Kings County Biographies


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



H. W. RAWLINS
 
            Is a native of England, born in Warwickshire in 1858.  His father, 
Samuel Rawlins, was  a prominent business man of Birmingham.  His mother, 
Catherine (Donaldson) Rawlins was a native of Scotland.  Our subject was 
educated at the Repton school in Derbyshire, and in 1874 went to London to study 
for the India Civil Service.  After three years of study, and failing the 
rigorous examination, his plans were then changed, and in 1878 he came direct to 
California to join his brother, J. E. Rawlins, who came to the State the 
preceding year.  They then followed farming until 1881, when the partnership was 
formed between J. E. & H. W. Rawlins and J. S. Robinson & Brother, firm Robinson 
& Rawlins.  They then purchased 400 acres of land in the coast range near 
Coalinga, and developed a coal mine which, after being placed upon a paying 
basis, was incorporated as the San Joaquin Valley Coal Mining Company, with a 
capital stock of $300,000.  The firm also established the Hanford Waterworks, by 
boring four wells 48 to 160 feet deep, then pumping to an elevated tank.  They 
distribute through the town by pipes for domestic and fire purposes.  In the 
fall of 1890 they sunk an artesian well 500 feet, and thus secured an ample 
supply of water.  In 1881 Mr. Rawlins also engaged in the sheep business, which 
he followed for two years, and then changed to the cattle business, buying, 
fattening and selling on the market.
            Mr. Rawlin�s ranch of eighty acres lies about one and one-half miles 
southwest of Hanford, where he has twenty-five acres in fruit and vines, 
thirty-five acres in alfalfa and the balance he farms in wheat.
            He was married in London on November 3, 1887 to Miss Florence 
Holder, a native of England, daughter of Colonel C. Holder, of Tiverton, 
Devonshire.  In 1888 Mr. Rawlins built a handsome three-story brick residence on 
his ranch, which is the first and only brick residence in the County, and 
surrounded as it is with shrubbery, lawn and flowers, makes a comfortable and 
attractive home.
            To the household have been added two children � Eleanor Marjorie and 
Henry Guy, who bring their quota of sunshine and brightness to the family.
 
Memorial and Biographical History of the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern, 
California
Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892  p. 757
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler