Tulare County Biographies

James Allen Bacon

Transcribed by Beverly Green

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
James Allen Bacon came to California in 1859, and to Tulare County, on the 22d 
of October, that same year.

He was born in Missouri in 1837. His father, William Bacon, was a native of 
Kentucky, as was also his grandfather, Nathaniel Bacon. William Bacon married 
Sarah Parmalee, a native of Missouri, and there were born to them twelve 
children, seven of whom are still living.

When James A. reached his majority he came to California, and settled on 
government land, which he afterward sold. The most of his life has been spent in 
the cattle, sheep and hog business, ten miles northeast of Visalia, and in this 
he is still engaged: has often had 400 head of cattle and 4,000 sheep at a time. 
He has purchased fifty acres of choice fruit land at Orosi, and built a good 
house, and to this place he moved on the first of January, 1889. He is planting 
this land to fruit and rain grapes, and the prospects for an abundant yield are 
most flattering. During his long experience in the stock business Mr. Bacon has 
become very familiar with every portion of this county, having traversed every 
foot of its mountains and plains.

In 1880 he was married to Miss Sarah J. Edmiston, daughter of Mr. N. B. 
Edmiston, (see his history in this book.) They have four children, - one son and 
three daughters, viz.: Alice M., Thomas A., Edith T. and Jessie E., all natives 
of Tulare County. Mrs. Bacon is a member of the Presbyterian Church. Politically 
Mr. Bacon affiliates with the Democratic party.

SOURCE: Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare and 
Kern, California: Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892 Page 732 

In St. Louis county, Mo., James Allen Bacon was born November 19, 1838, the 
eldest of the eight children of William Bacon, six of whom survive. The father 
was born in Kentucky in January, 1800, a son of Nathaniel Bacon, who located in 
St. Louis county, Mo., after the war of 1812. There William lived until 1849, 
when he started with his family to Texas. In Crawford county, Ark., they were 
detained by illness and there he bought a farm on which he lived until 1859, 
when he set out for California with his wife, four daughters and three sons. 
They came by El Paso and stopped for a while at Tucson, Ariz. Later they 
completed the journey to California by way of Yuma to Los Angeles and the Tejon 
Pass to Tulare county. They crossed the Colorado river at Ft. Fillmore and soon 
met Indians who ran off their cattle; but followed two of them who had the 
cattle in charge and rescued the animals. Ten miles northeast of Visalia on the 
Kaweah, Mr. Bacon bought a farm, and in 1868 he took up one hundred and sixty 
acres, now the site of Orosi, where he was a pioneer settler. James A. Bacon 
hauled lumber from the mountains and with help of hired men built the first 
house there, which is yet standing. The family afterward removed to Visalia, 
where the father died, aged eighty-one years. The mother, Mrs. Permelia Bacon, a 
native of St. Louis county, Mo., died in Fresno county in her seventy-ninth 
year. The sons of the family are James Allen; Thomas, of Fresno; Charles F., of 
Hol�lister; and William, of Phoenix, Ariz. The daughters are Missouri A. 
Kirkland, of Arizona ; Elizabeth Campbell, of Sultana ; Mary Smoot, of Cochran; 
and Martha Morris, of Orroyo Grande.
When he was ten years old James Allen Bacon accompanied his parents to Arkansas, 
where he was educated in a log school house. He drove a team to Tucson, Ariz., 
and remained there a year, driving a stage for Butterfield over a route east 
from Tucson some eighty miles, changing horses every ten hours at stations 
twenty miles apart. While thus employed he was twice attacked by Indians, but 
was saved by his swift horses. One of the red-skinned parties was in war paint. 
At another time his presence of mind enabled him to save his own life and that 
of his passengers as well. When he made his last trip as stage driver, Indians 
formed in line across the road and demanded whisky and tobacco. The passengers 
handed out their bottles, and while the Indians were drinking Mr. Bacon put whip 
to the horses and soon had the whole party out of danger.
Mr. Bacon's observations and experience would be interesting could they be given 
in full. He told of having seen a monument on the east border of Tulare county 
which was erected by General Scott in the early '50s. He was acquainted with the 
Dalton brothers, with Sontag and Evans and with James McKinney, and saw James 
McCreary hanged at Visalia. He said the condemned man had said he would never 
die with his boots on and pulled them off before going to the gallows. Mr. Bacon 
built a dwelling in the Orosi district, between Centerville and Visalia. He rode 
back and forth in all directions over this country before there was any fruit or 
grain raised here. He homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres of land east of 
Visalia and bought some railroad land. After he had gone into the sheep 
business, he met a man from Visalia to whom he traded for a horse a claim to one 
hundred and sixty acres of land where Orosi now stands, which is worth now $500 
an acre. In the period 1860 to 1870 he saw thousands of antelope and wild horses 
and many Indians, and on Fish slough and other swamps saw many elk. Bear were 
plentiful on the plains and many of them were killed for meat. Mr. Bacon himself 
killed fifty bears and was in many a desperate bear fight.
The Bacon family came on to California in 1859 and for a time James was employed 
by his uncle, James Fielding Bacon, in the stock business. In that same year he 
went to the mines at Princeton, in Mariposa county. After having been employed 
five years there, at Marysville and elsewhere, he went to Orosi and built his 
father's house. Later he again helped his uncle for many years in hog and 
stock-raising. He also found lucrative employment in driving stock to the 
southern mines. After the organization of the California Raisin Growers' 
Association he was active in its development.
On October 17, 1880, in Tulare county, Mr. Bacon married Sarah Edmiston, a 
native of Calaveras county, and a daughter of N. B. Edmiston. The family home 
was at Orosi after January, 1889. Mr. Bacon died July 3, 1912, in Fresno. His 
wife passed away, in her forty-seventh year, March 17, 1901. She was a member of 
the Methodist Episcopal church. Following are the names of five children who 
survive : Alice Maud, married William Mackersie, of Dinuba, and has two sons, 
Gerald Edward and William Kenneth; Thomas Allen, of Dinuba, married Cora Tracy 
and has one son, James Emerson; Edith Theodate married R. J. Reed and has one 
son, John Allen; Jessie Ethel is the wife of Jesse Furtney; and Elsie Viola. In 
his political affiliations Mr. Bacon was a Democrat, and was a member of the 
county central committee and was also elected and served two terms as a school 
trustee. As a man of public spirit lie always took a helpful interest in the 
community.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 830-832
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler