California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

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


HENRY C. WITT. The present postmaster of Success, Tulare county, Henry C. Witt is a citizen who 
commands the respect and esteem of all who have had business dealings with him. He also conducts a 
general store in that place, as well as participating actively in the agricultural interests of the section. A 
native son of the state, he was born in Sacramento county. Cal., February 11, 1868. His father, Henry 
Witt, was born in Rhea county, Tenn., and in 18^2 removed to Texas, thence crossed the plains to 
California the following year, driving a herd of cattle for James Houston. Upon his arrival in the state he 
located near Sacramento, devoting his time to farming and giving some attention to mining at Brown's 
Flat and Nevada City. In 1872 he located in the San Joaquin valley, homesteading one hundred and 
sixty acres on the South Tule river, where he farmed and set out the first orange grove in this section. 
His death occurred there in 1897, at the age of sixty years. His wife, formerly Anna Murray, of 
Pennsylvania, survives him, now making her home in Portersville, Tulare county. They were the 
parents of nine children, six sons and three daughters, of whom Henry C. Witt is the second in order of 
birth. 

The education of Henry C. Witt was obtained in the common schools of California, after which he 
engaged in farming and stock-raising with his father. Later he gave his attention to the cultivation of 
oranges, ten acres of the sixty which he now owns being devoted to that fruit. In 1903 he received the 
appointment which gave to him the postmastership of the office at Success, since which time he has 
combined those duties with his work as a merchant. He is a Democrat in his political convictions. 
February 11, 1902, he was united in marriage with Mattie Livingston, also a native of the state and 
daughter of J. H. Livingston, one of the earliest pioneers, her birth having occurred in Martinez, Contra 
Costa county.