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 50

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 50

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August 4-J. M. Shannon and A. J. Hughes dissolve partnership, the last named retiring and Shannon still wanting hogs and announcing he will pay the highest cash prices. ... W. H. Creed is building a substantial residence on K Street, south of that of Dr. Leach. . .. The Expositor submits "it is a disgrace that a town as large as Fresno should be without a church edifice." because "a town without a church looks a little uncivilized." It may be noted that Millerton never had one .. Deeds recorded from Thaddeus B. Kent to Thomas Brown and from the latter to the Bank of California for 49,161 acres for $210,000 and from F. B. F. Temple to Miller & Lux for 23,240 acres for $10,080. . . . Dr. Chester Rowell appointed district school trustee. The courthouse is completed and awaits delivery to the county.

August 25-The "rookery" on courthouse square, known as the clerk's office and for ten months occupied by the county officials, is announced for sale.

September 5-The courthouse with basement jail having been accepted by the supervisors August 19 and Charles B. Overholser having been ap- pointed the first janitor at seventy-five dollars a month, supervisors met for the first time in the building September 6.

September 8-Richard Glenn died at Centerville at the age of forty-eight.

. The public school opened on the 6th with R. H. Bramlet in charge of the higher and Miss G. H. Ellis of the primary department. . .. The C. P. R. R. is selling return tickets between Fresno and San Francisco for fifteen dollars, good for ten days to visitors to examine lands of the Central California Col- ony. ... First newspaper mention of M. Theo. Kearney in connection with his exhibition "of an enormous peanut vine with its roots crowded with nuts in all stages of growth." It was grown on irrigated land at the Gould ranch near town. He was taking it to San Francisco to exhibit it at the Mechanics' Fair.

September 22-Former Judge Abram C. Bradford voluntarily files in bankruptcy. ... The grand jury of which P. C. Appling is foreman files report finding fault with almost everything in connection with the courthouse. . .. Wonder of Wonders! The Magnolia saloon has been closed under at- tachment for a $299 debt owing to C. W. De Long and in two other suits for $604.

September 29-The first located piano teacher is "Prof." E. Steinle, former music instructor at Mills' Seminary. ... Freight charge on wool to San Francisco is $100 a carload. ... Rev. Father C. Scannell was to cele- brate mass at the section house on Sunday. . .. The courthouse rookery was sold to Treasurer A. J. Thorn for $146. . .. The county jail has twelve inmates. . . . Shannon's hall at H and Tulare-"Court Building"-is on wheels to be moved to Mariposa and I on the lots of the Odd Fellows, the upper story to be occupied as a lodge hall and the lower to be rented "probably as a saloon." . .. Total tax rate is one dollar and thirty-five cents-sixty and one-half cents for state and seventy-four and one-half cents county purposes-an excellent showing considering that the county had erected a $60,000 courthouse. ... The county register has 1,640 names.

October 20-The reported first oranges grown in Fresno county ripened at W. Hazelton's place on the Kings River this summer. . . . Al-

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falfa is selling at twenty-two dollars a ton. ... Sixteen prisoners in jail, mostly for petty offenses.

November 17-Theodore Schultz died on the 16th at the age of forty. . . . Night Watchman B. S. Booker furnishes evidence of attempt to fire the roof of the Rosenthal cigar store on H Street. . .. The grand jury makes report with testimony of experts that the report of a previous grand jury on the construction of the courthouse is a case of much ado about nothing and a veritable tempest in a teapot. . .. The first break out of the jail was on a Monday, November 14, when four prisoners, who had been left in the open court for exercise, pried open the back door in the absence of the deputy sheriff, who was seeking a surgeon to attend to a wounded Mexi- can, who had been brought into the lockup. Three were retaken in a day or two.

December 1-The name of the postoffice at Wheatville is changed to Kingsburg. ... The orange from an eight-year-old seedling bearing for the first time is such a curiosity that it is on exhibition at the Henry Hotel . . Wood is selling at nine dollars and ten dollars per cord which is more costly than coal, the usual price being eight dollars. The rains made it im- possible for teams to come from the mountains and supply the town.

December 8 Preliminaries undertaken for the formation of a social club with E. C. Winchell as chairman and Timothy Holland as secretary to maintain rooms and a library .... Dancing parties are all the go. . . . Jesse Morrow as purchaser of the line is running a daily four-horse stage between Fresno and Centerville, the latter the most populous center in the county. . . Central California Colony "is looming up in importance." Lo- cated are thirty-six adults with eighteen children and over forty tracts be- sides sold to non residents. To carry out designed work will involve an outlay above $100,000. "The town of Fresno is already appreciably feeling the influence of this new tributary." . .. Robert Brownlee, ex-supervisor of Napa County, leases the A. Y. Easterby four-section ranch in this county, three miles from the railroad; "and 100 miles south of Lathrop," so vague is the popular knowledge of localities in Fresno. Brownlee and son were to seed 1,500 acres to grain and on the remainder raise hay, the ranch being near the Kings River and south of the canal.

December 15-Supreme court grants Granice a new trial, judgment re- versed because the indictment had been altered from one charging man- slaughter to one for murder after the instrument had been recorded before the defendant had pleaded to it. ... District Judge Deering gave judgment in the case against Jesse Morrow and other sureties for $31,320 with ten per- cent. interest from March 24, 1874, as deficit on the bond of W. W. Hill as treasurer, the largest in the history of the county. . . . Supervisors call for sealed proposals to fill in "all depressions around the courthouse."

December 22-Judge Alexander Deering died at Merced on the 18th.

December 29-Deed recorded from Contract and Finance Company to Charles Crocker for one dollar for 4,480 acres including the Fresno town- site, excepting the lots heretofore sold by the company. . .. Thirty-eight marriage licenses recorded during the year 1875. . . . The Review died after an existence of nine months. The Expositor commented that "one paper can live in Fresno County while two are sure to starve." . .. That moulder of public opinion observed also that "Christmas proved too much for a large number of the reformed tipplers in this neighborhood. They fell in the highways and by ways."

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CHAPTER LVII

SIX YEARS OF ASTONISHING CHANGES UP TO CENTENNIAL YEAR. COUNTY BOUNDARY LINE CONTROVERSY. IRRIGATION PROBLEMS COMMAND LEGISLATIVE ATTENTION. FIRST WINE MAKING IN THE COUNTY. REORGANIZATION OF THE BANK. FOUNDING OF THE TOWN OF MADERA. PANIC YEAR AMONG THE. SHEEPMEN. WATER REACHES THE PIONEER COLONY. RAISING OF WATER LEVELS IN WELLS. GOLD PLACER MINE BUBBLES. SALE OF GRAPES FOR WINE PRESSING. CHURCH BUILDING IS BEGUN. ADVANCE IN LAND VALUES. PIONEER FLOURING MILLS

The changes in Fresno, once a start on them was made, were many, varied and astonishing. It was a transformation from the desert to the flower garden, the vineyard and the orchard, from the wild grass plain to the cultivated farm home. Forty years ago in the year 1878, the Republican newspaper noted the change and this is what it said:

"Fresno County has witnessed as rapid growth of population within the last six years as any in the state. In 1850 there were a few miners, hunters and gamblers, besides a few families and soldiers at old Fort Miller. In 1860 there were three or four towns, if towns they could be called, in the county, and the principal one was Millerton, the county seat, situated half a mile below Fort Miller on the San Joaquin River, and a few settlers scattered here and there on the plains at great distances apart. Most of the latter were stockraisers and many of them, among whom were Miller & Lux, Jeff James, John Sutherland, made their fortunes in a few years.

"Except in the towns, the county was but thinly inhabited six or seven years ago and upon the plains could be seen thousands of cattle and horses. But since the Southern Pacific Railroad was built through, which was done in 1870-71, the county has been completely changed. From that time the growth in population has been very rapid, emigrants coming in every year. In the winter of 1872, the 'No-fence law' was passed which compelled the cattlemen to drive their stock from the county or to keep it confined. This gave the farmers a chance, and now, instead of the countless herds of cattle are farms rich in grain, fruit and vegetables. These are all raised on the dry and sandy plains, which a few years ago nearly every one declared 'good for nothing except grazing.'

"In 1873 an election was held in regard to the county seat. Some wished it to remain at Millerton, others wished it removed to Kings River, and still others to Fresno, a small place which then consisted of only some half dozen houses and a number of saloons. But in spite of its apparent insignifi- cance, Fresno carried the vote by a large majority, because of its being the most central of the other places, and was situated on a railroad, advantages which none of the others possessed. Since that time Fresno has grown rapidly and now contains between 1,000 and 1,400 inhabitants and boasts of a three-story courthouse.

"The county of Fresno now promises to be and will be in time one of the most wealthy agricultural counties in the state."

-1876-

January 5-The Centennial year was ushered in with a rainstorm. . . W. D. Tupper and W. H. Creed are associated as lawyers with office in a courthouse rented room. . .. The Fresno Social and Literary Club was organized with E. C. Winchell as president, Dr. Lewis Leach as vice, Tim-

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othy Holland secretary, William Faymonville financial secretary, A. M. Clark treasurer, Leopold Gundelfinger librarian. . . . James B. Campbell of Mariposa was appointed by Gov. William Irwin to the vacant district judgeship, the appointee having been district attorney of Mariposa. ... Since farmers began irrigating the water in wells in the Borden settlement has risen over ten feet, bringing it to within seventeen feet of the surface. . . . Contract for grading the courthouse grounds was awarded to Jerome B. Stevens at twenty-five cents a cubic yard and 3,000 required to do the filling in. ... Mariposa County jail has five prisoners charged with murder .. . . On habeas corpus, Granice was admitted on the 10th to reduced bail in the sum of $8,000.

January 12-Fire broke out on the night of the 4th in Bishop & Com- pany's drug house near Mariposa and I, the largest fire to date. Lawren- son's saloon, Bishop & Company's drug house with the building owned by R. E. Hyde, and R. H. Fleming's office building were destroyed, total loss $13,700. The flames were fought as long as the water lasted in the barrels on roofs. Gables were covered with wet blankets, two lines of buckets were started, one from the tank in rear of the Fleming home and one from large I Street puddles. Fanning Bros.' and Tombs' saddlery on the east side were wet down and the fire kept from spreading in that direction. W. B. Bishop & Company of Visalia did not resume business. Charles F. Burks opened on his own account on one side of Fanning Bros.' store. . . . Citizens' meeting held the day after the fire, H. D. Silverman chairman and A. Kutner secre- tary. George McCollough, S. W. Henry, Jesse Morrow, S. Goldstein and H. S. Dixon appointed a committee on finance ; C. G. Sayle, W. J. Lawrenson and R. H. Fleming to organize a fire company, and J. W. Ferguson, H. S. Dixon, E. C. Winchell, C. G. Sayle and W. H. Creed for incorporation of town. ... Harry Mendies with Lawrenson opens Courthouse saloon at Mari- posa and I in the Knott vacated restaurant premises. . . . Postoffice is re- moved from Silverman & Einstein's to the Fanning's variety store at Mari- posa and I, express office remains at old location. . . . About $500 is in the fund to purchase hooks, ladders and buckets for fire purposes.

January 19-Bill has been introduced in the legislature to make the Kings River the boundary line between Fresno and Tulare from Tulare Lake to Smith's Ferry at Kingston. Residents about Kingsburg sent petition to attach the territory north of the river to Fresno, Tulare having long cast covetous eyes on the strip. . . . C. W. De Long is about to erect postoffice and merchandise store on Mariposa Street, about twenty feet east of Fanning & Bros.' store. . . . Again the wail that "Fresno has no church house, and while the town contains about 200 children it cannot boast of a Sunday school."

January 26-The Kings River Lumber Company incorporates with Charles P. Converse, B. F. Scott, John Sutherland, Jesse Morrow, J. M. Gregory and William Helm as directors. . . . Remonstrances are being signed against the passage of the Kings River boundary line bill.

February 2-As the result of the storms there was a fall of thirteen feet of snow at the Clipper Saw Mill at Pine Ridge with a reported ten feet at date when seldom there had been more than seven during a winter. . . . The irrigation problem is receiving attention in the legislature with no less than a dozen measures introduced on the subject but not one of them, as claimed, fully meeting the requirements of the people. . .. Assemblyman J. D. Col- lins has introduced a bill to reestablish the original boundary line between Fresno and Tulare. ... The publication of the 1875-76 delinquent tax list requires ten columns of the smallest type in the Expositor.

February 9- Sale reported from M. J. Donahoo to H. L. Rea of one- third interest in four possessory claims and Clipper sawmills for $7,000, Henry Glass and Donahoo same to I. A. Carter for $7,000, Glass and Rea one-sixth interest to Ira A. Carter for $3,500 and by Rea to Donahoo half

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interest in the Tollhouse road and Big Corral blacksmith shop, store and dwelling house for $4,000. . .. Property owners on Mariposa Street have raised the money to grade that street between H and J. .. . Piper's Opera House Company from Virginia City played "Rip Van Winkle" on the 7th to "a hall crowded to its utmost limit," and "Under the Gaslight," the night after. . .. Petition circulated for a new road district taking in Fresno and Central California Colony.

February 16-Charles W. De Long opens with postoffice his new general merchandise store on Mariposa Street.

February 23-The stairs leading to Magnolia hall were removed to the alley between it and the Larquier House, an addition 18x80 to be erected "making it the largest and finest hall in the San Joaquin Valley." ... It was the report that Fresno County will loom up in grape vine statistics this year, because upwards of 500,000 will be planted. . .. The Eisen vineyard will make wine this season. T. F. Eisen has opened a champagne manufactory in New York and all wines made on the farm will be shipped there. Vineyard comprises 120 acres of choicest varieties of wine grape vines and the entire product will go into wine. The vines are three years old. Prophecy: "It is evident that grape culture is soon to form an important element in the products of the county."

March 1-The F. L. and S. C. announces its first social reunion for the 17th at Magnolia Hall; tickets two dollars. It has leased the hall for one year. . . . Record made of the sale by J. C. Hoxie to William Helm and W. J. Lawrenson of city block 338 for $5,020. . . . Charles Crocker makes deed to county of all streets and alleys in the town for public highways. . Wednesday night before the Law and Foster carpenter shop in the rear of the McCollough & Andrews tenement house, near the corner of Mariposa and I and Fresno, was destroyed by fire: loss $600. Comment: "Wonderful to relate no fire meeting was held next day." ... After in- numerable breaks in the ditch, the water has at last reached Central Califor- nia Colony. ... An immense quantity of grape cuttings has arrived for Mrs. J. A. Smith. They are of the raisin variety and will be set out in the colony on three twenty-acre tracts.

March 8-Articles on raisin and orchard culture have become the fad. On this date the Expositor printed on first page cuts of Central California Colony and of the courthouse, and on the fourth page a real estate selling map of the colony. It was probably hailed in its day as a journalistic feat. Around the court house are shown trees and foothills! The colony picture is a dream. The artist drew it from a description given him and with the aid of the selling map. The large trees shown in the foreground were only in his mind's eye. Likewise the shrubbery connecting Elm Avenne with the town. The trees that lined the avenues and the vineyards, orchards and gar- dens are not in the picture. Instead of the two groupings of three houses in the foreground, there were at the time not less than eighteen with others in construction. The town located in the distance is in a valley gorge, be- tween two mountains, on the right of the picture the Sierra Nevada in fact twenty-five miles away, on the left the Coast Range and in turn seventy- five miles away. . .. Yale lock boxes at two dollars and three dollars a year are introduced in the postoffice. . . . For the season, twenty and thirty-one hundredths inches of rain had fallen.

March 15-H. H. Granice was brought to second trial before Judge Camp- bell on the Merced County grand jury indictment, which he ruled was one for manslaughter. After all testimony was in, the prosecution asked that the case be resubmitted to the grand jury to find an accusation for murder. The motion was not contested and it was granted.

March 29-Resale recorded from W. J. Lawrenson to C. J. Hoxie of his interest in Fresno block 338 for $2,066.66. . .. The bill establishing the boundary line between Fresno and Tulare signed by the governor. . .. State

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supreme court issues writ of habeas corpus on petition of H. H. Granice re- turnable April 10. ... J. W. Dunlap and Thomas Jones bring the story of quartz mining operations on the upper Fresno River with the owners of the Confidence mine running a 150-foot tunnel to the ledge with about fifty feet more to run to strike the ledge. The fall season before shaft was sunk to the depth of over 100 feet but abandoned on account of water, the ledge being then four feet thick, 500 tons of rich ore on the dumps and if the ledge developed good on tapping mill was to be erected. The tradition was that in 1850 Maj. James D. Savage, the pioneer citizen of the region, being in pur- suit of hostile Indians, discovered the ledge outcroppings and that it was so rich that he picked the gold out with butcher knife. Savage carved his initials on an oak tree to mark the location. The exact location was lost with his death. The discovered ledge is supposed to be the Savage. It was thought the ore would mill $200 a ton, assays being as much as six times that. . . . There was local excitement over the assignment to the government by Capt. Charles H. Barth to secure shortage in accounts of some $60,000. Barth was of the Fort Miller garrison during the Civil War and for the two years last past engaged in Fresno in the banking business under the name of Barth & Froelich with Dr. Lewis Leach interested. The financial difficulties in no- wise affected the bank, though the latter declined to do business except to pay demands as presented. Its capital was $50,000 and its liabilities $4,800. Barth's interest in the bank was assigned to Louis R. McLane of the Bank of Nevada.

April 5-Merced county scrip received to pay jurors in the Granice case. Merced's general fund was exhausted and scrip was sold at ninety cents on the dollar. . . . The theft is reported of the brick that covered the cemetery grave of a child of County Treasurer A. J. Thorn. . .. The Millerton post- office has been discontinued.

April 26-Supervisor I. N. Ward died Sunday the 23rd at the home of the Birkhead Bros. on the San Joaquin River. The county judge appointed Maj. John J. Hensley to the vacancy.

May 10-The Ne Plus Ultra Copper Mining Company has incorporated with $200,000 capitalization. . .. Silverman & Einstein will erect a 30x100 warehouse on the reservation near the head of Tulare Street where the stock corral was located. ... Fresno has 15 bars.

May 17- Ladies of the Methodist Church call a meeting for the 29th at the home of Judge Baley to organize a sewing society and to make a start toward raising money to build a church. . . . Superintendent Bernhard Marks of the colony brings a silver cup inscribed: "To first born in Central California Colony, May 4th, 1876," to be presented to Mr. and Mrs. George Smith in trust for the son. . . . Former Senator Thomas Fowler has bought the interest of Charles H. Barth in the bank. Effort was to be made to in- corporate and increase the stock. . . . A lot of barrel stock has been received by the Eisen Vineyard Farm for the season's vintage. . . . The California Lumber Company expects to complete in another six weeks its flume to ship lumber from mountain mills. This enterprise resulted later in the year in the location of the town of Madera. It promised to sell lumber at the rail- road for twenty dollars a thousand or twenty-two dollars loaded on cars. . . . C. M. Bennett has removed his planing mill to near Tollhouse and is running it by steam power. The Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company is extending its main canal twelve miles westerly from Central California Colony.

May 24-William Helm deeds to J. G. James 14,623 acres, also half of city block 383, and 1,920 acres besides, for $20,000, subject to mortgage. . . . The depression in the wool market continues and has caused a panic among the sheep men. . .. Machines are set to work heading the barley crop at the Easterby Farm. ... The Eisen vines are heavily laden with fruit for the production of a considerable quantity of wine this season.

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May 31-The Eisen Vineyard is described as a property that "at no distant day will be one of the most noted places in California." It is under the supervision of Prof. Gustaf Eisen, "a gentleman of refinement and cul- ture." There was being erected at this time one of the most complete wine- making establishments in the country, a building 50x100, and two stories high, wine presses to be on the upper floor and the lower to be used for storing must, wine, etc. The capacity is for the storage of 40,000 gallons of wine, the estimated yield for the season, with the capacity to be enlarged as required. A substantial residence was also to be erected. ... Effort will at last be made to raise funds for "a union church in this village." Rev. L. Dooley has taken up the matter and Otto Froelich, A. Tombs and Charles F. Burks accepted the trusteeship to receive and disburse contributions and supervise the project. .. . Walter D. Tupper will erect a fine residence at K and Kern, south of the W. H. Creed premises.

June 7-He who visits Fresno County five years hence will hardly recognize its plains as the barren waste that existed a few years ago. Here and there on every hand bright spots of green and clumps of thrifty young trees surrounding comfortable farm houses can be seen from any elevated position. The sinuous lines of the irrigating ditches can also be traced by their fringe of green willows. The trees in town present an attractive appear- ance, some of them over twenty feet high. The places of Otto Froelich, W. J. Lawrenson and J. C. Hoxie and of others northwest of town "look like young forests," while gardens in other portions of town "give brilliant promise of great beauty." The statement was made: "Add five years to the growth of the trees already planted and this portion of the San Joaquin Valley will bear some more favorable cognomen than 'the treeless plains.'" ... Seventh Day Adventist missionaries that labored in this vicinity for two months moved with their tent to Visalia. While in the Georgia Settlement they made twelve converts-ten of them adults-and these were baptized in the irriga- tion ditch the Sunday before. . .. Law & Foster have commenced on the Silverman & Einstein warehouse and promise to have construction suffi- ciently advanced to permit of the use of the structure for the exercises on the Centennial 4th of July celebration. ... Announcement is that the two Odd Fellows' lodges, the Good Templars, the Grangers and the citizens generally will participate in the celebration in procession, exercises and ball, Harry S. Dixon to read the Declaration of Independence, Walter D. Tupper to be the poet, J. G. McElvaney the orator, George Zeis the marshal and J. S. Ashman the chief aid. . . . H. G. Silverman will this summer improve his lots near the corner of Tulare and J with a fine dwelling house, intending to bring his family out from New York in the fall. The site of the lots is occupied today by the Forsyth building and then was on quite a high eminence. As stated at the time the lots were among the most sightly in the town "as they possess a commanding view of the whole village." . .. Twenty-two men are engaged in irrigating the trees along the avenues at Central California Colony. The condition of the soil and the newness of the ditches "made irrigation at the colony a herculean task."

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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 50

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