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 107
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In 1912 he sold out and located in Tranquillity, where he bought forty acres of raw land, which he leveled and checked for alfalfa. He also set up a dairy. He is now leasing the ranch, while he is raising broom-corn and once more mak- ing brooms, which he sells in Fresno and throughout the San Joaquin Valley, dis- posing of them by means of a truck, only in wholesale quantities. In addition to this important industry, Mr. Voorhees is interested in bee-culture, and has an apiary of fifty colonies which produce superior honey. He also deals extensively in poultry and eggs, and has some 350 choice fowls, so that a visit to his home ranch is sure to stimulate one's ambition.
Of the second marriage of Mr. Voorhees there were eight children: Clo, now Mrs. John L. Hart, of Jamison; Glen, who was an apiarist here, and who died at the age of twenty-one, on November 15, 1918; Arthur, in the garage bus- iness in Tranquillity ; and Blanche, Mattie, Paul, Irene, and Leslie, all at home. Both Mr. and Mrs. Voorhees are members of the Church of Christ at Tran- quillity.
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S. JOHN HEIBERG .- Among Fresno's other successful industries is the Fresno Brewery, the only institution of its kind between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Its large business is due to a very considerable extent to the effi- ciency of its enterprising superintendent and brewing master, S. John Heiberg. Mr. Heiberg was born in Viborg, Denmark, May 11, 1880, and is the son of Dr. P. W. and Minna Heiberg, both of whom are living.
We generally think of Denmark in connection with the dairy industry, as it has a world-wide reputation for the excellency of the products of its dairy; but that they have also brought to a high degree of perfection the art of brewing is evidenced by the fact that it was in the city of Copenhagen that Mr. Heiberg learned the brewing business. He received his education in the very excellent schools of Denmark, which are quite as noted for thoroughness as the schools of their neighbor, Germany. After finishing school he began his life work, taking up the business of brewer and mastering it in its minutest details. He learned the business in Munich and Copenhagen in the old country, completing it in the American city of Chicago, becoming an expert in the line of master brewer, after which he was with the Conrad Seipp Brewing Company in the latter city as assistant superintendent and brewing master. In March, 1912, he came to Fresno and assumed his present position. Since taking charge of the Fresno Brewery he has made many and costly improvements in the brewery, among others the installation of a complete laboratory in which he makes all his own tests.
His marriage, November 2, 1901, united him with Miss Zenia Schultz, and they are the parents of three children, Ellie, Asta, and Peter W.
In his religious convictions Mr. Heiberg is a member of the Danish Lutheran Church. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Woodmen of the World as well as being connected with the Danish Brotherhood and the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks.
J. A. SCHLOTTHAUER .- One of the prime movers in the organization of the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers Association is J. A. Schlotthauer. He and his wife worked hard to lay aside a certain competency ; and one of their first investments was a course for both in a business college. Now Mr. Schlotthauer, ably assisted by his wife, has made for himself an enviable reputation as an orchardist and viticulturist who both understands how to grow and how to sell.
Mr. Schlotthauer was born in Marion County, Kans., on September 17, 1881, the son of the Rev. George Adam Schlotthauer, who was a clergyman of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In 1889 he removed with his family to the State of Washington and settled near Colfax, in the Palouse country, where he farmed at the same time that he preached the Gospel. In 1903 he came to California and bought twenty acres near Easton in Fresno County. He set out a vineyard and an orchard, and he still remained faithful in his ministry. He had three charges-at Exeter, Dinuba and Fresno-and when he passed away, at Visalia in October, 1914, he was mourned by many who had profited through his unselfish life. Mrs. Schlotthauer was Maria K. Schmidt before her marriage, and she resides in Exeter. She is the mother of ten children, all of whom are still living.
J. A. Schlotthauer, the fourth child in the family, received the foundation of his education at the public schools, after which he early went to work, so that from a lad he helped his father on the home farm. Then he engaged in wheat raising with his brother and for that purpose leased 800 acres of land. While at Colfax, Wash., he was married to Lydia Schreiber, who was born in Nebraska; and after their marriage he and his wife attended Walla Walla College for a year.
In 1904 he located at Biola, in Fresno County, where he bought forty acres of raw land, and soon set out a vineyard and planted alfalfa. Three years later he sold out at a profit, and then he removed to the vicinity of Exeter, where he bought 105 acres on the Kaweah River, where he engaged in dairying and stock-
Mr.& Mrs. b. H. Nilmeier
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raising for four years, when he again sold out at a profit. He then entered Heald's Business College at Fresno, where he took a business course, after which he located in Tulare County, farming there until he bought his present place at Barstow. This included eighty acres bought on January 22, 1914, only nine of which were improved; and there he set out thirty-one acres in Thompson seed- less grapes, five acres of Elberta peaches, fifteen acres of peaches and figs inter- set, fifteen acres in figs and the balance in apricots, with an orange grove of two acres now in bearing. Mr. Schlotthauer also owns eighty acres at Caruthers, sixty of which are set out to peaches and twenty to apricots ; and besides man- aging these properties, he is engaged in general contracting for leveling and checking lands.
One child, Harold, has blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Schlotthauer. Mr. Schlotthauer is a member of the Woodmen of the World; the Adventist Church and clerk of the board, and while in Tulare County was trustee of the Venice school district. He is also a member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Associated Raisin Company, and he helped to organize the Fresno Cooperative Dairyman's Association, acting as its first secretary. Out of it grew the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers' Association, of which he is a member and its first secretary.
CONRAD H. NILMEIER .- In the life of this successful rancher of the Biola district is shown what can be accomplished by strong hands and a keen mind, coupled with perseverance and energy, judicious management, and strict integrity. C. H. Nilmeier was born in Stepnoski, Samara, Russia, October 25, 1874, the son of Conrad and Kathrina (Kerber) Nilmeier, both now deceased, the former in 1908, and the latter in 1880.
The second oldest in a family of five born to his parents, C. H. was educated in the public schools of his native province and assisted his father on the home farm until 1898. That year marks his arrival in Fresno County. His first employment here was for the Southern Pacific Railway, for two years; he then went with the California Products Company and learned the business from the bottom, and became foreman, a position he held for three years. For one year after that he followed teaming in Fresno.
In 1904, Mr. Nilmeier bought his ranch of forty acres on Barstow Ave- nue, Biola district. It was then raw land and he put in all the improvements that go to make it a splendid ranch, and brought it to a high state of culti- vation. He set out Thompson seedless vines and now has twenty acres de- voted to that culture, the balance being in muscat grapes. He installed wells and has built his new residence on the property, one of the finest ranches in the district.
The marriage of Mr. Nilmeier occurred on January 15, 1895, in Russia, and united him with Miss Katherine Horg, also born there. Eight children brighten their home: Annie, Lillia, David, Emma, Solomon, Lizzie, Elias and Samuel. The family attends the Zion Congregational Church in Fresno. Mr. Nilmeier is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company. He is a hustler, a man who does things, and his success is deservedly a matter of pride and an example.
WILLIAM U. WALDER .- One of the oldest remaining settlers in the Arizona district who is well-posted and interesting is William U. Walder, who first came to California in 1888, and was fortunate to begin his career of pros- perity in Fresno as early as 1892. He was born near East Grinstead, Sussex, England, on May 31, 1862, the son of Walter Walder, a farmer, now retired. He had married Harriet Uridge, a devoted wife now deceased. Seven children were born to the worthy couple, among whom William was the oldest and is the only one now in the United States.
Brought up on a farm, he attended the public schools of his neighborhood and remained in his native country until he was twenty-two. Then, in 1884, he went to New Zealand, sailing around the Cape of Good Hope; and he was fortu-
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nate, during three years of residence in Auckland, to find his health steadily im- proving.
In 1887 he went back to England, traveling by a steamer that circled Cape Horn; and the following year, when the effect of the great California boom was being felt even in Europe, he came out to San Francisco by way of the Pacific. He liked the country so well that he settled in Alameda County and there followed landscape gardening.
He was married there to Miss Emma Evans, a native of England of Welsh descent who had previously gone to New Zealand with a sister, where the subject of our sketch met her. Later she traveled to Australia; and still later came out to California.
In 1892 Mr. Walder located in Fresno and found employment as a horticul- turist near Centerville, where he set out orange orchards. In 1894 he went to West Park. Four years later, he located in Arizona Colony and engaged to take care of orchards. In 1900 he bought his present place of twenty acres on Purley Avenue. This property was hog wallow when he purchased it; but he set to work energetically to level and otherwise improve it, and he built himself a comfortable residence with well-improved grounds. He also set out a fine orchard of Elberta. Muir and Lovell peaches; and since then he has paid particular attention to the study of peaches, becoming an authority upon the subject. He has raised nursery stock and set out several orchards for others. He has long exhibited peaches at State fairs and in chamber of commerce exhibits, and has obtained favorable comment.
No more public-spirited citizen could be found than William Walder; for he has not only endeavored to earn his own prosperity, but he has energetically striven to advance the interests through which the people of Central California and indeed throughout the state might hope to prosper. He is a member and stockholder of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and has been so from its organization. A Republican in matters of national politics, he is one of the first to throw party lines to the winds in promoting local movements designed to up- lift the community.
Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Walder: Florence M., who was a teacher, is now the wife of Elmer Johnson and lives at Armona ; Ethel J. is teaching in this county; and George W. is attending the Fresno High School. The family are Seventh Day Adventists and are affiliated with that church in Fresno.
RALPH M. CUSHMAN .- An energetic rancher of good executive abil- ity living in the Riverdale sector of Fresno County, is Ralph M. Cushman, the representative of a very distinguished early Pilgrim family. His father was Royal David Cushman, who married Ada Keiser, and he was a branch of the State of Maine descendants of Robert Cushman, the Pilgrim who had much to do with the migration of the early Protestant fathers to Holland, 'and later furthered the project of the migration to New England. There have been thirteen generations of the Cushmans since their settlement in the Mas- sachusetts Bay Colony, and our subject belongs to the twelfth. His parents reside at the St. Helena Sanatorium. One only sister, Helen Cushman, dwells in San Francisco.
Mr. Cushman was born at Fallon, Churchill County, Nev., on March 28. 1889, and came to Oakland, where he attended the Polytechnic school and Bus- iness College. At the age of nineteen, he came here and rented for a year the place of old "Uncle" Job Malsbury. On the settlement of the estate, Mr. Cush- man was forced to give up his lease, and it was then that he entered the service of Mr. Lewis. He worked by the month, stuck faithfully "on the job," and made good and established both name and credit.
In 1911, Mr. Cushman was married to Miss Tina Lewis, the daughter of John B. Lewis, who was a native of Bond County, Ill., where he was born in 1862. His father died in 1879, before which time John received the benefits of a common school education. Remaining home until 1880, he came to California
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in that year with his mother. Six years later he engaged in the stock business on his own account in the Riverdale district, and there he lived until he purchased forty acres, nine miles from Laton, on the west. Later he added 700 acres, much of which he used for grazing purposes. Besides an extensive cattle business, Mr. Lewis had a finely appointed dairy with forty cows. At Gilroy, in Santa Clara County, he was married to Miss Nannie A. Turner, the daughter of James H. Turner of Monterey County, who crossed the plains in 1849 and again in 1852. He was a stockraiser and general farmer. Miss Turner became a teacher in Fresno, Santa Clara and Butte counties, and in time the responsibility was hers of teaching two children of her own: a son, Alfred T., and a daughter, Tina. Mr. Lewis was always distinguished for his public-spiritedness, and among the projects whose success was due in part to his efforts, was the building of the Farmers' Telephone.
Mr. Cushman is now proprietor of the Altina Stock Farm, long owned by Mr. Lewis, having made the purchase in .1914. There he has built an excellent dairy barn 75x117 feet in size, and also a horse barn and a fine residence. He has built two De Laval Twin Silos, each having a capacity of 154 tons; installed an Empire milking machine, and he owns four full-blooded Holstein bulls of the Julian and Johanna strains. He milks every day 100 cows, and he owns 600 head of cattle in all.
With two other persons, Mr. Cushman rents 4,000 acres of swamp land, which is used for grazing; the other partners being Dr. Sifton and C. A. Smith. he has also bought the old Northcraft place of 240 acres, a little north and west of the J. B. Lewis place, and he owns and operates that in connection with the Altina stock ranch.
Mr. Cushman is a member of the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers' Asso- 'ciation, and a director in the same; and fraternally he belongs to the Riverdale Odd Fellows. His is a commanding personality, and his influence is felt for good in many lines of business, social and political endeavor.
SILVIO ZANOLINI .- A generous-hearted and public-spirited man, is Silvio Zanolini, the pioneer butter-maker, who owns two good ranches, which he has improved with dwelling-houses, barns and other out-buildings, and planted to alfalfa. He runs the smaller ranch of forty acres, and rents out the larger ranch to tenants. He has the distinction of being the first butter-maker at River- dale, and as such was employed by "Uncle" Job Malsbury on his dairy-farm at what is now Riverdale. He lives three miles west and one mile south of River- dale, and he has resided thirty years in this locality.
Mr. Zanolini was born in the Canton Ticino, Switzerland, on July 28, 1859, and remained in that country until he was fourteen, when he went to England and there learned the trade of a watch and clock maker. He worked at Cardiff, South Wales, from 1873 to 1877, after which he returned to Switzerland for a farewell visit of a couple of months. Then he started for America, sailing from Antwerp, and after landing at New York, came right to Petaluma, Cal., where he worked for a year on a dairy farm in Sonoma County. For four years he worked for John Cerini in Sonoma County, and for three years he worked for other folks at Bodega. He next rented a dairy farm near Salinas, but in a year went back to Bodega. The next year when he was nineteen years old, he came to the Riverdale section.
In partnership with Rocco S. Gobby, he rented the John's ranch for a couple of years; but on account of the mortality among cattle due to the Texas fever, he quit and went to work for Mr. Malsbury, who was then running a ranch and a dairy-in fact the first butter-making establishment where Riverdale now stands.
Our subject then bought a ranch of 178 acres immediately west of the River- dale school house which he still owns. At first the Riverdale school was located in the middle of his field ; but as it was desired to have the new buildings on Mt. Whitney Avenue, Mr. Zanolini traded land, giving the school district the two
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acres where the school house now stands. He bought the old school house and converted it into a dwelling, which he still owns.
Mr. Zanolini improved still another ranch of 120 acres, which he sold to John Cerini three years ago. He owns stock in the Riverdale Cooperative Cream- ery, and also in the First National Bank of Riverdale.
Public-spirited in the highest degree, and ready to advance the interests of the community in any way that he can, Mr. Zanolini gave about four acres of right of way for a county road, running north and south, and he also donated money for the building of the United Brethren Church at Riverdale, as well as the Catholic Church at Lanare, to which he belongs. As a stand-pat Republican. he made a departure in voting for President Wilson.
Mr. Zanolini has a brother who is a large dairy farmer in Santa Rosa, and a sister, Jacomina, now the wife of Mr. Ghidelli, a transfer man or teamster in the Alps, who is living at Cevio, Switzerland.
Both of Mr. Zanolini's parents are dead. His father was John B., and his mother Mary (Pedrazzi) Zanolini, each of whom was born at Linescio in the Canton Ticino. The father was a stone-mason, contractor and builder, who erected houses and stone-bridges and public works.
AUGUST METZLER .- A successful West Side wheat farmer and grain grower, the owner of 100 acres at Helm, which he bought in March, 1918, is August Metzler. He also rents the Admiral Clover ranch of 640 acres, which he farms to grain. Here he resides with his wife, who was Miss Annie Pretzer, who was born in Fresno County. She is a daughter of Wm. and Katie Pretzer, who reside in the suburbs of Fresno.
Mr. and Mrs. Metzler have five children: Mary, Alex, Rosa, August, and Edward. Mr. Metzler came to Fresno County, February 10, 1907, directly from his native home in the Valley of the Volga. He was born February 24, 1887, in Samara, Russia, about seventy-five miles from Saratof. Of a family of four children he and his elder brother, Peter, who lives in Fresno, grew to manhood. His parents were Peter and Mary Marie Metzler ; she died when August was only seven years old. The father was a farmer and was alive three years ago, but Mr. Metzler has not heard from him since then.
Having some relatives in Fresno County, Mr. Metzler made up his mind to see California, so he left his home in Russia, December 29, 1906, and reached Fresno, February 20, 1907. He started working as a farm hand, saved his money, 'and in 1909 rented the ranch where he now resides. About 100 acres of his land is in alfalfa, and the balance he farms to wheat. Mr. Metzler uses tractor power in most of his farming operations, owning a seventy-five horsepower Holt cater- pillar tractor, and a combined harvester and thresher.
A. R. LE FEVRE .- One of the most highly respected citizens of Fresno County, is A. R. Le Fevre, who resides on his well-improved sixty-acre ranclı on the North McCall Road, about four miles north of Selma, where he has re- sided since 1900. He has recently purchased another neighboring ranch of twenty acres which, like the home ranch, is devoted to raisin grapes, the latter place being operated by his adopted son, John S. Le Fevre.
A. R. Le Fevre was born near Auburn, N. Y., September 23, 1849. His father was a wheelwright who took Josh Billings' advice and "went to Wash- ington," D. C. Shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War, he became a farmer 'at Fairfax Court House, about half way between Washington and Bull Run, and was engaged in farming and market gardening at the time of the war. As a boy, A. R. Le Fevre heard the roar of artillery and saw the smoke of the various battles on Bull Run and peddled vegetables to both armies. During these terri- ble days school was abandoned for four years, while the dangers and hardships incident to that time and place can better be imagined than described. He grew up on his father's farm and for two years he clerked in a store, but his main occupation was farming at Fairfax, Va., until he came to Fresno County, Cal., February 1, 1888. He first settled east of Fowler and for many years was en-
y. M. wishkian mrs. G. m. hishkian
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
gaged in wheat-farming. Since coming to the present place, he has devoted him- self to raisin-growing and has taken an active interest in cooperating with and furthering the best interests of the raisin growers. He has become a man of wide acquaintance and is one of the most highly respected citizens of the com- munity because of his firm adherence to principles of right and justice and his uncompromising attitude on matters relating to temperance. His scrupulous re- gard for decency, truth and right, is no doubt inherited from his ancestors who were French Huguenots who settled near Kingston in Ulster County, N. Y, about the year 1600. He is the third child in a family of five children of Peter J. and Sarah E. (Hutchinson) Le Fevre, the former having been born in New York and the latter in Connecticut. Of their five children: one boy and one girl are deceased ; one girl is Mary E. H. Flower of Long Beach, and one is Mrs. C. E. Ross of Fowler.
A. R. Le Fevre was married at Fresno to Miss Agnes Boyd, a woman of sterling worth and they now have a comfortable and happy home. They have legally adopted a son, John S. Le Fevre, who is now a young man and who is ably assisting Mr. Le Fevre in his ranching operations.
By his consistent hard work, Mr. Le Fevre has contributed much to the material upbuilding of Fresno County.
GARABED M. NISHKIAN .- A well-educated, broad-minded, char- itable and prominent man was Garabed M. Nishkian, the pioneer raisin-grower who passed away four years ago leaving as his widow a very cultured and refined woman, equally esteemed and beloved by those who know her. He was born in the Oriental city of Erzeroum, Turkish Armenia, on August 27, 1855, a member of a noted family, and the son of Marderos Nishkian, who was a merchant in Constantinople. He grew up to be a patriotic leader famed in his country, and the only survivor, thirty-two years ago, of a party of fifty which led an uprising against the Turkish atrocities. He was the only one of these patriots to escape after death sentence had been passed by the Turk- ish Government; for in about 1883, while he even carried a copy of his death sentence with him, he fled across the Caucasian border and finally made his way to America, where he joined a cousin, Peter Nishkian, a chemist in the employ of the Armour Packing Company, Kansas City, Mo. A few months later he came to California, in 1884. and seeing the possibilities here for raisins, he established a vineyard. Shortly after his arrival, he was photographed, holding the death sentence in his hand, with chains on one side of him and the American flag as the emblem of liberty on the other; and this photograph, with a copy of a patriotic song he had composed, he sent to his family still in Erzeroum, a little while later arranging for the transportation here of his mother, four brothers and a sister.
About 1890 he was married at Fresno to Miss Horopik Magaria, a native of the same place from which he came, whose father was a large farmer and had his headquarters in Constantinople. There she was reared and educated ; and there she has a brother who is a judge. They engaged in viticulture in the Scandinavian Colony about 1890, continued there till 1899, when they purchased their well-known place, devoting the forty acres to vine-growing. It is a beautiful place on White's Bridge Road, four miles west of Fresno, and there Mr. Nishkian passed away in December, 1915. He had been ill for three years, and in a declining condition for several weeks, and he went to his last rest only a few days after his mother had passed away, who had reached the ripe old age of eighty-eight.
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