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 38

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 38

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When Mr. Thurman came to Fresno County and took charge of the ranch he at once began making improvements by setting out a vineyard, which he has reset at different times. He now has forty acres in raisin grapes of the muscat variety, a family orchard and ornamental trees, a good residence, and a good irrigating system. The ranch is located some nine and one-half miles east of Fresno and is considered one of the very

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productive places in the county. About twenty-six years ago, Mr. Thur- man's uncle came up from Texas on a visit. He brought with him some Pecan nuts from the trees on his ranch and gave them to the Thurman children. William C. was the only one who kept his. These were planted, and as a result he raised twelve fine bearing trees. Two of these he had to cut out as they were in the way of some improvement he wanted to make. Since living here, Mr. Thurman has improved the ranch, and in the mean- time he worked for five years as a stationary engineer at one of the packing houses, during the busy season. Mr. Thurman was a stockholder in the Pro- ducers' Packing Company, that erected the large packing house in Fresno; he also holds stock in the Las Palmas Packing Company and is one of the original members of the California Associated Raisin Company, his mem- bership number being forty-nine.

Mr. Thurman's first marriage united him with Alice (Baird) Reid, born at Campbell Mountain, Fresno County, a daughter of Alfred Baird, one of the pioneers of the county. They had a son, Fred, now residing in Fresno. An estrangement led to a divorce. The second marriage occurred in Fresno and united him with Mrs. Mande Lillian (Clark) Freeburg, who was born in St. Charles, Mo., a daughter of Ryland E. Clark, a Kentuckian, who was married in Missouri to Mary Catherine Dorsey, and now lives at Defiance, that state. Of Mr. Thurman's second marriage one son has been born, Wil- liam Neely Thurman. By a former marriage Mrs. Thurman had the follow- ing children : Idell, Mrs. McNab, of Fresno County ; and Fred and Florence Clark. Mr. Thurman has always been in favor of good schools and has served for one term as a trustee of the Kutner school district.

J. P. HANSEN .- A successful vineyardist who has not only tilled his own acres but has helped to improve this section for the benefit of everybody who lives hereabouts, is J. P. Hansen, who came to Fresno County at the beginning of the epoch-making eighties. He was born at Fyen, Denmark, on May 24, 1868, the son of Iver Hansen, who was a prosperous farmer known for miles around on account of his trim homestead. The mother, Marie Hansen, raised a large family and saw that they were also well schooled. J. P. Hansen was the second eldest of the nine children, and was one of the earliest of the Hansens to come to America and to California. Reared on his father's farm, and having attended the public school, he swung loose from home and fatherland and, at the tender age of twelve, made the long journey by sea and land until he reached Fresno County, in November, 1880. His first work was in vineyards, and a couple of years later he went to school for two winters. From the first he made his own way; and as he was of a somewhat studious turn of mind, he learned much by private study and reading.

In 1884 his father and the family arrived from abroad, but J. P. Hansen continued to work out on farms and vineyards. He early bought ten acres of land in the West Park, but this he sold. In 1895, in partnership with his brother, H. J. Hansen, he bought a farm outfit and then leased land near Academy, making the deal with the Sacramento Bank Land Company, but the third year was a total failure, and it required courage and hard, persistent effort to make the five years contracted for even an average success. The brothers cleared some profit, however, and having disposed of the outfit, they again leased for a while and then dissolved partnership.

J. P. Hansen then entered the employ of the county and ran the road grader under Supervisor Bullard and Overseer Hotaling. He next bought twenty acres in Wolter's Colony and started in to make a success of viti- culture, his acreage being next to that of his brother. Two years later he sold out and leased a place for a year from George E. Taft; and while there he bought his present place of forty acres.

bel Traweek

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This very desirable property is located one-half mile west of Melvin. In the beginning it was all weeds and sunflowers. In every way possible he improved it, setting out twenty acres the first year, and the same amount the second year. Having first planted wine grapes, he later grafted onto them choice malagas. In his vineyard he now has malaga, wine, and Thompson seedless grapes. He has sunk a well, and installed a pumping plant with a ten-horsepower gasoline engine and a five-inch pump. He is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and energetically supports the Association's programs. Mr. Hansen was married at Fresno, on January 14, 1904, to Miss Anna Kirsten Anderson, who was born in Fyen, Denmark. the daughter of Anderson H. and Elsie M. Anderson, farmer folk. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have two children living: Iver C. and Marie C. Hansen. Mr. Hansen belongs to the Clovis Lodge of the Odd Fellows, where he is a Past Grand, and to the Fresno Dania. He and his wife enjoy an enviable popu- larity.

CECIL CALVERT TRAWEEK .- A man who has practically grown up with the section of Fresno County where he now lives, in the vicinity of Dun- lap, and a prosperous and progressive rancher, is found in the person of C. C. Traweek, a highly esteemed citizen of California. He was born in Texas, June 27, 1861, the son of S. T. and Nancy Traweek, who were married April 1, 1849, and who became parents of eight children, five of them now living. S. T. Traweek was for a number of years treasurer of Angelina County, Texas, in which county he was recognized as a man of affairs, and when he died, in 1894, he was mourned by a wide circle of friends. His widow, who was born in Nacogdoches County, Texas, June 1, 1826, after a life of great usefulness and loving deeds, passed to her reward on February 16, 1917, leaving a family of five children, thirty-nine grandchildren, sixty-three great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

C. C. Traweek was the sixth child in order of birth in the family of his parents, and he was reared and educated in Texas. At the age of twenty-five he came to California and cast in his lot with the destinies of Fresno County, stopping for a time in the section where the city of Selma is now located. He remained there for some time and for eighteen months was employed by A. T. Stevens as a stage-driver, carrying mail and express. Most of his years in this county have been passed in the vicinity of Dunlap, where in 1893, he homesteaded 160 acres, to which he has added by purchase from time to time until he now has 640 acres of good land. Of this he devotes 150 acres to grain and the balance is grazing and hill land. He is a practical rancher, up-to-date in methods of agriculture, and has lived to see the wonderful changes made in this county with the passing of the years. He has seen Fresno grow from a small hamlet to a city of large and prosperous proportions; has seen the land developed from hog-wallows, sand hills and grain-fields to productive orchards and vineyards that have made Fresno County the best-known county in America, and "to the best of his knowledge and belief" the best county on earth. In all of this transformation he has done his part. So closely is he allied with the county of his adoption that he has not left it except for a short visit back to his old home in Texas, in 1899.

On April 7, 1895, C. C. Traweek and Anna Gertrude Burk, a native daughter of Squaw Valley, were united in marriage. Her father, Richard Burk, was born in Clay County, Ill., July 4, 1849, served as a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, in Company K, Forty-eighth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Third Brigade. He was with Sherman in his memorable "March to the Sea." After his discharge from the service he re- turned to his home, but on May 1, 1870, he arrived in California and spent two years in Tulare County. In April, 1872, he came to Squaw Valley and home- steaded 160 acres of land, improved it and is still residing on his property. He added to his original holdings until he owns 352 acres of good land. By his 78

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marriage he became the father of the following children: Anna Gertrude ; Floy ; Elva L. ; Almeda J. ; John W. ; Henry A. ; Oliver M. ; and Harold R.

Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Traweek there have been born four children : Hugh J., born April 22, 1898; Gladys L., born August 19, 1900; Edith M., born November 5, 1902; and Bernice G., born October 22, 1909. They were all born and educated in Fresno County and share with their parents in the good-will and esteem of a large circle of friends. Mr. Traweek is a man of much public spirit and loyally supports all measures for the upbuilding of the county. He is a friend of education and believes in the maintenance of good schools. He has served the people well and acceptably as constable of his district for nearly six years, and wherever he is known he is honored for his integrity, and his home is the center of a true Californian hospitality.

AXEL H. RASMUSSEN .- As a high-class commercial artist and card writer, Axel H. Rasmussen is well known in Fresno. Thrift and foresight, no less than push and enterprise, are distinguishing traits in the character of this young business man of Danish birth. He was born at Aarhus, Den- mark, February 5, 1887, and was brought up and educated in the land of his nativity. He attended the Preparatory University School. In 1906, a young man nineteen years of age, he came to America imbued with youth's enthusiasm and hopeful of the bright prospects ever held forth by the New World to her citizens of foreign birth. He came directly to Fresno City, and after trying farming and other lines of work he directed his attention to the profession that appealed to his artistic inclinations-sign painting and illustrating. He was in the employ of Mr. Gus Olson, sign painter, for a time.

Mr. Rasmussen is a natural artist. His first work was done as an illustrator in the advertising matter used when the Kearney Park Boulevard Tract was put on the market, and for one year he was illustrator for the Berg Advertising Agency of Fresno. At present he does all the work for four theaters in Fresno and two theaters in Oakland, the Franklin and the Kinema. The first man to do commercial art work in Fresno, he is also the leader in that line. He has made illustrations for the street car ad- vertising of the Fresno Brewing Company, and the San Joaquin Baking Company of Fresno. He generously devoted his work for the publicity of the Red Cross Drive, the Belgian Relief and United War Work, and also did the greater part of the illustrating for the newspaper advertising for the Liberty Loan drives in Fresno. Since 1914 he has been in business for himself, and has met the well-merited success that his enterprise and careful and artistic work deserve.

In establishing domestic ties Mr. Rasmussen chose one of his country- women by birth, who in maidenhood was Miss Sesilie Nielsen. They re- side in their cozy, comfortable home at 1766 L Street, Fresno.

THEODORE J. RING .- The oldest resident of Raisin City is Theodore J. Ring, a native of Winston-Salem, N. C., born August 2, 1876. The Ring family is traced back to England ; members of the family came to North Caro- lina about six generations ago. One ancestor served in the Revolutionary war. Grandfather William Jackson Ring was a lieutenant in the Confed- erate Army in the Civil War. Theodore's father was Lee Ring, a planter at Winston-Salem and later at Elkin, where he died. The mother of Mr. Ring was named Augusta Ridings. She was also of English descent, and her father, Thomas Ridings, also served in the Confederate Army. Lee and Augusta (Ridings) Ring left two children, Theodore J. and his brother Thomas, who still own the old plantation at Elkin and have added to it until it embraces almost 600 acres ; it is operated by and in charge of his brother, Thomas Ring.

Theodore Ring had the advantages of the public schools at Elkin. After the completion of his schooling he assisted on the home place until twenty-

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four years of age, when he entered the employ of the Southern Railroad, having charge of the freight warehouses at Elkin for a period of two years. While there he was married, on February 25, 1903, to Miss Carrie Sprinkle, a native of Elkin, and the daughter of J. H. and Minerva (Messick) Sprinkle, natives of North Carolina, of Virginian parents. J. H. Sprinkle is a tobacco commission merchant at Elkin, and also the owner of a transfer line, being still actively engaged in business. Of their nine children Mrs. Ring is the fourth.

Deciding to locate in California, the young couple arrived in Caruthers, Fresno County, March 9, 1903. For two years Mr. Ring followed ranching, and then entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Armona, and with the use of a speeder filled the duties of track-walker for two years. In April, 1907, he was transferred to Ormus, now Raisin City, as foreman of Sec- tion 49, a position he has ably filled ever since. He is now using a gaso- line motor car for transporting his crew and supplies over the section. When he came here there was no town, but the same summer Raisin City was laid out and in the fall the hotel and store went up and the Raisin postoffice was established. Mr. and Mrs. Ring have made several trips back to the old home, and as stated before still own a half interest in the old plantation, in which they take much pride. They have six children: Muriel, Mary, Leslie, Jack, Catherine, and Maude. Mr. and Mrs. Ring are enterprising and charitable and always have been ready to assist others less fortunate than themselves. Mrs. Ring is a devout Methodist. Fraternally, Mr. Ring is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, and the Junior Order of American Mechanics. Politically he is a Democrat.

VINTON JULIUS CLIFFORD .- A scientific viticulturist who is espe- cially familiar with the problems peculiar to Fresno County and the extension of the California vine industry, and who is high-principled, liberal and affable and therefore enjoys an enviable popularity, is Vinton Julius Clifford, who came to Fresno County in the late eighties, was for seven years a trustee of the Jefferson school district, and long an influential member of the Demo- cratic County Central Committee. He was born near Queen City, Schuyler County, Mo., on March 27, 1869, the son of Nelson Clifford, a native of Athens County, Ohio, who was married in that state and settled in Missouri, where he was a farmer and preempted land. There he died in 1881 when the subject of our sketch was thirteen years old. His wife was Margaret Currier, a native of Indiana and who died in 1879, the mother of eight children: Addison re- sides in Oklahoma ; Hannah, who died June 13, 1919; Mary Olive, who was Mrs. Cole, died at Modesto on March 28, 1916; Charles Henry, who is the Con- stable and resides near Clovis; Martha J., lives near Hannah ; Mrs. R. E. L. Cobb, of Clovis; Vinton Julius, the subject of our review; and Minnie May, now Mrs. Charles T. Reyburn of Clovis.

The second youngest, Vinton J., was brought up in Missouri and as a lad learned to farm, at the same time that he attended the country schools of the district. He stuck at the work until he was nineteen, and then having several sisters who had preceded him to California, he followed and arrived in the land of opportunity, on October 5, 1888. He at once went to work on the grain ranch of J. Cole & Son, with whom he continued for five years.

In the meantime Mr. Clifford had bought twenty acres in the Jefferson district which he set out as a vineyard, and this he sold in less than a year at a good profit. Then he started working on ranches and teaming, and in that continued until 1894 when he undertook to herd lumber in the flume for the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company. He was with the flume company, and later in the mill, where he was a shipping clerk in the box department at Clovis, for ten years ; and having saved money, he bought six lots and owned three houses in Clovis, some of which he later sold at a profit. He then bought, for $2,640, a quarter section of land, and afterward traded it for $3,000 cash and twenty acres half a mile west of Clovis. Still later he sold the twenty acres, and about the same time quit the mill.

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Starting anew, Mr. Clifford bought the Alvin Cole vineyard of twenty acres near Clovis, and ran it for three years, when he sold it to Charles Rey- burn. He next bought forty acres in the Reyburn tract and afterward sold the same. Then he bought thirty acres in the Jefferson district, half a mile west of the Jefferson school house, which he improved to vines and ran it. During this time he was in the employ of Supervisorial District No. 2 build- ing bridges and oiling roads; and while the job was a particular one, he re- mained in charge of the work for eight years. For eight years, also, he bought grapes for the Barton vineyard.

In March, 1918, he bought eighty acres in the Reyburn tract, three miles east of Clovis and in February, 1919, he bought eighty acres adjoining and now has 160 acres which he intends to set out as a vineyard. He has also leased the old Boucher place of sixty acres in the Jefferson district, all in vineyard, where he is raising muscats and Thompson seedless. Thus com- fortably and prosperously situated, he can look back with mingled memories ; where Clovis now stands was once a grain field, in which he ran big teams and a header, and where he hauled grain.

In Clovis, also, Mr. Clifford was married on December 27, 1899, to Miss Hattie E. Ploetz, a native of Houston, Texas, and a daughter of Gustav and Mary Ploetz, who came to California in 1887 and in 1895 to Clovis, and were noted viticulturists. Mrs. Clifford attended school in Sacramento and Mo- desto, and Clovis grammar and High Schools.

Mr. and Mrs. Clifford have two children: Gladys M., and Victor Addison, who are both attending Clovis Union High School.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Clifford are members of the Concordia Chapter of the O. E. S. at Clovis, she being a Past Matron, and he a Past Patron and the present Patron. Mrs. Clifford is also a member of San Joaquin Court of Amaranth, No. 27, at Fresno. Mr. Clifford also belongs to the Pine Burr Camp of the Woodmen of the World, at Clovis. In this same town he was made a Mason, in Clovis Lodge No. 417, F. & A. M., and he is a Past Master and also member of the Lodge of Perfection and Rose Croix, in Fresno.

GEORGE WALLACE STEWARD .- A good example of what a man with energy, intelligence and industry may do in Fresno County is to be found in the career of George Wallace Steward, who owns a well-improved and very productive ranch of sixty acres on the Giffen road three and a half miles northeast of Fowler and ten miles southeast of Fresno. He is an Eng- lishman by birth, while his good wife is a native daughter who comes from one of the early and highly respected Danish families of California.

Mr. Steward was born on May 13, 1867, in Hampshire, England, about fifty-two miles south of London, where his father and mother, Joseph and Marian (Bundy) Steward, managed a farm on a twenty-year lease. Joseph Steward was Scotch and his wife was English. George W. grew up in Eng- land on his father's farm, until he was seventeen, although he left school at fourteen and was apprenticed to a baker. His mother died when he was only five years of age. After he had come to America, his father followed, and later, having never remarried, died in Indiana at the age of seventy- six. Seven children were born to this worthy couple-four boys and three girls, and George W. was the youngest son.

George W. Steward said good-bye to England, and sailing from Liver- pool on the Cunard line, landed at New York on March 3, 1888. He had a brother who was a foreman on a stock-ranch in Benton County, Ind., and engaged to work under him for a celebrated Hereford breeder and importer, and there he remained for three years. In 1891 he came West to California and, being offered employment at twenty dollars a month, settled at Fresno. Seven years later he was married at Fresno to Miss Annie Madsen, born October 31, 1876, the daughter of Peter Madsen of Oleander, who married Catherine Elizabeth Marcussen. They are honored pioneers of Fresno County

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and, as successful ranchers at Oleander, are closely identified with the life and development of that section.

For a couple of years after he had married, Mr. Steward rented land. Then he bought fifty acres from the Kimball estate, and ten acres adjoining it from Wylie Giffen; and there Mr. and Mrs. Steward have made their home ever since. They have four children: Evelyn Elizabeth, who graduated from the Fowler High School in 1918; Irving Wallace; George Wallace, Jr., born on his grandmother Steward's and his father's birthday, in 1907; and Lillian Dorothy. Mr. Steward is a member and stockholder of both the California Associated Raisin Company, and the Peach Growers, Inc., and also a member of the Farm Bureau of Fowler, and of the Valley Fruit Grow- ers' Association. All the family belong to the First Presbyterian Church of Fowler. Mr. Steward is a naturalized citizen, and in politics is a Progressive Republican.

ELIHU B. HUNT .- A fine old gentleman who has traveled widely, seen much of the every-day world and real life, and derived much valuable experience, is Elihu B. Hunt, who came to Fresno County in 1910, and has ever since wished that he had settled here many years earlier. He was born in Thorndike, Waldo County, Maine, on May 10, 1855, the son of Sumner Hunt, a native of the same place. His grandfather, Ichabod Hunt, was born in Gorham, that state, and was a farmer who served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. His father, also a farmer, died at Vassalboro, Kennebec County, Maine. He had married Frances Elizabeth Hunt who came from the same vicinity as her husband, and the daughter of Jonathan Hunt of Unity, 'Maine, a member of the same family, a long way back, and she also died at Vassalboro. There were eight children in their family: Martha, who died in Thorndike, became Mrs. Phillip Blethen, and passed away in March, 1900; Edith, now Mrs. Whitaker, resides at Troy, Maine ; Clara is Mrs. John Kennedy, of Vassalboro; Mary was Mrs. G. Burrows, and died in March, 1917, at Waterville ; Florence died when very young; Elihu B., who is the subject of this sketch; William A., who is in Thorndike on the old home farm; and Frank P., deceased.

Brought up on one of the good old-fashioned farms, Elihu attended the ordinary country school and the Thorndike high school, and then, from his sixteenth year, taught school two winters. During the summer-time he worked on a farm. Going to Lowell, Mass., he was a night watchman for three years in a cotton mill; and at the end of that time, in 1877, he came west to White Sulphur Springs, Meagher County, Mont., where he contracted for getting out timber and breaking horses. After a while, he succeeded in owning a farm and buying some cattle, but the hard winter "broke" him, and he had to resume work for wages. He became a horseman and for two years was made superintendent of White's ranch ; then, for a couple of years, he contracted for carrying the mail from White Sulphur Springs to Neihart.

In 1894, Mr. Hunt moved to Salmon, Idaho, where he at first engaged in lumbering, and then prospected and mined until 1901. Then he went to Globe, Ariz., for a year, and in May, 1902, to Old Mexico, where he worked for four years in mines. Attaining success, he traveled the Republic of Mexico, and was for three years at Medina, owning a ranch and raising corn and fruit.

In May, 1910, Mr. Hunt sold out and came to California and Fresno ; and having looked about well, he decided to locate in Tranquillity. He at once purchased twelve acres, improved it and put it into alfalfa; and in 1917 he sold it at a profit and bought his present place of twenty-two acres. This he so improved that now he finds it best to devote it all to the growing of alfalfa. He operates it himself, and so gets the very best results. He used to lease acreage from the San Joaquin Land Company, and raised grain and barley, and in 1917 he harvested eighty-six acres, in the management of which he was more than fortunate.

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In Salmon, Idaho, Mr. Hunt was made a Mason in Lemhi Lodge, No. 11, and he is still a member there. In national politics he is a Republican, but in issues for local growth and improvement he is non-partisan. He is popular with his fellow citizens and loyal to the advancement of his town and county.

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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 38

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