California Biographies

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


WILLIAM ALEXANDER BROTHERTON. A veteran of the Civil war and a resident of California 
since 1875, Mr. Brotherton is now one of Tulare county's most highly respected citizens. A 
native of Tennessee, he was born February 23, 1837. His father, Henry R. Brotherton, was 
born in North Carolina and later settled in Tennessee, from which state he removed in 1851 
to Missouri, locating in Carroll county, three miles from Carrollton, where he engaged in 
farming for the remainder of his life. He was united in marriage with Miss Susan James, a 
daughter of Thomas James and a native of North Carolina. Of this union there were born 
thirteen children, eleven of whom reached maturity and three are now living. 

William A. Brotherton attended the district schools in his native state and in 1851 accompa- 
nied his parents to Missouri, remaining under the parental roof until reaching his twenty-third 
year. He then married and began farming near Carrollton. March 18, 1861, he enlisted in the 
Third Missouri Cavalry, Company K. and served until 1865, when, on April 16, he was mustered 
out of the United States service at St. Louis. During the war he was wounded by bushwhack- 
ers in the left shoulder and he was also accidentally shot in the left leg by the premature dis- 
charge of his own revolver. 

Returning to Carroll county after the war, he again engaged in farming, remaining there until 
1875, when he sold out and came to California, locating in Tulare county. In 1877 he purchased 
his present place, which he has improved extensively and where he is now engaged in rais- 
ing grain, cattle, hogs and horses. For eighteen years he made a specialty of raising turkeys, 
marketing each year from three to six hundred. 

In 1860, while still a resident of Missouri, he married Miss Margaret Coop, who was born in 
Rutherford county, Tenn., and as a result of this union he has become the father of two 
children now living : Susan, now Mrs. J. H. Blair, and Elmer, who is a merchant and post- 
master at Naranjo. For many years he has been an active member of the Cumberland Pres-. 
byterian Church, serving for a long time as the ruling elder. Independent in politics, he believes 
in voting for the man he thinks best qualified for the office, regardless of party lines. While prac- 
tically all of Mr. Brotherton's time has been devoted to his own business, he has ever been found 
ready to do his duty as a citizen, and while he has never cared for the emoluments of office 
he has nevertheless been active in promoting any plan that was calculated to be of material bene- 
fit to his county. Both he and his wife are earnest Christian people who have hosts of 
friends wherever they are known.