Tulare County Biographies

WILLIAM W. COLLINS

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

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


     The present sheriff of Tulare county is William W. Collins, now serving his 
third term in that important office. Mr. Collins is a son of Albert O. and Sarah 
J. (Cochran) Collins, natives of Ohio. In 1862, Albert O. Collins enlisted in 
Company C, Eighty-fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he served 
continuously from April that year until the end of the Civil war, rising to the 
rank of captain. Returning to Ohio he taught school there until the spring of 
1866, when he moved to Putnam county, Mo., where he lived until May, 1873, at 
which time he came to California and located in Bakersfield, Kern county. There 
he was for a time in the meat trade and later conducted a large ranch until 
1887, when he took up his residence in Inyo county and engaged in stock-raising 
near Bishop. Mrs. Collins passed away in San Francisco in 1910, aged sixty-eight 
years. 
     To Albert O. and Sarah J. (Cochran) were born three sons and two daughters: 
Charles A., sheriff of Inyo county; William W. Collins; John L.; Minnie, widow 
of W. L. Blythe of Palo Alto, Cal.; and Leora, who is the wife of Bertrand Rhine 
of Bishop, Cal.
     William W. Collins was born on the old Collins homestead, near Coshocton, 
Ohio, June 23, 1865, and was eight years old when his father removed to 
California. He was educated in the public schools of Kern county, at the Visalia 
Normal school and at the California State Normal school at Los Angeles. After 
his graduation he assisted his father for a time in the latter�s cattle 
business. In 1889 he entered business life for himself as a wheat grower and as 
the proprietor of a livery stable at Tulare, and in 1895 began buying wheat in 
Tulare and Kern counties for the Farmers� Union Milling Co. of Stockton. The 
next year he accepted a position with J. Goldman & Co. of Tulare as foreman, in 
charge of their hands, orchards and stock. He has recently set out, at Lemon 
Cove, a forty-acre orange grove. 
     In Republican politics Mr. Collins has long been locally prominent, and in 
1902 he was elected sheriff of Tulare county. He has been twice re-elected, and 
now, in his third term, is one of the most popular sheriffs the people of the 
county have ever known. A man of such public spirit, he has been helpfully 
identified with many important home interests, and has in all things devoted 
himself, heart and soul, to the welfare of the community. Fraternally he 
affiliates with the Woodmen of the World, the Ancient Order of United Workmen 
and the local lodge and encampment of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and 
in the last mentioned order he has been elected to different offices of 
importance. Sharing with him in the esteem of the people of Visalia is Mrs. 
Collins, a native daughter of Inyo county, who was formerly Miss Louise Clarke. 
She has borne him three daughters�Hazel, Vera and Blanche. 

SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913  Pp 425, 426


William W. Collins, probation officer of Tulare county, California, is a native 
of the Buckeye state, born in Coshocton county, Ohio.  In the spring of 1873 he 
came with his parents, A. O. and Sarah J. Collins, to California.  In May of 
that year they left the train at Tipton, Tulare county, and made the remainder 
of the journey to Bakersfield by stage.  There the father embarked in the 
butcher business.  While the railroad was being built through the mountains he 
supplied the construction camps with meat.  He then disposed of his meat marked 
in Bakersfield and during the remainder of his active business life was engaged 
in cattle raising.  The last ten years of his life were spent in retirement.  
Both parents are deceased.
 
William W. Collins was educated in the grammar schools of Kern county, the 
Visalia Normal School and later the State Normal School at Los Angeles.  Upon 
leaving school he located in Inyo county, California, where for three years he 
was interested in the live stock business.  In 1889 he came to Tulare county, 
and here for the next nine years he was employed as a farm foreman by J. 
Goldman.  Being a republican in his political affiliations, during the time he 
was employed by Mr. Goldman he formed the acquaintance of the leaders of that 
party in Tulare county, took an active part in local political affairs, and was 
frequently chosen as a delegate to county and state conventions.  In 1902 he was 
elected to the office of sheriff for a term of four years and was twice 
reelected, holding the office for twelve years, the longest of any incumbent up 
to the present time.  Shortly after the expiration of his third term (in 
September, 1915), he was appointed probation officer by the judge of the 
juvenile court.  The appointment was confirmed by the board of county 
supervisors and this position he still holds.
 
While a resident of Inyo county Mr. Collins was married to Miss Louise Clarke, a 
native of California, and to this marriage were born three daughters:  Hazel M. 
is a postgraduate of the University of California and a teacher in the Napa 
(California) high school; Blanche M. graduated from Mills College of Oakland, 
California, after which she prepared herself for library work by taking a course 
in the Children�s Library of the Carnegie Library Institute of Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania; and Vera Louise died in 1915, aged eighteen years.  Mr. Collins 
had forty acres in orchard, east of Exeter, and also owns other lands.  Mr. 
Collins is a member in good standing of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and the Woodmen of the World.
 
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 
351
Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama