Tulare County Biographies

A. CLIFFORD DUNGAN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
A native of Virginia, A. Clifford Dungan, of Exeter, Tulare county, was born at 
Glade Spring, September 10, 1875, the youngest of the large family of children 
of Thomas N. Dungan. He came to California in 1894 and settled at Three Rivers, 
Tulare county, where he worked in his brother's sawmill.  In 1895 he was 
employed by the Kaweah Lemon Company, and for three years had charge of one of 
its lemon orchards. The ensuing year he was in the employ of the Ohio Lemon 
Company. By carefully saving his earnings he was enabled to buy seven acres of 
land five miles southeast of Exeter. The property was rough and without 
improvements, but with characteristic energy and foresight he set out orange 
trees, erected a pumping plant and put on other necessary auxiliaries, and soon 
had seven acres of fine bearing navel trees, which proved very profitable.
After he had improved his original seven acres Mr. Dungan entered the service of 
George T. Frost, who had charge of the Bonnie Brae orchards, and was made 
superintendent of the vineyards of the Frost & Carney Land and Lumber Company. 
Two years later he was given the management of the orange grove on Badger Hill. 
While thus employed he was studying the fruit business, and in 1903 he began 
caring for groves in the Bonnie Brae district on contract. He now has 
seventy-three acres under fruit and vines and a contract covering quite a number 
of orchards. Two hundred and fifty dollars an acre for a crop of grapes on 
twenty acres of four-year-old Emperors was the price paid him recently by R. D. 
Williams. This was a record price for a crop of grapes bought outright in the 
Exeter district, and was especially good for the product of a vineyard of that 
age. On the other hand the crop on this orchard was very heavy and Mr. Dungan 
made a fine profit. On the twenty acres there are approximately eight thousand 
vines, most of them yielding three or four crates to the vine.
At Fresno Mr. Dungan married Miss Nellie Tuohy, a native of Oakland, daughter of 
A. V. Tuohy of Vacaville and niece of Jan Tuohy of Tulare. She is a graduate of 
the San Francisco Normal School and was for a time a student at the Johns 
Hopkins Art Institute. Mr. and Mrs. Dungan have the following children, May 
Vir�ginia, John Anthony and Helen Margaret.
In his political alliances Mr. Dungan is a Democrat, and fraternally he 
affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. He came to California in 1894, without 
capital, and by industry and good business ability has made a fine property. His 
success is the success of the self-made man, and those who best know him say 
that it has been fairly won and is richly deserved. In many ways Mr. Dungan has 
demonstrated a public spirit that marks him as a citizen of much patriotism and 
helpfulness to all worthy community interests.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 807-808