pmiheather
I am the curator of the Zalud House Museum. I recently had a couple of visitors who came as a result from your article. I noticed a couple of areas I wish to edit.
John Zalud was a successful saloon and restaurant owner and land owner. He owned nearly 4000 acres of property in Tulare County and farmed in his ranches. MaryJane Zalud is the mother and not a child who died of TB. William Brooks a manger for NCR, was shot inside the lobby of the hotel. He called the woman, "a woman of loose morals" because she left her husband who was his friend. She rumored that he made advances at her to win her husband back after she murdered Brooks. Her husband was a good friend of Brooks and the CEO of NCR. The shooting was 11yrs after the separation of her husband. Acquitted of murder because her husband took responsibility for her. Edward Zalud was a horseman and a volunteer firefighter. He did a little bootlegging during a dry period in Porterville. Porterville became a dry town closing the Zalud saloon in 1909. Edward held dances at the ranch and sold the left over alcohol from the saloon. He was arrested and fined $50 in 1913. After this incident there are no reports of illegal activities. The oldest daughter, Annie Zalud was a socialite and an artist, her paintings are throughout the home, she died in 1962, leaving everything to her only living sibling Pearle Zalud.
And last. Pearle Zalud died in 1970 leaving the home and 15 acres to the city of Porterville and over 3000 acres to the catholic dioceses of Fresno. An agricultural,
arts and music scholarship was started in Pearle Zalud's name. She planned the home to be a museum in memory of her family and for its culture arts. There were no children to leave it to. She was a world traveler. Her garden is one that was started as early as the 1905. She started planning to leave the home to be a museum in 1937 refinishing the furniture with her personal needlepoint and updating the home. For more info, please feel free to call at 559-782-7548. Thank you
