Kings County
Biographies
JOHN WHITMORE DOCKSTADER
A splendid example of the self-made, self-reliant man, who from early boyhood has earned his own livelihood, is John Whitmore Dockstader, now prominent as a business man and an official at Lemoore, Kings county. He was born in Montgomery county, N. Y., November 23, 1870, but was reared in Missouri, where he had been taken by his parents when a small boy. When he was fourteen years old he found himself obliged to earn his way and going to Nebraska he worked there for about a year and then went to Barton county, Mo., remaining there three years. At this time he had reached his nineteenth year and he decided to come to California and in 1889 he stopped at Tulare where he remained twelve months and later engaged at farming near Porterville for two or three years. For the next five years he conducted a store and bakery at Porterville, but gave that up and during the ensuing four years he was in the barber business at San Francisco, whence he came to Lemoore in 1899 to open a barber shop, which he conducted until he became a partner in the grocery business of L. S. Stepp. After four years he disposed of his interest in the grocery business to Stepp and bought back his barber shop, which he operated a year. In 1903 he bought the draying business of Mrs. Thomas Winsett at Lemoore, in which his brother, Hiram Dockstader, soon acquired a half interest. Besides doing a general draying and moving business they handle ice in large quantities, distributing it throughout the city. Their enterprise requires the use of four wagons and teams, besides a big Packard motor truck which was the first brought to Kings county.
In 1899 Mr. Dockstader bought eighty acres of land three miles south of Lemoore on which he raises stock and alfalfa. He has also an eighty-acre dairy ranch, mostly under alfalfa, and milks fifty cows. This land he rents on a cash basis, as he does also forty acres, nine miles south, for farming purposes. He has found time from his business to devote to the public welfare, and in 1909 accepted appointment as city trustee of Lemoore, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of that office by his old grocery partner, L. S. Stepp; at the expiration of the term he was elected to the same office for the ensuing term. In 1908 he was elected a member of the school board of Lemoore. Fraternally he associates with the Circle, and with the Woodmen of the World. In 1894 he married Miss Lulu Kelly, a native of Tulare, and a daughter of H. C. Kelly, who long farmed at Porterville and who now makes his home with his sons. Hiram Dockstader, father of John W., is a member of his son's household. He was born in New York state, married Louada Whitmore, and came to Kings county in 1908. John W. and Lulu (Kelly) Dockstader have two children—Lansford and John W. Dockstader, Jr.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 524-525
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
FRANK BLAKELEY
Among the most active and enterprising citizens of Kings county and a progressive advocate of good roads, is Frank Blakeley of Lemoore, who was born in Iowa, April 22, 1869. In 1882, when he was thirteen years old. he came with his father, James M. Blakeley, to Kings county, where the elder Blakeley farmed near Grangeville, then moving on land five and a half miles southeast of Lemoore, the first acreage he purchased in the county. Frank Blakeley lived with his father until 1890, then came to Lemoore and began farming on rented land, but soon began to buy land and finally came to own ten thousand acres in the lake bottom. His policy was to buy and sell as occasion offered and in a general way to improve his holdings, which he did by constructing levees and ditches. He began operating there in 1898 and 1899, and farmed on a large scale, having under cultivation from year to year from one thousand to twenty thousand acres. He has done more ditch and levee work than any one else in that vicinity and he was the first there to use steam machinery, such as traction engines and combined harvesters, sometimes owning and operating five outfits at a time. In 1905 he sowed twelve thousand acres to wheat but lost the entire crop because of rust. In 1906 he sowed twenty-four thousand acres to wheat, twenty thousand of which was his own property, and all the time from September 1 to February 1 was consumed in putting in the seed. Because of flood this crop with the exception of five thousand acres was lost, and since then he has conservatively farmed on a small scale. Meanwhile he has bought and sold land in the lake district and has operated extensively as a contractor, constructing ditches and leveling land.
For ten years Mr. Blakeley has been a city trustee of Lemoore; he has been trustee of Lemoore grammar school, and in 1910 was elected a member of the board of supervisors of Kings county. He is manager of the Lemoore baseball team and during the past four years has ably promoted the sport here and round about. If he has a hobby it is good roads, and since he has been a supervisor all the roads in his district have been greatly improved under his personal supervision, he having repaired twenty miles of road and built ten miles of new road. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen, the Red Men, and the Foresters. On September 22, 1891, he married Miss Clara M. Cadwell, and they have had seven children, one of whom has died. The following are the names of the surviving ones: Ambrose, Ervine, Floyd, Frank, Jr., Melvin and Albert.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 528-529
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler