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 42
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 42
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when he could buy them cheaply, and he has wisely held them till they have participated in the rise in values which marks the differ- ence between the California of the last half of the last century and the California of today. When he invested in them he very practi- cally prophesied that they would be worth much more in his time than they were worth then, and he has been spared to know that his prophecy was not idly made. His sympathies with humanity, of high and low and intermediate degrees, made him a Republican in the days when men of his intellectual type cast their influence for the elimination of slavery from the United States, and through all its history, through all its changing issues, he has acted with that party ever since. All abont him are evidences of his public spirit. Everywhere he goes he is greeted as a father and as a friend. He has been useful and in his declining years he is honored and happy and unfaltering in his faith in things to come.
JOHN H. SMITH
A wide and diversified career has been that of John H. Smith, who was known as one of the oldest pioneers in the county. He was commonly called "Uncle John," his bright, cheerful and sunny dis- position making him a favorite of all who were fortunate enough to know him. Born at Grimstad, Norway, November 28, 1813, he was there reared, but being early imbned with a desire to follow the sea he followed this inclination and was but a boy when he shipped as a sailor, and for thirty-five years thereafter he endured the hardships as well as the joy of living on the water and visiting every port of interest in the world. His sea life took him often to the East In- dies, and he sailed around Cape Horn three times. It was in 1848 that he decided to give up seafaring life and at that time he landed in New York, where reports of gold found in the west immediately fired him with ambition to go there. He set sail for California, going around Cape Horn, and in 1850 reached San Francisco. He became a gold miner and followed this vocation for some years with varying snecess until 1866, his operations being chiefly in Tuolumne county. Turning his attention to more positive means of livelihood, Mr. Smith removed from that county to Summerville, Contra Costa county, and there engaged in coal mining in the employ of the Pittsburg Coal Mining company, remaining with them until 1875. During this ser- vice a fire broke out in the mines and Mr. Smith evinced the most courageons spirit in bravely entering into a burning shaft and resen- ing seven men. For his heroism he received from his employers as a memento a handsome gold watch costing $200. This watch, pre
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sented him by the president of the mining company, is solid gold and engraved as follows: John F. Smith, Pittsburg C. M. Co. For Noble Conduct during a fire at the Mine, Dec. 10th, 1871.
Leaving the coal mines Mr. Smith came to the present homestead near Guernsey in 1875. Subsequently he again engaged in coal min- ing at Coalinga, serving as superintendent of a coal mine for Messrs. Robinson & Rawlings, and it was while employed here that he lost his faithful wife and helpmate in 1889. The remainder of his life he spent engaged in farming and stockraising in company with his sons, Henry and William, at his home near Guernsey. Mr. Smith was well known for his honesty and kindly attitude toward everyone. Ener- getic and hardworking, when past eighty he performed his regular duties on the farm and he lived to attain a great age, his death occurring May 19, 1907, at which time he was probably the oldest man living in Kings county.
On July 26, 1855, Mr. Smith was married at Sonora, Cal., to Anna Nilson, a native of Sweden. They became the parents of six sons and two daughters, as follows: George, born in 1856, died in in- fancy; William was born in 1858, and is a partner of Henry C., his brother; Albert, born in 1860, died in 1887; Emma, born in 1862, married Charles Freisch, of Traver, and died without issne in 1902; George (2), born in 1864, died in 1888; IIenry C. is mentioned else- where in this publication; Matilda is the wife of Joseph Dalton, of Coalinga; she was born in 1867 and is the mother of seven children; Lewis, born in 1870, still owns an interest in the home ranch. Mr. Smith was particularly well known by all the people in the Lakeside country and was highly respected. His noble and loving character has ever been a beautiful example of true living, and his influence for good was wide and strong, his memory being held dear by many who have just reason to honor his name and revere his memory.
ALBERT H. COLLINS
One of the up-to-date and prosperons farmers of Tulare county, whose career has been one of progressive success, is Albert H. Collins, whose home is on the Tulare road, rural free delivery route No. 1, near Tulare city. Mr. Collins was born in Scotland county, Mo., March 2, 1861, grew to manhood on his father's farm and was educated chiefly in the public school in his home district. In 1882, when he was twenty-one years old, he went to western Montana, where for a time he was a stock-raiser and afterward until 1892 a general mer- chant. Then he returned to his old home in Missouri, whence he came in 1894 to California. Renting land two miles west of Tulare,
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he devoted himself to the production of wheat, alfalfa, vineyard and some miscellaneous crops until he bought his present place, five miles north of Tulare, where he has lived since 1902. It is a fifty-acre ranch, which he has greatly improved by the planting of shade trees and otherwise. He has forty-five acres in alfalfa, maintains a dairy of twenty cows and keeps thirty-six head of beef cattle, the same number of hogs, five horses and four hundred white Leghorn hens.
In 1889 Mr. Collins married Miss Emma Riley, a native of Missouri, and they have a son, Floyd W. Collins, who is now about ten years old. Mr. Collins was a charter member of the local lodge of the Woodmen of the World and of the local lodge of Women of Woodcraft, a sister order to the Woodmen of the World, and with which Mrs. Collins is also identified. He affiliates also in a fraternal way with Kaweah Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, of Tulare. He was one of the promoters of the Dairy- men's Co-operative Creamery and has been a stockholder in the company controlling it during its entire history. He is a director also in the Tulare Irrigation Ditch Company and has from time to time been identified with other important interests. As a citizen he has met all demands on his patriotism with a ready liberality that has added not a little to his popularity.
JAMES MILTON SETLIFF
On North E street in Tulare lives James Milton Setliff, who is well and favorably known throughont Tulare county as a progres- sive and successful farmer and stockraiser. Mr. Setliff was born in Tennessee March 8. 1864, and was reared on a farm and educated in the public schools there. When he was twenty-one years old he came to California, locating in Tulare, where he was employed for three years at carpentering and doing farm work. He then began farming on rented land, taking a tract of two hundred acres a mile ont of town and one hundred and sixty acres six miles southwest. On both of these properties he raised grain. In the following spring. in partnership with two others, he rented four hundred acres four miles west of Pixley and raised grain with good success. Next year he farmed that land and six hundred and forty acres a mile south of it, which proved a splendid undertaking. The following season was dry and he lost everything, and the next spring found him work- ing for wages in an effort to recover. The year after, with a part- ner, he farmed seven hundred acres west of Wankena, near the Artesia school house, and was able to market nothing but ten tons of hay. During the succeeding year he devoted himself to teaming.
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The following spring he seeded and plauted forty acres near Paige, and in the fall he harvested fifteen tons of hay and four hundred and sixty-four sacks of grain. The subsequent year, with O. W. Grif- fith as a partner, he farmed seven hundred acres five miles south of Tulare and eighty acres of the Huff place near Paige. His next experience as a renter was on two hundred and forty acres of the Huff place and seven hundred and sixty acres in the section adjoin- ing it on the west, but he did not receive a great gain from this, and since 1906 he has farmed one hundred and ninety-five Huff acres and conducted a dairy on eighty acres of his own land, milking thirty cows. Seventy acres of this tract, which he bought in 1896, are under alfalfa. In 1903 he bought sixty-four acres adjoining the Huff ranch, on which he keeps about two hundred and fifty hogs and breeds draft and driving horses. He has put eighty acres of the Huff land under alfalfa with a view to the establishment of a dairy- ing enterprise. He owns an interest in a thoroughbred Percheron stallion that cost $2,800 and has a good residence property in Tulare, to which city he moved in order to better educate his children.
In 1891 Mr. Setliff married Miss Nannie Gully, a daughter of Bryant Gully, who lives eight miles south of Tulare, and she died in 1898, having borne him three children, Russel, Guy and Nannie. Russel has passed away. In 1901 he married Miss Lydia Garrett, a native of Mississippi, and to this union was born a son. Roland. Mr. Setliff was married a third time. On August 2, 1910, Mrs. Azaela Nicholson, of Tulare, became his wife. She is a daughter of Silas R. Gully, of Tulare. As a citizen Mr. Setliff takes a public- spirited interest in the community and in a fraternal way he affiliates with the Odd Fellows, the Elks and the Woodmen of the World.
CHARLES EDWARD SMITH
A native of the Prairie State who has made good in California is Charles Edward Smith, of Porterville, Tulare county. It was in Madison county, Ill., that he was born December 20. 1854. There he was educated and in the intervals of study acquired a practical knowledge of farming. In young manhood, with his parents he went to Missouri, where he lived on a farm for about five years. After that he came to California, in the fall of 1886, locating in Tulare county and stopped for a short time at Lemoore. Later he made his home in Tulare City and from there went to Kern county and pre-empted land on which he lived until he located his home at Porter- ville in 1891. There he acquired land which he eventually sold in order to engage in the grocery business. Thus he was employed
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for ten years, then he sold his interests at Porterville and moved to San Jose, the better to educate his children, and remained there three years. When he first came to Porterville it was a mere hamlet of a few houses, with only some small business beginnings of different kinds. By the time he removed to San Jose it had acquired considerable importance, and when he moved back in 1906 it was to a town something like the bustling and prosperous Porterville of today.
In April, 1883, in Girard, Kan., Mr. Smith married Miss Livonia Leach, a native of Clinton county, Ill., born April 18, 1862, who has borne him four children, three of whom are living. May married James Large and is living in Ventura county. Bessie is a student at the Normal school at Fresno, and Eda is in the grammar school at Porterville. Henry Allen died when he was twenty months old. Mrs. Smith's parents, William A. and Letty (Smith) Leach, immi- grated to California in 1892. Her father died here in 1907; her mother survives, aged eighty-six years. Mr. Smith's father, Edwin Smith, is living at the age of eighty-six, but his mother, Elizabeth (Robinson) Smith, has passed away.
Fraternally Mr. Smith affiliates with the Odd Fellows' lodge and encampment. As a citizen he is liberally public-spirited. never failing to respond to any appeal in the interest of the public good.
DAVID ANTHONY VAUGHN
Few men in the vicinity of Porterville are in higher repute than David Anthony Vaughn, a brief account of whose career to this time is here given. He was born at East Greenwich, Kent county, R. I., October 7, 1846, a son of Caleb and Lydia ( Hathaway) Vaughn, natives of the same town. Caleb Vaughn, who was born in 1816, and now ninety-seven years old, is still living there; his wife died in 1881. They had two sons and four daughters: David A., Willian Pheby, Susan, Lydia and Addie. Pheby, Addie and William a living at East Greenwich.
In May, 1868, Mr. Vaughn started for California by way of Panama, and arrived at San Francisco June 13, following. That same year in San Joaquin county, he leased a five hundred and ten- acre ranch and for three years engaged in stock-raising and wheat growing. In 1871 he moved to Porterville, Tulare county, where for twenty years he gave his attention almost exclusively to sheep raising. During that period he purchased about six thousand acres of land from individuals and from the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. He has sold three hundred and twenty acres of orange
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land, which is now being improved, and now owns fifty-three hundred and sixty acres, sixteen hundred acres of which is number one orange land. For the last thirty years he has grown wheat and raised cattle. In 1904. upon the organization of the First National Bank of Porter- ville, he was one of its original stockholders and he has since owned a considerable interest in the institution. In 1907 he moved his family from his ranch to the city of Porterville, where he had bought a . family residence at the intersection of Morton and D streets. He was elected mayor of Porterville in 1910 for a two-year term, after which he refused to again become a candidate. During his term of office he made a record as an able, honest and up-to-date executive. During all the years of his manhood he has been a Republican and he is still proud to support the policies of that party.
In 1880, at East Greenwich, R. I., Mr. Vanghn married Amanda M. Shippee, a daughter of Manser and Harriet Shippee, natives of that town. Mrs. Vaughn was educated in the public schools of East Greenwich, and came to California immediately after her marriage. L. U. Shippee, her unele, had come to Stockton in 1853. Mrs. Vangh's parents are both dead. She has two brothers and two sisters living in East Greenwich, R. I. Mr. and Mrs. Vanghn have two daughters, Minnie and Bessie. Minnie married J. S. MeGahey, of Porterville, in 1903, and they have a son named Earl.
ROBERT M. SHOEMAKER
New Jersey has been the mother state of many men who have achieved snecess in the West and on the Pacific coast. One such who has attained to high rank among the farmers of Tulare county is Robert M. Shoemaker, who is located four miles south of Lindsay. His parents were natives of New Jersey, descendants of old families in the East. Born in 1847, Mr. Shoemaker remained in his native state until 1905. There he was educated, farmed successfully and took a leading part in local political affairs, filling the offices of township committeeman and supervisor for many years, until he came to California. There too, he married, in 1875, Miss Sue Llewellyn, a native of that state, who bore him four children, three of whom are living. Two are married and settled for life in New Jersey, the other. E. O. Shoemaker, is a member of his parents' household.
On coming to California, Mr. Shoemaker bought forty acres of raw land withont any improvements. He has improved the place in many ways, adding to its productiveness and to its attractiveness as well. When Mr. Shoemaker came here in 1906 there was nothing
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to be seen but wild oats and hog wallows, and not a neighbor within a mile, except Mrs. Allen Hunsicker, from whom he bought. He has now a beautiful cottage 40x24, a barn, 30x40, pumping plant, pipe lines for irrigation purposes.
His land is now planted as follows: Thirteen acres in Valencia oranges: eight acres in navel oranges; five aeres in pomelos; three acres in pomegranates; one acre in building spot, alfalfa, garden, etc. Mr. Shoemaker has sold off ten acres. He has, from the beginning of his residence here, taken a deep interest in the affairs of the county and state and was one of the promoters and organizers of the Chamber of Commerce of Strathmore, Cal. Politically he has always been allied with the Democracy, believing that through the policies of the Democratic party greater good can be brought to greater numbers of the people than in any other way. Fraternally he affiliates with the Knights of the Golden Eagle, being a member of the Pitman Grove, N. J., organization of that order, and is a charter member of the Junior Order of American Mechanics at Pitman Grove. New Jersey.
SCHIMMEL BROTHERS
There are not in the vicinity of Tulare two men better or more favorably known than the brothers F. C. and A. R. Schimmel, who live eight miles west of the city on the Paige Switch road. F. C. Schimmel is a native of Yamhill county, Ore., while A. R. Schimmel was born in Portland in the same state. Their parents farmed for a time near Portland, then engaged in milling and the lumber busi- ness in southern Oregon until 1901, when they disposed of their in- terests there and came to Kings county and farmed four years with W. H. Wilbur, of Alpaugh. In 1905 the brothers bought a tract of nine hundred and sixty acres of land six miles west and two miles sonth of Tulare, on which they have made all the improvements, including a residence, barns, ordinary fencing and hog-tight fence and two artesian wells. Their irrigation is largely supplied from the Packwood ditch, in which they own four hundred and fifty-two shares. Four hundred acres of their land is in alfalfa and one hun- dred is under irrigation. The feature of their business is the breed- ing of mules, for which they keep two jacks and one hundred mares for breeding purposes only, and they give special attention to the raising of hogs. Besides the operation of the property just de- scribed they farm six thousand acres near Angiola, devoting the en- tire tract to grain. They use a Holt machine and mnles and also a harvester; at times they have harvested for others near by, but they have decided to confine their work of this kind to their own lands
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in the future. They employ ten men in season and keep about forty head of work stock.
In October, 1906, F. C. Schimmel married Fannie Garrison of Oregon. Both of the Schimmel brothers are members of Tulare lodge No. 1484, F. O. E., and F. C. Schimmel affiliates with the Tulare organization of the Woodmen of the World. They are popular so- cially and are welcomed in business circles as men of enterprise and of tried and dependable publie spirit.
W. J. SMITH
In Montgomery county, Mo., W. J. Smith was born July 31, 1844, the son of M. H. and Rebecca (Eperson) Smith, natives respec- tively of Virginia and of Kentucky. His father passed away nearly thirty years ago and his mother, who married very young, died when she was but thirty-three years old. W. J. Smith was early taken to Audrain county, Mo., where he lived until he was eighteen years old, obtaining an education in common schools and accustoming him- self to productive labor. At the age above mentioned he came over- land to California with a wagon train of emigrants under the leader- ship of Captain Allen, taking his turn at standing guard whenever the party camped. His father and mother were of the party. The family halted at Marysville, then located at Knights Landing, where they lived from 1863 to 1872. In Modoe county Mr. Smith filed on public land on which he lived about fourteen years, and early in his residence there he and his wife were called upon to brave the terrors of the historic Modoe war. From Modoc county he came to Tulare county and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land near Red Banks. He is now the owner of forty acres, five acres of this being under orange trees, the balance devoted to peaches, apricots, miscellaneous fruits and grapes. His ranch is well supplied with buildings and all essentials to successful cultivation and he keeps six to eight horses. As a citizen he is influentially helpful, and in polities he is independent. He became a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows while a resident of Modoc county, and it was there too that he married. The lady who became his wife was Miss Florence Warren, a native of Oregon, and she has borne him ten children, Emma, James, Frank, Viola, Steward, Wilbert, Earl, Essie, Charles and Delma. Steward and Essie have passed away; James married Bertha Swan, and they and their son make their home at Red Banks: Emma became the wife of Elmer Brotherton of Visalia and has borne him six children: Frank, of Wood Lake Valley, married Lena Ganes; Viola married August Woodward of Tulare.
Smith
Florence & Smith
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GEORGE WOOD
Men of English birth who have won success in California are numerous, and among them one whose career is properly within the scope of this work is George Wood, farmer and president of the Tulare Eucalyptus Company. Mr. Wood was born on the British isle, November 2, 1861. In 1884, when he was twenty-three years old, he came to Saskatchewan, Canada, and homesteaded land, which he improved until 1888. Then he disposed of his interests there and during the succeeding seven years farmed and raised stock in Ward county, N. Dak. Subsequently until 1909 he lived in Mckenzie county, N. Dak., where he took up one hundred and sixty acres of land and started in to raise sheep and cattle. In 1906, however, he sold off his stock, and after that he devoted himself to farming nntil he settled in California. In 1907 he visited Tulare county, Cal., and with a partner bought one hundred and thirty-two acres of land, of which he eventually retained sixty-nine acres. Since he located here he has made improvements on the property and has put forty acres under alfalfa and intends to handle the balance of the fract in the same way. His principal business is in growing hay, and he keeps little stock beyond what is necessary to operate his farm.
In 1889 Mr. Wood married Miss Caroline E. Jones, an English woman, and they have four children, Arthur, Maggie, Frank and George. Maggie is the wife of Roy N. Johnson, of North Dakota. Mr. Wood knows farming as well as any man in his vicinity and his farm is sufficient evidence of that fact. He has achieved his success in life by wise planning and hard work. His interest in the com- munity with which he has cast his lot impels him to a course which marks him as a citizen of much public spirit.
CHARLES F. BLASWICK
A Californian born and bred, Charles F. Blaswick was born October 4, 1857, in Plumas county, and he was taken by his parents to Colusa, then to Yuba county. From Yuba county he came to Tu- lare in 1886, and for the succeeding fourteen years he was employed continuously on the ranch of Joseph LaMarche. During that time he lived on the place, worked steadily and saved his money, and in 1900 he bought one hundred and twenty acres on which was a small house and barn, and soon thereafter had built an addition to the residence, fenced the land and put in a dairy of thirty or forty cows and was breeding horses and hogs and making a specialty of poultry. In these lines he has continued till the present time. Much of his land is nsed for pasture. At the present time he is putting in eighty
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acres of alfalfa, and has installed electric lighting for his house and premises. He obtains water for domestic purposes by means of an artesian well with a six-inch pipe and for irrigation from two large wells, one a fifty-eight-footer, the other an eighty-footer, the pumps in which are operated by one gasoline motor, one hundred inches of water being produced. Mr. Blaswick also raises stock on a small scale. ITis sons, William and Frederick, rent three hundred and twenty acres of the Gibson ranch, operate a dairy on the property and have one hundred and twenty acres in alfalfa and two hundred in grain. They rent also one hundred and sixty acres of the Birch Williams ranch, all of which is devoted to grain raising.
The Dairymen's Co-operative Creamery Company of Tulare numbers Mr. Blaswick among its stockholders. He affiliates with the Tulare lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a regular and social member of the Tulare organization of the Wood- men of the World. His sons are identified with the Woodmen of the World and the Fraternal Brotherhood, his daughter Wilhelmina with the last mentioned order and Mrs. Blaswick with the order of Fraternal Aid.
Mr. Blaswick married, November 27, 1884, Miss Anna Mahle, a native of Yuba county, Cal., and they have four daughters and two sons. William and Frederick are ranchers, and the latter married Winifred Kessell. Wilhelmina married Elmer Berkerhoff and re- sides in Tulare county. Mary Ann, Allie and Leona are members of their parents' household.
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