Lavers Family History Laver's Ranch Website
David Lavers was born January 24th, 1831, at Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada. His Parents, William Henry and Susan Lavers, were the parents of eight boys and two girls. William Henry was a ship carpenter, and when David was fourteen, the family moved to Rainham, Massachusetts, and David went to work in a shoe factory.
David worked there until he was twenty-one, when he and his cousin Tom Lavers and a man by the name of “Church” boarded a ship starting from Boston, sailing around Cape Horn to San Francisco. They landed in the fall of 1852.
Upon landing, instead of going into the mines, they decided to head into the Santa Clara Valley, where there was lots of wild mustard and plenty of water. They put in a crop of potatoes near San Jose and went into the Santa Cruz Mountains and split out red wood slabs and built a place to store the potatoes. There was no money in the potatoes do to the transporting cost. Mr. “Church” decided to stay in the Santa Clara Valley and became wealthy, while David and his cousin Tom went into the mines in Tuolumne County. They placer mined at French Gulch, Dutch Flats and other places.
In around 1854, word came that gold was discovered on the Greenhorn Range. David Left with all the other miners and placer mined through out the Greenhorn. He then worked for Keyes in the Keyes’ mines. He soon went down to White River and placer mined in Rag and Gordon gulch until leasing the “Last Chance” mine on White River.
In 1856 David came to Glennville and went to work for his friend William Lynn, who was raising potatoes for the mines. He did not receive all of his pay on a run over the old “Bull Road”, so he took potatoes as part of his pay and tried to peddle them to Fort Tejon. He hauled them with a yoke of oxen, fording the Kern River at Gordon’s Ferry, following the foothills around the valley to avoid the swamp, and finally selling his potatoes for $7.00 per sack to the soldiers stationed there. The old “Bull Road” was built by William Lynn, and David.
Between 1857 and 1858 David returned to San Jose to work the wheat fields. He wrote a letter to his friend John C. Reed on July 18th, 1858, telling John that he would be back in September to buy his place in Glennville. David returned in 1858 and bought a “Squatters Right” to Reed’s 160 acres. This was the beginning of the Ranch. By 1859 David had sent for his parents, William and Susan, niece Carrie Harvey, Brother John, and other nieces. They sailed from Boston, crossing the Isthmus of Panama, to San Francisco.
They raised a big garden above the house where irrigation was not needed because, Poso Creek had not yet cut its current channel, but spread through the flat. In the winter of 1862, a flood came out of the mountains cutting Poso Creek’s current channel.
In august of 1875 David Lavers left for New Brunswick, Canada, and on that trip he was married to Dianne Cook. They were married October 12th, 1875. They returned by the Isthmus of Panama to Glennville, where their new home was being built by John Lavers. They would have five children together.
David continued his stock raising business, gradually increasing his land holdings, until the ranch contained 3,080 acres. David took an active part within the community, acting as school trustee of the Lynn’s Valley School, serving on the Kern County Grand Jury, and taking an active role in politics, being a “dyed in the wool” republican. He numbered among his friends many of Kern County’s prominent citizens and pioneers. Among them, Mrs. Ellen Baker Tracey, Mr. and Mrs. Canfield, J. W. Drury, Mr. Beardsley, Senator Clark Smith, Alvin Fay and many others.
The Hotel and stage Barn continued at “Lavers’ Crossing” until shortly after 1864, when John McFarlane completed a toll road over Greenhorn Mountain. However, the family always offered its hospitality to those passing by.
Today the ranch encompasses 3,800 acres and is managed by Fred David Lavers II, his wife Cynthia (Sanchez) and their son Jack. Jack is the sixth generation to live and work on the ranch and is very active in the day to day operations. The success of the 150 year old ranch can be summed up in a quote about David Lavers. “He accomplished his achievements and bore his burdens without Government loans, no welfare of any kind, but paid his way with the work of his hands, in a new land, with respect for God and man.”