At Fresno, on March 27, 1895, Mr. Fincher was married to Miss Beulah Morrison, who was born near Cairo, Randolph County, Mo., the daughter of Asa P. Morrison, a native of Tennessee who while in Missouri, was married to Eliza Musick, of that state, a niece of Jesse N. Musick, of Fresno, to which city they came when, in 1889, they moved to California. For a while the father was in the livery business; then he was engaged in farming the Lone Star Ranch, and thereafter was busy with viticulture. He retired, taking up his residence in Fresno, and died here in 1910. Mrs. Morrison still resides in Fresno, the mother of five children, of whom Beulah was the next to the youngest. She was educated in the public grammar and high schools, and became the mother of two children: Ethel, the wife of F. E. Moore, who resides in Richmond, Cal., and has two children, Roy and Floyd; and Herbert B., who is still under the parental roof.
ED J. SOUZA.
One of California's very successful young native sons engaged in the occupation of ranching in Fresno County, is Edward J. Souza. This energetic young man rents the G. W. Beale eighty-acre ranch lying two and a half miles southwest of Monmouth.
Ed Souza was born in Marin County, California, November 12, 1895, and is the son of Henry Souza and Lucy (Garcia) Souza, natives of the Azores, colonial possessions of Portugal. The father was born in 1863 on the Island of St. Michael, and the mother on the Island of St. George. The father, when twelve years of age, took to the sea. After three years spent in the occupation of whaling he went to Providence. R. I., and joined a company of American whalers who were bound for the Arctic, engaging as cock. He afterwards returned to his native islands and at the age of twenty was united in marriage with Lucy Garcia at St. George. Sometime after his marriage he went to Boston, Mass., later removing to New Bedford, Conn., where he established his home. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and went on the training ship Chisel, leaving his wife and family at New Bedford for two years. His wife became ill, and because of her poor health he came with her and his family to California in 1889, settling first at San Pablo. Later he went to Sausalito, where he worked for the Duncan Mill Company for seven years. It was while working here that his son Ed was born.
In 1906 the father removed with his family to Hanford, Cal., and in the fall of that year he came to Selma, later going to Academy, where for a year he was engaged in wheat raising. He then rented John Rorden's place of 160 acres, which he farmed successfully. In 1912 he bought a forty-acre dairy ranch two and one-half miles northeast of Conejo and ran it for one year. He sold it and bought another forty-acre ranch on the west side northeast of Burrel. He and his wife are the parents of seven children, five boys and two girls. The eldest, Joseph, who was born at St. George, January 1, 1884, came to America in 1906. He now assists his brother Ed in running the ranch. George the second son, is a river and bay captain and the owner of several tow boats. Henry, is in France with the Twenty-sixth Division of the United States Army. He fought in the trenches, was wounded and spent four months in the hospital, afterwards returning to his post. He was gassed in September, and after recovery took the position of cook in the army in October. Four years ago he and his brother Ed were engaged together in ranching in Tehama County, California. The fourth child, a daughter, May by name, is the wife of Joe Bettencort, a rancher four miles west of Monmouth. Lena, is the wife of Dan Soranno, who is in France. Ed J. provides a home for his parents on the ranch he rents, and Alfred, the youngest child is in France and was also gassed and wounded. He enlisted in the United States Army when seventeen, April 3, 1917, the first to enlist for war in Sacramento.
Before the war Ed and his brother Henry rented Frank Helm's large dairy ranch at Herndon. They milked 175 cows and were doing well, but the ranch was sold, and according to the terms of their lease they had to give it up. They went to Tehama County where they engaged extensively in the stock business, incurring a loss of a thousand dollars in this business venture. Ed then went to Sacramento and for three years assisted his brother George in running his two boats. In 1918 he rented the ranch which he is now operating successfully, assisted by his brother Joseph. The land is planted to peaches and vines.
Intelligent, industrious, generous and public-spirited, Ed Souza makes and holds friends. He is kind to his parents, brothers and sisters, with whom he is a favorite.
THOMAS E. RICHARDSON.
One of the largest stock-buyers and best informed stock-men of his section of Fresno County, is Thomas E. Richardson, a native son and a descendant of an honored pioneer that crossed the plains in the early days of California. He first saw the light of day on November 9, 1875, at Plymouth, Amador County, Cal., and was reared on a ranch. He received his early education in the public school of Amador County, and when eighteen years of age went to Angels Camp, Calaveras County, where he was engaged in mining.
Mr. Richardson is a lover of fine horses, and at one time was interested in racing and the breeding of standard-bred animals. In 1903 he located in Fresno and was the owner of the well-known stallion "Stamboulet" sired by Stamboul, the latter sold for $50,000 to E. H. Harriman and had a world's record of 2:07 ½. Stamboulet had a record of 2:10 ¼ and was the sire of Strathboule, who made a record of 2:13 ½. When the racing business subsided his inherent love for horses and animals naturally led him into the stock-buying business, which he conducted on a commission basis, and which occupation he has continued to follow ever since. Mr. Richardson is a very enterprising and successful buyer, and his judgment in matters pertaining to values and conditions of livestock is very highly esteemed and much sought after. In 1916 he shipped 10,000 hogs to Kansas City for E. H. Myers, of Portland, Ore. During the same year he also shipped 1.800 head of cattle to B. C. Rogers, Omaha. Nebr. In 1917 Mr. Richardson shipped 450 head of cattle to C. L. Myers, Kansas City; 950 head of cattle to J. W. Goodwin, of Chowchilla, Cal.; and 350 cows to Hunter & Lytton, Elko, Nev. During 1918 his shipments included 350 head of stock cattle to Crane Brothers, Merced; 500 head to Paul 'Williamson, Stockton; and 400 head of cattle to Thos. R. Carlysle Company, Squaw Valley. Mr. Richardson owns eighty acres near Kearney Park, which he uses for pasturing and fattening stock prior to shipping.
In Fresno, on March 4, 1908, Thomas E. Richardson was united in marriage with Miss Evelyn Mugg, born near Kokomo, Ind., who came with her parents, B. F. and Virginia Velaria ( Lorts) Mugg, to Fresno in 1900, and now are viticulturists near Dinuba. Mr. and Mrs. Richardson reside at 159 Forthcamp Street, Fresno.
H. L. WARD.
So intimately has H. L. Ward, the president of the First National Bank of Laton. Cal., and well known civil engineer of Central California, been associated with the development of this section of Fresno County, that it can be said that to him more than to any other individual, is due the wonderful development of the lands of the Laguna de Tache Grant and the building of the great irrigation system of that section.
Not alone is H. L. Ward a pioneer of California, but also of Fresno County. He was born in Merced County, near what is now Old Snelling, on June 28, 1865, the son of Isaac Newton Ward, an honored pioneer and 49er who crossed the plains with an ox team and mined for gold in Tuolumne County and where he also ran a ferry across the Tuolumne River, which was well known in early days as Ward's Ferry. Isaac Newton Ward was born in Virginia, the ancestors of the Ward family being traced back to England from whence they came to America in Colonial Days, settling in Virginia where the family was quite prominent, among the notables being General Ward, of the Revolutionary War. Isaac N. Ward became a prominent business man and was elected sheriff of Tuolumne County, also was honored by being a member of the State Assembly in 1854. He was married to Miss Elizabeth Birkhead, a member of a prominent family that came to California in 1850, the ceremony being solemnized near Snelling, Cal.
The Birkhead family settled at first near Visalia, and the Birkhead brothers were early settlers and pioneers near Friant, below Millerton, on the San Joaquin River, where they