Tulare County
Biographies
WEBSTER R. BAILEY
Webster R. Bailey, of Visalia, California, is a native of the Hoosier state. He was born in Peru, Indiana, February 3, 1888, and attended the public schools of that city until he graduated from high school in 1905, when he left for California. In 1906 he arrived in Long Beach, where he found employment in the city engineer’s office and for the next four years was engaged in survey work.
In 1909 he entered the employ of the Pacific Sugar Corporation and was assigned to duty in Tulare and Kings counties, with headquarters in Visalia and Corcoran. He quickly learned the details of the sugar business and rose to be superintendent of the farming and shipping operations of the company. While with the sugar company Mr. Bailey took up the study of law with Senator E. O. Larkins of Visalia, and in 1913 he was admitted to the bar. He then formed a partnership with his preceptor, under the firm name of Larkins & Bailey, which continued up to the death of Senator Larkins, in 1924. This firm and Mr. Bailey as supervisor have made a specialty of irrigation law and have handled and is now handling much of the litigation growing out of irrigation matters. The offices of Larkins & Bailey have been in the Larkins building at No. 117 North Church street, where since the death of Senator Larkins Mr. Bailey still retains his office.
Mr. Bailey is a member of the Visalia Chamber of Commerce and for eight years was president of the Visalia Board of Health. He is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of Visalia Lodge No. 1298, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and belongs to the Order of Sciots.
On June 26, 1913, Mr. Bailey was united in marriage to Miss Addie T. Larkins, a native of Visalia and daughter of Senator Larkins. After graduating from the Visalia high school she entered the State Normal School at Los Angeles, where she prepared herself for teaching. At the time of her marriage to Mr. Bailey she was a teacher of art in the Visalia public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have one son- Walter C. Bailey.
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California – Kathleen Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 169
Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama
NATHAN M. BALL
Among the street and highway building contractors who in recent years have done much toward the improvement of the great system of highways which adds so greatly to the pleasure of travel throughout this section of California, it is believed there is none who has contributed more largely to that desirable end than has Nathan M. Ball, the well known cement contractor in Porterville and an acknowledged expert of long experience in his line. Mr. Ball has been in the cement business in this state for years and is thoroughly conversant with local conditions and needs. During the period of his activities in Tulare county he has constructed no fewer than fifty miles of cement highway in this county, besides doing much similar contract work in Stanislaus and Fresno counties and street work in various of the cities hereabout besides Porterville, so that he has come to be one of the best known cement contractors in this section of the state. He formerly and for years had wide experience in Riverside and is thus quite as familiar with conditions in that section of the state. He has thoroughly up-to-date equipment for his work and is thus able to carry out his contracts in a workmanlike manner and with a minimum of delay.
Nathan M. Ball was born on a farm in Piatt county, in the western part of Illinois, July 19, 1868, and is a son of Dennis and Annie (Lowe) Ball, both now deceased, whose last days were spent in Illinois. Dennis Ball was a resident of California during the hectic days of the mining camps in the late ‘50s and was here during the period of the Civil war, driving wagon trains between Sacramento and Virginia City. He returned east and after his marriage settled down on a farm in Piatt county, not far from the Mississippi river on the western border of Illinois. He lived to be seventy-seven years of age, his death and that of his wife occurring with but nine days intervening.
Reared on the home farm in Illinois, Nathan M. Ball acquired his early education in the little district school three miles from his home, walking this distance during the four months of the year then devoted to school purposes in that community. He remained on the home farm until he had attained his majority and then, with a desire to extend his scholastic attainments, he took a course in the college at Valparaiso, Indiana. When twenty-five years of age, in 1893, Mr. Ball came to California and in Riverside was associated with the operations of the Gage Canal Company, contractors in repair work. While in Riverside he became prominently connected with cement construction work, a large stockholder in the Concrete Pipe & Cement Company, which had a plant in Riverside and one in Porterville. In 1908 Mr. Ball became personally and actively connected with the operations of the Porterville plant of this company and when in 1920 this concern’s affairs were liquidated he bought the company’s interests centering in the Porterville section, discontinued there the manufacture of cement pipe, and has since been giving his whole attention to cement construction work, with particular reference to street and highway construction, and has done very well; as noted above, having done a large percentage of the public work in this line carried out here within recent years. Mr. Ball is an active and influential member of the Porterville Chamber of Commerce and takes a good citizen’s interest in the general affairs of the community. He has well appointed offices in the Masonic building.
In 1895, in Bement, Illinois, Mr. Ball was united in marriage to Miss Clara A. Finnegan of Chicago, Illinois, and they have seven children: Irvin, Ruth, Stanley, Gordon, Blanche, Vernon and Mildred. During the time of this country’s participation in the World war Irvin Ball rendered service in the quartermaster department of the United States navy. The Balls are republicans and Mr. Ball is a member of the fraternal order of the Knights of Pythias and of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California – Kathleen Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 349
Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama