Kern County
Biographies
JOHN ALFRED
FREEAR
JOHN ALFRED FREEAR. - The superintendent of the Maricopa Queen Oil Company's lease of twenty acres occupies a position of importance in the Sunset-Midway field. Not alone a native of California , but also born in Kern County and practically a lifelong resident hereof, he is deeply devoted to this portion of the state, believes in its future possibilities and promotesps with James Albian, likewise associated with the Maricopa Queen lease, he has exhibited a devotion to work, a morality of conduct and a talent for the oil business that reflects credit upon himself and upon his native county, the two men displaying an efficiency and thorough-ness that came to them as an inheritance from worthy parents and patriotic ancestry.
Born in Bakersfield August 24, 1885, John Alfred Freear was primarily educated in the schools of that city and in 1905 was graduated from Heald's Business College at Stockton. During early life he had become familiar with farming in the old River district, but agriculture interested him less than oil enterprises and it is not strange that his preferences led him to seek employment in the oil Companies in the Kern river field and there too he gained practical experience in the industry through working as a roustabout. From this county he went to the Santa Maria oil field and remained four years, meanwhile learning to dress tools and to drill wells. Upon returning to Kern County and coming to the west side field, in 1909, he secured employment on the Maricopa Queen lease of twenty acres, situated on section 32, township12, range 23. At that time the lease had one well, a gusher. Since then he has helped to bring in five wells on the lease, the last one, Maricopa Queen No. 7 brought in March, 1, 1913, being a gusher yielding two thousand barrels per day of oil of twenty-five degrees gravity. The entire production from the lease averages about seventy thousand barrels per month, an almost phenomenal record and one indicative of the value of the properties. The Superintendent understands the business in every detail and has proved thoroughly competent to handle the many vexations problems presenting themselves for daily consideration and solution.
Transcribed and
submitted by Sally Kaleta.
Source: "History
of Kern County, California, with Biographical Sketches," Wallace M.
Morgan, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914, Pages 209-210.
© 2014 Sally Kaleta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S KERN COUNTY
BIOGRAPHIES