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 134
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
About seven years ago he began the manufacture of grape juice. He has now developed the successful method for making ten different brands of grape juice, such as Muscat, Muscatel, Concord, Catawba, Reisling, Bur- gundy, Vermuth, Ropel, and Tokay. In 1917 he also started in to make a high grade of pure olive oil, known as the "Fresno Brand." He uses the cold proc- ess, and is making the very finest olive oil that can be produced- even supe- rior to the finest imported oils. Mr. Maselli took a second prize for his grape juice at the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco, and has taken three gold medals for his grape juice at the Sacramento State Fair. While in Italy he took two medals for wine. He is building up an industry that bids fair to become very important.
In 1914 Mr. Maselli built his Log Cabin, which is the home of all his products. The Log Cabin, located on the State Highway, immediately south of Fresno, is an original conception and was designed and built by Mr. Ma- selli himself. In its structure it represents a cabin in an Alpine village. The outside is faced with natural redwood, pine and fir bark, cut and arranged to represent logs. The whole presents an appearance both real and natural, and at the same time romantic and picturesque.
Mr. Maselli comes of a prominent family, his brother, Guiseppi Maselli, being a judge in Bari, Italy. He was married in Italy to Vincennes Fasana, and they have five children living, one having died in Mariposa County. They are: Ronato, Ribelle, Mary, Electro and Leo.
JOHN HONGOLA .- Worthy of note among the thrifty and enterpris- ing ranchers located near Parlier, Fresno County, Cal., is John Hongola, a native of Finland, where he first saw the light of day in 1863.
John Hongola was reared and educated in his native country and when about nineteen years of age immigrated to the United States. In 1882 he located in Pennsylvania where he followed various occupations until 1912, when he decided to move westward and seek his fortune in the Golden State. Upon his arrival in California he located in Fresno County.
In 1915 he purchased his present ranch of fifty-five acres of highly im- proved land which is devoted to the production of grapes, peaches and alfalfa. Thirty acres of his ranch are planted to muscat grapes, fifteen are in peaches and the balance is being set to vines.
John Hongola is an industrious rancher and believes in using up-to-date methods in the operation and cultivation of his splendid ranch. He has erected a fine residence and made many needed improvements on the place since purchasing it.
In 1889, the marriage of John Hongola to Miss Sofia Kolpanen was sol- emnized. Miss Kolpanen was born in Finland and immigrated to this country in 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Hongola became parents of twelve children. The eldest, John Ivar, served in the regular army in Hawaii fourteen months during 1913-14; he was a member of the National Guard of California in 1916 and saw service on the Mexican border, then enlisted in the United States Army with his regiment and saw seven months' service overseas, going over with the Fortieth Division and being transferred to the Twenty-seventh Division ; he was discharged on April 11, 1919; he married Lempi Ellen Gus- tafson. The other children were: Mary: Hilma; Lydia; Matt, who joined the United States Navy for service in the World War and was on duty aboard the U. S. S. Defiance, doing freighter service; he joined April 19, 1918, and was discharged March 15, 1919; Jack, who entered the United States Navy in 1917 and is still in service, is on the torpedo boat Ericsson and has been in foreign service since December, 1917 : Charlie; Rose; Victor; Eino; San- tra ; and Sulo. Mrs. Hongola died July 10, 1918, aged about fifty years. John Hongola is highly esteemed in his community for his honorable traits of character and has won recognition as a progressive rancher and public- spirited citizen of Fresno County.
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G. WIESBROD .- Among the foreign-born residents of Fresno County who has made his influence felt for the betterment of local conditions is G. Wiesbrod, a resident of the Barstow Colony and a native of Russia. He was born at Straub, Samara, November 1, 1885, a son of Chris and Marie (Thomp- son) Wiesbrod, both born in that same country. The father was a farmer there and, having heard much about the conditions in California from some of his countrymen who had located in Fresno County, he decided to make an investigation for himself and accordingly brought his son here, his wife having died in Russia in 1890. He began ranching near Oleander, succeeded in his efforts and is now living retired in Fresno.
Our subject was the only child of the union of his parents and was edu- cated in the public schools of Fresno, after which he learned the baker's trade with the Model Bakery. After he had mastered it he started the San Benito Bakery, on the avenue of that name, conducted it until he closed the business and went to Madera County and bought sixty acres and engaged in dairying. In February, 1918, he traded his ranch for thirty acres in Barstow Colony and is now raising alfalfa and Thompson seedless grapes and is meet- ing with deserved success.
Mr. Wiesbrod was married in Fresno in 1907, to Miss Margaret Nilmeier, born in Samara, a daughter of H. P. Nilmeier, of whom mention is made on another page of this work. She was educated in the Fresno schools and has proven herself an able helpmate to her husband. They have a daughter, Helen Margaret. The family are members of the Lutheran Church in Fresno. Mr. Wiesbrod is a member of the California Alfalfa Growers Association and politically supports the candidates of the Republican party.
JOHN AZZARO .- A progressive business man who is justly proud of the success attending the efforts of himself and associates, is John Azzaro, proprietor of the San Francisco Floral Company, at 1201 J Street, Fresno, and the senior member of the firm of Azzaro Brothers. He was born at Genoa, Italy, April 17, 1890, and attended school there up to the age of fifteen. Then with his younger brother, Virgil, he came to the United States and to San Francisco, where P. Matraia was engaged in the floral business. John and Virgil started to learn the business and spent a year and a half in the green- houses and later in the store.
After five years' experience they decided to start in for themselves, and in 1910 they went to Stockton and opened a store on Main Street, where they have been very successful and now own a small business block and cottage in that city. In April, 1913, they opened a floral shop in Fresno, at the corner of J and Fresno Streets, known as the San Francisco Floral Company, and here they have the finest place in Fresno, and do a large business. They saved up five hundred dollars while working in San Francisco, and with this they made their first start. Later, a third brother, Mazimo, came to the United States and he does the buying for the firm. The Fresno store is finely appointed, and the firm carries a fine assortment of potted plants, fancy bas- kets, etc. The firm took a number of first prizes for floral display at the Fresno District Fair in 1916 and in 1918 as well. In the month of January, 1919, they bought a greenhouse and nursery in South San Francisco. Mazimo Azzaro manages this nursery and continues to buy for the firm, which is now in bet- ter position than ever to provide their customers with the choicest goods in their line. They have in constant use two delivery trucks and two touring cars which give added facility to their steadily increasing business.
John Azzaro is a member of Fresno lodge of both the Odd Fellows and the Elks. Virgil is a member of the Red Men and Eagles in Stockton. In 1909, John Azzaro was made an American citizen. He and his brother at- tended the Washington school in San Francisco, where, in the evening, they learned the English language. The Azzaro Brothers have proven themselves thoroughly patriotic, public-spirited American citizens.
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JOSE ZANDUETA .- A young man who is making a success at ranching in Tranquillity is Jose Zandueta who was born in Erro, Navarra, Spain, May 26, 1881, the son of Martin and Martina (Gonsalo) Zandueta, who owned a farm where they reared their family. His father died May 3, 1899, while his mother still resides on the home ranch which she still owns. This worthy couple were the parents of eight children, six boys and two girls. Jose, the fourth in order of birth was reared on the farm and went to school as was the general experience of the youth of that region. After his father died he assisted his mother all he could until he was past the age of twenty-two. He had be- come interested in California and when he was able to arrange to leave his mother he came forthwith to Fresno, arriving October 6, 1903. His funds being low, he immediately sought employment and found it with Antonio Urrutia in Coalinga for five months and then worked for M. Urrutia of Fresno until March, 1907, when he went to Reno, Nev., where he was in the employ of different sheep growers for three years. All this time he gained valuable experience and also studied and learned to read and speak English. In 1910 he returned to Fresno County, working another year for wages. His desire was to own a farm of his own. So in 1911 he purchased twenty acres, a part of his present ranch in Tranquillity. This was raw land but was under the ditch and splendid soil. He leveled and checked it, sowed alfalfa and improved it with suitable farm buildings and set out a small orchard. Aside from this he raised grain for two years in Cantua and then became a partner of the late Joe Yraceburu and leased land at Mendota which they farmed to grain. In 1918 Mr. Yraceburu died and when the season's work and crop was completed the business was settled up and the partner- ship was dissolved. He then leased land from the San Joaquin Farm and Land Company on which he raised grain. He has added to his original holdings and now owns seventy-one acres which he is improving to alfalfa. His ranch is well kept and he is showing himself a careful and successful farmer.
THOMAS J. REESE .- The junior member of the firm of Reese and Atkins, Thomas J. Reese, while not a native of California may be called a Californian, as he has lived in the Golden State since he was a year old and is endued with characteristic California energy and push.
He is the son of George and Inez (Caldwell) Reese, natives of the state of Tennessee, and was born in Kerr County, Texas, in 1883. His father re- moved with his family to Fresno County in 1884 and bought forty acres of land two miles south of Fresno. He later homesteaded 160 acres near Delano, Tulare County, and with his sons farmed for fifteen years, also renting ad- ditional grain land. He afterwards removed to Selma, Fresno County, where he died in 1911, leaving a widow and four sons, namely: Edward, Arthur, Walter and Thomas. His widow died in 1907.
Thomas J. was educated in the schools of Tulare City and in his first business venture entered into partnership with his brother Walter, in a forty acre dairy ranch at Selma. After three years he disposed of his in- terest and went to Dinuba, where he purchased ten acres of land and in two years time raised enough watermelons to pay for the property. He then purchased forty acres near Kerman, which he planted to vines, trees and alfalfa, and at the end of one year sold. He next bought ten acres north of Kerman, planted it to vines, built a house upon it, then sold it and came to Fresno. Having a predilection for carpenter work he followed that oc- cupation in his spare time. He built the Dakota school house, the club house and a number of residences in Kerman, and after coming to Fresno worked six months for H. C. Harlow, the contractor, and another six months as journeyman. In 1913 he entered into partnership with O. D. Atkins under the firm name of Reese and Atkins. The firm has met with flattering success during the time they have been operating and have secured some of the largest and most desirable contracts that have been let in Fresno.
Mr. Reese was married December 21, 1911, to Fern A. Hays of South Dakota, the result of the union being one son, Hollis.
Jose Bandusta
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
GOTTFRID CARLSON .- Born in Nerket, Middle Sweden, on Decem- ber 13, 1865, Gottfrid Carlson is the son of Carl F., a farmer, on which ac- count Gottfrid was reared to till the soil, but at the same time his education was not neglected. After his school days were over, he followed farming un- til 1889, when he concluded to emigrate to America and to try his fortune on the Pacific Coast.
On Christmas Day, therefore, he arrived in Fresno, and having friends here, he soon obtained a job in a vineyard in Washington Colony. After- wards, he worked in various vineyards in the county, and then he went into the lumber camps in the mountains and stayed there for seven years. He was industrious, energetic and frugal, and saved his money; and that means that he began to advance.
Coming down from the mountains, Mr. Carlson rented a farm in the Scandinavian Colony for a year, and in 1899 he bought his present place of sixty acres, in the Mckinley School district, five miles northwest of Fresno. This was all raw land and hog-wallow; but nothing daunted, he began im- provements to convert it into a fruit farm. To make a living during these years, as well as to continue his payments and to pay interest, he leased a vineyard of eighty acres and thus succeeded in his ambition of owning his place. In time he brought both his vineyard and orchard to a high state of cultivation, yielding satisfactory financial returns, the harvest of 1918 total- ling seventy tons of raisins from forty-four acres of vines. On this fine ranch he has erected a large modern residence, as well as the necessary farm build- ings.
Mr. Carlson is now the oldest settler in his district, and he has seen all the improvements made from raw land overrun by ground-squirrels and rabbits which took years to exterminate, and necessitated extra replanting of vines and trees to take the place of those destroyed. His interest in land- development continues ; but he is also interested in educational matters, and has not only seen to it that his children have had a good education, but he was one of the original trustees of the Mckinley School district, and is still a member of the board of trustees. He is a member of the California Asso- ciated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers, Inc.
At Fresno on April 14, 1898, Mr. Carlson was married to Marie Hagberg, a native of Sweden, having been born in the beautiful city of Stockholm; she came to Fresno in 1893 and from her advent here made many friends. On September 27, 1907, Mr. Carlson was bereaved of her faithful services and companionship, and left the sorrowing father of six children. Inez presides gracefully over her father's household ; Olie and Gustof both assist their father to operate the ranch; and there are Signa, Theo and Robert.
STEPHEN M. LAGUDIS .- Determination and perseverance have been great factors in the success attained by Stephen M. Lagudis, one of the founders and proprietors of the Athens Bakery, located at 1253 F Street, Fresno. He is a native of Greece, having been born on the island of Chio, April 3, 1881. His father was a vineyardist and fruit grower, and for three years after Stephen had finished his schooldays, he worked in his father's vineyard and olive orchard. In 1903, Stephen M. Lagudis arrived in New York City and went directly to Wheeling, W. Va., where he was engaged for two years with the American Tinplate Company. Ambitious to succeed he took up the study of English which he found a most important requisite to success in his new home country. Desiring to see more of the new world, he migrated still farther westward and in the fall of 1906 he arrived in San Francisco, Cal., where he secured employment at the Fairmount Hotel, as storekeeper in the supply department. Later he went to Newcastle, Placer County, where he leased a fruit ranch of 120 acres of peaches and plums, and twenty acres planted to table grapes. Unfortunately for Mr. Lagudis, a late frost destroyed the crop that season and he lost all he had invested in the enterprise. In 1911, we find him in the city of Fresno, Cal., where with a
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partner, Stephen E. Kluvakis, he opened the South Bakery, at San Benito Avenue and E Street, where they conducted business for about a year. After selling out, in July, 1912, they established the Athens Bakery, at 1253 F Street. Their enterprise has developed into one of the leading bakery estab- lishments in Fresno. When they opened their bakery the output per day was only 150 loaves of bread, as they had but one small oven, but, in the spring of 1918 a new and modern oven was built, which gives the Athens Bakery a capacity output of 10,000 loaves daily, and at present, with two shifts of bakers, they are producing 5,000 loaves daily, their specialty being French bread de luxe. Four delivery wagons are necessary in the conduct of their wholesale and retail business. The Athens Bakery plant is a model one in equipment and sanitation, having the newest sanitary machinery including modern sifting machine and all the latest equipment for sanitary baking, the company having spent $4,000 on new machinery in 1918. The plant has concrete floors and sanitary shower baths for the bakers. Mr. Lagudis is regarded as one of Fresno's enterprising business men and holds membership in the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants Association of Fresno, and is also a member of the Master Bakers' Association.
Stephen E. Kluvakis, the business partner of Mr. Lagudis, is also a native of Greece, where he learned the trade of a baker. In 1907, he immigrated to the United States and secured employment as a baker in Chicago. The next vear, 1908, Mr. Kluvakis settled in Sacramento, Cal., and in 1911 arrived in Fresno with his present partner where they embarked in the bakery bus- iness. The Athens Bakery is regarded as one of the best and most up-to-date in the city and is enjoying a rapidly increasing business which is due to the able and efficient management of its progressive owners.
J. A. POYTRESS .- A splendid example of manhood who is pleased to devote his energy and time towards the development and building up of Fresno County is J. A. Poytress, who was born in Gloucester, England, March 10, 1871, the fourth oldest of a family of seven children born to John and Mary Ann Cooper, farmers in Gloucestershire, England. His father died in 1909 while the mother died in 1910.
Mr. Poytress' father met with reverses, so when ten years of age, J. A. began working out on farms to assist his parents. However, he received a good education in the local schools. He read of the wonders of California and was attracted by the opportunities that awaited young men without capital but willing to work. He selected Fresno, arriving in June, 1891, a stranger in a strange land. He found employment on a farm at Easton and applied himself ener- getically to his work.
In September, 1893, he was married at Easton to Miss Mary Wells who was born near Birmingham, Worcestershire, England-a daughter of Francis Wells, a well-to-do farmer. After his marriage Mr. Poytress engaged in viticulture and horticulture as well as teaming, a business he has continued ever since. He purchased twenty acres of his present ranch in 1897 and now has eighty-five acres in a body, which he has set and reset to vineyard though a part is in orchard of peaches and apricots. His vineyard is well selected. Thompson seed- less and Muscat raisins. He sees it is well cared for and it is the consensus of opinion that he has one of the finest vineyards in the county, his place being located on West Avenue and Lincoln, about seven miles southwest of Fresno. Mr. Poytress also owns a 320-acre ranch one and one-half miles southeast of his home ranch which he devotes to raising alfalfa and dairying, his herd of cows being high-grade Holsteins. He is also raising draft horses, Mr. Poytress being interested in a company that owns an imported Percheron Norman or French draft stallion. He also owns a ranch of sixty acres at Caruthers. He is a firm believer in cooperation and has been a member of the different fruit associations, being an active member of the California Associated Raisin Com- pany and the California Peach Growers, Inc. He is a stockholder, director and treasurer of the Danish Creamery Association, having formerly been president
J.a. Roytress
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
of it for one year. He has been an active and prominent member of the Fresno County Farm Bureau since its organization as well as one of the original direc- tors. He is the representative of the stock industry of the county and is chair- man of the boys' pig club work. He is also a director in the Fresno District Fair Association. Mr. Poytress is intensely interested in advancing the cause of education, having been a member of the American Colony school district for seventeen years, and a trustee of the Washington Union High School for the past eighteen years and the clerk of the board for nine years. Prominent in Y. M. C. A. work he is Fresno County committeeman since the association was organized in Fresno and is chairman of the Boys' Summer Camp Committee.
Mr. Poytress' first wife died in 1908 leaving him a daughter, Eleanor Mary. He was married a second time in Fresno to Miss Annie Hopkins who was born in Gloucester, England, and they have five children : Phyllis, Ethel, Annie Jane, Dorothy Dean, and Roderick. Mr. Poytress is an active member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church at Easton, being chairman of its Board of Trustees, and was superintendent of the Sunday School for nine years. He visited his parents at the old home in England in 1905 and again in 1908. Fraternally he is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood at Easton. Full of patriotism for his adopted country Mr. Poytress was active in the different war and liberty loan drives, being local chairman of the Y. M. C. A., Red Cross and United War Work drives, in all of which he did valiant work.
KARL EMERZIAN .- An adopted son of America, Karl Emerzian is a self-made man, successful beyond the average. Born in Armenia on March 30. 1872. his parents were Charles and Anna Emerzian, his father being a merchant in the city of Harpoot. When but thirteen years of age Karl Emer- zian landed in New York City, a stranger, to begin his education in the school of experience.
Mr. Emerzian worked for others only eighteen months after coming to the United States, and since then has been engaged in business for himself, his resolution being made when in Worcester, Mass., while running a ma- chine in a wire mill, he accidentally cut off the end of the middle finger of his right hand. He came west and was first in business in Waukegan, Ill., and then in the bakery business in the World's Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, in 1893. In the fall of that year he came to San Francisco, Cal., and started a bakery and restaurant in the Midwinter Fair, until the great railroad strike in 1894 when he lost all he had saved. In September, 1894, he came to Fresno and started a shoe-repairing shop and by the end of a year employed three shoemakers.
In 1897, Mr. Emerzian made the trip to Alaska in a party of sixty who left Edmonton, going across the wilds without a trail and following the compass for six months, they were lost in the Caribou district. The cold was so intense that sixty-five of their ninety pack-horses froze to death in one night. Of the sixty who started only four reached Dawson, with two horses. During the last two months of the journey they had lived entirely on game. The trip took eighteen months. Their trail was afterwards laid out by the Canadian government as a road. As it was near the end of the season, and not wishing to remain in the north another winter, he returned to Seattle by boat and came back to Fresno. He then began fruit-buying, in which he was successful.
Mr. Emerzian was married at Fresno, in 1898, to Lizzie Kallam, and then began ranching. He now owns 640 acres of land in vineyard and orchard, productive and profitable under his management. He has six boys and one girl: Edward. Reuben, Garvez, Arson, Mary, Albert, and Karl, Jr. The Congregational Church receives his support, while politically he is a Re- publican. He is one of the trustees of the raisin association, and is much interested in that industry. His help can be relied upon in any public enter- prise, and he is respected for his integrity and high principles. 116
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JEAN AROSTEGNY .- Jean Arostegny was born at Beyrie, Basses- Pyrenees, France, in 1880, the son of Pierre and Marie (Borderampe) Aros- tegny, farmer folk in Beyrie, where the father died about twenty years ago, and where the mother is still living on the old farm. To this worthy French couple were born four children, three of whom are living, Jean being the eld- est and the only one in the United States. He received a fair education in the local schools of his native place, remaining at home until twenty-one years of age, when being of military age, he obtained permission from the government for leave of absence to go to South America. So in 1901 we find him in Buenos Avres, Argentina, where he was employed at dairying for about two years. He then came on to San Francisco, Cal., and a few months later came to Fire- baugh in the employ of Miller & Lux. After remaining for about one year he returned to France and assisted his mother on the farm for eighteen months. However, he had a longing to return to California. This desire he gratified, and on his arrival located in Fresno. He entered the employment of the War- wick Street Paving Company and continued with them for a period of seven years. The last three years he was their foreman. In 1913 he resigned his position to engage in farming, and purchased the present place of thirty acres on the corner of Nielsen and Hughes Avenue, where he resides with his fam- ily. Here he is engaged in viticulture, in which he is making a success.
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