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 LOUIS HAAS, deceased, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., was a son of Mathias Haas, who was also born in the Quaker City, the descendant of German ancestry. Louis Haas engaged as a butcher in young manhood, remaining in his native city until 1852, when he came to Cal- ifornia by way of the Isthmus of Panama. Upon his arrival in San Francisco he went to Monte- zuma Hill, where he engaged in the grocery and bakery business, and later located in Gravel Range, at Dutch Flat, where he bought a mine and entered upon its operation. Later he went- to North Butte, Sutter county, and became very successful in his efforts. In i860 he located in the northern part of Tulare county, where there was a wide range, and there engaged in the sheep business. Subsequently he became the owner of seven sections of land in that locality around Smith mountain, and three sections in the Hanford country, now Kings county. In 1862 he brought his family to Tulare county, but eventually located them in Stockton, where they made their home until 1875, in that year removing to Grangeville, Kings county. When the land be- came settled Mr. Haas sold his sheep, and in partnership with a Mr. Crow engaged in general farming, although from that time on he was practically retired. His death occurred in San Francisco in 1888, at the age of sixty-four years. In his political affiliations he was a stanch Repub- lican, and was a liberal and progressive citizen, lending his aid and support to every movement which had for its ultimate end the general welfare of the community. His wife, formerly Mary Marsh, a native of Pittsburg, Pa., and daughter of Thomas Marsh, still survives him, residing on the old homestead. Of their four children three attained maturity, viz. : Mrs. Vania Orr. of Visa- lia ; Mrs. Robison, of Hanford ; and F. Pierce, in the vicinity of Hanford. Vania Haas was reared to young womanhood in Stockton, in which city she was united in mar- riage with Walter Crow. He was a native of Missouri and the son of William Crow of Ripon, Cal. He engaged in farming and stock raising in the vicinity of Grangeville, Kings county, and there met his death at the hands of the Settlers' League, which precipitated the Mussel Slough fight. He was shot dead in May, 1880, at the age of thirty years. They were the parents of the following children : Lola, a graduate of the Stockton high school, now the wife of D. M. Stewart of Oakland ; Clarence, a graduate of the University of California, now an electrician of New York City; and Walter, a farmer residing south of Visalia. Her second marriage occurred in Grangeville, and united her with Prof. A. R. Orr, who was born in Illinois March 18, 1855, and who graduated from Kirksville normal in June, 1875. The same year he came to Califor- nia and located in Visalia, where he became an instructor in the city schools. In 1876 he or- ganized the Visalia Normal and became its president, retaining the position for eleven years. He then accepted a position in the United States land office in the contest department, and main- taining the same for seven years. Mrs. Orr has shown herself a woman of rare business ability, after the death of her first husband assuming control of his extensive interests as a farmer and stockman, as she had also done in her father's estate. She has a stock ranch in Kings county, and owns a ranch of four hundred and eighty acres a mile and a half west of Dinuba, Tulare county, of which four hundred acres are in alfalfa, the chief interest of the place being an extensive dairy. She also has an eighty-acre vineyard at Sultana. At one time she owned thirty-two hundred acres around Smith mountain, but this she has since sold off in small tracts.