Fresno County, 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


JAMES HAMILTON. � Among the later comers to the vicinity of 
Parlier is James Hamilton. Progressive and energetic, he stands in the fore- 
front among the residents of the Parlier section. He is a man of fine presence, 
of great executive ability and sound business judgment, and has a most ex- 
cellent memory. 

Mr. Hamilton was born June 24, 1865, in Crawford County, Wis. His 
father. Henry Hamilton, a native of England, was born five miles from the 
city of Manchester. His paternal grandfather, Lot Hamilton, was born in 
England, November 21, 1812, and having the misfortune to lose both his 
first and second wife by death in the old country, decided to emigrate to 
America. Accordingly he came to St. Louis. Mo., about two years before his 
son Henry, a lad of seventeen, emigrated to the New World and settled in 
Crawford County, Wis. Henry had an only brother, James Hamilton, who 
settled in Wisconsin and enlisted in the army during the Civil War, dying 
from illness while in the service. This left Henry the only heir of his father 
Lot. Henry likewise enlisted from Wisconsin during the Civil conflict, and 
served one year in the cavalry, being honorably discharged at the close of 
the war. Before enlisting he was married to Miss Catherine N. Fairfield, a 
native of Fulton County, Ohio, and daughter of Hugh Fairfield, a Fulton 
County (Ohio) farmer, who some time after his marriage removed with his 
family to Prairie du Chien, Wis. 

After the war Henry Hamilton returned to Crawford County, where 
his father soon joined him and continued to make his home with him until 
the death of the father, January 15, 1905, at the age of ninety-three. 

Of the eight children born to Henry Hamilton and his wife, Tames 
Hamilton is the eldest. Hugh, the second son, died of pneumonia at New- 
man. Cal., in June, 1916. He was married but left no children. The third 
son, Lot. lives on a ranch one-half mile west of his brother James' place. 
Stephen resides at Courtenay, N. D., where he is a grain and stock farmer. 
Henry is single and farms his ranch north of Parlier, making his home with 
his brother, Lot. Anson was killed at the age of nineteen in an accident with 
a horse hay-fork, while storing hay into a barn in Wisconsin. Mary is the 
wife of M. F. Foley, a contractor and builder of Los Angeles, Cal. Sylvia 
also resides in Los Angeles, and is the wife of Robert Felts, an employee of 
a gas company in that city. 

James Hamilton passed the first twenty-seven years of his life in Wis- 
consin. He grew up on his father's 1,100-acre farm and attended the com- 
mon schools. At the age of twenty-six he was united in marriage with Miss 
Vera Posey, a native of Wisconsin and daughter of William N. Posey, a 
well-to-do farmer of Crawford County, Wis. They are the parents of three 
children, all born in Lyman County, S. D. : The eldest, Charles, a graduate 
of Reedley high school, is in Company E, Naval Reserves, on Submarine 
Chaser No. 90, now in the White Sea, north of Russia. Clarence trained for 
the Navy at Mare Island and is on the Imperator, the world's largest ship, 
taken from Germany, being 920% feet long and of 57.000 tons' displacement. 
Clyde is twenty years old and employed by the raisin association. 

After his marriage, Mr. Hamilton farmed for one year, then removed 
to South Dakota, settling on a stock range west of Chamberlain, which is 
on the Missouri River. The combined capital of Mr. Hamilton and his wife 
at this time was only $375. He first engaged in the sheep business, but after- 
wards sold his band of 2,600 sheep and started in the cattle business. He 
drove hundreds of cattle on the range from the Bad Lands to the Missouri 
River, and from the Nebraska boundary line on the south to Fort Pierre on 
the north, and at the round-ups used to ride ten horses in relays, the cattle 
being scattered over 125 miles on the range. He moved his herds down to 
the Rosebud Reservation, but the homesteaders came in such numbers that 
he quit the business, rounding up his cattle in the latter part of 1902. 

While living in Lyman County. S. D., he served as coroner of that county 
for six years, and also served as chairman of the board of county commis- 
sioners, which established the various school districts in the county, and 
transacted all the county's business. In 1902 he removed to Day County, 
S. D.. and joined his brother. Lot, a wheat-farmer, purchasing an undivided 
one-half interest in 1,600 acres of grain land. From 1902 until 1909 he farmed 
in partnership with his brother. Being a practical stockman, he was the 
means of changing to mixed farming, raising both wheat and stock. 

In 1907 he was elected and served in the tenth session of the South 
Dakota legislature at Pierre, as the member from Day County. He proved 
to be an excellent legislator, as he was thoroughly conversant with South 
Dakota conditions and needs. 

In October, 1908, Mr. Hamilton visited California and purchased his 
present forty-acre home place. Returning to Day County to close up his 
business, he rented the California ranch to his brother, Hugh, now deceased, 
who farmed the ranch during 1909. His brother, Lot, came to California in 
December. 1008. In 1909. Mr. Hamilton returned to California with $30,000, 
earned principally in the cattle business west of the Missouri River. He 
purchased another ranch of twenty-eight acres a quarter of a mile from his 
home place, toward Parlier. He has improved the home place by tearing 
down the old buildings and building a beautiful modern, nine-room bungalow. 
Nine horses and mules are used on the ranch. Mr. Hamilton is a stockholder 
and director in the Ross Ditch Company, which furnishes an abundance of 
water for irrigation. In addition, he has installed a pumping-plant with a 
twenty-five horsepower engine with which he may irrigate the twenty-eight- 
acre ranch in case of a prolonged drouth. 

Mr. Hamilton helped organize the First National Bank of Parlier. in 
which he is a principal stockholder, its vice-president, and one of its board 
of directors. The directors are: C. A. Parlier, James Hamilton, J. W. Low- 
man, Luther M. Say, and Edwin Ross. Mr. Hamilton is a successful raisin 
and peach grower, and a member and stockholder in the California Raisin 
Growers Association. The Big Church claims his membership, and he is an 
enthusiastic worker for Parlier, where his tact and genial disposition con- 
stantly increase the esteem in which he and his estimable family are held. 
and where they are as justly popular as they were in their South Dakota 
home.