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 43
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 43
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ROBERT O. NEWMAN
In North Carolina was born Jacob Newman, son of a patriot of the war of 1812. He settled at Booneville, Mo., in 1821, and was a farmer and distiller, his distillery having stood a mile from the Missouri river. He went to Texas in 1854, and lived ont his days at Port Sullivan. His son Jesse G. Newman was born at Booneville, Mo., grew up there, married and went to work as a farmer. In 1849 he turned his back on Booneville and, crossing the plains with ox-team, mined on Feather river, Cal. In 1852 he went back to Boone- ville, where he died, aged fifty-two years. A man of ability, he was judge of Cooper county, Mo., eight years and was for a time captain of a company of Missouri Home Guards in the Federal service in the Civil war. He was well known as an Odd Fellow. IIe married Elizabeth Hill, a native of Kentucky, daughter of James Hill, a Mississippian by birth, and an early settler and pioneer farmer at Booneville. Mr. Hill was sheriff of Cooper county and died there,
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after a life of activity and usefulness. Mrs. Newman survived her husband and eventually passed away in Tulare county. Of their twelve children, six are living: Robert Oscar, whose name is above; Jesse II .; Harry Hill; Frank; Fannie, wife of George P. Robinson of Nevada; and Maggie, widow of the late Marion Grove, of Visalia.
The birth of Robert Oscar Newman occurred July 4, 1848, in Booneville, Mo. There he was brought up to the life of a farmer's boy and educated in a district school, the Booneville school and Alli- son's Academy for Boys in that town. In the Civil War he served as a member of his father's company, which was called out during Shelby's raid in 1863 and Price's raid in 1864. Price came to Booneville with thirty thousand men, and as there were only a hun- dred and fifty men in the Home Guards, the latter was forced to sur- render, but its men were paroled three days later. After the war Mr. Newman farmed on the Newman place, near Booneville, till he was twenty-three years old. Then, in 1871, he went to Elko, Nev., where for two years he teamed in the mountains. After the death of his father he returned to Missouri and conducted the home farm for his mother till in 1882, when he purchased an adjoining farm, which he sold two years later in order to come to Tulare county, Cal. Soon after his arrival he rented land on the Cottonwood and went into wheat growing, having in charge four thousand acres of the Fielding Bacon holdings, running a big farming outfit which included seven eight-mule teams. By 1892 he had accumulated $25,000, but the financial stringency of 1893 and the reverses of several dry seasons made him as poor as he had been at the beginning of these extensive operations.
In 1898 Mr. Newman settled on his present home property, then known as the old Morgan Beard ranch. His property now includes three linndred acres devoted to grain and alfalfa and six hundred and forty acres of the Fielding Bacon land. His specialty is the raising of fine trotting stock, and he is conspicuous as the dealer in Tulare county who invariably offers regular Standard bred horses. He has produced more record horses than any other man in the San Joaquin valley, among which have been the following: Robert Basler, 2.20, by Antebolo, 2.19, son of Electioneer, his dam being Elizabeth Basler; De Bernardi Basler, 2.1614, by Robert Basler; Ida May, by Grosvenor, the dam of Homeward, 2.131/4, by Strathway, sired George G., 2.0514; Dr. W., 2.1814, by Robert Basler; Jonesa Basler, 2.0534. by Robert Basler; Stoneway, 2.22, by Strathway, 2.19, whose dam was Elizabeth Basler; sired Myway, 2.1514; Stoneletta, 2.1514 at two years old. He owns at present Robert Direct, ten years old, by Direct, 2.0515, dam Daisy Basler, by Robert Basler, one of the finest bred horses in the United States; Dew Drop Basler, by Robert Basler; Ida May, by Grosvenor; Daisy Basler, by Robert Basler;
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Wedding Bells, by Robert Basler; all fine Standard bred mares. Mr. Newman is reputed to be one of the best judges of horses in America. For a time he dealt also in cattle and was the owner of a splendid herd of Jersey cows.
