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 118

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 118

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ROBERT E. GOODE .- Honored and beloved by all who knew him, and esteemed and looked up to by his fellow ranchers and raisin-growers with whom he competed in the most agreeable and stimulating manner, Robert E. Goode, a highly-progressive resident of Fresno County since October, 1889, passed from this life on April 22, 1918, mourned by many. His demise, viewed in the light of what he had already accomplished and what might reasonably have been expected of him, was indeed an "untimely taking off."

He was born at Birmingham, England, November 21, 1863, and came from a family of manufacturers and business men, all of whom made some mark in the world. Robert E. and his brother, Percy Goode, came together to America in October, 1889, after finishing their education at Rossall College and getting well started in practical business ways. After the arrival of their brother, Herbert, in 1890, the three brothers bought 180 acres of land near Fowler, Fresno County. They developed this property and became very successful as ranchers and in the growing of raisin grapes. While Robert and Herbert were improving the property, Percy, at the same time was making himself proficient as an expert accountant, in which profession he has ad- vanced higher and higher in San Francisco.

Thus owning their ranches in common, and together developing their property, Robert and Herbert grew very intimate, and more and more at- tached to each other; nor did the marriage of either affect their affectionate association. They were nearly always seen together in their life-time; and perhaps it was meet that they should be summoned together in death. Their accidental deaths, to quote the Fowler Ensign, "shocked the community as it was never shocked before." ... "The bereaved families have the profound sympathy of the entire community in this great, overwhelming sorrow." The funeral was held from the Fowler Episcopal Church, Bishop Sanford of Fresno, assisted by the Rev. W. Benson Bellis of Selma, officiated.

Robert E. Goode was married at Easton, in Fresno County, May 13, 1890, to Miss Eleanor Davenhill, who was also born at Birmingham, England. Her father was the late Henry Davenhill, for eighteen years a resident of Clovis and Easton, who passed away at his home in Pacific Grove, January 13, 1910, after a month's illness, prior to which he was for years partially, and for months totally blind. He had been born in England, was seventy- seven years of age, and was survived by a widow Matilda (Clarke) Daven-

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hill, and six children: William Davenhill, of Santa Cruz; Arthur H. Daven- hill, of Ashland, Ore .; Mrs. Claude Conlan, of Seabright; Mrs. R. C. Storie, of San Jose; Mrs. R. E. Goode, of Fowler; and Mrs. W. Gibson, of Santa Maria. Commenting on his death, the Fresno Republican, of January 17th, said: "The profusion of beautiful floral pieces marked the esteem in which the deceased was held in the city in which he had made his home. Every member of the large family was present at the funeral services." Mrs. Davenhill is also deceased.

Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Goode became the parents of two children: Muriel, who graduated from the Fowler High in the Class of 1918, following which she did postgraduate work; and Richard Henry, who is a student in the grammar school. Mrs. Goode, with her two children, resides on the Goode Brothers' ranch one mile north of Fowler. The Goode family has always attended the Episcopal Church.

The Goode Brothers owned 140 acres near Fowler, and forty acres near Oleander, all of which they fully improved from a grain-field into the most valuable and productive ranches in the section wherein the property is located. They were active in the various associations of fruit- and raisin- growers of the county, and were enterprising and public-spirited citizens whom it was an honor to know. This property is now under the general supervision of Percy Goode, administrator of the two estates.

In closing we quote again from the Fowler Ensign, "They were ad- mirable husbands and fathers, lovable and true, and kind neighbors; and in unblemished lives extending over nearly a third of a century in this com- munity, proved to be public-spirited citizens of the highest and best character."

HERBERT GOODE .- Tremendously rapid as is the progress of Cali- fornia's development, and comprehensive as are the daily changes in the affairs of men and things, bringing about one succession after another until the person or event of yesterday seems more a memory than a reality, it will be many years before men cease to talk of the late Herbert Goode- and talking, to praise-and of his equally accomplished and genial brother Robert, who, as Goode Brothers, owned valuable ranches near Fowler and Oleander. As Goode Bros., these English-born Californians by adoption, springing from a family distinguished in both the manufacturing and the business worlds, came to take front rank as raisin-growers here, and in both aggressively and progressively operating as ranchers, to point the way where others with like ambitions and capabilities could follow.

From the day in 1890 when they began to establish themselves here they labored hard for the fullest and best development of the resources of Fresno County and the improvement of social life and living conditions for the every- day man and woman struggling with a too indifferent world; so that when they were called, in an instant, to bid adieu to human affairs, by an accident, society was deprived of their stimulating leadership. It is not surprising that the Fowler Ensign, in telling of their passing on should say: "That the lives of two of its most prominent and highly prized residents could be so sud- denly snuffed out has stunned and saddened the entire community."

Herbert Goode was born in Birmingham, England, March 29, 1870, the son of a leading business man in Birmingham, and attended Malvern College in Worcestershire. In March, 1890, he came to America, and coming directly to Fowler, Fresno County, Cal., joined his brothers, Robert E. and Percy, who had preceded him four months. The three brothers acquired land, made extensive improvements and built their homes. In 1898, Herbert returned to England and in that same year he was joined in wedlock to Miss Maude Preston, a native of West Derby, Lancashire, who was educated in a private school for girls at Cheltenham. Four children blessed their union: Gladwyn and Beatrice, graduates of the Fowler High School; Mabel, a student there; and John who is attending the grammar school. The family

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attends the Episcopal Church, and still resides in their home on the Goode Brothers' ranch, one mile north from Fowler.

The funeral services were conducted from the Fowler Episcopal Church by Bishop Sanford, assisted by Rev. W. Benson Bellis of Selma, and such was the attendance of friends from far and near that all could not gain admittance to the church. The Fowler Ensign paid its tribute in the follow- ing: "They were both good men in the strongest and fullest sense. They were admirable husbands and fathers, lovable and true, and kind neighbors. . . . The community has met with a deplorable loss, for they were willing workers in every public enterprise, every charity, every measure for the public good."

GEORGE A. TURNER .- The excitement caused by the discovery of gold in California, imbued many with a desire to visit the vast unknown west. Among the throng that crossed the Indian infested plains, in 1849, was John B. Turner, the father of George A., the subject of this sketch. John B. was a native of Missouri and was united in marriage with Maria Flemming, who was born in Ireland. After his arrival in California, John B. Turner was engaged in operating a steamboat on the San Joaquin River, of which he was the captain. He was well and popularly known as a pioneer boatman. The parental home of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Turner was blessed with eleven children, nine of whom are still living.

The career of George A. Turner began on April 2, 1872, at Antioch, Con- tra Costa County, Cal. His early education was received in the schools of Antioch after which he engaged in the hotel business in his native town, be- coming the manager of the Arlington Hotel. In 1889 he arrived in Fresno, here he engaged in the liquor business and is giving his attention to the same interests at present. George A. Turner is the owner of unimproved orange land at Terra Bella, Tulare County.

He was united in marriage with Mae Doherty, a native daughter, who was born in San Francisco. Her father was an early pioneer of California, and a native of the Emerald Isle. Mr. and Mrs. George A. Turner are the parents of three daughters: Gwendolyn : Dorothy ; and Patricia. Fraternally, Mr. Turner is a charter member of the new Fresno lodge of Eagles, No. 39; he is also a member of Fresno Parlor No. 9, N. S. G. W., which organization he became a member of when he reached his eighteenth year, and is a mem- ber of the Commercial Club of Fresno. George A. Turner is especially fond of hunting and to secure a greater degree of pleasure in following the sport, as well as the companionship of kindred spirits, he holds membership in the Temple Blue Rock Gun Club and the Temple Duck Club.

H. E. SPIRES .- A splendid type of the intelligent Western stockman, satisfied with nothing less than scientific, careful breeding, H. E. Spires, of the firm of Crawford & Spires, farmers and breeders of registered Holstein cattle and Duroc Jersey swine, has done much, as manager of the Hillcrest Farms, to raise the standard of dairy cattle and bacon and ham hogs in Cal- ifornia. Mr. Spires was born in Christian County, Ill., on April 21, 1879, the son of Henry C. Spires who lived to the age of sixty-five, and was widely esteemed as a progressive farmer. He became the father of four boys and one girl, among whom our subject was the eldest child. When he was seven years old, his parents removed to Morgan County, Ill., and there he grew up on his father's farm while he attended the common schools. At twenty-one, he was married, and farmed awhile in Wayne County, Il1.

Removing to Oklahoma, Mr. Spires leased Indian lands, farmed, raised stock, and operated and sold threshing machinery for about seven years, and then he decided to engage in the raising of registered cattle and hogs. In 1913 he removed to Butler County, Kans., and there, during the next three years, laid the foundation for his splendid Holstein herd.

During this time, Mr. Spires entered into correspondence with Dr. J. M. Crawford, president of James M. Crawford & Company, at 1119 J Street,

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Fresno, the owner of the land now comprising the Hillcrest Farms, situated about three miles south of Caruthers, and in December, 1916, he shipped to California a car-load of registered Holsteins-the beginning of a herd known as the Victory Herd, now comprising fifty registered Holsteins, twenty-five grades, and forty registered Duroc Jersey sows, boars and gilts, and known through the advertisements in the rural press of the Pacific and other stand- ard farm and live-stock journals-admittedly one of the best herds and droves in Fresno County. Products of the Hillcrest Farms are sold for breeding purposes in Fresno, Kings, Tulare and other California counties.

As the practical stockman, Mr. Spires resides upon the Hillcrest Farms and personally superintends the management of that important estate. Mrs. H. E. Spires deserves much of the credit for the success of the Victory Herd, as she is one of the main spokes in the wheel in the management of same. Also among his stock is the celebrated registered Holstein bull, Sir Piebe DeKol Sergis Pontiac, who was sired by the world's famous sire, King Sergis Pon- tiac Count, owned by Arden Farms, St. Paul, Minn.

EARL J. WELLS .- A successful realty man of Fresno, who has made a record for the rapid acquirement of ranches, is Earl J. Wells, the son of Hiram J. Wells. His grandfather was the Rev. Abraham Wells, the well-known Selma 'pioneer preacher, whose zealous work in the Christian Church in Nebraska and at Selma will long be remembered. He never accepted a dollar for his minis- terial services; he organized the large congregation at Selma and built the first Christian Church in that town- the present magnificent edifice having been built since. During his last year in Nebraska, Abraham Wells saw 320 acres of corn withered in a day by the hot winds. The Wells family then resolved to come to California, and they cast their lot in the John Brown Colony in Madera County. This colony failed, and they came thence to Fresno, in 1892, almost penniless. Yet today they are among the most prosperous and highly respected citizens of the county, Earl J., alone owning eleven ranches.

Earl J. Wells was born at La Vina, Madera County, Cal., and is a son of Hiram J. and Allie May (Millner) Wells, the former a native of northwestern Iowa, although he grew up and married in Nebraska. He came to California on his honeymoon, and he and his wife first settled in Madera County, having been induced to take part in the John Brown Colony. Abraham Wells had also come to California, so that father and grandfather were the first of the Wells family to come here. And here the Rev. Wells died in August, 1905, in his seventieth year. His widow, Mrs. Mary A. Wells, is still living, and is a prominent member of the Christian Science Society at Selma, being also hale and hearty, at eighty- four years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Hiram. J. Wells are living on their ranch two miles northeast of Selma, on the Mill Ditch Road. He owns eight ranches out- right, and is interested with his son Earl in a vineyard of forty acres at Seville in Tulare County. Brothers of Earl J: are Fred A. Wells, who is in the United States Navy and crossed the Atlantic three times to France, and Walker W., who is at home.

Born on November 5, 1892, Earl J. Wells was brought up on his father's ranch and educated at Selma. He spent one and a half years in the Selma Union High School, and then took a commercial course at Heald's Business College at Fresno. When eighteen years old he went to that city and engaged in the real estate business, and there became associated with W. L. Chapman, remaining six months. Then he started a real estate office in Selma, and formed a part- nership with the late W. A. Lewis, who died on November 4, 1918, aged thirty- five years. Mrs. Nellie Lewis (whose life is elsewhere outlined in this history) is still interested with Mr. Wells in five ranches which the partners owned. Lewis & Wells continued as a partnership at Selma until Mr. Lewis' death.

In 1917, Mr. Wells volunteered for service in the World War, enlisting on August 17, and he was sent to San Pedro and Key West for training. At thie latter place he was assigned to the Intelligence Department, and there he rose

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to the rank of a first-class yeoman. He remained at Key West until July, 1918, when he was transferred to Mare Island, Cal., and there he was honorably dis- charged on November 23rd of that year.

On January 1, 1919, Mr. Wells started the Sun Maid Realty Company, the office of which is in charge of Mrs. Lewis, who keeps the company's books. Seven ranches are operated under the name of E. J. Wells and Company. Mr. Wells is a stockholder and member in both the Raisin and Peach Growers as- sociations.

At Fresno, on July 20, 1911, Mr. Wells was married to Miss Bertha Louise Roberts, a native of Nebraska, who came to Fresno County in 1905, and grew up here. Mrs. Wells was with her husband at Key West in Florida. They are members of the First Christian Church at Selma, they belong to the Red Cross, and they have participated in the various war activities. Mr. Wells is a Blue Lodge Mason, having been raised at Selma ; he took the first degree at Key West, and the second and third degrees at Selma, on his return after the war.

GEORGE C. CHRISTENSEN .- Rated as one of the best blacksmiths in Fresno County, George C. Christensen, the rancher, who resides on his own well-tilled raisin vineyard of twenty-six acres, enjoys the reputation of being a man of strict integrity whose name alone is an absolute guaranty of quality and honest service.

Born in Denmark, December 27, 1869, the son of M. C. Christensen now of Oleander, Cal., who married Laura Bach, our subject was one of eight chil- dren, three of whom are in Denmark and five in California, the oldest son and the second child. His mother died in April, 1918, seventy-five years old. The father is still living, in his seventy-sixth year, and he makes his home with Mrs. Girtz, a widowed daughter at Oleander. George grew up on his father's farm in Denmark until he was fourteen, attending the Danish schools; and then he was confirmed in the Lutheran Church. The next year he started to learn the blacksmith trade, and later he went to Randers, the third largest city in Denmark, to become a blacksmith's apprentice. On July 6, 1890, he obtained his certificate as a journeyman blacksmith, and his first work thereafter was in a country black- smith shop at Langaa.

He next went to Copenhagen and entered a carriage shop where, in its black- smith department, he did the general blacksmithing required. He soon became foreman of Vincent A. Thuge's carriage manufactory in Copenhagen, and that position he held for the last year and a half that he was in Denmark.

During this time he became a night student at the Copenhagen Technical School where he learned to be a mechanical engineer and draughtsman, pursuing the regular mechanical draughtsman's course. For the purpose of perfecting him- self in his profession as a mechanical engineer and draughtsman, and intending to return to Copenhagen after a two years' stay in America, Mr. Christensen sailed for New York, leaving Copenhagen on July 9, 1893, and landing at the old Castle Garden, on July 26.

Landing in New York, he proceeded on to Providence, R. I., where he se- cured work in different blacksmith shops and finally entered the service of H. M. Howe and Company, who were engaged in the manufacture of carriages. He was soon put in charge of the blacksmith shop and he worked there for three years. He then went to New York City and entered Brewster's well-known car- riage manufactory on Broadway, and there he continued to labor for a year. After that he returned to the H. M. Howe Company at Providence for three years more. Leaving that firm, he worked for another three years in various shops in Providence and Pawtucket.

In 1903 Mr. Christensen came West and direct to Fresno, and at Oleander he started the first blacksmith shop. Later he and his brother bought forty acres of land near Bowles. This he improved, and among other buildings he erected a blacksmith shop and for seven years ran it in addition to managing his farm. In 1913 he moved this shop to Bowles; and since 1912 the Christensen Brothers

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have had a large, up-to-date smithy where they do general blacksmithing and also deal in farm implements, and they are now enlarging the shop for automo- bile work. Christensen Brothers manufacture the "Christensen Brothers Rotary Harrow," and the "Christensen Brothers Vineyard Truck," and in the latter line make both a plain truck and a cross-roads truck, for very short turns. Their plain vineyard trucks are pronounced by competent judges to be the very best made anywhere.

Mr. Christensen's grandfather, on his father's side, was a wheelwright; his father was a Danish farmer; his maternal grandfather Bach, was a pedagogue and a scholarly person; and now the two oldest sons of our subject are young men of pronounced ability along mechanical lines. They are able to turn out tanks of large size and excellent quality, working under the direction of their father; yet he would rather encourage them to follow agriculture than mechan- ical pursuits.

While at Providence, R. I., Mr. Christensen was married to Miss Nellie Nelson of that city at the time they first met, although a native daughter of Sweden; and they have eight children : Ina, Arthur, George, Ethel, Paul, Harry, Carl and Edna. The family attend the Danish Lutheran Church at Easton. Jörgen Christian Jorgensen was really the full and correct form of Mr. Chris- tensen's name as it was given when he was baptized ; but this Jörgen was changed to George after he came to America. Fritz B., his brother, owns a ranch of twenty acres, two miles south of Bowles, on which he resides.

N. P. GONSER .- One of the most progressive merchants and successful young business men of Laton, Cal., is N. P. Gonser, the owner and manager of the popular general merchandise store known as "Gonser's Department Store," located west of the Santa Fe Railway tracks, where he has been engaged in business since the fire of July 4, 1911. N. P. Gonser is a Buckeye by birth, born June 23, 1880, at Millersburg, Ohio, a son of the Rev. Albert Gonser, now the pastor of the German Reformed Church, at Mt. Carmel, Pa. His mother, who passed away when he was sixteen years of age, was in maidenhood Susie Uhl, a descendant of a very early family that settled in Philadelphia in 1680, on about 160 acres of land that was granted them by William Penn. The land still be- longs to the descendants of the original owners but has been rented to the city of Philadelphia for 100 years or more.

Rev. Albert Gonser was married in Ohio and at the time of the birth of his son N. P. Gonser, the subject of this review, he was a student attending the college at Tiffin, Ohio. Later he took a course at the Theological Seminary at the same place, which is now a branch of Heidelburg University. The Rev. Albert Gonser's first charge was at West Salem, Ohio, and N. P. Gonser's first recollection of his home is in connection with West Salem. Like most minis- ters' families the Gonser family moved to various places so the childhood of N. P. was spent mostly in Ohio and Pennsylvania where he received his early edu- cation which later he supplemented by pursuing a course in the Eastman Bus- iness College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he finished a course in bookkeeping and related branches. Mr. Gonser, being a very apt student, the faculty of the college recommended him to the proprietors of the millionaires' resort, at Tuxedo Park, N. Y., for the position of assistant bookkeeper which position he accepted and filled for eighteen months. About this time he became obsessed with the idea of engaging in the sheep business, and with this purpose in mind he left Tuxedo Park for Great Falls, Mont., in 1901. Upon reaching his destination, he was dissuaded from entering the sheep business, but was persuaded to remain and accept the position of assistant bookkeeper with the firm of Stearn Brothers, at Great Falls, a large department store. After eighteen months' service he left for Bakersfield, Cal., where he made the acquaintance of the firm of Mosher & De Caner Road Oiling Company, with whom he accepted a position, going as their representative to Woodland, Cal., where he took charge of their work in Stockton, Sacramento, Woodland, Marysville and Chico. At first the oil was

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distributed by railway tank cars, and wagons but later was shipped by barge from Point Richmond to points all along the Sacramento River, as far north as Colusa. In the fall of 1905, Mr. Gonser took a review course in the Stockton Business College, and soon thereafter became connected with the Automatic Sprinkler Company, in the installation of sprinklers in various saw mills at Korbel, Humboldt County, also at Stockton, Napa, and at Clovis, Fresno County, and in San Francisco. In the latter part of 1906, Mr. Gonser accompanied his friend Adolph Johnson, on a trip to Laton, Cal., to visit friends of Mr. Johnson. So favorably was he impressed by this section of the county that he decided to remain and accepted a clerkship with T. E. and E. P. Blanchard, proprietors of a general merchandise store at Laton, and for four and a half years efficiently filled the position of clerk and buyer for the firm, remaining with them until the fire of July 4, 1911, which consumed a large portion of the business district of Laton. Following the fire he decided to purchase property and build a store room and engage in business for himself. His capital at that time was limited, but he possessed self-confidence and a determination to succeed. By wise fore- sight Mr. Gonser chose the west side of the Santa Fe Railway for the loca- tion of his future business, at Laton, and subsequent events have proved the wisdom of his choice. He purchased sixteen lots and built a store on the corner where he opened a general store and livery, where he now keeps a carefully se- lected stock of groceries, hardware, crockery, dry goods, confectionery, and also handles motor accessories, oil and gasoline. The store is especially well located to supply the trade coming from the fertile country west of Laton, including the Laguna, and Summit Lake districts. Mr. Gonser is a wide-awake, enterprising, and progressive young business man, who has by strict integrity, close attention to business and a square deal to all his patrons built up a large and profitable business. His property and stock in the business and his livery stable are now valued at $20,000, the greater portion of it being the result of his business enter- prise since opening his store.

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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 118

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