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 34
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 34
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would eut fifty cords each. He keeps about two hundred head of stoek and twenty horses. He has sold many cattle at Hume Mills, about twenty miles away. Ilis hogs have brought him ten to twelve and a half cents a pound on the hoof at times. lle has a stallion, thoroughbred and Percheron, and has raised fine stock for market, always finding ready sale, and Mr. Baker has maintained a high reputation for grade and quality.
In polities, Mr. Baker is a Republican who is proud of the fact that he cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln, and he has for many years filled the offices of school trustee and clerk of the local school board. Formerly he was an active member of the Ma- sonic order.
FRANK OSBORN
In Fountain county on the Wabash river in Indiana Frank Osborn, a musician and singer of note and now superintendent of the Tulare County Hospital at Visalia, was born May 2, 1851, a son of Oliver and Margaret (Dyer) Osborn, natives respectively of Ohio and of New Jersey. Oliver Osborn brought his family to California in 1875 and settled in Tulare county on the Upper Tule river near Globe, where he bought land and achieved success as a stockraiser. His wife, who was a singer of exceptional ability even when she was more than seventy years old, died there in 1898 and he in August. 1909. Mr. Oshorn was a man of influence in the community and during all his active life gave much attention to educational mat- ters. He and his wife were devout members of the Christian church. Of their thirteen children four survive: Oliver P., a rancher near Porterville; Frank, of this review; Mrs. Sarah A. Evans, of Indiana, and Mrs. Mary E. Clark, of Missouri.
From his boyhood Frank Osborn has been familiar with all the details of stockraising and until 1897 was identified with his father in that industry. As long as he can remember he has been a singer, he having inherited marked musical ability from his talented mother. As such he became known throughout all the country round about Visalia, and he was long in great demand as a teacher of vocal elasses during the winter months, for many years leading the choir of the Christian church at Visalia. In 1897 he was appointed super intendent of the Tulare County Hospital at Visalia, which position he has since filled with a degree of ability and integrity which has commended him to all the people of the county. He has in all his relations with his fellowmen proven himself publie spirited in an eminent degree. Fraternally he affiliates with the Knights of Pythias.
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In 1870 Mr. Osborn married Miss Ellen Marksbury, a native of Kentucky, who was so situated during the Civil war that she was an eve-witness of many engagements between the Federal and Confeder- ate troops. A detailed account of her experiences and the conditions which made them possible could not but make a most interesting volume.
To Frank and Ellen (Marksbury) Osborn have been born chil- dren as follows: Mrs. Edna Hannaford, who has children named Lura, Duke and Laura; Charles H., who married Miss Minta Berry, danghter of Senator G. S. Berry of Lindsay, and has children named Andra and Irma; Earl, who married Maud Carter, who has borne him a child whom they have named Rolla; and Gladys, wife of E. L. Cary, of Stockton, who has a daughter, Ellen L. Cary.
WILLIAM R. MILLER
It was in England that William R. Miller, who now lives eight miles southwest of Hanford, was born October 26, 1843. When he was about eighteen months old his parents brought him to Troy, N. Y., and he lived there and at Saratoga, in the same state, until he was nineteen years old. Then he enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until June, 1865, when he was honorably discharged at Alexandria, Va. As a member of Company (' of that organization he was included in the second army corps of the army of the Potomae, participating in many engagements, including the fight in the Wilder- ness, the battle of Spottsylvania Court House, where he was wounded; the fighting in front of Petersburg, where he cast his first Presiden- tial vote for Lincoln, and other encounters no less important. His wound caused him to be in the hospital three months. After the war he farmed in New York state until April, 1870, when he located sixteen miles north of Webster City, Iowa, and there farmed and raised stock until 1887, when he came to California. After stopping a short time at Tulare he went to the west side, near Dudley, accom- panied by his immediate family, his father and his wife's mother. He and his father and his brother took up land there which soon proved so unpromising for farming purposes that his father and brother abandoned their claims, but he retained his, which after he had sold part of it proved to be valuable oil land, but this holding is not the least of his possessions. Returning to Tulare county, he soon went to Delano, where he put in two erops, and in June, 1899, came to Kings county and worked a year near Armona. In his second year there he bought twenty-two and a half aeres, eight miles south of Armona, on which he built a house and put all other im-
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provements, setting six acres to a vineyard and a family orchard and giving the remainder over to alfalfa, and this is his present home place. He began here as a stockraiser and was successful for some years. His son, Fred C. Miller, now also operates a dairy on the place. In 1911 Mr. Miller bought forty acres of the Jacobs tract, south of his ranch, on which there are improvements.
