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 35
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inhabitants of this enterprising little city, as the clock strikes the hours, as well as the half hours, throughout the day and night. The dial of the clock is four and one-half feet in diameter and is visible all over the town.
Father Seubert erected a rectory, constructed from the same kind of stones as were used in the church building. This structure, now completed at a cost of about $10,000, is an attractive addition to the permanent buildings of Reedley. Much credit is due both to the loyal members who, by their sacrifices of both money and time, have made possible the consummation of this worthy work, and also to the pastor who, with untiring zeal and con- secrated devotion, has led his people to the triumphant completion of so great an undertaking.
JOHN L. MITCHELL .- How much Selma and vicinity owe to such men as John L. Mitchell, the popular real estate and insurance agent, and notary public, may be estimated only when one is familiar with the personal character and exceptional equipment of the subject, factors which have made him, as well as his esteemed wife and family, acceptable as leaders or prime- movers in all circles wherein they take part. His father was Benjamin . Mitchell, a native of Tennessee, who lived for years in Missouri as a farmer and died there, aged eighty-five. His mother, who was Matilda Looney be- fore her marriage, was a native of Alabama and came to Missouri, where she was married. She lived to be two years older than her husband, and when she passed hence, she also was mourned by a large group of friends. The worthy couple had fourteen children, of whom thirteen grew to maturity.
Born at Morrisville, near Springfield, Mo., on May 9, 1853, the seventh son in the family and the ninth child, John attended the schools in the vicinity of his home, and later took a six-years' classical course at Morris- ville College. Having thus prepared himself with all thoroughness under the best of teachers for pedagogical work, Mr. Mitchell taught for a while in Missouri and next in Texas; and having carried out a plan of getting some first-hand acquaintance with the Pacific Coast, he came to California in 1887 and after visiting the Sacramento Valley for three months, he returned to Missouri on account of the death of his youngest brother.
Mr. Mitchell has been twice married, death depriving him in the first instance of his gifted bride. She was Miss Sadie Scott of Oakland before her union, and she passed away about a year later, leaving no children. It was 1906 when Mr. Mitchell, at Selma, chose for his wife Mrs. S. A. Wenty, widow of Fred Wenty, a rancher of that neighborhood. Her maiden name had been Sallie A. Richards, and she had come from St. Louis, where she was born. At the time of her second marriage, she had a daughter, Edith; and this attractive young lady, who in 1917 graduated from the Selma High School, is now a Sophomore at the Baptist University of Redlands.
A member of the Selma Blue Lodge of Masons, Mr. Mitchell has become Past Master, and he is also Past High Priest of the Chapter, and Inspector of the district. Mrs. Mitchell is Past Matron of the Eastern Star of Selma. Mr. Mitchell belongs to the Methodist Church South, while Mrs. Mitchell subscribes to the articles of belief of the Selma Baptist Church.
Long a stalwart Democrat, Mr. Mitchell has served as city clerk and recorder of Selma two times, and both while in office and since he retired to take care of his numerous interests, he always has proven alive and active for the public good.
In 1890, Mr. Mitchell came to California for a second time, settling at Selma, and a year later he bought a ranch of some forty acres and planted it to muscats. By a very natural process, he developed into a first-class booster, and among other organizations, he cheerfullv gives the California Raisin Growers' Association all possible support. In 1901 he went to Alaska and mined at Nome and Teller, but the irresistible lure of California drew him back to the happiest of all his happy hunting-grounds.
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Several years previously he had opened his well-known real estate and insurance office, and for a long time he has dealt with great success in improved lands. He has also built a number of bungalows for residential purposes, and these he has always sold to the advantage of both himself and the buyer. He represents the following fire insurance companies: London Assurance, New Zealand, Continental, Fidelity, Phoenix, American Eagle, American, Glens Falls, Agricultural, Boston, and other standard old lines. Giving the closest attention to details, taking the most unselfish interest in the needs of his many patrons, and sparing no pains both to aid and to please, it is no wonder that John L. Mitchell succeeds in his undertakings.
JAMES WILLIAM SIMS .- A resident of Fresno County, who inherits many of the characteristics of his father. Phillip W. Sims, one of the early and highly-honored settlers, is James William Sims, who was born in Graves County, Ky., on August 20, 1868, and came to Fresno on June 11. 1887. His father was born in Tennessee of an old Eastern family, and lived in his native state until his marriage. He served in the Civil War as a corporal in the Con- federate Army, after which he engaged in farming in Graves County. In 1874, the family removed to Bell County, Texas, and there he raised grain and cotton ; then he moved to Bosque County, of the same state, and con- tinned farming. In 1887 the family located in Fresno city, and Mr. Sims followed the carpenter's trade. Now he resides near Fresno. Mrs. Sims was Martha J. Blythe before her marriage, and she also was born in Graves County, Ky., a member of an old Virginia family. Grandfather Blythe came from Virginia, and her mother was an Adair, of a prominent Kentucky fam- ily. The mother is still living and the mother of seven children, all sons, five of whom are living.
J. W. Sims, the oldest of the children, spent his first six years 'on a farm in Texas, while he attended the public school. He learned to raise grain and cotton, so that when he came to Fresno he at least knew how to work. He assisted in the construction of the Hughes Hotel, and then for five years he worked for a coal and wood dealer.
In 1892 he was married at Fresno to Miss Lucy Behunan, a native of Santa Rosa and the daughter of P. M. Behunan who crossed the plains in 1848, and became a contractor and builder in Fresno, and later embarked in the coal and wood business.
After marriage, Mr. Sims entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and for a while worked in the car shops; later he was made inspector, and five years later he was in charge of a part of the Santa Fe shops. At the end of three years he came back to the Southern Pacific. and he was nearly twelve years in all in railroad work. In the meantime, in 1892, and while working for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, Mr. Sims bought his present place of twenty acres at the corner of Clinton and Chittenden avenues, in Montpelier tract, located upon it and began improve- ments during his spare time. Besides Elberta and Muir peaches, he raises Thompson seedless grapes.
Since 1909 Mr. Sims has also done much spraying. He began with a Myers hand pump, but three years later he bought a power machine, now he has three power machines, and he is busy doing spraying all over Fresno County and even in Madera County. The season runs from November until April of each year. For five years he has engaged in operating a power ma- chine mounted on a truck, for whitewashing buildings. He belongs to the California Associated Raisin Company, and he has been a member and stock- holder of the California Peach Growers, Inc., from its origin.
Mrs. Sims died at Fresno in 1911 and left one child, W. E. Sims, a ma- chinist in Fresno. On his second marriage, Mr. Sims took for his wife Anna Rock, a native of Boston, where she was educated. He belongs to the Wood- men of the World, and has long been a deacon in the Cumberland Presby- terian Church. In national politics, Mr. Sims is a Democrat.
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JOHN SALLEE PUGH .- One of the successful viticulturists here- abouts, and yet a man who is never so occupied that he has not some time to spare for the general advancement of agricultural interests in California, or for the extension of hospitality to the stranger, thereby maintaining pleas- antly a fine old California tradition, is John Sallee Pugh, who owns a place of eighty acres and leases another tract just as large on Ventura Avenue, eleven and a half miles east of Fresno. A native son of the Golden State, Mr. Pugh was born near Pennington, Sutter County, in 1873, the son of John M. Pugh, who settled in California in 1858 and is represented on another page of this work.
Brought up at Stonyford, Colusa County, where he attended the public school until he was fourteen, John accompanied his parents to Fresno County when they moved here, and continued his schooling at Orange Center, after which he went to the Oakland Polytechnic, where he took a business course. Returning to Fresno, he assisted his father and moved with him and the rest of the family, in 1905, to a ranch of 140 acres in the Kutner Colony. Here the father and his sons engaged in viticulture and horticulture until the death of the former, when John pushed out for himself.
He at first purchased a forty-acre vineyard in the Kutner Colony, to which he gave his most careful attention until, in 1915, he sold it, and then he bought forty acres of his present ranch in the Granville district. This he has improved and made into a fine vineyard. In 1918 he bought forty acres adjoining, so that he now has eighty acres in a body. The new forty is planted to alfalfa.
