California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


 HERMAN S. BACHMAN. In every locality there is always some man to take the lead and develop some 
special line of business and to this man the whole country is under lasting obligation. To Mr. Bachman 
credit must be given for the great work he has done along dairying lines. He was the man to see the 
possibilities of this business and was the first to engage in dairying from a commercial standpoint. As a 
result of his judgment the section of the county about Portersville has become enriched to the 
amount of many hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

A native of Maine, Mr. Bachman was born in Cumberland county, near the town of Harrison, 
November 27, 1854. His father, Sigmund Bachman, was born in Reckendorf, Bavaria, Germany. On 
immigrating to the United States he settled in Maine, where he engaged in business as a merchant. In 
1855 he migrated to Wisconsin, locating in Milwaukee, where he became a prominent wholesale 
dealer in dry goods. Two years later, however, he removed to the town of Monroe, where he 
remained until 1861. when he located in Chicago as a dealer in merchandise. There he conducted a 
very successful business until 1879, when he went to Denver, Colo., where he engaged in business 
until 1881. the year of his death. His wife bore the maiden name of Susan A. Woodsum. and was born 
in Harrison, Me. She is still living and makes her home in North Bridgton, Me. By her marriage with Mr. 
Bachman she became the mother of four children, three of whom are living. 

The second in this family was Herman S. Bachman. He accompanied his parents on their removal west 
and his early life was spent in the various towns in which his father was engaged in business. On the 
removal of the family to Chicago he was but a boy and there he received his education, but his 
schooling was limited, for at the age of eleven years he entered the employ of a wholesale men's 
furnishing and notion store, which was located on Lake street. Beginning at the very bottom as an 
errand boy he worked his way up, until at the expiration of three years he was promoted to the 
position of stock keeper. He then was employed in his father's store as a salesman and until 1869, 
when his father removed to Crown Point, Ind., where he remained for one year. Tiring of a mercantile 
life he then began farming near Crown Point, continuing for two years or until 1872. That year 
witnessed his arrival in California. The first winter was spent in Lake county and the following spring he 
went to San Diego, where he remained for a short time. Going to Holcomb valley. San Bernardino 
county, he followed mining there, in Kern county and in Arizona, until 1874. From 1874 to 1876 he was 
with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company as foreman of a gang of men engaged in tunnel work. He 
had charge of the head of the tunnel and during the time he was with the company he had no 
accidents, neither was a man in his gang injured. After eighteen months he resigned his position and 
returned to Riverside, where he purchased fifty acres of land and engaged in horticultural pursuits and 
farming, growing oranges and alfalfa. This venture proved a success and there he remained until 1885, 
when he sold out and located in Tulare county. For two years after his arrival in the county he was 
engaged in general farming. In 1887 Mr. Bachman purchased a livery stable in Tulare which he 
conducted successfully until 1896. In 1892 he had purchased his present farm ten miles southwest of 
Portersville and on disposing of his livery stable he took up his residence on this farm, which consists 
of four hundred and eighty acres, two hundred and forty acres of which are devoted to the growing of 
alfalfa, while the balance is used for grain purposes. 

Since taking up his residence on this farm Mr. Bachman has become one of the leading dairymen of 
the state. He now has sixty head of cattle, Short-horns and Holsteins, and although he was the first to 
engage in the butter business from a commercial standpoint, that venture has proved a wonderful 
success. Mr. Bachman is a firm believer in everything modern and his farm is one of the best equipped 
in California. In September. 1903, Mr. Bachman rented his farm and now lives in Portersville, but while 
not directly interested, be still manages the farm. He is the largest stockholder and is president of the 
Poplar Irrigation Ditch Company, and has been prominently identified with water affairs since living on 
his ranch. 

In maidenhood Mrs. Bachman was Miss Cynthia P. Smith, a native of Wisconsin and a daughter of 
Henry M. Smith, who was born in New York state and became an early settler of Wisconsin, where he 
followed farming. During the Civil war he served in a Wisconsin regiment. In 1886 he came to California 
and located at Riverside, but two years later he removed to Tulare county, where he lived until his 
death in 1904, at the age of seventy-two years. Mr. Smith married Palmyra Frost, who was born in 
Ohio, a daughter of Alva Frost, also a native of Ohio. He removed to Wisconsin, where he was engaged 
in farming at the outbreak of the Civil war. Enlisting in a Wisconsin regiment he served until the close 
of that memorable contest. His wife is still living and makes her home at Rialto. She has six children 
living, Mrs. Bachman being the oldest. Mrs. Bachman married for her first husband, Ervin Cornell, who 
died in Nebraska, leaving one child, Minnie, the wife of Isaac Bunton, of Poplar. By her marriage with 
Mr. Bachman, which occurred February 16. 1885, she has five children: Ervin Herman; Susan Adah, 
Chloie Annis. Leah Gretchen and Hazel Olive. By a former marriage Mr. Bachman had two children: 
Howard E., at Tehama, Cal., and Frankie, the wife of James Crose, of Poplar. 

Mr. Bachman has always taken an active interest in the welfare of his county and has been especially 
interested in local affairs. He was one of the reorganizers of the Poplar Co-Operative Association, of 
which he is now vice-president and director. In politics he is a Democrat and a warm supporter of 
William Jennings Bryan. He formerly held membership in the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. 
That success has attended the efforts of Mr. Bachman is the result of his own business ability and 
perseverance. He has had many obstacles to overcome, but with a determination to succeed he has 
gone steadily forward, until today he is considered one of the most substantial men in Tulare county. 
Both he and his estimable wife have a warm place in the hearts of the residents of Portersville, all of 
whom rejoice in the fact that they are able to enjoy their latter years amid peace and good will.