At Booneville, Mo., Mr. Newman married Frances Ziegel, daugh- ter of Andrew Ziegel, an early settler, farmer and tanner in Missouri. and they have seven children: Grace, wife of Henry J. Lyman, Hilo, Hawaii; Walter, a graduate of the University of California; Tracy, a merchant at Portland, Oregon; Elizabeth, a trained nurse, at Hono- lulu; Nellie, a graduate of the Visalia high school; Robert O., Jr .. who was educated at the University of California; Lola, a graduate of the Visalia high school. Mr. Newman is a Democrat and has been useful to his party in Tulare county by his long service as a member of the county central committee. He advocates all measures which, in his opinion, promise to benefit any considerable number of his worthy fellow citizens, and, taken all in all, is one of the most prom- inent, substantial and useful citizens of his part of the state.
LOWERY B. KING
Among the progressive and prosperous Missourians who are making a record of success in C'entral California is L. B. King of Tulare county, whose ranch is on rural free delivery route No. 1. out of Visalia. Mr. King was born in Buchanan county, in the state mentioned, March 5, 1865. a son of James W. and Elizabeth J. (Jones) King. He was reared and educated and taught farming in his native state as it was practiced there, and in 1886, when he was twenty-one years old. he came to California and settled near Visalia and for five years leased and operated a ranch belonging to Sands Baker.
Later Mr. King farmed land in the Kaweah Swamp district for several years, raising potatoes and other crops which yielded good returns. Then, responding to the call of the east, he went to Okla- homa and Missouri and tried to farm there, but was driven back to C'alifornia by destructive droughts; and here he has been content to remain ever since; here he firmly believes he will live out his allotted days on earth. For a time after his return he was foreman on the Kane ranch in Tulare county. Since January, 1907, he has farmed a one hundred and twenty acre ranch owned by Sands Baker, his father-in-law, which includes a profitable dairy of thirty-five cows. He gives attention to the breeding of horses and has several good brood mares which invariably raise fine colts. Hogs and chickens are a source of revenne to him; he has forty aeres of alfalfa and a
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garden. All in all, he is one of the really successful farmers of his part of the county. As a citizen he is public-spiritedly helpful. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. While he has never been particularly active in political work, he is alert and patriotic in the performance of his duties as a voter and has ably filled the office of clerk of the school board of the Union district and the office of school trustee.
In 1892 Mr. King married Miss Mattie Baker, a native of Fresno county, and they have four children, Ethel F., Lanris M., Sands E. and Helen B. Lanris M. was graduated at fourteen from the Union High School, took a course at a boarding school in Los Angeles, and is now attending the Visalia high school.
SAMUEL A. BREWER
The prosperous rancher whose name is sufficient to direct the attention of the reader to this notice had lived in Kings county since 1873 and is one of the best known tillers of the soil and breeders of fine stock and poultry in all the country round about Hanford. Born at Coyote, Santa Clara county, Cal., March 8, 1867, he attended pub- lie schools until he was nineteen years old, then working on the ranch for his father until he was twenty-three, at which age he entered mpon an independent career. It will be noted that he was only six years old when his family settled in Tulare county, in that part now known as Kings, and that he has lived here practically all his life. His first land purchase was one of twenty-one and one-quarter acres, but he. rented and ran in connection with it the old Dillon place. This arrangement lasted but a year, however, for at the beginning of his second season he settled on his home place and branched out in the raising of cattle, hogs and chickens, Six years later he added to his holding by the purchase of another twenty-one acres, and by subsequent purchases has brought the area of his ranch up to eighty-five aeres, well stocked, well provided with buildings, machinery and appliances, and exceptionally well tilled. In recent years Mr. Brewer has devoted himself particularly to dairying and to hog-raising.
In 1908, as an experiment, Mr. Brewer put in four acres of sugar beets and from that planting secured sixty-two tons, which netted him $164, showing that, all things being equal, this is a profitable crop. He brought the first beet-drill to his ranch. the first cultivator, plowed the first beets and put the first beets in the car at Odessa. He was successful, following directions given to see what the possibilities were. 26
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January 18, 1890, Mr. Brewer married Miss Effie Webber, who was born in Newport, Pa., June 22, 1871, and they have three chil- dren living, whom they have named Harry 1., Ethel M. and Clara L. One child died in infancy. While he is not very active politically, Mr. Brewer takes a broad view of all economic questions and loyally performs his duties as a citizen. Ile has never sought office, nor has he ever accepted it except in one instance, when he consented to become a school trustee, in which capacity he labored effectively for local education during a period of six years. His public spirit has been many times tried and never found wanting and his influence is always exerted for the amelioration of the conditions under which he and his neighbors must work and live. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Fraternal Brother- hood.
HENRY BERTCH
An up-to-date and prominent dairyman of Tulare is Henry Bertel, who was born November 11, 1857, in Erie county, N. Y., twelve miles from Buffalo. There he followed the life of a farmer's general boy, gaining an education in the public schools, and he re- mained there until 1884, when he was twenty-seven years old. Com- ing then to Tulare county, C'al., he readily found farm work. He homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres and in 1885 bought one hundred and sixty acres more near Delano, in Kern county. These tracts he farmed six years without any adequate returns, suffering losses because of dry seasons. Later until 1895 he worked a rented farm in Tulare county, and then leased an adjoining farm and con- trolled an aggregate of three hundred and twenty acres, which he operated until 1898. In that year he bought one hundred and sixty acres eight miles west of Tulare, on which he made improvements, enclosing five fields with hog-tight fences. He planted three acres to orchard and gave fifty acres to alfalfa. He now has a dairy of twelve cows and devotes sixty-five acres of his land to grain and the balance to pasture. He has put down a well one hundred and seven feet deep for irrigation, which is fitted with a six-inch pump, the motor power of which is a fifteen horse-power gasoline engine, and a seventy-foot well for domestic uses. Dairying is perhaps his chief business aside from farming, and he is a stockholder in the Dairy- men's Co-operative Creamery at Tulare.
In 1903 Mr. Bertch married Harriet Hoffman. Socially he affili- ates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being a member
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of the Tulare lodge. As a farmer he is well informed on all sub- jects pertaining to that vocation, being considered an authority. His public spirit is of a quality that makes him a most useful citizen.
ORLANDO D. BARTON
A great-grandson of a soldier of the Revolutionary war and a grandson of a soldier of the war of 1812, his progenitors in the pa- ternal line, Orlando D. Barton was born in La Salle county, Ill., in 1847, a son of James and Susan (Davenport) Barton, natives of Mor- ris county, N. J., the former born November 2, 1819, and the latter on October 30, 1823. James Barton crossed the plains with his fam- ily in 1865, following the North Platte river route to Salt Lake and the Austin & Walker's lake route from there on. The Sioux Indians were then at war and caused the train of which the Bartons were members considerable trouble. However, the family arrived safely at Visalia October 6, that year, and camped near the present site of the Santa Fe depot. The father took up land at the site of Auckland and raised cattle there on four hundred and forty acres for fourteen years. In 1879 he moved to Three Rivers, where he lived until his death, September 2, 1912, except during the periods of his inenm- bency of the office of supervisor of Tulare county, when his home was in Visalia.
The elder Mr. Barton was honored by election to the office in the county for five terms and was prominent in the management of county affairs. The court house was built under his supervision and he had charge of the erection of the old and the new county jails. He reached the advanced age of ninety-two years and ten months, his wife dying January 19, 1912, aged eighty-eight years and two months, and died on the sixty-ninth anniversary of their marriage. Both were honored as pioneers who braved the hardships of the overland trail to pave the way for the present civilization of California. Of their children we mention the following: Hudson D. married Sarah Harmon and they have six children-James, who married Nellie St. Clair and has two danghters; Frank, who mar- ried Miss Foncht, who has borne him two children; Albertns, who married Miss Downing and has three children; and Royal V., Hugh and Orlena. Orlando D. is the immediate subject of this sketch. Enos D. was the next in order of birth. Jane married J. B. Weath- ers, of Visalia, and they have two children, Grover and Mrs. Carrie Sweet. Adelaide is the wife of J. II. Butts, of Hanford, and they have two children, Dell and Mrs. Ida Hamilton. Melissa married R. C. Ilardin of Visalia and they have three children, Norman, Mrs.
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Blanche Young and Benjamin. James and Susan (Davenport) Bar- ton had, all counted, abont fifty descendants.
It is as a writer that Orlando D. Barton is perhaps best known, his articles about the Indians and other western subjects having been widely read. In the days of his youth he ranched with his father and brothers, helped to build sawmills and to get out lumber in the mountains, and taught three terms of school in the Cottonwood dis- triet. Later he settled on a ranch at Three Rivers, which is now the site of the River Inn, and raised cattle and hogs there eight years. In the period since he has been interested in mining and oil, being a practical mineralogist of many years' study and experience. He is the owner of quite extensive oil interests in the Lost Hills and in the Devil's Den mining district of Kern and Kings counties.
