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 U. VAUGHAN. When James U. Vaughan went to Tulare county in 1857 there was little to suggest the prosperity which he himself has helped to bring about. To a man who has gained and lost fortunes, and who yet finds himself one of the substantial and influen- tial men in his community, the distance traversed on the road to success seems immeasur- ably greater, and the changes by the wayside of far more emphatic and impressive kind. Well does this pioneer recall the atmosphere of desolation which brooded over his pioneer ranch twelve miles from Visalia, of his range for cattle which extended along the river on the south side for twenty miles, and of the vast distances stretching out before him with scarcely a settler to intercept between himself and the horizon. The lowing of his kine was a welcome sound in those days, and a human face and voice were something over which to rejoice. Today Mr. Vaughan enjoys the distinction of being one of the foremost fruit-raisers in Kings county, and formerly his name was associated with equal prominence with extensive stock-raising interests, in San Luis Obispo county. He was one of the organizers and directors of the Old Bank of Hanford, and also holds stock in the First National Bank of Hanford. His activity has per- vaded the general growth of the locality, and his influence has been, and still is, of a strong, force- ful and progressive nature. Mr. Vaughan is of English descent, and his family was probably established in this country by his paternal grandfather. His father, Reuben Vaughan, was born in Virginia, and when he ar- rived at manhood went to Tennessee, where he married Levina Nail, daughter of an Englishman who served under General Haynes in the war of the Revolution. From Tennessee Reuben Vaughan went to Alabama, and from there to Holmes county, Miss., where, September 9, 1841, his son, James U., was born on a farm. Seven years were spent in Louisiana, the family then removing to Texas, arriving in the winter of 1849, and remaining there until starting across the plains with ox-teams in the spring of 1852. Locating on a vineyard in the city of Los Ange- les, he lived there two years, then removed to a ranch four miles from the city, where he died in 1856, at the age of fifty-six years. His wife, who was of Dutch extraction, died in California at the age of eighty-four, having reared ten of her thirteen children. James U. remembers the overland trip to Texas, and from there to California, which he reached at the age of eleven. He was less than sixteen when his father died, and thereafter he and his brothers assumed the management of the farm, in partnership with their mother. From the home farm the youth took a drove of stock to the vicinity of Visalia in the spring of 1857, remain- ing there comparatively alone on the range for many months. In 1862 he married Sarah Ann Tuel, a native of Texas, who came in 1852 with her mother and stepfather to Mariposa county, and in 1858 to Visalia, where she met her future husband. The young couple began housekeeping under crude conditions, but braved the loneliness and monotony of their surroundings, being re- warded by the business success which came their way. The herd of cattle grew to large propor- tions, and in 1865 Mr. Vaughan drove his stock to San Luis Obispo county, where he took up land and engaged in the cattle business until 1877. This experience terminated disastrously, owing to severe drouth, and resulted in the death by starvation of from seventeen to eighteen hundred head of stock. In 1878 he went to Arizona and engaged in the cattle business, getting together a large band of cattle and realizing large profits until another drouth swept away about four thousand head. Owning a large range of about fifteen hundred acres, he again started in the cattle business in 1893, and possessed about six thousand head of cattle when he sold his ranch and three thousand head in January, 1902. He then shipped about three thousand head to Fresno county and sold them soon after. Coming to Hanford after clearing up from $75,000 to $100,000 in the cattle industry. Mr. Vaughan bought three hundred acres of the Bonanza fruit ranch, one mile north of the city, and placed two hundred and fifty acres in fruit, and the balance under alfalfa. He paid $60,000 for his ranch, and he also owns ten acre's adjoining the city limits, under vines and fruit, where he also has his beautiful country home. The same penetrating thought, thoroughness and business sagacity which distinguished his cattle industry is apparent in his present occupation, and accounts for the measure of success which has already attended his efforts. He has one of the finest fruit ranches in Kings county, his output consisting of peaches, apricots, prunes and raisin grapes. He is associated in business with his two sons, Andrew H. and William T., each of whom owns a third interest in the fruit lands. His only daughter and youngest child, Lillie A., is the wife of John A. Dunbar of Arizona. Mr. Vaughan is a Democrat in national politics, but independent locally. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He is a splendid example of the benefits of range life, of a moderate and free and untrammeled existence. The largeness of perception and breadth of mind which has characterized his business undertakings is realized in his physical proportions, for he stands six feet one and a half inches in his stocking feet, and weighs about two hundred and twenty-five pounds. Notwithstanding his losses and discouragements he is invariably genial and optimistic in temperament, having an air of satisfaction derived from having conquered stubborn fate in the race for financial supremacy.