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 60
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 60
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nel and Roba. Florence and Lionel are graduates of the public school and Samuel and Reba are now acquiring their education. Mrs. Murray was, before her marriage, Miss Nina Perry. She was born in Wisconsin.
ALEXANDER W. WHEELER
Sons of Illinois, a field of enterprise and of patriotism, have with For exceptions done well in California. In La Salle county, in the Prairie State, Alexander W. Wheeler was born October 7, 1859, a son of William and Elizabeth ( Brown) Wheeler. His parents were na- tives of England and his father was a graduate of Oriel College at Oxford.
In public schools near his boyhood home, under his father's able direction, Alexander W. Wheeler obtained a practical education. In 1880 he came to California and was employed for a time in a fruit orchard at San Leandro, Alameda county. Later he was in the ser- vice of the Baker & Hamilton Company at Benicia. He came to Tulare City with his brother February 1, 1882, and bought a carriage and blacksmith shop which was doing business in the town, his brother hav- ing been his partner in the enterprise. Later they sold the plant and Alexander W. Wheeler went to a point near Tipton, on the plains south of Tulare City, and devoted nine years to grain farming. Re- turning to the town he was in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company until, in 1893, he bought a furniture business in Tulare, which he has conducted with increasing snecess till the pres- ent time. He has recently erected a fine business building, after his own designs, on North K street. The structure occupies a ground space of fifty by one hundred and twenty-five feet, and his store room is eighteen feet from floor to ceiling without any obstructing posts. The building is thoroughly modern, with attractive plate glass show windows. lle carries an extensive line of fine furniture, and sells not only to people of Tulare but to hundreds of families in all the country round about who come to him confidently for good goods at fair prices.
In his fraternal relations Mr. Wheeler affiliates with the Masons and the Odd Fellows and has passed nearly all the chairs in Olive Branch Lodge No. 269. F. & A. M., and Tulare City Lodge No. 306, 1. 0. 0. F. He has from time to time been brought to general notice through participation in public affairs, notably as a juryman at the trial of the Dalton brothers, train wreckers, some twenty years ago. In 1883 he married Miss Mattie B. Holcombe, a native of Ohio. Her father, who came to Tulare county in the early '70s, was a pioneer
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merchant at Tulare ('ity and was for a time identified with the in- terests of the Southern Pacific railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have a daughter, Claire J.
CHARLES F. STAYTON
In San Joaquin county, Cal., Charles F. Stayton was born October 29, 1859, a son of John F. and Martha ( Hawkins) Stayton, natives, respectively, of Missouri and Tennessee. His father, who had fought in the Mexican war, crossed the plains with ox-teams in 1852 from Independence, Mo., by way of Westport and old Fort Bridger. thence on by way of the Sublett ent-off and the sink of the Humboldt to Hangtown and Sacramento, the trip consuming between five and six months' time. Indians were a constant menace, but did the party little damage. After his arrival in California he began to bny stock, which he drove to the mining camps and sold. In 1869, five years after he had come to California, he went to Utah, where he mined till in 1887. Next he traveled to the White Mountains in New Mexico. where he was engaged in Inn bering and mining. He died December 31, 1911. at the home of his danghter at Kingsburg while on a visit in Califor- nia, aged eighty-seven.
In 1869, when his father left Tulare conny, Charles F. Stayton was ten years old. In 1873 he went to herding sheep for John Tnohy. a pioneer in San Joaquin and Tulare counties, who owned at different times from five thousand to fifty thousand sheep. His favorite breed was the Spanish Merino, and he paid as high as $59 for single animals of pure blood and often sold rams for $50 each, ewes for $10 each. The thoroughbred sheep yielded an average of twelve pounds of wool to the fleece. and the others eight. After packing and herding for about eight years Mr. Stayton turned his attention to grain farming. and after ten years of that he went into the stock business. After another ten years of success in that field he took np vine and fruit growing in Tulare county, buying twenty acres, fifteen of which is in Muscat grapes. He has a small family orchard started, and from four-year-old vines made a satisfactory crop of grapes in 1911, selling eighteen tons of raisins and three tons of other grapes. A private means of irrigation cheapens his production quite materially.
Politically Mr. Stayton affiliates with the Republican party and his active public spirit makes him very useful to the community. 1Te married, near Porterville, Ella M. Mankins, a native of California, whose father was a pioneer here in 1852. Following are the names of their nine children: Lawrence, Clarence, C. Forest, Arthur, Mary, Belle, George Gordon and Ruby and Ruth (twins). Lawrence lives at Klamath Falls, Ore. All the others are residents of Tulare county. Arthur was accidentally killed by drowning in 1910.
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CHARLES J. CARLE
It was in Mariposa county, Cal., that Charles J. Carle, now of Lindsay, Tulare county, was born in 1858, a son of Andrew Jackson Carle, a pioneer of 1849, who died in San Francisco in 1866, and whose wife died in 1878. He was a small child when he was taken from Mariposa county to San Francisco by his parents. In 1868 he was taken to Sonoma county and lived at Healdsburg until 1869, then went to Illinois, where he remained two years. After that he was employed three years on his uncle's farm at Newcastle, Pa. Returning to Illi- nois, he remained there five years, during which period he was for a time a student at Butler University. Coming back to California, he lived in San Francisco in 1879 and 1880. The ensning two years he passed as a clerk in the employ of different merchants in Inyo county. The next two years he spent in the market business in San Francisco, whence he moved to Santa Clara county, where he remained twelve or fourteen years, including eight years at Milpitas. In 1893 he bought twenty acres of land at Lindsay and planted five acres of it. Fonr years later he removed to Lindsay. That was in the fall of 1897. He settled on his place near there and has planted it gradually to the present time, having at this time one hundred and twenty-five acres of orange orchard and about four hundred and fifty acres of raw land. He was an original stockholder and a manager of the El Mirador Land Company, which was organized about 1904, and has been handling about five thousand acres of land. Ile helped also to promote the Lindsay Orchard and Vineyard Tract of fifteen hundred acres, in which he owns a one-sixth interest.
The sons of Mr. Carle are named William Ashley and Jackson Tyler Carle. Both were born at Lindsay. The former is thirteen years old. the latter is ten years old, and they are both in school at Lindsay. The father has served as a school director and has in many ways demonstrated a helpful publie spirit. Fraternally he is a Mason of the Royal Arch degree and is a Knight Templar of Visalia. When he came to Lindsay there were no orchards in this part of the county except one of forty acres that had been planted by Mr. Cairns.
FRED M. BARNEY
In Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., Mr. Barney was born September 10, 1884. a son of B. L. Barney. He came to Kings county. ('al., in 1891, when a boy of seven years, and attended the public and high school until he was twenty, graduating from Hanford high school in 1905. He then took up a government homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, to which he has long since obtained title, and he farms
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one hundred and sixty acres of land owned by his father, located three miles east of the city. While devoting himself somewhat to general farming. he raises fruits and grapes and specializes on hog raising, the breeding of mules and dairying. The farm is outfitted with a good residence, ample barns, stables and other outbuildings and up- to-date appointments such as are required. Mr. Barney studies his business very carefully, gives close attention to every detail and is very successful in his business operations.
Mr. Barney takes an intelligent interest in all that pertains to the welfare of the township and county, and is well informed and has decided opinions concerning all matters of public policy, state or na- tional. IIe has in many ways demonstrated a helpful public spirit. On November 16, 1911, he married Margaret Kantenberg. He is a Master Mason, belongs to the Eastern Star and is devoted to Masonic principles and mindful of all precepts of the order.
ALBERT GALLATIN OGILVIE
Ohio has contributed as generously to the good citizenship of California as any other state in the Union, and the quality of its contribution does not suffer by comparison with that of any other. Albert Gallatin Ogilvie, a son of Ohio, who has become successful in Tulare county, Cal., was born in Delaware county March 25, 1856, a son of Johnson and Margaret (Norman) Ogilvie, who were born and brought up in Coshocton county, in the Buckeye state. He was an attendant of a country grammar school near his home until in 1874, when he was eighteen years old.
Early in life Mr. Ogilvie familiarized himself with the details of farming and of the development, handling and sale of nursery stock, and these interests have commanded his attention during most of his active life. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, the Knights of Pythias and the Artisans. In his religious ad- herence he is a Methodist, having identified himself with the Methodist Episcopal church of Alhambra, Los Angeles county, Cal. Politically his alliances are with the Republican party. Taking a deep and abid- ing interest in everything that pertains to the welfare and prosperity of the people of California and the United States, he has believed that they could be promoted better through the activities of that party than by means of any other influence. Personally his publie spirit has been many times exerted for the good of the community. In fact he is responsive to every legitimate demand upon him in behalf of the general prosperity.
June 21, 1896, Mr. Ogilvie married Mrs. Sarah Frances (Jasper) Askin, daughter of James A. and Margaret E. Jasper, their marriage
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having been solemnized at Lemon Cove, C'al. He has children named as follows : Ilarry J., who married Cora Blackburn; Addie F., Howard J .. Laura A., Benjamin A., William J., Oscar O., Fred N., J. Raymond and J. Alden. Harry J. and Addie F. were born of a former mar- riage. By her first marriage Mrs. Ogilvie had three children: Elbert Leroy Askin ; Margaret Myrl, now the wife of Frank L. Atwood, and Dora Bernice.
BYRON GLOYD COMFORT
One of the successful and scientific farmers in the vicinity of Han- ford. Kings county. is Byron G. Comfort, who has been a resident of the county since 1887. He was born at Palatine, Ill., June 17, 1863. and attended public schools near his home until he was seventeen years old. Then he found employment on farms and saved a little money with which he came to California and eventually settled near Hanford. His farming here was successful and he was soon enabled to buy a ranch of one hundred acres on which he has lived since 1902. He gives his attention to hog raising, dairying and general farming, making a study of his land, the climate, the crops and of everything that can in any way influence productiveness, and it is probable that he has met with as few failures as any farmer in his vicinity.
In 1886 Mr. Comfort married Miss Carrie H. Drullard, who was born in Stockton, Cal., February 22, 1864. They have four children living, here named in the order of their nativity : Elvira G., Almer B .. Ward R. and Wayne M. Of much publie spirit and with a real desire for the uplift of his community, Mr. Comfort has commended himself to his fellow townsmen as one who may be depended on to advance to the extent of his ability any movement which in his opinion tends to the general good.
LEVI BLOYD
The prominent contractor and builder of Hanford whose name is above was born in Sutter county. Cal., April 22, 1864, and was quite young when his parents came to what is now Kings county and located four miles west of Hanford, where his father homesteaded a quarter- section of land and bought a quarter-section of railroad land. There Levi grew up and attended the public schools and later farmed until 1898, since when he has lived at Ilanford. He learned the carpenter's trade with David Gamble and was with him seven years as foreman.
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For a time he was employed at cement work and afterward with the San Joaquin Light and Power Company. Because the latter employ- ment kept him mich of the time away from home, he gave it up and turned his attention to contracting and building, and since that time has built many residences, among which are some of the finest in Hanford and vicinity, those of Lyman Farmer, I. R. Horton and E. Pickrell being among them. While his operations have been confined principally to buildings of this class, he has done other work, including the fixtures and show windows in the Brown & Nieson store, those of the Hanford Hardware Co., and improvements on the Stewart pack- ing house. In the cement department of his work he has his brother, Winfield S. Bloyd, as a partner. He employs several carpenters and several cement workers. As his merits as a contractor and builder become known he is brought constantly into a larger and yet larger demand, and there are those who predict that his operations will in time surpass in volume those of any other builder in the county in his peculiar fields.
On March 4, 1886, Mr. Bloyd married Miss Rose Ellis, a native of Stanislaus county, Cal., who had come to Kings county, and they have a daughter and two sons. Hazel married William Tyler, and they re- side in Kings county; they have a daughter, Rosalee. Raymond is becoming a machinist at Hanford. Stanley is a student. Mr. Bloyd is a member of the Fraternal Aid and of the Improved Order of Red Mon. As a citizen he is publie-spiritedly helpful.
R. J. ESTES
In Alabama, January 16, 1865, was born R. J. Estes, who lives on the Orosi rural free delivery route No. 1, Box 64, Tulare county, Cal., a son of Jack and Jane (Berry) Estes, who when he was about a year old took him to Mississippi, where they were early pioneers, settling thirty miles from any other human inhabitant. There young Estes grew to manhood, obtained some little education and was initiated into the mysteries of backwoods farming and familiarized with all the sports of a new country, including hunting, of which he became very fond. His father procured most of the living for the family in the woods. It has been estimated that he killed thousands of deer and many thousands of turkeys. It is certain that he made quite a deal of money from deerskins. He attended many turkey shoots and was usually the winner of most or all of the prizes offered. He lived out his days there and died in 1901. His wife survives him and is now living on their old homestead in Mississippi.
Until he was twenty-six years old, R. J. Estes lived in Mississippi. He married there Miss Anna Watson, who was born in Alabama and
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who has borne him a daughter, Troy Estes, who was graduated from the Visalia high school in 1902 and is married to Van La Port, a native of Iowa, and has a son, Wythal La Port, who is a student in the public school of Bakersfield. Mr. Estes came to California in 1890 and began farming in Tulare county. He is working eighty acres of the Vacovich land. having sixty acres devoted to grapes, twenty acres to oranges. His ranch is outfitted with everything essential to its successful cultivation and all the improvements have been installed by himself. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and with the Fraternal Aid. He is a member of the Christian church, generous in support of all its interests. Politically he is a Democrat, thoroughly alive to all economic questions of the day and public- spiritedly solicitous for the welfare of the community.
MIKE V. GARCIA
A native of the Azores, M. V. Garcia was born June, 1861. He is now a highly esteemed citizen of Tulare county, living one mile south of Sultana. He grew up and was educated near the place of his birth and in 1882, when he was twenty-one years old, came to the United States, landing at Boston. From there he came to Alameda county. Cal .. where he raised sheep two years. Then he made his advent in Tulare county and broadened his operations until he had one of the notable sheep-herding enterprises in his vicinity, handling French and Spanish Merinos and other fine grades, which he was able to dispose of at a large profit. At one time he owned five thousand sheep. at another he raised twenty-five hundred lambs in one season. In those days the sheep industry was at high tide. The country was new and unimproved and antelope, bear and deer were to be seen in all directions and all kinds of game were plentiful in the mountains. He remembers having made what he calls "a summer trip" into the Blue mountains and back to Fresno. His outdoor life brought him many strange acquaintances, and he knew Sontag and Evans very well and was the only witness of their capture. He relates how Evans went over to Mrs. Beekin's and Sontag was killed. These desperadoes were often at Coalinga. and menaced every good citizen. Though they did not molest Mr. Garcia personally. he has said: "I was glad to get out I did not know what was under ground." He often saw the Dalton brothers and he remembers when they went through Antelope valley.
Eventually Mr. Garcia sold his sheep, five thousand head, at from $3.75 to $5 a head. and bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he operated from 1901 to 1910, then sold for $24,800 cash. In all the business transactions here referred to Mr. Garcia demon-
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strated that he was a man of ability for large affairs. He has identi- fied himself with American institutions and is a member of the Re- publican party, but inclined to be independent. Fraternally he affili- ates with the Masons and with the U. P. E. C. As a citizen he is public-spiritedly helpful to all good interests of the community.
On the day of the San Francisco earthquake, April 18, 1906, Mr. Garcia was married by telegraph to Francisca Silva, an old sweetheart in the Azores, at an expense of $36. She died December 30, 1907. His present wife, whom he married December 2, 1911, was before their marriage Miss Mariana Tavaz, also a native of the Azores, who had come to the United States on the same vessel as her husband and was married in Boston. In 1911 Mr. Garcia left California and began a year of travel through the United States and the old country, meeting with many people and investigating social conditions. He finally came to the conclusion that California offered indneements unsurpassed and returned here and purchased twenty acres of land, part of a tract he had formerly owned. Here he has begun improvements and is making a comfortable home.
CHRIST S. HANSEN
Many natives of Denmark have made good in central ('alifornia and in Tulare county, though not one has achieved higher repute for all that makes for the best American citizenship than Christ S. Hansen, who is making a success of vines and fruit trees two miles and a half northwest of Orosi. Descended from old Danish families, Mr. Ilansen was born December 23, 1874, and was reared and educated in his native land. He was abont thirty years old when, in 1904, he came to the United States. California was his objective point and he lived a year in Fresno, where he arrived with his wife and two children with a cash capital of $50. However, he bought his present ranch of forty acres at $125 an acre and has partly paid for it and in many ways improved it. He has thirty acres in Mnscats, Thompson and Emperor grapes, a peach orchard of one and one-half acres, and sold in 1910 twelve tons of Thompson and Muscat raisins and about thirty tons of Emperor table grapes. He has five head of stock on his place. As a farmer he is proceeding along scientifie lines and is winning an enviable success. Politically he is a Republican, and Mrs. Hansen is a voter in the same party. They are members of the Presbyterian church. His publie spirit makes him helpful to all good interests of the community. He married, in 1899, in his native land, Miss Sene Nelson, and they have children named Carla M. and Ester, who are students in the public school at Orosi.
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LEWIS BRUCE
The science of osteopathy has made a place for itself among recognized curative agencies, and the practitioner of osteopathy is en- trenched as firmly in the good opinion of the general public as are the regular practitioners of medicine and surgery. A leader in its field in Kings county, Cal., is Lewis Bruce, whose office is in the Shar- ples building in Hanford. A native of Cass county, Iowa, born De- cember 5, 1878, he received his elementary edneation in public schools near the home of his youth. In 1899, just before he became of age, he entered the Dr. S. S. Still College of Osteopathy, at Des Moines, Iowa, where he was graduated in 1902, and during the vacation which followed he took special courses in orificial surgery and gynecology. He began the practice of his profession at Greenfield, Iowa, in Feb- ruary, 1902, and in June, 1903, eame to Hanford, where he has devoted himself to general practice with much success, specializing in chronie diseases.
As a business man the subject of this notice is coming to the front in different ways. Ile is a director of the Lindsay National Bank at Lindsay, Tulare connty, and owns an interest in a citrus nursery near Riverside, Riverside county, on which are thirty thousand trees. For a time he was engaged in raising racing horses of good blood and capabilities. He owned Beauty N. (trotting record, 2:23), also Sir Val- entine, a three-year-old colt which in 1911 took the first premium as a two-year-old and holds the championship over all other standard-bred stallions of any age. Dr. Bruce was one of the incorporators in 1912 of the Blue Ribbon Manufacturing Company, with $100,000 capital, to be located in Hanford; the principal article for manufacture will be the Blue Ribbon pump.
By his marriage with Olive L. Peterson, of Iowa, in 1903, Dr. Bruce has a daughter, LaVerne Gloria. As a private eitizen he takes a deep and abiding interest in all that pertains to the advancement of his city, county and state, and he has often manifested a publie spirit responsive to all reasonable demands upon it.
ELIAS T. COSPER
Indiana has given to California many popular and successful men, among them the prominent lawyer and man of public affairs whose name is above. It was in Noble county, that state, that Elias T. Cosper was born, May 12, 1849. Ile was educated in publie schools in his native county and at the LaGrange Collegiate Institute at Ontario, LaGrange county, Ind., having been graduated from the last- named institution about 1870. For a time thereafter he tanght school
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in Indiana, Ohio and Iowa, and so successful was he in this calling that he was made superintendent of the school at Lima, Ind. By this time his reputation was so well established that his services were sought as superintendent of the schools of LaGrange connty, in which office he served two terms with efficiency and honor. Meanwhile he had determined to become a lawyer and was already well read in the principles of the profession. Finishing his law studies under the preceptorship of J. D. Ferrall of LaGrange, he was admitted to the bar of Indiana in 1878. After eight years' successful practice there le located in Tulare, C'al., in 1886, opening an office, afterwards asso- ciating J. F. Boller with him as partner, and this relationship con- tinned four years. He was elected to represent his district in the thirty-third session of the California legislative assembly, in which, as well as in the special session in which the Hon. Thomas Bard was elected United States senator, he served with distinguished ability and credit. Meanwhile he had moved from Tulare to HIanford, where, after the expiration of his legislative service, he formed a law part- nership with H. P. Brown, which existed two years, since when he has been in independent practice with offices located in the Emporium building. From the time of his settlement at Tulare he was promi- nent in Republican politics and eventually was made chairman of the county Republican central committee, an office which he filled for sev- eral years while acting as a member of important committees of that body.
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