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 51
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 51
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As a merchant. Mr. Elliott is progressive and up-to-date, handling salable articles of good quality which he offers at such prices as to make them available to the trade of Waukena and its tributary ter- ritory. As a citizen, he takes an intelligent interest in everything
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that pertains to the general welfare. He is a believer in the square deal which would give the greatest good to the greatest numbers and is ready at all times to respond in a public-spirited way to any demand on behalf of the enhancement of the good of the community, for he realizes that he who reaps must first sow and that the pros- perity of one is the prosperity of all.
The father of James M. and Hattie Elliott, the venerable Wil- liam M. Elliott, who was born in Mississippi January 6, 1827, was during all his active years a successful farmer, and is now a member of the household of his son at Wankena.
WILLIAM REINHART
One of the numerous Pennsylvanians who have become suc- cessful as farmers in Tulare county, Cal., and passed on to the long reward of the honest and the industrious was William Rein- hart, who was born in Greene county in the Keystone State in 1832, and died in his far western home in August, 1888. When he was two years old his parents left Pennsylvania and settled in Ohio, where he was reared and educated and took up the battle of life on his own account. In 1857 the family moved to Cole county, Mo., and located near Jefferson City. There Mr. Reinhart farmed until 1874, when he came to California. He put in ten years at ranching near San Jose, in the Santa Clara valley, and early in 1885 rented land north of Tulare City, where he resumed farming with much promise of success, but died three years later. He was a man of considerable business ability and was for some years deputy sheriff of Miller county, Mo.
On January 1, 1863, Mr. Reinhart married Margaret J. Dripps, a native of Pennsylvania, and they had several children, of whom five survive: Madora, wife of Frank E. Dalzelle, of Berkeley, Cal .; Imbrie D., who lives on the Reinhart home farm; Pliny E., who mar- ried Martha Luck and has a son named Kenneth E .; James A., of Hollister, Cal., who married Laura Ashcroft, and they have four children, James H., Margaret P., Ulla and Laura J .; and William C., who is a mining engineer. Mr. Reinhart was a member of the Grange. He loved his home and his farm and had little to do with politics beyond doing his duty as a citizen. His public spirit was such that he was ready at all times to aid to the extent of his ability any meas- ure which in his opinion promised to benefit his town, his county, his state or the American people in a broader sense.
For some years after her husband's death Mrs. Reinhart man- aged the farm property which he had accumulated. Later her son,
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Imbrie D. Reinhart, bought the ranch, which he has operated with much success. It consists of forty acres, eight of which are in vine- vard. Considerable alfalfa is grown and the family derives a good income from a dairy. It should be noted that, while in his latter years the elder Reinhart was working leased land, he was ambitious for a home of his own and his widow and son have carried out his plans so far as they have been able.
JOHN F. EVANS
When the Evans family went to Tipton the plains about the site of that town were a runway for wild cattle. John F. Evans, of Tulare, was born in Santa Clara county, October 5, 1865, a son of Dudley and Sarah A. (Doty) Evans. Edward Doty, his mother's great-grandfather, came to America with the Mayflower Pilgrims and is said to have been the first of the party to set foot on Ply- mouth Rock. Later he had a memorable experience as a sailor in Greenland, being wrecked and cast away on the shore of that in- hospitable land, and having to subsist there through an entire winter under circumstances such as to make his survival depend on the merest chance. Dudley Evans was a native of New York, while his wife, Sarah A. Doty, was born in Ohio, 1834 being the year in which they both were born. Dudley Evans crossed the plains to California in 1852, and went into stockraising in Santa Clara and San Luis Obispo counties. On coming to Tulare county, he settled six miles west of Tipton, taking up government land. To his original one hundred and sixty acres he added a purchase of one hundred and sixty from the railroad people and then owned three hundred and twenty acres, all in one body. When he came to the vicinity there were only seven houses in Tulare. It should be noted that there is evidence in support of the statement that to him belongs the credit of having burned the first kiln of brick in Tulare City. He passed away in 1893. His widow, who lives at Tipton, is surrounded by loving relatives and friends, happy in her declining years and most interesting in her reminiscences of the pioneer days which tried the souls of men and women among the mountain passes and prairie stretches of beautiful California, a land of promise and of fulfill- ment, but a land of vicissitudes which sometimes sank to the plane of fatal disappointments. Following are the names, in order of birth, of the children of Dudley and Sarah A. (Doty) Evans: John F .; William, of Fresno; Albert D., of Cochran; Elmore H. and Harry N., of Tipton.
John F. Evans spent his early life on his father's ranch, went
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to school and gained a good deal of nseful knowledge of different kinds in the college of hard experience. His ranching life is varied and was spent in different parts of the country. It includes the operation of threshing machines, rough work on the Creighton ranch near Tipton and the breaking of wild horses, and it has other interesting features. He started farming on his own account in 1889, on rented land, six miles east of Tulare, where he remained only one year. After that he operated a thousand to fifteen hun- dred acres in the Dinnba and Orosi section of Tulare county. Re- turning to the vicinity of Tipton, he first rented and later bought two hundred and forty acres. He is now renting ont two hundred and forty acres near Tulare. A dairy of fifty cows is a feature of his enterprise, and he has one hundred acres in alfalfa. In 1910 he had twenty acres of Egyptian corn which yielded eighteen sacks to the acre, and in 1911 eight acres, planted to the same corn, gave him twenty-two sacks to the acre. He owns a fine home on East King street, Tulare, where he and his family have lived for some years.
John F. Evans married, September 25, 1892, Mary Cortner, a native of California, and they have children as follows: Reba L., Harry D., James and Helen A. Mrs. Evans's father was William C. Cortner, a native of Tennessee, who came overland to California in 1852, ox-teams affording him a means of transportation. For a time he mined with some success, but we find he was in Tulare county before the end of 1853, with a stock ranch in the mountains and a farm north of Visalia, but later he farmed near Orosi, and died in March, 1894. The father of Mrs. Cortner was John Jordan, who was in command of the party with which he came overland to California-the same pioneer Jordan who helped to blaze the Ilockett and Jordan trail in the mountains. The following- named of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Cortner were living in 1912: Mrs. S. L. N. Ellis; Lee, of Tipton; Mrs. John F. Evans; Talbert, of Orosi; Preston, of Auckland. Mr. Evans is a member of the Independent Order of Foresters and a director of the Tipton Co-operative Creamery, and in other relations he has demonstrated his public spirit so unmistakably that he is regarded by all who know him as a citizen generously helpful to all public interests.
FRANK GIANNINI
Of Italian ancestry, Frank Giannini was born at Porto Ferrajo, Island of Elba, off the Tuscan coast, March 3, 1864, and is one of three brothers who came to the United States. His parents,
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Dominico and Magdalena (Bolano) Giannini, had also four daughters. The mother died on Elha in 1869, the father, who was a prosperous farmer and vineyardist, died there in 1911.
Frank Giannini early learned the secrets of grape culture and at seventeen was given charge of his father's vineyard. Soon after he was twenty-one, he carried out a well-studied plan to immigrate to California, of which he had read much, believing that here he would find a climate not unlike that of Elba, which would offer better chances for advancement than he could obtain there. Bring- ing with him $1200, for the purchase of land, in 1885, about a month after he landed at San Francisco he began grain farming on his own land near Brentwood. An experience there running through two years convinced him that he had not hit on the true plan for industrial and commercial success. He first saw Tulare county in 1887, but did not buy land there until abont two years later. Meanwhile he farmed and raised fruit and grapes in Madera and Fresno counties and during the period from 1887 to 1902 he operated a stock farm and was manager of an orchard, both located at Reedley, Fresno county. In 1889, with two others, he bought a hundred and sixty acres of raw land, two miles and three-quarters northeast of Tulare. The price paid was $20,000, a very high price for the time, yet as events proved a good investment. A hundred and twenty acres were set out to an orchard and the rest of the tract to vineyard, and in 1891, by replacing an occasional vine with a tree, increased profits per acre were made possible. In that year Mr. Giannini bonght out the interests of his partners. By purchase he has acquired four hundred and eighty acres adjoining, and now he has an entire section in one hody, eighty acres of which is de- voted to alfalfa. On his place are two wells with never-failing snp- ply of water which are pumped by two fifteen-horsepower electric motors. He has displaced his gas motors formerly used for pumping by electric motors; he is a stockholder in the Electric Power com- pany. He is now putting down a third well which will be pumped by means of twenty-horsepower electric motors. On the place are modern buildings of ample capacity for every purpose, and dry- ing yards and packing houses for preparing the fruit for ship- ment and forwarding it when ready. There are also a new winery, with a capacity of two hundred thousand gallons annually, and a brandy plant, with an annual capacity of fifty thousand gallons. In the busy season Mr. Giannini employs on the place one hundred and fifty men. In 1910 he incorporated the Elba Land company. which now includes most of his interests, being capitalized at $500,000. and he is the president and general manager.
Besides his regular business Mr. Giannini has interests of im- portance, being a stockholder in the First National Bank of Tulare,
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having given the site for the Tulare Power company's plant and promoted the Tulare Milling company and bought the first share of its stock that could be purchased. Ile sold his Tipton ranch in 1908, his dairy ranch in 1911, and devotes his attention to his land business, to fruit, alfalfa and wine. He has had much to do with organizations to promote the advancement of these and kindred interests, and is a Mason, of Blue lodge and Royal Arch chapter, having originally identified himself with the Madera lodge and been transferred to the Reedley lodge. His acquaintance with the Cali- fornia fruit and wine fraternity is large and constantly increasing in a measure commensurate with his advancing fortunes and the growth of his home interests. His home stead has been enlarged to twelve hundred and sixty acres; he has two hundred and fifty acres in peaches, five hundred and sixty in vineyard, one hundred and seventy-five in prunes and the largest individual orchard in Tulare county. His home acreage in alfalfa is ninety acres. In 1911 he sold prunes at $115 a ton.
Miss Lonise Lombardi, daughter of a pioneer in northern Cali- fornia, became Mr. Giannini's wife and was most helpful to him in all his aspirations, working with him side by side for all that has meant success to both. She died in 1907, leaving one child, Aulrina.
EMERIE RENAUD
The French Canadian, wherever his lot may be cast, generally develops into a good and prosperous citizen with much credit for his easy manner and thrifty qualities. This fact is illustrated in the success- ful life and high standing of Emerie Renaud, a native of the province of Quebec and a descendant of one of the oldest and most honored French families of Canada, who owns and occupies one of the most attractive of the many beautiful home farms in Tulare county, a stock farm four and a half miles north of Tulare. Mr. Renaud was born July 25, 1857, near Montreal, which was the birthplace of his grandsire, Charles Renaud. Sr., and of his father, Charles Renaud, Jr. The former farmed all his life near Montreal, and his home- stead is now the property of one of his grandsons. Following in the footsteps of his ancestors, Charles Renand was a farmer all his life, and passed away when he was but fifty-seven. His wife was Marcellian Pelon, born in Quebec, danghter of Celesta Pelon, who was a farmer. She and ten of her twelve children survive. 31
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Emerie, the third in order of birth, is the only one of them living in California.
In the district school and on the farm Emerie Renaud received the practical education that has made possible the success he has achieved. When he was sixteen years old he came with a brother and an uncle to Nevada, but soon located at Sacramento, Cal., where he worked as a farm hand two years. After that he mined four or five years with indifferent success in the diggings at Bodie, Cal., and at others in Nevada, then returned to Sacramento, where he married and whenee he came in 1884 to Tulare county. He bought a farm on Elk Bayon, which, however, proved unproductive, and when he had operated it at a loss for two years he rented land and engaged on an extensive scale in grain raising and this latter venture met with great success. Leasing from J. Goldman & Com- pany the old Stokes estate of three thousand aeres, he raised grain in large quantities on that land as well as on a three-thousand- acre ranch near Porterville, which he leased a number of years. Other purchases and leases brought his holdings to the ten thon- sand acre mark, and the prosecution of his enterprise required the use of one hundred and fifty horses and mules and two harvesters. In 1903 he bought the old J. B. Zumwalt place, four hundred and twenty acres, in the management of which he has been very pros- perous, having four hundred acres.in alfalfa, a dairy of one hundred cows with modern equipment, including a separator, plenty of good horses and three hundred hogs. Besides operating his home- stead. he operates under lease thirteen hundred aeres adjoining. which he devotes to grain and stockraising. He is constantly im- proving his home place and now has one of the really fine residences of that part of the county, standing as it does amid palms and orange trees, on a beautiful lawn. Mr. Renand is a director in the Dairymen's Co-operative Dairy company.
At Sacramento, Mr. Renaud married Miss Mary Gignerre, born in Yolo county. Cal., daughter of Frank Giguerre, a pioneer of 1849, and they have nine living children: Joseph, Walter, Laura, Flora (wife of J. Damron, Jr.), Arthur, Blanche. Bryan, Elma and Collis. Mr. Renaud affiliates with Tulare City lodge No. 306, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with Tulare Encampment, and with Olive Branch lodge No. 269. F. & A. M. ITis moral and theological creed is "Do right and it will be right." Politically he is a steadfast Democrat, and as such he was elected to the presidency of the board of school trustees of the Enterprise district. In a public- spirited way he takes a deep and abiding interest in all propositions looking to the advancement of the community or the amelioration of the condition of the people at large.
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JOSEPH SILVEIRA
On one of the Azores Islands of Portugal, Joseph Silveira was born October 24, 1877. He came to the United States in 1895, when he was about eighteen years old, and that same year he located in California. For three months he was employed near Truckee on a dairy farm, then went to Marin county, Cal., where he was similarly employed for three years. From there he went to Nevada City, Nevada county, Cal., where he worked in sawmills in the mountains and at times prospected and mined for gold. Oakland, Cal., was his next objective point. There, in partnership with his brother, he was in the creamery business about a year. In 1903 he came to Tulare county, where for a short time he was a partner with another in a dairy ranch, but in the fall of that year he came to his present loca- tion. He is the owner of eighty acres and rents two hundred and forty acres, has seventy-five cattle and milks fifty Holstein cows. Ninety acres he devotes to alfalfa. As a farmer and dairyman he is prosperous in Tulare county even beyond his expectation and is recognized by a wide circle of acquaintances as a self-made man of much prominence and of even greater promise. He affiliates with the U. P. E. C. and the I. D. E. S., Portuguese orders, and with the Woodmen of the World.
In 1897 Mr. Silveira married Violanto Eserada, a native of the Azores Islands, and they had five children, here mentioned in the order of their nativity: Manuel, Mary, Louisa, Carrie and Hilda. On June 2, 1912, Mrs. Silveira died. Mr. Silveira married again. August 26, 1912, Miss Mary Brazill, born on the Azores Islands, becoming his wife. Though Mr. Silveira has not been as long in Tulare county as some of its American-born citizens, he has demon- strated that his public spirit is adequate to any demand that may be reasonably made upon it. His aspirations are for the uplift of the community and there is no movement for the general good that does not receive his heartfelt encouragement and support.
GEORGE ULYSSES WRAY
One of the most popular and well-known citizens of Tulare county who by the exercise of untiring energy and inflexible will has forged to the fore in many industrial circles is George Ulysses Wray, who was a pioneer stockraiser in this vicinity, having settled about five miles east of Tulare City in 1874. He is a brilliant type of the self-made, self-reliant man, who in spite of many hardships and numerous impediments in the road for knowledge has so thoroughly
.
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overcome them that he is today numbered among the reliable and noteworthy short-story writers, his chief theme being nature study. Added to this he is a newspaper correspondent of some note and active interest and wide knowledge of all current events and political subjects makes him a valued acquisition on the publishing staff.
George W. Wray, his father, was born in Crawfordsville, Ind., and came across the plains in 1851. He was a cabinet-maker by trade and upon coming to California followed mining at Hangtown, now Placerville, in Eldorado county. He was married at Suisun City to Miss Ethalinda Vanderburgh, who was born in Iowa and came across the plains in 1861. After his marriage he engaged in farming and the nursery business at Placerville and continued to live there until they came to Tulare county in 1874. Mr. Wray was the first man to make a success of farming under the no-fence law by taking up trespassing stock under a law passed by the state legislature in 1875, and was also organizer of one of the best and oldest ditch systems in Tulare county. This is known as the Farmers' Ditch company, and he served as its superintendent for over twenty years, and he was the largest stockholder during that period. Mrs. Wray is now living near Los Angeles at sixty-four years of age, Mr. Wray having passed away November 24, 1910. They were the parents of a family of ten children, seven daughters and three sons, who are all living. George W. Wray had home- steaded a tract of a hundred and sixty acres on the north fork of the North Tule river, which he proved up, and which his son, George U., bought at the time of the former's death in 1910.
The eldest of his parents' family George U. Wray was born at Placerville, March 25, 1869, and was about five years of age when he was brought by his parents to Tulare county. Owing to the unsettled conditions at that time educational facilities were meager and the boy was obliged to go to work on the stock farm at an early age. When he was fifteen he started out for himself. working at general farming for wages for four years, when he engaged in farming and stockraising for himself. When he was twenty-one he homesteaded a hundred and sixty acres east of Milo. On March 25, 1904, he was married in Fresno county to Miss Josephine Wood, who died without issue at the present home of George U. Wray in May, 1905. Mr. Wray came to his present ranch about fourteen years ago and bought a hundred and twenty acres, also homesteading the hundred and sixty-acre tract mentioned above. and he now owns two ranches aggregating four hundred acres of land on which is done general farming and stockraising. He has started a young nursery and is clearing land, intending to put in
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about twenty-five acres to apples and it is also bis intention to raise his own nursery stock.
Mr. Wray has steadfastly refused political preferment, for he is widely known for his unusual ability and broad intelligence of matters of moment. He was tendered the nomination for supervisor on the Populist ticket at the time Populism was at its height in Tulare county, but declined this honor. Nevertheless he has taken a very active interest in politics, being forcibly active wherever there is a principle at stake and he is known as an ultra radical progressive. In fighting the saloons he has been especially active and he has assisted in wiping out several of these evils in the county through his writings and active political work. Notwithstanding the fact that he was handicapped by few advantages when a child, he is of an active, alert and inquiring mind, and through extensive read- ing, close observation and natural intelligence he has become well- informed and is acceded to be among the most entertaining as well as instructive writers of the day. For two years he was a corres- pondent for the Visalia Times, also the Farm View, which was printed at Porterville, and for fourteen years served as the regular local correspondent for the Porterville Enterprise, and is now local cor- respondent for the Porterville Recorder. He is strongly opposed to the liquor traffic and has written many stirring articles against it. Having ever lived the simple life, close to nature, he has become quite a hunter and has experienced many thrilling adventures which he has told in a number of short stories with such interesting style as to endear him to his many readers, not the least of which are the young readers of the Youth's Companion and similar popular publications. A few years ago he started writing up his own ex- periences in hunting bear, deer, etc., in the Sierras, writing under a nom de plume, which are printed in magazine form and attract much favorable attention.
ARCHIE F. LANEY
A native son of California and of Tulare county, Archie F. Laney was born in 1877, a son of George W. and Octavia (Rether- ford) Laney. His father was born in Ohio and came to California in 1873; he was married in Iowa. He bought land and raised grain and cattle until he retired from active work about fifteen years ago, when his sons assumed the management, and they have continued the business in which he was the pioneer and are vet raising and buying and selling stock, being as well known in the market as any other
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dealers in the central part of the state. Their ranch comprises twelve hundred acres and they carry about three hundred fat cattle each year, raising only enough grain for feed and growing alfalfa for their own use. The father passed away November 13, 1912.
While Archie Laney has never taken an active interest in prac- tical politics and has never sought public office, he has well defined ideas concerning all questions of economic bearing and in a very public-spirited way performs his whole duty as a citizen. In fact. if we may believe those who know him best and are best able to testify in such a matter, he is liberally helpful to all movements having for their object the advancement and prosperity of the com- munity and in a private way has many times proven himself a de- pendable friend, doing what he could by word and deed to help struggling neighbors over some of the stony places in life's path- way.
WILLIAM GOUGH
In Ohio, Preble county, William Gongh, who lives two miles northwest of Orosi in Tulare county, was born October 12, 1838. There he was reared and educated and obtained a practical knowl- edge of farming and of different kinds of useful labor. He was abont twenty-two years old when, in 1860, he came to California, the party of which he was a member being under command of Captain McFarland, who had twice before crossed the plains to and fro. The train consisted of sixty-two wagons and the party included one hun- dred and twenty men and thirteen young women. The route was by way of Omaha, Lone Tree, along the Platte, Salt Lake City, the sink of the Humboldt and thence through beautiful California valleys to Sacramento. The Indians were menacing and succeeded in run- ning off a good many cattle, but none of their attacks were fatal to any member of the party. Forty or fifty cattle died by the way and at Rabbit Hole Springs one member of the party passed away. For a number of years Mr. Gough lived in Sacramento, most of the time engaged in teaming between that point and Nevada. He drove a ten-mule team and the rates on freight ranged from six cents to fifteen cents for one hundred pounds. From Sacramento he came down into Kern county and filed on one hundred and sixty acres of government land which he later relinquished in order to move to Visalia to engage again in teaming. For seven years he drove a stage back and forth between Visalia and Havilah. It was after he took up his residence in Visalia that he married Miss
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