In 1867 Mr. Miller took for his wife Caroline A. Chesterman, of English birth, who was brought to the United States when three months old and grew to womanhood in New York state. They have five living children: The Rev. Charles N. Miller, who is blind, is an ordained minister of the gospel and resides at Bakersfield; Carrie M. married John C. Goodale, of Denair, Cal .; Jessie L. is the wife of Clarence E. McMillen, of Bakersfield, Cal .; May M. married E. W. Houston, of Visalia; Fred C., the youngest son of the family, mar- ried Anna J. Erni and is ranching and dairying on his father's land. William R., Jr., was accidentally killed by a boiler explosion, aged twenty-five years, and Mina M. was married to E. R. Houston and died aged about twenty.
Mr. Miller keeps alive memories of the days of the Civil war by association with his comrades of McPherson Post, G. A. R. He is a genial man, given to pleasant reminiscence, and is welcomed as a friend wherever he may go. His interest in the welfare of the com- munity makes him a citizen of much public spirit.
OLIVER P. MARDIS
One of the Kentnekians who is making a record for himself in Tulare county, Cal., is Oliver P. Mardis, who is farming on the Exe- ter road, ont of Visalia. He was born in Laurel county, Ky., Sep- tember 5, 1855, and when he was nine years old was taken by his parents from Kentucky to Johnson county, Kans., where he finished his education in the public school and gained a practical knowledge of farming. In 1875, when he was twenty years old, he came to Colusa county, Cal., and worked there a year for wages. In 1876 he "hired out" to a farmer in the Deer Creek district, in Tulare county, where he later bought eighty acres of land, mostly under alfalfa. When wheat began to be gathered on the farms round about to the extent of ten sacks to the acre he sold his eighty acres of alfalfa land and bought a half section near by, which he farmed until December 1, 1908, when he came to his present ranch of fifty-two and one-half acres near Visalia. He keeps an average of two hundred and twenty- five hogs, which yield him a good annnal profit. Twenty-three acres of Egyptian corn has given him fifty tons, and his land has returned
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him seventy bushels of Indian corn to the acre. He has ten acres of alfalfa yielding him several crops each year. Many melons are grown on his place, he has raised wheat seven feet tall and has five thousand encalyptus trees.
In 1883 Mr. Mardis married Miss Josephine Collins, a native of California, whose father was a pioneer in the Deer Creek section. She passed away, leaving two children. Oliver and Alice. By his marriage with Miss Lucy Bunton, a native of Missouri, Mr. Mardis has two daughters, Anna and Claudine. As a farmer he is thor- oughly up to date in every department of his work, and his pair of finely matched black colts for which he has been offered $600 is in- clicative of the quality of his stock. As a citizen he is helpful in a public-spirited way to all worthy local interests.
BEN M. MADDOX
The descendant of southern ancestors and himself a native of the south, Ben M. Maddox was born in Summerville, Chattanooga county, Ga., October 18, 1859, the son of George B. T. and Sarah (Dickson) Maddox, they too being natives of that state. In 1877, when he was seventeen years old, Ben M. Maddox started out in the world on his own responsibility. at that time going to Texas, where he hunted buffalo on the plains. From there he went to Arizona and followed mining from the spring of 1878 until February of the following year. In the meantime he and some friends had determined to come to California, and in February, 1879, the party of three left Prescott, Ariz., having one pack horse and one saddle horse between them for the overland trail. The journey being safely accomplished, Mr. Maddox went to the mining camp of Bodie, Mono county, where he secured work on a newspaper, and subsequently he found work of a similar character in Mammoth City, same county. Newspaper work then gave place to mining, following this for a time in Mammoth City, and later, in 1880, in Fresno Flats, Madera county, where he was employed in the Enterprise mine, and in the latter place he also clerked in a hotel for a time.
In September, 1881, Mr. Maddox went to Mariposa, where he found work at the printer's trade on the Gazette, and the following year. in San Francisco, he worked on the Chronicle. Giving up work on the latter paper in October, 1882, he returned to Mariposa and was employed on the Herald until he purchased the paper later in the same year. After continuing the publication of the Herald for four years he sold it in 1886 and the same year came to Tulare county. with the intention of purchasing the Tulare Register. Being
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unable to carry out this plan at that time he returned to San Francisco and resumed work at the printer's trade. This was for a short time only, however, for on October 18, 1886, he was appointed deputy clerk of the superior court and thereafter gave his whole time and attention to the duties and obligations which thus devolved upon him.
A hope which Mr. Maddox had long cherished was realized when, on Thanksgiving Day, 1890, he became the owner and proprietor of the Visalia Times. For two years he ran the paper as a weekly, but on February 22, 1892, the paper became a daily, and as the Visalia Daily Times it has ever since been published under his able management. The management of his newspaper has not absorbed all of his thoughit and attention, as the following will show: When the Mount Whitney Power Company was organized in 1899 he was elected a director, in 1901 was made secretary of the corporation, and on September 9, 1902, he became business manager of the company, and he still holds this responsible office, having in the meantime relinquished to some extent the active management of his newspaper in order to devote his time to the interests of the power company. In 1894 he was nominated for secretary of state on the Democratic ticket, but was defeated in the election. As secretary of the Democratic state central committee he served two terms, and several times was chairman of the Demo- eratie county central committee. He also served as president of the Visalia board of trade for four years and for some time was a director of that body. At the present time he is chairman of the county state highway commission, a director of the Visalia electric railroad. president of the Encina Fruit Co., president of the Evansdale Fruit Co., and a director of the Producers' Savings Bank. Some years ago Mr. Maddox in company with William H. Hammond opened up and put on the market the Lindsay Heights and Nob Hill Orange colonies, orange land which is now fully developed.
At Mariposa, Cal., March 15, 1883, Mr. Maddox was married to Miss Evalina J. Farnsworth, a native of California. They have five children, Morley M., Hazel (., Ruth E., Dickson F. and Ben M., Jr. Fraternally Mr. Maddox is a Knight Templar and a thirty- second degree Mason; also belonging to the Shrine, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World.
WILLIAM J. MCADAM
The ranch of this enterprising Tulare county farmer is one of the well-known MeAdam ranches. It is located five miles west of Tulare and consists of three hundred and twenty acres. Mr. MeAdam has one hundred and twenty acres rented out for dairy purposes. The
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remainder of the ranch is gradually being devoted to alfalfa and all of it but five acres will be under that grass in a short time.
The principal business of Mr. MeAdam has been stock-raising, though he is planning a dairy for the fraction of the ranch which will not be under alfalfa when his scheme is worked out. He now owns forty-five head of dairy cows and twenty-five head of young stock. Formerly he conducted the dairy which he now leases ont, and in the days of his management of it he milked forty cows. He kept six hundred hogs, and rented on the outside three hundred acres which he gave over to grain raising and which produced in 1909 and 1910 an average of eighteen sacks to the acre, and in 1911 an average of sixteen sacks to the acre. He is one of the progressive up-to-date farmers, stockraisers and dairymen of Tulare county, and those who know him and the quality of his land look for developments in the future which will be well worth studying.
William J. McAdam was born August 27, 1887, in Pembina county (then in Dakota Territory). Along with his agricultural inter- ests he is now actively interested in the Castle Dome Silver and Lead mines of his father, Robert MeAdam, they being located in Yuma county, Arizona.
JAMES M. AKIN
The Akin family is an old English one and the American branch of it was established before 1700. Still other Akins have come over from England since, and it was from pilgrims and pioneers that James M. Akin, who lives near Springville, Cal., was brought down through successive generations to his own. He was born in the state of New York in 1850, his mother dying at his birth, and in 1852 his father came overland to California. The boy was reared as a member of the family of an uncle in his native state, attended school there and did chores on the farm until he was eighteen years old. Then he came to California, where his father had preceded him by about sixteen years. Locating in Sacramento, he remained there about one year, then came to Tulare county. His life here began in 1870 and for two years thereafter his home was in the vicinity of Visalia. In 1880 he settled on his ranch of three hundred and twenty acres three miles from Springville. Early in his career here he engaged in stock-raising, in which he made so much success that he is considered one of the substantial men of his neighborhood. The confidence reposed by his fellow townsmen in his ability and intelligence is shown in the fact that they have conferred upon him for twenty years the honor of the office of school trustee.
O Che akin.
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Farming and stock-raising have not commanded all of Mr. Akin's attention. He and his son Claude have twelve mining claims, which will be developed soon, and the latter has copper and zine mines near Springville. In 1911 Mr. Akin started a nursery known as Akin's nursery, which is devoted to the raising of oranges. He makes a specialty of Washington navels, of which he has twenty thousand two-year-old budded trees. In 1913 thirty thousand more will be planted, the new industry promising to become very im- portant in this section. It was in 1880 that Mr. Akin married Sarah Hudson, who was born in California and who bore him five children, all of whom, except the youngest, are married. Their names are Claude, Lola, Lerta, Leeta and Melva. They are native children of California. All of them were born in Tulare county, and four of them were educated at Springville, and the fifth is being educated there. Their mother died February 2, 1911, and was buried near Springville. It will be interesting to note that Mr. Akin was in- duced to come to California in quest of health. In order to be in the open air as much as possible he spent his first six years in the state hunting in the woods and on the plains. He relates that within a comparatively short time he and his brother-in-law killed seven bears. He has literally grown up with the country, and being a man of public spirit, has done much for the general welfare. Fra- ternally he is a member of the Court of Honor.
W. C. GALLAHER
One of the successful and highly esteemed of the younger business men of Hanford, Kings county, Cal., is W. C. Gallaher, wholesale and retail dealer in meats. Born in Missouri, February 11, 1874, Mr. Gallaher came to the vicinity of Ilanford when he was abont eleven years old and grew to manhood in Kings county. Ilis first business engagement was as an assistant in the meat market of E. Selbah, at Lemoore, where he remained for two and a half years, during which time Mr. Selbah passed away. Mr. Gallaher in partnership with I. Burlington then leased the market from Mrs. Selbah and for a year and a half ran the business, but at the end of that time Mr. Gallaher sold out his interest in the market. During the succeeding three years he owned and operated the old Hanford Stables, one of the oldest livery and feed stables in the town, which was destroyed by fire shortly after he sold it. On September 10, 1900, Mr. Gallaher opened a meat market on the site of the Vogel store on Seventh street, but this establishment was destroyed by fire January 3, 1903, and he later occupied a little shack which proved
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most inadequate to his needs. On the first of February, 1905, he moved into his present building on North Irwin street, and here he has since done a general business in meat and kindred merchandise, both retail and wholesale. Mr. Gallaher took into partnership on January 1, 1912, G. T. Lundh, who assumed the duties of inside manager of the retail department, and in connection with this business Mr. Gallaher owns and leases on shares a three hundred and twenty-acre stock ranch five miles south of Hanford. IIe buys and feeds stock, and thus supplies his own market with the best of beef, also being a heavy shipper to the San Francisco market.
All in all, his business is one of the largest of its kind in the county, and he is entitled to much credit for the fact that he started it on a very small scale and has gradually but steadily built it up to its present fine and promising proportions.
In 1897 Mr. Gallaher married Miss Laura Hess of Tulare. Socially he affiliates with Hanford organizations of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, Woodmen of the World, and Independent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to all local bodies of the last men- tioned order, and he is also a member of the Portuguese Orders of I. D. E. S. and U. P. E. C. The same enterprise which he has exhibited in his private business he manifests in all that he does for the general welfare, for he has an abiding faith in the future of Han- ford and is ready at all times to do anything within his ability to further its development and prosperity.
U. G. KNIGHT
The editor of the Exeter Sun, published at Exeter, Tulare county. ('al., was born in Constantine, Mich., in the late '60s, a son of Captain G. W. Knight, of Company E, Third Regiment, Minnesota Infantry, who served nearly five years including all of the period of the Civil war, and won praise for his bravery, especially at the time of the Indian uprising in Minnesota and Dakota in 1863, in the suppression of which he took part with his regiment. Captain Knight passed away in Nebraska in 1898. His widow is living in Los Angeles county, Cal.
The future editor of the Sun accompanied his parents to Webster county, Neb., when he was but a few years old, and there grew to manhood and acquired an education, beginning his active career as a school teacher. In 1886 he journeyed to California and spent a year in looking over the state, but went back to the Grasshopper State, where he was married in 1895 to Miss Daisy M. Garner, of
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Invale, Neb., who has borne him a son now a student in the Exeter high school.
In his early days, Mr. Knight turned his attention to newspaper work, almost entirely editorial and reportorial, and was from time to time employed on the Omaha Bee, the Omaha World-Herald, the Lincoln Journal, the Kansas City Star and several papers in Nebraska. Eventually he came to the conclusion that, to be a competent all-round newspaper man in business for himself, he should understand the types and presses. So, dropping work at far better pay, he took employment in the press rooms of the Hebron (Neh.) Journal, and later he held cases on the Denver Daily News and other large papers, also working in and out of editorial offices as occasion offered.
Soon after his marriage, Mr. Knight turned to the soil as a farmer in Nebraska. A certain amount of success rewarded him for several years, but two or three "lean" years drove him out of the business. In 1900 he passed a civil service examination and was given a responsible position in the semi-secret service of the United States, in which his duties consisted in part in obtaining data and official figures required by the Government. In this work he traveled over most of the Middle and Mountain states, encountering many dangers, but turning in sneh satisfactory information that he was urged to retain the place. He resigned, however, and went to Alberta, Canada, stayed a year, then came back to California.
Here he again engaged in newspaper work, at first as editor and part owner of the Oxnard Sun. Later that paper was merged with the Ornard Courier and he continued as editor, but in 1905 he sold out his interests at Oxnard and became editor and part owner of the San Pedro News, a daily. After six months he sold out and was given editorial employment on the Los Angeles Herald, which he gave up a few months later to go on the Los Angeles Examiner. In Jan- mary, 1908, he resigned and moved to Exeter to take an interest in the Sun, of which he later became sole proprietor and editor.
The Sun is a sprightly paper, more newsy than most papers puh- lished in small towns, well liked and well patronized. It has prac- tically grown up with the town, is now twelve years old, and as a booster of Exeter and vicinity it has been a factor in the uplift of the city. To considerable extent Mr. Knight is interested in real estate, having sold many of the choicest tracts in the vicinity. Hle is considered one of the best anthorities and judges of land in the county. lle is also interested in banking, having a large number of shares in the new Citrus Bank, which was established in Exeter in May, 1912, and was offered a directorship in this institution but did not care to accept. Fraternally, he affiliates with the Masons, Red Men, Modern Woodmen and other secret and beneficial organiza- tions, including the Masonic auxiliary order of the Eastern Star.
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He has one of the finest homes in Exeter, a large honse and an orange grove inside the city limits. He is a member of the Exeter Board of Trade and in many ways has demonstrated a public spirit that makes him a most helpful citizen with his pen and otherwise.
DR. GEORGE GORDON
The profession of veterinary medicine and surgery has within the last half-century taken a recognized place among the learned pro- fessions and in its membership are included many practitioners who have given to its study and research as much time and thought as the average physician. The veterinary colleges are well equipped and their courses of study are very thorough, enabling their students to become most efficient in their branch of treatment. One of the most proficient and popular veterinarians in central California is Dr. George Gordon, whose establishment at the end of South Douty street, Han- ford, is one of the places of interest of that town.
Dr. Gordon was born in Scotland, Jannary 4, 1870, and was there reared to manhood. His earlier education was obtained in public schools in Banffshire and in Dundee, and later he took a course at the London Polytechnic, where he gave two years to the preparation for his professional education, which was finished in the Veterinary College of San Francisco, except for six months of experience at the Chicago stockyards, where he did post mortem work. His diploma, given him in San Francisco, bears date 1904. The first fifteen months of his professional experience were spent at Lemoore, whence he came to Hanford to establish his veterinary hospital, which has stalls for the accommodation of twenty horses. The hospital and grounds are located at the south end of Sonth Douty street and occupy five acres. It is fully equipped with chemieal and microscopical labora- tories. There is also a dental department in connection, with a com- plement of dental and surgical instruments, and he is thus enabled to give every branch of the veterinary profession the best possible service. In San Francisco, before he entered the veterinary college, he conducted a dog hospital and became well known as a eanine ex- pert, and he also makes the treatment of diseases of the dog a feature of his practice here. In February, 1910, he was appointed livestock inspector for Kings county and in April following was made a state dairy inspector. He finds time from his professional duties to affiliate with various fraternal bodies, including the Royal Order of Scottish ('lans, Lemoore lodge and Hanford chapter, No. 74, R.A.M., the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows and the Woodmen of the World.
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