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 120

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 120

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L. M. Hutchinson, the youngest and the only one in California, was brought up on the farm and received a good education at the public schools. He was also awarded a teacher's certificate, and when twenty-one began teaching school in Washington County, Ohio. He followed the profession of a schoolmaster for nine years, and withdrew from that field only to engage in the oil business in Monroe County, Ohio. He commenced with the Henry Oil Company, worked up from the bottom, and became a well driller, con- tinuing with the Henry people for six years. Then he was employed by Franchot Bros., at Graysville, in Monroe County, drilling for them for a while, later becoming their foreman.

He was with this firm for six years, and then he was transferred to Kiefer, Okla., where he took charge of their work, taking hold of it from the be- ginning there. For about two years he was their superintendent at Kiefer but in 1909 he resigned on account of his health. He was advised to come to California ; and this change led to his speedy improvement.

Arriving at Coalinga, he was made foreman of the Unity Oil Company, remaining for two years, when he came with the North Pole Oil Company

Grand Espritallier

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to redrill their well and in three months he was made superintendent of the property, and he still occupies this responsible position. Much of its notable output has been due, it is safe to say, to this progressive and conscientious workman. For twenty-five years he has been a worker, foreman, and super- intendent in oil fields and has never missed a pay day.

Mr. Hutchinson has been twice married, the ceremony both times taking place in Ohio. His first wife was Ava Schofield before her marriage, and she was born in the Buckeye State. She died at Elk Fork, W. Va., the mother of three children: Noble enlisted in United States service but was rejected because of being under weight, is now a mechanical engineer in Oklahoma; and Earl who is in the United States Naval Reserve and served overseas; and Ethel, who is at home. Miss Olive Stants, a native of Penn- sylvania, became Mrs. Hutchinson at the second marriage.

While at Stafford, Ohio, Mr. Hutchinson was made a Mason, and he is now a member of Coalinga Lodge, No. 387, F. & A. M. He also joined the Odd Fellows at Woodfield, Ohio, and the K. O. T. M. at Sistersville, W. Va. He belongs to the Coalinga Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America, is a member of the Christian Church, and votes as a Progressive Republican.

FRANCOIS ESPITALLIER .- In far-away Gap, a beautiful resort in the Sampsor Valley, among the Hautes-Alps, Francois Espitallier was born on January 6, 1870, the son of a farmer who thoroughly understood agricul- ture, having received the benefits of a long line of farm-tradition and who, having a progressive mind, had experimented and learned for himself. About 1893 he died, the honored father of eight children. His good wife, who was Madelina Escallier, a school companion from the same village of Gap, lived to be seventy-four and passed away in 1917.

Francois, the second eldest of these children, and the only one now living, was brought up on a farm and attended the public school of his locality. Under normal circumstances, he would probably have followed in his father's footsteps and remained at home to till the rich French soil, but he had three uncles-brothers of his mother-who had migrated to California and were residing in Fresno County, and as soon as he was old enough to formulate plans, he decided to cross the waste of waters and join them. He was only sixteen years of age when he prepared to take this momentous step.

In December, 1886, he arrived in Fresno, and at once began to work for his uncle, Louis Escallier, who was in the sheep business. He remained with him for a year and a half, and then he bought a band of 2,000 ewes and con- tinued in the sheep business for thirteen years. The dry seasons hit him hard, however, and especially the year of great drought, 1894, when he had 7,000 sheep on hand, but he stuck to the business and eventually was able to sell out without suffering the disaster so common to many.

In 1899, Mr. Espitallier went into the hotel business, and in order to carry out his ideas, he built the well-known hostelry at the corner of G and Mariposa streets, the Capitol Hotel, long regarded as one of California's best- appointed stopping-places. This hotel was completed in 1901, and he has managed it ever since, giving it his personal attention, and more and more bringing it into line with the best in the State. It requires something more than experience to be a good hotel-manager, and Francois is lucky in having that genial personality which makes his guests, on departing after a good rest and refreshment, wish to come again.

But Mr. Espitallier did not limit himself to the hotel business, even when he found that the Capitol was destined to enjoy such popularity. In 1901 he bought forty acres in the Helm Colony and engaged in viticulture. He set out muscat and malaga grapes, making a fine vineyard, and planted five acres as a peach orchard. He spared neither pains nor expense, and he now boasts of as trim a ranch as may anywhere be found. He works hard for himself

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but he also works for others, and no one is more active in support of the California Associated Raisin Company.

