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 68
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 68
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 the conduct of the paternal farm Arthur Burton helped his father until 1903, when he bought his present ranch home, four and one-half miles west of Visalia. He owns sixty acres which he de- veloped from its original condition. His homestead proper he devotes to the production of alfalfa. In connection with his own place Mr. Burton is condneting the home ranch.
On December 7, 1894, Mr. Burton married Ethel Wilcox, a native of Illinois, who has borne him two sons, Hollis H. and Carroll E. He is a member of Four ('reek lodge No. 94, I. O. O. F., and affiliates with the Fraternal Brotherhood.
LEVY NEWTON GREGORY
The California citizen of the Dinuba neighborhood, whose career has been most worthy as a soldier, a pioneer and a successful man of affairs, is Levy Newton Gregory, who was born in Carroll county, Tenn., February 6, 1843. When four years old he was taken by his parents to Cedar county, Mo., from which place the family moved two years later to Springfield, Mo., where the son was educated in the public schools. Here he learned his first lessons in farming and made his home until 1870. Meanwhile, in 1862, when he was nineteen years old, he enlisted in Company I, Second Missouri Light Artillery, under Capt. S. II. Jnlean. A year and a half intervened between the date of his mnstering-in and the date of his mustering-out. It was a time of hardship, of much rongh service and poor living, which, however, is not the least pleasant of Mr. Gregory's recol- lections of the past.
When Mr. Gregory came to California it was as a poor man and it was not until 1891 that he was able to buy land. He remained on his first purchase until ten years ago, when he came to Dinnba and bought twenty-five acres of land at $40 an acre, which because of his labor and the rise in property values in Central California is now well worth $600 an acre.
In 1870 Mr. Gregory married Sarah J. Hill, a native of Missouri. Of their seven children three are living. George was born in Mis- sonri and died in California. James G. married Nettie Patterson and is living in Tulare county. William A. married Maud Fairweather and he, too, lives in Tulare county. Fred A. was born in Oregon, Mo., and died, aged twenty-six years, leaving a widow and one child. Bert Wiley, who is a . well known ranchman in Tulare county, is the only one living of triplets.
726
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
Mr. Gregory is an Odd Fellow and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Through his fraternal relations, no more than by his social intercourse with his fellow citizens he is popular with all who know him. In every relation of life he has proven him- self generously helpful and his public spirit, many times tried, has never been inadequate to any legitimate demand upon it. His father, Wiley B. Gregory, a native of Tennessee, died in Texas at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. His mother passed away in Missouri. Mrs. Gregory's parents died in Missouri, where her father, Lawson Hill, was in some ways well known.
EDWARD ERLANGER
The well known attorney and counsellor at law and breeder of trot- ting horses whose name heads this article was born at the University of Marburg. Germany, June 15, 1852. He came from a family of bankers. llis father, Moritz Erlanger, was a banker and merchant at Marburg. Our subject was educated at Gymnasium at Marburg. When seventeen years of age he entered the employ of the banking firm of von Erlanger & Son at Frankfurt on Main and continued till 1870, when he was forced to resign his position owing to the fact that he was drafted into the military service in the French and German war. He did service in the ambulance corps, after which he sailed for New York, where he arrived in October, 1870. He came to California in 1871 and in 1872 located at Kingston, where he was employed as bookkeeper in the store of Jacob and Einstein until the spring of 1877. It was while thus employed in the year 1874 that he and thirty-seven other white men were held up, bound and robbed by that historie California bandit Tiburcio Vasquez and his band of thirteen ontlaws. They were plundered to the extent of $4,000.00 and Vasquez and his men made their escape, but were later, in 1874, apprehended and arrested by officials from Los Angeles connty and were hung in 1875. Upon the completion of the railroad to Hanford and Lemoore he came to the new town of Lemoore, where for two years he was a bookkeeper for J. J. Mack & Company. general merchants. Meanwhile he built the hotel and Masonic and Odd Fellows' hall building, and he established a general notion store in the building, which he was conducting when it was burned. He resumed business in Erlanger Hall, in which a store was operated in front and a dance hall in the rear, but sold out in 1884 and took up the study of law in the office of Judge Jacobs, with which he was connected until 1893, when the latter was elected judge of the Superior Court and moved to Hanford, since when Mr. Erlanger has
727
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
conducted a general law, notary, real estate, and insurance office. For a time he handled real estate in association with Otto Brandt. Always a lover of horses he engaged in ranching and stockraising, giving particular attention to trotters. His real estate interests broadened into the buying, improving and selling large tracts of land. His health failed, however, and in 1893-95 he lost most of his holdings. It will be remembered that that was a period of financial depression. But he kept to his horses, was made a notary public and had a fairly good law practice, and for two years was deputy assessor under G. W. Follette. In 1895 he branched ont as a farmer and stoek-raiser and bought considerable property in and around Lemoore. As an outcome of his enterprise he raised Toggles, trot- ting gelding, which for three years was the fastest horse in its class, taking all records in the state. In 1898 at Los Angeles he trotted the three fastest heats ever trotted in the West. Toggles was sold in 1898 to Mr. Babcock, owner of the Coronado Beach Hotel, and in 1899 won all stakes in the state, and in 1900 was taken East and there won three $10,- 000 stakes and the championship of his elass, and $25,000 was refused for him that year. He took also the premium at a horse show as the most perfeet trotter as a show borse in the state. It is interesting in this connection to note that Mr. Erlanger sold this valuable animal for $2500. In 1901 Toggles was retired from the track by his owner. Mr. Erlanger has his dam and two full brothers of him. He has always bred standardbred horses. In 1891 he started by buying twenty-six standard-bred brood mares, which were the foundation of his successes. He calls his brood establishment the Royal Rose Breeding Farm. The sire Royal Rose was a finely bred trotting animal. Mr. Erlanger has at present a large number of horses for breeding and is developing Lightening Bug, a full brother of Toggles, which made 2:22 in 1911. Ile is now devoting himself principally to his legal and real estate work. In 1906 he was elected justice of the peace for four years and is also filling the office of eity recorder. Ile has subdivided and sold off several tracts of land and was the builder of the first Masonie and Odd Fellows' hall in Lemoore. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party and as a member of the County Central committee and otherwise he has been a leader in its local work.
Personally Mr. Erlanger has a generous heart, a loving and cheerful disposition, and makes and holds many friends. Ile sur- rounds himself with many pets, horses, dogs and birds. One of his best pets is a native California bald eagle named "Old Abe," a bird which has won national distinction. In the year 1906 an agent of the United States Government from the Smithsonian Institute at Wash- ington came to Lemoore, looking up data pertaining to the Indians of this region and other things of interest. He soon discovered in
728
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
"Old Abe" a perfect type of the bald eagle. and had his photograph taken, and this photograph it is believed is the original for the eagle engraved on the new five and ten dollar gold coins.
DAVID WARD DE MASTERS
A pioneer of pioneers, Marshall Foster De Masters, a native of Missouri, crossed the plains, with ox-teams to California in 1849. the memorable gold-seeking period that will be ever memorable in the history of this state and of the country at large. He settled in Tulare county. on the old Rush place, northwest of Visalia. Later he sold out there and moved to the Kibler farm, where he was a successful breeder of cattle, sheep and hogs to the time of his death, which occurred in 1861. In his time he was prominent in connection with the important affairs of his adopted county. In the days of the Indian wars he was captain of a local company that was pitted against the savages in defense of the settlements round about.
In Tulare county, October 16, 1855, was born David W. De Masters, son of Marshall Foster the pioneer. His has been, for the most part, the life of the cowboy. though he has at times acted as guide in the mountains of California. In all parts of the country he has driven cattle. At one time he drove a band of sixteen hundred cattle across country to Paso Robles for C. W. Clark, and in 1869 he crossed the Sierra Nevada mountains with a hand of three hundred and drove it all the way to Spring Valley. Nevada, a trip which consmed five months and thirteen days. He enjoys the distinction of being one of the few cowboys yet living who ran cattle through central California in the early days. For the last thirteen years he has been superintendent of the Persian irrigation ditch in Tulare county. one of the oldest water systems in this part of the state. In the summer months he is much in demand as a guide to travelers and tourists through the mountain ranges.
In Angust. 1878. Mr. De Masters married Miss May Lloyd, a native of California. He and his wife are members of the Inde- pendent Order of Foresters. They had two sons: Remmert died in March. 1903. at the age of twenty-four years; and Harry passed away Angust 2. 1889, aged four years.
The experience of the De Masters family in California covers all periods of its history since the discovery of gold. In the early days of the elder De Masters the settlers had to grind their own flour and drive overland from Tulare connty to Stockton for provisions. Flour sold at Stockton at $50 a sack, and other provisions were proportionately high. Marshall Foster De Masters married Miss
720
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
Amelia Ridgeway. Of their children only three survive, Newton and Stephen D., of Fresno county, and David W. De Masters of Tulare county.
Mr. Lloyd, father of Mrs. David W. De Masters, came to Cali- fornia across the plains in 1850 and now at the age of eighty-five years is hale and hearty. His wife, Eleanor Coker, like her husband a native of Little Rock, Ark., is aged seventy-nine years. They have three daughters and one son living, all natives of California. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd were married at Rough and Ready, Nevada county, Cal.
S. D. COCHRAN
Of old Sonthern families, but of Irish and Scotch-Irish extrae- tion. S. D. Cochran of Dinuba, Tulare county, Cal., was born in Logan county, Ky., and lived there until he was forty-five years old. He is a great-grandson of Andrew Cochran, who emigrated from County Down, Ireland, when his son Andrew, grandfather of S. D., was a child of seven years. This was in 1776 and in that year they settled in South Carolina, where the elder Andrew passed away. The surviving family then removed to Kentneky. settling in Logan county in 1804, and it was in Kentucky in 1865 that the grandfather. Andrew Cochran, passed away aged about ninety-seven years. The maternal great-grandfather of S. D. Cochran, John Beatty, lived to be ninety years old and died in Kentucky in 1809; his daughter married Andrew Cochran. and was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. John B. Cochran, father of S. D., was born in South Carolina and married Mary Sawyer, daughter of Squire David Sawyer, of English descent, who emigrated from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in the early years of the nineteenth century. Mr. Cochran passed away when his son S. D. was twenty-two years old and the latter took charge of the old homestead.
S. D. Cochran was educated in the public schools near his boy- hood home, but from an early age gave his attention to farming. In 1873 he married Harriet Pierce Coles, who was born in Wilson county, Tenn., on the bank of the Cumberland river, danghter of John Temple and Amanda K. (Bandy) Coles, both natives of Tennessee. Mrs. Cochran is a member of a most distinguished family, characterized for great virility and longevity. Her great-grandmother (her father's paternal grandmother), was a Walters and a native of Tennessee and lived to be ninety-six years of age. Mrs. Cochran had six uncles in the Confederate army. It is of interest to remark that her parents had a family of twelve children, all of whom are
730
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
living. John Temple Coles, her father, is descended from old Irish families.
Twelve children were born to S. D. Cochran and his wife as follows: John Cowan was drowned in infancy. Robert Cleland mar- ried Edith Johnson, is a citizen of Watsonville, Santa Cruz county. C'al., and has three children. Temple Beatty married Emma Clapp. has three children and they are living in Tulare county. Enreka was born November 12, 1878. in Kentucky on the date of the anniversary of her brother John Cowan's death, and she died at her home in the year 1910 from burns received from an explosion. Elbert. assistant postmaster at Dinuba, Cal., married Emma Orrison of Selma, Cal., and they have one child, a son. Eunice married P. V. Carlson of Berkeley, Cal., and they have two children. Manson M. is postmaster at Dinnba, Cal., has been in the government service for the past five years; he married Minnie Wiley, daughter of Assem- blyman Wiley, and they have one child, a son. Envie married Roy W. Wiley, a son of Assemblyman Wiley and they had one child, a daughter, and live at Dinuba. S. D., Jr., is a farmer and resides with his parents. Earl P. is a student at the University of Berkeley, and is taking a preparatory course to enter the Presbyterian min- istry; he has held an important government position. Eulalia and Willard are members of their parents' household, the former a senior in the high school, the latter in the grammar school at Dinuba.
When Mr. Cochran came to Tulare county in 1892 much of the best land, as then improved, could have been bought at $100 an acre, a small fraction of its market value at this time. In the school at Dinnba only two teachers were employed; the number at this time is about twelve. In the advancement of education and of all other local interests he has been a recognized factor. While residing in Kentucky he was twice elected to the office of justice of the peace, which office he resigned to come to California, in 1892. He is an elder in the Presbyterian church and a member of the Grange at Dinnba and he and Mrs. Cochran are charter members of the local body of the Fraternal Brotherhood.
REV. J. R. COOPER
On a farm in Perry county, III., fifty-five miles from St. Louis. was born J. R. Cooper. He was graduated from Monmouth College in 1877 and eventually entered the ministry of the Presbyterian church and now lives near Dimba, Tulare county, Cal., on rural free delivery route No. 2. His parents were Hugh and Eliza (Despar) Cooper, natives respectively of South Carolina and of Kentucky, and
.
731
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
he was reared to manhood amid the healthful surroundings of an Illinois farm. His great-grandfather was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary war. Mr. Cooper began his ministry at Solomon, Kansas, and labored there five years; his next pastorate, one of four years. was at Lake City, Colorado, eight thousand six hundred (8600) feet above the sea level. Then he was stationed briefly in Nebraska; then. for three years, at Aztec, San Juan county, New Mexico. Next he labored a year near the Mexican border, with headquarters at Douglas, Arizona. From this last station he came to Tulare county and bought forty acres of land. He has thirty acres in vines and six acres planted to trees and grows six acres of Grand Duke and Hungarian plums which bring a high price in the market. He has planted five acres to Rosaki grapes for shipping purposes and has installed a pumping plant with a four horse-power Holliday engine, by means of which he raises water from a depth of seventy-five feet for irrigation and domestic purposes, in such volume that one hun- dred and fifty gallons a minute may be discharged. Mr. Cooper's many friends are glad to be able to testify that he is making a distinct success of his venture in central California.
The lady who became Mrs. Cooper is of Scotch ancestry and was horn at Ballymena, Ireland. They have a daughter, Jessie E., who was graduated from the Dinnha high school and has been teaching five years. The mother, who was Margaret (McPherson) Steel, came comparatively young to the United States, was educated at the St. Louis Normal school and for some time was a teacher at a yearly salary of $1000. Her nephews, Mathew and Richard Steel, graduates of the University of New York and Edinburg (Scotland) University respectively, have won prominence, the one as a professor of chen- istry, the other as a physician in the Indian service. Mr. Cooper is a Republican and a citizen of notable publie spirit.
THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF VISALIA
This important financial institution occupies its own beautiful and substantial banking house at Main and Court streets, Visalia, where it has every requisite for the conduct of its large and growing volume of business. This bank was organized and began business in 1893. It is capitalized at $150,000, fully paid in, and has a surplus of more than $40,000. In 1907 its increasing business demanded more commodious quarters, and the present fine bank building was erected. Its premises are spacious, conveniently arranged and well lighted. and its atmosphere is one of solidity and comfort. They are well equipped for the prompt handling of the bank's extensive business,
732
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
and their facilities are at the disposal of friends and patrons, who are cordially invited to make use of them.
Included in the list of the officers and directors of the First National Bank of Visalia are the names of some of the best known financiers and men of affairs of the entire state, men of large capital, interests and influence, who are personally known to the business community for their individual integrity and for their ability as advisers in all matters in which considerable sums are involved or in which the welfare of the people at large is at stake. The officers are S. Mitchell, president; A. Levis, vice-president; C. M. Griffith, cashier; C. E. Coughran, assistant cashier. The directors are S. Mitchell, A. Levis, N. O. Bradley, W. R. Spalding, D. G. Overall, W. L. Fisher and C. M. Griffith. These men individually have done much for the advancement of Visalia and Tulare county. Mr. Mitchell, the president, is one of the best and most widely known of western financiers, and besides his heavy financial interest in this bank has large investments in other important business and monetary institutions. He is president of the Pioneer Bank of Porterville, the First National Bank and the Lindsay Savings Bank of Lindsay, the First National Bank of Delano and the Producers Savings Bank of Visalia. To such officials and directors, to its established reputation for reliability, to its strict adherence to correct and conservative methods, is due the high standing of the First National in business rireles both at home and abroad.
HOLLEY & HOLLEY
This is the story of the California sneeess of two Vermonters. The brothers H. H. and (. Il. Holley came to Los Angeles, Cal., in 1889, and both graduated from the public schools of that city and from the engineering department of Stanford University. C. II. Holley has been a citizen of Visalia since 1901, H. H. Holley since 1904. Before they went into business for themselves, they were both engineers for the Mount Whitney Power Company. It was in December, 1907, that they opened an office and began business in Visalia as civil and electrical engineers.
In April, 1911, H. H. Holley bought the real estate and insurance Imsiness of the Tulare County Land Company. As engineers, their principal business has been the establishment of irrigation systems. pumping plants for subdivision and electrical power plant. For the last two years they have been quite busy in the organization and promotion of the Tulare County Power Company, an electrical development for furnishing electric power for irrigation and lighting.
.
739
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
the main hydraulic plant for which will be located at Globe, on the Tule river, fourteen miles from Porterville. They have installed a steam auxiliary station at Tulare City, which is now in successful operation. C. HI. Holley gives his attention entirely to the electrical side of the proposition. He has land interests in the county, among them some orange land, and a vineyard at Exeter. H. H. Holley is a member of the Library Board of Visalia and in many ways both have demonstrated their usefulness as public-spirited citizens. They are widely known throughout the state in a professional way and both are members of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Hav- ing made an exhaustive study of land and water conditions in Tulare connty, they are as well informed concerning them as it is possible for anyone to become, and they offer their clients the most thorough and efficient service available.
JAMES FISHER
On North Court street, Visalia, lived that venerable pioneer. James Fisher, who watched and aided the development of the town and of Tulare county. Having come to the state in 1857, he was a hnman landmark in local history and until his death a connecting link between the old order of things and the new. A son of Spencer and Elizabeth (Henderson) Fisher, he was born at Kaskaskia, Ran- dolph county, III., October 13, 1823, and for many years survived the place of his birth, which once was the capital of Illinois. Spencer Fisher, son of an Illinois pioneer, was born and died in that state. His husy and useful years were devoted to farming. Elizabeth Henderson, who became his wife, was born near Little Rock, Ark., and passed away in the Prairie State. They had five children, of whom James was the longest survivor. "Brought up on the home farm," says a recent writer, "he obtained his early education in a subscription school, which was held in a log house chinked with mud. and having a puncheon floor and shake roof. On one of the slab benches, near the huge fireplace, he was taught to write with a quill pen. and under the instruction of his teacher made as good progress in the three 'R's' as his schoolmates." When he was twenty-one. he went to Murphysboro, Ill., where he found employment in a store. living at the old hotel owned by Dr. Logan, father of Gen. John A. Logan. In 1844 he took up his residence in Shreveport, La., and for some time managed a ferry, the property of a man named Douglas. Then going back to Illinois, he clerked in a store at
734
TULARE AND KINGS COUNTIES
Chester until 1855. Ile was now ready for a change of scene and of employment and had contracted the "California fever." He came out. with horses and wagons, by way of Council Bluffs, Iowa, over the old Mormon trail, arriving at Millerton, Cal., after half a year's weary travel. Ile made and fulfilled a contract to ent two million feet of sawlogs for Alexander Ball, then built three miles of road down the mountains from Ball's mill. Later he purchased ox-teams of Ball and hanled humber from the mill to Millerton and to other points. In the spring of 1857 he moved to Visalia, making that town the headquarters of his transportation enterprise, which he continued abont eighteen months thereafter. His specialty was the transporta- tion of manufactured lumber from mill to market. He hanled loads of three thousand feet with six yokes of oxen and received $30 a thousand ($90 a load) for a five days' round trip. In the fall of 1858 he went to Sonora, Mexico, bought a herd of branded cattle and drove them back to California, to a place in Antelope valley, Tulare county, where he sold them at a profit.
In 1860, Mr. Fisher bought two hundred acres of land of R. L. Howison and began the improvement of his homestead. As he made money he made frequent investments in land until he became one of the extensive property owners of Tulare county. Three and a half miles northeast of Visalia, in sections eleven, twelve, fourteen and fifteen, he had thirteen Imudred acres under irrigation by means of Elbow creek and St. John's river and its canals. This property, Oaklawn Ranch, is devoted to grain and alfalfa. Four miles further north is the stock farm of ten hundred and twenty acres. At Taurusa, two miles north of Oaklawn Ranch, is a ranch of eight hundred acres which is included in the holdings, and seven miles east of Oaklawn Ranch is another of twelve hundred acres, which he gave to his son, William. L. Fisher. Besides his general farming, Mr. Fisher gave much attention to stockraising in the days before the fence law came into operation, having at times twenty thousand sheep. As a stockman he was uncommonly successful, owning many cattle and raising fine mules and draft horses.
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.