Saturday, February 7, 2015

Theodocia Viola (England) Fairweather

© Kathy Duncan, 2015

Theodocia Viola England, daughter of William W. and Fatima C. (Jamison)  England, was born in California in 1875 and died 1969. She is buried in Reedley Cemetery in Fresno County, California.

She married John Henry Fairfield on 8 March 1908 in San Francisco, California as his second wife.

Census Records for John Henry and Theodocia V. (England) Fairweather:

27 April 1910; San Francisco Assembly District 39, San Francisco County, California:

324A Prescidio Ave
- 204
Fairweather, John H. - Head - M W 35 M-2 5 b. OH fb. Eng mb. Eng
----Theodocia - Wife - F W 34 M-1 5 1-1 b. CA fb. GA mb. MO
----Anna H. - Daugher - F W 1 11/12 S b. CA fb. OH mb. CA

20 January 1920; Reedley City; Fresno County, California:

1119 K Street
435-463
Fairweather, John H. - Head - M W 45 M b. OH fb. Eng mb. Eng
----Theodocia V. - Wife - F W 43 M b. CA fb. VA mb. U.S.
----A Helen - Daughter - F W 11 S b. CA b. OH mb. CA
----John H. Jr. - Son - M W 8 S b. CA fb. OH mb. CA
----James W. - Son - M W 6 S b. CA fb. OH mb. CA

21 April 1930 Twp. 8; Fresno County, California:

183-183
Fairweather, John H. - Head - M W 55 M-31 b. OH fb. Eng mb. Eng
----Theodocia V. - Wife - F M 54 M-30 b. CA fb. GA mb. MO
----John H. Jr. - Son - M W 18 S b. CA fb. OH mb. CA
----James W. - Son - M W 16 S b. CA fb. OH mb. CA

The following biography of Theodocia's husband, John Henry Fairweather, appeared in 1933:


JOHN HENRY FAIRWEATHER

John Henry Fairweather is the publisher of the Reedley Exponent, and has been an active citizen of Fresno county for the greater portion of his life. He is the son of the late John Fairweather of Fresno, whose name is inextricably bound up with the history of irrigation in central California.

John Fairweather, the father, was born at Langton-by-Wragby, Lincolnshire, England, January 14, 1845, came to the United States when about twenty years old, and settled at Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, where he was engineer in a paper mill for many years. Later he ran a farm for a time and came to California in 1889, settling at Reedley, where he first opened a real estate office.
Those were the days of the promotion of the Alta Irrigation district and the opening up of one of the richest areas of Fresno and Tulare counties. Worthless lands became of great value through the application of Kings river water, under the operation of the recently passed Wright act for co­operative water districts.

John Fairweather was shortly thereafter elected justice of the peace at Reedley, and threw himself actively into public life. In 1895, he was elected to the California assembly as a Democrat. For many years he was the Fresno county delegate to the National Irrigation Congress, and. was tireless in promoting knowledge of the opportunity for developing water and electric power for farm use. Experienced in the early history of the Alta district, he assisted in the organization of the Fresno district and the Consolidated district, which with the Alta covered most of the intensively cultivate areas of the county.

After publishing the Reedley Exponent for twenty years, the elder Fairweather turned the property over to his son, John Henry, and moved to Fresno. He was treasurer of the Fresno Irrigation district from its organization until he passed away.
John and Mary Fairweather had eight children: Mrs. J. Frank Brown, of Hanford; Mrs. William McCreary, of Reedley; Mrs. Mary Jayne, of Reedley; John Henry Fairweather; Mrs. C. W. Mathews, of Los Angeles; and Mrs. W. A. Gregory, of Dinuba. Two sons who passed away in their early manhood.

John Henry Fairweather was born at Chagrin Falls, Ohio, May 14, 1874, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Fairweather. Educated in schools in Ohio and at Reedley, he later attended night school and private institutions in San Francisco. When sixteen years of age, he went to work for the Fresno Evening Expositor and continued in the work for six years. Next, he returned to Reedley and with his father purchased the Weekly Exponent, which he ran for two years. Then he turned this paper over to his father and went to San Francisco, where he worked in a printing office. He also worked in the state printing office in Sacramento. After working as a street car conductor for three years, he was a police officer for four years in San Francisco. During this time, he was chairman of the general body of patrolmen which was in­strumental in getting an increase in pay for policemen after the great fire of 1906. Following this, he was with the California Society for the Preven­tion of Cruelty to Children; then was head of the similar society in Oakland and was deputy probation officer of Alameda and other counties, being prosecutor for the society in the courts.

Mr. Fairweather returned to Reedley in 1915, and since that time has been the owner and editor of the Reedley Exponent. He has put in a new printing plant and has one of the best equipped plants in the San Joaquin Valley’. Lie v,-as for a term the president of the Reedley Chamber of Commerce and president of the Lions club, and deputy district governor of Lions Inter­national in this district. He was a member of the board of freeholders who drafted the Fresno county charter adopted by the voters at an election April 10, 1933.

Mrs. Fairweather was Theodocia V. England, a native daughter of California. They have three children: Mrs. Helen Fairweather-Berk, associated with her father in the publishing of the Reedley Exponent ; John H. Jr., managing editor of the “Collegian” at the Fresno State college; is a student in college of journalism, University of Missouri. James William, now studying in Ohio to be a professional musician.
[Source: Fresno County, California Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens, 1933]


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