History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches 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, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362

USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches 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, Volume I > Part 102

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The St. George Vineyard was started in 1879, when 160 acres of vines were planted. It eventually comprised six vineyards, aggregating nearly 2,000 acres which were planted in choice imported varieties of wine, brandy and raisin grapes. These vineyards produced annually upward of 6,000 tons ' of grapes. About one-third of this amount was used for raisins. A large quantity of table grapes were grown and shipped annually to Chicago, New York and other large cities, where they were sold at auction to fruit dealers. The remainder of the St. George Vineyard grape-product went to its winery and distillery in which about 10,000 tons of grapes were annually crushed for wine and brandy purposes. A large amount of the grapes so used were bought from neighboring vineyards during each season.

The St. George Vineyard had its warehouses in San Francisco, New York and New Orleans; its winery for making dry wines at Antioch, Con- tra Costa County, and its sweet wine producing vineyards, winery, and dis- tillery at Maltermoro, Fresno County. The first winery at Maltermoro was built in 1884. It was then a comparatively small concern, but grew to be one of the largest in the state with a capacity of working 200 tons of grapes per day, crushing 10,000 tons of grapes during the vintage. It was totally de- stroyed by fire on December 12, 1902, with all its contents of nearly a million gallons of wine and brandy, together with the adjoining packing house, the raisin seeding plant and cream of tartar works. This fire, the most extensive and disastrous which had ever occurred in Fresno County, destroyed over one-half million dollars in property, only $75,000 of which was covered by insurance. The St. George winery at Maltermoro was reconstructed as a

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

fire-proof structure, fully as large and efficient as its predecessor. Among the new cooperage in the reconstructed winery there were ten wine vats, each of which was of double the capacity of the famous Heidelberg tun, the great size of which made it one of the marvelous sights of Europe. The Antioch winery was located at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and had its own wharf and warehouses. The grapes were shipped to this winery by rail from various grape producing sections of the state and converted into dry wines and brandies.

The St. George Vineyard enterprise was entirely independent of any wine trust. Its management aimed to reach the wine merchant directly, with- out the intervention of middlemen or blending or stretching establishments and it furnished wines ready for the consumer.

Mr. Malter never personally conducted the vineyard, always having a superintendent. He made his home in San Francisco until the great fire in 1906 when he settled in his Fresno County home. In early days he was a member of the San Francisco Yacht Club and his yacht, "The Emerald," won the cup for three successive years. He has been a member of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco since 1877, and belongs to the Sequoia Club in Fresno. Mrs. Malter was, in maidenhood, Miss Mabel P. Richardson of San Fran- cisco, a woman of good business acumen. They are the parents of one son, George H. Jr., thirteen years of age.

Since taking up his residence in Fresno County, Mr. Malter has been selling off his holdings and retiring from the arduous cares of business life and is enjoying the fruit of a long and prosperous business career. He has always been a loyal supporter of projects for the upbuilding of the state and has made a large circle of friends wherever he is known.

ELISHA ARNOLD MANNING .- The title of pioneer was justly merited by Elisha Arnold Manning, who left the established civilization of his native city, Boston, Mass., to come west and take part in the hardships and adventures of a civilization still in its growing pains and needing men of his caliber to help in the good work, for Elisha Arnold Manning was known as a man who did things; what he set out to do he did with all his might : obstacles never discouraged him, nor did disappointments and de- feats. He knew how to push on and he gave of his courage and his vigorous activities to the accomplishment of whatever interested him or whatever he planned to do. He was a fine example in that phase of his sturdy character ; exacting in business, but generous in his friendships and his heart was as big as it was stout. Wise in counsel and efficient in execution, his life was an admirable example to every citizen because of his patriotic, pioneer labors for the welfare of the community and for his breadth of disinterested devotion to worthy causes.

A descendant of a prominent Eastern family, Mr. Manning received good educational advantages, through his own efforts, which fitted him for his duties in later life. After reaching young manhood his desire was for greater adventure in life than that afforded by his environment, and 1856 found him crossing the plains with ox teams to California, by way of the sink of the Humboldt. Soon after his arrival in the state he engaged in freighting be- tween San Francisco, San Bernardino and Salt Lake City, and during this time he became very familiar with the Bay section, also the San Joaquin Valley, which, at the time he freighted through it abounded in wild horses and hogs, which roamed at will over the great expanse of plains.

Before leaving the East Mr. Manning had learned the shoe manufactur- ing business thoroughly, and after he quit freighting he established a shoe factory in Oakland, the first one on the coast, and on account of a strike among his workmen he was the first man to employ Chinese as shoemakers, he and his wife having first taught them the business. This was in the sixties, and he operated the factory a number of years.

MR. AND MRS. MANNING

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

While on one of his freighting trips to Salt Lake, Mr. Manning met and later married Adeline Hogle, a native of Pennsylvania who had come to California via Panama in 1856 to make her home with her uncle, Eugene Walker, who was the proprietor of a hotel in Redwood City in the year 1866. With her uncle she went to San Bernardino, and later to Salt Lake City.

Selling out his factory interests, Mr. Manning came to Hanford in the seventies, and there he built and owned the Mussel Slough Ditch, which caused so much trouble in later years between the settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad. He also built and was one of the owners of the 76 Ditch in Fresno County, and in that undertaking was cotemporary with Dr. H. P. Merritt, Moses J. Church and others in early irrigation work. He ran the ditches until 1888, when he retired to a home in Fresno, and here first with W. R. Thomas, and then with John McMullen. he was engaged in real estate business in Fresno for many years. He came to own a tract of 1,600 acres south of Kerman. He put the land under the Fresno canal, and moved onto it to personally superintend the operating. His land was planted to alfalfa and he engaged in the raising of stock and in time sold off some of his holdings. He laid out and surveyed, with Col. Josiah Hall, all the Perrin Colonies, 1 to 6. It was through his influence that many men, who later be- came prominent in Fresno County affairs, were attracted here to make their homes. The Manning school district, west of Fresno, was named in his honor. While interested in irrigation, he had charge of all the ditches for the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company. Prominent throughout the cen- tral counties, Mr. Manning is best remembered for his humanitarian char- acteristics ; kindly, just, charitable, he was a friend to all, and any project for the advancement of his county and state had his hearty endorsement and active cooperation. His death occurred on his ranch in Fresno County, January 29, 1918, at the ripe age of eighty-three, and he lived to see many of his prophecies for this section fulfilled. Mrs. Manning passed away on April 11, 1918. She shared with him all his trials and tribulations as well as his successes and triumphs. To this pioneer couple seven children were born: Mary, widow of Albert Gribi, resides in Hanford; Elizabeth married Charles Coe, of Hanford ; Nellie, wife of L. E. Jones, of Porterville ; Thomas G., of Hanford ; Nannie M., Mrs. E. H. Smith of Fresno County. Orson and Marcus are both deceased.

NATHAN D. GILBERT .- The pioneer painting contractor of Fresno, Nathan D. Gilbert has witnessed the wonderful transformation of California in the forty-eight years he has made it his home. He was born on a farm on Knob Prairie, in Jefferson County, Ill., July 3, 1847, and attended the local district schools and Eastman College of Chicago. His father left the farm and engaged in the general merchandise business at Ashley, Washington County, Ill., and after having completed his common school education, Nathan D. entered the store as a clerk. He later entered the college at Chicago, and when he had completed the course, went back to the old farm in Jefferson County, and engaged in farm pursuits until enlisting for service in the Civil War, in 1864. He volunteered in Company F, Forty-ninth Regi- ment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Laur, and was stationed at Paducah, Ky., doing garrison duty until the war ended.

After returning to civil life in Illinois, Mr. Gilbert married Phoebe Welsh, and farmed on the Welsh property, in Jefferson County, until the fall of 1870, when he decided to come to California and locate in a newer section of country. He settled on the Merced River, in Merced County, and engaged in ranching. When Merced was started, Mr. Gilbert moved to the new settlement and was one of the founders of the place. He bought some of the first lots sold, built one of the first houses in the town and began working at the painter's trade, soon becoming very proficient and began taking contracts in that line of business.

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Looking for a broader field, in 1874, Mr. Gilbert came to Fresno, then a small hamlet, but with superior possibilities. He had passed through Fresno in 1871 on his way to Pleasant Valley, and remembered it as one vast plain, with but few houses. He painted the first schoolhouse in Fresno, erected and endowed by Joseph Smith. Soon after, he formed a partnership with J. J. Boyle, under the firm name of Boyle & Gilbert, and carried on busi- ness for some time. After they dissolved their partnership, Mr. Gilbert bought and sold considerable town property which included the Dunn prop- erty at the corner of J and Kern Streets, for which he paid only $100 and upon it erected three houses and sold at a good advance. This increase shows the wonderful advance in property values in Fresno. Mr. Gilbert's work has been that of a painter, and he was the second man to engage in that trade in the town. He has a record for reliable work and satisfied patrons and enjoys the confidence and esteem of those who know him.

During early days in Fresno's development, Mr. Gilbert had some ex- periences with Vasquez and his gang of outlaws. He was on a trip to the California Ranch, west of Fresno, and had stopped at a store when he was told by a Spanish girl that Vasquez and his followers were in the neighbor- hood. She hid him in the store until the gang had departed, and he has always felt that he owed his life to this girl's brave act. Once again he escaped the gang at Firebaugh Ferry. Mr. Gilbert was prominent in the social and civic life of the early days in the county. He was a member of the hook-and-ladder company of the first Volunteer Fire Department of Fresno. He and L. Gundelfinger are now the only survivors of the original company. Mr. Gilbert was a member of the first Fresno Brass Band, and played the alto horn in that organization, of which J. J. Boyle was the leader ; today there are only three left of the first "band boys." Mr. Gilbert was the first president of the local Painter's Union, and now belongs to the Union of Master Painters. He also belongs to the Owl Lodge.

Mr. Gilbert had four children by his first marriage, John L., and Mrs. Lillie Wright, both of Fresno; Herman W. and Andrew Asa, are deceased. The second marriage united Mr. Gilbert with Augusta Steinberger, who was born in Mariposa County, a daughter of a pioneer merchant of Mariposa who died there. By this marriage two children were born ; Charles E., who died leaving a son, Charles Nathan; and Waldo A., who is in the United States Army, attached to Letterman Hospital at the Presidio in San Fran- cisco. In the life of this successful citizen, self-made in every sense of the term, are illustrated the results of perseverance and energy, which make of him a citizen of whom any community might well feel proud.

FRED J. DOW .- An enterprising citizen and upbuilder of Fresno County, Fred J. Dow has been identified with the viticultural and business interests of the San Joaquin Valley since 1884. A son of the late William H. Dow, he was born on a farm in Switzerland County, Ind., February 13, 1865. His early training was along agricultural lines, interspersed with attendance at the public school in his home district up to the age of nineteen. His father, who was also born in the Hoosier state, decided to come to Cali- fornia to escape the rigorous climate of the Middle West, and in 1884, with his family, settled in Fresno County. At that time the country was little better than a desert and Fresno as it is today was little dreamed of. Mr. Dow purchased a forty-acre tract of raw land and began the development of a raisin vineyard. In time he became a well-to-do man and was well known throughout the county. He died here in 1910.

After Fred J. Dow arrived in Fresno County, then a youth of nineteen, he entered the employ of the Griffin-Skelley Company and for twenty years was a valued employe of that concern. He began at the bottom of the ladder and in time worked his way to a position of responsibility and learned the various phases of the fruit business. As he prospered financially he bought town lots in Fresno and ranch acreage. In 1904 he resigned his position to

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

purchase an interest in the Merchants Warehouse Company of Fresno, and gave his attention to the upbuilding of that business for two years, when he bought a half interest in a shoe business, having two stores in the city. In 1912 Mr. Dow organized the contracting and building firm of Dow & Cannon and since that period he has been identified with the building business and has handled some large contracts, in fact in every line of busi- ness in which Mr. Dow has been interested he has made a success by his indomitable energy and business acumen. Mr. Dow has increased his finan- cial interest by becoming a stockholder and a director in the Fresno Savings Bank and the Union National Bank of Fresno ; he also owns a business block adjoining the Griffith-Mckenzie Building.

In 1893, in his home city, Fred J. Dow married May Lundy, born in Bakersfield, the daughter of a pioneer family. Their home life has been brightened by the birth of a son, Kenneth L. Dow. In all his efforts towards the development of the county, Mr. Dow has been generous of his time and means in bringing the possibilities of the county to the notice of those look- ing for desirable homes.

JOSEPH DAVIDSON REYBURN .- A progressive pioneer who braved and surmounted primitive scenes and experiences often fraught with danger, and disparaging conditions, and in the end made a substantial contribution to the development of the fast-growing commonwealth of California, himself living to see changes which must have seemed to him as miraculous as any ever recorded, was Joseph Davidson Reyburn, who came to the Pacific in the days of the argonauts, and died only three or four years ago. He was born at Burlington, Iowa, on Christmas Day, 1840, a son of John Stewart Reyburn and a brother of John James; and in his native state he was reared, attending log-cabin schools. He started to work on a farm and continued to plow and till; and when he was old enough to work for others, he hired out as a farm hand.

In 1862 he broke away from the environment under which he had thus far grown up and, joining a company traveling with mule teams, crossed the plains by way of the Platte River and made for The Dalles, Ore., after which he went down the Columbia River to Portland-a journey he never ceased to talk about, for at the end, on their arrival in the embryo town, he and his companions got the first good meal they had enjoyed since leaving home. Then they proceeded to Marion County, where they wintered in Howell's Prairie ; but becoming disgusted with the persisting rains, they pulled up stakes and in 1863 drove south over the stage route to California. From the Sacramento they went to Folsom; and heading for Nevada, they crossed the mountains into Carson City. There Mr. Reyburn found work as a team- ster, driving to Virginia City, and so continuing until the fall of that year. In September he hitched up the same team and drove it to Stockton ; and hav- ing disposed of his mules, he camped for the winter in the vicinity.

The next year Mr. Reyburn returned to Nevada and there he was kept busy until the fall of 1864, when he returned to California and settled on the Stanislaus River ; and there on the present site of Salida. he preempted and homesteaded 320 acres. He had run a lumber yard in Oregon, and for the first two years he engaged in the lumber business on the Tuolumne River. He was married in 1869 and then began the cultivation and improvement of his property, increasing his holding to 400 acres. He farmed to grain until 1881, when he sold out for fifty dollars an acre.

The same year Mr. Reyburn came to Fresno County and with J. P. Vin- cent purchased three sections of land on the plains, but later sold two to his partner. The next year he bought three sections more; and although he let John Lester secure one of them, he made good use of the remaining three. For thirty-eight years he raised little but wheat, and in that field he became a path-breaking specialist. After a while he rented some land to his son; and getting old, he gave each of his children forty acres; retaining 1,980 acres

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

until his death. All this he accomplished despite the fact that he was forced to go through some very hard times. In 1892 he erected a large and hand- some residence on one of the sections he owned, and a couple of years later set out a vineyard of forty acres of muscats, near which he planted twenty acres of a peach orchard and in 1908 he set out eighty acres more of vineyard.

Mr. Reyburn was twice married. The first time he was united to Mary Ella Lester, a daughter of Iowa, who came to California and located near the Stanislaus County homestead he had started to prove up. When she passed away in 1893, she was the mother of nine children, one of whom died in infancy: Charles T., Leslie D., Glenn W., Emery Everett, C. Ray and Ida May (twins), Walter P., and John L., were children of this union. On May 9, 1897, at San Jose, Mr. Reyburn married Annie P. Buckley, a native of Au- burn and a graduate of the State Normal at San Jose, who was a teacher for eleven years before her marriage. Six children came to them, and they are: Gilbert Rowell, who died at the age of two: and Gladys, Alfred, Doris, Mary Margaret, and Adda.

Reared in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Mr. Reyburn became an elder in the Clovis Church, and filled that ruling office for twenty years. He was also their popular Sunday School superintendent. In national politics he was a Republican : but he put aside preferences in local movements. He threw himself heart and soul into the organization of the Jefferson school district, of which he was a director for years. He gave needed and appre- ciated assistance in the organization of the state grange in Napa, in 1876, and when the branch at Salida was formed. he was the first master. The last six years of his life he made his home at Pacific Grove, and he died in 1914. He was a man of the highest probity and for many a year his name will be mentioned with both respect and affection.

JOHN G. S. ARRANTS .- The life of John G. S. Arrants began in Sulli- van County, Tenn., on September 9, 1838. and closed in Selma, Cal., on Octo- ber 23, 1914. Within these seventy-six years is a record of much accomplished for the benefit of his fellow citizens, many improvements introduced of last- ing value to Selma, and substantial interests established that left his family in comfortable circumstances at his death.

John G. S. Arrants grew to a sturdy manhood in his native state and received such educational advantages as were offered by the subscription schools. He came from a prominent Scotch family that settled in eastern Tennessee. When the Civil War broke out, Mr. Arrants went with his state and the South, and joined the Confederate Army. He became captain of a company and served until the close of the struggle. In 1870 he left Ten- nessee for Missouri, and engaged in mercantile pursuits in that state for the following ten years, when he closed out his interests and came to Cali- fornia, locating in Selma.

Here, in the then small village, Mr. Arrants started the first exclusive grocery store in the place. He formed a partnership with a cousin, under the firm name of Arrants & Longacre, and for many years this establish- ment was known as a reliable place to trade, and as the locality became more thickly populated, the business of Arrants & Longacre expanded to meet every demand. Mr. Arrants laid out Arrants Subdivision to Selma, one of the inain residence sections of the city, and Arrants Street was named in his honor. He promoted the Selma Gas Works, and became interested in organizing the First National Bank of Selina, became a director and was serving as its president when his death occurred. As a business man he was the acme of honor, and as a financier, one of the most conservative, yet liberal. Mr. Arrants was a prominent factor in the growth of Selma, which expanded by reason of the display of wisdom, generosity and the sagacity of its pioneer business men, of whom perhaps none were more far-seeing than Mr. Arrants, whose keen business judgment and liberal character were im- pressed upon the very life of Selma, which is today one of the best towns,

Bas Burns

Mary A Burns

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

for its size, in the San Joaquin Valley, and which was not built by railroad influence. He was one of the first men in the Valley to appreciate the value of cooperation among the peach and raisin growers, and helped to establish the first Cooperative Fruit-Packing House at Selma, which was later incorporated under the name of the Selma Fruit Company, with some fifty or sixty stockholders. Upon the organization of the California Associated Raisin Growers Association, for the sake of harmony, the Selma Fruit Com- pany sold out to the latter concern.

Mr. Arrants was twice married. His first wife was Miss Mary Alice Gray, born at Nashville, Tenn., September 1, 1855, and died in Selma, on November 2, 1904. Three children were born of this marriage: Lulu, who died at the age of four; Annie, and Elizabeth, both single and residing in Los Angeles. The second marriage of Mr. Arrants united him with Mrs. Mary A. Freeland, who survives him, and who is mentioned on another page of this history.

JOSEPH BURNS .- Great honor is due the courageous pioneers of the Golden State, and one of these deserving especial mention is Joseph Burns, late of Sanger. He was known as a man who did things, and what he set out to do he did with all his might; obstacles never discouraged him, nor did disappointments and defeats. He was a fine example in that phase of his sturdy character. He was exacting in business, but generous in his friend- ships, and his heart was as big as it was stout. He was always brave, always ready, always loyal, following where duty led. He was wise in execution and in counsel, and his life was an admirable example to every citizen be- cause of his patriotic, pioneer labors for the welfare of the community and for his disinterested devotion to worthy causes.

Joseph Burns was born in South Carolina, September 13, 1830, a son of Stewart and Sarah (Gillispie) Burns, parents of six sons and four daugh- ters. One son is now a resident of Illinois and another lives in Kansas, and these are the only survivors of the family. At the age of twenty-three, in 1853, young Burns left Sparta, Ill., with two companions, and traveled to St. Joseph, Mo., where they joined a party consisting of thirty-five persons bound for California. They outfitted with provisions twenty-two wagons drawn by ox teams, and began the long and tedious journey across the great plains and desert and mountains. Some members of the train conceived a clever idea by which the party would profit financially-that of transporting freight from Missouri to Salt Lake City, and other merchandise from the Mormon capital through to the coast, there to dispose of it at a profit. The project of freighting merchandise across the plains was an unusual one at that time, and it proved all that was claimed for it by the promoters. The trip was made in safety, and at the end of six months the train arrived at Truckee, Cal., by way of the Humboldt desert.

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History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches 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, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1362

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362