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 37

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 37

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Mrs. Ipsen's father was Jens Peter Jensen, also a native of the island of Bornholm. He was for a while a policeman at Ronne, and later a farmer ; and now he is the postmaster at the little station of Ringeby, a post he has ably held for the past thirty-one years,-a fact the more remarkable since he has reached his seventy-third year. The mother, who was Kristine Caro- line Hansen, died on Good Friday, 1910, seventy-two years old and six years the senior of her husband. They had six children: Andreas Peter has been a farmer for forty years in the Transvaal, South Africa; Petra Carolina is married and lives near the old home in Denmark; Johannes Sextus is a farmer near Ronne, Denmark; Anine Marie is single and keeps house for her father at the old home-place; Otto Peter is a farmer in Denmark; and there is Nina, now Mrs. Ipsen, who grew up in Denmark, there attended the public schools, was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran Church. She is the first member of the family to come to America, and was twenty-five when she crossed the seas and went to Warren, Pa., worked there as a domestic for eight months, and then came on to Dillon, Colo., where she renewed the acquaintance with her husband, whom she first met in Denmark. She was born on the same island with him, and the romance so developed that "it happened in Norland." Mrs. Ipsen's father was an extensive traveler, as well as a man of affairs, and made a trip to Iceland and Greenland, where he hunted. Mrs. Ipsen is a member of the Red Cross, and was a liberal purchaser of Liberty bonds.

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C. ROSS SNYDER .- Not everyone may be as justly proud of the pioneer associations of his family, or satisfied with his own popularity, as C. Ross Snyder, the broad-minded and efficient bee inspector for Fresno County. He is the youngest son and the eighth child among a family of nine children of the late Monroe Snyder, who passed away in the middle nineties and was honored as one of the original four townsite men of Selma, the others being George B. Otis, J. E. Whitson and E. H. Tucker. The father was a native of Holmes County, Ohio, and in 1849, when he was nineteen years of age, he left his home and crossed the continent with ox-teams, arriving at Sutter's Fort for information. Then he went to Shasta where he engaged in gold mining and then came back and purchased 160 acres of ground in the edge of Woodland. Soon after, he returned to Ohio, sailing around Cape Horn.

In the Buckeye State he married Jane Elizabeth Lemon, a native, and took his wife on their honeymoon trip to New York, from which city they sailed, on an old tub of a boat, for Panama. They crossed the Isthmus and finally entered the Golden Gate, and making their way inland, they settled at Woodland. This was in 1861, when Mr. Snyder built the first brick build- ing there. He served as marshal and deputy sheriff of Woodland, and be- came a clerk at the State Capitol at Sacramento. He proved up on a home- stead southeast of what is now Selma and bought more and more land. An illustration of his public spirit is afforded in Mr. Snyder's efforts, crowned with success, to secure such railway facilities as would favor the growth of the settlement-a matter of history, as the following letter will. show:

CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY General Superintendent's Office "San Francisco, April 12, 1880.

"M. Snyder, Esq.

"Dear Sir: Referring to the interview this morning in my office relative to the company's putting in a side track for the convenience of your people somewhere about midway between Fowler and Kingsburg, I believe it better to make my statement in writing to the end that there shall be no misunder- standing in the future relative to the matter. First, I understand there are different localities in that vicinity where the people desire to have a switch located. These conflicting interests must be amicably settled and a unanimous expression obtained from the interested parties fixing upon the locality. Then, on conveyance of a piece of land, one hundred feet wide and sixteen hundred feet long for depot grounds, and the payment of $700, towards defraying the expenses of the side-track, platform, etc., the company will immediately go to work and put in a siding after the distinct understanding that it shall be a prepaid, non-agency station, to and from which (rates not being pro- vided) traffic will take the rates provided to or from the next station beyond, until such time as the company may be disposed to incur the additional ex- pense of the maintenance of an agent. Yours respectfully,

"A. N. Towne, General Superintendent."

This worthy pioneer was sixty-five years and nine months old when he died and was buried in the old I. O. O. F. Cemetery at Selma. He was also a Mason, and had helped to start Masonic lodges at Woodland and Selma. He was a thirty-second degree Mason, and had the largest funeral ever seen in Selma up to that time, brother Masons coming from Sacramento and other parts of the State.

Mrs. Monroe Snyder is living at Selma, and is still active in her seventy- seventh year. Those born to her are: Richard M., who died at Woodland, when five years old: Ida, who died at the same place, one year younger ; Jennie M., now the wife of J. F. Crowder, the well-known transfer agent in Pasadena : Charles C., the real estate man at Fresno: Anetta, the wife of P. F. Adams of Fresno and formerly the owner of the Selma Enterprise: M. D. Snyder, who resides at Selma; H. W., who is a driller at Coalinga ; C. Ross,

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the subject of our sketch; and Myrtle, the wife of J. H. Hull, superintendent of the Star Lease at Coalinga.

Ross Snyder was born at the old Snyder homestead on June 22, 1880, the year in which the switch was built at Selma, and was the first baby born there. He attended the common schools and at twelve years of age he worked for his brother-in-law, J. F. Crowder, who kept six hundred hives of bees. He farmed and raised bees until he was twenty-one years old.

In 1905 he was married to Miss Margaret L. Wood, the daughter of George W. and Flora A. (Wells) Wood, then of Selma but now of Merced ; after which he went to work for Griffin & Brown in the sheet-metal and plumbing business ; and later, in 1912, Mr. Snyder and H. Steele, in a partner- ship styled Steele & Snyder, engaged in the hardware, steel-metal and plumb- ing business on East Front Street. He abandoned this, however, in July, 1915, when he was called to a public office of peculiar trust.

In that year and month Mr. Snyder was appointed county bee inspector, and it was the sense of the community that no man in Central California could be found better qualified for the responsibility. He accordingly sold out to his partner, Mr. Steele, and the latter, in December, 1918, disposed of the hardware and plumbing and joined Mr. Snyder in the bee business. Mr. Snyder owns about 275 hives, while Mr. Steele has about 400. Mr. Snyder and Mr. Crowder had 1,100 hives in the town of San Fernando, but the forest fire of 1906 destroyed all the hives, bees and honey.

Mr. Snyder now owns a fine little cottage at 2028 Grant Street, Selma, where he lives with his family, including two children, Leslie Monroe and Opal Leora. Mrs. Snyder, who is a member of the Women of Woodcraft, was born in Missouri, was seventeen when she came to California, and now has the pleasure of having both of her parents with her at Selma. Mr. Snyder belongs to the Native Sons, being a charter member of Selma Parlor, No. 107, and to the Independent Order of Foresters and the Knights of Pythias. Both husband and wife belong to the Christian Church. This is the organization started here by Monroe Snyder and A. A. Rowell.

Mr. Snyder, who will have control of over 1,000 hives in 1919, is president of the Fresno County Bee Keeper's Association, organized at the instigation of Dr. E. L. Phillips, when an agricultural expert came on from Washington, on November 3, 1917. At that time, Mr. Snyder was elected temporary chairman ; and on January 5, 1918, at the annual meeting, he was elected pres- ident. This proved the best bee-keeper's meeting in California, over two hundred members being enrolled. Thus Mr. Snyder has not only proven a successful man of affairs, but he has done much to advance one of the most important, profitable and scientifically interesting industries yet fostered in the Golden State.

ARSEN YERETZIAN .- In Armenia, that country of western Asia whose history is closely related to the interesting events connected with the story of the ark of "gopher wood" which the patriarch Noah was a hundred and twenty years building, and which is supposed to have rested on famous Mount Ararat within the confines of that wonderful country, the early scenes in the life of Arsen Yeretzian were set, for he was born in the Turkish pashalic of Van, Armenia, April 15, 1882. There he attended an American school where he learned the English language, and in the year 1900, when eighteen years of age, came to the United States, a young man poor from a financial standpoint, but rich in enthusiasm and imbued with an indomitable will which enabled him to conquer obstacles which would have been insurmount- able to one less gifted in the qualities which make for success.

He located in Lowell, Mass., where he worked during the daytime and attended night school. March 2, 1906, he left that city for the Pacific Slope, arriving at Fresno, March 10 of that year, where he continued working and studying. For six months he assisted in the construction of the Yosemite Railroad, and studied Latin at night. He finally purchased twenty acres

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of unimproved land near Reedley, upon which he built a house and planted a vineyard, selling the property in two years' time at a good profit. He then went to San Francisco, where he attended Lowell high school and took a special course in Greek and Latin. He also took a course at the University of California in literature, chemistry, philosophy and physiology. Going to Los Angeles he took a correspondence school course in law for two years, attending lectures on law, at the University of Southern California, and trials in the courts of that city to gain practical experience in his chosen vocation. He was examined for admission to the bar July 14, 1917, and passed with the highest honors of the three who successfully passed the examination out of the nine applicants. Like many others, who in choosing a location which in their judgment seemed to be propitious for the successful practice of the law, Fresno was the city of his choice, and he opened a law office in the Edgerly building, where he is establishing a lucrative practice. He is an able writer, and has written many articles for the Armenian paper published in Fresno, as well as translating Ambassador Gerard's book, "Four Years in Germany," into the Armenian language. He is well known as a public speaker and lecturer and delivered a lecture before the Armenian Club on the subject, "The Law and National Justice." This self-made man has successfully acquired a fine education, and is an exemplification of what rightly directed energy, with brains to back it, can accomplish in a foreign land with neither friends nor relatives to assist him.

In his choice of a helpmate he chose a native of England, Miss Ada Chicken, to whom he was united in the bonds of holy wedlock, March 31. 1917.

GEORGE A. CATE .- A California pioneer with an exceptionally inter- esting career and important family historical associations, a man of attractive personality and a most entertaining conversationalist, and an extensive opera- tor in husbandry, is George A. Cate, who is fortunate in having associated with him as another man of affairs his own son, Arthur B. Cate. He was born in Quincy, Ill., on December 17, 1843, the son of Joseph Cate, a native of New Bedford, Mass., who, as the oldest of the family, early settled near Quincy.

In 1849, Joseph Cate crossed the plains to California with his younger brother, Thomas, the two traveling by ox teams, and he became a miner and a truckster on Feather River. After while he returned East by way of Cape Horn ; and as the two boys had become separated his folks induced him to return to the West in order to search for Thomas. He therefore crossed the plains again with ox teams to look for Thomas; but he did not find him. He returned East once more, and there located with his family near Hamil- ton, Hancock County, Ill., where he took to farming. In 1861, when the Civil War was in full swing, Mr. Cate volunteered as a member of the Missouri Regiment known as the Black Hawk Cavalry ; and his son, Joseph H., was in the same regiment. During service the father was thrown from his wagon and hurt; and having received an honorable discharge he returned home. After this reverse, Joseph H. Cate was taken prisoner in Missouri by Quan- trell, but was paroled and sent to St. Louis, from which place he also returned home. About the same time, however, a new company was being formed, and a neighbor came to persuade our subject (George A.) to join; and al- though he was serving an apprenticeship at the tinsmith's trade he replied that if he could get permission from his father and mother and employer he would enlist. These having given their consent, he enlisted in August, 1862, as a member of Company C, One Hundred Eighteenth Illinois Volunteer Infan- try. Soon after a particularly sad accident occurred to his brother, Joseph H., whom he had coaxed to join the same company with him, and who is said to have been, with George A. himself, one of the best soldiers in that organiza- tion. At the siege of Vicksburg. Joseph H., in his overzeal to spy upon the

Seo. A. bate

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enemy, looked over the ramparts to get a good view of the enemy, and he was shot and killed.

George A. Cate was mustered in at Camp Butler and placed on guard duty during the winter. In the spring of 1863, he went to St. Louis and on to Memphis. Joseph H. had never been sick a day in the army, but George was taken ill with swamp fever and was sent to the Memphis Hospital. When the authorities attempted to clean out the quarters of the invalid soldiers, on account of the expected attack on Vicksburg, George, who was convalesc- ing, was sent to Cairo, then to Quincy and later to Keokuk, and in December, 1863, was placed in the hospital at Kcokuk. This hospital was located so near his home that Dr. Comer sent him to his folks for a couple of weeks, and then he returned to the hospital where he remained until he was well. On its way to Vicksburg, George A. joined his company, which was stationed at Black River, and so he saw Pemberton's surrender. His regiment went on to Baton Rouge, where he was stationed for some time, and later removed to New Orleans. At Baton Rouge, on October 1, 1865, he was mustered out from the service he had entered on August 12, 1862, and he returned home.

George's father, who had taken up farming after his discharge, went to Kansas with George, but afterward returned to Illinois, where he died, a prosperous ranchman. Mrs. Cate, who was Sarah J. Wilson before her mar- riage, was born at New Bedford, Mass., and had a brother, George Wilson, who was interested in whaling. He was a man of influence and served his fellow citizens several times as mayor of New Bedford. She came to Califor- nia after the World's Fair, traveling with George and his wife; and having taken up her residence awhile with them, died here in December, 1893. She was the mother of four children, a girl and three boys, and of this family, George is the only son still living. The daughter, Maggie, now Mrs. Morton, resides in Chicago.

When the family removed to Hancock County, Ill., George was reared and educated there at the public schools, and worked on a farm until he was sixteen. Then, as already mentioned, he was apprenticed to a tinsmith, but at eighteen enlisted for service in the army. After this he farmed awhile in Illinois with his father, but in 1870 he went to Kansas and located a home- stead near Belleville, Republic County, which he considerably improved. Later, he returned to Illinois.

While in Hancock County, on March 11, 1873, Mr. Cate was married to Miss Cornelia Wilson, a native of Schuyler County, and the daughter of William Wilson, who was born at Enniskillen, Ireland. He came to the United States with his parents when ten years of age; and the grandmother having died at Liverpool, England, the family came on to Illinois. There William was married to Susan Eiler, who was born in Ohio, and later they moved to a place near Nauvoo where Mr. Wilson was a farmer. Both parents died there. Eight children made up the family, and three of these are still living. Mrs. Cate, who was reared and educated in Nauvoo, was the eldest, and she has two brothers, Thomas H., who was a member of the Seventh Iowa Cavalry Regiment that enlisted in 1861; and Robert, who was in Com- pany D of the One Hundred Eighteenth Illinois Regiment.

Mr. Cate continued farming in Kansas until 1890, when he removed to California, and located in Fresno County, where he bought forty acres of stubble-fields, which he set out to vineyards; and in this business he has continued ever since. He built a fine residence and later sold the Kansas farm. Now he has a vineyard of twenty acres, and five acres given to alfalfa. He gives some attention to gardening, and he has six acres of peach trees. The whole tract is under the Enterprise Canal, and also has a pumping plant. He belongs to the California Associated Raisin Company, and to the Cali- fornia Peach Growers, Inc. He is also a member of Post No. 92, G. A. R., at Fresno.

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Four children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Cate: Margaret, Mrs. Stan- hope, resides in Clovis and has six children ; Edward Melvin resides with his family of three children in Fresno, and has a farm in Tulare; Ruth, the youngest, is Mrs. Greaves, who lives on the home farm ; and Arthur B., who has one son, operates the home farm. He leases forty acres of his father and owns seventy acres, and also leases other land. They also run the cannery on the place and put up the Variety Brand of tomatoes. The ranch is known as Variety Farm, and they work it in cooperation with others.

JOHN KNOX LOCKIE .- An industrious and successful rancher, who is widely respected as the worthy descendant of a well-known pioneer, and who has a talented wife and a family blessed with ideal happiness, is J. K. Lockie, who owns twenty acres which he and his wife have acquired as community property, and received twenty acres from his father's estate. The management of these holdings has given Mr. and Mrs. Lockie a chance to contribute something towards the development of the agricultural interests of the state, and they have been second to no one in performing their civic duties, especially to the neighborhood in which they live.

The third boy in a family of ten children, J. K. Lockie was born on August 3, 1870. He is the son of the late W. A. and Margaret (Leithead) Lockie, mention of whom is made on another page in this work. He was brought to the States from Canada when three months of age, attended the common schools in Oregon and Texas, and was seventeen or eighteen years old when he came from the Lone Star State. At twenty he started life for himself with a good foundation of useful experience. Until 1906 he worked for the United Railroads in San Francisco, as gripman on the cable-cars, with the exception of a year in the employ of the Spreckels sugar refinery at San Francisco and another year in the service of the United States Govern- ment in the Quartermaster's Department in China during the Boxer troubles.

At Victoria, on the Island of Vancouver, on August 31, 1907, Mr. Lockie was united in marriage with Miss Annie Benson, a native of Sydney, Aus- tralia, and a daughter of William E. and Janet Lockhead (Houston) Benson. Mr. Benson was an Englishman, and died in Sydney; while Mrs. Benson was of Scotch lineage and is still living in Sydney.

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Lockie came to Fresno County in 1907, and they have lived here continuously ever since. He bought and im- proved his twenty acres, building a fine bungalow house on Lincoln Avenue in 1912, on a pleasantly located knoll; and prosperity has followed him ever since. Besides his forty acres, he leases forty acres adjoining, half in peaches and half in muscats. He has become a live wire in such cooperative work as that of the raisin and peach growers' associations, and is a stockholder in the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers, Inc., and not only seeks to avail himself of the last word of science in his work, and the experience of others, but also endeavors by his own success to add to the fund of valuable results.

Mr. and Mrs. Lockie have three children: William E. H., Asa Vern, and Mabel Eugenia. The family attends the Episcopal Church at Selma.

WILLIAM C. THURMAN .- A liberal, enterprising and successful viticulturist of Fresno County, William C. Thurman is a native son of Cali- fornia, born at Upper Lake, Lake County, February 7, 1862. He is a descend- ant of Revolutionary stock ; his great-grandfather, William Thurman, served in that struggle for independence and was present when Cornwallis sur- rendered. He had a son, also named William, who was born at Lynchburg, Va., December 22, 1776. He wrote a book on the Revolutionary War, and on the agricultural possibilities of that section of country. He made a trip to St. Louis, Mo., died there of yellow fever, and is buried in an unknown grave.

Mr. and Mrs. S. K. Lockie

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The father of our subject, Leach Brown Thurman, was a native of Lynchburg, Va. He was a second cousin of Hon. Allan G. Thurman, who was candidate for vice-president of the United States when Grover Cleve- land ran for president the second time. When L. B. Thurman was twenty- one years old he left Virginia and went to Missouri, where he spent the win- ter. The next spring he outfitted with provisions and crossed the plains to California with an ox-team train. He located in Placer County and was the first settler at what became known as Newcastle, where he opened a general merchandise store and conducted it for some time. He then moved his store and continued business at Wisconsin Hill. On account of extending credit to the miners he failed in business. While living in Placer County he married Sarah Jane Franklin, who was born in St. Charles, Ill., a daughter of William and Lydia (Shelby) Franklin, both natives of Kentucky. On her father's side she is a lineal descendant of a brother of Benjamin Franklin, and on the maternal side is related to Governor Shelby of Kentucky, and of Revolutionary stock. The Shelby spoken of in Uncle Tom's Cabin was also a relative. Lydia Franklin was a very intelligent and well-informed woman. William Franklin brought his family across the plains to California and made a settlement in Placer County.

After the marriage of L. B. Thurman he removed to Upper Lake and began farming and developing a raw tract of land. In 1865 he sold out to engage in the mercantile business at Lower Lake. Seven years later he again sold out and removed to Salt Lake City, where he had charge of the buying of ore for the Chicago Smelting Works and also for a refining com- pany of Swansea, Wales, for six years, after which he returned to California. For a short time he was located on a ranch near Lincoln, but upon hearing of the possibilities of irrigation on land in Fresno County, having an oppor- tunity to sell his ranch at a profit, he came to this county in 1889. Here he bought a forty-acre tract, which is now owned by his son, and began making improvements for a permanent home. He did not live to enjoy the fruits of his wise investment, for he died on December 5, 1889. Although he had but very limited advantages to obtain an education, from the age of nine years he was a student, continually searching after knowledge. He read law and was so well versed in it that he was often called upon to settle dis- putes, and he was always called "Judge." He was a prominent Mason and was Grand Lecturer in his district. His widow survived him and made her home on the ranch until her death, in 1911, aged seventy-two years. Of their six children, five grew to maturity : Clara, Mrs. S. S. McGarvey, who died in Ukiah; William C., of this review; Carey, a resident of Fresno; Bert, who died in Fresno; and Helen, Mrs. Jennings, of Fresno.

William C. Thurman received his education in the public schools and in the Rocky Mountain Seminary in Salt Lake City, entering the latter on the day of its opening. When he was sixteen years old he came back to California ; and thereafter, until he was twenty-one, he assisted his father. He then went to San Luis Obispo and for two years served as a fireman on the Pacific Coast Railway, running between San Luis Obispo and Port Har- ford. In 1886 he went to Placer County, and later worked as a stationary engineer in Sacramento County, after which he spent three years around the bay cities and then for two years ran a reclamation pump near Isleton. In 1890 he came to Fresno to assist his mother with the work on the ranch, and here he has since remained.

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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 37

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