Voorhees, Truman L.

Truman L. Voorhees was born in Buchanan, Berrien County, Michigan, on May 20, 1863, to James Brown Voorhees and Lydia Stoddard. Raised in Kansas, he worked in lumbering and mining in Colorado before moving to Oklahoma, where he engaged in farming and established a broom-manufacturing business. Following the death of his first wife, Nellie Phelps, with whom he had five children, he married Elma D. Funk on February 12, 1894, and later relocated to California in 1905 to purchase and improve land at Dos Palos.

In 1912, Mr. Voorhees settled in Tranquillity, Fresno County, where he acquired a forty-acre farm that he developed for alfalfa and dairying. Alongside his agricultural pursuits, he built a successful enterprise manufacturing high-grade brooms for wholesale distribution throughout the San Joaquin Valley, while also managing an apiary of fifty bee colonies and a large poultry business. A devout member of the Church of Christ alongside his wife, he raised eight children from his second marriage and became recognized as a highly respected, industrious citizen of the Tranquillity community.