California Biographies, Kern County
HON. FRED H. HALL

History of Kern County, California, with biographical sketches 
of the leading men and women of the county who have been 
identified with its growth and development from the early days 
to the present.

Publisher: Los Angeles, Cal., Historic record company, 1914
History by Morgan, Wallace Melvin

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


HON. FRED H. HALL. — From whatever standpoint the life of Mr. 
Hall is viewed, whether as a deputy sheriff and marshal in his earlier years 
or as a special agent of the Santa Fe Railroad Company, whether as a mem- 
ber (if the state legislature promoting measures for the welfare of his con- 
stituents, whether as the owner of alfalfa lands or as a large stockholder and 
director in oil organizations and in water companies, he is found to be a man 
of versatile abilities, possessing a high order of intelligence, devoted to the 
commonwealth of his nativity, well informed concerning its possibilities and 
eager to develop its vast resources. To such citizens may be attributed the 
great development of the state and from them and their successors must 
come all future advancement. No narrow spirit has governed his business 
enterprises, for they have been as broad-gauged as his own mental equip- 
ment and as purposeful as his own existence. Throughout the entire west 
he is well-known in man}- avenues of activity, where his splendid character 
and broad intelligence have left an indelible impress for good. 

A study of the Hall genealogy indicates that Fred George Hall, a native 
of Portland, Me., learned the occupation of nurseryman and horticulturist 
under his father, who for years engaged in that avocation in Maine. As 
early as 1852, when about thirty-four years of age, he came via Panama to 
San Francisco and engaged in mining at Mormon Island. During the Civil 
war he served in California and .Arizona as a member of Company I, Second 
California Cavalry. After receiving an honorable discharge from the army 
he became interested in horticulture and the nursery business east of Visalia, 
Tulare county, but a long period of invalidism greatly hampered his activi- 
ties. His death occurred at Visalia in July of 1893, when he was seventy-iive 
years of age. During 1907 occurred the demise of his wife at Fresno, this 
state ; she bore the maiden name of Matilda Dillon and was born at Peoria, 
Ill. Their family comprised two sons and four daughters, but at this writing 
there survive only Fred H. and one of his sisters. The former was born near 
Visalia, Tulare county, this state. May 17, 1868, and from the age of four to 
twenty years he lived with his parents at Tulare. After he was ten the 
invalidism of his father prevented him from attending school and forced him 
to work not only for his own support, but also to aid the family. Indeed, 
for Si me time he was the sole support of the family. He worked in brick- 
yards, harvest fields and wherever honest labor commanded living wages. 
During 1888 he took the family back to Visalia, where he secured employ- 
ment as deputy city marshal under E. A. Gilliam. In addition he served as 
deputy sheriff. For one term, beginning about 1892, he served as marshal of 
Visalia, but he was not a candidate for re-election, continuing, however, as 
deputy sherifT and deputy city marshal and in these capacities making about 
thirty-four hundred arrests, some of the suspects proving to be desperate 
criminal characters. Whiile acting as marshal O. P. Byrd served as his 
deputy. 

Subsequent to his service in Tulare county Mr. Hall entered the special 
agents' department of the Santa Fe Railroad, where during the first fourteen 
months his duties consisted chiefly in investigating stolen goods and the 
pilfering of box-cars. From that he was promoted step by step until finally 
he was appointed assistant chief of the department with headquarters in Los 
Angeles. The duties of the position consisted in hiring men and superintend- 
ing the department work between .Albuquerque and San Francisco, also in 
collecting evidence in law suits and investigating matters that came up in 
the law department. Often it was said concerning him that he was the only 
man serving in the office who left the railroad company without an enemy. 
Railroad Brotherhoods and legislative boards wrote him very complimentary 
letters of thanks for his services. In every responsibility he exhibited not 
only wise judgment and practical common sense, but also the utmost tact 
and the greatest consideration of others. 

Resigning from the Santa Fe railroad service in 1906 in order to engage 
in private business and having previously purchased oil lands, Mr. Hall be- 
came a large stockholder in the Visalia Midway Oil Company and assisted 
in the development of lands secured by that concern. From the first he has 
been vice-president and general manager of the company and under his saga- 
cious supervision the work of development has proceeded without any ne- 
cessity for an assessment of stock. On the other hand, there has been an 
assured income for investors. Near Fellows on the west side the company 
owns eighty acres, where there are five wells producing and two in process 
of drilling. It is said that the company for its size is one of the most pros- 
perous in the state. The success of the enterprise may be attributed in 
large measure to the sagacity of the general manager. The oil lands, how- 
ever, do not represent the limit of his useful activities. As vice-president 
and the largest stockholder of the Western Water Company, a company 
organized to furnish water for the west side oil fields, he has been identified 
with a movement of considerable importance. By an expenditure of over 
$500,000 the company has secured water from the artesian wells near the 
north end of Buena Vista lake. This water, pumped through a twelve-inch 
line for a distance of twelve miles to Taft and then stored in two tanks of 
fifty-five thousand barrel capacity in order to furnish pressure for the villages 
of Taft and Fellows and vicinity, was the first water of good quality ever 
secured in the locality and the expense to consumers is only one-quarter for 
domestic use, and one-sixth for oil wells, of what was formerly paid for 
poor water. On the organization of the National Bank of Bakersfield he 
was elected a member of the board of directors, and is now serving as its 
vice-president. 

Included among the other interests of Mr. Hall may be mentioned his 
alfalfa and hog ranch of two hundred acres situated four miles southeast of 
Kern. One of the most important improvements of the ranch is a pumping 
plant with a one hundred-inch stream. In addition he is interested in the 
development of oil in Humboldt county, Cal., where already top oil has been 
struck. As a member of the California Oil Men's Association of Bakersfield 
he is connected with an organization that fosters this recent and prosperous 
industry of the west. Upon the organization of the Western Oil Producers' 
Association, with headquarters in Los Angeles, he has served as a member of 
its board of directors. The advisory board of the American Mining Congress 
also has the benefit of his intelligent co-operation as one of its members. • 
Mr. Hall is an active member of the Prospectors' Alliance of America. 
Having made a close study of the question of conserving our natural re- 
sources and being a man well-posted on the subject, he was selected by the 
executive committee of the board of directors as a committee of one to pre- 
sent the case to President-elect Wilson, then Governor of New Jersey. The 
chief object was to acquaint Mr. Wilson with the conditions that exist in the 
west which directly affect the mining interests and the disposition of the 
public domain. Making the trip to New Jersey, at Trenton he visited Mr. 
Wilson and in the interview presented his subject and acquainted the latter 
with existing conditions in the west, laying before him certain facts per- 
taining to the public domain, and he urged him to appoint a western man to 
the office of Secretary of the Interior. As his reason for this appeal he stated 
that the people of the coast states, where most of the unsettled portion of 
the country's acres lies, wanted a man for the position who would be able to 
see the needs through western eyes and make his decisions accordingly, one 
who was old-fashioned enough to believe in those principles laid down in 
the Constitution of the United States, and who would not delegate to himself 
the power to abrogate the laws passed by Congress and in lieu thereof make 
rulings to conform to his own ideas and whims. A western man received 
the appointment, and the trip marked success and clever manipulation. 

Keenly devoted to the development of Bakersfield, where he built and occu- 
pies a comfortable residence at No. 1915 Eighteenth street, he is serving as 
vice-president of the Board of Trade and by constant co-operation with all 
progressive movements is endeavoring to promote the growth of his home 
city. 

The marriage of Mr. Hall took place in Visalia and united him with Miss 
Ruth C. Stokes, who was born near that city, being a daughter of Y. B. 
Stokes. Possessing an excellent education and a broad culture, she has 
found mental uplift in the activities of the Woman's Club and also has 
enjoyed the social amenities of the Eastern Star and the Women of Wood- 
craft. The marriage was blessed by four children, Rowen F. Maurice F., 
Thelma and Thalia. Fraternally Mr. Hall holds membership with the Ba- 
kersfield lodge and chapter of Masonry. the Woodmen of the World, and the 
Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is a Democrat of the 
stanchest kind, loyal to all party principles. His service was recognized in 
an appreciative manner during the autumn of 1910. when he was elected to 
represent the sixty-sixth assembly district in the state legislature. During 
the thirty-ninth session, 1911, he was a member of nine committees, among 
them being those on counties and county boundaries, county and township 
government, fish and game, irrigation and drainage, manufactures and in- 
ternal improvements, mines and mining interests, oil industries and nil 
mining interests. Largely through his efforts was secured the defeat of a 
measure to appoint a third judge in Kern county. Needed legislation was 
promoted by his keen, capable discrimination. The welfare of his constit- 
uents was guarded in every emergency and he proved himself not only a 
faithful, loyal representative of the people, but also a most tactful and intel- 
ligent promoter of their interests.