Tulare County Biographies

JOSEPH LEWIS FICKLIN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


It was in Scott county, in old Kentucky, the cradle of Western history, that 
Joseph Lewis Ficklin was born November 27, 1831. When he was four years old he 
was taken to Missouri, where he remained until 1852, scarcely leaving the 
neighborhood of his home. Then he came to California as a gold-seeker, remaining 
four years. He returned to Missouri, to come out again to the coast country in 
1886, when he settled on his present homestead. His first journey across the 
plains was made with oxen. There were with the party four hundred cows and fifty 
head of work cattle, and the trip consumed six months time. His second journey 
to California was made by rail in four days.
In Missouri Mr. Ficklin gained such education as was afforded by the public 
school near his home. He married Miss Elizabeth Turner, a native of Missouri, 
who bore him one child and passed away in 1864. In 1865 he married Miss Sarah A. 
Davis, who was born in Crawford county, Mo., and they had five children, two of 
whom died in infancy. The survivors are William Kennett Ficklin, in Yellowstone 
Park, Anna Ficklin, who married F. O. Fridley, and Martha, who is Mrs. H. A. 
Powell. Benjamin Ficklin, Joseph L. Ficklin's father, was born in Kentucky in 
1808 and his father, John Ficklin, participated in the Black Hawk war, serving 
as captain under Col. Dick Johnson. The father of Sarah A. (Davis) Ficklin was 
born in Virginia, in 1798, and her mother in Scott county, Ky., in 1802.
When Mr. Ficklin came to Tulare county he bought eighty acres of land at $10 an 
acre which was at that time devoted to wheat, and he helped to harvest grain 
where the city of Exeter now stands. During the last four years he has converted 
his ranch to a fruit farm and vineyard. One of Mrs. Ficklin's brothers came to 
California in 1850 and four of them died in Tulare county. Mr. Ficklin has held 
public office and affiliates with the Masonic order. Politically he is a 
Democrat. As a citizen he has in many ways demonstrated his public spirit.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 535-536