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 136

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 136

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A mere lad when he first came to Fresno, Clarence Edwards attended both the grammar schools and the high school of the city and finished his studies in a creditable manner, taking the literary course at the high school, and being graduated with the Class of '97. He matriculated at the University of California in the fall of that year, took the social science course, and was graduated in 1901 with the degree of B.L. During vacations, beginning with his high school life and extending through the days at the university, he worked in his father's law office, where he came in touch with the county and city officials, and also came to know the local lawyers and newspaper men, thereby getting a first-hand acquaintance with the rank and file of the men and women of ability with which Fresno has so long been favored in its superior citizenry; and between the Sophomore and Junior vears at the University, he worked as city reporter on the old "Expositor," then " The Daily Evening Expositor " of Fresno. Bv this application to practical work, Mr. Edwards added much to his experience with human nature, and the men of affairs had a good chance to look over and get acquainted with the rising young man of promise.

His university diploma entitled Mr. Edwards to a grammar school certificate, and with that coveted equipment, he began his career as a peda- gogue by acting as principal of the Belmont grammar school in Fresno, now known more appropriately as the Webster school. Being ambitious from the start, however, for six summers he also did post-graduate work at the University, where he specialized in history, jurisprudence and education ; and at the end of these desirable studies, in 1903 he received a University Document of the greatest value as fully establishing his status as an educator according, in particular, to California ideals. Since that time he has done considerable additional post-graduate work along the same lines. He was for a while principal of the Emerson and the Hawthorne grammar schools, and for the past ten years has been principal of the Lowell grammar school : while from 1914 to 1919 he was supervising principal of the Lowell, Frank- lin and Poppy schools. He has also taken an active part in the county teachers' institutes, where he has given talks and read papers and contributed substantially to the discussions so important to the teacher desiring to grow and broaden; and very naturally his acquaintance with the teachers of Fresno County has become more and more extensive.

At the opening of the campaign of 1918, Mr. Edwards was prevailed upon to become a candidate before the primaries for the Superintendency of Fresno County Schools, and the result of the primaries insured his election. No one could carry his honors with more becoming modesty ; but his popu- larity is well attested by the fact that he won out by a very handsome majority over his opponent, Prof. A. E. Balch, who was the leading super- vising assistant under former Superintendent E. W. Lindsay, an educator of great ability whose life-story is told in detail elsewhere in this volume.

Superintendent Edwards is a member of the Central California Teachers' Association Ex-Officio, by virtue of being the County Superintendent. He also belongs to the University Club of Fresno. He is a Mason affiliated with Fresno Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 247, where he is Past Master, and as a Knight Templar is a member of Fresno Commandery No. 29. Of course he is also a member of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce.

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How important a trust has been committed to this up-to-date school- man may be judged from the fact that Fresno County has 156 elementary schools and fifteen high schools, to which he must give his closest super- vising attention. He is ably assisted, however, by C. S. Weaver of Fresno, and W. L. Worth, of the same city, and Mrs. Florence B. Rutherford, also of the county seat.

About the only " serious " diversion indulged in by Mr. Edwards is that of hunting, for in company with his gun and dog, he seeks to repair the waste in a strenuous life among his fellow-men. In this respect he finds himself in as good a company as when training the young idea how to shoot.

GEORGE W. JONES .- Among Fresno's citizens whose business career since 1889 has been associated with the interests of this beautiful city, we note Attorney George W. Jones, of the firm of Jones and Johnston. Of California pioneer stock, he was born at Placerville, Eldorado County, Cal., November 6, 1864. His father, William, a native of the state of New York, came to Cali- fornia from Illinois in 1851, crossing the plains by the usual means of locomo- tion of that day, the ox team caravan, of which he was in charge. During the Civil War he served as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second California Volunteer Cavalry. His mother, in maidenhood, Emma Artz. came to California by way of the Isthmus in 1852. William and Emma (Artz) Jones were united in marriage in San Francisco by the noted divine. Star King. The parents are both dead.

George W. received his education in the public schools and studied law at the University of California, graduating with the class of 1888. He selected Fresno as the city of his choice. where he has been engaged in the active practice of his profession since 1889. For two years he was in partnership with Judge H. Z. Austin, and is now a member of the law firm of Tones and Johnston. Under Alva E. Snow, Mr. Jones served as assistant district at- torney. He was elected to the office of district attorney in 1903 and served one term. He was a member of the board of education and was also city trustee under Dr. Rowell, and under Mayor Snow by appointment. In politics he is progressive : was actively engaged in organizing the Lincoln- Roosevelt League and was president of the local branch. He is unmarried. For two years he was Captain of Company F., Sixth Infantry Regular Na- tional Guard of California, and Major of the Second Battalion for the same length of time.

Fraternally, Mr. Jones is a Mason and has passed all degrees of the York Rite ; and is a member of the Foresters of America and of the Woodmen of the World, and director of the building corporation of the latter. He is also an Elk and a charter member of the Sequoia Club.

During the recent war George W. Jones was a member of the Legal Advisory Board for Fresno County, and branch chairman of Military Camps Association of the United States, a civil organization working under the direction of the War Department, and he was appointed a civil aid to the Adjutant General.

He was also a Four Minute Man, and participated in its activities through- out Fresno County.

MILTON D. HUFFMAN .- Fresno County, in the early years of its history, was often spoken of as the "Wild Flower County", owing to the pro- fusion of the beautiful California poppy and many other varieties of wild flowers. In 1881 Milton D. Huffman with his young wife, came to California and located in the "Wild Flower County" near the now flourishing city of Fresno. He was the son of Milton and Catherine (Weaver) Huffman, born in Columbus and Circleville, Ohio, respectively. Milton Huffman senior, was a prosperous farmer in the state of Ohio on the Scioto River, south of Columbus, but in 1858 removed to Pettis County, Mo. where he farmed for many years. Owing to the long hot summers and cold winters the Huff-

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man's in their later years decided to test the more equable climate of Cali- fornia, to which state they came in 1905, remaining here until they passed away. Mr. Huffman died October 21, 1910, and his well beloved wife in April, 1911. Grandfather Jacob Huffman was born in Pennsylvania, he was an early settler of Ohio and homesteaded 160 acres on the Scioto River, and became a prosperous and large landowner.

Milton D. Huffman was born in Columbus, Ohio, December 5, 1857, and in 1858 removed with his parents to Pettis County, Mo. and as a boy and young man he remained with his parents, helping his father with the farm work and attending the public schools in Sedalia, Mo. In 1876, at the early age of nineteen, Mr. Huffman was united in marriage with Miss Laura Elliott of Boonville, Mo. and in 1881 came to California and began general ranching and sheep raising west of Wild Flower in Fresno County. He remained on the ranch until 1902, when he removed to the city of Fresno, but continued in the sheep raising business in which he has been very suc- cessful, and at the present time has a large band of fine sheep. He soon became well known and very popular, so much so that in 1908, although not seeking the office, he was elected as supervisor on the Democratic ticket and reelected in 1912 serving for eight years, from January, 1909 till January, 1917 when, although urged by his many friends to serve again he declined to be a candidate. During his service he was particularly interested in the building of roads and his district was said to have the best mountain roads built for the least money.

Mr. and Mrs. Huffman have two daughters, both married. Nina is Mrs. W. W. Terrill of Wilmington, Delaware; Leona, is Mrs. L. F. King, of San Jose.

Mr. Huffman is a publicspirited man and during his long residence in Fresno County has had much to do with its development. He is a prominent member and trustee of the First Christian Church, is a Democrat in his polit- ical views and a member of the Chamber of Commerce. He is a Knight Templar and Shriner, also a member of the B. P. O. Elks and the Knights of Pythias.

DON PARDEE RIGGS .- Perhaps no man has contributed more to the musical advancement of Fresno County than has Don Pardee Riggs. Him- self a musician of note. he has been prominent in musical circles in California since 1894, and was the direct means of bringing the first stars of that pro- fession to Fresno; beginning with the world renowned violinist, Ysaye, in 1905, he brought the following here for concert work: Schumann-Heink, Madame Gadski, Gerardy, the cellist, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Russian Symphony Orchestra, the Ben Greet Company, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and other famous artists, thus giving Fresno the opportunity to hear music interpreted by the foremost exponents of that art.

Mr. Riggs was born in Barnsville, Belmont County, Ohio, December 7, 1869, and was reared and educated there. In 1888 he came to Fresno, and was in the employ of the Fresno Furniture Company here for eight months. He then went to Oakland, in the employ of the C. Schreiber Furniture Company, until 1890. For the next two years he traveled on the road through the Middle West for the E. T. Barnes wholesale furniture commission house of Chicago, Ill., and Grand Rapids, Mich. Returning to Oakland, in 1892, he was again with the C. Schreiber Company for a time.

From 1894 up to 1917, Mr. Riggs became identified with music in the bay cities and Fresno. He is a charter member of the Music Teachers Asso- ciation of California, organized in 1897. He began the study of the violin at the age of eleven years, under Prof. George Collins, in Ohio, continuing six years. Again taking up the study with William F. Zech, of San Francisco, and during the next six years he studied and taught the violin, and was choir director of the Grace M. E. Church and of the Trinity M. E. Church of

Q. A.Cadwallador

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

San Francisco. He was also manager of the Clara Schumann Ladies Quar- tette in that city. He studied voice with Miss Marie Withrow and with Mckenzie Gordon of San Francisco, and Stephen Townsend of Boston, Mass. In 1900 Mr. Riggs came to Fresno as concert violinist and teacher. After his arrival here his services were secured as music director of the First Presby- terian Church of Fresno, where he had a well organized choir. In four years he began the teaching of voice, and soon became one of the most prominent teachers in the interior of the state, his pupils filling solo positions in almost every town and city in the San Joaquin Valley. Himself a most finished and artistic singer, he has given many recitals in the valley. He lent his in- fluence and personal help in the upbuilding of the Fresno Musical Club, and has been one of the most prominent figures in the development of music in Fresno from 1900 to 1918, doing his utmost to help this section of the state keep its artistic advancement in a line with the phenomenal growth of its other developments. In April, 1917, Mr. Riggs entered the employ of the D. H. Williams Furniture Company of Fresno, and on March 1, 1918, he be- came a member of the above firm. Fraternally he is a member of the Fresno Lodge, No. 439, B. P. O. Elks, and is Past Exalted Ruler of that order.

JOHN HOLLISTER CADWALLADER .- Among those pioneers long identified with the development of California, and prominent as the repre- sentative of an old, historic family, may well be mentioned John Hollister Cadwallader, a viticulturist and agriculturist whose application of scientific methods has been seasoned with the most practical personal experience. He was born at Pleasant Grove, Des Moines County, Iowa, on February 8, 1863, the son of David Cadwallader, a native of New York and a carpenter by trade, who in Ohio met and married Albina Howison, a native of Virginia. The Cadwallader family, a branch of the Cadwaladers famous through such lights as George, John and Lambert Cadwalader, the soldiers who won re- nown on the battle-field, originally came from Wales and the Howisons from England, and David Cadwallader was here so early that he became a veteran of the Mexican War. Arriving in Iowa from Ohio, he worked as a con- tractor and builder, as well as a farmer near Burlington, and later he removed to a farm that he purchased near Pleasant Grove, where he followed agricul- tural pursuits until he died, in 1865. Of the two children born to him and his good wife Albina, John H., who was left fatherless when he was two years old, is the eldest. His widowed mother continued to reside on the farm for five years, during which time she taught school. In April, 1873, she brought her children to California, accompanying her father, Edwin Howison. She married a second time in Fresno County, choosing as her husband Steve Hamilton, who was a rancher and also supervisor for two terms. Both passed away here, the mother of our subject dying in 1901. Two of her sisters located in Fresno County.

John H. went to school in both the Mississippi and Red Bank districts, and while attending school, assisted his step-father, Steve Hamilton, who was a very worthy man, receiving such excellent training that when he had finished his schooling, he went to work on grain ranches, thereby learning the San Joaquin Valley method of farming with big teams. At different times in those early days he harvested grain all over the Dry Creek and Red Bank districts including what is now the Garfield, Jefferson and Red Bank districts, and so came to be posted on the best-producing and richest soils. He knew every man that took homesteads on the plains, and he was acquainted with the head of every family from the San Joaquin to the Kings River.

When only seventeen years of age. John's inborn characteristics, par- ticularly his energy and perseverance, began to be displayed. Not satisfied with working for wages, he leased ground in 1880, and commenced to lay the foundation for a successful and enterprising career. During the period from 1880 to 1900 he continued to rent land and raise grain, and twenty 55

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years were devoted to this industry, during which time he continued to in- crease his holdings. Beginning with 320 acres at Red Bank, he acquired more land from time to time, and having also leased land, operated about 1,500 acres, using four large teams, and wearing out three combined harvesters. In 1900 he bought forty acres east of Clovis, and was among the first to set out a vineyard in Enterprise Colony. This place he sold, and in 1899 purchased his present place of forty acres about the center of Garfield dis- trict, which he named the Garfield vineyard, and developed to muscats and an orchard of figs and peaches. Aside from this, he bought and improved several other places, which he sold at a profit; and including his present farm, he has set out and improved to vineyard and orchard not less than 180 acres. Garfield Vineyard, through his care, has become one of the finest and best-kept ranches in the vicinity, its comfortable residence and other buildings adding dignity and making it notable. A firm believer in coopera- tion for fruit men, Mr. Cadwallader is a member and stockholder of the California Associated Raisin Company, the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Fig Growers Association.

Aside from superintending his own valuable holdings, Mr. Cadwallader has found time to devote to public movements, and his support can be relied upon for any measure for the advancement of the community. For twenty years he has been trustee of Clovis Union High School, serving since its organization and being president for the last twelve years, and he has also been trustee of the Garfield district for many years. In 1905 he was instru- mental in organizing the Farmers' Telephone System, of which he is still president. This company built the telephone lines in this section, with head- quarters in Clovis. He was elected a director of the First National Bank in Clovis, when it was organized in May, 1912, and continues in that capacity, and he was also an organizer of the Clovis Farmers Union, and active in it until it was sold to the California Associated Raisin Company.

Mr. Cadwallader is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Clovis, and actively identified with it from its organization, being a member of its board of trustees, and having been the board's chairman, and a delegate to the meetings of the Presbytery. He was also instrumental in building the new church in Clovis, and was chairman of the board having the construction in charge. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodmen of the World.

Mr. Cadwallader was first married on October 5. 1885, at Academy, Cal .. when he was joined to Miss Belle Heiskell, a native of Tennessee, who died in 1893, leaving a son Thomas, who resides in San Francisco, and who served over seas in the One Hundred Forty-third Field Artillery of the United States Army. His second marriage occurred at Fresno in 1895, when he chose for his wife Miss Annie Ambrosia, a native of Missouri, by whom he has had two children: Maude, who is a graduate of the Clovis High School, and also the Fresno State Normal, and is now principal of the Nees Colony School; and Ward, a graduate of the Clovis High School and University of California, from which he received the degree of D.D.S., and is now practic- ing dentistry in Fresno. He served in the United States Army at Mare Island as assistant dentist in the Department Base Hospital.

Mr. Cadwallader is well and favorably known and highly esteemed, and has been instrumental in many ways in building up the county, himself em- ploying the most modern methods in intensive farming and in the growing and marketing of fruits. He has seen the county, by intensive farming, transformed from a stock-range to its present wonderful state of cultivation, with orchards, vineyards and fields of alfalfa, showing what may be done with the splendid soil and an ample water supply. In educational lines he has been foremost in building up the school system, and especially in raising the standard of the Clovis High School. The advancement of church life and work, and the raising of public morals to a, higher standard have received attention and support, and in that field he has become a leader. A Republican

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from the time of his first vote, Mr. Cadwallader has been active on the Republican County Committee, and as a delegate to the county and con- gressional and state conventions. He is truly a self-made man, and a citizen of aggressively progressive tendencies, of whom the county may well be proud.

