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 39
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GUY R. VIGNOLA .- A firm believer in the great future in store for Fresno County, of which he is a native son, Guy R. Vignola was born in Buchanan, June 11, 1884. He is a son of Angelo and Margaret (Lovaroni) Vignola. The father landed in New York at the age of five years, and was raised in that state. In the early fifties he crossed the plains to California, and mined for gold in Mariposa County for a time. He later settled in Fresno County, of which he was one of the pioneers. Here he followed mining, and was a storekeeper, sheepraiser and stockman, owning a large ranch near Buchanan. He also ran a store in Madera County in pioneer days. His death occurred in 1906. To this pioneer couple eleven children were born, as follows: Emile and John, prominent citizens of Turlock County ; Julius and Caesar, running the old home ranch at Buchanan ; Frank; Mrs. George Wright, of Tuolumne County: Mrs. David Lockton, of Sonoma, Cal .: Mrs. Addie Hanby; Mrs. Vera Holland: Guy R., of this review; and Juliet, who died when eighteen years old.
Guy R. Vignola was raised on the home ranch in Buchanan, and at- tended the schools of that district, later finishing his education in the grammar school at Raymond, and also taking a course at a college in San Francisco. Always ambitious for further educational advantages, he has continued his studies since his school days, and is at present taking a correspondence school course in law. He engaged in the butcher business at Raymond, and for a time was engaged in newspaper work in Fresno. With W. W. Watson he founded the Fresno Daily Abstract, now called the "Daily Real Estate Reporter." devoted to real estate news transfers, court records and market reports. In 1908 he started in the real estate business in Fresno, and has been very successful in that line. He specializes in large ranch properties, and has sold and exchanged many large parcels of land in the county. A resident of Fresno County since his birth, Mr. Vignola has a thorough knowledge of conditions and values in this section, and his success has followed as a matter of course. Meanwhile he has been aiding in the development of the resources of his native county.
J. R. CAIN .- Success in business does not entirely depend upon financial ability ; in the retail business especially, the courteous treatment of prospec- tive customers and the genial smile, coupled with an intelligent and compre- hensive knowledge of the merchandise and efficient management of the es- tablishment, are very essential factors to success. J. R. Cain, the subject of this sketch, possesses these qualifications in a pleasing degree, and to them he attributes a large measure of his success in the furniture and undertaking business. He is a native of the Hoosier State, having been born in Indiana in 1874; but he was reared and educated in Kansas, to which state his par- ents removed in 1881, and where they resided up to 1908, when they migrated to California. They are now residents of Fresno County. Mr. and Mrs. William Cain were the parents of seven children, only three of whom are living : C. P., R. L., and J. R.
J. R. Cain migrated to California in 1900, and for two years lived in Sonoma County. In 1902 he removed to Fresno County, where he has since resided and carried on a prosperous business. He has been engaged in the furniture business for sixteen years. During twelve years of this time he conducted business in Selma, and for five years he has been located in San- ger. During the last six years he has conducted an undertaking establish- ment in connection with his furniture business. His furniture and under- taking room in Sanger is fifty by one hundred feet in size, and in addition to this he has a workshop forty by forty feet. In 1916 Mr. Cain was appointed
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a deputy coroner of Fresno County. While living in Selma his business ability was recognized by the citizens of that enterprising city, by his election to the city council.
In 1889 J. R. Cain was united in marriage with Miss Birdella M. Howard, the daughter of F. A. Howard; and they are parents of one daughter, Alta Marie. They also have a foster daughter, Joybelle, who enjoys the full privi- leges and domestic relations of a daughter.
Mr. Cain and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Cain is the superintendent of the Sunday school, and in 1918 he was made the president of the Fresno County Sunday School Association. Fraternally, he is a Mason, being affiliated with Sanger Lodge, No. 316, F. & A. M.
JUDGE E. W. RISLEY .- In the passing of Judge E. W. Risley, prom- inent for many years in the political and civic life of Fresno, the city lost one of her most highly respected and useful citizens. He was born in New Haven, Conn., March 1, 1853, and was a direct descendent of Richard Risley, founder of Hartford, Conn., in the year 1635. When a lad he went to Gales- burg, Ill., and at the age of twenty-one graduated from Knox College, having also studied law during the last two years of his college life. In 1874 he started West, his goal being California. During the silver boom he sought a foothold in Nevada and in California, from Shasta to San Diego.
Judge Risley's name, before he came to Fresno, was woven conspicu- ously into the story of Arizona's rapid development. At the time of the great mineral discoveries in Tombstone, Ariz., he went over the desert by pack train and met with the usual vicissitudes of the pioneer, sometimes a millionaire in his mind and sometimes a pauper in fact. At one time he was official court reporter of the entire Territory of Arizona, which necessitated his traveling from one end of the territory to the other in the performance of his official duties. He was also a deputy United States marshal and deputy district attorney of Cochise County, wherein was situated the city of Tomb- stone, and was clerk of the board of supervisors of Pina County. During his stay in Tucson he became, in turn, deputy United States district attorney and member of the Tucson city council, and saw the change of Tucson from a Spanish pueblo to a modern American city. As a member of the territorial legislature, later, he was chairman of the judicial and appropriations com- mittees.
Judge Risley came to Fresno in 1885, and was at once admitted to the Supreme Court of the State of California and to the United States Supreme Court. He was deputy district attorney of Fresno County under Firman Church and W. D. Tupper, and as city attorney under the old Spinney regime did much to maintain order and keep the two factions from an open rupture, insisting upon the enforcement of the city ordinances. For six years he served as superior judge of Fresno County; and of the many decisions he rendered, many of them on murder charges, not one was ever reversed by the Supreme Court. At the close of his term, although earnestly solicited by his many friends to continue in office, he declined, wishing to devote his time and energy to his private affairs. Notwithstanding this decision, he took an active part, as a freeholder, in making the existing city charter, and acted as police and fire commissioner for four years.
Judge Risley's wife was before her marriage Miss Eleanor Merrill, a native of Illinois. She died in 1913. Judge Risley died on December 15, 1918, and his funeral services were conducted at the crematory by his life long friend, Judge M. K. Harris. Judge Risley's request was that at death there should be no flowers, "but dust unto dust, and unto dust to lie with- out glory, without pomp, without end." He was eminently worthy of the honor and respect accorded him by his friends and colleagues, who mourn his untimely demise. The judge is survived by his son, Thomas E., of Fresno, and a daughter, Mrs. Marguerite Rowe, of Los Angeles.
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NORTHMAN C. LIVINGSTON .- Northman C. Livingston was born in Claremont, N. H., January 2, 1862, the younger of two children born to Sherman and Zilpha (Keith) Livingston, natives of New Hampshire and Pom- fret, Vt., respectively, who spent their last days in the latter state. He was brought up in New Hampshire until eighteen years of age, and there had the advantages of the public schools. When eighteen years of age he removed to Pomfret, Vt., and engaged in farming until he located in Hartford, Vt., where for seven years he ran a harness establishment. Next he engaged in the furniture and undertaking business in the same city for a time. After selling out this business he assisted in the management of a hotel, and then for a while was employed in the woolen mills. Returning to the farm in Ver- mont, he operated the place for seven years.
On account of his wife's health, Mr. Livingston came to California, arriv- ing in Pasadena in 1907. After a year in that city he came to Raisin City, Fresno County, in 1908, where he engaged in general merchandise, pur- chasing the location and improving the store building. A few years ago he closed out the dry goods and groceries and now has a hardware and im- plement store. Since 1908 he has been postmaster, and he has had the telephone exchange since the company built their line into Raisin City.
Mr. Livingston was bereaved of his wife in September, 1916. She was a woman of amiable disposition, and will be long mourned by her relatives and friends. Mr. Livingston is the oldest merchant in Raisin City, and is well liked and popular as a public official and merchant. He was made a Mason in Woodstock Lodge, No. 31, F. & A. M. His political preference is with the Democratic party.
MARIUS and HARRY GIRAUD .- Two very successful viticulturists, well-liked and respected, are Marius and Harry Giraud, natives of Avancon, the Hautes-Alpes, France, where their father, Jacques, was also born. He was a cooper, who had his own farm and forest, and used to go himself to get out the material for his staves and heads. He also had a finely appointed vineyard; and on his place, a joy as well as a means of support to him, he died, in 1908. His good wife, Angelena Senturie before her marriage, was also a native of the Hautes-Alpes, and survived her husband three months. Seven children were born to this worthy couple. The eldest was Marius, of whom we are writing; then came Emil, who is still in France; the third was Harry, who also figures in our story ; and the others are Mary, Felice, and Gabriele, also resident in their native land, and Ferdinand, who was killed in December, 1914, while serving as a soldier at Nieuport, Belgium- a sacrifice for the cause of freedom and justice which reflects the highest glory on the family name. Marius was born on March 11, 1865, and Harry on the 11th of November, two years later. They were both reared in France, and while attending the public schools of their neighborhood, learned the details of vineyard work.
In 1888 Marius Giraud came to Los Angeles and went to work on the railroad. The next year he made his way to Fresno, and for a month found employment on the Fresno sewer. At Christmas he got a job pruning vines, and soon he formed a partnership with Mr. Telmond and for a year busied himself with contract pruning. Then, for four years, he was with Louis Almand, pruning in Fresno, Kings, and Tulare counties. In December, 1893, Harry Giraud came out to California from France, and thereafter the brothers continued pruning together. From 1901 to 1905 Marius was in busi- ness in Fresno; when he sold out, he went in with his brother on a vineyard of twenty acres near the mountains, in the Helm Colony, and this was man- aged under the firm name of Giraud Bros. Harry had purchased the twenty acres in 1902, and the following year he set out the vineyard. To this they have given the closest attention, raising only wine-grapes. Marius also bought, together with his brother, forty acres of raw land a mile west of
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this place, and set the same out to muscatel, Malaga and Thompson grapes, raising the vines from cuttings, and allowing five acres for alfalfa. Now the brothers have sixty acres of as choice and rich vineyard soil as can be found anywhere. They have always been actively interested in the various raisin association movements, and they are supporters of the California Associated Raisin Company. Though born in France, they are not indifferent to the political interests of their adopted country. They generally march under the Republican banner ; but when it comes to local issues, they are for Fresno and Central California, the best men and the best measures.
EMIL KREYENHAGEN .- Reputed to be among the largest land- owners and stock-raisers of Fresno County, is Kreyenhagens, Inc., one of whom, Emil Kreyenhagen, the subject of this review, was born in St. Louis, Mo., December 1, 1853. He is the son of Gustav and Julia (Ilering) Kreven- hagen, both natives of Hanover, Germany. The father immigrated to the United States in 1846 after having received the advantages of a thorough education in his native land. Being especially proficient in languages and mathematics he became a professor of Latin, Greek and mathematics, in St. Louis, Mo., where he made his home for some years and while a resident of the metropolis of Missouri four children were born, all of whom died there, except the subject of this review, Emil Kreyenhagen. In January, 1854. Gustav, with his wife and infant son Emil, migrated from Missouri to Cali- fornia, coming via the Isthmus of Panama and arriving at San Francisco. Here, for a time, he operated a general merchandise store. In 1860 he located on a ranch six miles east of Gilroy and at the same time he operated the Peach Tree ranch in Monterey County, for four years. Here he engaged in sheep-raising, but the fates seemed unpropitious, as a disastrous flood overtook his flock and nearly all of his herd was lost. Afterwards, in the year 1865, Gustav Kreyenhagen removed to Los Banos, in Merced County, and while living there ran not only a store, but was the proprietor of a hotel and kept a stage station. Los Banos was at that time a large center for freighters who were engaged in hauling supplies through the valley with large teams of mules and horses, this being the only means of transportation before the advent of the railroad.
December 1, 1874, Emil Kreyenhagen had located at what was then Posa Chena, now Kirk Station, east of what is now Coalinga, Fresno County, and in 1875 his father and family also came and located at Posa Chena and engaged in stock-raising. Here the father kept a store and hotel and en- gaged in raising sheep and cattle on a large scale. After a long and eventful career he retired from active participation in business affairs in 1887, and three years later passed away to his eternal reward, bereaved by a large circle of friends and five surviving children: Emil; Hugo; Mrs. Bertha Welker; Adolph; and Charles. His widow survived him till August 2, 1906.
Emil Kreyenhagen is the eldest of the family and was reared in Cali- fornia from his first year. He received his education in the public schools of Gilroy and at St. Joseph's Academy, Oakland. He assisted his father in his varied business at Los Banos until they sold out, and when nineteen years of age, in 1874, he came to Posa Chena, Fresno County. He liked the appear- ance of the country and in 1875 the rest of the family joined him. They then began the stock business which has since grown to such large pro- portions. The brothers continued in partnership all these years, working together in harmony, and on July 14, 1916, they incorporated as Kreyen- hagens, Inc., he being the president of the company. The company owns 10,000 acres of land and leases 37,000 from the Southern Pacific Railway Company and from individuals. The three ranches they own are known by their Spanish names, Los Canoas, Zapato Cheno, and Las Polvaderas, and are located southeast of Coalinga. The Kreyenhagens are also interested in
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the Hays Cattle Company, of Kirkland, Ariz., and at one time owned and managed the Crescent Meat Market and City Market at Coalinga. In early days they did teaming, hauling freight to and from Posa Chena to Gilroy and Banta Station, using from eight to ten-horse teams for the freighting, sometimes taking ten days to make a round trip and upon their return trip bringing merchandise and supplies. The year 1918 finds these enterprising brothers farming 1,400 acres of land, on the plains, to grain. Emil Kreyen- hagen filled the position of postmaster at Turk Station, also at Rogers post- office, Hot Springs. Fraternally, he was made a Mason in Welcome Lodge, No. 255, F. & A. M. at Lemoore.
Emil Kreyenhagen was united in marriage with Lucy Hathaway at Lemoore, on December 15, 1881. She was born in Coulterville, Mariposa County, the daughter of Fielding and Eliza (Davis) Hathaway, natives of Virginia and Texas, respectively. They crossed the plains with ox teams in 1858, locating on the Merced River where Mr. Hathaway ran a flour mill. In 1865 they moved to Visalia where he was a contractor and builder and built the old Visalia House. On account of his wife's health he removed to the mountains in 1874, being engaged in stock-raising near Mineral King, and there his wife died in 1875. He then returned to Visalia and later lived retired at Lemoore, where he died at the age of ninety-two years. Mrs. Kreyenhagen was educated in the public schools of Visalia and her union with Mr. Kreyenhagen has been blessed with two daughters: Gertrude, Mrs. C. G. Barton, who resides in Hanford, and who was educated in Easton High School and Heald's Business College, Fresno; and Leona MI., who was educated at Mills College and then a graduate of the Riverside Library School, after which she taught school in Hanford, and who is now the wife of Carrol V. Buckner of Lemoore.
A pioneer of the Valley, Mr. Kreyenhagen has in his modest and quiet way been a real upbuilder and developer of Fresno County, and he is today reaping the fruits of his labors, and is esteemed by all who know him, for his integrity, worth and honesty of purpose.
NILS E. LARSON .- A sturdy old-timer who came to Fresno County in the early eighties is Nils E. Larson, to whom there is probably no document of more precious value than the honorable discharge which certifies that al- though he was born in Arebre, Sweden, November 8, 1859, he served awhile in the United States Navy and so won for himself the right to American citi- zenship. His father was Frederick Larson, a farmer known for miles around on account of his experience, his industry, and his honor, and as the second youngest of six children, three of whom are still living, Nils enjoyed all of the educational advantages that the first-class public schools of Sweden could afford. He was reared on a farm, and he learned farming thoroughly, as it is followed in his native land.
When he was sixteen years of age Nils enlisted in the Swedish Navy, and for three years he followed the sea under the flag of a country long famous for its brave and well trained seamen. He learned marine engineering, and as a skilled mechanic and machinist made several lengthy voyages on differ- ent ships. He visited Philadelphia and New York, and sailed around Cape Horn; and through his intercourse with the peoples of other countries than his own he mastered everyday English and picked up some knowledge of other languages as well. Having received an honorable discharge, he con- cluded to leave Sweden and to try his fortune in the New World.
In 1878, Mr. Larson landed at New York City and immediately enlisted as a marine engineer in the United States Navy, in which position he served the Union for three years. He was appointed, in time, to five or six different ships, went around Cape of Good Hope, sailed to China, and then returned to Philadelphia by way of the same Cape. He went around Cape Horn to San Francisco, and in that city, in 1881, he received his honorable dismissal.
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Thereupon Mr. Larson went to Port Costa, where he worked in a ware- house for a year; and on the fourth of July, 1882, he reached Fresno and soon after began to engage in grain farming. He drove the big teams in the grain fields, and he teamed to the mountains, and from the upper regions he hauled lumber, using at times from eight to twenty-two mules and horses in a single team.
In 1884 he took up a homestead of 160 acres at Tollhouse, and at the same time engaged to work for John Haskel, on whose ranch he remained seven years. He then started grain farming twelve miles south of Fresno on Elm Avenue, and leased 3,500 acres from A. A. Weber. He used six big teams; but the year proving a very dry one he harvested scarcely two and a half sacks to the acre and lost everything except a span of horses. He bought more horses on credit, however, came to Academy, leased land of D. C. Sample, beginning with 600 acres, and increasing the area to 2,200, and ran four big teams with a combined harvester drawn by twenty-four head of horses. He cut other grain, and sowed and reaped 1,600 acres a year, finally meeting with success. For the first six years he could hardly make expenses, selling wheat as low as sixty cents per hundred and thirteen dollars a ton for barley, but he persisted and overcame the handicaps which seemed insurmountable.
While operating there, fourteen years ago, Mr. Larson bought his present place of 150 acres in the Gray Colony; and after he had farmed the same to grain for three or four years he moved onto it and began to improve the land. He had already leveled it, and had planted forty acres to alfalfa ; then he put out a vineyard of sixty acres, and the same year set out twenty acres in orchard. Since then he has planted more than forty acres, and has altogether a ranch of 152 acres, twelve miles from Fresno. He has over 100 acres in vines distributed to Thompson, sultana, muscat and wine grapes, and twenty-five acres in peaches. He has an orange avenue leading to his resi- dence, and a small and useful orchard at the house. He holds membership in the California Peach Growers' Inc., and the California Associated Raisin Company.
At Oakland, in 1909, Mr. Larson was married to Miss Meta Husted, who was born in Denmark ; and by her he had three children: Nils Frederick, Margaret C. and Christen H. Larson. Mrs. Larson passed away in May, 1918. Mr. Larson is a Republican in national political movements.
L. M. JENSEN .- An industrious and experienced farmer and a broadly developed viticulturist and horticulturist, making a specialty of raisin culture, is L. M. Jensen, who was born at Fyen, Denmark, December 10, 1877, the son of a farmer near Bogense, where he was reared and educated in the public school. When he was only four years of age his mother died, and when he was six he was thrown on his own resources, and thus made his own way through the schooling period until he was fourteen, and from that time on. Through the return of a friend, Hans Frank, he became acquainted with the wonderful land by the Pacific and its resources, and concluded to take the momentous step of leaving home, crossing the wide ocean, and trying his fortunes in the New World. On April 28, 1902, he arrived in Fresno County, and immediately found employment at ranching in the vicinity of Selma. Soon he bought a small farm near Parlier, consisting of about twelve acres, at the price of $600. This he set out to vines, kept it a couple of years, and then sold it for $1,250. He continued to work on farms and with teams, and leasing some land of D. C. Sample, he tried his hand at grain-farming.
In 1913, Mr. Jensen bought a vineyard of seventy-two acres in the Gray Colony, which he improved considerably and built upon. He set out thirty acres as a vineyard with muscat, Emperor and malaga grapes, and thirty acres in figs of the White Adriatic kind, while he had ten acres of peach orchards. He has two pumping plants, and uses two engines for pumping.
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Like other wide-awake specialists in his field, he is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and the California Peach Growers, Inc.
Near Academy, Mr. Jensen was married to Miss Carrie M. Frikka, a native of Kolding, Denmark, by whom he has had four children : Elna Marie, Louis Christian, Clarence James, and Ann Christene. For some time past Mr. Jensen has been a trustee of the Gray school district, and in that capacity has done good public service for the community. In national politics he gen- erally follows the standards of the Democratic party, while in fraternal life he is active principally in the Dania in Fresno and the Clovis Camp of the Woodmen of the World.
JOHN H. FUNCH .- A very interesting and worthy old-timer in Cali- fornia, the story of whose life, with its numerous narrow escapes, runs like a veritable romance, is John H. Funch, who came to the Golden State in 1869. He was born at Bornholm, Denmark, on August 30, 1855, the son of P. G. Funch who was a sailor and a ship-carpenter by trade. In 1847 the elder Funch sailed with a Spanish ship around the Horn, and at San Fran- cisco he left the vessel and made for the interior. At Sutter's Mill he helped construct the water wheel, and so he was present at the time when John Marshall discovered gold in the mill-race. He engaged in placer mining with great success, until he acquired over $30,000; his shipmate and fellow-car- penter, Hans Munk, had as much more. The Spaniard who owned the grant returned from Mexico, had them arrested and brought to San Francisco where the court released them, deciding that one could dig gold where it was found. Hans Munk sat at a gaming-table, and staked what he had, and- unusually, perhaps- doubled his small fortune. P. G. Funch started for his old home in Denmark, once more sailing around the Horn, but it was two years more before Hans Munk returned. Arriving safely home, P. G. Funch bought a large farm, and managed it until he died. In time, his good wife, Nora Sode, also passed away in their comfortable, hard-won home, the mother of twelve children, among whom John H., now the only one in California, was the second oldest.
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