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 135

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 135

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The family moved from Illinois to Missouri and later migrated to San Francisco, Cal., where they reniained eight years and it was in the big city by the Golden Gate that A. G. Gibbs passed that portion of his life between the ages of twelve and twenty years.

In 1888, in company with his father and family, A. G. Gibbs came to Fresno County, where at first they rented land, afterwards buying an interest

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in a land company which they finally sold and purchased land separately. A. G. Gibbs purchased forty acres one and a half miles southwest of Lone Star where he has developed a splendid vineyard, having planted all of the vines himself, with the exception of ten acres. In 1908 he built an attractive bungalow and now he has a beautiful and cozy place. He and his brother-in- law own jointly eighty acres of land near Raisin City.

In 1896, Mr. A. G. Gibbs was united in marriage with Lillie Frances Armstrong, daughter of William and Millie (Stover) Armstrong, who own a twenty-acre vineyard at Lone Star. Mrs. Gibbs was born at Wintersett, Iowa, and when nine years of age came with her parents from Missouri to the Golden State. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs are the parents of one child; Roy Harold, a student in Fresno High School.

When Mr. Gibbs arrived in Fresno County he quickly realized the great opportunities this section offered to ambitious young men of good character who were not afraid to work and willing to practice thrift and economy in their daily lives. By adopting such a code of living himself, Mr. Gibbs achieved success and to his estimable wife, no less than to himself, should the praise of the achievement be ascribed.

Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Gibbs are highly respected in the community where they have resided for so many years, he being a member of the California Raisin Growers Association.

MORGAN BAIRD .- Conspicuous among the progressive and prosper- ous ranchers and stockmen of Fresno County, was the late Morgan Baird, a worthy son of an honored pioneer father, the late Alfred Baird. Benjamin Morgan Baird was a native of the Hawkeye State, having been born in Frankville, Winneshiek County, Iowa, on December 27. 1853, and when six years of age came across the plains with his parents and settled in Visalia, Tulare County, Cal. His early education was obtained in the public school of Tulare County, supplemented by special study under Father Date, and later completed by attending the San Jose State Normal School, and a course at the business college in San Jose, from which institution he was graduated.

Upon finishing his school-days he engaged in the sheep business with his father, but some years later became an independent sheep-grower in Tulare County. While sojourning in Tulare County, Morgan Baird sowed the first alfalfa in the vicinity and also set out a vineyard of fifty-five acres ,the first in all that neighborhood. Another enterprise largely due to his efforts was the organization of a ditch company by which he secured water for irrigating his land. Upon selling his sheep he embarked in the grain business with John A. Patterson, and they were the first to place the Glide Ranch, in Stokes Valley, under cultivation; also the first ranchers to introduce the Shippey combined harvester, operated by sixteen horses. Under ordinary circumstances they would have reaped large profits from their cultivation of 4,000 acres, but poor crops and low prices combined to make their invest- ment unprofitable so they finally sold out their holdings. Upon his return to Fresno County, Morgan Baird became interested in raising grain and cattle, which business he conducted upon his father's homestead.

On January 24, 1898, Morgan Baird was united in marriage with Mrs. Mary ( Davis) Givens, a native of Fresno County, the ceremony being sol- emnized at Reno, Nev. She is the daughter of William and Sarah J. (Ellis) Davis, who were natives of Mississippi and Virginia, respectively. Her father, William Davis, an own cousin of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confed- eracy, crossed the plains to California in 1849, when eighteen years of age, and was among the pioneers of Millerton, where he became interested in sheep-raising. He was a brave and fearless pioneer having taken part in the Indian wars in California. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan Baird were the parents of five children: Addison, and Morgan, Jr., attending the University of Califor- nia ; Carroll, a student in Fresno High; Gordon, and Alfreda.

1 uf Baire

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After the death of his father, in 1914, Morgan Baird was by his father's will made the administrator of his large estate, but was not privileged to manage the estate for a very long time as he was called to the Great Beyond on February 16, 1916, and in his passing the community sustained the loss of one of its most successful and prosperous ranchers and stockmen. Morgan Baird had watched with much gratification the wonderful development of the San Joaquin Valley and Fresno County, in which he had the honor of participating. He was a gentleman of fine personality and bearing and frater- nally he was a prominent Mason of the Scottish Rite degree.

MRS. MORGAN BAIRD .- A splendid example of noble California womanhood and a lady of accomplishment and pluck, the worthiest possible representative of other worthy Americans long influential for great good in the communities in which they lived and amid the civilization that they helped to guide and develop, is Mrs. Morgan Baird, who has a fine home ranch in Fairview that she is bringing to a high state of cultivation. She is the widow of the late Morgan Baird, the honored descendant of the well-known pioneer, Alfred Baird, both of whose careers are also sketched in greater detail in this historical work.

At Reno, in Nevada, on January 24, 1898, Mr. Baird married Mrs. Mary (Davis) Givens, a native daughter born near Hornitos, Mariposa County, whose parents were William and Sarah J. (Ellis) Davis, natives respectively of Mississippi and Virginia. William Davis was a second cousin of Jefferson Davis, the great leader and president of the Southern Confederacy, and Mrs. Baird is the niece of Mrs. Mary (Davis) Lemberger, a lady remarkable for her advanced age (of over one hundred years) and her clear intellect. Wil- liam Davis was among the bravest of the early settlers at Millerton, having crossed the plains, and while engaged in the stock business and the raising of sheep he helped put down the Indian insurrections. A grandfather on the mother's side was Dr. T. O. Ellis, a member of an old Virginia family, and the first physician to practice in Fresno County. as he was also the first county superintendent of schools here, and the first man in the entire county to set out a vineyard and an orchard. After the death of Mr. Davis in 1871. his widow made her home near Academy, the beloved mother of six children, grown to maturity: W. T. Davis is a stockman in Fresno County ; Jefferson E. Davis is a prominent real estate man in Fresno; Eugene is a stockman at Fort Miller : Mary F. has become Mrs. Baird, the subject of this review ; Jack is a stockman in Dry Creek, and W. H. is a viticulturist and horticulturist in Round Mountain. Mrs. Baird received her education in the public schools of Visalia and in a young ladies' seminary at Oakland, where she enjoyed the best of social advantages, in keeping with the traditions of her family. Dr. Ellis, referred to, was highly educated, in the classics as well as in medicine, and so was Mrs. Baird's mother, who is a well-educated, cultured and very refined woman, and a favorite in the best circles in Fresno, where she makes her home. As a result of her marriage with Mr. Givens, Mrs. Morgan Baird has two daughters, Mrs. Edith Baird and Mrs. Hazel Wood, both of whom live in the Fairview district, while through her union with Mr. Baird she is the mother of five children: Walter Addison and Morgan Corwin, both graduates of Fresno High, now attending the University of California ; Car- roll Hubbard, a student at Fresno High School ; and Gordon and Alfreda.

During their later years, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Baird were tenderly cared for by their son Morgan and his equally devoted wife, who was an accom- plished nurse ; and it was only natural that the senior gentleman should appoint Morgan, in his will, as administrator of the estate. As is often the case, one of the benefactors of the will at once proceeded to contest the wishes of the deceased ; long litigation followed and naturally the worries incidental to such an unpleasant responsibility undoubtedly had the effect of hastening Morgan Baird's death, which occurred on February 16, 1916. He was pre-

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vented, therefore, from further acting in the capacity designated by his father in his last testament, but Mrs. Baird pluckily and properly took up the fight, not merely for the estate, but to vindicate the character and claims of her husband and her father-in-law, who were noted both for their gentlemanly personality and public-spiritedness in the development of this part of the state, and finally she had the satisfaction of witnessing the Supreme Court sustaining the will. Since then she has administered with rare ability the estate and numerous affairs left by her lamented husband, and she is making a great success of farming, both in viticulture and stock-raising.

The several thousand acres in the Academy district left Mrs. Baird by her husband, she is devoting to stock and grain farming, and she has a home ranch of 100 acres in Fairview, which she is developing into a vineyard and an olive and fig orchard. Prominent in local social circles, Mrs. Baird also finds a sphere of great usefulness in the activities of the Episcopal Church at Fresno, to which she belongs, as well as to Raisina Chapter, O. E. S., and San Joaquin Court of the Order of Amaranth. With the new spirit of the new century, hailing woman as decidedly the equal of man, Fresno County is proud of every such native daughter as Mrs. Benjamin Morgan Baird.

CARL A. LISENBY .- Of more than ordinary significance both for the present and the future industrial life of Fresno is the great enterprise, the Lisenby Manufacturing Co., of which Carl A. Lisenby is Secretary, Treasurer and General Manager and in the story of his life we get the introduction to that of the industry referred to. A native son, Carl. A. Lisenby was born at Fresno on August 21, 1888. the son of A. V. and Emma C. (Wright) Lisenby, and the lad had the advantage of counsel and example from one of the most substantial citizens of the town. His father was long identified with banking interests, and is today president of a well-known banking company

Carl was educated at the local grammar and high schools, and sought to top off his studies at the University of Southern California. He made a specialty there of literary work, but eventually commenced the law course. Circumstances, however, compelled him to abandon the undertaking, in order to assume his present position : and having thus early been initiated into the intricate business, he has come to understand every stage in the manufacture of their machine - the wonderful Multicolor Printing Press.

The Lisenby plant is a model one, and in the manufacture of this famous machine some seventy-five people are employed. Every considera- tion is given to the comfort and protection of the employe, and to meet the increase of orders (which always far exceed the present supply), the company contemplates enlarging their works, having a large machine shop built, also building a new foundry, so that every part of the machine may be manufactured in this city. The multicolor press has long ago passed its experimental stage, and is an established success, and has been sold in far- away countries all over the world. The general eastern sales offices of the company are at 298 Broadway, New York City, and 417 South Dearborn Street, Chicago, Ill., and many branch offices have been opened in the principal American cities. Another branch of the Lisenby industry is the manufacture of a line of farm implements. Its phenomenal success, re- quiring expert handicraft .. intricate machinery and special tools, has enabled the Company to pay the highest wages, which return again to the community in local expending and general circulation.

He is a popular supporter of all good measures in the Fresno Commer- cial Club, Chamber of Commerce. Merchants Association and other civic bodies. Mr. Lisenby was made a Mason in Fresno Lodge, No. 247, F. & A. M. of which he is a Past Master. He is a member of the Fresno Chapter R. A. M .: Fresno Commandery No. 29. K. T .; Fresno Consistory No. 8, Scottish Rite bodies and Islam Temple A. A. O. N. M. S., San Francisco.

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With his wife he is a member of Fresno Chapter O. E. S. Mr. Lisenby is a charter member of the Masonic Club in San Francisco. During the World War he spent much of his time in the different drives: Liberty Loan; Red Cross; War Savings Stamps and all war activities and was a member of different committees for the raising of money to prosecute the war.

On March 14, 1912, the marriage of Mr. Lisenby to Miss Edith M. Niblock was delightfully celebrated, and one daughter, Catherine Grace, now graces the household. Mr. and Mrs. Lisenby attend the Methodist Church.

WINFIELD SCOTT ROBINSON .- Of marked character and attain- ments, and one who is also interesting because of the honored family that he represents, is Winfield Scott Robinson, who came to California in the seven- ties. He was born near Louisville, Clay County, Ill., on October 15. 1849, the son of William H. Robinson, a native of Virginia, who came to Illinois and was there married to Hannah Clark, a native of Maryland, and they settled in Clay County, where the elder Robinson was a farmer. He died in 1852, and the mother passed away in 1873, the mother of ten children, six of whom grew to maturity.

William H. Robinson was a true educator, and built the first school house and taught the first school in the district. He was also a justice of the peace, and at the time of his death was candidate for sheriff on the Whig ticket. He was a prominent and influential man, and of striking and attractive personality.

Winfield Scott lived with his grandfather, Robert Robinson, a native of Philadelphia, who was born in 1795 and had served in the War of 1812. While receiving a good education in the public schools, he assisted his grand- father on the home farm, until he was twenty-one. In 1871 he started for California, and on March 13th of that year he arrived in the Golden State and went as far south as Modesto, at that time the terminus of the railway. He worked on a ranch and in the fall leased a section of land where, for seven or eight years, he engaged in the raising of grain. They were dry years and the prices obtained for his products were very low, so that he did not accumu- late much. Unfortunately, he shipped one crop through E. E. Morgan & Sons and on account of their failure in business he lost all but the small initial payment.

