Tulare County
Biographies
DALLAS H. GRAY
One of the few men represented in this work who were born on property which they now own is Dallas H. Gray, who made his advent into the world in February, 1882, near Armona. Harvey P. Gray, his father, was born in Wayne county, Pa., April 20, 1841, and came to California from Nebraska in the '50s. Before 1870 he came to Tulare county, before settlement had advanced to any considerable extent, and here homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land. He mined in Tuolumne and Placer counties and in 1863 enlisted in the Federal army, serving until the close of the Civil war. It was in December, 1869, that he came to Tulare county and engaged in farming, taking over one hundred and sixty acres on army scrip and made a home to which he moved and lived out his days, passing away June 2, 1896. He was one of the pioneer raisin growers in the county. In 1879 he married Miss Emma C. Hurd, and they had two sons, Donly C. and Dallas H., the former living in Visalia. Harvey Gray was a man of public spirit and forceful character, and helped to promote the Peoples, Last Chance and Lower Kings River ditches and improved the home ranch to splendid condition.
Dallas Gray was educated at Armona and in the Hanford high school. After his graduation in 1903 he established a vineyard and orchard of eighty acres of the family estate, to which he has added by purchase from time to time. He now has ninety acres in vines, forty in orchard and ten in pasture. He is encountering success, drying fruit of various kinds and packing raisins. His packing house, covering a ground space of 80x120 feet, has a storage capacity of four hundred tons. He has erected nearly all the buildings on his place except the packing house. His dairy of twenty Holstein cows is becoming well known. He has erected sanitary buildings with concrete floors, 45x64 feet, for dairy purposes, and a hay storage building with a capacity of one hundred tons, elevated on concrete piling. His dairy requires thirty-four acres of alfalfa. He has also sixty acres in the orange belt of Tulare county and has an interest in one hundred and sixty acres of timber land in Madera county. From sixty-seven acres of vines he took one hundred and sixty-eight tons of product in 1910 and one hundred and fifty in 1912. He markets all his own produce in the East, selling direct to jobbers. On his ranch he has two three-room cottages and one five-room cottage for hired help. He has installed electric machinery and two electric motors and has a modern pumping apparatus. His chicken business dates from 1909. He raises thoroughbred White Leghorns only, increasing from one thousand to five thousand laying hens, and operates six incubators of a capacity of four hundred and eighty eggs each. All the eggs he sells are bought throughout the coast states for hatching, and to this interest he devotes three acres. He gives employment to from five to one hundred men in his various enterprises, according to season. His brooder house is one hundred feet long, with capacity for two thousand chicks. His fireless brooders generate their own heat. The hens have sanitary drinking fountains. Mr. Gray advertises his chicken business extensively and cannot supply the demand that he has created.
In 1905 Mr. Gray married Miss Katie Biddle, daughter of S. E. Biddle of Hanford, and they became the parents of a son, Dallas H., Jr., who was born February 4, 1913. Mr. Gray is a man of much public spirit, having at heart the interests of the community, generously helpful to all good work.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 759-761
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
FRANCIS MARION AINSWORTH
In Missouri, in 1845, was born Francis Marion Ainsworth, and in 1857, when he was about twelve years old, he participated with his parents and others in a memorable overland journey to California. They came with ox-teams and endured many hardships and braved many perils. Their first home in this state was in Mendocino county. There his father acquired land which he farmed and improved three years. Then, after living a little while at Santa Rosa and a short time at Sonoma, the family moved to Napa county, where they remained until 1864. Stockton was the scene of the family's activities for some years and after that Modesto numbered its members in its population. At Modesto the father died in 1870; the mother had passed away in 1863. It was from Modesto that Francis M. Ainsworth came to the Mussel Slough district of old Tulare county, near Hanford, where he soon began ranching. He moved to his present location at Milo in 1876. He owns here two hundred and forty acres of land which he is operating very profitably. It is remarkable to realize that Mr. Ainsworth, who at the age of sixty-seven years is enjoying splendid health and is giving personal attention to the conduct of his ranch as well as the duties of postmaster at Milo, was at one time a consumptive in a most precarious condition, suffering from hemorrhages of the lungs. His cure may be attributed to his tremendous will power and the exceptional climate and he has every reason to count his blessings and be happy that he has sought this country as his place of residence.
In 1872 Mr. Ainsworth married Nettie Braden, a native of Iowa, who bore him ten children, all native sons and daughters of California, four of whom have died. Royal Jasper Ainsworth married Clara Hinkle and lives in Tulare county. The other survivors are named Chester O., Archie W., Frances M., Lisle R. and Alden R. The parents of Mrs. Ainsworth moved to Kansas when she was about five years old and some two or three years later they came overland to California, settling in Santa Clara county, whence they later removed to Stanislaus county, and it was here that she first met her future husband. She was the second child of a family of four children, one son and three daughters, born to her parents, the others being: William Braden, of Ventura county, Agnes Richardson of Porterville, and Malissa, who died in Tulare county in 1878, being at that time the wife of S. W. Webb and leaving no children. Mr. Ainsworth's uncle, Davy Crockett, is a justice of the peace at Ukiah, Mendocino county. Col. Davy Crockett, the hero of the Alamo, was Mr. Ainsworth's great-uncle. His life of adventure, his devotion to the cause of liberty and his tragic death for the freedom of Texas are all matters of history. Mr. Ainsworth is a man of public spirit and as a Democrat he has been elected school trustee and in 1907 was appointed postmaster at Milo, which responsible office he still fills with ability and credit.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
Pp 761-762
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler