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 76
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 76
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a son, Howard A., who is in the automobile business in Hanford. Mr. Hoskins is a member of the W. O. W., and is a man of public spirit who seeks rather to give to, than receive from, the community with which he cast his lot.
ADOLPHUS MITCHELL
The life of Adolphus Mitchell has been closely identified with the early history and development of the state of California, and he is numbered among those pioneer settlers who have been instru- mental in its progress for many years. He is a representative of an old and honored family, members of which have taken active part in the wars of the new as well as the old world. He is the son of Lewis and Mary E. (Duff) Mitchell. His grandfather, Solomon Mitchell, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and fought under General Pickens of South Carolina, while his son, Lewis Mitchell, father of Adolphus, was a soldier in the war of 1812. The latter's death occurred in 1861, when he was aged about seventy years. On the maternal side, the Duff family is of Irish descent. His grand- father, Robert Dnff, was major in the Irish rebel army. The Irish lost their eanse, and so Mr. Duff came to America; but on account of religious difficulties he dressed in woman's clothes, was stowed away on a vessel and thus came to America, locating in West Vir- ginia. Robert Duff married Miss Dickerson, who was also of Irish extraction, and their daughter was Mary E. Duff, who was born in West Virginia. Iler Imisband, Lewis Mitchell, was born in South Carolina.
Adolphins Mitchell was born in Hawkins county, in eastern Ten- nessee, May 28, 1829, and in 1836 moved with his parents to south- western Missouri, in what was then Barry county, but which has been changed to MeDonald county. He attended the common schools there, but at that time the method of educating was very erude, owing to the lack of facilities. The lights used were pine knots and candles. His entire attendance at school here covered a period of only nine months. the last two months when he was over twenty years of age. Reared on the frontier, acenstomed to face hardships and unflinchingly forge ahead, he was a man well fitted for work in his new home. He remained at home until he had reached the age of twenty-five years, when he started ont with oxen and wagons for the coast, but finally decided to leave them on Green River, and packed from there. He had many encounters with Indians en route, both warriors and friendly, but he finally arrived in California Angust 5, 1855. As he was undecided what line of work to follow he stopped in the mines for a time and
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then came to Tulare connty, where, in 1857, he embarked in the cattle business, buying Spanish cattle to the amount of a hundred and fifty head. at $12.50, pasture being free. The next spring he sold thirty head at $30 each.
Mr. Mitchell had decided not to follow the miner's life because of their ill luek, and accordingly in 1859 bought land in Visalia, when that town had but three business houses. He had crossed the plains in company with his brother and there was also a Mrs. Billips in the party, whom he afterward found keeping a restaurant in Visalia. At the time of this purchase the houses there had canvas tops and were rudely built. He has seen this country grow to its present propor- tions and has benefited by it. In 1857 he met Colonel Baker, founder of Bakersfield, who advised him to buy land. This he did, from time to time, until he owned twelve hundred acres in that vicinity. Through all his hard struggle to gain a foothold in the new country, Mr. Mitchell had the assistance and earnest co-operation of his brother, Ozro, who was born June 4, 1831, and whose death occurred in December, 1906, at Mr. Mitchell's home, which had always been his. He had never married.
On January 11, 1862, the flood covered their tract with water, and there seemed to be three waves pass through the valley. The second flood. on December 24, 1867, coming in one wave, covered everything. Mr. Mitchell returned to Missouri in 1869, leaving Visalia on the 9th of June and arriving home in the same month. Here he remained for a time, being taken with an attack of typhoid in July, and he was obliged to stay there for fifteen months, during which time his mar- riage took place. He returned to California, by stage from Stockton, and settled on a ranch near Visalia, where he made a specialty of raising stock, but at the time the railroad came was giving his atten- tion to the cultivation of wheat. Visalia courthouse was to be moved by the railroad, but as the Constitution prohibits removal more than once, and it was formerly at Woodville and thence removed to Visalia, it could not be taken to Tulare as they proposed. However, it was a hard fight to hold it at Visalia, but through the hard work of the citizens it was finally kept there. Mr. Mitchell had rented sixteen hundred acres for cattle in what is now Kings county, and owning cattle, was there when the county division was made.
Mr. Mitchell was married to Susan Bogle, who was born in C'annon county. Ten., but had lived in Missouri since 1859. They had five children born to them, viz .: Mary, who is unmarried; Walter Franklin, who works on his father's ranch; Addie, who is the widow of Edward C. Jones, of Visalia; Chester, deceased ; and Arthur Galen, who is also on the ranch with his father. Mr. Mitchell owned at one time about twenty-five hundred acres of land, but he has divided his property among his children.
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Mr. Mitchell takes an active interest in all public matters and is a progressive, energetic citizen, but he would never consent to holding office. Since 1856 he has made many prophesies concerning the wel- fare and growth of his adopted state, and they have in most cases materialized. A self-made, self-educated man, he is public-spirited and interested in all that tends to the prosperity of his community, and he is well known throughout the county as a most successful man.
WILLIAM R. COOKE
This native of California and well known citizen of Tulare county was born in Placerville, January 22, 1857, a son of W. S. and Lucy (Rutledge) Cooke. His father was born in Leeds, England, in 1827, and his mother was born in England that same year. The former came to South Carolina when he was sixteen years old and was for some time engaged in shipping. Eventually he located in Boston, where he completed his education and whence he moved after four years to Davenport, Iowa, where for a time he sold fanning mills and John Deere plows. There he married Miss Rutledge, who had come from her native land when quite young. She is living in San Francisco at the advanced age of eighty-five years. In 1851 they came overland with a large train from Towa, halting a short time in Salt Lake City. From time to time they had dangerous encounters with Indians and when they reached Hangtown, now Placerville, they witnessed the hanging of a man named Van Lugan. Later they were attacked by Indians who drove off their cattle, killing several. They witnessed the sinking of the Humboldt mine in Gold Canyon on the site of Gold Hill. At Hangtown, where Mrs. Cooke arrived wearing a green silk dress, she was one of but two women in the settlement. A dance was given on the evening following their arrival. It was at Ford's Bar on the American river that Mr. Cooke had his first experience as a miner. He long remembered the arrival of the first circus that visited at that diggings. At one time he walked from Hangtown to Sacramento, bare- footed, and brought back with other purchases a pair of copper-toed boots for his son, the subject of this review. From Hangtown the family moved to Mountain Spring's and from there they moved about eighteen months later to Ford's Bar, where in 1857 more than five hun- dred votes were cast. Their next place of residence, where they re- mained until 1859, was at Towa Hill. Mr. Cooke owned several mines one after another and made and lost considerable money. He became prominent in affairs in Placer county and for eight years filled the office of sheriff. Later at Virginia City he was elected police judge and
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tax collector. Ile died there in 1898 and his widow removed to San Francisco.
The children of W. S. and Lucy ( Rutledge) Cooke were named as follows: Sarah A., Mary E., William R., F. W., Jennie V., Henry S., deceased, Joseph E., Ley, and Edwin, deceased. Sarah A. mar- ried Andrew Lane and has three children. Mary E. married W. G. Thompson of Storey county, Nevada, and has borne him two children. William R. married Iantha A. Kelso and their home is near Orosi ; they have twin sons, Bruce E. and Roy A., born in 1886, who were educated at Selma and Stockton, graduating from the Western School of Commerce at the age of twenty years, Roy being now bookkeeper for the Kirby Winery at Sehna. Bruce and Roy prepared for entrance at the National Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., received the ap- pointment, but did not go. Jennie V. is editor of the Pacific Coast Nurses Journal, and resides in San Francisco.
From several of the leading families of America Miss Kelso, who became Mrs. Cooke, is descended, one of her ancestors having been Henry Clay. Her father, John Russell Kelso, a native of Ohio, was a colonel in the Federal service in the Civil War and was a member of congress. Mrs. Cooke's mother was born in Missouri and educated at Springfield. Mrs. Cooke was a normal school graduate of the year 1878, became a teacher and rose to the position of vice-principal from which she was promoted to that of principal. She taught thirteen years in Fresno county, six years in Selma, where she was for four years vice-principal. Later she was for one year principal of Bishop school in Inyo. Her recollections of California would make an inter- esting volume. She distinctly remembers seeing the notorious Sontag and Evans pursued by the men who later brought them to justice.
