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 151

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 151

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About 1891 he went into the oilfields where he began work as a tool- dresser and in time became a driller, working in that capacity in the McDon- ald field, Pennsylvania. He continued until January, 1896, when he came to Neodosha, Kans., during the oil excitement there, as a driller of oil and gas- wells for the Standard Oil Company. At the end of two and a half years he went to Joplin, Mo., where he drilled prospect holes for lead and zinc. He was a contractor, and ran two strings of tools. Then he went back to Kansas to drill oil and gas wells for Mike McSweeny. After that he bought a string of tools and contracted for drilling in Kansas, in which he was very successful.

In 1899, Mr. Zimmer came to California for the Union Oil Company and went to work in Adam's Canyon, near Nordhoff, under the field superintend- ency of P. D. McConnell. Having again shown his skill as a driller, he went to Bakersfield at the time of the boom and for four years drilled in the Kern River field. Next he went to Modesto, Cal., and was with the Mt. Ozo Oil Company, for which concern he put down a test well. The year 1901 found him at Longmont, Colo., where for a year he was wildcatting for the Ohio Oil Company, at the end of which time he went back to Kansas. He was in Chanute as driller for Esperson, and then he went to Oklahoma as a driller in the Osage Country. He drilled the first oil well struck in Cherryvale, Kans., and then went to the Atoka country, Oklahoma, where he drilled a wild cat, and then came back to Kansas.

On March 30, 1908, Mr. Zimmer came back to California and took charge of the Pilot Oil Company's property at Coalinga. He drilled the first two oil wells there, and has been the company's superintendent ever since. The Pilot Company owns sixty acres in Sec. 12-20-14, and now has seven produc- ing wells. Electric motors are used for pumping, and everything is strictly up-to-date. Mr. Zimmer has been interested in the company as a stockholder for nine years.

At Elk City, Kans., Mr. Zimmer was married, October 25, 1898, to Miss Hallie Oswald, a native of Independence in that state, by whom he has had one child, William Oswald. Mr. Zimmer was made a Mason in Carson Lodge, No. 132, A. F. & A. M., at Elk City, Kans., in 1903, and is a member of Wichita Consistory No. 2, and with his wife is a member of Prosperity Chapter, No. 134, at Elk City. He also belongs to the Fresno Lodge, No. 439, B. P. O. E.

As a poultry fancier, Mr. Zimmer is raising pure-bred Ancona chick- ens, and he has taken first prizes on exhibiting his birds at the State and the Fresno and Kings County fairs, and has the silver cups and blue ribbons to show for it. One year, he raised the best Ancona cock and cockerel produced and shown in all the state.

CASWELL B. HOWARD .- A successful viticulturist and the repre- sentative of an early, patriotic southern family, is Caswell B. Howard, the son of Alfred Howard, a native of Wilkes County, N. C., where he was born in 1812. The father was only twelve years old when he migrated to Tennes- see ; he became a farmer near Knoxville, and there he died. His wife, who was Euphemia Hall before her marriage, and came from Tennessee, also died there, the mother of nine children.

Caswell, the second youngest in the family, was born at Knoxville in 1852, and was reared on a farm, attending the public schools. He went to work while young, assisting his father for some years; and then started for himself. In 1879 he removed to Texas, and at Weatherford, Parker County, he engaged for three years in the stock business, riding the range and gaining first-hand experience.

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In 1882 he came to California, and on the twenty-eighth of August he arrived in Fresno. He had a brother-in-law, J. M. Heiskell, living in the Mississippi district, but he could not get a rig to take him out there, and so he had to remain in town all night. At that time Fresno had but five brick houses and a few board sidewalks, and was so overcrowded that he could not get a bed, but finally old Mother Jones arranged the accommodation needed, and the next day he reached Heiskell's and was heartily welcomed. The ad- venture was never forgotten, and it serves to contrast the primitive town of that period with the Fresno of today. Mr. Howard soon leased land and began grain-raising. He started very modestly, but in time came to have 1,000 acres and a big outfit, with a combined harvester. For twenty years he managed this extensive ranch and became well known as a progressive farmer. He was also engaged in teaming between Clovis and Shaver, driving an eight-horse team. Sixteen years ago Mr. Howard leased a vineyard north of Garfield, which he ran for three years; when he bought thirty and a half acres and set the same out with muscat, Thompson and sultana grapes. He made numerous improvements, and created a valuable vineyard. He has supported all the raisin association movements, and he is an important factor in the California Associated Raisin Company.

In Tennessee, Mr. Howard married Miss Rachel Heiskell, a native of that state, and this marriage was blessed by eight children; the beloved wife and mother passed away on February 24, 1917. The children are: Blanche, now Mrs. Frank Pearce, who resides at Clovis; Johnnie Elizabeth, who mar- ried M. W. Pearce, of Fresno; Burton, who was a barber of Fresno, enlisted in the United States Navy and was waiting the call when he died, July 4, 1918; W. Duard, is a viticulturist in charge of the ranch; J. Homer, who is serving his country in France ; Earl, who is doing his bit in the United States Navy; King, of Fresno; and Lloyd who is also manfully serving his country in the United States Navy.

Mr. Howard has been active in civic matters and every local movement for advancement, and has served for years as a trustee in the Garfield school district. He is a member of Clovis Lodge, No. 417, F. & A. M., where he was made a Mason.

JOHN M. HEISKELL .- Activity and self-reliance have been dominant factors in the life of John M. Heiskell. A native of eastern Tennessee, he was born in Island Creek, Monroe County, November 12, 1846, a son of John M., who was born in Powells Valley, Va., February 27, 1817. Originally four Heiskell brothers came from Germany to the United States, two of whom settled in Virginia. Our subject's father when eighteen years of age removed to Tennessee, where he married Betty Leeper, who was born in Tennessee and was the daughter of Hugh B. Leeper, a planter in Blount County, Tenn, who was of Irish descent. The parents died in Tennessee. John M., being fourth in order of birth of the ten children, received his edu- cation in a subscription school held in a log schoolhouse with slab benches. After the war he entered Friendsville College for a session. In the spring of 1867, he engaged in business in his home town where he operated a grist mill. This he disposed of before starting for California in 1869, with his wife and one child.

The trip overland was made by rail, Stanislaus being the objective point. Arriving in October, 1869, Mr. Heiskell tried his hand at farming, but only remained there two seasons and in the fall of 1871 decided to make Fresno County his home, locating at Fresno Copper Mine in the Mississippi district. Taking up land, he engaged in cultivating grain on Big Dry Creek, being located on the old Stockton-Millerton and Visalia Road. Starting on a small scale, then branching out, he purchased more land and experimented in dry farming. Obtaining his seed from Kings River, he was among the first to sow grain on the plains in this district.

Am Abiskell

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In the year 1877, Mr. Heiskell had the misfortune to experience a dry year. Several thousand acres of land were under cultivation, but not even a hay crop matured. However, this did not deter him from acquiring more land, and at Scaggs Bridge he leased from four to six thousand acres, which he operated and also ran horses, cattle and hogs. He made his home about seven miles northeast of Clovis, but carried on extensive farming operations, until he ran from eight to ten big teams to put in his crops and used a com- bined harvester. Some years he had 4,000 acres in grain. In 1900 he sold out and in the fall of the year went to Inyo County and near Bishop bought land and engaged in stock-raising, which was the principal industry at that time. He remained there nine years, then disposed of his interests and returned to Fresno County in 1910. Purchasing a home in Clovis, he retired from active business, but has never ceased to be actively identified with the growth and development of the county. Since then he has owned several vineyards but finally sold his last in 1918. He still owns valuable lands at Bishop, Inyo County. When Mr. Heiskell first moved to this section, a part of Kings County and all of Madera County was a part of Fresno County, while Miller- ton was the county seat, and he has watched the changes with keen interest and aided materially in the betterment of the community. He remembers the planting of the first grape vineyard, the Eisen Vineyard of 140 acres. The building of irrigating ditches was only begun when Mr. Heiskell took a hand at public enterprises. He was also one of the first men to organize the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company, to get water from Stevenson, Pitman and Big creeks to irrigate the plains. The company built the flume into Clovis, but just before completion they were joined by Miller & Lux, and then on account of a money panic. Mr. Heiskell sold his interest and resigned from the board of directors. He was the first president of the company and was vice-president at the time of his resignation.

While Mr. Heiskell had but little chance to obtain schooling himself, he realized the necessity of good public schools, and made good use of his opportunity, while serving for a number of years as school trustee, to develop the school system in that section, serving as trustee and clerk of the Missis- sippi school district.

The marriage of John M. Heiskell, Jr., at Morganton, Tenn., in 1867. united him with Miss Mary Jane Jack, a native of Hamilton County, Tenn. She passed away on November 25. 1900, leaving five children : William, living in Clovis ; Marguerite and Betty, in Fresno ; Bob, a rancher in Fresno County ; and Kate, Mrs. Wolfe, of Berkeley.

Mr. Heiskell was married the second time, in Fresno, to Mrs. Fannie J. (Walbridge) Baxter, born in Homer, Mich., who came to California about 1900. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, Clovis. It is to men of Mr. Heiskell's caliber that Fresno County owes much of its present greatness, and its present prosperity is the result of their early work and hardships.

OLE J. CHRISTENSEN .- A straightforward Danish-American gentle- man, who is a pioneer and leading citizen of Bowles, as he was a pioneer business man of Fresno where he was once engaged in the meat business, is Ole J. Christensen, an intelligent, progressive, and popular resident of Central California. He has been at Bowles for the past twelve years and has a ranch of fourteen acres ; and he has lived in Fresno and Fresno County since 1882, when he knew nearly every person in the town, for then all the inhabitants were soon aware of a new arrival.

He was born in Denmark, near Schleswig, on January 4, 1855, and there grew up. His father was J. P. Christensen, a landowner having about fifty acres, and who lived and died in Schleswig. He had married Hedwig Jensen, who died on April 9, 1859, when Ole was four years old. She was the mother of five children, among whom he was the youngest. Two years after his mother's death, his father married again, but the second wife died without

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issue in 1863. A third time the father was married, but he did not increase his family. Ole is the only one of the family now living, and the only one who came to America. He grew up on his father's farm, and after coming to the United States in 1874, he went to work for P. P. Whittier, a farmer whose home was at Metuchen, N. J., who was a nephew of the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, and who had a sister, a school teacher. She interested her- self in him and instructed him in the English language; she assigned him daily a lesson, and heard him recite each evening. He worked for a winter for his board and schooling, and then engaged to work for three years for Charles C. Campbell of the same place. The latter was tax-collector, and Ole kept his books, learning at the same time a good deal about both business and American politics. Later he reengaged with his first employer, P. P. Whittier, a butcher as well as a farmer; and thereby he learned the butcher's trade. He learned how to kill, dress and cut up meat, working on the block at the retail store in the forenoon, and at the slaughter-house in the after- noon.

On the evening of election day in 1880, when he had been in New Jersey for six years and had just cast his first vote for president-his choice being James A. Garfield-Mr. Christensen took one of the most important steps of his life in taking the train for the West. On November 12th he arrived at Omaha, and the following spring he bought the Tenth Street Meat Market. At that time Omaha was not as large as Fresno is today, and it required faith to make such an investment. When he sold out, he came to California and reached Fresno on October 12, 1882. He brought with him his wife, whose maiden name was Christine Petersen, and who had come from North Schleswig to New Jersey when she was a girl. He became acquainted with her in her home-place, and married her in Omaha ; and when they came to .Fresno they also brought their first child, Agneeta, then a baby of nine months. She was the proprietress of the Selma Sanitorium and a very suc- cessful trained nurse, and one of the pluckiest girls in Fresno County. On May 31, 1919, she was married at subject's home, at Bowles, to H. Penning of Caruthers, where he is in the auto-truck business.

Mr. Christensen bought the Palo Alto Meat Market in Fresno, and for three years ran a successful meat trade there. Then he sold the market, but continued to butcher and to supply certain sections of the country by means of two wagons. These two conveyances he kept in steady service for twenty- one years. After a while, he bought 160 acres in the foothills which he later sold to the government for a site for the Baptist Indian School and Church. This was in 1917, and Mr. Christensen then contributed liberally to the school.

Mr. Christensen left Schleswig in order to evade German militarism, and he has done much, in taking liberty bonds and in other war work, to support the administration. He helped to establish the school at Bowles, and served on the first board of trustees, and continued in that office until he was paralyzed.

When Mr. Christensen's first wife died, she left two children: Agneeta and John P. N. The latter married Lucille Gruning of Oregon, a butcher who resides at Selma, and by him she has had two children. On his second marriage, he was joined to Miss Metta M. Christiansen, and they have had four children : Christine is the wife of C. C. Russell, an employee of the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, where he resides; Chester, a machin- ist, married Luis Smith of Selma; they reside at Hamilton, Cal., where they have one child. Charmian; Irene is the wife of Frank Cassell, also an employee of the Holt Manufacturing Company and a resident of Stockton; and Andrew, still single, who owns a ranch of sixteen acres next to his father's place, where he busies himself as an horticulturist. Since the father's paralytic stroke in 1915, Andrew also runs the home-place vineyard of four- teen acres. Some years ago Mr. Christensen built a fine two-story frame

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residence and a large barn on his place, which adjoins Bowles. Brought up and confirmed in the Lutheran Church, Mr. Christensen still adheres to that communion in the church at Easton.

In politics Mr. Christensen is a Republican, and he endeavors to be in every way a model citizen. He is now improving in health, and can walk around with difficulty. He has a high broad forehead and light blue eyes, and is of a decidedly intellectual temperament-just such a person as would have made an able private secretary. He is methodical and mathematical, and can add up a column of figures with great rapidity.

Mr. and Mrs. Christensen accommodate transients at their home at Bowles, set a good table and dispense a genial hospitality. Mrs. Christensen was brought up in the same district from which came Mrs. Hans Graff, wife of the lamented and lately-deceased Fresno citizen, and took passage with her, and shared her stateroom on crossing the Atlantic, and later they were neighbors in Fresno.

FRANK J. CRAYCROFT .- The development of a large and labor-using industry, is shown in the story of Frank J. Craycroft, the president of the Craycroft Brick Company. He is the son of C. J. and Frances Craycroft, and came with them to Fresno in 1886, when it was little more than a village. His father engaged in making brick, and later Frank joined him as a partner under the firm name of C. J. Craycroft & Son. When the Santa Fe Railroad bought their property, a new company was organized under the name of Craycroft-Herrold Brick Company, and this was succeeded, in 1917, by the Craycroft Brick Company.

Frank's father was one of the substantial men of Fresno, and had an active part in its early and later development. For eight years he was a trustee of the city, and he served four years as president of the board. He died on November 17, 1916. He had married a second time, and his widow, Mrs. Laura J. Craycroft is still living.

Born in Illinois on March 31, 1876, Frank J. Craycroft, was educated at the public schools in the vicinity of his birthplace, and at Fresno; and when a young man, as has been said, he entered business with his father. At the latter's death, he succeeded to the presidency of the company. They continued to make both the common and the fancy red brick; and being a Fresno insti- tution long established, the company has supplied the brick for a large num- ber of the best buildings in Fresno and other sections of the San Joaquin Valley.

A stalwart Republican high in the councils of the party, Mr. Craycroft has always used his political influence for the public weal.

In 1899 he was married to Miss Mae Tobin, and they have two children : Fannie Mae, and Kenneth Tobin. Mr. Craycroft is a member of the First Christian Church. He is also a member of the Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce and Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World.

THOMAS P. SMITH .- Among the prominent business men of Coal- inga, and one who has been a participant in, and promoter of many move- ments for the development of Coalinga's educational and commercial activ- ities, is Thomas P. Smith, who deserves especial mention. He was born in Jacksonville, Floyd County, Va., February 27, 1871, a son of Jacob and Jane (Nixon) Smith, both natives of Virginia whose ancestors were of English stock. Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Smith are still living in Virginia, their family consisting of ten children, all of whom are living and four are now residents of California.

Thomas P. Smith, the subject of this sketch, was brought up on the farm and received his early education in the public schools of his native state. As the result of an injury he was obliged to abandon farming and seek some less arduous work. When nineteen years of age he accepted a position as a

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clerk in a men's furnishing store at Matewan, W. Va. Desiring to see more of the world and to gain a broader knowledge of business affairs, Mr. Smith migrated westward, gradually working his way from one state to another until he finally arrived in Hanford, Cal., in 1896, where he remained until 1903. Being a keen observer, Mr. Smith saw a good opening for a men's fur- nishing store in Coalinga and in February, 1903, opened the first store, exclusively for men, in that city. It was located at 189 Fifth Street, between Front and E, in the second brick building constructed in Coalinga. He kept this location for many years and by square-dealing and efficient service built up a large business. In 1915, Mr. Smith purchased his present brick store- building, 30x100 feet, at 270 Fifth Street, all of which is used for his growing business. At first the firm was known as Smith Brothers, his brother, A. W. Smith, being his partner. In 1914, Mr. Smith bought his brother's interest and has operated the business since then under the caption of Thomas P. Smith. He is also interested in the corporation known as Smith Brothers, Inc., located at Taft, Cal., a men's furnishing and clothing store, where his brother, A. B., is the manager and also his partner. The company built its own store building at Taft.

Mr. Smith is progressive and active in civic affairs, having served for two years and a half as a trustee of the city of Coalinga, all of which time he was chairman of the board. Mr. Smith is also interested in educational mat- ters and was a trustee of the Coalinga Union High School, from April, 1911, to 1917. During this period the Union High School District Library was established and the Carnegie Library was built. The board of high school trustees constituted the library board, of which Mr. Smith was the efficient secretary, holding the office when the Carnegie Fund was obtained and dur- ing the building of the beautiful structure of which the citizens of Coalinga are justly proud.

In 1904, Thomas P. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Bessie M. Wescott, a native of Kansas, but reared and educated in Hanford, Cal., where the ceremony was solemnized. They have three children: Ernest, and the twins, Mildred and Mabel.

JAMES F. BARNES .- A prominent rancher and one of the oldest set- tlers of the West Side in Fresno County, is James F. Barnes, a native Californian, who was born near Woodland, Yolo County, on September 12, 1858. His father was Talton Turner Barnes, whose first wife died after three children were born. He married a second time, to Miss Josephine Gil- liam, a native of Tennessee, in which state the marriage took place. Her father was a farmer in Missouri. The grandfather, Abraham Barnes, was a planter in Missouri, and with T. T. Barnes he migrated to California in 1856, crossing the plains with ox teams, and settling in Yolo County. The grandfather died there, and the father moved to Red Bluff and engaged in farming and stock-raising, and for four years devoted his attention also to sheep-raising. Later, in 1869, he located in Pleasant Valley, Fresno County, on a ranch two and a half miles from Coalinga. He later homesteaded 160 acres in Warthan Canyon, and there he died, aged seventy-eight years. He had studied medicine, and administered to the sick and was very successful in his practice, and never made a charge for his services. He was thus per- mitted to do a great deal of good. The mother died at Red Bluff. To this marriage were born six children, of whom James was third oldest. Three are now living.

James Barnes was brought up in Yolo and Tehama Counties until 1869, when he came to what is now Coalinga. He was denied the privilege of school until in 1873, when he attended district school in Pleasant Valley. He learned the sheep business under his father, then worked for others in caring for and shearing sheep. In 1878 he and his brother, Zach, engaged in the sheep business together until 1887, when the partnership was dissolved. He

Joseph Sagniere

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then preempted 160 acres and bought forty acres of railroad land in Warthan Canyon, then homesteaded his present place of 160 acres in Warthan Canyon, which he has improved and upon which he has lived ever since. He sold his preemption, and now has 240 acres cleared and improved. Warthan Creek gives him water for irrigating about fifty acres, and he is raising alfalfa and grain, and feeding cattle and hogs.

Mr. Barnes was married at Visalia to Mary Ellen Gribble, a native of Tulare County. They have six children: Joseph Marion, in Coalinga ; Edna Blanche, now Mrs. Furman, residing at home; Adeline Pearl, now Mrs. Liv- ingston, of Los Angeles; Mabel, wife of William Tucker, who died at the age of twenty-two ; Evelyn, now Mrs. Bennett, of Los Angeles ; and Clarence Raymond, of Coalinga.

Mr. Barnes is highly esteemed in his community. For many years he was school trustee of the Round Tree district, and for a time was clerk of the board. He was deputy county assessor for a term under William Hutchi- son. In politics Mr. Barnes is a Democrat.

JOSEPH SAGNIERE .- One of the best-posted vineyardists in Fresno County, and one who may implicitly rely on his own knowledge of viticul- ture, for he has obtained it from personal, practical experience, is Joseph Sagniere, a French-American who has made a study for years of grape- growing, and at great expense of time, labor and money has experimented until he has been able to graft and propagate any vine onto wild stock. While a lad he learned the rudiments of viticulture from his father, Fidele Sagniere, who had an extensive vineyard, was well-known and very successful, and died in 1916, nearly ninety years of age ; and from his mother, Marie Sagniere, who passed away when the lad was only ten years old, he inherited those amiable qualities which have made him esteemed as a neighbor and a friend. Under the sunny skies of smiling France the subject of our sketch tried his hand for the first time in pruning and grafting, with what success his reputa- tion today for proficiency in those fields attests.

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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 151

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