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 50
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 50
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
In Santa Cruz, Mr. Blain married Sarah Collier. Their daughter, Mrs. Laura Zimmerman, lives at Tiburon, Cal., and their son, William, is a citizen of Bakersfield. His second marriage was to Julia Strube, a native of Texas, whom he wedded at Visalia. Mrs. Blain, who crossed the plains from her old home in 1861, has had four children : Frank L., who became his father's partner; George William, who is dead; Gladys and Marguerite. Mr. Blain was a stockholder in the First National Bank of Visalia, and in various ways manifested his solicitude for the town and its people. He was a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Good Templars, in which he passed all chairs of the subordinate lodge, and of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In the promotion and development of the San Joaquin Valley Cattle Growers Association he was helpfully active. His religious affiliations. as are those of his family, were with the Presbyterian church. He passed away November 1, 1908.
JOHN AUGUST LEEBON
The productive ranch of John August Leebon is located three miles east of Visalia, Tulare county, Cal., on East Mineral King ave- nne. Mr. Leebon, who is one of the most progressive and successful ranchmen of this district, was born in Sweden, May 16, 1861. He grew to manhood there and was educated in the common school near the home of his childhood and youth. In 1881 he came to the United States and made his way west as far as Minneapolis, Minn. In order to ac- quire necessary English education, he went to school there a year. then was employed as a laborer on a Minnesota farm. In 1886 he came to California and found employment in an orchard at San Jose. Eigh- teen months later he went to Tacoma, Wash., and worked in a saw- mill, where he received an accidental injury which kept him in a hospital for a long time. He came back to San Jose in 1889 and
548
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
from then until 1897 was profitably engaged in the teaming busi- ness. Then he came to Tulare county and leased one hundred and eighteen acres of land, not far from Visalia, from the First National Bank of San Jose. In 1901 he was able to buy this property, the bulk of which was then planted to fruit, eighty acres in peaches, twenty in prunes, six in nectarines, the remainder devoted to grain and pasture. Hle now has a dairy of eighty cows and keeps an average of one hun- dred and sixty hogs, and one hundred acres of his land is under alfalfa.
An enterprising and public spirited citizen, Mr. Leebon commands the esteem of all who know him. He is a stockholder in the Co-operative Creamery company of Visalia and is from time to time identified, directly or indirectly, with other important local interests. Politically he is Republican, and though he is without ambition for political prefer- ment he accepted the office of school director and was made secretary of his district board of education. He was one of the founders of the Swedish Mission church of San Jose, of which he was a constituent member. He donated the land for the Mineral King chapel and helped build it, and is a member of the board of trustees. Mr. Leebon was married in San Jose to Annie Anderson, of Swedish birth, who died at their home in Visalia, leaving two sons, Oscar William and Carl Edward Leebon.
STEPHEN B. HICKS
The best authority in Kings connty on irrigation ditches is Stephen B. Hicks of Hanford. How he came to be such an authority will be of interest in this connection. To begin with some pertinent biographical data, it may be said that he was born in Green county, Tenn., May 1, 1842, three years later his family moved to Schuyler county, Mo., and still later they went to Wayne county, Iowa, where he passed eight years of his life. In 1882 he came direct to Hanford. where he has since made his home. Soon after his arrival he bought one hundred and sixty acres of land four miles southwest of the town, where he raised wheat and alfalfa four years. He sold that and bought one hundred and sixty acres three miles east of Hanford. Later he bought one hundred and sixty acres eight miles northeast of Hanford. On these places he farmed many years, raising alfalfa and fine horses and cattle and other stock. In 1891 he went into the mer- cantile business at Hanford. After seven years of success he sold his store and goods and later he sold his ranch northeast of the city; but he still owns his quarter section to the east, which is rented for dairy purposes.
Since 1888 Mr. Hicks has been interested in irrigation by ditches and, as stated before, is conceded to be better informed than any other
549
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
man in the county on water systems. The Settlers' ditch was started in 1874 and Mr. Hicks was successively director, president and secre- tary of the company. In the early '90s, under authority of a vote by the stockholders, he as secretary sold the franchise to the Tulare Irrigation Company, of Tulare county, and from the proceeds of that sale the old company bought somewhat more than a fourth interest in the People's Ditch Company of Kings county, which takes its water from Kings river; soon after the latter transaction Mr. Hicks was elected a director of the People's Ditch Company and as such served several years. In the sequence of events he was elected president of the company, which place he filled until January 1, 1909, when he re- signed. During his service as president the first weir at the head of the ditch was built and stood seven years, and he was chairman of a committee of three to effect a compromise with the Fresno Canal Company in the matter of water rights and a member of a committee of three appointed to arrange for a survey to locate reservoir sites in the mountains.
One of the busiest men in the county, Mr. Hicks has yet found time to yield to his inclination to do public service on behalf of his fellow citizens. He was four years a city trustee of Hanford and his two years' service as chairman of the board made him the third mayor of the city. In the erection and formation of Kings county in 1893, Mr. Hicks was active and influential. Fraternally he affiliates with Hanford lodge, F. & A. M., and with the Royal Arch chapter of that order. He has been a Master Mason for over twenty years and long been treasurer of the local lodge and is identified also with the Eastern Star chapter. It is a matter of local and Masonie history that he had charge of the erection of the Masonic temple in Hanford. In 1866 he married Margaret Green, a native of Indiana, who is also a member of the order of the Eastern Star. They have three children: Alice is the wife of J. L. Payton, a rancher living east of Hanford, and has six children. Ilannah E. married J. W. Payton, a merchant at Hanford, and they have two children. Mollie is Mrs. J. J. Adams and her hus- band is a dairy rancher near Dinuba.
HENRY COLPIEN
In his career, which on the whole has been very successful since he came to America in 1893, Henry Colpien of Enterprise colony, Tu- lare county, Cal., has demonstrated the advantages of following a life of integrity, industry and perseverance. He was born in Holstein, Germany, March 6, 1874, and there grew to manhood and was educated in the public schools. He learned farming there also, according to methods in vogue. In 1893 he determined to come to America, and
550
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
being without funds, he borrowed $135 from a friend with which to pay his passage. He was not very provident on the voyage, and when he arrived in California, which was his objective part of the country, his entire cash capital was ten cents and no more. His first work in the United States was in Tulare county, herding sheep, which he says he ran all over the county and into the mountains. He was thus em- ployed for nineteen months, and from 1895 to 1899 he did hard ranch work for wages. Up to this time he had spent his earnings as fast as he received them, but he now began to see the error of his financial ways and decided that if he were to save his money he must have some definite use for it and some ambition to gratify. Accordingly, in the fall of 1899, he rented two hundred and twenty-seven acres northwest of Tulare City, which for two years he operated on shares, devoting his attention principally to wheat and stock. Accumulating money he wisely laid it by for future use and soon was able to buy forty acres of land near where he had been farming. He cleared and improved it and built on it a good house and other necessary buildings. The land cost him thirty dollars an acre and soon was yielding him a splen- did profit in alfalfa. By 1907 land values in his vicinity had materially increased and he bought another forty-acre tract, paying sixty dollars an acre ; in 1909 he bought forty aeres more, under some improvement, and had to pay for it $125 an acre. At this time he owns, clear of all debts, one hundred and twenty acres of improved land in one piece, all of which he acquired in a comparatively brief period of eleven years. Twelve acres of his land is in Egyptian corn and fifty-five acres are producing fifteen sacks of wheat to the acre. He raises fine horses, has a dairy of twelve cows, and usually keeps about one hun- dred and fifty head of hogs. In 1912 Mr. Colpien added to his holdings by buying another forty acres, for which he paid $7,500.
In 1901 Mr. Colpien married Ollie M. Johnson, a native of Indiana, and they have children named Herman J., Raymond C. and Henbert H. Socially he affiliates with Tulare City lodge No. 306, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he is also a member of an encampment of that order.
JULIUS BURGAMASTER
Among the first land purchasers in his part of Tulare county was Julius Burgamaster, who was a native of Missouri, and came with his family to California in 1901, buying a tract of fifteen acres of land from Dudley Brothers and locating permanently in Tulare county. His wife was Margaret Tiedemann, also a native of Missouri, and they both were descended from German ancestry. Upon coming to California in 1901, they settled in Farmersville, then came to the
551
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
present location of the homestead, where Mr. Burgamaster purchased fifteen acres of land and developed and improved it, ever after making it his home, until his death, which took place in Tulare county in 1911. Three children were born to this couple, of whom two survive, Otto and Mattie. In polities Julius Burgamaster was a Democrat and was devoted heart and soul to the principles of his party, all of which he has handed down to his son, who is following closely in his footsteps. As a man of enterprise and public spirit he many times demonstrated his high citizenship. Believing that his interests could be advanced only with those of the community at large, he was always generous in his help to movements for the general benefit.
Otto Burgamaster, son of Julius, who since his father's death has conducted the splendid ranch, was born in Missouri, August 29, 1885. Educated in the public schools there, he was taught the funda- mentals of farming and while yet young was afforded much practical experience as a tiller of the soil. Six acres of the ranch are in vine- yard, producing Muscat and Thompson grapes, and during 1911, which was an unusually dry year, the vines produced four tons of grapes. Two acres are in orchard and the ranch is in a high state of cultivation, and ranks among the most productive in the county.
HARRY A. CLARK
The esteemed citizen of Tulare county, Cal., Harry A. Clark, has achieved good results as farmer, fruit enlturist, dairyman and stock- raiser and is known through his interest in the Tulare Canning com- pany and his activities as a member of the finance committee of the Dairymen's Co-operative Creamery company. From time to time he has been identified with other important interests in Tulare and the county at large, and in many ways he has demonstrated that he pos- sesses a public spirit that may be safely relied on whenever its exer- cise is demanded.
It was in Woodson county, Kans., that Mr. Clark was born, July 30, 1872. He came to California in 1892, and worked for wages at and near Tulare during the ensuing three years, and then went into wheat growing, nine miles south of that city. His operations soon became so extensive that they involved the cultivation of six hundred and forty acres of land, which he farmed till in 1904, when he bought his present home ranchi of seventy-one acres, five miles north of Tu- lare, and under his able management and scientific cultivation this property has been greatly improved. He has set out twenty-five acres to peaches and fifteen are in alfalfa. He has a small dairy, and is setting out at the present time fifteen acres to prunes. He has one hundred head of Jerseys, large Duroes. In 1910 he planted to Egyp-
552
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
tian corn eighteen acres between rows of peach trees, and the crop yielded thirty and one-half sacks to the acre, in all amounting to four hundred and thirty-nine sacks, truly a record achievement. He planted also black-eye beans between the trees and they produced, in 1911, eighteen sacks to the acre. Fine blooded brood mares are among his choicest possessions and he raises each year two or three colts bred to a Percheron stallion. He makes somewhat of a specialty also of mules. One of his colts recently was sold for $250.
On December 9, 1908, Mr. Clark married Miss Iris Hemphill, a native of Missouri, and they have children, Hazel G. and Jessie E.
B. L. BARNEY
At Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., B. L. Barney was born, March 24, 1849. Educated in the public schools and at the Gouverneur Wesleyan seminary, he was early interested in merchan- dising, farming and the tannery business in St. Lawrence and Jeffer- son connties, N. Y., until 1891, when he settled at Hanford. For a time he engaged in ranching and later he went into the grocery trade at llanford, under the firm name of Foster, Barney & Felton. He sold his interest in the business to Mr. Foster and with Mr. Birkbeck as a partner organized a new enterprise under the style of Barney & Birkbeck. Later he became sole proprietor and after a time the firm became known as Barney. Kelly & Widner, and under the last name a store was conducted at Grangeville. Eventually Mr. Kelly bonght Mr. Barney's interest at Hanford and Mr. Barney be- came sole proprietor of the Grangeville store and conducted it until he sold it to J. (. Stewart, in order to give attention to his ranch interests.
While Mr. Barney was interested in the grocery trade he engaged in the raisin and dry fruit packing business as head of the firm of Barney & Cameron, which was succeeded by the B. L. Barney com- pany, of which Mr. Barney was proprietor until he retired from that branch of business. He has purchased a ranch of one hundred and sixty aeres, three miles and a half east of Hanford, which is given to the production of fruit and vines, cattle, horses and hogs, and is now conducted by his son. Fred M. Barney.
One of the most active advocates of the formation of Kings county in 1892 was Mr. Barney. He was elected as a Republican to the office of supervisor, in which he served four years, during which time the present courthouse and jail were built. He was chairman of the building committee and was active in the superintendency of the work. He has been a member of the Hanford Chamber of Com-
553
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
merce and of commercial bodies having for their object the promo- tion of the interests of the county. In 1908 he was elected a member of the board of trustees of the City of Hanford and in 1909 was made chairman of that body, which office he filled one term. He is junior warden in the Episcopal church of Hanford and a member of the local lodge of Knights of Pythias.
In 1873, Mr. Barney married Mary E. Herring, a native of New York state, and they have two children, Anna Louise and Fred M. Anna Lonise Barney was graduated with honors from the gram- mar and high schools at Hanford and from the University of Cali- fornia, and during the last four years has been a teacher of English in the Hanford high school. Fred M. Barney is operating the ranch near town.
JOHN W. BAXLEY
One of the most successful of the citizens of Tulare county who have come within its borders in recent years is John W. Baxley, a native of Berkeley county, W. Va., born February 8, 1852. Mr. Baxley was brought up and educated and became acquainted with the details of practical farming in his native state, where he suc- cessfully raised wheat, corn, red clover, tobacco and other crops till 1882, when he removed to Allen county, Kans. There he farmed many years, acquiring eight hundred acres and giving his attention principally to wheat and corn. It was in 1909 that he came to Tulare county, Cal., where he rents one hundred and sixty acres of the Giannini ranch and has charge of six hundred and forty acres more of it as superintendent. He raises chiefly prunes, grapes, olives and almonds and has produced some fine crops of beans between rows of fruit trees. In the spring of 1911 he planted a sack and a half of black-eyed beans and fifteen pounds of brown beans and harvested two hundred sacks of the former and thirty-four sacks of brown beans.
In Kansas Mr. Baxley served his fellow townsmen as township trustee and road superintendent. Since coming to California he has been too busy with his purely private affairs to give any time to political work, but he has well defined ideas concerning all qnes- tions of public policy and, being an outspoken man, he is quite certain to be heard from whenever he shall consider it necessary to raise his voice in advocacy of any measure directed to the enhancement of the public weal. He married, at Gettysburg, Pa., February 11, 1875, Miss Amanda C. Beecher, a native of that state, and they have had eleven children, all of whom survive: William A. married Alice Griffin, and
554
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
they have two sons, Walter and Marvin. David D., who married Anna Orth, has three daughters, Rose, Violet and Lillian. Charles married Maud Meyers and they have a son named Ralph. Mary is the wife of Edward West and has borne him three children, Russel. Irene and Everett. Laura married R. R. Ross and they have a son, Elmer. Grace became the wife of M. J. Adams and their children are Viola, Harold and Catherine. Bessie is the wife of William Stevens and they have a daughter named Edna. Ernest married Edna Dorn- burg and has borne him a daughter, Hilda. Mattie married Howard Clark and they have one ehild, a son, Clive Howard. The remaining two are Clarence and Gladys.
I. B. HUNSAKER
This native son of California was born in Contra Costa county, August 24, 1867, and was only about a year old when his parents moved to Tulare county, locating near the Tule river, where they engaged in farming, and he eventually became a student in the pub- lie school. His first venture in the field of independent endeavor was as a grain farmer in the Wankena neighborhood, on Tulare lake. After operating there with success for fifteen years he developed an alfalfa ranch four miles and a half southeast of Tulare, where he established a dairy. This property consists of four hundred and seventy-five acres, four hundred acres of which is under alfalfa. It is occupied by two dairies and is operated by tenants.
In 1906 Mr. Hunsaker, whose residenee is at F street and Kern avenne, Tulare, was elected a trustee of that eity and he was re-elected in 1910. As a citizen he is publie spirited and helpful to all loeal interests. Fraternally he affiliates with Olive Branch lodge No. 269, F. & A. M., and with local organizations of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Woodmen of the World.
In 1893 Mr. Hunsaker married Miss Eva Galbraith, a native of Stockton and a daughter of George Galbraith, and she has borne him two children: Juanita is a student at the University of Cali- fornia at Berkeley; Mary is deceased.
OSCAR F. COLLINS
Of the number of able men who have succeeded as dairymen in Tulare county, Cal., none has more riehly deserved his success than Osear F. Collins, of Tulare. Mr. Collins was born in Memphis, Mo.,
555
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
May 17, 1858, and was reared and educated in his native state. There, too, he learned farming according to methods then in vogne, and it was at farm work that he was employed till he came to California, where he saw before him the road to success, straight and wide and not too long, and he set himself cheerfully to the task of working for wages to acquire capital with which to make a promising beginning. He was employed thus, saving every dollar possible, from in 1887 until in 1890, and then he was able to rent a hundred and sixty acres of land a mile west of Tulare, where for two years he raised grain, hay and stock. Then, moving to a point north of Tulare, he went into dairying with his brother, A. H. Collins, as his partner, and they continued their joint efforts till 1902. From that time, Oscar F. Collins operated independently in the same place till 1905, when he came to his present dairy ranch of one hundred and twenty acres, where he has twenty-five acres in alfalfa, a goodly field of Egyptian corn and a dairy of sixteen fine cows. He has some good horses also, and recently sold a fine animal for $250, and has also sold colts from one mare to the value of $1115.
Of the Dairymen's Co-operative Creamery association Mr. Col- lins is a stockholder, and he is otherwise active in a general way for the advancement of the dairy interests of the county and state. He is a charter member of a local body of the Woodmen of the World and has for twenty-one years been identified with Tulare City lodge No. 306, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. There is no movement for the public benefit that he does not encourage to the extent of his ability. In 1892 he married Miss Marietta E. Riley, who was born in Missouri, and they have three children, Edith M., Jessie M. and George B.
JOHN W. DUNLAP
Hannibal, Mo., was the scene of the birth of John W. Dunlap, champion sack sewer of California, November 24, 1850. He was a son of Lemuel S. and Cynthia A. (Zumwalt) Dunlap, natives respec- tively of Kentucky and Missouri. The family arrived in California November 1, 1869, having made the journey from St. Louis in eleven days on one of the earliest trans-continental railway trains. The trip was a novelty not only to them, but to nearly all who participated in it. They settled in Colusa county, where Lemuel Dunlap established himself as a farmer.
Early in life John W. Dunlap began working on threshing ma- chines in Colnsa county, and he soon became the best and fastest sack sewer in the state, sewing as many as two thousand sacks in a
556
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
day and making a record of two hundred and fifty-six sacks in one hour. In 1883 he bought of Samuel DeWitt his present ranch of fifty-one acres, three miles and one-half north of Tulare City. He makes a specialty of raising chickens and is probably one of the most scientifie poultry men in California, a state in which there are so many such dealers that to excel is somewhat of an honor. In 1911 he received $1500 from the sale of eggs from five hundred chickens, mostly leghorns. His chicken ranch is well appointed in every particular and is one of the most complete in the county. Its inenbators and other appliances are of the most efficient kinds and of the latest models. Mr. Dunlap has given some attention to peach culture and in two years received $1200 from two acres devoted to that fruit. He now has six acres in peach trees and two acres in prunes. A feature of his business is a small dairy, by means of which he adds considerably to his yearly profit.
Mr. Dunlap married, April 2, 1876, Lillie F. Green, a native of Nevada county, Cal. Jeremiah Green, her father, was a pioneer in that county and was a storekeeper there in the old gold-mining days. Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap are the parents of five children. Bertie is the wife of Alexander Whaley. William E. is cashier of the First National Bank of Tulare. George L. is employed by the E. F. Cox Lumber company of Tulare. Harry is connected with the Stockton Iron company. Leslie is a member of his parents' house- hold.
JAMES M. ELLIOTT
The life of James M. Elliott, Waukena, Tulare county, Cal., began in Cherokee county, Texas, August 23, 1881, and he was brought to California in 1888 by his parents, who settled at Pomona, Los Angeles county. In 1890 they removed to Orange county, and there he remained until 1908, when he took up his residence at Wankena and became a partner in a general merchandise business with his sister, Miss Hattie Elliott, who is postmistress of that town, an office which she fills with great fidelity, giving to its duties the most careful attention in all details. In connection with merchandising, Mr. Elliott gives attention to another enterprise, that of the installa- tion of pumping plants, in which he is associated with his half brother.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.