Kings County
Biographies
EDWIN H. HOWE
One of the many native Californians who has made a success of stock-raising and farming in the country round about Hanford, Kings county, Cal., is the son of Tulare county mentioned above. Edwin H. Howe is the son of Frank E. Howe, and was born April 14, 1879. He was reared to manhood in the Lakeside district, now in Kings county, and educated in public schools near his home. Associated in a business way with his brother, Albert P. Howe, and their father, he farmed in the Lake bottoms from 1898 until 1906, when the filling up of the old lake bed brought an end to their enterprise. They had been successful there, however, and Mr. Howe and his brother bought from their father the one hundred and sixty-acre ranch, nine miles southwest of Hanford, which is now the home of the former. In 1906 he bought his brother's interest in the place, and since then he has bought from the Walker estate one hundred and sixty acres adjoining the homestead ranch on the north, in the west one-half of section thirty-four, ranges nineteen and twenty-one. He devotes his energies and his capital to the raising of horses, mules and hogs; at least that is his principal business, though he does general farming and has seventy-five acres in alfalfa. Formerly he gave attention to dairying, but he is converting his land to an alfalfa ranch as rapidly as is expedient. All of the improvements on his homestead, including house, barns and fences, he has made since he bought the place. He obtains water for irrigation from the Last Chance ditch and the People's ditch and has on his place a well for his stock and domestic use. He is operating rented land also, notably one hundred and sixty acres west of him, which belongs to his father, and eighty acres still further west, growing grain and alfalfa on both tracts.
In February, 1905, Mr. Howe married Maud Burr, daughter of Walter Burr, and she has borne him three children: Edwin Orval, Lucile and Herbert L., who died in infancy. Mr. Howe's success in life has been won by his own effort and, as has been seen, not without his having to make the best of serious discouragements. The optimism which has borne him up in his business struggles thus far gives him hope for the future, not a little of which is based on his belief in the destiny of Hanford and its tributary territory, for the up-building of which he is ready at any time to give public-spirited aid.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 532-533
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
GEORGE WARNER CODY
Near Pontiac, Mich., George Warner Cody was born January 31, 1842. When he was seven years old he was taken to Wisconsin, on the removal of his parents to that state. From there they went to Nebraska, where he lived until 1874, except during the term of his military service, variously employed in milling, merchandising, farming and other useful work. In 1861, at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., he enlisted in Company H, Eighth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry, and his recollections of the Civil war, in which he was in fifteen general engagements and many skirmishes, includes scenes at Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga and a number of Confederate prisons. After his capture at Chickamauga he was confined at Ringgold, then in the bull pen at Atlanta, then in Libby prison, then at Pemberton, then at Danville, then at Andersonville, then at Charleston, then at Florence. He escaped from Andersonville and was recaptured while attempting to cross Flint River. His experiences at Florence were terminated by his exchange. He was one of six out of one hundred who were liberated, the others being kept until the end of the war. After his exchange he was sent to Annapolis, Md., where he was paroled and forwarded to Fort Leavenworth.
After Mr. Cody was discharged at Fort Leavenworth he returned to Nebraska, where he was warmly welcomed after his fifteen months' incarceration in Confederate prison pens, and took up farming. Later he operated a grist mill and sold goods until 1874, when he came to Tulare county and located near Armona. He bought one hundred and sixty acres of land south of Hanford and one hundred and sixty acres two miles south of Lemoore and farmed tracts of rented land aggregating seventeen hundred acres. From 1874 to 1881 he raised grain and broom corn, then sold his property and for the next five years lived at Los Angeles. Next we find him located near Santa Ana, where he planted twenty-seven acres to walnut trees and fifteen acres to raisins. Coming to Kings county, he bought thirty-four acres northwest of Hanford, a part of which was unimproved, and now has seven acres in vineyard and twenty-five acres in peaches and apricots. His property is improved with a good house and adequate outbuildings which he erected after it came into his possession. He was one of the organizers of the Last Chance Ditch Company and helped to construct its improvements, and he was identified also, in the period 1874-1881, with the promotion of the People's Ditch and the Lower Kings River Ditch.
In 1866 Mr. Cody married Mary M. Gray and they have had five children: Thorley G., Harvey P., Rinney, deceased, Andrew Milo and Terrill, deceased. It is probable that no part of his life will always be as fresh in Mr. Cody's memory as that part of it which he passed in Confederate prisons. He considers himself fortunate in having come out of that experience alive. "Clara Barton told me," he says, "that she put up thirteen thousand gravestones at Andersonville and one stone for the graves of two thousand unnamed soldiers. There were seven thousand deaths in Florence prison and there is no record of those who died in the other prisons that I was in."
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 536-537
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler