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


PERRY LeBLANC The name which heads this review is one remembered by the early cit- 
izens of Fresno, Cal., as that of a man who proved a potent factor in the development and 
progress of this city and the advancement of its best interests. Mr. LeBlanc was a native of 
Vermilion Parish, La., where he was born in 1839, the descendant of French ancestry, his 
grandfather having emigrated from France. He was reared on a farm and educated in the com- 
mon .schools. During the Civil war he served in a Louisiana regiment, and in 1868 left his 
native state and settled in California, locating first in Stockton, San Joaquin county, where he 
engaged in general farming on the Mokelumne river, cultivating three hundred and twenty acres. 
In 1874 he came to Fresno county and established a sheep business on the plains and foot- 
hills, where he remained for three or four years, then located in the city of Fresno. He became 
prominent in public affairs, serving first on the city police, later as United States gauger and 
was afterward superintendent of streets. On account of impaired health he retired from active 
cares, remaining a resident of Fresno, in which city his death occurred June 3, 1904. Fraternally 
he was associated with the Knights of Pythias, and politically was a stanch adherent of the prin- 
ciples advocated in the platform of the Democratic party. 

In Vermilion Parish, La., in November, 1866, Mr. LeBlanc married Mrs. Sarah J. (Hough) 
Fitzgerald, who was born and reared in Jasper county, Miss. Her father, Richmond Hough, 
was a native of Mississippi, where his father lived and died. Richmond Hough became a 
farmer in young manhood, removing to Louisiana during the Civil war and in 1868 locating in 
California. He followed farming and stock-raising near Stockton, San Joaquin county, until his 
death, which occurred three months after his arrival in the state. His wife, formerly Matilda 
Everett, was born in Alabama and died in Louisiana. Of the ten children born to Richmond 
Hough and his wife all attained maturity and three are now living. The oldest daughter in 
this family, Sarah J., grew to womanhood in Mississippi, where she was first married to John 
Fitzgerald, a native of Chicago, Ill., and by occupation a conductor on the Mobile & Ohio Rail- 
road. Mr. Fitzgerald died in Mississippi, and in 1866 his widow became the wife of Mr. Le- 
Blanc. Since her husband's death Mrs. LeBlanc has remained a resident of Fresno, where she is 
held in high esteem by all who have known her throughout the many years spent here. She is 
the mother of four children, namely: Robert, of Santa Ana, Cal. ; Joseph, of Fresno ; Thomas, 
of San Francisco; and Albert, of Fresno. Mrs. LeBlanc owns considerable valuable property in 
Fresno, where her greatest interests are centered.