Tulare County
Biographies
FRANK R. BRANN
Within the memory of the present generation California has become widely known as one of the world’s greatest fruit-growing districts. One of the men who has assisted materially in the achievement of this reputation for the state, and one who has worked systematically, early and late, is Frank R. Brann, the present horticultural commissioner of Tulare county. He was born in Alameda, California, July 20, 1886, and is a son of Frank R., Sr., and Dove R. (Redstone) Brann, the former a native of Rockland, Maine, and the latter of New Albany, Indiana. The father came to California when a small child, when his parents crossed the plains as members of the Andrew Young party. Prior to leaving Maine his grandfather was a shipbuilder and a sailmaker in Rockland. After coming to California he operated a sail loft at No. 56 Clay street, San Francisco, for approximately fifty years. For a number of years his son, the father of the subject of this sketch, was associated with him.
The maternal grandfather, David R. Redstone, was a native of New Hampshire. From that state he went to Indiana, and in 1862, accompanied by a brother and his family, he came to California. The Redstone brothers installed the first quartz mill in the state, located at Dutch Flat, Nevada county. Later David R. Redstone located in San Francisco, where he formed a partnership with J. H. Reed as patent attorneys. He had been admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-two years, while still in New Hampshire, to practice in all the state and federal courts and had successfully followed that profession before coming to California, making a specialty of patent cases. In 1887 he brought his family to Tulare county, establishing a colony at Redstone Park, near the Giant Forest. There he owned a ranch of six hundred and forty acres, which was the home of the family for years. On his first visit to Visalia, while he was establishing his colony, he stopped at the Palace Hotel, then the leading hostelry of the city, which is still standing.
Frank R. Brann received his elementary education in the public schools of Redstone Park. Afterward he attended the San Francisco schools and took the correspondence course in agriculture of the University of California. At the age of thirteen years, before he had completed his schooling, he took his fist job, budding trees at the Barton Bar ranch, Three Rivers, Tulare county. When he grew older he became a tourist guide in the mountain and in 1900 he joined a crew of surveyors under A. G. Wishon in the construction of the Power House No. 1 at Hammond. Later he worked on the Tule river project and was then with Russell Chase, engineer of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, in surveying and building the railroad into the Yosemite valley. In 1904 he took charge of his mother’s orange orchard, southeast of Lindsay, Tulare county. It is worthy of mention that oranges from this orchard took first prize at the first citrus fruit fair ever held in Tulare county.
After a year on his mother’s ranch he entered the United States forest service as a ranger and was assigned to duty in the Sierra Nevada mountains, with headquarters at Chris Evans’ cabin in the Millwood district. He was next stationed at the head of White river, in District No. 2, in the Southern National Forest, and also built the Summit Trail. Subsequently he had charge of the ranger service in District No. 5 and was stationed at Isabella, on the Kern river, and was a guide in the mountains for Smith and Wilson.
In 1915 he turned his attention to horticulture, having in the meantime completed his correspondence course under the direction of the State University. He was then appointed inspector for the Lindsay district under Charles F. Collins, then horticultural commissioner. On February 18, 1918, he qualified by civil service examination as commissioner for Tulare and Kings counties, and on July 29, 1921, he qualified for all the counties in the state. In October, 1919, he became deputy horticultural commissioner for Tulare county, under Mr. Collins, and in March, 1922, he was appointed commissioner by the county board of supervisors, which position he still holds. This office is one of the most important in the county. His force consists of four office clerks and twenty-six field deputies.
Mr. Brann was married on October 17, 1910, to Miss Lottie L. Boggs, a native of Colorado, reared in Tulare county. They have three children: Lillian, aged fourteen; Fred R., aged twelve; and Walter Ashton, aged nine. Mr. Brann is a member of Lindsay Lodge No. 416, F. & A. M.; Visalia Lodge No. 26, Order of Sciots; Lindsay Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of which he is a charter member; as the Modern Woodmen of America. He was one of the organizers and the first vice president of the Lindsay Fish and Game Protective Association and has been influential in securing the enactment of better fish and game laws.
History of Tulare County and Kings County, California – Kathleen Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. I, Chicago, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1926, Page 216
Transcribed by Jeannie Miyama