In 1879 Mr. Robinson located in Fresno County, near what is now Selma, and there he bought 240 acres and engaged in general farming. He experimented with vines and orchards, and planted alfalfa and grain. He was successful here, and having thrice received good offers for his land, then highly improved, he sold eighty acres. After that he rented land and farmed for six years, at Kingston, now Laton. Afterwards he ran the hotel in Laton and finally, selling out, he located in Fresno. Here he resumed the hotel business, and in 1908 he bought his present holding, twenty-five choice acres in the Arizona Colony, and at once began improvements. While still in business in town, Mr. Robinson set out a fine orchard, and the place is now devoted to raising peaches, together with alfalfa and berries, which he sells to local stores. The ranch is under the Herndon Canal, but he has also installed a pumping-plant. For some years Mr. Robinson was in the poultry business, and in that field also he set a new pace in the application of im- proved methods for raising fouls. He has been a member and stockholder of the California Peach Growers, Inc., from its origin.

At Fresno, on August 20, 1885, Mr. Robinson was married to Miss Nellie Clark, a native of Iowa City, Iowa, who came to California when she was six months old, crossing the plains in an ox team train with her parents, C. Andrew and Eliza (Blunt) Clark, natives of Nebraska and Indiana re- spectively. In 1867 they left Iowa for California, and after a stay in Men- docino County, Mr. Clark became one of the first settlers of Tulare County, in 1873, engaging in farming near Hanford until his death in 1876; his

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widow now resides with the children. Of their eight children five are living, Mrs. Robinson being the second youngest. One child has blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, a daughter, Alice, now the wife of J. A. Kieffer who is engaged on the Santa Fe Railroad, and who resides in the Arizona Colony.

Mr. Robinson was made a Mason in La Clede Lodge, No. 601, at La Clede, Ill., and he is now a charter member of Selma Lodge, No. 277, F. & A. M., of which he was master for two terms. Both Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are members of Raisina Chapter, O. E. S., of Fresno. As a Republican, Mr. Robinson has been a strong advocate of temperance. He has also worked for better irrigation facilities, and has been a delegate from his (the Roeding) district to irrigation meetings for the public ownership of canals as well as water-ways of Fresno County.

SARKIS TUFENKJIAN, M. D .- Scattered here and there throughout the wide United States, never, perhaps to be found in any considerable col- ony, and yet representing a rather formidable aggregate, and making up, one of the most valuable classes among our progressive American citizens, are the thrifty and highly-intelligent folk from faraway, romantic Armenia-that land and people so long under a barbaric yoke, so long subject to dire and awful persecutions, so that it is a wonder that the race has prospered at all, and more of a miracle when a son of that land attains to the eminent success which has rewarded the life and labors of Dr. S. Tufenkjian, now one of the prominent ranchers of Fresno. He was born in Armenia in December, 1867, a son of John Tufenkjian, well-known in that country, and leaving an excellent record for accomplishment in the round of plain, everyday duty. His mother, of whom he also has fond memories, was Zerta Tufenkjian ; and in her come- ly virtues, she well typified the women of her ancient and renowned land.

As a lad. the subject of our sketch was educated at the American mis- sionary schools, and while thus getting a very thorough Western training, he had his attention early and fortunately directed to the great Republic with its irresistible appeal to the lovers of liberty. As a result, when he had finished his elementary and secondary schooling, he came to the United States and matriculated at the University of Michigan, where during four years of resi- dence at Ann Arbor, he thoroughly enjoyed the life of the quiet university town. He had made a flattering number of friends, and these wished him God-speed as he set out into the larger world.

Going to New York-for he now began to feel the lure of the metropolis, with its varied and most instructive side-lights of life-Mr. Tufenkjian en- tered the medical school of the great University of the City of New York, then, as for half a century and more, directed by many of the most eminent men in the surgical and medical world; and in 1885 he finished his course with distinction, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He had thus studied medicine under some of the most advantageous conditions any- where obtainable in America.

Dr. Tufenkjian's first practice, somewhat naturally, was had in New York City, where he also profited by the neighboring hospitals and clinics ; but after that, although he had become a naturalized citizen of the United States, he returned to Armenia and went among his native people, rendering medical aid to whomsoever he could. Only when he felt that a still greater field for the exercise of his best gifts awaited him on this side of the ocean, did he return to America.

It was just the beginning of the new century, in 1900, when Dr. Tufenk- jian turned his face toward the Pacific Slope, and the same year when, having surveyed California rather critically, he chose Fresno as promising the most for the future. Growing up in a country highly favored in certain facilities for agriculture, he no longer essayed to practice medicine, but took to the more open life and orcharding. Now he owns the famous Estrella Vineyard,

S. Julenkjiau

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eighty acres of the choicest land to be found in this region, which he partly improved. Applying his knowledge and his industry, he has been, as one might say he was bound to be, more than ordinarily successful, thus adding one more interesting record to the splendid history of the Armenians in America.

On November 17, 1892, Dr. Tufenkjian was married to Miss Perooza Kaloostan, and by her he has had three children: Zabel, Mrs. Kandarian; Richard, a graduate of the high school and Junior College at Fresno; and Florence. The family worships as Presbyterians, and the doctor is a Blue Lodge Mason.

The important part in politics taken by the Doctor has been in the organ- izing of the Armenians for the Republican party, thereby overthrowing the Democratic strength. He has been an ardent supporter of the Republican candidates on national questions, but on local issues supports the best men and best measures, and he has always taken the stump for various candidates. He has led his people in all drives during the Great War, and all charitable enterprises have received his hearty support. He has been a supporter of all the raisin associations from the start and is now a member of the California Associated Raisin Company.

Not only have the political experiences of Dr. Tufenkjian made him ar- dently patriotic and greatly interested in civic affairs, but his professional work and his recent scientific experiments, demonstrating the extent to which the material prosperity of the state depends on intelligent husbandry and the wise conservation of resources, have led him to give time, effort and influence to furthering every cause for the real uplift of the people, and the advance of social welfare. In this way, Dr. Tufenkjian's advent in Fresno must be reckoned as fortunate for everyone concerned.

CLARENCE WILLIAM EDWARDS .- Prominent among the pro- gressive educators of California whose aggressive, thoroughly scientific and scientifically thorough methods and accomplishments in the past give stimu- lating warrant of a still more brilliant future, auguring all that could be desired for the best interests of the public committed to their care, must be mentioned Clarence William Edwards, for years a very active and valuable co-worker, in one position of responsibility or another, in the solution of the great problems attending the development of education in Central California, and since the beginning of 1919 Superintendent of Schools for Fresno County, an office he is filling, as might well be expected from his exceptional prep- aration and opportunity for experience, to the satisfaction of everyone. His grandfather, Pressley N. Edwards, was a '49er hailing from Missouri, so that such have been the traditions in Superintendent Edwards' family that he has always enjoyed and cherished the " California spirit."

He was born at Visalia on March 4, 1878, the son of Edward Darnall Edwards, a native of Liberty, Clay county, Mo., who married Anna Finch of Obion County, Tennessee. When the Civil War broke out, Edward Edwards entered the Confederate Army from Missouri, and at the con- clusion of the great struggle, matriculated at William Jewell College, at Liberty, Mo. He then studied law at Memphis, Tenn., was successfully admitted to the Tennessee bar, and for a while practiced law in Memphis and Union City in that State. During the great Centennial year he brought his family West to California, settled for a while in San Francisco, and then went to Visalia.

In 1878 Mr. Edwards, foreseeing the greater field at Fresno, moved to this city, and ever since he has practiced law here continuously, so that now, at the age of seventy-three. he may well be regarded as a veteran attorney, and one who, pleasantly situated in his well-appointed offices in the Temple Bar Building, enjoys the esteem of thousands to whom he has long been known. Mrs. Edwards, it is happy to relate, is still living to enjoy with him, as she has done for the past quarter of a century there, their hospitable

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home at 1837 J Street ; although, for eight years previously, the Edwards lived at their San Dimas Ranch, a choice vineyard of 100 acres in the Scan- dinavian Colony, five miles north-east of Fresno. Besides the subject of our interesting and instructive sketch, two other sons were born to this highly-favored couple. Ernest H. is in the transportation department of the Southern Pacific at Tucson, Ariz., while Jefferson James is Captain of the twentieth U. S. Infantry, at Camp Funston, Texas, and recently in attend- ance at an officers' training school at Fort Lee, Virginia.

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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 135

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