cash and due from other banks. Its liabilities are included in a capital stock of $50,000; a surplus fund of $10,000; undivided profits to the amount of $5,843.44; a dividend (No. 14) of $5,000; a circula- tion of $50,000, and deposits to the amount of $568,075.31, the debits and credits balancing at the sum of $688,918.75. The bank pays four per cent. interest on time deposits, and rents its safe deposit boxes at $2, $3 and $5 per year.
The officers of this institution for 1917 were: President, Fred Nelson ; Vice-president, C. V. Peterson ; Cashier, L. J. Harriman ; Assistant Cashier, R. E. Giffen. Directors, Fred Nelson, C. V. Peterson, L. J. Harriman, J. H. Weinberg, C. A. Rigby, and H. W. Wrightson. Among the bank's stock- holders are many wealthy men of Fowler and Fresno County, and these, with the officers, endeavor in every way to further the best interests of the bank's patrons.
THOMAS A. COWAN .- Enjoying the distinction of being the oldest living resident rancher in the Summit Lake country, and one of its foremost and highly-respected citizens, Thomas A. Cowan also enjoys the prestige of both a thoroughly practical wheat and grain farmer-using only the most up-to-date machinery-and one of the largest and most successful growers on the West Side. Living on his home ranch of 320 acres four miles west of Lanare, and half a mile to the south of that town, he also operates two sec- tions of the Kings County Development Company's land ten miles north of Huron.
He was born in McDonough County, Ill., on February 11, 1859, the son of William Cowan, a native of Scotland, who came to America with his parents and grew up to be a coal miner. He came to McDonough County, Ill., to work at coal mining. In time he became the owner of a farm of 160 acres. His wife was Mary Ann Bright, before marriage and was born in England. Thomas Cowan worked both in the mines and on his father's farm, turning to the latter in summer, and busying himself at mining during the winters. As a boy at home, he attended the public schools of McDonough County. In that county, at the ripe old age of eighty-four, William Cowan passed away; but the mother still lives at Colchester, eighty-four years old. Seven children-four boys and three girls-were born to this worthy couple; and Thomas is the second oldest son and child. A brother, Charles Cowan, lives four miles north of Modesto, and is a dairy farmer.
It was the fall of 1880 when Thomas Cowan first came to California, and began working near Grangeville, in what is now Kings County, hiring out as a farm hand. He spent from 1882 to 1884 in Washington Territory, and in Whitman County proved up a claim of 160 acres. Then he returned to Grangeville and for several years worked for his uncle, "Wash" Bloyd, the pioneer farmer and "wheat king." In 1886, he and three of his cousins, sons of Mr. Bloyd, came up to the Summit Lake country, then a new district in Fresno County, and each bought a tract of eighty acres, improving the land and farming.
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