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 16

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 16

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In the fall of 1879 Mr. Walley arrived in California, and having looked over the ground and rapidly sized up the advantages of the several sections, he was ready to settle in Fresno by the following spring. It was then but a small and not particularly ambitious town, as one may well imagine from the fact that lots on Fresno Street sold for sixty dollars, while corner lots commanded only $125. This condition of realty attracted Mr. Walley, and he both bought and sold much unimproved property. He also bought a couple of ranches-one of eighty acres on the east of Fowler, and the other of twenty acres, three-fourths of a mile east of Selma. Both were raw land; but with his usual enterprise, Mr. Walley set out a peach orchard and planted alfalfa, and when he was ready to make a good showing, at the end of three years he sold out.

During this time, he did contracting and building, and in both Fowler and Selma erected a number of brick structures for store purposes. Finding that he was better adapted for that line of undertaking, he settled in Fresno and followed his trade with vigorous competition. He became both a builder and a contractor, and since then he has erected over two hundred buildings. This brought him into nearly all the cities and towns of Fresno County, and into many places in the San Joaquin Valley. In Fresno he erected the Meade, Ball and Fisk blocks, the Tubercular Ward, County Hospital, and numerous fine residences. In Coalinga he put up the Akers Block and the Skating Pavilion, and the best of the town's store buildings. In Kerman he built two hotels and two apartment houses. Each and every one of these buildings probably would have done credit to places and periods supposed to have been much in advance of these growing California towns.

Mr. Walley has also built a number of houses of his own in Fresno, and at present he is the owner of seven, among which is a fine apartment house on Illinois and Second Streets, of from two to five rooms. He owns an apartment house in Coalinga, and also four lots at Fifth and D Streets in

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that town. Lately he retired from active work and builds only to serve some old friend, who knows the class of work he is accustomed to do and will not accept no for an answer.

While in Colorado Mr. Walley was married to Mary Kraft, a native of Illinois, who has proved a most excellent wife and mother. One of their daughters is now the wife of George Donohue, the agent of the Southern Pacific at Armona, and has three children; and another daughter, Katie, is the wife of John Simpson, an engineer of the same railway company. In Colorado, Mr. Walley joined the Knights of Pythias, affiliating with Cava- naugh Lodge, at Maysville.

In the semi-leisure hours of these later years, Mr. Walley entertains his friends with many interesting stories of adventure and of his remarkable experiences while searching for fortune. Not only did he suffer many hard- ships during his mining days in Wyoming and Colorado, but in 1898 he took a trip to Alaska, borne along by the rush of gold-seekers to Nome; and while traveling many hundreds of miles in the eighteen months that he was in the frozen North, he endured much that others would not live to tell. So, too, he has passed successfully through hair-raising brushes with the Indians, and with some of the worst that the pioneers and the American government have ever had to contend with, and today he has yarn after yarn about the red man well worth the telling anywhere or at any time.

ROBERT M. WOOD .- It would have been strange indeed if Califor- nia, unrivalled in its various climatic advantages, and with a soil so well adapted for almost any kind of agricultural enterprise, and particularly with conditions so very favorable for fruit-culture, should not have become one of the most famous parts of the earth, to say nothing of the United States, for the growing of raisin and table grapes, apricots, peaches, plums, berries, oranges, lemons and olives. The American in particular was quick to see what might be done here, and ever since men once began to get away from the idea that land was worth little except for a "cow country," the progress of development has been rapid.

Among those who once operated on a large scale in other fields of im- portant endeavor and have now become noted for more intensive develop- ment of the resources of the state is Robert M. Wood, a horticulturist, and the son of James and Elizabeth (Koontz) Wood, so well known in their day as worthy pioneers. The elder Wood was a farmer who crossed the plains to reach the northwest, and located for a while at Harrisburg in Linn County, Ore. In 1869 he came to California, and the longer he stayed here, the better he liked it. The following year he moved once more, this time to Fresno County; and at last he was convinced that he had found the ideal spot he had been looking for. He bought the old Powers place, and by the time that he died, in 1873, he had greatly improved his acquisition.

Robert M. was born on October 18, 1848, in Wapello County, Iowa, and crossed the plains in 1852 with his father. When he first came to Fresno County, he went into the sheep and stock business at Centerville ; and there he lived until the time when the town of Sanger was started, there he moved, but continued in the sheep business.

In 1904, notwithstanding the fact that he had operated so extensively with sheep that at one time he rented as much as 40,000 acres of land for his bands, he sold out and embarked in vineyard, orange and other fruit growing. He set out the first vineyard in the Mt. Hammell country, keep- ing the same until 1916, when he disposed of it.

He now has 100 acres of his 420-acre ranch, four miles south of Reedley set out to prunes. Nowhere does a more orderly, promising prune orchard greet the eye of even the widely-experienced traveler, and Mr. Wood is recognized as an authority in the field in which he is now an intensely pro- gressive leader.

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At Fresno, in 1883, Mr. Wood married Emmye Heydcliffe, a native of San Francisco, in which metropolis, with its many educational advantages, she was reared. One child, Birdie Wood, has blessed their union. Mr. Wood is a popular member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and he is a leader in the councils of the Republican party. although broad-minded enough to treat all local political questions irrespective of party prejudices.

ALVIN A. CHANNELL .- A man of quiet, meditative temperament, whose studious and hard-working life has enabled him to become a real fac- tor in helping to build up Central California, is Alvin A. Channell, the first man to install a pumping-plant in this section. He first came to California in 1889, but it was not until 1898, that, with a fuller knowledge of what the state as a whole had to offer, he chose Fresno County as the most promising field.

Alvin A. was born near Montreal, Canada, on August 15, 1870, the son of J. W. Channell, who was also born there. The father was a farmer ; he married Ellen Sargent ; and in 1889 he came west to California and located in Contra Costa County, where he began ranching with a fine orchard and an equally good vineyard. Six years later he moved to Lodi, where he engaged in horticulture, profiting by his previous experience in the growing of peaches and pears ; and in that line he continued until 1915, when he sold out and moved to Santa Cruz. In 1918, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Channell took up their residence in Fresno County, where Mr. Channell died on May 31, 1919, aged eighty years. They were the parents of five children, four living: Edna. who is Mrs. George Cooper, of Santa Cruz; Alvin A., the subject of this sketch; Alice, who is Mrs. Albert Babel of Easton ; and Robert M., living at Lodi.

Brought up on a farm near Montreal until he was nineteen, during which time he attended the public schools and the Knowltonville High School, Al- vin A. Channell came west to Contra Costa County, Cal., in 1889, and there, as well as at Lodi, followed horticulture. In 1898 he located at Del Rey, Fresno County, where he became foreman of the Kimball Peach Orchard and was given charge of 370 acres; but in 1903 he came to Rolinda and bought his present place. It comprised 320 acres on White's Bridge Road, extending back to Belmont, nine miles west of Fresno, and, with from sixty to eighty milch cows, he engaged in the dairy business, making a specialty of the cream. He used electric power and had a Sharpless milking machine and he improved the land to alfalfa. In 1917 he sold 160 acres on Belmont Avenue, and the balance he has improved with alfalfa and a vineyard, and also maintains a small dairy, with high-grade Holsteins and Guernseys. He is a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association. In 1918 he completed a modern residence of ten rooms.

Mr. Channell was married in Fresno on November 20, 1901, being united with Miss Florence Wells, a native daughter born in what was then Tulare County, but now the site of the Lucerne Vineyard near Hanford. Kings County. Her parents were A. J. and Sarah (Underwood) Wells, who were born near Wheeling, W. Va., and who migrated to California in 1880, and after residing a while at Vacaville, came to Tulare County, but soon after- wards bought a ranch of eighty acres at Del Rey, which they improved to a splendid vineyard and orchard, and where they still make their home. Mrs. Channell's grandfather, Benjamin Wells, also came to California in 1880, be- coming a prominent upbuilder of the Del Rey section and interested in the Church ditch and being for many years superintendent of the canal until he retired to his ranch, where he resided until his death. Of the five children born to Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Wells, four are living, of whom Mrs. Channell is the eldest. The others are: Emery A., of Del Rey ; Bessie, who is Mrs. B. M. Hopper of Fresno; and Frank R., who served in the United States Army overseas. and now resides at Del Rey. Florence Wells Channell's entire life has been spent in Fresno County and she has witnessed its wonderful develop- ment.

alChannell

Florence E. Channell

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Mr. and Mrs. Channell have nine children: Alvin J., Eva Merle, Pauline Mildred, Edwin Martin, Bessie Edith, Gordon Linwood, Kenneth Wells, Bar- bara Elizabeth, and Francis Sargent.

Mr. Channell is a Republican in national politics, but is non-partisan in local matters. Among other civic responsibilities, he is clerk of the Houghton School District. When Mr. Channell put in the first pumping-plant here- abouts, he sunk a 12-inch well to a depth of 101 feet and set up a gas engine of twenty-five horsepower with a pumping capacity of 1,500 gallons a minute. His object was to irrigate his alfalfa, and so well did it work that eight or nine years later he installed an electric motor. In 1918 he sunk a well on his home place, sixty feet deep, bringing the water within ten feet of the surface; and then, having laid down cement pipe lines, he installed an electric pumping- plant ample for distributing water to the different fields in the quarter-section.

Mrs. Channell is a cultured and refined woman, presiding gracefully over their magnificent country home, where she and her husband welcome their many friends. Of an amiable and pleasing personality, Mrs. Channell has proven herself a splendid wife and mother, and is also deeply interested in popular education.

FREDERICK E. TWINING .- The up-to-date and progressive charac- ter of the civic life of Fresno has attracted men of all callings, scientific and otherwise, to its center, and in the Twining Laboratories, whose headquar- ters are in the Griffith-Mckenzie building, Fresno has an institution which has become one of the leading enterprises of its kind in the state.

Its founder, Frederick E. Twining, was born in Croton, Ohio, May 28, 1874. He received a liberal education in the public schools and in the Deni- son University at Granville, Ohio, where he took a course in chemistry. He also took a medical course in a medical college at Columbus, Ohio, afterward returning to Granville, where he conducted one of the leading drug stores in that place. California's allurements enticed him to dispose of his inter- ests in the east, and in 1898 Dr. Twining came to Fresno and established the Cutter Laboratories on Mariposa Street. In 1900 he was appointed State Sanitary Inspector for five counties in the San Joaquin Valley, retaining the position for twelve years. His well known ability as a chemist won for him the appointment of City Bacteriologist of the city of Fresno, and in 1913 he established the Twining Laboratories, whose business has grown and ex- panded until it has a state wide reputation and has become one of the lead- ers in this line of work in the state of California, conducting all kinds of scientific investigations, microscopic, bacteriological, chemical and physical. Its branch laboratory on Amador Street contains all the heavy machinery for physical testing; the Laboratories include X-ray plant, grinding outfit, machine shop and an electro-chemical outfit, where any kind of test is made. Professor Twining has recently been in the East engaged in special mining work for the copper and steel interests. He also does agricultural laboratory work, conducting special work for the farmers and fruit growers of the valley, and is constantly branching out in his field of labor.

He established domestic ties by his marriage with Maude M. Wolverton of the state of Ohio, the fruit of the union being a son, Fred W., now an officer in the United States Army, who received his training at Camp Kearny, Cal.

JAMES A. LANG .- To retain a responsible position with a large rail- way company for twenty years bespeaks sterling character and business abil- ity of a high degree and of especial adaptability to one's work. Such is the honorable record of James A. Lang, a pioneer employee of the Southern Pacific Railway Company, for twenty years in the baggage department, and during the last fifteen years of his service was in full charge of the baggage department at the Fresno depot.

James A. Lang is a native of the Hoosier State, born January 7, 1871, at Corydon, Indiana, and when one year old his father moved to Sherman

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County, Nebraska, where he took up the first government claim in the county and was one of the pioneers of that section of the state. James A. Lang was reared on a farm in Nebraska, in which state he followed farming until he migrated to the Golden State, where he arrived February 2, 1894, and at first stopped at Fresno, then a small town of about 12,000 inhabitants. For the first five months he worked on ranches, after which he secured employ- ment in the baggage department of the Southern Pacific Railway Company at Fresno. Mr. Lang has witnessed marvelous changes in the business affairs of the railroad during his long term of service, and mentions the interesting fact that the storage charges averaged about $3.50 per month, when he first entered the baggage room, but the business had so greatly increased by the time he severed his connection with the company, in 1912, as to amount to $600 per month for storage charges. The same relative increase was also noticeable in the number of pieces of baggage that were handled per month, the total number at first being from 2,000 to 3,000 and at the time he left the employ of the railroad the department handled from 30,000 to 40,000 pieces.

For the past six years J. A. Lang has been conducting an auto express and delivery business in Fresno and being so widely known and a general favorite with the traveling public, his motor delivery is always in demand and the public realize that Lang's express can be relied upon for prompt and efficient service.

Fraternally Mr. Lang is a charter member of Sunset Lodge No. 7199 Modern Woodmen of America, at Fresno, has been very active in securing members for this organization and has passed through all the chairs. He was also a charter member of the order and was a delegate to the national convention of the order held at Chicago and Buffalo. He is a member of the Red Men, also of the lodge of Eagles at Fresno, and is very proud of a watch charm that was given him by the lodge of Eagles for securing a large number of new members. He was made a Mason in Porter Lodge No. 106 in Nebraska, and is now affiliated with Fresno Lodge No. 247, F. & A. M. Besides the above fraternal orders Mr. Lang is an honored member of the Teamster's Union, and at one time was a candidate for the office of sheriff of Fresno County, at the primary election, but failed to receive the nomination.

Mrs. Lang was in maidenhood Ethel Dunn, a native of California and daughter of R. P. Dunn, a pioneer citizen of Fresno, where he was for many years a contracting painter and member of the old volunteer fire depart- ment, but is now a resident of Chico, Cal. By a former marriage Mr. Lang has a son, Austin Lang, who is serving in the United States Navy.

LEONIDAS B. HAYHURST .- The junior member of the law firm of Harris and Hayhurst, and the subject of this sketch, Leonidas B. Hayhurst, is a native of Carroll County, Ark., where he was born January 31, 1878.

His father, S. Leonidas Hayhurst, was a native of Indiana and died when his son, and namesake, was a small child. His mother, who in maidenhood. was Sarah Jane Gibson, a native of Missouri, being left a widow with two children, decided to raise her children in California, and in 1886 located in Fresno County.

Leonidas B. Hayhurst received his early education in the grammar schools of Wildflower and Kingsburg, which was supplemented by attend- ance at the high school of Selma. Afterwards he took up the study of law at Fresno. To assist in the payment of his law course he acquired a knowl- edge of stenography, the financial receipts from the practice of which aided greatly. in a material way, the completion of his law studies. He quickly acquired a knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and possessing a re- tentive memory passed his examinations and was admitted to the bar in September, 1900. In the year 1902 he became associated with Judge M. K. Harris, and during the year 1912 the partnership of Harris and Hayhurst

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was formed. They are the legal representatives of allied interests of the Bank and Trust Company, of Fresno; the Commercial Bank of Sanger ; also the First National Bank of Parlier.

Mr. Hayhurst is an attorney of high principles and of strict integrity and prepares all of his briefs with the utmost thoroughness and care, to which may be attributed his growing clientele. Aside from his professional duties Mr. Hayhurst is interested in undeveloped land in Fresno County.

Leonidas B. Hayhurst was united in marriage with Cecil C. Burroughs, a native of Fresno County. Mr. Hayhurst has never sought public office and being of a home-loving disposition finds his greatest pleasure and surcease from the cares of professional life in the enjoyment of his home circle.

JAMES E. FINCH .- A highly esteemed resident of Fresno County is James E. Finch, a native of the Buckeye State, where he was born on Feb- ruary 7, 1856, near Greenfield, Fayette County. His father, Joseph A. Finch, was a farmer and died in Ohio when James was twenty-five years old; his mother, who in maidenhood was Amanda Collier, passed away four years after her husband. James E. Finch was the fourth child in a family of six, and was obliged to make his own living from the age of sixteen years. He hired out to work on farms, which precluded his attendance at school; but undaunted by adverse circumstances, and being an untiring worker and ambitious to get ahead in the world, he has neverless succeeded and became the owner of a twenty-acre vineyard near Lone Star.

In 1882, James E. Finch left his native state to try his fortune in the West, locating near Grand Island, Nebr. Six years later he was united in marriage with Mrs. Malinda Baldwin, daughter of Harvey Murdock and widow of Lindley Baldwin, by whom she had two children, one of whom is Mrs. Charles McBride, a sketch of whose husband appears on another page of this history. Mrs. Baldwin had proved up on a Nebraska home- stead, and after her marriage to James E. Finch he continued farming in Nebraska until their removal to California in 1894. After their arrival in the Golden State, Mr. Finch purchased twenty acres of land, one-half of which was in vines, and the remainder in trees. This property he eventually sold and in 1908 bought his ranch of twenty acres near Lone Star, which he owned until he sold it in March, 1919.

