Kings County
Biographies
GEORGE T. FARMER
Born at Hamburg, Fremont county, Ia., January 14, 1859, George T. Farmer was a son of John M. and Martha J. (Utterback) Farmer. Attending school until he was sixteen he then came to California, arriving in what is now Kings county, on March 11, 1875. On April 17, following, he was employed in the construction of the People's ditch, but a little later he was heading grain on the present site of Lemoore, and in the fall of that year he was hauling lumber. Later, in association with his uncle, William T. Farmer, he was raising wheat and buying hogs, and their first harvest was the grain produced on one hundred and sixty acres of land, situated one and a half miles south of his present home. In the fall of 1879 he married and removed with his bride to Iowa, but came back to Kings county in 1880, and in the fall of 1881 moved to Yolo county, where he worked on road construction. He later came to Kings, then Tulare county, and in 1888 went to Siskiyou, where he served as justice of the peace of Lake township. It was in 1891 that he moved to his present locality, and in 1896 moved to his present ranch, which he bought January 19, 1903. He has been very successful here and is now extensively engaged in stock-raising and dairying, giving attention to thoroughbred cattle, including Guernsey dairy cattle, and is considered one of the leading breeders of his class in the county.
Fraternally Mr. Farmer affiliates with the Sons of Veterans and the Woodmen of the World. Taking a public-spirited interest in affairs of the community, he has filled several local offices. For eight years he was deputy assessor of Kings county, and for seventeen years he has been a school trustee, including seven years as trustee of the Hanford high school, during two years of which he was president of the school board. He has served also as his party representative in the county central committee of Tulare and Kings counties.
On November 11, 1879, Mr. Farmer married Miss Gertrude Ruggles, a native of Woodland, Yolo county, born September 13, 1858, one of the first white girls born in that county, and a daughter of Lyman B. and Martha Ann (Dexter) Ruggles. They have eight children: Leta, who married Dr. Cothran, of San Jose; Milton T., who is at Berkeley; Lyman D., who is now filling the office of sheriff of Kings county; Ethel, a teacher in the Hanford grammar school; Theodore, who is on the home farm, and Clarence and Paul, who are in the high school, and Lucile, in the grammar school.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 586-587
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JAMES MUNROE BLAKELEY
Indiana has sent to California many men and women who have won honored place in the citizenship of the Golden State. Among those who have lived and prospered in the vicinity of Hanford, Kings county, mention should be made of James Munroe Blakeley. Mr. Blakeley was born in 1837 and was reared and educated in his native state. In 1857, when he was about twenty years old, he settled in Iowa, where he farmed successfully for a quarter of a century. He married there, in 1861, Miss Mary A. Thomas, like himself a native of Indiana, who had gone to Iowa with her parents, and they have had eight children: Eva married Harvey Burns; Olive May was the wife of H. Clawson; A. W. lives at Riverside; Frank is a citizen of Lemoore; Arthur E. is well known in Kings county ; Mary is the wife of David Porter of Hanford; Grace, who is Mrs. Charles Moss, lives in Kings county, and Bessie married John Bowden and lives in Philadelphia, Pa.
In 1882 Mr. Blakeley came with his family from Iowa to Grangeville, Tulare county, Cal. During the first two years of his residence here he farmed leased land, but eventually he bought land on the lake. He sold that property soon, however, and bought a farm on the Mussel slough, and there farmed for some years, then selling the place in order to buy another near Armona. In 1904 he secured by a trade five acres of land adjoining the northwest corner of the city of Hanford, which he has developed into a profitable orchard and which has since provided him an attractive home. As a farmer Mr. Blakeley has been successful within the limits of his operations, and as a citizen he has shown a public spirit which has won him the regard of all who know him. He is especially interested in education, and wherever he has lived he has done his utmost for the advancement of the schools in his vicinity.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 588-589
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler