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


COLUMBUS FAY. Not only were the paternal ancestors of Mr. Fay participants in the 
colonial and Revolutionary wars and the second struggle with England, but his maternal pro- 
genitors, the Abbotts, were also of patriotic stock and bore an honorable part in all of the early 
wars in which our country engaged. Both settled in Massachusetts during its pioneer history 
and afterward wielded an influence in the agricultural development of various sections of New 
England. Edward Fay, Jr., and his father, whose name he bore, were natives of Vermont, the 
former born at Underhill and there reared to maturity, but later a pioneer of Jefferson county, 
Wis., subsequently removing to Richland county, the same state, where he died at sixty-three years 
of age. The wife of Edward, Jr., was Sarah Abbott, a native of Vermont, and a daughter of 
Timothy Abbott. Like her husband she passed the latter part of her life in Wisconsin and died 
before attaining old age. Of their five children only one son and one daughter grew to maturity. 
The subject of this article, who was the youngest of the children, was born in Jefferson county, 
Wis., October 19, 1848, and grew to manhood in Richland county, that state, where he had 
such advantages as the country schools of that day and locality afforded. After the death of 
his father in 1870 he had charge of the home farm, but in January, 1872, started out for him- 
self, traveling through the middle states in search of a suitable location. While traveling through 
Kansas he met a cattle buyer, with whom he secured employment to assist in driving a herd of 
two thousand head of cattle across the plains to Nevada. Eight men constituted the force of em- 
ployes under whose guidance the cattle were driven at a rate of from twenty to twenty-five 
miles per day. After seventy days from Ellsworth, Kans., they landed at Humboldt wells, 
in Nevada. 

A few weeks later Mr. Fay arrived in Alameda county, Cal.. where he secured employment on a 
farm near Haywards. During the six years of his residence there he made infrequent trips to 
Oregon and Washington, going as far north as Seattle. In the fall of 1879 he came to Tulare 
county and settled at what is now Lemoncove, where for five years he engaged in raising grain 
on a tract of thirteen hundred acres. The ensuing four years were passed on a grain farm 
near Dry creek. In 1889 he removed to the Millwood road, in the vicinity of Visalia, and settled 
on a tract of ninety acres which he purchased the following year. Here he has since made his 
home, engaging in the dairy business with a herd of fine Jersey cows and raising alfalfa by the aid 
of excellent irrigation facilities. Having given his attention closely to the work of his farm he 
has had little or no leisure for participation in local politics, nor has he borne any part in the same 
aside from voting a straight Republican ticket at all elections. The fact that he is thoroughly 
awake to the need of educational facilities is shown by his efficient service in the capacity of 
member of the school board of Elbow district. 

The marriage of Mr. Fay was solemnized near Visalia and united him with Miss Nannie E. Kelly, 
who was born in Arkansas and removed to California in company with her parents, Green- 
berry and Sarah Kelly. The family settled in Tulare county, where Mr. Kelly died, and his 
widow has since remained on the old homestead. Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Fay there are two 
children. The son, Clarence, who is now fifteen years of age, attends the high school of Visalia, 
and the daughter, Grade, who is six years of age, is a pupil in the district schools. In religious 
connections Mrs. Fay is associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church and fraternally she 
holds membership in the Magnolia Circle, Women of Woodcraft, her talents making her a wel- 
comed worker in both the church and the fraternal organization.