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 109
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William Jordan Moffitt was married at Stockton on November 23, 1914, to Miss Myrtle Patterson, a native of Madera County and the daughter of WV. S. Patterson, who had come to California as a young man and was a stock- raiser at Borden in that county. There he married Sarah F. Hope, whose father crossed the great plains from Missouri, and was one of the intrepid pioneers that helped to found this commonwealth. About 1904 Mr. Patterson located at Fresno, and later he had a stock ranch on Dry Creek. In time he improved a vineyard in the Wolter Colony. Both he and his wife died at Fresno. They had six children, of whom Mrs. Moffitt is the youngest. She was educated at Fresno. Mr. and Mrs. Moffitt have two promising children, William Francis and Ralph Charles. Mrs. Moffitt is a member of the Pres- byterian Church.
In 1915 Mr. Moffitt bought his twenty acres in the Wolter Colony, and having located here has been busy ever since making improvements. He has set out a fine vineyard of Thompson seedless grapes and has interset half of them with Calimyrna figs. He belongs to the California Peach Growers. Inc., and to the California Associated Raisin Company, and is among the first to cooperate in every good plan for the development of California hus- bandry on broad and permanent lines, and the extension of Fresno County's interests.
W. Y. DOUGLASS .- The noteworthy success achieved by W. Y. Douglass must be attributed to his persistence in the face of adverse circum- stances and to the ability and character by which he has made his way to a place among the successful viticulturists of Fresno County. He is a native of the Lone Star State, having been born in Texas, on February 16, 1877, the son of Theodore C. and Emma C. Douglass, natives of Tennessee and Ala- bama respectively. They were the parents of the following children : John D. at Merced; W. Y .; Mrs. Mary Jackson near Reedley; Mrs Viola Spears at Placerville; Charles and Emma, who are both deceased; Lottie teaching in Sanger; and Kate at home. The father, T. C. Douglass, migrated to California in 1885 and was the first man to purchase a forty-acre ranch in the St. Louis Colony, which he planted to vines and oranges and named the Sunny South Orchard. He passed away in 1915, his widow residing now at Sanger.
WV. Y. Douglass remained at home until twenty-four years of age, worked on the ranch and in the meantime, for four years, he carried the mail from Centerville to Sanger. His first ranching enterprise was under- taken in 1899 when he leased the old St. Louis ranch and made his first stake. For two years, at an annual rental of $400, by careful management he succeeded in making $1,000, and at the expiration of his lease, he pur- chased his present place of forty acres, paying $200 per acre. It is one of
natalia Semper
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the oldest ranches in the County, having been set out over fifty years ago by Hyde and Jackson, the ranch being taken up originally as government land. On the ranch stands the original house, the lumber for which was brought around Cape Horn. Since purchasing the ranch, Mr. Douglass has im- proved the place by erecting buildings and otherwise beautifying the ranch, which he increased in size in 1914, by the addition of thirty acres, making his total seventy acres of valuable land. From two acres of Emperor grapes he received $2,500 gross which serves to illustrate the profitableness of his splendid ranch. That portion of his ranch which was set out to raisin grapes, fifty years ago, yields three tons to the acre. Among the orange trees on his ranch are some that have been planted since 1890. There are two trees that were set out in the late sixties.
In 1909, W. Y. Douglass was united in marriage with Miss Mary Dei- trich, a daughter of Fred Deitrich, and this union has been blessed by two children : Doris V., and Rosemary. Mr. Douglass was bereft of the com- panionship of his wife, and the children of a loving mother's care and devo- tion, on April 2, 1914. On January 20, 1919, Mr. Douglass married for his second wife Marie Raypholtz, born in Medford, Ore.
Fraternally, W. Y. Douglass is a member of the Sanger Lodge of Eagles, and he has voted the Democratic ticket at national elections and shown his interest in educational matters by serving as a school trustee of the Center- ville School Districts.
NATALIO SEMPER .- An enterprising merchant and rancher, Natalio Semper was born at Yance, Navarra, Spain, on March 12, 1876, and when only seventeen years old landed at New York City, from which metropolis he came west to California in 1893. When he arrived here he was certainly face to face with stern reality; for he had only a few dollars in his pocket. He summoned his courage, came to Mendota, Fresno County, and started in to work for Miller & Lux, taking charge of a band of sheep. He received twenty dollars per month when working on the plains, and twenty-five when employed in the mountains. After one year he went to work for Celayeta & Yrigoyen, continuing with them and at the end of five years they paid him with a bunch of sheep and he then began in the sheep business for himself.
For fourteen years Mr. Semper ranged sheep all over Central and Northern California, walking thousands of miles and suffering many hard- ships and privations ; and at times he owned as many as 7,000 sheep. Condi- tions were sometimes against him, however, and he sold wool as low as five cents a pound, and lambs as low as $2.00 per head. But later he made good money in sheep, one deal alone netting him $2,000 profit in five months. In 1903 he sold all his sheep and immediately made a trip to Eastern Oregon where he purchased a band of horses and drove them overland to Stockton, Cal. Looking about he found a purchaser in Marysville for the lot. He then bought a band of sheep and resumed the sheep business and wool-growing.
In 1909 Mr. Semper sold all his sheep and came to Huron, Fresno County, where he bought a half interest in a general merchandise store. His first partner was J. O. Wachter, but he bought him out later and in 1911 M. Claverie joined him in partnership. The name of the firm was then Semper & Claverie; but on June 15, 1917, Mr. Semper became sole owner of the business. In 1919 Mr. Semper again began raising sheep and is now ranging two bands of sheep of 2,000 head each, making his headquarters at his Fresno residence.
He is now interested in grain farming near Huron, and with I. R. Hain farms 1,000 acres to grain. He himself owns eighty acres of land, and eleven town lots at Huron. He also owns two houses in Fresno, and one in Stock- ton, and his wife and children reside in one of the Fresno houses, which home, at 2926 Inyo Street, he built in 1915. Besides, he is half owner in a grain warehouse at Huron. He is a stockholder in the Chinn-Gribel Com- 106
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pany of Calexico, and this large corporation controls 100,000 acres of land fifty miles south of Mexicala in Lower California. Much of this richly- productive land is now being farmed to grain, with all modern machinery, including caterpillar engines and other notable contrivances and inventions. This venture in itself promises to make the stockholder a rich man. At any rate, it commands Mr. Semper's confidence and admiration, and he is one of the most enthusiastic boosters of the project.
While at Stockton, on December 20, 1906, Mr. Semper was married to Miss Telesfara Barcenilla, a native daughter of far-off Spain, who came to San Francisco in 1903, and by her he has had seven children, of which the parents are justly proud. Juanita; Guadalupe ; Alfonzo; Martin; Felisa; Miguel ; and Ethel. Each of these children are receiving every educational advantage. Mr. Semper believes in protection for Americans, and is a Republican. He is one of the original stockholders of the Growers National Bank of Fresno. In 1900 he made a trip back to his old home where he visited relatives and friends, but after a five-months' visit he returned to his California . home, more pleased than ever that he had cast in his lot in the Golden State.
PETER MATHISON .- A life replete with interest, in which scenes from widely distant parts of the globe have been photographed on memory's screen, has been the lot of Peter Mathison, pioneer of the Parlier section of Fresno County, where he has resided for the past twenty-six years, coming to this section when the country was planted to vast fields of waving grain. He is the son of Mathias Davidson, a Norwegian farmer and stockman, and Johanna (Johnson) Davidson. His parents were born, married, lived and died in their native country, both living to be past ninety years of age before their demise.
Peter Mathison, the son of Mathias, was born in the Land of the Mid- night Sun at Rans Fjorden, Hamnes, Norway, March 18, 1852, and was one of a family of eleven children composed of six girls and five boys, of whom two sisters and one brother still live in Norway, three sisters and two broth- ers are dead, and the remaining children are in America.
Peter was educated in the common schools of Norway, and as a young man cared for his father's farm and cattle for seven summers. He spent five winters in the vicinity of Lofoden, in company with five young men engaged in the cod-fishing industry. During these five winters in the West Fjorden, in the icy arctic waters in the North Atlantic, these young men talked and dreamed about America and resolved to come to the United States. Peter bade farewell to the land of his birth and sailed from Throndhjem, via England, for the distant shores of America, in 1876, landing in July of that year at Castle Garden, New York. Like many others of his countrymen, he first tried his fortune in the New World in Wisconsin, where he worked on a farm, going thence to the Red River Valley of the Territory of Dakota, now North Dakota, in 1877, where he took up a homestead in Richland County, twenty miles dne south of Fargo. He proved up on his homestead and engaged in raising wheat, temporarily returning to Wisconsin to claim a bride. He was married at Brookville, St. Croix County, Wis., in 1883, and in 1891 came with his wife and two children from Dakota to California, set- tling in Fresno County, where he bought forty acres in the same section where he is now living. He improved his land, and in 1900, when the Alaska gold fever was at its height, in company with nine other young men of adven- turous spirit, he tried his fortune in the Alaska goldfields.
The party, composed of the two Lindgrens, the two Sunesons, the two Petersons, the two Johnsons and young Hanistrom and Peter Mathison, spent the summer of 1900 at Nome, meeting with only fair success in their
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
quest of the golden metal. Mr. Mathison, who had previously prospected on the Mojave Desert and in the Sierra Mountains, returned to Fresno County in the fall of 1900, and since that time has devoted his time to farming and improving his ranch. He had the misfortune to lose his wife in 1902. She had borne him four children: Joseph C., who was in Washington State get- ting out lumber for American airships, came home Christmas, 1918; O. M., also in the army, trained at Camp Kearney in the United States Engineer Corps, is now with the Army of Occupation in Germany; David, a rancher at Turlock ; and Ruth, who died in California at the age of ten.
Mr. Mathison married a second time in 1907. uniting with Miss Edith Erickson, a native of Trollhaetten, Westre Jottland, Sweden, the only living member of a family of four children. She came to America at the age of seventeen and worked as a domestic for thirteen years in Brooklyn and New York City, from thence coming to Fresno County. Three children were born of this union: Henry, Hazel, and Eunice.
Mr. and Mrs. Mathison are active workers in the Swedish Mission Church, situated one-half mile south of their home. Mr. Mathison helped build the church and served on its board of trustees. Since his sons enlisted in the army Mr. Mathison has deemed it best to dispose of a portion of his land, retaining only ten acres, well improved and planted to prunes, Thomp- son seedless grapes, and apricots. In politics he is a Republican ; he is sturdy, fearless, and progressive.
IRA LEE BUTLER .- Foremost among the successful superintendents of large vineyards and orchards in the Kerman district, a man who has proved his ability to manage men and has demonstrated his fidelity to duty and loyalty of service while in the employ of others, is Ira Lee Butler, the efficient superintendent of the Empire Ranch of 320 acres, including an ex- tensive vineyard. Ira L. Butler was born at Fairfield, Wayne County, Ill., October 17, 1886, a son of W. M. and Charlotte (McDuffee) Butler, both of whom were natives of Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Butler were the parents of eight children, six of whom are living, Ira L. being the second child. He was reared in his native state until 1906, when he accompanied his parents to the vicinity of Dinuba, Tulare County, Cal., where the father engaged in viticulture and still makes his home.
After coming to California, Ira L. assisted his father on the home ranch for two years, then he was employed by F. H. Wilson, the nurseryman, whose place of business was located in Fresno, where he remained for two years. Afterwards he was made superintendent of the nursery at Parlier, where he remained until the nursery was sold and then, for two years, continued with the new owner, until the place was sold again. In February, 1917, Mr. Butler accepted the responsible position of superintendent of the Empire Ranch, one of the most important vineyards and orchards in the Kerman district. The vineyard comprises 250 acres, eighty of which are in Thompson seed- less, eighty in sultanas, sixty acres are devoted to muscats, and thirty acres are given to raising feherzagos grapes. In addition to this large vineyard, forty acres are planted to figs and twenty to apricots.
Mr. Butler is well posted in the science of horticulture and viticulture, is a very industrious and enterprising business man and applies himself very closely to the multitudinous details connected with the successful operation of a large ranch. During the busy season there are sixty-five men employed on the Empire Ranch and at other periods the average is about ten. He is highly esteemed in the community for his excellent business qualifications and integrity of character.
Ira L. Butler was united in marriage with Miss Laura Sons, a native of Illinois, the ceremony being solemnized at Fairfield, Wayne County, Ill., in 1907, and to them have come two children: Agnes and Harold.
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ERNEST T. S. HANSEN .- Success seems to come naturally to some men ; whether it is through intuitive knowledge or through knowledge gained by close application, certain it is that success follows close upon their efforts. There is perhaps no better illustration of this than in the case of Ernest T. S. Hansen, who was born in Denmark, August 21, 1884, the son of A. C. Hansen, whose biography will be found elsewhere in this book.
Ernest Hansen lived in Copenhagen until he was five years of age, and came to Fresno County in the spring of 1890. Here he completed the course of the public schools, and took up work in the Fresno High School.
Mr. Hansen then returned to the farm and assisted his father until 1905, when he began farming for himself. He bought his present ranch, on Clinton Avenue, then consisting of thirty acres; he has improved the land and rebuilt the buildings. He has since added twenty acres adjoining ; he has now twenty acres in Thompson seedless and the balance in orchards and alfalfa. Mr. Hansen is an expert viticulturist and has put his knowledge into practice on his ranch, so that it is in a high state of development.
Mr. Hansen was married on September 22, 1909, in Fresno, to Miss Iva Maxwell, a native of Missouri. They have two children, Theodore Rudolph and Elvin Styrman. Mr. Hansen has always been interested in educational matters, and was chosen trustee of Empire school district, at one time being clerk of the board. He is now chairman of the board of directors of the Kerman Union High School. In 1917 he served as a member of the grand jury. He is a member of the Danish Lutheran Church, and of the Danish Brotherhood in Fresno. In politics he is a Progressive Republican, and pro- gressive in everything else he undertakes. He is a stockholder in the Cali- fornia Associated Raisin Company, and in the California Peach Growers, Inc. At one time he served as chairman of the local board of the California Farmers Union, the parent cooperative organization of the farmers of the county.
By his well-directed activities Mr. Hansen has become a vital part of the community in which he lives, and his material prosperity reflects credit- ably upon himself and his environment.
JOHN MANEELY .- Another successful ranchman who is engaged in developing the country around Barstow is John, familiarly known as "Jack" Maneely, who arrived in San Francisco the day that President McKinley was buried, and a year after his brother, Alexander Maneely, whose inter- esting life story is given elsewhere in this work, also came here. He was born in Dumfries, Ont., on June 19, 1870, the son of John Maneely, who came from County Cavan in Ireland, and came out to Canada when he was about thirty years old. In Ontario the father married Catherine Johnston, also of Irish birth, and there he followed his useful trade of a weaver. He became the father of six children, and died in Canada. After his demise, Mrs. Maneely went to live in Manitoba, where she now resides.
Favored with the usual schooling of the average American boy, John grew up to come west to Montana when he was of age, where he began railroad work as a fireman. He engaged with the Northern Pacific and con- tinued with that company for about four years, when he went to the neigh- borhood of Richville, Wash., where he bought railroad land and improved it so that he could follow farming.
Next he went to the Philippine Islands, during the Philippine War, where he was in the employ of the United States government as a teamster, spending about two years in traveling throughout Luzon, and for two years he was with a troop of the First Cavalry, and then he returned to San Fran- cisco, and came on to Los Angeles. Bridge work on the Southern Pacific next engaged him, and then he entered the service of the Fresno Traction Company.
Mary & Eversall
I'm Eversale
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In 1904, with his brother Alexander, he bought 100 acres on the San Joaquin River opposite Barstow, located there, and set out a vineyard and orchard, and planted alfalfa. About 1910, however, he sold his interest to his brother and then came to Fresno, where he entered the employ of the Associated Oil Company, and for five years worked under Calvin Hill. Next he went with the ice company at Coalinga, for a year. After that he came to Barstow, and has since been busy with horticultural pursuits, making one of the really attractive show-places, and producing some of the best fruit sent from any Fresno County farm.
While in Los Angeles, Mr. Maneely was married to Mrs. Gertrude Kelly Emery, whose sketch is given elsewhere in this work. While enjoying his delightful home at Barstow, Mr. Maneely is still engaged in breaking into new paths in the science of farming. He is a member of the Red Men, and belongs to the Fresno Lodge, No. 244; and he is quite as popular in the Fraternal Brotherhood.
WILLIAM EVERSOLL .- The oldest resident in Burroughs Valley, Fresno County, is William Eversoll, born near Boonesboro, Boone County, Iowa, on November 9, 1855. His father, Moses Eversoll, a native of Ohio, came to Illinois, where he married Abigail Pike, and then moved to Iowa, where Mrs. Eversoll died in 1860, on their farm in Boone County. Of their union there were five children, four of whom are living, William being the youngest. Moses Eversoll married a second time and of the three children born of this marriage there is only one living. Moses Eversoll passed away in Iowa, in 1893, having lived forty years on one farm.
William learned the rudiments of farming from the time he was a small boy, having early been set to work on the farm. However, his schooling was not neglected, for he received a good education in the schools of his district. When twenty-one he leased the home farm and about the same time was married, in 1876, to Miss Mary E. Carroll, born in Decatur County, Iowa, in 1855. In 1883 William Eversoll moved to Washington County, Ark., remain- ing about eighteen months and in July, 1884, came to Fresno County, Cal., with his wife and two children, and the same fall located in Burroughs Val- ley, where he rented land and raised grain, and since then has leased differ- ent tracts in the valley, until he has plowed almost all of the land in the valley ; on much of it he turned the soil for the first time.
In 1886 Mr. Eversoll located his present place, a preemption claim, and made the improvements, obtained title to it and built his residence, and here he has resided ever since. He raised cattle and horses and has prospered, purchasing land adjoining until he owns 760 acres, a fine estate. For many years he raised draft horses and mules, and he owns a pure-bred Kentucky Jack and a fine Percheron stallion, and has raised some fine horses and mules. In the early days he found Tollhouse was the best market for hay and he also hauled hay to the lumber mills in the Sierras, returning loaded with lumber ; thus he followed teaming for many years until he had his ranch and stock-raising required all his time. While teaming he had many interesting and exciting experiences.
Mr. Eversoll was bereft of his faithful wife on September 20, 1917, at sixty-two years of age. She was a devoted wife and mother, and a devout Methodist; she left him three children: Minerva, who is Mrs. Shuler of Fresno, and who has three children-Velma, Billy and Elizabeth ; Glenn H., who married Daisy Mitchell, a Normal graduate engaged in teaching school while he is ranching with his father, and they have one child, Florence ; and Edith, who was born in California and who is the wife of W. B. Welden, a rancher in Burroughs Valley, and has one child, Walter.
For many years Mr. Eversoll served as a trustee of Mountain View school district, much of the time as clerk of the board. Fraternally he is a member of the Woodman of the World, at Tollhouse.
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
CARL AUGUST NELSON .- A hard-working old-timer in Fresno County, who has been very active, and successfully so, "in its development, and who is therefore much interested in the preservation of its annals, is Carl August Nelson, a liberal-minded and kindhearted gentleman. He came to California in 1889, and was fortunate in locating in Fresno County two years later. He was born in Calmar Laen, Smaland, Sweden, on February 20, 1865, the son of Victor Nelson, a farmer who is retired there. His wife, Johanna, died at that place, the mother of eight children, five of whom are living. Carl is the oldest, and he was brought up on a farm and educated in the public schools.
Mr. Nelson took up viticulture and became foreman of a nursery and vineyard. In December, 1889, he came to Tulare County, Cal., and worked on a ranch and in saw-mills. About that time he was swindled out of $1,150 by a landshark. After two years he came to Fresno and for a year and a half worked at horticulture and viticulture. Next he worked in the Scandi- navian Colony, and afterward leased a vineyard of forty acres, which he ran for five years. He then purchased ten acres on Belmont Avenue, nine of which he set out to vines, and one to apricots; by skilful management he was able to pay for it, and also made a trade for ten acres adjoining. He then had twenty acres in vines and orchards, which he built upon and im- proved. He later sold the ten acres adjoining and bought twenty on the north side of the home place; when he had thirty acres in orchards and vines. He continued on the place twelve years, but in 1910 sold out on account of ill-health.
Thinking he would make a change, Mr. Nelson traveled through every county north of Fresno, but he did not find anything better. He therefore returned and bought forty acres near the old home on Olive and Pierce. It was raw land, but he improved it; put up a good residence and other farm- buildings, and set out an orchard of apricots, peaches, and some vines. After he had improved it, he sold twenty acres at a good profit, and kept the twenty acres on Pierce Avenue, which was all orchard. He has a fine pump- ing-plant with a large flow, and this adds to the attractiveness and value of his ranch property. Mr. Nelson also owns good property in Stockton. He is a member and stockholder of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and was a member and stockholder of the old raisin association. He was also one of the first members of the Scandinavian Fire Insurance Company.
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