California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

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


 HENRY L. KUNS. One of the most prominent, enterprising and thrifty agriculturists of the San 
Joaquin valley is Henry L. Kuns, a man of strict integrity and high moral character, and one of the 
most respected and valued citizens of Merced county. In his agricultural work he displays 
excellent ability and skill, his farm, lying near Ingomar, being in a good state of cultivation and 
well improved. A son of David Kuns, he was born, November 19, 1847, m Cass county, Ind. His 
grandfather, John Kuns, was born and reared in Pennsylvania, but when a young man removed 
to Ohio, and later to Carroll county, Ind., from there going to Illinois, where he spent his closing 
years. In his religious faith he was a Dunkard, having inherited his beliefs from his ancestors, 
who were among the pioneers of that denomination in the United States. 

A native of Ohio, David Kuns was born in Dayton, in 1820, on a farm, and when six years of age 
accompanied his parents to their new home in Carroll county, Ind. Until after his marriage he 
continued a resident of that state, living in Cass county until 1853. I" that Y ear ' le migrated to 
Illinois. Coming to California in 1890, he is now living retired from active pursuits in Los Angeles. 
His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Lamb, was born in Virginia, the descendant of a 
family of prominence, her birth having occurred in 1828. 

The only child of his parents. Henry L. Kuns received the rudiments of his education in the 
common schools of Illinois, after which he was graduated from the Monticello, Ill., high school, 
and for two years continued his studies at Wabash College, in Crawfordsville, Ind. Under his 
father's careful training he acquired a good knowledge of the science of agriculture while still 
young, and was subsequently employed in various branches of industry in Illinois, having been 
an engineer, a merchant, a nurseryman, a grocer and gram dealer and for three years a farmer. 
Migrating to California in 1878, Mr. Kuns purchased land in Gilroy, and for several years carried 
on a substantial business in general farming, his large orchard and nursery also bringing in good 
returns. In 1892 Mr. Kuns assumed possession of the large ranch of five thousand acres which 
he had previously purchased in Merced county, lying near Ingomar, and ten miles south of 
Newman. Here he has continued his agricultural labors with characteristic success, making 
noteworthy improvements on the place, among them a large pumping plant, furnished with 
water from wells. He has fourteen hundred acres under canal and three hundred acres in 
alfalfa, a profitable crcp, which he increases each year, while the remainder of his grain land is 
devoted to wheat. in his orchard of sixty acres, the only one in the vicinity, he raises almonds, 
apples, peaches, prunes and pears, all of which yield well in this climate. 

Mr. Kuns married, in Ohio, Mary Pearce, a native of that state, and they have five children, 
namely: Henry A., a civil engineer; Margaret, ,vife of W. Williams, of Lordsburg ; Lena, wife of 
John Nenr; David, living at home; and Ora, at home. Politically Mr. Kuns is an active worker in 
the Prohibition party, and has served as a delegate to the national conventions. Religiously he is 
a valued member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.