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 73
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 73
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and the store building of Tinker & Smith in the last-named town. Considering the comparatively recent date of his advent in Visalia, it will be seen that he has been very successful in a professional way. It should be noted that he is not merely an artistic designer, but is at the same time a practical designer, all his buildings being admirably calenlated for the uses to which they were to be put and all giving the best of satisfaction in actual use.
It was in 1905 that Mr. Thayer came to California. He married Miss Mary Morrell, a native of the state. As a citizen he is public- spiritedly helpful to all important interests of the community. Jan- mary 1, 1912, he removed to Fresno, where he is a member of the firm of Thayer, Parker & Kenyon, 348-9 Forsyth building.
LOUIS LEE THOMAS
The story of the self-made man is always interesting and it is always instructive. As such this brief account of the successful career of Lonis Lee Thomas of Exeter. Cal., should be of service to some of the younger readers of this volume. Mr. Thomas was born in Posey county, Ind., in 1868. John Thomas, his father, was born in that state in 1838 and died in Missouri in 1904, and his mother also was a native of Indiana. When Louis was nine years old he was taken by his fam- ily to northern Missouri, where he grew to manhood and obtained such education as was afforded him in the public schools near his home. While he was yet a young man he went to the state of Wash- ington and secured employment at farm work and remained there about fifteen years. . Coming to California, he settled on the eighty- acre ranch on which he now lives. The place was well improved and he later sold all of it but thirty-six acres. Of this, twenty acres is planted to orange trees, which are now in full hearing, fourteen acres is in alfalfa and one acre is devoted to nursery stock. Mr. Thomas came to Tulare county with very little capital, but his industry, econ- omy and good judgment have made him the owner of one of the best homestead properties in his vicinity.
In 1895 Mr. Thomas married Miss Grace Akers, a native of Decatur county, lowa, who had gone with her parents to Oregon when she was seven years old. Her father, a native of Indiana, and her inother, a native of Iowa, are both living. Fraternally Mr. Thomas affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. While he has well defined ideas upon all questions of public moment, he has never been aggres- sive in political work, nor has he asked or accepted public office. He favors anything which promises to advance the welfare of the county and the country at large, and never fails to respond promptly and
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generously to any legitimate demand upon his publie spirit. As a farmer and fruit grower he has been successful beyond many whose opportunities and advantages have surpassed his. In 1911 he sold fifteen hundred boxes of oranges and in 1912 he raised two thousand boxes of oranges from twenty acres of five-year-old trees. His land will produce six crops of alfalfa each year, aggregating nine tons to the acre. The place is provided with an up-to-date water plant, and he spares no pains or expense to add to the valne and prodnetiveness of his property.
WILLIAM FREDERICK HEUSEL
At Kalamazoo, Mich., William Frederick Hensel was born August 6, 1859. Ile was reared and educated in that city until he was ten years of age, when the family moved to Sturgis and that was his home until 1879. After that he lived two years in Illinois and several years in Kansas and from the Sunflower State came to California in 1891, locating in Hanford, Kings county. He bought property in that city and worked there at phimbing and in season was a foreman in the Del Monte Packing House. Thus he was employed until 1900, when he bought twenty acres of land a quarter of a mile north of the city. It was entirely unimproved, but now he has it planted to orchard and vineyard. He now has nine acres of growing vines and about seven acres producing fine peaches and apricots. He was one of the first to settle on this sub-division. He has given special attention to poul- try, raising fine chickens and dneks. His chickens are mostly thor- onghbred buff and silver Wyandottes and Buff Orpingtons, his dneks are Indian Runners and Pekins. He has imported thoroughbred stock from the east for breeding purposes and hatches about five hundred dneks and as many chickens each year. At the state fair at Sacra- mento he has presented exhibits for four years and at local fairs throughout the state from time to time and has taken numerous prizes of many kinds.
July 13, 1882, Mr. Hensel married Mary L. O'Brien and they have five daughters : Jessie is the wife of W. L. Peers, a native of Colorado. and they live at Oakland. Irma married Walter Tandrow of San Francisco. Nora, Bernice and Muriel are members of their parents' household. In 1911 Mr. Ileusel built a fine residence on his place, and until that date lived in IIanford in the home he erected. 214 West Ivy street, which he still owns. lle is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and passed the chairs of the subordinate lodge while a resident of Wichita, Kans. As a citizen he is helpfully public- spirited.
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FREDERICK M. CARLISLE
A progressive Tulare county farmer who has lived in the vicinity of Ducor since 1883 is Frederick M. Carlisle. He was born in Ten- nessee in 1852 and was a son of Wiley H. Carlisle, a native of North Carolina, who came to California in 1900 and died in 1906. When he was thirty years old Mr. Carlisle left Tennessee and during the sneceeding three years lived in Texas. On coming to Tulare county he homesteaded land which is included in his present holdings. His ranch, which is located abont one mile from Ducor, is a five-hundred- acre property, well improved and under systematic cultivation. He raised grain until two years ago, but is now giving his attention to fruit. He long kept an average of forty head of horses and mules, but has sold off much of his stock and in season operates a threshing machine.
In 1876 Mr. Carlisle married Elizabeth Haley, a native of Mis- sissippi, whose father came to California and lived out his days here, her mother having died in Mississippi. Mrs. Carlisle has borne her husband nine children, six of whom are living: Joseph Node, born in Tennessee, is married and lives in Sacramento county. Eva M. (Mrs. Van Walkingburge) resides in Tulare county. Jessie H., who married A. F. Welsh, is living near Ducor. Viola E., who married Charles Hughes, lives in Ducor. Clarence M. and Clyde F. are in school.
As school trustee and as clerk of the school board Mr. Carlisle has done efficient and praiseworthy service to the community. He has never sought public office, but has well-defined opinions on all political questions, and his active interest entitles him to a place in the front rank of progressive citizens. Fraternally he affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
MANUEL B. LEMOS
AA native of one of the Azores, Manuel B. Lemos was born Decem- ber 11, 1860, in the home of a farmer. When he was twenty-two years old he came to the United States, and for sixteen months after his arrival was employed on a farm near Providence, R. I. Coming to California, he stopped a short time in San Francisco, then went to Fresno, where he worked six years on a ranch. The succeeding two years he passed in the sheep business, which in his hands was so ex- tensive that at one time he and his partner, Manuel Silva Gularte, had fourteen hundred sheep. Selling his interest in this venture, he did ranch work again for a while, then with a partner he handled
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sheep for eleven years. By this time he had done so well financially that he was able to take a trip to the land of his birth.
Returning to Hanford in 1898 Mr. Lemos bought the forty-acre ranch which is now his home property, two miles north of the city. All the improvements on the farm, including his comfortable house, he has put on since then. In 1905 he bought forty acres adjoining his first purchase of his brother, John B. Lemos. He has eight acres in vine and twelve in orchard, and the remainder of his land, except what he devotes to general farming, is under alfalfa. His principal business is the raising of hogs and sheep, but he breeds horses and cows for use on his place.
In September, 1896, Mr. Lemos married Maria Clara Cardoza in Hanford, and she has borne him ten children. Those living are: John, Bento, Frank, Andrea, Manuel, Mary, Joseph and Tony, the first- mentioned four being students in the public school. Manuel, the first born, died aged eight years, and Bento died aged fifteen months. Mr. Lemos affiliates with the I. D. E. S., of the interests of which society he is a liberal supporter. Though of foreign birth, he is a loyal American and his publie spirit has impelled him to do much for the general benefit of his community.
PERRY C. PHILLIPS
A pioneer of his section of the county of Kings that was last partitioned from Fresno county, as well as one of the successful men who are now residents of the county, is Perry C. Phillips, who was born on April 7, 1838, in Gibson county, Ind. His schooling was limited to a brief attendance at the common schools in the vicinity of his home and he early gained experience in farming as it was carried on there. In 1854 he crossed the plains with ox-teams and located at Grizzly Hill, Nevada county, engaging in mining for a time. In 1860 he came to the San Joaquin valley and settled in Fresno county, locating on his present home place on October 23 of that year. Visalia, twenty-five miles distant, was the principal trading place. Ile first bonght eighty acres of land upon which is now located his home, and by subsequent purchases increased his holdings until he is now the owner of about four thousand acres. Nearly all of this is fertile soil; twenty acres are now in frnit, the balance in alfalfa and grain for general farming purposes, and he makes a specialty of raising hogs.
In the early days of the irrigation movement Mr. Phillips became prominent and was one of the men of foresight who saw that by the construction of ditches to carry the water from the river a large area
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of unproductive land could be converted into one of the world's garden spots. How well he and his associates planned the history of this whole region testifies. Ile was for a year a director of the People's Ditch Company, and as a citizen he has ever had in view the greatest good to the greatest number, firm in the belief that the prosperity of one is the prosperity of all, and he has been ready at all times to respond to any call on behalf of the uplift and development of the community.
Mr. Phillips was united in marriage April 29, 1860, at Vacaville, Solano county, with Elizabeth Hildebrand, born in Shelby county, Ind., October 22, 1840. She came to California in 1853 with her par- ents, who settled first in Sierra county and later lived at Grizzly Hill, where she first met Mr. Phillips. After their marriage they came that fall to Fresno county and settled on their present home place. They had eight children: Florence E., wife of E. D. Morton; Martha I., wife of W. D. Runyon; Carrie W., the wife of L. L. Lowe; Ada B .; Dora E., deceased; George Il .; Robert 11., and Oscar L., all horn, reared and educated in central California. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips are the last of the pioneers in this section of the county.
W. C. MACFARLANE
A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, W. C. Macfarlane was born June 3, 1868, and now is proprietor of the Richland Egg Ranch, at Hanford, Kings county, Cal. He went to Chicago when a lad and learned the printer's trade and finally engaged in business on his own account. He came to Hanford from Chicago in 1886 and for a time worked at his trade in this vicinity. His second claim to distinction is his prominence in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In the fall of 1911 he organized the lodge at Hanford and served as its Esteemed Leading Knight. February 16, 1891, he married Miss Mary Sevier, of Visalia, who has a son, Harry C. Macfarlane.
Writing, two or three years ago, of the beginning of his egg enterprise, Mr. Macfarlane said: "About eighteen years ago I traded a sernh calf for three dozen seruh hens, and the first month they netted me $15. That cansed me to 'sit up and take notice.' I then pur- chased a few settings of Brown Leghorn eggs and raised that breed for a few years; but finally discarded them for the White Leghorns, as they are a larger bird, lay larger eggs and as pullets get to laying a marketable sized egg much sooner than their brown sisters." His original White Leghorns were "bred to lay," but he improved the strain by the use of trap-nests, and constant work and breeding pro- duced birds that laid as many as two hundred and twenty-seven eggs
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in a year. Hens showing a record approaching this were yarded for breeding. Until five or six years ago he never offered or advertised eggs or birds for sale, and even now will not sell a female from the two hundred and twenty-seven stock, but is in the market with male birds and eggs. Ile confined his breeding to hens laying one hundred and ninety-two to two hundred and twenty-seven eggs a year and has increased his size of birds and eggs so that they are larger and more vigorous than the average Leghorn. Pullets from the high-grade layers were laying when fifteen weeks old and pullets from the one hundred and ninety-two egg strain were laying two weeks later.
The Richland Egg Ranch, four miles northwest of Hanford, com- prises ten acres, its soil is good and it is watered by the People's Diteh. Mr. Macfarlane improved the place by building a small house and soon afterward planted part of his original five acres to peaches and sowed the remainder to alfalfa. When he was well started in the poultry business, he named the place the Richland Egg Ranch. A practical man of mechanical mind, he has done much of his own building and the ranch shows care and the painstaking work of a prac- tical owner. The buildings are simple in construction, but neat and attractive. Under the sign bearing the name of the place stands the brooder, a building with a ground area of thirty-six by one hundred and twelve feet, which houses about twenty-five hundred pure bred White Leghorn chicks from a few days to a few weeks old. The brooder is fitted with thirty-two runs and is heated with nine gas heaters by which the temperature is kept at ninety degrees for the younger chicks down to seventy degrees for the older ones, according to season. Mr. Macfarlane averages a loss of but five per cent, leav- ing ninety-five per cent for successful breeding and maturing, notwith- standing many scientific poultrymen have a loss of fifty per cent. The incubators turn out fully ninety-four per cent of the fertile eggs and Mr. Macfarlane is able to keep the chicks alive and growing after they come out of the incubators. His brooders are devised on a plan of his own, adopted after he had visited all the principal poultry farms of the state, and the part under the mother boards is cleaned daily, the runways twice a week. During the first ten days of their life the chicks are fed on Richland Ten Day Chick Feed, a preparation of Mr. Macfarlane's own, and after ten days they are placed on a diet of meat, blood, bone, bran and barley, a food that stimulates the body growth of the fowls so that the feather growth does not impair its healthfulness. Pure water is furnished to the chicks in stone foun- tains. When they are ready to leave the brooder they are placed in yards laid out in a peach orchard, which furnishes the necessary shade. Each vard is watered automatically by means of pipe and automatic fountains and there are no puddles or mud holes.
Mr. Macfarlane breeds entirely for eggs. All the product from
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October to July he sells for hatching purposes, usually taking up six or seven hundred eggs daily. He ships hens and cocks as far east as New York and as far west as the Hawaiian Islands. He sells about twelve hundred birds a year. Breeding only White Leghorns, he has taken first premium on his showings at the county fair for several years past. His four-story tank house, which cost $500, was built with the profits of one season's broilers. His yards measure one hun- dred by one hundred and sixty-five feet and he never keeps more than eighty birds in one yard; and he never feeds any kind of food on the ground, but nses tronghs for the soft food and hoppers for grain. Some information concerning the prices he receives will be of interest in this connection. For males from the one hundred and ninety-two egg strain he gets $3.50 to $5 each, age and appearance causing dif- ference in price. For males from the two hundred and twenty to the two hundred and twenty-seven egg strain, $7 each. For females, from April until sold, $1.25 each; these, being hens in their second season, are the best breeders, especially when mated with a two hundred and twenty-seven cockerel; no females of the two hundred and twenty to two hundred and twenty-seven egg strain are sold. For eggs from selected trap-nested layers that pass the one hundred and ninety-two mark, $2 for fifteen, $7 for one hundred, $70 for one thousand, deliv- ered at the Hanford express office. He now offers settings from hens that have records of two hundred and twenty to two hundred and twenty-seven at $4 for fifteen, or $25 for one hundred. Having in- creased the number of birds of this class, he can supply settings in greater numbers than in previous seasons.
On his ranch Mr. Macfarlane now has three thousand White Leg- horn chickens. In December, 1911, he received the largest order for eggs for hatehing purposes ever given in California and at the high- est price-two hundred and twenty-five thousand eggs at seven cents an egg. This great order came from Petaluma, Cal. He ships eggs in lots of fifteen hundred and twelve, for which he receives $100 a lot. Mr. Macfarlane thanks his White Leghorns for a ranch worth $10,000, a business block in Hanford worth $30,000 and considerable other valuable property. All printing of catalogues is done by himself on his ranch, and he is now using his fifth press.
PETER THOMSON
Cattle raising has been the chief industry of Peter Thomson, who is numbered among the most progressive citizens of his com- munity. Born in Sweden in 1844, he came to the United States when he was fifteen years old and arriving in New York he enlisted in the
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United States navy and served one year, at the end of which he re- ceived honorable discharge. After that until 1870 he was employed on vessels sailing to different parts of the world, but in that year he landed at San Francisco, where he remained about twelve months. Then he worked in the redwood forests in Mendocino county for three years, later coming to Tulare county. In 1875 in partnership with L. W. Howeth, he went into the sheep business, and since then he has at times owned as many as three thousand sheep in a single band. He did not dispose of this interest until 1894. During the time of his connection with this enterprise he saw many of the ups and downs of sheep raising-of the sheep bought in 1875 most were lost. One of his largest purchases after that was in 1879, when he added two thousand to his flock. He now devotes his attention to cattle, of which he has about two hundred head. He owns six hundred and forty acres of land, which he jndicionsly devotes to various features of modern farming as it has been developed in this part of California. TIe feels grateful to the country at large for what it has done for him and more especially to central California for the opportunities of which he has so wisely taken advantage, and as he has prospered he has always tried in an unselfish, loyal way to make some returns to the community for the benefit he has received from it.
It was in 1889 that Mr. Thomson married Miss Eleanora Thaden. a native of Germany, who has borne him five children, four of whom are living. Lyla attends the State Normal at San Jose and will grad- nate in 1913. Ernest is at home and aiding in the conduct of the home farm. Beattie is a student in the Porterville high school. Olga at- tends school at White River. George E. is deceased.
HIRAM L. PARKER
It was in that mother state of the Middle West, Ohio, that Hiram L. Parker was born May 25, 1849. Ile was taken to Iowa by his par- ents when two years of age and there he was reared to manhood and educated, and in 1870, when he was about twenty-one years old, he came to California and located in Yolo county, not far from Wood- land. There for seventeen years he raised grain and stock with in- creasing success and gained a financial start. He came to Hanford, Kings county, in 1887, and bought eighty acres of land which is now included in his homestead. He planted ten acres of it to vines in 1888 and the rest of the ranch was devoted chiefly to grain and alfalfa. In 1890 he planted thirty-five acres to peaches, apricots and prines. in the proportion of twenty-seven, five and three acres, respectively. Eventually he sold forty acres and bought eighty acres more in the
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same section. Of the latter tract fifteen aeres is in alfalfa, the remain- der in fruit. He sold it in 1912 to E. J. Hummel at $400 an acre. In 1907 he bought twenty acres adjoining his homestead and planted it with peach trees. His last purchase was another twenty acres, which lies south of his homestead in the same section. It is now utilized for general farming, but he intends later on to devote it to fruit. His expenditures in fitting up his home ranch have been heavy, including the cost of buildings, fences, trees, machinery and appliances. His original house was destroyed by fire and he immediately built a new one on its site.
Aside from his farming, Mr. Parker has some other important interests, having been associated with others in the production of oil in the Lost Hills district, the general development of which is now being promoted. Ile is a stockholder also in the Lilian Oil Company.
In 1909 Mr. Parker married Mrs. Ella (Harris) Fraser. By a former marriage he has children as follows: Mrs. Nellie Hummel; Mrs. Mettie Moorehouse; and A. C. Parker, of San Jose. Mrs. E. E. Brooks, of San Francisco; Mrs. Clarence Kemp, of Lakeport; and Bruce Fraser, of Lake county, are Mrs. Parker's children by her for- mer marriage. Mr. Parker's enterprise along the lines of private business is equaled only by his public-spirited helpfulness in all move- ments for the general good.
A. J. SALLADAY
In the Buckeye State, in 1854, was born A. J. Salladay, a promi- nent citizen of Tulare county and an enthusiastic promoter of the in- terests of Terrabella and its tributary territory. When he was twelve years old he was taken to Iowa by his parents on their removal to that state, and there he remained eighteen years, nntil 1884, when he came to ('alifornia and settled in Fresno county. After a residence of two years there he removed to Tulare county, within the borders of which he has since made his home. It was in Ohio and Iowa that he obtained his education. His father was a rancher and all through his boyhood and youth the son was his assistant. When he left Iowa in 1884 he took up the battle of life for himself, buying forty acres of land in Fresno county, which he subsequently sold. In Tulare' county he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres, to which he added by suh sequent purchases until he owned a whole seetion, which he sold a few months ago for $42,000, it being good producing wheat land. There is food for thought in this brief statement of the success of a self made man. It was dependent not alone on industry and perse-
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verance, but not a little on a prophetic foresight which took account of values past and present and future.
In 1885 Mr. Salladay married Sophia Carr, a native of Iowa, and they have had four children, all of whom are living. Nita mar- ried J. B. Garver and lives at Terrabella. Sarah became the wife of Henry Owens and lives in the same neighborhood. Joe is un- married, and Carr is a boy of five years. Mrs. Salladay's parents, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, are living in California. Mr. Salladay's father, also of Ohio birth, died soon after his son came to Tulare county. The latter remembers the country then as only a boundless sheep range, and he has watched and aided in its de- velopment until it has become famous as the citrus belt of Cali- formia. When he came here the people did not dream of this latter day prosperity based on irrigation, and farmers 'were subject to all the vicissitudes of the seasons. Patriotic and helpful to an unusual degree, Mr. Salladay is not an active politician and has never consented to accept any public office except as a member of the school board, the duties of which his interest in general educa- tion has impelled him to undertake.
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