Kings County
Biographies
LEWIS BRUCE
The science of osteopathy has made a place for itself among recognized curative agencies, and the practitioner of osteopathy is entrenched as firmly in the good opinion of the general public as are the regular practitioners of medicine and surgery. A leader in its field in Kings county, Cal., is Lewis Bruce, whose office is in the Sharples building in Hanford. A native of Cass county, Iowa, born December 5, 1878, he received his elementary education in public schools near the home of his youth. In 1899, just before he became of age, he entered the Dr. S. S. Still College of Osteopathy, at Des Moines, Iowa, where he was graduated in 1902, and during the vacation which followed he took special courses in orificial surgery and gynaecology. He began the practice of his profession at Greenfield, Iowa, in February, 1902; and in June, 1903, came to Hanford, where he has devoted himself to general practice with much success, specializing in chronic diseases.
As a business man the subject of this notice is coming to the front in different ways. He is a director of the Lindsay National Bank at Lindsay, Tulare county, and owns an interest in a citrus nursery near Riverside, Riverside county, on which are thirty thousand trees. For a time he was engaged in raising racing horses of good blood and capabilities. He owned Beauty N. (trotting record, 2:23), also Sir Valentine, a three-year-old colt which in 1911 took the first premium as a two-year-old and holds the championship over all other standard-bred stallions of any age. Dr. Bruce was one of the incorporators in 1912 of the Blue Ribbon Manufacturing Company, with $100,000 capital, to be located in Hanford ; the principal article for manufacture will be the Blue Ribbon pump.
By his marriage with Olive L. Peterson, of Iowa, in 1903, Dr. Bruce has a daughter, LaVerne Gloria. As a private citizen he takes a deep and abiding interest in all that pertains to the advancement of his city, county and state, and he has often manifested a public spirit responsive to all reasonable demands upon it.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 654
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ELIAS T. COSPER
Indiana has given to California many popular and successful men, among them the prominent lawyer and man of public affairs whose name is above. It was in Noble county, that state, that Elias T. Cosper was born, May 12, 1849. He was educated in public schools in his native county and at the LaGrange Collegiate Institute at Ontario, LaGrange county, Ind., having been graduated from the lastnamed institution about 1870. For a time thereafter he taught school in Indiana, Ohio and Iowa, and so successful was he in this calling that he was made superintendent of the school at Lima, Ind. By this time his reputation was so well established that his services were sought as superintendent of the schools of LaGrange county, in which office he served two terms with efficiency and honor. Meanwhile he had determined to become a lawyer and was already well read in the principles of the profession. Finishing his law studies under the preceptorship of J. D. Ferrall of LaGrange, he was admitted to the bar of Indiana in 1878. After eight years' successful practice there lie located in Tulare, Cal., in 1886, opening an office, afterwards associating J. F. Boller with him as partner, and this relationship continued four years. He was elected to represent his district in the thirty-third session of the California legislative assembly, in which, as well as in the special session in which the Hon. Thomas Bard was elected United States senator, he served with distinguished ability and credit. Meanwhile he had moved from Tulare to Hanford, where, after the expiration of his legislative service, he formed a law partnership with H. P. Brown, which existed two years, since when he has been in independent practice with offices located in the Emporium building. From the time of his settlement at Tulare he was prominent in Republican politics and eventually was made chairman of the county Republican central committee, an office which he filled for several years while acting as a member of important committees of that body.
As a lawyer Mr. Cosper has had to do with a large number of important eases. His defense of Ike Daly, the murderer, is a matter of record as well as of history. He also appeared in the defense of Frank Smith and of Ward, the burglar, and bore a conspicuous part in the water cases of Lovelace versus the Empire Insurance Company and the C. A. Reagan and Patrick Talent will contests.
In 1884 Mr. Cosper married Miss Sarah Moore, at LaGrange, Ind. Their son, Volney B., of San Francisco, is superintendent of the Sartorious Structural Steel and Iron Company's works. Their daughter, Laura M., is the wife of H. L. Bradley of San Antonio, Tex. Mr. Cosper became a Mason at LaGrange, Ind., and is a member of Hanford Lodge No. 279, F. & A. M. It was at LaGrange, too, that he became an Odd Fellow. Here he affiliates with Hanford Lodge No. 264 and with Encampment No. 68, and with Truth Rebekah Degree Lodge No. 326. Court Reges of the Independent Order of Foresters includes him in its membership. His interests in the advancement and development of Hanford early made him a promoter of the Chamber of Commerce idea for the town and he is a member of the present local body, as he was also of earlier organizations of similar aims. As a communicant of the Episcopal church he has at heart the various interests of the local organization and has for some time been an active member of its vestry.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 654-655
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler