Merced-Kern-Inyo County CA Archives Biographies.....Escallier, Hippolyte P. 1862 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 13, 2006, 5:28 am

Author: John Outcalt (1925)

HIPPOLYTE P. ESCALLIER

   Sheep-growing has been a very lucrative business in California; many have
made fortunes, but like everything else there are ups and downs in it, as Mr.
Escallier has learned by experience. Brought up in the business from childhood,
he herded sheep when he was only eight years old, in the Hautes Alps country in
the south of France, where he was born April 27, 1862. Upon coming to California
in 1882, he first visited with his brother, Louis, in Delano, Kern County, for a
month and then was employed herding sheep until the year 1885. After
sheep-shearing time in the spring of 1885, Mr. Escallier and his brother, Louis,
started from Delano with a band of 4000 sheep, herding them as they went along
they found pasturage in Kern, Inyo, Mono, and Tuolumne Counties, and in
September they sheared the second crop of wool. Coming back through Merced
County they went through Los Banos when there was no town or railroad on the
West Side, crossed White's Bridge in Fresno County and saved all their sheep.
The sheep were the property of his brother and partner, and in the spring of
1886 our subject bought an interest in the band, continuing for three years,
when he sold out, and his brother returned to France. In 1891 our subject bought
another band, kept them for a time and then sold at a good profit.

   In 1892, in company with Etienne Chabot, he engaged in the sheep business and
they were doing very well, when on May 14, 1894, their flock was caught by a
heavy snow storm on Pine Ridge and 1600 perished. That year wool sold for five
cents a pound and yearling lambs brought $1.05. The next year he sold what was
left to his partner and came out with only three horses and a few dollars.

   After he had gone out of the sheep business for himself, Mr. Escallier went
to work for wages, but it was not long until he bought a band of 200 sheep. He
sold them in 1898 and again quit the business. Coming to Los Banos in August,
1899, he worked on the Woods ranch; and later he worked three winters on a sheep
ranch twenty miles southwest of Los Banos during the lambing period. In 1908 he
got the job of janitor at the old Los Banos Grammar School and in 1911 was made
janitor of the high school, which position he still holds. He owns Los Banos
real estate. Mr Escallier reared seven children. His wife, Leone L. (Atger)
Escallier, died in 1916. Their children are as follows: Elsie, Henry, Aime,
Felix, Louise, Blanch and Joseph. Mr. Escallier is a member of the Woodmen of
the World.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
WITH A
Biographical Review
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
JOHN OUTCALT

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925


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