Tulare County Biographies

Elijah T. Colvin

Submitted by Sally Kaleta, January, 2007

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	Elijah T. Colvin, a rancher near Visalia, was born in 
Green County, Alabama, in 1834, the son of Charmer and Mary (Coleman) Colvin, 
natives of South Carolina. The father was a farmer, and they had a family of ten 
children, only two of whom survive, the subject of this sketch and a sister, 
Mrs. Martha J. Fuller, who lives in Texas. Mr. Colvin's father died in Texas in 
1854, and his mother in 1840. In April, 1855, Mr. Colvin left the Elm Fork of 
the Brazos River, Texas, for California, via the Southern route, and in November 
arrived in Los Angeles County, where he rented land for one year. In 1857 he 
came to Tulare County and engaged in the stock business, at which he has been 
very successful. He first took up forty acres of Government land in the 
foothills east of Visalia. At the present time he owns three sections of fine 
stock land at what is known as Colvin's Point, named for him, fourteen miles 
east of Visalia. Mr. Colvin has an interest in the Armory Hall, Visalia, and 
also owns valuable business property on Main Street, and residence property in 
different parts of the city. While in Texas he married Miss Catharine Reynolds, 
a native of Alabama, and the daughter of Jesse W. and Ann (Collins) Reynolds, 
both natives of North Carolina. She was their only child. By this marriage there 
were eight children, only four of whom are living, - Joseph, who married Belle 
Clarkson; Wiley, who died in infancy; Ida, wife of R. R. Elrod; she died in 
1882, being the mother of two children; Jesse, who married Olive Gregg; Lee Ora, 
now a student at Stockton; Ella, who died at sixteen years of age; Charner, who 
died at seventeen years and Leonidas J. The mother of these children died in 
1882, and in 1888, Mr. Colvin married Mrs. Anne Fudge, a daughter of William 
Noland of Downieville, an early pioneer from Virginia. By her first husband she 
had two children, - Hattie and Willie. Mr. Colvin politically is a Democrat, and 
is a successful business man. 

Source: "The Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern, California," Lewis Publ. Co., 1891, pp. 330-331.