Since he came to Fresno County, on June 19, 1888, Mr. Pugh has seen great improvements in the region which then had but few vineyards and now boasts of over a hundred thousand acres. He has found pleasure in vigorously promoting the aims of the California Associated Raisin Company. He supports the candidates of the Democratic party ; while in fraternal cir- cles he is a Mason, having been made a Mason in Selma Lodge, No. 277, F. & A. M.
Looking back over past years and conditions, and contrasting the present vastly improved state of affairs, Mr. Pugh is one of the most optimistic acclaimers of a glorious future for this great commonwealth.
HORATIO SEYMOUR CONNER .- Like many other residents of Fresno County, Horatio S. Conner traveled over most of the states in the Union before making his choice of a locality for agricultural develop- ment, and he is now one of the Valley's most enthusiastic boosters. Born in Auburn, N. Y., January 30, 1863, he is a son of Joseph and Mathilda (Steele) Conner, the father a native of Ireland and a shoemaker by trade, first in Auburn, N. Y., and later in Cleveland, Ohio. He answered the call of his country at the outbreak of the Civil War, enlisting in the Forty-fifth New York Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, and served for four years, on his return making his home in Cleveland. Both parents are now deceased, and of their eleven children, five are now living.
Horatio Seymour Conner was educated in the public schools of Auburn until 1879, when he removed with his parents to Cleveland, and when sixteen years old was apprenticed there as electrical engineer in the Brush Electric Light Company, continuing his studies at night school in the meantime. After three years as an apprentice, he remained with the company seventeen years longer, as an expert electrician, and built electric light plants for them, and also electric street car lines, all over the United States. He put in the big power plant in Virginia City, Nev., and one at Eldorado, Cal., also in the old Brush Electric Light Company plant in San Francisco. His travels took him all over the states, from Maine to New Orleans, and Boston to San Fran- cisco.
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After thirty-three years on the road as an expert electrician, the last five years as salesman for the Brush Electric Light Company, Mr. Conner felt he had had enough, and decided to settle down, having always looked forward to California since his first trip here, in 1889. In 1916 he bought his ranch of forty acres on Belmont Avenue, Fresno, and engaged in viticulture and horticulture, his land being planted principally to muscats and malagas, with a border of fig trees. He has put in modern improvements, installing an electric motor for lighting and power, and a pumping plant, also run by electricity, and he devotes the same energy and thoroughness to his land cultivation which made him so successful in the world at large. He is a mem- ber of the California Associated Raisin Company and at all times favors proj- ects for the advancement of Central California.
The marriage of Mr. Conner united him with Mrs. Clara (Mitchell) Andrus, a native of Michigan, in which state the ceremony occurred. Both Mr. and Mrs. Conner are members of the First Presbyterian Church, Fresno.
JOHN L. ASHTON .- A successful business man who is associated with an important industrial establishment of Selma, and who is one of the repre- sentative commercial men of this progressive town, is John L. Ashton, owner and manager of Ashton's Bakery, at 1947 High Street. His father was William S. Ashton, a native of England, who came to America with his parents when he was five years old, and was a teacher of vocal music in Kentucky and Ten- nessee, organizing old fashioned singing classes. His mother, whose maiden name was Artelia Early, belonged to a well-known family of Kentucky, in which state she was born, and was always proud of the fact that her mother, Mrs. Mary Early, liberated all of her slaves at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Born at Lamasco, Lyon County, Ky., on June 24, 1879, the fifth in a family of six children, John attended the schools of his native section and grew up on his father's farm. He learned to turn a furrow, raise corn and tobacco, and to attend to live stock. He took up some of the more useful branches of study, such as commercial arithmetic, algebra and geometry, and made such progress that he was ready, when twenty-one years of age, to make his own way in the world.
On attaining his majority, Mr. Ashton came to the Pacific Coast and, liking California, and Fresno in particular, he stopped for three years to learn the bakery trade at the Home Bakery. Next he went to Hanford and took charge of the City Bakery, and in the latter town he remained about a year.
Returning to Fresno, Mr. Ashton established the Model Bakery, which is still being conducted there. He built a larger Model Bakery in Kern Street when the premises became too small, and there, by introducing the latest machinery, appliances and methods, soon took rank as one of the best of Fresno's bakers. Such was the encouraging response of the public that at one time he baked 10,000 loaves of bread a day.
Disposing of this bakery in 1911 to its present owner, he went to Bakers- field and there organized the Ashton Baking Company. At the end of a year and a half, however, he sold out his proprietary interest, and then, for another year and a half, he managed the establishment for the purchaser.
In September, 1915, he came to Selma, and purchased the Route Bakery; and on February 5, 1917, he bought the Home Bakery, at 1947 High Street, where he is now located. Determined to give Selma the very best establish- ment he could devise, he spent $3,000 in remodelling the place, and has since installed new machinery, including mixers, moulders and ovens, so that now, without doubt, he has one of the most sanitary and best-equipped bakeries in the Valley. He owns and is always improving his residence property at 2024 Grant Street, Selma, where he dwells very happily with his family. He has also bought the building on High Street where the Ashton Bakery is located. The products of this favorite bakery are retailed not only at the bakeshop, but in all the groceries of the town and vicinity.
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At Fresno, Mr. Ashton was married to Miss Ellen Kalquest, a native of Boston, Mass., a talented and charming woman, and both husband and wife make and retain many friends. Their home, always hospitable, is a center of attraction for music-lovers. They have two children, Leland and Margaret. Mr. and Mrs. Ashton are members of the Baptist Church at Selma, where Mr. Ashton sings tenor in the choir. Mr. Ashton is a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows.
In addition to his residence and business properties already mentioned, he owns four lots at Fresno, one of which already contains a residence, and eight lots at Richmond. He is a hard worker, and ascribes his success to his ceaseless endeavor to please and to serve, and the invaluable cooperation of his faithful wife. October 5, 1918, he started the California Bakery in Tulare, Tulare County, Cal. He is now on the point of buying a one-half interest in the Lark Bakery and Confectionery at Fresno.
He is of that quality of manhood which Fresno County loves to welcome and his example clearly demonstrates what a young man of brain and brawn, with application, can do in a few years in this locality.
HENRY J. JACOBSEN .- A young man in the real estate field of Selma who, by not merely enterprise but by the assurance that his word will always be as good as his bond and that every customer will meet with the fairest of dealing, has succeeded, despite the lively competition of today, far beyond his expectations, is Henry J. Jacobsen, of the well-known firm of Farmer & Jacobsen. His father, Jens Jacobsen, was a farmer who married Sophie Stephensen, like himself a native of Denmark. Both of the worthy parents are yet living, highly honored for their integrity.
Born at Horsen, Jutland, in Denmark, on January 3, 1878, Henry grew up to enjoy a very thorough grammar school training, at the end of which course he was confirmed in the Danish Lutheran Church. Starting out for himself, he learned the trade of a tailor, serving an apprenticeship of four years. Not until he had demonstrated that he could hold his own with any of the master workmen did he receive the congratulations of his fellows, sev- eral of whom were sharp enough to prophecy that the young man would not long remain a tailor.
Not long after, Henry was seized with a desire to come to America, and in a few months he had sailed from Copenhagen for New York, landing at old Castle Garden on October 1, 1901. His destination was Council Bluffs, Iowa, but he soon found that although Denmark in winter is cold, it is far colder in Iowa, and having sampled the weather to his heart's content, he packed his trunk again, and once more moved forward to his destiny.
It happened that he had an uncle at Oleander, Fresno County, Cal. namely, the Rev. P. J. Ostegaard, who replied to his inquiries about Califor- nia in the only sensible way, by urging him to come out and see for himself ; hence, in February, 1902, he arrived at the Ostegaard home, and from the first day of his experience here he has liked the fruitful region. Ambitious to master English, he spent a year in the Oleander grammar school and the following year in the high school ; and about that time he became acquainted with Senator W. F. Chandler, now of Fresno, who advised him to start a merchant-tailoring shop in Selma. Acting on the suggestion, he was success- ful from the beginning.
The following year 'Mr. Jacobsen bought out The Toggery, then owned by Messrs. Dusy & Price; and for ten years he managed the locally-famous store, giving Selma a service much needed and never before supplied. In December, 1913, however, he sold out and went to Los Angeles and for a short time he engaged in real estate business there. In the southern metropo- lis he lost no opportunity to thoroughly familiarize himself with the California realty world, so that he thereby fulfilled the prophecy that tailoring would not satisfy him forever. 77
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On his return to Selma, Mr. Jacobsen entered into a partnership with L. B. Farmer, and together they went into the real estate field here. Now, decidedly prosperous, they own several ranches, and buy and sell ranches for others. Mr. Jacobsen alone owns a couple of ranches near Selma, and in 1917-18 built a two-story, stucco bungalow at 2519 North McCall Avenue, which is now his home, at a cost of $6,000. He is still a young man, still a "booster," is active in the Chamber of Commerce, the Raisin Growers' and the California Peach Growers' associations.
On January 6, 1907, Mr. Jacobsen was married to Miss Gyda Petersen, a native of Denmark, who came to the United States in 1906 and reached California on August 11 of that year. They were engaged when they were young folks in Denmark, as a result of which romance Miss Petersen came all the way across the ocean to be joined in wedlock. In May, 1911, they made a trip back to the old country, returning in September. They have two children, Henry J. and Oscar C.
Prominent members of the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church at Selma, Mr. and Mrs. Jacobsen enjoy the good will of the community in whose welfare they take such a lively interest and aid in all that gives prosperity and social improvement.
M. R. POTTER .- A fine old gentleman endowed with clean character and a strong mind, perhaps as the result of the strenuous times and untold hardships he has lived through, is M. R. Potter, the son of David Potter, a cooper who was born in Genesee County, N. Y., and married in Ohio, his bride being Almira Post. In 1853, his parents came West, passing through Chicago and making for Wisconsin; and for a while they lived near Portage City in that State, where the father worked as a cooper. At the end of two and a half years, Mr. Potter and his family moved to what is now Rochester, Minn., a section then inhabited by the Sioux Indians; and they were upon a farm in that vicinity at the time of the New Ulm massacre. The parents had thirteen children, among them three pairs of twins; and the subject of our interesting sketch was the fourth child. He well remembers the journey through Chicago, with its row after row of German saloons on one side of Michigan Avenue, and its boat-landings and warehouses on the other.
Born in Branch County, Mich., February 24, 1845, the lad worked on his father's farm while the latter was busy at his cooperage, and also some- times helped in the barrel-making; and when the Sioux Indians went on the rampage he enlisted in the Home Guards and served in local defense during the time of the Civil War. He had many narrow escapes, but he regarded them as a matter of course in what was to him his paramount duty-the defense of country and hearth.
In 1866, Mr. Potter went with his father and brothers to Missouri and there they bought in common a section of school land in Schuyler County. Fortunately, they pulled well together, each working for the good of all; and in the end they got as much as possible out of the venture.
His marriage, however, in 1874, to Miss Viola Mattley made some difference in his plans as to the future. The lady was born in Jefferson County, Ind., the daughter of William and Phoebe (Sprague) Mattley, her mother being a relative of William Sprague, who was Governor of Rhode Island in the Sixties and later United States Senator. Mrs. Mattley was a native of Rhode Island, but Mrs. Potter grew up in Indiana until her fourteenth year, when she moved with her parents to Missouri.
Immediately after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Potter removed to Nebraska, and there near Ord, in Valley County, they took up a homestead of 160 acres on the prairie. They lived through the three-year scourge of grasshoppers in 1875-76-77, and what of privations and hardships they then suffered quite beggars description. They were not able to get away; and one time he went for three days without a bite to cat while in search of
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work so that he and his family might live through the terrible ordeal. But they subsisted and persisted until 1902, when they were able to sell out and come to California. They came to Selma, where they found a good home and a pleasant neighborhood; and like themselves, the neighborhood and the home have been growing sunnier every day. Mr. Potter bought fifty acres of choice land, which he has further improved; he has planted thirty- five acres to muscats and nine acres to Thompson's; putting the remaining acreage into alfalfa and a building site. And there, one mile northeast of Selma, on Floral Avenue, he has established the most attractive of homes.
Mr. and Mrs. Potter have had two children of their own: Iva, now the wife of D. M. Orr, the well-known rancher who lives two miles northwest of Selma, and Edward O. Potter, also well-known here. In addition, they adopted a boy when he was two years old, J. H. Potter, a rancher at Burrel, Cal., who succumbed to the influenza in January, 1919.
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