In a biography of Kearney, Rehart and Patterson referred to him as "one of the most powerful and prosperous agricultural leaders in the state of California.

[2] Martin Theodore Kearney was born on February 5, 1842, in Liverpool, England, to James and Ann Carney, both of Irish heritage.

The family immigrated to the United States in 1854, and settled in Malden, Massachusetts, a small community about ten miles north of Boston.

During this time, Kearney took lessons in German, French, elocution and dancing and sought to educate himself as much as possible in the ways and manners of genteel society.

[2] Traveling by steamer and the overland railroad route across the Isthmus of Panama, Kearney arrived in San Francisco in February 1869.

[3] By 1871 he had already made several land purchases, including 8,640 acres (3,500 ha) from a man whom he met on the steamer trip west, Dr. Edward B. Perrin.

[4] Due to the lack of development, land values were highly dependent on the Central Pacific Railroad's final decisions for routing and placement of a station in the area.

[4] Kearney lived in San Francisco while dealing in real estate and developing business connections including Thomas E. Hughes, a man who had extensive investments in the farm land around Fresno, and Bernhard Marks, a one-time school teacher who had unsuccessfully invested in mining stocks.

Kearney asked a skeptical William S. Chapman for help obtaining investors and he obliged, bringing in San Francisco capitalists and local Fresno area backers.

[5][6] In 1875, Chapman appointed Kearney the manager and chief promoter of the scheme, which they named Central California Colony.

Fencing and irrigation for the lots were provided cooperatively and each of the Colony's avenues was shaded with trees to match the street name.

Kearney's salesmanship and business acumen stimulated much of the success of Central California Colony, and they sold most of the lots within a year of establishment.

[7] Kearney looked to replicate the success of the Central California Colony with himself as the primary developer rather than William S. Chapman.

He traveled to Europe, visiting England, France and Germany and negotiated with a Scottish capitalist, Captain George C. Cheape, a man who had previously invested in the Perrin-Church Canal in the Fresno area.

[8][9] Kearney reserved an area in the middle of the estate to serve as his own residence and as a center for the community, a sort of ranch town or headquarters, including a general store, livestock barns, a dairy, a post office, a bell tower and other structures.

[11] Making the decision to foreclose on residents who couldn't pay and take back the entire land with improvements earned Kearney much resentment from the community.

[11] Kearney himself took large financial losses in the crash and came out of it convinced the raisin industry as a whole needed to find new markets and to better control product quality.

[18] He died at age 64 while traveling to Bad Nauheim in Germany, a place he believed has healing powers, while aboard a luxury liner named Caronia.

Kearney Boulevard is currently an east–west thoroughfare, connecting downtown Fresno to the city of Kerman, 15 miles (24 km) to the west.