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 W. STOKES. A prominent rancher and stock dealer of Tulare county, John W. 
Stokes is located in the vicinity of Visalia where he leases land to carry on his business. He was 
born in Daviess county, Mo., July 2, 1837, a son of Yancy B. Stokes, the latter a native of Ken- 
tucky. Yancy B. Stokes came to Missouri in an early day and engaged in farming and stock- 
raising, in the course of time traveling extensively throughout the middle west in his business 
of buying and selling stock. About 1840 he removed to Iowa, where he made his home until 
1850, in which year, on April 10, he started across the plains to California. The trip was 
made by ox-teams and occupied seven months, the company arriving in Hangtown, (now Pla- 
cerville) October 12. He spent his first winter in California in Stockton, being ill the greater 
part of the time. His son, John W. Stokes, who accompanied him on the journey, cared for their 
stock that winter, and in the spring they went to Curtis Creek mines. The three months spent 
there were productive of considerable money, but Mr. Stokes had the misfortune to have it stolen 
from his trunk. He then went to Mokelumne river, in Calaveras county, where he remained 
until the spring of 1852, after which he located near Marysville, on the Yuba river. He spent 
the following spring and summer prospecting for mines, after which he returned to Stockton. In 
the fall of the same year he went back to Iowa, and in 1853 brought his family across the plains 
to California, although they stopped and spent the winter in Carson valley, the following spring 
locating in Contra Costa county, near Martinez. For one year this continued to be the home of 
the family, when, in December, 1855, they came to Tulare county and located on government land 
which Mr. Stokes took up six miles west of Visalia. He there engaged in general farming and 
stock-raising for some time, when he sold the property to his son, John W. Stokes, and bought 
another tract in the same vicinity, owning at the time of his death about sixteen hundred acres. 
His death occurred March 4, 1886. His wife, whom he married in Missouri, was formerly 
Elizabeth Moore, a native of that state. Her death also occurred in California. In his political 
convictions Mr. Stokes was a stanch Republican. 

In a family of six sons and five daughters born to his parents John W. Stokes was the third in 
order of birth. He received a limited education in the common schools of Iowa and Cali- 
fornia, to which state he first came with his father in 1850, being then a lad of thirteen years. 
He remained in California while his father returned to Iowa for the remainder of the family, 
working in the mines at various odd jobs. Upon the location of the family in the state he came 
with them to Tulare county and with his father engaged in general farming- and stock-raising. 
He has continued in this work since, handling extensively cattle, horses, hogs, etc. He has pur- 
chased a large amount of land, while he also leases land for ranges. He is meeting with a 
success that bids fair to number him among the successful stockmen of the county. 

In Tulare county, Cal., Mr. Stokes married Rachel M. Gibson, a native of Missouri, who 
died in San Luis Obispo county, Cal. She left a family of five children, namely: Christina, the 
wife of Adam Spaith, of Tulare county; Thomas, of Visalia ; Elta. a resident of Los Angeles ; 
Miles Andrew, of Visalia ; and Claud, of San Luis Obispo county, Cal. Mr. Stokes' second 
marriage occurred in Visalia, and united him with Nancy Liggett, a native of Tennessee, and 
born of this union are two children, namely: Henry Jenkins and Roxanna, both at home with 
their parents. In his political convictions Mr. Stokes is like his father, a stanch Republican.