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 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148 | Part 149 | Part 150 | Part 151 | Part 152 | Part 153 | Part 154 | Part 155 | Part 156 | Part 157 | Part 158 | Part 159
-1873-
January 1-Because of the rains M. A. Schultz postponed the "grand ball" at his hotel to Wednesday the 8th, anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans. . . . Silver cup received as a Christmas present from Gov. Leland Stanford by the youngest son of Jefferson M. Shannon, born July 4, 1871, and christened at the Stockton Presbyterian Church, April 22, 1872, Leland Stanford Gillum Shannon. . .. All communication with northern part of county cut off. Ferry at Jones' store (below Millerton now Friant) not operating and Charles Hahn's (formerly the Millerton Ferry three-fourths of a mile below town) having parted new cable the Sunday before. The near- est crossing of the San Joaquin was at the railroad. . . . Well attended dance on New Year's eve in Booker's new building-"a rather impromptu affair gotten up on twenty-four hours' notice." One night's dancing was not enough, so another dance was had on New Year's night with "ad" an- nouncing Washington's Birthday ball at Booker hall February 21, tickets including supper three dollars. . . . The new Sunday law is in effect. Nerv- o11s system of many Millertonites shattered. James E. Faber of Fresno has the Expositor's thanks for a bottle labelled "Kentucky Favorite." The print shop at Millerton "never had so many friendly visits before in a day." Mr. F. had just completed and opened a saloon at the town of Fresno. It was the Senate and "The 'smiling' public is invited to call around." accord- ing to the "ad" in the official organ. . . . Over 200 shares taken in the county for the narrow gauge railroad. .
January 15-The supper at Schultz's Hotel opening was according to the editor "one of the best we have ever sat down to in this county." . . Water was "a scarce article" the summer before in Fresno. Then it was that a German located there, sunk a well, put up a shed, bought hay and
319
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
started a stable and "Horse Restaurant." ... First published Fresno death notice: "At Fresno City, January 8th, 1873, Adam Nievling, a native of Ohio, aged sixty-eight years."
The local account had it that he had "a singular accident." Having in- dulged too freely, he was put to bed at Schultz's Fresno hotel. It is sup- posed he fell out of bed, for when found on the floor "his head was doubled under the body, the face pressing against the pit of the stomach," neck was either dislocated, or he was stunned and suffocated. The body when found was cold. ... Report is that "Fresno is a live town even if it is situated on Stanford's railroad" and "everybody seems to be doing well." Johnny Wyatt has his stable going ahead at full tilt. Russell Fleming is in the same line. Larquier Bros.' is the pioneer stable. Faber's Senate is opposite Wyatt's. Froelich's store "is one of the most substantial buildings in town" (at Mariposa and H, also called Front). Booker has a large two-story build- ing and doing a good business. Schultz's hotel is "an excellently finished building." Barroom handsome and bar well stocked. P. J. Larquier's County Seat Hotel fronting the railroad depot "a good house, most excellent rooms and beds." Fresno "is a pleasant place to visit" and "we shall go again soon." . Millerton has subscribed 4,700 $100 shares to the narrow gauge road.
January 22-J. W. Pearson of San Francisco advertises 60,000 acres in Fresno to sell or lease for cash or on shares at twelve and one-half cents an acre per annum or sheep owner to put sheep thereon and the net proceeds of three or five years transaction to be equally divided between sheep and land owners. ... J. R. Heinlein on the 8th rafted 10,000 feet of lumber in two lots from the railroad crossing on the Kings to his ranch on Tulare Lake, the first time that this method of transporting lumber on the lower Kings has been tried. . . . The Expositor does not recall a livelier day than the Sunday before, at Millerton, so well worked the Sunday law. The Satur- day night before everyone that could "provided himself with a bottle of his favorite 'pizen,' all the horses in the vicinity were brought out and Sunday was spent in horse racing. Never did the street present a livelier appearance."
January 29-Robert Simpson is building butcher shop at Fresno. . R. H. Fleming and others are ready to apply to the supervisors for a school district contiguous to the town, taking in portions of Dry Creek and Miller- ton districts.
February 5-Meeting was held to locate suitable point for school house. The railroad donated a block for the purpose. ... Schultz and the Lar- quiers talk of additions to their hotels to meet demands. . .. On the other hand the Expositor noted: "It has been horribly dull in Millerton during the past week. A stranger was a curiosity not seen in that time."
February 12-Application of J. G. James and others to abandon the "Old Overland Stage Road" between Watson's Ferry and Hawthorne Station pending for many months was after a hearing lasting three days granted by the supervisors. . . . So dull are things at Millerton that the Expositor gives a three-inch review of its San Francisco advertisements-five in number- one of a tobacco and cigar house and three of "drink emporiums." ... The Ne Plus Ultra Copper Mining Company at Buchanan shipped twenty tons of ore to the city. After paying expenses of taking out the ore and twelve dollars for freight shipment returned nine dollars and fifty cents a ton. Mine is twelve miles from the railroad. ... Fresno City School District estab- lished. ... Salary of county school superintendent raised from $300 to $900, there being eighteen districts with 925 census enrolled children, Millerton leading with 126, New Idria ninety-four, Fresno eighty and Dry Creek seventy-two as the largest.
March 5-Contract and Finance Company sells lot to B. S. Booker in Fresno for $250 (at Tulare and Front or H).
March 12-The renovated Railroad House located on the reservation at the upper end near the little ticket station comes under the management 19
320
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
of R. Daley. He died, the widow Louisa Daley married M. A. Schultz, and when he died she married C. E. Brimson who had been railroad station agent. ... August Weihe is planting 120 acres to grain four miles from Fresno, also 100 to alfalfa, sowing barley with it, also 100 of Tahiti cotton, also planting 7,000 almond and gums to form a row around 100 acres. H. Voorman puts in 950 to wheat and George H. Eggers 1,280 six miles from town which with the acreage of the Gould, Easterby and the 1,000 of B. C. Libby "will sum up very handsomely for the section around Fresno." C. G. Frash and F. T. Eisen, the first named in charge before of the Groezinger Napa vineyard and the latter of the San Francisco Pioneer Mills are located four miles east of town and had 1,280 acres. They had 200,000 grape cuttings of foreign varieties and were to plant 100 acres to cotton with corn and grain enough for their own consumption.
March 19-Settlers' cabins are springing up on unoccupied government land in the county like mushrooms. . .. The Larquiers will make addition 32x42, two stories to the County Seat Hotel, to occupy the bar room site. The price of land that three years ago went begging at three to five dollars an acre finds ready purchasers at three times that.
April 2-Clerk J. W. Williams, B. S. Booker and R. Daley of the dis- trict call an election at the railroad depot for April 16 to vote a tax of $3,000 to build a school house. ... Rumor is that the Central Pacific will "com- mence the erection of a large hotel at Fresno City." ... County removal petitions are in circulation in the Coast Range and on the west side of the county. .
April 16-E. C. Winchell announces for sale four-eighteenths share in Ne Plus Ultra copper mine, also his 320-acre possessory tract ranch and residence in the foothills one mile east of Millerton and half mile south of Fort Miller, "perfect title against all the world except the United States gov- ernment." Fresno City school opened on 14th. Miss Mary J. Mckenzie as teacher. . . . Building goes on despite the hard times. Dr. H. C. Coley of Merced was building drug store adjoining the Fresno Hotel and a new store was going in south of Booker's saloon .... Surveyors for the narrow gauge road were in the field expecting to be at the San Joaquin in a month. . .. William Helm shipped his spring clip of wool amounting to 45,200 pounds. Freight to San Francisco by rail is seventy-nine dollars by carload and one dollar and forty-nine cents per hundred for less quantities.
April 30-No opposition developed to the $3,000 school building tax. . . The Larquiers will open their new hotel June 17 with a "grand ball"- it was to be the "largest and finest private building in the county." ... William C. Caldwell died at Centerville. He came to California at twenty by the southern route arriving in Mariposa County in the fall of 1852, re- turning across the plains to Arkansas one year later and coming back to Mariposa in the spring of 1855 by the northern route with a band of cattle. He continued in the stock business until the spring of 1857, sold out, went to Los Angeles, returned with cattle which he drove to the Kings River and there lived until his death. In November, 1864, he and wife (Pelina Glenn, sister of Richard and William Glenn) opened the Falcon Hotel on the south side of the river, in 1865 moved into the bottom on the south side and opened hotel which was swept away in the flood of January, 1867. This led to the settlement of Centerville where the Calderwoods were hotel keepers. . . . News comes of the shooting of Jerry P. Ridgeway at Cerbat, Mojave County, A. T., "killed with buckshot from a gun, four of them passing clear through his head, killing him as dead as ever man was with that kind of arm." Ridge- way had been indicted for killing B. R. Andrews on the Kings River three years before, after later arrest escaped from the Millerton jail January 13, 1872, and state and county rewards of $500 each were offered for his arrest. He was brought back from Arizona for trial at Millerton, escaped justice as was too common in those days and returned to former haunts. He was killed
321
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
April 11 by a "mere boy of a man" whom he had seized by the collar and with six-shooter in hand threatened to kill him in less than thirty minutes. Thus ended a notorious bully. ... A new Fresno railroad time table is an- nounced. Instead of leaving at four A. M., the hour is two and on Sunday a train was put on leaving at four fifty A. M.
May 8 T. J. Payne, one of the oldest residents of the county, was killed by John Williams, a colored teamster and charcoal burner. The homicide was at Tripp & Payne's store on the Toll road leading to Humphrey & Mock's sawmill, twenty-eight miles from Fresno. Payne was shot in the right leg below the knee and bled to death, the bullet from a Henry rifle passing through open door after piercing the house outer wall. Williams claimed the shooting was accidental after words while he was at mark shooting with George R. Tripp. Williams rode off on Payne's horse after Tripp had advised him to escape from the county and refusing to stop John Morrow and Riley Anderson arming themselves as Morrow's life had been threatened both shot at him, killing horse and Williams having a finger blown off. Morrow sprang on the negro as he was about to shoot and bound him and the arrival of deputy sheriff probably prevented a lynching. Payne was buried at Fort Miller. Williams was sentenced in October to two years imprisonment for manslaughter. . .. Rooms and horses are en- gaged for the engineers from Washington to make survey and report to Con- gress on the practicability of turning the waters of various streams out upon the San Joaquin Valley, visiting the head of the Kings at Centerville, thence down to Kingston and Tulare Lake, then on the west side of the San Joaquin on the proposed great canal to Antioch. . . . Millerton has daily stage com- munication with Fresno. ... Schultz of the hotel is digging a well and was sixty feet in the earth and no water.
May 28-Narrow gauge railroad surveyors are between the Fresno and Chowchilla Rivers.
June 4 The Larquiers' Hotel dedication ball was postponed until July 4. Engineers surveying the San Joaquin and Tulare Valley Narrow Gauge Railroad encamp on the northwest bank of the San Joaquin five miles below Millerton. The heaviest piece of work discovered is the crossing of the stream.
June 11-The first Fresno City medical man in Fresno to insert adver- tising card is Dr. H. C. Coley with office next door to Schultz's Hotel, be- sides engaged in grocery, provision, general merchandising, drugs and medi- cines hard by on Front Street. ... Announcement made of the first 4th of July celebration on that Friday in an afternoon "Social Festival" in aid of the public school by the ladies of Fresno (admission fifty cents), and "A Social Party" at night at the Larquier's new hotel (tickets three dollars). Committee on Festival: Mesdames B. S. Booker, H. C. Coley, Miss Mary J. Mckenzie, Mesdames R. Daly, George McCollough and E. C. Blackburn. Floor Managers at the ball were to be: W. J. Lawrenson, C. E. Blackburn, B. S. Boutwell and W. E. Williams, while Russell H. Fleming was to be the dance prompter.
June 18 The railroad tariff on grain is $140 a car; seventy dollars on special contracts.
June 25-The irrigation commissioners have gone to the Sacramento Valley, "and if they do no more in that region than they have in this, it would be nearly as well they had never been appointed." They did not ex- amine the San Joaquin above Watson's Ferry and as far as was learned went hurriedly in a company conveyance over the surveyed lines of the great San Joaquin and Kings River Canal and Irrigation Company which had applied for government subsidy at the previous session of Congress, the company's chief engineer acting as guide. . .. The estimate is that 60,000 sheep have been driven from other counties into the mountains of Fresno by those who
322
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
pay no taxes in the county and whose sheep eat up the range from those that do.
July 2-Davis & Sons are building a new store. .. . George Zeis and J. Weber have opened a boot and shoe store. . . . A man named Maassen has been "constructing a cellar of gigantic dimensions for the purpose of keep- ing a beer cellar." A Chinaman engaged on the excavating broke a leg and was bruised by the ground caving in on him. . . . Thomas Whitlock an- nounces himself as a contractor and builder "in any part of the county."
July 4 The celebration was "a grand success." George Zeis was mar- shal of the parade which disbanded at the railroad freight depot for the literary program. The Glee Club of Messrs. Williams and Son, W. T. Rum- ble, and George Zeis, Miss Mary J. Mckenzie, Mrs. Whiteside and the Misses Melissa and L. Gilkey sang a "patriotic ballad." Rev. T. O. Ellis Sr. made the invocation. The choir sang again and J. W. Ferguson read the Declaration of Independence. More singing and the poet of the day read "An Invocation to Liberty," Miss Lizzie Gilkey impersonating the Goddess of Liberty. More singing and J. D. Collins, the teacher of the Academy school, delivered the oration of the day, introduced by B. S. Booker as Presi- dent of the Day. Then followed a song of patriotic nature and the benedic- tion. Then the festival in aid of the school with "grab bags, ice cream stands, fruit stands, ring cakes and 'sich like'" and "the whole affair passed off with- out a single thing to mar it." Ball in the evening was "a grand affair." About fifty couples attended and "the supper was strictly first class as was indeed the whole affair," with general good feeling prevailing.
July 9-The new hotel of P. and J. Larquier is declared to be "without doubt the most elegant building in Fresno County." It is described as "a main building 32x42 and two stories in height," containing nine rooms up- stairs, and a parlor, dining room and two small rooms down stairs, "hard finished throughout and is elegantly furnished." ... George Sutherland and W. E. Williams open a meat market in rear of Booker's store. ... In the absence of a district convention, the Republican County Committee meet- ing at Fresno, Russell Fleming as chairman and T. Seymour as secretary, en- dorsed Alex Deering of Mariposa as judge of the thirteenth district.
July 23-Rumor circulated that Republicans would bring out candi- dates for county clerk and treasurer-just to show that there were some of that faith in the county. ... Of the county Democratic delegation to the district convention at Visalia, John Barton and N. L. Bachman as proxies and H. C. Daulton withdrew and the remaining nine indorsed Thomas Fow- ler for the senate, though an avowed opponent of the No-fence law. But for Fresno's Fowler pledged delegates, J. D. Collins of Fresno might have been nominated on the first ballot. .. . Republican special county committee named M. J. Church and Otto Froelich delegates to the district convention. . .. Centerville connected with the outside world by telegraph at Elias Jacob & Company's store.
August 6-L. Davis of Snelling opens grocery, clothing and variety store. .. . \V. H. Sullivan, fruit store keeper, appointed Fresno City agent of the Expositor. ... Twenty votes in convention and eleven necessary for a choice on first ballot, A. C. Bradford of Fresno received four votes, each of the four counties in the joint judicial district conventions voting for its man. Upwards of thirty ballots were cast before there were changes until the fifty-eighth when Bradford received the necessary eleven and the Democratic organ said that "during the entire session the best feeling prevailed."
August 13-Conklin's Great United States Circus exhibited at Fresno on the 14th, at Centerville on the 15th and on the day after at Millerton. The first Fresno circus lot was at the northern end of the railroad depot. Among the novelties that the circus advertised was "the handsomest lady gymnast in the world," and John Conklin "the Modern Milo." . .. John T. Wyatt died April 30 aged thirty-four. George Sutherland followed in busi-
323
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
ness at his stand. . . . The narrow gauge surveyors were at the Chowchilla with the second line of survey. ... The Buchanan copper mine closed, the prohibitive freight rates making it impossible to ship any save the best grade ores at a profit. . . . Over 5,000 head of loose stock is ranging in the vicinity of the Alabama Settlement and a constant watch has to be maintained "to prevent destroying all the farms in that section." ... The county shows a greater increase in taxable property than any other in the state. Increase for the year was $1,291,412 or $814,972 more than any other one county in the state and more property than Tulare and Kern combined, no bonded and a small floating debt. . . . The Mutual Land Benefit Association has a tract of 10,000 acres near Sycamore Station on the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, in tracts of eighty, 160 and 320 acres offered to settlers at ten dollars an acre in currency with a lot in Vinland town in the center of the tract, four years with interest to pay two-thirds balance. .. . O. P. Maddock appointed constable at Fresno City.
August 20-L. Davis, late of Davis & Sons of Merced and Snelling, opens general merchandise store on Front Street to "sell at small profit." . Among the new accessions to Kingston's population is Louis Einstein of E. Jacob & Company of Visalia.
August 27-Russell H. Fleming accedes to request of citizens as the first Republican to announce himself in county for supervisor of the second district. ... The narrow gauge survey has been completed. The new line crosses the San Joaquin six miles below the first surveyed and ten below Millerton. Estimate is that the road can be completed and equipped for $10,000 a mile. . .. E. C. Winchell announces public auction of Millerton ranch September 20.
September 3-It was expected that the water would be running into Fresno in a few weeks. . . . Maassen is erecting a building for another saloon. . . . The term "Fresnoite" appears for the first time in print.
September 24-J. W. Ferguson editor of the Expositor, having been elected to the assembly the next plunge into publicity was the following: "At the residence of the bride's father near San Jose, September 10th, by Rev. J. C. Simmons, John W. Ferguson to Miss Agnes L. Ralls." . . . C. R. Tuffrell reports that during the two months of his railroad agency in Fresno shipments were eighty cars of wheat, thirty of cattle and hogs, and 100 of merchandise received. Seventy-five cars of wool were to be shipped.
October 1-Robert Simpson emancipates his seventeen-year-old son, John Duncan, to do business under own name and for himself and holding himself no longer responsible for any contracts made by him. . . . The Winchell auction was indefinitely postponed, "owing to the slim attendance of bidders."
October 9-At the Stockton meeting of the narrow gage railroad direc- tors, report was made that the 175 81-100 miles from Stockton to Visalia according to the first survey could be built for an average of $11,122.23 and according to the second 164 miles for $11,147.66. There was less than $300,- 000 subscribed, the agreement being that no further percentage call would be made until $500,000 stock is taken, there was no other alternative than to make another canvass for stock subscriptions and a majority that con- trol of the road might not be lost on mortgaged bonds. . .. Word came from Firebaugh of the finding of an unknown dead man, American or Eng- lish, of thirst on the Cantua road about September 28. He was supposed to be afoot as his blanket was lying near. He was about sixty yards from the water and his struggles must have been fearful as the ground was torn up with his hands trying to dig for water.
October 22-Notice published of the marriage at the home of C. A. Hart at Fort Miller by Judge Gillum Baley October 13 of Dr. Lewis Leach and Mrs. Mathilda Converse, both of Millerton. . . . C. A. Heaton and J. W. Ferguson dissolve partnership in the publication of the Millerton Expositor.
324
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
November 5 -- The assessor's books show that twenty-four persons own in the county 681,320 acres. The largest area owned by any one of the twenty-four was Miller & Lux's 128,649 acres; the smallest 10,000. Among these larger were Edward Applegarth 49,146, Cuthbert Burrell 23,403, W. S. Chapman 35,712, W. S. Chapman & Company 69,886, H. C. Daulton 14,834, James, Selig & Company 26,664, G. W. Kidd 10,755, M. T. Kearney 9,596, Morton and others 11,860, J. M. Montgomery 12,700, Henry Voorman 9,521, J. O. Earl 22,209, Isaac Friedlander 47,450, J. H. Goodman 19,111, William Helm 17,924, Gus Herminghaus 10,356, W. F. Hale 12,525, W. Pierce and others 25,765, N. B. Stoneroad 10,787, E. and A. St. John 41,720, J. Suther- land 12,167, E. J. Smith 10,745, W. D. Tullock 12,450. There were in this list four farms of 20,000 acres, four of between 40,000 and 50,000 and one of over double that acreage. Twenty-four farms of 10,000 acres and upwards in one county was said to be without parallel in the United States outside of California. This was at a time when the land was used as yet principally for grazing, and two dozen persons owning the extent of the county for cattle to roam over at will. Fresno and Kern statistics were cited as a com- plete answer to the question, "Why does not California increase more rapidly in population ?"
November 12-The town of Borden, the site of which was owned by John Burcham, was surveyed and located. The Borden saloon of Bowman & Company placed its first "ad" this day also.
November 26-Charles W. De Long appointed postmaster of Fresno City, vice Russell H. Fleming resigned. ... A visit records that the "town is gradually building up," but buildings "are not of a very stable character." Business "appears good," many strangers noticed in town. People looking anxiously forward to the time for voting on the county seat removal ques- tion. ... The proposition of building a school abandoned. School tax voted was levied illegally, there was no money to build and the hard times were against a special tax. Another election will have to be called. ... Only half a dozen drunken men were noticed about town, hence "the moral tone of the place must be improving." Effort is on foot to form a temperance society in town.
November 26-County seat removal discussed. Candidates are Center- ville, Big Dry Creek, King's River, Borden and Sycamore. While they are claiming, Fresno is not asleep but had a man out at three dollars a day on a horse signing up the petition to the supervisors.
December 18-Married. At Millerton Mr. John Clark Hoxie to Miss Mary Jane Mckenzie. ... In the assembly at Sacramento, J. W. Ferguson of Fresno and the Expositor introduces his bill to protect agriculture and to prevent the trespassing of animals upon private property in the counties of Fresno, Tulare and Kern-the No-fence Law.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.