Written on the back of this old photograph: "President Harrison speaking in the Front Street Park (Tulare). About 1885.   Platform in the picture is outlined in Redwood bark.".      The date is actually April 25, 1891.    President Benjamin Harrison stopped in Tulare as part of his 1891 railroad tour of much of the United States.    The platform is said to have been a large cross section from a giant sequoia, with its bark strapped on... you can see this in the first close-up image, below.   The president apparently made a joke about this being his first actual stump speech.

Two close-up images:

There is a military unit at the right side of this close-up image.   The U.S. Army wore spiked helmets with their fancy dress uniforms during the 1880's-90's.

On the left side of this close-up, there are two Chinese gentlemen with their long queue hair braids.

A photo postcard image of the blacksmith shop owned by Thomas Jefferson Clarkson, in Exeter.  Circa 1908.
Clarkson was born in 1860.    He moved to Tulare County in 1871.   And from about 1904, he operated a general blacksmithing and agricultural repair shop in Exeter.    His listing in the 1910 city directory: "Clarkson TJ, blksmith, Pine and Filbert av".

Photo postcard by Lindley Eddy, circa 1914.   This road to Giant Forest (Sequoia National Park) has an interesting history.   The majority of the road, leading to the edge of the park, was built in the late 1880's.   That road was constructed mostly with pick-axe and shovel by the utopian socialist Kaweah Cooperative Colony.    The Colony did this in a failed attempt to set up a logging operation in the Giant Forest area.    
Fun Fact:  The General Sherman Tree  was originally named the Karl Marx Tree, by the Kaweah Colonists.
President Harrison signed a bill creating Sequoia National Park in 1890.   For several years after this, the Kaweah Colony fought unsuccessfully for the ownership of the Giant Forest area.    By 1900, the Colony's road (the only real access to the Park), had fallen into disrepair.   But by 1903, the road was repaired and was extended into the park by U.S. Cavalry buffalo soldiers.    It was these soldiers' job to protect the park, during this time period.   They were under the command of  Capt. Charles Young.   Young was only the third African American to graduate from West Point.
Starting around the time of this photo, automobiles became more common in the park.  Much of the road only allowed for one-way traffic, so specific hours were set for when traffic could move up and then down from the park.
Most of this roadway was abandoned after the opening of a new route in 1926.

An old photograph from the Visalia studio of S.W. Watrous.
On the back of the photo, someone has written: "Guy & wife Ella Rockwell".
I believe this is the wedding photograph of Lorenzo Anson Rockwell and Sarah Ellen Pennebaker, taken in 1880.   Sarah was referred to as "Miss Ella Pennebaker", in one publication from the period.
  They had one child, a boy named Guy Lionel Rockwell.  I'd guess that "Guy" was also Lorenzo's nickname.
Lorenzo worked in the Visalia area as a builder/contractor and  as a school teacher.    In 1884, he moved to Traver and opened a drug store.   He was a trustee on the Traver school board. (This was back when Traver was a boom-town).
Sadly, Ella died in 1884, at the age of 24.   Photograph of Ella's gravestone in the Visalia Public Cemetery.

Photograph by the Visalia studio of C.A. Myers, circa 1893.

Photo by E.M. Davidson of Visalia, circa 1891.

Photo circa 1897,  by Robinson & Churchman.     Photographer Ida Robinson is the earliest female professional photographer, that I know of, who worked in Tulare County.

Photo by E.M. Davidson of Visalia, circa 1891.

Photo by C.A. Myers, circa 1893.

Photo by E.M. Davidson of Visalia, circa 1892.

I rarely see old cabinet card photographs like this, with the date as part of the studio ID.

The photographer, Charles Albert Myers, would have been 22 or 23 years old in 1891.

Photo by the Visalia studio of E.M. Davidson, circa 1888.
Photographer Ellis M. Davidson had his Visalia studio from about 1886 to 1894.   During this time,  Davidson appears to have taken a lot of outdoors photographs.  By doing this, he chronicled a lot of what was going on in Tulare County, during that period.     He has been credited with taking perhaps the most famous late 19th century photograph from this area:   The photo of the mortally wounded train robber John Sontag, at Stone Corral.

Photo by C.A. Myers, circa 1892.    From Myers' Visalia studio at  Holt Block  (the NW corner of Court and Main Streets).