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 19

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 19

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The marriage of William F. Jones united him with Estella Moss, a native daughter of Tehama County, whose parents are numbered among the pioneers there. One danghter has been born to them, Ina L. Jones. Mr. Jones is a member of Sanger Lodge, No. 316, F. & A. M. and of Las Palmas Lodge, No. 343, F. & A. M., and Fresno Parlor, No. 9, N. S. G. W., both of this city. Since assuming the duties of his office, he has removed the family home to Fresno. A hale fellow well met and always fearless in the dis- charge of his duties, he is heartily in accord with every movement for advanc- ing the public welfare of the county of his adoption.

A. G. JOHNSON .- A successful rancher who has risen, step by step, to become a leader in his field of endeavor, and who, with broad-minded vision, has become an enthusiastic and guiding booster, is A. G. Johnson, who for the past eleven years has resided in the Mendocino district on his ranch of forty acres. This is on the old Kingsburg-Centerville road, six miles due north of Kingsburg, and six miles south and half a mile east of Sanger, and one and a quarter miles northwest of Parlier. He was born at Palmyra, Marion County, Mo., about twelve miles west of the Mississippi River, the son of Albert Gallatin Johnson, who was a native of Pennsylvania and a descendant of Dutch pioneers who migrated from Holland in the early part of the eighteenth century. Born in 1804, the father came to Missouri when a young man, and died at the age of sixty-seven years, nine miles northwest of Pal- myra, on the old Johnson home farm of 640 acres. A successful farmer, he was also a splendid provider, and always had plenty in the larder for his large family. He was married three times. By his first wife he had one child, a girl. His second wife was the mother of our subject, and her maiden name was Elizabeth Turner. She was of Scottish descent, and transmitted the in- fluence of an exceptionally strong character to her children. These numbered eleven, eight of whom grew to maturity. When she died our subject was only seventeen years old, and his father married two years later for the third time, and soon after that marriage he died.

Born on November 4, 1851, the ninth child in the family, A. G. Johnson lived in Missouri through the very troublous days of the Civil War, in a period when no person's life was really safe. As a boy he saw more than one man run for his life, and on more than one occasion saw a man carrying a

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fire-arm or other weapon run after another for the purpose of taking life; slavery was the constantly debated theme, and while his father objected to slavery, he remained loyal to the South. When he was ten years old the lad started to work on the farm, and even at that age he proved his father's only support. He and an adopted boy, a year younger, raised thirty-five acres of corn that yielded eighty bushels to the acre. His education, therefore, was very limited. After his father's death he continued to work on the estate until all was settled and the property was distributed, then the sales were made to Fielding M. Johnson, who now lives retired at the corner of Fulton and Angus Streets in Fresno.

At nineteen years of age Mr. Johnson came west to California, traveling by way of the Central Pacific Railroad and arriving in San Francisco on October 8, 1870. He went to Santa Rosa, where he stopped. for fifteen days, and thence to Colusa, where he worked for J. T. Marr, the grain and stock farmer, for a couple of years. He next went back to Missouri, visited there a short while, then went to Texas in the days of the "Texas steer," and so be- came a cow-boy and cattleman. He grew to be an adept with the lariat, and at one time was in the saddle for forty-six days, getting out of it only long enough to catch a little nap and take a bite to eat. That was on the rodeo or round-up. He followed the cattle business for five years in Texas, and made money, but lost it all in a year of excessive drought.

Once again he went back to Missouri, this time with a definite purpose. On February 6, 1879, Mr. Johnson and Miss Mary Garrard were married. nor could a union have been more fortunate. Mrs. Johnson was born in Marion County, Mo., the oldest of the five children of Edward Hector Garrard, a na- tive of Bourbon County, Ky., and Susan (James) Garrard, born in Accomac County, Va. Mrs. Johnson is a grand-daughter of Massena and Elizabeth (Fry) Garrard, the former born in Bourbon County, Ky., and the latter in New York state. The grandfather married in Kentucky and moved to Marion County, Mo., where Mrs. Johnson's father was reared. Mrs. Johnson's great- grandfather was Gen. James Garrard, born in Kentucky, and who served as a general in the War of 1812, and he was a son of Gov. James Garrard, gov- ernor of Kentucky, and who was born in Virginia, of French Huguenot stock, who fled from France to England in 1640, and one of whom, William Garrard, settled in Wharton Parish, Stafford County, Va., about the year 1700, the said William being the progenitor of the Garrard family in America, a family distinguished for its strong, able men ; wealthy stockmen and horsemen, and for its handsome women. Mrs. Johnson can therefore trace her lineage to the earliest and most brilliant periods of old Virginia. She was reared and educated at Van Rensselaer Seminary, Missouri, and later she attended Col- lege Mound Presbyterian College, pursuing a modern classical course.

Mr. Johnson remained in Texas three years after his marriage, when he closed out the cattle business, and with his wife and child returned .to Nevada City, Vernon County, Mo., his wife's home, with only $750 in his pockets. That small sum of money meant much to him then, and he invested it rather gingerly in sheep and shorthorn cattle in the Ozark Mountains; but he soon sold out and came to Houston, Texas County, Mo. There he farmed for three years, and became the owner of a ranch of eighty acres; but after a couple of years he sold his farm and for a second time came to Cal- ifornia. This was the first trip, however, for Mrs. Johnson, and proved to her a novel experience. The couple at first went to Fort Bragg, in Mendocino County, and there Mr. Johnson worked in the saw mills for three years, after which he went to Bear Harbor, the same county, where he worked for Colonel Stewart for a year making railway ties. Thence he proceeded down the coast to Usal, Mendocino County, and there they stopped for another three years while Mr. Johnson again worked in the saw mill. He next moved on to Cleone, three miles north of Fort Bragg, where he farmed and for a couple of years worked in a saw mill.

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In 1900, Mr. Johnson and his family pitched their tent in Fresno, and the following year he rented land about a mile and a half north of this place. Then he went to East Oakland, and rented 160 acres and was there for three years, and after that he migrated from place to place until he settled more permanently in this section. On taking up his present estate, he was con- fronted with the problem of a tract of wheat stubble. At first he bought eighty acres, raised grain for two seasons, and then decided on fruit culture ; so he sold about forty acres, twenty at each end, and has planted the center that he retained. He has set out trees and vines, and made many improve- ments, including the erection of a neat bungalow, and now he has twenty- eight acres of muscat vines, seven acres of peaches, four acres of alfalfa, and an acre in buildings and yards. He obtains water from the Consolidated Ditch Company, and has two acres devoted to stock and domestic use. Search where you may, it would be difficult to find a more attractive home ranch of the size.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have had seven children: Lillie May is the wife of James Wilson, a farmer of Mendocino County; Russell, the second child, died when he was a year old ; Alberta, a Red Cross nurse, is in France ; Albert is in Tampico, on the Gulf of Mexico, engaged in the oil business; Annie is the wife of Charles Bride, a successful oil-well driller at Coalinga, and re- sides on the Dutch Shell Lease; Lulu is the wife of L. E. Smith, the electri- cian, and lives near San Francisco; and Arthur went to the Philippines, en- listed in the United States Army and is now a corporal, in service at Vladi- vostok, Russia.

A stockholder and active member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and of the Peach Growers Association, Mr. Johnson is also very keenly interested in civic affairs and the great political questions of the day. In national politics he follows the standards of the Democratic party, but in matters of local import he proves his good citizenship by voting for the best men and the wisest measures.

CHARLES E. PHILLIPS, D.D.S .- Prominent among the professional men of Fresno, in which city he has been engaged in the practice of dentistry for the past seventeen years, Charles E. Phillips has achieved success in his chosen profession and ranks among the leading dentists of Central Califor- nia. Born in Garrett County, Ky., July 26, 1878, he received his education in the graded schools of Lancaster, that state. On finishing his general school- ing, he entered the Louisville Dental College, at Louisville, Ky., and after finishing his course at that institution, entered the Cincinnati Dental College, at Cincinnati, Ohio. On completing his studies, Dr. Phillips worked as an assistant in dental offices in Lancaster, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio. With the West beckoning him to a land of greater opportunity, he came to California, arriving in Fresno April 29, 1902. Here he worked as assistant in the office of Dr. B. B. Cory for four years. He then took the state board examination, in the spring of 1907, was admitted to practice, and has since that date practiced for himself, with a large clientele in Fresno and the surrounding country, his offices being at 508 Rowell Building. He is an associate member of the Southern California Dental Association, and is a charter member of the X-ray Dental Association of Fresno. This association was formed in 1917, and has seventeen members, the organization owning a complete X-ray dental outfit, which appliance is now universally used in modern dentistry and is of inestimable benefit to suffering humanity.

Dr. Phillips has taken an active part in athletics during his residence in the city. For seven years he was one of the leaders in athletics in the Fresno Y. M. C. A., and was senior leader in classes. He has a gold medal received for leading in five events in the athletic sports of the Y. M. C. A., no small honor. for any man. Besides his professional duties, Dr. Phillips has been interested in horticulture here, owning a peach orchard in Fresno County, which property he later disposed of. He is a member of the Merchants' Asso-

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ciation, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Commercial Club, among busi- ness orders; and fraternally he belongs to the B. P. O. Elks, the Woodmen of the World, and the Red Men. A well-met and universally liked man, he is a popular figure in the life of the community, always ready to do his share in furthering the march of progress which is making Fresno one of the most prosperous cities in the state.

Dr. Phillips' marriage united him with Verna E. Stickles, a native of Oklahoma, and one child has been born to them, a daughter, Dorothy Allene.

ALEXANDER MANEELY .- A railroad man widely experienced in the construction of railroad facilities, and who has cleverly solved the problem, during an unusually busy life, of little by little improving a farm and gradu- ally acquiring for himself and family one of the most desirable of home places, is Alexander Maneely, a native of Canada, the neighboring land that has supplied so much brain and brawn for the development of the American Re- public. He was born at Blenheim, Ontario, on April 25, 1859, and there reared on a farm, while he attended the Canadian public schools.

Alexander's father was John Maneely, a native of County Cavan, Ireland, who grew up there under favoring conditions and first came to Ontario when he was thirty years of age. He was thus able to make a good start in the New World, and one of the first steps of importance in the right direction was his marriage, in Ontario, to Catherine Johnston, like himself of Irish birth. She came from Enniskillen, one of the most romantic of all parts of Erin's Isle ; and her sunny temperament had its beneficent influence on husband and family. John Maneely was a weaver, and in Ontario he followed the manufacture of cloth. There, too, he died, survived by Mrs. Maneely, the mother of six children, who now lives in Manitoba.

After he had finished school, Alexander left farm work for that of a saw-mill, and when almost sixteen years old, a young age for such responsi- bility, he began to work for the Great Western Railway on one of their sections in Ontario. After five years' service, when his ability and fidelity were duly recognized, he accepted a still better post with the Canadian Pacific, with the crew in charge of construction work in Manitoba, as far as Swift Current; after which he worked back to Winnipeg on the southwestern branch. He then returned east and next spring went out again on the Mani- toba and Northwestern as foreman of construction, and then he was made roadmaster on the same line from Portage la Prairie to Yorkton, the end of the line. A year later they discontinued the extra roadmaster and Mr. Man- eely returned to the yard as foreman at Portage la Prairie, where he remained until 1900.

At the beginning of this momentous centurv, Mr. Maneely came to Cali- fornia and located in Los Angeles County, where he secured an excellent position with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. For three years he was their foreman at Ravena ; but, attracted by Fresno County and its won- derful advantages, he came to Fresno in 1903, and engaged with the old Fresno City Railway, contracting to construct the streetcar line under Griffith & Mckenzie. He had charge of the construction until the railway was com- pleted, when he was made general foreman, and put in charge of the con- struction work needed from time to time; and in that office he continued until about 1910, when F. W. Webster took the road over for the Southern Pacific. and then he sub-contracted under him and had charge of double-tracking the city lines. He continued general foreman until seven years ago, when he went to Stockton to take charge of the construction of extensions of the Stockton Electric Railway ; then he was a season in Bakersfield, double-track- ing the car-lines there; after which he returned to Stockton, on the con- struction of the street-car lines to Exeter, for the Visalia Electric Railway, and having successfully completed that work, Mr. Maneely returned to his ranch, in 1917.

Alexander Ifrancely

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He had bought this place of 100 acres on the San Joaquin River, about fourteen miles north of Fresno, in Barstow Colony, in 1905, and with the aid of his son, he rapidly improved it. He built a fine residence and the neces- sary farm buildings, and located his family there, leaving them in charge while he was away on railway construction. He planted forty acres to alfalfa, and set out thirty-five acres in Thompson seedless and four acres in apricots, while he also provided for twelve acres of peaches. His son, Lawrence Man- eely, has long had the care of the ranch, and to him is due much of the credit for the trim appearance of one of the finest farm-properties of its size in Central California. Both father and son are represented in the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers, Inc.

At Portage la Prairie, Mr. Maneely was married in 1888 to Miss Eliza- beth Johnson, a native of Ontario, and they have five children: Ethel is Mrs. G. P. Dunham of Fresno; Ida has become Mrs. St. Clair of the same city; Lawrence is in charge of the Maneely ranch; Irene is a graduate of Heald's Business College at Fresno; and Hazel is attending the Kerman union high school. The family attends the Baptist Church in Fresno.

Mr. Maneely is a Republican in the great national issues, but works for local civic improvement regardless of party lines. In fraternal matters, too, his sympathies are broad; he was made a Mason at Paisely, Ontario, although he is not active now; and while in Ontario he used to be an Odd Fellow. He was also, while there, a member of the Knights of Pythias. Today his family and his home-place and his part in civic life so engross him that he has turned aside from what was once a pleasant social affiliation.

J. C. CHRISTENSEN .- Success has characterized the various business enterprises undertaken by J. C. Christensen, the subject of this review, ever since his coming to California in the spring of 1890.

J. C. Christensen is a native of Esbjerg, Denmark, where he was born November 19, 1864. His father, Christ Petersen, was a Danish farmer, his mother, in maidenhood, was Marie Westersen, and they were the parents of twelve children, eleven of whom are living, J. C. being the third oldest. He received his early education in the public school of his native country and after completing his studies at the Copenhagen high school attended the agricultural college at Herning, for one year. Following his school days he became the manager of a dairy farm at Als, Schlesvig, where he remained for two years.

In the spring of 1890, he emigrated to San Francisco, Cal. where he learned the trade of a cook. After following this line of work until 1895, J. C. Christensen decided to start in business for himself, and opened a restaurant on East Street, where he continued for fifteen months when he sold his busi- ness and again followed his trade of a cook. Later he opened another restau- rant, this one was known as the Fourth Street Cafe, located on Fourth Street near Market Street, where he successfully operated the business for three years when he disposed of it at a good profit. Afterwards he purchased a restaurant on Sixth Street, known as the Walkaway Restaurant, and this place he continued to operate for three years until he sold out January 1, 1903, when he spent some time traveling about the state until he reached Fresno, March of the same year. Possessed of sagacious and far-sighted business judgment, Mr. Christensen soon realized that the city of Fresno needed a first class restaurant, which he at once established, on J Street, under the name of the Fresno Cafe, and where he continued to successfully operate the business for ten years when he sold out. During the ten years that he conducted the restaurant Mr. Christensen built up a very large and lucrative business making the handsome sum of $30,000.

In 1911 Mr. Christensen bought a vineyard of forty-seven and a half acres located at Oleander, Fresno County, naming it, after his little daughter, Dora's Vineyard. This property was devoted to muscat vines and the rais-

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

ing of alfalfa, and he continued to operate it until the spring of 1917, when he sold it and purchased ten acres of land on White's Bridge Road, which he improved and set ont to Thompson seedless grapes. In 1908 Mr. Christensen purchased an apartment house at 1703 J Street, Fresno, which he remodeled and leased out all the apartments, except the one where he makes his home with his family.

J. C. Christensen was united in marriage with Miss Thora Hansen, a native of Denmark, the ceremony being solemnized in San Francisco. This happy union was blessed with one child, a daughter, Dora Marie. Fraternally, Mr. Christensen is a Mason, member of Crocker Lodge, No. 139, F. & A. M., San Francisco, Cal. and is also a member of both the Danish Brotherhood and of Dania, at Fresno, having served as president of the Dania at San Francisco for three terms. In national politics he is a Republican and is a member and stockholder of the California Associated Raisin Company. Mr. Christensen is very public spirited and liberal hearted, a genial and com- panionable citizen who has the happy faculty of making and retaining friends.

WILLIAM LYNCH .- A fine old man, unusually interesting as a pioneer who crossed the great plains in the early fifties and, despite many hardships, has been an npbuilder in every community in which he has cast his lot, is William Lynch who was born near Huntsville, Madison County, Ark., on December 27, 1842, the son of Daniel Lynch, a native of Virginia. His mother, who was Nancy Sharp before her marriage, came from Alabama. The par- ents were farmers and assuredly belonged to that most valuable class of forerunners who laid the foundations of our great country. Daniel Lynch died in 1850, and Mrs. Lynch passed away the following year, the mother of ten children. One of these children, Edwin, served with honor in the Mexi- can War; while a sister Mary married George W. Gibson, and with him William came across the plains when he was only ten years of age, and drove some cattle. William had a horse and helped drive the cattle, of which there were over two hundred head, with some horses. The party traveled with ox teams and wagons, and was six months making the trip. This was in 1853, and it was necessary to proceed up the Arkansas River for 400 miles to the Rocky Mountains, then by way of the Sublette cut-off, past Fort Ben- ton, then south of Fort Laramie, next across the Platte River, cutting their way through the pinery; and then across the Green River, and after that to Fort Bridger. The company, large, strong and well-armed, then proceeded north of Salt Lake on Bear River, past Soda Springs and then on to the Humboldt River, then across the desert to Carson River, and there they left the cattle with two of Gibson's sons. William accompanied the wagons, riding his horse through to California. He entered the state by way of Fid- dletown, and passed on to Stockton.

The Gibsons settled on the San Joaquin River, and then went to Hills Ferry. Gibson sold cattle and bought sheep. William Lynch went to school there until, in 1856, they went to Sonoma County, when he attended school in Santa Rosa. He resided with his sister until he was sixteen, and then he struck out for himself. Returning to the San Joaquin, he entered the employ of Major McMichael, a cattleman and butcher, with whom he remained a year. Then he removed to San Juan, then Monterey County, and went to school there, and then to Santa Clara, where he also attended school, in 1859. The next year, employed as a cattleman, William came to Visalia, in com- pany with George Caldwell, in charge of a herd of cattle, and after that he worked in the mines in Calaveras County.

In 1861, Mr. Lynch began to drive a team for Mr. Folgem, freighting for the New Idra quicksilver mines, and there he continued for two years. Then he entered the employ of Colonel Hollister, on the old ranch where the town of Hollister now stands; and after another year he went to Nevada, to work in the mines. Five months there fully satisfied him, and in 1863 Mr.

Im Lynch

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Lynch returned to California. He went to Ukiah, in Mendocino County, where Mrs. Gibson lived, and worked at ranching and farming until 1867, when he moved south to Los Angeles. After a year he returned to Gilroy, farmed there awhile and took up a homestead on the San Benito River, which he ran for two years; then, selling out, he engaged in the sheep business in San Benito County. He started with 900 sheep, and later had 4,000. He finally drove his flock into Fresno and sold them to Jeff James.

In 1887, Mr. Lynch bought a vineyard in Fresno Colony, but the price of. his commodity went down to one and a fourth cents per pound and he failed and lost all that he had made. He then began to work by the month and soon got ahead sufficiently to be able to buy a few cows. He rented a dairy farm and continued in that line for several years. His family remained in the Central Colony when he went to Alaska in 1899, accompanied by his son, Thomas K. Lynch. He passed over the Chilcoot trail, and reached Atlan, B. C. With his son and Herbert Reese and Thomas Patterson, he took a lease on a mine, but after a year he returned to California, and once more embarked in the dairy business.

Two years later Mr. Lynch bought a ranch of twenty acres in the Cen- tral Colony, on Fig Avenue, and in this enterprise he was very successful. When he sold out, he bought from Mrs. Jaggers twenty acres in the Fresno Colony, on Walnut Avenue, put it in alfalfa and continued the dairy business. He was in time regarded as a progressive leader in dairying, and rather naturally became an important stockholder in the Danish Creamery. In 1918 he sold his well-improved place, and bought a ranch of five acres near Kear- ney Avenue, where he now resides.

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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 19

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