Bullis, Thomas

Thomas Bullis, born in Racine, Wisconsin, on September 18, 1852, was a prominent vineyardist and retired contractor who became a noteworthy pioneer resident of Sanger, California. Orphaned as a baby and thrown upon his own resources at the age of thirteen, he initially worked in Iowa for board and small wages before taking up the carpentry trade in Cass County. He assisted in building the new town of Atlantic, Iowa, by teaming and doing carpenter work, and later spent three years homesteading land in Brown County, Dakota. After following his trade in Abensville, Kansas, he moved to California in the fall of 1888 and located in Sanger when the business district consisted of just one store and twelve saloons.

Upon his arrival, he purchased and spent twelve years improving a five-acre plot in Walton Colony by setting out vines and an orchard. He then moved into Sanger to pursue contracting and building, erecting the Winner and Giles business blocks alongside numerous fine homes throughout the town and valley. He expanded his holdings by clearing a 113-acre river bottom property and later developing an eighty-acre ranch two miles west of Sanger that was planted to peaches, Thompson seedless, and muscat grape vines. Mr. Bullis retired from contracting in 1911 to focus entirely on his highly productive agricultural lands, enjoying life with his wife, Martha Saunders, their son William E., and a granddaughter named Verda.