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 115

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 115

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In 1914, Mr. Randrup sold this land, and then came to his present place, leasing 160 acres from D. C. Sample. He plowed it all up, leveled and checked it, and put in eighty acres to alfalfa. In the spring of 1918, however, he pur- chased from Mr. Sample the 160 acres he had improved. He has improved the balance to alfalfa, set out a vineyard and has a neat dairy of fifty-six cows. He has an Empire milking machine, and uses a gasoline engine for power, in the milking. Although the ranch is under the ditch, he has also

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sunk a well and installed an electric pumping-plant, for irrigating the ranch. This ranch is located about eleven miles northwest of Fresno, in the Hough- ton district. Mr. Randrup belongs to the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers Association, and is a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association.

Mr. Randrup was twice married. His first wife was Miss Hattie Miller before her marriage, and she was born at Weedville, Cal. She died on this place on October 1, 1914, the mother of four children: Frances, Margaret, Raymond and Hattic. The second marriage took place at Fresno, in July, 1916, when the bride was Mrs. Lena (Ostergaard) Tillesen, of Jylland, Den- mark. She had already had one child by her first marriage, Esther Tillesen, and a child, Helen, has been born of this union. The family is highly esteemed in the community. Mr. Randrup is a member of the Danish Brotherhood, and there, as well as in the great outside world, he has many friends.

WARREN BRUCE .- The down-east Yankee traits of character distin- guished by indomitable energy and thrift, so typical of the New Eng- land boy, is well represented in Warren Bruce, born in Augusta, Maine, No- vember 8, 1853. He received a public school education, and as a young man engaged in farming near Togus, Maine. He sold his farm and spent one winter in the lumber woods at Somerville, Maine, then entered the employ of Allen Lambard at Augusta, Maine, looking after his farm and stable of fine horses. After five years' service in this capacity he was appointed deputy city marshal of Augusta. He made a very popular and efficient officer and was the only Democrat in the employ of the city, which was under Repub- lican rule. He served on the force for twelve years and was very successful in handling the rough element. Six years he served as constable in Ward Six, being elected by a large majority-a Democrat in a Republican ward. He was in partnership with his brother W. H. Bruce in the hardware, hay, grain and grocery business. He sold his interests to Benjamin F. Parrott and in 1905 left for Fresno, Cal., where he arrived in May. He became an employee of the Automobile Hardware and Implement Company, of Visalia, Tulare County, Cal., invested heavily in the company and losing all when they failed, was obliged to start from the bottom rung of the ladder again. He bought a ten-acre ranch near Visalia which he improved, setting it to loganberries, peaches, etc., and sold the place at a good profit. He then went to Lemon Cove and bought forty acres of unimproved land at sixty dollars per acre upon which he sunk a well, built a house and greatly improved it in many other ways, afterward selling it for $6,000. He next purchased a twenty-acre ranch two and one-half miles west of Caruthers, Fresno County, upon which he sunk two ten-inch wells, installed a pumping plant, planted fifteen acres of it to alfalfa, set out 460 shade trees and two and one-half acres of Thompson seedless grape vines and built a fine new home. He lived on the place five years and in that time made it one of the show places of the district. It was well equipped with chicken houses, engine house, cattle cor- ral, and stocked with 100 hogs. He sold the place at a good profit and as part payment took a cottage at 3077 Nevada Street, Fresno. He improved this place, painted and repaired the house and exchanged the property for his present five-acre ranch, two miles from Fresno, on Fruit Avenue. Since com- ing to California he has taken up carpenter work and in his spare time has been busy at his trade. He worked on the New Humboldt Bank Building and other large jobs in San Francisco after the fire, and one season had charge of a steam engine on a threshing machine in Tulare County. He helped build the new high school in Tulare, Tulare County, and was engaged in boring for oil in Lost Hills district, Kern County. He assisted in the con- struction of three school houses in Porterville, Tulare County, and also had charge of the ranch at Trimmer Springs one season.

He has overcome all obstacles encountered on the road that leads to success and is noted for good judgment in the practical affairs.of life.

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ANTHONY G. ROSE .- Anthony G. Rose was reared in Boston, Mass., attending school there and at Cambridge. In 1870 he came via the Isthmus of Panama to San Mateo County, Cal., with his parents, and finished his education in the high school and military academy at San Leandro, Alameda County, Cal. In 1889, at the age of seventeen, he became an apprentice to the machinist's trade, with the H. W. Rice Machine Works, and finished with the San Francisco Tool Company, of San Francisco. He followed the trade in the bay cities, and then entered the Marine Service on San Fran- cisco Bay and the Sacramento River, serving on the tugboat Harriett, owned by the Eaton Company, of San Francisco, receiving his license of Marine Engineer. He came of a family of seafaring men, and so took kindly to that life. Mr. Rose later gave up marine work and took up stationary engineering, and in 1892 was sent to Fresno by the H. W. Rice Company to repair a straw burner threshing machine manufactured by the company. He liked this sec- tion so much on that first visit that he decided to settle here, and secured work with the James Porteous Company in their machine shop.

In 1892 Mr. Rose entered the employ of the Fresno Gas & Electric Com- pany as chief engineer for two years, resigning his position to enter the em- ploy of the San Joaquin Light & Power Company and the Fresno City Water Company, owned and controlled by the same management. He has been chief engineer of the water company since he came with them in July, 1894, and he also has charge of the machine shop and garages fro the company, with fifty men immediately under him, and 165 automobiles, scattered throughout ten counties in the state. He is also a specialist on pumps, and has charge of all their repair work.

The marriage of Mr. Rose united him with Mary Pimental, a native Californian, born in Calaveras County, and three children have been born to them: Ida, wife of W. T. Clement of Oakland; Jessie C., of Fresno; and Marie, a graduate of the Fresno Normal School and teacher in Calwa school district. Mr. Rose has traded some in Fresno real estate, and erected three houses in the city. In early days he rented 145 acres of alfalfa land and operated the acreage for three years. Fraternally, he is a member of Yo- semite Lodge, No. 343, I. O. O. F., and of The Fraternal Brotherhood, Lodge No. 91, of Fresno. He is also a member of the National Association of Stationary Engineers, formerly the Pacific Coast Stationary Engineers.

PAUL T. STANGE .- The junior member of the firm of Hansen Con- struction Company, Paul T. Stange has reached an assured position in life through his own efforts and individuality. Born in Berlin, Germany, in 1879, he is the son of Godfrey and Ann (Teal) Stange, both natives of Germany, the father is now deceased. In 1883 Godfrey Stange brought his family to the United States, and located in Neillsville, Clark County, Wis., and there Paul T. was educated in the public schools, and later learned the trade of carpenter.

In 1899 he came with his father to Fresno, to work on the construction of the Fresno Brewery, and after its completion he followed carpentering and mill work in Oakland. In 1906, after the earthquake and fire in San Francisco, Mr. Stange returned to Fresno and entered the employ of H. A. Hansen, contractor and builder, as foreman, and later did the drawing and estimating for the firm, having taken a course in mechanical and architectural drawing with the International Correspondence School. He drew the plans for the Kern-Kay Hotel, the Hotel Tulare; Salvation Army Building; Lauritzen Im- plement Building ; also many fine residences in Fresno. In 1914, on the death of Mr. Hansen, Mr. Stange, and Thomas M. Paulson took over the business and operate it under the firm name of Hansen Construction Company. Among other work they erected the Hotel Mayer; the Eaden Flats; the warehouse for the United Warehouse Company; Prescott's Garage; residence for J. Edward Prescott, and the F. W. Wood home; the Mission Episcopal Church, on Van Ness Avenue, and the Peach Growers warehouse, at Reedley.

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The marriage of Mr. Stange, which occurred in Fresno, May 31, 1913, united him with Miss Minnie Kostenbader, a native of Nazareth, Northamp- ton County, Pa., a descendant of an old Pennsylvania family, and two children have been born to them: Paul T., Jr., and Henrietta Ann.

Mr. Stange was a member of the California National Guard for four years, and served as corporal of Company K of Fresno. He was a crack shot and won a medal as a "Distinguished Marksman." His recreation hobby is hunting and fishing, and for a wedding trip, in 1913, he took his wife into the Sierras for two months, hunting, fishing and exploring the mountain fast- ness, taking pictures enroute. They went through into the Yosemite Valley, and across Iron Mountain, greatly enjoying the beauties of nature. Mr. Stange indulges in a hunting and fishing trip each year, returning to his business duties with renewed vigor and enthusiasm. He purchased lots on the corner of Monterey and M Streets, and has erected three houses upon the property, which he now owns. Fraternally he is a member of Fresno Lodge No. 343, I. O. O. F.

GUY THOMAS SMOOT .- An enterprising young man engaged in the mercantile and hotel business at Mendota, Guy Thomas Smoot was born in Burlington, Iowa, October 6, 1888. His father, Edward Price Smoot, was a native of Palmyra, Mo., and moved to Burlington, Iowa, where he was a blacksmith. He became associated with Mclaughlin Brothers of Columbus, Ohio, and engaged in introducing imported full-blooded Percheron, Norman and Belgium horses into Iowa and the Middle West, selling them at $1,500 to $7,000 each. In this business he was successfully engaged for ten years. He now lives retired in Storm Lake, Iowa. Grandfather Thomas Price Smoot was a Southerner, a blacksmith at Palmyra, Mo., and served in the Confed- erate Army in the Civil War. Mr. Smoot's Great-great-grandfather Smoot served in the Revolutionary War. The mother of our subject was Sarah Young, a native of Palmyra, Mo., and a descendant of an old Southern fam- ily. She died in early life, leaving four sons and one daughter.

Guy Thomas Smoot, the eldest in his parents' family, was reared in Burlington and educated in the grammar and high schools. At the age of seventeen, in February, 1906, he enlisted in the United States Navy. Coming to San Francisco, he served on the West Virginia, the flag-ship of the Pacific Fleet, as a yeoman, for three years and nine months, till he was honorably discharged, in October, 1909. He liked California and concluded to cast in his lot here. Entering the employ of the Associated Pipe Line Company, he came to Mendota headquarters in the fall of 1909, his work taking him from McKittrick to San Francisco, as inspector, foreman and book-keeper.

Mr. Smoot was married in Mendota in 1914 to Miss Marie Arnaudon, the youngest child of A. J. Arnaudon, the pioneer of Mendota, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work. At the time of his marriage he resigned his position with the Associated Pipe Line Company to engage in mercantile and hotel business in Mendota. He leased the Arnaudon Hotel and store, and he and his wife continue the business under the old name of A. J. Arnaudon.

In August, 1917, Mr. Smoot enlisted in the United States Navy for the World War and was assigned to the Naval Air Station at San Diego as chief yeoman, continuing there except for short periods when he was detailed to San Pedro and to the Mare Island Navy Yard. He was mustered out on February 27, 1919, and returned to his business, his wife meantime having managed both store and hotel during his service in his country's cause. In their store they carry a well-selected line of general merchandise, and are having a large and successful trade.

In national politics Mr. Smoot is a Democrat. He was appointed post- master at Mendota in 1914, to succeed A. J. Arnaudon, resigned, and held the position till he enlisted. When he resigned, Mrs. Smoot was appointed his successor, and she still holds the appointment. Mr. Smoot is an active member of Sunset Lodge, No. 193, Knights of Pythias, in Mendota.

Mit Mre Courad Bopp

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CONRAD BOPP .- To make a success in surroundings totally different from the early environment requires character and resourcefulness. Among those who have accomplished this in Fresno County is Conrad Bopp, a native of Samara, Russia, where he was born February 8, 1864, a son of Fred Bopp and Marie (Krumbeirg) Bopp. The father, a farmer in the old country, passed away there in 1867; the mother came to Fresno in 1887 and made her home here with her son, Conrad, until her death, in 1911, aged eighty-four years.

The youngest in a family of eight children born to his parents, all ot whom are now living, Conrad Bopp was brought up on the home farm in Russia, and there his mother was engaged in horticulture and gardening, so from a boy he learned to care for trees and raise vegetables. His education he received in the public schools of his native town. In 1886 he entered the Russian army in the infantry, and was stationed at Sebastopol for three years and eight months as an orderly. On being mustered out, in 1890, he came from there to the United States and located in Fresno.

Here the young man went to work in the Craycroft brickyards, and con- tinued with them for eleven years. At the end of that time he resigned and engaged in ranching ; he first rented vineyards in Arizona Colony and ran a sixty-one-acre vineyard for three years. He then bought his present ranch of twenty acres on McNeil Avenue, and set to work to improve the property. He built his residence and other buildings ; set out a vineyard and orchards, raising Thompson and muscat grapes, and peaches; he later added another twenty acres to his holdings, one-eighth of a mile south of his original ranch, and here he has a fine peach orchard, with two acres in Thompson grapes, the whole property an example of what industry and thrift can accomplish.

The marriage of Mr. Bopp occurred in Fresno, October 2, 1893, and united him with Miss Louisa Schebelhut, also a native of Samara, Russia, and a daughter of Conrad and Marie K. (Weibert) Schebelhut, farmer folk. When they retired they came to Fresno where the mother died May 9, 1919, in Di- nuba, while the father still resides there. Mrs. Bopp came to Fresno in Jan- uary, 1892. Of their marriage ten children are living to carry on the devel- opment work started by their parents: Conrad, foreman for the San Joaquin Bakery in Fresno; Louisa, who is Mrs. Williams of Fresno; Edward, in over- seas service in the United States Army; Katrina and Lena, of Fresno; and Rosa, Alex, Marie, Benjamin, and Martha, at home.

With his family, Mr. Bopp is a member of the Church of God, having been active in its organization in Fresno. He has always been a Bible stu- dent, was duly ordained an Elder, and was the first Elder to preside over the German Congregation, a place he filled ably for seven years, and he is also a member of the board of trustees. He is a member and stockholder of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and also of the California Associated Raisin Company. In the general upbuilding he does his share and is counted a man of worth in the community.

ERICH BERNDT .- One of the most energetic, successful and rising real estate men of Fresno, who has looked with faith from the start on Central California is Erich Berndt, popularly known as Harry, an enthusiastic advo- cate and defender of union labor. He was born in Chicago, Ill., on November 4, 1886, and as a lad attended the public schools of the great lakes metropolis. When only thirteen he began to shift for himself, and for over fifteen years followed different lines of work through the Middle West. If the returns were not always remunerative, there was no doubt as to the added experi- ence ; so that when he had thus run the gauntlet of much that might have discouraged the faint-hearted, he was more than ever a man, able to cope with men and affairs.

In 1914, drawn hither by the Panama-Pacific Exposition, Mr. Berndt came to San Francisco; and while touring the state, had the good fortune to perceive the splendid future of California. Instead of returning east, he located in Fresno County ; and in 1915 he removed to Sanger, where he bought

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ten acres of land, to which purchase he later added another ten acres. When he had subdivided and further improved this, he called it the Berndt Tract; and the 178 lots have since sold rapidly. By this stroke of singular enterprise, Mr. Berndt awoke Sanger to a reasonable appreciation of itself and the possi- bilities within it. He has formed "The Action Realty Company," which has been doing considerable business. This company, for example, consummated the sale of the Gregory Place at Parlier for $124,500, a price complimentary but by no means too high and being the first high price paid since advance of prices. There are sixty acres of Thompson seedless grapes and sixty acres of muscats, and the estate produces yearly about $40,000 worth of fruit. A second property sold by this firm for a record price-$145,000-was the Bars- tow Colony, consisting of 160 acres of Thompson seedless grapes.

Some years ago Mr. Berndt married Rosie Greenewald, an attractive lady of Chicago. He has erected a set of bungalows on his subdivision in Sanger. He belongs to the Eagles, the Elks and the Red Men, and is justly popular in local society.

As an uncompromising advocate of union labor, Mr. Berndt has served as a member of labor clubs, a member of their executive boards, and a del- egate to the convention of the unions. He has assisted, in particular, in enter- taining the local labor unions, and while serving on their committees on en- tertainment has charged himself with the natural duty of providing for his fellows the best in the way of edifying and uplifting diversion and instruction that labor, time and money could devise and afford. Every town, especially in a state so much in the forming as is California, and so in need of men of faith and action suited to their confidence, is richer for the coming and set- tling within it of just such captains of enterprise as Harry Berndt, and no one will begrudge him a square inch or a penny of his prosperity, for he is the kind who leads others on to the road to fortune and shares with them when he has struck "oil" himself.

DANIEL C. McLAUGHLIN .- The early life of the very efficient and worthy book-keeper and cashier of the California Associated Raisin Company, Daniel C. McLaughlin, a native of England, is interwoven with the romance of the sea, for he was born while his mother, who before her marriage was Hannah Corbett, was on a voyage with her husband, Captain Daniel Mc- Laughlin, a sea captain who followed the calling of the sea for many years, and made forty-two trips around the Horn to California. His first trip to San Francisco in the year 1851, was financially a very profitable one, for he arrived in that city just after the fire of that memorable year which practically destroyed nearly all the houses in the city, leaving the inhabitants without food and lumber. He sold his cargo of flour for fifty dollars a barrel and the lumber at a high figure.

From the age of three months, Daniel C. was brought up in New Eng- land, at Malden. Mass., where he also received his education. In November, 1887, he arrived at San Francisco with his parents on his father's full rigged' ship, "Glory of the Sea," on her last trip around the Horn. She was built in New England and was 260 feet long and forty-four feet in the beam, with a carrying capacity of 3,300 tons. This ship is still in existence, having been dis- mantled, and is now used in Northern Pacific waters as a floating salmon cannery.

Captain Daniel Mclaughlin, in 1883, went to Oleander, Fresno County, where he purchased forty acres of land and planted a vineyard, at one time owning 100 acres there. He lived on the place ten years and returned east, to New Brunswick, where he died, leaving four children, namely: John W .; Daniel C .; Mrs. J. L. Ashley, all of Fresno, and Mrs. J. B. Weeks, of Mal- den, Mass.

For two years after arriving in Fresno, Daniel C. worked on his father's ranch, afterward going to work for the Curtis Fruit Company at Oleander, remaining with them eight years. L. F. Curtis of Bridgeport, Conn., was

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

president of the company, and the company was noted for being the first to use a machine for stemming raisins. Charles L. North was the inventor of the machine. After the Curtis plant was destroyed by fire, Mr. Mclaughlin was in the employ of the Home Packing Company of Fresno for one year, and later with the J. H. Leslie Company and the J. B. Inderrieden Company. Mr. McLaughlin has been connected with the raisin industry nearly all his life ex- cept the twelve years he was in the grocery business on Blackstone Avenue, Fresno. In 1916 he entered the employ of the California Associated Raisin Company, where he is at present. He has done much in contributing to the advancement of Fresno's civic growth, among his building enterprises being the block on Blackstone Avenue and his residence.

He is the father of two children, Marcus, now in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and Elizabeth F. Fraternally, he is a Yeoman and a member of the Woodmen of the World.

FREDERICK KARL VOGEL .- The superintendent of the Amity Oil Company, Frederick K. Vogel, was born in Golgewitz, Silesia, Germany, November 2, 1882. He removed with his parents when a child to Lissa, Posen, where he grew up, receiving his education in the local schools. When four- teen years of age he was apprenticed at the woodturner's trade, and after- wards he traveled as journeyman in Germany until 1903, when he migrated to England, working at his trade in London. In 1904 he came to Canada, and there followed his trade until, during the same year, he made his way to Vancouver, B. C. In 1905 he went to Seward, Alaska, where he remained till the spring of 1906, and then came to San Francisco, Cal. After working at his trade for two years, he came to the Santa Maria oil fields in 1908. He entered the employ of H. A. Rispin and learned the oil business from the bottom up. After remaining here for two years he located at Lost Hills, in the employ of the same people, being placed in charge of operations, and continued in that capacity for a period of two years. In April, 1912, he came to Coalinga as superintendent of the Amity Oil Company. They own and operate on forty acres, Section 1, 20, 14 formerly the Fresno-San Francisco Oil Company's property-and have eight producing wells.

Mr. Vogel is interested in viticulture and owns twenty acres at Biola that he is arranging to set to Thompson seedless vines. Mr. Vogel took out his naturalization papers in 1906 and became a citizen of the United States in 1911. Politically, he is a Republican.

REV. AUGUST SPOMER .- A minister in the Church of God in Christ, and a horticulturist who has done something definite and permanent to help build up Central California, the Reverend August Spomer has made a success of both horticulture and viticulture in Arizona Colony, where he has valuable lands. He was born in Stepnoia, Samara, Russia, on September 9, 1856, the son of George Spomer, a farmer there. The father died in the district in which he had long lived and toiled, and his wife, who was Barbara Schaeffer before her marriage, still resides at the old home, the mother of six children, among whom August is the second oldest.

August Spomer was brought up on a farm and attended the public schools ; and he served in the infantry of the Russian army, seeing nine months of service in the war with the Turks, and receiving, when the war was over, an honorable discharge. In November, 1877, he was married at the old home to Miss Anna Reinhart, a native of that section, and the daughter of George and Christine (Salwasser) Reinhart, farmers who lived and passed away there. They had nine children, of whom Anna is the fifth oldest. Mr. and Mrs. Spomer were engaged in farming in their native land until 1888. In Feb- ruary of that year they decided to take the momentous step of coming to the United States. At first only Mr. Spomer came-to Denver, Colo., where he worked in the Grant Smelter; but in the fall of 1890 his good wife and their

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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 115

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