Tulare County
Biographies
ADAMS, FRANK C.
The well-known and successful builder whose name is above is a native of Visalia, Tulare county, Cal, born February 28, 1873, son of William J. Adams. He gained his education in the excellent schools of that town and began his business career as an employee of the Seeded Raisin Packing Company of Fresno, Cal. From Fresno he went to Stockton where he learned the carpenter’s trade, at which he worked for three years. Later he was for a time located in Angels’ Camp, Calaveras county, whence he returned to Visalia, and in the fall of 1908 entered the contracting and building business on his own account.
Among the structures which serve to call attention to the skill and enterprise of Mr. Adams are the Charles Berry residence, the A. D. Wilson home, the addition to the E. O. Miller residence, the Simon Levy brick block, the Dr. W. W. Squires residence, the Meyer Iseman residence, the Howard Parish residence, and numerous others of different classes of equal importance at and near Visalia. On January 17, 1911, Mr. Adams formed a partnership with J. H. Johnson in order to give attention particularly to the architectural department of his enterprise, but the firm was dissolved October 26 following, and since that time Mr. Adams has been in sole control of the business which he has built up. Of the buildings erected by Adams and Johnson, the following mentioned, perhaps as conspicuous as any others, are the residences of Tug Wilson, John C. Hayes, Harry Hayes, D. E. Perkins and Ralph Goldstein.
May 1, 1912, marks a very important epoch in Mr. Adams’ career. He then became the builder for the Mt. Whitney Power & Electric Co. of Visalia. His first work was the building of a large brick and iron addition to the steam plant at Visalia, and on June 25, 1912, he began the construction of the Mt. Whitney Power Plant and cottages at No. 3 on the Kaweah river.
In the National Association of American Engineers Mr. Adams holds membership and he affiliates fraternally with Four Creek lodge, No. 94, I. O. O. F. He married October 7, 1894, Miss Mary A. Nichols, a native of Missouri, who has borne him three children, Willard, Merle, and Russell. As a citizen Mr. Adams has commended himself to all who know him as a man of public spirit who has the welfare of the community at heart and is ready at all times to respond promptly and liberally to any call on behalf of the general good.
SOURCE: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 424, 425
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn
COLLINS, WILLIAM W.
The present sheriff of Tulare county is William W. Collins, now serving his third term in that important office. Mr. Collins is a son of Albert O. and Sarah J. (Cochran) Collins, natives of Ohio. In 1862, Albert O. Collins enlisted in Company C, Eighty-fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he served continuously from April that year until the end of the Civil war, rising to the rank of captain. Returning to Ohio he taught school there until the spring of 1866, when he moved to Putnam county, Mo., where he lived until May, 1873, at which time he came to California and located in Bakersfield, Kern county. There he was for a time in the meat trade and later conducted a large ranch until 1887, when he took up his residence in Inyo county and engaged in stock-raising near Bishop. Mrs. Collins passed away in San Francisco in 1910, aged sixty-eight years.
To Albert O. and Sarah J. (Cochran) were born three sons and two daughters: Charles A., sheriff of Inyo county; William W. Collins; John L.; Minnie, widow of W. L. Blythe of Palo Alto, Cal.; and Leora, who is the wife of Bertrand Rhine of Bishop, Cal.
William W. Collins was born on the old Collins homestead, near Coshocton, Ohio, June 23, 1865, and was eight years old when his father removed to California. He was educated in the public schools of Kern county, at the Visalia Normal school and at the California State Normal school at Los Angeles. After his graduation he assisted his father for a time in the latter’s cattle business. In 1889 he entered business life for himself as a wheat grower and as the proprietor of a livery stable at Tulare, and in 1895 began buying wheat in Tulare and Kern counties for the Farmers’ Union Milling Co. of Stockton. The next year he accepted a position with J. Goldman & Co. of Tulare as foreman, in charge of their hands, orchards and stock. He has recently set out, at Lemon Cove, a forty-acre orange grove.
In Republican politics Mr. Collins has long been locally prominent, and in 1902 he was elected sheriff of Tulare county. He has been twice re-elected, and now, in his third term, is one of the most popular sheriffs the people of the county have ever known. A man of such public spirit, he has been helpfully identified with many important home interests, and has in all things devoted himself, heart and soul, to the welfare of the community. Fraternally he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the local lodge and encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in the last mentioned order he has been elected to different offices of importance. Sharing with him in the esteem of the people of Visalia is Mrs. Collins, a native daughter of Inyo county, who was formerly Miss Louise Clarke. She has borne him three daughters—Hazel, Vera and Blanche.
SOURCE: History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913 Pp 425, 426
Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn