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 150

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 150

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In the meantime this enterprising pioneer invested in a tract of sixty acres, in 1909, when the nearest vineyard was a mile away. He had

Henry truse

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to poison off the horde of squirrels and jack rabbits before he could set his vines but he succeeded in making it a fine place. He built a residence, with the usual barns and outbuildings, and then bought, with Mr. Rice, a tract of forty acres near by, thirty-five of which he set out as a vineyard with muscat and shipping grapes, and several acres of alfalfa. He worked out, saved and invested his surplus in his ranch, and has become well posted in his line. This ranch, located five and a half miles southeast of Clovis, became one of the landscape, as well as agricultural, attractions in this section. However, in June, 1918, he sold this place and moved back to the old Rice home, which he and Mrs. Anderson still own, in connection with their original twenty acres. It is located on National Avenue, eleven miles east of Fresno, and is well improved, with a modern residence and a pumping plant. Mr. Ander- son has supported the successive raisin and fruit associations, and he is now a member of the California Associated Raisin Company.

Thirteen children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, and all but two are now living. Josie is Mrs. Davis, of Kutner Colony; Robert B. is serving in a motor transportation company of the United States Army at Camp Merritt, N. J .; James S. was in Company K, Thirtieth Infantry, Third Divi- sion, serving overseas, and took part in the Battle of Chateau Thierry, France, and on July 28, 1918, was severely wounded by shrapnel and after recovery he returned to the United States and was honorably discharged, April 28, 1919; Marguerite J. is at home and so are Laura P., Ruth, Hester, Sarah, Albert, Garrett and Dorothy.

Mr. Anderson belongs to Fresno Lodge, No. 39, of the Eagles, and the Woodmen of the World at Fresno; and Mrs. Anderson and the family do their share in local social life. In national politics Mr. Anderson is a Demo- crat, but he favors the obliteration of party lines in local government; he has served as a trustee of the Red Bank school district.

HENRY KRUSE .- An enterprising Californian widely known as a viti- culturist, and who occupies an interesting place among local pioneers, having set out around his yard and gardens the first olive hedge seen hereabouts, i3 Henry Kruse, the son of Henry Kruse, a Westphalian agriculturist who, after a successful life, during which he enjoyed the esteem and good-will of many, died at the ripe old age of eighty-four. The mother, who was Fred- ericka Brinkmann before her marriage, lived to be one year older. She was the mother of six children. Hermann resides in Germany, as does also Mina, while Hermina (Mrs. Brock) died in that country ; and Henry, August and Gustaf are all in California.

Born at Enger, in Westphalia, on July 27, 1859, Henry Kruse grew up on his father's farm and there first learned the rudiments of agriculture. Then he went to the agricultural college at Herford and at the age of nineteen graduated with full credentials, after which he supplemented his technical training with practical work as a day farmer. He was then made foreman, but when he had reached the age of twenty-one he entered military service in the Fifteenth Regiment of Westphalia, serving most of his time with the staff. Later, he was superintendent of a large ranch.

In the middle eighties, Mr. Kruse began to turn his thoughts toward the young republic in the New World, and in August, 1886, he crossed the ocean and came as far west as Fremont, Nebr. A winter there sufficed to convince him that he had not yet reached the goal he had dreamed of, and so he came to California in January, 1887, the first of the family to come as far west as the Pacific. He was fortunate in securing work on the Egger ranch, where he began at the bottom, finding it necessary to learn American conditions and problems, as well as Yankee ways; but in six months he was made second foreman. In that responsible post he continued for a couple of years, when he resigned in order to become superintendent of the Las Palmas vineyard, which he managed for four years. He was especially fortunate in his experiments in packing the raisins for market, and shipping thein East.

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In 1889, he bought his first land from Eggers-twenty-six acres of raw land now included in his home place; he improved the land, turned it into a vineyard for muscatels and an orchard for figs, laid out the grounds, and in time built his residence.

In 1892 Mr. Kruse made a trip to his old home, passing seven months at the residence of his beloved mother ; and while in Germany, on August 21, he was married at Luebeck to Miss Anna Hilka, a native of that place and the daughter of William Hilka, a gardner of good repute. After his marriage and the usual farewells, Mr. Kruse returned to California, bringing with him his wife: and it was then that he built his residence, and set and reset his vineyard. Four children came to give life and happiness to the Kruse home: Frieda, now Mrs. H. Westrup, living near Enterprise : Margaret, a graduate of Heald's Business College, Fresno; Clara, who graduated in 1916 from the Fresno High School and in 1918 from the Fresno State Normal, and is now teaching in this county ; and Ellen who is attending the Fresno High School. The family attend the German Lutheran Church in Fresno, of which Mr. Kruse was one of the founders and was for fourteen years a trustee and secretary of the board.

Twenty-six acres of land adjoining his place were bought by Mr. Kruse in 1896, and there he planted Muscat grapes. In 1906 he bought sixty acres of raw land from George C. Roeding in the Colimina Colony, and this acreage he set out to Malaga and wine grapes, with a few Muscats, while all around, and in avenues, he planted rows of figs. As an ornament to his olive hedge, he has trimmed some of the olive trees in the form of huge balls, and this is but one of many features which attract the attention of the passer-by to this notable place.

JOHN T. WALTON .- A prominent horticulturist and viticulturist of Sanger, and one whose success is the fruitage of thrift, industrv. enterprise and integrity, is J. T. Walton, a native of Clarksville, Ark., where he was born on December 1. 1855. He is the son of Dr. Isaac A. and Mary Elizabeth (Perry) Walton, of an old and highly respected family of Tennessee, and who were the parents of eleven children: Joe; Timothy, who is now de- ceased; C. P .: Mrs. S. E. Cobb; J. T .: Isaac L .; Mrs. Belle Elder ; R. L .; Hannah, who is now deceased; Philip J., and W. A.

Dr. Isaac Walton, with his family, migrated to California in 1880 and homesteaded a quarter section of land, on a part of which the present town of Sanger has been built, and a part of this ranch is now owned by J. T. Wal- ton. Dr. Walton received his medical education at the Louisville Medical College in Louisville, Ky., and opened his first office at Clarksville, Ark., but on account of ill health, caused by too close application to his work, he began to seek a location where he could find relief. He was for a time in Texas, then located in Missouri, and from there he came to Fresno County, Cal., in 1880. With each of his moves he found temporary relief. He practiced medicine up to within a short time of his retirement. He was born in 1822 and died in 1899. aged seventy-seven years. His wife, who was born in 1829, died in 1893, at the age of sixty-four.

J. T. Walton is the owner of a fine ranch of eighty-two and one-half acres upon which he has peaches and raisin grapes. In 1917 he built a modern, ten- room stucco house of the bungalow style of architecture in which he and his family live in comfort and happiness.

In 1890. Mr. Walton was united in marriage with Augusta M. Hudspeth, born in Missouri, a daughter of Dr. J. D. Hudspeth, a Virginian, but later a resident of Fresno County, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Walton are parents of six chil- dren : Charles LeRoy, a postgraduate of the University of California at Berke- ley : Estey H., a graduate from the Corvallis Agricultural College, Corvallis, Ore., who enlisted and was assigned to the Forestry Department of the Twen- tieth Engineers, U. S. A., and has served at the headquarters of the First. Second and Third Divisions, attaining to the rank of sergeant, and is now with

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the army of occupation at Coblenz; Nellie, a graduate of the Fresno Normal and a teacher ; Isaac Aubrey ; George, deceased ; and Mildred.

J. T. Walton is a member of the Baptist Church, hc and his wife being two of the eight charter members of the Baptist Church at Sanger, the first church organized in the town. Since its organization on January 6, 1896, at the home of Dr. J. D. Hudspeth, Mr. Walton has served in every office and has been one of its most active members. He maintained interest in the Sun- day School in those early days, and today he is cheered by the sight of a vigorous church and Sunday School. In 1898, a small church building was constructed and in 1911 it was enlarged to meet the needs of the growing congregation and now it has a seating capacity of 500 and the property is valued at $8,000, with a membership of over 160.

The Walton family has ever been loyal to church and state. The records of the nation show that its patriots have been connected with every war from Revolutionary Days to the recent World War. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was George Walton, and his son was one of the early Governors of the State of Georgia. The paternal great-grandmother of J. T. Walton was the first white woman in Nashville, Tenn.

Mr. Walton is highly respected in the community, where he has resided since 1884. He served four years as Justice of the Peace in Sanger.

JORGEN LARSEN .- When we speak of pioneers who have been instru- mental in the building up of a community, whose life and character have been woven into the warp and woof of the county's fiber, we are not necessarily governed by the showing of financial success, but rather by the status of the man-his character and standing with his fellow men. This is the true evi- dence of actual worth in the upbuilding of a commonwealth. Jorgen Larsen, one of the pioneers of what is now the town of Reedley, is known through- out Fresno County for his honesty of purpose and upright life. He is a native of Denmark, where he was born July 10, 1860, a son of Lars and Dorotha Jorgensen, who were born, lived and died in Denmark.

Jorgen Larsen was reared and educated in his native land and worked on farms until he decided to come to the United States. He came direct to Fresno County, arriving in 1886, and began working for six bits to one dollar per day. His capital consisting of a determined will and an honest heart, which requisites proved sufficient for his success in his adopted country. His first enterprise was the taking up in 1888, of 160 acres of government land in Fresno County ; his wages were put into the land, in improvements, which soon brought results, and he lived on this ranch for eight years. In 1896, he moved to Reedley, then a small hamlet. He next rented 120 acres of im- proved land, which he operated for two years, and at the end of that period, he had just five dollars to show for his two years' labor. He next rented eighty acres owned by the Sacramento Bank, across the road from the 120, and kept the place in such good condition that the owner offered to sell it to him on easy terms. This he could not do with his five dollars, as it was all the money he had to go on. On meditating the matter, however, he de- cided to buy it anyway, and therefore borrowed $300 from a friend, with no security but his honest word. The deal was made and closed, and in four years' time Mr. Larsen cleared enough above his expenses to pay $3,200 for the eighty acres of the ranch, which he set to raisin grapes and later sold. Later he purchased 200 acres south of Reedley, for stock-raising purposes. He also bought twenty acres of improved land, north of Reedley.

In 1908, Mr. Larsen built a fine home in Reedley, and there lives in comfort and peace, enjoying a well earned rest from the toil of earlier years. In 1889 he was united in marriage with Miss Stina Jansen, who was born in Denmark in 1855, and who came to Fresno County in 1889, to marry her sweetheart of earlier years. One son, William, was born to them. This son was liberally educated and subsequently took a course in business college.

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He is an expert accountant and is now cashier in the First National Bank of Reedley. He married Mrs. Elsie Ario-Larsen, in 1914, and one child has been born to them, a daughter, Marjorie.

Mr. Larsen has proved himself a true pioneer and a worthy man in whom the entire community has implicit confidence. His honest and straight- forward course in life has proved his passport to any of the financial insti- tutions in the county. He helped organize and is a stockholder in the First National Bank in Reedley. He still owns his ranches and his town property. Mrs. Larsen has been a worthy helpmate to her husband. They are members of the Danish Lutheran Church, and are Republicans in national affairs, but in local matters vote for the best men and measures.

J. D. WILSON .- A scientific viticulturist of wide and varied experience, who has ably managed some of the most valuable ranch properties in Central California, is J. D. Wilson, the secretary and treasurer of the Wilson Vineyard Company, of which his father, J. A. Wilson, is the president. The father was born in Rhode Island, and coming west engaged in the lumber business. He married Mary T. Wilson, and they are still living to enjoy the affection of their two children: Irene, Mrs. H. B. Foster, of Chicago; and J. D., the sub- ject of this sketch. Developing rapidly in the wholesale lumber trade, J. A. Wilson had his headquarters awhile in Chicago, and for years or until he retired he was with the Witbeck Lumber Company. About 1905 he became interested in Fresno County and especially in the operations of the Behymer Company, which bought lands in this vicinity. They first developed a sixty- five-acre tract of orchard and vineyard in the Nees Colony, and then another twenty acres there. Later, they bought 320 in the Garfield Colony, which they set out to vines and orchard. About 1914 this company was dissolved, and then Mr. Wilson and his son took over 320 acres of their holdings, which they operated as the Wilson Vineyard, and which was incorporated in 1917 with J. A. Wilson as president and J. D. Wilson as secretary and treasurer, and manager.

The younger of the two children, J. D. Wilson, was born in Chicago in 1892, and brought up in the great city by the lake and at Madison, Wis. He spent the summers in northern Wisconsin, and went to school for the most part at Madison. After completing grammar school he entered a technological school, the Lewis Institute in Chicago, from which he went to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and entered the Department of Agriculture, where he completed the special adult course. While at college, he belonged to the Phi Delta Theta.

When free to push out for himself into the world, young Mr. Wilson lo- cated in Fresno County in 1913, having first come here seven years before, and he took charge of his present place. Four years later, as has been stated, the Wilson Company was organized with its valuable properties, three miles north of Clovis, under the Enterprise Canal. There they have about eighty acres in vineyard, and raise for shipping both malaga and emperor grapes and also wine grapes. The vineyards are surrounded by a border of olive trees, and present a very attractive appearance. Twenty acres are devoted to a peach orchard in which there are Muir and Lovell and Alberta peaches. The balance of the land is given to hay and grain. Numerous improvements have been made, and there is a fine residence.

Mr. Wilson belongs to the California Associated Raisin Company and to the California Peach Growers, Inc. During his residence of Fresno County, Mr. Wilson was married to Miss Bettie Beveridge, a native of this County, and the daughter of George P. Beveridge, late manager of the California Wine Association, and they have one child, James Beveridge. Mrs. Wilson was graduated from the Dominican College at San Rafael, and like her husband she is a well-informed and attractive conversationalist. They are interested in all civic matters and in movements for local advancement. In national politics, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are Republicans.

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EDWARD F. BARTELS .- An enterprising developer of the natural resources of Fresno County is Edward F. Bartels, who was born near Bre- men, Hanover, Germany, March 24, 1863. His father, also named Edward, was a well-known and successful contractor and builder until he retired; after years of usefulness and upright living he passed away at his home. His widow, who from last accounts is still living, was in maidenhood Christene Braas. She is the mother of seven children, six of whom are still living, Edward F. being the third in order of birth and the only one in the United States.

Mr. Bartels' youth was spent in obtaining an education in the excellent schools of his native land until the age of fourteen, when he was apprenticed and learned the carpenter's trade under his father, under whose able instruc- tions he continued to work until 1886. In that year, finding he was exempt from military service and free to go to foreign lands, he decided to come to the Pacific Coast, a region in which he had become greatly interested. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Baltimore and came thence across the conti- nent, arriving in Fresno in August, 1886. This was during the boom days, and he immediately found work as a carpenter with the firm of Smith and Pole and later with Riggins and Rehorn. He continued actively at the trade until 1890, when times became so dull, with no buildings going up, that it was difficult to get any work at carpentering. In 1889 he had purchased twenty acres just east of Locan, near National Avenue; so in 1890 he built a resi- dence and other buildings and moved on the place, adding twenty acres more to it in 1891. He improved it energetically setting out the forty acres to Malaga and muscat grapes. When he purchased the place, raisins were sell- jug for six or seven cents; but by the time his vineyard began producing, che Cleveland dull times came on and raisins were selling from one and one- quarter to one and one-half cents per pound. Thus, in order to pay interest and make payments, he had to work at his trade, building houses and car- pentering for the ranchers. In this way he made his payments and got by. In 1900 he bought forty acres on Locan Avenue, his present home place, and began improving it. In 1902 he sold his first forty acres to Allan McNab and moved to his present place, where he has erected a large, comfortable residence and the necessary farm buildings, and has beautified the grounds with ornamental trees and hedges. He has added to his holdings and now has ninety-two acres in vineyards. The interurban railroad runs through his place, with a station called Bartel on his ranch, which provides a convenient shipping point at his door.

This fine property, however, does not measure the extent of Mr. Bartels' enterprise and ambition, for he has improved several other ranches. On Bel- mont Avenue he improved forty acres to vineyard and sold it in 1912. He also improved and sold eighty acres in Kutner Colony, and lately has acquired eighty acres on Belmont Avenue near Academy, which he intends setting to vines. All in all, he has been very busily engaged in improving Fresno County acreage.

During these years Mr. Bartels has made three trips back to the old home, first in 1895 and again in 1901. The last trip was taken in 1912, when he and all of his family made an extended tour of the different places of in- terest, returning home after a nine-months trip.

In Fresno, in 1888, occurred the marriage of Edward F. Bartels, when he was united with Annie Steinkamp, also a native of Hanover, who came to Fresno County in 1886. They have four children: Emma, Mrs. Dunklau, residing on a ranch in this community ; and Minnie, Alma and Edward H., who reside with their parents.

Mr. Bartels is a liberal and public-spirited man, giving of his time and means, as far as he is able, to worthy movements that have for their aim the improvement of the county and of the social conditions of its citizens. He

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was one of the original organizers of the German Lutheran Church in Fresno, and for many years a member of its board of trustees. He has been a mem- ber of, and active in advocating, the various raisin associations, from the first cooperative association under Theo. Kearney to the present California Associated Raisin Company, of which he is also a stockholder. He is a Republican and protectionist in politics.

FREDERIC WILLIAM PINNIGER .- A well-educated and highly in- telligent viticulturist, and a good business man, who has a fine place of his own and who sees, in his vision of Fresno County, with its wonderful possi- bilities, a vast area with thousands of the most attractive of California homes, is Frederic William Pinniger, who first came to California in the early nine- ties. He was born at Stanton, St. Bernard. Wiltshire, England, on March 28. 1876, the son of Thomas Pinniger, who was a timber merchant there, and who married Louise Lane, by whom he had ten children. Both parents, hon- ored and beloved, are now dead, and Frederic is the only one in the United States.

The third youngest in this interesting family, Frederic W. was educated at the private Mill Hill School in London, and after completing the excellent courses, entered the field of the timber trade, in which he was active for seven years. For five years he was at Newport. Monmouthshire, where he finished an apprenticeship running through the entire period. Then he went to Lon- don, where he was a couple of years in the office of a lumber merchant. In 1899, Mr. Pinniger came out to Winnipeg, Canada, and engaged in farming. but not finding conditions there to his liking, he traveled to see the country, and having well informed himself, he returned to England for six months. His next venture across the Atlantic brought him to North Dakota, which attracted him to settle, and where he engaged in farming, at Emerson, until 1903.

It was then that Mr. Pinniger came west to California and located at Fresno. He bought the forty acres on Belmont Avenue, later well known through his scientific and industrious husbandry, notwithstanding that they are eleven miles east of Fresno. Only ten acres were set out to vines when he took the property, but he planted the balance, devoting three acres to white figs. He has thirteen acres of muscats, and four of emperor and malaga grapes. Later, Mr. Pinniger sold one-half of his forty acres. He later bought another twenty acres one mile north of his place, and after improving the same with peaches, sold it at a profit. For years he has been an active sup- porter of the California Associated Raisin Company.

During a delightful sojourn at San Francisco, Mr. Pinniger was married to Miss Dorothy Akin Higgins, born in India but educated in England. She is a daughter of Captain Arthur Akin Higgins, a native of England, and late of the British Consular Service. Mr. and Mrs. Pinniger have one child, Mil- dred Louise. They are members of the Episcopal Church, and in national pol- itics, they adhere to the Democratic party. Mr. Pinniger is active in the Inde- pendent Foresters Lodge of Fresno.

WILLIAM T. ZIMMER .- A successful oil man, who is also a poultry- fancier able to command results, is William T. Zimmer, the superintendent of the Pilot Oil Company, in which he is a stockholder. He was born at Meadville. Crawford County, Pa .. on September 3, 1871. the son of Jacob A. Zimmer, a native of that state who was a lumberman. He died when William was eighteen months old, leaving a wife, who was Anna Oster before she was married. She was a native of Germany, crossed the ocean when she was only fifteen years of age, and settled in Pennsylvania. Now she resides at Cherryvale, Kans., the mother of three children, of whom our subject is the youngest.

He was educated at the public schools of Meadville, and when fifteen years old began the machinist's trade in the shops of the N. Y., P. & O.

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Railroad, now the N. Y., L. E. & Western Railroad. Then he went to Erie, Pa., and was with the Erie City Iron Works, and then with the Stearns Mfg. Company in Erie. Having completed his trade, he came back to Meadville and worked as gang foreman in the railroad shops, remaining there until after the Carnegie strike.

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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 150

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