Clovis Founders! - Trails Section

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Vol. 17 No. 21	Final Edition

October 28, 1999

CLOVIS FOUNDERS
The Blasingame-Sample Model!
By Amy Williams, Staff Writer

     CLOVIS -- The Blasingame and Sample families of early Clovis helped set the tone for what is widely known today as "The Spirit of Clovis.".
     The early history of these pioneers is sketcy. But the Clovis News has confirmed the Blasingame Family started with Jesse Blasingame, a native of Talladega County, Alabama, who fought in the Mexican War. Jesse was then paid by the government in land-scrip which he used to buy land in what was to become Clovis, California. Jesse later married Mary Jane Sample, a native of Fresno County.
     The couple had one son, Jesse Knox Blasingame. Jesse Knox spent his entire life in the cattle business in the greater Clovis area. He was very active in the California Cattlemen's Association, the Grange and the California Farm Bureau.
     Knox and his wife Thelma had two sons, Morgan and Knox Jr., and a daughter, Barbara. Morgan and Knox are still raising cattle in the foothills above Clovis.
     Barbara lives in Fresno and still owns land in Clovis foothills. Both Knox Jr. and Barbara were extremely supportive and worked with the City of Clovis to secure the University of California Education Site near Academy, several years ago.
     The Blasingame attributes of family, responsibility, work, honesty, independence, appropriate space, education, community service and loyalty are a treasured legacy recently recognized by a resoution introduced in the Congressional Record of the United States Congress by Rep. George Radanovitch(R).

    [Editor's Note: See Congressional Record: October 29, 1999, Page E2220-E2221 in the Congressional Record via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] in the House of Representatives on, October 28, 1999. The Clovis Chamber of Commerce recognized the Blasingame-Sample families by inducting them into the founder's "1999 Hall of Fame".]

Letter to the Editor

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