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 72
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 72
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A man of much publie spirit, Mr. Boone is ready at all times to do anything in his power for the advancement of the public good and
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has served his fellow townsmen in the office of justice of the peace, making a record for just and wise decisions of which judges of many greater courts might well be proud. Mr. Boone was the first City Clerk after Dinnba was incorporated and served the first term.
JONATHAN W. MAY
It was in Mississippi, in the heart of the Old South, that Jonathan W. May of Springville, Cal., first saw the light of day in 1836. When he was six years old he was taken by his parents to Texas, where he lived nntil 1870. Then, aged about thirty-four years, he came over- land by ox-team transportation to California, consuming nine months in making the journey, and settled at Pleasant Valley, Tulare county. When he came here there was no one living in the vicinity of his present home. He bought property at Springville and became the pioneer livery stable keeper there. At this time there is no other than his blacksmith and wood-working shop in the town. Meanwhile he has acquired a moderate sized but profitable ranch. In his younger days he raised stock, but in the more modern period he has kept abreast of California agriculture and horticulture.
In the Civil war Mr. May was a lieutenant in the Confederate army, and he once filled the office of deputy sheriff in Shackelford county, Texas. In 1868 he married John Ann Stanphill, a native of the Cherokee nation, and she bore him three children, the eldest of whom is dead, while the others are living in Tulare county. Mrs. May died in 1875 and in 1904 Mr. May married Mrs. Anna Brown.
Wherever he has lived Mr. May has, since he was a very young man, been interested in the growth and development of his community. In many ways he has demonstrated his publie spirit since he came to this county and no movement is made for the benefit of any large number of its citizens that does not have his hearty encouragement or co-operation.
BENJAMIN J. FICKLE
The earliest recollection of Benjamin J. Fickle is of having seen a team of horses fall down when he was only two years old. That happened back in Ohio, where he was born December 12, 1832, a son of George and Margaret (Beckley) Fickle, natives respectively of Kentucky and of Pennsylvania and descended respectively from German
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and from Irish ancestors. George Fickle fought for America in the war of 1812 and his father was a Revolutionary soldier.
In 1853 young Fickle crossed the plains to California and stopped at Volcano, Amador county. He was of a party that came by way of the Sublett cut-off, most of whom turned back to find grass for their stock. He and others pressed forward on foot, and after a day's travel they came upon a train under command of Clark, who was leading it to the Napa valley. The young man found employment with the train at $18 a month and board. After the party had crossed the Green river, he met a man named Hogan, whom he accompanied to Voleano, helping with a drove of cattle until the animals ate too much grass and died as a consequence. Then he was employed near Amador and in the vicinity of Court House Rock. While he was there, three women went ont to see the rock and were captured by Indians and were never seen there again. Here he mined for a time at $3 a day until a passing stranger told him he was not being paid enongh, and for a time he farmed at Nevada, then took up a homestead on the Tnle river three miles below Porterville, to which he acquired title and which he subsequently sold for $2200. taking his pay in cattle which perished on the plains for want of water. Next he bought three hundred and twenty acres of railroad land, near the site of Hanford, which he sold in two or three years for $1000 and which is now well worth $200 an acre. lle now owns forty acres, eighteen acres of which is vineyard land, five acres peach orchard, the remainder pasture.
Politically Mr. Fickle is a Socialist. He affiliates with the Chris tian church. As a citizen he is public-spiritedly helpful to all the interests of the community. He married Emma Rutherford. a native of California and a daughter of pioneers, and she has borne him eleven children : Jerome F. married Beatrice Craft and has two children. Alfred H. married Katie Burch, a native of Missouri, who has horne him three children. George M. married Lottie Turner, and they have one son. Pearl F. married Charles Burch and has borne hou three children. O. Estella married Clem Mover and has four children. Delia is the sixth child. Flossie F. married Albert Carver and has one son. The others are: G. Frank, Flora L., John II., and Belle, who married E. II. Hackett and who has two children, Elmer and Flora.
SAMUEL DINELEY
The late Samuel Dineley, born in Worcestershire, England, in 1829. died in Visalia, Tulare connty, Cal., August 5, 1907. His mother dying when he was quite young, his father brought their children to New York city, where later he took a second wife. After that some of the
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children went away and the family was in a manner broken up, but Samnel remained in New York city until he was twenty-five years old and then crossed the plains to California, where he engaged in mining and later in the mercantile business.
About 1855 Mr. Dineley came to Visalia, where he lived out the remainder of his allotted years. He was the pioneer lime-maker in Tulare county and set up the first limekiln ever seen here. Later for some years he was a successful sheep-herder, and after his retire- ment from that business he long conducted a confectionery store on Main street. in Visalia. On April 2, 1861, Samuel Dineley was united in marriage with Charlotte E. Kellenberger, the ceremony taking place in the old Pasqual Bequette honse. He took his bride to the home purchased from Nathaniel Vise in 1862, located at 417 North Locust street, which has since been the home of the family and is perhaps the oldest homestead continuonsly inhabited by one family in Visalia. There eleven children were born to this worthy conple, viz .: Mrs. E. O. Miller, Mrs. H. W. Kelsey, George, Mrs. George Vogle, Mrs. G. C. Lamberson, Mrs. Herbert Askin, Mrs. Fannie Burroughs, deceased, Mrs. Eve Bliss, Clarence, Harry and Frank, also deceased. Mrs. Dineley was born in Washington and was a daughter of F. J. Kellen- berger. who brought his children to the Pacific Coast via the Isthmus of Panama in 1860.
WILLIAM F. DEAN
The well-known farmer, fruit-grower and educator, whose post- office address is Three Rivers, Tulare county, Cal., was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, in 1855, and when he was about four years old his parents removed to Iowa. A few years later the family moved down into Missouri. Thus young Dean was educated in both Iowa and Missouri. In the latter state he took the course at the State Normal School at Kirksville, and was awarded a state certificate as to his ability as a teacher, which gave him the privilege of teaching anywhere in Missouri. He taught there and in Illinois for some time. and in 1877 came to California and in that year and in 1878 taught in the public school at Poplar; later he taught two years more at that place. In California his abilities and his standing as an educator were recognized by Governor Perkins, who conferred upon him a life diploma, a document having the same effect here as the state certificate in Missouri. His recollections of his early school at Poplar are inter- esting. There was a goodly number of pupils, but the attendance was somewhat irregular in bad weather. as some of them came from a considerable distance. He says that some of the early school dis-
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tricts in this part of the state were fifty miles from side to side. The houses of the settlers were widely scattered, each one practically isolated.
About ten years after he came to the state, Mr. Dean home- steaded land on the Kaweah river. By subsequent purchases he acquired a total of six hundred and fifty acres, on which he embarked in stock-raising. After disposing of his cattle, he turned his atten- tion to fruit-growing, devoting himself chiefly to the production of apples. He has fourteen acres of apple trees, nine acres of them being winesaps which bore for the first time in 1912. He now owns six hundred and thirty-two aeres, a part of it given over to grazing, the remainder being set to fruit.
Mr. Dean's father was Henry Dean, a native of Western Virginia. who settled in Ohio when he had reached middle age. His mother was born within the present borders of the state of West Virginia. They both passed away in Missouri. In 1885, in California, Mr. Dean mar- ried Miss Etta B. Doyle, a native of Pennsylvania and a daughter of parents both of whom were born in that state. She died in 1886, leaving no children.
When he came to this state, Mr. Dean expected to teach here a few years and go back East, but the longer he remained the less inclination had he to return to the old climate and the old environment. Now he is a loyal Californian who expects to die under the sunny sky that keeps flowers blooming the year round and makes fortunes of golden grain and golden fruit that are more reliable and more valuable than the fortunes of real gold that lured men to this coast in the days before and after the Civil war. In his political affiliations he is a Republican. In an official way, he has helped to enumerate the census of Tulare county and by election on the Republican ticket has served his fellow townsmen as a member of the local school board. There is no home interest that does not have his encouragement if encouragement is needed, and in many ways he has demonstrated a public spirit that makes him useful and popular as a citizen.
MARTIN DONAHUE
Among the retired citizens of Tulare county. and one who has figured prominently in the industrial circles there, is Martin Donahue. His parents were born in Ireland. This blacksmith, so long known by the people round Springville, Tulare county, Cal., was born February 17, 1828, at Oswego, N. Y. He there went to school, learned his trade trade, and lived until he was thirty-two years old. In 1862 he enlisted in the Federal army for three years and served until honorably dis-
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charged and monstered out at Raleigh, N. C., in 1865. After the war he went back to his trade, and in 1869 came to California. For some time after his arrival he was a prospector in the gold fields and later was employed at his trade and otherwise. In 1887 he located in Tulare county, and about one year later, in 1888, he came to this county and settled near Springville. Ile has divided his time between farming and blacksmithing and has prospered so well that he now owns three hundred and twenty acres of good grain land. He stopped working at his trade about two years ago, since when, except for the attention that he has had to give his land interests, he has enjoyed a well earned rest.
Polities has never strongly attracted Mr. Donahue and he has never been particularly active in political work. Always deprecating partisanism, he has at no time in his life yielded his allegiance to any political organization, but has held himself in readiness at all times to support such men and measures as in his belief promise most for the general good. To all measures for the benefit of the community he has always been generously helpful in a truly public-spirited way.
JAMES W. FINE
The death of James W. Fine, which occurred at Plano, C'al .. January 12, 1900, removed from his community one of the old and well-known pioneers of California and ended the activities of a well- spent and splendid life, full of energy and unswerving perseverance. lle was the son of John Fine, a native of Missouri, who died in 1868, at the age of seventy-two; he followed farming during his active years and brought his family to California in 1857, his death taking place at Woodville. The Fine family are well-founded, James W. Fine being of German extraction on his mother's side, while his paternal line is Irish. He was born April 13, 1823, in Missouri, and started with his parents from Randolph county. Ark., in May, 1857, to make the journey across the plains with ox-teams. There was a large party at the start of the journey, ninety wagons being required, but at Salt Lake City many remained behind, and the remainder of the party arrived in California in October. Mr. Fine first lived at San Andreas, Calaveras county, C'al., where he remained until 1860, his wife having been buried there. Subsequently he came to Tulare county, and settling on the Kaweah river, at the elbow, he farmed and followed stockraising on rented land, but finally he made his way to the Por- terville section and buying six hundred and forty acres of land. remained there until upon selling out to Daniel Abbott, he retired from active life. His last days were spent with his son, Robert R., and
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he passed away at Plano January 12, 1900, at the age of seventy-six years and nine months.
Mr. Fine was married December 7, 1848, to Martha Jane Warner, born September 13, 1831, in Arkansas. She passed away January 12. 1858, a short time after arriving in California. To their union five children were born: Mary Ann, born October 28, 1849, married S. B. King and has six sons now living, one danghter and two sons having passed away. Her sons are, John T. residing in Watsonville, George G. in Salinas, S. Frank in Merced, Charles W. in Porterville, William W. in Modesto and Daniel B. in Stockton. Mr. King was born in Kentucky and was reared in Missouri. Their marriage occurred in 1864, in California, and Mrs. King makes her home in Porterville, where in 1900 she purchased her home place. The second child born to Mr. and Mrs. Fine was Steven, who was born April 24, 1851, and now resides near Salinas. Robert R., born September 12, 1853, also resides at Salinas. Frances E., born April 26, 1855, is Mrs. Daniel Abbott, of Porterville. William A. was born April 2, 1857, and lives in Hanford.
LEVI MITCHELL
In the passing of Levi Mitchell, in 1885, Tulare county lost one of its oldest and most conspicuous pioneers. He was born in 1821 and was a child when brought to California. Hle married Miss Anna Stargarth, a native of Germany, who came to California with her aunt and located in Stockton in 1863, three years and a half before their marriage. After their marriage they located at White River, Tulare county, where Mr. Mitchell bought a store, and there they lived nineteen years and saw the place grow from vacant land to a thriving town. Miners and Indians were the only inhabitants, and for three years after they came Mrs. Mitchell was the only white woman there. Her husband built the hotel and schoolhouse and prac- tically all the buildings there. He was a comparatively wealthy man when he came, and his fortunes improved. Twenty-two years after he died his wife moved to Ducor, where her son conducted a hotel, the Mitchell House. She remembers Porterville when it was a small elns- ter of houses; she saw the cattlemen supersede the Indians, as one of the early steps in the march of progress under which California has been transformed. Her husband bought mines and grubstaked miners and was in a general way ready for any speculation that promised good returns. Genial, friendly and naturally helpful, he was popular with all who knew him and to the end of his days was honored as one of the pioneers who blazed the way for the civilization of a later 44
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day. He and his brother owned the first store in Visalia. Fraternally he was an Odd Fellow and did much for the benefit of his order.
Born in 1842, Mrs. Mitchell was considerably younger than her husband. She bore him eight children, four of whom are living. Her son Joseph is managing a hotel at Hot Springs, Cal. Michael married Deborah Samuels, a native of California, and has children named Annie and Lee, aged respectively six and five years. Jacob is living at Hot Springs. Cal. Ilerman is employed at a bank at Visalia. All of Mrs. Mitchell's children were born at White River and are by birth-right native sons and daughters of California. Joseph and Michael are both Masons. Michael Mitchell fills the offices of justice of the peace and notary public and is secretary of the Ducor Chamber of Commerce and of the Ducor Realty Company.
DAVID GAMBLE
Formerly a trustee of the City of Hanford. Kings county, Cal., and member of its board of education, David Gamble is at the same time one of the leading contractors and builders of Central California, a man of enterprise and public spirit who would be a credit to the citizenship of any municipality. Mr. Gamble was born in Chester county. Pa., September 15, 1852, and grew to manhood in Philadelphia, where he gained a practical knowledge of contracting and building. When he decided to come west he planned the structure of his future success as carefully as he would plan a building of today. As the foundation must be first in the building, so the location must be first in his business career. He prospected, with eyes and ears both alert, through Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona and then into California.
In 1878 Mr. Gamble arrived in Hanford. He found employment at his trade and worked at it diligently, saving his money, until in 1886, when he became the pioneer contractor and builder in this city. Many of the buildings erected by him in the years immediately fol- lowing have been destroyed. Among the blocks of his erecting in the central part of the city which are standing today are the Baker, Malone and Manasse buildings, the court house -- of which he did the woodwork-the Hill and Robinson buildings, the offices of the Hanford Water Works Company, the Bernstein block and the high school build- ing. One of his larger buildings is the hotel at Traver. The following residences in Hanford are monuments to his artistic skill and business enterprise : Goldberg's, Daniel Finn's, Kuntz's, F. 1. Dodge's, Bern- stein's. Wesebaum's, Kilpatrick's. Among those he has built in the country round about Hanford are D. Bassett's, H. E. Wright's, S. L. Brown's and the Ralestock home.
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For twelve years Mr. Gamble has been a member of the board of education of Hanford and in 1908 he was elected city trustee. Frater- nally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias. He married, in 1886, Miss Margaret A. Raisch, a native of Kansas, and they have four children: Katherine, a teacher in the Hanford grammar school; Edith; Florence, a student at Stanford University; and Raymond.
C. A. ELSTER
One of the most valued and industrious workers for the public welfare in Springville and one to whom is due much praise for his untiring efforts and generons aid in promoting the many enterprises with which he has been identified is C. A. Elster, who was born in Grass Valley, Nevada county, Cal., in 1862, and is now one of the lead- ing business men and landowners in the community. He is a son of Alonzo Elster, who came to Nevada county in 1858 and became well- known through his activity in running a block mill at Grass Valley, which he built about 1861. He was born in New York and died in California in June, 1888. He had come to Tulare county in 1866 and engaged in freighting from Stockton and Banta to Visalia before the advent of the Southern Pacific Railroad. He hauled the first fire engine ever used in the city of Visalia and he also ran the Overland livery stable at Visalia in the early seventies.
When he was three years old, C. A. Elster's parents came to Tu- lare county, where he has since lived. He was educated here in the public schools and took fundamental lessons in ranching and in busi- ness under his father's instruction. Ile began to acquire land by huy- ing a claim before he was twenty-one years old, and by later purchases he has brought his holdings up to about five hundred acres. For a while he operated a sawmill, but he later gave his attention to ranch- ing and to stockraising, and has from time to time been active in large enterprises for the general good. He is known as the father of the Tulare Electric, Water and Power Company, the history of which dates from 1908, and it was largely through his and the efforts of C. W. Hlubbs and C. H. Hawley that valuable water rights were se- cured on the middle fork of the Tule river about two miles above Springville, which when developed will generate at its full capacity about twenty-seven hundred horse-power electric current. In this con- nection Mr. Elster has been one of Tulare county's most active pro- moters. Desiring a road to Springville, he associated with Messrs. Hlubbs and Hawley and other Tulare county men and proposed an electric line which was duly incorporated under the name of the
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Tulare County Power Company, with capital stock of $1,000,000, which consisted of ten thousand shares at $100 each. It was proposed to operate this road by means of electric power and to run from Tu- lare to Lindsay, from there to Strathmore and from Strathmore to Springville. Mr. Elster supplied the necessary money for the prelimi- nary survey, right of way, etc., and the Southern Pacific Railroad, observing their preparations, immediately built their branch line from Porterville to Springville, and thus Springville secured its rail- road, and it has been entirely due to the work and enterprise of Mr. Elster that this has been accomplished.
Mr. Elster in 1912 completed a two-story brick building, 48x60 feet, the cost of which was $12,000. He owns a comfortable residence in Springville and has an olive nursery and orchard, and he is today one of the largest taxpayers in the city.
In 1887 Mr. Elster married Miss Eva Hubbs, who bore him a son, Irvy Elster, who is now a member of his father's household. Mrs. Elster died in 1890 and in 1895 Mr. Elster married Miss Minnie Hubbs, by whom he had a daughter, Lora, who died when she was thirteen years old.
LOUIS BEQUETTE
In the state of Wisconsin occurred the birth of Louis Beqnette, stockman and orange grower, one of the citizens of note in the vicinity of Lemon Cove, Tulare county, Cal. He was a child of three years when his parents came, with four teams, overland to California. The family located in Sierra county and remained there five years, the father working in the mines. Their next halt was one of two years in Yolo county, whence they moved to Tulare county, within the hospitable borders of which the immediate subject of this article has had a home ever since.
As a young man Mr. Bequette worked on ranches and helped herd cattle, and he has never been able to give up such employment in all the years that have ensned. In 1872 he married Miss Mary Eliza Davis, of Stanislaus county, Cal., whose father, Harvey Davis, was a pioneer of 1849. Their three children were: Irving Bequette, who was born in Tulare county in 1874 and died in 1909, in his thirty-sixth year: C. L. Bequette died in 1911, leaving three children; Leonard Bequette, born in 1877. is married and is in the stock business in this county.
When Mr. Bequette took up the burden of life on his own account he ventured a little at first with stock. There came a time when his operations in that line were very considerable and made him widely
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known. His first tract of land was one of one hundred and sixty acres, and today he is the owner of twelve hundred acres, with fifteen acres in corn, five acres in oranges, and the remainder in erops, range and alfalfa. His home is one of the most comfortable in his neighborhood and his ranch is fitted up with every improvement and appliance necessary to its successful operation. He takes an intelligent and patriotic interest in the public affairs of the county, state and nation and responds readily and generously to all calls for aid in the advance- ment of his community.
J. CARL THAYER
The architect is able to show forth his good works as no other man, except, perhaps, the editor; though the architect's exhibit is permanent as any human creation, the editor's comes into being today and is gone tomorrow. Only in musty and dusty files, half hidden in a dark corner of some library, is the editor's record available after he has himself passed away, but out in the sunshine the work of the architect has its place in its own chapter of the history of the men who have lived and builded-on Earth's great open page, where men and the sons of men may see and read. So is the record of the pro- fessional achievements of J. Carl Thayer spread before those of this generation and of generations to come. everywhere in the business district and in the residence districts of Visalia, Tulare county, Cal.
In Lewis county, N. Y., Mr. Thayer was born. He was educated in the Booneville (N. Y.) High School, at Cornell University and at Syracuse University, graduating with the degree of C. E. and other professional degrees, after having pursued a collegiate course in archi- tecture. The first six years of his professional career were passed in Pittsburg, Pa. Then, after two years in New York City, he came to California and located at Visalia for the practice of his profession. Here his snecess has been commensurate with his abilities and his personal popularity. He has drawn plans for the following mentioned buildings, among others: The R. A. Little residence, the Episcopal church, the Levey building, the Willows district school, the C. W. Berry residence, the A. D. Wilson residence, the George Baker build- ing, the J. F. Richardson residence, the C. B. Moffatt residence, the N. H. Grove residence, the Presbyterian church, the Visalia club, the L. Lucier residence, the theater block erected by E. O. Miller at Hanford, the Lemoore grammar school building, which cost $40,000; the Methodist church at Lindsay, the Second National Bank building at Lindsay, L. L. Brown's store block in Exeter, the store building of Frank Mixter at Exeter, the store block of George Tinker at Lindsay
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