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 4

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 4

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Mr. Hagerty was married, in Fresno, to Maybelle Bitzer, a native of San Francisco, and they have two children: Jane Helen and William Jerome. Mr. Hagerty is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and is a stockholder, director and vice-president of the Backer Vineyard Company. The Backer estate consists of 760 acres of land in the county, of which 205 acres are in vineyards of table and raisin grapes, the remaining acres being devoted to grain farming. He also owns a twenty-acre vineyard in Eggers Colony, which is well improved, with a large modern residence. He is a pop- ular and progressive young man, and a bright future is predicted for him by those who know him best.

HORACE E. BARNUM .- Probably no other state in the Union may boast of such a large number of pioneers, such as the late Horace E. Barnum, whose ancestry reaches back to the good old days of New England and has to do with the foundation of our great republic. He was born on May 9, 1854, near Hastings, Mich., the son of Philander Barnum, whose father, Elijah Barnum, was a New Englander who early removed to the wilderness of Barry County, Mich. He cleared a space in the forest and built a log cabin, and among the maple and beech trees, he created an attractive homestead, and there closed his days, having enjoyed life to the full with his family.

Philander Barnum grew up a farmer to succeed his father, and when he retired, he removed to Battle Creek whose climatic attractions were already being felt. He had married Harriet E. Bidwell, a native of Albion, Mich., who also came of a long line of New Englanders. They had five children. Mr. Barnum died at Battle Creek, and Mrs. Barnum at Hastings, and both were widely lamented.

Horace was the fourth child in the order of birth, and the only one to come to the Pacific Coast. He attended the public schools of Battle Creek and Albion, and in the middle of the seventies, just when California was getting ready to make its bow to the nation at the Philadelphia Centennial, he came west to the Golden State. He passed three years in the Sacramento Valley, then went to Washington, and after a year returned to California and located at Woodland. In Yolo County he followed agriculture for several years.

With T. L. Reed Mr. Barnum came south to the San Joaquin Valley in 1885, and leased the South Mountain tract. He had to break seven or eight sections of the land, and needed to employ from eight to ten horses on a plow ; but he was rewarded by a large crop of grain, although he had to haul it six- teen miles to market. In time, Mr. Reed offered him 160 acres of land in Tulare County for his interest in the firm, and in Tulare Mr. Barnum farmed for a year.

Removing then to Lemoore, Mr. Barnum embarked in the hotel business for a year, but was burned out. He resumed hotel management in Reedley, however, and also invested in twenty acres of land for an orchard. He had just entered upon the contract and made the first payment, when he met with a frightful accident that might easily have cost him his life, and that would have robbed most men of courage and the stuff needed to go forward. A gun placed in the buggy in which he was returning from hunting fell and discharged its contents into his side and shoulder, causing such a wound that the surgeon had to amputate the arm. Nevertheless, Mr. Barnum prepared his land for irrigation, made a park on the river bank, set out an orchard and went ahead with his projects in hotel management.

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Not so long after, Mr. Barnum was appointed constable, and at the end of a year, he entered on a two-year term as roadmaster. His conscientious and able discharge of duties in these offices led to his being called for as Re- publican candidate for County Auditor in 1894, and he was elected by a plu- rality of six hundred votes for a term of four years. In 1898, was renominated for the same office, and was elected over the fusion candidate by a majority of one hundred eight votes, being one of two Republicans to reach office that year. In 1902, a majority of seventeen hundred votes, the largest vote in the county, enabled him to lead his ticket and again to be reelected. In 1906 and in 1910 he was again elected, each time without opposition, and he had an- nounced his candidacy for 1914, when sickness and death interfered. He died on June 15, 1914. To permit himself to reside near his office, Mr. Barnum removed from his ranch to Fresno, and for years lived in this city.

While in Yolo County in 1894, Mr. Barnum was married at Woodland to 'Miss Mary Eva Dearing, daughter of John and Ellen Dearing, among the sturdiest and most honored pioneers of that county. She was born in Morgan Valley, Lake County, and two children blessed their union-Ida May, Mrs. F. F. Minard ; and Charles E. Mrs. Barnum, who has been a consistent Bap- tist, is living in Fresno.

Besides being active in Chamber of Commerce work, and in national pol- itics under the banners of the Republican party, Mr. Barnum was an Elk, a Knight of Pythias, a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, a Forester, and a Woodman of the World. He had a strong, impressive person- ality, a large heart, high ideals and a winning disposition ; was a good citizen and a good friend.

JASPER E. MITCHELL .- In these days of strenuous effort the man who hopes to acquire success in any calling must be one of brains and per- sistency, with a thorough knowledge of the work to which he is devoting his attention, and such a man is Jasper E. Mitchell of Fresno. He was born in Kansas, October 12, 1876, a son of Edgar R. and Cynthia (Hayes) Mitchell, natives of Illinois and Missouri, respectively, and who became the parents of three children. The family left Kansas in 1877, emigrating westward and for about sixteen years resided in Colorado, then in 1893 continued their journey to the Pacific Coast and settled in Tulare County, Cal. It was about eighteen months later that they made their way into Fresno County, where the elder Mitchell engaged in the livery business, with the other two sons, E. R., Jr., and F. H. Here they continued four years, then left and the father now resides in Fresno where he is engaged in the real estate business.

At the age of one year Jasper E. Mitchell was taken by his parents to Colorado, where he grew up and received his schooling until he was about seventeen, when he accompanied the family to California. Here he began to learn an entirely new business. then in its infancy in this state, that of fruit-growing, buying, packing and selling. So well did he succeed that he went into partnership with J. Ed. Mitchell, remaining in this business for two years, until 1907, under the name of Mitchell & Mitchell, and were well known and successful.

In 1907, J. E. Mitchell quit the fruit business and became a general contractor, specializing in roads and bridges, and he has handled road con- struction work in various sections on the state highways. Some of his con- tracts are: The Kings River state highway in Sierra County; the Sierra and Downieville road ; the Humboldt and Trinity state road: Redwood Park road in Santa Cruz County ; and one of the finest pieces of concrete work in the state, which was under his supervision, the Burrel bridge. In Fresno County alone he has executed over 2,300 contracts ranging from a 10-inch pipe to Lane's Bridge, the largest in the county. Among the more important contracts handled by Mr. Mitchell are the following: Lane's Bridge, over the San Joaquin : the rebuilding of the large concrete bridge east of Sanger over Kings River; the bridge north of Reedley; Centerville bridge; Burrel

Saf E. Mitchell

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bridge, all three over the Kings River; and the rebuilding of the Herndon bridge over the San Joaquin. These are all in Fresno County. Some of the outside contracts are the concrete bridge over Eel River; one over Mad River in Humboldt County ; and the bridge over the South Fork of the Eel in Trinity.

It must not be inferred that Mr. Mitchell has devoted his time to business affairs alone, for he has done his share of public service and as a deputy county clerk became well known throughout the county; he also served as a deputy sheriff and in other ways has been of service to his fellow citizens. There has been no movement put forward to bring Fresno County before the world at large but what he has always been found in the van.

The marriage of J. E. Mitchell with Miss Bessie Rutherford was cele- brated December 10, 1903, and they have two children, Dwight Elbert and Elva Lenona, to brighten their home circle, and who with their parents en- joy the esteem of a wide circle of friends. Mr. Mitchell is a member of the Woodmen of the World; the Fraternal Order of Eagles; the B. P. O. Elks; the Commercial Club; and the Chamber of Commerce. He is a Republican in national affairs but is non-partisan in local issues, always seeking what is best for the majority. Their home at 206 Strother Avenue, Kearney Boule- vard Heights, built on modern lines, is ever open with that true hospitality known only to the Californians.

JOHN W. GEARHART .- In the arduous yet interesting field of court reporting, we find John W. Gearhart, who was born in Fairmount, Luzerne County, Pa., June 1, 1852, son of Wesley R. and Sarah (Millard) Gearhart. His father, a graduate of Girard Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa., took up the practice of his profession in Winnebago, Ill., in the Rock River Valley, in 1854. Dr. and Mrs. Gearhart came to Fresno, Cal., in 1886, and there resided until the time of the death of Dr. Gearhart in 1889. Mrs. Gearhart thereafter lived in Pacific Grove until her decease, in 1906, her remains being interred with those of her husband and son Charles in the Masonic Cemetery, Fresno.

The subject of this sketch received his education in the public schools of Illinois. After acquiring some proficiency as a shorthand writer, Mr. Gearhart, in 1872, obtained a position as secretary of Allan Pinkerton (Chief of the United States Secret Service during the Civil War), in the Chicago offices of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, later being transferred to the New York office and still later to the Philadelphia office of the agency.

In 1873 Mr. Gearhart returned to Chicago and accepted a position as stenographer in the law offices of Messrs. Ayer, Beckwith & Kales. Coming to California in the winter of 1874-75 he entered the employ of Dun's Com- mercial Agency, and in the latter part of 1875 commenced his life work as a court reporter with the firm of Osbourne & Jones, official court reporters, San Francisco. In the fall of 1875, Mr. Gearhart was appointed official reporter of the District Court of the Third Judicial District of California by Hon. James B. Campbell, then judge of said court, thereafter receiving appointments as official reporter of the county courts of Tulare, Fresno, Merced and Mariposa Counties, comprised in the Third Judicial District, later being appointed reporter of the Kern County Superior Court, after the adoption of the New Constitution of California, as well as of the Superior Courts of the four counties of Tulare, Fresno, Merced and Mariposa.

With the increase of population, wealth and, consequently of litigation in the San Joaquin Valley, Mr. Gearhart perforce relinquished the practice of his profession in one county after another, retaining his position of reporter of the Superior Court of Fresno County. His duties of later years as official reporter of Department No. 1. under appointments by Judges Campbell, Harris, Webb, Carter and Austin, together with the reporting of trials in the District Court of the Southern District of California, Northern Division, as Special Examiner for the United States Circuit and District Courts, and mis-

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cellaneous business in the line of his profession, have constantly kept him busy.

Among the more notable civil cases reported by Mr. Gearhart were those of Carr & Haggin vs. Miller & Lux, in the Superior Court of Kern County, involving riparian rights with reference to properties of great value, and Jeremiah Clark et al vs. Poly, Heilbron & Co., regarding title to the Rancho Laguna de Tache, comprising some 30,000 acres of land along Kings River, the litigants in these cases being represented by many of California's then leading lawyers-Hall McAllister, Judge John Garber, R. E. Houghton, Judge Flournoy, Judge Denson, Hon. P. D. Wigginton and others, the trial of each case covering a period of about three months. As these trials occurred before the introduction of the use of the phonograph or dictaphone and the reporter was required to furnish daily to counsel for plaintiffs and defendants transcripts of his notes of the testimony, the amount of labor required of one reporter and one typewriter operator may be easily understood.

Trials of criminal cases of more than ordinary interest reported by Mr. Gearhart include those of The People vs. Chris Evans, noted train robber, People vs. Heath and Polley, for the murder of Louis B. McWhirter and that of the People vs. W. A. Sanders, for forgery, the disappearance of one Wm. Wooton-believed to have been murdered and his remains disposed of -being involved, the first and second trials being presided over by Judges J. R. Webb and Carrol Cook, respectively in the Superior Court of Fresno County.

On July 17, 1882, Mr. Gearhart was married to Miss Mary E. Johnson, of Visalia. Fresno has been their home for the thirty-five years last past. In the same city now reside all of their children-Clara L. (now Mrs. Wm. J. Cleary), James W. (also a court reporter), and Bertrand W., a member of the legal profession, at present deputy district attorney of Fresno County.

E. M. HANSEN .- An early settler who, having made a success of one venture, that of the butchering and retail meat business, has now succeeded in another field, viticulture and dairying, is E. M. Hansen, who has improved a fine place and, with the assistance of his good wife, has come to enjoy prosperity and to command a comfortable competency. He first came to California in 1881 and within a year had fortunately found his way to Fresno County.

He was born in Lykonkloster, Slesvig, Denmark, on August 4, 1854, the son of Hans Hansen, a farmer who owned his own place, had an active and honorable part in the War of 1848-50, and who died in 1915, aged over ninety years. He had married Christene Jaocumsen, who died there over eighty-four years of age, passing away in 1912. There were seven children in the family, and five are living: Mat is in Brooklyn, N. Y .; E. M. is the subject of our review; Andrew is in West Park, Fresno County; Christen resides in Slesvig; and Mathilda lives in Nebraska.

E. M. was brought up on the old homestead, and attended the locai public schools, assisting on the farm until he was nineteen or over. On account of the military oppression, he determined to come to the United States; and in 1874 he left Hamburg for New York. He located at Perth Amboy, and as an apprentice learned the butcher's trade, continuing there until December, 1880, when he came west to San Francisco, and for a while he drove on the old horse-car line in the Bay metropolis. On February 21, 1881, he came to Fresno and here found employment as a butcher. For a time he was engaged in business for himself, and ran a wagon through the country east of Fresno, to Red Banks and vicinity. When he sold out, he ran a wagon west of the town, until 1897, meantime preparing for his real future by buying twenty acres in Fresno Colony. At the end of a year, he sold out and bought another twenty which he improved to alfalfa and after two years also sold.

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In 1891, Mr. Hansen bought his present place, consisting of forty acres on Jensen Avenue, ten miles west of Fresno. It was raw land, but he leveled and checked it and set it out as a vineyard; and there he has continued ever since. He set out Thompson seedless grapes, but later took up the vines and devoted the land to alfalfa. For the last eight years he has run a dairy there. He built a residence, barns, windmill and installed a gas-engine; and he became a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association. He also joined in every raisin association movement, and is a member and a stockholder in the California Associated Raisin Company.

At Fresno, Mr. Hansen was married to Miss Christene Madsen, born at Varde, Jylland, Denmark, by whom he has had five children, three of whom grew to maturity: Harry is the butcher at Kearney Park; Martha is at home, and so is Amy. The family attends the Lutheran Church, and they adhere to the principles of the Republican party. Mr. Hansen is a member of the Danish Brotherhood of Fresno, and has been president of that excellent organization. In 1906 he made a trip to New Jersey and New York, to visit old associations, and returned better satisfied than ever with California, and more than ever confident as to its future.

MRS. MALISSA CLAYTOR .- A hard-working, sensible woman who has borne the burden and heat of the day, often under disappointing and at times distressing circumstances, is Mrs. Malissa Claytor, widow of the late Thomas Claytor who, in 1906, built their beautiful farmhouse two miles east and one-fourth of a mile south of Selma. He was born in Ray County, Mo., in 1857, and grew up at Hardin, in the same county. On December 5, 1879, he was married in Caldwell County to Miss Malissa Myers, a native of that county, who grew up there. She is a daughter of G. W. and Lottie (Myers) Myers, who sent her to the public schools of her locality. When eighteen, she was married. For a while they farmed rented lands in Missouri, and then, in 1883, they came to California, settling four miles west of Selma, where he worked for two years on the A. A. Webber ranch. Then they bought a place three miles west of Selma, where they lived for five years. A fire, however, destroyed their house, household goods and wheat crop; and since they had no insurance, they sustained heavy loss. In 1906 they bought the present place, and here they have had two fires, but more for- tunately they carried some insurance.

For fourteen years Mrs. Myers conducted a millinery shop on the ranch, her display room being in her residence, and she and her husband prospered until they owned a well-improved ranch of forty acres, all of which is now planted, sixteen and a half acres being devoted to peaches, six and a half to apricots, five acres to Thompson seedless, eight to muscats, and one acre to young Thompson vines. The balance was devoted to the house-plot, drying yards and other customary features. Then Mr. Claytor died on July 23, 1915, mourned by many. Four children were born to them, three now living. The first-born died in infancy; Ella is the wife of J. E. Hedges, and resides on their ranch near Selma, with their two children, H. Leon and Ray; Grover is a rancher who owns twenty acres two miles north of here, and who married Bessie Todd of Selma, and they have four children- Dorris, Roxy, Grover E. and Amelia; Thomas, the youngest, is an invalid at home.

Mrs. Claytor, who is a member of the Peach Growers Association and a Democrat in matters of national politics, is about to be handsomely re- warded for long, persistent work, as the 1919 crop she has raised will undoubtedly pay off the last of the mortgages on her property, and then she will have clear title to house and land worth from thirty-five to forty thousand dollars. She is consistent in her life and character, likes to see others prosper and the general welfare advance, and with her family is highly respected.

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GEORGE P. MORAN .- Prominent among the progressive, influential and highly-respected ranchers who have helped to make Riverside Colony what it is, is George P. Moran, a native of San Francisco, where he was born in 1874. Growing up in that city, he attended the public schools there, and when he pushed out into the world, he became a clerk in the San Francisco Post Office. Later, he was engaged in the grocery business, so that his com- bined experience in the bay metropolis was of such a nature as to prepare him well for his later ventures.

In 1912 Mr. Moran removed to Fresno County, and here he embarked in ranching. He took charge of a farm, settled at an early date by M. E. Stanton and still the property of Mrs. Moran, who was Miss Elizabeth Stanton before her marriage. Mr. Stanton had long been a pioneer at Visalia, being in the boot and shoe business in Tulare County, but in 1885 he removed to Fresno County. He married Miss Margaret McCarty, and by her had two children- Elizabeth, already referred to, and Richard Stanton. The Moran ranch con- sists of sixty acres in the Riverside Colony and a quarter section in the River Bend Colony, all of which is set out to vines and fruit trees. Mr. Stanton died in December, 1902, his devoted wife having died in August of the same year. He was mourned as a man of that sterling character which always makes for the best in citizenship.

Mr. Moran and Miss Stanton were united in matrimony in 1907, and their union has been blessed with the birth of three children-George, Joyce and Ruth. Mrs. Moran is an attractive hostess and Mr. Moran is an exceed- ingly painstaking and accurate rancher, who keeps well abreast of the times, follows only the most scientific methods, and operates in the most up-to-date manner.

WILLIAM WERTZ .- A successful dealer in hardware and farming implements, whose previous experience as a practical farmer assists him every day to understand the problems of the agriculturist and to forestall his wants, is William Wertz, a native of Streator, Ill., and the son of John Wertz, a farmer, for a while in Livingston County, that state, who even- tually returned to Streator and now resides there. His mother was Jane Reed before her marriage, and she was a native of Illinois. She is still living, the mother of four children.

Born the second eldest of the family, on January 9, 1878, William was fortunately a "home boy," and was reared at Streator, where he attended the public schools. Later, having finished with his books, he began to work on the farm and then, desiring a handiwork that would be some guarantee for the future, he learned the plumbing trade, apprenticing himself to a Streator plumber. Once more he returned to the farm, this time in Livingston County ; and when he had finished there, he was probably as well-informed a farmer, for his years and length of practical experience, as any man in the Middle West.

Having had his attention, fortunately, attracted to California and its wonderful resources, and especially to the many advantages Fresno County has to offer, Mr. Wertz in 1913 came to Clovis and located here, buying a forty-acre vineyard where, for a couple of years, he engaged in the science of viticulture. Then he sold out and bought a twenty-seven-acre vineyard which he ran for a year, finally disposing of that.

Prior to selling out the second time, Mr. Wertz had purchased the bus- iness of Hawkins Brothers, the hardware dealers, and now he embarked in that line. He not only bought their extensive stock of hardware and agricul- tural implements, pumping plants, steel, tanks and plumbing, but also the building they had occupied; and he prepared for a larger business along the same lines. Now he installs, among other outfits, pumping plants, and sells the Waterloo Boy engine; he carries a full line of P. & O. implements and belting, etc., and his establishment on Front Street makes an excellent display.

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While in Illinois, Mr. Wertz was married to Miss Gertrude Clark, a na- tive of Mr. Wertz's birthplace ; and their union has resulted in two promising children-Gladys and Blanche. The family attend the Methodist Church; but far beyond the circles of that live religious organization Mr. and Mrs. Wertz are known for their loyal citizenship, their qualities as friends, their capacity as neighbors. Clovis has no more successful business man, and it has no more devoted couple.

JAMES HENRY GOOD .- The bright prospects held forth by the fertile valleys of California have allured many an ambitious young man to the "land of sunshine and flowers." Prominent among these valleys is that of the great San Joaquin, unexcelled for salubrity of climate, beauty of situation and fertility of soil. About the center of this valley lies the county of Fresno.

Among the enterprising young men who came to Fresno County while the country was new, is James Henry Good, who came from his native state of West Virginia, where he was born at Hamlin, Lincoln County, on December 3, 1873. His father, Samuel Henry Good, was a son of the "Old Dominion," born in Franklin County, and served at the age of sixteen as volunteer in the Southern army during the trying days of our great civil conflict. Upon returning to his home at the close of the war, he married one of the fair daughters of that state, Adeline M. Davis, removing after his marriage to Lincoln County, W. Va., where he followed the occupation of farming until he removed to Lexington, Dawson County, Nebr., where he resided until his death. Adeline Davis Good, who died in April, 1916, was the mother of seven children, of whom our subject was the third child.

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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 4

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