Thomas Edwin Hughes married and, at twenty three years old, traveled to California with his wife and other family members.

They rode in wagons drawn by cows and drove a herd of cattle across the country, ending in Murphy's Camp in October 1953.

His wife died en route and he buried her in Stockton, California, where he settled with his sons after the journey back west with 400 head of cattle.

[3] Beginning in 1859, Hughes made a life in Stockton enduring the ups and downs of farming and raising cattle.

He went to Baja California to explore the potential of colonizing a Mexican land grant and came back to find his assets sold via bankruptcy as his creditors assumed he had left the country for good.

He became a real estate agent for the Central Pacific Railroad company which, at the time, was expanding into the San Joaquin Valley.

[6][5] On behalf of Central Pacific Railroad, Hughes managed excursions of home seekers from the San Francisco Bay Area to Fresno station.

[1] While in San Francisco, Hughes met a businessman named Dr. Edward B. Perrin who owned land in the valley.

[4] Hughes continued to operate as a real estate agent for Central Pacific and moved to Fresno himself in June 1878.

[5][2] Already acting as a promoter of Fresno, Hughes noticed the success of the Central California Colony led by W. S. Chapman, Bernhard Marks and Martin Theodore Kearney.

One was a three-story, Renaissance Revival style office and retail building designed by James M. Seadler, an architect from San Francisco.

It began operation beginning in 1887 located on the northwest corner of Tulare and I Street, in the heart of Fresno's central business district.

However, the development of any business interests in Mexico were halted upon the start of the Mexican Revolution and Hughes decided to leave.

"[6] As a real estate agent for the Central Pacific Railroad, Hughes acted a booster for the Fresno area, hoping to entice potential renters and buyers.

Hughes sold a tract of land to the group and furnished funds to construct a horse racing track at the site.

"[6] The Fresno Weekly Expositor expressed the following in January 1890: "While he has amassed $1,000,000 or more in the past 10 years, he has not aquired [sic] a dollar of it by oppressing creditors or taking advantage of those with whom he has dealings.

Always approachable and unassuming, ever ready to help on a good cause or enterprise, he is preeminently the leading spirit and useful man of Fresno County.

[17][18] His other son Major Joseph Edward Hughes finished his life as a real estate broker and died in his 90s.