Tulare-San Luis Obispo-Alameda County CA Archives Biographies.....Smith, Franklin Pierce May 8, 1852 - January 14, 1929 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Steve Harrison raleighwood@juno.com March 3, 2008, 4:00 am Author: unknown "FRANK P. SMITH [Franklin Pierce Smith] At San Jose Mission, Santa Clara county, Cal., Frank P. Smith was born in 1852 [May 8, 1852], a son of Henry C. and Mary (Harlan) Smith, natives respectively of Michigan and Illinois. His father crossed the plains to California in 1845, with Colonel Hastings, who blazed the way for the tide of emigration that was to follow, a little later, after the discovery of gold. For a time he was at Sutter’s Fort. He was occupied in whip-sawing lumber in the woods north of Oakland and then went to the mines when the excitement was the greatest. In the early days, when California’s capital was at Vallejo, he was three times elected to represent his district in the legislature, and for some years he was justice of the peace at the Mission of San Jose. As an interpreter of the Spanish language he had, perhaps, no superior in all California. As such he was often called upon to help in the settlement of matters of great importance. The last year of his life he passed at Livermore, Cal, where he passed away in 1875 [November 24, 1875]. He had children as follows: Frank P,; Emma, who has taught school at Livermore for more than thirty years; and Charles F., of Richmond, Cal. Mrs. Smith is now living at the age of eighty- six years, making her home at Livermore. It was in the original Contra Costa county that Frank P. Smith grew to manhood. He engaged in ranching there, and after a time went to a place near Cambria, on the Pacific, in San Luis Obispo county, where he began dairying. After twenty years’ residence he came, in 1901, to Tulare county. For four years he operated the old Broder ranch, east of Visalia, then came to the place that he has since owned and occupied. It is located five miles west of Visalia and comprises three hundred and fifty-eight acres, of which a hundred acres is in alfalfa, twenty acres in Egyptian corn, and the balance in grazing and general farming uses. He has a diary of forty to fifty cows and has usually about a hundred and fifty hogs. As an example of the productiveness of California land, he says that in one year he cut from eight acres of land four tons of wheat hay and then planted the same land to Egyptian corn and produced a thousand pounds of corn to the acres. In 1882, Mr. Smith married Miss Martha Chappell, a native of Gilroy, Santa Clara county, Cal., and she has borne him two sons, Henry C. and Charles L. In his work he is assisted by his sons, who take an interest in local affairs and are members of Four Creek Lodge No. 94, I.O.O.F., in which Henry C. holds the office of vice-grand. The father is a Native Son of the Golden West. A man of enterprise and public spirit, he has in many ways demonstrated his interest in the county and its economic problems. His uncle, Ira Van Gorden, was so early a settler in Tulare county that when he came he could count the white inhabitants of the county on the fingers of his two hands.” END Additional Comments: "History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches" by Eugene L. Menefee and Fred A. Dodge Los Angeles: Historic Record Company, 1913 Pages 739-740 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/tulare/bios/smith994gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/ File size: 3.8 Kb