Fresno County, 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


JOHN N. DANIEL. � An enterprising and progressive Californian, of 
liberal-hearted tendencies pleasantly shown in his varied intercourse with 
others, is John N. Daniel, one of the oldest settlers and most prominent of 
the men identified with Tranquillity and its vast irrigation interests. He was 
born in Honey Lake Valley, Lassen County, on April 20, 1865, the son of 
James H. Daniel, a native of Mt. Vernon district, Ky. He removed with his 
parents to Ralls County, Mo., where Grandfather Daniel died. Grandmother 
Daniel spent her last days in California, having come here by way of Panama, 
and died in Woodland. The father was about nineteen years old when he 
came by ox team across the pathless plains; and about 1851 he settled in 
Yolo County. There he married Margaret Briggs, a native of Ralls County, 
Mo., whose family had come with Grandmother Daniel across the Isthmus. 
The father was long engaged in farming at old Buckeye, Yolo County, but he 
took his family back to Missouri in 1873, and died in a railroad accident 
while on a trip to Texas. The mother and the family were in Missouri at 
the time ; and after this accident, they stayed there, and in that state the 
mother died in 1880, having had four children, three of whom are living. John 
N. is the second eldest, and the others are : Mrs. Davidella Hart of Fresno ; 
and Mrs. Bessie Miller of Los Angeles. 

Brought up in California, except ten years when he lived in Ralls County, 
Mo., and always anxious to get back to California, John came to Fresno, on 
his return to the state, in May, 1885, and for about five years, was foreman 
for Jeff James on his ranch at Fish Slough, now Tranquillity, being engaged 
especially in stock-raising. He then located at West Park and improved a 
vineyard ; and soon after located a homestead of 160 acres just west of 
the James ranch. This was about 1892 or 1893, and he also leased land and 
engaged in grain-raising, his landlord being Mr. James. All in all, he man- 
aged about 800. and sometimes 1,000 acres a year. He had a big outfit and 
a combined harvester, and ran it till the place was subdivided for colonization 
purposes. 

Meantime, while grain-farming, he improved his homestead, turning the 
first furrow in what was then a wilderness. He improved it for alfalfa, and 
grew about the first alfalfa raised here. He and other renters built the ditch 
from the slough for twelve miles to irrigate their crops ; and as it reached 
his land, he was one of the original owners of the ditch. As he built about 
twenty-five and a half per cent, of the ditch, he has in it valuable priority- 
rights. He also helped build the Joaquin ditch and the Pump ditch. Now 
he is raising both alfalfa and stock, and he still owns the vineyard at the 
corner of Church and Marks Avenues, in West Park, near Fresno. 

Mr. Daniel was married, at Fresno, to Mrs. Annie (Jagger) Daniel, a 
native of New Jersey, who was reared in San Francisco. By her first union 
she had three children: John Nelson, now in San Francisco; Frank James, 
in Tranquillity; and 'William Arthur, who was in the United States Army. 
All of these children were educated at the usual common schools and also 
at the Fresno high school. 

For sixteen years Mr. Daniel has been overseer of roads in this district, 
serving first under C. W. Garrett and of late under Chris Jorgensen, and 
for years before he was working on the roads in various parts of the county. 
He is a Democrat, and has been a delegate to the county and state conven- 
tions ; he is also a member of the Democratic County Central Committee. 
For years he was a school trustee of the original Artesia school district, and 
has of late been a member of the Tranquillity school board. From its organi- 
zation until March 4. 1919. he was chairman of the board of directors of the 
Tranquillity Irrigation District, which has charge of over 11,000 acres; and 
he is also a member of the executive committee of the Pine Flat Conservation 
Project, which has for its aim the building of a great dam, above Piedra, in 
Pine Flat for a large reservoir to store the waters and give a longer irrigation 
season by having a great supply. He was one of the organizers and is a 
director of The First National Bank of Tranquillity, and in this enterprise, 
as well as all others of merit and uplift, he is ready to give the best that is 
in him to make them successful.