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 64
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 64
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It was in Tulare county that J. T. Walker, youngest child of William G. and Martha M. (Tolbert) Walker, was born in 1862. He attended the public schools near the home of his childhood and boy- hood and learned the trade of harness-maker and saddler, at which
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he was employed during his earlier years. Eventually he became in- terested in oil properties in Kern and Kings counties, Cal., and at this time he is quite successfully handling patent lands in the oil belt. A man of enterprise and of public spirit, he is not without his due share of local influence, and there is no movement for the good of the community which does not have his hearty encouragement and co-operation. A native son not only of California but of Tulare county as well, he is also a son of a pioneer and has himself witnessed much of the development of central California which has made it one of the wonderlands of the United States.
JONATHAN ESREY
In the Prairie State, Jonathan Esrey was born December 2, 1831. and when he was about ten years old he went with his father's family to Missouri, where he completed such education as was available to him and lived until 1852, gaining meanwhile a practical knowledge of farming. He was a member of a party which crossed the plains to California with ox-teams in the year last mentioned and after mining for a while at Placerville and at Sacramento, he came in the early '60s to Tulare county and went into the stock business. Later he took up farming and in time developed an important dairy interest He pre-empted land along the line of the railroad, a mile and a half northwest of the present site of Lemoore, for which he was later com- pelled to pay the railroad company a good price. Eventually he sold this property and in 1878 he bought four hundred acres three miles from Lemoore and by later purchases he increased his holdings in this vicinity to nine hundred acres. He sold off traet after tract until he had only one hundred and sixty acres, a fine ranch two miles and a half northwest of Lemoore, twenty acres in vineyard, most of the remainder in alfalfa. Here he established an important dairy busi- ness, which his widow has conducted since his death.
In 1871 Mr. Esrey married Miss Sarah A. Winsett, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Robert and Nancy (Schooler) Winsett, natives of Tennessee. She came to California in 1870 and her par- ents came seven years later and lived in central California until they passed away. She made her home in the vicinity of Lemoore until her marriage. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Esrey : George lives on the family homestead; Kate married L. L. Follett and died November 20, 1908; Robert is conducting a ranch four miles from Lemoore; and Justin died April 7, 1912. Mr. Esrey was a man of well-defined public spirit who did much in his time to advance the interests of his community, and he was well known as a friend of
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education. While not particularly active as a politician, he was infin- ential in local affairs. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church Sonth, and for several years was a trustee and deacon of the church at Lemoore.
LEVI LUKENS GILL.
Born in Pickaway county, Ohio, June 23, 1837, Levi Lukens Gill was raised on a farm and educated in common schools there. He was married February 4, 1858, to Eliza A. Harriman, born in Pick- away county, May 18, 1842, daughter of Aaron A. and Eliza ( Mitten) Ilarriman, the former born in Vermont and the latter in Ohio. At the time of the Civil war they moved to Ringgold county, Iowa, and there he farmed until 1873, when he embarked with his family on an emigrant train for California. Settling in Yokohl valley, he bought, homesteaded and pre-empted land and engaged in the stock business on a large scale, taking his sons into partnership. Here he was active until his death, September 4, 1909.
Levi L. Gill and his wife had sixteen children, ten of whom are living. viz .: Charles O., born in Ohio; Will and Fred, twins, born in Jowa; Louis, also born in lowa; Julia, wife of Marion Anderson; Pruda M .. widow of John (. Hodges; Frank and Lee, on the ranch; Martha, who married Harry Sickles; and Ora, at home. In politics a Republican, he assisted in organizing schools there. He bought the White ranch upon which the first orange trees were planted in Tulare county, in Frazier valley. Ile retired a short time previous to his death. Mr. Gill built a home in Porterville, at Oak and Gravilla streets, where his widow now resides.
JOHN AND SEREPTA WALKER.
One of the early settlers of Tulare county who remains to tell of the days of the pioneers when there was no Tulare city, when the country was just open plains, when stock-raising was the only business. and when the railroad had not been thought of. is Mrs. Serepta Walker, who lives two miles northwest of Tulare. She was born in Iowa in 1849, a daughter of Adam Pate, and in 1852, when she was three years old, was brought by her father across the plains to Cali- fornia. For a time after he came he ventured in the mines, but later turned to farming north of Stockton and still later moved to a place near that town. The daughter came to Tulare county in 1869 and for
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five years lived near Porterville and then pre-empted a homestead on the Tule river near Woodville. After he had perfected his title to this property she moved to her present location, two miles northwest of Tulare, where she and her husband bought thirty-two acres which she owns at this time. She was married in Stockton in 1867, to John Walker, a native of Illinois, who came to California among the pio- neers and died in 1888 on the ranch which is now his widow's home. Mrs. Walker, who was left with a large family of children, has farmned the homestead snecessfully to the present time. She is now conducting a dairy on a small scale and has sixteen acres of alfalfa and ninety colonies of bees.
Of Mrs. Walker's eleven children, nine are living. Clara is the wife of Jesse Fugate of Fresno. Loren lives with his mother and works a rauch adjoining hers. Edwin is an apiarist near Tulare. Jolm E. is represented by a separate biographical sketch in this volume. Frank is a member of his mother's household. William lives at Tulare. Lydia married Preston Hodges of Tulare. Lucy lives in San Francisco and Edna is still of her mother's home circle.
A. N. ASHLEY
A man destined to strange experiences, much ardnous travel and somewhat notable vicissitudes of fortune was A. N. Ashley, who first saw the light of day in Placer county, Cal., in 1864. There he was reared and attended school more or less until he was seventeen years old, when he went to work in the mines near his home. From there he went to Santa Clara county, in 1883, and was during most of the time until 1889 engaged in the mercantile business. Then selling ont he went up into Washington and Oregon, where he mined about ten years, until after the gold strike there took him to Nome, Alaska. He was in Nome from 1900 till in 1905, when he came back to California to visit his parents, and took up eighty acres of fine land in Tulare county, with the determination to go back to Nome and dig out the money with which to pay for it. There he worked in 1907 and 1908. In 1910 he returned to California to take his place in hand and soon afterwards purchased twenty acres more with a view to devoting it to the growth of olives.
John T. Ashley, father of A. N., came across the plains to California by way of Salt Lake and was in his day a pioneer in the place of his location. Whether his forefathers had been navigators or explorers is not known, but it is certain that he had inherited blood of men who were explorers and carried civilization among strange peoples, and it is equally certain that he passed some of it down to
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his son who, when he penetrated far into the northern gold regions and remained there year after year doggedly working to carry out a fixed purpose, had experiences which could they be given in full would in themselves constitute a most interesting volume. A. N. Ashley affiliates with the Arctic Brotherhood and with the Native Sons of the Golden West.
In 1905 Mr. Ashley married Miss Lizzie Firzlaff, who has proven a helpful companion to him and enjoys with him the pleasure of having one of the most beautiful homes in the valley. He is a man of public spirit, who has in many different ways evidenced his interest in the community.
F. J. GIBSON
A Pennsylvanian by birth, born in Lawrence county April 19, 1849, E. J. Gibson was reared and educated there and lived there until he was twenty-two years old. He then went to Kansas, but soon returned to Pennsylvania and two years later went to Missouri, where he farmed on rented land three years. Going back to Pennsylvania, he was married in 1879 to Miss Nanny Alcorn, a native of that state, and returned with his bride to Missouri. In 1885, his wife requiring a change of climate, they came to California and Mr. Gibson bought sixty acres of land six miles southwest of Hanford. Two years later he sold off twenty acres of this tract and planted the remainder to orchard. Afterwards he sold twenty acres more and bought twenty- seven acres adjoining his original purchase. Next he traded the remaining twenty acres of his original sixty-acre place for land adjoining his twenty-seven-acre purchase and bought thirty-three acres adjoining this, then owning in all eighty acres in a compact body. In 1902 he bought twenty acres north of the city which he sold in 1904 to L. D. Porter; after this transaction he returned to Pennsyl- vania, visiting among old friends and relatives of his family and Mrs. Gibson's. In the fall of 1907 he bought his present home place. twenty acres, three miles west of the city. He has sold twenty-seven acres of his old eighty-acre purchase and the remaining fifty-three acres of the tract is farmed now by his son, Fred Gibson, who has thirty-five acres of it in orchard.
For his present homestead Mr. Gibson paid $400 an acre and twelve acres of the twenty is devoted to peaches, seven to vineyard. He has put on the place all the improvements visible there now, including his fine residence which was erected in 1908. Taking an interest in Hanford and the country round about that thriving little city he has publie-spiritedly assisted all local interests to the extent
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of his ability. He is a member and supporter of the Presbyterian church of Hanford and he and his son affiliate with the Hanford lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The latter, Fred Gibson, married Kate Simpson, a daughter of Dr. R. G. Simpson, of Indiana, and she has borne him three children, Glenn, Gertrude and Lucile.
M. P. BRAZILL
The Portuguese farmer in California has set an example well worthy of emulation by those who are obliged to begin small and are ambitious to achieve success and prominence. One such at Tulare, Tulare county, C'al., is M. P. Brazill, a native of the Azores, born December 9, 1871. He was eighteen years old, in 1890, when he came to Tulare county and went into the sheep business, ranging his flock through the San Joaquin valley and into the Sierra Nevadas. In a few years he owned eight thousand sheep and he continued in the business until 1904, when he sold it out in order to give his attention to an up-to-date ranch about a mile from the business center of Tulare, which he had bought in 1901. He owns eighty acres all in alfalfa and is raising hogs, but his principal business is dairying. He milks seventy-three cows and sells their milk and other prodnets in the city. In addition to the eighty acres which he owns he rents one hundred and eighty, thus making a dairy ranch of two hundred and sixty acres. As a dairyman he has won snecess beyond that of many others in central California. As a citizen he is popular because of his friendly disposition and of the real interest in the community which has commanded the exercise of a commendable public spirit. Fraternally he affiliates with the W. O. W., the U. P. E. C. and the I. D. E. S., which are among the numerous orders having local organizations at Tulare.
In 1899 Mr. Brazill married Miss Emma Hoskins of Tulare, who bore him two children and died in 1902. Ilis present wife, whom he married in 1904, was Miss Mary Vierra, of Oakland, Cal., .and by this marriage he has four children. The six children are here named in the order of their nativity : Emma, Lonisa, Lee, Angelina, Josephine and Ernest.
ABSALOM BURTON
One of the successful general ranchmen of Kings county is Absalom Burton, born in Missouri, February 18, 1852, a son of Absalom Burton, Sr. In 1866, when he was about fourteen years of 39
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age, he came to California with his father's family, and for three years thereafter helped the elder Burton at his work in the coal mines at Mount Diablo, Contra Costa county. In 1873 the Burtons moved into the part of Tulare county which is now Kings county and took up land ten miles southwest of Hanford, the title to which was subse- mently secured by payment on the part of the young Absalom Bur- ton's brother Richard. Absalom worked two years on the construction of the People's ditch, then started a herd of sheep, which he drove through a wide range of country round about and which he eventually -old to take up ranching. In 1873 he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land, nine miles southwest of Hanford, on which he made some improvements while working out on ranches in the neigh- borhood. Later he sold eighty acres of this tract to his brother. He bought land six miles northeast of Visalia, which he sold after having farmed it a few months, and then for six years he farmed a rented half-section on the lake. After that he engaged in hog raising, a few years, subsequently turning his attention to dairying. At present he milks twenty cows, raises about one hundred hogs annually and keeps an average of about two hundred stands of bees. About forty acres of his original eighty is under alfalfa. In June, 1908, the family bought eighty acres east of his old homestead, forty acres of which he set out to peach, apricot and other orchard trees. The remaining forty acres he devotes to general farming.
In 1882 Mr. Burton married Mrs. Elizabeth (Robinson) Ogden. a native of England, who bore him a son, A. F. Burton, who assists him in the management of his business. By a former marriage with John Ogden, Mrs. Burton had two children, William and Lettie. Mr. Burton is a generously helpful man, actuated by a lively publie spirit.
JOHN EWING. JR.
Conspicuous among the progressive farmers of Tulare county, whose many experiences in this conntry have made them the expert agrienlturists they are to-day is John Ewing, Jr., the eldest and only survivor of the family of John and Margaret (Ewing) Ewing. The other members of this family are: Mrs. Margaret E. Bolton, whose sons were James and Charles; William, who left two chiktren. Henry and Margaret; Mrs. Mary Sherman, whose three sons were David. JJohn and William; Mrs. Elizabeth Swanson, who left two children, Ehmer and Stella; Mrs. Isabella Sherman, whose children were Gilbert, Sammel and a daughter.
John Ewing, Jr., was born in Pennsylvania, fifteen miles from Philadelphia, April 3, 1840. In 1857 his family moved to Putnam
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county, Ill., whence they came to California in 1876. He settled first at Big Oak Flats, in the mountains, thirty miles east of Visalia, where he early pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of government land and with his sons now owns an entire section. He raised cattle there until 1906, when he located two miles east of Visalia and operated a ranch under lease from Samuel Gilliam. Seventy acres were planted to alfalfa and a fine dairy of fourteen Holstein cows engaged his time; he has also raised some good draft horses and now has a bay colt three years old, weighing sixteen hundred pounds, in which he takes much pride. An average of fifty hogs was kept on the place, and Mr. Ewing became an expert in these lines. A scientific farmer, his machinery and methods are up to date, and his ideas and his manner of executing them are as advanced as any farmer's in the county.
In 1863 Mr. Ewing married Rachel Davis, a native of Pennsyl- vania, and they have several children. William H., of Exeter, married Jeanette Hatch, of San Francisco, and they have two children, Dorothy and Girard. John M. is a farmer near Visalia ; he married Mary Cuda and they have two children, Salina and Emery. Mrs. Nira Kelley, next in order of birth, is a trained nurse and the mother of two sons, C'ecil and Otis. Howard married Stella Chedester, and they have two daughters, Elva and Eileen. For a number of years Howard ran a pack team through the mountains and at times acted as a guide to tourists. He now assists his father in his ranching operations. Mr. Ewing is a man of strong convictions and has well defined ideas on all questions of public policy. He believes in the election of good and honest men to office and uses his influence as far as is possible to secure the nomination of such by his party. He is a man of undoubted public spirit, patriotically generous in support of all measures pro- posed for the general benefit.
JOHN FRANS
One of the most successful stockmen of Tulare county and a native son of California, having been born at Santa Rosa, So- noma county, January 11, 1859, is John Frans, who lives at No. 609 South Court street, Visalia. His father, John B. Frans, was born in Kentneky and lived there until, in his young manhood, he removed to Missouri, to become a farmer in the vicinity of St. Joseph. There he enlisted for service in the Mexican war under Gen. Sterling Price. In 1853 he was one of a party that came across the plains to Cali- fornia with ox-teams. Remaining several years at San Jose, he then went to Santa Rosa, where he farmed until 1863, when he re- moved to Tulare county and bought four hundred and twenty acres,
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three miles and a half east of Visalia. Ilere he farmed until in 1870. when his death occurred in his fifty-third year. He married Miss Elizabeth Fulton, a native of Indiana, who survived him, but is now deceased, and of their three sons and five daughters, John Frans was the fourth child and the youngest son. The other sur- viving children are: Thomas H. of Los Angeles; Mary; Mrs. Daniel Switzer of Visalia, and Mrs. Edward Hart, who lives near Farmers- ville.
John Frans was educated in the common schools near his home, and in 1878 began farming the Frans homestead in partnership with his brothers, Thomas HI. and James Madison, the latter of whom died three years later in his twenty-sixth year. In 1882 he bought his present ranch and in 1886 began farming independently. He has met with such success that he is classed with the prominent business men of the county. For the past five years he has rented his ranch. The Cross Hardware block, on Main street, Visalia, was built by Mr. Frans and R. F. Cross, and later Mr. Frans bought Mr. Cross's interest in the property, thus becoming sole owner of one of the finest business properties in the city.
It should be noted in passing that Mr. Frans and one or more of his brothers operated the old Frans ranch until their mother remarried. Ilis beginning was small, but he has added to his original purchase until he is now the owner of a large and valuable property. Politically he is a Democrat, and as a citizen he has proven himself remarkably enterprising and public-spirited. He married, at Visalia, Miss Dora Jones, who was born at Santa Rosa, ('al., and is a member of the Society of Native Daughters of the Golden West. They have a son whom they have named in honor of his paternal grandfather, John B. Frans.
JEREMIAH D. HYDE
The Hyde family, of which Jeremiah D. Hyde is a member, is well known in this part of the country. Son of David and Sarah (Honghtaling) Ilyde, natives of New York state, Jeremiah D. Ilyde was born in Ulster county, the scene of a historie Huguenot settlement, and died in Visalia, Tulare county, Cal., in 1897. He came from the Empire state with his brother, Richard E., mined with him and was with him in his mercantile venture at Santa ('ruz. In 1873 he came to Visalia and was for many years re- ceiver in the United States land office in that town, and was also interested with his brother in lands in Tulare county. As a man of affairs he developed an admirable ability. His character was
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lofty and full of beauty and he was patriotic, charitable and de- voted to the advancement of the human race along all lines of creditable endeavor. Though not a practical politician, he wielded a recognized political influence, and while never an office-seeker, he was at times prevailed upon in the interest of public welfare to accept public trusts. His interest in education impelled him to consent to serve on the school board, which he did for some time, with much credit to himself and greatly to the benefit of the local schools. His desire for certain reforms and innovations led him to submit to election as a member of the board of trustees of Visalia. He married Mary Schuler, a native of Iowa, and she bore him two sons, Richard E. Hyde, Jr., and Dr. Lawrence D. Ilyde, both citizens of Visalia.
In Visalia, in 1878, was born Richard E. Hyde, Jr., son of Jeremiah D. Hyde and nephew and namesake of Richard E. Hyde, pioneer and financier. Ile was educated in the public schools and at the California State University at Berkeley. At present he has numerous ranch interests in Tulare county, and he is vice-president of the Visalia Savings bank and a director of the National Bank of Visalia. He was married, in 1905, to Miss Luella Burrel, dangh- ter of ('uthbert Burrel, and they have two children, Cuthbert Bur- rel and Richard E., Jr., Mr. Hyde is able and ready at all times to do his full duty as a citizen as he has often heard it defined by his honored father and nele, and his many friends in the business community regard him as a worthy successor of those nseful and influential citizens of a day now past, but not soon to be forgotten.
HOMER C. TOWNSEND
A native of Noblesville, Ind., born Jannary 8, 1832, Homer C. Townsend crossed the plains to California in 1852, prospered in the land of his adoption and died in 1885, after a career in many ways interesting. Ile was but twenty years old when he came to the state, young. hopeful, ambitious and determined to succeed. After a long journey full of trials, of dangers and of weariness, he arrived at a point on the American river, and there he began mining, con- tinuing in 1854 and 1855 at Placerville, Eldorado county. He then was ready to take to ranching, and he followed this near Sacra- mento, remaining till in 1856, when he came to Visalia. In the spring of that year he located on the old Pratt place, on which he lived abont a year, and then again became a miner, operating on White river in Kern county, meanwhile having an experience as a grocer, in a venture in which he had fra Kinney as a partner
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Back to Visalia Mr. Townsend soon came, now to go into the harness and saddlery business, in company with Mr. Bossler. He served his fellow citizens as public administrator of Tulare county eight years and as deputy county assessor for a shorter pericd. Eventually he engaged in stock-raising and farming on a ranch two miles east of Visalia, where, in the course of events, he was washed out of house and home by a flood. His next location was at a ranch on the Mill road, in the mountains, which he bought and devoted to raising cattle and horses. There he lived out his days and passed from the scenes of earth. His widow conducted the ranch a few years after his demise, then sold it; before her marriage she was Miss Elizabeth Huston. She was born in Ar- kansas and her father was a pioneer in California, long well known in Tulare county. This daughter of one pioneer and wife of an- other, who now lives at Visalia, was the mother of children as follows: James HI., who married Myrtle Pattie and has two sons, Russell B. and Ray W .; Thomas Il., who has passed away; Fan- nie M., who is the wife of S. Simmons of Coalinga, Cal., and Frank A., of Montana.
A man of fine character, devoted to the development of his town, state and county, Mr. Townsend was a model citizen, active, patriotic and useful. The vicissitudes through which he passed in his earlier years here were a good preparation for the main struggle of his life which brought him success, contentment and honor.
ALBERT KNIERR
Born in Baden-Baden, Germany, in 1868, Albert Knierr came to the United States when he was sixteen years old and made his way to Burlington, lowa, where he was employed a year as a butcher. During the next four years he traveled quite extensively in Illinois, Kansas and Colorado, stopping from time to time in one town after another to work at his trade. Eventually he came to California, arriving in San Francisco in 1889. For a time he worked there at his trade; then, with a Mr. Allan as his partner, he started a small slaughter house, killing one or two cows a day. Their business began to grow and at length advanced almost by leaps and bounds, and at this time they have one of the largest and best appointed slaughter houses on the Pacific coast and carry on a very heavy wholesale business. . Their sanitary cold storage plant at Fifth and Railroad avonnes, San Francisco, cost $50,000; they kill eight hundred cattle monthly and one hundred and fifty
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