Kings County Biographies


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



W. D. TREWHITT
 
This prominent contractor and builder of Hanford, Kings county, favorably known 
throughout Central California, was born at Cleveland, Bradley county, Tenn. When 
he was twelve years old he became a resident of Fort Worth, Tex., and there 
while still quite young, served an apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade. He 
worked ten years there, then went to New Orleans, La., whence he came to Hanford 
in 1886. Here he has been busy as a contractor and builder, the majority of his 
buildings being handsome brick structures, among which are: the First National 
Bank, Emporium, Vendome Hotel, the New Opera House, the Sharples, Knowell, Bush 
and Kutner-Goldstein buildings, the Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, the 
Axtell block and the Slight & Garwood, Childress & Nunes, Kennedy & Robinson, 
Chittenden-Flory, Robinson, E. Rollins and Buck buildings, and the Hanford ice 
plant, all in Hanford; many fine structures in Fresno, Exeter, Porterville, 
Lemoore, Visalia and San Francisco; a bank building in Patterson, Stanislaus 
county, a $50,000 apartment house in Fresno, a $20,000 addition to the Burnette 
Sanitarium in Fresno, a $40,000 addition to the court house in Visalia, a 
$20,000 grammar school building at Visalia, the Mt. Whitney Power company's 
building in Visalia, the Hyde block in Visalia, high school buildings at Tulare 
and Porterville, grammar school buildings in Lindsay, Exeter and Fresno, a 
$50,000 school building at Coalinga and some business blocks in Lemoore. One of 
his notable residences is that of D. R. Cameron in Hanford. The Hanford 
Sanitarium, the Delano high school, the high school at Visalia, Scally hotel at 
Lemoore and the Convention Hall at Fresno.
In 1907 Mr. Trewhitt, in association with L. E. Hayes, founded the S. P. Brick 
company of Exeter, which makes six million wire-cut brick annually. He is one of 
the owners of the Talc & Soapstone company at Lindsay, whose stone material is 
taken from the earth and ground up into a powder which is a base for many 
products, including paints and paper, soaps and face powders. He has long been 
interested in ranch property in Kings county and now owns an eighty-acre farm, 
two miles west of Hanford, which is given over to vineyard, orchard and the 
raising of horses, cattle and hogs. In 1907 the firm of Trewhitt & Shields was 
organized, the partners being W. D. Trewhitt and H. W. Shields. Mr. Shields has 
charge of estimates and drafting.
Fraternally, Mr. Trewhitt is a Mason of the Knights Templar degree, a Shriner 
and a member of the Woodmen of the World. In 1890 he married Miss Mary Lillian 
Carney, a native of Kentucky, and they have three children: Elizabeth, Dorris 
and Douglas Trewhitt.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp.  798-799
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler