Ward, John Allison

John Allison Ward was born in Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, on February 6, 1839, to parents Joseph Campbell Ward and Sarah Elizabeth Stevenson. Educated in Illinois, he married Sarah Elizabeth Williams on April 12, 1861, in that state before farming in Illinois, raising stock in Cass County, Missouri, and working as a stock dealer in Kansas City. Seeking a warmer climate for his impaired health, he traveled to California in 1893, purchased twenty acres of raw land in Perrin Colony No. 6, and was joined by his family in Fresno County the following year to establish a fruit ranch.

Tragically, John passed away on June 28, 1898, leaving his widow Sarah and daughter Georgia May to successfully operate and expand the home place with peaches, grapes, figs, and oranges. His daughter, who later married J. C. Nourse, had two children from her first marriage to William Secker, named Georgia Pearl and Frederick Ward. As an honored pioneer of Perrin Colony No. 6, a devoted Presbyterian, and a Mason, John was survived by a family whose agricultural success made their Fresno County ranch one of the showplaces of the community.