Kings County Biographies


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


BENJAMIN J. FICKLE
 
The earliest recollection of Benjamin J. Fickle is of having seen a team of 
horses fall down when he was only two years old. That happened back in Ohio, 
where he was born December 12, 1832, a son of George and Margaret (Beckley) 
Fickle, natives respectively of Kentucky and of Pennsylvania and descended 
respectively from German and from Irish ancestors. George Fickle fought for 
America in the war of 1812 and his father was a Revolutionary soldier.
In 1853 young Fickle crossed the plains to California and stopped at Volcano, 
Amador county. He was of a party that came by way of the Sublett cut-off, most 
of whom turned back to find grass for their stock. He and others pressed forward 
on foot, and after a day's travel they came upon a train under command of Clark, 
who was leading it to the Napa valley. The young man found employment with the 
train at $18 a month and board. After the party had crossed the Green river, he 
met a man named Hogan, whom he accompanied to Volcano, helping with a drove of 
cattle until the animals ate too much grass and died as a consequence. Then he 
was employed near Amador and in the vicinity of Court House Rock. While he was 
there, three women went out to see the rock and were captured by Indians and 
were never seen there again. Here he mined for a time at $3 a day until a 
passing stranger told him he was not being paid enough, and for a time he farmed 
at Nevada, then took up a homestead on the Tule river three miles below 
Porterville, to which he acquired title and which he subsequently sold for 
$2200, taking his pay in cattle which perished on the plains for want of water. 
Next he bought three hundred and twenty acres of railroad land, near the site of 
Hanford, which he sold in two or three years for $1000 and which is now well 
worth $200 an acre. He now owns forty acres, eighteen acres of which is vineyard 
land, five acres peach orchard, the remainder pasture.
Politically Mr. Fickle is a Socialist. He affiliates with the Christian church. 
As a citizen he is public-spiritedly helpful to all the interests of the 
community. He married Emma Rutherford, a native of California and a daughter of 
pioneers, and she has borne him eleven children : Jerome F. married Beatrice 
Craft and has two children. Alfred H. married Katie Burch, a native of Missouri, 
who has borne him three children. George M. married Lottie Turner, and they have 
one son. Pearl F. married Charles Burch and has borne him three children. O. 
Estella married Clem Moyer and has four children. Delia is the sixth child. 
Flossie F. married Albert Carver and has one son. The others are: G. Frank, 
Flora L., John H., and Belle, who married E. H. Hackett and who has two 
children, Elmer and Flora.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp.  764-765
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler