Tulare County
Biographies
A. N. ASHLEY
A man destined to strange experiences, much arduous travel and somewhat notable vicissitudes of fortune was A. N. Ashley, who first saw the light of day in Placer county, Cal., in 1864. There he was reared and attended school more or less until he was seventeen years old, when he went to work in the mines near his home. From there he went to Santa Clara county, in 1883, and was during most of the time until 1889 engaged in the mercantile business. Then selling out he went up into Washington and Oregon, where he mined about ten years, until after the gold strike there took him to Nome, Alaska. He was in Nome from 1900 till in 1905, when he came back to California to visit his parents, and took up eighty acres of fine land in Tulare county, with the determination to go back to Nome and dig out the money with which to pay for it. There he worked in 1907 and 1908. In 1910 he returned to California to take his place in hand and soon afterwards purchased twenty acres more with a view to devoting it to the growth of olives.
John T. Ashley, father of A. N., came across the plains to California by way of Salt Lake and was in his clay a pioneer in the place of his location. Whether his forefathers had been navigators or explorers is not known, but it is certain that he had inherited blood of men who were explorers and carried civilization among strange peoples, and it is equally certain that he passed some of it down to his son who, when he penetrated far into the northern gold regions and remained there year after year doggedly working to carry out a fixed purpose, had experiences which could they be given in full would in themselves constitute a most interesting volume. A. N. Ashley affiliates with the Arctic Brotherhood and with the Native Sons of the Golden West.
In 1905 Mr. Ashley married Miss Lizzie Firzlaff, who has proven a helpful companion to him and enjoys with him the pleasure of having one of the most beautiful homes in the valley. He is a man of public spirit, who has in many different ways evidenced his interest in the community.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 687-688
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
M. P. BRAZILL
The Portuguese farmer in California has set an example well worthy of emulation by those who are obliged to begin small and are ambitious to achieve success and prominence. One such at Tulare, Tulare county, Cal., is M. P. Brazill, a native of the Azores, born December 9, 1871. He was eighteen years old, in 1890, when he came to Tulare county and went into the sheep business, ranging his flock through the San Joaquin valley and into the Sierra Nevadas. In a few years he owned eight thousand sheep and he continued in the business until 1904, when he sold it out in order to give his attention to an up-to-date ranch about a mile from the business center of Tulare, which he had bought in 1901. He owns eighty acres all in alfalfa and is raising hogs, but his principal business is dairying. He milks seventy-three cows and sells their milk and other products in the city. In addition to the eighty acres which he owns he rents one hundred and eighty, thus making a dairy ranch of two hundred and sixty acres. As a dairyman he has won success beyond that of many others in central California. As a citizen he is popular because of his friendly disposition and of the real interest in the community which has commanded the exercise of a commendable public spirit. Fraternally he affiliates with the W. O. W., the U. P. E. C. and the I. D. E. S., which are among the numerous orders having local organizations at Tulare.
In 1899 Mr. Brazill married Miss Emma Hoskins of Tulare, who bore him two children and died in 1902. His present wife, whom he married in 1904, was Miss Mary Vierra, of Oakland, Cal., and by this marriage he has four children. The six children are here named in the order of their nativity: Emma, Louisa, Lee, Angelina, Josephine and Ernest.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 689
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler