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 41
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 41
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and has at this time one hundred acres in alfalfa, the remainder of his land being devoted to the production of barley, wheat and corn.
A's a stockholder in the First National Bank of Tulare and other- wise, Mr. Williams has had from time to time to do with business interests not directly connected with the land, and in different ways he has, as occasion has offered, manifested a public spirit which has given him high place as a citizen. In 1898 he married Miss Emma Moody of Tulare.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF TULARE
A financial institution which was in its time powerfully influential in promotion of the advancement and prosperity of Tulare, Cal., was the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank, organized under the laws of California, with a capital of $25,000, in which Turner Nelson, John Goble, A. L. Wilson and H. M. Shreve were the principal stockholders and active factors. In 1907 the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank was converted into a national bank, under the title of the First National Bank, Tulare, Cal. Its original capital of $25,000 was in 1910 in- creased to $100,000, all paid in. An idea of its progress is afforded in these figures, showing comparative deposits: October 6, 1908, $277,- 545.17; October 6, 1909, $358,237.89; October 6, 1910, $439,357.88; Octo- ber 6, 1911, $506,796.43; January 1, 1913, $530,900.59. At the date last given the resources of the bank were as follows: cash, and due from banks. $172,097.35; loans and discounts, $458,552.03; U. S. bonds at par, $80,000.00; banking house and safe deposit vaults, $31,000.00; total resources, $743,283.37. Liabilities: deposits, $530,900.59; na- tional bank notes, $75,000.00; capital stock, $100,000.00; surplus and profits, $32,385.28; total liabilities, $743.283.37. The bank is under government supervision and is a United States postal savings deposi- tory.
Statement showing increase of accounts for the year 1912:
Loans-
Total at December 31, 1912 $458,552.03
Total at December 31, 1911 406,949.40
Increase for the year $ 51,602.63
Deposits-
Total December 31, 1912.
$530,900.59
Total December 31, 1911 462,516.09
Increase
$ 68,384.50
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Assets :
December 31, 1912 .$743,283.37
December 31, 1911 662,365.01
Increase $ 80,918.36
Open Checking Accounts-
Commercial accounts December 31, 1912 1453
Savings accounts December 31, 1912 175
Total accounts for 1912. 1628
Total accounts December 31, 1911 1379
Increase in number of accounts for year 1912 249
Its officers and directors are T. Nelson, president; H. M. Shreve, vice-president and manager; W. E. Dunlap, cashier; J. J. Mitchell, first assistant cashier; A. T. Warden, second assistant cashier. The directors are: Turner Nelson, H. M. Shreve, Clarence M. Smith, M. G. Cottle and C. R. Scott. Mr. Smith is president of the National Bank of Visalia.
JAMES ADDISON MOOREHEAD
It was within the borders of West Virginia of today, then a part of the Old Dominion, that James Addison Moorehead was born in 1830, and there he remained until he was seventeen years old, attend- ing school and learning something about farm labor and other work. In 1850 he went to Lonisa county, Iowa, where he farmed until 1862, and in that year, in company with De Witt Maxwell and the latter's family, he came overland to California, the slow and wearisome journey consuming six months' time. They stopped at Salt Lake, Utah, three weeks, then came to Placerville by way of Carson, and from Placerville they pushed forward to Stockton, where the train was divided according to the respective destinations of the different members of the party. Mr. Moorehead worked a few days in a lumber yard in Stockton, and then found employment on the ranch of William Bailey, with whom he remained two years, when, with two men of the name of Neuel, he went to the mines in Eldorado county, remaining there until in 1869, when he came to Visalia. Hav- ing decided to take up land, he was advised to file a pre-emption claim on one hundred and sixty acres of public land six miles northwest of Tulare. Upon following this advice he lived there until he legally perfected his title to it and then he took np eighty acres adjoining his original claim. This land he improved and developed and farmed
I A Moorehead
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with success until 1906, when he began to rent it out, its tenant at this time being Fred Billings. Mr. Moorehead was the first in this section to fence in a ranch and first to file on land here under the advertising law, his claim having been entered in the fall of 1869. On his place is one of the largest oak trees in the world. The original Grange at Tulare numbered Mr. Moorehead among its members, but when its charter lapsed, he did not join the new grange which suc- ceeded it. For many years a feature of his business was threshing and one of his interesting reminiscences is of farming five hundred acres in Stokes valley in the period 1870-73, which were truly pioneer days in that section.
KENNEDY & ROBINSON
Among the prominent business men of Hanford, Kings county, Cal., the members of the firm mentioned above are in high repute. Their establishment is one of the leading business institutions of the city and in its own field is perhaps a leader in the county. It was opened .July 1, 1910, thongh its proprietors had previously associated in business at Lemoore, where Mr. Robinson bought a half interest in the undertaking enterprise of Bryans & Kennedy, Mr. Bryans retiring from the firm. J. L. Robinson was born in Delaware county, Iowa, April 19, 1872, and when he was seven years old was brought to Sutter county, Cal., by his parents, who lived there but a year. Going back to Iowa, they came again to California at the end of another twelve months. Once more they lived in California a year, and this time they removed to Nebraska, where they remained until 1888, when they came to Redding, Shasta county, Cal. Not long there- after they made their way back to Nebraska, whence they came to Hanford, arriving November 13, 1898. In the meantime Mr. Robinson had gathered a good knowledge of ranching by actual experience in the west and of the grain and elevator business by connection with that interest in Cedar Rapids, Neb. During the first five years which elapsed after his coming, he raised wheat along the lake, abont twenty miles south of Hanford; then he bought a ranch half a mile north of that city which he traded after two years for another five and one-half miles to the northwest, which he operated three years and then sold out. Before this, however, he had bought into his present business, and in July, 1910, it was installed in a building built especially for it in Hanford. Since then the firm has conducted a branch establishment in Lemoore and its business in both towns has been very successful. Their equipment is as complete and as expen- sive as that of any of its kind in Central California and they operate
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the only ambulance in Kings county. Mr. Robinson has the Hanford end of the enterprise in charge, while Mr. Kennedy superintends the branch at Lemoore.
Since he became a member of the business circle of Hanford, Mr. Robinson has in many ways demonstrated his public spirit. He is solieitously and helpfully interested in everything that tends to promote the city's growth and prosperity. Socially he affiliates with the Hanford organizations of the Order of Fraternal Aid and Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, having membership in the lodge, the encampment and the Rebekah auxiliary of the latter.
PASCHAL BEQUETTE, Jr.
In Iowa county, Wis., Paschal Bequette was born in December, 1845, a son of Col. Pasehal Bequette, Sr. In 1852 Col. Bequette brought his family across the plains with ox-teams to California and was for a short time in general merchandise trade in Saera- mento, but being a man of unusual ability he was soon called to a more important field of action. In 1853 he went to San Francisco to enter upon his duties as receiver of public money and pension agent under appointment by President Franklin Pieree, and these offices he filled through the administration of President Buchanan. In 1859 moving with his family to Visalia, Tulare county, he there became the owner of land and established himself as a breeder of cattle and horses. He served the county as its treasurer and as deputy recorder and passed away in December, 1879. His wife was Elizabeth P. Dodge, a native of Wiseonsin, and a daughter of ex-Governor Dodge of Wisconsin, afterward the first United States senator from that state and a sister of Hon. A. C. Dodge, United States senator from lowa. the father and son serving in the United States senate at the same time. Col. Bequette was a native of Missouri.
Following are the names of the children of Pasehal and Elizabeth P. (Dodge) Bequette: Lewis L., Mary L., Christiana A., Philip, Mrs. N. O. Bradley, Mrs. S. G. Patrick, Frank R., and Paschal, Jr. The latter passed his childhood days in Wisconsin and was in his seventh year when his family moved to California. His education was begun in San Francisco and continued at Visalia, and it was in the office of the Visalia Delta that he served a five years' apprentice- ship at the printer's trade. When he had perfected himself in his knowledge of "the art preservative of all arts" he went to Havilah. Kern county, and became half owner of the Courier, a newspaper published in that town. In 1869 he disposed of his interests at
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Havilah and became a student at a business college at San Francisco, and in 1871 and 1872 he was connected with the Los Angeles Ners for a year. Returning to Visalia in the year last mentioned, he bought a half interest in the Visalia Times, which he disposed of eventually in order to engage in sheep raising in Kern county. On his return to Tulare county he took up general farming and interested himself more actively in local polities than he had ever done before. He has served eight years as deputy county assessor, four years in the United States land office, four years as under-sheriff, in the administration of B. B. Parker, and he is now deputy county recorder and deputy county treasurer. All of these various offices he has filled with ability and integrity which have commended him to the good opin- ion of his fellow citizens of all classes.
In 1875 Mr. Bequette married Martha L. Clarke, who has borne him children as follows: Augustus D., Paschal, Mary C., Elizabeth T., and James C. Mrs. Bequette is a daughter of James T. Clarke, a Mexican war veteran, and a California pioneer of 1849, who was a prominent early stock-raiser in this state. Her mother, who was Mary A. Graves, was a member of the famons Donner party, the awful experiences of which are a part of the history of pioneer immigration to California. Led by a man named Donner, these pioneers were snow-bound at the point now known as Donner Lake in Nevada county, C'al., and a great number of them starved to death.
E. C. FOSTER, M. D.
A native of California and a graduate of its leading medical college, Dr. E. C. Foster, whose office is in the Emporium building, Hanford, Kings county, Cal., has amply proven his ability and success as a physician and surgeon in general practice.
Born in San Francisco, Cal., in 1877, Dr. Foster was educated in the public schools there and in Oakland. He was graduated from the Oakland high school in 1898 and in that same year entered the medical department of the University of California, which in 1902 conferred upon him a diploma which declared him to be a duly educated and fully competent Medical Doctor. For nine months after his graduation he served with great profit to himself as an interne of the French Hospital at San Francisco. He began the regular practice of his profession in Colusa county, but soon went to Mexico, where he was in successful practice about a year and a half. In May, 1909, he came to Hanford, where he has since been in general practice, meeting with good success and winning a high place in the esteem of the people of that city and the surrounding country. He
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is a member of the San Joaquin Medical Society and of the Fresno Medical Society. Fraternally he affiliates with the Masons, the Wood. men of the World and the Fraternal Brotherhood.
By his marriage in 1908, Dr. Foster was united with Miss J. E. Rathbun, who was born in Colusa county, a daughter of J. P. Rathbun.
The father of Dr. Foster, C. A. Foster, of San Francisco, is a native of Maine, who came to the Golden State in 1868 and was in 1893 appointed a enstoms inspector, with headquarters at the Bay City Custom House.
CHARLES W. HART
A native Californian, Charles W. Hart, farmer, stock-raiser and dairyman, three miles southeast of Farmersville, Tulare county, was born at Gilroy, Santa Clara county, June 30, 1860. His father, Charles C. Hart, born in Litchfield county, Conn., in 1826, repre- sented old New England families. He married in his native state and came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama about 1857. His brother John had come by way of Cape Horn in 1849 and had settled at Gilroy as a dairyman, and later he moved to Tulare county and thence to Kings county, dying at Hanford. Charles C. joined his brother in Gilroy and was a dairyman there until 1861. when he bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres three miles south of Visalia and went into ranching and stock-raising. In 1865 he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres, now the homestead of his widow, which he improved and put under cultivation. Later, with Charles W. Hart, his son, he bought six hundred and forty acres half a mile from his home and eighty acres of land under timber. They farmed together until he died. July 18, 1891. He married Miss Helen Payne, a native of New York, who survives him, and they had five children: Fred Miles, of Kings county, Cal .; Charles Weston; John H., a farmer near the Hart homestead; Car- rie Ellen, wife of H. T. Anderson, and Kittie A., who married J. L .. Tuohy, and died in 1904. The mother of these children is a con- sistent member of the Baptist church. The father was a man of strong principles, an advocate of progress and reform and a stanch Republican who took an active interest in all movements for the benefit of his community or his country.
Only six months of his life had been passed when Charles Weston Hart was brought from Santa Clara county to Tulare county. Hle was educated in the public schools in the district and received valable early training from his father. At fourteen he was an
de. l. Hart-
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active farmer on his father's ranch, operating with remarkable ability and judgment. At twenty-one he was made his father's partner in the business of grain production and hog raising. After his father's death, Mr. Hart bought the farm outfit and stock and continned the enterprise, renting from time to time one thousand to twenty-five hundred acres of land for the purposes of his busi- ness, and he now owns six thousand acres. He has a herd of six hundred cattle of the Durham and the Aberdeen Polled Angus breeds, five hundred Poland-China hogs, one hundred and fifty horses and mules and a dairy of ninety cows.
The woman who became the wife of Mr. Hart was Miss Lila C'onlee, who was born in Morro, San Luis Obispo county, C'al., a danghter of Frank Conlee, who was a native of Illinois and a set- tler in California in 1870. Mr. and Mrs. Hart became parents of children as follows: Weston C., Helen, Hazel Irene, Ethel C., Forest F. and Verna. Her father became a Inmber manufacturer at Creston and in Tulare connty, and he is now farming and growing fruit at Springville. Ella Robinson, who became his wife 'and the mother of Mrs. Hart, was born in Canada. Mrs. Hart is the third in their family of nine children, all of whom were early instructed in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which both Mr. and Mrs. Hart are also members. In his political convictions Mr. Hart is both liberal and conservative, preferring to reserve the right always to cast his ballot for the man whom he regards the best fitted for a specific office.
GEORGE JASPER
The well-known stockhuyer, George Jasper, of Hanford, King's county, Cal., is a native son of the state, having first opened his eyes on the world in San Francisco, which city was his home until after he had entered active life on his own acconnt. lle was but thirteen years old when he began riding the ranges for the firm of Miller & Lnx. Later he was in charge of their livestock in different parts of the San Joaquin valley until he became a buyer, in which capacity he traveled thronghont the coast country in quest of cattle for that firm. For twenty-three years he continued in their employ, and in 1907 severed his connections with them and located at Han- ford as an independent buyer. He buys stock in practically all counties in the valley, and ships ahont two carloads of hogs each week through the year, and abont sixteen hundred to two thousand cattle annnally. He is the owner of three hundred and eighty acres of pasture land located within six miles of Ilanford. 25
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In 1898 Mr. Jasper married Freda Von Helms, who has borne him two children, Myrtle and Tillie. Fraternally he affiliates with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Fraternal Order of Eagles, Woodmen of the World and I. D. E. S. As a business man he is in high repute and is privileged to take pride in his success because it has been won with principles of honor and square dealing. He takes a helpful interest in everything that pertains to the growth and development of Hanford. his public spirit impelling him to aid to the extent of his ability all movements for the general good. His standing in the community is all the more noteworthy because he is one of the finest and most satisfactory examples of the self-made man to be found in Central California.
ST. BRIDGET'S CATHOLIC CHURCH
St. Bridget's Catholic Church, of Hanford, C'al., was originally a mission attached to the parish of Visalia. In 1881 a plain little frame chapel was built by the Rev. Aguilera, pastor of Visalia, on two lots donated by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. This chapel was named after St. Bridget of Ireland, as the early Catholic settlers of Hanford were mostly Irish. The lots adjoining the church property were then a shepherd's camp.
From the church records it appears that in the fall of 1886 the Rev. P. J. Smith was appointed first resident pastor of St. Bridget's church. In July, 1891, he was succeeded by Rev. P. Murphy, who held the rectorship till 1894, when the Rev. J. Brady was appointed. Meanwhile the growth of the parish made it necessary to enlarge the modest little chapel and to give it a more imposing appearance. This work was ably planned and carried out by Father Brady. so that the present church has a seating capacity of three Indred.
In 1907 Father Brady being called to other fields, the Rev. G. Ashe was temporarily appointed pastor of St. Bridget's. During the six months of his labors in the parish a debt of several thousand dollars was liquidated. He was followed by the Rev. P. F. MeLaughlin in 1908, who further embellished the interior of the church.
The present pastor, Rev. P. G. Scher, was appointed in August 1911. In February, 1912, an assistant was given him in the person of Rev. M. Salvador from Portugal. Immediately additional Sunday services were arranged for in order to accommodate the ever increasing attendance and new fields were opened as missions of St. Bridget's.
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The Reverend Fathers now in charge master the English, Ger- man, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French languages. All of Kings county and a good portion of Fresno county is the extensive field of their labors.
Owing to the growth of the city the church in recent years found itself in the best business section, hence the parish, after having successfully purchased a splendid site of nineteen lots in the heart of the residential district of the city, in June, 1912, moved the old church to the new site, disposed of the old parish rectory and erected in its stead another more spacious and better adapted to the needs of the parish.
It is confidently hoped by the present pastor that ground will be broken in the fall, 1913, for a large public hall and parochial school, large enough to accommodate from three hundred to four hundred children. A Sunday-school of two hundred children, a marriage record of over sixty and a baptismal record of nearly two hundred and seventy in the year 1912 give sufficient guarantee for a good school. A convent for a teaching order of nuns is also being con- templated at a later date.
Among the three missions of St. Bridget's that of Lemoore is the most important. On January 6, 1911, the cornerstone was laid by Rt. Rev. Mgr. J. MeCarthy, V. F., of Fresno for the new St. Peter's church, which was erected at the cost of $5,000. Instead of one monthly mass with an attendance of fifty, there are now three monthly masses with an attendance of one hundred and fifty to two hundred. The church was dedicated with great solemnity by Rt. Rev. Bishop Thomas Conaty, D. D., of Los Angeles, November 24, 1912.
Twelve miles from Hanford is the Indian Mission of Santa Rosa of Lima. The entire tribe of Taches, about sixty in number, is Cath- olic. Their present chapel, now in a deplorable condition, was built by them about forty years ago, under the direction of Father William, a zealous Indian missionary of the Dominican Order. A new chapel will probably be built in the near future.
Riverdale, nineteen miles northwest of Hanford. is the latest mission of St. Bridget's. Mass is said there once a month in a public hall. Catholics in that district have increased so rapidly during the past few months that the erection of a chapel in Riverdale or the near town of Lanare is at present receiving considerable thought.
Catholics in Stratford, about twenty-one miles southwest of Hanford, are also endeavoring to secure several lots, on which to build a chapel. Thus St. Bridget's parish can boast of a rapid and wonderful growth, which no doubt in the near future will become even more phenomenal, as Providence has placed it in the midst of vast stretches of fertile lands rarely found.
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GEORGE A. BALLOU
It is said "the prophet is not without honor except in his own country." The pioneer is a prophet who is honored in his own country as nowhere else; that is, after his prophecies have come trne. His faith in the country where he elects to establish his home is a prophecy, and the development of the community to numbers and to wealth is the fulfillment of his prophecy. Everywhere the pioneer is respected, and thoughtful men and women grieve be- cause, like the veterans of the Civil war, our pioneers are passing away. Soon they will be seen no more. But the good they have done will live after them. The making of the Tulare county of to- day came largely through the long-distance foresight and the humble trust and work of its pioneers. All such who could be reached have been given place in these pages. Indirectly many readers of this owe much to George A. Ballou, who has earned the rest from activity and from material cares which follows honest and patriotic endeavor.
The Ballous of America are of French extraction. Bravely have they borne their part in the successive wars through which we have come to our national greatness. Many of the early Ballons were weavers, and it was but natural that in the infancy of our cotton in- Instry they became connected with it in one way or another. Ballou's cottons, manufactured at Woonsocket, R. I., by Oliver Ballon, he- came known round the world. Harvey Ballon, Oliver's son, of Rhode Island birth and rearing, was a farmer and a bricklayer and plasterer. Ile married Ruth Gould, horn at Cape Cod, Mass., and they both died in Rhode Island, he in 1854. Of their three sons and three daughters, George A. was next to the last born. September 26, 1832, was the time of his birth, and Cumberland, R. I., was the place. Ile gained a common school and academic education and received full instruction from his father in the secrets of the plas- terer and bricklayer.
In 1:50 Mr. Ballou came to California, with other gold seekers, by way of Panama, and stopped eighteen months at San Diego, whence he went to Los Angeles. His mining was more remunerative than was that of others whom he remembers, and after a stay of eight months in Los Angeles, a shorter one at San Francisco and a period of working at his trade in Stockton, he resumed it for a time in Mariposa county. From there he went, eventually, back to Los Angeles, and in 1860 he became a pioneer at Visalia. Here, after working as a plasterer and bricklayer several years, he began contracting in his line, and many of the early buildings of the town were erected under his superintendency. He continued his business actively till 1899, when he retired, the better to give attention to his property in town and his large holdings, of more than a thousand acres, in Tulare and two other counties. His lands were bonght
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