Mr. Finch is a conscientious and industrious rancher, and is highly esteemed in his community for his irreproachable character and high prin- ciples in all business transactions. In political matters he supports the Republican platform ; and he is an honored member of the Raisin Growers' Association. Mr. and Mrs. Finch are the owners of a residence in Fresno, situated on Coast Avenue.

WILLIAM L. SCALES .- Fresno County is indeed fortunate in having as its Sanitary Inspector, William L. Scales, a man of up-to-date ideas in sanitation and one who, by efficient efforts, through the installation of the latest appliances, and by an educational campaign along sanitary lines, has accomplished excellent results throughout the county.

William L. Scales is a native of the Prairie State, born at Farmington, Illinois, February 24, 1876. When he was a small boy his parents moved to Leadville, Colo. While living in Colorado the mother passed away, leaving four children, which the father, Levi Scales, brought to Fresno in 1881. For a while the father followed ranching, but owing to ill-health gave up that line of endeavor and retired. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Levi Scales includes : Frank Scales of Oilfields, Cal .: Charles, a rancher in Hills Valley, this county ; Mrs. Flora Gibson, who resides at Fowler; and William L., the subject of this sketch.

William L. Scales, the youngest member of the family, received his edu- cation in the schools of Fresno County. His business endeavors have led him into various lines; for two years he rented a vineyard five miles east of

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Selma ; five years he was in the employ of the United States Government as postmaster, during the summer time at Bartlett Springs, Cal., a summer resort in Lake County. At one time he was bookkeeper and collector for the Jersey Farm Dairy, Fresno. In 1906 Mr. Scales went to Siskiyou County, Cal., where he was employed as bookkeeper for the McCloud Lumber Com- pany, remaining there three years. In 1910 he was with the Hume-Bennett Lumber Company, where he helped in constructing their flume from Hume to Station No. 4, Fresno County. One year of his life was spent in Portland, Ore., and for three years he operated an alfalfa and stock ranch in Los Angeles County.

The year 1913 marks the beginning of Mr. Scales' work in the Fresno County Sanitary Department. The cattle in Los Gatos Canyon having be- come infected with rabies, W. L. Scales was assigned to that section to inspect the herds and take measures at once to eradicate the disease. So thoroughly did he understand his work that in six months he had mastered the situa- tion and cleared up the condition. Mr. Scales has given especial attention to the improvement of sanitary conditions of the country schools. He had septic tanks, flush toilets and sanitary drinking fountains installed in the schools and has also inspected the water supply for camping parties and picnic grounds. This work has been followed up by an educational campaign through the daily newspapers, calling attention to the danger in drinking from streams. Mr. Scales has made a special study of his line of endeavor and his work has met with the most satisfactory results throughout the county. A work like his, that has the health of the community at heart, is certain to be commended by all.

GEORGE H. TAYLOR .- A man of long experience in the milling busi- ness in the San Joaquin Valley, and elsewhere, is George H. Taylor, who occupies the responsible and lucrative position of estimator at Madary's Planing Mill, Fresno. A native of Yorkshire, England, born July 28, 1860, he was reared in his native country and educated in the public schools. He served a seven-year apprenticeship in the lumber business, including all branches of the industry, from mill work and bench or cabinet work to esti- mating. When a young man twenty-one years of age he arrived in Montreal, Canada, in 1881, and became associated with bridge construction work for the Canadian Pacific Railroad. In those days wooden bridges were con- structed. After one year there he gradually worked west in bridge construc- tion for the company, and became superintendent of construction work. His last work for the company was in the Rocky Mountains at Yale, B. C. He next located on Vancouver Island, B. C., and became superintendent of con- struction for the New Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company, Limited. This was the largest company in the Dominion, owning over 1,000,000 acres of land. Besides being superintendent of construction on their plants, he erected over 100 homes for the employees of the company. He served the company faithfully, and his fine letters of recommendation from them as well as from the Canadian Pacific Railroad testify to his proficiency as a workman and the esteem in which they hold him.

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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 16

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