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


JAMES M. SLINKARD. An enterprising farmer, James M. Slinkard is successfully engaged in the 
dairy business three miles south of Tulare. A native of the state, he was born in Mariposa 
county, March 12, 1861, a son of J. M. Slinkard, Sr. The latter was born in Arkansas, in which 
state he grew to manhood and married, engaging in agricultural pursuits as a means of livelihood. 
Deciding to immigrate to the more remote west, he crossed the plains in 1852, bringing with him 
his wife and two children, and on the Gila river another child was born, a daughter, whom they
 called Melvina Gila. Coming by the southern route, they reached California after a six-months 
trip, and after disposing of their stock, took passage on a boat bound for San Francisco. From 
that city they went to Stockton, thence to Mariposa county, where Mr. Slinkard engaged in mining 
for many years. He met with sufficient success to justify his long continuance in the work, but later 
located on Bear creek, Merced county, and engaged in grain farming and stock-raising. In 1869 he 
came to Tulare county and followed the same occupation until his accidental death, which was 
caused by the brake on his wagon giving way. This occurred October 27, 1899, when he was 
seventy-three years old. His wife, formerly Harriet Roberts, made her home with her children and 
died at the home of her son, James M., January 7, 1905. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Slinkard were born nine children, of whom Richard J. died at Deer creek, 
Hot Springs; William J. is located on a ranch at Lincoln, Cal. ; Melvina Gila is the wife of 
B. H. Klein, of White River, Cal; Charles M. died in 1876; Mollie A. is the wife of J. A. Nor- 
vell, of Merced ; J. M. is the subject of this review; A. Newton is located in Modoc county, 
Cal. ; Annetta, the wife of Charles Peim, died in Washington ; and John A. died at the age of 
eleven years. 

James M. Slinkard remained at home with his father until he was twenty-one years old, in 
youth attending the district schools of Merced county, where he spent his first eight years, and 
those of Tulare county. He followed farming in young manhood, at twenty-three years of age 
renting a farm on Tide river, where he engaged in grain raising. Locating on the property where 
he now resides he has since carried on general farming and dairying, being engaged in the lat- 
ter business only since 1900. Of the four hundred and seventy-one acres which he operates 
along the Southern Pacific Railroad, twenty acres are in fruit, eighty-five acres are in alfalfa, 
while the balance is given over to pastures and grain. All of this land can be irrigated in the 
Tulare Irrigation District, of which he has been a director since 1895. In 1897 he was elected 
president, which office he has since held, working with indefatigable energy to devise means to 
pay off banks, traveling throughout the county making collections. October 17, 1903, he had the 
pleasure of watching the burning of the bonds. For all that he has accomplished in this work 
Mr. Slinkard merits the high esteem in which he is universally held. 

In 1885, in Visalia, Mr. Slinkard was united in marriage with Mrs. Ella M. (Churchill) Ayer, 
a native of Illinois, and the daughter of Zenas Churchill, a pioneer farmer of California. Mrs. 
Slinkard was the widow of Charles S. Ayer. They settled on eighty acres of land on Tule 
river eight miles southeast of Tulare, where Mr. Aver died. Before his death he and his wife 
negotiated for the purchase of the property where Mr. and Mrs. Slinkard now reside, and 
upon which Mr. Slinkard has put the present improvements. In his political affiliations Mr. 
Slinkard is a stanch Democrat. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, of Tulare, where he was first admitted to the organization, and of which he served 
two terms as "noble grand. He also belongs to the Encampment, of which he is past chief 
patriarch ; the Rebekahs ; Woodmen of the World ; and the Improved Order of Red Men.