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 106

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1424

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 106

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Having a chance to sell his forty-acre ranch at a good profit in 1907, Mr. Jensen did so, and the following year he bought his present home place of the same size, one mile south of Barstow. This he has devoted to vineyard purposes, setting out the vines himself; and he has thirty acres of Thompson seedless. He has also purchased another forty acres across the road, and most of this he has planted to alfalfa, reserving twelve acres for a vineyard of Thompson's. A member of the California Associated Raisin Company, Mr. Jensen both profits from the experience of others and contributes somewhat himself to the general advancement of California husbandry.

While at West Park, Mr. Jensen was married to Mary Stahl, a charming lady from Iowa; and for years he has maintained a happy home typical of Californian hospitality.

VICTOR ROBERTS .- Victor Roberts was born near St. Aux Bar- ragues, Hautes-Alpes, France, September 25, 1854. His father, Robert Roberts, was a stone-mason by trade and followed contracting and building. He married Julia Seinturier and they had a family of four children of whom Victor is the oldest. He came to Chicago, Ill., when seventeen, arriving in March, 1873, and was in the employ of Armour and Company. In January, 1874, he removed to Wisconsin, where he was employed at sawmilling and lumbering for two years, his wages being $12.00 per month. On account of the confusion in his name, people insisting on writing it Robert Victor he added an s to his family name, making it Roberts.

In April, 1876, he came to San Francisco, Cal., and in July of the same year to Hollister where he was employed by a sheep man and drove a band of sheep into the Cholame country in San Luis Obispo County and later into Madera and Fresno Counties. It was in 1877, that he came with a flock to Huron -to ship from the end of the new railroad. He drove a stage in 1879 from Parkfield to Soledad for one year. Having saved some money he concluded to settle down. In 1882 he located his present place-a preemption-of 160 acres and afterwards homesteaded 160 acres, the beginning of his present large hold-

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ings in Jacolitos Canyon. He engaged in cattle raising in which he was very successful adding to his possessions until he now owns 4,000 acres on Jacolitos Creek for a distance of about seven miles. This he has fenced and cross-fenced and devoted to raising cattle, hogs and horses. Jacolitos Ranch, as he has named it, is well watered by numerous springs and is a most excellent stock ranch. Mr. Roberts is able to graze over 300 head of cattle on his range ; his brand is VR con- nected and he is a member of the California Cattle Growers Association.

Jacolitos Canyon is an old historical place in Fresno County and has been the scene of many interesting incidents. The Indians from Tulare Lake came here to hunt deer and bear and to gather acorns and red clover; they built small huts, which they thatched with tules. When the Sonorans or Mexicans came they found these little huts and named the creek Jacolitos, meaning "little huts." It was at one time the rendezvous of Vasques, who had a cabin built of mud and sticks close to the creek and here he lived with Old Mariana and from this point they made raids to the Salinas, as well as the San Joaquin valleys for bunches of cattle, and on their return would feast on them. They also had gar- dens where they raised vegetables and melons. This was during the latter part of Vasques career and the remains of the hut are still here.

August 30, 1885, on the Jacolitos, Mr. Roberts was married at the home of the bride, Miss Addie Frame, born at Copperopolis, Cal., the daughter of James Frame, a pioneer of Jacolitos Creek country. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have six children. Zilphia, Mrs. Arthur Bennett, who are ranching on the Jacolitos ; Hugo, who served in the United States Naval Reserves, is a graduate of San Luis Obispo Polytechnic and is a cattle-grower on the Jacolitos; Ernest is in the United States Navy; Velma and Vera, twins, Velma is Mrs. Charles Eastland of Coalinga, and Vera is a graduate nurse and resides in San Jose; and Robert is attending Coalinga Union High School. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have a com- fortable liome and, being liberal entertainers, Jacolitos Ranch is known for its hospitality and good cheer.

HERMAN H. GREVE .- At the mouth of the Salt Creek in Warthan Canyon lies the ranch of Mr. and Mrs. Herman H. Greve nicely located in the foothills of the Coast Range. Mr. Greve was born in Priest Valley, Monterey County, May 6, 1886. His father, Paul Greve, was born in Ger- many and was raised a farmer's boy; there he married Sophia Abell and soon afterwards the young couple came to California. For a time they farmed near Hollister, and then became pioneers of Priest Valley, where they home- steaded land and engaged in farming and stock-raising, and there Paul Greve died. He is survived by his wife, who still resides on the old homestead. However the home ranch is now owned by four of the sons who tenderly care for the aged mother, seeing she is comfortable and well cared for. Ten children born to this worthy couple grew up and are as follows : Annie, Mrs. St. John, lives near San Francisco; Hannah, Mrs. Thomas Himmih of King City ; Lena, Mrs. E. L. Arnold, lives in Coalinga ; Emma was Mrs. Brummell and she died in King City ; Paul, one of the Greve Brothers, is a rancher near the old home; Joseph also interested in Greve Brothers, is a rancher in the same vicinity, Martin S. of Greve Brothers, is engineer at Station 2, Asso- ciated Pipe Line; Herman H. is the subject of this review; Bertha, resides with her mother; while Harry H. is a cattle grower on Salt Creek, Fresno County.

Herman H. grew up on the Priest Valley ranch and from a boy learned to ride the range and to rope and brand cattle, at the same time receiving a good education in the school of his home district. Two years after his father's death, which occurred in 1898, he, with his brothers Paul, Joseph and Martin, as Greve Brothers, engaged in stockraising and farming on the old home place and in time became the owners of the ranch which is still in their name. In 1907 Herman H. located a homestead on Salt Creek in Warthan Canyon, and this he improved and engaged in stock-raising on his own account, using the brand H. N. combined.

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In Fresno, October 17, 1907, Mr. Greve was united in marriage with Miss Ella M. Grant, who was born in Martin Township, Allegan County, Mich. Her parents, Jesse T. and Martha (O'Conner) Grant, natives of Pennsylvania, were farmers in Allegan County, where the mother died; her father now resides in Fresno County. The two children born of this marriage, Mrs. Herman H. Greve and Clara G., Mrs. M. S. Greve, both live in Fresno County. Mr. Greve came to Fresno County in 1910 and seeing the value and importance of owning land he located a homestead-their present home on Salt Creek-which is now well improved and where they have a comfortable home of 520 acres, beside Mr. Greve's old homestead adjoining the ranch. Besides this Mr. Greve leases land in Warthan Canyon upon which he raises grain. He has had much experience in road building and for several years has been overseer of roads, his district being from Alcalde to the Monterey County line, a distance of twenty miles. To this position he gives the same close attention that he does to his own business and sees to it that the roads in his district are kept in good shape. The result of the union of Herman Greve and Ella Grant is one child, a son named Dale Herman Greve. In national politics Mr. Greve is a stanch Republican.

JOHN W. RUBLE .- A successful rancher of Fresno County is John W. Ruble, who resides one mile west of Laton, and who, for the past sixteen vears, has farmed, with the most up-to-date apparatus, on the Laguna de Tache. He was born at Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pa., on' December 8, 1859, the son of John and Annie (Lawver) Ruble, both natives of Pennsyl- vania and descendants of early settlers there. Although popularly called Pennsylvania Dutch, the forebears of the family really came from England, where they were farmers.

John W. is the tenth child in a family of four girls and seven boys, all of whom were endowed with hardy physiques, and each of whom, save those who died, has attained to some success. Lewis Ruble, a brother, who died two years ago, was steward on the Mifflin County Farm for a quarter of a century ; and the oldest brother, Isaac L., was a locomotive engineer on the railways until he was sixty-five, when he was automatically retired on ac- count of the age limit. He is now seventy-five and lives at Lewistown. Two brothers are also in California ; George F., a grocer at Berkeley ; and Aaron, a rancher near Chico. A brother died in infancy, and another died from the effects of a fall in his barn. Of the four sisters, one died when young, and the second in the order of birth passed away in her thirtieth year, leaving a husband, Will Wagner, and four children, at Halstead, Kans. The other sisters are Mary Jane, the widow of Frank Roth, who resides at Monticello, Ind., and Susie, the wife of M. H. Carter, of Sawyer, Kans.

John W. Ruble grew up on his father's farm at Mifflin, and went to school during the winters. After his father's death in 1883, he bade good-bye to the old home and, with his mother and a sister, settled in Pratt County, Kans., where he took a preemption and proved up. Three years later in that county he was married to Miss Dora E. Flint, a native of Ireland, Ind., and the daughter of John and Nancy (Brittain) Flint. Mrs. Ruble came to Kan- sas, a single woman of twenty-four, took a preemption claim in Barber County and proved up on it. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Ruble moved to Greeley County, Kans., and while homesteading land lived there for seven years, and there their four children were born: Alice, Wilbur, Anna and Jerry L. In this western part of the state drought devastated their land and they lost all that they had. Then they moved to Ordway, Colo., thence to La Junta, thence to Rocky Ford, and there they did well, buying and culti- vating fifteen acres.

In 1903 the family came out to California and settled in Laton, where Mr. Ruble bought sixty-two and a half acres, on which he has made all the improvements; and now he has thirty acres set to peach, pear, prune and

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apricot trees, and a fine vineyard of grapes. For a while he ran a dairy, but now he is cultivating prunes. He also has a few cows, of the Holstein breed, and some poultry. By steady work Mr. and Mrs. Ruble have prospered, and as fast as they were able, they have shared that prosperity with their chil- dren. Alice is a graduate from the business college at Rocky Ford, Colo .; her husband is Roy H. Hampton, an orchardist and dairyman, and they own sixty acres west of Mr. Ruble's, and have two children. Wilbur was a student in the third year of the Laton High School when he received an appointment at Annapolis ; and entering there on July 4, 1910, he was graduated four years later. He married Miss Mildred Larkins, of Brooklyn, N. Y. During the late war he served on Admiral Robison's staff on the flagship Chicago, and when Admiral Robison was sent to Europe, Wilbur was chosen as his aid, and in- spected forts, war vessels, etc. He is now taking a two-years' postgraduate course in radio and electrical engineering. Anna married Mr. Ted Haskell of Kingsburg, also a successful rancher and orchardist. She was a graduate of Laton High School and an accomplished pianist. Jerry L. Ruble, is an in- structor in the government veterinary training-schools. He was made Cap- tain in August, 1918; he came home on a furlough and was married at Kings- burg on August 3, 1919, to Miss Elda Odessa Trent, of Laton, a graduate of the University of California, and a teacher. The young couple will go to Atlanta, Ga., where Captain Ruble is stationed. All these children, in their honorable and serviceable careers, well maintain the traditions of Mrs. Ru- ble's father, John Q. Flint, of Du Bois County, Ind., who fought for the Union during three years of the Civil War, and afterward displayed a useful citizen- ship.

Mr. Ruble is a loyal Democrat in national politics, and in local affairs he votes for the best measures.

HENRY ST. GEORGE L. HOPKINS, M. D .- For over thirty-three years a resident of Fresno and a practicing physician in the city and county, the name of Dr. H. St. George Hopkins was very well and widely known. A gentleman of stately presence and charming manner, he belonged to a type now passing. Of unusual attainments, he held wherever he lived, various important public offices. He was, for a term, president of the County Med- ical Society, and from 1892 to 1896 was County Health Officer, and in that capacity started a movement for the erection of a drinking fountain at the Mariposa Street entrance to the court house park. The sum of $1,000 was collected by the Salvation Army for the purpose, and since then countless hundreds have been refreshed by the boy with the dripping boot. Dr. Hop- kins was United States Pension Examiner for twenty years, and at the time of his death was Secretary of the Pension Bureau.

In 1900, although sixty-six years of age, the doctor, with characteristic courage, joined the onrushing gold-seekers who were bound for Nome, Alaska, where for a few months he practiced his profession and also served as health officer, returning to his Fresno home in the fall of the same year.

Dr. Hopkins was a life-long Episcopalian and was an honored member of Stirling Price Camp of Confederate Veterans in Fresno.

Henry St. George Lyons Hopkins was a brother of the late Commodore William E. Hopkins, U. S. N., and related to distinguished families of the South. He was born October 21, 1834, on the ancestral estate of "Page Brook," near Winchester, Va., his mother being Abby Byrd Page ; his father, John Hopkins, born at "Hill and Dale," the Hopkins plantation in Virginia, was an eminent lawyer in the courts of the state. The grandfather of St. George Hopkins, was John Hopkins, a Colonel in the Army of the Revolu- tion, commanding the Third Virginia Regiment. Before the Declaration of Independence, John Hopkins was "Receiver of Titles and Monies" under the Georges, for that country then known as the Great Northwestern Territory.

It. De La Martins M.D.

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Young Hopkins received his early education in private schools and the University of Virginia. Entering the University of Pennsylvania, he was graduated from that college with both the academic and medical degrees in 1855. After eighteen months as hospital interne he was employed by the Government on detached service as surgeon in the North Atlantic passenger service between New York and Liverpool, which post he filled for three years. Then, in 1859, he went to Philadelphia where he engaged in the practice of his profession. Of Southern birth and fighting stock, when the Civil War broke out young Dr. Hopkins returned at once to his native state and en- listed as a private in Company H, Twenty-seventh Virginia Infantry, com- manded by Captain Kertz, and known as the Stonewall Brigade. True to his ancestry he was a gallant soldier, and for meritorious service was pro- moted to the rank of major and attached to the staff of General William Pendleton, Chief of Artillery. He was transferred to the Second Virginia Battalion of Artillery, and then to the Third Virginia Battalion of Artillery ; then to Third North Carolina Battalion of Artillery, Colonel William P. Nel- son commanding, on staff of Major-General D. H. Hill ; transferred to medical department by order of General R. E. Lee. Here he was surgeon in charge of ambulance corps, and in charge of General Hospital No. 19, Richmond, Va. He was one of the corps of medical officers to regulate operations in the field, Surgeon of the Bureau of Exchange, and Chief Surgeon on the staff of Major-General Daniel Ruggles of the Middle Medical Department. He surrendered at Atlanta, Ga., to General Upton, U. S. A.

Dr. Hopkins had his share of narrow escapes, and experienced life in an army prison. He was with Stonewall Jackson when the General was killed, and a bullet struck the watch in a pocket over the doctor's heart; al- ways thereafter he treasured that bullet and watch, together with the sword he had carried through the war. For services rendered the cause Dr. Hopkins received the rare Confederate Cross of Honor, and with most justifiable pride wore it the remainder of his life. It went with him to his grave in the family plot in Mountain View Cemetery.

After the war Dr. Hopkins went to Baltimore where he resumed the regular practice of medicine and surgery, and where, in 1866, he married Miss Katherine Dunnington, a lady noted for her beauty and amiable qual- ities. With his family he removed, in 1870, to Virginia City, Nev., and figured in the stirring events attending the frenzied excitement of the Comstock Discoveries. From Nevada the doctor took his family to Oakland, Cal., in 1878, and there, two years later, his wife died leaving four children: Page, of Sonoma County; Frank Dunnington, who, with the rank of Captain has creditably followed family tradition with the American forces in France and Germany; Mary M. Alexander of Washington, D. C .; and Alice H., wife of A. A. Brigstocke of Reedley, Cal. In the spring of 1881 Dr. Hopkins came to Fresno, bringing his children, and in 1886 was wedded to Miss Annie M. Foster, elder daughter of John and Lydia Foster, whose history appears else- where in this work. Of this marriage were born three sons. Henry Lyons, who is Boy Scout Executive for Fresno; Wilson Foster, who passed away May 28, 1915, at the age of twenty-five ; and George Hart, who was graduated from the University of Nevada with the class of 1919.

Owing to the death in 1896 of Mrs. Hopkins' only sister, Mrs. Emma Rogers, who had been living with their widowed mother, the doctor with his wife and three young sons, and his daughter Alice, took up his residence in the Foster family home at 1327 K Street. There he lived till May 25, 1914, when his demise at the age of eighty years removed from the city of Fresno one of its most impressive characters, a dignified, genial, courtly gentleman of the old school.

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W. FLANDERS SETCHEL .- Born in London, England, September 15, 1882, W. Flanders Setchel was a son of William Samuel and Lavina (Cross- ley) Setchel. Both parents are still living at Peterborough, Northampton- shire, England. The father is a well-known mechanical engineer, who has given years of service to the English Government, and who, during the late war, was particularly active in the service of Great Britain, and who holds many important positions of a public character. To the parents have been born three children: George, who is a public accountant in London; W. Flanders, the subject of this sketch; and Lavina, who is the wife of Walter Bunney whose father is a merchant prince of Liverpool.

W. Flanders Setchel was taught by a private tutor and took special courses in a London college until he was eighteen, and later became a student of the City of London College, qualifying himself for the profession of public accountant, specializing in commercial law, banking and economics. In 1910, on account of ill health, Mr. Setchel came to the United States and a short time later arrived in California, and settled in Fresno, where he soon re- covered his normal health. He was so favorably impressed with the climatic conditions that he decided to make Fresno his home.

Mr. Setchel began buying and selling vineyards throughout the county, and has been very successful. He organized the Setchel Fruit Company in 1915, and became actively interested in the packing and shipping of fresh fruits. The company was later incorporated with Mr. Setchel as president and manager. This corporation owns and controls about 1,200 acres of vine- yards and has its own packing-houses at Setch, Wahtoke, Minkler, Melvin, Sanger, Clovis and Lacjac in Fresno County ; Hardwick in Kings County ; one at Modesto, another at Lodi in San Joaquin County ; all specially equipped to handle the packing of fresh fruits. Each year the company has doubled its business of the preceding year. To accommodate its rapidly expanding business, this company has taken a suite of offices on the third floor of the Griffith-Mckenzie Building in Fresno. Mr. Setchel is also president of the Valley Fruit Growers' Association of Fresno, which organization has 4,000 members, and controls 300,000 acres of fruit.

Mr. Setchel was married at Oakland, on March 21, 1917, to Mrs. Minnie Carver-Wilson, of Fresno. He is a member of the Sequoia, Commercial, and Sunnyside Country Clubs of Fresno, and of the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. He manifests his public spirit by supporting all projects for the development of Fresno County, wherein he has won recognition as an up- builder.

HENRY H. WILLIAMS .- An oil man widely experienced in every de- partment of the development and production of oil in this and in foreign countries is Henry H. Williams, who holds a responsible position in Coalinga and has become one of its prominent and influential citizens. He was born in Lagro, Wa- bash County, Ind., on February 10, 1877, the son of Charles A. Williams, a native of Indiana, of Welsh descent, who was a real estate man and died in the scene of his later activities. He had married Mahala Heaston, who was born in Indiana and now resides at Marion, in that state, the mother of three children, two girls and a boy, all of whom have grown up. The Williams family are traced back to Massachusetts, 1635; members of the family served in the Colonial and Revolu- tionary wars.

Brought up in Indiana, Henry attended the public school at Marion, and when sixteen began work in the oil fields, commencing at the bottom round of the ladder. As a driller he was with the Standard Oil Company from the middle of his teens, until he was sent by them to Rumania, in 1903, at the beginning of their work there. He continued with them for four years, and in 1907 returned to Indiana.

The following year he came out to California and Coalinga, and was em- ployed on Section 2 as a driller. At the end of the year, however, he went to

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Peru, South America, and worked as a driller at Negritos, for the London Pacific Petroleum Company, now owned by the Standard Oil Company. Partly through his expert work, they were fortunate in striking oil, and he remained there for two years.

In 1911 he returned to Coalinga and entered the employ of the Canadian Coalinga Oil Company, where he was superintendent of drilling for about a year. In 1912 he resigned and again engaged as a driller for the Standard Oil Company, on Section 28; and after five years he was advanced to assistant superintendent of the producing department of Coalinga district which occupies all of his time and to the success of which he gives his best efforts.

At Bucharest, Rumania, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Goldie Daugh- erty, a native of Pittsburg, Pa. The happy couple now have two children : Marita, who was born in Rumania, and Harry, who is a native son of the Golden West.

TRUMAN L. VOORHEES .- A well-known and highly respected citizen of Tranquillity, who has not only improved a good alfalfa farm but has attained success in two different fields-that of the manufacture of brooms, pronounced the best made on the Coast, and the cultivation of bees-is Truman L. Voorhees, born in Buchanan, Berrien County, Mich., on May 20, 1863. His father was James Brown Voorhees, a native of New York and a cooper by trade, who brought his family to Jefferson County, Kans., in 1864, and located on a farm north of Lawrence. He improved the land and contracted to manufacture bar- rels. In 1872 he removed to Chase County and bought and improved a farm there. He married Lydia Stoddard, a native daughter of Ohio, and they had six children, three of whom are still living. Both parents died in Oklahoma. Tru- man, one of two in California, is the second youngest of the family.

Brought up in Kansas, he attended the public schools and then remained home to work and help until he was twenty-three. He was first married in Elk County, Kans., to Miss Nellie Phelps, a native of that State, after which he re- moved to Florissant, Colo., and Cripple Creek, where he engaged in lumbering and mining. Mrs. Voorhees died in Colorado and left five children : Essie M. is Mrs. Higginson of Colorado; James A. served in the United States Army in France ; Betsy A., now Mrs. Wight ; Nellie M .; and Roy Turner Voorhees, all of Colorado.

After removing to Lincoln, Okla., Mr. Voorhees was married again, on Feb- ruary 12, 1894, to Miss Elma D. Funk, a native of Kansas. Then he leased land and engaged in the raising of cotton and broom-corn. He established a well- equipped factory, and soon made a name as a manufacturer of brooms. Then, in 1905, he removed to California and settled at Dos Palos, where he bought fourteen acres of raw land, which he improved to alfalfa. He followed dairying and also continued the manufacture of brooms, winning a reputation for high- grade goods.

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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 II, Part 106

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1424