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 46
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On Washington's Birthday, 1917, Mr. Scoggins was married at Fresno to Mrs. Emily K. (McKinsey) Liggett, a native of Columbus, Kans., and the daughter of Samuel McKinsey. He was born in Indiana, and during the Civil War served in an Indiana regiment known as Wilder's Scouts. He moved to Columbus, Kans., became a farmer and died in Kansas. He had married Anna Rash, a native of Indiana ; and she came to Fresno in 1900 and resided here until she died, twelve years later. She was the mother of three children, and among these Mrs. Scoggins was the second oldest. Her first marriage occurred in San Francisco, when she became the wife of Harry Lig- gett, who represented the New York Life Insurance Company, and who died in Nevada in 1903. Mr. and Mrs. Scoggins attend the Methodist Episcopal Church, and are greatly interested in all good works that make for the uplift of the community, and he is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company.
FINNEY MILLER HART .- An hospitable old gentleman who was one of the first settlers in the Dakota Colony and has certainly "improved his talent." to use Scriptural phraseology, for he has improved the land he ac- quired and made of it a nice farm, is Finney Miller Hart, who came to the Kerman district in the fall of 1909. He was born in Camden, Preble County, Ohio, on March 20, 1847, the son of Silas Hart, also a native of Ohio, who was a farmer there. Silas Hart became an Argonaut, for he came to California as a sailor in 1849, sailing around Cape Horn, and he was seeking his fortune in the mines for six years. His oldest son John joined him two or three years later, and afterward removed to Washington, where he died. Silas Hart re- turned to Ohio, where he passed away. His wife was Hannah Slinger, a native of Ohio, and she died in the Buckeye State. She was the mother of seven boys and two girls ; and four boys are now living.
The second youngest of these, F. M., was brought up in Ohio and there attended the public schools. From a boy he learned farming, but when he was eighteen he enlisted in the United States Army and served until after the war. On attaining his twenty-second year, he came to Missouri and farmed for a year in Daviess County, and then he went to Marion, Linn County, Iowa, where he bought a farm. This he improved and operated, and then he removed to Cherokee County, Kans., where he bought 200 acres. He also came to own another strip of 127 acres, and still another block of forty acres. He raised corn and hogs, added to the region's wealth, and gained both prosperity and experience for himself.
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Having spent three winters in Los Angeles, he liked California so well that he decided to settle here, so in 1909 he sold out and came to Fresno County. He bought in the Dakota Colony some sixty acres of land covered with weeds, but by hard work he leveled and checked it for alfalfa and set out a peach and an apricot orchard. He also established a high-grade dairy. Of late he has been setting out a small Thompson seedless vineyard. These valuable improvements have greatly added to the attraction, not only of the property owned by Mr. Hart, but of the neighborhood in general. On Jan- uary 31, 1919, he sold off thirty acres on the west end, but still retains thirty acres.
In Linn County, Iowa, Mr. Hart and Miss Celia Wright were married and began what promised to be the happiest of mated lives. She was a native of that section, but she died there. Her blessed heritage was four children : Charles, who died in Denver; Rosalinda, who is Mrs. Penn and resides in Eastern Colorado; Clarence, a rancher in this district; and Walter, also a rancher here.
Mr. Hart belongs to the California Peach Growers, Inc., and vigorously supports its cooperative work ; and in civic duties he follows the great prin- ciples for which the Democratic party stands.
FRED O. GARDINER .- Among the educators of the state few names are more prominently associated with the advancement of business educa- tion in the San Joaquin Valley and the state of California than that of Fred O. Gardiner, owner and proprietor of Heald's Business College of Fresno. Mr. Gardiner was born in Dallas County, Iowa, January 25, 1872, a son of J. O. and Emily (Tovey) Gardiner. The father was of Scotch-Irish and the mother was of English descent. They were honest and industrious farmer folk, always doing the best they could to better the conditions in their locality.
Fred O. passed the early days of his boyhood on the home farm, but as he has no natural inclination to follow agricultural lines, little of his effort was spent in the performance of home duties. His one thought was to prepare himself for the world of business, and having learned telegraphy when a lad of ten or twelve years of age, he filled a position as operator on the Rock Island route in Iowa. It was during this time that he recognized his exceptional ability as a penman, a recognition which may be taken as the turning point in his business career, for it took him from commercial life and placed him in the educational field. His school advantages had been only what he could obtain in the country school in the vicinity of his birth- place. In order to perfect himself in the art of penmanship he took a special course in Highland Park College at Des Moines, Iowa, this was followed by a general course in Lincoln Normal University at Lincoln, Nebr., from which he was graduated in 1894 with the degree of Master of Accounts.
The following year Mr. Gardiner came to California and soon afterwards began his educational career as an associate with Heald-Dixon Business Col- lege of Oakland and San Francisco, in which he had a financial interest for two years. Selling out his interest in 1896, Mr. Gardiner went to Stockton where he accepted a position as a teacher in the commercial department of the Stockton Business College, which he filled with great credit to himself and much benefit to the college and students. He held this position for eight years, when he purchased the entire control of the institution in 1904. Two years later, in 1906, he sold out his interest to Mr. Heald and then became resident manager of the college. In 1905 he became half owner of the Dixon Business College at Stockton. He was one of the founders of the Heald chain of colleges in 1906, and was secretary of the chain, with his offices in San Francisco, giving it his entire time till 1915, when he sold his interests and came to Fresno in 1915 as owner of Heald's Business College at Fresno, which institution he has had much to do from its origin, building it up to its present high standard among the business colleges of the state.
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Heald's Fresno College was established in 1894. In 1906, Mr. Gardiner, as representative of Heald's chain of business colleges, bought it and an- other college here and consolidated them as Heald's Fresno College. It is now the largest commercial college in Interior California, and the second largest in the state, numbering thousands of graduates in its alumni, many of whom are now successfully engaged in business in the Valley. It has a daily attendance of 300 and specializes in bookkeeping, shorthand and office training.
Mr. Gardiner is interested in horticulture, specializing in growing Smyrna figs. He is the owner of a 100-acre fig orchard located in a cove above Clovis. He is very enthusiastic for the future success of the fig indus- try in Fresno County, as well as for the county's prosperity in all lines, and has determined to set his stake here and make it his permanent home and the scene of his future operations.
The marriage of Fred O. Gardiner and Miss Josephine Mylotte took place on December 25, 1898. Mrs. Gardiner is a daughter of Judge J. A. Mylotte of San Francisco, where she was born. Three children blessed this happy marriage: Ione, Jean, and Frances. Mr. Gardiner was bereft of his wife in January, 1918. Fraternally, Professor Gardiner is a member of the Masons, the Odd Fellows, and the Woodmen of the World. He belongs to the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants Asso- ciation. Mr. Gardiner's gift as an expert penman has given him a national reputation. He is prominent in the profession and well known throughout the United States as a teacher of bookkeeping and penmanship. Professor Gardiner has a pleasing personality and has always been popular with his pupils, a bond which has been a large factor in his success as an instructor.
HENRY F. MARTIN .- An enterprising Californian, who has been a factor in the development of Fresno for the past thirty-two years, is Henry F. Martin, the pioneer house-mover of Fresno County, and one of the best known men in his line in the state. He was born in Dekalb County, Ga., January 24, 1860, and when a lad of ten he was taken to Eastern Texas, where he remained five years. He then moved into the western part, and busied himself in farming and stock-raising. He was known as a far-seeing, hard-working man, and his success, therefore, is not surprising.
During the boom year of 1887, Mr. Martin arrived in Fresno, where he was first employed in grading Tulare Street from H to Van Ness Avenue. After that he was employed by the Fresno Water Company, and then for the Owens House-Moving Company. At the end of six months he rented their equipment and ran it for two years. Then he bought the outfit and has ever since been in the house-moving and reconstruction work in Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley.
House-moving has passed through three periods: First, the old windlass turned by horse-power, the house moving on wooden rollers-a tedious proc- ess. Later, trucks were put under the house and ten to thirty horses were used to pull it along. Finally, the present method is by the tractor caterpillar engine. Mr. Martin has successively used these three equipments in Fresno County and elsewhere in the San Joaquin Valley, operating from Merced to Bakersfield.
One of his "big jobs" was the moving of the St. Mary's Sisters' Hospital in Bakersfield, a three-story building requiring unusual caution and equip- ment. In Monterey he removed all the old buildings before the main street was graded. His present equipment includes a seventy-five horse-power Holt caterpillar tractor of the latest design. In early days ropes were used but now only steel cables are employed. In October, 1916, he raised the concrete county bridge of two thousand tons across Kings River, east of Sanger. This had settled, and needed to be jacked up and permanently braced. There is hardly a street in Fresno on which he has not moved a house. He also cleared
LaVinnie Peterson
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houses from the sites of many of the large buildings, among which are the old Hawthorne School, the Fresno Post Office, the Union Savings Bank Building, the Parker-Lyon Building, the Patterson Building, the National Bank Building, the Farmers Bank Building, the Fresno High School, and the Santa Fe Depot.
At one time Mr. Martin owned, improved and managed a ranch of eighty acres west of Fresno, where he had an orchard and also planted alfalfa. He has acquired valuable real estate in Fresno and owns a block of houses on Thesta and Valeria Streets, besides other valuable property. The two-story house in which he lives at 201 Thesta Street has quite an interesting history. He bought a ranch house, cut it into two parts and moved them six miles to Fresno. There he jacked it up and built an addditional story underneath. He has made a speciality of reconstructing houses, and has become an expert in that line.
While in Weatherford, Texas, Mr. Martin was married on September 7, 1882, to Sarah Freeman of Murray County, Ga., by whom he had five chil- dren : Barney A., superintending the house-moving department of the busi- ness for the past ten years ; William A., a druggist at Madera ; Oscar A., with the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation, at Fresno; Harriett N., of Oakland ; and Linnie, wife of C. R. Russell of Fresno.
Mr. Martin belongs to the Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Stags, the American Yeoman and the Fraternal Brotherhood. He has always shown a live interest in civic affairs, and was a member of the City Council for four years under Mayor Rowell's administration, representing the Fifth Ward.
JOSEPH A. T. PETERSON .- A Wisconsin boy with unusually inter- esting historic connections through marriage, who has made good in Fresno County where, for the past seventeen years, he has devoted his whole time to the boring of wells, is Joseph A. T. Peterson, who first came to Selma in the great boom year of 1887. His father, John P. Peterson, was born in Sweden, and so was his mother, who was Mary Charlotte Carlson before her marriage. Five children were born to this worthy couple: Joseph, of this sketch, and his brother Charles J. A., with their parents, constituted the fam- ily which came from Sweden to the United States in 1866. Two girls were born and died in Sweden, and Samuel G. was born in Wisconsin. Three sons, therefore, grew up and all are living. Charles J. A. Peterson is in Selma, and Samuel G., another well-borer, lives at Fowler. Charles was the first of the family to come to California, leaving Nebraska, where he was going to school, early in the spring of 1886.
Born in Stockholm, Sweden, on November 14, 1864, Joseph was a baby in his mother's arms when he came to America. He obtained most of his schooling in Door County, Wis. He came to Selma, on June 15, 1887, or four months before his parents, and went to work on a farm. Soon after, he engaged with D. B. Stephens, the famous well-borer at Selma, from whom he learned that intricate and difficult business, and he bought out Stephens' rig after the latter was accidentally killed in a train accident at Selma in 1892. He followed the well-boring business exclusively for nearly twenty years, and in 1900 bought his first ranch. Since then he has bought, sold and improved several pieces of valuable property.
Although so well-known as a borer of wells, Mr. Peterson has given most of his time to ranching for the past eighteen years, and he now owns two ranches two miles south of Selma, on the South McCall Road, which he leases. One of these is the old Dr. McClelland ranch of 120 acres, an old landmark and show-place, with the first large vineyard planted south of the town, and this grand old site will provide the future home of the family. He has another twenty-acre vineyard and alfalfa ranch just across the road.
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In 1910, Mr. Peterson sold his well-boring rig to his brother Samuel at Fowler.
The following year, on November 8, 1911, he was married to Miss La Vinnie Boone, a lineal descendant of the immortal Daniel Boone of Ken- tucky. She was born and reared in Missouri, and at Kirksville in that state attended the Normal School. Her father, Joseph Boone, was born in Ohio, but died near Kirksville, where he owned a farm twenty years ago; her mother, whose maiden name was Phoebe Miller, was a native of Indianapolis, Ind., and is still living at Kirksville. Of a family of twelve children, nine girls and three boys, Mrs. Peterson was the ninth child. Her choosing Cali- fornia was a bit romantic. She had come here on a visit to a sister, and while here had met and responded to the overtures of Mr. Peterson.
Mr. Peterson is ever ready to lend support to any movement making for the uplift of the community. He is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and was connected with the former organizations. He is a man of superior foresight and judgment, and so proves valuable as a counsellor. Personally, he is of that cordial and sympathetic temperament which is sure at all times to attract the stranger and to hold the friend. He is just the kind of timber of which great commonwealths must be built, and of which Central California is proud. He saw the first raisins that were stenimed in Fresno, done by horsepower; also the first vineyards of any size to be set out; and he has witnessed the transformation of sand hills. grain-fields and hog-wallows into the most productive of ranches.
FRED P. ROULLARD .- From a horticultural as well as an agricul- tural standpoint, perhaps no county in the State of California stands higher than that of Fresno, whose citizenship not only comprises native sons but claims a large quota from many other states, who have brought with them. for the benefit of the Pacific commonwealth, more or less of the combined scientific and technical experience and attainment of the nation. Prominent among such Californians by adoption must be mentioned Fred P. Roullard, the well-known and justly popular County Commissioner of Horticulture. who was born at Eaton, Colo., on November 25, 1884. His father was Joel Roullard, a successful rancher of Fresno County, who came to California in 1909 and settled on a ranch near Clovis, where he still lives. His wife was Elizabeth Lyman before her marriage.
Fred attended the common and high schools of Colorado, and later the Agricultural College at Fort Collins, in the same state, and then studied at the State University of Idaho, where he specialized in chemistry, plant biology and entomology, at the same time becoming active in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. His thoroughness and accuracy in those sciences soon secured him a lucrative position with the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, where he remained for two years as chemist, when he resigned to avail himself of a more advantageous position as chemist with the Great Western Sugar Com- pany, located at Eaton, Colo. He remained with that company until 1909 when he again resigned, this time to follow his father to Fresno County and to settle here.
He engaged in viticulture and agriculture with his father near Clovis, and during this time conducted lectures and laboratory work at the grammar school in horticulture, entomology and general agriculture. He also took the examination before the State Board of Horticulture Commissioners, and among all the applicants in that competition, received the highest honors.
On September 8, 1914. Mr. Roullard was appointed by the board of supervisors commissioner of horticulture for Fresno County ; and to such an extent has his preparedness in different lines of general agriculture and horticulture, soil chemistry and plant history enabled him to carry on the affairs of his office with signal ability and to the entire satisfaction of every- body, that each time since then he has been reappointed to succeed himself.
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Mr. Roullard was also appointed by the directors of the Fresno County Fair Association supervisor of agricultural and horticultural products for their district fair, a position to which he has given much time the last three years, bringing into play his long study and experience in that line, and so raising the standard of the Department each year that he has received favor- able comment not only from the Association, but from the public in general. To show how eminently satisfactory has been his research in the line of his profession, it is only necessary to state that in 1917 Mr. Roullard was induced by the Fresno Republican to accept the editorship of their Agricultural De- partment, a feature he put new life into with the zeal characteristic of his other undertakings.
Mr. Roullard has also been a liberal contributor of articles suggested by his professional work to other journals and magazines, and he has rendered valuable service in inducing the County Board of Education to cooperate with him in localizing agriculture and teaching the rudiments in the schools. He is the author of illustrated lectures and has outlined a course for schools in agriculture especially referring to insects, plant diseases and animal pests and their control. This is now outlined in a supplement to the manual of pub- lic schools for Fresno County, and was adopted by the Board of Education in June, 1918. He is also the author of "Insect Pests and Diseases of Interest to the Horticulturists of Fresno County," which is well illustrated.
Mr. Roullard has a most complete laboratory for the carrying out of his work of investigation in microscopy, as well as the analysing and testing of fruits, and a very complete cabinet of specimens in entomology. This scien- tific status, combined with a winning personality making him approachable and valuable for leadership and cooperation have been recognized, and as an active member of the State Association of County Horticultural Commission- ers, he is serving as Vice-President.
At Clovis, on July 21, 1915, Mr. Roullard was married to Miss Ruth Naden, a native of Nebraska who was reared in Fresno County ; and he and his able helpmate reside at their cosy home at 1240 North Van Ness Avenue, Fresno, where a generous and typically Californian hospitality is dispensed.
Mr. Roullard is an energetic and influential member of the Fresno Cham- ber of Commerce, well-known and highly esteemed both within and without that wide-awake and powerful body.
Commissioner Roullard gives evidence of the faith that is in him concern- ing the future and the bright prospects of Fresno County by having purchased and improved an orchard of twenty acres near Clovis, which he has planted to figs and made a neat and instructive "show place" to all interested in fig- culture.
R. L. PRICE .- Three-fourths of a mile north from Sanger, nestling amid flowers and shrubbery, with a background of orange trees to enhance the beauty of the scene, the whole presenting a picture long and delightfully to be remembered, stands a bungalow surrounded by a fine group of ranch buildings, each designed for a particular purpose, and each so well equipped that it fulfils its purpose admirably. Around this home are twenty-seven acres of highly-productive land, devoted principally to fruit. Ten of the twenty-seven acres are disconnected from the tract on which the dwelling stands. In this charming home, surrounded by the comforts and many of the luxuries of life, dwell Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Price who, by industry, thrift and economy, have built up for themselves a reputation that far excels in value houses or lands.
R. L. Price was born in Kentucky, in 1857, and is the son of George W. and Kate (Felts) Price, who had four children, two of whom found their way to California, the subject of this review and his brother, Joel F. R. L. was reared in Kentucky, completed high school in Texas in 1905, in which state he grew up until he came to the Golden State.
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When he purchased his California land, it was only wheat field, and he paid just fifty-five dollars an acre for it. That same year, however, the land advanced in price, and some ranches near sold at from sixty to sixty-five dol- lars an acre. His acreage was quite unimproved ; so that its higher productive capacity was due largely to the clearing and cultivating that he himself, with the sweat of his brow, gave it. He at once settled on his little ranch, and set to work resolutely to build for himself a home worthy of the future; for he had confidence that a few years would produce great changes for the better in Central California.
In 1888, at the height of the boom in land, he married his helpmate and inspiration in the great pioneering before him, Miss Anna Browning, daughter of Underwood Browning, who became the mother of two children, Lawrence L. and George U. Lawrence enlisted in November, 1917, for the great world war, serving in France in the United States Aviation Section. He was honorably discharged in March, 1919.
Mr. Price is a member of the Presbyterian Church and both himself and family are active therein and are highly esteemed in the community. He is also a member of the Red Men at Sanger. Mrs. Price is prominent in the Red Cross, Dorcas and Missionary Society.
JAMES FRANKLIN LOCKIE .- Another worthy representative of the Lockie family, honorably identified with the pioneer development of Central California, is James Franklin Lockie (usually called Frank Lockie) the youngest son of the late W. A. Lockie, whose life story appears elsewhere in this work. He owns forty choice acres, and is today one of the prosperous ranchers in this section, all the result of the industry and thrift exercised in the eighteen years since he purchased his estate.
He was born in Lake County, Ore., on September 21, 1872, and he was ten years old when he went with his parents to Texas. There, near Weather- ford, beginning as a boy and continuing seven years, he assisted his father at farming, and then he returned to California, in 1889, and settled here, still helping his father. He thus had a part in developing the great Lockie ranch where he early contributed something definite toward advancing California husbandry and in so doing added much to his own experience.
On October 20, 1901, Mr. Lockie was married at Fowler to Miss Lula Lillian Hearte, a woman of exalted Christian character, who was born at Weatherford and attended the public schools of Texas, and California; for she came to the Golden State as a girl of twelve years. She also became the youngest charter member of the Fowler Baptist Church, while her mother, Mrs. Lydia Hearte, now deceased, was the oldest charter member. Her father was William Melbourne Hearte, a native of Pennsylvania who came to Texas and married there. He engaged in general merchandizing at Weatherford, and died aged about seventy. He was twice married, and by his first wife had seven children who were all grown and married before he married a second time. Mrs. Lockie's mother, who was Mrs. Hearte's second wife, was born in Texas and belonged to the first generation of Texas girls; she also was mar- ried twice. Her first husband was a Mr. Nash, and their one child died in infancy. By Mr. Hearte she had four children : Mary, who is the wife of T. S. Lockie, the rancher at Winton ; and Lula Lillian, who is Mrs. J. F. Lockie. The other two children died in infancy. Mrs. Lockie passed the first twelve years of her life in Texas, and then came north with her mother to Fowler. Her sister, Mary Ella, was the first of the family to come out here, having met and married T. S. Lockie in Texas. But Mr. Lockie had remained in Texas and farmed for several years after his father, W. A. Lockie, and the rest of the family had returned to California.
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