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 74
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Joseph attended the public and night schools, and during his upbringing was in constant association with the cultured people who stopped at this father's hotel, among whom he was a general favorite. He remained at home until after the death of his parents, when. the happy home life being broken up, he left, and went to Canton Lucerne, entered the trade of tinsmith as an apprentice in a shop there, and after three years spent in learning, for which he paid tuition fee of 460 francs, he went to work at the trade, his first wage being six dollars per week. He then went out into Continental Europe and worked steadily as a journeyman at his trade in the meantime spend- ing parts of each year in the home land; and it was while on one of these visits that his marriage occurred.
The young couple decided to seek their fortune in a new land, and left home May 9, 1907, coming to the United States via Bremen, on the S. S. Kaiser Wilhelm, six and one-half days crossing the Atlan- tic. On landing, they came direct to San Francisco, and in that city Mr. Wiget followed his trade at the Union Iron Works. After the
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fire, following the earthquake of 1906, the rebuilding of the metro- polis made good times for wage earners, and the young newcomer was just in time to take full advantage of the opportunties thus offered. Also, with his wife, he diligently pursued the study of English at night. In 1912, they went to Florida, only to return after six weeks with the full determination to always remain in California. For a period of seven years following their return, Mr. Wiget worked in the Homestead Bakery. Impaired health, due to inside work in close quarters, made him decide to go into ranch work, and he was made foreman on the Aftergood Ranch, situated six miles south of Marys- ville, Yuba County.
In 1916, Mr. Wiget made his first investment in California lands. Coming to Merced County, he became one-third owner in the Three Joe Dairy and Cheese Factory, near Plainsburg; the three country- men acquired the old Welch ranch and conducted the business until 1919, when the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Wiget retaining the old home place, and forty-eight acres of land. He is improving this property with the view of making it his home, and besides his live- stock and dairy, he is developing an apricot orchard and a Thompson Seedless vineyard.
July 14, 1906, occurred the marriage uniting Joseph Wiget and Miss Anna Stadelmann ; she was born at Attigny, France, on October 17, 1885, the youngest of eleven children, born to Xavier and Anna (Egli) Stadelmann, both natives of Switzerland, who returned to their home canton of Basel in 1889, and conducted a genuine Swiss dairy in the mountains. In Basel Mrs. Wiget was reared and edu- cated. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Wiget: Anna, born in Switzerland, January 2, 1908, who was brought to California by her aunt, in 1910; she is now a well advanced pupil, class '25, of the Le Grand High School; and Martin, born at Merced, July 25, 1919. Mr. Wiget became a United States citizen in San Francisco, March 14, 1916. He has a military record as a member of the Na- tional Army of Switzerland, 1903-06, and he also served as secre- tary of the Rifle Club of 200 members. Fraternally, he belongs to the Foresters of America, Sausalito Lodge No. 150. The family attend the Presbyterian Church.
FRANK R. RODRIGUES
A successful dairyman of Merced County, with property embrac- ing eighty acres located three miles west of Merced, on the Los Banos road, Frank R. Rodrigues is a native of Fayal, the Azores Islands, born on September 8, 1873, the son of Joseph and Ignacia (Goularte)
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Rodrigues, both natives of that place, where the father was a car- penter and farmer. He died at the age of ninety years; the mother was a remarkable woman, and reached her seventy-five years of life hale and hearty, to meet a sudden death.
Frank R. had three sisters and three brothers, and being one of the oldest, he had a very limited opportunity for schooling, as he had to go to work to help support the growing family. At the age of eighteen, he left home to come to America, "land of hope and prom- ise," and worked for wages at Newport, R. I., four years ; later work- ing in New Bedford, Mass., in a dairy for two years. Here he learned much to help him in the new environment, and bettered his financial condition by working in a foundry for fifteen years.
In 1913, Mr. Rodrigues came west to the Golden State, and after first working out, at Los Banos, he soon got started in a small dairy at Lemoore, Kings County. Two years later he left the ranch to work for the Standard Oil Co. at Richmond, and then he moved to Tracy, returning to Merced County in 1915, and reentering the dairy business at Snelling, where he leased a ranch. In 1918 he bought his present ranch, where he has, by dint of hard work and thrift, built up a model dairy, with a herd of thirty-five head of fine cattle.
