LITMIR.BIZ

      JOHN M. SHIPP.

      In the career and accomplishment of John M. Shipp, the well-known rancher, is shown the true spirit of the successful citizen and upbuilder. His father was William Walter Shipp, a native of Holmes County, Miss., who responded to the call for the defense of his hearth and the section which he had come to look upon as his fatherland, entered the Civil War, and served through its sequence of almost unendurable agonies, for four years. For a long time, he had a cotton plantation, and was rated among the successful cotton producers of the South; then he took a fancy to come to California, and that was an end to everything in the past; like everybody else who caught the California fever, he came. John's mother was Mary Strother before her marriage, and she, too, was a native of Holmes County. Mr. and Mrs. Shipp were married in their native State.

      In 1868 Mr. Shipp came to California with his family and located on Big Dry Creek in what was known as the Mississippi district. He took up Government land, and went into the business of sheep raising, buying his stock in Solano County, and driving them into Fresno County. In time, he operated on a large scale, and came to have 2,300 acres on the home place. He also followed grain-farming. In 1887 he sold his ranch, but he continued to have an interest in the sheep business until his death, which occurred in 1890, the same year in which his wife passed away. The father of ten children, he had taken a lively interest in the question of popular education for his district, and built the Mississippi School, with other of his neighbors, which has since then been discontinued.

      The fifth child in the family, John M. was born in Holmes County, Miss., on November 29, 1867, coming with his parents to California in the first year of his existence. Fresno County is the scene of his first recollections. He had the usual grammar school educational advantages, and having decided to continue his studies until he had a collegiate training, he entered the Pacific Methodist College at Santa Rosa and graduated when he was nineteen years of age. He lost no time in getting into business; with his father and his brother George R., and they continued sheep growing on his father's ranch, meeting with good success, so that about four years later the brothers as partners, purchased their father's interest, leased his large ranch and continued the business with mutual satisfaction and profit. They developed the enterprise until they had 7,500 sheep.

      In 1890 John M. Shipp purchased his brother's interest in their stock business and has continued his operations alone, gradually drifting into cattle growing. In 1901 he purchased his present ranch of 3.000 acres, eight and a half miles north of Clovis, which he improved with a comfortable residence and the necessary farm buildings and which is the headquarters for his large stock business. In 1907 he sold the balance of his sheep to devote all of his time and efforts to cattle-raising. Besides his home ranch he also owns a ranch at Blaney Meadows, on the South Fork of the San Joaquin River, in the Sierra Nevadas, and being located in the Government National Forest Reserve makes most excellent range for his cattle during the summers, and enabling him to carry over 500 head of Red Durham cattle. For years he has had thoroughbred animals at the head of his herd and it is the consensus of opinion that there is no finer herd of cattle in Fresno County than that of John M. Shipp's. Intensely interested in having a well-bred herd he always secures the finest of thoroughbred males from the choicest herds of Eastern breeders of Red Durhams. With others he has brought cattle from Mexico by trainload to feed on the ranges of Fresno County. His brand — J. S. with a bar underneath — is well-known and marks most excellent cattle. Mr. Shipp was an original member of the Fresno County Cattle-Raisers Association and also of the California State Cattle Growers Association. Interested in the success of these organizations he attends the meetings of both the County and State conventions. In 1918 he moved his residence to Fresno where he built a beautiful home on Cambridge Avenue, which was planned by Mrs. Shipp, who is a woman of culture and refinement and here he resides with his family.

      At Academy, Cal., on June 28, 1894, Mr. Shipp and Miss Mary Maud Sample were married and began their years of domestic felicity; their union being blessed with two children. Margaret and Sally Keyes. Mrs. Shipp is a native of Fresno County, a daughter of D. C. Sample, a pioneer of the county. She completed her education at Pacific Methodist College in Santa Rosa where she was graduated. Having sought to be a good neighbor as well as a loyal, helpful citizen. Mr. Shipp, with his family, today enjoys the high esteem and hearty good will of his fellow-Californians for miles around.