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 77

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 77

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Joseph Kutner, who died at the San Francisco home, was the father of Alfred and Louis Kutner of the Kutner-Goldstein Company of this city, brother of Adolph, founder of that mercantile house and himself senior mem- ber of Kutner-Rosenthal of Madera with a chain of valley stores. His was cited as an example of what thrift and perseverance will accomplish. His start was as a poor and resourceless lad to lead up to wealth and mercantile leadership.

Mrs. Margaret T. Bailey died at eighty-one, came with husband to California in 1856 by way of the Isthmus, located in Amador, later in San Luis Obispo and at death had been a resident for fifteen years, three married daughters surviving her here.

Lee W. Wells came here from Los Angeles and was a well known candy maker. He was sixty-nine at death.

George W. Woods died at Pine Flats whither he had moved for his health ; was a resident of near Sanger for a quarter of a century ; eighty-four years of age and a veteran of the Civil War and in 1890 crossed the plains after a six months journey behind a yoke of oxen.

Rev. Father Joseph Barron, whose funeral was held in Los Angeles in June, 1910, was a figure in the early days of Fresno as rector of St. John's

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Catholic Church for eleven years. On leaving Fresno in 1899, he was given a long vacation because of his services and after a visit home to Ireland assumed the pastorate of St. Mary's at Los Angeles. Time was when at Fresno there was not a Catholic Church in the county and on high church occasions priest was sent from Visalia for stated services. He was succeeded in the pastorate by Rev. John M. McCarthy from Riverside whom the Pope honored with the titular reward of Monsignor for signal services in the building up of the parish. Father Barron left Fresno about the time when negotiations be- gan for the sale of the church corner property at Fresno and M, deeded to the Catholic archbishop by C. F. Crocker of the railroad in perpetuity for religious purposes, the Fraternal Order of Eagles becoming the pur- chasers. The little parish of Father Barron has enlarged territorially and is one of the most important with one of the largest communicant bodies in the diocese. Father Barron was aged seventy when he died. He came to the diocese in 1889. His predecessors were Father Aguillara, who was trans- ferred to San Luis Obispo, and Father Careaga.

The sad and untimely death of Frederick W. Fisher, January 7, 1910, was the result of an automobile explosion. On the day of the funeral the prominent business houses closed for one hour. The tale was circulated that he had premonition of his death in the very manner that befell him while filling auto with gasolene and burning him. Moved by the dream, he took out accident policy for $5,000 with a doubling clause. This feature of the tale was verified.

When Mrs. Mary Allison died in Oakland, Cal., there passed away a well known character of early Fresno. As Mollie Livingstone, she kept in the 70's the Blue Wing at I and Merced, the present site of the city hall. It was the first large dance hall. the center of the night life of Fresno and its fame was known throughout the valley coextensively with that of the youth- ful and comely Mollie. As the city grew, the Blue Wing was carted across the railroad track to the corner of Tulare and E and there it stood for years known as the Diamond Palace. The additions and enlargements to it made the pioneer structure unrecognizable. It was destroyed by fire and never re- built. Until about 1899, Mollie Livingstone herself conducted the establish- ment. During her Fresno residence she made money and saving it invested in real property in the district bordering on the Chinese quarter until she owned practically two blocks of land. She left her property to three sisters and a brother, naming a prominent lawyer as her executor but he declined the trust. Her death was on a visit to nurse a sick sister. She had submitted a year before to an operation for the removal of cancer and before leaving was advised to undergo another, but declared she would never again permit surgeon's knife to touch her body. She had premonition that her end was not far away. She gave orders that wherever she might die her remains be returned to Fresno for burial, bought a cemetery lot and selected the coffin in which she desired to be buried in. This woman was sixty-five years of age at death. She came to Fresno from Inyo County, was there married to a miner and bore his name, but he was unknown here and she took a divorce from him some five years before her death.

When Thomas P. Nelson, better known as Major Nelson, retired at eight o'clock on New Year's day 1910 at the home of a son at Pollasky he made intimation that he did not expect to survive the night. Silent watch was maintained and one hour after he fell asleep it was the sleep of death. The wife, Helen Barber Nelson, died eleven days before. He had pined away and expressed the hope that death unite them in the other world. He was eighty-five years and six months of age to a day on the day of death. and one of the most honored of citizens. He was at Durant, Miss., in the mercantile business, one of the most prosperous merchants and also one of the wealthiest. In the Civil War he entered the Fourteenth Mississippi Regiment, was elected captain, promoted to a majorship and retained that

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rank until the close of the war. He was in many of the great battles, Fort Donaldson and Shiloh among others and in the last days of the siege of Vicksburg was in command of the Confederates as the senior commanding officer had been killed. The war left Nelson with fortune shattered and in 1868 he came to California and after a sojourn of two months at Sonoma came on to Fresno near where the Fresno Copper mine was at Letcher in the Mississippi district, where so many from that state had located after the war. This was so also in the Big Dry Creek country ; here he had for neighbors the later Sheriff J. D. Collins, also a veteran of the Confederacy, G. R. G. Glenn and many scattered others and he embarked in the stock and cattle business. He also entered politics as an uncompromising Demo- crat, being in religion a devout member of the Methodist Church South. He served two terms as a supervisor, was under-sheriff for as many terms under James O. Meade, and county treasurer for eight years and then re- tired from public life. After 1905 his condition was an enfeebled one. In- deed only thrice did he leave his home in this city after moving here after a residence of twenty-one years in the Mississippi district, to go to the polling place at Tulare and M in 1906 to vote for governor, in 1908 to vote for president and the last time to be at the funeral of the wife. He rode to the cemetery, contracted a slight cold to which his death was attributed.

Jacob A. Cole, brother of the late S. H. Cole, came to this country in 1873 from Kansas and at death had been a resident for thirty-six years. He was thrice married. He became one of the prominent wheat growers in the Big Dry Creek settlement, where he and nephew, Clovis N. Cole, were the first to operate a combined harvester, then regarded as a wonderful piece of agricultural mechanism. He sold his farming interests to a son, Alvin R., in 1886 and moving to Fresno entered the real estate business as one of the firm of Cole, Chittenden and Cole.

Passing away at the age of over eighty-one. Rev. Charles A. Munn closed a busy career of fifty-eight years as a preacher and church builder. His last sermon was a memorial address May 29, 1910, at the Presbyterian Church at Laton. A resident for sixteen years, he had in his last years preached for his brother ministers and though beset with many afflictions in loss of four children, notably that of a son James I. Munn mortally injured in an accident in the San Joaquin Ice Company plant June 26, 1908, the closest companion of his aged father. he always beheld the rainbow hues of promise. He realized that his last illness forecasted the end ; he was resigned, made final plans and requests and comforted his family. An 1849 graduate of Jefferson College with preparation for the ministry in the Western Theologi- cal Seminary, later included in the city of Pittsburg, he was licensed to preach by the Coshocton, Ohio, presbytery, served as pulpit supply at Green- ville, Ohio, was called to the Muncie, Ind., church pastorate and in October, 1855 married Sarah A. McLean of Pittsburg, Pa .; in 1856 was called to Frankfort, Ind., and was instrumental in erecting a fine edifice. He entered the war as chaplain of the One Hundredth Indiana Regiment; at the close of the war was pastor of the Waterloo and Auburn, Ind., churches; in 1867 of the Taylor Street Mission in Chicago and later pastor at Kendallville, Ind .: 1871 saw him at Big Rapids, Mich., continuing for sixteen years and building another handsome church: in 1887 in charge of the Presbyterian Church at McComb City, Miss., and the neighboring village of Magnolia and here completing yet another church building. In this county the family was located at Oleander and in Fresno. The Belmont Avenue Presbyterian Church was organized as a mission and thereafter he was its pastor for ten years, resigning in 1896, serving as pulpit supply and virtually dying in har- ness. Fraternal life found in him a congenial spirit. For more than twelve years he was prelate of Fresno Commandery No. 29, K. T .; was also chap- lain of Fresno Lodge No. 247, F. & A. M., and was an officer in the Odd Fellows and in the Grand Army of the Republic. His life was one full of

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good deeds, of happiness in his family and in his chosen work for the Master. A strong faith withstood the sorrows that gathered over him in his last years.

Galen Clark discovered the Mariposa grove of big trees, was for twenty years guardian of the Yosemite Valley, ninety-six years of age at death and sleeps in the valley within stone's throw of the Yosemite Falls. Intimate friend of Joseph Le Conte, John Muir, John Burroughs and other nature lovers that made the valley famous, he was first to enter it in the spring and the last to leave in the fall during his long guardianship and met all the world's notables on their visits to the great gorge. He was a Californian of 1853, discovered the giant sequoias in 1857 while hunting. He was author of a book on the Big Trees, besides others dealing with California early history and was an authority on Indian lore, customs and manners. They ac- counted him their staunch friend. He died at the Oakland home of a daughter, Dr. Elvira M. Lee.

