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


ELISHA L. CLOER. When Mr. Cloer located in the vicinity of Poplar, Tulare county, the land 
was nothing but sand moles and sheep camps. Time, with the energies of men strong 
in the pursuit of fortune and the development of a country given over to pioneer hands, has 
brought about the changes which today greet the traveler of the San Joaquin valley, the wide 
farming lands rich with the. harvest yields, the beautiful country homes, the towns, the cities, 
and the extensive business which speaks eloquently of the prosperity of this section of the 
state. Prominent among the farmers in the vicinity of Poplar is Elisha L. Cloer, who was 
born in Washington county, Ark., June 24, 1852. He is a son of E. L. Cloer, a native of Alabama, 
who settled in Arkansas in an early day and became a farmer and a breeder of fine horses in 
Washington county, where his death occurred in 1859. His wife, formerly Susannah Stone, 
was born in Missouri and died in Arkansas in 1886. They were the parents of five sons and 
four daughters, of whom Elisha L. Cloer was the seventh in order of birth. 

Reared in the place of his birth, Elisha L. Cloer received his education in the common 
school in the vicinity of his home. He then engaged in farming on the old home place until 
1873, when he followed the westward trend of immigration and came to California. He had 
but seventy-five cents in money upon his arrival, and for a time made his home with an uncle 
in Tuolumne county, where he remained for four months. He then went to Stanislaus county 
and farmed for two years, in the fall of 1875 going to Portersville, Tulare county, where he 
entered the employ -of the government as assistant farmer on the Tule River Reservation. After 
five months there he went to Stanislaus county, but soon afterward located once more in Tulare 
county, purchasing a quarter section of land located two and a quarter miles northwest of Pop- 
lar, and here he engaged in farming. In 1879 he removed to Kern county and located on Posey 
creek, near Delano, where he found employment until 1881. He then returned to Tulare county 
and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres, five miles southeast of Poplar, where he is now 
located, engaged in the raising of grain, stock and fine hogs. He has added to his property by 
purchase until he now owns six hundred acres in one tract, devoted to grain, also an additional 
eighty acres, which is given over to alfalfa. 

In West Plains, Mo., Mr. Cloer was united in marriage with Ellen Krause, a native of that 
state, and they became the parents of five children, Thomas, Everett, Carl, Harold and Myrtle, 
the latter deceased. Politically Mr. Cloer is a stanch Republican and is active in the councils 
of the party. For the past thirteen years he has served as school clerk.