By trade Mr. Cooke is a machinist and millwright, in which capacities he worked thirty-eight years. In 1901-2 he mined in Alaska with indifferent success, was caught in the ice and sojourned for a time on Siberian Island. He was at one time interested in the pur- chase of five hundred and one acres of land and now owns one hun- dred and sixty acres of orange land, vines and figs. He has about six thousand budded trees for transplanting. He makes a specialty of white Leghorn poultry, owning about three hundred chickens. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and is a popular citizen who does much for the public good. He and his family are Socialists.
WILLIAM NORVAL STUBBELFIELD
Arkansas, a state of central geographical location which partakes fargely of the agricultural qualities of the East, North, South and West, has been for many years in a way a clearing house for pioneers,
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gathering them from the older parts of the country and distributing them to newer fields further on. One of the numerous good citizens which that state has furnished to California is William Norval Stubbelfield, who was born in Fayetteville, Washington county, Ark., January 7, 1873, and lived there until he was nineteen years old.
From Arkansas Mr. Stubbelfield went to Baylor county, Tex .. and after one year's residence there went up into Oklahoma and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres at Cheyenne, Roger Mills county. In six years he had proved up on his land, acquired title to it and sold it for two thousand dollars. Then he came to California and at Cutler, Tulare county, bought ten acres, six of which are in peaches, four acres in vineyard, and he secured a very good crop in 1911, selling two and one-fourth tons of grapes to the acre. Mr. Stubbelfield has given his entire life to different kinds of farming, and as he has made a study of soils and seeds and seasons and of every other factor in the production of erops of various kinds and operates by up-to-date and thoroughly scientific methods, he is able to achieve success where it is possible. He is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood. Politically he affiliates with the Socialist party.
Mr. Stubbelfield was married in 1894, at Fayetteville, Ark., to Miss Victoria Gulley, a native of that state. Seven children were born to them, viz .: Eula. Eddeth, Annie, William, Cland, Ladona and Bessie (now deceased).
A. CLIFFORD DUNGAN
A native of Virginia, A. Clifford Dungan, of Exeter, Tulare county, was born at Glade Spring, September 10, 1875, the youngest of the large family of children of Thomas N. Dungan. He came to California in 1894 and settled at Three Rivers, Tulare county, where he worked in his brother's sawmill. In 1895 he was employed by the Kaweah Lemon Company, and for three years had charge of one of its lemon orchards. The ensuing year he was in the employ of the Ohio Lemon Company. By carefully saving his earnings he was enabled to buy seven acres of land five miles southeast of Exeter. The property was rough and withont improvements, but with character- istic energy and foresight he set out orange trees, erected a pumping plant and put on other necessary auxiliaries, and soon had seven acres of fine hearing navel trees, which proved very profitable.
After he had improved his original seven acres Mr. Dungan en- tered the service of George T. Frost, who had charge of the Bonnie Brae orchards, and was made superintendent of the vineyards of the
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Frost & Carney Land and Lumber Company. Two years later he was given the management of the orange grove on Badger Hill. While thus employed he was studying the fruit business, and in 1903 he began caring for groves in the Bonnie Brae district on contract. He now has seventy-three acres under fruit and vines and a contract covering quite a number of orchards. Two hundred and fifty dollars an acre for a crop of grapes on twenty acres of four-year-old Emperors was the price paid him recently by R. D. Williams. This was a record price for a crop of grapes bought outright in the Exeter district, and was especially good for the product of a vineyard of that age. On the other hand the crop on this orchard was very heavy and Mr. Dungan made a fine profit. On the twenty acres there are approximately eight thou- sand vines, most of them yielding three or four crates to the vine.
At Fresno Mr. Dungan married Miss Nellie Tuohy, a native of Oakland, daughter of A. V. Tuohy of Vacaville and niece of Joli Tnohy of Tulare. She is a graduate of the San Francisco Normal School and was for a time a student at the Johns Hopkins Art Insti- tute. Mr. and Mrs. Dungan have the following children, May Vir- ginia, John Anthony and Helen Margaret.
In his political alliances Mr. Dungan is a Democrat, and frater- nally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. He came to Cali- fornia in 1894, without capital, and by industry and good business ability has made a fine property. His success is the success of the self-made man, and those who best know him say that it has been fairly won and is richly deserved. In many ways Mr. Dungan has demon- strated a publie spirit that marks him as a citizen of much patriotism and helpfulness to all worthy community interests.
ANDREW J. LAFEVER
Born in Knox county, Tenn, November 14, 1826, Andrew J. La- fever was a representative of families noted for their valor and devotion to justice. His parents were William and Elizabeth ( Roh- erts) Lafever. In colonial days Henry Lafever, great-grandfather of Andrew J., came from France to Virginia and remained there two years, then returned to his native land. Later he came with Lafayette and fought under that commander for American liberty and after the end of the Revolutionary war went back to France, and at Waterloo he was a brave soldier under Napoleon. Ilis son, John Lafever, a native of Virginia, lived most of his life in Tennessee and gained wealth and prominence as a cotton-grower. Hle fought for the cause of the col- onies in the war of the Revolution and yielded up his life in defense of free America in the war of 1812. He married Lney Barbankez, a
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woman of much courage and decision of character. While in the Revo- Intionary army, British soldiers stole sweet potatoes from his farm and she shot down seven of them. Though she was arrested she was not prosecuted, as the soldiers were appropriating her property and her stern sense of justice entitled her to a place in the history of those thrill- ing times. She bore her husband two children and lived to be eighty- seven. Her son William, father of Andrew J., was born in Tennessee and in 1834 became the owner of land in Ray county, Mo., partly by purchase and partly by pre-emption. He prospered as a planter and slave owner and achieved prominence through his interest in the state militia and in the training of soldiers, and fought in the war of 1812, the Black Hawk war and the Seminole war. He married Elizabeth Roberts, a native of South Carolina, and he lived ninety-seven years, she eighty-four.
The third of the fourteen children of William Lafever was Andrew J., who inherited much of the valor and stern sense of right and wrong of his forefathers in both lines of descent. Such education as he received he acquired in a private school. In his youth he had to do with the labor of cotton growing and through trading on his father's plantation became expert as a judge of horse-flesh. In 1846 he volun- teered for service as a soldier under General Taylor and was assigned to the division commanded by Colonel Willock. In 1847 he re-enlisted and was assigned to Company C, Santa Fe Battalion, United States Army, under command of Gen. Sterling Price, and rose to be sergeant, and in 1847-48 was a member of the general's escort. He was honor- ably discharged from the service at Independence, Mo., in October, 1848, and November 4 following east for his old commander, General Taylor, his first presidential vote. For a time he was in the meat- packing business at Camden, Mo., where he heard much of the dis- covery of gold on the Pacific coast. April 4, 1849, he left there for an ox-team journey across the plains, and about seven months later ar- rived at the Peter Lawson ranch, near Bidwell's Bar, Cal., and he mined in that vicinity during the succeeding thirteen months. At Bid- well's Bar, according to an interesting writer, "a thief was discovered in camp who had tried to purloin a can of syrup. A consultation was held by the other miners and it was decided to hang without ceremony. Mr. Lafever, however, objected, owing to the absence of a code of laws covering such misdemeanors. The life of the man was spared, but an attempt was made to obviate further trouble of that kind by drawing up a code calculated to terrorize evil doers." Flogging and hanging were features of this code. "Men condemned to trial had the benefit of the opinion and judgment of twenty-four substantial men of the community and every question had to be answered by the witness." From this point Mr. Lafever went as a member of a prospecting party to the south fork of the Feather river and took part in an unsuccessful
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attempt to change the course of that stream. Later he mined at Marysville and then set out on a fruitless quest of Gold Lake, which the history of California mining tells us was never found. Before 1850 he prospected around St. Louis, Pine Grove, Howland Flat, Nelson Creek and Poor Man's Creek, and in that year he mined in Told's Diggings and at Forbestown. In the last mentioned camp he engaged in business as a butcher and as a general merchant. The spring of 1851 found him at Lexington, where he built and opened the Lexington house, which hostelry was kept in a log building near a spring which he had discovered the year before; and here also he engaged in general merchandising. He built a new house near the log cabin at Lexington, of lumber which he sawed by hand, in 1852, and established a hotel and butcher shop at Spanish Flat. In 1854 he dis- posed of his Lexington interests. He lived at Spanish Flat until 1857. "In the meantime, in 1856," says the writer already quoted, "there had been great excitement in camp over the water ditches, resulting in shooting scrapes and the organizing of a mob that would have hanged an innocent man had it not been dispersed by Mr. Lafever. In the spring of 1857 Mr. Lafever himself escaped serious trouble because of the justifying circumstances surrounding his act. In self defense he shot and killed Judge John Chapels, the leader of that mob, and though he surrendered to the authorities, nothing ever came of the matter. Mr. Lafever showed wonderful clemency for his fallen foe hired a man to care for him, and so far ingratiated himself that the dying man shook hands with him and expressed an appreciation of his bravery." Mr. Lafever went to Marysville in the fall of 1857 and started thence for Mendocino county, but stopped at Petaluma and Santa Rosa. Later he bought a place at Ukiah in Mendocino county and eventually set out for Colorado, but passed the winter in Merced county, where he fed two hundred and fifty horses and mules, many of which fell sick. He reached Visalia with his stock in August and took his horses to the mountains for the winter. Twice, in Mendo- cino county, thieves tried to deprive him of his land and in 1870, in Potter Valley, H. Griffiths shot him through the left lung and left hand and wrist, almost destroying his left arm.
In 1873 Mr. Lafever bought land near Kings river in Fresno county, to which he added by later purchases until he had more than a township of unsurveyed land, including Pine Flat, a quarter of a township, which he presented to his only child, Henry C. Lafever. "When the fence law was passed," narrates the writer already re- ferred to, "he experienced serious trouble with his land, for grabbers resorted to every device to deprive him of it, even waylaying and killing his son, November 17, 1882. During the trial following this brutal murder Mr. Lafever killed Zeh Lesley in the court yard at Fresno, the outlaw being at the bottom of the difficulties over the land
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and the killing of his son. The outlaw was surrounded by forty-eight of his gang. Through the prevalence of injustice Mr. Lafever lost his cattle and land and practically everything that he had in the world." Mr. and Mrs. Lafever had at different times narrow escapes from Indians.
In November, 1885, Mr. Lafever bought forty acres outside the borders of Visalia, where he raised cattle, horses and hogs until 1893, when he moved to his home within the city limits at No. 409 Watson avenue. His house and all its contents were burned May 29, 1904, cansing a loss of more than $7,000, only $2,200 of which was covered by insurance. He passed away at his home October 6, 1912. His estate consists of two ranches near Visalia upon which hog raising is carried on extensively.
March 19, 1852, at Marysville, Cal., Mr. Lafever married Cath- erine Trullinger, a native of Baden, Germany, who came to California in 1850. The tragic death of their only son saddened the lives of both. Mrs. Lafever passed away in May, 1908. A Democrat in politics, Mr. Lafever was formerly a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, and was a veteran of the Mexican war, having served as commander of his division, and a member of the California Society of Pioneers. Few residents of Tulare county witnessed so much of its development as did Mr. Lafever, and there are few men remaining in California today who look back on careers as perilous and as full of vicissitudes as was his during the earlier years of his citizenship here.
RICHARD POWERS
Of the sons of Illinois who have come to California and made a snecess of their undertakings mention belongs to Richard Powers. He was born in the Prairie State, June 24, 1847, and came to California when he was twenty-one years old with his brother John, settling in San Joaquin county, where for thirteen years he was engaged in stock and grain farming. Then he went to Merced county and farmed near Minturn for ten years, after which he moved to Butte county and carried on farming near Chico for three years. Subsequently he engaged in railroad work for two years with headquarters at Redding. It was in 1884 that he came to Tulare county, and in 1891 he located in Porterville, devoting himself with ability and energy to the stock business. His specialty was the raising of draft horses and roadsters. which he exhibited at the different fairs and he secured many premiums for his draft horses. At the time he came to Porterville it was a mere hamlet of but few honses, and his was the first residence to be erected off Main street. Ile has seen the settlement grow to its
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present importance and has witnessed and participated in the mar- velous development of the country round about.
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