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 75
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Mr. Gavazza was married at Merced in 1923, to Miss Ruby Frances Logan, daughter of Henry Logan, a rancher at Winton. Mr. Gavazza was naturalized in Oakland in 1916 and registers as a Republican. He has purchased a comfortable home, the George Fast residence, in Winton.
ALFRED R. NEVES
The splendid new store in Atwater, the Atwater Mercantile Com- pany, which has a general line of merchandise and which employs two clerks, is owned by Alfred Neves. How it was acquired is something worth relating. It was at Pico, on a distant Isle of the Azores, that the proprietor was born on October 9, 1880, the fifth in a family of ten children. His parents were Jospeh and Mary ( Perpetua ) Neves, both natives of the same place. The father died there at the age of fifty- four. The mother came to California and spent her declining years at Livingston, passing away in 1916, aged sixty-four.
Alfred attended the common school in Pico, and learned agricul- ture on his father's farm. When his brothers, Manuel, Joseph and Antone, came to America, he was naturally interested in the glow- ing letters they wrote of the wonderful prospects in the Great Golden West. So when he had saved up enough money for traveling expenses he followed his brothers hither in 1903. He took the first job that offered, that as a farm hand on the Bloss Ranch, and with the exception of two years spent at Sugar Pine, in the Fresno hills, he has lived in Merced County. He raised stock and cultivated sweet potatoes near Atwater up to 1912. That year he opened a small store 30 feet by 25
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feet on the site of his present store at Broadway and Fourth. In 1916 he succeeded to the Pregno-Souza Mercantile Company on Front Street, and changed the name to the Atwater Mercantile Com- pany, and carried on the business for seven years in that location. In the meantime he made investments and erected the present building, 45x115 feet, in 1922, which would do credit to a city five times the size of Atwater, and removed his stock to the new location. Mr. Neves received his United States citizenship in Judge Rector's court in Merced and, as a Republican, has fulfilled the duties of an American citizen. In August, 1922, he was elected city trustee of Atwater on the incorporation of the town.
In February, 1912, A. R. Neves was united in marriage with Mary Leal, born at Angra, in the Azores, the daughter of Frank Leal, a mechanic of St. George. Her uncle, Antone Leal, was an early settler in California. The children of the union are Harry and Guida. Mr. Neves is a very enterprising business man and what he has achieved thus far in life has been through the exercise of his frugality and honest industry. He was one of the organizers of the Atwater Penta- cost Club and is ex-secretary of the I. D. E. S., and secretary of the U. P. E. C. societies ; and is the banker of the Atwater Camp of the Woodmen of the World.
HENRI DESSIAUME
The life of Henri Dessiaume presents an example of industry and worthiness creditable alike to his native country and to the country of his adoption. He is the senior partner in the Winton Mercantile Company at Winton, successors to the Winton branch of the Pregno Mercantile Company. The firm employs the same systematic methods that characterized the work of the former concern and are assured of continued success. Henri Dessiaume was born at Bourges, France, on January 13, 1888, a son of John and Helen (Pigeit) Dessiaume, vineyardists who spent their entire lives in the land of their birth.
Henri Dessiaume received a thorough education in the schools of France, Germany, Belgium and England; he can read, write and speak French, English, German and Spanish and can read Latin and under- stands the Japanese language. Mr. Dessiaume became a steward in some of the leading restaurants and hotels in England, being thus engaged in the city of Liverpool and other large cities; in 1906 he went to Japan, where he spent two years as assistant manager for the Metropole and the Imperial hotels. In 1908 he came to America and directly to Victoria, B. C., where he was steward of the Empress Hotel, owned and conducted by the Canadian Pacific Railway Com-
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pany. Later he removed to San Francisco and was steward at the St. Francis Hotel; also for a year and a half he was steward at Hotel Oakland, in Oakland, Cal.
In 1914 Henri Dessiaume was married in San Francisco. In 1916 he located at Winton and was placed in charge of the Pregno Mer- cantile Company, which carries a full line of staple and fancy gro- ceries, dry goods, clothing, hardware, farming implements, etc., and handles meat and provisions. Under the direction of Dessiaume and Gavazza, the firm is doing a thriving business. On July 1, 1924, the present establishment was taken over by H. Dessiaume and J. Gavazza, who continue the business under the name of the Winton Mercantile Company.
FRED R. FERGUSON
A public-spirited man whose principles have determined his prog- ress in the business world is Fred R. Ferguson, the capable assistant manager of the Yosemite Lumber Company, at Merced Falls. He was born at Toronto, in Ontario, Canada, March 20, 1875, the eldest of four children born to Andrew T. and Amelia ( Reynolds ) Ferguson, who were also born in Ontario of Scotch and English families. The father was widely known as Rev. A. T. Ferguson, and was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He moved with his family to Michigan in 1884, and following the ministry in that state became the assistant superintendent of the Michigan State M. E. Conference, passing away while in office. His wife passed away two years previous to his death, in that state.
Fred R. Ferguson was graduated with the Class of 1894 at Albion College, and soon identified himself with the teaching profession by teaching school at Manistee, Michigan. In 1900 he went west to Arizona, and locating at Williams, he entered the employ of the Saginaw-Manistee Lumber Company in the clerk's office, and soon became one of their superintendents, remaining with this enterpris- ing firm for seventeen and one-half years. The following three years he was superintendent of the Charles Ruggles Company, manu- facturers and lumber dealers, in Amador County, California. In June, 1922, he accepted the position of assistant manager to H. R. Lowell, of the Yosemite Lumber Company, at Merced Falls, where he is superintendent of the shipping and sales. The shipments of this company in 1922 totaled seventy-five million feet, with a handsome increase during 1923, and preparations to store and handle still greater amounts of lumber are rapidly being made at the Yosemite yards in Merced Falls.
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The marriage of Mr. Ferguson occurred at Williams, Ariz., in 1906, when he was united with Mable H. Adams, daughter of H. F. Adams, ex-pioneer lumberman of Arizona and Michigan, now living retired at Pomona, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have two daughters, Florence and Lauretta, who are both being educated in the best pos- sible way. Mr. Ferguson's brother, Prof. W. A. Ferguson, is principal of the Porterville High School, and his sister, Miss L. M. Ferguson, is vice-principal of the Sacramento High School. Thus the members of this family have contributed liberally to the educational progress of our Golden State.
The activities of Mr. Ferguson in public and political life have been characterized by efficiency and sagacity, and while at Williams, Ariz., he was deputy sheriff for two terms. For eight years he was an active member of the Arizona State Republican Committee, when Thomas Campbell, Arizona's first Republican governor, was elected, and for his efforts in the campaign Mr. Ferguson was highly com- mended by those who knew the conditions and principles involved. He is active in fraternal life, being a valued member of the B. P. O. Elks, No. 499, at Flagstaff, Ariz., and the Masons in Hornitos Lodge No. 98, F. & A. M.
U. ORA ABELL
A successful grower of figs in California, who is highly esteemed in the community of Merced, is U. Ora Abell, who first saw the light near Indianapolis, Ind., on March 11, 1868. He was the eldest of the five children born to Perry and Rebecca (Klepfer) Abell, who were born in Pennsylvania and Michigan respectively. Perry Abell settled in Indiana where he helped his father carve a home out of the forest and where he farmed until the Civil War broke out, when he enlisted in the 70th Indiana Volunteer Infantry, serving throughout the con- flict. He moved to Nebraska in the eighties, homesteading land twenty miles from a railroad, and about 1890 he removed to Salt Lake City, where he lived for six years. In 1896 he located in Merced with his family and here he and his wife both spent their last days.
The common schools of Indiana and Nebraska afforded U. Ora Abell a good elementary education. Being a farmer's son he worked steadily on the home farm and in the meantime learned the carpenter trade, accomplishing a great deal as a journeyman, and later engaged in the building trade as a contractor. He accompanied his parents to California in 1896, where he continued to work at his trade. That same year he invested wisely by purchasing a tract of land on the Merced River, one and one-half miles below Merced Falls, where he
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began farming and made improvements. By 1900 he had a few fig trees, and as the years progressed, he set out many more, until the property became a valuable one. At present he is the owner of thirty acres of highly developed orchard set to Black Mission figs, the trees ranging from ten to twenty-five years of age. A newly completed residence fills the need for an orchard home.
On January 14, 1913, at Merced, Mr. Abell was united in mar- riage with Miss Nan R. Peak, who was born in Merced, the youngest of seven children. Her father was the late Luke Peak, a Forty-niner and pioneer of Contra Costa County. He had come from Jackson- ville, Illinois, to California, and in the sixties he moved to Plainsburg, Merced County, where he was a well and favorably known farmer. Just prior to moving to Merced he owned and operated a grain farm adjoining the Atwater ranch. Mrs. Abell's mother came from Southern stock and was a member of the Hancock family who arrived in Contra Costa County in 1853. One daughter, Isabel May, has blessed the home of Mr. and Mrs. Abell, who are popular in Merced social circles. Mr. Abell is a baritone singer of ability, and has favored the public by appearing at many functions, giving his talent freely for general enjoyment. He was the director of the Merced Methodist Episcopal Church choir from 1912 to 1917. He has be- longed to the Merced Lodge of Odd Fellows since 1899, and to the Modern Woodmen of America since 1903. His political views and efforts have been with the Democratic party, but any movement for civic and community betterment has his hearty endorsement.
BENJAMIN H. BUSH, M. D.
The city of Los Banos is to be congratulated on having the services of so accomplished and experienced a physician and surgeon as Benjamin Howard Bush, M.D. Though born in Nebraska, he came to California at such an early age that he has grown up with the pro- gressive California spirit. He was born in Broken Bow, on July 11, 1884, and he was brought to California at the age of six years, and educated in the Santa Cruz public schools, after which he entered Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, graduating with the Class of 1911 as an M.D. His first field for practice was in Santa Cruz, where he also served as city health officer. When the United States was drawn into the World War, Dr. Bush enlisted in the U. S. Navy, was commissioned a lieutenant and served on a flotilla of destroyers as medical officer. Later he had shore duty in the Panama Canal zone for seventeen months, and was five months in the hospital at the
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Mare Island Navy Yard in California. Coming to Los Banos in 1919 he began the practice of medicine and established a private hospital in company with Dr. C. E. Stagner, of Gustine. The success he has made and the position he holds are a practical recognition of his skill and efficiency in his calling.
Dr. Bush married on June 20, 1920, Miss Margaret Hugus of Wyoming, and they have a son, Dean Howard. Dr. Bush belongs to the Merced County Medical Society, the State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. He is serving as city health officer of Los Banos. His good fellowship is betokened by his membership in Santa Cruz Lodge No. 38, F. & A. M., and in Merced Lodge No. 1240, B. P. O. E. He is also a member of the American Legion of Los Banos.
REUBEN DAVID FESSLER
Though a comparatively recent accession to the business ranks of Cressey, Merced County, Reuben David Fessler is thoroughly satis- fied to make this part of California his permanent home. Since 1919 he has been associated with his brother-in-law, L. H. Moyer, in the general merchandise business at Cressey, a prosperous town on the Santa Fe Railroad. This firm is enjoying a lucrative business through- out this section of the county. Reuben David Fessler was born on his father's farm near Middleworth, Snyder County, Pa., April 21, 1895, a son of Franklin Pierce and Lovina ( Benfer) Fessler, both natives of Union County, Pa., but of German-Swiss ancestors. Of the eleven children born of this union, nine are now living, namely: Sally is the wife of O. B. Sanders, a farmer at Beavertown, Pa .; Lettie is the wife of L. H. Moyer, whose sketch may be found in this history; Libbie is the wife of Merle Sanders, a farmer in North Dakota; Harry resides in Santa Rosa, Cal .; Lena is the wife of W. A. Bru- baker, a draughtsman, and they reside at Akron, Ohio; Maud lives in Akron, Ohio; Reuben David is the subject of this review; Edna is the wife of W. E. Norr and they reside in Cleveland, Ohio; Franklin Pierce, Jr., is a tiremaker living at Akron, Ohio. Two children died at the ages of twenty-one and fifteen, respectively. The mother is still living and makes her home at Centerville, Pa. The father died in 1924, aged seventy-four.
Reuben David Fessler received a public school education and grew to young manhood on his father's farm of 105 acres in Snyder County, Pa. When he reached the age of eighteen he went to North Dakota where, for fourteen years, he was associated with his brother in farm- ing pursuits. In 1915 he came to California and in 1917 enlisted in
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Company L, 363rd Infantry; he was sent to France and served in the St. Mihiel, Argonne and Flanders campaigns ; on September 27, 1918, he was wounded by a machine gun missile. He returned to the United States and received his honorable discharge at the Presidio, San Francisco, April 26, 1919; he then made a visit to his parents in Pennsylvania of a few months and upon his return to Cali- fornia became a partner with L. H. Moyer as before stated. Mr. Fessler acts as assistant postmaster of Cressey.
At Cressey, Cal., August 10, 1919, Mr. Fessler was married to Miss Anna Christine Jueneman, the eldest daughter of Herman Paul and Eva ( Reiter ) Jueneman, natives of Saxony, Germany and Austria- Hungary, respectively. Her father, Herman Paul Jueneman, lives on a farm of sixty-seven acres near Cressey, and also owns 186 acres on the islands west of Stockton, Cal. There are eight living children in this family, namely: Anna, the wife of our subject; Helena, the wife of Marvin McConnell, a farmer of Livingston, Cal .; and Her- man, Minnie, Emma, Ellwood, Walter, and Willie. Mr. and Mrs. Fessler are the parents of two children: Eva Lovina and Francis Franklin. Mr. Fessler was brought up in the English Lutheran Church; fraternally, he is affiliated with the Turlock Lodge No. 395, F.& A. M.
RINALDO M. MIANO
One of the best and most fully equipped schools in Merced County, or in any town of equal size in all of California, is the Los Banos Grammar School. The children are brought in busses, within a radius of eight miles ; there are fifteen teachers, and a student body of 475. The building has an auditorium with a seating capacity of 500; a Kindergarten department; and a nurse in attendance for the whole school.
The district superintendent of the elementary schools of Los Banos, Rinaldo M. Miano, was born in Tombstone, Ariz., on April 29, 1892, a son of John B. and Christina (Desimone) Miano, the latter born in Columbia, Cal., daughter of a pioneer gold seeker who eventually settled in Santa Clara County. Here in San Jose, J. B. Miano married, and then went to Tombstone, Ariz., where he was a pioneer miner and cattleman. He died in San Jose in 1906. Mrs. Miano makes her home with her children. Rinaldo M. was educated in the Tombstone schools, and then took a year in the New Mexico Military Institute, three years in the San Jose High School, and a teacher's course of three years in the San Jose Teachers' College. His college work finished, he taught two years in the school at Wheat-
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land, Yuba County, and three years in Los Banos High School. For the past four years he has been district superintendent of the Los Banos elementary schools, and has made a very fine record in educa- tional circles in California.
In 1915 Rinaldo M. Miano married Thelma Ostrom, a native of Wheatland, and they have two children, Phyllis and Melvin. Mr. Miano is a member of Los Banos Lodge No. 312, F. & A. M., and Merced Pyramid of Sciots No. 14. He belongs to the volunteer fire department of Los Banos.
PETER KUTULAN
The proprietor of the Highway Grill at 543 Sixteenth Street, Merced, is an example of what a young man of energy and ability can attain to in California, and especially in the city of Merced, where he has become a freeholder, owning several lots and houses, as well as a thoroughly-equipped and up-to-date restaurant. No less remark- able is the success of his brother Steve, who is also a freeholder and the proprietor of the Kutulan Shoe Shop at 519 Seventeenth Street. These two brothers left their home in Greece, in order to seek their fortunes in California, arriving in San Francisco in December, 1907. They are two of the seven children born to James and Christine Kutu- lan, farmers in Greece. Both parents and all of the children are still living and prospering. The subject's brothers and sisters are: John, a restaurateur in San Francisco; Steve, who was born in Greece on January 24, 1886, was married in San Francisco in 1922 to Miss Caliope Giona-Copoulou, by whom he has one child, Christina, and resides at their home, 620 Twenty-third Street, Merced; Gus, fore- man of the McDonald Manufacturing Company in San Francisco; Peter, the subject of this review; Frank and Oliver, farmers and ex- soldiers of Greece; and Petra, the youngest of the family, and only sister, who is still under the parental roof.
Arriving in San Francisco when a lad of sixteen, Peter Kutulan worked and studied and applied himself to such work as his hands could find to do and attended day and night public schools whenever he could, to obtain a knowledge of the English language; and this helped him to get better positions. For five years he was in the employ of the McDonald Manufacturing Company in the manufacture of fruit baskets, during which time he rose to be the foreman; he was also with Angelo and Son for five years ; and later with the Western Baskets & Barrels Company, being employed in this line of work for a period of thirteen years altogether. In 1910 he made a six months' trip back to his old home in Greece.
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In 1913, at San Francisco, Peter Kutulan was married to Miss Ella Boyce, born in San Francisco of English parentage, and they have one son, Christ, and reside in their home at 740 Nineteenth Street, Merced. In March, 1921, Peter Kutulan came to Merced and started a shoe-shine and repair establishment at No. 519 Seventeenth Street, which he sold to his brother, Steve, who has conducted it ever since. On August 1, 1923, Peter Kutulan bought the business of the Highway Restaurant at 543 Sixteenth Street and has refitted it and made of it one of the popular restaurants in Merced. He has added soft drinks and improved its cuisine and dining room, and has an up-to-date lunch counter. His dining-room is spotlessly clean and caters to family and tourist trade. He has also provided sanitary wash and rest-rooms for men and women.
Brought up in the Greek Orthodox Church, Mr. Kutulan received the advantages of strict moral and religious training and continues faithful to the teachings of that church. He was naturalized in San Francisco and while he usually registers as a Democrat, in local mat- ters he votes for the best man. He is of an inventive turn of mind and is the inventor of Kutulan's Automatic Fire Alarm System, which was tried out by Fire Chief Thomas Murphy in San Francisco, who pro- nounced it a success. It has also been endorsed by George Robinson, Chief Engineer for the Pacific Coast Fire Underwriters, and is duly protected by a patent procured in 1919.
LOUIS H. KNUDSEN
As far as lies in the power of any one individual, Louis Knudsen has illustrated by his own life the sterling character of the race from which he sprung, and through his own unaided efforts has been able to rise above adverse circumstances to a position of honor among men. A native of Denmark, he was born in the Island of Oro, April 9, 1881. Growing up on his father's farm he attended the public schools and was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church. His parents, Knud and Anna Maria (Albertson) Knudsen, lived and died in their native land. Louis H. learned dairy farming in Denmark and learned it well, but the chances for advancement in the old country were not good enough to satisfy the aspirations of an energetic young man; therefore he turned his eyes westward and, embarking at Esbijo, Den- mark, crossed the Atlantic and landed on Ellis Island, N. Y., No- vember 19, 1909. As soon as he could get by the custom officers he made for Los Banos, California, where he arrived April 4, 1910. He worked out by the month for one year.
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In 1910 Louis H. Knudsen married Miss Agnes Madsen, and they started out in life on a rented farm. By 1916 he had got enough ahead to invest in twenty acres of land which he bought of the Crocker- Huffman Company in the Merced Colony No. 3. He moved there with his family, and cousins of his wife, and ran a dairy. His wife was taken with a cancer and for four years was a patient sufferer. Thinking it would do her good he took a trip back to Denmark with her and his daughter, to visit her parents, Louis and Maria Madsen, returning to America the same year. Mrs. Knudsen passed away in April, 1923. Mr. Knudsen was naturalized in Merced in 1920, and votes for what he considers correct principles and the best man.
JOHN JOHNSON
Sterling personal characteristics accompanied by exceptional skill in repairing automobiles have been the key to success of the garage conducted by John Johnson in Irwin. Being a strong, active, able and intelligent young man of strict integrity and an expert machinist, he is able to provide all the needs of an automobile, from repairing and all the accessories to oil and gas.
A son of Olof and Marie Johnson, he was born near central Sweden, August 24, 1886. Olof Johnson was employed by the Ovre Ulerud Railway and is living retired on a pension, aged sixty-four. His mother had three children: Eugene, a commercial traveler of Stockholm, Sweden; John; and the third child was Hannah Marie, who is still single in Sweden. She miraculously escaped death in a railway accident in which her mother was killed, John then being four or five years old. The father married again and the boy was brought up by his stepmother and was educated in the public and church schools and confirmed in the Lutheran Church. In 1909 he came to America and, arriving in Fort Wayne, Ind., he obtained work as a machinist.
The son John sailed for the United States on the White Star line from Gottenburg, in August, 1909. Passing through England from Hull to Liverpool he embarked again and arrived at Ellis Island, N. Y., in the latter part of August of the same year. He worked three years in the railway shops of the Wabash Railway in Fort Wayne, Ind., and from there he went to Oakland, Cal., in September, 1912. After working around in several automobile shops he engaged with the Scandinavian Gas Engine Works, builders of the celebrated Scandi- navian Marine Engines. At the same time he attended the night school provided by the Y. M. C. A. course in mechanical engineering
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and became a member of the Y. M. C. A. of Oakland, Cal. He could not speak English when he first arrived in America, but he acquired the language by self study.
John Johnson was married in Oakland to Miss Clara Larson, a native of Minnesota, and they came to Irwin in 1917. They have two children, Stanford and Florence. Mrs. Johnson is a daughter of Fred and Christina Larson, who own forty acres in Hilmar. They had five children, Alice, Arthur, Clara, Carl and Anna. Mrs. Larson died in the spring of 1924. When the Johnsons first came here in 1917 they farmed for three years, but in 1920 Mr. Johnson came to Irwin and bought his garage which he has run successfully ever since. They are both members of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Church in Hilmar, and live in Irwin in the Hilmar Colony. Mr. Johnson has no choice as to political parties, but votes for principle and men of principle.
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