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 74
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 74
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BYRON ALLEN
This native son of California, of Tulare county and of Visalia was born October 10, 1868, was brought up by his stepfather, James W. Oakes, and after leaving school was associated with him in the cattle business. Later he went to Arizona, New Mexico and Old Mexico on a prospecting tour, then, returning to Visalia, he again engaged in the breeding of cattle and horses; for, after all he had seen, ranching looked more promising than mining. Since the death of Mr. Oakes he has had the management of the interests left by the latter and is making a success that is notable among the many successes in his vicinity. With two hundred and eighty acres of land. he is making a specialty of the raising of fine blooded horses. ('attle also command his attention, he having a range of two thon- sand acres in the mountains and keeping year after year about two hundred and fifty head of beef cattle, a hundred and fifty hogs and forty turkeys. A feature of his home farm is a large family orchard. one of the most productive in the neighborhood.
In 1904 Mr. Allen married Miss Della Carter, daughter of an early settler in Tulare county. Fraternally he affiliates with the Eagles and the Woodmen. As a citizen he takes an intelligent inter- est in all questions of national or local significance and as a voter does his whole duty by helping to elect to office the men who will best
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serve the interests of the people. His public spirit, many times tested. has never been found wanting either in spontaneity or in generosity, for he has near to his heart the uplift and prosperity of the com- munity.
CAPT. ROBERT M. ASKIN
As citizen, soldier, artisan, merchant and official, Capt. Robert M. Askin of Visalia won prominence among his fellowmen. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, April 10, 1838, and died at his home in Tulare county January 1, 1908. John Askin, his father, an English- man transplanted to the Emerald Isle, became a plumber under his father's instruction and worked at his trade in Ireland as long as he lived. He was married in Ireland to Miss Sarah Sophia Shea, a Dublin girl, who bore him five children, of whom Robert M. was the third in order of birth, and of whom two sons and two daughters grew to maturity.
In November, 1852, Robert M., seeking fortune in a new land before he was fifteen years old, crossed the Atlantic and joined an unele at Trenton, Canada, where he gave abont two years to learning the tinner's trade. From 1854 to 1856 he worked at his trade in Jefferson county, N. Y., whence he went to New York City at the request of another unele. Three years later he was working at his trade in St. Louis, Mo., but he soon went with a Mr. Crippen to Steel- ville, Crawford county, that state, where he established a tinsmith's shop, which he operated nntil in the fall of 1861. On September 6, 1861, he became a member of Company E of the Phelps Regiment, with which he served six months, during which he witnessed the battle of Pea Ridge. Receiving honorable discharge at the end of his term of enlistment, he re-enlisted in Company E, Thirty-second Missonri In- fantry, August 14, 1862. From a private he was promoted in the fol- lowing October to lieutenant, and April 14, 1864, he was commissioned captain. He served under Grant until 1863 and afterward until the end of the war under Sherman. It is somewhat remarkable that while he participated gallantly in thirty-two engagements he never missed a roll-call or a meal with his company and received but one wound, a mere scratch by a ball while he was charging on a battery at Jones- boro, Ga. He was mustered out of the service July 18, 1865, returned to Steelville, Mo., and worked as a tinner and sold hardware. In 1870 he moved to Cuba, Crawford county, Mo., and in 1878 to Salem, Dent county, Mo., where he dealt in hardware and honse furnishing goods for twenty-one years. From his young manhood he was an active
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Republican, and for a term he held the office of presiding justice of the county court and he served as postmaster of Salem by appointment of President Harrison. From the time of his arrival in California until his death he had his residence and business headquarters at Visalia.
Captain Askin married, February 22, 1866, Clara Alice Jameson, a native of Missouri, who hore him four children: Charles Robert and Mary Catherine are dead; William C. lives in Missouri; John Herbert was connected with his father in business at Visalia and is still a resi- dent of that city. Mrs. Askin died at Cuba, Crawford county, Mo .. April 12, 1876, and Captain Askin married (second) in that town Miss Frances Amelia Shephard, of New York hirth, and they had children, Arthur Wesley, Adney Horace, Mervyn Leroy, Matie Amelia and Flora Dell. Captain Askin was a constituent member of the post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Salem, Mo., and on coming to Visalia transferred his membership to Gen. George Wright Post No. 111, of that city. In religions affiliation he was an Episcopalian and the surviving members of his family are communicants of that church. At Salem he was active in the work of the Masonic lodge and com- mandery and in that of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Wher- ever he lived he was in a public-spirited way devoted to the uplift of his community, and in this respect his son is following in his footsteps. giving generous enconragement to every movement at Visalia for the good of any considerable class of the people.
