Tulare County Biographies

(HON.) WILLIAM M. DE WITT

Transcribed by: Craig A Hahn

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


     This old established, reliable and successful lawyer of Tulare, Cal. was 
born in Monroe county and grew to manhood in Warren county, Ky. The time of his 
birth was May 17, 1839, and his parents were the Rev. Allan W. and Hannah 
(Tooley) De Witt, his father having been a native of Kentucky and his mother 
having been born in Virginia. Eventually the family moved to Illinois. From 
there, in 1859, they crossed the plains with ox-teams to California starting in 
April and arriving September 18. Allan W. De Witt, who was a minister of the 
Christian church, died at Tulare May 31, 1897, his wife having passed away in 
1896. Their son Samuel lives in Los Angeles; Eleazar, their second son, is a 
rancher living west of Tulare; their daughter, Lydia A., is Mrs. Zumwalt of 
Tulare; William M. is the immediate subject of this sketch.
 
     It was as a school teacher that William M. De Witt began his life in 
California in 1861, in charge of a country school at Red Bluff, Tehama county. 
With Job F. Dye he drove a band of cattle and horses from Red Bluff to eastern 
Oregon in 1862. They intended to drive their cattle up to the mining camps of 
British Columbia, where there was a great number of miners at work and where 
they intended to butcher their cattle, freeze the meat by burying the meat in 
the snow, and sell it out during the winter as it would be needed. While camping 
on John Day�s river near Canon City, De Witt suggested that they try a pan of 
the gravel at that place. Mr. Dye improvised a pan, with which they succeeded in 
finding considerable gold in the very first pan. The news of their find spread 
and in an inconceivably short time some six hundred miners had located claims 
and were very busily and profitably engaged in placer-mining.  It is needless to 
say that it became unnecessary for them to take their cattle to the British 
Columbia market. Thus was gold first discovered at Canon City on the John Day�s 
river by William M. De Witt and Job F. Dye. Returning to California, Mr. De Witt 
read law, in 1866 was admitted to the bar and began the practice of his 
profession at Woodland, Yolo county. There he succeeded very satisfactorily and 
attained so much personal popularity that he was elected to represent Yolo 
county in the State Legislature at the session of 1877-78 and was appointed a 
member of the judiciary committee and of other important committees. Meanwhile 
he conducted a successful practice at Santa Cruz for about six years. He came to 
Tulare from Woodland in the spring of 1878 and has been in active practice there 
ever since. For ten years he has held the office of justice of the peace in 
Tulare and during that long period no decision of his has been reversed. He has 
traveled extensively throughout the state, having visited nearly every county 
within its borders.  
 
     A lover of country life, Mr. De Witt has given some attention to ranching 
near Tulare. He was married in Santa Cruz, January, 1872, to Miss Agnes 
McDonald, a native of Vermont, who has borne him nine children; Florence C. 
(Mrs. Brown), has children named Earl and Maud. Alice W. is Mrs. Barnaby of 
Spokane, Wash. William H. married Miss Shedler and they have children named 
Camille and Earl. The others are Walter, John (of Coalinga), Edward and Edna 
(twins), Iram and Earl. In every relation of life Mr. De Witt has shown himself 
a man to be depended upon. Wherever he has lived he has taken an interest in all 
matters affecting the public good. Since coming to Tulare he has in many ways 
demonstrated his solicitude for advancement and prosperity of the city and its 
people. 
 
SOURCE:  History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical 
Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913  Pp 407, 408