Tulare County
Biographies
JOHN BACON
A native of Pennsylvania, John Bacon went to the old frontier in Ohio when he was a small child. Thence he later emigrated to Missouri, and from Missouri he crossed the plains with ox-teams, in 1859, and made his way to the mines in Amador county, where he sought gold for a few months. In 1860 he came to Tulare county and engaged in cattle raising. Later he took up government land near Tulare city and still later he owned a ranch east of Visalia, where he lived the closing years of his life and passed away August 18, 1911, aged eighty-nine years. He married Margaret Hall, a native of Canada, and she bore him six children. Catherine, who was the third in order of birth of the family, became the wife of B. S. Velie in 1901. He is a native of New York state, who came to California in 1892 and went into the insurance business at Tulare. He came to Visalia in 1904 and established an insurance and real estate business here, which he manages while looking after his twenty-acre ranch on East Mineral King avenue, ten acres of which is producing peaches. Mrs. Velie has an old chest, a bed quilt, some german-silver spoons and other valuable articles which her father brought across the plains with him and which she prizes highly. The members of the family in order of birth are: Mrs. George W. Dailey ; James ; Mrs. B. S. Velie ; Alexander ; Mrs. Levi Mathewson; Mrs. G. B. Ralph, and Mrs. A. J. Teague. All are residents of Tulare county with the exception of Mrs. G. B. Ralph, who resides in Stockton, Cal.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
Pp 839-840
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
WILLIAM FINDLEY
On the Siberian river, Texas, William Findley was born February 22, Washington's Birthday, 1851. When he was six years old his parents, John and Sarah J. (Masters) Findley, natives respectively of Missouri and Texas, brought him across the plains to California. The family was included in a party which came with ox-teams and had frequent trouble with Indians on the way. The savages often attempted to stampede or run off their cattle, and even when they were driven away they managed to kill the animals. At times the emigrants, under protection of wagon stockades, fought long battles with their red-skinned foes, whose flintlock guns laid many a white man low. Ten of the party were killed by the Indians and Mr. Findley's sister Martha died on the way out. The family came to Hackby Ford in 1858 and started in the cattle business, locating in Tulare later in that year. In August, 1871, the grandfather, John Findley, who was the owner of two square miles of land in Drum Valley, was called to the door of his house by robbers, who demanded his money, evidently believing that he had considerable of it on hand. His wife died in 1900.
About 1907 William Findley located on his present homestead, where he has one hundred and thirty-three acres of grain and pasture land, a garden and about two thousand cords of wood in the tree. He keeps forty-five to fifty head of cattle and about half as many hogs. The elder Findley and his son are Democrats and their fellow citizens recognize them as men of public spirit.
February 22, 1868, his birthday, Mr. Findley married, in the Sand Creek neighborhood, Miss Ellen Woodey, who has borne him ten children. John M. married Martha Dean and has four children, Blanche, Cecil, Gerald, and Inez. William J. married Mrs. Ida Strong, a daughter of Stephen Gaster, at one time treasurer of Fresno county. Ivan married Susan Collier and their children are Aaron, Byron and Myrtle. Lee married Minnie Robinson and their children are Earl, Oswald and
Melba. Martha married John Dean and is the mother of the following children, Carroll, Maud and Cleo. Callie A. married Levi Dean and their children are Gilbert and Forest. Mary married Fred Kiner and their children are Clare E., Elsie, Harold and Denzelle. Ira, unmarried, resides with William J. Findley. Myrtle is single and lives with her mother at Dinuba. Daisy married Daniel Tullie and resides at Orosi.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
Pp 840-841
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler