Kings County
Biographies
BLOYD, WINFIELD SCOTT
In Colchester, McDonough county, Ill., Winfield Scott Bloyd, now a prominent business man of Hanford, Kings county, Cal., was born November 18, 1858, son of W. Washington Bloyd, of whom a sketch appears elsewhere in this publication. In 1861 his parents brought him across the plains to California and settled in Tehama county, removing from there to the San Joaquin valley, and in 1871 located in Kings county. Here they made their home until after the Mussel Slough fight, when they turned their faces toward the Northwest and for a year and a half resided in Oregon. Then they returned to California and bought a ranch at Summit Lake, in Fresno county, which they operated two years and sold out, in 1892 coming to Grangeville, Kings county, where they began raising fruit.
In 1905 Mr. Bloyd came from the ranch to Hanford, and he has since made his home in that city. For three years he bought and sold hay and he and his brother Levi are now contractors of cement work, doing an increasing volume of business, which requires the investment of considerable capital and the employment from time to time of a number of skilled workmen. In different parts of the city are to be seen evidences of their handicraft and enterprise.
Mr. Bloyd affiliates with the Fraternal Aid and the Woodmen of the World. As a citizen he is public-spirited and helpful to all the interests of the community and in political principle is Republican. In 1881 he married Miss Louisa Samuels, a native of California, who died in 1900. In 1902 he married Mrs. E. Eddy. He has two daughters, Mrs. John Bassett and Miss Ruby Bloyd.
SOURCE: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 382, 383
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn
THAYER, WILLIAM HENRY
That old and reliable dairyman, William Henry Thayer, of Corcoran, Kings county, Cal., is a native of Dunkirk, Chautauqua county, N. Y., and was born November 15, 1834. He was brought up to farming and to country work of various kinds and educated in such public schools as were available to him in his childhood and boyhood. He came to California in 1863, and engaged in farming and the breeding of horses, cattle and hogs, a business which he has since made his life work. From time to time as his means has permitted he has bought tracts of land, his first venture in the acquirement of land in Kings county being in 1881, when he took up three hundred and twenty acres in the Dallas district, as swamp and overflow lands, and this he has successfully reclaimed. In the dyking of this land Mr. Thayer found the skeletons of several human beings, evidently the remains of deceased warriors who had engaged the Mexicans. On Mill creek, in Tulare county, he also acquired a hundred and sixty acres, which he has deeded to his children, and later in 1900 he bought the one hundred and sixty acre tract on which he now lives, situated one mile east of Corcoran. He operates three hundred and twenty acres which is included in his dairy plant. His homestead is a fine large property, with good buildings of all kinds, including a residence which has many modern improvements. His cattle are of good breeds, as fine specimens can be produced, and he has become known in his market for the excellence and purity of his products, which find ready sale wherever they have been introduced.
By his marriage, which was celebrated April 18, 1877, Mr. Thayer identified his fortunes with those of Miss Sarah M. Austin, who was born at Sacramento, Cal., March 27, 1863. Mrs. Thayer has borne her husband the following children, who will be found here in the order of their nativity: Arthur Y., Enos E., Lillie, Henry, Jennie, Cora, Clarence, Mabel and Lester.
Of progressive ideas and patriotic impulses, Mr. Thayer is a model citizen, who performs his whole duty as such in society and at the polls. While he is not an active politician in the ordinary sense of the phrase, he takes a lively and helpful interest in all questions of public policy and has never been known to withhold his encouragement from any measure which in his opinion has promised to bring better things to the lives of any considerable number of his fellow citizens.
SOURCE: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 383, 384
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn