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 HOLMES HUNTLEY. A pioneer of California since 1852, J. H. Huntley has been 
a factor in the upbuilding of the state and of Tulare county since 1865. He was born Sep- 
tember 7, 1829, in Canajoharie, Montgomery county, N. Y., a son of Oliver D. and Mary 
(Stark) Huntley, the former born in Stonington, R. I., and the latter in Connecticut, a daugh- 
ter of Joshua Stark, a farmer, who died in New York. Mrs. Huntley died in New York when 
her son, John H., was but six years of age. Oliver D. Huntley learned the mercantile busi- 
ness when a boy and followed that career for many years. He was twice married; by each 
union six children were born. His second wife was a sister of his first wife. He died at the 
age of sixty-five years. The Huntley family is of Scotch ancestry. 

John Holmes Huntley was the third child by the first marriage; was reared and educated in 
the public schools of his native county and Ames Academy, and for two years found employment 
in a law-book store in Albany. In 1852 he started for California via the Nicaragua route. 
and arrived in San Francisco in November of that year. He went at once to the Sonora mines 
in Tuolumne county, and then turned his attention to buying and selling stock until he enlisted 
for service during the Civil war. In October, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, Second Califor- 
nia Cavalry, being mustered in at San Francisco. He served for a time against the Indians 
on the northern border, and then was transferred to Tulare county, where he served in the 
outbreak on Owens river, acting as sergeant major of a division of his regiment. He was 
mustered out in 1864, after serving three years and four days. 

After the war he spent one year in the mines in Nevada, then went to Tulare county and en- 
gaged in money loaning in Tulare, Kern and Fresno counties. He purchased land from time 
to time, until his holdings amount to eight hundred and forty acres in the San Joaquin valley, 
devoted principally to stock-raising. His residence is located on the Mineral King road, two 
miles east of Visalia. 

August 23, 1879, Mr. Huntley was united in marriage at San Rafael with Nina R. Willfard, 
a native of Southampton, England. They are the parents of two children, Willfard H, attend- 
ing Heald's Business College, and Chester S., a student in the Oakland Polytechnic. In 1900 he 
moved his family to Berkeley to give better educational advantages to his children. 

In politics a Republican, Mr. Huntley has served the party in various offices of trust, being 
deputy internal revenue collector for Tulare, Kern, Inyo and Fresno counties for five years, 
or until the office was abolished, and was gauger of liquors and surveyor of stills, holding that 
office until he resigned. He is a member of General Wright Post, G. A. R., of Visalia. 

In all matters that have advanced the social and educational welfare of Tulare county, Mr. 
Huntley has been an important factor. He is a man of public spirit and strict integrity, and is 
one of the best known men in the county.