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 69

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 69

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

block of the bonds was on June 12, 1919, on a bid of O. J. Woodward (local representative) and Cyrus Pierce & Company of San Francisco on a basis of 4.69 per cent. for par, accrued interest to date of delivery and premium of $18,817. The next best offer was of a premium of $18,392. The competition was keen. Financial men said it was the highest figure paid in recent years for a county bond issue. Bonds are one thousand in number, of $1,000 denom- ination, drawing 5 per cent. interest, payable semi-annually. Bid was made by a San Francisco bank, with local banks, of a premium of $120,000 for the entire issue, payable in Liberty bonds, but it was not considered because not called for in the invitation for proposals. Another such offer was of a $76,- 320 premium for entire issue. The larger offer was the same proposition as offered for the million-dollar block. The vote in the state, July 1, to issue $40,000,000 bonds to extend and complete the California state highway, was 196,084 for, and 27,992 against the bonds.

Figures submitted at the close of the 1919 tax year disclosed that the county tax delinquency has decreased 100 per cent. in four years, from 1,868 delinquents in the year 1915, to 913 in 1919; town of Firebaugh had no delin- quent in 1919, as against one the year before. Comparison of the years 1919 and 1918 follows :

For Year 1919 For Year 1918 640 676

Fresno County

Fresno City

130

108

Eight Incorporated Towns .. 143

156

Total County 913 940

This notable tax-delinquency decrease in four years, with assessed val- uations and number of taxpayers increased more than 25 per cent., is an indi- cation of the prosperity in the county, and especially in 1918, with war prices and demands prevailing.

There was never such an all-prevailing spirit of optimism in the county as that which pervaded every channel of enterprise at the close of the month of June, 1919. The county at large faced an unparalleled season of prosper- ity. In the city, dwellings were only with difficulty to be had. City build- ing operations, especially in the line of residences, were particularly active. The sale of vineyard and farming lands throughout the county was extra- ordinary in number and in the high prices per acre. It was the estimate that over ten millions worth of building construction was planned for the city and vicinity for the year, and half as much in the smaller communities, in business blocks, so great the prosperity, and the outlook for the future war- ranting these large investments. Only the more important of these may be mentioned : First, as receiving a large share of public attention, is the ex- penditure, under the $4,800,000 bond issue, of the first block of a million on the county highway system, affecting every part of the county. The Califor- nia Associated Raisin Association is spending many thousands in new pack- ing plants, and in additions and enlargements of the existing ones in smaller centers in the county. Then there is the $2,000,000 to be spent by the Fresno City Board of Education in the erection of new high school and grammar schools. There is also much building of improved and modernized school-

houses in the country districts under bond issues. The city high-school proj- ect involves a series of grouped buildings on a campus, allowing for en- largement (with the growth of the city to attain a population of half a million) by building wings or additions to the grouped structures. Also there is the project of a $550,000 Roosevelt Hotel, of twelve stories, at Tulare and M streets, with 300 rooms, roof garden, outside sleeping-porches, and what not; cost of reinforced concrete building is estimated at $400,000, and furnishings at $150,000. There's talk of a $200,000 brick and concrete building at Los Angeles and L for a bakery, to supply, as a distributing agency, baked goods

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

for the Central California region, instead of making it dependent on the San Francisco and Southern California bakeries. This local bakery will cover a ground space of 145x280, will be two stories, contain a battery of a dozen ovens and have a daily capacity for 15,000 loaves of bread-and Fresno has already become the distributing commercial point for the Valley region in other commodities, as well. The most recently announced project is the $400,000, 12-story, Class A business block of Andrew Mattei, at J and Fresno Streets, to be the tallest structure between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Erected and to be constructed are too many automobile salesrooms and gar- ages about the city to enumerate; Fresno ranks fourth in the state in auto- mobile ownership and the congestion on the city's streets has been one of the most serious problems to face the city council. a parking limit of one hour having been decided upon, effective July 1, 1919. City building is in evidence on all sides and the agitation is at fever heat for the early annexa- tion of the territory bordering the city on the south, including the thickly populated district known as Russian town. There is also the expenditure of the $200,000 bond issue for sewers in North Fresno, the latest city-annexed territory. A big proposition is that of the San Joaquin Light and Power Company, in the erection of a power-generating plant at a cost of two and a half millions, on the San Joaquin, with headquarters and administration office and labor camps at Auberry, and new roads to be laid out to the works on the river. Plant is calculated to develop 40,000 horse-power. A still greater proposition than that is the latest project of the Southern California Edison Company in the construction of a dam and a steam-operated power- generating plant, transforming the Shaver Lake region in the development of an eight-million-dollar enterprise. The Alta Irrigation District has plans and specifications drawn and the ground landscaped for an unique $100,000 office building with fireproof vaults, for lovely little Dinuba. Sanger is out with a $30,000 reinforced concrete and terra-cotta First National Bank Building, and the Reedley National Bank figures on a one-story building at a cost of $70,000, in the Italian Renaissance style of architecture. A modern building is being erected by the Bank of Del Rey, costing about $30,000; Parlier Bank is putting up a $45,000 building. All these, and many more, are not indicative of another boom-that word has been expurgated from Fresno's vocabulary. Fresno is only growing and expanding normally. She had made the start but suspended progress because of the war's demands-nothing to hinder now, and the pace has been set.

The 1919 spring activity in vineyard property throughout the county was unprecedented, as were also the high prices for raisins and fruit prod- ucts. Sales of vineyard and fruit lands have been up in the millions. Sub- division and sale of the holdings of the California Wine Association marked the disintegration of one of the picturesque industries-one that made a name for California the world over and in the encouragement of which the state had appropriated millions of the public money, and the private promoters expended many more millions. A remarkable fact in this connection is that, while the great association was practically forced out of business by the threatened pro- hibition regime, and naturally would be expected to unload at a loss, it is selling vineyards at unheard-of prices. The fact is that, while the wine-grape vineyards are no longer an asset as regards wine-making, still the vineyards are in demand and are being eagerly bought. Some of the winery structures are being sold for fruit manufacturing and packing purposes,-some are being wrecked, and others are being withheld to await future development. The belief is that there is a large field for the development of table and raisin grapes by grafting these varieties on the old stock. Growers base their hopes largely on this, to turn the new conditions to their advantage. There is talk of factories for the making of grape and fruit syrups, jams and jellies, fruit extracts, and the like. The future is an uncertainty, but judging from the present ruling prices of land, no trepidation is felt. A notable event was

