Tulare County Biographies

WILLIAM FINDLEY

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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


On the Siberian river, Texas, William Findley was born February 22, Washington's 
Birthday, 1851. When he was six years old his parents, John and Sarah J. 
(Masters) Findley, natives respectively of Missouri and Texas, brought him 
across the plains to California. The family was included in a party which came 
with ox-teams and had frequent trouble with Indians on the way. The savages 
often attempted to stampede or run off their cattle, and even when they were 
driven away they managed to kill the animals. At times the emigrants, under 
protection of wagon stockades, fought long battles with their red-skinned foes, 
whose flintlock guns laid many a white man low. Ten of the party were killed by 
the Indians and Mr. Findley's sister Martha died on the way out. The family came 
to Hackby Ford in 1858 and started in the cattle business, locating in Tulare 
later in that year. In August, 1871, the grandfather, John Findley, who was the 
owner of two square miles of land in Drum Valley, was called to the door of his 
house by robbers, who demanded his money, evidently believing that he had 
considerable of it on hand. His wife died in 1900.
About 1907 William Findley located on his present homestead, where he has one 
hundred and thirty-three acres of grain and pasture land, a garden and about two 
thousand cords of wood in the tree. He keeps forty-five to fifty head of cattle 
and about half as many hogs. The elder Findley and his son are Democrats and 
their fellow citizens recognize them as men of public spirit.
February 22, 1868, his birthday, Mr. Findley married, in the Sand Creek 
neighborhood, Miss Ellen Woodey, who has borne him ten children. John M. married 
Martha Dean and has four children, Blanche, Cecil, Gerald, and Inez. William J. 
married Mrs. Ida Strong, a daughter of Stephen Gaster, at one time treasurer of 
Fresno county. Ivan married Susan Collier and their children are Aaron, Byron 
and Myrtle. Lee married Minnie Robinson and their children are Earl, Oswald and
Melba. Martha married John Dean and is the mother of the following children, 
Carroll, Maud and Cleo. Callie A. married Levi Dean and their children are 
Gilbert and Forest. Mary married Fred Kiner and their children are Clare E., 
Elsie, Harold and Denzelle. Ira, unmarried, resides with William J. Findley. 
Myrtle is single and lives with her mother at Dinuba. Daisy married Daniel 
Tullie and resides at Orosi.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, Pp 840-841