Tulare County
Biographies
PARKER RICE BROOKS
In the old state of Georgia, in the heart of the South, P. R. Brooks, now of Sultana, Tulare county, Cal., was born September 24, 1857, a son of Micager and Susan (Sansing) Brooks, both natives of Georgia. While he was yet an infant he was taken by his parents to Texas, where the family lived a short time. In 1858, with ox-teams, they made a six months' journey across the plains to California. They met many Indians, but were not seriously molested by them. Young Hambrite of the party was drowned in crossing the Colorado river. The Brooks family arrived at Porterville in the fall of the same year and they have lived in this part of the state ever since. The father of the family was a stock-raiser and for some time owned many sheep.
P. R. Brooks was a stockman from 1868 to 1893. Later he bought a homestead in Yokohl valley, one hundred and sixty acres of new land, and from time to time other tracts in the valley and in the hills near by. At the time he was proving up on his land the country was new and wild, with cattle, sheep and horses ranging in all directions. He has watched the progress of civilization and the agricultural changes that have developed Tulare county into vast fields of grain with vines and trees that are making it famous, not only as a farming district, but as a wonderful land of grapes and oranges. For several years past he has lived in Sultana, but has given his attention to important interests in the vicinity. On two tracts of leased land, one of one hundred and twenty acres, the other of three hundred and twenty acres, lying in the valley, he has hatched twenty-five hundred turkeys and has at this time fourteen hundred and fifty. He has forty acres near Sultana, purchased in 1901, which he calls his home, thirty acres of it in vineyard and orchard, the remainder in pasture. For the past thirty years he has given attention to turkeys, raising many each season. Since January, 1912, he has resided upon his home place and is looking after that with the care he has always displayed. When he began here there was plenty of wild game in the country, including elk, of which he saw more than one thousand specimens, and the territory now within the limits of the county had not a population of more than two thousand souls.
In his politics, Mr. Brooks, formerly a Democrat, now inclines to Socialism. He married, near Hanford, Miss Ellen Burr, a native of Shasta county, Cal., who has borne. him seven children—Myrtle (the Wife of Clyde Bursford), Harry, Lillie, Dwight, Minnie, Josephine and Carmen. Josephine is attending school at Fresno.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 660-661
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
JAMES MAXWELL CANN
September 1, 1861, James Maxwell Cann was born in Kentucky. In 1880, when he was not yet twenty years old, he went to Missouri, where he remained until 1886. His parents were John Miller and Margaret Franklin (Calhoun) Cann, of English ancestry. He married, near Visalia, Tulare county, Miss Lizzie L. Howell, who was born near Bozeman, Mont., and they have two children. Lewis H. studied at St. Mary's College, Oakland, and is playing professional baseball known as "Mike" Cann; Margaret J. is attending the State Normal school at Fresno.
Soon after his arrival in this county, in the spring of 1886, Mr. Cann found employment in cutting grain with a combined harvester. In 1887 he was employed in a flouring mill and for several years thereafter was in the grain business, for different companies. There was little business then in the country round about except the raising of grain. At Sultana he was later employed in a grain warehouse until his fruit on his ranch had grown to the paying point, he having carefully nursed it in the meantime and done something toward the development of his land otherwise. His property is located in the Alta Irrigation district, the ditch for which was completed about twenty years ago. The district itself was established in 1889. Before the days of irrigation, land could have been bought for $2.50 an acre. With irrigation started, land cost Mr. Cann $37.50 an acre for open stubble field without improvement. He planted thirty acres to Malaga and Sultana grapes and has five acres of Elberta peaches. His Malagas have brought him $200 to $300 per acre, his Sultanas have yielded a ton and a quarter to the acre. His experience covers all of the latter-day development of this district, he having seen raw land hereabouts increase in price from $2.50 to $200 and $250 an in twenty-five years.
Having cast his first presidential vote for Grover Cleveland in 1884, Mr. Cann has been a consistent Democrat to the present time. In a fraternal way he affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. Mrs. Cann is identified with the Women of Woodcraft and with the Eastern Star, and is a communicant of the Christian church.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches - Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913
pp. 661
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler