Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 6 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 44

An unusually enterprising and public-spirited man, broad of view and kind and liberal in his impulses, is Dale Rose, the farmer and stockman, who was the first man in this part of the county to sow Soudan grass, and who has long been one of the most successful raisers of that valuable commodity. He was born in Missouri City, Clay County, Mo., on May 8, 1872. His father, W. R. Rose, was a native of Wisconsin and moved to Missouri, where he married Isabelle Rose, a lady bearing the same name but of no relation prior to the marriage.. He was a stock-dealer and died two weeks after our subject was born.

Mrs. Rose married a second time, this time linking her fortunes with Byron D. Ballard of Iowa. He had crossed the plains in early days with ox teams, and for a while was engaged in the sheep business in Tulare County. Then he returned to Missouri, married and brought his wife, with Dale, the only child by the first marriage, to California in 1873. They came to Kern County, and making his headquarters at Bakersfield, Mr. Ballard engaged in the sheep business in Kern and Tulare Counties. Two children were born to them. When he died in the latter county, Mrs. Ballard moved to Burroughs Valley, Fresno County, where she continued stock-raising; and later she came to Auberry Valley, where she married T. J. Patterson, a stockman of Tulare. She passed away in 1900.

Dale was reared in California and educated at the public schools in Kern and Tulare counties, and having completed his studies when he was fifteen, he took up the stock business, rode the range and learned to rope and brand cattle. After a while he engaged in teaming to Nevada and back, and at one time in Nevada he drove a team of eighteen mules.

Mr. Rose's next venture was mining and prospecting, and he was one of the first to work on the Laurel Diggings, near Summit, where he was so successful that he put in hydraulic power. Once more he rode the range, and for a year he was in the assay office at Fresno, where he formed a partnership with Charles Knepper, discoverer of the Copper King Mine.

Having married in 1808 at Madera, when he chose for his bride Miss Menga Marks, a native of Mariposa County, he rented a ranch in the Auberry Valley and set himself up in the stuck business, raising cattle and hay.

He also engaged in teaming. In 1905 he purchased his present place on the Fresno and Auberry road, twenty-three miles northeast of Fresno; and having added to it from time to time, he now has 480 acres in a body. On about 100 acres he raises wheat, making a specialty of the golden gamma, or dry land wheat; all of which he sells for seed. His range is the Jose Basin which has about 6,000 acres; and for a brand he uses the novel device of a hat and an inverted hat, joined together on a level. Mr. Rose is an active member of the California Cattlemen's Association.

Three children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Rose. Isabelle Ruth is a graduate of Clovis High, now attending Heald's Business College; Warren M., also a graduate of the high school at Clovis, is freighting with an auto truck; and Gilbert F. is in Clovis High. Mr. Rose himself has always been a stanch advocate of better educational advantages for the majority, and for several terms he has been trustee of the Millerton school, in the oldest school district in the county. In national politics he is a Democrat.