A young cowboy with toy pistol.   Photo by Doran of Tulare, circa 1895.

Early photo postcard, postmarked from Orosi in 1903.    The message refers to Beulah Dye as possibly being the girl in the image.    According to census records, Beulah Flora Dye (1898-1992) was a resident of the Cutler/Orosi area into the 1920s

An old postcard, postmarked: "Portersville Cal,  Jul. 8, 1910".     A view of Porterville's  Main St., looking north.   This is back when Main Street ended at the Morton Street School.

 This photo also appears in Sarah Troop's book about Lindsay, CA.     Her book dates the photograph to 1913.   The Scouts at the back of this image are from Lindsay Troop 1.   This was the first Boy Scout troop established in the Tulare County area.

Close up:

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The snapshots below are from an old photo album that identified the location and years as "Globe 1913" and "Globe 1915".     Globe is an area along the western edge of Springville.    Unfortunately, there are no names with these photos

I would guess that this is a foot bridge across the Tule River.    

This is a view looking northwest, near the present day corner of  highway 190 and Bridge Dr., in Springville.

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Below are scans of a group of glass negatives from the Visalia area.  Circa 1906.

(Many thanks to Joseph Vicenti, for these negatives)

View of a small dairy.    The words etched at the bottom of the negative say:  "Clear View Home. Cream Day. Visalia Cal".

Another view of the dairy, above.   The young woman, standing at center, appears in many of these images.

They appear to be standing in a field of sorghum.   The man here also appears in several of these images.

"We're Ready" is written at the lower corner of this negative.    Looks like the dogs are taking the horse & buggy out.

I believe the word in the lower left corner is "Companions".

This is the staff of the weekly Visalia Delta Newspaper,  dated 1884.   The paper was  one of the precursors to the  Visalia Times-Delta.            The photograph is by S.W. Watrous of  Visalia.
In the front row:  Kate Dineley,   Elizabeth (Lizzie) Barnett,   Florence Dineley (Kate's sister).
Back row (L to R): <unknown>,  Joseph McMillan,  George W. Stewart (editor and publisher),   Clarence Lillie.
They were all pretty young... Florence Dineley would have been just 16 or 17.   The eldest was apparently George Stewart, who turned 27 in 1884.      Mr. Stewart was an important early advocate for the preservation of  giant sequoias.     He has been called  the “Father of Sequoia National Park”.    He used the newspaper to drum-up support to save some of the big trees from logging,  and to push for the formation of a national park.   ----  Many thanks to Joseph Vicenti, for this wonderful photo.

Photo postcard by Lindley Eddy,  circa 1922.    These were some of the tourist cabins in Sequoia National Park.

Cabinet Card photograph by E.J. Kildare of Visalia,  circa 1875.

Photo postcard of orange pickers, near Exeter.   Circa 1908.   Written on the back of the card:  "Compliments of  T. J. Hurly   Merryman Ranch.  Exeter, Cal".    The Bonnie Brae Orange Ranch (see my 4/26/16 post) was  part of the greater Merryman family property.

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The three postcards below are of Exeter's Armistice Day parade,   circa 1923.   

Armistice Day started as an annual commemoration of the end of  World War I.       It was later changed to Veterans Day;  honoring persons who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

It appears that all the girls in this image have bobbed haircuts.    The unpaved road would lead me to believe the image was taken in 1919 or 1920,   but the young women's hairstyle makes me think it was a little later than that.

The Emperor Grape/Exeter Chamber of Commerce float.

The Visalia Chamber of Commerce float, at the Exeter parade.       

The photography studio appears to be Steiner of Exeter.

A  photo postcard view of Visalia's  Main Street,  looking west,   near its intersection with Garden St.  Circa  1907.

The building to the near left hand side, still stands at 309 E. Main.    It is the building where the Las Palmas  Restaurant was later located.    Just west of this was John Hyde's furniture store.        Across the street from 309 E. Main  is the Harvey House hotel.   According to Terry Ommen's blog,  the Harvey House structure was built around 1904 and it was torn down in 1971.      Down the same side of the street,  at the NW corner of Church and Main St,  is the old Bank of Visalia clock tower.   The 5 story Bank of Italy building now stands at that location (built in 1923).

 This appears to be one of George Besaw's photos,  see the Visalia Armory Building photo I posted on 7/17/2018.    Besaw's armory photo is numbered "171",  and this photo is numbered "168" (in the lower right corner).   Most likely,  Besaw took these images within days of each other.      In the image above, I can just make out a small poster for the play "Peck's Bad Boy" (as was also in the armory photo).     This would seem to indicate, that both of these photographs were taken  around the time of that play;  April 19, 1907.

Photo postcard by Beck, circa 1911.        The big building at the end of the street is the old high school, that was located in the Lincoln Oval.    This appears to be a view looking north from the 500  block of  N. Court Street.    The two-story Victorian home, at the left side of the image, still appears to be at that location.        (Many thanks to the the people at the facebook group Visalia, Gateway to the Sequoias  who pinned down the exact location of this image.)

 

From a postcard, dated 10/4/1909, Lindsay Cal.      Written on the back of the card "This is main street of Lindsay".    I assume that this is Honolulu Street.      One of the businesses here is the Lindsay Drug Co.    According to the 1910 Tulare County directory, this drug store was on Honolulu Street.

Photograph by Robinson & Churchman, circa 1900.        The style of the photograph seems later than 1900.   But apparently the partnership of  Robinson & Churchman had ended by December 1900.     The 12/21/1900 issue of the Daily Visalia  Delta newspaper,  states that the photographer S.E. Churchman had moved to Chico,  and  had opened  a studio there.   

On the back of the photo is written "Dora Garnett".     I would guess that this is Madora (Dameron) Garmett of Visalia (Married to: Marcus Garnett).  She would have been around 28 years old at the time of the photo.    They did have a daughter named Dora, but she would have only been about 6 years old at the time of this photograph.

Photo by Doran Studio of Tulare.  Circa 1910.

An old photo postcard image of the Camp Nelson Hotel, circa 1922.     It was built on the same property as  an earlier version of the hotel, this one  was constructed in 1912.
The image is by Hammond's Studio of Porterville. 

A scan from a glass negatives by Howard Clinton Tibbitts.     He was one of the early Sunset Magazine photographers.  The photo is circa 1911.      Tibbitts listed this image as "Ranch near Visalia".

A small carte de visite portrait, from the studio of A. J. Jones, "Tulare City, California".   Circa 1879. 

 Looking at old voting and census records: It appears  that the photographer Abial J. Jones  worked in Tulare and Fresno Counties from about 1870 to 1900.     Apparently, most of that time was spent in Tulare.        I was a bit surprised by the amount of time he seems to have spent in the Tulare County area...     I have only heard of a few references to A. J. Jone's photographs.

Photograph by Doran Studio of Tulare, circa 1895.

An old photo postcard view of Springville's  Soda Springs, circa 1912.

Written on the back of this postcard: "1923 - Dedication of the Harding Tree in Giant Forest, Calif.".

This sequoia is now more commonly referred to as the President tree.  

An article in the 9/7/1923 issue of  The National Lumber Bulletin states:  "Giant Redwood Dedicated to Memory of Late President  -  A permanent memorial to the late President Harding has just been contributed by California forests...  The second largest tree in the world was dedicated to his memory, August 12,  as the Warren Harding Tree.     In dedicating the giant sequoia...  Col John R. White, superintendent of Sequoia and Grant national parks, declared that..."

Below are three photo postcards of a family farm, each with the inscription "Venice Hill, Calif.  1913".      Venice Hill (or Hills)  is just SE of Ivanhoe,  not far from the Charter Oak.

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This is Visalia Union High School's lightweight football team, from the Fall season of 1924.
They are standing in front of the old gym.    This building was declared unsafe during the 1966-67 school year, and was later torn down.  By that time, the gym was part of Redwood High School.    I've been able to identify a few of the men in this photograph:     Back row center is the coach George L. Righter.     Second row, to the far right is Irwin Boone.      A couple possibles:  Front row, second from the right appears to be Clarence Jones;   Front row, second from the left appears to be Emmet Paregien

A small carte de visite  portrait by the Visalia studio of   E. M. Davidson, circa 1887.

Photo postcard by John Bowers of Long Beach,  showing Lindsay's packinghouse area; circa 1910.   To the right side of the image is Lindsay's ice-house.  Center-right, in the distance,  is the Lindsay railroad depot.

Postcard image of the First Christian Church of Dinuba, circa 1907.
According to Dinuba historian Ron Dial, this church was moved from Monson to Dinuba in 1905.   (Monson is about 3.5 miles SE of Dinuba.)

Postcard image, circa 1912, of the Tulare mansion often referred to as The Oaks.

According to local historian, Derryl A. Dumermuth,   it was built before 1910 by P. J. S. Montgomery.    Mr. Montgomery was the manager of the Paige & Morton Ranch.    Hulett Merritt acquired the property in the early 1920s.    The mansion was torn down in 1959.

The Baptist Church of Tulare.  Located on the NW corner of  King Ave. and M St.   Circa 1912.

Photo postcard of the Congregational Church of Tulare, circa 1912.  

Postcard image of the Christian Church of Tulare,  circa 1910.    Located at the NE corner of Tulare Ave and G St.    This church building still stands at that location, though the structure has been heavily modified.     Local historian, Derryl A. Dumermuth,  wrote that this church was built in 1887 and that the sanctuary is the oldest continuously operating church building in Tulare.

Postcard image of the End of the Trail  in Mooney Grove Park , circa 1920.     It was originally exhibited at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition of San Francisco.     The statue was purchased by Tulare County in 1919 and placed in Mooney Grove. 

   The sculptor was James Earle Fraser.

In 1968  the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, of Oklahoma City,  acquired this plaster statue.     Soon after, a bronze cast  of the plaster statue was made for Mooney Grove.

Photo postcard image of The Pioneer  statue in Mooney Grove, from 1921.    Like the End of The Trail,  it was first exhibited at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition of San Francisco, in 1915.   Soon after the exposition, it was purchased for Mooney Grove.    It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The statue was a plaster type  with some internal framing.    After decades of exposure to the elements, it toppled over and was destroyed after a 1980 earthquake.    The sculpture was Solon Borglum.

 Postcard image of the Lemon Cove hotel/store and post office.  Circa 1909.    At that time,  Lemon Cove was one of the starting points for stagecoaches going to mountain areas such as Giant Forest (Sequoia National Park).   Back then, cars had a difficult time making it up to the Park.   Tourists could travel to Lemon Cove by way of the Visalia Electric Railroad.   Note the early gas pump at the left edge of the image.

 Close up:

 An old postcard image of the Giant Forest post office.   This card is postmarked from that post office on  7/27/1917.      The photographer is Lindley Eddy.

 

 Another postcard image by Lindley Eddy.    This one is of the General Sherman Tree,   circa 1910.

 A small portrait from the Visalia studio of  S.W. Watrous,  circa 1884.

 Photo postcard image of men picking oranges.   It's from Exeter, CA.    The message on the back of the postcard is dated 12/15/1911.

 Written on the back of this old postcard: "Gingerich Bros. Garage on Main St. in Porterville Cal. where I worked in 1921. ... V.M.Z.".        A Google Books search reveals that Porterville's Mission Garage was sold to the Gingerich brothers in 1921.
  This might actually be an image of the Mission Garage, circa 1917.   e.g. Many of these cars seem to have the early type of side-lanterns, which auto companies appear to have stopped using, by 1915. And the type of postcard paper used for this photograph was produced between 1904-1918.

Postcard image of  Visalia's Palace Hotel building, on the NE corner of Court and Main Streets.    The photo is dated, in the lower left hand corner: 11/11/1922.    It's very nice to have an exact date on the photograph!

 Postcard image of Exeter's Baptist Church,  circa 1909.     This appears to be a photograph by George Besaw.

 A a postcard image of Visalia's armory building.    Built in 1889, it also served as a theater.
It was located on the NE corner of Court and Acequia Streets.   The photographer was most likely George Besaw.    It's postmarked 10/14/1908
A close-up of the posters reveals that "Peck's Bad Boy" was playing there.

 Close up:

The date of "Friday, April 19" means the photo was most likely taken in 1907.