USA > California > Merced County > A history of Merced County, California : with a biographical review of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 58
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
In 1893 James T. Ragsdale was married in Missouri to Miss Nannie Whaley, a native of Missouri, and they have a son, Marcus, who is married and has three children. Mr. Ragsdale and his family came to Merced County in 1902. The county was a great wheat belt and be began farming on a ranch two and one half miles out of Merced on the Oakdale road. Six months later he invested in Mer- ced town property, and buying out the Merced Livery Stables changed the name to Yosemite Stables. From time to time he added other stables until he had three of the largest livery stables in Merced County with a string of seventy-five horses. During this time Mr. Ragsdale brought to Merced the first five-gaited horses. He owned the celebrated Monroe McDonald, a $1000 three-year-old; in 1914 he was the gold medal grand champion winner at the Sacramento State Fair. He also owned the champion stallion, Orfeld Prince who was bought, in 1910, by Miller & Lux.
In 1914 Mr. Ragsdale sold out his entire livery stable business owing to the coming of the motor vehicles and has since devoted a great deal of attention to the buying and selling of mules and horses throughout the valley. He represented T. H. Gilroy, of Kansas City, as agent of the U. S. Government in purchasing and shipping animals in 1917-1918, handling 150 a week throughout the valley from Sacramento to Bakersfield. He also shipped to Guyton and Harrington Mule Company at Kansas City, Mo. He was made the initial horse and mule inspector for California. Soon after the call came from the U. S. Government for horses and mules for war pur- poses, in association with Godfrey Priest of Long Island, he trans- ported mules to French soil, and conducted the first inspection of war stock for the French government held in California, which took place in Merced when 250 horses were inspected. Since the war he has dealt with Rominger & Co., of Fort Worth, Texas, supplying work stock for southern cotton planters. He has shipped to Lambert and Langley in Salt River Valley and Phoenix, Ariz., also to Hono- lulu and other foreign ports. In 1920 he quit the stock business and entered the real estate field and bought the Bradley Tract embracing fifty-two acres, on Bear Creek at the eastern boundary of Merced, and placed the Ragsdale Addition on the market and found a ready response, for its value is unequaled in the State.
He has been a member of the Modern Woodmen of America thirty years; the Court of Honor twenty years; an Odd Fellow and a Rebekah in Merced for seventeen years. Mr. Ragsdale served as city trustee, 1918 to 1921, resigning the latter year when he removed from the city into the Ragsdale Addition of Merced. He has made two trips East since 1902, and has returned each time with a higher appreciation of California.
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FRANK P. BALDWIN
The eldest in a family of five children, Frank Baldwin was associated with his father, Perry Baldwin, until his death. Perry Baldwin was a farmer of the frontier who came with his wife, who was in maidenhood Miss Lavancha Woodard, to Hamilton County, Iowa, where their eldest son was born. Other children of the family were Blanch, Mrs. Clarence Worthy of Berkeley; Etta, Mrs. Hugh Doyle of the Dos Palos Colony; Carl and William, both deceased. Frank Baldwin was educated in the common schools of Iowa and went with the family in 1895 to California, and located in the Dos Palos Colony. The father bought forty acres there and later added forty more. Frank worked with his father and helped develop the land. His father died March 28, 1921, aged seventy-six. His mother lived to the age of eighty and died April 20, 1919.
In August, 1921, Mr. Baldwin was married to Miss Rosalie Baldwin, who was born in Iowa, the daughter of Andrew Baldwin, and they reside on the old Baldwin homestead.
Hugh Doyle, a brother-in-law of Frank Baldwin, is a native of Coles County, Ill., born at Lerna, on June 16, 1876, a son of James and Elizabeth (Lynn) Doyle, natives of Ireland, who had five child- ren as follows: Charles, deceased; Edna, of Corning, Cal .; Hugh; James and Elizabeth, both of Dinuba, Cal. Hugh attended the grammar schools of Illinois and started out for himself doing odd jobs at the early age of twelve. Drifting from place to place over the west he rode the range in Wyoming and Montana, and came from Denver, Colo., to Dos Palos, Cal. He worked two years for Miller & Lux.
Hugh Doyle married Etta Baldwin on January 3, 1904. Since then he has successfully engaged in farming in the north end of the Dos Palos Colony.
JASPER PARNELL
A native of California, Jasper Parnell is a highly esteemed citi- zen of Merced County. He was born in Calaveras County, Novem- ber 14, 1853, a son of John Parnell, who was a native of England and came to America in 1840, settling at Galena, Ill. He was a steamboat engineer, subsequently becoming a resident of Wisconsin. In 1850 he crossed the plains with horse teams and mined in Cala- veras County until 1867, when he located on the West Side in Stanis- laus County, near Grayson. He took up 160 acres of government land and improved a fine ranch, meeting with good success and in- creasing his holdings until he owned 1000 acres. When he retired
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he went to Stockton and bought a home and lived there; he also had a summer home at Pacific Grove, where he died July 28, 1902. He had married Julia Stevens, who was born at Cornwall, England and died at Stockton, Cal., January 2, 1903. They had four children, three sons and one daughter.
Jasper Parnell was the oldest son and second child. He attended the schools in Calaveras County and went with his parents to Stanis- laus County, where he assisted his father to improve the home ranch and where he became familiar with the various branches of ranch work. In 1887 he bought a ranch of his own, consisting of 480 acres in Merced County, near Ingomar; he also owns another ranch of 320 acres near Grayson.
In Stockton, Jasper Parnell was united in marriage with Cassie Barney, a native of Pennsylvania, and they have had three children: Stella, Harold and Cora. Mr. and Mrs. Parnell spend most of their time on the home place, but enjoy their home at Pacific Grove during the summer. Mr. Parnell is a Democrat. He belongs to the Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World.
MELVIN NEIGHBOR
The seventh child in a family of eight children born to his parents, Melvin Neighbor was born at Snelling, October 20, 1891, a son of Gilbert B. and Matilda (Smith) Neighbor, early pioneers, a sketch of whose lives is given on another page of this history. He re- ceived a good education in the public schools. He grew to manhood and assisted his father in the store, later formed a partnership with him, and they continued to carry on a general merchandise business until 1920, when they sold out and closed their building. On March 27, 1919, Melvin Neighbor was appointed postmaster of Snelling and has efficiently served the people of his locality. On February 1, 1921 he became the agent for the American- Railway Express, and about the same time became agent for the Yosemite Valley Railroad, serving with the efficiency inculcated by his father, who was faithful to every trust reposed in him.
Melvin Neighbor was united in marriage with Miss Mable J. East, the ceremony being performed at Merced. She is a daughter of J. W. East, formerly of Watsonville, but now of Snelling. They have two children; Esther and Ruth. Mr. Neighbor has done much to keep alive the community spirit of Snelling and when the postoffice was to be taken away by default he offered his services and the use of his building free. He handles the duties of the office efficiently and is counted one of the progressive men of his locality.
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
POMPILIO STEFANI
Men of the type of Pompilio Stefani, who have come here from the farms and vineyards of their native countries, and have brought their first-hand knowledge of all forms of agriculture to a new land, helping in its development and upbuilding, are very real factors in our present-day prosperity, and deserve to be mentioned in its per- sonal history. Born February 2, 1871, at Marla, Province Lucca, Italy, Mr. Stefani was the seventh of ten children born to Constan- tino and Maria (Lorencetti) Stefani, both natives of Italy, where the father was a farmer and vineyardist. He attended the public schools of Marla, and was reared on the home farm, learning in his boyhood the unceasing effort necessary when reaping a harvest from the soil.
Mr. Stefani served twenty-three months in the 8th Regular In- fantry of the Italian National Army, and at the end of that period decided to seek his opportunity in America. Leaving Italy on July 4, 1894, he went to Havre, France, and there boarded the steam- ship Fulda, and ten days later reached New York. He had been preceded to California by a brother, Carlo, who came in 1892, and he himself came direct to San Francisco from New York.
September 12, 1894, Mr. Stefani came to Merced County, and at once entered the employ of Thomas Wood, then superintendent of the Santa Rita ranch; his wages were twenty dollars per month, working in the dairy and alfalfa, and he spent three years in their employ. He worked in the Italian Colony in Madera County, and remained there six months during the harvest season of 1896. Re- turning to Merced as foreman of the ranch workers' gang on the grain ranch of the Crocker-Huffman Land & Water Company, he was thus occupied steadily for the next six years. In the meantime, in 1903, he invested in twenty-nine acres of land in Ash Colony and his property today is known as Franklin Corners, three miles north of Merced on the State Highway. Here he set out a vineyard of black grapes and a fruit orchard, and now has a highly developed property, with class A buildings and residence. He added seventeen acres by subsequent purchase, and set out more vineyards, and in 1923 he erected a fireproof garage building, 40' by 80' on the Franklin Corners, and has leased the corner to a garage and service station company. In all this development work, Mr. Stefani has added to his own resources, and at the same time has added to pro- perty values in the county. A man who believes in the judicious investing of his savings for permanent improvements, he has been an upbuilder to the community where he settled and makes his home.
The marriage of Mr. Stefani, at Marla, Italy, when he returned home for a nine months' visit, in 1908, united him with Teresa
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
Marchini, a native of Lucca, and third of six children born to her parents, Joseph and Anna Marchini, farmers of that place. Three children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Stefani: Annie, Constantino, and William. Mr. Stefani received his citizenship papers in Merced in 1897, and is a Republican. Fraternally, he has been a member of the Merced Lodge of Druids for eleven years.
ALBERT G. TRACY
Known throughout Merced County as an expert on fig growing and developing, Albert G. Tracy has been one of the most important factors in that branch of horticulture in this section of California, for he not only has brought his own acreage to the highest state of cultivation and valuation, but he has been of very material aid in helping others to do the same. He is known to all as a genuine man, ready to help those in difficulty, among whom he is known as the "Fig expert," gaining the title through actual experience with prob- lems of his own in the industry.
Mr. Tracy is a native of Ohio, born in Toledo, August 12, 1874, and he is the only survivor of a family of four children born to George A. and Sarah (MacElroy) Tracy, the former a native of Connecticut, and the latter of New York State. George A. Tracy, who at the venerable age of eighty-four years is making his home with his son, of this review, has an enviable record as a building contractor. Coming to Los Angeles at the tail end of the boom of 1886, he remained there six years, and then moved to Fresno, in 1892, and he has been a leader in the trade for over forty years of building in the State. His wife passed to her reward on October 22, 1922.
Albert G. received his education in the schools of Los Angeles and Fresno; and in 1896 with a party of thirteen Fresno men, he went north to the west coast of Alaska, and was absent for four and one-half years. On his return to California he entered the service of Uncle Sam, and with the United States Regulars, went with a pack-train into the Boxer region of China during that uprising, occupying the territory for twelve months. He was afterwards with the troops under Major Case in the Philippines, and with Engineer Andre in road construction and helped put in the first American roadbeds on the islands. He was elected sheriff of Sourgé, and filled that office for three years.
When he returned to California and civilian life, Mr. Tracy lo- cated in Fresno, and took up horticultural work in 1905. Starting on
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forty acres in the Mckinley district, and with limited means at the start, he has made several remarkable achievements in his chosen field as a fruit man. Raisin grapes and peach-growing were his first endeavors, and for seven years he tussled with each as a problem, both from the standpoint of grower and also the marketing side of the industry, which in the days before cooperation was a very serious problem for the grower. Mr. Tracy was instrumental in organiz- ing, and is a charter member of the California Peach and Fig Growers Association. He developed a fine ranch, and acquired other valuable holdings in Fresno, which he disposed of, on his removal to Merced County.
His latest success has been in the Black Mission and Adriatic fig industry, and he is conceded by those who know to be an expert authority on fig growing in California; his counsel and advice is sought from near and far. In 1912 he sought a new field in which to develop the fig, then in its infancy as an industry and unknown to the large majority of valley ranchers as a producer, and a profit- able one. He looked up and down the State, and after careful con- sideration chose the Merced district for his development work. Purchasing a tract of land five miles east of Merced, on Childs Avenue, up to the present writing he has developed into fine fig groves some 300 acres of land, having in the meantime engaged in the real estate business, with an office in Merced until a short time ago, when he discontinued his town office and now transacts all his business at his home, situated on the site of his first location in the county, and surrounded by eleven acres of figs in a highly developed state. Mr. Tracy named some of the avenues in his district, and he was one of the pioneers in an industry which has been of far-reach- ing effect in placing Merced County near the head of California's fruit districts, the value of which will be shown more and more plain- ly as the years pass.
November 15, 1905, occurred the marriage of Albert G. Tracy to Miss Maude L. Beck, a native of Kansas City, and daughter of a pioneer Fresno family, where her parents now reside. Mr. Tracy is a member of the Masons and Odd Fellows, both of Merced.
DAVID CASARETTO
It was a piece of very good fortune that M. Caton, of Atwater, was able to get such a capable and efficient manager as David Ca- saretto for his meat market in the Martha Washington Stores, Inc. at Atwater. Having a most thorough knowledge of the butchering, meat-packing and curing industry gained by long years of experience,
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
he is able to handle the customers in such a way as to make the best of friends of every one with whom he has dealings and has proved a most valuable help to his employer. He was born in Indian Gulch, Mariposa County on June 24, 1856, the second of four children. His father, Giuseppe Casaretto, is mentioned in another place in this book. He attended the Merced Falls school and was reared at Indian Gulch. He began the wool-growing business in company with his brothers and continued in it until 1884 when he took up the butcher trade, which he followed in Arizona and Colorado as a journeyman for forty years. Six years ago he came to Atwater and became manager of the Sanitary Meat Market, where he remained until 1924. About January 1, 1925, he assumed his present position. He owns his resi- dence in Atwater. He does not tie to any political party but votes for the best men and measures at all elections.
Mr. Casaretto was married in Colorado Springs, Colo. in 1888, to Miss Ella McElroy, a native of Missouri, who came to California with her parents. There are four children of the union, viz .: Verne W., of Atwater; Ruth, wife of Charles Wirow, in San Diego County; Hazel, wife of Arthur Davis of Los Angeles; and Herbert, who died at one year of age. There are also six grandchildren.
MATTHEW JENSEN
The son of a baker by trade, Matthew Jensen was born in Schleswig, Denmark, on March 4, 1867, and there he attended the common school. To the same school went Margaret Lindberg, who came from a neighboring farm; they met daily and played to- gether. Matthew Jensen was the fourth in a family of seven child- ren: Doretta, Mary, Harvey, Matthew, John, James and Anna, deceased.
Matthew, at the early age of fifteen, started out to make his own living and came to America and California. A stranger in a strange land, ignorant of the customs and the language, and with no means or influential friends, it was a tough proposition which faced the lad. But he got a job on a ranch near Watsonville and for eight years worked around on different ranches. Then he went to San Louis Obispo and worked two years. By saving his money he had accumulated funds enough to go into the dairy business on his own account, and with a partner carried on dairying seven years on rent- ed land. The profits were not so good but that an engagement with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company seemed to be a little better and for many years he was in their employ, first as a section hand, three years as inspector of tracks, and seven years as section fore-
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nellie agnes Taglio
8. Z.Taglio
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
man of the Tracy Division. But before this he bought a ranch two miles south of Los Banos and built a home and farm buildings.
The girl he used to go to school with in his native land had come to America five years before, and they were married in Watsonville on November 12, 1892. In 1910 he resigned from the railroad business to devote his time to the little home ranch where he resides in comfort today. There were eight children born to this union, viz .: Anna, Mrs. C. C. Anderson of La Center, Wash .; Antone E .; Eva, Mrs. Joseph Ellis of Los Banos; Mark L .; James, deceased; Margaret E. (Rita Beth), Mrs. M. J. Lane of Livermore; James H .; and John Norman. Mrs. Jensen passed away on December 30, 1924, aged fifty-four years, six months and one day, mourned by a wide circle of friends. Mr. Jensen is a Democrat in politics and fraternally is a member of the Woodmen of the World.
MRS. NELLIE A. TAGLIO
The name which heads this review is representative of one of the oldest families of Monterey County, Cal., where Mrs. Taglio was born, a daughter of John B. and Juanita (Artellen) Leoni, the former a native of Switzerland and the latter of Monterey, Cal. The mother of our subject is one of the oldest native daughters in the State born of white parents, her father having been Peter Artellen, a native of France and among the first white settlers in Monterey. His wife was born in Monterey, of Spanish parents, who had immigrated from Spain. The parents of our subject were married in Monterey and engaged in farming in that section until the father's death in 1914, at the age of seventy-one. The mother has reached the age of seventy- four years, and makes her home in Watsonville.
Nellie A. Leoni attended public school and the Catholic convent in Salinas. On April 14, 1892, Miss Leoni was married to Peter L. Taglio, a native of Switzerland, son of Louis Peter and Dominica Taglio, who never left their native country. Peter L. Taglio was educated in the schools of Switzerland. In 1886 he came to California and first settled in Sonoma County, where he worked as a dairy hand. He attended night school while working and became proficient in the English language. He removed from Sonoma County to San Benito County, and there established a dairy of his own, continuing until he sold this business and removed to Salinas, where he engaged in the dairy business with 100 cows for the following eight years. He sold this business at a good profit and engaged in the stock business, buying and shipping cattle and hogs to the San Francisco markets. Follow- ing this, Mr. Taglio engaged in farming at Gonzales, Monterey
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HISTORY OF MERCED COUNTY
County, for four years. Fourteen years ago he located at Gustine. Here he purchased the old Sturgeon ranch, consisting of 163 acres in the Cottonwood district, and conducted a dairy until 1919, when he turned the management of it over to his three sons.
Mr. and Mrs. Taglio removed to Gustine, where he bought four acres within the city limits. He lived retired in his new home until his death at the age of fifty-eight years, and here Mrs. Taglio still makes her home. They were the parents of seven children: Louis Peter, Romeo, Peter, Phillip, Nellie, Theodore, and Raymond. The son Romeo served as a corporal in Company M, 364th Infantry, 91st Division, and saw service in France. Mr. Taglio was active in all Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives during the World War; he was a member of the Gustine Chamber of Commerce and was exceedingly public-spirited, taking an active interest in everything pertaining to the progress and development of his locality. Fraternally he was a mem- ber of the Druids and had passed through all the chairs of that order. He was a Democrat in politics, and was a faithful member of the Catholic Church, of which Mrs. Taglio is a liberal and consistent communicant.
HUGH L. NEWSOM
A well-known and successful dairyman and rancher, Hugh L. New- som was born in Oakland, Cal., on January 10, 1877, the son of Alexander and Corine (Jones) Newsom, the former a native of Toronto, Canada, and the latter born in San Jose, Cal. Grandfather Hugh Jones was one of the early pioneers of California, where he became a cattleman and settled in the Santa Clara Valley. Hugh's father died when Hugh was very young and his mother married W. W. Wright, who is now residing in the hills near Los Banos. His mother died at the age of thirty-eight. Hugh had two step- brothers, William and Walter, and two step-sisters, Nell and Bell. Mr. Wright was a stockman and moved to Merced County in 1883 and settled in the Romero District, where Hugh attended school. At the age of thirteen he started out to work for wages; he milked cows and drove a milk wagon in Los Banos. Later he went to the moun- tains west of Los Banos and worked for his board and attended school in the Alvarado district. Afterwards he went to the mines at Angel's Camp in Calaveras County and worked with the compressed air drill in the mines of the "Mother Lode" four years. He went to Oakland and took a business course in Aydlott's Business College after which he was employed with W. P. Fuller and Co. in San Francisco as interior decorator; he then took up the work of artistic designing and painting for the company and continued in the business
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with the Fuller Company up to the time when the Tozer Company purchased the wall paper and decoration departments, Mr. Newsom continuing with the new firm, putting in altogether eleven years. He was next employed in the same work by Edgar De Wolf of San Francisco. In 1905 he formed a partnership in the dairy business with Manuel A. Marshall.
Hugh L. Newsom was married on November 23, 1904 at Ross, Cal., to Lucia A. Marshall, born in Ross Valley, and a sister of his partner, Manuel A. Marshall. Mr. Newsom is a Republican in politics; fraternally, is a member of Golden West Parlor No. 50 N. S. G. W., of Oakland. He is also a member of the Building Trades Council of San Francisco.
FAY W. BATTEN
Though comparatively a young man, Fay W. Batten has achieved very satisfactory results both in business and in farming, which have won for him the respect and confidence of the community where he has attained to positions of honor and trust. The son of Luther and Helen (Hermance) Batten, he is now the only living member of the family. A sketch of his father is given on another page in this his- tory. Fay was born at Raymond, Nebr., on July 16, 1894 and when a babe in arms was brought to Dos Palos, Cal., and he attended the Reynolds Avenue school, then had two years in high school and one year at the College of the Pacific in San Jose. He was always asso- ciated with his father in business matters and some time before his father died he was managing the ranch. The father owned 160 acres, and this property is now owned by our subject and is devoted to alfalfa, dairying and gardening. From 1919 to 1922, Mr. Bat- ten and Frank Allen were partners in a grocery in Dos Palos.
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