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

the sale, about June 13th, of the some 630 acres of the historical Eisen Vineyrad Company property for $375,000, to the Croxton Land Company of San Francisco, represented by Silas A. Lines as president, the fruit-buyer of the San Francisco Earl Fruit Company of Sacramento. The vineyard is six miles east of Fresno and was planted by the late F. T. Eisen as the first large wine-grape vineyard in the county, on a commercial scale. It is a heavy producer, practically the entire acreage being devoted to grapes for wine. In the last few years old vines have been uprooted, and raisin and table grapes substituted. An interesting feature of the vineyard is found in fifty forty-year-old date palms planted in a strawberry bed, and since bearing fruit. They constitute the oldest grove of fruit-bearing dates in the valley. The Eisen was not a part of the California Wine Association. The Virginia Food Products Company, of Oakland, Cal. (a bidder for the Eisen), bought, for $100,000, M. F. Tarpey's La Paloma Winery, to convert same into a plant for making grape drinks and fruit foods. This company has become the owner of the 1,000-acre Mission Vineyard at Cucamonga, in San Bernardino County, and has also secured an option on a Lodi vineyard. The Great Western Vineyard, including the Alma. Riverside, and other smaller ones, with 3.700 acreage, five miles from Reedley on the Santa Fe and its feeder, the Minkler & Southern, was bought by Nichols, Lindley & Farrar, who have sold sub- divided acreage for approximately $1,185,000. The Great Western Vineyard was recognized as the second largest and one of the best producers in the state. The winery and brick sherry house were reserved for future sale and possible use for packing-house purposes. The plant of the association at Calwa will also go for manufacturing and packing purposes. There has also been the sale of the Smith Mountain tract of 200 acres, including the big winery between Dinuba and Sultana, for a price in excess of its value as a win- ery, the winery building being reserved. The sale of La Paloma Vineyard was for $55,000. It is in the N. W. 1/4 of the S. W. 1/4 of the N. W. 14 of Section 31-12-21, comprising ten acres traversed by the San Joaquin Valley Railroad. The winery will be converted into a food-product plant. From the California Wine Association was bought for $205,000, by Paul Mosesian 370 acres of the old Fresno Vineyard on Ventura Avenue, four miles east of Fresno, to be cut up and sold in 5, 10 and 20 acre tracts. The Fresno was one of the larger holdings of the Association. Twenty acres of the place are in alfalfa, 250 acres are in wine grapes, and the remainder in raisin grapes of different varieties. What will be done with the winery buildings depends upon prohibition legislation. The winery had at time of sale over 800,000 barrels of cooperage. Wine grapes have been profitable of late and the vines will not be dug up for a time. His purchase of the Fresno Vineyard gave Mosesian a holding of nearly 800 acres in the county, with 340 acres one and a half miles east of Parlier, and 60 on the Locan road. The Fresno is on the Fresno street-car line, which would make it desirable for suburban homes. Early in June, 280 acres of grape land five miles north of Clovis were sold for $280,000 to a San Francisco syndicate of Chinese. This syndicate recently acquired raisin and fruit acreage near Riverview, Glorietta, Wawona, and Lemon Center. Japanese corporations, with two-thirds of the capital in the hands of Caucasians, have been active in long-term buys ; notably, a Japanese syndicate which recently took an option on 171 acres near Parlier for $1,000 an acre. The Clovis land purchase is of two tracts, 120 acres of the Wilson Vineyard, for $100,000, and the 160 acres of the Bissell adjoining, at a stated price of $1,000 per acre. The Wilson is in the Garfield school district, and has 80 acres in vines and the remainder in orchard. This purchase would mean consolidation of the two, and their settlement with Chinese. The syn- dicate owns also the 80-acre Moodey ranch at Lemon Center. 80 acres of young vines near Riverview, 160 acres near Glorietta, and as many at Wa- wona. The 171-acre bearing vineyard, two miles south of Parlier, property of the A. B. Clark and the J. S. Jones estate, was sold to the Garfield Farming

470

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Corporation. Another large transaction-and mention is made only of the larger for the number of the lesser and minor is too great-was that of the Mill Valley Farms Company, to George E. Emerzian, of 160 acres for $100,000; 73 acres in figs, 80 in olives, 35 in Malagas, and 30 in Emperors. This land is three miles north of Orange Cove, in Hill's Valley. There is a 9-story stone house on the tract, said to be one of the finest country houses in the interior. The Emerzians have a home tract near Tulare of 220 acres, besides hundreds of productive acres elsewhere in the Valley. Antonio Justesen bought 85 acres of vineyard adjacent to Reedley, for $54,000, or $650 an acre, from the buyers of the Great Western. B. Soglian sold 200 acres, five miles northwest of Fowler, in Section 32-15-21, for $29,000. H. P. Helmuth realized $1,000 an acre in the sale, to E. G. Ghoran, of ten acres, five miles southeast of 'Clovis, in Section 30-13-22. J. C. Forkner sold a ranch east of Fresno, in a portion of Section 32-12-20, for $34,000, subject to deed of trust for $24,479 of February before. Another large transaction was the sale of the A. J. Jones 40-acre ranch and vineyard between Fowler and Selma, in Section 25-15-22, to H. L. Suderman for $80,000, subject to a $9,000 mortgage. Another was the sale, for $40,000, subject to an $8,000 mortgage, by Fred Hansen, of a ranch near Clovis, to Gee Tong Sing of San Francisco. A large number of agreements to purchase has been recorded by buyers of Armenian nativity, with comparatively small cash first payments and long-term annual pay- ments out of the proceeds of the crops. The number of these, together with purchases by Chinese and Japanese, has caused alarm as to the future landed proprietorship in the county, and there is talk of a revival of the alien land- ownership law, that raised such a stir between the United States and Japan during the Roosevelt administration.

CITY IN PARAGRAPHS

Of the twelve larger cities in the state, Fresno for the month of May, 1918, stands sixth in the amount of bank clearings and fourth for value of permits for building operations. Clearings in May, 1917, were $6,863,938 and in 1918 $8,127,600. Permits in 1917 $171,200; in 1918 $217,490-increase of a little more than eighteen per cent. in clearings and of over twenty-seven in permits.

There was a registration of 10,747 for the election June 11, 1918 to choose fifteen freeholders to frame a new charter for the city of Fresno.

A 4,900-ton steel steamship, the fourth built and completed under the authority of the U. S. Shipping Board for the food trade transportation, was launched from the ways on the Alameda estuary on San Francisco Bay, named the "Fresno" and christened by Mrs. W. F. Toomey, wife of the mayor. Fresnans to the number of nearly 1,000 attended the launching going to Oakland in an automobile caravan to make the event a notable one. The launch was on the evening of May 18, 1918. The craft was built by the R. S. Moore Ship Building Company.

William F. Toomey, a member of Fresno Parlor No. 25 and mayor of the city of Fresno, was elected grand president of the Native Sons of the Golden West at the annual grand parlor meeting at Truckee in June, 1918. The 1919 grand parlor meeting held in the Yosemite Valley, was the forty- second convention as guests of Merced Parlor No. 24.

A run of forty or more auto cars was made from Fresno City to the Yosemite Valley June 8, 1918, under the direction of the Fresno County Chamber of Commerce as a demonstration that the run to the valley is only one of the pleasure drives of this sunkissed portion of the state and that the city of Fresno is the logical point of radiation to all the middle of the state Sierra resorts, particularly those of a national character from the Yosemite on the north to General Grant and Sequoia National parks on the south with the marvelous Kings River three canyon region as the middle section. The chamber has come to realize that the scenic wonders of the county have not as yet been made an asset, as they should be.

It was on March 5, 1917, that Mrs. Eda Einstein gave to the City of Fresno deed to block 12 of La Sierra Tract, asking in the accompanying letter its acceptance, for the children of Fresno, as a playground in memory of Louis Einstein, whose wishes she and his children were carrying out in this respect. The block is bounded by Park Boulevard, Roosevelt and Ferger Street and the playground was tendered equipped with apparatus, specifying that it should be designated the "Louis Einstein Memorial Playground."

Fresno was sixth for 1917 of the twelve cities of the state whose monthly bank clearings and permits for building the California Development Board bulletins quote to point out the commercial activities of the state. The Clear- ing House figures are these, for the twelve cities:

1917 1916

$108,414,657.96 71,926,313.11

1917 Gain ...... $ 36,487,344.85

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

November was the banner month for both years according to the fol- lowing showing :

November, 1917 November, 1916 11,120,913.98

$15,586,608.61

Fresno was sixth in January and seventh in March, 1918, for bank clearings :

January

$10,040.076

1918 1917 $8,435,317

March

8,352,734

6,977,623

City business licenses collected is another evidence of the growth of the city. Annual collections have been : 1917 $103,092.75; 1916 $94,206.80; 1915 $93,552.36 and 1914 $95,760.15. Up to January, 1918, total of $12,554.30 had been taken in fractional small licenses for the privilege of selling on the free market. Out of this fund the trustees took $5,000 to invest in the second Liberty bonds.

It was in April, 1898-twenty years ago-that the Fresno city public library moved from its two rooms in the brick building at the corner of I and Fresno to the upper floor of the then newly constructed E. W. Risley brick building, opposite the courthouse park on K Street near Mariposa, where it continued until its removal later to the Carnegie gift library build- ing on I Street opposite the White Theater building, where the merger into the county library resulted in 1917. At first removal, Miss Alice Armstrong was the librarian and Miss Daisy Williams, the assistant of the infant insti- tution.

Of the eleven reported present at a conference in the office of E. C. Winchell, Friday evening, March 22, 1878-forty-one years ago-when the subject of the incorporation of the city was for the first time considered; only one, Leopold Gundelfinger, was among the living in 1918. An act of incor- poration was ordered drawn up, but not finished until the general meeting for the following Monday evening at Magnolia hall on H Street, when thirty or forty assembled, organized with A. Kutner as chairman and H. S. Dixon as secretary. George Bernhard, George McCollough and S. W. Henry were appointed to secure signatures for and against incorporation for the meeting on Tuesday but on that occasion chairman and secretary were absent and so few attended that the meeting adjourned to the call of the chair. This effort at incorporation had in the end no result for city incorporation was not voted on until September, 1885, after several efforts.

The Kinema, first theater erected in Fresno devoted exclusively to the showing of "movie pictures," was opened on the evening of November 30, 1918. It is on J Street, near Fresno.

The old Barton opera house in the Barton block on Fresno and J, so gratefully remembered by the amusement lovers of Fresno and a theater that in its day was considered one of the best equipped in the state, had auspicious opening on the night of September 29, 1890. There was a crowded house, the fashion of Fresno attended, speeches in dedication and in felici- tation of Robert Barton, the owner and builder, were made, notably by Judge G. E. Church and the attraction on the opening night was Henry E. Dixon in the burlesque, "Adonis." The Barton continued the theater of Fresno for twenty-three years, all the great actors that visited California made appearances there, and Fresno had the reputation in the theater world of being "one of the best show towns in the state." C. M. Pyke was the first manager, succeeded by Robert Barton, the son, in 1893. The latter relin- quished possession November 28, 1913, to L. L. Cory, the lawyer, who had bought the Barton block in which was also located Armory hall. Cory took over the unexpired lease and installed Frederick W. Voigt as manager. The latter made great promises on assuming management but his tenure was shortlived under the new name of the Theater Fresno. The building

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

was finally torn down and replaced by the Cory office building, covering every portion of the site. That portion covered by the theater at Fresno and the alley was remodelled, the front changed and in 1917 leased for a long term as the Hippodrome, devoted to continuous vaudeville. The last per- formances under the Barton regime were on Thanksgiving afternoon and evening (November 27, 1913) of Johann Strauss' comic opera "The Merry Countess," the operetta it was said that cost Cornelius Vanderbilt $100 a minute with which to entertain Newport society. Sunday November 30 "A Girl of the Underworld" was announced and was poorly attended. The first notable engagement under the Voigt shortlived management was for Thurs- day December 4 in the F. C. Whitney Opera Company in "The Chocolate Soldier." Fresno has had many theaters in its day. Its first of note was the Grady Opera House located on I on the site of the one-story business stores adjoining the Farmers' National Bank. It fell into disrepute in the end and was condemned as unsafe for public assemblies. The next theater of note was Riggs, the Armory hall, located on J and today site covered in part by the Gottschalk building. This was after 1885. The Barton was the third. Popular permanent houses for a time in later years were the Novelty at J and Kern, first to introduce two nightly vaudeville shows and later cheap stock company, and the Empire in the Barron building across the street, now covered by the Cooper department store, where under the management of Edward Hoen vaudeville was given and later stock company productions. Open air theaters and "movie shows" have been too numerous to mention.

The general surgery clinic at the emergency hospital at the city hall was opened November 10, 1917, and six cases for the removal of tonsils were listed.

The new schedule of tariffs issued by the interstate commerce commis- sion operative March 15, 1918, was a source of great satisfaction to Fresno. It was a consummation that the Fresno Traffic Association had long striven for to remove the discrimination against Fresno on terminal rates as an in- land town without water transportation facilities. The schedule placed it on an equality with San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles and other cities of the coast.

A special election held March 18, 1918, resulted in the annexation to the city of the North Fresno territory, said to contain approximately 5,000 inhabitants and a rapidly improving residence section. The vote was 529 for and 142 against annexation.

Fulton G. Berry was a man who was always in the public eye. In 1908 on a certain day, street platform was erected in front of his Grand Central Hotel, band tooted and he auctioned off 250 lots in Arlington Heights, realiz- ing $23,451. This was before the Heights had been annexed to the city.

There's one man in Fresno who will not accept pay for public service. It is Wylie M. Giffen of the raisin association. In January, 1918, fifty dol- lars was coming to him from the city for services as an arbitrator in a damage claim by a vineyardist on account of the construction of the enlarged city sewer system. Mr. Giffen returned the check and in a letter to the mayor wrote: "You can do anything you see fit with this check-either return it to the fund from which it was taken or use it in behalf of the playgrounds, but as far as I am concerned I do not desire any pay for this work. Fresno has been good to me, and I would rather render any service that I can without compensation than with it. If at any time I can be of ise to you in your work or can do anything for the city and county of Fresno in any way, I want you to call on me, but I do not want you to feel that I must be paid for it."

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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 69

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