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 II > Part 101
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MRS. NELLIE LEWIS .- A Kansas girl who has developed into a Cal- ifornia woman of splendid attainments, influential both in the social and the commercial world, is Mrs. Nellie Lewis, widow of the late William A. Lewis, member of the erstwhile real estate firm of Lewis & Wells.
She was born at Colony, Anderson County, Kans., the daughter and oldest child of Joseph H. and Laura (Matthews) McDowell, who are now living at Selma, the parents of six children-Nellie; Carl, who served in the cavalry service in France, and Nina, Gladys, Velma and Chester, who are at home. She attended the grammar schools of Kansas, and in 1914 came to Selma with her parents. Here, in December, 1915, she was married to Wil- liam Andrew Lewis, a native of Missouri. They were members of the Chris- tian Church at Selma, and also active in War Work; and among the last efforts for others made by Mr. Lewis was to take a hand in the United War Work Drive.
W. A. Lewis died at the Emergency Hospital in Selma aged thirty-five years, and is survived by his wife and his mother. The funeral was in charge of the Selma Lodge of Odd Fellows, of which he was a member in high stand- ing. Because of the health regulations it was necessary to hold the funeral in the open air. Among the floral offerings was one piece presented by the real estate firms of Selma, who took this opportunity of expressing their appreciation of him when one of their colleague. Mr. Lewis was a member of the First Christian Church of this city, and was numbered among the most progressive and wide-awake business men, and in his death, Selma suffered a distinct loss.
Besides being an active church and war worker, and ever interested in the general uplift of the community, Mrs. Lewis has good business ability, and may be found every day at her desk in the office of the Sun Maid Realty Company, attending to the combined interests of that concern, which deals in real estate and insurance, and the firm of E. J. Wells & Co., operators of the seven ranches formerly owned by Lewis & Wells. Through her, in part, the many friends and patrons of the companies have been increased in num- her, thus affording a fine demonstration of the capability of a woman with a winning personality to make her mark in the business world.
LAUGE LAUGESEN .- It is a long way from Denmark to Fresno County, Cal., but many upbuilders of the commonwealth have come from that distant country, and among these is Lauge Laugesen, who was born July 1, 1875, at Brorup, Jylland, Denmark, a son of Christian and Catherine (Christian) Laugesen. The father was a farmer and a patriot, having served two years in the Danish-German War, 1864-1866. He passed away in 1917, the mother is also deceased. Of this union there were four children, Lauge Laugesen, being next to the youngest. Of the second marriage of Christian Laugesen, there were also four children, one of whom is Conrad Anderson, residing in the vicinity of Rolinda.
Lauge Laugesen was reared in his native land and attended the public schools of Denmark, until he was fourteen years of age, when he was ap-
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prenticed for three years to a blacksmith, later working for five years at his trade in Roding, Schleswig, following which he and his brother Anton started a shop at Brorup, Denmark, which they continued to operate for eighteen months, when Lauge sold his interest to his brother and set sail for the United States, arriving at Fresno, Cal., in 1902. In the Rolinda district he found employment at his trade with Carl M. Jacobsen, where he remained one year and following this he was engaged one summer as a blacksmith for Nels Petersen, at Fresno. Later at Kutner Colony he opened a shop of his own, but afterwards was employed for four years as manager of the black- smith shop owned by M. Theo. Kearney.
Mr. Laugesen being a very enterprising man and possessing those innate characteristics of his fellow countrymen, thrift and economy, he had by 1910 saved sufficient money to warrant the purchase of thirty acres of land, which he selected at Rolinda and where he established his blacksmith shop which he has run ever since. He erected a residence and farm buildings, improved the thirty acres by setting out a vineyard and planting alfalfa, digging a canal and installing a pumping-plant. In addition to his blacksmithing he conducts a carriage and wagon works, does auto repairing and sells agricultural im- plements.
In Fresno, on October 25, 1903, Mr. Laugesen was united in marriage with Miss Christene Nielsen, a native of Denmark. They have two children : Gladys and Einar.
Mr. Laugesen is a member of the Danish Brotherhood at Fresno; he adheres to the Lutheran faith, and is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company. In 1916, Mr. and Mrs. Laugesen and the children, took a trip to Denmark, to see his father and visit the scenes of his boyhood days. While there his father passed away, and in October, 1917, the family re- turned, via Christiania and New York City, and upon arriving in the Golden State expressed themselves as more pleased than ever with California and especially Fresno County. Mr. Laugesen is highly respected in the com- munity of Rolinda,
CHRISTEN A. PILEGARD .- One of the best known Danish-Americans in Fresno County is Christen A. Pilegard, a native of Fyen, Denmark, where he was born November 1, 1873. His intelligence, probity and energy command the respect of both Danish and American friends.
Educated in the public schools of Denmark and brought up and con- firmed in the Lutheran faith, he grew up and worked on his father's forty- acre farm at Fyen, Denmark, until he attained the age of nineteen, when he bade farewell to his relatives and the friends of his youth and sailed from Helsingfors, Sweden, on the Steamship "Virginia," of the old Scandia line, landing at old Castle Garden, New York, the latter part of April, 1893. He arrived at Chicago the day the World's Columbian Exposition opened, and came direct to Fresno, where he arrived May 5, 1893, and went to work with his brother George, remaining with him about five years. He then made a visit to his old Danish home to see his parents. His father, who was very ill and not expected to live, died January 29, 1899, two months after Christen arrived at his old home. His mother, who was still living, remained on the old home in Denmark until she died in 1902 at the age of seventy. The father, who was highly respected in his native country, was a member of King Frederick the Seventh's body guard and held that position of trust and honor in Denmark.
Christen returned to Oleander in 1899 and bought forty acres of land for a home. He subsequently added to this by the purchase of twenty acres more. He sold twenty acres, and two subsequent sales of ten acres each reduced his holdings to twenty acres, the area of his home ranch at present. He has bought and sold several places. In 1908 he purchased the twenty acres just east of Bowles. In 1911 he built a beautiful residence on Maple Avenue about midway between Bowles and Oleander.
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April 18, 1906, he was united in marriage with Miss Marian Beck, daughter of Chris. M. and Johanna (Schmidt) Beck, who are now living on Mr. Pilegard's place near Oleander. Mr. and Mrs. Pilegard are the parents of two children, Edith and Carl by name.
For the past thirteen years Mr. Pilegard has held the responsible position of Treasurer of the Pacific United Danish Lutheran Church, serving in this position with credit to himself and satisfaction to all. He and his excellent wife and family are highly respected and noted for their extensive hospitality.
Mr. Pilegard is a member of the Raisin Growers Association, the Peach Growers Association, and the Danish Creamery; in politics he affiliates with the Republican party. He is a typical representative of the Danish-American citizen and is considered one of the most substantial and reliable men of the section.
WILLIAM DRON .- Prominent among those who have long worked for the development and advancement of Fresno County, and a man well known for his present untiring efforts to better the conditions and increase the happiness of its people, is William Dron, not only an adopted son, but a Californian who had the good fortune, when first coming to this state in the late eighties, to settle here, in Central California, the most favored of all localities. He was born at Dollar, in Scotland, in 1883, and when four years of age came with his parents to Fresno. Here, then, he was reared and here he received his education in the excellent public schools of the neighborhood ; and after he was graduated from the Fresno High School, he entered the employ of Balfour, Guthrie & Co., in Fresno, as a grain-buyer, and worked for them both in that city and in various parts of the San Joaquin Valley.
In 1904 he was transferred to Oilfields and their oil company, the Cali- fornia Oilfields, Ltd., as a bookkeeper; and later taking up work in the operating department. he learned the drilling of wells and the actual produc- tion of oil, serving as tool-dresser and driller. He spent six years in the operating and gaging department, when he was again transferred and made head of the traffic department. About August, 1913, the Shell Company of California took over the California Oilfields, Ltd., but he did not allow the change of proprietorship to sever him from a region and activity in which he had become deeply interested. He has continued, therefore, with this concern which has more and more attained to national importance.
At Los Angeles, Mr. Dron was married to Miss Ocie Evans, once popular in social circles of Washington, Pa., and Mr. and Mrs. Dron enjoy the esteem of their many friends in Oilfields.
Such a life-story as the foregoing is worthy of record, for not alone has California been in need of just such men, in her development as one of the greatest commonwealths, but some of the sturdiest, brainiest and highest- principled of her adopted sons and daughters have come from bonnie Scot- land, bringing with them valued gifts for the making of a new and an ideal land.
