Kings County Biographies


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



THOMAS SMITH
 
The sons of Ireland makes friends everywhere, succeeding in any community with 
which their lot may be cast, and California has always welcomed this industrious 
class to the ranks of its citizens among those who have sought a home under her 
sunny skies. One of the most prosperous farmers in the vicinity of Hanford is 
Thomas Smith, who was born in Ireland, June 27, 1841. He came, comparatively 
young to the United States and finished his studies in New York, whence about 
1860 he went to San Francisco, and from there he moved to Merced county. Later, 
in September, 1872, he settled in Tulare county, in that part now known as Kings 
county. Soon thereafter he located on one hundred and sixty acres which was the 
nucleus of the homestead which is now one of the landmarks of his part of the 
county. One year later, in 1873, he bought a second one hundred and sixty-acre 
tract, increasing his holding to three hundred and twenty acres. He engaged in 
dry farming and has given much attention to dairying and to hog-raising. Having 
been a farmer all his life he has obtained an intimate practical knowledge of 
everything making for successful cultivation, and so expert is he that in the 
operation of his fine ranch very little is left to chance except such things as 
unavoidably depend upon unforeseen developments in the way of blights and pests. 
He is one of the very few pioneers in his part of the county and every 
improvement on his ranch today was placed there by himself. In 1912 he and his 
son bought a twenty horse-power gas engine which is used for pumping water for 
irrigation on his place as well as his son's. The wells are eighty feet in 
depth, furnishing ample water for their need.
October 13, 1886, Mr. Smith married Mrs. Margaret (Gann) Whitworth, a native of 
Wisconsin, who in 1852 was brought in an ox-wagon across the plains by her 
parents, who were California pioneers of that time. By a former marriage Mr. 
Smith was the father of two children, William H., who lives on an adjoining 
farm, and Mrs. Stella Curry, residing near Hanford. One child was born to his 
union with Mrs. Whitworth, a daughter, Myrtle J. Wilkinson, who resides near 
Riverdale. Mrs. Smith was married (first) to P. Johnson and became the mother of 
two children, Mattie and Katie. By her marriage to Mr. Whitworth she had a son, 
Clarence.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp.  819
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler