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


C. B. DRIVER. Identified with California not only by reason of a sojourn of more than twenty 
years in the state, but also by reason of his loyal devotion to the state's welfare and progress, 
Mr. Driver is typical of the twentieth century spirit of progress and enthusiasm which 
is bringing to California a foremost position among the states of our nation. He is a member 
of an eastern family, his parents, James A. and Mary J. (Smith) Driver, having been natives 
respectively of Maryland and Ohio. After some years upon an Ohio farm his father went 
as far west as Colorado, where he became a pioneer in the now well known and prosperous 
community of Greeley, and there for some years he engaged in farming and raising sheep. In 
1883 he brought his family to California and settled on a small farm near Fresno. Here he spent 
the remainder of his days, dying in 1887, and since then his wife has made her home in Fresno. 
Of their ten children all but two are still living, C. B., having been born in Lorain county, Ohio, 
May 15, 1863. At the time of the family's removal to Colorado he was nine years of age, and his 
subsequent schooling was obtained at Greeley. 

When twenty years of age, in 1883, Mr. Driver accompanied his father's family to California 
and settled at Fresno. Two years later he went to Oakland and there served an apprenticeship 
to the trade of stereotyping and electrotyping, which he followed in that city for some years. 
In 1889 he went to Australia and at Melbourne put in the machinery for an electrotyping and 
stereotyping plant, which he conducted for eighteen months. Returning from Australia to 
California, he resumed work at his trade in Oakland, but after two years discontinued that em- 
ployment and took up the occupation of vineyardist at Fresno. After nine years in that coun- 
ty, in 1 901 he bought one hundred and sixty acres of open land two miles south of Dinuba 
and in 1903 purchased another quarter section adjoining, so that he now owns three hundred 
and twenty acres. The entire tract is planted in vineyards, one-half being in Thompson's seedless 
grapes, while the other one hundred and sixty is in Muscats, with the exception of ten acres in 
Sultanas. 

While in Australia Mr. Driver met and married Miss Jean E. Fraser, a native of Australia, 
and the eldest daughter of William and Jane  (Stuart) Fraser, the latter a relative of James 
Watt. At an early age William Fraser left his native home in Scotland and tried his fortunes in 
Australia, where for years he was identified with the lumber business. At this writing he still 
makes his home there. In his family there are four daughters and three sons now living, all of 
whom remain in their home land with the exception of the daughter, Jean, in America. Of 
their union Mr. and Mrs. Driver have three children, Paul, Stephen and Ruth, who are being 
given excellent educations and the most thorough preparations for positions of responsibility in 
the social and business world. In religion Mr. Driver is identified with the Seventh Day Advent 
Church and for some years has officiated as a deacon of the congregation at his home town.