Resource Give Away

After being a teacher and a consultant for over twenty years, I produced my first original "How To" give away.  It took hours of editing to produce.   If you are interested in being on my email list, and getting free PDF articles from time to time, you can email me at tchistorygal@gmail.com.

The article is "Ten Tips for Editing Before Your Editor Reads Your Novel."  Editing takes me three times as long as writing!  WOW!

The History of the Woodlake Area from Roy Lee Davis Part Four

In Part One we learned that the first rural settlement of "Stringtown" disappeared.  In Part Two we learned about the beginning of the church and school, and whether the first school public or private?  Part Three explained the founding of the Elderwood Colony and the coming of "The Father of Woodlake."  In Part Four we will find out what the Father of Woodlake, Stevenson, dreamed for Woodlake and whether or not his dreams came true.

(Steve Webb) bought more land for Stevenson, the land west and north of Bravo Lake for which Stevenson had truly grandiose dreams as a resort.  Webb's office was in the brick building overlooking the Bravo siding where the train stopped.  This enabled him to corner every newcomer as he stepped off the train.  One of these was De Witt Cole.  Cole, teaching in Southern California, had been so impressed with a talk about the Woodlake area that he had bought forty acres of orange land sight unseen.  At first he worked as a carpenter in Woodlake.  Soon his wife and daughter joined him.   Zelda Chase ran a boarding house where folks stayed until their homes were built.  Of course, priority construction went to the business block building.

In early 1912, the first business in the "brick building" or "brick block" opened. M. H. Mills, a Quaker with a wife and two children, operated a grocery store.  A. P. Haury had the dry goods store in adjacent quarters.  One year later, in 1913, Mills sold out to Haury who then cut an archway throught the partition which separated the two stores.  Later the post office resided in a partitioned-off portion of Haury's dry goods store.  The post office was initially moved into the town in 1913, by the simple expedient of Steve WEbb and postmaster J.P. Day loading the"Post Office" into a wagon one evening and reinstating it in the drug store that night.  The drug store was jointy owned by Frank Mixter and Arthur Schelling of Exeter.  Schelling, a pharmacist, ran the Woodlake Drug.  Chandler's restaurant was also located in the "brick block."  In January 1914, the First National Bank of Woodlake received its charter and opened in the "brick block" building with W.S. Bean as cashier/manager and James Henry Blair as president.  Both men remained with the bank in those capacities until it folded in 1932.  It reopened as the Bank of America in 1938.  J.W. Otto ran a hardware store. South of the tracks, W. R. Clevenger had a livery stable and Gordon Day was Woodlake's blacksmith.  In 1911, while Woodlake was being built, Gibson Campbell, a bank clerk, arrived with his invalid mother (who soon died) and his sister; he became the bookkeeper of the Elderwood Citrus Packing House.  Campbell's hobby was landscaping and he landscaped the grammar school D. B. Day built in 1913.  He also landscaped his own home and helped and advised others on landscaping their homes.  In 1913 Woodlake received tow or more firsts.

Dr. Pinkley came to town and set up office upstairs in the brick block building.  One year later he left and Dr. and Mrs. J. F. Pringle arrived.  Dr. Pringle took over Pinkley's practice.  Also in 1913 the Woodlake Echo was born.  E. H. Snedeker, a publicity man for the Visalia Morning Delta, arrived in Woodlake to sell a full-page ad in his paper's progress edition.  He sold the ad but was persuaded to edit and print the first Echo - in the Morning Delta's offices.  The real newspaperman arrived in Woodlake and took over the Echo.  His name was John G. Ropes.  The Ropes had three children:  Gladys, Richard and Edwin.  When John Ropes retired in the 1930s, Gladys and Richard continued to run the paper.  Edwin became a dentist and served Woodlake in that capacity for many years.  The high school was established one year after the Echo.  Gilbert Stevenson, meanwhile, was working on his scheme for the lake.  He had the sides/levies built up to make the lake deeper.  He bought a steam boat to run excursions on the lake;  then he bought two more.  He planned a great hotel on the west bank and an excursion train to run all the way around the perimeter on the banks.  He planned three islands in the lake: each for a different purpose; one for a bandstand and dancing, one for bathing, and one for something else.  But all these dreams came to naught when he ran out of money and went bankrupt.  At least his dreams for the lake were lost.  His town lived on.  Eugene Menefee, in his History of Tulare and Kings Counties, published in 1913, said of Woodlake ... "between Naranjo and Redbanks and near the north Shore of Bravo Lake, is a town whose growth during...its existence has been so phenomenal as to merit special attention.  The town is now solidly and substantially built, having a handsome two story hotel with pressed brick front, several shops, a large concrete garage, a general store, a newspaper, a bank and other features.  During the present year an auction was held ... (for town lots) and quite high prices were realized.  Cement sidewalks and graded avenues are in evidence here as the suburbs of a large city.  Handsome residents are building in great number."

In its 1914 Progress edition, the Visalia Morning Delta reported of Woodlake, "Less than two years old, it has a population of three hundred with five miles of cement sidewalk and curbing, a national bank, a $35,000 store block ... two churches and a school. ...  108 scholars ... Post Office receipts of 1913 were double those of the preceding year.  Shipments of fruit by the Electric Railroad this season numbered thirty-four.

Thus ends the progress of Woodlake from 1853 to 1914.  Thank you to Sally Pace for bringing this document to me from Roy Lee Davis to share with all of you.

The History of the Woodlake Area from Roy Lee Davis Part Three

In Part One we learned that the first rural settlement of "Stringtown" disappeared.  In Part Two we learned about the beginning of the church and school, and whether the first school public or private?

Part Three

In the 1880s, Reverend Satterfield bought the Horse Shoe Ranch, now the north part of Sentinel Butte Ranch.  That decade Jake Bierer came to work for Mr. Waugh.  He and Waugh planted figs in what later became the Mori orchard. Later, Bierer became a well borer and water wizard.  In the 1880s, more irrigation ditches were constructed, and once again Watchumna Ditch Company controlled most of the water in Bravo Lake.  In 1888 Jude Steven Nye, who had retired from the bench in Oakland and was an ex state senator, came to Woodlake where he bought a ranch.  Nye's daughters, Myrtle and Harriet, married the two youngest Davis sons, Thomas Houston and Phillip, respectively.  Nye died on the Davis Ranch in 1906.  In 1889 he told of driving through a bed of continuous wildflowers eleven miles long from his ranch.  The following year, 1890, the Kaweah Lemon Packing Company was founded by Dan Overall, D.J. Giddings, Adolph Lewis, S.C. Brown and William Hammond.  Wesley Ragle set out the first oranges in the Naranjo district about that tie.  In 1893 Reverend Satterfield's granddaughter, Annie Mackey and her husband John Wesley Brown came to Horse Shoe Ranch.  John Brown planted oranges and lemons on Horse Shoe Ranch which he and Annie later inherited from Reverend Satterfield.  Also, in the 1890s Jake Bierer married Janie Place and the Canans arrived and bought Joshua Lindsaey's land.  Probably the most important development of the decade was the founding and naming of naranjo.

Naranjo was named by land owners Harry Brown and Senator Fred Harding (ex Illinois senator).  Harry Brown built the Naranjo store in 1918.  Harry Brown also built the Hein house which was unique in having gas lights.  By 1903 the Mt. Whitney Power Company was delivering electricity to the Woodlake Valley.  Harry Brown also had the first car in the Woodlake area, but he couldn't drive it, so had a chauffeur.  Harry Brown also planted oranges for both Senator Harding and Mr. Pattee, in the Naranjo district.  Fred Harding's great niece, Justine Robinson now lives in his home.  Her mother inherited Harding's property in 1914 at which time Justine Robinson's parents, Captain and Mrs. Forest Lancashire, came to Woodlake to manage the property.  Justine was raised there and attended the Naranjo school.  Meanwhile (3 years after the Lime Kiln Post Officed moved away to Lemon Cove), in 1902, the Naranjo Post Office was established in the store.  In the first decade of the 1900s, Woodlake saw many milestones.

In 1904 the Redbanks Orchard Company was formed with Dr. Squires and Phil aker bought the south slope of Colvin Hill and set out early peaches, Demsen Plums, and grapes.  When this fruit was ready to harvest, they built a packing house and hired William Murray to manage it.  The Visalia phone exchange had a line out there and the Davis's, Blairs, and Brothertons built exchanges on to it. By 1906, the Visalia Electric Railroad was extended to Terminus Beach, which became a popular local resort; it was located just downstream from our present Terminus Dam.  In 1907, the Elderwood Colony was founded.

Elderwood was named by its founders:  Jason Barton, J.W. Fewell, and Adolf Sweet, who had bought and subdivided land on the east side of Cottonwood Creek.  Near the Elderwood Colony, on Badger Road, J.P. Day had a small store.  In January 1908, a U.S. Post Office was established therein with J.P. Day as postmaster.  People fondly recall it as the Elderwood Post Office, but post office records show it only as Woodlake.  But the most significant event of 1907 was the arrival of Gilbert Stevenson, the "Father of Woodlake."

Stevenson bought both John W. Brown's Horse Shoe Ranch and the adjoining Waugh property.  He named this large ranch, Sentinel Butte.  He drilled wells and built a cement reservoir.  Later, Stevenson had the largest, individually owned, orange ranch in the world, 1,500 acres.  In 1917, 149 cars of fruit - oranges - went to market from Sentinel Butte Ranch.  But Stevenson dreamed of and platted a town.  He hired one Henry McCracken to manage his ranch while he bouth land south of Elderwood and laid out his town, which he called Woodlake.  In the fall of 1910, the year Stevenson laid out his town, D.B. Day, a contractor, and Charles Lare, a carpenter, arrived to work for Stevenson.  The Visalia Electric Line had been extended to Woodlake that April.  D. B Day built his family the first house in the (on Palm) Woodlake townsite, but his big project was building Stevenson's "Brick Block", a block sized building to house businesses.  Meanwhile John Lee Pogue directed the laying out and grading of the streets.  Thomas Crawford laid five miles of concrete/cement curbs and sidewalks.  Steve Webb, a realtor who had first come to Woodlake area to see Stevenson about 1909 was back to stay.  He bought more land for Stevenson, the land west and north of Bravo Lake for which Stevenson had truly grandiose dreams as a ...

What did Stevenson, the "Father of Woodlake" dream of doing in the Woodlake area?  Find out in Part Four.

The History of the Woodlake Area from Roy Lee Davis Part Two

In Part One we learned who settle around the Woodlake area then called Stringtown.  In 1867 Stringtown abruptly disappeared.

In the winter of 1867-68, it rained for 38 days! On December 20, 1867, a great landslide occurred on the South Fork of the Kaweah River, completely blocking it.  Three days later, on December 23rd, this barrier gave way, releasing a torrent of water into the already swollen Kaweah.  That night, "Stringtown" families were awakened by the rush of water.  Large logs were carried as far as Visalia and debris was scattered over the landscape.  At "Stringtown" not only were walls, fences, and buildings destroyed or damaged beyond repair, but the top soil was replaced with sand!  Only Reverend Blair's home, on a rise, escaped major damage.  As a result, E.T. Rangle moved his family one or two miles northeast into what later became known as the Naranjo district, and the JWC Pogues and the Cobles moved up to Dry Creek.  The preceding year, Reverend Blair and Reverend Gilliam had established the first church in the Woodlake valley area at the Hamilton School.

When Antelope School was established in 1870, Reverend Blair moved his church there.  It became known as the Antelope Valley Presbyterian Church.  Reverend Blair served as its pastor until his death in 1885 at the age of 81.  Long before that, Blair, who owned the land on both sides of Bravo Lake, had moved to the northwest side.  In 1881, his youngest son, James Henry Blair, born in northern California, gave the land at the present church site of a church, cemetery, and public school.  A real church building was erected there soon after.  However, the first school in the Woodlake area was not public.

By the end of the 1860s, the Colvins, Bacons, Barringtons, Fudges, and Reynolds had arrived in the Woodlake area.  Thomas Henry Davis had hired one John Hill to teach his sons and the Fudge and Barrington children on Davis Acres in a sheep shed.  The first public school was, of course, the Antelope School, which was located about a mile north of the present high school.  One of the early teachers at Antelope School was W.B. Wallace who later served our country as a superior court judge.  Other early teachers included Zillia Blair, the Reverend Blair's youngest child; E.B. Homery and several Swank daughters.  The school was moved to the Blair gift land in the early 1880s and, in 1895, a new schoolhouse was built with slate blackboards, two cloakrooms, a library room and a wide porch on which the students could play on rainy days.  In 1913, after the town was founded, D.B. Day built a brick school on the present high school site and the name was changed to Woodlake.  The high school was established on adjacent land one year later, in 1914.  Meanwhile in the early 1870s Kiln School and, in 1910, became Naranjo School.  The Swanks, at least four of whose daughters taught in these and other schools, arrived in the 1870s.
Other pioneers who arrived in the 1870s included:  the Browns, Garretts, Lewis Hones, the Roarks and Woodards.  The Waughs also came and they settled on what is now part of the Sentinel Butte Ranch.  For summer pasturage, Waugh owned what is now Sequoia Lake.  William Brotherton came with his wife and daughter Susan who married James Henry Blair and the young couple lived int he Blair home.  Brotherton purchased the land that had once been "Stringtown" but, by 1910, Brothertons were living at the north end of Bravo Lake on the south side of Naranjo Boulevard.  James Blair grew crops including Malega grapes.  In 1872, the Wuchumna Ditch was dug and by 1877 Watchumna Ditch Company had control of most of the water in Bravo Lake.  In 1878, JWC Pogue planted oranges and lemons in the bottom lands; in 1879 he moved to Lemon Cove which he founded.  Mrs. Thomas Davis brought the first orange seedlings to Davis Acres.  (In the 1890s Thomas Davis brought orange seedlings from Klink with a wagon and six horses).  One of the most important events of the 1870s was establishing the first Post Office in the area, Lime Kiln P.O. was opened in 1879.  (It later was moved to Lemon Cover - in 1898).  In the 1880s, agriculture in the Woodlake area received some important boosts.

To find out what boosted agriculture in the 1880s stay tuned for Part Three coming tomorrow.

The History of the Woodlake Area from Roy Lee Davis Part One

The history of Woodlake is rather unique.  Most cities and towns in Tulare County began with a few people settling in one place, and within a few years, a town had come into existence.  But several pioneers settled in the Woodlake area, on both the north and south sides of what is now Woodlake, yet no town was formed for about fifty years.  As a matter of fact, Woodlake area's history is nearly as old as that of our county itself.

In 1850 John Poole established a ferry on the Kings River (about two and a half miles north of present Reedley); soon thereafter he established a trading post there in partnership with William Campbell.  That same year, a group of fifteen men, led by John Wood came to the Four Creek country.  (The four creeks were:  Mill Creek, Deep Creek, Packwood Creek, and Outside Creek.)  These men built one cabin, and foundations for more, on the south bank of the Kaweah River south of Venice Hill.  Then these men were massacred by Indians, but at least one escaped.  Further west, where the St. John's River now flows, Loomis St. John cleared and planted land unseen and unmolested by the Indians.  Incidentally, the river which bears St. John's name was formed by the great 1862 flood; previously there had only been a slough. In 1862 the new St. John's River took off from the Kaweah east of Venice Hill someplace southwest of Woodlake.  The old Kaweah, at that time, ran from  McKay's Point to beyond Woodlake where the St. John's River flows today.  By the 1880s the division was at McKay's Point as it is today.  It is because of the changing river channels that no one can pinpoint the exact location of the original Kaweah Ford east of Venice Hill.  Early explorers, such as Kit Carson in 1830, Joseph R. Walker in 1834, and John C. Fremont in 1844, who forded the Kaweah, must have passed very near, if not through the Woodlake area.

In 1851 or 1852, Thomas Fowler (for whom the town was named), Jim Fisher and Thomas H. Davis (a South Carolinian) traveled through the San Joaquin Valley en route to Carson City and the Nevada silver mines.  Upon passing the entrance to Antelope Valley (which they named) they observed several antelope grazing there and decided it would be an excellent place in which to raise cattle.  In 1852 Tulare County was created by an act of the legislature, the first election was held, and the Vise party arrived and built a stockade at what is now Visalia.  Among this group were Tipton Lindsay (who was prominent in Visalia affairs) and his brother Joshua, who later settled and raised cattle on two sections of land southwest of Woodlake.  The following year, 1853, the county seat was moved to Visalia in a heated election.  the first post office was established at Woodville - and the Woodlake area received its first settler.

That year, 1853, Thomas Henry Davis returned to the Antelope Valley.  Having been successful in the mines, they (Davis and his partners) ha bought cattle in Mexico which Tom Davis had driven to Antelope Valley where he settled near the spring.  In 1861 Thomas H. Davis married Leah Jackson Miller in Visalia.  The following year, their first son, Jefferson Jackson Davis, was born on the Davis Acres, making him the first white child born in the Woodlake area.  Thomas Houston Davis, his brother, born in 1865 arrived in the doctor's house in Visalia.  Meanwhile, a young man from Tennessee, Emanuel T. Ragle, helped drive cattle to northern California in 1865 where he first settled and later met the Blair and Moffett families.

In 1857, the Rev. Jonathan Blair organized and led a wagon train from Missouri to California.  This was known as the Blair-Moffett party.  Members included  Rev. Blair, a Presbyterian minister, his second wife, Nancy Moffett Blair; her daughter Lucinda Moffett; his eldest daughter, Sarah Blair Pogue, and her husband John Pogue and their two babies, (a third, Mary Nevada, was born en route); John Pogue's sister, Polly; their half-brother, JWC Pogue, age 18, whom John and Polly had raised; six other Blair children, including Nancy Melvina, then age fourteen, and several Moffetts among others.   Upon reaching northern California they first settled in the Santa Rosa area where they met Emanuel Ragle who married Eliza Moffett there in 1858.  Later, they settled at Little Lake, near present day Willets, where Polly Pogue married John Coble and JWC Pogue married Nancy Melvina Blair.  After a bad winter there, Rev. Blair came to Tulare County and settled in the Hamilton district east of Venice Hill.  He was followed by the Pogues and Moffetts.  These families bought and settled on land on the north bank of the Kaweah River in what is now the south end of Woodlake. By 1863 six families were living in what came to be called "Stringtown."

"Stringtown" was not a town; it was a string of families along the Kaweah, each of whom lived within shouting distance of the nearest neighbor.  Furthest east were the E.T. Rangles; next Rev. Blair's family; then JWC Pogues, followed by John and Polly Coble, and lastly, the John Pogues.  Farther west, beyond "Stringtown" were the Henry Moffetts.  At least two children were born in that area:  John Lee Pogue to John and Sarah (probably in "Stringtown"), and Jonathan Early Pogue born to JWC and Nancy in 1867 (definitely in "Stringtown").  "Stringtown's existence terminated abruptly.

Stay tuned for Part Two to find out what happened to "Stringtown."