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 8

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1424

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 8

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In 1892, Mr. Cowan was married to Miss Beulah Beatty, a native of Clayton County, Iowa, who had come to California with her parents; and as the only one of the Summit Lake party to remain here, he settled on his present place, then consisting of 160 acres, which he had bought and partially improved. Later he added another 160 acres by purchase, and he has made the ranch his home ever since.

In 1917 Mr. Cowan bought a forty-five horsepower Holt caterpillar trac- tor, and in 1919 he purchased a Steward truck of one and a half tons, on which he hauls loads of three tons each to Lanare, his shipping point. On July 26, 1919, he thus transported 181 sacks of grain from his Huron ranch to Lanare, thirteen miles distant, in four trips covering 104 miles, and load- ing and unloading, or "bucking" the sacks all alone without exhausting himself or having a breakdown-a showing, at sixty years of age, for which no one need be ashamed. As a self-made man, he is well-muscled, powerfully built physically, and bright and able mentally. The war-draft left him very short of help, and there was little to do, but knuckle down to the situation uncomplainingly. The year 1919 was very dry, yet such was Mr. Cowan's continued mastery of problems that his crops were very fine. From the Cowan home ranch of 320 acres, Mr. Cowan took in 1919, 2,500 sacks of barley and 300 sacks of wheat; while from the Huron ranch in the same season he harvested 3,700 sacks of barley and 2,750 sacks of wheat. He is still the sole proprietor of one of the two sections of rented land in the Huron district, while in operating the other, he is in partnership with Dick Miles of Hanford.

Mr. and Mrs. Cowan have two children, of whom they may well be proud. William T. served in France, and returned on July 21, 1919, honor- ably discharged from the hospital service. Charles E. also served in France with the Forty-second Balloon Company; was honorably discharged and reached home on May 3, 1919.

Mrs. Cowan is a bright, cheerful and interesting woman who shares with her husband an agreeable popularity ; he belongs to the Odd Fellows at Lemoore.

EMMETT G. RICHMOND .- A successful California rancher who not only has been a close observer and an untiring student in endeavoring to learn how best to care for vines and orchards, but through mastering a knowledge of Fresno County soils has become well posted as a horticulturist and viti- culturist, is Emmett G. Richmond, the son of Theodore WV. Richmond. The father went from Indiana, where he was born, to Iowa, where he home- steaded; and when the war broke out between the North and the South, he was among the first to volunteer to stand by Lincoln, and he was made captain of Company H of the Nineteenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, which he had organized. He did valiant service at the siege of Vicksburg, and was later laid up through exposure to malaria. Returning to the avocations of peace, he farmed in Scotland County, Mo., and there he died, aged sixty- seven years. The family originally came from New York State, where the name is most favorably known.

Theodore Richmond married Elvira Irish, a daughter of the Hoosier State, whose parents, of the long line of Mayflower stock, came from Con- necticut. She died in Missouri, greatly honored, the mother of ten children; six of whom have grown to maturity. The youngest of those still living is Emmett.

He was brought up on a farm, and attended the public schools, and with his parents, he remained, assisting at the farm work, until he was twenty- three years of age. On February 4, 1891, he was married near Memphis to Miss Minnie N. Easterday, who was born in Columbus, Ohio. She came to Scotland County, Mo., with her parents D. L. and Nancy (Warren) Easter- day. After his marriage Mr. Richmond began to farm for himself. He bought a farm, but sold it again in 1904, when he came to California.

C. F. Goodrich

Mary E. Goodrich.

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The first purchase consisted of twenty acres three miles west of Fresno on California Avenue, where he engaged in viticulture and horticulture, but promising as was the outlook, circumstances led him to return to Missouri at the end of three years, when he bought a farm there. At the end of two years, however, he had sold out and was back again in California-like so many thousands of other folk, who have once fallen under the charm of the Golden State; and it was then that he secured his present place of twenty acres on Clinton Avenue in the Montpelier tract. The land needed much improvement, and Mr. Richmond, through his experience and industry, gave it just what was needed.

He later bought twelve and a half acres in the Roeding Villa Colony on Clinton Avenue. He leveled it and set out a peach orchard and vineyard, planting Thompson seedless, peaches and olives; and although he disposed of some of the property in 1916, he still owns twenty acres, and a fine resi- dence built in the fall of 1918. He also owns some valuable property in Fresno, consisting of a residence and several lots. He is a member and a stockholder of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and also of the California Associated Raisin Company.

Two children were born to bless this happy union; but one, Anna Idell, died in her eleventh year-in the fall of 1904. Edna Pearl, the other daughter, is now the wife of Adam Robbins of Fresno. The family attend the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Fresno; and Mr. Richmond belongs to Lodge No. 158 of the Odd Fellows in Fresno.

A Republican in matters of national political import, Mr. Richmond has shown his desire to cast party lines aside in the support of local movements, and has served two terms as school trustee in the Roeding district.

CHARLES FREDERICK GOODRICH .- One of the most prominent and successful ranchers in the vicinity of Tranquillity, Fresno County, is Charles F. Goodrich, the son of a California pioneer and himself a native son, born May 26, 1867, in San Juan, San Benito County. His father, Charles Henry Goodrich, was a native of Maine, who in 1852, came to San Francisco via Cape Horn. At first he was engaged by Flint & Bixby, large landed pro- prietors in San Benito County, and being very industrious and thrifty he saved his money until he had sufficient capital to engage in the sheep-raising business on his own account. He purchased land and ranged his sheep in Pleasant Valley, near what is now the Coalinga oil district, Fresno County. In 1879, he located at Riverdale, and at one time owned a ranch south of Selma where he followed farming and stock-raising. He died in 1893, while on a trip to the mountains in the Kings River district, and at his passing the county lost a public-spirited citizen. The mother of C. F. Goodrich was Maggie McCarthy, in maidenhood, a native of Ireland who came with her parents to San Francisco when she was a child, and it was in the city by the Golden Gate that she grew to young womanhood, afterwards she going to San Juan, San Benito County, where she married Mr. Goodrich. She passed away in 1877, the mother of five children.

Charles F. Goodrich was the oldest of the five children and was reared in San Benito County until 1879, when he accompanied his father to Fresno County where he attended school in Central Colony, afterwards attending school at Lemoore. At the early age of fifteen years he was obliged to make his own living and at first he was employed at teaming, to and from the mountains, for Mr. Jacobs. Being very ambitious to get a start in business for himself, he saved his money and by the time he was twenty-two he had accumulated enough cash to purchase an outfit and, with his younger brother Edward, leased land at Caruthers where they raised grain and here they continued to farm until the unusually dry year of 1898, when they were obliged to abandon their enterprise and dissolved partnership. After this Charles F. leased swamp lands of Jeff James, above San Joaquin, and here he

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operated 1,000 acres, used four big teams and had a combined harvester to cut and thresh his crops. After he had disposed of this lease he purchased his present ranch of eighty acres in 1910, and later bought forty acres located one mile farther east. He improved these ranches by leveling and checking, and engaged in raising alfalfa. On one of his ranches he sunk an artesian well, going down 1,100 feet, and to conserve the water for irrigation purposes he constructed a reservoir. His land is especially good for raising grain and alfalfa. In addition to operatng his own ranches, Mr. Goodrich leases other land and altogether operates about 900 acres, 200 being devoted to alfalfa and 700 to grain. He helped to build the old Joaquin Ditch and reclaimed about 700 acres of swamp land for Jeff James, the land being known as the old Goodrich Ranch, on the San Joaquin River. He did this work while leasing the land and raising grain. In 1916, C. F. Goodrich, accompanied by his brother and others, went to Lower California, where they engaged in reclama- tion work of about 62,000 acres below Calexico. They seeded 8.000 acres to wheat and installed two steam pumps for irrigating the land. This concern was composed of ranchers and sheepmen of Tulare, Kings and Fresno Coun- ties, and was known as the Chinn Gravell Company. They remained there one season and it is now leased as fast as water can be supplied.

In 1891, C. F. Goodrich was united in marriage with Miss Mary Elizabeth Forsyth, a native of Scotland, who came to California when a girl, with her parents. The ceremony was solemnized at Caruthers, Fresno County and this happy union was blessed with five children: Naomi, who is a graduate of the San Benito high school, lives with her parents; Ralph. who served in the Seventieth Balloon Company, Aviation Department, U. S. Army; Charles, who also served his country as a member of Company A One Hundred First Engineers, Twenty-sixth Division, and was stationed in France for one year, and saw service through all the battles, going over the top twelve times; Fred. a student at the Caruthers high school and assisting his father on the ranch; Ellsworth, a graduate of the Easton high school. also attended the University of Southern California, and who is now em- ployed by the Standard Oil Company at San Joaquin.

Mr. Goodrich is a very progressive and public-spirited citizen and is especially interested in the advancement of the educational interests of his community, being a trustee of Tranquillity School District, as well as a mem- ber of the board of trustees of Tranquillity Union High School. He is also a director of the Tranquillity Irrigation District which embraces over 11,000 acres of land. In national politics he supports the Republican ticket and in early davs served as a member of the county central committee. He is one of the directors of the First National Bank of Tranquillity.

WILLIAM FRANKLIN STRADER .- Many of Fresno County's cit- izens have come from east of the Rockies, but there are others who are native to California, and these have taken care that the reputation of the State has not suffered. Bv their sterling qualities and progressive tendencies, thev have but added to the advancement of this section, and the county is noted for its splendid citizenship. Among those who have given a good account of themselves, is William F. Strader.

He was born in San Francisco, Cal., January 4. 1876. His father, William, was a native of Ohio, who crossed the plains in the early sixties, locating in San Francisco. There he engaged in teaming. contracting and grading with Charles Warren as a partner. They followed this work for a number of vears. and were vitally connected with the growth of the Golden Gate city in the days when the people were living in tents. In 1884 Mr. Strader came to Fresno County, and was one of the founders of the Pleasant Valley Stock Farm. located near Coalinga. At that time most of this ranch was devoted to grain-raising. Following this, Mr. Strader homesteaded eighty acres south- east of Coalinga. and engaged in grain-raising. He was a man who made many friends, and was always loyal to California and to Fresno County. He

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was married to Amelia Correll, who died in 1914, and he died on the ranch in the spring of 1918. There were five children born to Mr. and Mrs. Strader : Mrs. Lena Wallace, of Dinuba ; William Franklin of this review; Mrs. Lillian Kurtz of Lemoore; Mrs. Jessie Walker, deceased; and John J. of Coalinga. Wm. F. Strader came to Fresno County in 1884 and received a good education in the public schools. He started in when a very young man to farm, and has continued in that same business ever since. For awhile he engaged in teaming to the oil fields between seasons in early days of oil development. He has farmed from two to five hundred acres of rented land on the plains to grain, and has also done a lot of contract work for other grain farmers. In 1918 he had 160 acres in Egyptian corn, which averaged one ton to the acre; and forty acres in barley, which averaged sixteen sacks to the acre. He leases about 1,000 acres which he devotes to grain farming and also owns 180 acres of range land southeast of Coalinga. He makes his home on the old home ranch. He is very loyal to Fresno County, where he has lived since a boy of eight years of age, and is a successful farmer and a good citizen.

WILLIAM S. STALEY .- A pioneer citizen whose life story will ever be of peculiar and instructive interest, and in whom the student of local lore will find additional attraction because of his relationship to the owner of the land on which Selma was originally laid out, is William S. Staley, the son of Stephen Staley, a Virginia farmer born in 1808. His father was Jacob Staley, and he moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia in 1796. The Staleys originally came from Germany, and were among the sons of the German Fatherland who, following Baron Von Steuben and others, came over to help the Yankee colonists found a free republic. Stephen Staley came to California in 1880, settled at Selma, and died here, at the age of seventy-seven, and was buried in the Selma Cemetery. William's mother was Anna Rebecca Metcalf before her marriage; she, too, came to California, and here she ended her days. One of her daughters is Ellen R. Whitson, the widow of the late J. E. Whitson, on whose 160 acres Selma had its beginnings.

William was born on July 20, 1844, in what was then Jefferson County, Virginia, but has since become a part of West Virginia, and growing up in that corner of the undeveloped country, he had but meager educational ad- vantages. At sixteen he quit school, and six months later he went into the Confederate Army, serving under Lee for four and a half years, and experi- encing all the dangers and privations attending the engagements at Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, as well as numerous minor battles and skirmishes. Though serving a lost cause, the experience enabled him, as well as thousands of others, to display that fortitude of soul and body that pos- terity has willingly accorded all honor to, as essentially American.

In 1872, Mr. Staley was married to Miss Fannie Hursperger, of Jefferson, Md., after which, for three years, they continued to farm in Virginia on the old Staley homestead. In that year they came to California, bringing a baby boy two years old. Mr. Staley really came to California first alone, leaving his home in Shepherdstown, W. Va., on April 18, 1875, and making for Colusa County, where he remained until the third week in December, 1876, when the party reached Selma. Mrs. Staley had joined her husband in Colusa County, but in Selma she found her first California home. When Mr. and Mrs. Staley and family first reached this section, they went to Kingsburg and stopped there over night; and the next day Mr. Staley went out and bought a claim of railway land, securing not only the original settler's rights, but his house and barn. When this land was thrown open for settlement, the eighty acres sold for five dollars an acre, and later Mr. Staley bought twenty acres five miles west for five dollars an acre. In 1916, he sold this for $13.000.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Staley was blessed with six children: Robert T. is a miner at Barstow, Cal .; Edith Harley is the efficient librarian at the Selma Carnegie Library; Harry B. and Hattie V. are twins; Grace Anna is

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the fifth child, and William O., the Selma grocer, is the youngest born. All have attended the Episcopal Church, Mr. Staley having belonged to that church for the past forty years, during which time he helped build the Episco- pal Church at Selma. The faithful wife and mother who so long watched over their welfare, was taken from this life on October 20, 1914, in her sixty-second year, beloved by all who knew her.

Mr. Staley has never failed to show his interest in public affairs, par- ticularly those of the community with which he has been identified during so many years, and he has left an enviable record for civic performance. For fourteen years he was a member of the Board of School Trustees, and he served when the first two grammar school buildings were erected, and had a part in creating the beautiful high school structure. From 1892 to 1896, also, he was postmaster of Selma, and old-timers will recall with pleasure his efficient and courteous service. For the past twenty years, Mr. Staley has lived retired, residing at his Selma home, 1827 Sylvia Street, with his two accomplished daughters, Edith H. and Grace A. Staley. There the old-time hospitality, typical alike of California, early Selma and the Staley family, is still a lode-stone to many.

MORRIS B. HARRIS .- A citizen of whom any community might well be proud, and a distinguished representative of the California Bar to whom Fresno City and County have frequently looked for the performance of difficult and responsible public service, is the Hon. Morris B. Harris, State Senator of California, long identified with most important educational interests. He was born at Albion, Edwards County, Ill., on September 10, 1866, the son of Lu- cius Harris, also a native of Albion, who traced his ancestry back to old, heroic English days, the founder of the family in America coming to Massa- chusetts in 1620. Senator Harris's forebears were represented in every war from the French and Indian to the Civil War; his grandparents came west to Illinois from Connecticut in 1830, and Lucius Harris served as sergeant in an Illinois regiment during the Civil War. When the war was over, he be- came a merchant at Albion, but in 1887, during the great boom in California realty, he located in Fresno County and purchased a ranch near Oleander, where he farmed until his death.

He had married Miss Constance B. Thompson, a native of Illinois, and also a member of an old Massachusetts family, of Scotch descent, an accom- plished lady, who lived her life of usefulness to a wide circle and passed away on the ranch. She was the mother of three children: Morris B., the subject of our review, is the eldest; Ronald is farming at the old home- stead; and E. M. is an attorney who is practicing law with the Senator.

Morris B. Harris was educated at the public schools, after which he at- tended the University of Indiana at Bloomington for two years. In 1887 he went to Springfield, Ohio, and spent a year at Wittenberg College, where he became a leader in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. After that he was em- ployed on the "New Era" of that city for another year. While at Springfield he met the lady who consented to be his wife, and on Washington's Birth- day, 1889, he was united in marriage with Miss Jessie Boggs, a native of that city, by whom he has had two children: Marjorie Muenter and Ronald B. The same year, Mr. and Mrs. Harris came to California ; and arriving in Fresno, he engaged in teaching school in the county, continuing in that field of desirable endeavor for four years.

