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 149

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 149

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Bob Cooper is a native son and as such takes a pride in the welfare of the people and in the development of the country in general. His education was obtained in the public schools of the state and his early training was along agricultural lines. He came to Fresno County in 1875, looking for a favorable location, and at that time bought forty acres of land where he now lives and upon which he has spent his time and attention in bringing to a high state of development. He has been a hard worker and is a good manager. As one of the pioneers he has shown how to succeed in cultivating the desert lands. Selma was not known and the nearest station and switch was at Kingsburg on the south and at Fowler on the north. There were three of the Cooper boys who settled in Fresno County and took up homesteads or bought

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railroad land in 1876, Samuel, Bob and Joseph, and all of them have made good by their wise investments. The Kingsburg and Centerville ditch proved a success and made it possible to grow the peach and raisin grape in this section. This was the first successful irrigation system in this part of the county.

In 1883, on the day before Christmas, at Visalia, R. J. Cooper and Miss Kate L. Mann, were united in marriage. Mrs. Cooper was born in the San Ramon Valley, Contra Costa County, on February 19, 1864, a daughter of Elson Mann, born in Indiana and a pioneer of California of 1849, in which year he crossed the plains and made settlement in what is now San Benito County, and later lived in Tulare County until 1896, when he came to Fresno County. He spent five years here and then moved to Santa Rosa. He served in the Mexican War under Colonel Doniphan. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper en- deared themselves to their many friends by their many acts of kindness and by their integrity. Mrs. Cooper died on April 15, 1919, mourned by a wide circle of friends by whom she was held in the highest esteem for her gener- osity, genial disposition and Christian character. Mr. Cooper is a member of Selma Parlor, No. 107, N. S. G. W., and has passed all the chairs of the lodge. He is a Republican.

WILLIAM JOHNSON .- Over forty years a citizen of Fresno County, is a record of which but few of the present residents of this great common- wealth can boast, but such is the fact revealed by the biographical sketch of the honored pioneer and vineyardist, William Johnson, who for the past twelve years has resided on his highly improved ranch situated on the lower Reedley road, in the Parlier district.

William Johnson, a native of Sweden, was born in Oeland, October 26, 1849, a son of Johan and Kaissa Breta (Anderson) Jacobson, both natives of Sweden, and now deceased. Johan Jacobson owned a landed estate and was a well-to-do farmer. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Johan Jacob- son: William. the subject of this sketch, and the eldest; John, a rancher, who died at Kingsburg, Cal., leaving a widow and two children; Elina, the wife of Peter Gustafson, a contractor and builder of Oeland, Sweden, and they reside on the old Jacobson place.

William Johnson was educated in the public schools of Sweden and reared on his father's farm until he was nineteen years of age, when he de- cided to become a sailor and to see more of the world. His first experience in following the sea was on a Norwegian liner sailing between Bremerhaven and Quebec. He followed the life of a sailor for six years and during this time visited many of the world's leading seaports, in France, England, Ger- many, Norway, Sweden, South America, China, Cuba, America, the Mediter- ranean seaports in Africa, and twice made the trip through the Stiez Canal. During the last two years of his seafaring life he sailed on American ships and it was on one of these vessels that he arrived on the Pacific coast in 1874, and during that year he stayed awhile in San Francisco, the next year locating in Fresno County, where he found employment working on farms, which he followed for two years.

In 1878 he bought 640 acres of land seven miles east of Fresno, where he commenced farming operations for himself and began to raise grain, but the undertaking failed to prove a financial success.

Undaunted by his great financial loss, and determined to succeed in ranching, he started in business the second time, this time choosing viti- culture, and for the purpose he purchased a small tract of land near Kings- burg, in Tulare County, which he set out to muscat vines and, after improv- ing twenty acres, sold it, and then purchased another piece of raw land which he also improved and sold. In 1906 he purchased his present place of forty acres of highly improved land, which is considered one of the most productive ranches in the Parlier district, sixteen acres being planted to muscat grapes,

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four acres each to malaga, sultana, and Thompson seedless grapes, four acres are devoted to Muir peaches, two to prunes, all being in bearing. The place is improved with a commodious country residence and it is here that Mr. Johnson makes his home, but, owing to the present difficulty in obtaining farm laborers, he has for the time being rented his ranch.

In 1880, William Johnson was united in marriage with Matilda Joran- son, a native of Sweden who came to Fresno County with her brothers and sisters. She passed away in 1888, leaving one child, John O. Johnson, the owner of a forty-acre ranch north of Lone Star, Fresno County.

The second marriage of William Johnson occurred in 1898, when he was united with Mrs. Hilma Nelson, widow of B. P. Nelson, of Kingsburg, Cal. She was a native of Sweden and in maidenhood was Hilma Danielson. Her death occurred in 1913, leaving two children by William Johnson: Gust, who is now nineteen years old and is at present employed at farm work; Henry, who is attending the grammar school in the Ross district.

By her former marriage, Mrs. Johnson was the mother of four children : Mable, Charles, Benjamin, and Hildor Nelson; but after their mother's mar- riage to William Johnson, all of the children took the name of Johnson. Mable is now the wife of Albert Peterson, a rancher in Tulare County near Kingsburg: Charles married Miss Callie Madsen, of Parlier, and is now foreman of the American Vineyard Company, at Hanford; Benjamin married Miss Christine Madsen, of Parlier, and is now renting subject's ranch; Hil- dor is the wife of Earl English, who served his country in France.

William Johnson is a man of sterling worth and has decided religious convictions, is a leading member of the Swedish Lutheran Church at Kings- burg, and was a member of the building committee for the beautiful new church which cost $20,000 and which was dedicated April 28, 1918. Politically, Mr. Johnson registers as a Republican, and is ready to aid every movement for the upbuilding of the community.

J. L. SKOONBURG .- Swedish energy and American opportunity are a combination that will produce results, as illustrated in the case of Mr. Skoon- burg. He was born in the Province of Skaane, Sweden, May 2, 1856. His father owned about an acre of land and worked at farm labor about the neigh- borhood. He died in Sweden, as did also the mother. There were four boys, but three of them are dead, and J. L. is the only one of the family now left.

While in his native land Mr. Skoonburg learned the bricklayer's trade, and this was at a time when the apprentice or laborer who did not drink was considered as not worthy of notice. Notwithstanding all this, he retained his manhood, and today he is a strong temperance advocate and a clean man.

In the early part of December, 1879, Mr. Skoonburg came to America, stopping but one week in New York. He went to Chicago, but being winter- time he went on to Indiana and worked on grading the Grand Trunk Rail- road until the opening of spring, when he returned to Chicago and worked at his trade. He stayed in Chicago for seven years and then came to Califor- nia, settling first in Kingsburg where he remained for one year, and then moved to Fresno. After a time he went to Visalia, and became a part owner in a brick yard, and was also an independent contractor in partnership with John Edsenhauser, of Visalia. During this time his family lived on a ranch at Sanger. His son having met with an accident, the father was compelled to give up his business at Visalia, which by this time had reached good propor- tions, and go to his farm at Sanger ; later he sold out and went to Los Angeles to work at his trade, and remained there for two years. He then returned to Fresno County and bought a ranch of thirty acres on Church Avenue between Orange and East Avenues, and for the next twelve years devoted all of his time and energies to make it yield good crops. He sold out in 1919 and removed to Fresno where he purchased a home on Glenn Avenue and intends to live a retired life.

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Mr. Skoonburg was married in Chicago to Ellen Bartelson born in Sweden. She died leaving one child, a son, Arthur Skoonburg, who prac- ticed medicine in San Francisco for ten years. He volunteered for service in the World War, was commissioned a lieutenant and went into training at Fort Riley, Kans. After his discharge from duty he came to Fresno and is now resident physician at the Sample Sanitorium. Mr. Skoonburg's sec- ond marriage united him with Mrs. Mary Marmaduke, a widow with one son, Millard Marmaduke, in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad, married and lives at Calwa. Mrs. Skoonburg was born in Missouri, a daughter of William Brewer, and had lived for years in Kansas City. Mr. and Mrs. Skoonburg are members of the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Fresno.

Mr. Skoonburg takes an active interest in the growth and progress of Fresno and Fresno County and is an active member of the Raisin Growers' Association. His success is due entirely to his own efforts.

OREN FRED PACKARD .- A native son of the Golden State, O. F. Packard is the owner and manager of the Merchants Night Patrol of Fresno, which he organized in 1903 and for fifteen years has successfully operated to the entire satisfaction of his large clientele among the best business con- cerns of the city. He was born in San Francisco, November 19, 1867, a son of Cyrus C. and Sophia Addie (Merriam) Packard, both natives of Maine. In 1859, the parents and four children sailed from Boston to San Francisco, where the father engaged in contracting and carpenter work. Mr. and Mrs. Packard were the parents of seven children, four of whom were born in Maine and three in California.

In 1882, the family moved to Fresno, where the father with his two oldest sons established the Valley Truck and Transfer Company, and were the first to do trucking on a large scale in Fresno. The home of C. C. Pack- ard was at 1430 I Street and at the same place the office and barns of the transfer company were located. Mr. C. C. Packard, in the early days of Fresno, had a hog ranch and vineyard in the West Park district. He passed away in 1907, his widow surviving him until December 19, 1917.

Oren F. Packard received his early schooling in San Francisco, and after moving to Fresno he worked for his father and brothers in the transfer busi- ness, later on taking over the business and conducting it himself for twenty years. After selling the transfer business, in 1903, he established the Mer- chants Night Patrol, in the business section of Fresno, which enterprise he still continues to operate. At one time O. F. Packard had charge of a fifty-acre vineyard and hog ranch. He was a member of Company F. California Na- tional Guards, for fourteen years, and for seven years was sergeant of the organization ; he is president of the Fresno Volunteer Firemen's Association and for many years was a member of the old volunteer fire department, and also took an active part in baseball when Fresno was a member of the State League.

Politically, Mr. Packard is a Republican; he takes an active interest in politics, and has a large circle of friends and acquaintances in the city wherein he has resided for so many years.

WARREN G. NASH .- In looking at the grand and stately oak tree we are apt to forget the small acorn from which it grew, and think only of its beauty and stately magnificence. It is quite as true of many of the great enterprises of this work-a-day world that have sprung from comparatively small beginnings. We look and wonder and our mind is focused on the attain- ment rather than the source from which it sprung.

In the famous Libby-McNeil products that cover a range of everything delectable for the table from meats and vegetables to the delicious fruits of the tropics, we have an ocular demonstration of what can be evolved from a small beginning. In 1867, A. A. Libby and A. McNeil first handled fresh meats in a small way in the city of Chicago, then began experimenting with 60

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varying success in the preservation of beef and tongues, finally attaining the success they were searching for. Only the regular cuts of beef and tongues were first used, all the remainder, except the hide of the animal, not being considered available. Today not the smallest piece goes to waste, every particle having some value, either edible, medical or for manufacturing purposes, and their products are no longer confined to the preservation of meat, but vegetables of all varieties and delicious fruits are placed upon the world's market for the delectation of the appetite of rich and poor. Long since exceeding their original circumscribed boundaries in the Windy City, their establishments are to be found in all climes, from Illinois and other states of the Union to far-away Hawaii and Alaska. Appreciating the possi- bilities and advantages of the favored section in which the city of Selma, Fresno County, Cal., is situated, in 1911 ground was broken for the first sec- tion of their plant at Selma. Additions have been made from time to time under the direction of Superintendent Warren G. Nash, until the plant now covers 200x700 feet of the ground space comprised in their seventeen acres, and is the largest fruit and vegetable cannery on the Pacific Coast, excepting the Libby, McNeil & Libby Canning factory at Sacramento.

Warren G. Nash, the able superintendent of Libby, McNeil & Libby's plant at Selma, is a native son of California. Large both in stature and mental ability, handsome, able and good natured, he is without doubt Selma's larg- est fruit and vegetable buyer and employer of labor.

Mr. Nash is a San Jose boy, born in that city. November 11, 1866, the son of Van Buren Nash, a native of Maine who crossed the Isthmus as a young man nineteen years of age in 1851, and, like other adventurous spirits of those memorable days, wended his way to the gold mines. Later he went to San Jose, where he farmed, and still later, in 1870, located in Hollister, San Benito County, Cal. Here his son, Warren G., attended the public schools, afterwards taking a course in a commercial college at San Jose. He then tried his hand at farming, contracting, road and bridge building. He was married at San Jose to Miss Alice M. Woods, daughter of George W. Woods, an old pioneer, and after marriage settled in San Jose where he followed contract- ing for several years, then began in the orchard industry from whence he drifted into the general contracting business, building roads, bridges, founda- tions, etc .; afterwards going to San Francisco, where he engaged in the fruit canning business with the California pioneer fruit-canning firm of the Gibbs, Wilson Company. He afterwards became instrumental in promoting the Winters Canning Company at Winters, and later the cannery at Suisun, Cal. In 1913 he disposed of his interests there and went to work for Libby, McNeil & Libby at Selma, as superintendent, succeeding Mr. Frank Heatherington.

The factory is five times as large as when Mr. Nash first took charge of it. Among the products of the factory, canned in Libby, McNeil & Libby's matchless way, are apricots, sweet potatoes, grapes, plums, pears, spinach, pumpkins and squashes. They also pack table and cooking raisins, and put up six grades of the various kinds of fruits : special extra ; extra ; extra stand- ard : standard; second; and water or pie goods. In 1917 they used ten thou- sand tons of fruits, etc., of which seven thousand tons were brought in by farmers in the vicinity of Selma, and three thousand tons were shipped in. The Selma cannery puts up a product valued at more than a million dollars per year, and employs ninety people the season round, increasing the num- ber to seven hundred during the busy season, their army of workers being drawn as largely as possible from Selma. They have a cafeteria and also a restaurant on the premises where wholesome meals and lunches are served at about cost, to employees. Near the office and superintendent's room is the "first aid" room, specially set apart and used for emergency cases, where the best first aid equipment is always at hand. Ladies' and gentlemen's dress- ing-rooms give opportunity for the employees to change their street garb for canning-house attire. Sixty-one cottages for employees and their families

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have already been built. Two wells 150 feet deep provide an abundance of pure water for all purposes, which is pumped by electric power into an elevated tank. They have the finest system of electric lighting on the Coast. All the electric wires for lighting are enclosed in electric conduits. Although buying their electricity from the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation, the company keeps in reserve adequate steam engines. Superintendent Nash has bricked up the boiler-room in a very substantial way, making it doubly safe against fire. The company's premises are toward the south end of Selma and they have a side-track from the Southern Pacific Railway, where four- teen freight or refrigerator cars can be loaded or unloaded at one time. However, seven-tenths of their fruit is brought in by, auto trucks or wagons and horses, the farmers now using auto trucks almost exclusively.

Superintendent Nash is ably assisted by Earl Womack, assistant super- intendent : J. W. Aikin, office manager ; and S. J. Townsend, warehouse fore- man. They are all residents of Selma and heartily in sympathy with Selma's growth and development. Mr. Aikin, several years ago, helped secure the Carnegie Library for Selma.

Mr. Nash takes great interest in the success of the institution under his care, and is a highly respected and valued member of the city of Selma's board of trustees, having been elected to the office in 1916. He is a member of the Selma Chamber of Commerce, and of the San Jose Lodge of F. & A. M., the Elks, the Winters Lodge of Woodmen, and the San Jose Lodge of that order. He and his good wife are members of the Order of the Eastern Star at Suisun.

JOHNSTON JOSEPHUS EDGAR .- Men possessing the fundamental characteristics of which J. J. Edgar is heir, have ever been regarded as bul- warks of the communities in which they have lived. The life of J. J. Edgar. which this narrative sketches, began November 22, 1860, in Carroll County. Mo., but he was reared near Hardin, Ray County. He is the son of V. G. and Lucy (Donan) Edgar, who were blessed with six children, four of whom grew to maturity : three are now residing in California.

J. J. Edgar received a good education and fitted himself for the profession of teaching, which he followed for some years in Missouri. Except for the time spent in the pursuit of his profession. he has through his life time devoted his attention to agriculture, a vocation that brings a man so close to his Creator, that he sees in every bud and plant, every flower and petal, every leaf and dew drop, the working of a higher power. Mr. Edgar is a man of high ideals, who believes that to bring out the best that is in the soil, or in our hearts, we must work very close to and in harmony with nature's God.

In 1889, Mr. Edgar came from Missouri to California, coming directly to Fresno County and locating at Sanger. There being no empty houses in the new town he had to build a shack in which to live until he could do better. He worked in the lumber mill for a time and then took up farming and in 1902 he located on his present homestead, where he has since resided. Thirty- five acres are equally divided into vineyard and orchard and the balance is given over to ranch buildings and alfalfa. He has made all the improvements seen on the place and has made of his forty acres a very productive and at- tractive ranch home.

In March, 1884, in Missouri, Mr. Edgar was united in marriage with Eliza- beth Mossbarger, daughter of Eli Mossbarger of Carroll County, Mo. Five children have been born of this happy union: Ethel L .; Mabel : Clarence M., a graduate of Sanger High School and with one year at Heald's Business Col- lege, in Fresno, to his credit, when he was called for special service during the World War and assigned to the Spruce Division at Vancouver, Wash., until the armistice was signed, when he was discharged ; Cecil E., a graduate from the Sanger High School and the University of California at Berkeley, who entered the service of the United States, October 17, 1917, in the Machine

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Gun Battalion, served in the 148th and 151st, saw sixteen months' service in France, and was discharged in May, 1919, and who will take up his university course in the law department where he dropped it when the call to the colors came; Joseph P., who graduated from the Sanger High School, took training at the University of Southern California for the Field Artillery, and was dis- charged soon after the signing of the armistice.

Mr. Edgar has always been interested in educational matters and for years has served as a trustee of the Sanger High School. He is a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of Sanger, of which he is trustee and steward; he is a member of the Woodmen of the World. Mr. Edgar aids every movement for the advancement of the community. He was a promoter and is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers, Inc.

GARRETT E. ANDERSON .- An interesting pioneer couple who, by hard labor and frugality have become well-to-do and now own and enjoy a fine home-place, are Mr. and Mrs. Garrett E. Anderson, for many years prominently identified with Fresno County. He was born near Herodsburg. Mercer County, Ky., on January 3, 1873, the son of Robert R. Anderson, a native of that state and a prosperous farmer. Robert R. tried to enlist in the Union Army but he was too young to be accepted, and his ruse of stand- ing in high-heeled boots to overcome his short stature was also of no avail. While in Kentucky he married Margaret Jane Poulter, and in 1882 removed to Missouri, near Sedalia, Pettis County. As early as 1884 he came to Cali- fornia and Fresno, and was employed by different contractors, helping to build the Hughes Hotel. Seven years later, Mr. Anderson, with his wife and a daughter, returned east, leaving a son and a daughter here; and taking up his residence again in Kentucky, he resumed farming. In 1909 they returned to California and settled at Orleans Bar where, two years later, he died. Since then Mrs. Anderson, who has remarried and become Mrs. Goven, has returned to Kentucky to live. Eleven children were born of this union, but only three grew up. Laura A. is Mrs. Gay of Santa Barbara ; Josie is Mrs. Sebastian. in Kentucky; and Garrett Edgar is the subject of our sketch. Brought up in Kentucky until he was eleven years old, Garrett then came to Fresno and attended the Hawthorne School, the only school here at that time. When he began to work, he took up viticulture; and when his father went east, he remained and continued the work in his vineyard.

During July, 1893, in the Kutner Colony, Mr. Anderson was married to Miss Elizabeth Rice, a native of Newark, N. J., and the only child of James Rice, a gas-maker there, who went to Texas and engaged in farming, but on account of three successive failures of crops he moved with his family to Fresno, in 1885, and entered the service of the Fresno Gas Company. He made gas for the concern and also showed them how to establish their busi- ness, and in 1890 he located in Kutner Colony on some raw land. Mrs. An- derson also went to the Hawthorne School, as well as to the school in Tem- perance Colony. Mr. Rice died February 16, 1915, and Mrs. Rice passed away in June, 1917. They were very generous and hospitable and assisted many of the early settlers to get a start.

For a season Mr. Anderson was in the employ of the Pine Ridge Lumber Company and then he went into the mountains with the Sanger Lumber Company. In the fall of 1898 he bought twenty acres adjoining the property of Mr. Rice, and began to engage in viticulture. He had a horse, and he built upon the ranch and otherwise much improved it; and he later bought ten acres, near the Kutner school-house, on which he resided for eight years. The original twenty acres, now in full-bearing muscats, Mr. Anderson still owns.

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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 149

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