Kings County
History
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California - History by Eugene L. Menefee and Fred A. Dodge - Historic Record Company - Los Angeles, California, 1913
CHAPTER XXVIII
LEMOORE
Lemoore, located on the Southern Pacific Railroad, nine miles west of Hanford, the county seat, is the second city in size in the county, having an estimated population of 2500. It was founded by Dr. Lavern Lee Moore, who located with his family on land where the city now stands in April, 1871. The following August Dr. Moore surveyed a few acres, and ten of them were staked out as town lots, where business soon was set up by the pioneers of the town. Dr. Moore christened the young town Latache. The settlers then had neither railroad or mail facilities and the post-office at Grangeville was the nearest point from which postal accommodations were enjoyed. Soon Dr. Moore petitioned the department at Washington for the establishment of a post-office, and a new name was selected for the place by abbreviating the middle name and combining it with the last name of the founder and calling the new post-office Lemoore. Mr. Moore died September 11, 1898, at the town he founded.
The early business men of Lemoore were : J. H. Fox, B. K. Sweetland, Max Lovelace, A. Mooney, D. Brownstone, John Heinlen, R. Scally, Justin Jacobs, G. W. Follett, John Hayes, Benjamin Hamlin, C. W. Barrett, Amos M. Ayers, Dr. L. M. Lovelace, A. S. Mapes, E. Erlanger, George W. Randall, Dr. N. P. Duncan, H. Larish, R. E. McKenna, the latter serving as postmaster, receiving his appointment in 1886. F. M. Powell, now postmaster, is another one of the early men identified with the city.
The Southern Pacific Railroad entered the town in 1877 and the growth of the town has been steady, the greatest strides having been made, however, since the creation of Kings county.
Lemoore was incorporated as a city of the sixth class in June, 1900, and has a municipal water and sewer system. The first grammar school was organized in Latache (now Lemoore) in 1873, and a cheap school building was erected on two acres of land donated to the district (then called Lake) by a Mr. Armstrong. The building was eighteen by thirty feet and was dedicated with a "country dance" on one December night in 1873. The first teacher was a Mr. Simpson, and the forty to fifty pupils who attended this first school came from the surrounding country, some being residents of the Kingston country on Kings river to the northeast. The citizens of Lemoore evidenced a commendable pride in their public schools when in 1887 a new $10,000 school building was erected. In 1885 the name of the district was changed from Lake to Lemoore, which name it now bears. In the year 1912 there was erected a magnificent new grammar school building at a cost of $40,000. A very substantial high school building was erected in 1910.
The city is well supplied with churches, public halls, etc. There are two banking institutions, and two weekly newspapers, The Republican and The Leader.
The rich soil and the diversified farming interests with ample irrigating facilities surrounding Lemoore insure continued substantial growth. The leading industries upon which the city relies are dairying, fruit raising, raisins, wine and general agriculture.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.