Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 5 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 38

So intimately has H. L. Ward, the president of the First National Bank of Laton. Cal., and well known civil engineer of Central California, been associated with the development of this section of Fresno County, that it can be said that to him more than to any other individual, is due the wonderful development of the lands of the Laguna de Tache Grant and the building of the great irrigation system of that section.

Not alone is H. L. Ward a pioneer of California, but also of Fresno County. He was born in Merced County, near what is now Old Snelling, on June 28, 1865, the son of Isaac Newton Ward, an honored pioneer and 49er who crossed the plains with an ox team and mined for gold in Tuolumne County and where he also ran a ferry across the Tuolumne River, which was well known in early days as Ward's Ferry. Isaac Newton Ward was born in Virginia, the ancestors of the Ward family being traced back to England from whence they came to America in Colonial Days, settling in Virginia where the family was quite prominent, among the notables being General Ward, of the Revolutionary War. Isaac N. Ward became a prominent business man and was elected sheriff of Tuolumne County, also was honored by being a member of the State Assembly in 1854. He was married to Miss Elizabeth Birkhead, a member of a prominent family that came to California in 1850, the ceremony being solemnized near Snelling, Cal.

The Birkhead family settled at first near Visalia, and the Birkhead brothers were early settlers and pioneers near Friant, below Millerton, on the San Joaquin River, where they owned 5.000 acres, raised sheep and followed farming.

H. L. Ward's childhood was passed in that vicinity and when about five years of age he came with his parents to Fresno County and attended the first district school at Fresno Flats, now known as Oakhurst. His father was elected as a supervisor of Fresno County, where he farmed and raised stock.

In 1874, the mother passed away, and the next year was followed by the father, who left seven orphan children. H. L. Ward, the subject of this review, was the fourth child and was nine years of age when his father died. The children were reared in the home of their uncle. Mr. Birkhead, H. L. Ward remaining with him until he was seventeen or eighteen years of age. In the winter time he attended school and in the summer worked on farms and ranches. When seventeen he began to make his own way in the world and by the time he was twenty-one he had by a hard struggle succeeded in finding enough spare time for studying and reading to gain sufficient knowledge to enable him to take the examination for a school teacher, which he successfully passed and received his certificate to teach; his first school being at Auberry Valley, in 1886. Mr. Ward continued to teach intermittently for ten years; in the meantime he was studying surveying and civil engineering, being his own teacher and instructor, but later on he attended the Vandernailen School of Engineering, San Francisco, where he pursued a course in engineering. Mr. Ward became acquainted with Nares & Saunders, the sales agents of the great Laguna de Tache Grant, who engaged him to survey the extensive acreage. More than ten years before this he had become acquainted with I. Teilman, the well-known civil engineer of Fresno, having worked with Mr. Teilman for several years, and was associated also with him in the year 1899, in surveying the Laguna de Tache, but in 1900, Mr. Teilman withdrew and opened an office in Fresno, but Mr. Ward continued the work of surveying the grant for irrigation, extending and remodeling the Lillis system of irrigation. Not only did he survey the 68,000 acres in the Laguna de Tache Grant but 20,000 acres bought subsequently, making a total of 88,000 acres owned by this firm. Mr. Ward continued to work for Nares and Saunders from 1899 to 1908, then after one year of rest he engaged with Tom Patterson of Fresno, to survey and lay out the mains and laterals for irrigating the Patterson Tract, and to lay out the townsite of Patterson, Cal. Mr. Ward was engaged on this project from 1908 to 1911. During this time he resided at Laton, but in 1911 removed to Patterson, where for two years he was superintendent of the Patterson project, which included looking after the ranch as well as overseeing the irrigation and engineering work. On August 1, 1913, he returned to Laton, where his personal interests now require most of his time.

As a financier H. L. Ward has displayed great ability and was one of the organizers of the First National Bank, of Laton, which opened for business in 1910, when the former State Bank of Laton was merged into the First National Bank. The State Bank was organized in 1908 and in 1909 when it opened for business it had as its officers: W. E. G. Saunders, of Emmetsburg, Iowa, president; J. O. Hancock, vice president; C. A. Smith, cashier.

The present officers of the First National Bank are: H. L. Ward, president; R. M. Bostwick, vice president; C. A. Smith, cashier; A. E. Hudson, assistant cashier. The Board of Directors: R. M. Bostwick, Alice N. Cornwell and H. L. Ward. Mr. Ward is also a trustee of the Laton Library Association.

Mr. Ward helped to build the Kerman branch of the Southern Pacific Railway and was material inspector of the road in 1891. He was also material man on the line of the Southern Pacific Railway from Bakersfield to the asphaltum beds on the West Side and at one time surveyed an irrigation project for the Santa Fe Railway in the Tulare Lake district, which, however, never materialized. In 1890-91 he was also material man for building the Pulaski railroad, now a part of the Southern Pacific system, about twenty miles in length running from Fresno to Pulaski, now Friant.

H. L. Ward was united in marriage with Miss Katherine B. McKenzie, of Laton, Cal, the ceremony being solemnized in San Francisco, on November 30, 1904. In 1908, he built his beautiful residence in Laton and, since August 1, 1913, has continued to make this town his home. Mr. Ward is an authority on irrigation and has been more than ordinarily successful in subdividing large tracts for disposition in small tracts to actual settlers. He is a man of resourcefulness and executive force and has by his unaided efforts succeeded in making a signal success in his chosen line and has always lived up to his high ideals of honor and lofty business principles.