Tulare County Biographies

W. F. PRITCHARD

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

  
        If it be proper to judge of the success of a man's life by the 
estimation in which he is held by his fellow citizens, then W. F. Pritchard must 
be numbered among the eminently successful men of his locality. He is a native 
of the Lone Star state, born in Dallas, on the 26th day of September, 1886. His 
parents, Thomas C. and Julia E. (Coons) Pritchard, were also natives of Texas, 
whence, in 1887, they came to California, locating first in San Diego. In 1893 
they moved to Fresno, and ten years later established their permanent home in 
Oakland.
        W. F. Pritchard secured his education in the public schools and after 
his graduation from high school he began clerking in a store. He followed that 
line of work in various stores in the Bay cities, and later went to work as a 
brakeman on the Southern Pacific Railroad. During this period he was on the 
lookout for a place in which to make permanent location and believing that there 
was a splendid future for Tulare county, he quit the railroad in 1911 and opened 
a store in Klink, now Ivanhoe. At that time he bought fourteen acres of land, 
which now comprise the townsite of Ivanhoe. He has been prosperous in his 
business affairs and is one of the leaders in business activities in that 
locality. He is the owner of about a dozen buildings in the town, and has also 
bought additional land, his holdings now amounting to about sixty acres, 
practically all under cultivation and planted to oranges, vineyard and alfalfa. 
In 1911 Mr. Pritchard was appointed postmaster of Ivanhoe and has served 
continuously since in that position. Mrs. Pritchard is assistant postmaster. Mr. 
Pritchard is a stockholder and has been a director in the Ivanhoe Green Fruit 
Association, was vice president of the Klink Citrus Association, and has 
rendered splendid service to his community as a member of the school and 
election boards.
        Mr. Pritchard was married to Miss Caroline Knauth of Berkeley, 
California, and they have a son, Leland, who is a senior in the Visalia high 
school. Mr. Pritchard belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in which he has 
attained the Knights Templar degree of the York Rite, and is a Noble of the 
Mystic Shrine, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and the Sciots. He is 
also a member of the California branch of the Postmasters League of America. Mr. 
Pritchard is a man of keen judgment and sound discrimination and has contributed 
in a very large measure to the development and prosperity of Ivanhoe, his 
standing among his fellow citizens being an enviable one.
 
Source:  History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen 
Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. II, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1926., p. 275