GEORGE BRIDGES
California is a field peculiarly alluring to young men of states further east, who, having good health and good character, are deter- mined to prosper by their own efforts. This is proven by a glance at the facts in the life thus far of George Bridges, a prosperous farmer and dairyman near Visalia, Tulare county. Mr. Bridges was born in Morton county, Ind., March 3, 1867, and there he attended the public schools and gained a practical knowledge of farming as it was then carried on in his vicinity. In 1884, when he was seventeen years old. he came to California. His original settlement here was at a point west of Visalia, and eventually he honght ten acres of land near the Shirk ranch, which he still owns, and where for nine years he grew alfalfa. Then he rented a part of the Frans ranch, forty acres, east of Visalia. There he cultivated alfalfa and installed a dairy of thir- teen cows, besides raising some vegetables. The following year he rented the Smith ranch of three hundred and twenty acres and in- creased his dairy to one of twenty-five cows, giving attention to alfalfa 45
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and devoting an adequate portion of his land to pasturage. After living there a year he moved to his present residence, two hundred and twenty six acres of the old Patterson ranch, northeast of Visalia, which tract he has since operated under lease. At this time he has ninety-eight acres in alfalfa, owns one hundred head of hogs and beef cattle and has a dairy of fifty cows. Thus, from a small beginning and not under the most favorable circumstances, he has developed a fine, growing business which stamps him as a man of ability and enter- prise and holds much promise for his future.
In 1890 Mr. Bridges married Miss Mary F. Stokes, a native of Tulare county, where her father, Yancy Stokes, was an early settler, and they have four children: Flora May, Stella I., wife of Roy Swit- zer, George M., and Zelda E. Mr. Bridges is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, devoted to all its interests. He is a man of considerable public spirit. always ready to do his part for the advance- ment of any measure for the general good of his community.
ARTHUR P. HUBBS
It was in Porterville, Tulare county, Cal., that Arthur Preston Hubbs was born in 1870, a son of James Robert Hubbs. He was edu- cated in the schools of Porterville and in the Mountain View school, and in his youth assisted his father in the latter's stock farming. The elder Hubbs came across the plains in 1840 with his father, making the journey with ox-teams, and later he and his father owned thousands of arres of land which they bought cheaply and sold while land was vet a drug on the market, and they operated extensively in stock while the stock business was only in its infancy. When Arthur Inbbs first saw the site of Porterville it was wild land without a building, and he remembers Springville when its condition was no less primi- tive. He has watched and assisted in the development of the country and observes its present prosperity with the just pride of the pioneer. At one time he served the community with ability as constable. and he remembers that being a constable then was not the peaceable undertaking that it is today. In all the years of his residence here he has always been ready in a publie-spirited way to assist any move- ment proposed for the general good. Fraternally he affiliates with the Court of Honor, of which his wife also is a member.
In 1895 Mr. Hobbs married Miss Olla Doty, a native daughter of California. and they have had three children, Delpha, Gladys and Law- rence. Delpha and Gladys are in school. Mrs. Hubbs' father was a pioneer in California and is still living in Tulare county, where he was long a stockman. So extensive were his operations in that line that
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he once owned a fifteen hundred and twenty acre stock range which he bought at two dollars an acre and sold later at six dollars. Some years ago he went into the livery business and now he is the proprie- tor of an np-to-date stable at Springville, Cal., which is one of the best appointed and most profitable in this part of the country.
ISAAC T. HALFORD
On October 10, 1848, in Moniteau county, Mo., Isaac T. Halford was born, the eldest of twelve children born to L. R. and Hester (Coale) Halford, both natives of Missouri. L. R. Halford was the son of Kentuckians and he passed away in Missouri, where also his wife died. In 1866 the family moved to Henry county, Mo., and there Isaac T. Halford worked on a farm and attended school until he reached the age of eighteen years. Two years later he was in the cattle business in Texas, whence he returned to Henry county, Mo .. to engage in the mercantile business in Coalesburg, and continued in it successfully until in 1885, when he sold out. In 1887 he came to California and located at Orange, in Orange county, remaining for two years, and then moved to Porterville, Tulare county, which has since been his home. Opening a general merchandise store, he con- dueted it for a while and later engaged in stock raising. After forty- two years of active business life he retired to enjoy a three years' rest, and December 27, 1912, with Stephen D. Halford, his brother, he bought the grocery business conducted by Wilko Mentz, and they are now conducting the business under the firm name of Halford Bros. Mr. Halford has bought property in Porterville and improved it and has in different ways manifested a helpful interest in the town. While a citizen of Coalesburg, Henry county, Mo., he held the office of post- master seven years, and at another time he was a deputy sheriff. Though he has wielded a political influence in Tulare county, he has never consented to hold office. Fraternally he affiliates with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Encampment. He was a char- ter member of his lodge and has for some time served as its secretary. Mrs. Halford is a Rebekah. When he began business in Porterville there was not a brick building in the town, and his was the fourth store in operation.
In 1878 Mr. Halford married Cornelia Holston, a native of Ten- nessee. They have no children, but they have an adopted son. D. Wrinkle, born December 24, 1902, who has been a member of their family since he was three years old. Before her marriage Mrs. Hal- ford was a teacher in the State Normal school at Kirksville, Mo.
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JOSEPH WILLIAM HOMER
Born in England, the late Joseph William Homer early settled in New York, whence, while vet a young man, he went to New Har- mony, Posey county, Ind. His father, Richard Homer, and other members of his family came to America also and lived in Indiana, where Richard died. After that event Joseph William Homer went down the Ohio river and enlisted for service in the United States army for service in the Mexican war, in which he did duty as a soldier about a year. Returning to Indiana, he later came through Arkansas and Texas and thence west to Los Angeles, and soon engaged in stock raising at Visalia in partnership with his brother-in-law, Ira Van Gordon. Later he lived a mile north of Farmersville, with stock- raising as his principal occupation. When he first came to California the Indians were very troublesome, and he assisted in the construction of a fort for the protection of women and children. He was a pioneer also in the construction of irrigation ditches and was in one way or another connected with many important movements and enterprises. He was well educated, spoke the Spanish language fluently, and taught his own children before schools were established. Ile voted at the historic local election held under the oak tree. He continued to live at his home at Three Rivers until 1879, when his long and useful life came to an end.
Mr. Homer married Miss Martha Balaam, a native of Kentucky, who bore him these children: Catherine R., S. Ellen, Truman J .. Ed- ward B., Thomas and Anna M. Catherine R. married James S. Price, and they have a son. Charles, and a daughter, Alta Florence. S. Ellen married John Hambright, whose parents were among California pioneers, and they have eight children. Truman J. married Alice Rice and they have a child, Carrol S. Edward B. married Anna Swank, and they have five daughters and live near Orange Heights. Thomas married Matilda Mehrten and they have two sons. Anna M. married Harvey Hodges, of Dinnba, and bore him one son.
With Jackson Price, his father, James S. Price, then only about six months old, came overland from Kansas to California in 1863. Later the family removed to Oregon, whence the younger Price even- tually came to California, where he has won success as a dairyman and as a stock-raiser. He bought twenty acres of land at $200 an acre and has three and a half acres under trees and vines, the remain- der under alfalfa. He has recently sold seventy head of stock, but keeps an average of forty head and about one hundred head of Duroc hogs. Not long ago he sold a male pig for $15. His cattle are of the Holstein breed. Politically he is Republican and his wife is a Pro- gressive Republican. He very ably fills the office of postmaster at Orange Heights. He is an Odd Fellow, a Forester of America, a
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Woodman of America and a member of the Order of Loyal Protection. Mrs. Price, formerly a member of the Women of Woodcraft, is identi- fied with Rebekah Lodge of San Luis Obispo county.
S. C. KIMBALL
A successful merchant and financier of Hanford who is well known here for his exceptional business ability and honorable meth- ods is S. C. Kimball, who was born in Barton, Vt., March 24, 1859. He was educated in the public schools and at the Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie. N. Y. Meantime he early entered business life. and from the time he was seventeen until he was twenty-one years old he traveled through the New England states, buying wool in carload lots and establishing agencies for fertilizers. In this period he opened a general merchandise store at Albany, Vt., where he gained his first experience as a merchant. In 1889 he went to Puyallup, Wash .. and there sold drygoods for six years, then re- turned to Vermont for the benefit of his health. He opened a dry- goods store at Barton Landing and incidentally engaged in the flour, feed and grain trade to a large extent, having six agencies with one to five carloads of feed and grain on the track all the time during the shipping season. Meanwhile he bought and conducted his grand- parents' old farm. Though he was doing well, he was longing for the west and he sold out his interests in Vermont and came to California, and by advice of wholesalers of his acquaintance, lo- cated, in 1903, in Hanford. Here he opened a drygoods store on the site of the present city market, taking over the old Hutchins stock. His small initial business was the forerunner of greater things and in a year and a half he moved to his present site at the corner of Seventh and Douty streets, moving into the ground- floor story of the building he now occupies. His store space was 125x35 feet ; later he leased an adjoining building, acquiring an addi- tional space of 25x100 feet, and not long afterward added to his establishment the second floor of the original building. In October, 1911, he opened two branch stores, one at Lemoore, the other at Exeter. In the first he sells drygoods and shoes, in the other dry- goods only. His sons, Raymond C., Ingh A. and H. C. Kimball, are associated with him in business. H. C. Kimball is secretary of the New York department store and manager of the Lemoore branch store. The stocks of the three stores embrace general drygoods, cloaks, suits, carpets, shoes and men's furnishings, tinware, glass- ware, agateware and stationery.
In addition to his large department store, Mr. Kimball is be-
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coming largely interested in banking throughout Tulare and Fresno counties. In the spring of 1910, associated with Chester Dowell, he organized the Lindsay National bank, of Lindsay, Cal., of which he was made the first president, and in February, 1911, he bought the First National bank of Exeter and was made president of that also. Ilis sons are married and settled in Kings county, their financial interest in his business dating from June, 1911. Mr. Kim- ball is president of the First National bank of Exeter and the National bank of Orosi, the latter being capitalized at $25,000 and opening its doors in February, 1913. He is a director of the Fowler National bank at Fowler, Cal., capitalized at $50,000 which started its business also in February, 1913. He is largely interested in the Golden State's Security Co., Inc., of Exeter, capitalized at $50,000, their holdings being practically all orange lands. This company has a bright future and handles twenty and forty acre traets, and as director of this corporation Mr. Kimball is an active element.
In 1908 Mr. Kimball bought the Dr. Hohes fruit ranch, a mile west of Hanford, which he has converted into a fine estate. Besides this twenty acres he bought twenty-five acres near the city limits, all in orchard and vineyard. In 1912, with A. W. Quinn and two others, he bought nine hundred acres of orange land in the orange belt, fon miles from Exeter, which they intend to improve.
A. W. PHELPS
Near Sheboygan Falls, Wis., A. W. Phelps, who lives north of Dinba in Tulare county, Cal., was born June 24, 1862, a son of Ben- jamin and Matilda ( Humes) Phelps, and lived there until he was nine years old, when he was taken by his parents to Missouri. There. the family home was located directly across the road from that of the Samuels, mother and stepfather of the James boys, famous in outlaw history of the west.
The Phelpses, who were pioneers in Wisconsin, became pioneers in Oregon in 1875, settling near Salem and Silverton, in Marion county, where the family lived twenty-one years and where the father died, aged eighty-five. In 1896 A. W. Phelps came to California and located in Tulare county. Ile leases ten acres belonging to Mrs. Latin and another tract of twenty acres, and has four acres and a half in peaches and three in Malaga vines. As a farmer, considering the extent of his operations, he is achieving a marked success.
Mr. Phelps' experience as a pioneer in several states was replete with interest. On one occasion in Tulare county he wandered from the road on his way to a dance and came upon two young lions, and
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while he was considering the advisability of capturing and making pets of them he was startled by beholding in the near vicinity a five- legged double-hoofed Jersey calf. How these strange animals came to be there or whether or not he took them home with him he did not inform his interviewer. Perhaps he left them because he was more anxious to attend the dance than to begin the collection of a menagerie. In the early days he saw many droves of elk and was successful in deer-stalking.
In his polities Mr. Phelps is an independent Republican. Frater- nally he affiliates with the Maccabees. He married in Kingsburg. Tulare county, Miss Emma Peterson, a native of Kansas, and they have children named Minnie, Gracie and Eva. Minnie has passed through the local grammar school.
BREWSTER S. GURNEE
In any survey of the substantial enterprises of Hanford, Kings connty, Cal., the Gurnee planing-mill is certain to attract attention. Its output in windows, doors, monldings and bank fixtures aggre- gates $60,000 yearly. The guiding spirit of these enterprises is Brewster S. Gurnee, who came to Hanford from the city of Fresno in December, 1891. Born in Stony Point, Rockland county, N. Y., May 26, 1859, a son of Walter F. B. Gurnee and a grandson of Mathew Gurnee, natives of the Empire state, he traces his ancestry to one of the Pilgrim fathers. Walter F. B. Gurnee, a farmer and a brick manufacturer, served the Federal cause in the Civil war as a private soldier sixty days, then was sent home because of ill health and died in his fifty-sixth year. He married Mary M. Smith. also a native of New York state, who died at Rye, N. Y., at the age of seventy-six.
In the public school near his boyhood home Brewster S. Gurnee obtained such education as was available to him. His first business experience was in Washington, N. J., where he learned the organ maker's trade with the Beaty Organ company. Later he was em- ployed in a piano factory at New York, but was constrained by his wife's failing health to give up his position there and remove to California. llis first location here was at Fresno. After working in a planing-mill there for about a year, he became foreman in the large planing-mill of M. R. Madary, a position which he filled four years, when he bought a half interest in the establishment. After two years of successful business life, he sold his interest in the planing-mill, December, 1891, and came to Ilanford, where he ex- tablished himself in a prosperous manufacturing business. His she-
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cess, however, was not achieved without discouraging reverses. Be- sides his mill property he early acquired a fruit farm near Han- ford. and during the panie of 1893-94 he lost both mill and farm; but in 1899, on borrowed capital, he again became owner of the same mill and has since operated it with profit. His first planing- mill in Hanford was a small affair covering a ground space of fifty by sixty-five feet. Ilis plant now consists of two buildings, one cov- ering a ground space of one hundred and twenty-five by one hundred and fifty feet, the other seventy-five by one hundred feet. The Gurnee mill is one of the best equipped in the lower San Joaquin valley and its mannfactures are sold in all parts of California. It gives constant employment to thirty men.
The Republican party has in Mr. Gurnee a staunch member, but he has persistently refused to accept public office. Fraternally he affiliates with Hanford Lodge, No. 279, F. & A. M .; Hanford chapter, No. 74. R. A. M .; the Hanford organizations of Woodmen of the World and Knights of Pythias; and the Fresno lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. Gurnee is no less popular in business and social circles than in these orders, and as a citizen he has never been found wanting in public spirit. lle mar- ried Eugenia A. Van Valer, a native of Stony Point, N. Y., and they have had five children, one of whom died in infancy. The survivors are Mary, Minnie, Candace and Adelia. Mary is the wife of F. M. Vincent, residing at Niles, Cal. Minnie is the wife of A. R. Schimmell, residing near Tulare. Candace is the wife of W. H. Wilbur, residing at Alpaugh. Cal.
EUGENE A. LUCE
The population of California is made up very largely of men from other states of the Union and presents more distinct elements than almost any other state. Yet it is a melting-pot in which all immigrants are converted into out-and-out Californians. In local industries, from the railroad builder to the bank president, the citi- zen of New York birth has shown excellent qualities. One such is Eugene A. Luce, formerly a plumber at Visalia, now a rancher on the Exeter road, east of that city, a self-made man, who has won high repute in the community for all those qualities of mind and heart which make for good citizenship. Mr. Luce was born in Buffalo, N. Y., January 19, 1845. and when he was two years old his father died. He was reared and educated in his native state, and in the spring of 1870 came to California and opened a plumb- er's and tinsmith shop in Visalia. After a successful business there
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