Fresno County Biographies

W. J. DEATER

Submitted by Craig A Hahn

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W. J. DEATER, of Madera, Fresno County, was born in La Grange County, Indiana, 
June 29, 1854, a son of John and Nancy J. (Leighter) Deater, who reared a family 
of five children, our subject being the only one living in California. His 
father died February 21, 1861, and his mother is still living in Warren County, 
Illinois, at the age of sixty-four years. Young Deater was only permitted the 
advantages of the common schools, and at the age of nineteen years began farming 
with his brother, N. C. Deater, upon a farm of 200 acres in Warren County, 
Illinois. He followed farming until 1888, and then took up mercantile life at 
Ellison, where he started a general merchandise store, which he later moved to 
Smithshire, on the line of the Santa Fe railroad, then a new town, which Mr. 
Deater materially aided in building. He was also appointed Postmaster under the 
administration of President Cleveland, and proved a careful and efficient 
officer. Mr. Deater carried a fine stock of goods and did an extensive business, 
but through too great expansion met with reverses, and in 1889 resigned from his 
public office and sold out his business. He came to Madera in February, 1890, 
and first found employment as bookkeeper and salesman for Fred Barcroft, and 
January 1, 1891, took the general agency for the Howard & Wilson colony tract of 
23,000 acres, which was just opened to the public.
 	Mr. Deater was married in Roseville, Illinois, in 1880, to Miss Mary E. 
Brown, and they have two children,--Mabel M. and Gertrude, who though bringing 
cares brought great brightness into the family. Mr. Deater was a charter member 
of Smithshire Camp of Modern Woodman of America, at Smithshire, Illinois. 
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, California
Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892 p. 544