Kern County
Biographies
WILLIAM TRACY
WILLIAM TRACY - It is the proud claim of William Tracy
that he is a native son of California. In San Joaquin County, but near Galt,
Sacramento County, he was born August 8,1866, being a
son of the late Edgar Vernet and Mary (Dix) Tracy,
natives, respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The mother died in San Joaquin
County in 1877 and the father passed away May 2, 1913, when advanced in years.
Reared and educated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and married in the Buckeye State
in 1852, he had brought his young wife across the plains in the summer of 1852,
making the long journey with ox-teams and wagons. At the opening of the Civil
war, he returned east, enlisted in his old home regiment of Ohio infantry, went
to the front and served until the close of the rebellion, when he received an
honorable discharge and returned to California. For many years and indeed until
he retired from business cares he engaged as a liveryman and owned a stable at
Acampo. In his family there were nine children, as follows: Alice, Mrs. J. W.
Johnston of Sacramento; Theodore of Bakersfield; Emma who married Ellis Kilgore
and died in Sacramento; Mrs. Ida Marsh, a resident of Massillon, Ohio; Mrs.
Mary Barber of Amador County; Mrs. Sarah Van Valkenburg of Lodi; William whose name introduces
this article; Anna, wife of James Arp, of Bakersfield; and Mrs. Nellie Jarvis
who is living in Amador County.
The death of his mother
when he was ten years of age brought to William Tracy a breaking up of tender
home ties and a loss almost irreparable. During the next six years he was given
a home by a farmer. After leaving here
he lived with his sister, Mrs. Kilgore, of Sacramento, where he finished the
grammar school. Mr. Kilgore is of the
well-known firm of Kilgore & Tracy, of Sacramento. The happy days spent in Mr. Kilgore's home
and about his place of business are among the happiest recollections of Mr.
Tracy's childhood days. While yet in his teens he purchased an outfit and
engaged in teaming on the large ranches of Colusa County, meanwhile saving his
earnings with frugal forethought for the future. Since coming to Bakersfield in
January of 1891 he has been actively associated with the farm and stock
interests of Kern County. Here he took up a homestead and joined his brother,
Theodore, who had secured a claim on the Goose lake channel of Kern River, on
the range of Canfield & Tracy, whose herds of cattle the two brothers
superintended. In due time William Tracy acquired the
Canfield & Tracy holdings and later bought out the interests of his
brother, who removed to Bakersfield. By such additions to his original
homestead, he acquired a ranch of three thousand and eighty acres, lying five
miles northeast of Buttonwillow, or 25 miles west of
Bakersfield as the crow flies. Much of the ranch is in pasture, on which may be
seen cattle bearing the well-known brand of 91 and horses
with the T brand that in the neighborhood has come to stand for quality
and breeding. One section of the ranch has been put under irrigation and is
devoted to alfalfa and grain, the balance being used for range. A special
feature of the ranch is the breeding of draft horses, which find a ready sale
in western markets and always command a high price. At the head of the drove of
over two hundred horses are two Belgian stallions, viz:
Predominant weight fifteen hundred pounds, and Silver Tip, two thousand pounds,
both fine specimens of their popular breed.
A rancher whose
devotion to agriculture has been so constant and whose interest in county
development has continued through so many years must necessarily have
identified himself with other enterprises besides those of every movement of
permanent value to the county. Particularly has he been interested in the cause
of education. For many years he served as a trustee of the Wildwood school and
the district had the advantage of his painstaking devotion to its educational
system and his ardent determination to promote the upbuilding
of a first-class country school. Although by no means a partisan, he is
pronounced Republican and stanch in his allegiance to party principles. In his marriage
to Miss Fannie C. Rowlee, a native daughter of San
Joaquin County, he won a wife possessing in eminent measure housewifely skill,
artistic talents, and deep devotion to country life, and they are earnestly
promoting by their united, harmonious efforts the mental development and
physical training of their children, Cecil Foster, William Darrel, Frances Fay,
and Charles Wellington.
Transcribed
by Sally Kaleta.
Source:
"History of Kern County with Biographical Sketches," Wallace M.
Morgan, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914, Pages 517-518.
© 2014 Sally Kaleta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S KERN COUNTY
BIOGRAPHIES