Witten, Kinza P.

Kinza P. Witten was born on September 24, 1870, near Bowling Green in Pike County, Missouri, to Kinza Dickersen Witten and Ann McCullough. After his mother passed away when he was around twenty years old, he traveled to Fresno County, California, at age twenty-one to join his brothers, Luther and Zac. Starting with no financial capital, he initially worked on local ranches before renting a twenty-acre fruit ranch near Fresno upon his marriage in 1895 to Jessie Sutton, a native of Contra Costa County.

In Fresno County, Kinza P. Witten became a prominent wheat and grain farmer, establishing a 120-acre home ranch located south and west of Lanare while renting additional land to farm roughly 1,500 acres in total. Utilizing advanced machinery such as a Holt caterpillar tractor and a combined harvester and thresher, he achieved great agricultural success, raising thousands of sacks of wheat annually. Together with his wife, Jessie, he raised six children, including his eldest son, Earl Henry, who served in France during World War I. Active in community affairs, Kinza belonged to the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs in Riverdale and supported the local Woodmen of the World lodge in Lemoore.