Kings County
Biographies
SAMUEL WHITSON HALL
The ranching and oil interests of Central California engage the attention of many men of ability and enterprise who succeed here not alone because of the fine natural opportunities presented by the country, but because they would succeed anywhere in any field of endeavor to which they might direct their attention. Of this class is Samuel Whitson Hall, who lives two miles west of Hanford, in Kings county. Mr. Hall was born in Tennessee, April 6, 1865, a son of John Ewell and Eliza Jane (Trigg) Hall. John Ewell Hall was born in Tennessee, May 11, 1831, the son of Wilson and Lucy (Ewell) Hall. He was reared on a farm in Bedford county, in that state, was educated in local public schools and farmed there until May 12, 1861, when he died. In 1854 he married Eliza Jane Trigg, daughter of William H. and Mary Ann (Whitson) Trigg, Tennesseeans by birth. Mrs. Hall is now living with her son, Samuel Whitson Hall, of Kings county. She bore her husband twelve children, seven of whom are living, all in the vicinity of Hanford. Mary Priscilla is the wife of J. J. Cortner ; Lucy Virginia married W. T. Holt; Neppie Jane is deceased; William Fergus Hall died November 27, 1912; Louis Edgar Hall and John Ewell Hall are next in order ; George Arthur Hall and James Leroy Hall are deceased; Annie died in Tennessee; Finis Trigg Hall and Robert Vance Hall complete the family.
The immediate subject of this sketch, Samuel Whitson Hall, was reared on the old Hall homestead in Central Tennessee and came from there direct to Hanford in 1897. He bought land south of Hanford which remained his home until selling out in December, 1912. It consisted of eighty acres, fifty acres of which were devoted to vineyard, twenty-five to fruit trees. After he took possession he improved the place in many ways, setting out twenty acres of vines and eight acres of prunes and peaches. He bought forty acres of alfalfa land, half a mile west of the Hanford fair grounds, which he is farming to hay, but which he intends soon to set out to orchard. On this last property, where he is now residing, he has erected a fine modern home.
Not only farming but oil operations and other interests demand Mr. Hall's attention and abilities. He has been for some time identified with the oil industry in the Midway field in Kern county and is a stockholder in the Visalia Midway Company, which has three good producing wells on eighty acres of its own land, and also in the Lacey Oil Company, which owns two sections of land in. the Devil's Den country. As a public spirited citizen he is in the forefront of all movements for the general good. In local and national politics he takes an interest at once intelligent and patriotic. At his old home in Tennessee he was made a Mason and advanced to all degrees below those conferred in the Royal Arch body. He was raised to the Knights Templar degree at Hanford and is a member of Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of San Francisco.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 671-672
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ELERY H. CHURCH
Nine miles south of Hanford, in Kings county, Cal., is the well appointed dairy farm of Elery H. Church, one of the most progressive and successful men in his line in that vicinity. Mr. Church is a Californian by right of birth, having been born in San Joaquin county August 7, 1875, a son of Caryl Church. When the son was yet quite young the father moved his family to Tulare county, and there Elery grew to manhood and gained an education in the public schools, meanwhile acquiring a pretty thorough training in farming on his father's ranch and under his father's careful instruction. His first venture for himself was on six hundred and forty acres of his father's land, and the following year he farmed eight hundred acres in the lake district. Thus far his success had been but indifferent. His next move was to his present homestead, which then consisted of one hundred acres, half of which he devoted to alfalfa, the remainder to general farming. In 1908 he bought eighty acres of farm land adjoining the original home farm on the west, and here his success has been all that he could have desired. His principal business is dairying, and he owns usually about forty cows, milking the year round from twenty to twenty-five, and raises each year as many hogs as he can conveniently feed.
In 1905 Miss Gertrude Brock, of Kings county, became Mr. Church's wife and she has borne him two children, Susan and Clifford. Not only does Mr. Church take rank with the leading farmers and dairymen in his part of the county, but as a citizen he has shown a patriotic devotion to the general good which has commended him to the good opinion of all who know him. Though he is not especially active in public work he fully performs his duty as a citizen, as a voter and otherwise, and has well defined opinions upon all questions of public policy and acts consistently with his party upon every question of political economy which is brought before the people.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 672
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler