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 40
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 40
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
July 25, 1844, Dr. Griffith married Miss Fanna Arreas, a native of Sonora, Mexico. He brought his wife with him to California in 1848 and theirs was a slow journey across the plains and through mountain passes. Some of his recollections of mining at that time included experiences at Aqua Frea. From Amador county he went back to Los Angeles and from there he moved to near Snelling in July, 1849. Thus began his experiences in Merced county. He was the first to sow wheat on the bottom lands and plains there and he garnered his first crop in 1851. Going to Santa Cruz he brought back with him a pack-train, some seed corn, some chickens, three dogs and several cats. When he settled on the Merced river the only other settlers along the stream were Samuel Scott, James Waters and J. M. Montgomery. Before he built his house and while it was under construction he camped under a big oak tree in the open and there his wife gave birth to their son Frank. It was necessary for the doctor to go to Santa Cruz and Stockton for the necessaries of life. He packed in house- hold goods and trees and once brought from Santa Cruz a sack of wheat for which he paid $150, and from which he raised his first crop. In 1853 he built a small flour mill principally for his own use, which was operated by water which he brought from the Merced river through a ditch two miles long, and was the first water-power grist mill in the San Joaquin valley sonth of Sutter's Fort. It stood until 1861-62, when it was washed away by flood. 24
440
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
In his young manhood Dr. Griffith studied medicine, and he prac- tieed almost continuously as occasion offered from the time he was twenty-four years old until 1874, during a period of fifty years. As a pioneer and in his later business enterprises he was a potent factor in the development of the country, and as a citizen he was widely known and respected. He died June 11, 1896, his wife in June, 1897. . They had four children of whom two, Frank and Frederick, are living. The old Griffith homestead was later sold to Henry Cowell of Santa ('ruz.
Frank Griffith was reared on his father's home farm, educated in the public schools and assisted his father until 1875, when he came to the site of Grangeville in what is now Kings county, Cal., which was nearer to Kingston than to any other town. Having gained a good knowledge of medicine under his father's tuition he took up veterinary practice in connection with farming. He had been to this locality in 1870 on a trip of exploration and at that time had rowed a boat over Tulare lake, which then covered much land which was bare in 1875. He had rowed to within ninety yards of the school house at Lemoore, in company with Judge and Mrs. R. B. Huey, Mr. and Mrs. George W. Skaggs and Mrs. Griffith, and their boat had floated over the land later included in the Cochran, Stratton and Jacobs tracts. Ile remained at Grangeville practicing veterinary surgery until 1877. As a citizen he attained to considerable prominence and eventually became a constable, a deputy sheriff and a deputy United States mar- shal, and in 1884 he was made under sheriff of Tulare county and took up his residence at Visalia. In 1886 he removed to Santa Cruz for the benefit of his wife's health, and there opened a veterinary office and built a home. In 1890 he came to Hanford, and in 1891 his wife, who had greatly improved, joined him. He had in the mean- time bought seven acres of land on Seventh street, where he has since lived. He established his office on the site of the present Emporium buikling, but several years later moved it out to his ranch, where he constructed and fitted up a hospital, and until 1907 he maintained his office and infirmary on Green street not far from his present location. In 1907 he built his present quarters, consisting of an office, a hospital and an infirmary for the accommodation of twenty-four animals in the main building with fifteen outside stalls under a separate roof. While carrying on a general veterinary practice, he makes a specialty of the treatment of dogs and is the owner of a fine kennel. Ilis ac- quaintanceship and his professional reputation have been extended through his incumbency of the office of county livestock inspector and county veterinarian of Tulare county for fourteen years, he being ap- pointed to these positions by the supervisors of the county after the division. He has for many years raised thoroughbred Berkshire hogs, Dark Brahmah chickens and Museovy ducks.
441
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
September 19, 1869, Dr. Griffith married Harriett A. Moore, a daughter of Joseph Moore, who brought his family to Kings county from Oregon in 1864. Fraternally the doctor affiliates with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member of lodge, encampment and canton, and with the Native Sons of the Golden West, a charter member of Visalia parlor No. 19, in which he has passed all chairs.
JOHN C. DANNER
The man who practically owns and operates the commercial inter- ests and general industries of White River, Tulare county, Cal., is John C. Danner, a native of Missouri born in 1857. Nathan Danner, his father, was a native of North Carolina, and it was in Tennessee that his mother was born, but they are now both deceased, the latter having passed away in 1911. His parents came to California in 1858, when John C. Danner was scarcely more than six months old, and landed at San Francisco, and from there they went to Tuolumne county. In 1864, when he was about seven years old, they moved to Merced county, where the boy was educated in the public schools. Later the family lived in Kern county till 1887, and there John C. was superintendent of the Kern County Land Co. In the year last men- tioned he bought a farm nine miles east of White River, where he lived until 1907, and in the meantime bought ten hundred and forty . acres of range land and went into the cattle business. He continued at this until he moved to White River, where he bought the land in- cluding the townsite, most of which he owns at this time. He event- ually sold his cattle and range land, but is still the owner of four hun- dred and eighty acres of valuable California soil. He is the pro- prietor of a hotel, a livery and feed establishment, a general store and other business interests at White River and he and his son own a tele- phone system of about one hundred miles of wire which centers there. He has been a school trustee since he was old enough to hold office. was a deputy county clerk, and in Kern county served as deputy county assessor during two years of the administration of Tom Hard- ing.
The development of Tulare county has had in Mr. Danner not only a witness but a factor, his public spirit having impeiled him to . assist all local interests to the extent of his ability. In 1884 he mar- ried Alice Barbeau, a native of Illinois, and they have six children : Lea S. was born in Kern county, is married and is associated with his father in business; Lucian Carl, who also was born in Kern county, assists his father in the management of his mercantile interests; Fred- erick Earl and Violet M. are members of their parents' household, and
442
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
Violet is an accomplished musician; Edgar and Royal complete the family.
One of the prominent business men of the county, recognized by all who know him as a man of great ability and of the best judgment, Mr. Danner generously and patriotically ascribes a fair share of his suc- cess to the splendid opportunities which Tulare county has afforded him, and while laboring to build up his own fortunes he has paused from time to time to render good offices for the benefit of the com- munity.
GEORGE JOHN WEGMAN
Of German birth and ancestry, George John Wegman opened his eyes to the world in Hesse-Darmstadt, where Michael Wegman, his father, owned a vineyard and winery. He was educated in the good schools kept near his home, and after he became old enough helped his father, by whom he was trained to be industrious, self-reliant and persevering. He was yet a comparatively young man when he mar- ried Caroline Wennerholdt, born in Kur-Hessen, daughter of Jacob Wennerholdt, an officer in the German army, who, during his nineteen years' service participated in the wars forced on Europe by Napoleon, fighting at Waterloo, running many risks and receiving numerous wounds, and who when his service was ended was a hotel-keeper until his death.
In 1849 Mr. Wegman and his good wife sailed for the United States, their cash capital small, but they had youth, health and hope. For a time after their arrival, Mr. Wegman worked as a cooper at Lancaster, Pa., but about 1855 he went west to Warsaw, Hancock county, Ill., and established himself as a cooper, then as a farmer. Some ten years later he moved to Wisconsin and took up a farm in Jefferson county, where he remained ten years, till in 1875, when he came out to the Pacific coast and settled in Tulare county, on Elbow creek, three miles northeast of Visalia, where he bought land and en- gaged in farming and stock-raising. Ilis success was very satisfactory and he prospered until his death, which occurred December 29, 1896, when he was about seventy-five years old. His wife died June 24. 1903, aged eighty-two years, five months and twenty-three days. She was a devont member of the German Reformed Church, all through her long life exemplifying in character the doctrines she professed. Mr. and Mrs. Wegman had four children: Caroline, wife of Andrew Belz; Theodore, who died in Wisconsin, aged fourteen years; Eliza Otelia, who cared for her parents until they passed away and has since lived on the old Wegman homestead, with her sister and her
THOMAS LEWIS
445
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
brother-in-law; and Mathilda, who died in California when she was eighteen years old. From the time of his arrival in California until his death, more than two decades afterward, Mr. Wegman was a citi zen of Tulare county, and held an honorable position among its good and thrifty farmers.
THOMAS LEWIS
The late Thomas Lewis, whose widow lives in Tulare, two blocks west of A street and Kern avenue, was born in Michigan, April 3, 1838, and was reared to maturity at Toledo, Ohio. In 1859, when he was about twenty-one years old, he came to ('alifornia by way of the Isthmus of Panama and took np land on the Mokelnmne river, about twenty miles from Stockton. There he lived until 1865, when he sold out and went to Sacramento, and here he bought farm land and operated a dairy until 1870, when he located at Tulare on a home- stead of eighty acres and pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres more and a timber culture tract of the same area. Later he bought four hundred and thirty acres on the Tule river, in the vicinity of Woodville and about twenty miles from Tulare, and for a time raised cattle and horses and kept a dairy, but later he gave some attention to farming and devoted two hundred acres of land to alfalfa, and in following out his plans herein indicated he spent the remainder of his life. He died November 28, 1887, and his widow conducted the ranch until April, 1891 ,when she sold part of the land and removed to Woodville. There she made her home until in 1907, when she dis- posed of her property in that town and took up her residence in Tulare, renting her farm property to tenants.
Before her marriage Mrs. Lewis was Miss Martha A. Johnson and was born in Missouri, a daughter of James T. and Elizabeth (Bond) Johnson. She came to California in 1864 and lived in Wood- bridge, San Joaquin county, until in 1866, and she was married May 15 of that year. Of the five children she bore her husband, four survive, namely: Chloe E. married Edwin Hamlin; Rosa is the wife of A. Wann; George S., of Fairbanks, Alaska, is an engineer; and Ruby is Mrs. William Beare of Tulare, Charles is dead. Mrs. Lewis is a member of the Baptist church and with her husband she was formerly connected with the Grange.
WILLARD ERNEST DINGLEY
No work devoted even in part to the prominent men and lead- ing interests of Kings county, Cal., would be complete without some
446
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
detailed reference to the well-known farmer, financier and man of affairs whose name is above.
It was at San Francisco, Cal., that Willard Ernest Dingley was born, December 4, 1874. He was reared in that city and in Oakland, and it was in the public schools of Oakland that he gained his edu- cational training. In 1898, when he was abont twenty-four years old, he came to Kings county and engaged in farming just outside of Lemoore. From the outset of his career here he liked the town and its people and had faith in its future. He achieved success as a farmer and gave very close attention to his ranch interests until he became cashier of the First National Bank of Lemoore, which posi- tion of trust and responsibility he accepted in April, 1907, and since that time he has devoted all his ability and energy to the upbuilding of all the interests of the staunch financial institution which is the pride of the business community of Lemoore. Meanwhile he has superintended the farming of four hundred acres, one hundred and thirty of which is in vineyard, the remainder being under alfalfa. To stockraising he has given considerable attention, with very satis- factory results. Taking an interest in all the affairs of Lemoore and of Kings county, he has been helpful in the promotion of many move- ments for the general good, and has won an enviable reputation as a citizen of enterprise, initiative and publie spirit.
W. F. CARTMILL, M. D.
In 1861, when Dr. W. F. Cartmill bought property in Tulare county, the city of Tulare had not been founded and the county was for the most part unimproved. He saw here promising conditions which had escaped the attention of many others, and soon bought a quarter section of land ten miles southwest of Visalia, to which he added from time to time till he owned twelve hundred acres, all under irrigation. He raised cattle as long as cattle raising was profitable, then turned his attention to sheep. llis flock at one time numbered six thousand, but he sold it abont 1894 and for the succeeding ten years conducted an apiary. In 1904 he soll his bees and retired from active life. He had lived at Tulare since 1872, about the time of the coming of the railroad to the town. The residence that he had built at the time was one of the first imposing ones in the place, and it soon became a land- mark on West Tulare street.
It was in Franklin county, Ohio, that Dr. Cartmill was born, Jan- nary 5, 1822, the sixth in order of nativity of the seven children of
447
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
William and Isabelle (Ferguson) Cartmill, natives, respectively. of Virginia and of Old Virginia. To Kentucky Mr. Cartmill emigrated and there he met and married Miss Ferguson. Soon after their mar- riage they moved to Franklin county, Ohio, and later they went to Madison county, in the same state, and on Darby creek in that county Mr. Cartmill cleared and improved a farm. There the couple lived ont their days, Mr. Cartmill living to be ninety-seven years old. As a boy, Dr. Cartmill attended a subscription school in a little log building that was little better than a Int. He read medicine under the precep- torship of Dr. Thomas, of London, Ohio, and practiced his profession there 1846-48. In the latter year he set ont for ('alifornia, but was persuaded to stop in Columbia, Mo., where he practiced about two years. In 1850 he crossed the plains with horses, following the over- land trail up the Platte, on to Salt Lake (where he staid a fortnight), thence down the Humbolt and by the Carson route. One hundred days passed after he crossed the Missouri state line before he arrived in California. Locating at Rancheria, near Volcano, Amador county, he divided his time between mining and practicing medicine and surg- ery. In 1854 he returned by way of the Isthmus of Panama to Ohio, and from there went to Missouri. Near Columbia, March 27. 1855, he married Miss Sophia Barnes, who was born in that neighborhood, a daughter of the Rev. James and Elizabeth (Burkhart) Barnes, na- tives, respectively, of Kentucky and Missouri. Mr. Barnes, after set- tling in Randolph county, Mo., became a pioneer farmer and Baptist preacher. He was a hero of early Indian wars. He and his wife, parents of fifteen children, both died in Missouri. All but two of their sons and danghters grew to maturity and four of them lived to old age. Mrs. Cartmill was the only one of them who came to the Pacific coast. Dr. and Mrs. Cartmill came to California by the Nicaragua route and he resumed his work in Amador county, where they settled. From there they came to Tulare county in 1861. Some account of his activi- ties has been given above. He believed in Republican principles and voted for the nominees of his party, but was never a practical poli- tician. Hle long maintained a warm interest in the San Joaquin Val- ley Pioneers' Society. During his long residence in the county he supported movements for the benefit of the people and in every possi- ble way labored for the good of the community. He passed away March 26, 1906; his wife, July 5, 1907. The deepest bereavement that came to them was the death, by diphtheria, within ten days, of their three daughters, Flora, Eva and Mary. Their youngest son, Walter Selmon, died, aged two years. There appears in this work a biograph- ical sketch of their son, Wooster B. Cartmill. They reared to woman- hood a girl named Amelia Jessie, who married R. F. Guerin, a dairy- man, living near Tulare.
448
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
FRANK R. HIGHT
The president and manager of the Old Bank of Hanford, Kings county, Cal., is Frank R. Hight, one of the most trustworthy finan ciers in central California. Mr. Hight was born in Wyoming county, Pa., Jamary 15. 1862, and after having been graduated from the State Normal school at Bloomsburg, Columbia county, Pa., taught school in his native state. In 1889 he came to California and resumed teaching in Merced county. He located in Hanford in 1893 and after teaching two years in the public school bought an interest in the Han- ford Abstract Company, which he retained until in 1901, when upon the organization of the Old Bank he became its assistant cashier, a position from which he has advanced to that of president and mana- ger. He has been city treasurer of Hanford since 1902, in which posi- tion he has handled big responsibilities with much conservatism and discretion.
In 1894 Mr. Hight married Miss Mary Williams, a native of Colo- rado, and they have four children, Harriet I., Robert B., F. Raymond, and Helen I. Hight.
ABRAM HUNTER MURRAY, SR.
Of Scotch-German blood Abram Hunter Murray, Sr., was in everything that the term can imply a typical patriotic American. From his father he inherited the rugged constitution and intellectual characteristics of a long line of ancestors who lived their lives and died in Scotland, and through his mother many qualities which have made for good citizenship on this side of the Atlantic since Germans first set foot on American soil. His ancestor, Thomas Murray, born in Tennessee, removed to Missouri with his family, one member of which was Thomas, who was born in Campbell connty, Tenn., Jan- nary 28, 1797, and who in his early manhood had plenty of experience of war. He went to the front in 1812, took part in the Black Hawk war and was in command of troops in the Mormon war. From his old home at Boones Liek. Cooper county, Mo., he moved to the month of the Monitean river, in that state, where he was a farmer and a ferry- man until 1843, and then settled near West Point, Cass county, Mo., and resumed farming. Responding to the call of gold in California, his sons came to the Pacific coast as pioneers, and in 1853 he and his wife and their three daughters joined them at Petaluma, where he died in his eighty-fifth year. In Missouri he was county judge four- teen years and there and in California he long held the office of jus- tice of the peace.
449
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
The woman who became Mrs. Thomas Murray, Jr., was Miss Bar- bara Hunter, who was born in Powell's Valley, Tenn., July 7, 1797, and died at Cloverdale, Cal., in her eighty-fifth year. Her family came over from Germany to Virginia and moved from there to Ten- nessee, where her father was a farmer. She bore her husband twelve children. Mary M. (Polly) became Mrs. Walker and died at Santa Rosa. Margaret (Mrs. Hensley) died in Madera county. Jane C. married Enoch Enloe and died in Cole county. Emily M., of Invo county is Mrs. Hugh Enloe. Abram H., Sr., is the immediate subject of this notice. Urith (Mrs. Orr) died in California. Barbara Ann, of San Diego county, is Mrs. Williams. Joshua H. came to California in 1850, was a farmer and died at Visalia. Josephine died when she was ten years old. Rachael, of Santa Rosa, is Mrs. Clark. Sarah E., of Humboldt county, is Mrs. Stanley. Hannah Retta, of Cloverdale, Cal., is Mrs. Cooper.
Abram Hunter Murray, Sr., was born January 17, 1827, ten miles west of Jefferson City, Mo. At sixteen he moved to Cass county, where he lived until April 19, 1852, when, accompanied by his wife and three children, he started over the plains toward California with ox-teams, driving a herd of cattle. The journey was made by way of the Missouri, the Platte and the Humboldt river trails into California by way of the Carson river route. They stopped a few weeks in Stockton, then came into what is now Tulare county. The country was then a wilderness, and with the exception of S. C. Brown, who had arrived a few days earlier, Mr. Murray was the first settler here. The ill-fated attempt of a Mr. Woods to establish a settlement near the present town of Woodville in 1850 is a matter of history, which relates how he and seventeen of his men were killed by Indians, only one man escaping to tell the story of the slaughter.
In what is now the western part of Visalia, Mr. Murray began to farm on an extensive scale. From California and the general gov- ernment he bought eighteen thousand acres of land which he after- wards lost through the vicissitudes of business, and in dry years he lost many sheep. In 1879 he engaged in steam-boating and in the wood trade, with headquarters at The Dalles, Oregon, but the climate there drove him back to California and he acquired a tract of two hundred acres in the rich San Joaquin valley. Much of this property was sold, but at the time of his death he owned forty acres in vineyard and alfalfa.
On April 25, 1844, Mr. Murray married Miss Sarah T. Hensley, who was born in Cole county. Mo., July 4, 1824. It was traditional in her family that her father, the Hon. John Hensley, a native of Ten- nessee and a pioneer in Missouri, passed through St. Louis when that old city was yet under the flag of Spain. For a time he lived in Gas- conade county, that state, but later was a pioneer in Cole county, and
450
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
was three times elected to represent his district in the senate of Mis- souri. where he made a record as a man of honor and of progressive ideas. Mrs. Murray died July 8, 1902. and her place at the old home- stead has been filled by her eldest child, Mary Fannie, wife of William J. Adams, who came to ('alifornia in 1859, and is mentioned elsewhere in this publication. The other children are: Thomas H., a ranchman near the Toll Gate, in Fresno county; Commodore P., a retired rancher, of Humboldt county; Jackson C., who is farming in Fresno county ; and A. II., Jr., court reporter of Visalia. Barbara E., who become Mrs. Taylor, died at her home on the White River, in Tulare county. Fraternally Mr. Murray affiliated with Visalia lodge No. 128, F. & \ M., of which he was twice elected master, and he was a de- mitted Chapter Mason. Politically he allied himself with Democrats. In his religions ideas he was liberal, but he was generous to all local denominations, especially to the Methodist Episcopal Church South. of which Mrs. Murray was a member. He passed away at his home in Tulare county, January 18, 1911.
GEORGE WASHINGTON WILLIAMS
In Polk county, Mo., George Washington Williams, who lives near the Santa Fe depot at Tulare, Tulare county, Cal., was born January 17, 1868. There he was reared and educated and there he lived, farming after he was old enough, until he was twenty years old. Then he turned his back on the parental homestead and set out alone in quest of the fortune which he was destined to find in far away Cali- fornia. Arriving in Tulare county in 1898 he worked there for a time on wages and then went to Butte county, where he was likewise employed a year and a half. Later he returned to Tulare county, within which he has since made his home. He continued working and saving his money four years and at the end of that time began farm- ing for himself on three hundred and twenty acres of land on White river, where he made a crop of grain, and in the following year with a partner he seeded fourteen hundred aeres, but the year was a dry one and the erop did not materialize. The next season he garnered a very good crop from five hundred acres south of Tulare, where he remained five years altogether, and then for one year farmed on rented land northwest of Tulare. In 1904 he bonght eighty acres adjoining the city limits, on which he farmed and conducted a dairy four years, but which he now rents for dairying purposes. In 1907 he bonght four hundred and eighty acres nine miles southwest of Tulare, which he sold in 1909, soon afterward buying four hundred acres six miles northwest of the city, and here he has farmed with umch snecess
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.