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 31
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 31
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when the above matter will come before the commission for discus- sion and settlement.
In the early days when Hanford did not boast a railroad Mr. Biddle started a donation to get the Santa Fe to run its road through Hanford and the valley. The completion of the road was celebrated in royal style, and in this too Mr. Biddle took the lead. In the display was one wagon to which were attached twenty-four large white horses, followed by three large wagons loaded with one hundred bales of wool, another wagon showing the quality of sheep and hogs, and still another containing a large prune tree which Mr. Biddle dug from his orchard, full of growing prunes. Mr. Biddle had the honor of shipping the first three carloads of wool from Hanford over the road, the cars hearing large banners on which was printed in large letters, "Hanford the first city to patronize the Santa Fe railroad ont of the Valley."
On May 1, 1878, Mr. Biddle was united in marriage with Miss Sallie M. Landis, a native of Tennessee. The success that has rewarded Mr. Biddle's efforts is commensurate with his industry and perseverance. It is rare indeed that one is privileged to meet a man of such versatility, resolute character and determined will as Mr. Biddle possesses, and Hanford is proud to claim his citizenship.
McADAM RANCHES
In 1908 Robert MeAdam, who is now a resident of Pasadena, Cal., bought sixteen hundred acres of land, formerly known as the Paige and Monteagle orchards, five miles west of Tulare. Of this tract he sold all but about nine hundred acres, and this he divided among members of his family, Annie MeAdam receiving eighty-five acres, Robert, Jr., and Fred MeAdam two hundred and five acres, William J. two hundred and twenty acres, Mrs. Isabelle MeAlpine eighty acres, Frank S. MeAdam one hundred and eighty acres, and Robert MeAdam, Sr., one hundred and sixty acres.
These ranches, all in one hody, are irrigated with water developed on them, there being six wells with an aggregate flow of five hundred inches, besides numerous other wells for watering stock. The water developed by the nine large wells, which is used solely for irrigation, is pumped by five motors and three gasoline engines; two of the wells are artesian. The entire combination of ranches is supplied with cement irrigation pipe and galvanized iron surface pipe. There is six miles of the cement pipe and the iron pipe is used instead of ditches. This notable irrigation system will be connected and com- pleted before the end of 1913.
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The McAdams have put on the place all the improvements that now add to its utility and attractiveness, including a new $3500 con- crete residence on the Frank S. McAdam ranch, a new barn, occupying ground space of 40x45 feet, and a new tank and dairy house com- bined, with a power separator in the dairy house. On the William J. McAdam place there are two new 56x60 foot barns. Another improvement is eight miles of wire hog-tight fence between the different ranches. The farms of Mrs. McAlpine, Robert MeAdam, Jr., and Fred MeAdam are rented on a cash basis and that of Robert McAdam, Sr., is operated by a tenant on shares, and the combined annual cash rentals of the above ranches aggregate $11,800, and all has been developed in the last five years.
H. J. LIGHT
The prominent citizen of Lemoore whose name is above is widely known as a promoter of the oil industry. Judge Light, as he is familiarly called by his many friends, was born in Virginia, March 19, 1851, was reared in the western part of Floyd county and fin- ished his education at the Salem Academy in Roanoke county. Then he took up school teaching as a profession and was so employed many years. In 1866 he went to Kansas, and after teaching there a short time took up his residence in Springfield, Mo., where he taught until 1874. Then he came to California, and locating at Visalia pursued his vocation there and northeast of the city for five years. During the succeeding four years he was teaching again in Missouri, but he came back to California and settled at Lemoore, renting land on the lake of Elias Jacobs and establishing himself as a farmer. In 1886 he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land, pre-empted a hundred and sixty acres and took up a timber claim of one hundred and sixty acres in the same section. Later he bought the remainder of the section under the isolated land act. He ran a stock ranch until in 1909, when he leased his land to tenants and moved to Lemoore, where he has since lived. He has bought property here and expects to pass his declining years in the town.
In the spring of 1910 Mr. Light was elected a member of the city council of Lemoore and in November of that year to the office of justice of the peace. For nine years he served as justice of the peace of West End judicial township and resigned the office the better to attend to his private interests. He has been a trustee of the Union high school since the organization of the district.
In 1907 Mr. Light married Ella (Hunt) Logan. He has six children by a former marriage: Tespan, of Kings county; Swinton;
N & Light
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Robert Denny, of Santa Barbara county; Theodore, of Coalinga; William Kings, of San Luis Obispo, and Mrs. W. P. Smith, of Lemoore. William Kings Light has the distinction of being one of the first four children born in Kings county, he having been born on the morning after the election for the petition of Tulare county and the formation of Kings county. Mr. Light has been an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since he was twenty-two years old. In his political affiliations he is Repub- lican and as such he has been influential in local affairs. A man of much publie spirit he has done much toward the development and improvement of the city and of the country round about. His in- vestments in real estate at Lemoore include ten acres and several city lots and on one of the latter he erected his office building. While he lived on his ranch he gave particular attention to the breeding of cattle and horses. In 1890 he and Orlando Barton, of Visalia, located land in Lost Hills. They were the first there and he was one of the original incorporators of the Lost Hills Mining company, which was sold in 1911. Its property is located in what is now a great oil field. Mr. Light was and is interested in oil lands in Devil's Den and Kettleman's Hills and in the West End Oil company, the property of which he located in August, 1908. He was one of the incorporators of the Lake Oil company, which with the West End Oil company is leased to the Medallion company. With the Devil's Den Consolidated he was interested also, and he helped to organize and owns stock in the Lauretta Oil company and is identified with the Dudley Oil com- pany, a San Francisco concern operating in the Devil's Den field.
WILLIAM WASHINGTON BLOYD
The life of the late William Washington Bloyd extended from July 18, 1835, when he was born in Illinois, until in November, 1908, when he died at his home in Hanford, Kings county, Cal. He grew to manhood on the farm in Hancock county, Ill., and was married April 14, 1855, to Miss Elizabeth Cowan, who was born in Halifax. Nova Scotia, April 18, 1835, and had come to Illinois. After his marriage he lived four years in his native state, then sokl out his interests there and moved to Appanoose county, Iowa, where he made his home until 1861, when he came with a train of eight wagons drawn by oxen over the southern overland route to California. For two years he lived at Red Bluff, Tehama county, and afterwards until 1874 in San Joaquin county, where he bought a ranch. Then because he could not do well in so dry a country he sold ont and came to what is now Kings county, settling on railroad land in the Grange-
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ville section four miles west of Hanford, homesteading at the same time one hundred and sixty acres nearby. It was not until after the rioting at Mussel Slough that he finally paid out on his railroad land. He naturally sided with the settlers, and was at Hanford at the time of the historic fight. Mrs. Bloyd, hearing of it, hurried to the scene of action, but did not arrive until the conflict was over and one man lay dead and two wounded on the ground; Mr. Bloyd arrived a few minutes afterward. It was not very cheerfully that the settlers later gave up so much good money for their land, but the courts compelled them to do it and they made the best of the situation. After a time Mr. Bloyd sold out here and lived for a year in Oregon. Returning then, he bought back his old ranch and lived on it until 1907, when he sold it to move to Hanford, where he had bought a residence at 115 West Elm street. As an investment he owned several other houses in the city.
Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bloyd, viz: Rosalie Adeline, deceased; Winfield Scott, mentioned elsewhere in this work; Charles S., who lives at Hanford; Clara Ellen, who is the wife of K. L. Wilcox, of Los Angeles; Ida Belle, who married Ed Parsons, of Hanford; Elizabeth Jane, deceased; Levi, who is also mentioned fully in this publication; and Willie Wilford, who lives in Kings county. Of these children Adeline and Winfield were born in Illinois, the others being natives of California.
The fraternal affiliations of Mr. Bloyd were with the Masons and the Ancient Order of United Workmen and his religious convictions drew him to the Christian church. His early experiences in California included some in the mines in Placer county. He superintended the construction of the People's Ditch in Kings county. When he came to that county it was an open plain on which wild horses and cattle roamed at will and in all of the development down to a comparatively recent time he manfully did his part, for he was public spirited to a degree that made him a most useful citizen.
ROBERT W. MILLER
In Jasper county, Ill., Robert W. Miller was born September 5, 1847. Orphaned when very young, he grew up in Crawford county, that state, under the care of a guardian who allowed him practically no educational advantages. When he was nineteen years old he became a student in a public school in Sangamon county, Ill., from which he was graduated when twenty-one and given a teacher's cer- tificate. While teaching school during the next two years, he prepared himself by special courses of study to enter the University
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of Illinois, and in 1871 he took the law course of that institution; in 1874 he was admitted to the bar to practice as a lawyer in the Supreme Court of Illinois. He soon afterward went to Minnesota, where he taught school two years, also procuring admission to practice in the Supreme Court of that state, and he was in profes- sional work there until the fall of 1879, when he located in Humboldt county, Cal. For two years thereafter he practiced at Eureka and then gave up the law temporarily in favor of mining, but in two years he was glad to return to his law office, and on June 17, 1885. he became a member of the bar, admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of California. After laboring professionally for a short time at Eureka and Del Norte, he located at Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, and was in legal practice there until 1904, when he came to Hanford, where he at once opened offices and has since been professionally successful. Shortly after his arrival in Kings connty he was appointed Court Commissioner, and in 1906 he was a candidate on the Repub- lican ticket for the office of judge of the Superior Court but was defeated by a very small majority. After the Santa Cruz Republican State convention in 1906, he became most active in furthering progressive government principles to which he had been a convert for many years. In 1907 he was appointed state organizer for Kings county and he gave his best efforts to the organization of the Lincoln- Roosevelt League of California which culminated in the election of Hiram Johnson for Governor and later in the birth of the Progressive party in 1912. Fraternally he affiliates with the Masonic order. His social popularity is wide, and his fellow citizens admire him as a man of ability and of honesty who has the interests of the community at heart and does in a public-spirited way all that he is able to do for their promotion.
In 1880 Mr. Miller married Miss Mattie Morrison, a native of Wisconsin, who has borne him a daughter and four sons. Mand E. is the wife of Dr. Edward Dunbar of Fallon, Nev. R. Justin is a student in the University of Montana, a graduate of Stanford Uni- versity of the class of 1911, and was recently admitted to practice law in the Montana Supreme Court. J. Arthur is studying engineer- ing at Stanford University. He is a graduate of the Palo Alto high school, where his brothers, W. Leslie and Lowell Miller, are now students.
FRANK S. McADAM
The farm of Frank S. MeAdam, one of the MeAdam ranches. consists of one hundred and eighty acres, ninety acres of which is rented for dairy purposes and seventy-five acres of the ninety is
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under alfalfa. The dairyman renter milks forty cows and raises some hogs. Thirty acres of the remainder of the place is devoted to alfalfa. and the last acre of it will be given to that crop as soon as possible. At this time Mr. McAdam milks eight cows and farms forty acres to grain.
Mr. McAdam was born June 3, 1885, in Pembina county, Dakota Territory. In 1907 he married Miss Selmkenecht, of Hobart, Ind., and their son Lawrence McAdam was born October 25, 1908.
Mr. MeAdam's management of his portion of the big MeAdam ranch has been evidence of his capability for the handling of big business. A man of enterprise and of public spirit who has the welfare of the community at heart, he is one of the most helpful citizens of his part of the county. He is at present interested with his brother William J. in the Castle Dome silver and lead mines of their father, Robert McAdam. The mines are located in Yuma county, Arizona.
SAMUEL EDWARD BIDDLE
The death of Hanford's most prominent banker, who had been identified with its financial, commercial and political circles for many years, proved a great shock to the people here and was deeply felt throughout the entire county, whose welfare had been of so much importance to him. Samuel Edward Biddle had more to do with things pertaining to the business life here and in this county than any other citizen of the city. His death, which occurred May 7, 1908. at the St. Helena Sanitarium at Hanford, removed from their midst one of the people's best friends.
Mr. Biddle was a native of Normandie, Bedford county, Tenn .. born there September 15, 1845, the son of J. V. and Eliza Biddle. He received his educational training in the schools there and in 1874 came to California to ever afterward make it his home. When but fifteen years of age he had enlisted in the Confederate army, seeing active service, but he was finally incapacitated by a wound and received his discharge, returning to Tennessee. Here in his native town he was married on January 6, 1870, to Miss Achsah A. McQniddy, daughter of Major T. J. McQuiddy, who is a well known pioneer of Tulare county, and is still living in Hanford. Major MeQniddy made his first trip to California in the early '70s and selected lands for himself and other members of the party of emigrants who came overland with him in 1874 and settled at Tulare county. This said party consisted of eighteen people, including Samuel E. Biddle and his family, M. P. Troxler and family and Major Cartner and wife, Major McQuiddy also bringing his family.
AB Biadle
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After his marriage and before coming to California, Mr. Biddle took his bride to live in Gibson county, Tenn., where they stayed for some time, later being at Brazil, Trenton and Humboldt. lle had learned the milling business and ran a flouring mill at Trenton, later at Hum- boldt, and this experience proved most helpful to him upon coming to the new country. When he came to California his family consisted of his wife and two children, a son and daughter, and they settled upon a railroad quarter-section of land a mile and a half north and three miles east of the present site of Hanford, which Mrs. Biddle's father, Major MeQuiddy, had selected for them. They here built a board and batten house, Mr. Biddle immediately seeing the necessity for many improvements which he started to make. Irrigation ditches were erected and the land was prepared for cultivation, and in the year 1876 he harvested his first crop, which was of wheat.
In the meantime Mr. Biddle found that all this had taken much of his resources, and he accordingly went to work for I. H. Ham, the pioneer miller of Tulare county, taking charge of the mill at Tulare, and as the agriculturists in the surrounding country were meeting with good snecess in the cultivation of grain, he found much work and demand for his milling. At this time his means were practically ex- hausted, he having only $3.75 in his pocket. Accepting the first job that offered, he began as a roustabout at the Tulare mill. Leaving his family at home, he walked six miles and worked all day on Cross Creek bridge, and then proceeded to Tulare, where he took his position as roustabout. Mr. Ham soon recognized his ability, for in less than a week he was made miller, and from this time a very close intimacy grew up between Mr. Ham and himself. It was in 1877 that he, in partnership with Mr. Ham, built the Lemoore mill, of which he took charge and built up a prosperous business, in 1880 selling it at a hand- some profit. He then came to Hanford and built a grain warehouse which he operated himself. This warehouse was so much in demand that it became filled to its capacity, and finally, under the stress of too heavy a weight of grain, it collapsed and Mr. Biddle was greatly in- convenienced financially by the disaster. He turned to R. E. Hyde, the banker of Visalia, for assistance, and the latter proved his true friendship for Mr. Biddle when he came forward and supplied the means to rebuild the warehouse, which was immediately done. From this time on is chronicled for Mr. Biddle one success after another. In 1883 he built a large brick building on the corner of Sixth and Irwin streets in Hanford, where in association with his brother he conducted a profitable farm implement business until 1887, at which time his banking interests became his most vital business.
On April 11, 1887, was launched the Bank of Hanford, in whose incorporation Mr. Biddle was most actively interested. It was the first bank established in Hanford and he was installed as its cashier and 19
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manager, serving in this capacity for a long period, and when this was succeeded by the First National Bank of Hanford, Mr. Biddle severed his connection therewith and organized in November, 1901, what is now the Old Bank, and of this establishment he was president and manager up to the time of his death, being also a heavy stock- holder. His wide reputation for strict integrity of character and hon- esty in all his dealings made him sought out by many for advice and the handling of their capital, and he had always proved himself to be a clever and shrewd business man in making investments and in the execution of his duties in general.
Along with these heavy business cares, Mr. Biddle had found time to give himself to public service, having served as supervisor for this part of Tulare county for one term, and at the time the fight was made for the independence of Kings county he was one of the earnest workers, was one of the commissioners, and afterward served as a member of the first board of supervisors of Kings county. Asso- ciated with him in the organization of the new county government were J. H. Malone, W. H. Newport, William Ogden, E. E. Bush and G. X. Wendling. Later he was president of the Hanford Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade, and in all these offices he had ever held the advance and development of his town and county foremost in mind. His exceptional activity as a public-spirited citizen and a charitable and well-wishing friend to all with whom he came in contact caused his death to cast a shadow over the entire public of this city and county.
