Tulare County Biographies

R. Hilary Boettner

Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama

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


R. Hilary Boettner, mine host of the Palace and California Hotels of Visalia, 
California, is a native of the Keystone state, having been born in Pottstown, 
January 13, 1886, son of John W. E. and Henrietta M. (Bleim) Boettner.  Few men 
have had a more varied experience in the business world than Mr. Boettner.  As a 
boy in Pennsylvania, he attended the common schools, afterward spending some 
time in the high and preparatory schools, and then started in to learn the trade 
of plumber.  He followed that occupation for a number of years, when he decided 
to take Horace Greeley�s advice and �go west.�
 
In 1907 he landed in California with only fifty-five cents in his pocket.  But 
he was blessed with good health and a determination to succeed, and soon found 
employment.  For about eighteen months he was with the Haslett Warehouse Company 
in San Francisco as shipping clerk.  He then went to Alameda, where he took a 
position as plumber for the city during the installation of the electrolier 
system in the streets.  From Alameda he migrated to the San Joaquin valley, 
where he entered the employ of the Barnett Lumber Company of Tulare.  This 
company sent him to Tipton to take charge of a lumber yard there, but he shortly 
afterward abandoned the lumber business for a life on a ranch, with Dr. Hull and 
John Hummell.  His next employment was with the Los Angeles Creamery Company, 
installing its plant in Tulare.  When the creamery was finished he went to 
Exeter, where for the next sixteen months he was manager of a bakery.
 
Mr. Boettner then came to Visalia and assumed the management of the California 
Hotel.  A little later he took charge of the Harvey House and the San Joaquin 
Hotel, but disposed of these when he took over the management of the Palace 
Hotel.  The two hotels now controlled by him contain sixty rooms each and the 
Palace had four years been the leading hostelry of Visalia.  On April 19, 1920, 
his father joined him in Visalia and there passed the remained of his life.  In 
the hotel business Mr. Boettner seems to have �struck his gait.�  His long and 
varied experience in dealing with all sorts of people has made him a good judge 
of human nature, which often enables him to anticipate the wants of a guest 
before these wants have been expressed.  Actuated by a desire to please and 
appreciative of the patronage of his guests, his hotels have become popular 
stopping places for many of the traveling public.
 
Mr. Boettner has remained true to Pennsylvania�s political traditions and is an 
unswerving republican in his party affiliations.  He is a member of the Visalia 
Kiwanis Club, belongs to all of the various branches of the Independent Order of 
Odd Fellows, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Benevolent Protective Order of 
Elks.  In all these organizations he stands well because of his often timely 
suggestions and general good fellowship.
 
Mr. Boettner has been twice married.  One son was born to his first marriage.  
His present wife was Miss Agnes M. Rose of Pennsylvania, before her marriage.
 
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen Edwards Small & 
J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 
288