Tulare County Biographies

LOVELL J. WILSON

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        Lovell J. Wilson, a partner in the operations of the well established 
Sunset Dairy of Porterville, a veteran of the World war with an interesting 
overseas record, and one of the best known young men of this section of 
California, is a native son of California and has lived in this state all his 
life, a resident of Porterville since the days of his boyhood, and is thus 
widely known hereabout. He was born in the city of Napa, in the county of that 
name, November 8, 1895, and is a son of James and Hannah (Moore) Wilson, the 
latter of whom is still living, a resident of Porterville for more than twenty 
years. She was born in California, and has always been a resident of this state. 
James Wilson, who died in Napa, in 1898, was a native of England, who came to 
California in the days of his boyhood and after his marriage established his 
home in Napa, where he was engaged as a building contractor. At his death his 
widow was left with two small children, the immediate subject of this sketch 
having a sister, Veda, now Mrs. Thomas B. Yeager, who is living in Coalinga, 
California. In 1902 Mrs. Wilson moved to Porterville with her two children and 
has since made her home in that city.
        As will be observed by a comparison of above dates, Lovell J. Wilson was 
seven years of age when his mother took up her residence in Porterville and he 
attended the schools of that city, graduating from the high school in 1914. He 
early became connected with the dairy industry and was thus engaged when in the 
spring of 1917 this country took a hand in the World war that for nearly three 
years had been raging in Europe. Mr. Wilson got into the service of the army in 
the following September and after a bit of intensive training at Camp Lewis was 
assigned to the Three Hundred Sixty-fourth Infantry and with that command 
presently was sent overseas and was attached to the Ninety-first Division of the 
American Expeditionary Forces in France. For ten months Mr. Wilson was in 
overseas service, this service including participation in some of the most 
decisive campaigns of the war in the summer and fall of 1918, such as those 
along the Schildt, the Meuse-Argonne grapple which broke the backbone of the 
German army, and the equally spectacular engagement at St. Mihiel.
        Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Wilson returned home and 
resumed his place along the quiet paths of peace, taking up his dairying and 
ranching operations about where he had left off when he went out to war. In 
1921, in association with Ralph E. Hapgood, also a veteran of the World war, he 
became established in his present business, the partners doing business as the 
Sunset Dairy, doing a wholesale and retail business in dairy products, and has 
done very well, this dairy having established for itself a fine reputation in 
the trade area it so effectively serves.
        On June 25, 1919, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Genevieve 
Irene Parker, daughter of William A. Parker and a member of one of the pioneer 
families of Tulare county. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have a very pleasant home in 
Porterville, in the general social activities of which city they take an 
interested and helpful part. They are republicans and give proper attention to 
the civic affairs of the community, interested in all measures having to do with 
the advancement of the common interest. Mr. Wilson is a member of Post No. 20 of 
the American Legion and has done his part in promoting the interests of that 
vigorous patriotic body. He also is affiliated with the Masonic order, belonging 
to the lodge and the chapter. Mr. Wilson is owner of two different ranches, each 
of twenty acres, bearing fruit and alfalfa.
 
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. 198