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 80
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 80
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Melba. Martha married John Dean and is the mother of the following children, Carroll, Mand and Cleo. Callie A. married Levi Dean and their children are Gilbert and Forest. Mary married Fred Kiner and their children are Clare E., Elsie, Harold and Denzelle. Ira, unmar- ried, resides with William J. Findley. Myrtle is single and lives with her mother at Dinnba. Daisy married Daniel Tullie and resides at Orosi.
CALVIN H. ANTRIM
A respected and well-known citizen of Tulare county, now living retired from active cares in Orosi, is Calvin H. Antrim, whose career has been indicative of energy, thrift and perseverance. Born in Clin- ton, Ohio, April 12, 1827, he was a son of Hiram and Sarah (Whitson) Antrim, natives respectively of Virginia and Pennsylvania and who were the parents of a family of nine children. Receiving his educa- tion in the common schools of his locality, Calvin H. Antrim early learned the carpenter's trade, being quite proficient when he was but fourteen years old, and until 1895 that was his chief occupation. He left Ohio in March, 1866, going to Lewis county, Mo., where he pur- chased one hundred and twenty acres of land, on which he lived for eleven years with his sons, and followed farming. In November, 1877, he went to Lee county, Iowa, where he farmed and raised stock in partnership with Dr. Todd until he give it up on account of poor health. In October, 1889, he decided to come to Tulare county, Cal., to recuperate, and buying seven town lots in Orosi he erected a residence on one which he sold in the fall of 1912 for hotel purposes. For thir- teen years he ran the stage between Orosi and Cutler, carrying pas- sengers, mail, freight and express, but since then he has lived in prac- tical retirement, enjoying the well-earned rest from active life.
On February 6, 1851, Mr. Antrim was married to Nancy Jane Cohagen, a native of Greene county, Ohio, born October 20, 1833, and children as follows were born to them: Iliram, A. Ellen, Luella, Lin- coln, Elmer, Susan H., Ira, Ida, Elbert, Cora, John W., and Lillian. Hiram, now deceased, married Belle Furtney and had five children. Luella married Andy Langwith and they were the parents of two chil- dren. Lincoln married Ida Smith, a native of Iowa, and they have two children. Susan HI. married W. D. George. Elbert married Anna Powell and has two children. John W. married Dora Lovelace and they have one child. Lillian is the wife of Ed Combs. The others have all passed away, and the mother's death occurred November 19. 1908, at the age of seventy-four years.
In 1862 Mr. Antrim became a member of that famous military
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organization known to history as the Squirrel Hunters and partiei- pated in the operations involving Morgan's raid into the North. He was honorably discharged from the service March 4, 1863. In politics he is Republican, and as a citizen he has always been public-spirited and helpful.
FRANCIS M. MAYES
A native of MeDonald county, Missouri, Franeis M. Mayes is a son of natives of that state and his parents were Richard and Elizabeth (Moffett) Mayes. He was born November 30, 1845, and came overland to California with his father with ox-teams when he was about twelve years old. The party, under direction of Captain Pogue, left their old homes in April, 1857. and consumed about the nsnal tiive in making the trip. There were abont thirty wagons in the train and enough oxen for convenient relief. The party came by the North Platte, the Hnd- son Cntoff, the Honey Lake route, and thence by way of Red Bluff. Along the Humboldt river in Nevada the Indians were very trouble- some and they had only a little while before massacred all the mem- bers of a large party of emigrants, appropriating the stock and run- ning the wagons into the river. Only two yoke of oxen were lost to Indians by Captain Pogue's party and they were later recovered. Every preeantion for safety was taken. Eneamping, a stockade was formed and guards were ever on the alert. During the progress of the journey there was some sickness and two children were born to women of the party. After a brief rest at Red Bluff the journey was completed and Mr. Mayes and family went to a point near Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, where he lived from late in 1857 until in 1875. There the mother died in 1858, leaving three sons and four danghters, of which family but three survive. Coming to Tulare county the elder Mayes resided with his son until his death in 1878.
Having come thus to California, Francis M. Mayes gained his edu- cation in publie schools in Sonoma county and learned blacksmithing under his father's instruction. He settled in Antelope Valley in Tulare connty, on one hundred and sixty acres of railroad land which in the course of events he was obliged to relinquish. But he moved his house onto another tract of one hundred and sixty acres in Sand Creek Gap. which he purchased from the Sonthern Pacific Railway Company. Later he came into possession of two hundred and forty acres of railroad land which he improved and on which he lived until in 1897. when he sold it and removed to Orosi, buying property there and going into general blacksmithing. It was as a blacksmith that he bnsied himself during the succeeding eight years. When he first set-
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tled in the Sand Creek Gap there was no townsite nearer than Visalia, all trading and postoffice business having been done at Visalia. Deer, bear, antelope, and other wild game was plentiful and much of the country round about was given over to the feeding of sheep. At the end of the period mentioned he sold out his interests at Orosi and bought forty-four acres on the Dinuba road, where he took up his residence and has since developed a fine home ranch. The land was mostly planted to fruit. He has ten acres of Malaga grapes, fifteen of wine grapes and five of Muscats. Eleven acres are given to peaches, his trees now being about six years old, and he has sixty orange trees, some miscellaneous fruit and several attractive palms. In 1911 he sold for shipment sixty-two tons of Malaga grapes at $28 and $30 a ton, grew ninety-eight tons of wine grapes on fifteen acres, pro- duced ten tons of Zinfandels to the acre, of which he has five acres, sold four and a half tons of dried peaches for ten cents a pound, and received $900 for wine grapes and the same amount for peaches. He keeps horses enough to work his ranch.
Politically Mr. Mayes is a Democrat and for more than twenty years he has filled the office of school trustee. He and members of his family are communicants of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. The lady who became his wife was Miss Mary E. Fandre, a native of Cali- fornia, and she has borne him children as follows: Mattie, deceased, Frances E., Etta and Arthur, deceased, Melvin L., Oscar O. and Edith, deceased (twins), Ella, and Clara. Frances E. became the wife of Victor Franzen, a native of Sweden, and they have two sons and three daughters. Clara married Fred G. Nelson, an Englishman by birth, and they are living in Tulare county and they have two sons and one daughter.
STILES A. MeLAUGHLIN
The MeLaughlin family, to which belongs Stiles A. MeLaughlin, originated in Scotland. His grandfather, John MeLaughlin, lived in Pennsylvania. His father was William Harrison MeLaughlin and was a native of Pennsylvania, where he grew up and learned the trade of carriage maker, later removing to Ohio. Following his trade there for a short time he engaged in merchandising and various other pursnits with varying success. It was in Ashtabula county, Ohio, that Stiles A. was born Jannary 3, 1852. When he was abont ten years okl his parents moved to Pennsylvania, and after a residence there of six years they went to Illinois, where they remained for a like period.
The changes of time brought the younger MeLanghlin to Califor- nia when he was abont twenty-one years old. He worked in Yolo
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county about a year, then came to Lemoore, Kings county, and soon afterward acquired a land claim half a mile south of that town. He relinquished it, however, and bought forty acres, bounded on one side by the city line, which he planted to fruit trees and retained until 1902. when he sold it to advantage. Ile then bought forty acres west of the forty just referred to and eighty acres adjoining this last pur- chase. After having lived there six years, he sold forty acres of the property, retaining the eighty acres, forty of which is in vineyard, and moved to Lemoore. In these various real estate deals he was quite successful, gradually accumulating money and land until he has come to be considered one of the well-to-do men of that part of the county. Ile is a director of the First National Bank of Lemoore and has been in one way or another identified with several interests of importance. His publie spirit impelled him to accept the nomination of his party for membership of the Board of Supervisors of Kings county. He was three times elected and served continuously from November, 1895, to December, 1906.
Local lodges of Free & Accepted Masons, Woodmen of the World and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows include Mr. MeLaughlin in their membership. In 1876 he married Mary Wright, daughter of Samuel Wright, a pioneer of 1868 in Kings county, who made his mark as a farmer and stockman. They have children as follows: Wilmot Wright, of Lemoore; Aimee, wife of Samuel MeCor- kle, of Dinuba ; Mary, who is a clerk in the postoffice at Lemoore; and Elmira, a student in the high school. In April, 1912, Mr. MeLaughlin completed his comfortable brick residence on West D street, which is up-to-date in every respect and adds greatly to the residence dis- triet of Lemoore, being most tasteful and attractive in design and appearance.
The Wright family of which Mrs. MeLaughlin is a member came originally from England and were old Virginia settlers, coming to Ohio in the early part of the nineteenth century. Later they removed to Iowa, whence Mrs. MeLanghlin's parents, Samuel and Amelia A. (Orton) Wright, came overland to California in 1849. Mrs. Wright is of Scotch ancestry and is now making her home at Lemoore, bright and active at the advanced age of eighty-four.
JOHN C. JOHNSON
In the year 1845, on the sixth of January, John C. Johnson was born near Pahnyra, in Marion county, Mo., a son of William Shirley and Ruth ( Risk) Johnson. Ilis mother was one of sixteen children of William Risk, an American officer in the Revolutionary war, whose
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shoe and knee buckles were run into six teaspoons and presented to her, as. she was the youngest daughter in the family, and this custom is ever since followed from generation to generation, the relies de- scending to the youngest daughter. She was a native of Scott county, Ky., but moved to Marion county, Mo., and during her first winter there saw the snow three feet deep on level ground. She was early taught the ways of the housewife and often gave members of her family products of her spinning wheel and of her loom. Mr. Johnson has a bedspread which was woven by his mother from material of her own spinning, much of the work having been done by the light of one of the old style grease lamps. By her marriage with William Shirley Johnson she had a danghter named Elizabeth, who died in infancy, and a son, John C., who is the immediate subject of this review. By her first marriage with James Johnson, a brother of W. S. Mrs. Johnson had five children, of whom Mary A. is living. William R. married Clementine Adams, who bore him three children, and by a second marriage, with Lonisa Dale, he had two daughters. Sarah J. became the wife of William M. Allen and bore him five sons and a daughter. Joseph S. married Rebecca Allen and had five daughters and two sons, all of whom are living in California. James II. married Sarah Shanks, daughter of the Rev. John Shanks, a Christian minis- ter, and has two children. Mary A. married John W. Cason and has three sons and three daughters.
John C. Johnson, who was taken early from Marion county to Lewis county, Mo., has not married. He spent much of his life on the farm his father bought of the United States government at $1.25 an acre, to which John C. added forty acres, making a ranch of four hun- dred and forty acres. His parents had sold their property in Ken- tucky before they came to Missouri. In 1905 and 1906 he sold off the Missouri homestead of the family and in the latter year came to Tulare county. C'al., and bought sixty-two acres, thirty-five of which is under vines, twenty acres devoted to peaches. He raises also some alfalfa which runs about a ton an acre to a cutting. He has taken thirty-five tons of dried peaches from his land in a season, which he considers the banner yield. In national polities Mr. Johnson is a Democrat, but on local issues supports men and measures he considers for the public good. His interest in the general good is deep and abiding and he aids to the extent of his ability any movement pro- posed for the benefit of the community.
WILLIAM MICHAELIS
In a conversation some time since someone said of this man, who lives in the vicinity of Porterville, Tulare county, Cal., " Ile is a great
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booster for Tulare county." This is a homely way of saying very briefly that Mr. Michaelis, though a native of Germany, is loyal to the community with which he has cast his lot and is solieitous for its progress as any native son of the soil could possibly be. He was born Angust 1. 1882, was educated in the Fatherland and patriotically served two years in the German army. Coming to the United States when he was twenty-four years old. he spent his first few years in Cali- fornia in working at the mason's trade. His father and mother came to this county, too; the former passed away some years ago, and the latter is living in Tulare county.
Martha Yolitz, born September 24, 1881, a native of Germany, became Mr. Michaelis's wife in 1906. She has borne him two children, Willie, born January 4, 1908, and Martine, September 18, 1909. Soon after his arrival here Mr. Michaelis bought land, most of which is in grain, but seven acres are planted in pomegranate trees. His achievements, considering his opportunities, are noteworthy, the more so because they are the achievements of a self-made man, who in his day of small things began in a small way and has risen steadily year by year until he ranks with the prosperous men of his community. Politically he is a Republican, interested in all that pertains to the public good. As a citizen he is always generously helpful to all move- ments for the common benefit.
MICHAEL GILLIGAN
A native of Ireland, Michael Gilligan was born November 15. 1830. After he had grown up he came to Canada, where he was em- ployed for a time in railroad work. Eventually, in 1871, he came to California and remained long enough to fall in love with the country, hut went back to Canada and lived there another year before settling here permanently. He located a quarter-section, his brother having located the same amount of land also. All of this land ultimately became his and by later purchase his holdings were increased to ten hundred and twenty acres. The sheep business subsequently engaged his attention, starting with three hundred and seventy-four head, and in time he owned as high as three thousand, but in 1877 he lost all but about seven hundred head. He was compelled to conform to the changes in farming and in stock growing with which the history of Central and Southern California has made every observer and reader familiar, and in time he sold out his sheep interests and gradually paid more and more attention to his land, which he is now handling in a way that makes it very profitable. In 1911 he sold his sheep to his son. who in turn sold them to a Frenchman who rents the Gilligan ranch.
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In 1866 Mr. Gilligan married Nora Broderick, who was born and reared in Canada. Of the ten children born to them six have passed away, the four remaining being John F., Hugh, Michael T. and Nora. The latter married Jesse Riley. Mr. Gilligan is a public-spirited man who does his full share in promotion of the general uplift. His interest in the country in which he has cast his fortunes is all the deeper because his recollection's of it in the days that are gone are those of a pioneer, who came to it when it was practically a wild state, with antelope and other game plentiful and Indians in evidence every- where. At that time there was only one house between his home and Visalia, twenty-five miles.
BARNEY DE LA GRANGE
The great grand-father of Barney De La Grange, of Orosi, Cal., came to America to fight for the independence of the colonies under command of General Lafayette, and hence Mr. De La Grange is a gennine Son of the American Revolution, without the necessity of joining the association of that name. Mr. De La Grange is one of the best known carpenters and orange growers in the district north of Orosi and a leading citizen of Tulare county, and was born in West Virginia April 16, 1858, a son of Omie and Elizabeth (MeLain) De La Grange, respectively of French and Scotch ancestry. There were in his father's family nine children, five of whom were daughters. When Barney De La Grange was thirteen years old his parents moved to Ohio. He has in the course of his life been an extensive traveler in America, having covered the entire country from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes and from ocean to ocean. He married in West Virginia, Ida M. Lewis, a native of Kentucky, but of English par- entage, and she bore him a daughter, Lena Marie, who married George M. Daniels, of Creston, Iowa, and has sons, James B. and Lloyd. Mrs. De La Grange passed away in 1895, in West Virginia.
In his youth Mr. De La Grange learned the trade of carpenter and builder in which he was employed at different times and at differ- ent places. He has recently bought a ranch of twenty aeres north of Orosi and will plant it to navel, Valencia and other varieties of oranges. He has lived in Tulare county since 1909, having come here from Fresno county, where he had located eight years before.
It has been seen that Mr. De La Grange is a descendant of a patriot hero "of the days that tried men's souls." He is the proud owner of a pair of shoe buckles once worn by his great-grandmother when she danced with George Washington at a famous ball in Phila- delphia. Of German silver, of beautiful design and fine workmanship,
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they are exceedingly interesting relies. Omie De La Grange, father of Barney, was a veteran of the war of 1812 and served his country in the Mexican war. Mr. De La Grange's brother William enlisted in Company B, Eleventh Virginia Infantry, April 1, 1862, and served three years in the Civil war. He is now a citizen of Selma. Politi- cally Mr. De La Grange is a Republican and his religions affiliations are with the Methodist church. Fraternally he is identified with the Woodmen.
JOHN B. HOCKETT
The life of the late John B. Hockett, of Porterville, Tulare county. ('al., spanned the period from 1827 to 1898. He was born at Hunts ville, Ala., and died at his California home. From Alabama he moved to Arkansas and in 1849 from there to California. His father, William Hockett, came here with him and they mined for some time on the Tuolumne river. Eventually John B. Hockett went back east and remained over the winter, returning in 1854 and settling in Lagrange, Stanislaus county, where he operated a butcher shop. There in 1859 he married Miss Margaret McGee, a native of Texas, born January 27, 1840, who bore him seven children, all born in Tulare county. where they settled in 1859. At Visalia he engaged in merchandising with Johnson & Jordan, and later with Reinstein & Clapp. In 1864 he came to Porterville. He engaged in the hardware business in Por- terville about 1889, remaining three years, and was interested in the stock business for years.
The parents of Mrs. Hockett made a nine months' journey with ox-teams across the plains to California in 1850, locating for a time at Los Angeles, thence to Santa Barbara, and in 1851 they settled at San Juan. In 1852 they were at Stockton and then settled between the Tuolumme and Stanislaus rivers near Knights Ferry. On the way across the plains the supply of food was exhausted and they were nourished only by eating boiled wheat. As if to add to their troubles. most of their stock died by the way. Mrs. Hockett states that when she first went to the site of Porterville the town, if such it could be called even by courtesy, consisted of one small shack and a tent. She has in her possession the first postoffice furniture ever nsed there, which was brought into requisition some years after she and her hus- hand made their home there. In the early days of the locality there were many Indians near by, and some of them were not pleasant neighbors.
Of the seven children of Mr. and Mrs. Hockett, five are living. Benjamin F. lives near Hot Springs; Robert Lee lives on White river;
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E. Barton is at Portola; Lena became the wife of R. H. Allen and resides at Roseville; and Dora married E. L. Scott, of Porterville. The old family home included land in Porterville now covered by part of the townsite. Mr. Hockett acquired land from time to time until his holdings were very large. His widow still owns five sections of grazing land in Tulare and Kern counties and one city block in Por- terville, where has been the family residence since December, 1864. Mrs. Hockett's recollections of Porterville and vicinity are very inter- esting. It was four years before her arrival that the river changed its course, but she had her experiences and witnessed some exciting scenes at the time of the floods of '67-'68 and '60-'70 when the water covered almost the entire town and people had to go about in boats.
Fraternally Mr. Hockett affiliated with the Masons and was Master of the Visalia lodge, being member also of Royal Arch Chapter: the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He was a busy and helpful man who counted his friends by scores, his business associates by hundreds. His interest in the growth and prosperity of Porterville impelled him to do everything in his power for the welfare of the com- munity. He was instrumental in establishing the first school and the first church there, and served on the school board. Since his death Mrs. Hockett proved up on his homestead and purchased three claims of one hundred and sixty acres each, and has improved them; a well of four Imundred and forty feet depth has been put down. When he passed away he was publically mourned by the people with whom he had lived so long and whom he had helped in so many ways.
WILLIAM SWALL
The life story of William Swall, one of the large landowners of the Visalia district and one of the honored citizens of Tulare county, a model of honesty and enterprise and foremost in all good works, is a most interesting one. Ile was born in LaSalle county, Ill., November 5, 1848, a son of Mathias and Elizabeth ( Hayne) Swall, both natives of Germany, the father born in Berlin, Jannary 24, 1824.
In 1840, Mathias Swall came to America in an old-time sailing vessel and settled in LaSalle county, Ill., where he married April 16. 1847. There he farmed till 1865, in the summer of that year coming to California by way of Panama. He remained that winter on a farm near San Jose, and in the fall of 1866 settled near Tracy, San Joaquin county. His land there he sold in 1871, when he went to Monterey county, and farmed and raised stock until in 1877, when he moved to Ventura county. Thence he went to Sherman, Los Angeles county, late in 1882. Ile farmed and conducted a dairy almost to the time of 49
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his death in May, 1596. His widow still lives at Sherman. In religion Mr. Swall was a Catholic, in politics a Democrat.
First born of his parents' family of two daughters and nine sons, William Swall seenred what education he could in the public school near his Illinois home. Later he attended school in Santa Clara comty, C'al., and was for a term a student at the San Jose Institute. Meantime he had become a practical farmer of wide and accurate knowledge. In 1873 he homesteaded eighty acres of land in Tulare connty and later bought land along the Tule river. In 1884 he moved to his present farm of seventeen hundred acres, known as Deep ('reek Ranch, which as he has improved it is one of the finest properties in the county, and has four hundred acres in peaches, prunes, pears. apples, plums, nectarines and English walnuts. He owns all in all seventeen hundred acres, and his extensive operations necessitate the renting of an additional thousand acres, which he devotes to stock and fruit. As a farmer he has been well-informed and up-to-date in all respects. He employs on his ranch from thirty to fifty men. His dairy has an electric power plant for pumping water, and there is a similar plant for lighting his house and barns. The place is provided with an adequate and convenient water system. It is one of the notable alfalfa farms of the district, having six hundred acres set apart for that crop.
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