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 FRANKLIN LOCKIE.� Another worthy representative of the Lockie family, honorably identified with the pioneer development of Central California, is James Franklin Lockie (usually called Frank Lockie) the youngest son of the late W. A. Lockie, whose life story appears elsewhere in this work. He owns forty choice acres, and is today one of the prosperous ranchers in this section, all the result of the industry and thrift exercised in the eighteen years since he purchased his estate. He was born in Lake County, Ore., on September 21, 1872, and he was ten years old when he went with his parents to Texas. There, near Weather- ford, beginning as a boy and continuing seven years, he assisted his father at farming, and then he returned to California, in 1889. and settled here, still helping his father. He thus had a part in developing the great Lockie ranch where he early contributed something definite toward advancing California husbandry and in so doing added much to his own experience. On October 20, 1901. Mr. Lockie was married at Fowler to Miss Lula Lillian Hearte, a woman of exalted Christian character, who was born at Weatherford and attended the public schools of Texas, and California ; for she came to the Golden State as a girl of twelve years. She also became the youngest charter member of the Fowler Baptist Church, while her mother. Mrs. Lydia Hearte, now deceased, was the oldest charter member. Her father was William Melbourne Hearte, a native of Pennsylvania who came to Texas and married there. He engaged in general merchandizing at Weatherford, and died aged about seventy. He was twice married, and by his first wife had seven children who were all grown and married before he married a second time. Mrs. Lockie's mother, who was Mrs. Hearte's second wife, was born in Texas and belonged to the first generation of Texas girls; she also was mar- ried twice. Her first husband was a Mr. Nash, and their one child died in infancy. By Mr. Hearte she had four children: Mary, who is the wife of T. S. Lockie. the rancher at Winton ; and Lula Lillian, who is Mrs. J. F. Lockie. The other two children died in infancy. Mrs. Lockie passed the first twelve years of her life in Texas, and then came north with her mother to Fowler. Her sister. Mary Ella, was the first of the family to come out here, having met and married T. S. Lockie in Texas. But Mr. Lockie had remained in Texas and farmed for several years after his father, W. A. Lockie. and the rest of the family had returned to California. As bride and groom, Mr. and Mrs. Lockie came here right after their marriage and made their first purchase of twenty acres, upon which he built his residence and home. The second twenty acres they bought in 1906. By hard, intelligent work Mr. Lockie has added the necessary barns and other outbuildings and has planted to trees and vines ; and their union has been blessed with the birth of four children : Clarence Franklin, a freshman in the Fowler high school ; Elsie May, attending the grammar school ; and William Melbourne and Edith Lucile They are members of the Baptist Church in Fowler, of which Mr. Lockie is a trustee, while Mrs. Lockie is a teacher in the Sunday School. He is a Republican, of the broad and thoroughly patriotic sort ; he loyally supported the administration of President Wilson, and both he and his good -wife were patrons of the Red Cross and participants in other war work. Mrs. Lydia A. Hearte, Mrs. Lockie's mother, passed away at the Lockie home on April 23, 1918, aged seventy-nine, having celebrated her last birth- day only on the fifteenth of the preceding month. She was an honorary mem- ber of the Missionary Society of the Baptist Church at Fowler, and was a woman of exemplary Christian character. By unanimous vote, the members of that church resolved to observe Saturday, March 15, 1919, the anniver- sary of her birth, in commemorating her life, and on that sacred occasion they met together and decorated her grave with flowers, thus bearing testimony to their love for her and their esteem for her noble character. Mrs. Lockie is recognized as a woman of the same Christian attributes. As the baby of the family, she was never separated from her mother, during all the long life of the latter, for more than seven and a half months. Thus her recollections of the departed are delightful and inspiring.