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 126

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 126

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Frank M. Romain was born at Toronto, on September 4, 1861, a son of W. F. Romain and his good wife, formerly Ann Chisholm. They gave him every advantage within their reach and he was educated in the very thorough public schools of Upper Canada, and completed his studies at the Upper Canada College in Toronto, taking a business course. His motto was to learn a subject from A to Z, and to finish a work if it was once begun.

In his first brush with the practical world, he secured employment with the Canadian Pacific Railroad. He liked the work, and stuck to it for the term of five years. From the railroad office in Canada to the great outdoor life of Riverside, Cal., was a big spring, but Mr. Romain took it, and landed in a post of responsibility at the disposal of the Griffin & Skelly Company. He went into the packing house, in a modest place at the start, commencing as it were with the lowest rung of the ladder and slowly climbing to greater usefulness ; and in one year he had charge of the Riverside plant. He looks back upon his days there with that satisfaction which one always fecls who has done his duty.

It was the great, booming year of 1887, when all California, and espe- cially the southern and central parts, was alive with a wave of new life and unparalleled development, that Mr. Romain fixed upon for his entry into Fresno; and once in this most favored section, he established the Griffin- Skelly Company's plant. It had to begin in a small way; but through his experience, enterprise and hard work, his care to details and his satisfactory manner of doing business with others, Mr. Romain built up the business to immense proportions as a dry fruit-packing plant, employing 500 people dur- ing its busiest season. He installed the most approved methods and appa- ratus, and made it an enterprise of which Fresno may well be proud.

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On November 1, 1916, the Griffin & Skelly Company was merged with the J. K. Armsby Company and the California Fruit Canning Association, together with the Central California Canning Company and the Alaska Pack- ers' Association, and the great California Packing Corporation was brought into existence, with Mr. Romain as manager and director of the sixteen pack- ing houses in the San Joaquin Valley, employing, in their total, several thou- sand people.

During his residence at Riverside, Mr. Romain was married, in April, 1892, to Lelia Quinn, a lady of unusual charm and a sweet personality not soon forgotten, who closed her eyes upon the scenes of this world on February 6, 1917.

Partaking of such social life as his busy career permits, Mr. Romain is a welcome member of the Odd Fellows and the Elks, and has been president, too, of the Sunnyside Country Club. He is also a member of the Sequoia and the Commercial Clubs, and is high in the councils of the Republican party, under whose banner he has steadily marched for years. In matters of pro- fessed religion, Mr. Romain is an Episcopalian.

SIGMUND WORMSER .- Since leaving his home in southern Ger- many, where he was born December 11, 1859, Sigmund Wormser has trav- eled extensively over the globe. While acquiring his education he received the advantage of the excellent schools of his native country, and as a youth worked in a mercantile store in Ulm, Germany, later going to Ireland, where he attended college. In 1879, when not quite twenty-one years old he arrived in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he followed the mercantile business for three years. From thence he went to Cape Colony and the diamond fields, South Africa, looking for work but was unsuccessful, and from there he went to Sydney, Australia, going from there to the South Sea Islands where he followed the mercantile business.

He arrived in San Francisco, Cal., in 1886, and after a short sojourn there finally located in Kingsburg, Fresno County, and opened a mercantile store, which he conducted for twelve years. He was also the owner of a forty-acre vineyard. In 1889 he located in Fresno and for five years specu- lated in oil and real estate. He was one of the organizers of the Oil City Petroleum Company (now the Standard Oil Company, Section No. 28) of Coalinga. He also drilled for oil in the Bakersfield district, and sold out to the Associated Oil Company.

Mr. Wormser owns a 120-acre ranch at Stone Canyon, which was unim- proved when he purchased it, upon which he developed water and set the land to oranges, vines, olives and figs. It is now one of the best fruit ranches in the county: In 1904 he opened a furniture store at 1022 J Street, Fresno, in connection with which he operates a large three story and basement ware- house, 50x150 feet. In 1918 he made substantial additions to his furniture store, which is now the largest store of its kind in the San Joaquin Valley and one of the largest in the state, and does the leading furniture business in Fresno. He has always taken an active part in civic affairs, and was one of the organizers of the Merchants Association of Fresno, of which he was a director. His greatest activities, however, have been devoted to charity work, in which he takes great interest, and for the past twelve years has been actively and successfully associated, and done grand work with the Humane Society, the Citizens Relief Association and the County Relief Commission.

He married Anna Jacobson, a native of San Francisco, Cal., and. they are the parents of one child, a daughter, Elka, who is the wife of Emil Gun- delfinger. In his fraternal associations Mr. Wormser is a veteran Knight of Pythias, being a charter member of the lodge at Kingsburg, Cal., which he joined thirty-two years ago. He is also a member of the Commercial Club and of the Chamber of Commerce.

That MBarrett .

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

THOMAS T. BARRETT .- Future historians of Fresno County cannot fail to accord due honor to the well-known pioneer brick contractor, Thomas T. Barrett, who has been a decided factor, since 1883, in the upbuilding of the county. Not only is he a direct descendent of one of the historic families of Revolutionary times, of interest to every patriotic American, but he himself is widely esteemed for his many good qualities, while in brick construction work-his particular field-his judgment is unquestioned.

Thomas T. Barrett was born at Rockport. Knox County, Maine, on Jan- uary 22, 1853, the son of Amos and Julia (Tolman) Barrett, and the grandson of Daniel Barrett, and a great-great-grandson of Colonel James Barrett, of Revolutionary fame. The family originally came from England and settled in the Bay Colony of Massachusetts in 1680, where they became leading cit- izens of that commonwealth. The old Barrett house is still standing at Con- cord, one of the most prominent there, although too far from the center of the town to be seen by the average tourist. Colonel Barrett, its proprietor, led a company to the historic bridge, and his undeniable courage, when the fate of the Colonists hung in the balance, is commemorated by the following inscription on the boulder at Battle Lawn, close to the gate of the Concord Bridge :

"From this hill Colonel James Barrett, commanding the Amer- icans, gave orders to march to the bridge, but not to fire unless fired upon by the British. Captain Nathan Barrett led his company to de- fend the bridge, pursued the British to Charlestown, and. though wounded, captured Major Pitcairn's horse, saddle and pistols, and returned home with his trophies."

Daniel Barrett, who was born at Concord, Mass., went to Camden, Maine, in the winter of 1792-93, and on the fourth of August, 1794, he married Rena Grose. He served in the War of 1812, and on returning to Maine bought a large tract of land on Beauchampneck, making the purchase from the General Molineux Estate. He then built a large, two-story mansion, near where he carried on farming on an extensive scale, and he also operated lime-stone quarries and burned lime on his place. Having been a ship-builder and an architect at Rockport harbor, he undoubtedly bequeathed to our subject some of that spirit of exactness and a desire to do things on the square, for which he is noted. Later he bought a large body of land on Mt. Megunticook and built the Camden and Megunticook turnpike road connecting Camden with Lincolnville, one of the most beautiful drives in the State of Maine. He was a man of great business acumen, force of character and executive ability. He died on December 1, 1859, at the age of ninety, having been, as was his wife, a disciple of Wesley for over fifty years. During that time, he gave the land for, and built the first Methodist Church at Rockport.

Thomas T. Barrett was reared in Maine and there attended the public schools and Kent's Hill College, from which he was graduated after a four years' course. He learned the trade of brickmason, worked at it in Boston and in Minneapolis, after which he returned to Maine, and from there, in 1883, came to Fresno; and here he has followed his trade ever since. In 1883 he built the Farmers' Bank Building on Mariposa Street; two years later, the Bradley Block : and later still the following structures : the Dunn Block, the Green Block, the City Water Works tower, the Fresno Brewery and bottling works and ice plant; the Lyons Block, the First National Bank Building; Macy's Hotel at Madera ; the cellars of the St. George, Henrietta, Margherita and Barton wineries, and many brick residences in various parts of Fresno and Fresno County. He was also foreman of construction of the Fresno Flour Mill. These structures, of varied architectural design, are interesting as show- ing the development of Fresno and the country adjacent, and some are there- fore landmarks, while many are of recent construction. In 1906 Mr. Barrett went to Sonoma County, to build the I. de Turk Winery, which was destroyed by the earthquake of that year, and to erect other buildings, from which it is 51

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fair to assume that his fame as a builder is more than county-wide. It is no wonder, therefore, that patrons who have once sought his cooperation go no further on getting his carefully-prepared estimates.

Mr. Barrett has taken a prominent part in building up the labor affilia- tions in the State, and for some time he was engaged in organizing unions. He is very naturally a member of the International Bricklayers' Union; a charter member and president of the Bricklayers' Union of Fresno ; and pres- ident of the Brick Contractors' Association of the same city. Aside from his other work, he has bought and sold lots and residence property in Fresno, and at one time owned twenty acres west of the town, which he later sold.

The first wife of Mr. Barrett was Lena Packard, the daughter of Capt. Cheney Packard, of Rockport, Maine, and two sons and a daughter were the result of the union: Maurice A., a merchant in Boston, is married and has a daughter, Helen, and they live at Weymouth, Mass .; Frederick died in boyhood; Marian married Arthur Haines, a banker in Boston ; they reside at East Braintree, Mass., and have two children, Charlotte and Wendell. The second marriage united him with Miss Maria L. Dix, a native of Shasta County, and a daughter of William C. Dix who was born in Lexington, Rock- bridge County, Va., and who came across the plains to California in 1850, and was a miner and storekeeper in Shasta County.

Fraternally, Mr. Barrett is a Mason, belonging to St. Paul Lodge, Rock- port, Maine. A man of sterling worth, and prominent in all good works in Fresno County, he has been the favorite candidate of many, although he never held out his hand for public office.

MRS. LOUISA (DUMONT) SCHELL .- A prominent place among the women who have left their impress on the development of California must be accorded Mrs. Lonisa Dumont Schell, of Fresno County, wife of the late Hiram Schell, one of the foremost men of Monterey County, and later a well- known citizen of Fresno County. Before her marriage. Mrs. Schell was Louisa Dumont, a daughter of Samuel Dumont, a native of New York who removed to Ontario, Canada, in young manhood. He married Mrs. Mary (Sherman) Van Evry, who was also a native of New York, and was an own cousin of General Sherman. Samuel Dumont was a very successful farmer near Oxford, and his farm was one of the show places of Oxford County. His residence was a handsomely designed building, surrounded by beautiful lawn and gar- dens. Both Mr. and Mrs. Dumont died in Oxford County. They had nine children, of whom four are living. Besides Mrs. Schell, only one member of the family came to California, William Dumont, now eighty-five years of age, one of the pioneers of Church or Temperance Colony, who resided on a ranch adjoining that of his sister until 1916, when he sold out. He now resides in San Jose.

Louisa Dumont was born near Oxford, Oxford County, Ontario, on Au- gust 15, 1839. She received a good education in her native county, and was reared in an environment of culture and refinement, which influence has been felt by her friends and neighbors, for it is a part of her daily life. In Wood- stock, Ontario, in 1858, Miss Dumont married Hiram Schell, born in On- tario in December, 1839. Mr. Schell had a brother Robert, who was captured by the Indians in Ontario and was being taken away when he made his escape and reached his home safely. Hiram Schell learned the blacksmith and horseshoer's trade and became a fine workman. Like other blacksmiths of the earlier days, he could make his own horseshoes and nails. He was a lover of fine horses, and could doctor their various ailments. Once when treating a horse for glanders he caught the disease, but the treatment given by his physician and the careful nursing by his wife brought him back to health. According to medical journals his was the second case on record in medical science where a person recovered from glanders taken from a horse. This was in 1892.

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A sister of Mr. Schell's had moved to California and was living in Santa Clara County ; and in 1862 Mr. and Mrs. Schell embarked from New York on the steamer Ariel for Panama, and while enroute to their destination the vessel was captured by the Alabama. The late Colonel Forsythe of Fresno was also a passenger on the Ariel. After being detained for a time, the steamer was allowed to continue on its journey. In due time the passengers arrived in San Francisco.

Mr. and Mrs. Schell made their way to Santa Clara County, but soon afterwards went to Virginia City, Nev., where Mr. Schell worked as a black- smith for a time and later was a tool dresser at the Norcross Mine, from which place he went to the Empire Mine in the same occupation. During the time he lived in Nevada he had his residence on Gold Hill. After spend- ing seven years in Nevada the Schell family came back to California and located in Salinas, where Mr. Schell established a horseshoeing shop and kept a livery stable. Salinas was then a stage station, and he cared for and shod the horses belonging to the stage company as well as doing a general horse- shoeing business. He was also interested in a shop in Monterey. Mr. Schell became a well known and successful man in Monterey County and was a straightforward and honest workman.

Mrs. Schell's brother, William Dumont, had located on a ranch in Fresno County, and Mrs. Schell's son Ed. had bought a twenty-acre tract here, which is now owned by Mrs. Schell. She was looking for a different climate from that found in the Salinas Valley and came to Fresno on a visit, to look the county over with a view to locating here. Her impressions were favorable and she decided to remain and make it their home. In July, 1880, with her daughter Ethel Lena, she bought the twenty acres owned by her son, to which she later added another twenty acres. In the meantime Mr. Schell had built a horseshoeing shop in Fresno and was carrying on a successful business. He died in Los Angeles in May, 1907, mourned by a large con- course of friends. Since his death, Mrs. Schell, assisted by her daughter and son-in-law, has carried on the ranch with profit.

Mrs. Schell became the mother of eight children: Thaddeus Seymour, formerly a miner, but now in charge of the electric light plant at Big Creek ; Edwin Herbert, a resident of Visalia: Nettie, who died at the age of three years; Andrew, who died in infancy; Frank, who passed away at the age of thirty-seven ; Hiram Lewis, a miner, residing at Fowler; Warren, who died at three years of age ; and Ethel Lena, Mrs. Charles Lee O'Brien. The Schell brothers mined on Hughes Creek and took out some $50,000, after which they sold the mine.

Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien manage the Schell property. Mrs. O'Brien was born in Salinas, but was reared and educated in Fresno County, graduating from the Fresno High School at the age of seventeen, after which she took up the study of viticulture. Her husband, Charles Lee O'Brien, was born in Louisville, Mo., and was reared to the life of a farmer. He came to Cal- ifornia in 1898 and for twelve years was superintendent of the Wallace vine- vard, and in the meantime assisted Mrs. Schell with her property. Their vineyard is very productive. In 1917, from twenty-six acres, they obtained fifty tons of raisins. all from muscat grapes. Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien are members of the California Associated Raisin Company. They have two chil- dren, Warden Lee and Wilma Mary. Mr. O'Brien is a member of the Ma- sons. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and the Mod- ern Woodmen of America. Mrs. Schell and the O'Briens belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church of Fresno.

ARTHUR W. ALLEN .- One of the young and prosperous ranchmen of the county is Arthur W. Allen, the viticulturist. Mr. Allen is a stepson of Jacob Hinsberger, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work. He was born at Chico, in Butte County, on February 16, 1879, the son of William and Sadie Allen; another son, still younger, is Herbert Allen, who is with the

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Sugar Pine Lumber Company of Madera, where he is an expert master me- chanic in the mills. When two years of age, Arthur Allen came to Fresno Flats with his parents, and in 1887 to Fresno, where they settled in the Scandinavian Colony. He worked on his father's ranch and attended the district public school; and while thus assisting his parents, he learned the ins and outs of vineyarding.

On March 26, 1908, Mr. Allen took possession of his present place, a fine tract of about forty acres that was purchased about fifteen years ago by Mr. Hinsberger, whom he assisted from the beginning to improve the land. It was stubble and hog-wallow, located in the Wolters Colony, some four and a half miles north of Fresno, on the Virginia Way; but it was soon made to bear in luxuriance both muscats and wine grapes. He sunk a well and installed an eight horse-power gasoline pumping plant, with a four- inch pump, which provided perfect irrigation, and he also had service from the Gould ditch. He built a residence and the usual out-houses; and to his vineyarding he added the raising of alfalfa.

On the same date that he entered into the proprietorship of his present home, Mr. Allen was married to Miss Ida Anderson, a native of the Scandi- navian Colony and the daughter of Fred Anderson, who was born in Sweden. He was a cabinet-maker and carpenter who came to San Francisco and there followed his trade; and he was one of the first of the Scandinavians who formed their colony in Fresno County. He improved his vineyard and had a fine place, and both he and his wife died there. Mrs. Allen was educated at the excellent public school, and has had two children, Blanche Bernice, whose untimely death, on January 12, 1918, when she was only eighteen months old, fell as the heaviest of blows on the devoted parents, and the baby born on February 6, 1919.

Mr. Allen is an active member of the California Associated Raisin Com- pany, and in connection with that live organization advances all the interests allied to his field of work. Mrs. Allen joins her husband in participating in all that makes for the upbuilding of the community.

SAMUEL SAMELSON .- A renowned musician whose fine talents and superior professional accomplishments contributed to his attractive qualities as both a husband and a father, was the late Prof. Samuel Samelson, a native of Ulster County, New York, where he was born on the Fourth of July, 1838, of German parentage. He was naturally a musician and, having studied music as a young man, he became the leader of an orchestra at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and there taught music, making the violin a specialty. In 1856 he came to California by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and for awhile ran a store in North San Juan, Nevada County, at the same time teaching music. He was one of a family of ten children, all now deceased except a sister, Pauline Schwerin, who is living in New York ; and doubtless his family ties drew him back to New York State in 1866, when he returned to Poughkeepsie and again taught the violin, mandolin and guitar, and con- ducted his own orchestra.

In 1889, a year or two after the great real estate boom in this part of the country, Professor Samelson returned to California and bought eighty acres of vineyard in the Perrin Colony No. 1 in Fresno County. He lived there until 1896 and when he sold out he moved to Fresno. Here he taught music and turned out some fine violin players. He became prominent in musical circles of the city and had much to do with directing the musical taste of Fresno.

On December 12, 1861, Professor Samelson was married at North San Juan to Alice M. Prior, born in New Zealand. Her parents were Jolin A. and Alice D. (Moat) Prior, both born near London, England, but became early settlers of New Zealand, where three of their children were born. Mr. Prior was a '49er in California, arriving on a sailing vessel that cast anchor

Lottie le Creary.

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in San Francisco Bay. He mined in Nevada County and when he decided he would make this state his home he sent for his wife and three children. There were five more children born in California and of these only one, George W. Prior, now of South Bend., Wash., is living. For fifty-seven years Mr. and Mrs. Samelson lived an ideal life as a married couple, happy in the enjoyment of a large circle of friends.

Three children were born to this estimable pair; two sons, Samuel J. and William L. haye both identified themselves in an enviable way with Fresno, while a daughter, now deceased, was Mrs. Alma L. Scheppegrell. She left five children: Mrs. Alice Burchard, George, Samuel J., William and Mrs. Luella Richardson. These children were reared by their grandmother after the death of their mother. William L. Samelson has one son, William Gilbert, who for six months was in the service of the United States govern- ment at Fort McDowell, during the war. There are nine great-grandchildren in the family, and as Mrs. Samelson has always been a home-loving woman she has both endeavored and succeeded in giving those dependent upon her the most motherly and conscientious care.

WILLIAM McCREARY .- The building of a community, as well as a nation, depends, for success and permanence, on the foundation laid. All through the history of the development of the New World, and in every chapter of the history of the United States, this great truth has been shown. In no other state has the importance of the early settler, the forerunner of civilization, the maker of paths and highways, and the builder of homes and schools, been so much emphasized as in California.

In the true value of his foundation work, William McCreary, the well- known resident of the Reedley section of Fresno County, has shown him- self to be such a community-builder. He is one of the few pioneers who are still living to enjoy the full fruits of their labors. He was born near Belle- ville, Ala., on March 31, 1861, a son of Lorenzo I. and Elizabeth (Autrey) McCreary, also Alabamans, and parents of seven children, five of whom are still living, and all residents of California. The family removed to this state in the early sixties, locating in what is now Madera County, then Fresno County. Lorenzo I. was an extensive landowner and stockman, having at one time over 3,000 head of sheep. He continued in the sheep business for over fifteen years, during which time he homesteaded 320 acres of Fresno County land, subsequently purchasing 160 more, besides owning some fine property in Fresno. He died August 2, 1890, on his 160-acre ranch near Parlier, which was valued at $160,000.

William McCreary was reared and educated in Fresno County, and from a small lad has grown with the country. He worked at various things from time to time, followed ranching and . stock-raising, as did his father. He hauled the first load of lumber onto the Reedley town site, which was used in the construction of the first building in the town. He has seen the country grow from a desert to a garden spot, has endured many hardships, suffered privations, and has worked hard in order to accumulate a competency; and he rejoices to see land increase in value from $2.50 to over $1,000 per acre. He owns sixty acres of fine productive land, which he has developed from hogwallow grain-land into a vineyard of Thompson seedless, Muscats and Emperor grapes, and white Adriatic figs are being set out on part of the ranch. He built his fine home and outbuildings sufficient for his needs, and he farms in the modern way with all the improved machinery and implements that are available. He has lived on his present place, three miles northeast from Reedley, since 1912, and his place is well-known as McCreary's Corners. For a few years he has been preparing land and planting trees and vines for others, and he holds the record of having graded, for irrigation, more land than any other man in the Reedley section, his services being much in de- mand because of his experience and reliability.

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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 126

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