Tulare County Biographies

MARTIN L. WEIGLE

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
Many a man who has come to California hoping to find good health has found that 
and good fortune as well. The experience of Martin L. Weigle is evidence in 
point. Born in York county, Pa., in 1846, he obtained some common school 
education in his native state, after which he acquired a practical knowledge of 
cigar making. When he was about eighteen years old he went to Ohio, where he 
worked at his trade until failing health made necessary a change of climate. In 
February, 1890, he came to California and soon afterward bought forty acres of 
land northwest of Tulare City, and to his original holding he has added by 
purchases from time to time until he is now the owner of two hundred acres. His 
farming operations have been somewhat extensive and at one time he worked five 
hundred acres in the county. At present he has fifteen acres in vineyards, 
giving special attention to raisin grapes, and ninety-five acres in alfalfa, 
with twenty acres devoted to a peach orchard, in which he grows freestones and 
canning fruit. He has also ten acres of four�year-old peach trees which in 1911 
produced fruit amounting to the value of $1,700, and twenty acres of young peach 
orchard not yet bearing. Among his possessions is a fine flock of Indian Runner 
ducks. There are on his place several good breeding mares and he has raised some 
fine colts, having recently sold a pair for $450. It will be seen that his 
career in California has been one of increasing success, and it should be 
noticed that this success has been the result of careful planning and 
intelligent labor. To an extent it has depended also on a good knowledge of 
crops, climate and market peculiarities. In short, Mr. Weigle has made a careful 
study of everything that could possibly affect his business and has taken 
advantage of every opening for improvement and profit.
In 1878 Mr. Weigle married Miss Matilda B. Wilson, a native of Pennsylvania. 
Though he takes an intelligent interest in all important public affairs, he is 
not in the usual sense of the phrase a practical politician, but he has 
demonstrated the possession of public interest of the kind that makes him a 
useful citizen.
 
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - 
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 579