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 152
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Born in 1856 in Gap, in the Hautes Alpes, Joseph Sagniere was reared on a farm and attended the valley public schools. He rendered his service to his native country, entering the French army when he was twenty-one and bearing the daily work and hardships of a soldier for a year ; and at the end of that period, he received an honorable discharge from the Sixth Artillery.
In 1887, Mr. Sagniere resolved to leave his native land and to come to America ; and once the resolution was made, it was but a matter of weeks before he was treading American soil. He stopped a short time in the East, but as soon as possible came to Los Angeles, where he was employed for six months. He next went to Carson City, Nev., taking up lumbering, and for three years worked at logging around Lake Tahoe. In 1891 he first came to Fresno, and soon after settling here went into the wholesale liquor business. With a partner, Jean Trout, he formed the firm of Boudreau & Co., and opened a wareroom on H Street. Later he sold his interest in the establish- ment and went to work for Mr. Bronge on I Street, with whom he remained until the latter sold out. After that he started the Fresno Family Liquor Store.
In the meantime Mr. Sagniere had bought his present ranch of twenty acres, which he set out for a vineyard and otherwise much improved; and when, at the end of eight years, he sold his business, he moved to his ranch, where he had erected a neat house and all the necessary outbuildings. This vineyard property he still owns. Since that time Mr. Sagniere has bought thirty-two and a quarter acres in the Garfield district, the entire acreage being in vineyards, so that all in all he has fifty-two and a quarter acres given up to muscats and malagas, with ten acres of peaches. Of this area, thirty- two and a quarter acres are under the Enterprise Ditch. He is also interested, as a director, in the Colonial Helm Ditch. Out of his harvest, he ships raisins and peaches to market. He has always been a supporter of the several raisin 61
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associations, and is now an active member of the California Associated Raisin Company.
While still in France, Mr. Sagniere was married to Miss Rosalie Tren- quier, a native of his own home district; and by her he has had one son, Joseph Sagniere, Jr., who assists his father in operating the ranch. Mr. Sag- niere is a Republican in his civic activities. Fraternally, he is a member of the Fresno Lodge, B. P. O. Elks.
JOHN C. FERGUSON .- An oil-producer who has a great fund of valu- able information and is an authority on deep-water wells, is John C. Ferguson. He was born at Lochee, near Dundee, Scotland, on January 19, 1879, the son of John Ferguson. He came to California in 1886 and was educated in the public schools; and from a boy he went to work drilling wells under the direction of his father. He thus early became familiar with the problems of drilling water-wells and was soon able to run a rig for his father. By 1898 he had brought a well-rig into Coalinga, and had engaged in drilling for oil for Captain McClurg on Warthan Canon above Alcalde.
After completing this well, he continued drilling water-wells in the San Joaquin Valley and on the Coast, and then he contracted for drilling water- wells for the Santa Fe Railroad Company at the Franklin Tunnel and the Roundhouse Well at Stockton. Next he assisted his father at contract drilling of oil wells in the Kern River field.
In 1903 Mr. Ferguson came to Coalinga with his brothers, Andrew and James, and engaged in contract drilling on the Ward Oil Company's prop- erty. The brothers then leased the Zier Oil Company's property, and later John C. engaged in contract drilling on his own account. Then he became superintendent of the Fresno & San Francisco Oil Company in 1910, but after a while he resigned and engaged in drilling water-wells, in Fresno and Kings Counties, making his headquarters at Hanford. He went in for drill- ing deep water wells, and ran both a rotary and a cable rig.
He started the deep-water drilling at Henrietta, thus opening up the west side of Fresno and Kings Counties; and since then he has become an authority on drilling deep wells for water. He put down the first five wells for the Henrietta irrigation enterprise. He also successfully drilled the two deep wells for the city of Coalinga, running the wells down some 1,435 feet deep, and securing for the city two flowing wells. He drilled the wells for the Fitzwilliams at Helm, and also the ones at Burrel.
In the summer of 1918 Mr. Ferguson accepted the position of superin- tendent of the Zier Oil Company, succeeding his brother Andrew, who had resigned to become superintendent of an oil company at Maricopa.
At Napa, Mr. Ferguson was married to Miss Amy Little, a native of Monticello, Napa County and the daughter of John Little a pioneer of Mon- ticello, and a farmer and justice of the peace.
W. A. WELCH .- Owing to his long residence in California and his close identification with its agricultural pursuits, W. A. Welch is considered an authority on the various phases of ranching, especially as it is conducted in the Golden State. He is a native of Kansas, where he first saw the light of day on October 6, 1862, his parents being James and Mary A. Welch, who were also of Kansas. After the death of her husband. Mrs. Mary A. Welch was united in marriage with Mr. Murd Phillips, and in 1873 the family mi- grated to California, locating at Visalia, Tulare County, where Mr. Phillips engaged in farming and stock-raising. Mrs. Mary (Welch) Phillips was the mother of ten children, each marriage being blessed with five, and of this number only four are livng, two from each marriage. Both parents are now deceased, the mother having passed away in 1914.
W. A. Welch is a practical and successful rancher and has had an ex- tensive and varied experience. He resided in Tulare County, from 1873 to 1916, where he owned 160 acres. He spent fourteen years in stock raising
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and dairying and ten years in general farming. At present he owns ten acres of land within the prosperous town of Reedley, upon which he con- templates building a beautiful residence and making other improvements.
In 1886, W. A. Welch was united in marriage with Miss Maggie Parker, the daughter of Daniel and Mary Parker, and of this union were born eight children : Elsie: Bertha; Raymond; Irene; Elizabeth; Roy; Vada, and Robley. Mrs. Welch was born in Fresno County, of pioneer parents. Her parents crossed the plains with an ox team, in the early fifties, and while en route the grandmother of Mrs. Welch passed away, as also a little babe. It was not until years after they arrived in California that Daniel Parker met and married Mary Work, the marriage being solemnized in 1861, in Tulare County.
Besides being an enterprising and successful rancher, Mr. Welch is in- terested in all movements for benefiting and upbuilding the community.
DR. FLORA W. SMITH .- Among the exceptionally endowed women of California, who have come to the fore with the rapid evolution of the modern state, is Dr. Flora W. Smith, whose attainments in statesmanship as well as in science have rendered her of the greatest service to society. She was born at Canal Fulton, Stark County, Ohio, near the Tuscarawas River. on Mav 27, 1872, the only child of the late Edward D. and Charlotte (Cald- well) Williams, her father having been a native of New York who was reared to manhood in Maryland. He came from the renowned family of Roger Williams, and was a lineal descendant of the great Colonial spirit who founded Rhode Island, so that early Williams progenitors saw yeoman service in the War of the Revolution. He became a well-to-do Ohio manufac- turer and dealer in furniture, a citizen of civic spirit, and a leading Republican politician. He became a warm personal friend and adviser of such men as the late President Mckinley. Mark Hanna and other political leaders.
Mrs. Williams, the mother of our subject, was a native of Stark County, Ohio, where she was born in 1851, and came of French, Spanish and Scotch- Irish and English blood. Among her girl friends and chums at school was Ida Saxton, who later married William Mckinley; and as President and Mrs. McKinley lost both of their children, Flora Williams, now Dr. Smith, became to the bereaved couple much the same as their own child. This con- tact with the great American statesman gave her early the inspiration to do something for the public weal, and especially something in the child welfare of today.
Dr. Smith as a child attended the public schools of Stark County, after which she took a preparatory course at the Wooster University, the work selected leading to a professional career in medicine and surgery. She had taught school in her home county for a couple of terms when she became acquainted with Dr. C. A. L. Reed of Cincinnati, who was the first president of the Pan-American Medical Association and a physician of note. He en- couraged her to take up medicine as a profession, and she entered the Wom- an's Medical College at Cincinnati and was graduated from it fourteen months before she was twenty-one. That institution was of such a high stand- ard that it had a rule which forbade the issuing of a diploma or the granting of a degree to any person who had not yet attained the age of twenty-one. so that she had to wait over a year for the. coveted honor and authority.
Miss Williams also took a course at the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati, and it was there that she met Dr. Thomas D. Smith, then a fellow student, to whom she soon became engaged, and on June 9, 1892, they were married.
Since coming West, the two Doctors Smith have practiced together, with eminent success. They first opened an office, in 1893, at Yreka, Siskiyou County, Cal., but after a year, they returned to Ohio and for seven years practiced at Cleveland. Then they moved to a place near South Bend, Ind., where they followed their chosen calling for eleven years, and at the end of
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that period they renewed their association with California and located in Kingsburg, Fresno County. How much her fame, as the only woman for years in Marshall County, Ind., to hold a diploma from a regular medical college may have helped to introduce her, Dr. Smith and her equally-equipped husband prospered from the first. They have built one of the finest arranged office buildings for physicians and dentists in the Valley. It is a two-story building with a commodious reception room on the first floor, while the second floor of the building is a modern flat, and there Dr. Thomas D. and Dr. Flora W. Smith enjoy all the comforts of a home, and dispense a true Californian hospitality. They are among the most highly respected citizens in both the city and county. Their many friends include both Senator John- son and Governor Stephens; and to the latter Dr. Smith was hostess on his visit to Kingsburg. On that occasion she arranged a program, enlisting the cooperaton of the Boy Scouts and the school children of Kingsburg, and tendered the Governor one of the finest receptions he had ever received.
During Governor Johnson's term of office, he named Dr. Flora Smith a member of the commission appointed by him to investigate the matter of Mothers' Pensions, Workingmen's Industrial Accident Insurance, Old Age and Unemployment, and report on the same to the Legislature ; and so well was the work done, that this commission's conclusions were acted upon and have been actually incorporated into the state's laws.
So very well did Dr. Smith do her work that Governor Stephens in 1917 appointed her one of a committee of seven (she being the only practicing physician) on the commission to investigate and advise the Legislature con- cerning the adoption of a system of social insurance; and as a result this commission recommended a plan for compulsory health insurance which was voted upon at the general election in 1918. That Governor Stephens knew the capabilities of Dr. Smith for just this work is seen from the fact that she is widely recognized among club women of the state, being chairman of the Child's Welfare department of the Women's Federated Clubs of California.
Dr. Flora Smith, of Kingsburg, has the distinction of occupying a high position in the Grand Court, Order of the Amaranth of California, and at its annual conclave held in the Masonic Temple, on April 11, 1919, at Los An- geles, Cal., she was installed in the high office of Grand Associate Royal Matron, with one more step to the highest office in the Amaranth in the State of California. "Dr. Flora," as she is known among her friends, is prom- inent in lodge and social affairs, and her personal work in her home city of Kingsburg in aid of the unfortunates, and in support of every worthy cause, has caused her home folks to repose the greatest confidence in her. In sup- port of the government during the war period, in its Liberty loan drives, Red Cross work, and in other branches, she has given freely, and she has spared not a moment when Uncle Sam called for aid.
Ambitious in the right channels, for her home city, state and nation, she has caused to be woven about her an army of loving friends. During her recent visit in the southland, after the installation in the Amaranth, her friends showered her with many valuable gifts, tokens of their love and affection. As a member and high officer of the Amaranth, Dr. Flora Smith seeks not for her personal aggrandizement, but her prime motive in the lodge, as in daily walks of life, is to bring others up to the high standard of success, to which she has always aspired.
Dr. Smith has published much in favor of various reforms affecting children and the future of our country, while she has become a familiar figure upon the platform. At a club address she enunciated principles which may be taken as indicating her high ideals and some of the practical goals she would reach. Accepting the two facts-that war made conservation the slogan of the day and that we are decidedly a democratic people-she deduced the undeniable fact that this slogan should reach and abide with our man-
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agement of child life, for from that material comes the future of our people. Only the intensive training of the boys and girls of today can keep our nation a clean, healthy democracy. The public schools are the true melting-pot. There the underfed measures its strength with the well-fed and the overfed; there the diseased sits beside the healthy; there the foreign standards meet the American ideals. At the present ratio of average decrease in the fam- ilies of Americans as compared to foreigners, within another generation these children of foreigners will be making the laws and otherwise regulating the life of our democratic country. In other words, our children will be governed by their children. In California, therefore, it behooves the women with the ballot in their hands to see that all public education is along lines of Ameri- canism, and if the 75,000 club women of the state do not awaken to the crying need, they will miss one of the greatest of opportunities.
M. G. GALLAHER .- Among those of exceptional qualifications, both natural and acquired, whom the recent crisis in the affairs of the nation has brought into prominence, is M. G. Gallaher, the eminent lawyer and junior partner in the firm of Everts & Ewing. He was Fresno's candidate for member of Congress from this district in 1918. He was born at Clarington, Monroe County, Ohio, February 15, 1873, was educated at normal schools and Scio College, and first came to California in 1899. At Fresno, he was married to Miss Nellie L. Martin, after which he returned East.
Twelve years ago Mr. Gallaher again responded to the call of the West and moved to Fresno; and here he has since resided, engaged in the practice of the law, and more and more identified himself, as private citizen and public official, with the development of Central California along the lines of her proper destiny. In thus performing his duty and seeking the op- portunity to serve, Mr. Gallaher has spared neither time nor expense in attaining the goals which his high principles and extreme conscientious- ness, his clear insight and wise foresight have early set before him; so that it is doubtful if Fresno County today has a citizen more acceptable to the majority appreciating unselfish civic devotion.
Mr. Gallaher, who has always taken a keen interest in political matters and public questions, has for years been a consistent Democrat, and has naturally enough served on the central and executive committees of his party, both in Ohio and California, while in 1910 he was a member of the platform committee of the Democratic convention held at Stockton. In that service alone he has been able to contribute much toward the bringing about of a higher tone in politics.
Mr. Gallaher believes in President Wilson and his policies and to such an extent that on October 1, 1916, he resigned his office as assistant United States Attorney in order to work untrammeled in that campaign; and, there- after, despite pressing professional interests, he devoted his time daily to speaking in favor of Mr. Wilson's reelection. He himself had previously served as a soldier at the front in Cuba during the Spanish-American War, and so could speak from more than one standpoint of personal experience and advantage ; and later for two years he was Assistant District Attorney for Fresno County, and for two years First Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of California.
Mr. Gallaher also believes that this country now has only one business, and that business is to crush Autocracy, and to crush it forever, and so to make America and the world democracy safe. These are his convictions ; this his aim; nor does anyone who knows him at this time doubt that he considers it the imperative duty of every loyal citizen to lend his un- qualified support to the president in his laudable efforts to establish a League of Nations and a durable peace, no less than that it was his duty, at the outbreak of hostilities, to stand by him and his administration in the vigorous prosecution of the war to its victorious end. Loyalty to the president and
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patriotic devotion to our country's cause-these are the two most important paragraphs in Mr. Gallaher's convictions as to the duty of every citizen of this country.
Reflecting profoundly on the many possible results of the war, Mr. Gallaher believes that no man can now foresee all the problems that will arise since victory has come and peace is in sight. Therefore the responsi- bilities of the law-maker will be greater than ever before. Already a gifted, scholarly citizen of real quality and ability, and one who is widely honored, the future would seem to have in store for this distinguished representative of the bar still more of honor and achievement.
JAMES R. ERSKINE .- As manager of the Valley Ice Company, J. R. Erskine has attained his position through character and ability. The Valley Ice Company has greatly assisted in the development of the fruit-shipping industry at this point. Before 1910 it was hard to get ice in Fresno and the Valley cities. Ice from Truckee was used. and its cost was over twice as much as artificial ice. In this year the Valley Ice Company was started in Fresno, when they contracted to furnish thirty-seven and a half tons daily to each of the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe Railway companies for icing refrigerator cars. The first plant built in 1910 had a capacity of 130 tons daily, and the first ice was drawn by W. E. Keller, in July. Mr. Keller was the first president of the company, and is still its president. He is also con- nected with the Globe Grain and Milling Company, and lives at 543 Shatto Place. Los Angeles, Cal. He is also the president of the San Joaquin Valley Farm Lands Company.
It became evident in 1911 that the demand for ice would be extensive. and the company planned to increase the output, and the plant was enlarged in 1913 to 240 tons daily. In 1915 another addition was made, this time for seventy tons, or a total of 310 tons daily, and in 1917 still another addition of 200 tons capacity, making in all 510 tons daily at the present time. The principal business is to supply ice for fruit-car refrigeration, but they also wholesale to the various deliveries in Fresno. The business is still growing in volume, and is indirectly under government control. The plant has a storage capacity of 8,200 tons and is filled during the fruit-shipping season. It is located south of Fresno, on the State highway, between the main tracks of the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific. A fourth addition to the plant is now being contemplated. They are daily icing cars on both sides of a track- age of 1,000 feet, thus accommodating the shipping of both companies. The Santa Fe occupies the east side and can ice twenty to twenty-two cars at a time. while the Southern Pacific does the same on the west side. From 70 to 100 men are employed, and from 150 to 300 cars per day are iced. It requires from 700 to 1.100 tons daily during the fruit season, and it is neces- sary to draw upon the reserve that is made during the earlier part of the season.
James R. Erskine was born at Bloomington, Ill., March 9, 1871, a son of Andrew and Jeannette (McEwen) Erskine, both natives of Scotland. They came from historic families, the father being a direct descendant from the Earl of Mar, prominent in Scottish annals. The family came from Scotland in 1871, settling at Bloomington, Ill. The mother's health was poor and the family returned to Scotland, but her health not improving, they again came to Bloomington, where she died. The family then left Bloomington and went to Rich Hill, Mo., when James was twelve years old. His early educa- tion was slighted, as he worked in the coal mines with his father until he was eighteen. He then determined to get an education and entered Battle Creek College, where he was a student for three years, when his father died, and he returned to work in the coal mines at Rich Hill. He is the only living child by his father's first marriage, and the only one in Fresno. There are two half brothers and three half sisters.
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James Erskine early became interested in machinery. When working in the coal mines he arose from the position of trapper to that of superin- tendent when but eighteen years of age. While at the college at Battle Creek, he met Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and was engaged by him to do mechanical work in the large plant devoted to the manufacture of health foods. He soon became superintendent of this plant. Later he went with the Manna Cereal Company, of Detroit, and again became superin- tendent. From there he went to Los Angeles, Cal., in 1904, and was with the Southern Pacific for six months, when he entered the employ of the Globe Mills, at Los Angeles. It was here that he met W. E. Keller, who sent Mr. Erskine to build the mills of the Globe Flouring and Ice Cold Stor- age Company, at El Paso, Texas, in 1908. This work was so satisfactorily done that he was sent to Fresno in 1910, where he has since resided. although he has constructed several plants in other places in the Valley. He became superintendent of the Fresno plant in 1911 and that year he built the Valley Ice Company's plant in Bakersfield, which has a capacity of 300 tons daily, and a storage plant of 5.000 tons. He also built the company's plant at Mo- desto, which has a capacity of 400 tons daily, and storage of 9,200 tons.
Mr. Erskine was superintendent of the ice plants of the Valley Ice Company up to August 1, 1918, when he was promoted to manager of all the companies in San Joaquin Valley. He is married, his wife being Miss Anzanettie K. Showalter, formerly of Rich Hill. Mo., where they were mar- ried. They have one child, Frances N., a senior in the Fresno High School. Mr. Erskine is a Mason, raised at Rich Hill, demitted to Detroit, and from there to Las Palmas Lodge, F. & A. M., of which he is now an honored member. The Erskines are well known in social circles of Fresno, and their acquaintance includes many prominent people throughout the state. The family resides at 1362 P Street, Fresno.
The Valley Ice Company is a comparatively new industry, and is a million dollar concern, the most important in the San Joaquin Valley, as it has made the shipping of green fruits to the East a practical possibility and a tremendous success. Ice is now furnished crushed and delivered at $2.60 per ton, whereas nature's product from Truckee used to cost more than twice that sum. The large part which Mr. Erskine, a man who does things, has had in this work is a great satisfaction to him and his friends and is a real benefit to mankind.
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