USA > California > Tulare County > History of Tulare County, California with biographical sketches > Part 36
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THOMAS CREIGHTON resides in Visalia, and is a civil engineer by profession. His experience has been very large, having been for sixteen years prominently engaged in railroad and other public work.
He was born in Cobourg, in the Province of Ontario, Can- ada. He resided in Rochester, New York, for a number of years, and came to Tulare City, June 26, 1874, and engaged in his old profession of surveyor.
He was married in 1859 to Miss Helen M. Smith, a native of the State of New York. They have one ehild, Fred. M. Creighton.
Mr. Creighton is the County Surveyor of Tulare County, having been elected to that position in 1882 by a very large majority.
J. W. C. POGUE is one of the representative men of Tulare County, to which place he came in 1862, and engaged in farm- ing and stoek-raising. He was born in Greene County, Tennes- see, June 1, 1839. At the early age of three years he lost both his parents the same day, of typhoid fever. They had emigrated to Missouri in 1844, In 1857 he started for Cali- fornia by the overland route and was six months on the way. He first stopped in Sonoma County, October 1, 1857, and went to farming. In 1859 he weit to Mendocino County and resided in Little Lake Valley two years.
He married Miss Naney M. Blair in 1859, who was a native of Missouri. They have six children, named as follows: Martha Louisa, Eugenie, J. Earley, Sariah Evey, Thomas, and Olly M. Pogue.
Mr. Pogue is one of the large and sueeessful farmers of the eounty. He has 3,500 acres eighteen miles from Visalia. Of this 2,000 acres is of good tillable land and the balanee grow- ing land lying on the Kaweah River just at the foot of the Sierra Mountains. On the place he keeps usually about 40 head of eattle, 400 hogs, and 40 horses.
He has only a small orchard of two and one-half acres, but it contains nearly every variety of fruit grown in California, such as oranges, limes, lemons, apricots, cherries, etc. In faet Mr. Pogue inforins us that any fruit grown in California does well on these foot-hill farms and along the Kaweah River.
Mr. Pogue is now one of the Supervisors of his eounty and is a leading representative in the Board. He was the Demo- eratie nominee for Senator from this distriet a few years ago. He is a gentleman well qualified to fill the position, being a man of more than ordinary intelligenee, and an honorable, respectable citizen. He is a live man and thoroughly inter- ested in the success of the Democratic Party. -
EDWIN GIDDINGS, of Lemoore, was born on the 2d day of November, 1818, in the township of Wayne, Ashtabula County, Ohio. He was raised on a farm, attending the com-
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mon schools of the neighborhood for his education. In those days the boys were expected to do the work on the farm, and if a little leisure, they were allowed to work for a neighbor, and thereby obtain spending money. The first work so obtained was driving an ox-team-four yoke of oxen-to plow. This was at the age of twelve or thirteen years; wages twelve and a half cents per day. At the age of twenty-two years, on the 10th day of December, 1840, he married Miss Lana M. Sweet, who was born in the State of New York. Soon after they moved into the beech and maple wood s in Cherry Valley, Ashtabula County, Ohio, to carve out a farm. It was a slow process, and then when the land was cleared, it was hard to find the ground, because of the beech roots. A few years of that kind of farming was quite sufficient, particularly for one who had seen the prairies of Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1844 he visited the western country, and located a elaim in Dodge County, Wisconsin. In the spring of 1845, in company with Edwin Warren, Coryden Warren, and James Warren, started for Wisconsin by land. On arriving at Cleveland, a steamer or two were in port bound for the Upper Lakes. A trade was soon made to take all-horses, wagons, and their loads, including men, women, and children, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The trip was a favorable one, and in five or six days all were landed safe on te wharf at Milwaukee-much cheaper, quicker, and easier than the trip could otherwise have been made.
The trip by land to the interior was necessarily a slow one -rainy weather and roads muddy. In time, however, Water .. town was reached, and from there to Oak Grove the roads were passable. A few days after the party were on their claims near the foot of the Winnebago Marsh, afterwards the thriving town of Horicon on Rock River. The land settled upon was oak and maple openings. Early in the winter of 1845-46, when all were from home, his house was burned, and all therein. If there could be a bright side to such a misfort- une, it was in the kindness of the immediate neighbors and friends in assisting to rebuild, and in making goodl their little all that had been lost by the fire.
In the fall of 1846, Mr. Giddings was elected to fill a very short vacancy in the County Recorder's Office. In the fall of 1848, he was elected County Recorder for the term of two years. Early in January, 1849, he moved to Juneau, the county seat of Dodge County. Before and during this term he was considerably troubled with the serof la. which at that time and in that new country was very little understood. It was in this case known to be hereditary, an I by many thought to be incurable. During his term of office, Doctor Whitney, of Milwaukee, had occasion to attend court in Dodge County. He was a.lvisel with, and under his treatment Mr. Giddings was much benefited.
In the winter of 1852 Mr. Giddings with his family, in com-
pany with James R. Whaley, H. H. Rich, Wm. Alexander, Selah Barber, and a few others from Dodge County, started for Cali- fornia overland, crossing the Mississippi at Dubuque, Iowa, arriving at Kanesville early in March. This trip was not for the purpose of making money, but for health, for a warmer and better climate to enjoy life in. Just then Kanesville was a lively place, many there, and constant new arrivals on their way to California. Everything in the provision line for man and beast was plenty and cheap. Time passed rapidly while preparing for the long, long journey across the plains. Most people there did not like to leave early. But the little party from Wisconsin, with a few recruits, joined forces with a Mr. Barrett, who had a small company at Council Bluffs, with a fair supply of grain for horse feed, and in all things being pre- pared for such a trip, crossed the Missouri River on the 23d day of April, 1852, and camped the first night on the west bank of the stream. It was the beginning of a long journey outside of civilization. They were the first party on the north side of the Platte River that season. In fact, the second party of the season in crossing the plains. The trip was a slow one to Fort Laramie-giving the teams plenty of time to eat, and till then having fed grain, the teams were in fine condition, seasoned to their work, and far ahead of the bulk of the emigration. From there the travel was much faster, making about thirty miles a day. After crossing the desert with safety, the teams were recruited a few days in the hills on Carson River. On arriving at the foot of the mountains, they found the one train ahead of them, waiting for company to eross the mountains. A few pack trains only had crossed the Sierras that spring. But it was thought best not to delay. The start was made. Up, up they went, traveling over twelve miles of snow. Feed, however, was found on the route, and the trip successfully made, almost entirely free from sickness, without loss of stock, landing in Hangtown, El Dorado County, on the 10th day of July, 1852. It was a pleasant and agrecable journey, among many strangers-a jolly set all seeking the golden land.
After arriving at Sacramento, and at the suggestion of J. V. Hoag, who was then running a ferry across the Saera- mento River, Mr. Giddings and family went to Cache Creek, Yolo County, and there located on unsurveyed Government land south of the Harbin Grant. The winter of 1852-53 was a wet one; a flood in November, again in March-a sea of water ali winter between the settlement and Sacramento, sup- plies all coming from that city, and the only way possible in getting them was by the way of Knight's Landing and the river. This was a hard winter, and especially so for new- comers with limited means. Talk about monopoly being an invention of these later days. Flour $40.00 per barrel. Yet that was the price during that long, dreary winter. From $8.00 to $40.00 per barrel, raised simply because a few men
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could control the market for a few months. Notwith- standing the rain and floods, the winter was warm and pleas- ant save the extreme rain-storms which generally lasted about forty-eight hours. Through the kindness of Mr. Hunt, of Cache Creek, Mr. Giddings was able to obtain seed for about thirty acres of grain. The season was good, crop good, and market good. Four dollars a hundred for wheat, a fair start in California life.
September 5, 1855, he was elected Justice of the Peace for Cache Creek Township. On November 6, 1860, he was again elected Justice of the Peace; also associate Justice in connec- tion with I. N. Hoag, Isaac Davis being County Judge. He was elected County Clerk, Yolo County, September 4, 1861, for the term of two years and five months. At the expiration of the term he was appointed Deputy County Clerk, under Mr. Bronnell who died during the term of office. Mr. Giddings was then appointed County Clerk to fill the vacancy, by the Board of Supervisors, on the 11th day of April, 1865. On the 6th of September, 1865, he was again elected County Clerk for the term of two years. While holding office Mr. Giddings was still a farmer on a small scale. He introduced the first alfalfa near Woodland, and made the first success in raising it in the county off from the Sacramento River.