WILSON KINNEY .- One of the earliest settlers of rapidly-developed Coalinga, and among the best known of all the sturdy pioneers in the San Joaquin Valley, is Wilson Kinney who, with his wife, enjoys the esteem of a large circle of friends. Mr. Kinney was born in Ohio on November 28, far back in 1847, but from his ninth year was raised in Shelby County, Ill., on a middle-west farm. At that time the country was wild and barren, in fact it was little less than a wilderness; so that when he grew old enough to rent land and farm for himself, he found it hard work of the most genuine sort.
In 1875 Mr. Kinney removed to Ralls County, Mo., and there, in New London, he conducted a store and a restaurant. Three years later, he pushed still further West, to Black Hawk, Colo., and later he settled at Leadville, where he undertook teaming to the mines. There, also, conditions were wild and enterprise difficult; but such had been Mr. Kinney's training in the past,
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fortunately, in parts of our great country also in the making, that he came to the great gold and silver regions by no means a tenderfoot, and was able to dare and do when others might have failed.
In 1882, Mr. Kinney made one more removal and landed in California, where he at once chose Fresno County as his location. For five years he engaged in farming near Kingston, and then he bought one-half of section 29 of railroad land in the Coalinga district. He improved the land and farmed it to grain for eight years.
In 1895 Mr. Kinney located at Coalinga, when the town was just start- ing. He built the Grand Central Hotel and livery stable, and conducted the same for many years. He applied to all his operations the golden rule, and so became one of the best-known men in the Coalinga district. For many years he gave his time and best attention, as a school trustee, to educational progress.
For three years he absented himself from Coalinga. He had been pre- vailed upon to remove to Redwood City, and he threw himself heart and soul into business undertakings there; but in 1905, the more imperative call to the town in which he had had his greatest success, and some of his friendliest associations led him to return to Coalinga, and here he has been living since.
Now he and his wife are retired from active labors, and live quietly, the center of one attention or another from their several children, Mr. Kinney having married, in 1873, in Shelby County, Ill., Cynthia Field, who was born in Gibson County, Ind., in 1853, but moved to Illinois. William J. Kinney, the oldest son, was born in Illinois, but lives at Coalinga, and is the father of two children. Charles L., who was born in Colorado, is married, has one child, and lives at Taft. Arthur W., also a native of Colorado, is now a farmer in Nevada. Albert E., a native son, was once a bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Coalinga and later located in Oklahoma, and from that state he enlisted as a sergeant in the United States Army. A daughter, the fifth in order of birth, is Mrs. Carrie B. Whitmer; she was born in California, and has one child. The youngest of the family is Robert H., who is a native son, is married and has one child, and is a resident of Richmond, Cal.
ARTHUR HOWARD McCOY .- A skilled pharmacist who has won an enviable reputation and who is a worker for the best interests of Kerman, is Arthur Howard McCoy, a native son who manages the Kerman Phar- macy with its extensive stock of medicines and drugs, and kindred lines. He was born near Campbell Station, Santa Clara County, on December 28, 1880. His father was Reuben McCoy, a native of Knoxville, Tenn., who outfitted at St. Joseph and crossed the plains with ox teams in 1849, and at first followed mining ; then he bought a ranch from the Mexican Government and started in to develop it. Six months later, however, there was a change of govern- ment, and he was compelled to buy it a second time. It is near what is now Campbell Station, and he had 320 acres of grain and stock, the whole form- ing a very attractive ranch. There he lived and labored until he died, in 1885.
Arthur's mother, Ellen England before her marriage, was born at Steel- ville, Crawford County, Mo., and was early left an orphan, and in 1856 she crossed the plains with friends. She was married to Mr. McCoy at Santa Clara. On the death of her husband, she continued, with the aid of her chil- dren, to manage her place, and made a specialty of horticulture, and she still has 117 acres of prunes. In October, 1917, she reached the age of seventy- three, and is one of the oldest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Among her memories are those of a classmate, Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, with whom she went to school and who has since become so famous She was the mother of four boys and one girl: John A. is on the home farm; William Orville lives at Oakland; George Stirling is in Saratoga; Laura Elizabeth has become Mrs. E. O. Fellows, of Santa Clara County ; and Arthur Howard, our subject.
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Arthur H. attended school at Moreland, and later went to the Los Gatos High School; and at Los Gatos and Gilroy he had seven years' experience in the drug business. Then he entered the University of California and was graduated from the pharmaceutic department in 1905 with the degree of Ph.C. He was a member of the Phi Chi and was president of his class during the senior year.
Thus equipped, Mr. McCoy took a position as pharmacist with the Bowman Drug Company in San Francisco, and there remained until the great fire of 1906 burned them out. After that he became the buyer for Wake- lee in San Francisco, and then manager of their store in the western addition. When he resigned, it was to remove to Porterville, where he was pharmacist for a couple of years with Todd C. Claubes. Once more he resigned, this time to come to Kerman, arriving here on May 12, 1917. He bought the store of T. C. Peters, and continued the drug business, developing it also as the chief agency in Kerman for San Francisco papers, magazines and other metropolitan supplies.
While in San Francisco, Mr. McCoy was married to Miss Lela Bell Gard, a native of Cobb Valley, Lake County, Cal. Mr. McCoy is a charter member of Porterville Lodge, No. 1342, B. P. O. Elks; he was made a Mason in Keith Lodge, No. 187, F. & A. M., at Gilroy, and is still a member there. Both Mr. and Mrs. McCoy are welcome members of the Order of the Eastern Star of Kerman. Mr. McCoy is a member of the Kerman Chamber of Com- merce.
MRS. CARRIE PILEGARD .- Living on a ranch of the late George Pilegard, one and a quarter miles north of Bowles, in the Oleander district, Mrs. Carrie Pilegard presents an exalted example of widowed motherhood by keeping up the Pilegard home-bringing to bear the qualities that make a most excellent housekeeper and homemaker, as well as conservative bus- iness head.
Her husband died on the ranch September 22, 1906, and is buried in the Washington Cemetery. He was born at Fyen, Denmark, December 13, 1860, and grew up on his father's forty-acre farm in Denmark. Educated in the Danish public schools, young George was brought up in the tenets of the Lutheran faith and confirmed at the age of fourteen. At twenty-three years of age he sought a wider field for his energies and embarked for the shores of America. His first stop in the new land was at Marshalltown, Iowa, where he worked on a farm for one year. From thence he came to California and worked on the flume at Enterprise, Madera County. He was with the Flume and Lumber Company two years, and was employed a part of that time in making shakes. While working there he was united in marriage with Karen Nielsen Krog, daughter of Niels Hansen Krog and Annie Katrina (Christen- sen) Krog, natives of Fyen, Denmark, and the owners of a fifty-acre farm in that place and country. Her parents lived and died at Fyen, Denmark, the father attaining the advanced age of ninety-three before his demise, and the mother living to be eighty-three.
George Pilegard and Karen Nielsen Krog were schoolmates in Den- mark and were betrothed before young George came to America. In 1885 Karen Krog started for America to link her destiny with that of George Pilegard. After their marriage they lived in what is now Madera County from July 4th to December, 1886. Hearing of the fertile lands and the reason- able price of land in the Washington Colony at Oleander, a friend induced them to buy forty acres of land there. They built a small house with their own hands, began to improve the property and were happy in their new home. Eight children were born to them. Their oldest child died in infancy. An- drew, the oldest living child, is a fruit buyer and lives in Fresno. He married Lilly Kringel and they are the parents of one child, Helen Katrina by name. A daughter named Anna Katrina, died in infancy. Another daughter of the
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same name, Anna Katrina, graduated as a trained nurse from the Burnett Sanitarium at Fresno, and is now a Red Cross nurse in France. Christine also graduated from the same sanitarium and is likewise a Red Cross nurse in France. The sixth child, Karen Marie, died in infancy. George, who is sev- enteen, attends the high school at Easton, and Carrie, the youngest of the family, is also a student at Easton high school.
George Pilegard improved land and sold property several times, and at the time of his death the home ranch comprised eighty acres. Mrs. Pilegard sold twenty acres of the property to her son Andrew, retaining sixty acres.
Mr. and Mrs. Pilegard were among the prime movers in the organization of the Danish Lutheran Church at Easton, Cal., of which they were faithful members and consistent Christians. Mrs. Pilegard is a tireless Sunday School teacher and worker. She is a hospitable, generous, public-spirited woman, and both she and her children are prime favorites in the community. Her husband, a pioneer of the Oleander section, was looked up to as the leader among the Danes in the Washington Colony in Fresno County, Cal., during his lifetime.
JOSEPH E. GRUWELL .- A man who is fully qualified to bring about the best results in road-making is Joseph E. Gruwell, a native son, born in Lakeport, Lake County, Cal., February 25, 1870. He is a descendant of an old pioneer family, his grandfather, Jacob Gruwell, having been a member of the California Assembly in the days when the state was new, from Santa Clara County, having crossed the plains in ox team train. His father located northeast of Hanford in 1875, where he owned an eighty-acre ranch, and where he made his home all the years up to his death July 4, 1913. J. E. Gruwell received his education in Eureka school district, in Kings County, when he was with his father. He later went to work for the Clark Brothers as ranch foreman. This firm engaged in farming on a large scale, having 3,500 acres of land. In those early days Mr. Gruwell worked with ten eight- horse plow teams and four drill teams. For six years he stayed with this firm, at the end of which time he homesteaded a quarter section of land in the Weed Patch country, Kern County, proving up in five years and returned to Kings County, where he farmed the Burris ranch, renting a quarter sec- tion nine miles northeast of Hanford, raising grain and stock. He next bought forty acres of raw land eight miles northeast of Hanford, which he improved with orchard, later disposing of this and locating in Coalinga in 1909. Here he opened a blacksmith shop on Forest Avenue, and put in all the machinery and improvements necessary for a modern shop, which he sold the same year. He then started and operated the largest stage line to the oil fields-four machines, including a twenty-five passenger White truck.
In 1914 he received the appointment of superintendent of roads. Here was his opportunity, and he has made many improvements in the roads in this district. He opened up the road from Coalinga to Kings County known as Lost Hills roads. A dirt grade road to the county line completed the road system between Coalinga and Huron. The Stratford road to Kings County line opened up direct communication with graded roads to all the above named points. Also improved the Coalinga-Fresno road with a dirt grade. He uses a Holt seventy-five horsepower tractor for road working and a Jeffries truck for hauling.
Mr. Gruwell invested in a corner lot in Coalinga on east E Street, where he built four houses which bring him in a good income. He was married in Hanford to Kate Barton, who was born in Eldorado County, Cal. She is a member of the Christian Church. Her father is H. D. Barton, who was a former supervisor of Kings County.
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H. P. STEITZ, JR .- A business man who now presides over large af- fairs and who has been successful since he cast his lines in Fresno and who is deeply interested in the growth and development of the county, is H. P. Steitz, Jr., who was born at Skadofsky, Samara, Russia, on June 29, 1875, the son of H. P. Steitz, who was a farmer there, who married Catherine Elizabeth Doos, and brought his wife and four children to Fresno in 1891. For some years he followed a business career and is now Deputy County Assessor. He is also engaged in the real estate business, and his wife enjoys life with him at their Lilly Avenue home.
H. P. Steitz, Jr., is the oldest of the family, and was so well educated at the public and higher schools in his native land that he studied English at Saratof. This quickened his interest in the New World, and he was quite wide-awake when he arrived in Fresno on December 12, 1891. He attended night school for a time and then leased, with his father as partner, the Dr. Mukes vineyard. Later he worked for wages at viticulture, and next went to Del Rey and set out a vineyard for Mr. Nutting, receiving for his labor the title to twenty acres. He is a stockholder in the California Associated Raisin Company.
On July 1. 1895, Mr. Steitz was married to Miss Eliza Schwabenland, also a native of Russia. He owns a comfortable residence at 2030 California Ave- nue as well as other valuable city property; and eight children enjoy with their devoted parents the blessings of an American home. They are Edward, Leo, William, and Ida, all of whom assist the father in business, and Meda, Albert, Elma, and Allen.
After devoting himself to viticulture for many years, Mr. Steitz on De- cember 24, 1909, began his mercantile career, opening a general merchandise business on South F Street under the firm name of Kinzel & Steitz. In Jan- uary, 1919, however, he sold out his interest to his partner and later built his new store at 2038 California Avenue. He has a floor space 66 x 100 feet in size, and the firm is known as H. P. Steitz & Sons, his three sons now sharing the partnership.
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