Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 5 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 7

Of New England birth and endowed with the characteristics that are supposed to belong especially to people of that section of the United States, i. e., frugality, thrift, and unceasing activity, J. B. Crocker is well known as a leading horticulturist of the Selma district, his intelligence and kindly disposition making him a general favorite in the community in which he lives. He was born at Newburyport, Mass., thirty-five miles northeast of Boston, February 5, 1857.

He is the son of John Crocker, a ship carpenter and a native of Nova Scotia, and Sarah (Holmes) Crocker. His father died at Newburyport, Mass., in 1869, at the age of seventy-four, when J. B. was a lad of twelve. His mother had seven children by her first husband, the father of J. B. She married a second time and had a son by her second marriage. She attained the unusual age of eighty-eight before her demise in Massachusetts, in 1916.

A half orphan at twelve, Mr. Crocker at that time began to depend upon his own exertions for a livelihood, removing from the place of his birth to Maine, where he worked on a farm for four years. He then went to work in a cotton factory at Great Falls, N. H., remaining there six or eight months, until the panic of 1874 caused the cotton factories to close down. Afterwards he returned to farm work, which he continued until 1882, then went to work at the marble works at Rutland, Vt. From thence he went to Iowa, where he worked as a farm hand in O'Brien County. In 1886 he came to California, where he worked on a farm near Fresno. In 1889 he went to Kingsburg and made his first purchase in the Kingsburg Colony, three miles east and one mile south of his present place.

In 1882 he was married to Miss Mary H. Wildermuth. Of the four children born of their union, the three sons were United States volunteers in the recent world conflict. Clark W., a graduate of the Selma high school and Stanford University, was in the aviation corps at Berkeley; Percy S., also a Selma high school graduate, was a senior in the Leland Stanford University, pursuing the geological and mining engineer's course, when he enlisted for service in the World War; Ernest H., a senior in the Selma high school at the time of his enlistment; and Celia F., a graduate in the Class of 1918, is now pursuing a post-graduate course.

In 1907, Mr. Crocker sold his Kingsburg Colony ranch and purchased his present home place of twenty acres, three miles east of Selma on the Canal School Reservation. He has always been particularly interested in education and in 1915 was elected a member of the board of trustees of the Selma high school, a school that ranks among the very best high schools in the State of California.

A true American and an ardent patriot. Mr. Crocker is held in the highest esteem. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen. Fie is a fine example of the California rancher who denies himself much in order to properly rear and educate his children. They are all high school and some are university graduates, while his three sons bear the distinction of having rendered excellent service to their country during the recent war. Percy S. served thirteen months in France, while Ernest H. was in the Coast Artillery in France. They have their honorable discharges, and came home safe and sound.