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 12
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In the fall of 1890 Mr. Hays bought his present place of sixty acres. It was stubble land when he entered upon it, but he immediately began im- provements and set it all out as a vineyard. He had built a residence on the Easton ranch in 1895, but he later disposed of that and now resides here. In 1900 he built a fine residence on his present place, and now he has forty acres of vineyard with muscat and Thompson vines and the balance is in peach orchards and alfalfa, the whole conveniently situated three miles southeast of Clovis. He is an active member of the California Associated Raisin Com- pany and the California Peach Growers, Inc.
Nine children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hays, and eight have reached maturity. Mabel, who is a graduate of a business college at Fresno, is now Mrs. O. C. Coddington, and lives in Los Angeles; Ressie, who grad- uated from the San Jose State Normal school and was a teacher, is the wife of C. R. Reyburn, of Enterprise Colony; Ray W. Hays was a Captain of a Company in the 362d Regiment, 91st Division and served through all the
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campaigns in France and Belgium. He has been a well-known attorney of Fresno, having graduated from the school of law of the State University : Gertrude was also a teacher, a graduate of the Fresno Normal, and is now Mrs. W. C. Schlein, of Fresno : John was in the United States Army, stationed at Schofield Barracks, Honolulu, then was at Camp Dodge, Iowa ; when mus- tered out he was a sergeant : Loverne, having graduated from the Clovis High School, is now a student in the University of California ; while Pearl is a graduate of the Clovis High School. Percy died April 23, 1901, aged twenty.
Mr. Hays is a Republican in national politics and has shown his advo- cacy of serving his fellowmen in local civic work by acting as trustee, for nine years, of the Jefferson School district; and during that time the school- house was built. He is a member of the Christian Church at Clovis, and also of the Fraternal Brotherhood. He was made a Mason in Mineral Point Lodge, No. 1, A. F. & A. M., thirty-three years ago, and is now connected with the Clovis Lodge, No. 417 F. & A. M. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hays are members of Concordia Chapter, No. 320, O. E. S., in which Mrs. Hays is worthy matron. He joined the Odd Fellows in Ohio forty-seven years ago, and is still a mem- ber of Mineral Point Lodge, No. 1, in Wisconsin. Search where you may it would be difficult to find two more useful members of developing society than Mr. and Mrs. Hays who have entered so heartily into Central Califor- nia life.
ARTHUR E. WEBB .- A prominent banker of Fresno County, who has always had the best interests of his community as his first consideration is Arthur E. Webb, president of the First National Bank of Coalinga, who came to the town in 1890. He was born in London, England, and was edu- cated in the public schools of that city. Then he entered a jewelry house in the metropolis, with which he continued until 1890.
Stirred with the spirit of adventure, Mr. Webb struck our for the United States, and after a short time spent in New York, crossed the continent to California. A relative of his, A. P. May, had located in Coalinga a few years before, and that led Mr. Webb to come here, also. He located on a home- stead of 160 acres on the West Side, and there he continued for three years.
Then he accepted a position as clerk in the store of Simon Manasse, a pioneer merchant of Coalinga, commencing in the period before oil was dis- covered in commercial quantities, and he worked through January, 1896, when Chanslor & Canfield started their oil development. Mr. Webb then started as a merchant on Front Street, the business being conducted under the name of A. E. Webb; and when, six months later, A. P. May became a part- ner, the firm name was changed to Webb & May. At a later date Mr. Webb sold his interest to Mr. May, after which, for two years, he became an oil operator, and was interested in the Kreyenhagen Land & Oil Company, giving it his personal attention; but it did not prove a financial success, and he lost what he had accumulated.
Once more Mr. Webb turned to the sale of merchandise; and again he made such a success that he purchased the northeast corner of Fifth and E Streets and erected there a frame store building, stocked it with merchandise, and soon had built up a large business and developed the enterprise into a modern department store. He was in business for twelve years, and during that time built the Webb Block, a two-story brick structure, 100x150 feet in dimension. In 1912 he sold his goods and quit the merchandise trade, to devote his time to real estate and banking interests.
Mr. Webb was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Coalinga, in 1908, served as a director and vice-president from the start; and in 1914 he became president and manager, a position he now fills to the satisfaction of all having both the interests of that institution and the town at heart. The bank was originally located in the Webb Block, but in 1916 it was consolidated with the Bank of Coalinga, retaining the name of the First National Bank, but occupying the quarters of the Bank of Coal-
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inga, at the northwest corner of Fifth and E Streets. Its capital stock is and always has been $50,000, and its surplus now amounts to over $30,000. In January, 1916, both banks had deposits to the amount of $785,000, and now the First National Bank's deposits are over a million and a half dollars.
Undeterred by his former experiences, Mr. Webb is now interested in the Lucile Oil Company, and also the Elaine Oil Company, being president of the latter ; and he is also concerned in the development of other oil proper- ties, and has been engaged in buying and selling oil lands, in which he has met with gratifying success for himself and others.
In Fresno, Mr. Webb was married to Miss Clara Ochs, a popular lady of that city, and two children have blessed their union-George Arthur and Dorothy. The family attend the Christian Science Church. Mr. and Mrs. Webb actively participated in war work; he has been chairman of the Coal- inga Chapter of the Red Cross from its organization, and was chairman of all the Liberty Loan drives here, and in each case Coalinga went over and beyond the top. He served as district chairman here for the Fuel Adminis- tration. Mr. Webb is a Republican in national politics; for six years he served as a non-partisan member of the board of city trustees, and for two years of that time was president of the board. He was made a Mason in Coalinga Lodge, No. 347, F. & A. M., and is a member of the Chapter and Commandery in Hanford, and Islam Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. in San Fran- cisco, and is a member of the Eastern Star in Coalinga. He is a member and a director of the Coalinga Chamber of Commerce.
A. T. LINDGREN .- How impossible it would have been for any young and struggling municipality such as Kingsburg to develop and permanently and successfully establish itself without the advice and substantial aid of such institutions as its banks only those can realize when they know what, through the wise and generous cooperation of such concerns, has at last been accomplished. It is safe to say that nothing has proven so much the heart and mainspring of a new and ambitious community as has a live bank; and since the establishment here of the First National Bank of Kingsburg, this city has been reenforced to an extent not accorded every would-be city trying to get onto the map. This admirable financial institution owes its success, aside from the cordial welcome and support given it by the public since its start, largely to the exceptional staff of officers with which it has been manned; and none among them, perhaps, deserves more credit for hard, steady work in the building up of both bank and, consequently, the town, than A. T. Lindgren, its cashier and one of the directors.
He was born in Lindsborg, McPherson County, Kans., on February 10, 1872, the son of S. P. Lindgren, who was one of the three founders after whom Lindsborg was named. He was born in Sweden, and there married to Miss Martha Olson, of the same place, who came with him to Chicago and then to Kansas. There, with two partners, Mr. Lindgren organized at Smoky Hill Valley a land association, which developed into cooperative store-keeping; and from that movement came the establishing and naming of the town. Mr. Lindgren died in California in February, 1902, leaving five children, all of whom are now in California. A. T. Lindgren, the subject of this review ; S. O. is a rancher of Kingsburg; M. E. farms at Turlock; Emma resides with her mother at Kingsburg; and Christine, now Mrs. L. O. Homstrom, is on a ranch at Kingsburg.
S. P. Lindgren, besides being a merchant at Lindsborg, was also a hotel proprietor there and a merchant in Chicago, and it will be seen that he must have bequeathed to his son certain qualities and aptitudes likely to be of the greatest service to him in the field in which, as it has transpired, he chose to cast his lot. After attending the public schools at Lindsborg, he spent a year very profitably at Bethany College in 1887, and then, in 1889, he came to California and settled on a ranch at Kingsburg. From his seventeenth year he shifted for himself, and before long he became one of the organizers of
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the Linnea Cooperative Packing Association, which was established in 1900, when he became its manager. He was also the first secretary of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Kingsburg, also organized in 1900. He helped organize, too, the First National Bank of Kingsburg in 1904, and was its first, as he has been its only cashier.
The first officers were: President, D. S. Snodgrass, of Selma ; Vice-presi- dent, Levi Garrett ; Cashier, A. T. Lindgren ; and its first Board of Directors were: D. S. Snodgrass, Selma ; Levi Garrett, Kingsburg; M. Vincent, Selma ; and Alfred Nelson, Kingsburg. Its present officers are: President, Levi Garrett; Vice-president, Alfred Nelson; Cashier, A. T. Lindgren; Assistant Cashier, B. C. Nelson ; and its present Board of Directors consists of Messrs. Garrett, Nelson, Lindgren, D. E. Brown and N. Vincent.
The condition of this popular bank could certainly not be better, all things considered. Its resources are: Loans and discounts, $390,000; U. S. Bonds, $43,500; other bonds, $3,500; stock in Federal Reserve Bank, $1,650; banking house, furniture and fixtures, $23,650; cash and sight exchange, $75,000; while its liabilities are: capital stock, $50,000; surplus, $5,000; undivided profits, $3,000; circulation, $25,000; deposits, $450,000; and other liabilities, making an impressive total of $600,000.
Mr. Lindgren was married at Kingsburg in 1906 to Miss Selma Snorin, a native of Olivia, Minn., and the daughter of A. Snorin. Four children have blessed this union, and their names are Ira Whitney, Kenneth Theodore, Rosalie Annette and Ruth Eloise.
Mr. Lindgren has shown his good qualities as a citizen in many move- ments for the betterment of the community. He was chairman of the board that undertook the incorporation of Kingsburg, and the city, since it was incorporated, has been dry as a bone! Otherwise he has kept out of politics. He helped to organize the Swedish Mission Church. He resides at the corner of South and West Streets, in a pretty, comfortable and hospitable bunga- low home, and he has a farm of ten acres, set out to vines and trees. He also owns as town property five acres planted to vines in the Carlson Addition.
JESSE AUGUST BLASINGAME .- Any list of the pioneers of Fresno County, and especially of those men who have been successfully engaged in the stock-raising business would be incomplete without the name of Jesse A. Blasingame, a Mexican War veteran and an early settler near Academy. He was a native of Talladega County, Ala.
Becoming enthused with the interesting reports of the discovery of gold in California, Jesse A. Blasingame decided to try his fortunes in the Golden State and in that memorable year, 1849, came by the Isthmus of Panama to California, bringing with him several men to help in the mines. For awhile he engaged in mining for gold, but like many other men endowed with keen business acumen, he discovered that there were other ways and means of securing gold, or its equivalent, that were not so uncertain and hazardous. Subsequently he entered into the stock-raising business and by the exercise of his innate good judgment and wise management he achieved a satisfactory success.
In 1862 or 1863 he located in Fresno County and purchased land near Big Dry Creek, in the vicinity of Academy, and engaged in raising cattle, hogs, sheep and horses. As he prospered he purchased more land until in time he became one of the largest land owners in that section. His holdings extended about nine miles in one direction, reaching almost from Friant to Academy, and included about 12,000 acres.
In 1870, J. A. Blasingame with his wife and two children returned East, going to his old home state, Alabama, to settle an estate. Later the family went to Texas, where they spent one winter in Bell County. The next spring Mr. Blasingame began to purchase cattle to drive across the plains. His first purchase was at San Antonio, Texas, where he secured 1,200 head, he kept on adding to his purchases until he had about 2,000 head which he and
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IN Daniel
annie Daniel.
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his sons brought safely across the plains and mountains until they reached Humboldt Wells, Nev. From this point they shipped the cattle to San Fran- cisco, Sacramento and Colfax, receiving such good prices for the stock that he netted a handsome sum for his hazardous undertaking, and demonstrated his splendid business ability. That his keen business judgment and wise council in financial matters were soon recognized in the community, is recorded in the fact that he was one time the vice-president of the Fresno County Bank.
About 1878, he retired from active participation in business affairs and removed to the city of Fresno, where he spent his last days. He built the Ogle House, one of the first good hotels in Fresno and after his death, his widow built the Blasingame Block, now known as the Commercial Block at H. and Tulare Streets. J. A. Blasingame was interested in educational mat- ters and helped to build the Academy school house, which was one of the first in Fresno County. He also gave his aid to church work in the commun- ity.
Jesse A. Blasingame was united in marriage with Mary Jane Ogle, a native of Missouri. She crossed the plains when she was about fourteen years of age, with her parents in an ox team train. Mr. and Mrs. Blasingame be- came the parents of seven children: Alfred H., a stockman who resides at Clovis ; Albert A., is a resident of Fresno ; Lee A., is a viticulturist and stock- man seven miles northeast of Fresno; Nannie, is Mrs. N. H. Peterson, of Los Angeles; W. O. is a stockman and viticulturist of the Kutner Colony; J. A. Jr. is a rancher at Lone Star; Gertrude, is Mrs. Aten, residing in Fresno. Jesse A. Blasingame passed away in 1881. at the age of sixty-one ; his wife continued to reside in Fresno until her death in 1908, at the age of seventy- two years.
JOHN N. DANIEL .- An enterprising and progressive Californian, of liberal-hearted tendencies pleasantly shown in his varied intercourse with others, is John N. Daniel, one of the oldest settlers and most prominent of the men identified with Tranquillity and its vast irrigation interests. He was born in Honey Lake Valley, Lassen County, on April 20, 1865, the son of James H. Daniel, a native of Mt. Vernon district, Ky. He removed with his parents to Ralls County, Mo., where Grandfather Daniel died. Grandmother Daniel spent her last days in California, having come here by way of Panama, and died in Woodland. The father was about nineteen years old when he came by ox team across the pathless plains; and about 1851 he settled in Yolo County. There he married Margaret Briggs, a native of Ralls County, Mo., whose family had come with Grandmother Daniel across the Isthmus. The father was long engaged in farming at old Buckeye, Yolo County, but he took his family back to Missouri in 1873, and died in a railroad accident while on a trip to Texas. The mother and the family were in Missouri at the time; and after this accident, they stayed there, and in that state the mother died in 1880, having had four children, three of whom are living. John N. is the second eldest, and the others are: Mrs. Davidella Hart of Fresno; and Mrs. Bessie Miller of Los Angeles.
Brought up in California, except ten years when he lived in Ralls County, Mo., and always anxious to get back to California, John came to Fresno, on his return to the state, in May, 1885, and for about five years, was foreman for Jeff James on his ranch at Fish Slough, now Tranquillity, being engaged especially in stock-raising. He then located at West Park and improved a vineyard; and soon after located a homestead of 160 acres just west of the James ranch. This was about 1892 or 1893, and he also leased land and engaged in grain-raising, his landlord being Mr. James. All in all, he man- aged about 800, and sometimes 1,000 acres a year. He had a big outfit and a combined harvester, and ran it till the place was subdivided for colonization purposes.
Meantime, while grain-farming, he improved his homestead, turning the first furrow in what was then a wilderness. He improved it for alfalfa, and
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grew about the first alfalfa raised here. He and other renters built the ditch from the slough for twelve miles to irrigate their crops; and as it reached his land, he was one of the original owners of the ditch. As he built about twenty-five and a half per cent. of the ditch, he has in it valuable priority rights. He also helped build the Joaquin ditch and the Pump ditch. Now he is raising both alfalfa and stock, and he still owns the vineyard at the corner of Church and Marks Avenues, in West Park, near Fresno.
Mr. Daniel was married, at Fresno, to Mrs. Annie (Jagger) Daniel, a native of New Jersey, who was reared in San Francisco. By her first union she had three children: John Nelson, now in San Francisco; Frank James, in Tranquillity ; and William Arthur, who was in the United States Army. All of these children were educated at the usual common schools and also at the Fresno high school.
For sixteen years Mr. Daniel has been overseer of roads in this district, serving first under C. W. Garrett and of late under Chris Jorgensen, and for years before he was working on the roads in various parts of the county. He is a Democrat, and has been a delegate to the county and state conven- tions; he is also a member of the Democratic County Central Committee. For years he was a school trustee of the original Artesia school district, and has of late been a member of the Tranquillity school board. From its organi- zation until March 4, 1919, he was chairman of the board of directors of the Tranquillity Irrigation District, which has charge of over 11,000 acres; and he is also a member of the executive committee of the Pine Flat Conservation Project, which has for its aim the building of a great dam, above Piedra, in Pine Flat for a large reservoir to store the waters and give a longer irrigation season by having a great supply. He was one of the organizers and is a director of The First National Bank of Tranquillity, and in this enterprise, as well as all others of merit and uplift, he is ready to give the best that is in him to make them successful.
E. F. LOESCHER .- Few among the present-day men of affairs who have long worked and are still laboring for a greater California of the future deserve more honorable mention than E. F. Loescher, president and manager of the Action Brokerage Company, of Fresno. He is the son of Otto Loescher, the well-known pioneer of Fresno, who was born in Germany, December 29, 1859, the son of General Loescher, who was killed while stationed in China. Otto Loescher attended the public schools, and then was apprenticed and learned the trade of miller. Crossing the ocean in 1886, he went to Indiana and followed his trade there for two years. He found the climate unattractive, particularly in view of the stories told about California, so he came on fur- ther west and selected Selma, in Fresno County, for a home. He worked as miller in the Bachtold mill there, and later in a flouring mill at Reedley. While busy at his trade he invested his earnings in a forty-acre ranch near Selma, which he improved and later sold.