The marriage of Mr. Rodrigues, August 24, 1896, united him with Miss Reta Mattoso, also a native of Fayal, and daughter of Frank and Delphina Mattoso, well-to-do farmers of the Azores. Five chil- dren have come to Mr. and Mrs. Rodrigues : Antone, who is married and lives on the ranch; Frank; Joseph; Manuel; and John. Mr. Rodrigues received his citizenship papers at Providence, R. I., and he is a Democrat in political adherence, with a due regard for the principles and aims of his adopted country. Fraternally, he is a mem- ber of the U. P. E. C., of Los Banos.
F. F. PALMERLEE
The ability to solve problems in finance has been demonstrated by F. F. Palmerlee, cashier of the Bank of Los Banos since 1921. This position has not come to him through favoritism, but by well- earned and faithful experience. A native of Washington, he was born at Spangle, on November 6, 1885, and he received his education in the grammar and high schools in Corning, Tehama County, Cal., finishing in the business colleges in Santa Rosa and Long Beach. With this training he secured a position as stenographer with the San Pedro Lumber Company in Long Beach for one year. Then he entered the First National Bank of Long Beach and started to learn
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the banking business from the ground up-and with what success is demonstrated by his subsequent positions and advancements through the various channels in banking. His next important step was from the First National Bank into the Citizens Savings Bank of Long Beach; then until 1907 he was with the Calexico State Bank. For one year he was a special auditor for Imperial County, and he was cashier of the Imperial Bank of Brawley a year. In 1909, with W. T. Dunn, Mr. Palmerlee organized the First National Bank of Braw- ley and was its cashier until January 1, 1918, when he became agent for the Buick Automobiles in Brawley. Eighteen months later he sold out and went to Texas to engage in the oil business at Dallas, where he remained until in March, 1921, when he was offered and accepted the position of cashier of the Bank of Los Banos, at Los Banos, Cal., and he has since held this responsible post to the satis- faction of all concerned.
Mr. Palmerlee is a public spirited citizen and enters heartily into all movements for the upbuilding of his adopted city. Fraternally, he is a member of Mountain Brow Lodge No. 82, I. O. O. F.
CLYDE A· MAKIN
The manager of the large lumber yards, mill and office of the Miller and Lux lumber interests in Los Banos is ably filled by Clyde A. Makin, who was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia, on January 15, 1891. His parents, George and Sarah (Headley) Makin, were both natives of that state and came to Dos Palos, Merced County, Cal., in 1908, where the father carries on a dairy ranch. He was ac- tive in the political life of Wood County, W. Va., serving as a mem- ber of the board of supervisors and as secretary of the county board of education. He and his wife had seven children : Clyde A., Harold, George, Clarence, Gail, Lillian and Myrtle.
Clyde A. Makin attended the public schools in his native city and finished in the Dos Palos school and the Fresno Business College. For the next two years he worked in the oil fields in Coalinga and also assisted his father on the home ranch near Dos Palos. His next employment was with the Kings County Packing Company at Han- ford. In 1917 he entered the employ of Miller and Lux in their lumber yard at Dos Palos and he soon rose to be assistant manager, then manager. In June, 1923, he was sent to Los Banos, the head- quarters of the company, as manager and he is surely making good. The Miller and Lux Lumber Yard and Planing Mill occupies a space covering three blocks and employs thirty men in its different depart-
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ments, all under the supervision of Mr. Makin. Thus it will be seen that his is a position of no mean responsibility.
Mr. Makin was united in marriage in December, 1922, with Miss Marie Brown, of Los Angeles, but born in Illinois. She was a teacher in the Dos Palos schools at the time of their marriage and is now dean of the girls of the Dos Palos High School. Mr. Makin belongs to Mountain Brow Lodge No. 82, I. O. O. F. and to the Los Banos Aerie of Eagles. He is a booster for Merced County.
HERMAN PAUL JUENEMAN
Among the numerous dairy herds in Merced County the one owned by Herman Paul Jueneman is counted among the best; his ranch of forty-six acres in Madison precinct supports thirty head of registered Holstein dairy stock. He also owns 186 acres of choice island land west of Stockton in Contra Costa County. He was born at Nienburg, Province of Saxony, Germany, October 24, 1874, and at nine years of age accompanied his parents, Christopher and Sophia (Biermort) Jueneman, to America. They landed at New York May 6, 1883, and proceeded immediately to Iowa, where the father worked at his trade of stone mason for three and a half years ; they then removed to Dakota, then a territory, and were there for eleven months, when they removed to Washington territory, and settled at Puyallup, where a small tract of land was purchased and the father and our subject engaged in truck gardening. There are two children in this family, our subject and Anna, now Mrs. John Irmer residing in Sonoma County, Cal.
At nineteen years of age Herman Paul Jueneman began working in the sawmills at Puyallup and Cosmopolis, on the Chehalis River, and was thus occupied until he decided to return East to the state of Maryland. The first Sunday spent in Maryland he became ac- quainted with Miss Eva Reiter, a native of Austria-Hungary, and on March 1, 1899, they were married. The same day they left for New York and for the following seven months resided on a farm near Steamburg; then they removed to Wisconsin, where Mr. Juene- man worked in a sawmill for one year; then they went to Michigan and for six years raised peppermint in Van Buren County. Returning to the West, Mr. Jueneman located at Campbell, Santa Clara County, where he became the owner of a forty-acre prune orchard; later he traded this for his present dairy ranch of forty-six acres in Merced County. Mr. and Mrs. Jueneman are the parents of ten children : Anna Christine is the wife of Reuben David Fessler; Helena Carrie is the wife of Marvin McConnell and they have one child, Oliver
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Morris; Herman Paul, Jr., assists his father on the home place; Carl John, deceased; Eva, deceased; Minnie Frieda Eva; Emma Geneva; Ellwood Ralph; Walter Abraham Raymond; and William Arthur Earl. Mr. and Mrs. Jueneman are active members of the Lutheran Church at Livingston. In politics Mr. Jueneman is a Republican.
MRS. ELIZABETH LEE OLDS
A native of Merced County, born below Livingston, on the Mer- ced River, Mrs. Elizabeth Lee Olds is the seventh daughter and child of the pioneer couple, William G. and Ann Eliza (Jackson) Collier. The late William G. Collier is recognized as the "Father of Irrigation in California," and is mentioned at length on another page of this history. Mrs. Ann Eliza Collier is a direct descendant of former President Andrew Jackson. Mrs. Olds grew to maturity in Merced County, attending the public schools, and also received instruction from her father, who was a graduate of Columbia Uni- versity and an able educator. On January 20, 1884, she was united in marriage with Edward Jerome Olds.
Edward Jerome Olds was born in Ingham County, Mich., in September, 1848, a son of Rev. Arice Olds, a Presbyterian minister. The mother was in maidenhood E. Louisa Gallup. The Olds family is represented by a long line of college professors, lawyers and min- isters. The Gallups were prominent in financial circles for genera- tions in New York State and Michigan. Edward J. Olds came to California in 1866, via Panama, in company with his brother-in-law, Dr. Samuel Blackwood. Some time after arriving in this State, Mr. Olds purchased land in Merced County and was the first settler in Livingston, where he erected the first hotel and store building. With the Cresseys, he was among the pioneer grain-growers in the Livings- ton section ; and in time he became well-to-do.
Of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Olds six children were born. Calvin J. is a mechanic and lives in San Francisco. Danton E. is engaged in scientific dairying at San Mateo. He served in the hos- pital corps at Camp Lewis during the World War. Roscoe C. at- tended the University of Nevada, receiving special honors in geology. He became a writer of note and was a member of the Writers' Club of Seattle, Wash. He was called the "Kipling of the West." When war was declared he entered the 316th Engineers, became a corporal, went over seas, and fell in the last battle of the war, in the Argonne forest. Beatrice D. attended the University of California and be-
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came a dramatic reader of note and an esthetic dancer. She lives in San Francisco. Isabel E. attended Miss Head's School in Berkeley, specializing in music, both piano and voice. She makes her home with her aunt, Mrs. Harriet C. Whitworth, near Newman. Claude M. is in the employ of the P. G. & E. in Modesto. While a student in the Berkeley High School he received high honors for his poetry. He studied dentistry at the Affiliated Dental College in San Fran- cisco, but never practiced the profession. At the age of twenty he married Miss Edith Coffey of Stockton.
Mrs. Olds has been a frequent contributor to newspapers and other periodicals. Something like one hundred poems from her pen have been published from time to time. The professor of litera- ture at the University of Utah was attracted by their beauty, collected them, and had them typewritten preparatory to publishing in a bound volume. For several years she was a political editor on the staff of the Merced Sun. She was for many years an active worker for the principles which are embodied in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments and delivered the first speech ever made in the San Joa- quin Valley on woman's suffrage. Personally she is a strong advocate of prohibition. She is fond of out-of-door life, and her hobby has been the study of botany and ornithology.
Since the death of Mr. Olds, in December, 1913, at Berkeley, Mrs. Olds has been an invalid. She has lived at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland, and at various sanitariums, and has been a very patient sufferer. Her fondest recollections are of her many friends and acquaintances in Merced County.
M. M. FINLAYSON
A building contractor who has had a varied experience in his field of endeavor on the Pacific Coast is M. M. Finlayson of Los Banos, California. A native of New Zealand, he was born on January 5, 1878, and reared on a farm up to the age of twelve. Since then he has traveled extensively, going to the South Sea Islands and through Canada. Mr. Finlayson began working at his trade in Gore, New Zealand, continuing for five years in heavy construction and on busi- ness blocks. Going to Vancouver, with a force of sixty men he re- modeled a number of business blocks and constructed five new ones. Coming to San Francisco in the fall of 1906 he helped to rebuild that city after the great fire and earthquake. His first work there was on the second brick building in Chinatown; he built a sixty-room hotel on Howard Street; worked on the Ferry building and re- modeled the front of it; did work on Yerba Buena Island, and erected
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a hospital at Fort Berry for the U. S. government; built a number of school buildings for the City of San Francisco, also a number of fire houses; and two churches. During the World War he built several cantonments, having 300 men under his supervision at the Presidio in San Francisco. Going to Aberdeen, Wash., he was en- gaged in the work of building twenty-two wooden vessels of 4000 tons each, laying the keels, sterns etc. Returning to San Francisco he worked in the shipyards for the Government, making steel masts and spars.
Completing his work in the bay metropolis, Mr. Finlayson came to Los Banos on October 2, 1919, and soon became associated with Frank Burke in the contracting and building business; after the death of Mr. Burke, he carried on the business alone and in Los Banos he erected the Odd Fellows Block, city water works building, three units of the Los Banos High School, Sischo's garage, West Side Ho- tel, Guyer Hotel, Oberon Hotel, Bank of Los Banos three-story building, many of the fine bungalows seen in and about Los Banos and on the West Side, as well as a number of homes and dairy barns and buildings. He has drawn plans for many of his buildings, hav- ing had a wide and varied experience in the building line.
Mr. Finlayson married Sybil Maclean, a native of Michigan, and daughter of Dr. Daniel Maclean, dean of the California Medi- cal College in San Francisco, and they have a son, Thomas Gray Finlayson. Mr. Finlayson is a graduate of the Armour Architectural Institute of Chicago; and is a Mason, belonging to Los Banos Lodge No. 312, F. & A. M.
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ROBERT L. A. THOMAS
A country which has given to California a large number of in- habitants, perhaps more than any other foreign country, is Portugal and its dependencies. They have come from the Azores and the mainland, and are temperate and thrifty; and soon they become most substantial and loyal Americans. Of that class may be men- tioned Manuel P. and Mary (Peters) Thomas, both natives of Por- tugal, who came to this State in the early days and engaged in sheep farming; Manuel eventually started a number of small hotels in the San Joaquin Valley, which were headquarters for his countrymen. Nine children were born to this worthy couple of whom six have gone with their father to that bourne from which no traveler returns. The three living are Robert L. A .; Mrs. T. Solis; and John P. of Merced.
Robert L. A. Thomas was educated in the grammar and high school of Merced and in a correspondence school in law. His prac-
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tical experience began as teller in the Security Bank of Atwater ; from that he passed into the general merchandise business in Los Banos and next into the First National Bank of Los Banos, where he was assistant cashier for eight years. His standing as a citizen was recognized in his election as a trustee of the city of Los Banos for a term of four years beginning 1920. He is at present in the collecting and account- ing business and is an income tax consultant.
His family consists of his wife, who was Lillian Puccinelli before marriage, and two children, Robert A. and Eileen Marie.
PETER A. CATSEFTAS
Among the later additions to Merced's business circles must be mentioned Peter A. Catseftas, who, together with his partner, James Moskos, is making a success of the Valley Lunch Counter at No. 537 Sixteenth Street. Mr. Catseftas came to Merced from San Francisco in 1923 and at an outlay of $4200 thoroughly remodeled his place ; and despite the competition of live restaurateurs on either side, the Valley Lunch Counter is constantly forging to the front as a sanitary and up-to-date eating house. It is largely patronized by the traveling public. A commodious dining room with its snow-white linen gives ample accommodations to ladies and children and tourist parties, while the long lunch counter facing the grill is largely patron- ized by clerks and business men, farmers and laborers. Prices are very moderate and its numerous patrons get the advantage of excel- lent cooking, Mr. Catseftas' experience in the culinary art extending over a period of almost a third of a century.
Peter A. Catseftas was born at Sparta, Greece, on September 17. 1869, a son of H. Aristides Catseftas. His parents are poor but honorable Greek working people, who are still living in their native land, having attained the remarkable ages of 102 and 99 years, respectively. Our subject grew up in Greece, where he attended the Greek schools and was reared in the Greek Orthodox Church. At the age of fourteen he began to work in a silk factory and together with his good wife continued in that work as long as they lived in Greece. He was married at an age of nineteen to Sophia Arneotes, who was born near Sparta and began working in the silk mill when a little girl of eleven years of age. She is thoroughly conversant with silk weav- ing and has made some of the finest dress goods that ever came from Greek looms.
Fired with an ambition to see the New World and to better his condition, Mr. Catseftas left his wife and family in his native country and came to San Francisco, in 1895. He immediately entered business
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for himself, becoming proprietor of the Gust Restaurant at No. 29 Ninth Street, between Mission and Market Streets. Fortunately he sold this place a short time before the great earthquake and fire and for a few months ran a restaurant in the outskirts of the city and thus escaped the great fire. In 1907 he made a seven-months trip to Europe, making a five-months visit to his old home, and on returning to San Francisco brought his wife and two children with him. Sad to relate, however, his oldest child, a promising young man of six- teen, died a month after reaching California.
Mr. Catseftas was best known as the proprietor of the Cosmopoli- tan Restaurant in San Francisco, which he ran for sixteen years until he came to Merced and opened up his present place. He believes in "live and let live" and American standards of living at that. Mr. and Mrs. Catseftas have a comfortable home in Merced, where both are highly respected as industrious and enterprising citizens. They have become parents of four children, namely: Florodia, who died in Greece; Louis, who died in San Francisco; Ernest A., who was born in Greece and is now in the Merced Union High School; and Cath- erine, born in San Francisco, and now in the grammar school.
In entire sympathy with American institutions and in thorough accord with the business life at Merced, Mr. and Mrs. Catseftas and family are cordially welcomed. They are at present, as a side issue, engaged in raising silk-worms in Merced for the production of raw silk and Mr. Catseftas is very optimistic in the belief that the silk- industry will, before long, become of commercial importance in Merced County.
JOSEPH GAVAZZA
As part owner and one of the proprietors of the Winton Mercan- tile Company, of Winton, Merced County, J. Gavazza has already become a well-known figure in commercial circles in Merced County. He was born at Villa San Secondo d'Asti, Italy, on December 23, 1892, the son of Valentino and Angela Gavazza, farmer folk in that country. The father was a lieutenant in the Italian Army for fourteen years and fought in the Italian-Austrian wars from 1858 to 1859, also in the war of 1870 when Italy became free from foreign domination and gained its national unity and independence. The parents are both deceased. They had two children: Claudine, wife of Arri Jefferino, of Oakland; and Joseph, our subject.
Joseph attended the public schools of his native land, completing the fifth grade, and can read and write Italian as well as English. Bidding good-bye to his home and family he joined his sister and her
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husband for California, coming direct to Oakland, arriving March 13, 1910. He was then seventeen years old. He began working on ranches, mostly in market gardens in Santa Clara County for two years, then going back to Oakland he worked as an apprentice moulder for six months, then took up carpenter work, making boxes for moulds, etc., following the moulder's business until 1921, when he came down into Merced County and began raising tomatoes on Bear Creek, con- tinuing one year. The following year he went to Livingston and en- gaged in peach growing and market gardening for the season of 1922. That year he began working for the Pregno Mercantile Company at Atwater, and after six months was transferred to the Winton branch and became a partner in both stores. On July 1, 1924, with his partner, H. Dessiaume, he bought out the Winton store, stock and fixtures, changed the name of the company to the Winton Mercantile Company and they are continuing the business along broader lines than carried on under the former name.
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