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 25

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 25

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GEORGE SCHWINN .- A public-spirited and progressive pioneer, who was one of the earliest settlers at Huron, Fresno County, the first man suc- cessfully to grow grapes, fruit and beans in Auberry Valley, and the father of the oil industry in Coalinga, is George Schwinn. He was born in Frank- fort-on-the-Main, on December 20, 1860, and after finishing his education, worked in a general merchandise store for three years for his board. There he learned the business thoroughly, and also sound business methods; so that when he was ready to set forth into the world, he was well prepared to cope with the world's problems.

In 1880 he came to the United States and to California, and for a while worked on a ranch near Merced. Two years later he went to Hanford, Kings County, and for about two years worked in the general merchandise store of Silas Simon and Bros., commencing at twenty-five dollars a month and his board. Notwithstanding this modest wage, he had saved seven hundred dol- lars when, in 1886, just before the great boom in California real estate, he decided to remove to Huron, which was the end of the branch line of the Southern Pacific Railroad to the western side of Fresno County. The year of 1886 proved to be one of the best seasons and they had the most abundant feed known to the stockmen of the West Side. The grass had grown so tall the sheepmen had to make a trail to drive their sheep through to the shipping place. There he preempted a claim of 160 acres of government land, and so early had he arrived on the scene, that he built the first store there. He was also the first postmaster at Huron, and for twenty-two years held that re- sponsible office under the United States government-the longest term served by any man in the valley. He had all the trade of the stockmen for fifty miles around, there being no other store in the entire district. At Huron, also, Mr. Schwinn planted the first vineyard of twenty acres, and he soon came to have one of the show-places of the section. In 1888 he promoted the first oil company in the Coalinga district, known as the Fresno Oil Company. He brought in a surveyor, had the land laid out in twenty-acre tracts, and surveyed and built roads into what is now Oilfields. All this he did with the

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cooperation of only seven other men. Later the oil property was exploited by Canfield and Chanslor and became Oil City, and now Oilfields, the center of the East Coalinga oil fields. After that, Mr. Schwinn homesteaded 160 acres in the East Coalinga field adjoining the Shell Company on the east, which is valuable oil land. While at Huron he located several people on homesteads that afterwards proved to be oil land and they became very wealthy, among them Herman Brix, who was clerking for him while he was improving his homestead. Mr. Brix also obtained options on other land from customers of the store, and it made him independently wealthy.

In 1907 Mr. Schwinn sold his ranch and store at Huron, and bought eighty acres of vineyard and orchard on McKinley Avenue, west of Fresno, a place scientifically and beautifully improved. There were a well-set vine- yard, fields of alfalfa, and a fruitful orchard, with new and beautiful buildings. After selling this he bought 1,600 acres in Auberry Valley. He cleared it of timber and brush, fenced and cross fenced it, has planted apricots, plums, prunes, peaches and a vineyard. The balance is devoted to raising grain, hay and stock. There are two new bungalows with farm buildings and pumping plant, and it is now the best-improved ranch in the foot-hills of Fresno. On the ranch are a station and a public school. Mr. Schwinn was the first man to develop the above-named fruits in Auberry Valley. When he proposed to do so, his neighbors said he couldn't succeed; but he followed out his own ideas, and in the end accomplished what others had declared impossible.

Fraternally, Mr. Schwinn is an Odd Fellow, and belongs to the Fresno Lodge. He is also a member of the Commercial Club of Fresno, and co- operates in every way in extending commercial interests. He belongs to the German Lutheran Church and has many fond recollections of the Father- land; but he is a most loyal American, is devoted to his adopted country, and thoroughly sympathizes with the United States and its part in the pres- ent war, giving definite and practical support to the administration through thick and thin.

It is to such men as George Schwinn that Fresno County owes much of its present greatness; for without the optimism and energy they displayed, its lands and mineral resources would not have been so early exploited and the development of the county would not now be so far advanced. He is well satisfied with the result, and is very well content that he was so for- tunate as to cast in his lot in Fresno County.

COWAN A. SAMPLE .- An unusually foreseeing and prosperous real estate and insurance agent, whose experience and judgment have been as valuable to his clients as to himself, is Cowan A. Sample, a native of Holmes County, Miss., where he was born on December 17, 1869, the son of A. D. and Anna Maria Sample. As early as 1874 his father came out to California, but returned to Mississippi and remained there until 1907, when he brought his family to the Coast. He is now living retired.

Cowan Sample's elementary education was obtained in the Mississippi schools, and was completed at the Normal School at Buena Vista, Chickasaw County, in that state. For a while he worked in a general merchandise store in Mississippi, but suffering from broken health at the end of three years, he determined to come West. In April, 1890, he located at Fresno, and for ten years was with an uncle, D. C. Sample, in the sheep business. Then he formed a partnership with G. R. Shipp, but sold out after two years. For a year and a half he was manager of the California Ranch, and then he came to Fresno as the manager of the packing plant of the Fresno Meat Company.

Severing his connection with the Fresno Meat Company, Mr. Sample went on the road as cattle and sheep buyer for O. M. Henry, and in that line of activity he continued until the latter's death. Then he bought for himself for a year, until the earthquake and fire in 1906 devastated San Fan- cisco. After that he joined S. C. Sample in the City Livery Stables, but in

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nineteen months sold his interest to his brother. Next he engaged in the min- ing business, and for five years was president and general manager of the Klamath River Mining Company.

Once more disposing of his interests, Mr. Sample embarked in real estate, putting on the market the Howard Tract of five acres, which he very successfully sold out. Since then he has dealt in many ranches, vineyards and orchards, and in August, 1917, he formed a partnership with J. D. Mor- gan under the name of Sample & Morgan, and they do a general real estate business.

July 22, 1903, witnessed the marriage of Mr. Sample to Miss Maud Brown. They are the parents of four charming daughters: Anna, Grace, Virginia and Catherine. The Samples are Episcopalians. Mr. Sample is a favorite in the fraternal life of the Elks.

ROBERT R., PRATHER .- California has every reason to be proud of her native sons, and Fresno County shares in that pride, numbering among her citizens men of native birth who have made their influence felt in both the business and professional life of the state. As vice-president and sales- manager of the Lauritzen Implement Company, Robert R. Prather is one of the rising young business men of Fresno. Born in Los Angeles, January 1, 1886, he is a son of Joseph L. and Mary (Hedrick) Prather, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of South Carolina. When Robert was six weeks old the family settled on a ranch thirteen miles south of Fresno, on Elm Avenue, and he received his education in the country schools of that district, and later in the Fresno grammar and high school.

In the fall of 1906 Mr. Prather entered the employ of the Lauritzen Im- plement Company, as bookkeeper, and gradually worked his way up to secre- tary and treasurer of that concern, and is now vice-president and salesmana- ger, a demonstration of ability and application which is worthy of mention, as is all honest striving toward success in life, and fortunate indeed is the man who succeeds as early in life as has Robert R. Prather.

The marriage of Mr. Prather united him with Miss Josephine Sequeira, a daughter of Antonio G. Sequeira, a pioneer of the county. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Prather, as follows: Robert ; George ; Berna- dine ; and Lester. Fraternally Mr. Prather is a member of the Fresno Lodge, No. 247, F. & A. M. A resident of the county practically since his birth, he has always taken a keen interest in its development, and has aided in all movements tending toward advancing its resources.

ANDREW JUDSON STURTEVANT, JR .- One of the rising and successful young business men of the San Joaquin Valley is Andrew Judson Sturtevant, Jr., whose enterprising and executive ability have led to success in every branch of business that he has undertaken. Mr. Sturtevant is a native son of California, born at Vallejo, September 15, 1886. He was a student at the Oakland High School and also attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with the class of 1911 from the agricultural depart- ment of that institution with the degree of B. S.

Coming to Fresno County, Mr. Sturtevant rented a 200-acre alfalfa and stock ranch near Sanger for two years, and then took up research work for the California Development Board, making an agricultural survey of the crop conditions of Fresno County in detail, covering all the varieties of products. When the peach growers resolved to form their own marketing organization, he became active in securing members and funds with which to finance the proposed association. Later, when success was assured, he went East for the purpose of developing a sales organization, after which he was appointed general sales-manager for the California Peach Growers, Inc. He is himself one of the large peach growers of the San Joaquin Valley. He rents two peach orchards in Stanislaus County, of twenty-four and forty acres

Bart Harvey

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respectively, and is the owner of a ninety-four-acre peach orchard near Mo- desto and a 200-acre peach orchard eighteen miles from Fresno, at Borden.