In 1901 he took up his residence on the place that came to be known as his home ranch. This property he improved in many ways, erecting a fine country home and otherwise making of it a valuable property. This place was located north of Fowler and comprised forty acres. At the same time that he bought this place he bargained for forty acres to the south. On his properties he set out about seventy acres to vines. The first ranch that he owned in the county was on the West Side. It was a government claim of half a section of land, which he devoted to grain; but he could see greater possibilities in viticulture.
After coming to Fresno County, Mr. Loescher married Miss Katie Vietor, a daughter of Frank Vietor, who was born in Germany in 1838, and came to the United States with his parents in 1848. Frank Vietor came from Cin- cinnati, Ohio, to the Sacramento Valley in 1861, and became superintendent of farming and stock-raising on several large islands in the Sacramento River. He came down to Fresno County in 1881. In partnership with his
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father-in-law, Otto Loescher leased over 2,000 acres of land near Selma, which they farmed to grain and where they ran a threshing outfit, at that time something of a novelty in this section. Mr. Loescher was a pioneer in grow- ing Thompson seedless raisins. He was an active member in the German Lutheran Church at Selma, and a member of the Odd Fellows there. After a successful career, made happier by a wide circle of friends, he sold out his interests in 1915 and moved to Orange County, where he now resides. Their three children are: Eda, the wife of C. L. Caine, who is a partner in the Action Brokerage Company; Agnes, who became the wife of E. Benson, also associated with the Action Brokerage Company; and E. F., of this review.
E. F. Loescher was educated at the public schools in Fowler, and in 1910 was graduated from the Portland Academy, at Portland, Ore., after which he took a commercial course at the Vancouver Institute, fitting him- self for a business career. While in Vancouver, B. C., he was for three years secretary to the Imperial Rice Milling Company. In 1913, before returning to California, he married Alice Katherine Stevinson, a native of Vancouver, by whom he has had two sons, Jack and Burt.
Upon returning to California in 1913, Mr. Loescher went to work for the California Associated Raisin Company, at the Phoenix plant at Fowler ; and on leaving that concern at the end of six months, he worked for a like period for Hans Graff in Fresno. Then he became office man for the Amer- ican Vineyard Company, and was later promoted to buyer. He resigned on December 31, 1916, to look after his own vineyard in Barstow Colony; but on May 1, of the following year, he returned to the company as the Fresno district manager, succeeding F. A. Seymour. On December 31, 1918, he resigned from this position to become associated with C. L. Caine and Harry Berndt in the Action Brokerage Company, in which he was chosen president and general manager. The company is incorporated for $50,000. It is the first real estate firm in Fresno to handle farmers' supplies, nursery stock, grape stakes, etc .; and it is also engaged in buying and selling green and dried fruits. The firm specializes in country property ; and its members, being well-known and reliable, are building up a large clientele extending all over the state.
Mr. Loescher owns the finest ranch in Barstow Colony, 160 acres, 100 of which are devoted to raising Thompson seedless raisins, while the bal- ance is set to Sultanas, Malagas, peaches and figs. He also owns eight head of finely matched, well-bred mules, black in color, which took the first prize at three fairs in 1917-the State Fair, the Kings County Fair and the Fresno County Fair. His mule "Sue" took the sweepstake prize as champion of the state at the State Fair in 1917. In addition he owns a standard-bred, three- year-old mare, a pacer, named "Katherine C," that bids fair to make a record. His stables contain all modern improvements, and he also has a Holt and a Wallace tractor on his ranch. He is also engaged in breeding registered pure-bred Persian sheep of the red-faced type, without any mixture. He is one of three breeders of Persian sheep on the Pacific Coast, and one of but seven in the United States. The care and study he has given to the breed- ing up of his stock have resulted in what is said to be the finest flock of Persians in the United States. Mr. Loescher is an authority on the growing of Thompson seedless raisin grapes, as well as a soil expert ; and his opinion is often sought by prospective buyers, who have confidence in his judgment. He has contributed articles to the local papers and farm journals on grape culture, methods of cultivation, fertilizing, and curing the grape, and his articles have received favorable comment. He is a member of the Sequoia Club and the Commercial Club of Fresno.
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