In 1880 Mr. Barton married Miss Maggie Allen, a native of California, who died in 1888, leaving two children. Their daughter Phoebe, wife of Alexander McLennan, of Visalia, has a son. Their son Cornelius is employed by the San Joaquin Light and Power Company.
ASA T. GRIFFIN
As soldier, farmer and citizen Asa T. Griffin has won the re- spect of all with whom he has from time to time been associated. He was born in Cooper county, Mo., Angust 8, 1842, and from there his family soon afterward moved to Benton county, where he grew up. In 1861, when he was only nineteen years old, he enlisted in the Sixty-fourth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the Civil war, when he was mustered out at Lonis- ville, Ky., in July, 1865. He took part in much historic fighting. including that at New Madrid, the siege and battle of Corinth, and later served under General Sherman in the South. Going back to his old home, he soon afterward located in St. Clair county, Ill., where he farmed successfully.
In 1873 Mr. Griffin came to California and settled in Tulare county, and since that time he has been ranching near Visalia. Formerly he gave attention especially to cattle and to dairying, but now he owns twenty acres four miles southwest of Visalia, ten acres of which is in Mnir and Lovell peaches, another ten in alfalfa. Since 1906 he has been a rural mail carrier, delivering mail from Visalia over part of ronte No. 1. ITis service as a soldier makes him eligible to membership in the Grand Army of the Republic, and in his post he is active and helpful. March 9, 1869, Mr. Griffin married Miss Ann Esther Preston, born February 2, 1849, in St. Clair county,
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Mo. They have had six children: Mrs. Margaret Elizabeth Collins, deceased; James M .; George P., also deceased; and Benjamin, Thomas and Bernard.
It will be seen that the Griffins have been pioneers, generation after generation. Mr. Griffin's grandfather Griffin settled in How- ard county, Mo., in 1817, and his forefathers were pioneers further east. Mr. Griffin is a citizen of helpful impulses, who, in different ways, has done much for the general good. The patriotic spirit that impelled him as a mere hoy to risk his life for the preservation of the union of the states has directed him along the ways of public nsefulness ever since, wherever he has cast his lot.
LINCOLN HENRY BYRON
One of the progressive and up-to-date business men of Lemoore is Lincoln Henry Byron, who was born in 1866, in Contra Costa county, Cal. In 1868 he was brought by his parents to Lemoore, Kings county, where he has since lived and which is now his head- quarters for the automobile agency, the success of which has made him well known throughout this part of the state. He was educated in the public schools of Lemoore and in the University of the Pacific at San Jose, and then engaged in farming on the lake bottoms near the lake, where, in association with his father for seven years, he operated twenty-seven hundred acres. For two years thereafter he was in the livery business at Los Angeles, and the next two years he spent as proprietor and manager of the Germania hotel at Ox- nard. Returning to Kings county he was for two years engaged in boring wells for water, and during the next four years he was a traveling agent for the Watkins Medicine company, with headquarters at Vancouver, Clark county, Wash. Then coming again to Lemoore, he bought, in 1906, the Joseph Marriott homestead of eighty acres which he developed into a fine vineyard, meantime devoting part of his time to dealing in horses and selling tents and awnings. In 1911 he bought a half interest in the Lemoore garage. He is the agent for the Ford auto for the western half of Kings county, including Lemoore and Coalinga and their tributary territory, and so suc- cessful has he been in handling this car, which ranks among the best, that he sold twenty-one machines between October 31 and Feb- rnary 10 following. From time to time other interests have com- manded his attention and he has invested in oil land in the Devil's Den country and is promoting the oil development in that field.
In 1887 Mr. Byron married Julia Bozeman and they have three children. Their daughter Bertha is the wife of Louis Burke of
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Coalinga, and their sons, Carl and Lawrence, are students in the high school at Lemoore. As a family the Byrons are popular wherever they are known. Their circle of acquaintance is wide and constantly extending and their influence in all their relations is exerted for the uplift of the community. Mr. Byron is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
ARTHUR G. DALY
This native son of the Golden State was born in Lake county May 20, 1858, a son of Patrick M. and Mary E. (O'Hara) Daly, natives, respectively, of Ireland and of New York. The elder Daly came to California, by way of Cape Horn, in 1848, and was the first bottler of porter in San Francisco. He was long in the cattle trade and in the pork packing business in the employ of Ruth, Brum & Company, and later bred cattle in Lake county until 1906, when he died. His wife had passed away December 20, 1881. Of their chil- dren the following survive : James P., of Exeter; Dennis B., of Yokohl valley, Tulare county; Mrs. Maggie Clancy, of San Francisco; and Arthur G., of Visalia, who is the immediate subject of this notice. The father was one of the organizers of the Ancient Order of United Workmen in Lake county, and was otherwise active and influential.
It was in Lake county, Cal., that Arthur G. Daly was reared and educated, his book studies having been prosecuted in public schools near his boyhood home. In 1882 he went to Ashland, Ore., and engaged in the sheep-raising industry. He came to the Yokohl val- ley in 1888, and for a number of years raised cattle on a ranch of seven hundred and fifty acres. In 1904 he bought one hundred and sixty aeres near Farmersville at $25 an acre and improved it and subsequently sold it at $90 an acre, a price that afforded him a fine profit. His present home farm of three hundred and twenty acres, three miles north of Visalia, he purchased December 1, 1907. Eighty acres of it is in alfalfa, and he raises many hogs, cattle and fine horses and has a dairy of thirty cows.
Mr. Daly married Mrs. (Lee) Smith, a native of California. March 27. 1890. William Lee, her father, was an overland pioneer in California in 1849, making the journey with ox-teams. He was born in Virginia and reared in Missouri, and had been a brave sol- dier in the Mexican war. For some years after he came to California he teamed in San Francisco, Fresno, Stockton and Sacramento. Then he came to Tulare county and got into the cattle business, in which he was active and successful around Visalia for many years. His death, April 24, 1892, was sincerely mourned by family, by friends, by all who had come within the influence of his personality. His
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recollections of the west went back to the real pioneer days, the days of the miners, the outlaws and the vigilantes, of Indians and of the stern white men who risked their lives to defend their women and children against savage raids. He had done his part in Indian fighting and had known many of those bold spirits who had made a profession of fighting the redskins. Of his children, the following named were living in 1912: Joseph, Charles, Mrs. Mary Dumont and Mrs. Arthur G. Daly.
With Exeter lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Mr. Daly is identified. He takes a helpful interest in all that pertains to the advancement of the people among whom he lives, is intelli- gently concerned in all public affairs and may be counted upon to be on the sane and patriotic side of any question of economic im- port.
JOHN H. HAUSCHILDT
New York has sent to California many men who have been an acquisition to its citizenship, efficient in the promotion of its impor- tant business interests and helpful in numerous directions. Among men of this class who are well known in the vicinity of Tulare, Tu- lare county, is John H. Hanschildt, a native of New York City, born Angust 20, 1869. As a youth he was taken to Kansas, where he lived until 1894, acquiring an education and farming and working in gen- eral merchandise stores. The Cherokee Strip in Oklahoma was opened September 16, 1893. He went down there from Kansas in 1894 and secured eighty acres, to the development of which he gave the ensuing three years and a half. Then he was in the Indian ser- vice six years and a half, until in 1904, when the state of his health impelled him to seek the climate of California. He came on here, and April 18, 1906, made his first land purchase in the state. It consisted of eighty acres of orchard, located six miles northwest of Tulare. In October, 1907, he bought twenty acres two miles west of Tulare, on the Hanford road, and here he has eighteen acres in alfalfa, a dairy of ten cows, many cattle and hogs and five hundred hens. As to his eighty acres, he disposed of the peach orchard and devoted twenty-five acres to prunes and fifteen acres to Muscat grapes and put the remaining forty acres under alfalfa. This prop- erty he lets ont for a cash rental.
In 1896 Mr. Hanschildt married Miss Nora Hansen, of Kansas. and they have a son, Carl Hauschildt, who is a member of their household. The family are of the congregation of the Methodist Episcopal church at Tulare and Mr. Hauschildt is prominent in the
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affairs of the organization, filling the office of steward and acting as choirmaster. Believing in the idea that the human race should advance and that the place in which to begin all good work is at home, he gives generous aid to all efforts for the uplift of the com- munity.
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