Samuel E. Biddle and his wife were the parents of three sons and four daughter, viz .: Tolbert Vance, who resides in Coalinga, Cal .; Eliza Jane, wife of I. C. Taylor, of Berkeley; Samuel Edward, Jr., cashier and manager of the Citizens' Bank of Alameda; Reta H., wife of Robert Crawford, of Hanford; Wallace J., a plasterer, with resi- dence at Oakland; Kate J., wife of Dallas H. Gray, of Armona, Kings county ; and Annie Dale, Mrs. William S. Andrews, of Berkeley.
HARLAND E. WRIGHT
One of the organizers and present cashier and manager of the Hanford National Bank, conspicnous in various publie enterprises, Harland E. Wright, of Hanford, Cal., is a leader among the younger business men of Kings county. Now an out-and-out Westerner, he is by birth a Yankee, having first seen the light of day in Wiscasset, Lincoln county, Me., May 22, 1863, a son of Sullivan Wright and Maria L. (Bailey) Wright, both of whom were natives of the Pine Tree state and members of old New England families. The father
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was a jeweler and was working at his trade when the Civil war began. Inspired by the patriotic blood of Revolutionary ancestors, he tried to enlist as a soldier in the federal army, but was disquali- fied by physical disability. He passed away at the comparatively early age of fifty-five years, his widow now living in Maine.
When his father died Harland E. Wright was nine years old. He was brought up in the parental home and educated so far as was possible in the local public schools. He stepped out into the world and began to take care of himself when he was thirteen years old, becoming a telegrapher, in which capacity he was employed by the Western Union Telegraph Company in Boston and in different cities of Maine until the fall of 1882, a year known in telegraphic history as "the year of the great strike." Then he came to Cali- fornia, and until the fall of 1892 was bookkeeper for George P. MeNear, banker and grain dealer at Petaluma. Taking up his resi- dence in Hanford at that time, he became assistant cashier of the Farmers and Merchants bank, and eighteen months later he was made cashier, which position he retained until March, 1903. He had become the largest stockholder in the bank, but he now sold his interest in it and in May organized the Hanford National Bank, an historical sketch of which is given in these pages.
Besides his interest in the bank Mr. Wright owns, with S. E. Railsback, one thousand acres of land thirteen miles south of Han- ford, which is rented for dairy purposes. He is interested in or- chards with Mr. Railsback and Charles King, and they own a fine fruit farm north of Grangeville, where they have ninety acres de- voted to prunes. He was one of the organizers of the Lake Land Canal Company and one of the builders of its improvements.
November 15, 1888, Mr. Wright married Etta Ranard, who was born in Sonoma county, C'al., and they have a daughter, Fae, who is a student in the high school. Politically he is a Republican, influen tial in the work of his party, but has no personal ambition for an official career. Fraternally he affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World. He has won his success by his own unaided efforts, through the forcefulness of a character the distinguishing characteristics of which are integrity, earnestness, independence and self-reliance.
JOHN F. JORDAN
The prominent citizen of Tulare county whose name is above and whose residence is at No. 108 West Center street. Visalia, is a son of Frank and Alabama (MeMicken) Jordan, natives respectively
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of Illinois and Alabama, and he was born in eastern Texas December 10, 1850. His father had settled there early and had been for a time manager of a plantation near Shreveport, La. In 1854 he came to California as a captain of a train which included seventy- four families, whom he brought through safely, overcoming many difficulties by the way. Locating within the present borders of San Benito county, he became a stock-dealer and hotel keeper, and in 1858 he made his headquarters in Tulare county, where he brought his family in 1860. He prospered as a stoekman, traveling extensively in the prosecution of his business, and died at Visalia in 1878, in his sixtieth year, his wife having passed away while the family was in San Benito county. He won the credit to which every self-made man is entitled of having begun with almost nothing and achieved good financial success. He was a citizen of mueh public spirit, influential in the councils of the Democratic party.
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