In the summer of 1873, through Mr. Geo. Cotton, Mr. Gid- dings heard of the Mussel Slough country in Tulare County. He made two trips to the county, traveling on both sides of the King's River, resulting finally in purchasing the claim of John Kanawyeron sections 8 and 5, township 19 south, range 21 east. Afterwards he purchased land of Mr. Williams immediately on Mussel Slough and adjoining, which now constitutes his farm. A portion of the family moved onto the farm in the fall of 1873. At that time the country was dry, but the Last Chance Ditch and the People's Ditch were in the course of construction. He assisted in the construction of both ditches, and still holds an interest in the Last Chance Ditch, from which his farm is irrigated. In coming to the county he drove a small band of fine Spanish Merino sheep, which has increased till now the. business of the farm is raising alfalfa and sheep.
He was elected Supervisor for the Third Supervisors District, Tulare County, in the fall of 1876. which office he held about one year and then resigned.
GEORGE FISHER RICE was born in Warrick County, Indiana, and was the second son of James and Lucinda Clark Rice. Resided principally in Indiana till February, 1854, when he started to California by what was then called the northern route, by way of Council Bluffs, thence by Salt Lake. He was seven and a half months coming, arriving at Stockton October 15, 1854. He mined in Mariposa County four years.
He came to Tulare County in November, 1858, and settled permanently, engaging in the business of farming and stock-
raising. He located on Outside Creek of the " Four Creeks," ten miles from Visalia, near the head of Elk Bayou. Buying first 160 acres of land, he has continued to add to it by purchase till at the present time (May, 1883) his farm con- sists of 3,500 acres. He and his family have always enjoyed excellent health. He married Miss Frances N. Bell, July 18, 1861, who was a native of Iowa. By this marriage four children were born, two daughters and two sons, named, Marietta, Jennie, Lewis Clarke and James. Frances N. Rice died June 26, 1876. Marietta Rice, eldest daughter of G. F. Rice, was married January 17, 1882, to W. A. Gray, Esq., of Lemoore. They reside at Lemoore.
G. F. Rice was married in Visalia March 26, 1878, to Miss Frances Dibble, of Marietta, Ohio. Miss Dibble was a graduate of the Marietta High School, and a teacher by profession, having taught in Ohio, Iowa, and Illinois previous to coming to California, where she taught one year prior to her marriage with G. F. Rice. Mr. Rice having come to California at an early day, it may not be amiss to mention some of his experi- ences. He started from Indiana in company with thirty-two inen, most of them single men and some only in their teens. In regard to finances the outfit was slender indeed, Mr Rice having only $11.05. He walked all the way from Council Bluffs. Two of the company died of cholera on the plains. Mr. Rice's possessions when he reached Stockton comprised some school-books and a gun. He sold the gun for $5.00; with this he paid for the first night's lodging and breakfast for him- self and three comrades. For this gun he had paid just prior to starting to California, 100 bushels of corn, worth there twenty-five cents per bushel.
At the time of Mr. Rice's settlement on Outside Creek there were a good many Indians in the vicinity. These have had their home on Mr. Rice's land till within the last year, many of them having died, the rest moved away. He has always found them friendly and harmless. Mr. Rice is a Republican in politics.
ARTHUR HENRY SANDERS, of Hanford, Tulare County, was born June 18, 1852, in the county of Wellington, Canada West, on his father's farm two miles east of the town of Guelph. Till the age of twenty-one his time was spent in work- ing on the farm and obtaining his education in the various public schools of Guelph.
May 15, 1872, he started for California by way of Chicago and the Union and Central Pacific Railroads. After spending a short time in Sacramento, he located on a wheat ranch in Merced County, on Bear Creek, six miles east of the town of Merced.
In the spring of 1874 he removed to the Mussel Slough Dis- trict, where he pre-empted a quarter section of land, his present home, five miles south of Hanford. He has since been engaged there in grain and stock-raising. His ranch is twenty-five
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miles slightly south of west from Visalia, the county seat. The soil is a productive sandy loam, its chief want being an abundant supply of water for irrigation. For the latter, it depends upon Lakeside ditch, which is taken front Cross Creek, about eight miles below the railroad crossing near Grandview, and is supplied with water from the Kaweah River. He had 125 acres under fence, seventy-five of which are sown to alfalfa, and divided into three parts for pasture and meadow.
He has made a specialty of raising draught horses of Nor- man stock, and his Norman horse Enterprise is acknowledged to be in all respects the finest of his breed ever brought to Tulare County.
DANIEL RHOADS was born in Edgar County, Illinois, on the 7th of December, 1821. His father, Thomas Rhoads, was a farmer four miles south of Paris, the county seat, and was one of the first settlers of that part of Illinois, having removed from his native State, Kentucky, about the year 1812. The early years of the subject of this sketch were spent upon his father's farm, until the family removed in 1835 to Ray County, Missouri. Here he worked on his father's farm till he was married to Miss Amanda Esrey, October 4, 1843. Meanwhile he had enjoyed the meagre advantages of education then afforded by the country schools of Illinois and Missouri, which he attended in winter. He then established a home for him- self on eighty acres allotted to him by his father, near his own farm.
In the spring of 1846, in April, he and his wife started with his father and family for San Francisco Bay, with an ox-team, joining at times with emigrant trains bound for Oregon, and they entered California with Captain Imes' train by the Don- ner Lake route, through Emigrant Gap, in the latter part of September. He was induced to seek a home in the new West, as were many of the early emigrants, by the accounts of California given in the reports of Fremont's first expedition. On the route across the plains they were fortunate to escape any hostile encounter with the Indians, but a band of Pawnee Indians managed, near Grand Island, on Big Platte River, to stampede all the horses of their train except three, but they succeeded in bringing most of their ca tle through. After crossing the Sierra Nevada Mr. Rhoad's party stopped for a month at Johnson's ranch, on Bear River, to recruit from the fatigue of the long and wearisome trip across the plains, which had occupied about five months.
He then settled within a mile of Sutter's Fort, on American River, and engaged in stock-raising, in the employ of Sinclair & Grimes.
In January, 1847, an Indian runner brought to Sutter's Fort, by letter to Captain Sutter, the news of the sufferings of the Donner party and their danger of starvation. Mr. Rhoads and Mr. Sinclair at once went on foot to Johnson's ranch, on Bear River, it being impossible to go with horses, so boggy
was all that region from heavy rains. Here four days were spent by men, women and children, and "tame Indians" in drying beef over fires barbecue fashion, and cracking wheat and running it through sieves, the only means of milling in those primitive days.
With these supplies, Mr. Rhoads and fifteen others, with sufficient pack-animals, laboriously made their way over track- less, rocky ridges, and cañons, and across swollen streams, to the snow line on the piny ridge just beyon | "Steep Hollow."
Here the pack-train was left in charge of a man and boy, and the relief supplies were packed the remaining distance of about eighty miles on the backs of fourteen men, on snow-shoes, for the first three days to Bear Valley, at the head of Bear River, and afterwards by half that number. The party started for Donner Lake February 5th. The weight carried by each man was seventy-five pounds, including a blanket, hatchet, tin cup to make soup of dried beef and cracked wheat (no tea or coffee), and enough raw hide cut in slips to make the ineshes of their snow-shoes. On their route they provided for their return by tying to the limbs of pines small packages of beef and wheat in bits of canvas. So heavy was the fall of snow and so great its depth, twelve to twenty feet, as they advanced towards the summit, that seven of the party were discouraged, believing it impossible to make the trip, and turned back from the head of Bear River.
The packs of the seven who still ventured to advance in the face of these appalling dangers, were replenished from the packs of the seven who returned to the pack-train. For two weeks more these seven toiled on before they reached the snow-cov- ered huts of the starving emigrants. At least twelve days were consumed in reaching the summit, some advance being made every day.
In two days from the summit they reached the head of Donner Lake, and the camps February 18, 1847. The lake was covered with thick ice and snow, and they made their way directly down its entire length to the head of one branch of the Truckee River. During this dreary tramp of two weeks, the relief party had suffered greatly from the severe cold and sleepless nights, their only way of building fires being to cut small green pines, make platforms or hearths of them on the deep snow, and build their fires of dry limbs upon them. This was to prevent the fires from sinking into the snow as they otherwise would in a single night to a depth of twenty feet. They slept while seated around the fires leaning against each other and wrapped in their blankets. They also set fire to the upper parts of standing dead trees, as a guide for themselves and others.
A man named R. P. Tucker, now living in Santa Barbara County, and Mr. Rhoads' brother, John P., since dead, were made commanders of the party. The other four were Mr. R. S. Mootrey, now living in Santa Clara County, Mr. A. Glover,
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long since dead, and two sailors, named Joseph Foster and E. Coffeemire.
On approaching the camp, February 18th, all the surround- ings were so desolate that the party began to conelude that all had perished. Not a hut was in sight. At last, however, a faint smoke was seen coming out of the snow about sixty yards ahead of them. In answer to a loud hello! a woman eame to the surface of the snow from a chute that rose out of a hut twenty feet down in the snow-bank. A second woman, ema- ciated from want of food, soon followed. Seeing the men approaching, she threw up her hands and exelaimed, with tears in her eyes, "Oh! are you men from California or from Heaven!" In this hut they found Mr. Keseberg and about a dozen others. Keseberg and others were unable to rise.
At this meeting, Mr. Rhoads says: "There were no dry eyes." Thirty of the emigrants attached to the parties here relieved had already died from starvation and exposure, either in the camps, or in vain efforts to cross the summit. The only things left them for food were a few small pieces of rawhide, and bones which they had boiled for soup again and again.
After spending two days in the eamps, and distributing the greater part of their provisions, Mr. Rhoads' party started on the return trip accompanied by most of the survivors who were able to undertake the journey, twenty-one in number. Dur- ing the five days spent in returning over the trail they had made, three of the rescued died. One was an infant, earried for a time in the arms of John Rhoads, the second a young Englishman named Denton, and the third one of the Donner boys, who ate too much dried beef when they reached the pack- train.
They started on their return with only one day's provisions, and expecting to get their caches of food in the trees, they were dismayed to find that the mountain wolves and foxes had made way with all these return supplies, and they had nothing to eat for the last three days but the rawhide strips of their snow- shoes, roasted to a crisp.
On the last day before reaching their paek-an mals, they met another relief party going to the Donner eamp, in charge of James F. Reed and William MeCutchen. This party was sent from Yerba Buena, by direction of Commodore Stoekton.
Such were some of the thrilling seenes and adventures in which Mr. Rhoads took part, in the early days of California.
In June, 1847, Mr. Rhoads moved to the Cosumnes River, and the following October to Sonoma, for the winter. In 1848 he returned to what is now Sacramento County, settling on Dry Creek, on the Briggs and Burris raneh, a mile below where Galt now stands, and was there when gold was dis- covered at Sutter's Mill.
For the next two years, working about two inonths each summer in the placer mines at and near Mormon Island, on the American River, he realized about $8,000, in gold-dust.
In 1850, accompanied by Mrs. Rhoads, he returned to Mis- souri on a visit, by the Isthmus route. Coming back to Sacra- mento County, he removed in April, 1851, to the neighborhood of what is now Gilroy, and bought 1,000 aeres, for a stock ranch. In 1857, he drove his stock aeross the coast mountains to the wild plains along lower King's River, then ealled by the Mex- ieans, Rio de Los Reys .* His family remained in San Jose, for the edueation of his children, till the fall of 1860, when he removed them to his present home near Lemoore, which now greatly improved and beautified is represented in this volume as his "Evergreen Farm."
From that date, Mr. Rhoads has been prominently connected with the organization and history of Fresno and Tulare Counties. Here he has acquired a comfortable competency, is familiarly known, in a large circle of friends, as "Uncle Dan," and his name will be long and honorably remembered as one of the earliest pioneers of central California.
His family consists of three daughters and one son living, three sons having been buried in their ehildhood. Those liv- ing are: Mrs. Sarah Phillips, the wife of J. F. Phillips, of Le- moore, deceased; Mrs. Mary Keiffer, of San Mateo County : John W. Rhoads, married and living on a ranch near his father; and Miss Elvira H., who remains at home with her parents.
A. S. AYERS is another of the prominent farmers of this county, and lives near Grangeville, within one mile of the ehureh, and six miles from the railroad. At this home-like place we find Mr. A. S. Ayers, Mrs. Ellen Ayers nèe Mullen (married April 14, 1858), and their six promising children: Sadie, Andrew, Lillie, Edward, Walter, and Harry Ayers.
Mr. Ayers owns a farm of 640 aeres, wheat and alfalfa land, an orchard containing 600 trees bearing fruit of different varieties, 12 head of eattle, 100 hogs, and 16 horses. He was born November 15, 1831, in Riehland County, Ohio; has been brought up as a farmer, and left his home for California on the 22d of Mareh, 1852.
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