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 JOHN HAHESY. Laurel farm, which has been the home of Mr. Hahesy since 1903, com- prises one hundred and sixty acres situated three miles west of the city limits of Tulare. With the benefit of previous years of successful experience in different departments of agriculture, Mr. Hahesy is admirably qualified to successfully operate his present property ; and, while he has lived here for a comparatively brief period, he has instituted improvements of a valuable nature. One of the most important and expensive of these improvements is the electric pumping plant, com- prising a well five hundred or more feet in depth, equipped with a centrifugal pump with a capacity of five hundred gallons per minute. The electric motor is of ten-horse power, but in order to ir- rigate the entire homestead only five-horse power is necessary, and the motor therefore is not oper- ated at its largest capacity. A reservoir covering one acre of ground completes an irrigation sys- tem that is thoroughly modern and practically faultless. In County Waterford, Ireland, Mr. Hahesy was born January 6, 1852, being one of six children, five of whom are now living. His parents, William and Bridget (Houlahan) Hahesy, were na- tives of Ireland, and in 1863 brought their children to the United States, settling on a farm near Manchester, Delaware county, Iowa, where the father died in 1866. The mother survived him for many years, passing away in Iowa in the spring of 1904, aged seventy-five years. After the death of his father John Hahesy took charge of the property, afterward remaining at home un- til he was twenty-one, when he started out in the world to earn his own livelihood. In 1875 he went to the Black Hills, but after prospecting for a time without success he abandoned the mines for the more quiet and less venturesome life of a farmer. In 1879 ne came to California and set- tled in Tulare county, which has since remained his home and headquarters. During 1883 he re- turned to Iowa with the intention of staying in that state, but homesickness for the fair climate of the west led him in six weeks to start back to Tulare county, and since then he has had no desire to leave this region. Having no means with which to take up independent farming, for some time after settling in Tulare county Mr. Hahesy worked for others, but as soon as he had accumulated a sufficient amount to justify renting property he began for himself. While renting the Abbott place near Piano and on Deer creek, he often raised as much as two thousand acres of grain per year. At the same time, until 1886, he operated a threshing machine, and was the first to use a combined thresher in Tulare county. As previously stated he purchased his present property in 1903, and has since brought it to a high state of improvement, having one hundred acres under al- falfa, which enables him to conduct an extensive stock business. In addition he continues to make a specialty of raising grain, and for this purpose rents two adjoining tracts, one embracing a sec- tion of land, while the other comprises fourteen hundred and forty acres, the larger part well adapted to the cultivation of grain. In Tulare occurred the marriage of Mr. Hahesy to Miss Louise Beshears, a native of Missouri. Of their union are four children now living, William Martin, Helen May, John Francis and Charles Jefferson. Educational affairs always receive deserved attention from Mr. Hahesy, who at this writing holds the office of school trustee of the Laurel district. In politics he favors Democratic principles, and has served as a member of the county central committee, but aside from that position he has not been intimately associated with local politics. In fraternal societies he has membership with the Woodmen of the World, Knights of Pythias and Ancient Order of United Workmen.