JOHN H. PEAK .- Born in Delaware County, N. Y., on April 28. 1867, J. H. Peak was the son of Eleazer Peake (the final letter having been re- tained until they came west), a native of New York, who married Mary Holmes, who was also born in that state. His great grandfather Peake was born in Scotland; his great grandinother, on his father's side, was a native of Ireland. On his mother's side his great grandparents also came from Scotland. John's father was a sailor in his youthful days, and once doubled the Horn and sailed up along the west coast of America, and along the California coast in the forties, before the days of the famous gold discover- ies. As a souvenir of his voyage he brought home with him a beautiful white conch shell, which he picked up on the west coast of South America, and which is still in the possession of the subject of this sketch. Mrs. Peak died when John was only two and a half years old, so that he has no recol- lection of her. His eldest sister-then only sixteen-nobly assumed the duties of the head of the household and, acting as a mother to the younger boys and girls, kept the family together, at least until the father's death.

In 1870, the Peak family moved west to Cass County, Nebr., and seven of the brothers and sisters grew to maturity. A younger brother was only six months old when the mother died, and he was then taken by an aunt who lived in New York State ; and John, who was the sixth in the order of birth, never saw him again until he was twenty-one. The father had enlisted in a New York State regiment and served throughout the war; and eventually he died in Franklin County, Nebr., from the effect of illness contracted as a soldier. To add to all their other privations, the oldest brother Augustus, while out on a hunt for buffalo in 1874, was accidentally shot in the side, and he suffered untold agony, no doctors or surgeons to be had. Not until the spring of 1875, when they all went back to Cass County, Nebr., did he secure relief, for a physician at Plattsmouth removed a dead bone from the wounded part of the body. The oldest sister married G. A. Lotta, who was with the oldest brother on the ill-fated buffalo hunt.

The brother and Mr. Lotta had filed on various pieces of land in Webster County, Nebr., and they then went out to their claims, and the family lived during the strenuous times of pioneer days in Nebraska, suffering among other things the awful scourge of grasshoppers that swept the land in 1874 and 1875. John continued to live with his sister, Mrs. Lotta, until he was twelve years old, and then he began to work out and has made his way ever since.

At first, and until he was sixteen, he labored on farms and at road camps, and in all he had less than two terms of schooling. This deficiency and handicap he began to realize when he attained his sixteenth birthday and while he was living at Cowles, in Webster County. The country school teacher boarded at the same place where he was working, and she took pains to teach him; so that about nine-tenths of his book-learning was acquired during that winter's term of three months. Since then he has ever been a reader and a student, and has, by self-help and a course with the Inter- national Correspondence Schools at Scranton, acquired a good business edu- cation.

The spring after he was sixteen, he apprenticed himself to Horton & Snodgrass, carpenters and builders in Webster County, agreeing to stay with them for three years and to receive $15 per month for his work. He con- tinued there and learned the trade thoroughly, although the firm dissolved a couple of months before the completion of his apprenticeship. As a remem- brance of Mr. Horton, he bought his tool chest, and he still has it. He has

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built many more houses than Mr. Horton ever did, but they have remained the best of friends and advisers. He worked at carpentering for a few months in Webster County, and then went west to Chase County, where he built the first hotel at Imperial, the county seat.

In the fall of 1886, Mr. Peak went to Lincoln, where he ran across his former employer, Mr. Horton, who was engaged there in the B. & M. car shops. No immediate opening, however, in the car-shops presenting itself, he took a job as oiler for three months and then he went with the outside repairing crew and later joined the wrecking crew, with which he worked for a year and a half. Owing to drink, the mechanic at the head of the traveling car repairer, as it was called, lost favor with the company, and Mr. Peak, whose habits were temperate, was selected in his stead, and he then filled that responsible position for another year and a half.

About this time Mr. Peak was married to Miss Cora F. Wells, a daughter of George W. and Rebecca (Wray) Wells-a native of Webster County, Nebr., and for the next two years they farmed in Nebraska. Suffering. how- ever, from the severe drought, and hearing of the exceptional advantages of Central California, they decided to come to the Coast and try their fortunes here.

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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 136

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