Tulare County Biographies

LOUIS W. VILLEMIN

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        For more than twenty years Louis W. Villemin, head of the firm of 
Villemin, Job & Cheney, proprietors of a well equipped and up-to-date machine 
shop in Porterville and one of the best known and most active residents of that 
city, has been a resident of California, and each succeeding year of this 
residence has confirmed him in the belief that he followed a fine streak of 
fortune when he came to this state, for he has found conditions here very 
agreeable. For some time after coming here Mr. Villemin, an experienced and 
practiced machinist, was engaged in orange culture, but when his neighbors began 
to find out something about his skill as a mechanic, the demand upon his 
services for incidental neighborly repair work grew so insistent that he soon 
was almost obliged to return to his old trade. It was then that he formed his 
present industrial connection and established the machine shop which he since 
has been directing in Porterville, and in which business he has done very well.
        Louis W. Villemin is a native of the old Badger state, born in the city 
of Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi river, in Crawford county, southwestern 
Wisconsin, January 31, 1875, and is a son of Constant and Tharsilla (Richards) 
Villemin, the latter of whom, a native of Wisconsin, is still living, residing 
in Bemidji, Minnesota, now past eighty years of age. The late Constant Villemin, 
a veteran of the Civil war, was a native of France who had been a resident of 
this country since the days of his boyhood. During the time of the Civil war he 
served as a soldier of the Union, and afterward became a farmer in Wisconsin, a 
vocation he followed most of the remainder of his life.
        Though reared on a farm, Louis W. Villemin was not attracted to farm 
life and as a lad began railroading, a line which he followed until his marriage 
at the age of twenty-four, in 1899, when he became a machinist and settled in 
North Dakota. In that state and in Minnesota and Manitoba he followed the 
machinist's trade for some time and then went back to railroading and became a 
locomotive engineer. While thus engaged he was employed in the service of the 
Canadian Northern Railroad Company, installing pumping plants at stations along 
the line of that road until 1904, when he came to California and became engaged 
in orange growing in the Porterville district. As noted above, his neighbors 
soon discovered his skill as a mechanic and the calls constantly made upon his 
services along that line revealed to him the need of a first-class machine shop 
in Porterville. It was then that Mr. Villemin formed his present partnership 
with Samuel N. Job and C. D. Cheney, both practical machinists, and established 
the machine works on Main and Locust streets that has since been developed into 
one of the best establishments of its kind in this section of the state, and in 
the direction of the affairs of which Mr. Villemin is the guiding spirit. This 
machine shop is equipped with modern machinery and appliances and is prepared to 
take care of anything in its line within the trade area centering in 
Porterville, the constantly increasing demands made upon this service attesting 
its quality.
        Louis W. Villemin has been twice married, his first marriage having 
taken place while he was living in Wisconsin. By that union he had one child, a 
son, Louis William Villemin, a young man of much promise, who died on Mare 
Island, from influenza, in 1918, while serving the country as a soldier during 
the time of this country's participation in the World war, being then seventeen 
years of age. In Visalia Mr. Villemin was married to Miss Eva H. Haughn, who was 
born in California, and to this union three children have been born, two sons: 
Richard Scott and John Philip Villemin ; and a daughter, Ruth. Mr. Villemin 
regards himself as an independent in his political actions, preferring to 
reserve his vote for such men as to him seem better qualified for office instead 
of being bound by party ties. He is a member of the fraternal beneficiary 
society of the Modern Woodmen of America and is also affiliated with the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
 
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. 281