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 45

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 45

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In 1903, Mr. Heidenreich made his first trip to California, and having seen Fresno County, he liked the prospect so well that he bought forty acres, to commence with, on Madera Avenue. He made arrangements to set out an orchard and to plant to alfalfa, and then he returned East. Four years later he left his Iowa property to be operated by his son and located on his ranch in Fresno County, which he set out in great part with vines, mostly Thomp- son seedless, and operates himself. He built an attractive residence, added other improvements, made his place not only attractive to the eye but of in- terest to the viticulturist, and joined the California Associated Raisin Co.

In Iowa, Mr. Heidenreich married Miss Mary Raab, a native of Germany, who died in Fresno, the mother of twelve children: Anne and Rachel are both dead; Mathilda is Mrs. Darling of Colorado; Barbara has become Mrs. Rising of Wall Lake, Iowa; Kate is the wife of Chris Seib, a sergeant-major in the United States Army in France; Maggie is Mrs. Wingert of South Da- kota; Joseph is in Iowa on his father's farm; Clara, who is Mrs. Winchell, lives in Fresno ; Lillie is Mrs. Glavenicht of Berkeley : John was a sergeant in the United States Army, and served in France ; and Cecilie and Marie are at home. The family attends the Roman Catholic Church of Fresno and Mr. Heidenreich seeks to elevate the standards of good citizenship through ac- tivity in national politics in the Democratic party.

N. L. HOYER .- Because N. L. Hoyer early put his shoulder to the wheel and helped to develop and build up Central California, he himself has become a successful rancher, distinguished for his enterprise and progressive methods, and surrounded by well-wishing friends on account of his kindheartedness and liberality. He was on the West Side for some years and so was fortunate in locating oil land. He still has important interests at Huron.

He was born at Svendborg, Island of Fyen, Denmark, on July 13, 1859, the son of Lars Mogensen, and when the government authorized the adop- tion of family names, he chose that of Hoyer. His mother had been Maren Larsen, and she died in 1868, followed fourteen years later by her husband. The parents were farmer-folk and highly respected in the community in which they lived. There were three sons, and N. L. was the second, as he is the only one now living. He was reared on the home farm and attended the local Danish school, and when fourteen he started to paddle his own canoe by working out for other farmers. Seven years later he entered the Danish navy and at the end of the required time for patriotic service he was honorably discharged.

On June 5, 1884, he came to Fresno and went to work in a vineyard in the Central Colony, learning horticulture and viticulture. In the fall of 1887, he went to the West Side, and at Huron took up a preemption claim of 160 acres two and a half miles north of that place. He improved it, and proved up on it in 1888, and then took a homestead, the northeast quarter in section 12-20-14. He built a home and fulfilled the requirements of the law, and proved up on it, obtaining a government deed. When oil development began in that section, he sold out at a good profit.

Fortunately, Mr. Hoyer had previously returned to the vicinity of Fresno and bought the present place of forty acres at Rolinda on White's Bridge Road. It was raw land, being under the ditch, but he set to work, leveled

N. L. Hloyer.

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it and planted alfalfa, at the same time engaging in dairying and stock-raising. He finally sold his homestead in the Coalinga district, and then he built a res- idence on his home-place, so that now he has a fine home-ranch. He set ont a vineyard of sultana, malaga and wine-grapes, and made a model farm- property. He still owns the ranch at Huron.

In 1904, Mr. Hoyer made his first trip back to Denmark, to see the old home and friends, and three years later he made a second trip to Denmark. The same year, 1907, on his return to Fresno, he was married to Maren Niel- sen, a native of Denmark, by whom he has had three children: Dagmar, Walter, and Chester. He not only belongs to the Danish Brotherhood, but he is an ex-president of that organization.

Mr. Hoyer is a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association and was a director in it for many years. He is a member and stockholder of the Cal- ifornia Peach Growers, Inc., and also of the California Associated Raisin Com- pany and the California Prune and Apricot Association.

DAVID SCOTT .- The Kerman district is fortunate in having such a public-spirited citizen as David Scott, rancher, of the Empire Colony, and formerly justice of the peace of Township 11, and a lawyer of many years of experience in the Middle West.

Mr. Scott is a native of the Buckeye State, having first seen the light of day at Saint Paris, near Urbana, Champaign County, Ohio, on November 19, 1868. His parents were Rev. David and Mary J. (Lippincott) Scott, both natives of Ohio, the father having been born in Logan County, the mother in Lima. Rev. David Scott was an able pioneer preacher of the Baptist Church in Ohio where he continued his faithful work until 1873 when he located in Beloit, Mitchell County, Kans., and engaged in farming as well as continuing his work of preaching the gospel and was instrumental in organizing churches all over the northwestern portion of Kansas. After many years of faithful service in the vineyard of the Lord, the Rev. David Scott retired in 1890, and continued to reside in Kansas until his removal to Harrisonville, Mo., where his devoted wife passed away in 1896, after which he returned to Ohio where he died in February, 1904. At Myrtletree, Ohio, he organized the first Baptist Church and preached the dedicatory sermon when the first church building was erected, and fifty years later attended the dedicatory services upon the occasion of the completion of a new church edifice, on the same site, when he preached the dedicatory sermon. During the Civil War, Rev. David Scott was a first lieutenant in the Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which was in command of Gen. James A. Garfield, who later be- came President of the United States of America, being inaugurated on March 4, 1881, was shot July 2, by an assassin, and died September 19, 1881.

The Rev. David Scott and wife were the parents of nine children, three of whom, all boys, are still living. the subject of this review, Judge David Scott, being the second youngest; Tully Scott, the oldest brother, is Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of Colorado; L. W. Scott, the other brother, is a broker, residing in Kansas City, Mo.

When about five years of age, David Scott removed with his parents from Ohio to Kansas where he attended the public school of his district, and also at Chillicothe, Mo., and for one year had the privilege of attending that splendid educational institution of the Baptist Church, William Jewell Col- lege, situated at Liberty, Mo. Afterwards he became contest clerk, in the United States Government Land Office at Oberlin, Kans. Having decided to enter professional circles, David Scott took up the study of jurisprudence and in due time was admitted to the bar, taking up the active practice of law, which he followed at Oberlin, Kans., until 1890, when he drove overland to Lewistown, Mont. Here he opened a law office and established a newspaper, the Montana Democrat, later the Lewistown Democrat; also finding time to engage in mining.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

In January, 1907, Mr. Scott removed to Goldfield, Nev., where he opened an office for the practice of his profession, also becoming interested in mining property, and purchasing a twenty-eight-acre claim, but owing to the financial panic of 1907 he did not develop his mine. In December, 1909, he located at Kerman, Fresno County, where he purchased a forty-acre ranch of raw land, in the Empire Colony, located on Thompson Avenue, between Belmont and Mckinley. He leveled and improved the land, planted alfalfa, built a residence, and engaged in the dairy business, continuing until August, 1916, when he rented his ranch and located on Madera Avenue.

Having a desire to reenter professional life, Mr. Scott became a candi- date for the office of justice of the peace, for the Eleventh Township, Fresno County, at the primary election held August, 1914, receiving the nomination over three opponents and later was duly elected for a term of four years, taking the oath of office in January, 1915, serving till January, 1919.

On December 7, 1895, in the state of Montana, Mr. Scott was united in marriage with Miss Clara M. McKoin, a native of Helena, Mont., and a graduate of the Helena High School. Her parents were pioneers of Oregon and Montana, being engaged in ranching and stock-raising. This union has been blessed with two children: Rena, a graduate of Kerman High School; and Doris, who graduated from Fresno High School.

Fraternally, Judge Scott is a member of Judith Lodge, No. 30, Knights of Pythias, at Lewistown, Mont., and in political matters supports the Demo- cratic ticket. Judge Scott has won a host of friends by his just decisions, is a highly esteemed and progressive citizen and always gives his aid to the advancement of all movements for the betterment of the community.

ROBERT E. CARPENTER .- A man who has become posted in en- gineering and mechanics, is Robert E. Carpenter, whose wife is the represen- tative of an old pioneer family of California. He was really christened Robert Edward, and was born in Brownell, Ness County, Kans., on April 5, 1888, the son of Reuben T. Carpenter, a native of Iowa. The father came to Kansas when a young man, and homesteaded in Ness County, where he was one of the early settlers. He followed farming and stock-raising there, and in time became a successful man. In December, 1918, he retired to Great Bend, Kans., where he now resides. Mrs. Carpenter was Clara Van Winkle before her marriage, and her grandfather crossed the plains in early days to Califor- nia, but returned East again. She died when Robert, who was the oldest of three children, was about six years of age. He has a brother, E. V. Carpenter, an electrician for the Standard Oil Company of California.

Robert's childhood was passed on his father's farm until he was sixteen years of age, during which time he received the foundation for a good educa- tion in the public schools of Kansas. Then he followed clerking in a store, and later was employed in the pumping department of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. From there he went to Denver, Colo., and while there he enlisted in the United States Navy and in January, 1908, came west to Goat Island in San Francisco Bay, where he remained until October, 1908. Then he sailed on the cruiser California-the same vessel that was afterward called San Diego and which last year went down off New York City. Thus serving his country, Mr. Carpenter remained abroad for three years and two months, during which time he became oiler. The cruise was very educational, for he visited various important ports of Japan, the Philippines, New Guinea, and South America.

In December, 1911. Mr. Carpenter received his honorable discharge at San Francisco, and he liked the coast so well that he concluded to remain in California. In January, 1912, he came to Bakersfield and the following June entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company. His first position was in the pipe-line department, and he was assigned immediately to the Mendota Pumping Station, where he rose gradually to be an engineer. Having ac-

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quired a special knowledge of work with asbestos, he has given the company satisfaction by doing all that was required in that field, and in the same ex- pert manner as engineers aboard ship are accustomed to do.

At Fresno, on August 15, 1912, Mr. Carpenter was married to Miss Wealthy Caruthers, a native of Caruthers, Fresno County, and the daughter of William A., the famous founder of the town called after him. He was a doughty soldier in the Civil War and he and his wife both died at Caruthers. They had four children, two of whom are living, one being in the United States Navy. The youngest in the family, Mrs. Carpenter, was educated in the public and high schools at Hanford. They have one child, a bright daughter named Elsie Lucile.

A Democrat in national politics, Mr. Carpenter is ever ready to help good local movements, irrespective of party. He is a member of the Eagles, and is affiliated with the lodge at Fresno.

JACOB P. CHRISTIAN .- A progressive and able man, one who would make a place for himself in any country, Jacob P. Christian has weathered both prosperity and adversity in the confines of Fresno County, and is now building his fortunes anew from the fertile soil of this section. He is a native of Russia, born March 17, 1872, in Dinkel, on the Volga River, Samara, a son of Phillip and Katie (Reinhardt) Christian, both of that country, and there the father died, January 28, 1918; the mother is still living on the home farm. They were the parents of nine children, two girls and seven boys, of whom Jacob P. is the oldest of three brothers now living in America, the others being Henry, of Fresno, and Carl, of Kutner Colony.

He was brought up on the home farm, and received his education in the public schools of his native country and also in a special advanced school. He remained at home until twenty-one, when he entered the Russian Army, in 1894, in a cavalry regiment, entering training school in Poland; in his examinations he stood second highest out of forty-eight, received second prize and was commissioned second lieutenant. advanced to first lieutenant, and also made maps of maneuvers. He served five years, and received prizes for liorse-breaking and for shooting. Before he obtained his honorable dis- charge, Mr. Christian had some difficulty with the military authorities be- cause of his expose of the misappropriation of supplies by General Tomas- chefski, who sold them and put the money in his own pocket. Instead of be- ing protected for his honesty, the military powers shielded the general. The result was that Mr. Christian made an appeal to the German Emperor, under whose flag his forefathers had been reared, and through his influence he was given a full release as a citizen of Russia and his discharge granted. While this was being consummated he was a resident of Germany for seven months, during which time he decided he would seek a new field for his talents.

In December, 1898, therefore, Mr. Christian arrived in Fresno; he spoke German-Russian and Polish, and soon acquired a good knowledge of Eng- lish. He engaged in ranching near Fresno, buying a 120-acre ranch from Balfour-Guthrie Company, for $72 an acre; of this property he sold 100 acres to friends for $80 per acre, and improved the balance to vineyard and orchard, and later sold it. He then engaged in grain-farming, leasing 640 acres of the old Hyde ranch and 320 acres of the A. S. Kellogg ranch, part of which was in alfalfa, and a dairy was also maintained on the ranch. Later, on account of his wife's health, Mr. Christian sold out and located in Fresno, where he bought a grocery store on Elm and California Avenues, which he operated for sixteen months as the Elm Avenue Grocery Company; at the end of that period he sold out and engaged in real estate under the firm name of the South Realty Company, and also became a notary public. He continued in the realty business for about five years, and then bought back the grocery, continuing under the old name from July, 1915, to May 14, 1916, when he was burned out and lost all he had made in years. Nothing daunted,

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however, he again began ranching, purchasing twenty acres on Floyd Avenue which he devoted to Thompson seedless grapes. He still is authorized to do notary public work and conveyancing.

The marriage of Mr. Christian on July 24, 1899, in Fresno, united him with Miss Katie Klamm, born in Russia, and a daughter of Jacob Klamm, now living retired in Fresno; she was brought to Fresno when thirteen years of age, by her parents. To Mr. and Mrs. Christian seven children have been born: Lizzie; Mollie; Alex; Henry; Fred; Emelia; and Lydia. They attend the Free Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Mr. Christian is secretary of the Brotherhood of German Churches in Fresno County and Dinuba, and during the drives collected funds for the Red Cross, of which he is a life member, and he was active in other patriotic work during the war. He is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and of the Califor- nia Peach Growers, Inc. Progress and advancement have been his watch- words, and, always a student, he is now putting in his spare time in the study of law. Mr. Christian organized and started what is now the California Post, published in Fresno, and was its president and director for several years, when he resigned for lack of time to give to the publication. He is well read and of keen vision, and has been an active, loyal Republican.

CHARLES HENRY CLIFFORD .- An efficient and popular official who has amply demonstrated the possibility of not only conducting a public trust to the satisfaction of the people, but of making a commercial success of California husbandry, is Charles Henry Clifford, the constable for whom his neighbors always have a good word, and for whose work as a viticul- turist fellow ranchmen are full of admiration. He was born in Queen City, Mo., September 13, 1864, and attended the local schools at the same time that he was reared on a farm. In 1883, he went to Warren, Mo., then to Lucas County, Iowa, and in 1885 he went back to Missouri. In February of the following year he took his team to Nebraska, and there he farmed in Lexing- ton, Dawson County, in 1887 going on to Fort Robinson. He then returned to Lexington in 1888, and the next year he bought a ranch of eighty acres in that section and improved it, so that it had a good market value.

Attracted by the alluring accounts of opportunities in Central Cali- fornia, Mr. Clifford, in 1894, came to Fresno County with his sisters and, having secured a tract of forty acres, located here. Of this area he owns twenty acres and his sisters own the other twenty. He has improved his ranch by planting it to muscat and malaga vines, having five acres of the latter; he has erected the necessary buildings and thus equipped himself for active membership in the California Associated Raisin Company, with which he is proud to be affiliated.

At Lexington, Nebr., in 1888, Mr. Clifford was married to Miss Sarah C. Oldham, who was born in Mount Pleasant, Utah, and grew up to be a teacher in Nebraska. Three children have come to brighten the Clifford home: Lulu, a graduate of the Fresno State Normal, and a teacher in one of the Fresno schools; Luther, who served his country in the World War until honorably discharged, and who now has charge of his father's ranch; and Hazel, who is also a graduate of Fresno State Normal, now principal of the Wolter's School. It will thus be seen that the trend of the family is toward education and, in fact, Mr. Clifford has given no less than six years of service as school trustee in the Jefferson district.

Mr. Clifford has also served his fellow citizens in still another field of the public service. In 1898 he was elected a constable of the second judicial town- ship of Fresno County, and took the oath of office on January 7, 1899. He was reelected in 1902, 1906, 1910, 1914 and in 1918, and has thus served in this responsible position, requiring so much good judgment and fidelity, for the past twenty years. He has proven one of the best constables Fresno County ever had, and his face and figure, identified in the beginning with horseback

6 th Clifford

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locomotion and later the more comfortable transportation by team, and now by auto, have long been familiar to thousands. In national politics, Con- stable Clifford is a Democrat, in former days being a delegate to county con- ventions from his district, but in local affairs he applies in particular the vir- tues of the Golden Rule and supports the best proposition and the cleanest candidates. He is an Odd Fellow, and belongs to the Clovis Lodge.

WILLIAM S. LOCKIE .- An industrious and progressive raisin grower who resides four miles north of Fowler on his well-improved ranch, is W. S. Lockie, popularly called Will Lockie, the influential and far-sighted repre- sentative of a notable Central California family sketched at greater length in the interesting outline of his father's life given elsewhere in this work. He helped to organize and is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Fowler; and all who know him look upon him as a man of the strictest integrity.

Will Lockie is the fourth child of the late W. A. Lockie, widely known in his time and highly respected as a prosperous pioneer rancher, and was born in Solano County, Cal., May 7, 1874. He was a boy when the family moved to Oregon, and was twelve years old when they migrated to Weather- ford, Parker County, Texas, where they stayed for about seven and a half years. They then came back to California and settled in the De Wolf school district, and the son helped to plant the W. A. Lockie place of 180 acres, as he also planted his own sixty acres, to trees and vines, now bearing fully. Other improvements also were made, including a good residence, barns, etc.

At the age of twenty-nine, Mr. Lockie was married in Fowler to Miss Effie Bradley, who died in 1912, leaving two children-Margaret, who is in the high school at Fowler, and Keith, who is attending the grammar school. Mr. Lockie was married a second time, in 1914, to Mrs. Alice (Donahue) Whittican, who was born in Nevada. She had one child by her first union, Bonnie Whittican, now attending school in the state of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Lockie took an active interest in such commendable work as that of the Liberty Loan drives, Red Cross and other war activities during the World War. They belong to the Christian Church at Fowler. Mr. Lockie is a Republican in matters of national political import, but is one of the first to support heartily, without partisanship, any good movement for local up- lift. He believes that just as the citizen gives close and intelligent attention to local problems, so will the nation as a whole be soundly organized and developed.

JOHN LEE SCOGGINS .- A successful viticulturist who, after ex- tensive investigation, finds the soil and climate in Empire most suitable to raisin-growing, and also a native son who is greatly interested in California history, is J. L. Scoggins, who was born in Colusa, Cal., on October 6, 1866. His father, A. J. Scoggins, was born in Alabama, and when two years old was taken by his parents to Tennessee where he was reared. Grandfather Scoggins had an honorable part as a soldier in the Mexican War, and A. J., who inherited the same intrepid spirit, crossed the great plains in 1853 to California and settled in Yolo County, where he was a farmer. His first wife died there, and in 1856 he returned east and in Tennessee married Rebecca Ann Cleeke, a native of that state. With his wife, Mr. Scoggins, in 1857, started to cross the plains, but having stopped to winter in Arkansas he did not reach California until the following year. He made his way again to Yolo County, and soon bought a farm near Colusa, in Colusa County, and there became a large landowner, widely known as a grain-farmer and stock- man. In 1875 he removed to Sonoma County, but after a year took up his residence, in January, 1877, in Tulare, now Kings County, where he engaged in farming. He bought railroad lands and improved them, but in the fall of 1883 he removed to Texas. Four years later he returned to California and busied himself as a viticulturist at Dinuba, in Tulare County, and there he died. A daughter by the first marriage died in Tulare, and Mrs. Scoggins 81

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also passed away there, the mother of four boys and three girls, all of whom are now living save one son.

The fifth eldest in the family, J. L. Scoggins, was brought up in Tulare and Kings Counties and there attended the public schools, meanwhile learn- ing grain-farming. He continued home until he was eighteen, when he went to work on a ranch in the employ of Ed. Giddings. During a service of ten years he was made foreman, and then he engaged with A. W. Clark of Messrs. Clark & Kennedy, the grain-farmers and stockmen of Dinuba. He was with them eighteen years, and became superintendent of their stock- raising.

During this time Mr. Scoggins improved a forty-acre vineyard at Dinuba, which he set out to Thompson seedless and muscat grapes; and five years ago he quit the service of Clark & Kennedy to manage his own place. In 1916 he sold his holding and bought his present ranch on Thompson Avenue. Fresno County. This was a tract of forty acres in the California Bank sec- tion, and only fourteen acres were set out with Thompson grapes; and in 1917 he set out sixteen acres more. He provided irrigation from the ditch, sunk a well and put in a pumping-plant, and since then he has been improving his property in many ways, until it is now one of the finest ranches of its size in the locality.

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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 45

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