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 122
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143
Mrs. Nourse is the mother of two children by her first marriage: Georgia Pearl Secker, a graduate of Stanford University in 1918, and also a· graduate of the State Library School at Sacramento, and now an assistant in Stanford University Library ; and Frederick Ward Secker, a graduate of Fresno High School, and who was a member of the Reserve Force of the United States Navy, where he filled the position of an electrician of the first class. Being discharged from active duty he has resumed his former position with the Santa Fe in the signal department.
Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Nourse continue to operate the ranch and are specializing in peaches, of the Muir and Alberta varieties, as well as sultana grapes and figs. Mrs. Ward and Mrs. Nourse are pioneer horticulturists of this section and have demonstrated that oranges can be raised in this district. They have nearly an acre of oranges on their ranch and have been very successful in raising a good quality of fruit. They believe that both climate and soil are conducive to raising oranges in this section. They were among the early members of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and are stock- holders in the organization. Their home ranch is one of the show-places of the community.
GEORGE SNYDER .- An energetic farmer who has succeeded as a horticulturist and viticulturist, and by so doing has advanced California agri- culture and has added to the wealth of the state's improved resources, is George Snyder, who was born near Volks, Samara, Russia, on November 9. 1883, the son of George Schneider, who was a farmer there. One of his sons had come out to the United States and to Fresno County as early as 1900 and two years later the father brought his wife and the balance of the family to California and settled in Fresno. Here he engaged in farming and viticulture, and such was his reward that he is now able to live retired. Barbara Schneider, his wife, also lived for years in Fresno County, and here she died, the mother of four boys and two girls. Lizzie is Mrs. Busick of Fresno; Peter is a rancher near Barstow; Christine has become Mrs. Baude of Fresno; 111
2436
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
George is the subject of this review ; and Conrad and Henry are ranchers not far away.
George was brought up in his native place and educated there in the public schools; and when he was eighteen years of age he came, in May, 1902, to Fresno County. He soon went to work on a fruit ranch for one dollar and a quarter a day, but although he had to board himself, he saved and got ahead. For two seasons Mr. Snyder worked at haying for Robert McIndoo, and when the latter sold out, he bought a team and outfit on time, and started teaming in Fresno. A year later he purchased a hay baler, and for nine seasons he teamed a part of the year and contracted to bale hay for the rest of the time. Then he leased an orchard and a vineyard of 120 acres at Parlier, where he went into partnership with Charles Scharer. He had previously raised grain on leased land with his brother Henry, thus acquiring some ex- perience of value later, and then he had bought forty acres in Barstow, which he set out with Thompson seedless grapes and three years later sold at a profit. He and his partner now took charge of this peach orchard and vine- yard of Thompson and Muscat grapes; but when the property was disposed of, they had to relinquish the lease.
In 1916, he bought his present place of eighty acres in Barstow from Al Munger, and at once turned it to horticultural and viticultural purposes. He has twenty acres of apricots set between olive trees, and thirty acres of Elberta and Muir peaches, as well as Lovells; the peaches also being interset with olives. He also has a vineyard of thirty acres of Thompson grapes. His ranch is under an almost perfect system of irrigation; besides being under the Herndon Canal he also has a pumping plant. Mr. Snyder belongs to and actively supports the California Associated Raisin Company, the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Olive Growers' Association.
On June 17, 1905, Mr. Snyder was married at Fresno to Miss Pauline Steitz, born in Fresno, a daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Seifert) Steitz, one of the first of eight families from his native land to locate in Fresno in 1887. Mr. Steitz became gardener for Einstein & Gundel- finger, also janitor of the Bank of Central California. He died in 1903. A widow and four daughters survive him, of whom Mrs. Snyder is the oldest. She was educated in the Fresno schools. They have one daughter, Elsie. The family belong to the Free Cross Lutheran Church.
JOHN BAHRENFUS .- Prominent among the aggressive members of the California Associated Raisin Company, is John Bahrenfus, who was born near Davenport, in Scott County, Iowa, in 1854, the son of Lawrence Bah- renfus, of Holstein, then Denmark and later Germany. He married Lucy Bachsen and was a carpenter and builder. About 1851 he located in Hickory Grove Township, Scott County, as a farmer, and later removed to Grinnell, Poweshiek County, where he bought a farm on which he died. Mrs. Bah- renfns died there also, the mother of six children, three of whom are still living. John was the third youngest, and is the only one in California.
When he was ten years old the family moved to Grinnell, and there he attended the public schools. He remained home to assist his father on the farm; and when, in his nineteenth year, his father died, he ran the farm for his mother as long as he remained single.
On October 2, 1884, he was married at Grinnell to Miss Ella Schultz, who was born near that town, the daughter of Fred and Mary (Harmon) Schultz, who were born, respectively, in Illinois and Ireland. They were farmers in Poweshiek County, and have a farm of 640 acres, with plenty of fine stock. The mother died when Mrs. Bahrenfus was three years old, and the father in his seventy-second year. Of the two children, she was the elder, and attended the public schools, afterward going to Grinnell College.
For two years Mr. Bahrenfus leased land, and then he bought 160 acres in Hamilton County, and went in for grain and stockraising. Later he sold
ARHan.
2439
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
this and moved to Iowa Falls, where he purchased a farm ; but on account of ill-health he removed to Missouri, settling near Parnell in Nodaway County. The climate proved too cold for him, however, and he concluded to come to California.
In the fall of 1905, he located in Fresno County near Kerman, and in January, 1906, he bought his place of twenty acres, now so attractive on account of its fine vineyard of Thompson seedless grapes. At first he had an orchard of apricots and peaches ; but it was not a success, and he dug the trees up. He built a residence and put up other buildings and installed machinery. He became a stockholder in the California Associated Raisin Company.
Four children blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bahrenfus: Fred L. is a rancher at Biola; Lena, who has become Mrs. Oliver, lives in Nodaway County, Mo. ; Ella is Mrs. Frank Jenkins, and resides at Vinland ; and John J. was a soldier in the National Army at Camp Lewis, now honorably dis- charged. The family grew up in the Lutheran faith.
In 1919 Mr. Bahrenfus purchased a fine up-to-date bungalow at 390 Temple Avenue, Long Beach, where he and his family are now residing. The latch string continues to hang out to welcome their numerous friends.
I. R. HAIN .- A young man who is meeting with merited success in his undertakings is I. R. Hain, who was born in Pleasant Valley, Reno County, Kans., July 14, 1883. His father, William H. Hain, was a native of Wales, Maine, was a man of education and a scholar, being a graduate of Boudoin College, and for many years engaged in educational work and lectured in Illinois, then in Kansas, Nebraska and Washington. He resided in Reno County, Kans., then in Beatrice, Gage County, Nebr., then in Portland, Ore. For many years he lived in Cowlitz County, Wash. He studied law and was admitted to the bar and practiced law ; his ability was soon recognized and he was elected a member of the State legislature. However, his natural desire for change of place and travel asserted itself and he again came East, finally stopping for a time in Indian Territory, where he engaged in farming in the Cherokee Nation. Afterwards he went to Massachusetts, but finally returned to Kansas, where he spent his last days. Mr. Hain's mother was Ida May Fletcher, born in Bath, Maine, and she now makes her home in Arkansas City, Kans. They were the parents of five boys and one girl, all of whom are living, our subject and his twin brother, Harrison, of Arkansas City, Kans., being the middle of the group.
I. R. Hain received a good education in the public schools of their various places of residence, afterwards entered the Nevada Business College in Nevada, Mo., where he was graduated at the age of nineteen. He assisted his father on the farm in Indian Territory until January, 1905, when he came to Visalia, Cal., and for a short time he worked on a ranch, then was in the employ of the Diamond Lumber Company for about two years, after which he came to Fresno, where he was steadily engaged with the Pierce Lumber Company for three years. Having a desire to own land of his own he came to Huron in 1911 and homesteaded 160 acres three miles south of town, which he improved and farmed, performing the requirements of the law and obtained title. During these years he also leased lands and engaged in raising wheat and barley. Meeting with success, he purchased other land and now owns 520 acres. He leases land at Helm and sows about 640 acres a year to grain and for the purpose uses the latest and most modern implements,- including a sixty horse-power Holt caterpillar and a combined harvester. In 1915, in partnership with N. Semper and Mr. Clavine, he built a warehouse at Huron, and a year later they purchased Mr. Clavine's interest. The ware- house is known as the Semper and Hain Warehouse, of which Mr. Hain has the management. In 1916 he also purchased the Miller and Cherry warehouse in Huron, which he also runs. Not content with all of these interests he found time to branch out and in 1919 he started in the general merchandise business in Huron, putting in a new and well selected stock of goods and
2440
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
from this point manages his many affairs, and buys and ships grain. He is postmaster at Huron, as well as deputy county clerk and deputy constable, and during the war was chief registrar. Being interested in having good schools he is serving acceptably as school trustee of Huron district. It will be readily seen that Mr. Hain is a very busy man, but capable of ably hand- ling his varied interests. Of a pleasing personality, well posted and well read, and with a retentive memory, he is a very interesting person to meet. Fraternally, he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of American at Visalia.
LEWIS G. GATCHELL .- A self-made man who modestly goes his way in the performance of every day duty, is Lewis G. Gatchell, the wide-awake and ever-genial manager of the Coalinga Ice Company. He was born in' Fulton Township, Lancaster County, Pa., on December 19, 1887, two miles from where Robert Fulton was born. He attended the usual grammar and high school courses, and finally studied at the State Normal school at Millersville, where he was graduated in 1908.
All his life, however, he had the "California fever" and in the spring of 1908 he borrowed enough money to bring him to the Golden State. Stopping at Coalinga, he secured employment with the Coalinga Ice Company, when their small plant was located where the Southern Pacific Railroad depot now stands ; and he has been in their employ ever since.
After a while Mr. Gatchell's worth was recognized in a special degree, and he was made assistant manager; and since 1910 he has been in full charge of the plant. Modern in every way, with a capacity equal to the re- quirements of the community, this ice company is a business of which the town may well be proud.
George Aydelott, whose home is in Hanford, and who is president of the company, was its founder and builder; and now the plant turns out ten tons of ice every twenty-four hours.
Mr. Gatchell spends much of his spare time in the mountains with rod and gun. He owns 240 acres of land south of Henrietta, and rents 1,200 acres more ; and on this acreage he ranges cattle. This he has found more profit- able than grain farming, to which he gave his time and energy in previous years. He expects soon to retire from ice making, and to give himself up entirely to the raising of cattle. In August, 1918, he enlisted in the United States Army, serving in the Eighty-second Machine Company at Camp Kearney until after the armistice when his application for a discharge was granted. He returned to his old position, January 3, 1919.
Mr. Gatchell was married to Lena Story in 1915, who was born in Whittier. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gatchell are popular socially, and he is a member of the Hanford Elks.
PETER J. WOLF .- As a horticulturist and viticulturist Peter J. Wolf is doing his share toward increasing the value of Fresno County real estate.
Mr. Wolf was born in Chenoa, Ill., on September 26, 1881, and is the son of Jacob and Annie (Fredericks) Wolf. His parents came to San Fran- cisco in 1887, and after sojourning there for three or four years removed to Fresno County with their family, where the father was employed on a vine- vard in West Park for a time. He afterwards homesteaded 160 acres on the West Side, sixteen miles south of Mendota, and engaged in farming and stock- raising until he proved up on his homestead. He then located in Empire Colony, leased land owned by the Bank of California and was engaged in raising grain and as an orchardist and vineyardist. Later he purchased 100 acres of the place he was leasing and turned his attention to horticulture and viticulture, and assisted by his sons, made a success of the vocation, setting out about fifty acres of vines. He was one of the trustees of the Empire school district. He finally disposed of his interests and located in Fresno where he died in 1910, aged about fifty-six years. His wife also died in Fresno in 1908. Of their seven children six are living : Peter J. is the eldest; George
& Bra NY
L. D. Scott
2443
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
is a rancher on the old home place; Dan is a rancher on Madera Avenue; Annie is Mrs. Hayes, and resides in Sebastopol, Cal .; Josephine is Mrs. Vought of Fresno; and Jacob, who entered the United States Army in October, 1917, and was assigned to the Regulars, went overseas in December, 1917, and is now in the Army of Occupation.
