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


RALPH M. CUSHMAN. � An energetic rancher of good executive abil- 
ity living in the Riverdale sector of Fresno County, is Ralph M. Cushman, 
the representative of a very distinguished early Pilgrim family. His father 
was Royal David Cushman, who married Ada Keiser, and he was a branch 
of the State of Maine descendants of Robert Cushman, the Pilgrim who had 
much to do with the migration of the early Protestant fathers to Holland, 
'and later furthered the project of the migration to New England. There have 
been thirteen generations of the Cushmans since their settlement in the Mas- 
sachusetts Bay Colony, and our subject belongs to the twelfth. His parents 
reside at the St. Helena Sanatorium. One only sister, Helen Cushman, dwells 
in San Francisco. 

Mr. Cushman was born at Fallon. Churchill County. New, on March 28. 
1889, and came to Oakland, where he attended the Polytechnic school and Bus- 
iness College. At the age of nineteen, he came here and rented for a year the 
place of old "Uncle" Job Malsbury. On the settlement of the estate. Mr. Cush- 
man was forced to give up his lease, and it was then that he entered the service 
of Mr. Lewis. He worked by the month, stuck faithfully "on the job." and made 
good and established both name and credit. 

In 1911, Mr. Cushman was married to Miss Tina Lewis, the daughter of 
John B. Lewis, who was a native of Bond County, Ill., where he was born in 
1862. Ilis father died in 1879. before which time John received the benefits of a 
common school education. Remaining home until 1880. he came to California 
in that year with his mother. Six years later he engaged in the stock business on 
his own account in the Riverdale district, and there he lived until he purchased 
forty acres, nine miles from Laton, on the west. Later he added 700 acres, much 
of which he used for grazing purposes. Besides an extensive cattle business, Mr. 
Lewis had a finely appointed dairy with forty cows. At Gilroy, in Santa Clara 
County, he was married to Miss Nannie A. Turner, the daughter of James H. 
Turner of Monterey County, who crossed the plains in 1849 and again in 1852. 
He was a stockraiser and general farmer. Miss Turner became a teacher in 
Fresno, Santa Clara and Butte counties, and in time the responsibility was hers 
of teaching two children of her own : a son, Alfred T., and a daughter, Tina. 
Mr. Lewis was always distinguished for his public-spiritedness, and among the 
projects whose success was due in part to his efforts, was the building of the 
Farmers' Telephone. 

Mr. Cushman is now proprietor of the Altina Stock Farm, long owned by 
Mr. Lewis, having made the purchase in .1914. There he has built an excellent 
dairy barn 75x117 feet in size, and also a horse bam and a fine residence. He 
'has built two De Laval Twin Silos, each having a capacity of 154 tons; installed 
an Empire milking machine, and he owns four full-blooded Holstein bulls of the 
Julian and Johanna strains. He milks every day 100 cows, and he owns 600 head 
of cattle in all. 

With two other persons, Mr. Cushman rents 4,000 acres of swamp land, 
which is used for grazing; the other partners being Dr. Sifton and C. A. Smith, 
he has also bought the old Northcraft place of 240 acres, a little north and west 
of the J. B. Lewis place, and he owns and operates that in connection with the 
Altina stock ranch. 

Mr. Cushman is a member of the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers' Asso- 
ciation, and a director in the same ; and fraternally he belongs to the Riverdale 
Odd Fellows. His is a commanding personality, and his influence is felt for 
good in many lines of business, social and political endeavor.