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 106

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 106

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Joining his brother, Alfred Blasingame, he has since engaged in farming and stock-raising, especially sheep and cattle. Their operations are carried on from their headquarters on the old Blasingame ranch. He is interested in viticulture and owns a 145-acre ranch seven miles northeast of Fresno, and there he has developed a most interesting and valuable vineyard. He en- deavors to have the most up-to-date devices and also specimens most prom- ising for culture. He has applied himself early and late to the problems pre- sented ; sought and given others cooperation, and been one of the active sup- porters of organizations designed to advance vineyard interests.

Of a pleasing personality, and decidedly social by nature, Mr. Blasingame has been active in fraternity life, and is a popular and influential member of the Fresno Lodge of B. P. O. Elks, the Sequoia Club in Fresno, and the Bo- hemian Club of San Francisco. In both commercial and social circles, he is a familiar figure that counts, and it may safely be predicted for him that he will be more and more identified with Central California as the years roll onward.

ROBERT BAIRD .- It is pleasant to recall the lives and activities of those who have bravely and cheerfully done their duty in life, and have thus contributed much to make life well worth the living, and especially to repeat such a life-story as that of Robert Baird, a Scotchman who became one of the best of American citizens, was a devoted husband and father, and left in his widow an estimable woman upon whom his children shower their affections. He was born in Scotland on November 20, 1851, came to the United States, and for a while settled at Virginia City, Nev., where he tried his luck at mining and prospecting. Moving still further to the West, he became a pioneer of Fresno County, and about 1882 engaged with his broth- ers, Andrew, Dugal and John, in dairying, establishing in the Washington Colony what was known as the Baird Dairy which retailed milk in Fresno. As Baird Bros. the firm enjoyed an enviable reputation for honesty and en- terprise, and prospered from the start.

When Robert Baird sold out his interest in the concern, and the partner- ship was dissolved, he located in the Kutner school district in 1901 and bought the tract of forty acres which soon came to be identified with his name. It was a stubble-field, but by hard labor he so improved it that it smiled as a choice vineyard and orchard. On January 5, 1909, however, Mr. Baird, widely honored by all who knew him and especially esteemed by the Masons, to whom he was affiliated through the Fresno Lodge, passed away in his fifty-eighth year.

Mr. Baird was married while at Fresno in 1887, and his bride was Miss Charlotte Rogers, a native of Birmingham, England, who had been orphaned when she was very young. In her twentieth year she came to New Zealand. after a trip of three and a half months on the sail-boat Chili, and finding it such a beautiful place, she remained at Aukland for about eight years. Then she crossed the ocean once more and landed at San Francisco; and after a while she came on to Central California, arriving in Fresno in 1884. There she met and married Mr. Baird.

Six children-all of whom were born in Washington Colony-blessed this fortunate union : Elsie became Mrs. O. M. Campbell ; Evelyn and Robert assist their mother on the ranch; Florence is Mrs. H. N. Hansen; Edward also assisted his mother until he entered the service of his country, in May, 1918, assigned to the Hospital Corps of the United States Navy, and is now in the transport service; and Winifred, a graduate of the Fresno High School, is at home.

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Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Baird, with the aid of her children, has continued the interesting work of viticulture, although she sold ten acres of her original holding and cut out the peach orchard. The remaining thirty acres, however, are well-improved and well-situated, eleven miles east of Fresno, and entirely set out to vines, especially to Thompson's seed- less and muscat grapes. The Bairds have always been supporters of the different raisin associations, and Mrs. Baird is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Fairview, and her son Robert is a trustee of the congregation and assistant superintendent of the Sunday School. The Bairds are interested in any movement for the betterment of the community; and for improving the tone of politics, and they generally work with the Republican party.

J. F. NISWANDER .- Prominent among the builders of Fresno County, whose splendid foresight and extraordinary vitality and energy have already accomplished so much in its development, and who are most optimistic for its future and the future of the central part of the Golden State, is J. F. Niswander, the efficient and popular general manager of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and one of the best-posted ranchers, through whose instru- mentality many orchards and vineyards have been developed and changed hands. He is a native of the proud old State of Virginia, having been born at Staunton, in Augusta County, in November, 1871. His father was Isaac Benjamin Niswander. also a Virginian and a planter, who served in a Vir- ginia regiment of the Confederate Army throughout the Civil War. He mar- ried Miss Barbara Frank, a member of one of the long-established Virginia families ; and both died at the old home. Of the nine children born to this worthy couple, Mr. Niswander was the fifth eldest and the first of the family to come to California.

He attended the public schools until he was seventeen and then set out for California, arriving in Fresno in the year 1889. Here he immediately went to work to earn his own livelihood, laboring for a while in orchards but chiefly at farming for grain. He drove the big teams in the grain fields and other- wise made himself not only useful but indispensable. After three years he returned to Virginia and invested his savings in a three-year course at Bridge- water College.

As with so many thousands of others who have once beheld the attrac- tions of California, the call of the West was too strong for the young man and he returned to Fresno in 1897. For a year he engaged in horticultural work, and subsequently performed the clerical duties for the Malaga Co- operative Packing Association. Three years later, Mr. Niswander was made secretary and after another three years. during which time he filled the office with signal ability, he purchased the entire packing plant. At that time the business was small; but through his experience, ability, untiring energy and tact, the volume of trade was rapidly increased. In the meantime he estab- lished another plant at Del Rey which he also ran with success. In 1914 he sold both plants to the California Associated Raisin Company.

During all these years, Mr. Niswander had engaged in farming and in improving ranches, and in setting out orchards and vineyards; and little by little he acquired more and more property for himself. At present he owns a ranch of 287 acres in Madera County devoted to vineyards, orchards and the growing of alfalfa, and a vineyard of 160 acres at Clovis, raw land when he bought it, which he himself improved, planting around the place a fine border of figs. He also improved a home place of forty acres on North Ave- nue, just east of Fresno, which he set out as a vineyard and an orchard, build- ing a large, comfortable residence, where he lived with his family until Feb- ruary, 1918, when he sold it and purchased his present home. This comprises sixty acres of vineyard and orchard with a commodious and modern residence on Butler and Willow Avenues, adjoining Fresno on the east.

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Believing implicitly that cooperation is the only successful method of marketing vineyard and orchard products, Mr. Niswander was actively and prominently identified with the organization of the California Peach Growers, Inc., assisting vigorously from the time when the first steps were taken in that direction in 1915 until the aim was accomplished in the following May, when the organization was completed. Since that time Mr. Niswander has been vice-president and general manager of the association, and it would be difficult to find one better qualified for this responsible and influential post. The headquarters of the Peach Growers are in Fresno; but the organization is state-wide in its scope, and the association includes a membership of some 6,500 producers of peaches throughout California, or about eighty per cent. of all the peach-growers of the state. The capital stock is $1,000,000, with $850.000 paid up, and the average total crop handled amounts to about $6.000,000. The association operates twenty-six different plants, each plant being equipped for grading, processing, packing and shipping; and through the machinery and service of these plants the entire product of the 6,500 members is marketed to the wholesaler. Dried peaches are shipped to all the markets in the United States, Canada, South America and other foreign countries, in both the Occident and the Orient, where the Blue Ribbon Brand, the trade-mark, is best advertised through the superior and maintained qual- ity of the delicious output. Mr. Niswander is also a member of the California Associated Raisin Company.

At Fresno, on June 19, 1901, Mr. Niswander was married to Miss Eula P. Shipp, a native of Texas who was reared in Fresno. She is the daughter of R. B. Shipp, the well-known viticulturist of Jensen Avenue, and is a grad- uate of the Fresno High School. She was engaged in teaching at the time of her marriage. Four children have blessed their union: Roy, who is at- tending the Fresno High; Edna, Horace and Virginia. The family are mem- bers of and attend St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church South, in whose benevolences and charities he is very active. In national politics Mr. Nis- wander is a prominent and .influential Democrat, while fraternally he is an Odd Fellow and a member of the Manzanita Camp of the Woodmen of the World. He is also a welcome member of the Rotary, Commercial and Se- quoia Clubs.

WILLIAM F. HANKE .- Among the experienced California stockmen who have later made great progress, both for themselves and the common- wealth generally, in other fields, and who have also found time to perform public service of one kind or another, must be mentioned. William F. Hanke, now retired at Sanger, a native son full of the spirit of the Golden West, who was born at Dixon, in Solano County, December 21, 1861. His father was H. H. Hanke, a native of Germany, who came to the Pacific slope in pioneer days. He first settled at Sacramento, where he followed draying and teaming, and later he took up government land near Dixon, coming to own a ranch of 800 acres, on which he engaged in farming. After a while he located in Fresno County, and here he owned a ranch of 2.452 acres east of where the town of Sanger now stands. With continued success hie fol- lowed stock-raising and farming, and in 1878 closed a busy career, crowned with a fair share of this world's prosperity, but what was more, the well- merited esteem of those who knew him.

William was educated in the public schools of the county and at the Sacramento Business College, and at still an early age he was given the best opportunities to judge of cattle. When only ten years old he owned thirty- five cattle that he had acquired through his own speculation, and when eighteen he traveled through Washington, Nevada and Oregon, buying cattle for the San Francisco markets. After the death of his father, Mr. Hanke managed the Dixon ranch and engaged in the butcher business in Dixon; and he also ran the Fresno County ranch, to which he moved in 1883. Besides

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raising cattle and sheep on the Sanger ranch, he had 700 acres planted to grain.

In 1903, Mr. Hanke gave up stock-raising and began the development of a fine orchard of 170 acres, planted largely to peaches and prunes, with some alfalfa sown near by; but later, after he had amply demonstrated the value of his methods of culture, and had made a veritable show-place of his little estate, he sold out and retired. In doing so he left a record for definite con- tribution to Californian agricultural advancement. At present Mr. Hanke is interested in the development of a gold mine on the San Joaquin River, and in this he has again shown his capacity for enterprise. Sanger is especially gratified at his success, for he may truly be called one of the fathers of the town. When he came to Fresno County, Sanger was not yet on the map, and it fell to his lot not only to establish the first butcher shop in the young town, but to build there the first dwelling-house. In fact, he helped to lay out the town, and the value of his common-sense judgment and foresight is shown today in the well-planned community.

In June, 1890, Mr. Hanke was elected, on the Republican ticket, super- visor of Fresno County, from the Fifth district, which happens ordinarily to be strongly Democratic, but by polling a large vote he became the first Republican so elected there. He also served as school trustee of the first grammar school erected in Sanger, and held the office many years; and when the high school was built, he was on the board for seventeen years. He has always taken a deep interest in educational affairs, and he has done what he could to found and advance mercantile and financial interests. It was natural enough, therefore, that he should become one of the organizers and directors of the Bank of Sanger.

During the year 1882, Mr. Hanke was married in Lake County, Cal., tu Miss Clara Bell Sweikert, a native daughter. Their only daughter is Pearl Edna, born on Washington's birthday, 1884, and who married Edwin Stevens, and they have two children, William Hanke and Pearl Isabell Stevens. In all their associations Mr. and Mrs. Hanke have been exceedingly fortunate, and the family is held in high esteem.

MRS. MARY A. ARRANTS .- To the pioneer women of California, no less than to the pioneer men, are due the honor and respect of the generations that have followed. To Mrs. Mary A. Arrants is due much credit for the part she has taken in pioneering in California. She was born in Scotland and attended the schools and grew to young womanhood near Edinburgh. While living there she married James Freeland, a native of the same country and by trade a blacksmith. With him she came to California and settled at Soquel, Santa Cruz County. Mr. Freeland was employed on a large ranch, his services being valuable as there was a large blacksmith shop on the place and considerable work to be attended to. Four years later Mr. Freeland brought his family to Selma, Fresno County, where he resided until his death. Two children were born to this worthy couple: W. C. Freeland, now cashier of the First National Bank of Selma, and Marion, wife of John E. Levis, a successful rancher of Selma.

The second marriage of Mrs. Freeland united her with Mr. Arrants, one of the substantial men of Fresno County and a pioneer upbuilder of the town of Selma. A more complete sketch of his life will be found on another page of this history. Mrs. Arrants is prominent in philanthropic work, social and church affairs, and is an active member of the Selma Red Cross. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a liberal supporter of all movements for the development of the county. She lives in a comfortable home at 2515 North McCall Avenue, where she is surrounded by all the comforts of city life. She has a wide circle of friends who esteem her for her many fine qualities of mind and heart.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

MARQUES MONROE SHARER .- If you wish to know what Fresno and vicinity were like in the "good old days" when there wasn't much of any Fresno, you should seek out Marques M. Sharer at his well kept vineyard ranch, and ask him what he saw and experienced when he first came to Cen- tral California. For Mr. Sharer was here in the beginning of things; he helped place the foundation for Fresno's phenomenal growth ; he knows who did this and did that, and why that or this was done; and if anyone else has a more interesting story to tell, the story isn't known.

Mr. Sharer was born near Griggsville, Pike County, Ill., on September 28, 1854. His father, Peter S., was born near Philadelphia, Pa., whose father, John Sharer, was a miller in Pennsylvania. Peter S., when a lad, was a tow- boy on the Canal; when he was grown he came west to Pike County. Ill., and followed farming and there he married Rachael Moore, a native of Maryland. of Scotch ancestry and the daughter of John and Sallie Moore, early settlers of Pike County, Ill. Rachael Moore Sharer died in Illinois in 1864. Peter S. Sharer, when he retired, came to California and made his home with his son, Marques M., the father dying in February, 1906. Of the union of Peter S. and Rachael Moore Sharer, five children were born, of whom Marques Mon- roe is the eldest.

Marques M. received a good education in the public schools, worked on the home farm and lived with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age, when he moved to Carroll County, Mo. There, for three years, he worked on farms in the service of others; but having a chance to come to California with B. F. Giffin, he set out for the Pacific Slope. He reached Fresno on Octo- ber 6, 1881, and his first work was driving teams on a grain ranch, within sight of what is now his home farm, a line of work he followed for eleven years.

In 1888, when California was feeling the great boom, Mr. Sharer struck out for himself; and having rented land three-quarters of a mile from where he now lives, he planted it to grain for a couple of years. He continued to farm the Joe Reyburn place for five years ; and then he bought the property including 92.40 acres of land so dear to him as the scene of the happiest days of his life. It was quite unimproved when he bought it; but with character- istic enterprise, he lost no time in setting it out as a vineyard. They called the section Enterprise Colony, and his was one of the first vineyards to be started there. He used to gather twenty-eight or more tons of raisins, for which he received only a cent a pound. He was also at one time interested in a co- operative store in Fresno.

Mr. Sharer, besides his home ranch, also owns forty acres more in Enter- prise Colony and forty acres in Red Bank district. His home ranch is devoted to raising Malaga grapes and muscat raisins, which he originally set out when it was a stubble field, giving the vines the best of care. He also planted a border of figs around his ranch. Aside from water from the Enterprise Canal, he also has a pumping plant for irrigation. The balance of his ranch property is devoted to raising grain and hay. Marques Sharer's home ranch is beautifully located three and one-quarter miles southeast of Clovis, where he has built a large modern residence, surrounded by a beautiful park of ornamental trees and flowers .- and it is known as one of the show places of the district. He also owns valuable residence property in the city of Fresno. He believes in the cooperation of the fruit growers and has been active in all the different raisin associations and is now a member of the California Asso- ciated Raisin Company.

On September 26, 1888, Mr. Sharer was married to Nannie Mary Rey- burn, a native of Scotland County, Mo., who came with her parents to Cal- ifornia, being a daughter of James J. and Mary (McDonald) Reyburn, pio- neers of Fresno County, who are represented on another page in this book. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Marques Sharer: Florence is the wife of Ira Arbuckle, a viticulturist of the Jefferson district; Clarence mar- ried Emily Westrup, also a vineyardist in the same district ; Ethel is the wife

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Nannie M Shaver

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

of Walter C. Brown, a rancher in Red Bank District ; and the others are Wil- bur, Mary. Bertha, Ressie. Margie, and Ray, who died in infancy.

Their home life is delightful and in their house the friend or stranger never fails of a welcome and their hospitality is dispensed with a true gener- osity of the old time Californian. The family are members of the First Pres- byterian Church at Clovis, where Mr. and Mrs. Sharer were charter members. and Mr. Sharer has been both deacon and trustee. He has always been a friend of the cause of education and served acceptably as a trustee of the Jefferson School District and also of the Clovis Union High School. Indeed, both Mr. and Mrs. Sharer take a live interest in the problems of the town, and in any movement which will advance Fresno County.

When Mr. Sharer first came here, most of the country at all improved was farmed to grain, and there were no such vineyards as that he now owns which produces some of the famous raisins of the State. Throughout the whole section between Centerville and the San Joaquin Valley there were only four houses. Mr. Sharer was one who looked beyond the hardships and saw the future recompense, and of course he won out, and is now one of the substantial citizens of his locality.

JORGEN HANSEN .- An interesting man of both affluence and influence, respected both for his enterprise and his honesty of purpose, is Jorgen Han- sen, one of the pioneers of Washington Colony, who came to Fresno in 1878. He was born in Fyen, Denmark, on April 18. 1853, the son of Hans Jensen. who was also born in that country. Hans hecome a miller, was widely es- teemed for the quality of his products and the reliability of his dealings, and passed away in the country where he first saw the light. He had married Anna Christophersen: and when she died, she was the mother of seven children, six of whom grew to maturity. while five are now living.

Jorgen was the second youngest of the family and was destined to be the only one in California. He was brought up in Fyen, attended the public schools there, and from fourteen years of age until he was nineteen, he worked at the miller's trade. In 1872 he swung away not only from that occupation, but from his native country, crossed the ocean to the United States, and, arriving in Chicago, was employed on a farm sixteen miles from that bustling city. Six months of that experience sufficed, and then he moved to Michigan and settled at Whitehall, in Muskegon County. He was there two years, lumbering and saw-milling ; and then he went back to Chicago.

During the Centennial year, when America began to expand so wonder- fully with her national spirit, Mr. Hansen came to California, and for a couple of years he was active in one way or another in San Francisco. Then he moved inland to Fresno, and bought twenty acres in Washington Colony, where he at once began to lay out the raw land. By hard work of the in- telligent order he greatly improved his purchase, leveling the surface and planting to trees and vines; and while he also sowed alfalfa, he built for himself a residence.

For six or eight years Mr. Hansen remained there and then he sold his property, which had come to have a much appreciated value, and moved to the Central Colony, where he had a forty-acre ranch devoted to a vineyard. orchard, a dairy and the growing of alfalfa. Owing to the coming up of alkali. however, he found the section unsuitable ; and after a residence there of about twenty-five years, he sold out and bought his present place in the Madison district. Here he also located, building a residence, a barn, a windmill and a well; and now he has his entire tract in vineyard, save some three acres which are devoted to a peach orchard. He has twenty acres of Thompson's seedless grapes, seven acres of muscats, and seven acres of Feherzagos : and these are situated most conveniently, only three miles west of Fresno. From his first activity as a rancher in California, Mr. Hansen has been a member of every raisin association, and he is now an enthusiastic supporter of both

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the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers.

While living in the Central Colony, Mr. Hansen was married to Mrs. Jorgina (Jorgensen) Rasmussen. She was born in Fyen, Denmark, a sister of Chris Jorgensen, the county supervisor, and by her first marriage she had one child, Herman Rasmussen, a farmer living near Clovis. Mrs. Hansen came to Fresno County in 1881, having an aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Jens Hansen, living in Central Colony, and there her first marriage occurred, to Mr. Rasmussen, a blacksmith and rancher there till he died. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have been blessed with eight children: Annie is Mrs. Field, now residing in Fresno: Meta, is Mrs. Moller, living near ; William is a machinist in the same city ; Louis assists his father; Emma lives at home; Lillian and Elsie are bookkeepers in Fresno; and Harry attends the High School.

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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 106

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