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 68
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painter. Coming to Los Banos, Cal., in 1905, he soon formed a partnership with W. P. Sears and for four years they did business as painting contractors under the name of Sears and Tiller. There- after Mr. Tiller has carried on an independent contracting business. Numerous buildings stand to his credit, among which we mention Bank of Los Banos building, a $150,000 structure; the Masonic Temple ; Odd Fellows Hall; Oberon Hotel; two annexes of the Los Banos High School building; the Kneep and Cornett residences. He does all the painting and decorating for F. H. Riedle, which takes in dairy plants all over the West Side. For several years he was painting foreman for Miller and Lux. Thus it will be seen that Mr. Tiller is a very busy man.
When Mr. Tiller came to marry in 1912, he was united with Miss Emily M. Jameson, born in Los Banos, and they have two boys, Norman and Charles B., Jr. Fraternally, Mr. Tiller belongs to Los Banos Lodge No. 312, F. & A. M., and to the Merced Pyramid of Sciots.
A. N. SHEESLEY
Whoever labors to instil into the minds of the youth the knowl- edge of religion founded on the Bible and for the development of upright Christian character, he it is who earns a place as a public benefactor and is entitled to mention in the pages of history. Of such a character is A. N. Sheesley, a leader in church and Sunday School work and proprietor of a fifty-five acre dairy ranch two miles east of Livingston. He was born on July 27, 1871, near Punxsutaw ney, Jefferson County, Pa., a son of A. J. and Sarah J. (Wachob) Sheesley. The former is living retired in Colorado at the age of eighty-six. Both parents were born in Jefferson County. The mother died in Colorado in 1914. They were the parents of nine boys and one girl. The fifth child, A. N. Sheesley, was ten years old when his par- ents moved to Spencer, Ohio, where the father followed farming. From Ohio they moved to Clark County, Kansas; nearly ruined by drouth and broke, they moved to Burlingame, Osage County, that state. The advantages offered A. N. Sheesley by the public schools in Pennsylvania and Kansas were supplemented by a course in a busi- ness college at Topeka, Kansas, after which he ran a dray business for ten years in Burlingame, Kan.
A. N. Sheesley was married in Burlingame, Kan., to Miss Mabel Wood, a native of that place. Of this union were born three children, namely : Glenwood, an expert livestock man in the Agricultural Col- lege at Davis, Cal .; and Clayton and Lois, who are still at home. From Burlingame Mr. Sheesley came to Arena, California in 1908,
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bringing with him a carload of household goods. His brother-in-law, C. G. Wood, traveling auditor of the Santa Fe Railroad, was already in California.
Mr. Sheesley has a dairy of twenty registered Guernsey cows and a registered bull. He has a home orchard and an acreage of alfalfa and is an active member of the Arena Center of the Merced County Farm Bureau. He has been superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School at Livingston for many years and is chairman of the board of trustees of that church ; he served four years as president of the California State Sunday School Association as well as holding other positions in that organization.
ANTONE J. NOYA
If we travel East as the crow flies about 6500 miles we will find some islands in the Atlantic Ocean called the Azores; on one of these called Flores there was born on January 27, 1873, a baby, now known as Antone J. Noya. There were thirteen children in the fam- ily, of whom only three are living, A. J. being the oldest. The parents were Manuel and Mary Noya; the former is dead but the mother is still living. How Antone comes to be in this country and one of Atwater's most substantial citizens is the story which this sketch is to relate.
He grew up at home and went to school in Santa Cruz, in the Azores Islands, and was reared to life on a farm till the age of six- teen when the desire to follow his brothers, Ventura and Constantine, who had come to seek their fortunes in the land of the Setting Sun, was accomplished. His father had come out to California in 1852 and did very well in gold mining and while here took out his citizen- ship papers, but he returned to Flores and died there in 1890. His brothers were still here and were mining in Siskiyou County. The boy arrived and joined them and worked seven years in the Spangler mine. In 1899 he came to Atwater, then a place of four or five fami- lies and only one store. He got a job on the Buhach ranch at one dollar a day. The next year he bought twenty acres of the Mitchell No. 1 Colony, his home place, and planted sweet potatoes. The first season's profit was $285. He followed it up with the growing of fruits and vegetables. He now owns three ranches embracing sixty- five acres and raises large quantities of grapes, sweet potatoes and alfalfa and has been fairly prosperous.
Mr. Noya was made a citizen of the United States at Yreka, Siskiyou County, in 1893, and he exercises his rights as a citizen by voting the Republican ticket. He was married on November 28, 1903,
Peter Erreca
Catherine Lucca
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in Yreka, to Ermeline L. Noya, born in Flores, who came to California in 1893 with her father and mother and two sisters. The father died in San Jose, and her mother still resides in that city. Six children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Noya, viz .: Erma F., a graduate from the Mitchell Grammar School, class of 1920; Con- stantine, a graduate with the same class; Anthony J., in the class of 1926 in the Merced Union High School; and Joseph C., Ernest E., and Marie E., pupils in the local grammar school. Mr. Noya is a member and a director of the Atwater Pentacost Club Association; belongs to the I. D. E. S. at Buhach; is a charter member of the Druids of Merced; and a member of Atwater Camp No. 164, W. O. W. The Noya family are well-liked by all who know them.
PETER ERRECA
A prominent sheep man of Merced County and a thorough Ameri- can by adoption, Peter Erreca represents the best type of Basque manhood. He was born on March 15, 1884, in the Basses-Pyrenees, the son of Gracien and Catherine (Laxague) Erreca. The father was a farmer in France and died there in 1890 or 1891. His farm was small but he was successful in his way. During his lifetime he made a visit to America, but returned to his native land and there died. The mother is still living on their home place in France and is aged seventy-five years. There were twelve children in the family. Of these, besides Peter, the following still survive: Martin and Jean, both living in Los Banos; Mike, in San Diego County; Marcelline, wife of Antone Inda, living in Reno, Nev .; and three brothers and a sister still living in France, John, Bernard, Joseph and Mary, the wife of Ferdinand Avambel.
Peter attended the schools in his native country until he was thirteen, and then worked on his father's farm for his mother until he embarked for the United States and California, in 1902. He arrived in Fresno, Cal., in November of that year and found employ- ment for a time on a sheep ranch owned by the late John Menta. From there he went to Madera County with his brother-in-law, and still later came to Merced County, about 1905. Here he worked for his brother, Martin Erreca, and others for a few years, and then embarked in the sheep business for himself. He began on a small scale, and as he succeeded he added to his flocks until now he has about 3000 head of fine French Merino sheep. These he has on the Gast- ambide ranch about eleven miles southwest of Los Banos, which ranch he has operated for the past two years, meeting with very good success in his operations.
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Mr. Erreca was united in marriage in San Francisco, on April 18, 1925, with Miss Catherine Laxague, who was born in France. She is a sister of Mrs. Martin Erreca and Mrs. Jean Erreca, of Los Banos, and is a worthy helpmate to her husband, enjoying with him a widen- ing circle of good friends in their new home in Merced County. Mr. Erreca is public spirited and is ready and willing to assist in every movement that will bring Merced County to the front in the galaxy of counties in California.
JOSEPH M. TRINDADE
The development work in soil cultivation done by J. M. Trindade in Merced County is of considerable import from the fact that he was among those who started the raising of diversified crops in what is now one of the largest and richest belts of its kind in the State. He pioneered until he found from experience what would produce and pay, and his foresight in realizing the market situation has been of real benefit to the grower in this locality. A native of Cedros, Flores, Azores, Mr. Trindade first saw the light on September 10, 1870, the fourth of nine children born to his parents, Antone S., and Mary (Souza) Trindade, both natives of Flores and farmers ; they did their work in life well, reared their large family of eight sons and one daughter to be of use in the world, and then passed to their reward, the father aged seventy years, and his good wife at sixty years of age.
Mr. Trindade received his education in the public schools of his native country and learned the rudiments of farming on the small home farm. He came to California with a party of his countrymen, and reached Merced, then a small village, on July 4, 1887. Soon after his arrival he went to Mariposa County to work, and in start- ing earned fifteen dollars a month as a sheep herder. Three months later he bettered his condition by going to work for F. Lopez at thirty dollars a month as a plow boy, and he was so industrious and thrifty that he went into ranching for himself four years later, put- ting in a crop on the Bennett Ranch, on the Merced-Mariposa County line, farming to wheat and barley, but with slim results. He later tried again, on the C. Ehler place, with better results, each year increasing his operations until he became an extensive grower, his last four years in grain-growing being on the Lee Fancher ranch in Merced County.
Mr. Trindade is now the owner of seventy acres in Ash Colony, there maintaining the Trindade home place, and sixty-two acres in the Atwater-Jordan District. For the past eight years he has had his lands farmed by tenant farmers and his main business is centered in
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the shipping of fruits and sweet potatoes, buying and selling as an independent, in the territory from Turlock to Merced, his trade mark, "Merced Sweets," being well established and finding a ready. market.
The marriage of Mr. Trindade, occurring February 13, 1895, at Merced, united him with Mary A. Rodrigues, a native of Indian Gulch, Mariposa County, and ten children have blessed their union, as follows: Daniel, Inez (Mrs. A. J. Thomas), Bessie, Marie, Joseph (deceased), Amelia, Joseph and Josie (twins), Jesse, and Hubert, all securing a liberal education, and popular with their associates. Mr. Trindade is widely known and well-liked through- out Central California for his dealings are invariably straightfor- ward and his business associates know him to be a man of his word. He is a stockholder in the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation, the Merced Security Savings Bank, and the Merced branch of the Bank of Italy. A Republican in politics, Mr. Trindade received his United States citizenship in Merced. He has always been active in advancement along educational and social lines as well as in business progress. He contributes liberally to charity, and gives of his time and means to all community betterment. For fifteen years he served as a school trustee of the Franklin district.
HENRY A. DU BOIS
Another native son of the State who has made good and has won a place for himself through his own efforts is Henry Du Bois, owner of 106 acres of land in the Fairview Precinct in Merced County, but now residing at the corner of Almond and Gear Road, Turlock, Cal. He was born in San Rafael, Cal., December 22, 1882, the son of the late Dr. Henry A. and Emily (Blois) Du Bois, natives of New Ha- ven, Ct., and New York City, respectively. Dr. Du Bois was a Yale graduate and was a surgeon during the Civil War, being a staff officer of General Sheridan. After the war he came to California and practiced in San Rafael until his death. There were three girls and two boys born in their family, Henry being the second child.
Henry attended the Mt. Tamalpais Military Academy and the San Rafael High School, and was graduated from the University of Nebraska Agricultural College with the class of 1905. Thus equipped for whatever might be in store for him, he returned to California. then went to Harney County, Ore., and took a position on the "P" cattle ranch, which controlled a million acres of land, and he remained there for two years. Then he purchased 320 acres in Lower Lake, Lake County, Cal., and engaged in the stock business, continuing for
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six years, when he bought his present place in the Hilmar Colony in 1913. Here he has leveled and planted the acreage and made valu- able improvements, but he now leases it to tenants.
While residing in Lake County, Henry Du Bois married Miss Beatrice Van Fleet, daughter of M. B. Van Fleet, and a niece of the late Judge Van Fleet, well-known Federal jurist. Five children have come to gladden the Du Bois home circle : Thelma, Alan, Jack, Philip and David. Mr. Du Bois is a member of the Hilmar branch of the Merced Farm Bureau. In politics he is a Republican, but a very liberal one. He is a shareholder in the Farmers Exchange at Mo- desto, which business is receiving his attention.
ANGELO IACOPI
Perhaps one of the most popular Italian-Americans on the West Side in Merced County is Angelo Iacopi of Los Banos. The record of his progress since landing in America when a lad of thirteen is one of thrift and perseverance. He was born at Montuolo, Lucca, Italy, on December 11, 1870, the son of Louis and Justina Iacopi, both natives of the same section of Italy as our subject. This worthy couple had five children : Almina, living with her mother in Italy; Angelo, our subject; Felice, represented on another page in this history; May, also in Italy; and Pasquale, who died when he was twenty-seven years old, while on a visit back to his home. Louis Iacopi died on May 5, 1905 at the age of seventy-eight; the mother is still living and at the age of ninety-eight is hale and hearty and does not look over fifty.
