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 D. MARTIN. A well-known resident of Tulare county, John D. Martin is actively 
identified with the advancement of its agricultural prosperity, being the owner of two ranches 
lying near Visalia. In the improvement of his land he takes pride, and has been quite success- 
ful. He belongs to the younger generation of business men, his birth having occurred August 
14, 1873, in Saginaw county, Mich., where his father, George H. Martin, was born and reared, 
and where his grandfather, Philip Martin, was a pioneer settler. 

Receiving excellent educational advantages, George H. Martin was graduated from college 
with the degree of M. D., and entered the medical profession. Removing to Texas in 1881 or 
1882, he became a large land owner, and for several years was actively engaged in the practice 
of medicine, and also served as county clerk for one or more terms. He subsequently practiced 
law in Arkansas, in the Red River district, and served in the state legislature, but later returned 
to Texas, and there "spent his remaining years, dying in Waco. Dr. Martin married Julia Brown- 
ing, a native of Texas, and of the children born of this union two sons and two daughters are 
living. The elder son, Powell Martin, is a rancher in Texas, and John D., the youngest 
child, is the subject of this sketch and the only member of the family on the Pacific coast. The 
mother died in Texas, 

Brought up in the south, John D. Martin received his education in the public schools of 
Arkansas, being afterwards graduated from the high school of Waco, Texas. During the days 
of his boyhood and youth he assisted his father in raising cattle and cotton on the home planta- 
tion, there becoming familiar with agricultural pursuits. At the age of fourteen years he be- 
gan working for the Southern Pacific Railroad, in the bridge department. In 1888 Mr. Martin 
went to New Mexico, where for a time he was engaged in building flumes for the P. and I. 
Irrigation Company. Entering then the employ of the Santa Fe Railway Company, he assisted 
in building bridges in Arizona, between Ash Fork and Prescott. Coming to California in 
May, 1892, Mr. Martin located first near Bakersfield, but within a month settled near Visalia as 
a ranchman, working at first for wages. He subsequently engaged in the wholesale wood 
business in Tulare county, delivering wood in Fresno and Bakersfield. In 1897 he embarked 
in the wholesale and retail liquor business in Visalia, where he has two stores. He is also 
actively associated with the agricultural interests of the county, having a farm of four hundred 
and eighty acres, lying four and one-half miles northeast of the city. This ranch is irrigated by 
the Mathews ditch, in which he owns a one-eighth interest, and here he raises cattle, horses 
and hogs, and has two hundred and fifty acres planted to alfalfa. His other ranch, containing 
three hundred acres, lies six miles south of Visalia, and is devoted to general farming. 

In Fresno, Cal., Mr. Martin married Effie Roadcap, a native of Texas, and they have one 
child, John. Mr. Martin is a true-blue Republican in politics, never swerving from party 
allegiance.