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 31

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 31

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grammar school; Hazel married Dale F. Butler and they reside at Orland, Glenn County. Harold Charles is a graduate of the Fowler High School, and also had one year at the State agricultural college at Davis. He enlisted in June, 1918, in Headquarters Company, Eighty-first Field Artillery, and was honorably discharged in Camp Knox, Ky., having spent two months in France.

Mr. Elder has served five years as trustee of the Prairie School District. which employs four teachers. He was ten or twelve years in Kern County, where he was a trustee of the school board. In national politics he is a Republican. He is a member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., the Cal- ifornia Associated Raisin Company, and gives his aid to all worthy projects that have for their object the advancement of Fresno County.

N. C. CHRISTENSEN .- A splendid example of what good character, high intelligence and unflagging industry will accomplish in a comparatively short time is afforded by the rancher, N. C. Christensen, and his excellent wife, the prosperous peach and raisin growers residing half a mile east of Selma on the Canal School Road, where they own a well-improved and finely cultivated fruit ranch of thirty acres. Mr. Christensen is a Dane, and so is his sturdy wife; and they are both proud of the fact that they came from families of working people.

For some time in Denmark, they worked for small wages and with little prospects of getting ahead ; and when an opportunity offered, they sailed to Australia, and there engaged in grain farming for several years. When another opportunity presented itself, they again crossed the wide ocean and pushed west as far as Dakota, settling on a farm in the territory near Dell Rapids in Minnehaha County-near where now stands Sioux Falls, S. D. After eight years of considerable hardship, hearing of the promised land in the Golden State, they came to California, in 1892, and settled at Selma, where they have prospered. By hard work, and paying close attention to their interests, at the same time that they wasted no time as to other folk's business, they have not only raised a large family of children, but have become well-to- do. All the children, too, are now married and highly respected.

Though a man of but few words, Mr. Christensen is a virile and philo- sophic thinker, and, being well read, takes an active interest in the political issues of the times. He realizes, however, that much of his success is due to his faithful helpmate, who is a woman of clear intellect and great force of character, and who never failed him in his most strenuous days and now enjoys with him the fruits of an industrious and consistently conservative life.

Mr. Christensen was born at Mou. Denmark, on February 1, 1854, where he was brought up in the state church of Denmark and attended the public schools. His father, Christen Christensen, was a blacksmith, while he also rented and cultivated a small piece of land in Denmark, where the father was married to Anna Christine Jacobsen, a native of the same locality, and they had three children : The eldest, Ole C., died in Denmark, while the next- born, Shoren C., lives in that country, and the subject of this sketch, Nils Christian. At seventeen he hired out to work by the year at farm work, and at twenty he was married to Juliana Sörensen. who was born near Hjöring, Denmark, and is a daughter of Sören and Martha Marie (Hensen) Nelson.

Mr. and Mrs. Christensen went to Australia from Denmark, arriving at Queensland with two children and about ten shillings, and some clothing, but without the ability to speak English, and for a while suffered great pri- vations. After five and a half years of raising corn and potatoes, they came to the United States. They have had eight children. Christian, born in Denmark, married Harriet Jessie Nicol, and is a rancher residing near Selma; Annie K. married Milton Bigelow, another rancher near Selma, and she died, leaving three children, Grace E., Louise E. and Eunice ; Marie married Alton Bigelow, missionary to the Philippines, and died and left three children,

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Harriet, Mildred and John H .; Martha is the wife of Noah Jacobsen, a rancher near Selma ; Marcus married Lulu Williams, and is ranching in the vicinity of the same town; Alfred J. is another rancher near Selma who married Anna Donald; Elmer Adolph is the postmaster at Selma, and married Lucy Sweet; and Walter C. married Sophie Sörensen, and is a grammar school teacher near Modesto.

Mr. and Mrs. Christensen are members of the Danish Baptist Church of Selma, and are consistent Christians. Their religion is a matter of everyday strength and consolation, for they can see where a kind Providence has led them. They are now living comfortably, in their new bungalow home, built 1918-19, at 2222 Keith Street, in Selma, and are sincerely esteemed by all who know them.

MRS. GERTRUDE MANEELY .- A very estimable lady, whose family is creditably associated with the pioneer history of California, is Mrs. Ger- trude Maneely, a native of St. Louis, Mo., and the daughter of Nathaniel Kelly, who was born in Dublin, Ireland, and who came alone to America and New Orleans when he was only seventeen years of age. There he began clerking, and in time became a merchant at Seguin, Texas. He next removed to St. Louis, Mo., where he clerked for Crawford & Co .; and leaving their employ and that state, he returned to Texas and again established himself as a merchant at Dallas. In Houston and at Waco he also, at one time or another, had stores.

In 1896, Mr. Kelly removed to San Francisco where he was again busy as a merchant, and at the beginning of the new century, when more than ever Central California was awakened to its natural destiny, he came to Fresno County and started in business at Herndon. Later he bought Mr. Yount's store at Barstow, and, with his long and varied experience, he was able to make of it still more of a general merchandise establishment that that district had ever before enjoyed. In 1917, at the end of the year, he sold out and retired, conscious of having both merited and won the good wishes of his patrons and friends. Mrs. Kelly was Sarah T. Mansfield before her marriage, and is a native of San Antonio, Texas. She was left an orphan at five years of age, but was fortunate in being reared and educated in her native state. She is the mother of two children: Gertrude, who married John Maneely, a rancher at Barstow; and Lillie, who is Mrs. Smellie of Madera.

Gertrude Kelly came to California with her parents, and was educated at the famous convent of St. Joseph at San Francisco. She was married, at Fresno, first to James Emery, a native of Ohio, who came to California in the boom period of 1888, when he was twenty, and for a while was in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, leaving that system to assume a responsible post offered by the Fresno Irrigation and Canal Com- pany, at Empire. There, for sixteen years, he was in charge of their ditch, and a better superintendent the company never had. In 1909, Mr. Emery embarked in viticulture and bought eighty acres at Barstow which he greatly improved. He took pleasure and pride in his work, and continued to operate his ranch until his death, on January 13, 1917. During the last seven years of his life, which he devoted to farming, he had eighty acres, twenty-five of which were devoted to an orchard of peaches, and twelve acres to a vineyard of muscat and Thompson grapes, while considerable of the land produced alfalfa.

Thirteen months after Mr. Emery's death his widow became the wife of John Maneely, a native of Canada, whose interesting life story is elsewhere given in some detail in this work. As a practical, progressive woman of im- portant affairs, who has shown exceptional executive ability, Mrs. Maneely belongs both to the California Associated Raisin Company and to the Cali- fornia Peach Growers, Inc.

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A. CLIFFORD SHAW .- A native of Annawan, Henry County, Ill., A. Clifford Shaw was born on July 10, 1880, the son of Emery E. Shaw, a native of Terre Haute, Ind., and a grandson of Jonathan J. Shaw, a pioneer of Henry County who became a large farmer. Emery Shaw was also a farmer, and five or six years ago, having sold out, he retired to life in town. In February, 1896, he came west and located at Fresno, later leasing a vine- yard at Fowler. Once more he lived at Fresno and still later, on Whites Bridge road; and eventually he died at Fresno on May 15, 1902. Mrs. Shaw was a favorite in Columbus, Ohio, where she was widely known as Annie Davison ; and she died at Los Angeles, on October 24, 1908, the mother of six children, two of whom are still living.

The second oldest of these children, and the only son living (two having died in Illinois), Clifford was among the four that reached California. Burpee died on November 19, 1901; Mattie is Mrs. Ruggles of Fresno; and June, who became Mrs. Baker, died in San Francisco. Clifford attended school in Illinois until he was fifteen, and in February, 1896, he came with his parents to Fresno. For six and a half years he worked in the T. J. Hay vineyard, where he was made foreman, after which he continued in Mr. Hay's service in Squaw Valley, on a stock ranch, remaining there until the latter died. He remained another six months, in fact, working for Mrs. Hay.

When he came again to Fresno, Mr. Shaw bought forty acres in the Barstow Colony, effecting the purchase in August, 1907, and having improved the property in the usual manner, he built a residence and set out sixteen acres of Thompson seedless. He joined the California Associated Raisin Company and worked for the general progress of California viticulture. In June, 1918, he sold it at a big advance and then purchased his present forty acres one mile south of Barstow, which he is devoting to raising alfalfa, and setting out Thompson seedless, and where he has built a comfortable resi- dence and also suitable ranch buildings.

While sojourning at Visalia, Mr. Shaw was married to Mrs. Dollie (Hogan) Butler, who was born near Reedley in this county, the daughter of J. W. Hogan, a Reedley pioneer ; and they have had one daughter, Anna May. Mrs. Shaw had two children by her former marriage, David and Eva.

Thoroughly at home in, and in sympathy with the institutions of Cali- fornia, Mr. and Mrs. Shaw take an active part in all movements for the better- ing of the community, the state or the nation, and in particular they loyally supported the government in the World War. Mr. Shaw is an Independent Republican ; while in social life he participates in the activities of the Wood- men of the World, Manzanita Camp, No. 160.

HANS J. HANSEN .- An enterprising, reliable and successful viti- culturist, who thoroughly appreciates the unrivaled opportunities of Fresno County, is Hans J. Hansen, who came to California at the beginning of the nineties, bringing with him, as part of his capital, some of the best traditions of Denmark's intelligent and progressive agricultural folk. He was born at Kolding, in Jutland, Denmark, on May 30, 1865, the son of Hans Bang, an industrious and extensive farmer who later, with equal success, applied him- self to carpentry and building. There were two children in the family, and of these Hans J. was the younger. Having attended the public schools of his neighborhood, he learned the miller's trade and followed it for some time, after which he took to teaming. At the end of two and a half years, he enlisted with a Copenhagen artillery regiment, in which he served seventeen months, or until he was honorably discharged, in the fall of 1885, when he took up some work at which he continued until he was twenty-three years of age.

Crossing the Atlantic in the spring of 1888, Mr. Hansen stopped in New York State and found employment at farming, butchering and in a brick- yard. Two years later he located in Fresno County, bought some mules, and went in for teaming, and later he tried his hand at farming. After another

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two years, he leased some land west of Fresno, which he sowed to grain. In 1896 he returned to Denmark for what proved to be a two-year visit; and while there he ran a hack. There, too, he was married to Miss Christene Nielsen, a native of that country and section.

In 1899 Mr. and Mrs. Hansen crossed the ocean and the continent. Choosing Fresno County as their home, he leased land at Academy, and in the operation of the ranch ran two big teams and a combined harvester. The returns for the labor and investment, however, were insufficient to reward and encourage, as he sold wheat for less than one dollar a sack, and barley still lower ; and after a while he quit the venture altogether and dis- posed of his outfit. After this he bought 160 acres from the San Francisco Savings Union in Redbank, and engaged in farming there. He kept that land two years and then sold it. Then he bought his present place of forty acres in the Enterprise Colony-at that time a stretch of hog-wallow and the rawest land-which he improved, planting alfalfa and setting out wine grapes. He also built a fine residence and sunk a well. The property is under the Enterprise Ditch and has proven a fine investment. He has there three acres of peaches, a vineyard of twenty-seven acres of muscat, Malaga, Zin- fandel and Thompson grapes, and the balance sown to alfalfa. Intensely in- terested in every movement that advances the welfare of the rancher gen- erally, Mr. Hansen has long been active in the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Associated Raisin Company.

There are four children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Hansen: Amelia is at the Clovis High School, and Anna attends the Fresno High; while Mary and Edward study in the grammar schools of the neighborhood. The family attend the Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen support the poli- cies of the Republican party. Mr. Hansen is a popular member of the Woodmen of the World at Clovis, and he and his circle supported in every way possible all the activities that helped to win the great war.

S. L. POLITO .- Fresno is fortunate in having so talented a musician and instructor in music as S. L. Polito, teacher of the plectral string instruments, harmony and theory of music. Mr. Polito was born at Vaca- ville, Solano County, Cal., September 4, 1881. He is of Italian descent, his father, Louis L. Polito, being a native of the sunny clime that has produced so many talented musicians of world-wide reputation. This young native son of California was five years of age when his parents brought him to Fresno. Here he received his first schooling, and for about three years attended the old White school on Fresno Street, which in those days was practically on the bank of the old mill ditch that ran through the town. At the age of nine he was taken to San Francisco, and at about that time began the study of music, which he continued until he developed professionally the playing of the banjo, mandolin and guitar. He is a finished musician, and his twenty years of musical experience, as well as his diplomas and certifi- cates, bear testimony to his ability as a musician and teacher of music.

To Mr. Polito, more than to any other one person in this vicinity, is due the credit for the popularity of the plectral string instruments. He introduced the banjo in the dance orchestra in Fresno, and also the now popular Gibson mandolin and guitar. These instruments are in vogue musically and are well represented in all musical gatherings and in different instrumental combinations throughout the country.

As a teacher of the banjo, mandolin and guitar, Mr. Polito has been remarkably successful, having established a large clientele of pupils on these instruments, a number of whom he has developed to the rank of professional musicians. He is the author of several original musical com- positions, and is a member of the American Guild of Banjo, Mandolin, and Guitarists, the American Federation of Musicians, the Musical Alliance of the United States, and several other musical organizations.

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REV. JENS JOHANSEN .- One of the pioneer ministers of the San Joaquin Valley, Rev. Jens . Johansen has accomplished much good work in his chosen field, and is now rounding out his years of service as pastor of the Church of Our Savior, located in Central Colony, Fresno County and of the Danish Lutheran denomination. Born in Denmark, October 16, 1851, Reverend Johansen came to America with his parents, in 1860, and was reared in Missouri and Illinois. He lived in Arkansas during the Civil War period and has vivid recollections of those stirring and thrilling times, though he was but a lad at the time.

After finishing his early schooling, Reverend Johansen attended Decorah College, at Decorah, Iowa, for six years, and also spent three years in Ger- mania Concordia Theological Seminary, at St. Louis, Mo. His first call was a dual one; he being assigned to two congregations, namely: the Trinity Church in the city of St. Louis and also the Webster Groves Church, which was in a suburb of St. Louis, where he remained five years. He was next called to Franklin County, Iowa, and held his charge there for six years.

In 1891 Reverend Johansen received his third call, and came to Fresno County. In early days of the county's development he was a circuit rider, holding services at Rolinda and Fairview school districts. He also had charge of Missions at Newman, Modesto, Los Banos and Waterford, continu- ing this branch of his work until 1903. With unremitting zeal he worked early and late in pioneer days in the valley, taking hard long drives by team through the undeveloped valley and plain, with but little to lighten his burdens.

The Church of Our Savior is one of the oldest in the valley, founded in November, 1879, by Rev. L. Carlsen, of San Francisco. In 1881 Rev. Diet- ricksen took charge, and in 1891 Reverend Johansen was called to the charge which he has most ably filled since that year. Sunday, July 19, 1916, he celebrated his twenty-fifth anniversary as pastor in Fresno County, on which occasion the members of his church presented him with an automobile, the membership comprising fifty families. He was for six years secretary of the Pacific District of Norwegian Lutheran Synod, which was organized in 1893, when he became secretary, remaining in the office until 1899.

Reverend Johansen was married in Albert Lee, Minn., to Hannah Larsen a native of Denmark; her death occurred in 1912, after a full and useful life, during which she had been of inestimable help to her husband in his life work. Their children are as follows: Laura, wife of Roy Cole of Fresno, was born in St. Louis, Mo., July 9, 1882; Amelia, wife of Harry Ericksen of Fresno, was born in St. Louis, August 20, 1884; Theodore, born in Iowa, September 23, 1886, married Marion Damkier; Clara, died at one year of age ; Martin, born in Iowa, October 10, 1891, married Blanch Goodrich, and is the owner of a ranch near Lone Star; Hannah, born in Fresno, November 15, 1892; Helen, born in Fresno, February 14, 1895, now the wife of E. G. Cart- right, a rancher on Orange Avenue, Fresno; Ernest, born in Fresno, March 8, 1898, with the Union Pacific Railway in Fresno. During early days in the county Reverend Johansen bought four lots on South J Street, and erected his present home, one of the first to be built in that section.

CHARLES H. TRABER, M.D .- There is no profession to which a man devotes himself which brings him into such close relations with his fellow- man as does that of the conscientious physician. Among practitioners of this class the name of Charles H. Traber, M.D., of Reedley, stands out in bold relief. He is a native son of California, born in Mendocino County, January 4, 1874, a son of John W. and Anna (Kane) Traber, mention of whom is made on another page of this work. John W. Traber is one of the best- known educators in the county, and has taught longer than any other of its teachers.

Caleb Harman

Sarah & Gharman

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Reared on his father's ranch and educated in the public grammar and high schools of Fresno County, graduating from the latter with high hon- ors, Charles H. Traber began teaching school at an early age and for ten years followed that profession in Fresno County. During all those years his one great ambition was to become a physician. Not having the means by which this ambition could be satisfied, he went to Alaska in the hope that he would be able to make enough to put him through medical school; but his venture was a failure, although he remained in Alaska from 1898 until 1902. He returned to Fresno County again and resumed teaching, saving every dollar that he could, and in 1913 he was able to enter the Chicago College of Medicine & Surgery from which institution he was graduated four years later with the degree of M.D. He later returned to his native state and opened an office at Reedley, and so successful has he been that he derives a practice from many miles around.

In 1910 Dr. Traber was united in marriage with Miss Clara Brose, a daughter of Samuel Brose; and to this union one daughter, Marjorie, has been born. The doctor is a member of the County and State Medical Socie- ties, and fraternally is a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is always in favor of the best schools obtainable. During his career as an educator he served for a time as a deputy in the superintendent of schools' office at Fresno. Dr. Traber is a self-made man, a successful physician and a true friend. He and his wife have a wide circle of friends throughout this section of the county.

CALEB HARMAN .- Two decidedly intellectual pioneers, whose lives, animated by lofty moral ideals, have made them benefactors to many, and whose influence for good will be felt for generations to come, were Mr. and Mrs. Caleb Harman, long so fondly esteeemd by the early settlers of Fresno County. He was born in Morgan County, Ohio, on September 20, 1836, the son of John Harman, whose folks came from Pennsylvania and were un- doubtedly related to that branch, the Harmons, later distinguished in jour- nalism and the law, in the history of Ohio, and which has given a governor to that state. In Ohio, John Harman married Miss .Hannah Stephens, a lady whose ancestors belong to the best of South Carolina stock. In their union there was one of those happy blendings of Northern and Southern virility and culture that have contributed something definite and valuable in the elevating of American society.

Caleb attended. the public schools in Ohio until he was twelve, when his family removed to Van Buren County, Iowa, after which he continued his schooling in his new home district. He also grew up on a farm in the pioneer days of Iowa, and there he farmed for himself. During the Civil War he served in the Home Guards.

In 1874 he came to California from Iowa, and spent the first winter at Santa Rosa, coming down to Fresno County the next spring. This whole section was then a desert-like wilderness. He went out to the Mendocino Settlement, however, and bought land; he encouraged and helped to build the Church Ditch, which was the first ditch for irrigation in that part of Fresno County, became a stockholder and secured a perpetual water-right in the canal. People said that he must starve to death, for there was nothing but horned toads and jack-rabbits that could live there; yet the Church Ditch proved the making of the country.

On October 18, 1861, at Milton, Iowa, Mr. Harman was married to Miss Sarah Carr, daughter of Jonathan and Margaret Jane (Weatherington) Carr, both of whom came from Virginia families, migrated to Ohio, and as early as 1853 removed to Iowa. Sarah was born near Columbus, Ohio, on Febru- ary 25, 1838, and Jonathan Carr, who was a farmer, died in Illinois, when she was only seven years of age. Mr. Harman was an intelligent, indus- trious and large-hearted man; and his wife was in all respects his equal, and assisted to make the Harman home the center of abounding hospi-

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tality and good-cheer. They had four children: Lizzie became the wife of O. W. Rudolph, of Santa Barbara, where she died in 1903 and left four children, all still living in California; Jennie is the wife of Dr. J. E. Shafer, of Berkeley, and they have two children; the third child is C. E. Harman, while Daisy, the younger daughter, resides at 737 Wilson Avenue, Fresno.

Interested in politics only so far as they aided in the upbuilding of the community, Mr. Harman, although an active Democrat all his life, never sought nor held public office for any benefit for himself. He was school trustee in the Mendocino district for many years, and was a worker for good schools. He donated the site for the Mendocino school, and also the land for the original plot of the Mendocino cemetery near Miley Switch on the Santa Fe Railway. And he planted the first vineyard in the Mendocino district.

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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 31

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