John Warner Hastings

John Warner Hastings, first of the three children of Mary Emma Warner and Fred Philo Hastings, was born 13 January 1899 in Jefferson Township, Green County, WI. He was raised mainly in Green County while his father worked as a farm laborer, tenant farmer, and then after 1910, as a farm owner in Cadiz Township. He is not to be confused with his first cousin (who was also his second cousin) John Cecil Hastings.

At the end of 1906, Emma’s siblings and her younger brothers left the tiny hamlet of Sciotio Mills, Stephenson County, IL, where they had been living since 1900, and settled in Fresno County, CA. Emma’s sister Cora Belle Warner Spece followed in 1909 and then her older brothers did likewise in 1910, leaving Emma as the only child of John Warner and Nellie Martin who was still based back near the original family stomping grounds of Martintown, WI and Winslow, IL. Given how hard it was to make a living from a small family farm in the American heartland in the 1910s, and given how much Emma missed her family members, Emma and Fred sold their farm to John and Isabel Scott in 1918 and they and their brood finally joined the rest of the Warner clan out west. They lodged at first with Belle and Alie Spece in the small town of Sanger. It was only natural that Belle and Alie would be their hosts, for not only was Belle a sister of Emma, but Alie (Alfonso James Spece) was a first cousin of Fred. Soon Emma and Fred obtained a house of their own on DeWitt Avenue in Sanger. Within a few years, the family moved to 2251 Olive Avenue in Fresno.

John was already nineteen at the time of the big migration, but as near as can be determined, remained a resident of his parents’ home in his twenties. He worked as a rancher and at other jobs for a few years, then decided to go to college, doing so in the mid-1920s, i.e. at the same time as his much-younger sister Elma. He obtained the qualifications necessary to obtain a job with San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation as a tester of electrical meters, a position he kept for decades. (San Joaquin Light and Power merged with Great Western Power Company by 1930 and later the combined firm was absorbed into Pacific Gas & Electric.)

In the late 1920s John’s parents went back to Green County, having unintentionally regained title to their farm, probably due to repossession for lack of mortgage payments from the Scotts. John had come to appreciate the fine qualities of California and chose to remain. Elma also stayed in California, while youngest sister Leah, still only in her mid-teens, returned to Wisconsin. John took over the 2251 Olive Avenue home and kept it long-term. (The house continued to serve as his parents’ home-away-from-home whenever they decided to take a break from the harshness of upper-Midwest winters.)

John married Irma Edith Smith 20 August 1933 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. A daughter of William John Smith and Grace Caroline Greenfield, she had been born 3 May 1906 in Algona, Kossuth County, IA. Irma had grown up partly in Fresno County, having attended high school in the town of Reedley. (One of her classmates and friends there was Lillian Smeds, a double first cousin of Alfred Smeds, who would in 1936 marry John’s first cousin Josephine Warner -- though as far as is known, this connection was coincidental and played no role in John and Irma getting to know one another.) Irma continued to work as a secretary (employed by Fresno Community Chest) rather than immediately shifting to being a housewife. In the end, she would remain a career woman, but not completely by choice. Both she and John very much wanted children and a traditional domestic arrangement that went with it. Unfortunately, nature did not cooperate with them. A daughter born 25 February 1939 perished within a few hours of birth. At least one other pregnancy had not ended well. John and Irma came to realize they would not be able to have the joy of biological offspring, so they adopted a six-month-old baby boy in 1940, naming him John Richard Hastings -- to be known as Richard and as Dickie.

The couple lived out their lives as residents of Fresno. In addition, they liked to spend periods at the coast, sometimes in Santa Cruz, sometimes in Grover Beach.

John was one of those descendants of Nathaniel Martin and Hannah Strader to demonstrate the clan’s tendency for longevity. He did face a health crisis in 1970 when liver disease blocked a bile duct and resulted in emergency surgery, but he weathered through and survived another two decades plus. Irma’s fortune was not quite as good. Developing diabetes in 1970, she passed away 3 December 1980. John spent more than a decade as a widower, and then perished Tuesday, 12 November 1991 in Fresno at nearly ninety-three years of age. His funeral took place five days later at Wesley United Methodist Church, Reverend Janet Everhart officiating. His ashes were inurned at Chapel of the Light.

This picture was probably taken in front of John and Irma’s house at 2251 Olive Avenue in the early 1940s, probably not long before Fred Hastings passed away, an event that occurred in 1943. John is the man on the left with a portion of his face out of view. His mother Emma is behind him. On the far right is his father Fred. Irma is next to (and behind) Fred. The elderly couple in the middle are Belle and Alie Spece.

Descendants of John Warner Hastings and Irma Edith Smith

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