from Wallace M. Morgan, History of Kern County (Historic Record Co., Los Angeles CA, 1914).
ALBERT JAMES McCOMBS - The success of the well-known citizen of Kern county whose name is above is the legitimate fruitage of industry, enterprise and integrity. These are the foundation stones on which he has most ably builded. Albert James McCombs was born in Cedar county, Iowa, March 3, 1875, and when he was about a year old was taken by his parents to Kansas and a little later to near Sidney, Cheyenne county, Nebr., where he lived until after his twentieth birthday and where he attended public school until he was about seventeen. He began life for himself as a farm hand and early acquired a knowledge of ranching and stockraising. In 1895 he came to California and settled at Hanford, Kings county, where he worked for a time for wages. Three years later he came to Kern county and entered the employ of H. L. Weems, apiarist, with whom he remained two years and during the ensuing three years he was foreman of the Palms fruit ranch at The Palms, three miles south of Wasco. While there he also engaged in the bee business, and at the end of four years he disposed of his thirteen hundred stands to good advantage. In 1904 he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land two miles east of Wasco, most of which is under alfalfa, and in 1908 he acquired eighty acres known as the Golden Gate fruit orchard, upon which he grows peaches, grapes and prunes. In Wasco he installed a cold storage plant and built a shop with a capacity of two tons. Here he engaged in the wholesale and retail butcher business, his slaughterhouse being located two miles east of town on his alfalfa ranch. He now has two hundred acres of land under cultivation, and is engaged successfully in the breeding of hogs and cattle.
In politics and in measures for the general good Mr. McCombs has long been active and casts his ballot for Republican candidates. He is a Blue Lodge Mason, belonging to the lodge at Delano, and affiliates with the Woodmen of the World. December 17, 1903, he married Miss May E. Bacome, who was born in Cedar county, Iowa, in June, 1885, and they have a daughter and son, Edna May and Albert J., Jr.