Peter J. was reared in California and educated in the public schools of Fresno city and county. From a youth he assisted his father on the farm. When twenty-two he bought twenty acres on Shields Avenue in Empire Colony and engaged in orchard and vineyard culture and in raising alfalfa. In 1910 he sold the twenty acres and purchased a place of forty acres, at seventy-five dollars per acre, located on Thompson and Shields Avenue. He improved the place, built a residence, set out an apricot and peach orchard and a vineyard ; later he purchased twenty acres adjoining his place, paying $200 an acre for the property. He set it to Thompson seedless vines. In the summer of 1918 he sold this sixty acres at a good profit and then purchased twenty acres, paying $250 an acre, adjoining his other eighty on the south. This he has improved with a fine residence. In 1916 he purchased forty acres across the road from his former place, paying $125 per acre for it. It cost him sixty-five dollars an acre to level the land and get it in shape. This is also well improved and is still owned by Mr. Wolf. In 1917 he purchased two twenty-acre pieces adjoining his forty, paying $125 an acre for one of the pieces and $200 an acre for the other, and this property he is improving for vineyard and orchard. He is one of the oldest settlers in the neighborhood, and served one term as trustee of the Empire school district. In his political views he is a Democrat. He is a member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and has been a member of the California Associated Raisin Company ever since it was first organized.
Mr. Wolf was married on October 21, 1903, to Miss Etta Price, born in Texas, and there educated and they have eight children: Goldie, Leona, Viola, Vernon, Lorene, Bernice, Raymond and Opal.
HON. L. D. SCOTT .- More than prominent in his time as a broad- gaged statesman who did much to shape the affairs of the great common- wealth of California, and long to be remembered both for his exceptional integrity and sagacity, the late Lorenzo Dow Scott has a place in the hearts of his fellow-citizens and contemporaries such as anyone, and ambitious Amer- ican youth in particular, might well covet. He was born at Clinton, Ill., on January 4, 1847, and was just sixty-eight years old when, on the fourth of January, 1915, he took the oath of office as member, from the fiftieth district, of the forty-first session of the California state assembly.
He grew up in Illinois, attended the public schools there, and in time en- gaged in farming. In that state, too, on March 28, 1878, he was married to Miss Florence A. Persinger, a native of Sydney, Ohio, where she was born the daughter of William and Eliza Persinger. When seven years old she came to Illinois, where she attended the Kinney High School.
Mr. and Mrs. Scott had four children when they came to California in 1886, the youngest two in their family being born in California, and they settled at Del Rey in Fresno County, which was then known as Clifton. There Mr. Scott improved a farm ; but in 1891 they moved to Selma. He had a vineyard at Del Rey, but when he moved he engaged in the dairy business, and undertook to run the creamery which has since given way to the peach and raisin industries.
Having successfully built up for the time, the dairy interests at that place, he associated himself with the management of the First National Bank at Selma and for many years was its vice-president. He was also, as a good judge of land values, the bank's appraiser. His discernment, together with his honesty and frankness, won for him and the institution he represented many friends.
2444
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
Called by his fellow-citizens, and with a most complimentary vote, to represent them in the State Legislature, he served his time and worked hard for his constituency ; but he was taken sick, in July, 1915, and died on the fifteenth of the following month. He had always been much interested in agricultural affairs, the reclamation of lands, public morals, and similar sub- jects, and he never lost a moment, as his speeches well show, in working to attain for others what he regarded as ideal ends.
All the six children of Mr. and Mrs. Scott are living, and well reflect the qualities of sterling character for which their parents were always so widely and highly esteemed. Harry W. is a vineyardist and stockman living near Selma; and he married Lillian Stout, of Reedley. Nanna Myrtle is the wife of Dr. R. B. Spalding, of San Francisco. Louis W. is a vineyardist and resides on South McCall road in Selma with his wife, who was Miss Char- lotte Griffey of that same place. Dr. Roy N. Scott is a stockman, vineyardist and veterinarian, and graduated from the veterinary college at Chicago. He married Miss Pearl Schrack of Selma, by whom he has had two children, Jean Leana, and Marlyn Pearl'and they reside on North McCall road ; Netta Persinger became the wife of Robert G. Holton, and lives at Los Angeles, where Mr. Holton is engaged as an oil refiner for the Turner Oil Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer; she has one child, John Pomeroy. Ralph H. is a rancher and resides at Kerman, with his wife, who was Miss Laura Forsberg of Kingsburg before her marriage, and they have two chil- dren. Harriet Ann and Lorenzo Dow.
Mr. Scott was a self-made man, for his father died when the subject was only eight years old, and he being the eldest boy, had much responsibility thrown upon him in the problem of helping his widowed mother and the children-a large family, eight children. He was always a hard worker, and an active and able man and citizen that Fresno did well to honor. He was partic- ularly highly respected at Selma, where Mrs. Scott now lives, having rented out her own residence and ranches, which are valuable. Public welfare work occupies her attention constantly, and her first thought is for the Red Cross and other charitable and philanthropic enterprises. She is a pillar in the Chris- tian Church at Selma, and helped with a liberal hand and a willing heart in building the magnificent edifice of that denomination in this town.
CHARLES N. SANDESON .- An early settler in the Coalinga district, a rancher and stockman of the progressive type who does things on a splendid scale, is Charles N. Sandeson, a Nova Scotian by birth, who was born in Colchester County on June 22, 1875. He was reared and educated in the East, and as a young man followed mill work and lumbering.
When he was just twenty-one, in 1896, he arrived in California and at once entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Bakersfield, from which place he was transferred to Coalinga in 1897. For four years he was section foreman of that district.
He next became local agent for the Union National San Joaquin Ice Company at Coalinga, and then he engaged in the butcher business, opening the Crescent Meat Market, which he ran for a couple of years and sold to Kreyenhagen Bros. For the next ten years he was engaged in the hay and grain business, and for that purpose he built a warehouse on E Street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets. He also engaged in teaming to the oil fields, employing thirteen men and sixty head of horses and mules. He bought and sold mules and horses ; and as he has always been a lover of horses, he still owns a few fine specimens of high grade draft horses.
Mr. Sandeson next bought a ranch of seventy acres at Story, Madera County ; and there he has developed one of the best dairy farms in all the valley. He has a herd of thirty Holstein cows with a pure-bred registered
2445
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
bull, that he bought at the Panama-Pacific Fair at San Francisco in 1915. The buildings are lighted by electricity, and the power used for the machinery is also electrical. Pumping plants draw from two wells, and bring all the water needed to a concrete head-gate.
Mr. Sandeson owns a one-third interest in two warehouses at Story -- one he erected, and the other he bought from Rosenthal & Kutner. He owns 640 acres of a mountain ranch formerly the old Fowler place, located in Warthan Canyon above Coalinga, and he rents the John Frame ranch of 920 acres adjoining the Milton Douglas ranch of 640 acres, and the Harly Joslyn place of 320 acres, and there he ranges cattle. As a cattleman operating ex- tensively he still finds time for ventures in other fields, and in partnership with Jacob Zwang, under the firm name of Sandeson & Zwang, he farms about 4,000 acres of rented land near Pleasant Valley which he has planted to barley. On this farm he has every modern farming equipment, including Holt harvester and caterpillar engines ; and he owns a quarter interest in a ranch of 423 acres on Bear Creek, in Merced County, which is partly in grain, while the rest is devoted to pasture. He possesses an eighty-acre ranch near Lemoore, Kings County, and there he has corrals and barns for his stock. He owns his own home, in Coalinga, and six town lots, besides the warehouse.
At Oakland, September 28, 1899, Mr. Sandeson married Mary Sandeson, a lady of the same name, but not related, who was also born in Colchester County. Mr. Sandeson is a member of the Elks lodge at Hanford, and the Masons at Coalinga, having been made a Mason in Lemoore Lodge, No. 255, F. & A. M. He is a member of the California Cattle Growers Association, and became one of the directors of the Coalinga National Bank; and when it was consolidated with the First National Bank, was elected a director therein and still holds that office.
JAMES RANSOM WEBB .- The city of Fresno has been favored in possessing many able and brilliant members of the legal fraternity. Among these the Honorable James Ransom Webb, Superior Judge of Fresno County, stood at the head of his profession. A broad-gauge, self-made man, a success- ful lawyer and a man of high standards of integrity and honor, he was born near Steelville, Crawford County, Mo., February 17, 1847-in the calendar month in which so many famous men have been born. Brought up on a farm, as many of our successful men have been in their early life, he studied law as a young man and began practising at the bar in the early seventies, in' his native state, specializing in civil and probate practice.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.