California Biographies Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919) History By Paul E. Vandor Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919 Notes: Missing+page1185-1186 Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm CHARLES GATEWOOD.� An energetic representative of a fine old family, whose traditions reach through the best periods and circles of the South back to historic Old England, is Charles Gatewood, the rancher near Rolinda, widely known for his pure-bred Poland-China hogs. He was born near Oskaloosa in Mahaska County, Iowa, in 1855, the son of William H. Gatewood, who was born in Bledsoe County, Tenn. He removed to Parke County, Ind., with his parents and then, about 1851, to Iowa, where he was a farmer. In 1880 he re- moved to Nebraska, and engaged in farming at Seward. The year 1910 found him at Elbert, Colo., and there he continued to live until his death on November 22, 1916, when he was more than ninety-three years old. Mrs. Gatewood was Nancy Lough before her marriage, and she was born in Preble County, Ohio. She removed to Indiana with her parents, where she grew up and was married, and she died in Elbert, Colo., aged eighty-six years, the mother of nine children, six of whom are still living. As the second oldest in the family, Charles was brought up in Iowa and there attended the public schools, including the Oskaloosa High School ; and at the age of about seventeen he got into saw-milling and followed that for thirty years. He bought a portable saw-mill and did a large business manufacturing lumber and timbers and tracking, particularly for the coal mines. Only when he had sawed up all the available timber in that section did he turn to agriculture. He bought a farm and engaged in raising hogs, cattle, com and alfalfa; and during these busy experimental years he spent three years in Nebraska, some time in Oklahoma, and several years at Ames, Iowa, having in mind the educa- tion of his children. On January 8, 1912, Mr. Gatewood located in Fresno County, having come to California from Ames. He bought an eighty-acre ranch of raw land, the one drawback being the lack of water rights. He sunk two wells, therefore, and now he has an abundance of water, which rises to within eleven feet of the surface. He installed a gas engine of twenty-five horsepower, and put in a centrifugal pump. This gives him a capacity of over 2,000 gallons a minute� over 200 miners' inches. He leveled the land, sowed alfalfa, and engaged in raising hogs, choosing prize-bred Poland-Chinas; and when, in 1918, he exhibited at the State Fair in Sacramento, lie won the Grand Champion prize with a Poland-China boar. Be- sides being the largest breeder hereabouts of this variety of hog, Mr. Gatewood raises about 300 tons of hay a year for the market. While in Iowa, on December 24, 1882, Mr. Gatewood was married to Miss Hester A. Allgood, a native of Mahaska County, Iowa, and a daughter of John F. Allgood, a Kentuckian, and Eliza Jane Comstock, an Indianian, both pioneers of Iowa where they died, the former in 1883, and the latter in 1918, aged eighty- two. Mr. and Mrs. Gatewood have four children: Fred C, a graduate of the Oskaloosa High School is engaged in the breeding of Poland-China hogs on a farm adjoining that of our subject; he has one daughter, Helen; Ray, a graduate of the Ames Agricultural College in Iowa, was a teacher in the Manhattan State Agricultural College, Kans., where, for six years, he was professor of animal 'husbandry, and he is now in the cattle business in Oklahoma. He has one daugh- ter, Jane. Ethel is the wife of William H. Doherty, of Fresno, who served in the United States Army about fourteen months, thirteen months of the time over- seas ; and Harry assists his father. Mr. Gatewood belongs to the Fresno County Poland-China Breeders Asso- ciation, and has one of the largest herd of pure-bred hogs in the state. He also belongs to the California Swine Breeders Association.