The ordinary country schools in his district furnished his early education, and in time he became manager for his mother of her forty acres near Belvidere, Ill. In 1866 he left Illinois bound for Oil Creek, Venango County, Pa., and there, as engineer, he became an employee of the Noble Well Company. From March, 1866, to August, 1874, he was a driller and a dresser of tools for a brother-in-law, who was a contracting driller; but in 1874 he removed to Nevada, Story County, Iowa, and there he purchased 160 acres of land, on which he raised corn, wheat, rye and stock. In Iowa he remained until 1881, and by that time no part of the earth appealed to him so strongly as did the great commonwealth along the milder Pacific.
As early as October, 1870, Mr. Handy had made a visit to Anaheim, Cal., and hoping that times and conditions were better than when he then found them here, he brought his wife and family here in the early eighties, arriving again at Anaheim on March 25, 1881. He then secured a position as manager for Messrs. Hellman and Goodman, who owned some eighty acres of oranges and lemons and limes, and wished to bring it to a high state of development. These gentlemen believed that they found in Mr. Handy, a man out of the ordinary, and he must have "made good" for he was with them for twelve or thirteen years.
In 1882, Mr. Handy bought for himself some thirty acres in Villa Park, and in 1898, ten acres on what is now Handy Street, later named in his honor, and he spent a great deal of time, labor and thought in developing these properties. He came to understand thoroughly the conditions peculiar to Orange County, and was accustomed to trim his sails to the local winds.
On July 2, 1865, Mr. Handy was married to Miss Mary A. Parker, born in Buffalo, N.Y., but living near Marengo, Ill., and they have had the blessing of four children; Celinda J., born May 12, 1866, wife of J. L. Conley of Yorba Linda; Harry B., born September 1, 1878, both of whom were born in the Middle West; and Joel B., born December 5, 1881, and Robert Ray, on April 13, 1884, native sons of California. There are seven grandchildren in the Handy families. While in Orange, Mr. Handy served for a year on the board of aldermen. He retired to Long Beach in January, 1913, and in August moved to San Pedro, and there built for himself a handsome residence at 1016 Santa Cruz Street. He makes weekly trips to Villa Park, and so keeps in touch with both his relatives and those business investments in which he so long had an interest. Both Mr. and Mrs. Handy are members of the Maccabees, where he has gone through all the chairs.
In national politics Mr. Handy is a Republican, and under the banners of that long-established party, he seeks to elevate the standards of citizenship and to increase the highest and purest types of American patriotism. But he knows no partisanship when it comes to "boosting" local movements worthy of support, and is intensely loyal to both Villa Park and San Pedro, the later town of his adoption.