At the same time, Mr. Harris studied law ; and upon examination in 1895, he was admitted to the bar. He practiced law in Fresno, and was later a partner with Judge M. K. Harris, but in 1907 they dissolved the partnership and then Mr. Harris made his brother, E. M. Harris, his partner. The two gentlemen made an exceptionally good team, and it is doubtful if any mem- bers of their profession in the county both merited and received a more flat- tering patronage. One of the honors coming to Mr. Harris at this time was the presidency of the Fresno County Bar Association.

Gran Well.

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Mr. Harris has taken an active and prominent part in politics, and has been privileged to serve his fellowmen in manners and at times not accorded even all the ambitious, and as a Progressive Republican in particular he has also been highly honored. In 1904 he was chosen a Republican elector on the Roosevelt ticket, and in 1912 he was again selected a Progressive Repub- lican on the same ticket. He was appointed by Governor Johnson a member of the State Board of Education, but after holding the post a year, he found that he had too much to do, and could not give the duties the required atten- tion, and he resigned. He was president of the Board of Trustees of the Fresno State Normal from its inception until January, 1919, and resigned only on taking his seat as State Senator.

In 1918, Mr. Harris was a candidate for State Senator from Fresno County, and at the primary he received the nomination by the Republican, the Democratic and the Prohibition parties ; in consequence of which at the November election he had no opposition. He has thus far served ably and conscientiously, and will no doubt continue to give his best efforts to his office during the coming session. As evidence of what he has done to justify the confidence of his constituency, it may be pointed out that Senator Harris introduced what is called the Harris Enforcement Bill, a measure to enforce the National Prohibition Amendment in California, which was passed and signed by the Governor. He also introduced the California Irrigation Act, which became a law and is now about to be used in the plans for the Pine Flat Reservoir. He also introduced and secured the passage of other needed legis- lation of a high character. He was a member of the Free Conference Commit- tee that framed the community property bill, which was passed and signed by the Governor. He was a member and chairman of the Constitutional Commit- tee which passed out an amendment for calling a constitutional convention for framing a new constitution for California. He is now a member of an edu- cational committee for the purpose of revising the educational laws of the State, and reporting revised laws and an educational system to the next State legislature. During the World War he was chairman of the Fresno County Four Minute Men, and was associate State Director of the Four Min- ute Men of the State of California.

From the foregoing it will be seen that few names are more inseparably associated with the history of Fresno County than that of Morris B. Harris, State Senator and one of the most scholarly, versatile and influential attor- neys not only in Central California but along the Pacific Coast.

CHARLES WELLS .- A member of the board of supervisors who has worked hard and successfully for both good roads and the proper care of the worthy poor, is Charles Wells, the representative of the fourth supervisorial district of Fresno County, and an experienced rancher who has greatly im- proved several farm-properties. He was born at Osceola, Clarke County, Iowa, on July 19, 1872, the son of Abraham Wells, a native of Columbus, Ohio, who married Mary Jane Ray, of Young America, later Niles, Mich. Abraham Wells was a student of Kalamazoo College and there met his future com- panion. After the marriage, he served four years as a Union soldier in the Civil War, joining the Twenty-fifth Michigan Infantry, and doing duty, be- sides that of the regular soldier on the fighting line, as chaplain of his regi- ment. When the war was over, he and his wife moved to Illinois, taking with them their two children; and later he engaged in preaching in Iowa, having by that time four children in his family. When another couple of children had been added, he pitched his tent at Hastings, Nebr., where one more child was granted them, and whence, for the first time, in 1891, he came to California.

Charmed with Selma, he settled there; and having joined the Christian Church, he served that congregation as its pastor until his death, which oc- curred in 1905. He died at his farm-home of twenty-five acres, two miles northeast of Selma, on the Mill Ditch Road, a ranch that he bought when he first came to this section, and through which he earned his livelihood ; for

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he never took a dollar for preaching, and thus carried out the spirit of a free Gospel consistently. He lived to be seventy, and was honored and mourned by many.

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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 II, Part 8

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1424