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 63
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JAMES ROBERT MCHENRY
Prominent among the active, wide-awake and progressive lawyers of Merced County is James Robert McHenry, whose untiring efforts and continued industry, combined with skill and practical judgment in conducting the duties of his chosen profession, have met with a well-deserved reward. His birth occurred on a farm in Missouri, November 20, 1879, a son of James and Emma (Galvan) McHenry, who came to California when our subject was a child of three years and settled in Stanislaus County.
James Robert McHenry acquired his early education in the public schools; this was supplemented with private study and a business course. His legal education was obtained through private study in Merced and he was admitted to the bar in 1916 and immediately thereafter opened offices in Merced, where he has continued to practice with gratifying success.
The marriage of Mr. McHenry united him with Miss Margaret Kelly. Her parents are old pioneers of the Snelling district of Merced
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County. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McHenry: Anna, Lola and Harvey. In politics Mr. McHenry is Independent. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In 1922 he was elected treasurer of the Merced Irriga- tion District. Mr. McHenry is actively interested in horticulture, especially in the culture of figs, which reach the zenith of perfection in the Merced district; he spends his leisure time looking after his 200-acre fig orchard and when opportunity presents itself he goes to the mountains, where he enjoys hunting and fishing.
HARRY M. BAKER
The principal of the Elim Grammar School, located between Hil- mar and Irwin, Harry M. Baker is a representative of a San Joaquin Valley pioneer family and was born in Stanislaus County, on October 11, 1888, a son of Francis M. Baker, a native of Ohio, born in 1852, and Elizabeth Harmon Baker, who was descended from Pennsylvania Dutch stock and who died in Richmond, Cal., in 1922, aged sixty-two years. F. M. Baker is a second cousin of the late President Harding ; the Harding farm near Blooming Grove, Ohio, joined the farm be- longing to the father of F. M. Baker. Both Harry M. and his father have autographed letters from the late President. The Baker ances- try is traced back to 1450 in England, from which country the pro- genitors of the family came to America and settled in the New England States, where they became wealthy mill-owners. Grandfather Baker was a Mexican War veteran, having served in that conflict.
F. M. Baker came to Turlock in the early seventies and started an eating house ; some time after he had become established he returned to Ohio and was married and returned to California with his bride and took up his work in Turlock. He next went to Snelling, where he was employed in a flouring mill for some time; then was engaged in the same occupation with the Merced Milling Company. In 1896 he ran the Oak Park Dairy, having 200 cows, and superintended the making of cheese at the factory; he next had charge of the cheese factory on the Wallace Ranch, near Modesto. In 1900 he had the first irrigated farm in the Turlock Irrigation District at the Tegner District, having bought this land several years previous for twenty dollars per acre. He sold it at a handsome profit and invested in 100 acres in Mendocino County, which he also sold to good advan- tage. Then he moved to Richmond, Cal., and bought and sold real estate for several years until now he is able to retire from business worries and is enjoying life at his Richmond home, saddened only by the death of his wife. There were twelve children born to Mr. and
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Mrs. F. M. Baker. The oldest child, a girl, met an accidental death by falling down stairs when she was two years old; the others are living and are: Alta, Mrs. J. M. DeVee; Roy W .; Jesse F .; Harry M .; Ethel, Mrs. C. O. Fewell; William W .; Hazel, Mrs. Elmer Ridd; Dora, Mrs. W. T. Woolley; Effie, Mrs. C. W. Friel; Gladys, Mrs. Emmet Dailey; and Estella, Mrs. Jesse White. An uncle of our subject, James A. Baker, was connected with the Southern Pacific Railway for thirty years and is now retired on a pension; he also receives a pension from the United States Government for his services during the Civil War and owns real estate in Newman, where he makes his residence.
Harry M. Baker was reared on a ranch and attended the schools in Turlock and in the Tegner District, and was graduated from the Turlock High School, class of 1910, and from the Western Normal School of Stockton in 1912. He began teaching in the Franklin School in Merced County, where he was principal in 1913-1915; then for one year he was employed as a stenographer for the Moline Plow Company, in Stockton, and later served as a deputy under Eugene Graham, county clerk of San Joaquin County. He next put in three years in the office of the Spreckels Sugar Company in Manteca, beginning as assistant bookkeeper, and advancing to head bookkeeper and next to auditor. He then resumed teaching as principal of the Atlanta Grammar School in San Joaquin County, 1919-1922. In the latter year he came to his present place in the Elim Grammar School in the Hilmar Colony. This has the largest enrollment of scholars of any grammar school outside of the incorporated towns in Merced County, the number being 246 in 1925. The pupils are transported to and from school in three large motor busses. Mr. Baker holds a State life diploma, also State administration credentials which entitle him to a superintendency of schools as supervisor of educa- tion. He keeps abreast of the times by reading and study and is thoroughly up-to-date in educational work.
Mr. Baker was married in 1914 to Mary Alice Carter, born near Manteca, a daughter of James and Medora (Kiel) Carter, a pioneer family, natives of Wisconsin who came to California with their parents via Panama and from San Francisco to Stockton by boat. Mrs. Baker was a student in the Western Normal School in Stockton and there she met Mr. Baker, and their marriage was the result. She is secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society of the Methodist Church, of which she is also a member and a teacher in the Sunday School. They have two children, June and Ila. Mr. Baker is an athlete of more than ordinary ability, is a champion sprinter and pole vaulter and could run 100 yards in ten and two-fifths seconds ; even now he keeps up with his athletic exercises and occasionally
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wins over those much younger than himself. He is strictly tem- perate, and never has used tobacco or liquor. He plays on the violin at concerts and special gatherings. For some time he edited the Hilmar Enterprise, now owned by Mrs. Betty Wright, but he sev- ered this connection when he took up the Boy Scout work, being one of the organizers of the local troop, and is their Scout Master. He believes in the young boys and does everything in his power to help them to the right path they should take in future life. He and his family reside at Irwin, and are the center of a wide social circle.
FRED A. LAGOMARSINO
How the family represented by Fred A. Lagomarsino came to be established in this country is an interesting story, showing the cir- cumstances that have led many to leave their native lands and seek their fortunes in the great West. Antone Lagomarsino was a native of Italy ; he was drafted into the Austrian army but in order to evade military duty, he took to sea in 1849, and after six months on the ocean he arrived at San Francisco, and learning of the gold discovery, he set out for the mines. He reached Moccasin, Tuolumne County and instead of mining, started gardening and fruit-raising, and with such success that he continued in it. In 1852 he was married to Maria Canevaro who had just come from Genoa, Italy in a party from there. In 1854 Mr. Lagomarsino moved to Merced County and took up land on the river four miles below Snelling and engaged in general forming and prospered well by his industry and frugality, acquiring much valuable town property in Merced. He died in 1887. His wife removed to Merced where she died at her home in 1895, sur- vived by seven children: Frank, who died at the age of thirty-five; Julia Faubel, of San Francisco; Louis, who died aged thirty-two; Mary; Joseph; Fred A., the subject of this sketch; and a child who died in infancy.
Fred A. was born on the Snelling ranch, March 25, 1872, and was reared on the Merced River ranch and worked with or for his parents until leaving home to learn the plumber's trade, which he followed as a journeyman for eight years. He owned and carried on the Merced Soda Works for twenty years, but he sold it out in order to give his attention to ranching which had been in the hands of tenants. He and his sisters own the old homestead of 219 acres on the Merced River and some of Merced's most desirable business property in lots and buildings. He is a member of the Exempt Firemen, and of the Native Sons of the Golden West and of the U. P. E. C. and the I. D. E. S. of Merced. He belongs to the Catholic Church.
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MAURICE GAYLORD GREENLY
So much of the future development and advancement of California as a State, and each county as a unit in its progress, is dependent upon the growing generation, that enough cannot be said in favor of the men and women who are devoting their lives to educating these em- bryo citizens and helping to make them into men and women who will be an asset to any community. Especially in the line of vocational education, fitting them for their future work in life; or in preparing them for college courses, so that they, in their turn, may become edu- cators. And Merced County has been unusually fortunate in its selec- tion of faculties for the different schools in the district.
As principal of the Hilmar Union High School, Maurice Gaylord Greenly is filling an important place in county education. A native of South Dakota, he was born in Estelline, that State, on December 23,1890, the son of Hiram B. and Latie A. (Gaylord) Greenly, both born in the State of New York; and they became homesteaders in Dakota Territory, the mother locating there in 1881. The parents moved to Brookings, S. D., when young Maurice had reached the age of eleven years, in order that their family of three children, of whom he was the youngest, might obtain good educational ad- vantages. He attended the Brookings High School for three years, and then entered preparatory courses for entry into Brookings Col- lege, now the South Dakota State College of Agriculture and Me- chanical Arts. Taking up a general science course in college, he graduated from that institution with the Class of 1913, with his degree of B. S.
Following his graduation, Mr. Greenly immediately went to Honolulu, and there engaged in teaching in private schools for one year, and for the following seven years taught in the public schools there. Returning to California in 1922, he spent that year and the next as a post graduate student in the educational department of Stanford University, and received his degree of A. M. in June, 1923. In September, 1923, he entered upon his duties as principal of the Hilmar Union High School and has since that time devoted his ener- gies, both mental and physical, to the building up of the school under his care and maintaining its high standard of efficiency.
The Hilmar Union' High comprises the following subsidiary grammar schools: the Elim Union, Fairview, Hilmar, Merquin Union, Riverside and Raisin districts, Prairie Flower being joint with Stanislaus County. A regularly accredited high school with the Uni- versity of California, with courses in commercial and vocational in- struction as well as the regular high school courses; and situated as it is, in the midst of the fertile Hilmar Colony, in the northern part of Merced County, the school has an important bearing on the future
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in store for this county. There are 130 pupils at the present writing, 1925, and this enrollment mounts steadily with the growing popu- lation and development of the district. Housed in a modern and well-planned building of brick construction, built at a cost of $35,000, in 1919, the school was first started in 1911; and eight years later the bond issue was established for the badly needed new building. The first issue of $28,000 was found insufficient and an additional $6000 voted. Mr. Greenly is the fourth principal of the school, the others who served before him being W. W. Pettit, Herbert Kittredge, and A. L. Wedell. A "born" educator, and intensely energetic and interested in his work, Mr. Greenly keeps the Hilmar Union High up to a fine standard of work, getting unusual results from his earnest work in striving to bring out the inherent ability in each individual student.
During his years spent in Honolulu, Mr. Greenly met his future wife, and there his marriage occurred, in 1917, to Miss Helen Hoag, a native of Pasadena, Cal., and a graduate of the San Jose Teachers College, Class of 1915. Three children have blessed their union : Maurice Gaylord Jr .; Patricia Jean; and Marian Leilani.
JOSEPH M. SOUZA
It takes some character in a lad of fifteen to start out alone, for a strange country, on borrowed money and with no capital to see him through after his arrival, but these handicaps did not daunt Joseph M. Souza. He was born in the Azores Islands, on February 7, 1877, and was educated in the common schools and at the age of fifteen came alone to America to locate with his brother in Merced, Cal. He had borrowed $200.00 to make the journey, and on landing in New York, took the overland train for California, and was eight days crossing the continent. It was a lonesome trip for the boy; he could not speak a word of English, and the only thing which cheered him on his way was the sight of numerous bands of sheep seen from the car windows, for he was raised in a sheep country and they made him feel a little at home in the strange land.
Arriving in Merced on May 11, 1892, he first worked for his brother, A. M. Souza, herding sheep for two and one-half years, and later became a partner with this brother in the sheep-raising business for about eight years. He sold out his interest and worked for F. I. Freitas, herding sheep, and later engaged in the business for himself, but again sold out and became a partner with Mr. Freitas, this time remaining so engaged for six years. At the end of that period he disposed of his interest, and purchased a ranch of 170 acres, west of
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Merced, which he sold at a good profit in two years' time. In 1922, he bought a band of sheep, and nowis raising about 3000 head, his partner in business being Bert Crane of Turlock.
The marriage of Mr. Souza in 1902, united him with Rosa A. Rodrigues, also a native of the Azores, and five children have been born to them : Joseph M. Jr .; Elsie, wife of Toney Freitas of Merced; Clarence; Rosaline; and Clinton W., all native of California. A self-made man in every sense of the word, Mr. Souza was made a United States citizen in Merced, August 6, 1906, and he has never regretted his decision to come here and establish his home and raise his family, for he realizes the opportunities at hand. Fraternally he is a member of the U. P. E. C. Society.
JOHN BARNEICH
No better example of the self-made man can be given than the life work and accomplishments of John Barneich ; nor of the wonder- ful opportunities offered by California for the man or woman to rise to positions of affluence and influence by their own endeavors. Coming to California a lad of seventeen, poor in purse but rich in ambition and in strength, the success to which he has attained has been obtained by patient, persevering and honest labor.
John Barneich was born in the Basque province in the Pyrenees in the south of France, on May 6, 1863, and his education was obtained in the common schools of his section of country and he was reared in the sheep industry until he was seventeen. In 1880 his de- sire to become a citizen of the United States was granted him and he arrived in California and got work herding sheep for J. Miguel Arburua ; and at the same time he was studying the English language. When these sheep were sold to Miller & Lux our subject went along with the band and remained in the employ of Mr. Miller for two years. From 1884 to 1886 he drove sheep through the Pacheco Pass to the stockyards and slaughter houses in San Francisco and Oakland while employed by Eugene Avy, a butcher in San Francisco, who had the Little Panoche Ranch in Fresno County.
In 1885 Mr. Barneich had saved enough money to engage in the sheep business on his own account; in 1886 he homesteaded 160 acres of land on Little Panoche Creek in Fresno County, and as he prospered he kept adding to his holdings until he owned 2000 acres, all in Fresno County. He farmed 150 acres of it, had twenty acres in alfalfa, with water rights. Here he made his home until 1898, when he sold his sheep and came to Los Banos and opened a butcher shop, one of the pioneers of the new town, and this he operated
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until 1915, when he sold out and retired to devote his time to his personal interests. He owns the O. B. Garage building and some residence property in Los Banos ; and he also owns his ranch in Fresno County, which is leased to tenants.
Mr. Barneich was united in marriage in 1890, with Louise Cla- vere, born in France, and they have had nine children, viz .: Isadore J. of Los Banos; Julia, wife of Martin Jussel of Oakland, and the mother of two children; Mary, wife of Bernard Benitou of St. Helena, and mother of one child; Justine, married Frank La Forte, of Oakland and has one child; Annie, of Los Banos; John L., of Oakland; and Bernice, Louise and Marguerite, all of Los Banos. Mr. Barneich has always been public spirited and helped to promote all interests for upbuilding Los Banos and Merced County.
REV. DAVID C. WILLIAMS
In writing the history of any section, it is important that we include in its pages the histories of the outstanding men who have contributed to its real growth and advancement, and their effect on the moral and intellectual progress as well as the more material side of a nation's development. For the growth of town and city, county and State, is a part of the whole movement "toward the light" which our glorious country is slowly but surely making, and is important in the general scheme of things; and when we find a man who has worked faithfully both as a minister of the gospel, to help men to a better life, and as a man of affairs in the working world, putting his shoulder to the wheel to bring to actual accomplishment the movements which make for the upbuilding of a community, its general welfare and future progress, such a man is worthy of all praise, and his labors merit permanent record.
Rev. David C. Williams, a Methodist minister, and a member of the State assembly from the 49th District of California, was born in North Wales, Great Britain, June 15, 1879, and was educated primarily in the British grammar schools and a private English classical school, there taking up classic languages and modern sciences under a private teacher. He received his degree of A. B. in the Uni- versity College of Wales, and in 1900 graduated with the degree of M. D. from the Liverpool College of Medicine. That same year he came to California. After his decision to enter the ministry, he attended the Vanderbilt University at Nashville, Tenn. Since 1904, he has been a minister, preaching at various places in California, among them Lemoore, Hanford, Arbuckle, Williams, Red Bluff,
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Kingsburg, Modesto, Le Grand and Merced. In 1918, Dr. Williams came to Le Grand, Merced County. He was chaplain in the United States Army during the World War, stationed at Camp Taylor, Ky., and received his commission as first lieutenant, being later commis- sioned a captain. Prominent in ministerial affairs, Dr. Williams is historian for the Methodist Conference, and active in the various meetings of the church body.
As assemblyman from Merced and Madera Counties, Dr. Wil- liams was of invaluable assistance in promoting and putting through to completion some of the most important bills that have ever been before the public from this section of the State, among them the bills providing for the Merced Irrigation District and the Yosemite Valley Highway from Merced to El Portal. He served on the follow- ing committees in the State assembly : the Medical and Dental Laws, Labor and Capital, Soldier and Sailor Affairs, Public Morals, Mili- tary Affairs, and Agriculture ; and he was chairman of the Committee on Irrigation. A brilliant and forceful speaker, he was called the best orator of the assembly, and his constituents were justly proud of his achievements, for they reflect good judgment on the part of those who put him in office, at the head of public affairs in their district. Dr. Williams was the founder of the Mercy Hospital of Merced and put that project through to completion, filling a much needed want in the community. He was president of the Le Grand Board of Trade, and he always gives of his time and knowledge to all causes which he knows are for the real benefit of his fellow citizens, for his vision is unusually broad and he can rightfully be called one of the builders of Merced County. He came to Merced as pastor of Bethel Methodist Church, South, in 1924.
The marriage of Dr. Williams, occurring at Lemoore on January 1, 1917, united him with Ruby Lobb, a native of California; and one daughter has been born to them, Eugenia Pearl. Fraternally, Dr. Williams is a Mason, a member of the Kingsbury Lodge of that order; and he is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, Yosemite Castle, at Merced.
TIMOTHY THORNTON
A résumé of the careers of the people who contribute to the best interests of Merced County would be incomplete without mention of the earnest efforts of Timothy Thornton, formerly deputy city mar- shal of Merced. In the biographical sketch of Daniel K. Thornton, found on another page of this history, mention is made of thirteen children, three of them daughters, born of the marriage of Michael
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and Ellen (Hanlon) Thornton, who came to Merced County in an early day and located on a homestead two and one-half miles west of Merced. One of their sons was Timothy and he was born on the place on December 25, 1879. He grew up on the farm and attended the public school along with the other children of their neighborhood. When he was eighteen he began farming on his own responsibility, continuing for ten years ; then he became a member of the police force in Merced. In April, 1923, he was made deputy marshal, a position he now holds.
Upon reaching manhood's estate Mr. Thorton was united in marriage with Agnes C. Gainey, of Washington, D. C. She is a teacher in the Arena School and served as president of the County Board of Education. They have one child, Francis. In political affilia- tions Mr. Thorton supports the platform and measures of the Demo- cratic party. Fraternally, he is a member of the Woodmen of the World. For recreation he is fond of all healthy out-of-door sports. As a public-spirited man, he is deeply interested in the progress of Merced, town and county.
A. W. SWARD
A name that is worthy to be enrolled among the pioneers of the Hilmar Colony in Merced County is that of A. W. Sward, an enter- prising and persevering citizen of whom any community might well be proud. He owns a ranch of forty acres one-half a mile south of Irwin at the corner of Lander and Williams Avenues, all well-im- proved and productive. He was born in Ostrejotland, Sweden, on March 11, 1869, was educated in the schools of his native country and when he was eighteen he took passage on a White Star Line steamer for America and arrived at Castle Garden, N. Y., in De- cember, 1886. His destination was Axtell, Nebr., where a brother had already located, and as soon as he arrived there he found employ- ment at farm work, continuing for two years as a wage earner there. Wanting to see something of the country he traveled to Kearney and to Omaha, both in Nebraska, where he found employment to his liking, remaining in the latter place until 1902, when he had saved enough money to come to California. Soon after his arrival in the month of May, he bargained for forty acres in the Hilmar Colony, which was then a worn-out wheat field, and he set to work to make his property a good investment. How well he has succeeded is demon- strated by the well-kept and productive ranch he owns today.
In 1902 he was married at Omaha, Nebr., to Miss Anna Swen- son, who had come to America from Sweden in 1894. This couple arrived in Hilmar Colony on June 10, 1903, settled on his ranch,
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