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


CHRISTIAN HAUSCH. To rise from a position of obscurity to influence, to surmount the 
obstacles confronting one who seeks to gain independence, to live at peace with fellow-citi- 
zens, and to gain a reputation for worth of character, this is a record of which one may well be 
proud, and in the attaining of such an ambition Mr. Hausch has merited and won the respect of 
associates and acquaintances. Many of the qualities noticeable in his character come to him from 
a line of worthy German ancestors, and he has added to the German characteristics of thrift 
and economy the American qualities of energy and resourcefulness. A native of Prussia, he 
was born at Hohenzollern, May 6, 1832, being the second in a family of five children/two sons 
and three daughters. His parents, John and Gertrude (Pflumm) Hausch, were natives of 
Prussia, and remained in that country until death, leading useful lives as members of a farming 
community. It was their aim to educate each child as well as their means permitted, and Chris- 
tian was sent to the common schools until he reached the age of fourteen years, after which 
he assisted in the cultivation of the home farm. Believing that better opportunities awaited him 
in the new world than in the home land, he set sail for America in 1851, and for a year worked 
as an apprentice to the cooper's trade in Buffalo, N. Y., after which he labored as a journeyman 
at Cincinnati and Zanesville, Ohio, and Petersburg, Ky., going in 1855 to St. Joseph, Mo.. 
where he worked at the same trade. 

During the spring of 1856 Mr. Hausch came across the plains with ox teams and after a jour- 
ney of six months landed at Healdsburg, Cal., in September of the same year. For a time he 
engaged at his trade in addition to working as a farmer, but in the spring of 1857 he went to 
the mines of Sierra county near Downieville and continued there for five years. No special good 
fortune crowned his labors in the mines, and he finally determined to seek a more certain means 
of livelihood. Returning to Sonoma county in 1863 he worked as a cooper at Healdsburg and 
later built a shop on his eight-acre farm one and one-half miles north of that town. On coming 
to Tulare county in 1874 Mr. Hausch settled three and one-half miles south of Goshen, where 
he bought six hundred and forty acres of railroad land, and began the tilling of the soil. As 
time passed by he gradually became interested in the stock business, and the raising of cattle be- 
came one of the special features of his farm work. The profits of his labors were invested 
in other lands until he had acquired, in addition to the original purchase, a tract of one hundred 
and sixty acres and another of eighty acres, all of which still remain in his possession. In 1903 
he retired from agricultural pursuits and came to Visalia, where he now makes his home. 
Though retired from active labors he still superintends his lands, and takes an active interest 
in the improvement of the property. As a citizen he has neglected no duty falling to a public- 
spirited man. but he has been averse to office-holding and, aside from voting the Democratic 
ticket, has taken no part in politics. 

The first marriage of Mr. Hausch occurred in Healdsburg, and united him with Eliza Jane 
Irland, who was born in Ohio and died in Healdsburg in 1873. The children of their union are 
as follows: Anna Belle, now Mrs. Dye, a resident of Tulare county ; Hannah May. wife of 
H. A. Crowell, of Los Gatos ; Mrs. Flora Middleton; Mrs. Henrietta Lamb, who lives on her 
father's ranch; Mrs. Elsie Christina Hayes, living near Goshen ; and Charles Joseph, who re- 
sides in Tulare county. The present wife of Mr. Hausch was Catherine Pflumm, a native of Prus- 
sia, but since 1882 a resident of Tulare county. The only child of this union, Catherine Gertrude, 
is with her parents. Fraternally Mr. Hausch for years has taken a deep interest in Masonry, hold- 
ing membership in the Lodge of Perfection, of Visalia, and Islam Temple, N. M. S., of San 
Francisco, and is also identified with the Eastern Star.