California Biographies Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919) History By Paul E. Vandor Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919 Notes: Missing+page1185-1186 Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm A. LORENZO BABCOCK.� There are but few men who have been able to crowd so much activity of various kinds into so short a time as has A. Lorenzo Babcock. He seems to have been endowed with a capacity for big things, and by a life of integrity and close application has accomplished that which would take an ordinary man a lifetime to encompass. Mr. Babcock is the owner of a thirty-four-acre ranch at Lone Star, which he acquired in February. 1917. This vineyard contains sixteen acres of zin- fandels and fourteen acres of sultanas. It has been named the Babcock Vine- yard, and acre for acre is one of the biggest yielders in Fresno County. He resides on the celebrated Montecito No. 1 Vineyard, a very attractive coun- try villa, on Manning Avenue, three miles west of Fowler. Aside from being a splendid producer, it provides Mr. Babcock and his family with a magnifi- cent residence and home. He is also the owner of the fruit ranch known as The Kings County Orchard of fifty acres, planted to apricots and prunes. It lies seven miles northeast of Hanford and is one of the best paying or- chards in the San Joaquin Valley. Besides this he owns a ninety-acre tract, known as the California Ranch, at Orosi, Tulare County. This property is surrounded by most picturesque scenery, and truly suggests "California" in soil, climate and surroundings. Mr. Babcock was born in Sabula, Iowa, October 27, 1877, a son of Lorenzo Dow Babcock. This branch of the Babcock family came from New York State, where they were farmers. The father married near Toronto, in the Province of Ontario, Canada, Miss Augusta Bastedo, born in Canada, of very distinguished Scotch and French-Canadian origin. The parents came to Michigan, and then to Minnesota, where they farmed a few years in each state. They then went to Clinton County, Iowa, and here A. Lorenzo Bab- cock was born. Then the family went to Winnebago City, Minn., where they followed farming for a few years, and when the son was nine years old the family moved to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and there bought 160 acres, and raised corn, hay, horses, hogs and cattle. The mother is now living in Washington, and is sixty years old ; the father died in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, at the age of forty-eight years. There were eight children, of whom A. Lorenzo is the third and the second son. Lorenzo worked on the Iowa farm, attended high school at Elliott, Iowa, and matriculated at Simpson College, at Indianola, Iowa. He went into a lawyer's office at Guthrie Center, Iowa, for a time, after which he went to Omaha, Nebr., and engaged in work in the office of the Omaha Chris- tian Advocate. He next went into the National Bank of Commerce as an office clerk, and served four years there, becoming receiving teller; then he went to Colorado and became connected with the Colorado Title and Trust Company, at Colorado Springs. He was then twenty-one, and had landed at Colorado Springs with seven and a half dollars in his pocket. Here is where he learned independence. Six years and six months' experience gave Mr. Babcock a business acquaintance in Denver, in which city he became bookkeeper in the Daniel's Bank, where he remained for six years. Here he became interested in politics, and was in the state auditor's office with John Holmberg for six months. He received the appointment as secretary of the Colorado Commission for the Portland Fair. After serving on this commission he returned to Denver, and became connected with the Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek Railway. Later he went to Silverton and entered the employ of the Guggenheim inter- ests at their Silver Lake mines at Silverton, remaining with them one year, and then went to San Francisco and was connected with the Southern Pacific for one year, and then went to the Orient for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, being stationed at Hong Kong, China, and here he remained for two and a half years, and arose from assistant in the freight department to manager. Returning to San Francisco for three months, Mr. Babcock then went to Manila as manager of the Pacific Mail Agency, where he remained for two and a half years. Returning to California, Mr. Babcock became traveling auditor for the San Joaquin Light and Power Company, and took up his home in Fresno. This was in 1913, and that year he married Miss Lillian Irwin, of Tennessee, and this he considered the best act of his life. During the year 1913 he continued with the Light and Power Company, and in 1914 became cashier for the California Associated Raisin Company, serving as such for four years, from August 1, 1914, to September 16, 1918!