USA > California > Kings County > History of Tulare and Kings counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 27
USA > California > Tulare County > History of Tulare and Kings counties, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 27
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development of central California. When he began here nothing had been done to irrigate the soil and the degree of its productiveness was unknown, but he and other pioneers proved that profitable grain cultivation and cattle-raising were not only possible but easy of attainment. He gained a position of influence in the county and was respected for his keen judgment, high honor and energy. In his dealings with his fellow men he exemplified the teachings of the Chris- tian Church, of which he was a devout and helpful member. Polit- ically he was Republican, and as a citizen he gave his support to all measures tending to the benefit of the community. The free school system always had his generous promotion and he long held the office of trustee of the Elbow Creek district, greatly to the benefit of the local school. Fraternally he affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
In 1871 Mr. Hicks was married near Visalia to Miss Elizabeth A. March, who was born in Merced, Cal., a daughter of Robert and Mary Jane (Holloway) March, who were of Kentucky birth. Her parents settled early in Missouri and from there came overland to California in 1849. They lived first in Mariposa county, next in Merced county, and then in Tulare county, where she died in 1881, in her fifty-seventh year, he passing away in 1903, in his seventy-ninth year. Until his removal to Tulare county Mr. March had devoted himself entirely to farming; here he gave some attention to mining interests. Mr. and Mrs. Hicks had seven children, four of whom survive: Albert E., Mary Pearl, Jewell and Ruby Louise.
Albert E. Hicks has charge of the old Hicks homestead, which he has managed since 1876. After his father's death he planted eighty acres to orchard, and now he has one of the best producing orchards in the county. Thirty acres of his land is devoted to peaches and of that fruit he soll one hundred and fifteen tons in 1911, chiefly Phillips clingstones, Lovells and Muirs. The relative value of these peaches per acre was, in the order in which they have been named, $300, $150 and $50 an acre. The entire average value of his peach crop is somewhat in excess of $4,000. His eight hundred and sixty prune trees produce one hundred and ninety tons of prunes valued at more than $6,000. Mr. Hicks married Miss Elizabeth Alles, and they have children named Gladys, Elwood and Allison. Mr. Ilieks affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. His sisters Mary Pearl and Jewell live with their mother at No. 503 North Church street, Visalia, and his sister Ruby Lonise became the wife of A. E. Blair and their home is near Visalia. By the will of Benjamin Ilieks his wife was made administrator of his estate and her management of it has given her a reputation for uncommon business ability. The Ilieks family is strong in its support of the Christian Church.
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ISAAC H. THOMAS
The name of Isaac If. Thomas stands as a synonym for all that is highest and best in horticultural accomplishments in Tulare county, as is attested in the fact that he is proudly referred to by the citizens as the Luther Burbank of Tulare county. The earliest recollections of Mr. Thomas are of a home on a southern planta- tion, his birth having occurred in Grayson county, Ky., in 1838. He was a lad of twenty years when he turned his back on the scenes of his boyhood and came to California by way of Panama and Aspinwall, a voyage filled with interest to the young traveler. It had been the intention of the party to visit Panama City, but on account of the riots then prevailing they were marched between lines of soldiers to lighters and taken aboard the steamer. This was overcrowded to the point of discomfort, the late arrivals having to content themselves with standing room. When the ship hove in sight of the Golden Gate the passengers became unruly in their eagerness to land and thus relieve the tension and discomfort which they had endured during the long voyage on the Pacific. The crowding of the passengers to one side of the ship nearly capsized it, and in order to right the ship and preserve order the captain was compelled to turn the hot water hose on the unruly crowd. At San Francisco Mr. Thomas boarded the overland stage for Visalia, arriving No- vember 5, 1858. Ile had been attracted to Visalia from the fact that his brother, Joseph H. Thomas, was located here, having come to California in 1852 and to Visalia in 1856. Here the latter was en- gaged in the lumber business on Mill creek, cutting and sawing pine lumber. The brothers formed an association in the lumber bnsi- ness that lasted eleven years, during which time they lost three mills by fire and flood. The mill was located forty-five miles from Visalia and they paid $40 to $50 per thousand feet for hanling the lumber to town, where it sold for $90 a thousand. The logs were blasted in order to get them into the mill.
After giving up the lumber business Isaac H. Thomas turned his attention to the nursery and orchard industry and his interest in the same has continued to the present time. To him is given the credit for taking orders for and selling the first fruit trees in Tulare county, obtaining his initial stock from San Jose. Into his nursery. located one and a half miles east of Visalia, he introduced many new varieties of fruit trees. A subsequent undertaking was the planting and development of a ninety acre orchard adjacent to town. Since 1904 he has been associated with the Red Bank Orchard Company in the capacity of horticulturist. This orchard was started with the intention of catering to the eastern trade exclusively and
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grows the earliest fruit in the state north of the Imperial valley. Some idea of the duties involved as manager of the Red Bank or- chard may be gathered from the fact that the ranch comprises twenty-two hundred aeres, of which nine hundred and forty aeres are in fruit, as follows: oranges, table grapes (fourteen varieties), seedless limes, tangarines, plums (fifteen varieties), as well as an early variety of peaches, in fact the very earliest produced in the United States. The orchard has an exceptional location on the face of Colvin mountain. Electric power is used for irrigation, water being supplied from a system of wells seventy-seven feet deep and pumped one hundred and seventy-five feet up hill into cement flumes. Mr. Thomas has exhibited Visalia grown fruits all over America, and abroad also, and has never taken any but first preminms. Be- sides sending exhibits from his own ranch, which he owned before he became associated with the Red Bank Orchard Company, he also packed and shipped fruit that came from the George A. Flem- ing ranch, consisting of three hundred pounds of large peaches, to the fairs at Atlanta, Buffalo, and Paris, the peaches running from sixteen to twenty-one and a half ounces each.
The marriage of Mr. Thomas in 1864 united him with Miss Caroline Owsley, a native of Missouri. The eldest of their three children, John O., now deceased, was elected recorder of Tulare county and served one term. Horace M. is a resident of Oakland. Annie, the only daughter, is the wife of P. M. Baier, of Visalia. Mr. Thomas is a member of Four Creek Lodge No. 94, I. O. O. F .. and a charter member of the old volunteer fire department. Ile served nine years on the state board of horticulture and has taken an active part in combating the fruit pests, he having invented the composition of lime, sulphur and salt for killing insects and the San Jose scale.
In retrospect Mr. Thomas calls to mind his first impression of Visalia, which at the time he arrived here contained three stores. a hotel and a blacksmith shop. In the course of half a century he has seen wonderful changes in the country round about and no one more than he can be given credit for what has been accomplished. Few indeed are those now living who were residents here when he settled here. He cast his first vote in Visalia in 1859, supporting Bell and Everett. Mr. Thomas is the prond possessor of two old relies which he prizes very highly. One of these is an old drum. which first saw service in the Revolutionary war and later figured in the battle of New Orleans. This relic is now on exhibition at Stanford University. The other memento is an old hickory cane, ent in 1855 at General Jackson's old home in Tennessee, The Herm- itage.
MRS. A. J. SCOGGINS
Afschaffing
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ANDREW J. SCOGGINS
Among the well-known pioneers of Tulare county is numbered Andrew J. Scoggins, son of David Green and Martha (Breedlove) Scoggins, who was born May 28, 1828, in Alabama. His parents were natives of North Carolina. The family moved at a comparatively early date to Tennessee and were among pioneers in Roane county and later in another county in that state and the father prospered fairly as a farmer. and as a tanner. When Andrew was twenty-two years old he settled in Arkansas, but finding the country unhealthy removed to southwest Missouri. In 1848, before leaving his old home in Tennessee, he married Miss Julia Buttram, a native of that state, who bore him a daughter, Martha Ann, who eventually married the Rev. L. C. Renfroe of the Methodist church and bore him children, Mand and Louis. Mrs. Scoggins died October 3, 1853. On October 3, 1856, he married Miss Rebecca Cleek, a native of Tennessee, whom he brought across the plains to the Far West. The journey was made in the warm part of the year 1857 and he started with two hundred head of cattle and lost a few by the way. The start was made from Fort Scott and the Platte river was reached at Fort Kearney. The latter part of the journey was made by the southern route and Mr. Scoggins settled in Yolo county, then a wild country in which he found wild oats higher than his head. By his second marriage Mr. Scoggins had nine children: Margaret M., Byron, Josephine, Nettie, John L., Frank, Pearl W., A. J. and an infant unnamed. The three last-men- tioned have passed away. Margaret M. married C. Fremont Giddons and has three sons and a danghter. Byron has not married. Jose- phine married Travers Welch and bore him one child who has won success as a teacher at Fresno, where the family live. Nettie married (. L. Knestrie of Dinuba and has a daughter. Frank married Belle Ellis, daughter. of J. W. Ellis of Visalia, and has two sons and a daughter. Mr. Scoggins has nine grandchildren and three great-grand- children.
Mr. Scoggins crossed the plains the second time, the journey being made in comparative safety, there having been no trouble with the Indians. He came to Hanford in 1866 and lived sonth of that town for ten years. He bought land of the railroad company at $12.50 an acre and passed through the experiences which culminated in the Mussel Slough tragedy and the subsequent settlement of questions at issue between settlers and the railroad company. One of his recollee- tions is of having seen Mr. ('row after the latter had been shot down. He went for a time to Texas to raise sheep and fed many sheep in Colusa county, ('al. He had now entered upon what may be termed his second period of prosperity. In 1870 he had paid taxes on prop- erty valued at $350,000 and the opening of the year 1876 had found
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him poor. He began to raise grain, operating extensively in Colusa county, where he grew ten thousand sacks of wheat in one memorable season and was known as a leading wheat producer in that part of the state. In the spring of 1888 he owned eleven thousand sheep and sheared four hundred. His house in Colusa county, a brick structure which cost $15,000, was the finest house in the county at the time of his residence there. On coming to Dinuba he bought fifty acres of land a mile and a half southwest of the town and has given ten acres to his heirs. He has thirty acres in grapes and a fine family orchard.
The country in this region was new when Mr. Scoggins first be- held it. Sheep and cattle were fed everywhere, wild game was plenty and he often saw large herds of antelope which at a distance looked like bands of sheep. Not only has he participated in the development of the country, but as a public-spirited citizen he has aided it in every way possible. In polities he calls himself a Bryan Democrat. He has long been a Mason and is also an Odd Fellow. He and members of his family are communicants of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
HON. TIPTON LINDSEY
The honor which belongs to the pioneer and to the leader in affairs of importance to the community attaches to the name of the late Hon. Tipton Lindsey, of Visalia, Tulare county, Cal. Mr. Lindsey was born in St. Joseph county, Ind., May 21, 1829, and was reared on a farm there. Educated in public schools near his boy- hood home, he was well advanced in the study of law by the time he was twenty years old. In 1849, as a member of a party of thirty, he made the journey with ox-teams across the plains to California and mined for a time at Placerville. He then settled in Santa Clara county, whence he came to Tulare county, in November, 1860, driv- ing a band of cattle. He pre-empted a piece of government land near Goshen and turned his cattle ont to range, but they died in a dry season four years later. He then went to Visalia, completed his study of the law and was admitted to the bar, entering upon a successful professional practice. From the first he took an active interest in public affairs and from time to time was called to fill responsible officials positions. He was for twelve years receiver of the United States Land Office at Visalia, was long a school trustee. served one term as supervisor and represented his district four years in the senate of the state of California. During all his active life he took a deep and helpful interest in public education and the
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Tipton Lindsey grammar school of Visalia, named in his honor, is a monument to his activities as a promoter of educational advance- ment of the city. Indeed, it may be said of him that there was no local interest tending to the improvement of the people at large that did not receive his public-spirited support. Comparatively early in the history of Visalia he bought sixteen home lots in the town for $800, and the lot on which his widow now has her home has been owned in the family forty-six years. Her fine ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, three miles west of town, he purchased forty-six years ago. The property formerly bore prunes and peaches on trees which he set out, but eventually he had them taken out and devoted the land to alfalfa, and for several years it has been operated by tenants. Fraternally he affiliated with the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the An- cient Order of United Workmen. He was identified with the Cali- fornia Society of Pioneers, the headquarters of which are at San Francisco, and helped to organize the Tulare County Society of Pioneers. His recollections of 1849 were very comprehensive and very interesting. In these days, when the high price of foodstuffs is so much discussed, readers should be interested in his narratives of a time when water sold for $1 a gallon and eggs for $1 each in San Francisco. This honored pioneer passed away on his ranch west of Visalia in 1894.
In 1859 Mr. Lindsey married Miss Eliza Fine, niece of John Fine, who crossed the plains with her uncle in 1853. When she came to Visalia it was only a village; she saw the trees set out and the homes built in her vicinity, and has watched the development of the city to its present proportions and importance. She recalls many entertaining experiences of her journey across the plains. In every direction she saw long emigrant trains until they looked small and dim on the horizon. She remembers a stampede of buffaloes in which a herd of thousands bore down on her train, threatening death to humans and cattle alike, a tragedy which was prevented by a diversion in the path of the maddened bison which took them past the camp without inflicting injury to anything in it. She recalls the flood of 1868 at Visalia, when for more than twenty-four hours water stood a foot deep on the property which is now her home, and tells how after the water subsided tons of fish were left on the plains west of Visalia. The flood interfered with travel in the coun- try round about to such an extent that for two months not a letter or newspaper was received in the town. Mrs. Lindsey has two children, Charles F., of San Francisco, and Mrs. M. P. Frasier, of Los Angeles, who has a son named Harold.
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HON. JOSEPH C. BROWN
In 1849, during the days of the gold excitement, which was the booming of California and the misfortune of many of its pioneers who had not learned that grain is more golden than gold, Joseph C. Brown, a native of Kentucky and a man of unusual ability, came across the plains in the historie wearisome way and mined for a time at Placerville. Then he bettered his fortunes by turning school teacher, holding forth to a few pupils in the Deep Creek school-house in Tulare county, a structure which can be dignified only by de- scribing it as a log cabin. But there was a career before him. He had a taste for politics and was a forcible and convincing public speaker, and in those times and in this then remote region the pub- lic speaker had a distinct advantage over his less vohble neighbor. He represented Tulare county in the California legislature in 1866, 1867 and 1868, and the records show that he served on important committees and did good work for his constituency.
Later Mr. Brown ranched in the White River mountains, near Exeter, Tulare county, where he operated two hundred and forty acres of land in the raising of hogs, the bacon from which he enter- prisingly sold in the mines. He homesteaded a one hundred and sixty-acre ranch of government land, two and one-half miles south- east of Exeter, which he developed into a prodnetive farm on which he lived out his life and died April 25, 1896.
Of the California constitutional convention of 1876 Mr. Brown was an active and influential member, representing Tulare county, and in political circles he was widely and favorably known through- out the state. At the time of the flood of 1868, when he was living in the White River mountains, his food supply was ent off tem- porarily and for a while he had nothing to eat but boiled barley. He married Mollie M. Lovelace, who bore him children as follows: Stanly B., Volney A. and Lucretia E., now Mrs. L. Martin.
On his father's ranch near Farmersville, Volney A. Brown grew to manhood, and in the public schools near the home of his boy- hood days he acquired his education. When his father's estate was divided, eighty acres fell to his share and it is now his home, and he has improved it and made of it such an np-to-date ranch as would be the pride of any farmer in his district. He has set out a new prime orchard, which produced eleven tons in 1911, and raises bar- ley, hogs and stock cattle. In connection with his homestead he farms a ranch in the hills under lease. He has also invested in valuable town lots in Exeter, and has just completed a fine residence on his premises, where he and his wife and one son, Joseph C. Brown, enjoy all the comforts of a happy home.
Some of his father's public spirit and concern in public affairs
JOSEPH C. BROWN
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was inherited by Mr. Brown, who has an enviable reputation as a liberal-minded and very helpful citizen who has at heart the best interests of the community.
GEORGE A. NOBLE
A prominent citizen and successful builder of Tulare county, and a native son of the Golden State, George A. Noble was born in Soquel, Santa Cruz county, in 1856, a son of Augustus and Johanna M. (Short) Noble. His parents were both born in Massachusetts, and his father is living at Soquel at the age of ninety years.
The elder Noble came to California on board a sailing vessel by way of Cape Horn in the year 1849, a member of a party of thirty- nine men who were three months in reaching their destination, and he is one of the few '49ers surviving in this state. On the voyage the supply of meat was exhausted and some of the people on the ship died of scurvy, for a time there being no fresh food but fish. Soon after his arrival Mr. Noble began mining on the Feather river, and in nine months took ont gold to the value of $20,000, sending some of his nuggets back East. Later he returned to his old home, married and brought his bride to California. Locating in the mining district of Marysville, he set himself up in busi- ness as a cooper, working over the material of old winsky barrels into kegs, which he sold profitably to miners, but he was burned out at Marysville, losing his all. After a time he went to San Fran- cisco, bought a cooper shop near Black Point, operated it success- fully two years and then sold it in order to remove to Soquel, Santa Cruz county, where he has since made his home. He bought an undi- vided one-ninth interest in the Soquel ranch of two thousand acres and in the Argumentation ranch of nine hundred acres, which he still owns. He was one of the early justices of the peace on the Pacific slope and is a member of the Pioneer Society of California. His wife, who died in 1907, bore him children as follows: Mrs. Char- lotte M. Lawson, of San Francisco; George A., of this review; Ed- ward T .; Frederick Dent; Prof. Charles A., of the University of California at Berkeley; and Walter.
In Soqnel, Santa Cruz county, Cal., George A. Noble grew to manhood, acquired his education and gained practical familiarity with fruit growing. He began his independent business life in 1878 as a fruitman near Fresno, on a tract of eighty acres, twenty of which was in vineyard, forty in fruit and the remaining twenty in alfalfa. In 1888 he moved to Seattle, Wash., where he was for a time a sue-
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cessful contractor and builder. Returning to California, he bought eighty acres at Savilla, near Atwell's Island, Tulare county, but owing to failure on the part of the vendors to furnish water accord- ing to their agreement he was compelled to abandon his holdings after two years' work and many improvements made on it. He then removed to Fresno, where he devoted his time to the cultiva- tion of Indian corn. In 1900 he settled at Visalia, renting twenty acres, which he afterward bought and still owns. He developed it into an orchard and is now doing well as a grower of peaches. His property, lying within the city limits of Visalia, is exceedingly valuable. In connection with his fruit growing he has done much contracting and building at Visalia since 1905, having erected, among other buildings, the Episcopal church, five houses for J. S. Johnson, the W. R. Pigg home, the M. J. Wells home, the Willow district schoolhouse and Mrs. Dyer's home. In the year 1912 he built the Bliss, Cutler and East Lynne schoolhouses in Tulare county and is at present engaged on the new Presbyterian church at Visalia. The residence of Mrs. Oaks, opposite the new Baptist church in Visalia was also completed by him. Besides buildings of the classes mentioned he has built numerous cottages in different parts of the town, and his work has been such as to give him high standing among the builders and contractors of the county. He is a charter member of the local organization of Modern Woodmen. and as a citizen is progressive, public spirited and helpful to all good interests of the cominunity.
In 1877 Mr. Noble married Miss Otto, a native of Germany, whose father, long in the employ of Claus Spreckels, built in Wis- consin the first beet sugar factory in the United States and later erected the Eldorado sugar factory, near San Francisco. Mrs. Noble has borne her husband six children, Augustus, Edgar, Rosa, Ewald, Gertrude and George. Rosa is the wife of Clarence Brown of Visalia. Mr. Noble has recently organized the California Build- ing Co., which has platted the Nobles Subdivision to Visalia and is now engaged in building houses and selling off lots to prospective homemakers, this being the finest available residence district in Visalia. The family home is at No. 820 West Mineral King ave- nue, Visalia.
ANDREW G. BELZ
As far back as the ancestral records can be traced the home of the Belz family has been in Germany. Christoff Belz, a Saxon by birth and a machinist by trade, came to the United States and set-
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tled in Rome, N. Y., in 1854, and in that city he followed his trade throughout the remainder of his life. He married Margaret Schnuer, also a native of Saxony, who died at the home of her son, Andrew G., when she had reached the advanced age of eighty-nine years. She bore her husband four children, of whom Andrew G., the eldest, was the only one to make his home in California. In their religions belief Christoff Belz and his wife were Lutherans, devoted to their church and contributing to the limit of their ability to all its varions interests.
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