California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 BENJAMIN M. ALFORD, M. D. The Alford family is of English extraction and the first representative in America became a planter in North Carolina. A son of this immigrant, Wylie Alford, was born and reared on a southern plantation and at an early age settled near Nashville, Tenn., where he enjoyed the prosperity attending southern planters in the days before the Civil war. At the time of his death he was sixty-two years of age. During early manhood he married Sophia Drake, like himself a native of North Carolina ; she was the daughter of a farmer who served in the Revolution and traced her lineage direct to Sir Francis Drake. When eighty-six years of age she passed away on the Tennessee plantation. Among the eleven children of Wylie and Sophia Alford the youngest was Benjamin M., a native of Tennessee, born fifteen miles from East Nashville, December 13, 1833, and reared on the plantation, with the best educational advantages private schools could bestow. While still a mere lad he developed a liking for the medical profession and selected the same for his life work. Pursuant upon that ambition, he took the entire course of lectures in the Nashville Medical Col- lege, from which in 1856 he received the degree of M. D. Immediately after graduating he opened an office at Boston, Bowie county, Tex., where he built up a practice extending through all of the surrounding country. When the Civil war began it was natural that his southern train- ing and sympathies should assert themselves. Fired with loyalty to the old southland, he at once offered his services as a surgeon in the First Mounted Battalion of Texas Troops. How- ever, the battalion being already overcrowded, the regiment was made the Thirty-second Texas Infantry, and he was commissioned surgeon, with the rank of major. The record of his army serv- ice is a record of hard marches, privations innumerable and hunger that at times verged on starvation. The effect of constant hardships and exposure wrecked his health and threatened life itself, but with the devotion characteristic of those who loved the lost cause, personal suffer- ing was sunk beneath the claims of the Confederacy. In all of the engagements of his regiment Dr. Alford bore a part. After crossing the Missis- sippi with General Price he took part in the battle of Corinth and then accompanied Gen. E. Kirby Smith into Kentucky, serving under him until after the battle of Perryville. Later he was present at Murfreesboro and Chickamauga, and then followed Gen. Joseph E. Johnston into the Georgia campaign, participating in the battles that marked the retreat to Atlanta, after which he served at Nashville, Tenn.. for a time, then was transferred to Mobile, Ala., and re- mained until the campaign ended. When the war came to a close he returned to Texas, with health shattered and property gone. All that was left to him were his ex-slaves who, remembering his goodness to them and reluctant to take up the task of earning a livelihood without his aid, refused to leave him; but, as he was no longer able to support them, he found homes for all as soon as possible and assisted them to get a start in the world. During 1868 Dr. Alford came to California via Panama. Having heard much concerning the climate of the Pacific coast, he was desirous of coming hither in the hope that his health might be benefited bv the change. For five years he remained with his father-in-law, W. B. Poer, who owned the McFarland toll road in the mountains. The pure mountain air proved the tonic most needed and, with health renewed, he returned to Texas in 1873 and opened an office at Fort Worth. However, like the majority who have once come under the fascinating spell of California's charms, he felt dissatisfied elsewhere, and in 1875 returned to the coast, settling at Portersville, Tulare county, where he engaged in the practice of medicine. Since June of 1881 he has engaged in practice at Tulare, where he is now the oldest physician in point of years of practice. Since coming here he has acquired alfalfa lands, which he rents, and also owns a building on the corner of Tulare and K streets. Twice since buying this corner he has been burned out, but the present building is a fireproof structure, so he has no further fear of disaster. While living at Boston, Tex., Dr. Alford married Miss Josephine Poer, a native of Texas, and a daughter of W. B. Poer, who served in the war for the independence of Texas, also in the Mexican war, later becoming a pioneer of 1849 in California, and eventually dying at Tulare. The family of Dr. and Mrs. Alford comprises two sons and two daughters, viz. : William H., an attorney of San Francisco, now serving as adjuster of the state taxes on the board of equali- zation ; Forest L., who practices law at Bakersfield; Josephine, the widow of W. D. Haslam, and a resident of San Francisco ; and Daisy, Mrs. Hetherington, of Columbia, Mo. Throughout all of his active life Dr. Alford has been a stanch Democrat and has never failed to cast a vote for the candidates of his party. Along the line of his profession he has been an interested worker in the San Joaquin Valley Medical Society and the Tulare County Medical Society, and has officiated as president of the latter organization. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows number him among their members and he is also identified with Masonry, having been made a Mason while at Boston, Tex., and later becoming a charter member of Olive Branch Lodge, F. & A. M., at Tulare, in which he is now an influential member.