The marriage of Mr. Sturtevant united him with Miss Roda M. Mitchell, a native of North Dakota, who was brought up at Oakland. Two children are the result of their union, Andrew J., Jr., and Robert Mitchell. Mr. Sturtevant is a member of the Commercial Club of Fresno, and during the Liberty Loan campaign in that city was an active worker for the cause, being one of the four-minute men who made speeches in the theaters and other public places.

BART HARVEY .- One of the progressive business men in Fresno, and a merchant widely known for his straightforward ways and pleasing personality, is Bart Harvey, the proprietor of the leading clothing and gents' furnishing store in Fresno, centrally located at the corner of J and Tulare Streets. He was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, on April 19, 1874, the seat of many of the most interesting events in English history, and a town famous for its situation on the summit and declivities of three lofty eminences, rising from the north bank of the Tyne, about ten miles from its mouth. Amid the ancient piles of donjon-keeps and church spires, there are ranges, along the banks of the river, one above another, of dim and dingy buildings, that have stood for centuries. Bart's father was Rodger Harvey, a mining man, who married Miss Mary McGee and then came to the United States in 1874 and located at Barclay, Pa., where he became superintendent of coal mines. They had seven boys and three girls, and now live retired in comfort at Pittsburg.

Bart, the second oldest, was educated in the public schools and later received a thorough training in one of the best business colleges of Rochester. For several years, he worked as a salesman in a mercantile establishment, and then, in 1889, he came West, locating first at Trinidad, Colo. In 1891, he went to Salt Lake City, Utah, and there engaged as a traveling salesman, after which he was made manager of a company store for three years. He next spent four years in Oregon. In 1901, Mr. Harvey dropped anchor in Fresno and at once became manager of the clothing department of Messrs. Radin & Kamp, and within the short period of four years thereafter he estab- lished himself in business, opening on J Street. In March, 1908, he founded his present enterprise, and there by methods sure to meet the approval of patrons, he has built up such a good business that he employs regularly no less than fourteen persons.

A live member of the Chamber of Commerce, in which he was a director for many years, and a member of the Merchants' Association, the Traffic Association and the Commercial Club, of which he was the first secretary, Mr. Harvey has been closely identified with the upbuilding of Fresno, giving freely of his time and personal means. With Dave Newman, Ralph Woodard and John W. Short, Mr. Harvey began the Raisin Day movement for adver- tising, asking Americans all over the United States to use more raisins as a part of their daily food, and naming a Raisin Day. They obtained the cooperation of all Fresnans, and their work resulted in much good, and there is now, besides the local raisin celebration, the successful organization known as the California Associated Raisin Company. Mr. Harvey has been active in every movement started in Fresno for the advancement of the city and county.

In 1895, at San Francisco, Mr. Harvey was married to Miss Belle Isbell, a native of California and a member of an old Southern family. She is the daughter of Ewing and Sarah (Price) Isbell, born respectively in Missouri and Kentucky. Her father comes of an old Virginian family, a near relative of Robert E. Lee. However he did not countenance slavery, so he freed his slaves and migrated across the plains in an ox team train. He engaged in mining in Calaveras County and was the discoverer of the Isbell mine near 73

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Murphy's Camp. Later he removed to near Flagstaff, Ariz., where he became a large cattle-man until his death. Mrs. Sarah Price Isbell is a niece of General Sterling Price, the Virginian soldier who died at St. Louis in the late sixties. He raised the Second Missouri Cavalry for the Mexican War, becoming its colonel, and marched his men over a thousand miles, under General Stephen W. Kearney, to Santa Fe, when they were reduced to subsisting on the wild country, the tramp continuing fifty days. When Kearney went to California, Colonel Price was left in charge of New Mexico; and having put down an insurrection, he was made a brigadier general of volunteers, and afterward became military governor of Chihuahua .. Still later, he was governor of Missouri, and then he underwent the hard campaigns of the Civil War as a Confederate officer.

A daughter, Edith Isbell Harvey, has attained distinction as a gradu- ate of Stanford University, where she finished her course with honors, and she is a talented vocalist. She has a pleasing, beautiful mezzo-soprano voice, and has favored the music-lovers of Fresno on various occasions. At present she is studying music under Percy Rector Stevens.

J. B. DALY .- A general broker who believes in the old adage, "Nothing dare, nothing share," and who is always ready to venture in the realty field when the prospects of the game are at all good, is J. B. Daly, the well-known real estate agent. He is a native son, born in Mariposa County in 1870. His father, Judge R. H. Daly, brought his family to Fresno in 1874. There the lad was educated in the public schools. After attaining his majority he served six years as deputy county recorder. For eight years he was in the grocery business, and for some years he traveled widely as a salesman.

In 1909 he entered the real estate field, and from the first showed his marked ability for that work, which requires so much foresight and common sense, as well as a deep knowledge of human nature. He placed on the market the McCoon Colony of 400 acres, organized the Glen Park Stock Farm sale, and has also negotiated other important deals.

Mr. Daly is a member of the Fresno Realty Exchange, and has served as a director in the same. He also participates in a wide-awake manner in the work of the Chamber of Commerce, and takes a just pride in the develop- ment of Fresno County and the State of California, lending a hand in the furtherance of its material upbuilding, and in supporting the common welfare.

LORENTZ C. DUUS .- Lorentz C. Duus, a prominent member of Fres- no's Danish colony, was born in Schleswig-Holstein (then a part of Den- mark), July 6, 1857, ten years before these provinces were ceded to Prussia. He was reared and educated in his native land, and learned the trade of a miller. After serving twenty months in the Danish army as a volunteer and working for some time at his trade in the old country, he came to the United States, in May, 1879, and joined his brother, who lived in Marysville, Cal. He worked on a ranch at Yuba City for one year then went to Monterey County and worked for a time in a warehouse at Moss Landing. From thence he went to Oakland, Cal., where he ran a grocery store on Telegraph Avenue for three years. After this he conducted a billiard hall at Eighth and Broad- way, Oakland, for two years, and then went to Sutter County and, renting 160 acres of land near Live Oak, successfully engaged in raising grain for one season. In 1887, on his way to Los Angeles, he stopped one week in Fresno, and then continued his journey southward. He conducted a restau- rant, for a time, on San Fernando Street near the Southern Pacific Railroad station in Los Angeles ; but Fresno had favorably impressed him and in 1889 he journeyed back again and engaged in the plumbing business, with Louis Thye as partner. Their shop was on K Street, between Fresno and Merced Streets. In the fall of 1889 he closed out the business and purchased a forty- acre unimproved ranch. He planted the land to muscat and malaga grape vines and alfalfa, leveled and fenced it, lived on the place five and one-half

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years, and then lost it through a defect in the title. Undaunted by fortune's vicissitudes, he next went to San Francisco and for three and a half years was employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad in their freight department. Returning then to Fresno, he opened a cigar store on Mariposa Street, where the Union National Bank is now located. He met with much success in the new venture, and after ten years in that location moved to his present place at 933 J Street. He owned a twenty-acre vineyard on Cherry Avenue and Jensen Streets, which he sold in 1913, and he is the owner of valuable real estate lots and four houses in Fresno. His business experiences prove what industry, coupled with intelligence and frugality, can accomplish when directed in the right channels.

In 1888, Mr. Duus was united in marriage with one of his country- women, Clara Christiansen, and they are the parents of three children, all of whom were born in Fresno: Arthur C., later Quartermaster Sergeant, U. S. A., now deceased; Anna, the wife of H. Campbell, of Fresno; and Viola, a professional stenographer in Fresno.

Quartermaster Sergeant Arthur C. Duus died at Douglas, Ariz., Novem- ber 30, 1918, following an attack of influenza. He was born in the city of Fresno, October 6, 1889, and was educated in the Fresno public schools. He graduated from the Fresno High School with the class of 1907, and after leaving school he entered the service of the Union Savings Bank at Fresno. He later became assistant cashier in the First National Bank of Fresno and held that position when he enlisted in the army at San Francisco in 1917. He first went to the Presidio, but was soon transferred to Jacksonville, Fla., where he attended the quartermaster's school. After graduating from the finance department in April, 1918, he was transferred to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he received his commission as sergeant in the quartermaster's corps. Soon thereafter he was again transferred to Douglas, Ariz., and was placed in charge of the finance department, and on the 17th of October, 1918, he was duly commissioned quartermaster sergeant, still serving at Fort Douglas. On November 11, 1918 (the day of the armistice), he was taken ill and was brought to the hospital. The influenza terminated in pneumonia, from which he died. Word of his illness was telegraphed home, and the mother and two sisters started immediately. His two sisters, Mrs. Anna Campbell and Miss Viola Duus, were at his bedside one day before he died. His mother, who started for his bedside from Fresno with her two daughters, was taken severely ill en route, and had to stop off at Los Angeles. Military funeral services were held at Camp Douglas; and his remains were escorted to Fresno by his comrades. On December 4, 1918, the funeral was held, and interment was made in Liberty Cemetery at Fresno.

Mr. Duus is a member of the Dania Society of Fresno, of which he is past president. He became a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows in Oakland in 1883 and is now a member of the Fresno Lodge of that order, and has passed the Encampment.

J. LEE EICHELBERGER .- The manager of the Fresno division of the Sperry Flour Company, J. Lee Eichelberger is well known in Central and Northern California. He was born in Christian County, Ill., November 15, 1876, and received his education in the public school and the Northwest- ern University at Chicago, graduating from the pharmaceutical department in 1891. For eight years thereafter he followed the drug business in Chicago, after which he went to Macomb, McDonough County, Ill., and engaged in the general merchandise business until 1905, when he sold out to locate in California.

Mr. Eichelberger came direct to Fresno and secured a position as bill clerk in the office of the Sperry Flour Company; after a term of service he was promoted to the position of traveling salesman. In 1910 he was made manager of the Sacramento division of the company and for six years made

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Sacramento his headquarters and home and gave of his best efforts to the development of the business of the Sperry Flour Company in his district. In 1916 he was transferred to the Fresno division, where he is now located. Mr. Eichelberger has traveled up and down the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys and has made many friends who hold him in high esteem for his business ability and good management. Interested in the development of the natural resources of California, Mr. Eichelberger has improved a twenty- acre orange grove at Strathmore, Tulare County, a very fine citrus section for navels and valencias.

In 1901 Mr. Eichelberger was united in marriage with Miss Daisy Spickler, a native of Illinois. Their marriage was celebrated at Kewanee, that state. Two children have blessed their marriage, Meredith and Robert. As a diversion from business cares and to bring him more closely in touch with the up-to-date men of affairs of Fresno, Mr. Eichelberger holds mem- bership in the Rotary Club, the Commercial Club and the Sunnyside Coun- try Club. He is a member of Fresno Chamber of Commerce, Merchants Asso- ciation and the South Pacific Millers Association. He is a public spirited citizen of California and believes that the future prosperity of the state is yet an unknown quantity. He is a booster for Fresno County and is always ready to assist any projects that will bring settlers within the borders of the county.

JESSE BUELL ALLEN .- To be successfully engaged in one line of business in the same city for sixteen years is in itself a recommendation for first-class workmanship and service. This is the record possessed by Jesse B. Allen, Fresno's leading interior decorator and painter. Mr. Allen is a native of the Hoosier State, having first seen the light of day at Greencastle, Ind., January 3, 1843. His father, Robert D. Allen, was born in Cumberland Coun- ty, Ky., of an old Virginia family which is traced back to Ephraim Allen, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and the tallest man in the army at the time. Robert Allen was a contractor and helped to build the Asbury University Building at Greencastle. When Jesse was five years of age his parents moved to Texas, where his father died, and afterwards his mother, Mary Ann (Ritchey) Allen, also born in Cumberland County, moved back to Cumberland County, in 1848, and in this state he finished his education, following which he engaged in farming.

During the Civil War Mr. Allen saw service in the Confederate Army, being a member of Company I, Gen. John Morgan's famous scouts, and took part in all of the most important battles in Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia. He was also a member of General Forrest's body-guard at the battle of Chickamauga, and at the close of the war surrendered at Mt. Sterling, Ky.

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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 25

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