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 44
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 44
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F. A. THOMAS
A native son of Tulare county, one of the comparatively few elder ones who are leaders there now, F. A. Thomas was born Octo- ber 6, 1858, a son of William and Mary A. (Jordan-Courtner) Thom- as. His father came across the plains from the east in 1852 and settled in San Bernardino county, whence he moved to Tulare county. His first marriage was to Eda Hall, who bore him a daughter named Adilla. Mary A. Jordan married William Courtner, and they came across the plains from Texas with ox-teams in 1847, John Jordan, father of Mary A. and grandfather of F. A. Thomas, having been captain of the train. After an eventful and wearisome journey of six months, they arrived in San Joaquin county, and there Mr. Jor- dan and Mr. Conrtner passed away. The following are the names of the children of William and Mary A. (Jordan) Conrtner: Eli, Jennie E., Lee C., James, Mary, Alice E., Ellis T., Preston B. and Melissa (who died in infancy). James is also deceased.
All his life Mr. Thomas has farmed and raised stock. That he has prospered may be inferred from the fact that he owns one hun- dred and ten city lots in Tulare, eighty acres of timber land, twenty- eight acres of orange grove, an interest in the Courtner sawmills in the mountains, and he has recently sold twenty-two hundred acres of land in Drum valley. He freights lumber from his mill to Tulare, fifty-eight miles. His experiences in this part of the state compass the entire period of its modern development. He remembers well the killing by Digger Indians of Pioneer Woods and was well acquainted with Evans and Sontag and other celebrated characters whose names are identified with the earlier history of central California and has been on the spot where the two desperadoes mentioned were cap- tured, and had often hunted on the plains and in the woods and was one time treed by wild hogs. Among others whom he knew in earlier days was Mr. Breckenridge, who was killed by Indians in Eshom valley. and it was since he came that the Dalton brothers . had their short but eventful career in this part of the country. Politically he early affiliated with the Democratic party. He was a charter mem- ber of a local organization of the Woodmen of the World of Visalia. He has been very prominent in many movements for the benefit of the community, in which he is well known.
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RICHARD CHATTEN
The Chatten family, which for years was worthily represented in Visalia by the late Richard Chatten and now by his son Thomas A. Chatten, is prominent in Ontario, Canada, where Richard Chatten was born, December 11, 1826. Of English origin they have lived in Canada since the Colonial times, and here Mr. Chatten was reared to manhood, working in the lumber woods there and in the northern part of the United States. His educational training was procured in the common schools of Canada and New York, and in 1849 he returned to Canada for a short time. Anxious to see other parts of the world and find a more encouraging field for his labors he decided to seek the western country, and accordingly made his way to St. Louis, Mo., working as a river raftsman, rafting logs from the Wisconsin pine woods, and at the age of twenty-seven years he was residing in that eity. In the spring of 1850, in company with others, he outfitted seven ox-wagons and started overland for Cali- fornia, eager to try their fortunes with the rest of the gold-seekers. Taking a southern ronte they traveled through the state of Texas, and while there Mr. Chatten met his future wife, who was Margaret Glenn, daughter of Alexander and Eleanor Glenn, who were also on their way to the coast, and they accordingly joined their trains and traveled the remaining distance together. On the way the Indians stole several head of their cattle, but the animals were so tired from their long trip that they could not be driven fast enough and the party recovered them. They stopped at Salt Lake city for three weeks to rest and two weeks of this time Mr. Chatten was employed by Brigham Young, for which he was amply paid. The party finally arrived in Los Angeles in the fall of the year, and Mr. Chatten and the four Glenn boys pushed on to what was then Sonora county, where they engaged in placer-mining near Mariposa, where he met with some success and after working there for a year and a half returned to Los Angeles, where he purchased abont two hundred head of eattle, and this was the start of his extensive stock busi- ness.
Driving his eattle about nine miles west of Visalia he settled there for a time, and was married there in the home of John C. Reed on January 12, 1854, to Margaret Glenn, above mentioned. They suffered many hardships through the troublesome Indians and as busi- ness often took Mr. Chatten to Stockton and Los Angeles he was compelled to bring his wife to Visalia for protection during his ah- sence. He came to Visalia in 1886 and that city had in him a wide- awake, industrious citizen until his death, which occurred there Ang- nst 12, 1896. He prospered in his stock business by his clever management and untiring perseverance, and added to his property
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from time to time. until he became one of the largest landholders in the vicinity. He owned the Mineral King fruit ranch of six hundred and sixty acres, which lies east of Visalia and disposed of it at a gratifying profit. He also owned one of the first apple or chards in the county and at the time of his death his property hold- ings covered an area of about four thousand acres. Mr. Chatten laid out the Chatten ditch, now called the Fleming ditch and a part of the Mineral King Fruit company's holdings.
Mrs. Chatten passed away in 1890, leaving one son and three daughters, namely: Thomas A., a prominent stockman and dairy- man of Visalia; Frances, of San Francisco; C'elesta; and Eliza, wife of Louis Whitendale, near Visalia. For a second wife Mr. Chatten married, in 1892, Mrs. Leah (Miller) Davis, widow of the late Thomas H. Davis, a pioneer of Antelope valley. Mrs. Chatten was born in Arkansas and crossed the plains to California in 1856, and since 1857 has been a resident of Tulare county. Mr. Chatten was a well- known Mason, and was always a prominent factor in movements that had for their object the benefit of his community, and his memory will ever be held saered by his many friends and associates in Visalia and the surrounding country, where he was best known.
FRED C. HOWE
It was in Santa Clara county that this native son of California was born in 1858. Henry N. and Rebecca J. Howe, his parents. came out here in 1852 from Maine, his father coming around Cape Horn, his mother by way of the Isthmus of Panama. For some time his father mined in Mariposa county and ran a sawmill near Felton in Santa Cruz county. Then the family went to British Columbia and lived there several years, while the father mined with little suc- cess near Caribou. Returning to California, they located at San Jose, Santa Clara county. When Fred C. Howe was sixteen years old he went to Solano, whence in 1875 he and his brother Frank came to what is now Kings county and located near the site of Han- ford. They acquired railroad land and remained in that vicinity until 1905, devoting themselves principally to the raising of grain. Then Fred C. Howe settled in Tulare county on eighty acres, eight and a half miles southwest from Tulare, which he bought of J. W. Stitt. There was on the place an artesian well, a house and some fencing, and eighty acres of it was given over to orchard. Mr. Howe has built a barn on the property, eliminated the orchard and en- closed the entire eighty acres in hog-tight fence. Irrigation is ob- tained from an artesian well and from the Tulare irrigating canal.
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With fifteen acres in alfalfa, Mr. Howe is doing general farming and raising blooded horses, cattle and hogs. Besides the operation of his home farm, he rents three hundred and twenty acres adjoining. on which he raises grain. For the past thirty years or longer he has run a thresher in season in Tulare and Kings connties. He is a stockholder in the Dairymen's Co-operative Creamery Company.
In 1890 Mr. Howe entered into a marriage by which he had two children, one of whom, Edith, is living at Oakland. In 1909 lie married (second) Miss Elizabeth Stitt.
HENRY GODFREY TRAEGER
As proprietor of one of the leading furniture stores of Porter- ville, Tulare county, and as a high-class business man and man of affairs, the subject of this brief notice is well known in the central part of the state. He was born in Kenton, Hardin county, Ohio, April 10, 1859, a son of Angustus and Margareta (Schope) Traeger. His parents were born in Germany, his father at Halle-on-der-Saale January 23, 1824, his mother at Reichenburg, Bairon, November 6, 1831. Their marriage was celebrated April 15, 1852, at Kenton, Ohio. The son attended the public schools of Kenton until he was twelve years old, then took up the active duties of life as a clerk in a dry goods store in that town.
Mr. Traeger came to Porterville in 1884, arriving November 26. and, failing to secure work in a store, began chopping wood by the cord. Soon, however, he fell a victim to fever and went to the moun- tains and found work as a herder of hogs. Forty-eight days later he returned to the valley in good health. He worked ten acres of vineyard on shares, making from five thousand to six thousand gal- lons of wine each year for three years. He then went to work for Wilko Mentz in his store, as he supposed for only a week, but re- mained for fourteen years, and gave it up only because of ill health in order to go to the mountains. For a time he took care of a lum- ber yard for A. M. Coburn; then he mined in the White River dis- trict. Next we find him in Alaska, increased in weight from one hundred and thirty-five pounds to two hundred and eight pounds and greatly improved in health. There he remained one season, and after his return he became a grain buyer for Eppenger & Company. Later he was in the furniture business for five years, then traded his store for a grocery business, sold that and became interested in the electrical business, and then traded that for orange land, but soon discovered that he was not likely to succeed as a farmer and took advantage of a good opportunity to dispose of his holding.
For three years Mr. Traeger was deputy assessor under J. F.
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Gibson and assessed the taxpayers of the city of Porterville in the first and second years of its corporate existence. As a Republican he was elected a member of the board of trustees of Porterville, in which capacity he served faithfully and efficiently three years, when he resigned. Socially he is a member of the Tule River Fishing and Shooting Association. Fraternally he associates with the Ma- sons, being a member of Porterville Lodge, F. & A. M., and the Royal Arch Chapter.
At Porterville, September 5, 1891, Mr. Traeger married Mary Schmidt, a daughter of Joseph Schmidt, who was the leader of the Second Regiment Band at Black Point and the Presidio. They have children named Henry A., a trap-drummer, and Wilko J., the latter attending high school at Porterville. As a citizen Mr. Traeger has always been helpful to every movement for the advancement of Porterville and the country round about.
CARYL CHURCH
In 1878 Caryl Church moved to Tulare county and became a settler in the San Joaquin valley. He was born in Erie county, Ohio, June 6, 1846, and was eleven years old when his family immi- grated to Iowa and twenty-three when he came to California. His early life was spent in school and at work on his father's farm. For a time after he came to this state he worked for wages, mostly on ranches, and the knowledge of farming that he acquired in that way was a fitting complement to that which he had acquired under his father's instruction. Now he was a California farmer, fully com- petent to go into business for himself. Coming to Kings county, he. located on what is now his home place, a fine ranch not far from Hanford. By successive purchases he has become the owner of four hundred acres of as productive land as is to be found in his vicinity. He hegan as a wheat raiser, and as such he was successful until stock raising promised him better returns. He raises hogs, horses and cattle, and his stock of whatever kind is as good as is offered in the market, always sells well and sometimes brings top-notch prices.
In 1871 Mr. Church married Miss Annie E. Howland, who was born in the state of New York. They became the parents of six children, Charles, Elery, Beecher, Birch, Carrie (the wife of Frank Sanborn), and one daughter who died in early childhood. The sons are living on adjoining ranches, all prospering by their devotion to the interests that have brought their father so much snecess. A recent specialty of Mr. Church is grapes, to which he has given five
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acres of suitable land. In the affairs of his township, county, state and nation he takes a sincere and most intelligent interest, and he has many times manifested a commendable public spirit.
THE FENWICK SANITARIUM
In this era of advanced surgery and scientific treatment of dis- ease, the sanitarium properly equipped and conducted is an absolute necessity in any city. Visalia possesses in the Fenwick Sanitarium, conducted and owned by Miss D. V. Fenwick, an institution afford- ing every facility in emergency and surgical cases and a quiet re- treat for persons desiring a restful environment in which to regain health. Miss Fenwick, who was graduated from the Los Angeles county and city hospitals in 1902, and from the Children's hospital in San Francisco, is experienced in her chosen line. Patients in her care are allowed choice of physicians, and leading physicians and surgeons practice in and recommend the institution. This sani- tarium is ideally located on Mineral King avenue, far enough from the city to insure quiet and pure atmosphere. Fresh fruit from or- chards surrounding the building, vegetables from the sanitarium gar- den, butter and milk and cream from Miss Fenwick's own dairy and eggs from her poultry yard add much to the efficiency of the institution. The place has recently been remodeled and improved, and the building is one of the best appointed of its kind in central California. A new operating room, completely equipped, has been added and every modern aid to surgery is supplied; two trained nurses are regularly employed and others as they are required, and the sanitarium is equal to the accommodation of fourteen patients. The various railroads of this section patronize it, which is in itself a splendid recommendation.
The history of this institution dates from 1902, when it was established, in a small way, on South Court street, by its present owner and manager, who deserves great credit for the enterprise and perseverance which she has employed in maintaining and build- ing it up. Miss Fenwick is a native daughter of Tulare county. Her parents, P. L. and Sarah (Jones) Fenwick, who were born in Illinois, came overland to California in the early '50s. For a time they stopped in Fresno county, then came to Tulare county, where her father became a farmer and cattle-raiser and operated exten- sively near Orosi and in Antelope valley until January 15, 1911. when he died, aged eighty-one years. Following are the names of his children : Jasper, who died February 15, 1911; Alonzo L., Edward and Miss D. V. The latter left home at the age of sixteen to be-
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come a graduated trained nurse. How successful she has been is known to all who are conversant with the splendid work done by the institution of which she is the head.
Miss Fenwick is constantly improving her institution; within the past year she has remodeled the basement, installed electricity for heating and cooking, and has added restrooms, thus increasing the comfort of her patients, and is always looking out for the sanitation of the place and the health of its patrons.
EARL BAGBY
In Clay county, Kans., January 8, 1887, Earl Bagby was born, and when he was a year old his family moved to California, locating at Visalia, where his parents, R. J. and Elizabeth (Hughes) Bagby, are still living. After his graduation from the grammar and high schools of that city, he entered the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, from which institution he was duly graduated with the LL. D. degree with the class of 1908, and soon afterwards was admitted to practice in the courts of Michigan. In November, 1908, he was ad- mitted to practice in all the courts in the state of California and opened a law office in Visalia. In November, 1910, he was elected to the office of justice of the peace, upon the duties of which he entered in January, 1911, and in the latter year he was elected judge of the recorders' court of Visalia. Before his election to these offices he had been for some time attorney for and assistant secretary of the California Humane Society.
Fraternally Mr. Bagby affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, in which he holds the office of Council Commander; with the F. O. E., in which he is president; with the Loyal Order of Moose, of which he is treasurer, and the Independent Order of Foresters. He is vice president of the Tennis club, a member of the Kaweah club. secretary of the board of trade of Visalia and secretary of the Demo- cratic County Central Committee. In 1911 he married Miss Celissa B. Wing, a native of Maine, being a daughter of F. H. and Sadie Wing.
Mr. Bagby practices in all the federal courts of the state, ex- cept the court over which he presides. He was admitted to the United States District Court in the month of May, 1909, and to the United States Circuit Court in the same month. He has gained the respect of the entire community and has built up a large and Inera- tive practice in the superior courts. As an office attorney his coun- sel is sought by a large clientage. A great part of his work consists of conveyancing, in which line he has had a very extensive experi-
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ence. A large part of his legal work deals with the law of real prop- erty and contracts.
In 1912 Mr. Bagby helped to organize the Teal Gun Club. This club has built two club houses and made large duck ponds from the waters of an artesian well in section 28, township 24, range 25, upon six hundred and forty acres of land held under lease by said club. He is one of three directors; it is limited to twenty, and its member- ship extends to Kings as well as Tulare county.
THOMAS E. HOWES
The Middle West, constantly drawing on the East to fill up its quota of citizens, is as constantly sending some of its best blood to the Pacific coast, and its men arrive in California imbued with the spirit not only of the land immediately beyond the Rockies but of the whole broad country to the Atlantic. It is probable that Illinois has sent as many good citizens to California as any other state in the favored region under consideration. One of them who is located near Hanford, Kings county, and is making for himself an enviable record is Thomas E. Howes, who was born in Dekalb county, in the Prairie State, February 11, 1863, the same year in which his father, Philip Howes, was killed in the Civil war. A few years later the boy came with his mother to California and was a student in the public school at Eucalyptus, Tulare (now Kings) county. At an early age he began to work on ranches round about and in a few years he gained a practical knowledge of farming as it was then conducted in this part of California.
In 1882 Mr. Howes began farming on his own account on rented land, and so successful was he that by 1886 he was able to buy eighty acres of good land, which is now included in his homestead. As he has accumulated money he has invested it in land from time to time until he is now the owner of over five hundred acres devoted to gen- eral farming and to dairying. He has improved his ranch in many ways, and it now presents a view in which a good home and ample barns and outbuildings are pleasing features. His methods of culti- vation are up to date, and he works only with machines and appli- ances of modern construction and efficiency. Since 1873 Mr. Howes has been a resident of the vicinity where he is now living. At that time no trees were to be seen between Cross creek and Mussel slough on the plains. As a citizen he is known for his liberality of thought and for his generous co-operation in the promotion of measures for the public weal. Fraternally he affiliates with the Independent Order of Foresters and with the Woodmen of the World. He married
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Cora Ynel November 15, 1885. Mrs. Howes, who is a native danghter of California, was born June 20, 1868, and they have five children, Ralph, Everett, Marion, Forest and Ora.
CHAUNCEY M. BAKER
It was in Mill Creek valley that Chauncey M. Baker, one of the well-to-do farmers in the vicinity of Dunlap, was born July 3, 1877. and there he has spent his life to the present time. He attended the Mill Creek school and was initiated into the mysteries of farm- ing under his father's instruction.
At San Rafael in 1905, Mr. Baker married Olive Hargrave, a native of Mendocino county, whose father, Charles M. Hargrave, crossed the plains in the pioneer days and was an early settler on Cache creek, Yolo county, whence he moved to Mendocino county. For several years prior to her marriage, Mrs. Baker taught school in Mendocino and Fresno counties.
Mr. Baker homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land and January 10, 1908, received his patent from the government. That same year he bought four hundred and eighty acres, known as the old Turner place; in 1910 he added two hundred and forty acres known as the Wilson place and one hundred and sixty acres of rail- road land, and he is now the owner of one thousand and forty acres. He enltivates two hundred and fifty acres, and on fifty-five acres he raised one hundred and eighty tons of hay in 1910, and from some of his valley land he cleared $10 an acre in 1909. He has about three thousand cords of marketable wood on his place. He has given some attention to breeding fine stock and has on hand an average of forty to fifty head. He has lived here long enough to have witnessed the development of the district from a mountain country to produe- tive ranches and remembers when there were but half a dozen houses between the hills and Visalia, a section now dotted with mod- ern California farms. As a citizen he is generously public spirited. Politically he is a Republican and fraternally he affiliates with the Modern Woodmen of America.
MRS. IDA MARGARET KAEHLER
The highly esteemed woman whose name is above lives at No. 107 Hockett street, Porterville, Tulare county, Cal., and is a repre- sentative of an old German family. Ferdinand Rodler, her father, a native of the Fatherland, was born May 24, 1823, married in 1857
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and came to the United States and devoted himself to the blacksmith trade. He was a fine mechanic, and, being also a good business man, he prospered. He died at his home in Davenport, Iowa, March 10, 1904, and his widow, formerly Johanna Louisa Paschke, is living there at the age of eighty-five years, having been born in March, 1828. Their daughter, Ida Margaret, was born in Davenport June 20, 1860, and when she became of school age entered the public schools of that city, in which she was a pupil until she was thirteen years old, when she was sent to Berlin, Germany, to finish her ednca- tion. Returning to Iowa when she was sixteen years old, in 1878 she married N. M. Kaehler, and they had three children. Walter, the eldest, died young. Alfred, the second son, is living at Hobart, Ind., with his wife and two children. Ferdinand is a machinist at Porter- ville.
In 1884 Mr. and Mrs. Kaehler came to California and settled on White river, in Tulare county, where she lived six years. In 1890 she moved to Plano and in 1902 from Plano to Porterville, which at that time was not a very promising village, having no railway facili- ties and few stores, its scanty population trading for the most part at Visalia. She now has a valuable and very attractive property, having built the house she occupies, and is concentrating her hold- ings in Porterville and vicinity, having recently sold her real estate at Plano. What she owns she has earned herself, owning unimproved property and an interest in the gas plant. Brought up in the Chris- tian faith of her fathers, Mrs. Kaehler is devoutly religious, with faith in God and in her fellow men. She is firm in the belief that all people may become much better if they will learn the right and try to do it.
MANUEL I. MACHADO
It was on one of the Azores that Manuel I. Machado was born March 19, 1869, and he was reared and educated there and came to the United States in 1884. After remaining fifteen months in the East, most of the time in Massachusetts, he came to California and located at Fresno. Herding sheep in the vicinity for wages for a short time, he bought sheep and was in the business for himself six years. Then he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land a mile and a half from the Cross creek school, where he raised alfalfa three years and lost his holdings because of crop failures. He then came to near Woodville, in Tulare county, and worked six hundred acres of land one year with good success. Using the money he made to pay his debts, he then began again at the bottom of the ladder, working 27
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