Joshua Flood Tombstone.

His stone lies alone on the old Flood farm near Christiansburg, Shelby Co., KY.

Elizabeth Flood Lewis.

Taken in the1860's perhaps in Porterville, Tulare Co., CA, or, perhaps, in the 'big city', Visalia, the county seat, not long before her death [1867].

Joseph Lewis.

Joshua A. Flood's grandson, the son of Joshua's daughter, Elizabeth Flood Lewis. He was born on the Lewis farm near Christianburg, Selby Co., KY in 1824, and died on his farm in the Success Valley, just east of Porterville, Tulare Co., CA in 1903.

He first came to California with 'gold fever' in 1849, leaving the Lewis compound in Sullivan Co. MO with some of the first wagon trains to form at St. Josephs, MO. He returned the following year after having learned that his wife, Louisa, had died. Soon thereafter, he married his first wife's sister, Martha Ellen Allen, and in 1852, led a large contingent of Lewis, Allen, Flood, Pendergast, etc, families to the gold country in California. After about 5 years in Calaveras County, CA, unsuccessfully prospecting for gold, the several families as a group, went to Tulare County, and homesteaded several adjacent sections of land on the banks of the Tule River.

Samuel Lewis.

Samuel Lewis, born in 1804 near Christianburg, Selby Co., KY, married Elizabeth Flood in 1822 in Shelby Co., KY. After first children were born, he moved his family to Pike Co., MO, and later to Lynn Co., MO, in the north part of the County, later to be divided off into Sullivan Co., MO. Shortly after that county's founding, Samuel was appointed a 'Slave Judge' an office he held for about 3 years. In 1852, he followed his oldest son, Joseph's, lead, and moved with a large family group to Calaveras County, CA, to try prospecting for gold for a living. Unsuccessful at prospecting, the family moved to Tulare County, CA in 1857, resuming ranching/farming on the banks of the Tule River just west of what was to become Porterville, CA. He died in 1868.

Tombstones of Samuel and Elizabeth [Flood] Lewis and their son Samuel.

These three stones mark the graves of Samuel Lewis, his wife, Elizabeth Flood Lewis and their youngest son, Samuel F. [?Flood} Lewis. The son died at 19, I believe, about 3 years before his mother died. I don't know the circumstances. These people lived about 25 miles to the south east of this cemetery which is the old pioneer section of the Visalia City Cemetery. Apparently, the family did not want to bury their dead on the farm, and Porterville had not yet formed when these people died. So they made a long trip to Visalia to be buried in an organized cemetery. In fact, their oldest son, Joseph, later helped form the first Porterville Cemetery Association because there was no place to bury the first of his children to die.

Tombstones of Samuel and Elizabeth [Flood] Lewis.

These stones were made twice this tall, as was the custome when they were placed, but several decades ago, vandals broke them off one night, and the cemetery staff remounted them in concrete in shorter form.

Lewis graves in the old city cemetery in Visalia, Tulare Co., CA

Richard Cosby's dad cleaning the tombstone of Joshua Flood.

Richard Cosby's parents in route to the grave site of Joshua Flood.

Emma Jane Lewis.

Joshua A. Flood's great granddaughter, and Richard Cosby's great grandmother, was born February 5, 1861 in the 'Westfield' area of Porterville, Tulare Co., CA, before Porter Putnam developed Porterville. She married Will Traeger in Porterville on September 29, 1880. She died following a stroke in Success Valley just east of Porterville on December 21, 1929.

Orah Dell Traeger Langpaap.

Joshua A. Flood's great great granddaughter with her three children in their yard in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii in the spring of 1925. The children are David Laddie, Dorothy Edna and Daniel Harding. Orah's husband, Max Langpaap, a native of Tombstone, AZ, was a missionary for the Church of Christ in Honolulu from 1921 to 1930. Dorothy Edna Langpaap who married George Austin Cosby in Exeter, Tulare Co., CA in 1937 is the mother of Richard Cosby.

Will and Emma Jane Lewis Traeger in 1887.

The children are Essie [Esther], Ernie [Ernest] and Edward. Edward lived a long life, and has many descendants, but Essie and Ernie died of diphtheria not long after this picture was taken.

The Will Treager Family.

In 1896 had lived on a ranch in Success Valley for about 7 years. Edward, a teen, had been born in Porterville. Orah, 7, was the first born on the Success Valley Ranch, as were Anna Ruth, on Will's knee, Lilly, standing between Will and Emma Jane, Hattie, on her mother's knee, and Grace, standing to the left. John and Ray would be born later. All these children were Joshua A. Flood's great great grandchildren.

The Traeger kids [Joshua A. Flood's great great grandchildren]

as aging adults, from left to right, back, John Hansen Traeger, Orah Dell Traeger [Langpaap], Anna Ruth Traeger [Cole][Osborn], William Edward Traeger, and front, Grace Emma Traeger [Ainsworth], Ray Homer Traeger, and Hattie Mae Traeger [Meyer][Brockman]. Lillie Etta Traeger Brockman is not in this picture. She lived in Chico following her marriage to Dick Brockman.