Tulare County Biographies

JOHN C. STANSFIELD

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        One of the important manufacturing concerns of Lindsay, California, is 
that of Stansfield & McKnight, Incorporated. The factory is located at the 
corner of Ashland and Hermosa streets, and the officers of the company at the 
close of the year 1924 were : John C. Stansfield, president ; Charles McKnight, 
vice president; F. F. Pollock, secretary ; Chester Dowell, treasurer. The 
building now occupied was erected in 1921. It contains about fifteen thousand 
square feet of floor space, is equipped with up-to-date machinery for turning 
out pumping plants, motors, engines, agricultural implements, pipes and 
fittings, casings, accessories, the Stansfield high pressure power sprayer, and 
for doing a general machine shop business.
        John C. Stansfield, the president and one of the founders of this 
business, was born in Morgan county, Illinois, January 8, 1869. His parents, 
Thomas and Elizabeth (Ayres) Stansfield, were both natives of England and were 
married in that country before coming to America in 1857. The father was a 
farmer and blacksmith in Illinois. While still in his boyhood John C. Stansfield 
came to California. For many years he was employed by the logging and lumber 
companies, working in camps of northern California from the Tehachapi to the 
Oregon line.
        Shortly after the beginning of the present century Mr. Stansfield came 
to Lindsay, where he quickly became identified with machine shop work. In 1906 
he formed a partnership with Charles McKnight, who is now vice president. The 
business was incorporated in 1914 under the old firm name of Stansfield & 
McKnight, and Mr. Stansfield has been president since that time. Compared with 
some of the big manufacturing concerns in the larger cities, the plant of 
Stansfield & McKnight might be considered a small affair, but it is the largest 
shop of its kind in Lindsay, employing from twenty to twenty-five men 
constantly, and the well known high quality of the output has enabled the 
proprietors to build up a large and growing business.
        Mr. Stansfield is a member of the Masonic fraternity and his company 
affiliates with the Lindsay Chamber of Commerce. He is married and has two 
daughters: Evalyn and Jeanne. Mrs. Stansfield was formerly Gladys Rea, a native 
of Iowa.
 
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. 442