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 128

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 128

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In 1887 special inducements were being offered to settlers in the San Joaquin Valley, which attracted Mr. Gries to Fresno County, where he pur- chased eighty acres in the Bethel school district, near Del Rey. When this land was first purchased, in August, 1887, it was in its primitive state, but Mr. Gries was fully determined to develop the property into a prosperous fruit ranch and vineyard, and set to work at once to accomplish his aim, which he lived to see consummated. The wonderful results of those long years of hard labor and untiring efforts can be better appreciated by obser- vation than by description. His land is devoted to raising peaches, prunes, malaga and muscat grapes. The appearance of the ranch bespeaks thrift, prosperity and efficient management, and it is adorned by a modern and commodious residence with all conveniences.

In 1902, Mr. Gries was united in marriage with Mrs. Ella S. Berry, widow of John Berry and the mother of a son, Wilbur T. Berry, who served his country, during the World War, ten months on the Steamship Seattle, attached to the Naval Reserves, receiving his discharge after the signing of the armistice.

Mr. Gries always promoted the organization of the fruit and raisin grow- ers, and was a member of all the raisin associations and also of the Peach Growers, Inc. He was a patriotic citizen, highly esteemed for his good quali- ties and integrity, and had served as a trustee of the Bethel school district. His motto throughout life was to live up to the tenets of the Golden Rule.

Mr. Gries died at his home, south of Sanger, Friday night, July 25th, after an illness of several months. This marks the passing of another old pioneer of Fresno County. Mrs. Gries survives her husband.

C. TELIN .- A very industrious, frugal, and steadily successful ranchman who, starting without money or influential friends, has nevertheless attained to a comfortable position such as many a person might well envy, and who has also intelligently worked for the best interests of himself and other fruit and raisin growers in this vicinity, is C. Telin, the always entertaining Swed- ish-American agent of the Fancher Creek Nurseries of Fresno, of which George C. Roeding is the president and manager. In all his work and respon- sibilities, as indeed in all his pleasures, his good wife, also a native of that famous Scandinavian country, shares his lot; and together they are actively interested in the common welfare, on which account they have the good will of everybody.

Mr. Telin was born in Sweden, on June 3, 1854, and grew up there, while he attended the common schools. He also attended the Lutheran church, and at fourteen, according to national custom, was confirmed in its rites and be- liefs. When old enough to learn a trade he was apprenticed to a tailor; and at twenty-one, he joined the Swedish Army, in which he served for seven vears, receiving at the end an honorable acquittal and praise for meritorious

Henry Fries

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service. He had first served two years in the primary military school, starting with the expectation of following a military career : then he was sent to the regular military school at Carlsborg, and in the fifth year of his service, he became a corporal.

Before it was too late, however, Mr. Telin came to the conclusion that such a profession did not offer a sufficient remuneration for the future ; and the best alternative before him appeared to be a voyage to America and a trial of his luck here. He therefore bought a ticket from Christiania to San Fran- cisco, by way of New York, Chicago, and the Southern Pacific route, and. leaving Norway, he arrived on the Pacific Coast in the fall of 1883. The first year he worked as a common laborer in San Francisco, and then he went up to Mendocino County, where he was in the employ of the Gualala Mill Com- pany for four years. Misfortune stalked across his path at this juncture of his experience in the land of opportunity, and he was taken to the hospital at Oakland, almost dead from asthma. In a short time, he spent all his spare money doctoring, but he could get no relief. Fortunately he had a friend, Mr. G. Jonason of Washington Colony, and the doctor advised him to make a visit there. He did so and arrived at his longed-for destination near Easton, in Fresno County, in 1889. He came to Fresno that June, sick and with only fifty cents in his pocket, and was about as much "down and out" as any man could be. Luckily, three days after he came to the Washington Colony he had no more wheezing, and a month later he could do light work. In a short time, he got well enough to work in the harvest field, and since then he has never had the asthma. His experience is the same as has been that of thou- sands, demonstrating that Fresno County is favorable to a cure of this dread disease.

Before leaving Sweden, Mr. Telin was married to Jennie Matilda Volleen, by whom he had one child, Sophia, who was only six months old when he left Sweden. This devoted wife died while the daughter lived to be twenty- two ; and having married, she left a child, Erik, who is still living in Sweden. Later, Mr. Telin married a second time, in California, choosing for his bride Miss Annie Person of Minneapolis, but who originally came from Sweden and then worked in Minnesota eight years before coming farther west. They have had three children, one of whom died in infancy; and those living are Moody, who married Bertha Johnson and is a farmer at Orland, in Glenn County; and Jennie, now the wife of Andrew Christensen, the well-known rancher near Kingsburg. They have three bright children, Helen, Ernest, and Wallace.

Mr. Telin improved twenty acres in the Washington Colony, then sold out after a discouraging experience, and finally came to his present site north of the incorporated limits of Kingsburg. There he bought fifty-two acres fifteen years ago, and since then he has sold twelve acres, leaving him forty. He has twenty acres in peaches, five acres in apricots, five acres in plums and eight acres in vines ; while two acres are devoted to yards and a corral, and to his handsome house and good outbuildings. All that he has of living things, he has planted with his own hands, so that he may be pardoned for feeling unusually proud of the result.

A decade and a half ago Mr. Telin became interested in the nursery business, mainly for the reason that he wished to secure tested and reliable nursery stock for himself and neighbors. He has built 2,000 feet of concrete pipes, and can now irrigate every foot of his land. He has two wells and ad- equate pumping-plants, and also belongs to the irrigating system known as the Consolidated Ditch. This triumph and reward has come after years of hard work and many sore trials and reverses. He sold raisins during the panicky years for one cent a pound, and received only fifteen dollars a ton for malagas. He worked hard to build up the company operating the packing-house at Easton, and also the company operating the creamery and the packing-house at Kingsburg, and now he is an active member in the California Raisin Grow-

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ers Association, the California Peach Growers Association and the Prune and Apricot Association. His bitterest experience was at Easton. After spending many years to improve his twenty acres, the drainage formed a kind of pond in the center of his ranch ; and when he had struggled for ten years against the increasing hindrance, paying in the meantime ten per cent. on the purchase price, he was forced to sell his twenty acres for only $3,000. Thus he had much less than $1,000 with which to start on his home-place, now a highly- improved and valuable ranch of forty acres on Grand Avenue, adjoining Kings- burg

For the past thirteen years Mr. Telin has been agent for the Fancher Creek Nurseries, and in representing them he sells only the very best of thor- oughly reliable nursery stock in healthy condition and thoroughly tested. The superiority of this output has long and widely been recognized, and the result is that Mr. Telin is kept moderately busy in this field of enterprise.

About the same time that Mr. Telin assumed this responsibility, he made a trip back to Sweden. He found many changes, and not all of the old-time friends and relatives ; he passed pleasant hours, and was glad of the expe- rience, but he was more than ever satisfied to get back to California. Mr. and Mrs. Telin are members of the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church at Kings- burg, and delight in doing good whenever and wherever possible.

GEORGE WAMPOLE HORN .- A specialist in the feeding and raising of hogs, who was a successful stock-raiser in Kansas and Iowa, and who now owns eighty acres, part of which is devoted to raisins and peaches, is George Wampole Horn, whose wife is well known for her advocacy of certain school reforms, notably the consolidation of the Eschol and Kingsburg districts. He was born in Clearfield County, Pa., on January 7, 1851, the son of Elias W. and Nancy Jane (Smith) Horn, with whom he came west to Illinois, after which he went to Iowa, where he grew up. His school facilities were limited, but he made the best of them. Still later he moved to Kansas, in which state, as well as in Iowa, his father farmed. The latter moved back to Iowa, and there he died, at the age of sixty-nine. George's mother had died when he was only three years old, and his father married again, having, by both marriages, twenty children: eight were of the first wife, George's mother, and two of his own brothers were in the Union Army; and twelve were children by the second wife. George is the only one now in California.

The month of January, 1877, first saw him at Fresno, and then he went up to Tollhouse and worked until the following August, when he shifted to the Eschol district. For five years he worked for wages, and then he took up a homestead of forty acres southeast of the town. Now he has eighty acres and is engaged with remarkable success in mixed farming.

In the meantime Mr. Horn had married Miss Ella M. Hoffman, who was born in Calaveras County, the daughter of Simon E. and Phoebe E. (Allen) Hoffman, who came to California with ox teams from Minnesota in 1859. Mr. Hoffman was born in Germany, and he came to New York with his parents, who settled in Illinois. Later he removed to Minnesota, and there he was married. In 1871 Mrs. Horn came with her parents to Tulare County, and in Calaveras County her father was both a farmer and a fruit- raiser, and set out the first muscat vineyard there. In Tulare County, on the other hand, her father followed grain-farming and stock-raising, and be- came quite a large landowner ten miles southwest of Tulare city. After having made his home with the subject of this sketch, he died two years ago, aged eighty-seven. Mrs. Hoffman also made her home for part of the time with the Horns, although she lived for the most part at Tulare, and there she died, at the age of eighty-two, on March 3, 1918, and was buried at Selma beside her husband. There were eleven children in the Hoffman family, one of whom died in infancy ; and all the ten still living were at the mother's bed- side at her death, and attended the funeral. Mrs. Horn is the only one living

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in Fresno County, although she has brothers and a sister in other parts of the state and in Oregon. She is a member of the Baptist Church at Selma. Mr. Hoffman's part in educational matters has special interest. He came here in 1880, when the Franklin was the nearest school, five miles distant. Desiring schooling for his children, he was the mainspring in organizing the Eschol district, and he suggested the name of Eschol, since he had every faith that this country would be as productive as the Eschol of Holy Writ.

Mr. Horn now has ten acres in muscats and ten acres in Thompson seed- less, eight acres in peaches, and the balance in grain, hay and pasture. He has twenty-three head of cattle, six horses, and twenty-four Poland China hogs. He was the first to plow with a bull-team in this part of the county, and in various ways gave an impetus to agriculture. He worked for John Humphries when he first came down from Tollhouse, and he brought down for him 400 hogs and so made $8.000 for his employer. How to care for these he learned many years ago, for when as a young man he moved hack to Iowa from Kansas, he became a cattleman, and fed and finished cattle for nine years, making thereby some of the good money that he brought to California. He went into mining operations, using hydraulic power on Dry Creek : and there he lost all that he had. He started over again, has worked hard, and has met with reasonable success.

In 1912. Mrs. Horn was elected trustee of the Eschol school district. and she is still serving on the board. This district was consolidated with Kingsburg, and the move-one of great moment for the section-was en- thusiastically supported by Mrs. Horn. There is an excellent grammar school with ten teachers, and the children are gathered up, taken to school and brought back to their homes by an auto bus. driven by one of the teachers.

Mr. and Mrs. Horn have eight children: Phoebe is the wife of Charles Lambert of Modesto, a blacksmith known for his skill, and they have three children-Elton. Fern, and Fay: Irene is Mrs. George Lambert, an orange- grower near Honcut, in Butte County, and they have two children-Dorris and Elvin ; Mary is at home; Nellie is Mrs. C. C. Culbertson, on a ranch near Selma : Alfred married Goldie Cook, in the Eschol district, with their one child. Evelyn : Andrew is at home and manages the ranch: George is a mechanic and works for L. H. Byron in the Ford Garage at Lemoore ; and Ella is in school.

JAMES MARSHALL McDONALD .- The efficient manager of the California Associated Raisin Company's plant, at Biola, Fresno County, Tames M. McDonald is especially qualified for this important post. He is a native of the Buckeye State, born between Bellefontaine and Urbana, Ohio. July 9, 1870, the son of John B. and Lydia (Marshall) McDonald. His father was a native of Virginia, being of Scotch and Scotch-Irish descent ; his grand- mother's maiden name was Patterson. John B. McDonald was a farmer and during the Civil War was a captain in Company Eight, Berdan's New York Regiment of sharpshooters. At one time he held the prominent military post of Lieutenant Colonel in the Ohio National Guards. His mother in maiden- hood was Lydia Ann Marshall, a native of Vermont, and in March 26, 1903, she passed away at Fresno. In 1886 the father migrated to California, locating at Fresno where he was employed in the post-office, until his death on Octo- ber 20. 1904.

James was their only child and he came with them to Fresno in 1886. At first he learned the trade of an upholsterer, with Mr. Jones, at G and Tuol- umne Streets, remaining with him about three years, leaving to enter the post-office when Mrs. Hughes was postmaster; afterwards he was a mail- carrier under N. W. Moody.

James McDonald has the distinction of being one of the old volunteer firemen of the city of Fresno and served as a driver of hose company No. 1. Upon the organization of the first paid fire department of the city, under

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Chief Higgins, when the chemical engine was introduced, he was the first engineer. Afterwards he served on the police force under Chief Morgan, for about one year, when he resigned and started a private detective agency. His new enterprise developed into a large and extended business, employing about ten detectives, the field of his operations extending as far as Alaska. After successfully conducting this enterprise for about ten years, he disposed of it and engaged in the real estate business at Fresno.

In September, 1913, Mr. McDonald became the superintendent of the Villa Land Company, owners of the Biola townsite and Biola Acres. He lo- cated on the tract and became actively engaged in superintending its im- provements, including the installing of a water plant, and has been in charge of the project ever since. The Villa Land Company constructed a packing house for the handling and shipping of ripe fruits. The building was leased for two years, after which he ran the plant until 1915, when the California Associated Raisin Company leased the packing-house and engaged Mr. Mc- Donald as its manager. The first year 1.500 tons of raisins were handled but, through his efficient management and organization, in the third year the ship- ments increased to 3,500 tons. In 1918 a new brick plant was built and equipped with the most modern machinery for packing and preparing raisins, the latest methods were introduced and electric power installed.

On December 24, 1894, James M. McDonald was united in marriage with Miss Ollie V. Richter, a native of Illinois, daughter of Charles R. Richter, an early settler of Fresno County, the ceremony being solemnized in Fresno.

WILLIAM A. EDGERLY .- An interesting, energetic man, always bent upon improving and enhancing the value of things, and resolved to contribute in some way or other to the progress of the world, is William A. Edgerly, who, with his brother, has made the Edgerly vineyards, now among the oldest in the county, so valuable. He is the son of a pioneer, Asa S. Edgerly, who was born in New Hampshire, in March, 1834, and was educated in the public schools there and in New Hampton College, from which he was graduated. For nineteen years he taught school, a part of the time in the South ; after the close of the war he returned to Massachusetts and taught at Monument and Sandwich. He next became state agent for the Continental Life Insurance Company in Vermont. In 1872 he removed to Nebraska and bought 720 acres of land near Palmyra, Otoe County. In 1874 he moved into Lincoln and was engaged in the hardware business for three years, when he sold out and began erecting houses for rent. In time he owned five buildings, the site of which was afterwards sold to the Young Men's Christian Association for their building.

In 1887, A. S. Edgerly came to California and in Fresno County bought 280 acres of land on what is now Blackstone Avenue, then a trail through the hogwallow, and with the aid of his son William, began improving the place. He also embarked in the real estate business with T. C. White and William Harvey, and they bought eighty acres and laid out Belmont Addi- tion. In laying out the tract, Mr. Edgerly named Blackstone Avenue, owing to the fact that several lawyers lived on the street. He burned his own brick on the present site of Zapp's Park, and in 1888 built the Edgerly Building, at the corner of J and Tulare Streets, now one of the oldest buildings in Fresno. He was an energetic dealer in property, and after a time traded the building for a ranch near Yountville, Napa County, where he resided a few years; then he lived a short time in Oakland, and afterwards spent two years in Los Angeles as manager of an apartment house, then returned to Fresno. He was proprietor of Hotel Portland until he sold it and bought lots at the corner of Kern and M Streets. Later he erected three buildings at Tulare and O Streets. In 1909 he retired, since which time he made his home on a part of the original Edgerly ranch. In his retirement he was still planning improvements, but he was forced to refrain from much active work. This enterprising old pioneer passed to his reward in June, 1918.

W. A. Eagerly.

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Mrs. Edgerly was Lydia Crowell before her marriage, and she was born at Sagamore, Cape Cod, Mass., June 28, 1837. She came from Puritan stock, and was able to trace her family back to the Mayflower, 1620. She is still living, the mother of six children, four of whom have grown to maturity and are living: William A., the subject of this review; Nellie E. D., who is Mrs. Wheeler; Lillian M. R., who is Mrs. Gardner; and Charles D., all farming on a part of the original Edgerly ranch.

Born at Springvale, Ga., September 5, 1860, William A. Edgerly was educated in the different states in which his parents resided, especially Massachusetts, Vermont, and Palmyra, Nebr., where he went to school in a dugout. He later attended the high school at Lincoln, and after completing the courses there studied for a year at the University of Nebraska; then he spent a year teaching school near Lincoln. He then tried the sheep business and was in Colorado, Kansas and Indian Territory, during which time he lived in a wagon for about seven years, traveling with the band as a sheep-grower through the various states and territories. He had many stirring frontier experiences, and made his headquarters for four years at Harper, Kans. To show the low prices prevailing for stock during some of those early years, we may mention that one season he bought sheep as low as from twenty cents to thirty cents a head, which he shipped to Topeka, where the wool was secured and tallow saved, and fertilizer was made out of the carcasses.

In 1887, Mr. Edgerly came to Fresno County and bought an interest with his father in ranching and this caused him to turn his attention to ranch work and fruit-growing. With the aid of his brother he began to set out vines and fruit trees, and in time the entire 200 acres at the corner of Black- stone and Mckinley Avenues were improved, and it is now owned and occupied by the two brothers and two sisters. He also owns a twenty-acre peach orchard north of the Normal school. Mr. Edgerly is president of the Edgerly Company, Inc., which owns the property on Tulare and O, and Kern and M, in Fresno, now occupied by business buildings, all built up by members of the family. As with so many other pioneers, the early fruit- growing business proved uphill work for some time, and Mr. Edgerly was compelled to raise grain and hay to keep things going, but he won out, gave his support liberally to the various fruit associations, and has been from the first a member of the California Associated Raisin Company.

At Eureka Springs, Ark., in 1888, Mr. Edgerly was married to Miss Carrie L. Rice, a native of Illinois, but reared in Kansas. Two children have come to bless this union: Pearl I. is Mrs. A. J. Smith, and resides near Fowler ; and Lyman E. is ranching near Tulare. Mrs. Edgerly is a member of the Methodist Church, and in its circles labors for the advancement of the community. Mr. Edgerly is a Republican in national politics. He is affable and friendly by nature, and is a member of Fresno Lodge, No. 343, I. O. O. F., and of the Woodmen of the World.

CYRUS BELL MCCUTCHEON .- A self-made man, in the best sense implied by that term, is C. B. Mccutcheon, who was born in Wayne County. Iowa, on April 21, 1855. His parents were John and Mary (Akers) McCutch- eon, both natives of Indiana, but who migrated to Iowa where they were engaged in farming. During the year 1865. the Mccutcheon family decided to move farther westward, having the Golden State as their ultimate goal. Other families were also enthused with the project and joined with the Mc- Cutcheons. With ox teams, cows and horses, their caravan started on its long and perilous journey across the deserts and Indian-infested plains. A very sad incident occurred while crossing the plains, the father, John Mc- Cutcheon, passing away. Their immigrant train finally reached Salt Lake City, Utah, where the party remained during the winter and in due time re- sumed its journey westward. After reaching California, the Mccutcheon family resided for one year at Los Angeles, but later finally settled at Marsh

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Creek, Contra Costa County, in 1866. Mr. and Mrs. John Mccutcheon were the parents of six children, three of whom are living. Some years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Mary Mccutcheon was married to B. H. Kerrick, and they became the parents of three children, one of whom is now living. The family removed to Tulare County, where Mr. Kerrick was engaged in the sheep business and in which he was very successful. At one time he owned from 4,000 to 6,000 head. He continued in the sheep business fourteen years.

C. B. Mccutcheon received his early education partly in Iowa and partly on the plains en-route and finished his schooling after coming to California. In 1888. C. B. Mccutcheon was united in marriage with Miss Annie Stayton, the daughter of John F. and Martha Jane (Hawkins) Stayton. John F. Stay- ton served in the Mexican War, a member of the Scouts who blazed the Santa Fe trail. He came to California in 1849, settled in San Joaquin County and engaged in ranching and stock-raising, and was the planter of the first wheat there. His stock range extended to Los Angeles and he became one of the wealthiest men in California. He owned 1,200 acres bordering Porterville townsite, and crossed Kings River many times, and put in a brush dam at the present location of Emigrant Dam below Kingsburg; he crossed Kings River at Reedley townsite in 1850. In 1872 he went to Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, and engaged in mining, but was not successful in this. After thirty- nine years he returned to California and died within a week, at Kingsburg, December 30, 1911, aged eighty-seven vears, eleven months and five days. Mr. and Mrs. McCutcheon had two children, one of whom survives: Clifford W., a most worthy and dutiful son, born at Springville, Cal., June 27. 1896.

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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 128

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