In Fresno, Mr. Espitallier was married to Miss Eugenia Baztera, a native of the Basque country in the north of Spain, who came to America, and Fresno, when she was twenty-two. Soon after, in improving his vineyard property, he built for his wife and himself the handsome residence they oc- cupy, and with his increasing success, he acquired other residence property in Fresno. As the years have gone by, fortune has smiled upon the Espital- liers and they have many friends who rejoice in their prosperity.

NICK FABRIS .- The oldest business man in Firebaugh is Nick Fabris who has been active in the building up of and improving the place and a con- tinual booster for Fresno County. He was born at Cittawechia, Dalmazia, Austria, February 14, 1867. His father, Vincent Fabris, was a shoemaker, who died in his native country. His widow survived him, coming to San Francisco where she resided until her death. Nick Fabris received a good education in the public schools of his native place. After his school days were over he learned the shoemaker's trade under his father and became an ex- ceptional shoemaker. Having a desire to cast in his lot on the Pacific Coast as soon as he was through with his apprenticeship he came to San Francisco arriving April 22, 1885. Here he worked at the trade for a time but it was not long before he had a shoe store of his own, his business place being located on Broadway between Dupont and Stockton, continuing business there until 1894. During this time he took out his naturalization papers and became a citizen of the United States. In 1894 he came to Madera, but his efforts there evidently did not meet with success for he came to Firebaugh in 1895 with only fifteen cents in his pocket. Nothing daunted he immediately found work on the Miller & Lux ranch and a month later he bought a building only 8x10 and here he started a shoe shop. His masterful workmanship was appreciated and his business grew, making him so successful that a few years later he purchased a liquor establishment-and still later he built a store and started in the general merchandise business in which he has met with success. He has prospered and invested in Firebaugh property where he owns thirty-six lots and has built six residences. He also owns two residences in Fresno and two acres on Milton Avenue, the same city, devoted to raising Thompson seedless grapes. He also owns The Five Mile House in South San Francisco.

In Fresno, in 1901, Mr. Fabris was married to Miss Margareta Vragninzan who was born in his native place, a woman of much business ability. Mr. Fabris was one of the original trustees of the city of Firebaugh and is still serving in that capacity having served as chairman of the Board two terms. He is an active member of the Firebaugh Merchants Association and also a member of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he is a member of Mendota Lodge Knights of Pythias, the order of Druids and the Foresters of America, having joined the latter order in San Francisco nearly thirty years ago. In his political affiliation he is a Republican.

ARTHUR PRENTICE MITCHELL .- An experienced and widely- known oil man who is popular because of his progressive views, is Arthur Pren- tice Mitchell, who was born in Sedalia, Mo., on September 7, 1883, the son of John Mitchell, who first saw the light in Hickory County, the same state. He was an industrious farmer, but he died when Arthur was only three months of age. Mrs. Mitchell, who was Lillie Bernard before her marriage, was also a native of Missouri, and now resides in Coalinga, the mother of only one child, the subject of this sketch.

Arthur was brought up in Warsaw, Mo., and there attended the public schools ; and when he was about fourteen, he made the long trip to California and in this distant West began to paddle his own canoe. He settled at Fill- more, Ventura County, and for a while worked on a cattle ranch when, for five years, he rode the range, familiarized himself with that branch of agri-

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cultural life and grew strong and healthy, after which he turned to the oil fields for more promising returns.

At first, he worked for the Union Oil Company at Fillmore, and then at Union ; and next he was sent to a station at Olinda, near Fullerton, for the Santa Fe Company. He learned how to be a tool dresser and a well puller, and in time was made foreman well puller. In each of these departments of activity he began at the lowest round of the ladder and made himself profi- cient in any detail.

In 1908 Mr. Mitchell came to Coalinga in the employ of the M. K. and T., and then he went with the Commercial Oil Company as production fore- man and continued with them until 1910. In that year he entered the service of the Maine State Oil Company and succeeded L. G. Guiberson as superintend- ent; and since then he has put down six new wells on their 160-acre lease, so that the company now has a good production of oil. He is also in charge of the Guthrie Oil Company's forty acres, and their production.

Fraternally, Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Coalinga Aerie of Eagles, No. 387, and he is also a member of the Growers Club.

SAMUEL LANFRANCO .- No better subject could be selected, to illus- trate the success of California's intelligent and enterprising vineyardists, than Samuel Lanfranco, the raisin-grower of Fresno County, who was born in Asti, Piemonte, Italy, on October 28, 1873. He was only seventeen when he came to America and at the end of 1890 he moved west to California, where he worked for three years in a rock quarry at San Leandro Mountain, in Alameda County. The next three years he spent in coal mines in British Columbia, after which he returned to California and engaged in the liquor business in San Francisco and Oakland. He arrived in Fresno in 1903, when he bought the Cosmopolitan Hotel at the corner of Fresno and G streets. This he still owns and conducts with his partners, D. Rampone, G. Marsirio and G. Sachetto.

But it is in land development and grape-growing that Mr. Lanfranco has accomplished most. He started in 1907 to buy ranch property, purchased twenty acres in Arizona Colony, partly improved, and later bought twenty acres adjoining. These two tracts he has greatly improved, planting sultana and Thompson seedless, and raising thirty tons of raisins in 1918. He also owns twenty acres in Roeding Villa Colony, eight acres of which he has set out in peaches, and twelve with vines. In addition, he holds title to a thirty- acre grain-ranch in the Muscatel District. In 1915 he bought a forty-acre vineyard near Kerman, and after improving this, he sold it, in November, 1918, at a good profit. Besides his ranch holdings, he owns three houses in Fresno, near E and Merced streets.

Mr. Lanfranco was married to Linda Ferraris, a native of Italy, by whom he has had four children: Isador, Edmund, Edna, and Italia. The family attends St. John's Catholic Church. Mr. Lanfranco places a high value on education, and leaves nothing undone that may contribute to the advance- ment of his children, or the benefit of others, for being self-made, he is natur- ally progressive. He makes his home on the ranch in Arizona Colony, having improved the place with a fine dwelling-house. For twenty years he has been a member of the Knights of Pythias.

BENJAMIN L. SIMS .- Identified with the grocery business of Fresno for nearly thirty years is Benjamin L. Sims, who was born near Mur- ray, Calloway County, Ky., April 30, 1871, a son of Phillip W. and Martha J. Sims, who are now old settlers of Fresno County, making their home in Fresno. In 1874 the family removed to Valley Mills, Bosque County, Texas, where Ben- jamin went to school and assisted on the ranch until they moved to Fresno in 1887, and here he again attended the school in the city. After his school days were over he entered the employ of Kutner & Goldstein on June 13, 1889, con- tinuing with them for a period of five years and eight months; he then clerked

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for Holland & Holland for twenty months. Having decided to engaged in business on his own account he quit his position in 1899 and started a grocery store at 1129 Van Ness Avenue. His brother, Edwin E., being his partner, they did business under the firm name of Sims Bros. After six years they sold out to the Rochdale Company in 1905. He then engaged in ranching, having pur- chased a farm on California Avenue, nine miles west of Fresno where he raised alfalfa and had a dairy, and while thus engaged became a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association. In 1912 he sold his ranch and disposed of his cows and purchased a vineyard and orchard near Clovis owning forty acres, twenty of which was devoted to raising malaga grapes and peaches. In 1915 he sold twenty acres of the ranch and moved to a peach orchard he purchased on Chittenden Avenue, Fresno, a place he still owns.

In 1916 he again engaged in the grocery business, purchasing a residence and store building on the corner of Fresno and Tyler Streets, where he was successfully engaged in business until June, 1918, when he sold the stock and rents the store. Since that time Mr. Sims is in the real estate business in Fresno. handling both city and farm property.

In Fresno in 1892 occurred the marriage of Mr. Sims and Laura Musick, who was a daughter of the late Jasper N. Musick and was born at Academy. She completed her education in the Fresno High. Mr. and Mrs. Sims have been blessed with three children: Jesse P., served in Company D, Three Hundred Sixteenth U. S. Engineers in the Ninety-first Division overseas for nine months, having the rank of Sergeant, first class; Marshall P., a graduate of Heald's Business College, and Robert B., attending Fresno High.

They are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Fresno. While living in Nees Colony he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Nees Colony School. In early days Mr. Sims was a member of the Retail Grocery Association and the Chamber of Commerce and he is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers, Inc.

GEORGE KRUSE .- This progressive rancher and his cultured wife, to whom he gives much of the credit for their financial success in Fresno County, have won a name and place for themselves in the locality where they live. George Kruse was born in Tarlyck, Samara, Russia, November 16, 1880, a son of Henry and Mary (Deis) Kruse, both natives of the same province and who are farmers. The oldest of three- living children, George attended the schools and at the age of seventeen was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith trade. In September, 1899, he came to Dorchester, Wis., and in April, 1900, we find him in Fresno County, working on a grain-ranch to learn all he could of the ways of ranching in California ; this he continued two years.

On February 19, 1904, he was married to Miss Maggie Weber, born in the same Russian town, and the oldest child and daughter of Peter and Mary (Herman) Weber, Russian-Germans and farmers who eventually came with their family to California. Peter was a rancher at Fowler, then located at Oleander. After his marriage Mr. Kruse continued ranching, working at baling hay, etc., until he saved enough to buy some land, which he did near Fowler, in partnership with Mr. Weber. One year later he sold to Mr. Weber and engaged in grain-raising at Tranquillity until the water came in and he left the place to start over again. He bought twenty acres on Coalinga Ave- nue, near California, in 1907, located on it and made valuable improvements, erecting buildings and setting out trees and vines, and he now has ten acres in Thompsons.

Mr. and Mrs. Kruse have four children: Henry, Marie, Harry and Ed- ward. The family belongs to the Lutheran Evangelical Church. An advocate of progress and cooperation, Mr. Kruse belongs to the California Associated Raisin Company. By hard work and good management Mr. and Mrs. Kruse have won success and are enjoying life in their country home eleven miles west from Fresno City.

James a. Veny

Martha Perry

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JAMES ABNER PERRY .- Among the early settlers and prominent men of Fresno County, was James Abner Perry, born in Tennessee, in 1837. When a youth he came to Arkansas, where he grew to manhood. In 1857, he and his father and other members of the family joined an ox-team train, crossing the plains. The senior Perry brought some fine horses of the Mor- gan breed, a strain of most excellent and valuable horses still found on the Perry ranch. Before arriving at Salt Lake, the train divided, some taking the route that led to the massacre of their party at Mountain Meadows, while the Perry family continued with their leader, old Captain Fancher, and arrived safely in California, thus escaping the horrors of the Mountain Meadow mas- sacre, by the Indians, in 1857.

James Perry mined for a time, then located on Kings River, where he farmed and raised cattle, his ranch being in the Eureka, now the Round Mountain district. On February, 25, 1880, he was married at Academy to Miss Martha Ely, born at Talladega, Ala., a daughter of Merritt and Soph- ronia (Blasingame) Ely. Her father was a planter and died in Alabama, leav- ing a family of nine children whom Mrs. Ely brought to California in 1876. She located a claim on Little Dry Creek, where she began improvements. This she afterwards sold and moved to Kings River, making her home there for many years. She spent her last days in Fresno and died at 829 O Street. Mrs. Perry is the second oldest of their nine children, five of whom are living ; she received her education in the public schools in her native state.

After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Perry continued farming on their ranch on Fancher Creek, and there Mr. Perry died, on December 31, 1899. He was a prominent and highly esteemed citizen. Six children were born to them : Caroline Ethel, a graduate of the Fresno State Normal, is teaching at Tollhouse ; Constance S. is assisting her mother ; Bernice, who is Mrs. A. W. Green, resides near Tollhouse; Lyman runs the Perry ranch for his mother and is meeting with deserved success; Ruth, who is Mrs. Shafner of Clovis; and Hazel, who is also at home.

Since her husband died Mrs. Perry has continued the stock-raising and farming, being assisted by her children, her son Lyman being now in charge of operations. They have added to their landed holdings and now have 606 acres in the Round Mountain district and 160 acres at the head of Watts Valley, besides her homestead of 160 acres in Burroughs Valley, which she has improved with a residence. The ranches have fine springs and are valu- able stock farms. Mrs. Perry is among the old-time settlers and is well posted on early-day history, and is an interesting conversationalist, being enthu- siastic for the preservation of incidents and personal history of early days. She is a Presbyterian in religion, and both she and her late husband were greatly interested in the cause of education, Mr. Perry serving as trustee of the Eureka school district.

CLARENCE JOHN HILL .- The manager of the Oil Well Supply Company at Coalinga, a native son of the Golden West, is Clarence John Hill, born near Armona, Kings County, January 11, 1888. His father, John Hill, a pioneer of the San Joaquin Valley is represented on another page in this work.

Clarence J. was rearer in Kings County until 1898 when he came with his parents to their homestead on the Jacolitos, and from a lad assisted his father on the ranch. His education was obtained in the school at Mussel Slough, Jacolitos district and at Coalinga. In 1904 he began work on a hay baler but three months later he quit to assist his brother, A. B. Hill, in the hay, grain and wood business in Coalinga having charge of the business for eighteen months while his brother was the postmaster at Coalinga; at the same time Clarence was a clerk in the postoffice. When his brother sold out to the Coalinga Hay, Grain and Fuel Company (Bliss & Downing) he managed the business for them a year and then they sold to Runsey Baird and soon afterwards he went to work for C. N. Sanderson also a hay and grain mer-

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chant. A month later he was offered a position with the Oil Well Supply Company; he began work February 20, 1907, and three weeks later the manager, S. R. Bowen, offered him a place in the office. He became a close student of the business and was advanced to assistant manager under Mr. Bowen, holding the same position, under his successor, Mr. Turner, and on the latter's resignation, November 15, 1912, Mr. Hill was made local manager a position he has filled ably and well ever since. They have a large warehouse and store building in the heart of Coalinga on the railroad reservation where they undoubtedly have the most extensive stock of oil well supplies in town. In Fresno, February 11, 1911, Mr. Hill was married to Miss Lillian May Wehe of Los Banos. Fraternally he was made a Mason in Coalinga Lodge No. 387, F. & A. M., and was exalted in Coalinga Chapter No. 114 R. A. M. With his wife he is a member of Eschscholtzia Chapter, O. E. S. He is also a member and past officer of Independent Order of Redmen in Coalinga and of the Growlers Club. He is active in the Coalinga Chamber of Com- merce and the Coalinga Business Men's Association.

N. H. FUGELSANG .- A liberal-hearted and progressive ranchman in Fresno County, is N. H. Fugelsang who was born in Fyen, Denmark, on February 6, 1866. His father was H. J. Knudsen, who was also born there in 1821. One of four boys in the family, he fought the Huns in the War of 1848- 50, serving in the Danish army. Mr. Fugelsang's mother had been Marie Petersdatter before her marriage, and she was a native of the same place as her husband. The farm of the parents was named Fugelsang, and so they took that for their family name. The father died in 1883, and the mother in 1888. They had twelve children, and six of them grew to maturity.

N. H. Fugelsang was the second oldest and was brought up on the home farm. He attended the public schools, and he also enjoyed a high school edu- cation. Having finished school, he entered the Danish army in 1888 and served in the Nyborg Fifth Regiment of Danish Infantry. as bugler, in the Third Company, Nineteenth Battalion. After serving his time, and on receiv- ing his honorable discharge, he was also honored with the best rifle record in his company. On returning to civil life, he engaged in farming.

In 1892, however, Mr. Fugelsang came across the ocean to America, and continuing West to California, arrived in Fresno on April 26, 1892. Here he was soon employed in a vineyard in the Madison district, and for eight months he worked out at twenty-five dollars a month. Then he worked for another eight months in another vineyard.

In 1895, he bought his present place of forty acres on Johnson Avenue, to which he at once moved. He also rented eighty acres in Fresno Colony, and with characteristic enterprise, ran the two. He made many improvements which enhanced the value of the property, even resetting vines and trees. Ten years later he bought another forty acres, adjoining, and now he owns a splendid tract of eighty acres, all in vineyards and orchards. There are eight acres in peaches, and the balance in Muscat and Thompson grapes, all under fine irrigation, and there, also, he has his residence.

On May 16, 1896, Mr. Fugelsang was married at Fresno to Miss Minne Paulsen, who was born at Ribe, in Denmark, and who through her childhood experiences and familiarity with Danish life and customs is a worthy com- panion. Her father, Niels Paulsen, also served in the War of 1848-50 against the Germans, after which he was a contracting painter and decorator in Ribe. Mrs. Fugelsang came to Fresno in 1887. They have had four children : Marie, now a bookkeeper and stenographer, is a graduate of Heald's Business Col- lege ; Sofus and Viggo, both assisting their father on the ranch ; and Niels.

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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 120

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