Angelo went to the Italian schools until he was thirteen, then he came to America and upon arriving in San Francisco he sold fruit out of a basket on the streets of that city. He next went to work on the San Pedro ranch in San Mateo County, saved his wages and soon was able to rent some ground and raise vegetables for himself. In 1889 he went to Firebaugh in Fresno County and worked for Miller and Lux, but in 1890 he was recalled to Italy and had to serve his allotted time in the Italian Army, being an artilleryman. As soon as he was free from military service he hurried back to California and began raising beans and potatoes on Staten Island, in the Sacramento River. This was very discouraging, for beans sold for sixty-five cents per hundred pounds and potatoes for ten cents a sack, simply enough to pay for the sack. He quit business and returned to Firebaugh and went to work for Miller and Lux again for twenty dollars per month. He was frugal and saved his money and soon had enough to take him back to Italy in 1897, where
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he married the girl of his choice who was waiting for him to make his pile in America and go back and get her. Returning to Cali- fornia he went to work for the Kern County Land Company at Bakersfield in opening an artesian well. From there he went to Tulare, then back to Firebaugh and finally got to Los Banos in 1900. Here, he in partnership with his brother, Felice, began the manu- facture of soda water and syrups of various kinds and met with success, Angelo buying out his brother and continuing the business. Before this Mr. Iacopi was in the liquor business, having a retail and a wholesale establishment. He made money, invested it in prop- erty in Los Banos and built houses and today owns some of the most valuable business corners in the town. He also had a nice home built in Italy for his parents, in which his mother is still living and where his father died.
A short time before National prohibition was declared by Presi- dent Wilson, Mr. Iacopi became a candidate for the city council and before he entered the office he disposed of his large stock of liquors at a heavy loss because he did not want to hold office while he was selling liquor. He also has been a heavy loser by indorsing notes for his friends. Notwithstanding all his losses he is optimistic and enjoys life to its full. He has always been large-hearted and gener- ous, liberal with his money and has made and retains his friends.
Mr. Iacopi was married in Italy in 1897 to Miss Clara Puccinelli, a native of Lucca, and they have five children: Nello, who is in the employ of the Standard Oil Company, in Los Banos ; Amebilia, who married A. Michelotti and has one daughter, Peggy; Jennie, mar- ried P. Carlotti, lives in Dos Palos and is the mother of a son, Bruno; Mary married F. Cosella of Dos Palos; and Laura, who is attending school in Los Banos. Mr. Iacopi received his citizenship in Mer- ced in 1902 and is a Republican. Fraternally he belongs to the Eagles, the Druids, the Foresters and the I. D. E. S., all in Los Banos. He conducts an oil station on the highway at the edge of Los Banos. He has a bowling alley and soft drink parlor in his own building on I Street. He is an ex-councilman, serving from 1915 to 1919, during which time many of the improvements were made in the city, streets paved, sewers installed, and the water works enlarged and improved.
ELMER K. ANGLE
A leading general contractor and builder of the San Joaquin Valley is Elmer K. Angle of Dos Palos, the builder of many of the reinforced concrete bridges of Merced County in the last eight years. He was born in Louisiana, Missouri, on September 25, 1882,
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and here he attended the public schools. As a lad he worked at the carpenter trade with his father and at an early age began taking con- tracts for general building. In 1905 he came to California and lo- cated at Dos Palos and since that time has been engaged in his chosen line of work. Among the bridges and buildings he has built are the Santa Rita Slough bridge, built in 1915; the Los Banos Creek bridge over Los Banos Creek, in 1916; the bridge across the Livingston Canal above Atwater; bridges across the double canals on Pacheco Pass lateral; and he has done bridge work all over the San Joaquin Valley. Buildings which stand to his credit are the Medlin block, the Odd Fellows Hall block, the Du Bois block, the George Nickel home and tank house on the Delta Ranch. He built the Dos Palos Public Library, which he sold to Merced County. He also built the North Star and the Reynolds Avenue school buildings in the country; the Dos Palos Grammar School; the new gymnasium of the Dos Palos Union High School and the Dos Palos Junior High in 1924; and he remodeled the two churches in Dos Palos. He owns a twenty and one-half-acre alfalfa ranch on the main canal.
He married Ella May Krigbaum, a native of Missouri, and has three children, Shelton, Mary and Doris. In fraternal relations he is a member of the Modern Woodmen and of Mountain Brow Lodge No. 132, F. & A. M .; Merced Chapter No. 12, R. A. M .; and Fresno Commandery No. 29, K. T.
W. B. PUGH
The rapidity with which new towns and subdivisions have been developed in California during the past ten or fifteen years is little short of miraculous, and great credit is due the men who have been on the ground from the beginning, literally working like beavers in the activity attendant upon the opening of new lands, and making them ready for the influx of new settlers. When Planada, in Merced County, was first opened by the Los Angeles Investment Company, in 1912, they were looking about for a man to take charge of all field operations in the opening and laying out of the district, and their choice settled upon W. B. Pugh, and he was the man who was on the ground when the "first gun was fired." In fact he "fired" it, superin- tending all street grading and other development work in the new colony, and he has remained steadily in charge and is still the care- taker for all their interests there today, in the interval seeing all the changes that the short length of time has made, and these have been many, for it is today one of the most prosperous districts in the San Joaquin Valley.
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A native of Hancock County, W. Va., Mr. Pugh was born April 10, 1862, the second of nine children in the family of Andrew C. and Matilda (Pugh) Pugh, of that State. The mother has passed on, her death occurring at Chester, W. Va., in January, 1924, but Andrew C. Pugh is still living, and maintains an active interest in affairs at the good age of ninety years. Educated in the public schools of his native county, W. B. Pugh was reared as a farmer's son, and left home when nineteen years old to take a job as appren- tice to the blacksmith trade, at Hookstown, Pa. He learned the trade most thoroughly and at the end of eighteen months became his em- ployer's successor to the shop; he later sold out, to enter sales work for the International Harvester Company, and was on the road for many years.
In 1908 Mr. Pugh came West and established a shop, working at his trade once more, first at Santa Monica, Cal., and later moved to Hollywood, until the time when he came to Planada for the Los Angeles Investment Company. He has since made his home there; and he is now owner of one of Planada's fine homes, and also of desirable real estate in the town, which he has seen grow from "the ground up," and his every effort has been to help the progress, thereby adding one more prosperous community to the State, where nothing but bare land had been before.
The marriage of Mr. Pugh, in Hancock County, W. Va., in 1885, united him with Ida Boody, a native of East Liverpool, Ohio, and one son has been born to them, Andrew, an ex-service man of the World War, an expert machinist and tractor man, and now an employe of the Yosemite Valley Railroad Company. Mr. Pugh be- longs to the Planada-Tuttle Farm Bureau, and is a real "booster" for Merced County, for he has seen what can be accomplished, and has a very real foundation for his faith in this section of our won- derful State.
STEPHEN P. GALVIN
Prominent among the professional men of Los Banos may be mentioned Stephen P. Galvin, attorney at law. He was born in Boston, Mass., April 20, 1880, and educated in the public schools and the Boston University Law School; he had a law office in New York City and in Oklahoma. He came to San Francisco in 1910 and was in the law office with Charles F. Hanlon until he came to Los Banos in 1913, where he has since lived and practiced his profession.
In addition to the fact that he is well qualified by education and experience, with a keen and analytical mind, characteristic of the
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typical attorney, is another important fact that he is interested in public affairs and is thoroughly posted concerning the problems of the municipality in which he lives. This adaptation to fill positions of trust in the city was appreciated by his fellow citizens in his elec- tion to the office of city attorney, city health officer, and secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. He has always been prominent in Demo- cratic politics and is a member of the Democratic County Central Committee, and the Democratic State Central Committee.
On August 17, 1909, Mr. Galvin married Effie M. Burke and they have two children : Stephen P. Jr. and Martha R. Fraternally, Mr. Galvin is a member of the Knights of Columbus of Merced, and of the Woodmen of the World, the Druids, and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, of Los Banos.
J. M. FINSTER AND HARRY WALLACE FINSTER
The advantages that await the cooperation of father and son who are industrious and enterprising are fully exemplified in the accomplishments of J. M. and Harry W. Finster of the Livingston district in Merced County. They own a sixty-acre vineyard located two miles east of Livingston, upon which they settled when they came here from Taft, Cal., in 1913. The land at the time of pur- chase was a worn-out grain field and by much hard work the property has been made into a fine producing vineyard, one of the best in the county.
J. M. Finster was born in Peru, Ind., on June 26, 1868, the son of Simon and Elizabeth (Danfer) Finster, farmer folk who were born and married in Germany. Fourteen children blessed the home of this couple, but only four boys are living, J. M. being the only one in California. Both parents died in Indiana. J. M. Finster remained with his father until 1889, when he came to California and ran cattle on the range in San Bernardino County. Later he conducted a dairy in Riverside. Going from there to Humboldt County, he remained there for six years and then we find him in Taft, where he was for many years a pumper in the Mascot Oil Company's lease near Taft.
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