Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 4 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 42

A pioneer citizen whose life story will ever be of peculiar and instructive interest, and in whom the student of local lore will find additional attraction because of his relationship to the owner of the land on which Selma was originally laid out, is William S. Staley, the son of Stephen Staley, a Virginia farmer born in 1808. His father was Jacob Staley, and he moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia in 1796. The Staleys originally came from Germany, and were among the sons of the German Fatherland who, following Baron Von Steuben and others, came over to help the Yankee colonists found a free republic. Stephen Staley came to California in 1880, settled at Selma, and died here, at the age of seventy-seven, and was buried in the Selma Cemetery. William's mother was Anna Rebecca Metcalf before her marriage; she, too, came to California, and here she ended her days. One of her daughters is Ellen R. Whitson, the widow of the late J. E. Whitson, on whose 160 acres Selma had its beginnings.

William was born on July 20, 1844, in what was then Jefferson County, Virginia, but has since become a part of West Virginia, and growing up in that corner of the undeveloped country, he had but meager educational advantages. At sixteen he quit school, and six months later he went into the Confederate Army, serving under Lee for four and a half years, and experiencing all the dangers and privations attending the engagements at Bull Run, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, as well as numerous minor battles and skirmishes. Though serving a lost cause, the experience enabled him, as well as thousands of others, to display that fortitude of soul and body that posterity has willingly accorded all honor to, as essentially American.

In 1872, Mr. Staley was married to Miss Fannie Hursperger, of Jefferson, Md., after which, for three years, they continued to farm in Virginia on the old Staley homestead. In that year they came to California, bringing a baby boy two years old. Mr. Staley really came to California first alone, leaving his home in Shepherdstown, W. Va., on April 18, 1875, and making for Colusa County, where he remained until the third week in December, 1876, when the party reached Selma. Mrs. Staley had joined her husband in Colusa County, but in Selma she found her first California home. When Mr. and Mrs. Staley and family first reached this section, they went to Kingsburg and stopped there over night; and the next day Mr. Staley went out and bought a claim of railway land, securing not only the original settler's rights, but his house and barn. When this land was thrown open for settlement, the eighty acres sold for five dollars an acre, and later Mr. Staley bought twenty acres five miles west for five dollars an acre. In 1916, he sold this for $13,000.

The union of Mr. and Mrs. Staley was blessed with six children: Robert T. is a miner at Barstow, Cal.; Edith Harley is the efficient librarian at the Selma Carnegie Library; Harry B. and Hattie V. are twins; Grace Anna is the fifth child, and William O., the Selma grocer, is the youngest born. All have attended the Episcopal Church, Mr. Staley having belonged to that church for the past forty years, during which time he helped build the Episcopal Church at Selma. The faithful wife and mother who so long watched over their welfare, was taken from this life on October 20, 1914, in her sixty-second year, beloved by all who knew her.

Mr. Staley has never failed to show his interest in public affairs, particularly those of the community with which he has been identified during so many years, and he has left an enviable record for civic performance. For fourteen years he was a member of the Board of School Trustees, and he served when the first two grammar school buildings were erected, and had a part in creating the beautiful high school structure. From 1892 to 1896, also, he was postmaster of Selma, and old-timers will recall with pleasure his efficient and courteous service. For the past twenty years, Mr. Staley has lived retired, residing at his Selma home, 1827 Sylvia Street, with his two accomplished daughters, Edith H. and Grace A. Staley. There the old-time hospitality, typical alike of California, early Selma and the Staley family, is still a lode-stone to many.