A San Francisco will contest which several years ago ended in a settle- ment of the wife's claims recalls John R. Hite (obit April 18, 1906) picturesque frontiersman, explorer, miner and "squawman" of earlier days, owning large land tracts in this valley in several counties and the Hite ranch in Fresno. His will was the subject of more or less litigation owing to disagreement among the natural heirs. The contest was by Lucy, the Indian wife at common law, to revoke probate of the will, charging undue influence by the heirs, adding that he was seventy-four years of age at death and, addicted to the use of intoxicants, susceptible to these influences. Declaration was made that she was ignored in her community interest and that on the ground that they were never legally married he pretended a marriage with Cecilia Noyes October 13, 1897, persuaded the squaw to acquiesce and not to sue for divorce on promise he would recompense her in his will.

In evidence of his faith, Joseph Taplin was one of the first to set out a raisin grape vineyard about 1886 near Oleander. He was the grandfather of Eddie Taplin, famous little horse jockey.

Resident for nearly a quarter of a century, Charles B. Anton was one of the pioneer carpenter contractors and a leader in the Scotch Colony and in St. Andrew's Society, the life and soul at the latter's reunions. Death cause was paralysis resulting from an accidental fall at Caruthers. He was a Californian of thirty-seven years, following mining in Mono after a resi- dence in Virginia City, Nev. Sons here are Thomas M., city trustee, and James, city building inspector.

The name of William Forsyth is inseparably connected as its pioneer with the seeded raisin business. He had the title of "Colonel" derived as commissary on the military staff of Gov. Geo. Stoneman. A Canadian by birth, he had been a resident of the States since his nineteenth year. He was a hotel man and in his California career was the landlord of Bartlett Springs when it was one of the celebrated summer resorts. His Fresno in- vestments dated from 1885; the first state guard company in Fresno was named for him, the Forsyth Guard. After retiring from active business he joined T. W. Patterson in the construction of the Forsyth building at Tulare and J, first notable large business structure in the architectural mod- ernization of Fresno. The Forsyth vineyard in Nevada Colony was a model and one of the most beautiful and delightful homes. The widow, nee Ver- denal, later married Dan Brown, the bank cashier.

H. A. Trevelyan-"Colonel" as he was known- died at sixty-six; was the factor for the British syndicate operating the Barton vineyard and was one of "the noble 600" of Balaclava of the poem. Trevelyan was in fact at the time an ensign carrying dispatches and did not participate in the poetically immortalized charge.

E. R. Higgins, who died at sixty-six, is recalled as a Californian of 1864, a Fresnan of 1884, a photographer and the maker of the best recalled

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outdoor views of Fresno of those days, a volunteer fireman who was chief of the department and as such a factor in its organization and in placing the citizen volunteer on a basis of efficiency with improved apparatus replacing the hand drawn equipment.

James E. Denny (obit at Visalia at seventy-two) was a Sierra County, Cal., settler of 1854 and in 1859 came to Kingston in Fresno, bought an interest in the ferry on the Kings River, conducted hotel and store, was the first postmaster and gave the place its name. Later at Visalia in the livery business until 1865, he moved to Millerton in general merchandising but the 1867-68 flood swept away all his possessions. Returning to Visalia he entered upon a long political career. He was in 1886 the nominee of the Republican state convention for state comptroller with endorsement of the American party at the convention in Fresno September 28 under the call of Thomas E. Hughes as chairman and E. F. Selleck as secretary following the declaration of principles of the Fresno mass meeting of May 27. It was not a year for the Republicans and Denny was defeated-J. P. Dunn (D.) receiving 95,469 votes and Denny 94,833.

Mrs. Emily A. Knepper, nee Wharton, who died at sixty-nine, was the mother of John W. and Frank H. Short, prominent citizens of Fresno, born in Shelby County, Mo. Their father, Hamilton Short, died at the early age of thirty-two from exposure in the federal service during the Civil War. She married in 1866 Hugh Knepper, copper miner of Fresno and early resident of California who had returned on a visit to his former Missouri home. The family removed to Nebraska and in 1881 came to Fresno. A sister, Mrs. W. M. Cardwell, the husband and the son, Charles A., by the second marriage, the brothers, F. A. and W. W. Wharton of Fresno Colony, survived her. The deaths in Fresno of her father and of her eldest brother, J. F. Wharton, preceded hers. She was of the type of revered western pioneer women.

C. K. Kirby Sr. (obit at Los Angeles at eighty-four) will be recalled as a pioneer capitalist, proprietor of the Sierra Park vineyard and winery near Fowler, and of a distillery business near Selma, both model enterprises.

The death and funeral of Charles L. Wainwright was in Oakland, Cal. He was a lovable character and a gentleman, a pioneer of San Francisco, of Kingston, of Millerton and of Fresno city engaged in mercantile lines, or holding public office deputyships. His beautiful handwriting in the office records of county recorder and clerk is a pleasure to behold. The pall bearers at the funeral were men whom he had held in the highest esteem in life. They were: Frank Yale, Geo. E. Evans, Ward B. Walkup, Angus M. Clark, Will G. Blaney and Charles Burks.

Jarvis Streeter Sr., who died at eighty-eight, crossed the plains from New York to California in 1850, mined, settled in Mariposa County about 1860 and after 1892 made his home in Fresno or in Los Angeles. At eighteen he enlisted in a New York volunteer regiment and under General Taylor served throughout the Mexican War. He married Lizzie J. Cocharan at Snelling, Merced County, November 16, 1868, and was county clerk of Mariposa from 1876 to 1887. Mrs. E. J. Bullard and Jarvis Streeter of Fresno are daughter and son.

The experience of Alexander Beatty, who died at the Madera County hospital at the age of seventy-two, is typical of many of the pioneers. He located in Stanislaus County in 1868 herding sheep for Thomas E. Hughes and until 1874 looked after the Hughes herds on shares and made a success financially. He was the first to introduce Scotch methods into the business in this valley. Later he moved to Merced and while there it was estimated that he was worth $50,000. He came to Madera in later years, herded sheep for H. F. Daulton and died a charge on the county.

George Wiseman (obit at Malaga at the age of seventy-one) was one of the discoverers of the Kern River oil field, learning of the presence of

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oil in that section while farming near there. His death followed one week after that of the wife, Susan B. He enlisted in Company E of the Second California Regiment serving as a cavalryman from 1863 to 1865. The Elwood family, into which one daughter of the seven surviving children married, had much to do with the early development of the Kern River oil field.

Thomas H. Hunt came to California as a '49er when nine years old. Thirty continuous years of his sixty in the state were spent in Fresno. The pall bearers at his funeral were city school janitors, he having also been one for years.

In the passing away at her vineyard country home on Elm Avenue of Miss Nellie Boyd, the community lost a well known, a much beloved and a highly honored woman. She was professionally an actress. She was a pioneer raisin grower of 1885, a successful business woman and active in the affairs of first raisin associations. She was of the old school of acting and before coming to California had made a name in New York. In the early 70's she came west and for a decade was leading woman for various traveling companies organized in and sent out on coast tours from San Fran- cisco. She was the first woman to head her own company and playing the principal cities in Pacific Slope states. It was on one of her local engage- ments that she decided to end her days here when she retired from the stage. In 1893 Miss Boyd prepared with others the county exhibit for the world's fair at Chicago. She was the first president of the Parlor Lecture Club and took a lively interest in the State Federation of Women's Clubs. She often offered her services to direct club and school benefit theatrical entertainments.

At death at Lone Star, James Rutherford was within a few months of attaining his ninety-first birthday, and wife, eighty-two years of age, and ten children survived him. March 9, 1908, the sixtieth anniversary of wed- ding had been celebrated. It was April 13, 1849, that he set out by ox team to cross the plains, arriving at Hangtown in 1850, mining. for a year on the American River and when the first excitement had subsided returned to Missouri, farmed until 1887, when he again came to California to make his home and settled as one of the first farmers at Lone Star in a colony of Missourians, a pioneer of the gold era and of the fruit period.

The name of Michael Levy (obit Oakland, Cal., at forty-five) recalls one who for over fourteen years was of the firm of Levy Bros. who conducted the Red Front clothing and furnishing goods store on I Street near Tulare, one of a chain with the one at San Bernardino as the largest. In the late 70's and early 80's the brothers were in the same business in San Francisco, when the retail trade was concentrated at the Telegraph Hill end of Kear- ney Street. In Fresno the firm was in other enterprises, notably in the ownership of the remodeled Edgerly block at Tulare and J.

Thousands who have traveled over the old Tollhouse road to and from the Pine Ridge Mountain section grieved over the death on Christmas morning, 1907, of Mrs. Mary E. Greenup, better known as "Aunt Polly." At the time of death, she lacked ten days of having rounded out her eighty- fourth year. Thirty years before, she came to California, settling on a hill ranch one mile above Letcher and living in that section save three years spent in Fresno. Since husband's death in 1886 she had made her home with daughter, Mrs. Frances A. Phillips, at the hotel at Letcher. This was a stopping place of the stage and a rest station and thousands came to know her by reason of her genial hospitality, kindly benefactions and her strong and interesting personality. She was the oldest member of the Clovis Bap- tist Church.

George B. Rowell was a pioneer of the pastoral period of the county and witnessed its growth through the succeeding stages. In 1865 he came across the plains with his brother, the late Dr. Chester Rowell, to Montana, engaged for six years in mining and three in ranching and after a winter in San Francisco came to Fresno early in 1875. In December, 1881, in Illi-

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nois, the home of his youth, he married Adelpha H. Warlow, sister of George L. Warlow, lawyer of Fresno, and of Mrs. George L. Johnson of Easton. He engaged here in the sheep business with J. E. Dickinson and Dr. Rowell, in 1888 in mercantile business at Easton with G. L. Johnson under the name of Rowell & Johnson until sale in 1904, the firm in 1902 opening a store at Oleander. Five brothers survived him; Dr. Rowell of Fresno, W. F. Rowell of Easton, A. A. Rowell of Selma, Jonathan H. Rowell of Bloomington, Ill., and Milo Rowell of Fresno. He was also a Washington Colony vineyardist.

Theatrically sensational was the end March 26, 1908, of Rev. A. Z. Nesbitt, Coalinga's only minister of the gospel at the time. He was struck down by heart failure at the Coalinga Theater while finishing an impas- sioned appeal to the saloon men of the town to clean out the Augean stables of their trade. He was speaking at the public celebration of the incorpora- tion of the town. Fifteen hundred people were at the theater including the minister's wife and daughter. The speech, which proved to be the last one of the Presbyterian minister, was a historical sketch in part of the locality but toward the last became almost a sobbing appeal to the saloon men and their friends to end the evil of the traffic.

G. B. Vlahusic, a Slavonian, was a character of remarkable intellectual attainments. He was a linguist and had a wide knowledge of astronomy, mineralogy, geology and chemistry. He was born and christened a Roman Catholic but in his mature years had not affiliated with the church. His funeral was from the Episcopal Church. An important service of his to the community was his aid in the introduction of the Smyrna fig. He was generous in responding to appeals for charity and personally sent $500 to the relief of the San Francisco fire sufferers. He was for years the book- keeper for Borello Bros. and a leader in the Slavonic Colony.

Mrs. J. R. Kittrell, mother of Mrs. H. H. Welsh, passed away in 1909 on the fifty-eighth anniversary of her wedding day at the age of eighty-one years.

Mrs. M. A. Guard, state pioneer of 1853, and one of the earliest of Fresno city and the mother of William C. Guard, former tax collector and charter member of the Fresno parlor of the N. S. G. W., died at the age of seventy-one years May 21, 1909. Pathetic feature was that while the son was at the bedside at the last, his wife, who shortly after passed away, was attending the funeral of her mother, Mrs. Nancy J. Weaver, who had died at the age of seventy-four on the nineteenth, her husband having died four years before. Mrs. Weaver was the mother of Mrs. John R. Austin since dead. Mrs. Weaver was a Californian since her sixteenth birthday and a resident of Fresno for twenty-eight years.

Benjamin W. Van Winkle, whose funeral at Los Banos was held February 15, 1908, came from Los Angeles in 1896 as foreman for the Sanger Lumber Company and until 1900 was in the same capacity in this city for the planing mill of Hollenbeck & Bush and then for two years in San Fran- cisco. It was there that he was employed to take charge of the Miller & Lux mill at Los Banos and for five years successfully competed for mill work in the territory on that side of the San Joaquin between Tracy and Fresno. His first wife of Ogden, Utah, is buried at Sanger and he married Ethel Hil- grove in Fresno in 1898.

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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 77

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