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 54

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 54

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& EWilliamson

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

In 1907 he moved to Fowler, Fresno County, Cal., and was engaged in the butcher business from 1909 to 1914. During the year 1913, he purchased his present ranch of 120 acres, one mile west of Fowler. By applying the same system of hard work and intelligent management to the raisin industry, that he did to the cattle business, Mr. Williams has succeeded equally as well and has gained for himself the reputation of being one of Fresno County's most successful vineyardists and horticulturists.

He is very public-spirited and always interested in those movements that have as their aim the upbuilding of the best interests of the community. He still possesses his Mexican lariat which he used about thirty-five years ago and can throw it today as well and effectively as any cow-boy.

Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Williams are the parents of six children, of whom they are justly proud: Lela, married George Wilkins and they reside one- half mile northwest of Fowler; Mabel, is the wife of Porter Brown, and they live in Fowler, where he is the foreman of the Phoenix Packing House ; Lois, was the assistant postmaster at Fowler, she married Ervin Freer, of Fowler ; William, married Mary Jackson, and assists in running the Williams home place near Fowler; Max answered the call of his country and served in the United States Army. He was honorably discharged in May, 1919, and is now assisting his father on the home farm. He was married July 31, 1919, to Miss Jonnie Newton of Fresno. Robert, who is eleven years of age, is at home. Mr. Williams is a man of high ideals and unquestioned integrity and his family are highly respected in their community.

SIMEON EDGAR WILLIAMSON .- A native son of the Golden State, grandson of a forty-niner who was a successful gold-miner and a descend- ant of an officer in the Revolutionary War, the subject of this sketch, S. E. Williamson, is a very energetic and progressive rancher in the Elkhorn school district, and a director of the Fresno District Fair. He was born at Stockton, Cal., January 15, 1877, a son of George F. and Ann (Ballard) Williamson; the former, who died July 11, 1919, was a native of Michigan, whose sketch will be found upon another page of this history; the latter, a native of the Golden State, is still living on the George F. Williamson home ranch near Riverdale. The family came to Fresno County in Novem- ber, 1885, settling near what is now Caruthers. The trip was made to the new home with a team and wagon, and S. E. Williamson, then a small boy, well remembers that the family were detained at Fresno for three days on account of breaking the wagon tongue. The father raised wheat at first on a tract of land owned by Timothy Paige, who was a large landowner and pioneer, the ranch being situated about three-quarters of a mile south of Caruthers.

Simeon E. attended the Princeton school, and when but a small boy evinced a fondness for the "great out-of-doors," helping his father on the ranch when but nine years of age. He learned farming from his father and was always very industrious, which commendable trait has characterized him through his lifetime. Before coming of age, he started in business for himself, buying a team and contracting for earth-work, such as ditch-build- ing, road-making, and reclaiming land, helping to drain the Murphy slough, by which thousands of fertile acres were reclaimed for farming. In 1898, before the Santa Fe Railway was built, he helped to build the first ditch in the Laguna de Tache Grant, where Laton now is situated.

On June 15, 1902, S. E. Williamson was united in marriage with Miss Alice Hatch, the only daughter of Mrs. Mary J. Hatch, a pioneer of the Elkhorn school district, a sketch of whose life appears upon another page of this history. They have six children: Sidney; Robert, who is called Bert; Mary E .; Edna J .; Francis L .; and George.

Mr. and Mrs. Williamson make their home on the old Dennis Hatch ranch, which Mr. Williamson operates, and he operates a 2,000-acre cattle-

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

ranch besides. He is a director of the Fresno District Fair, which has proved a marked success; the board of directors comprises S. E. Williamson, J. E. Dickinson, H. E. Vogel, Frank Helm, A. McNeill, M. D. Huffman, and P. B. Thornton. Mr. Williamson is deeply interested in educational mat- ters, and since 1912 has ably served as a member of the board of trustees of the Riverdale High School. Mr. and Mrs. Williamson are highly esteemed in their community.

GEORGE E. LANDRY .- Popular in fraternal and business circles of Fresno and as the assistant secretary of the Fresno Sequoia Club, George E. Landry is well-known. He was born in Canada, February 15, 1867, the son of Peter and Mary (Choinier) Landry, farmer folk of Canada. He grew up on his father's farm and his education was received in the public schools of Lowell, Mass. After leaving school he went back home to help his father. Both parents are now deceased.

In 1886, at the age of nineteen, Mr. Landry married Mary L. Dion, and they have had five children born to them: William E. is in the employ of the Stavnow Furniture Company in Los Angeles ; Laura is Mrs. Fred Merrill, of Camarillo, Cal .; and Eva, Leo, and Alice are at home.

Mr. Landry spent three years in North Adams, Mass., and then moved to New Bedford, where from 1895 to 1906 he served as steward of the Wamsutta Club. During his residence in that city he became interested in the oil busi- ness. In 1908 he came to California as the representative of the New Bedford Oil Company, and for nearly four years he had charge of their business here. He next became a clerk in the Grand Central Hotel in Fresno and later was manager of the hotel for eighteen months. or until January 1. 1917, when he was appointed to the position of steward and secretary of the staff of the county hospital, by the county commissioners. He served faithfully until July 1, 1918, and then became assistant secretary of the Fresno Sequoia Club. Mr. Landry is a member of the Catholic Church, the Knights of Colum- bus, the Elks and the Commercial Club. In politics he is a Republican.

A. T. CARLSON .- A man who has attained, in a few years, an envi- able success in the commercial and banking circles of Kingsburg, Cal., is A. T. Carlson, a native of Sweden, where he was born on September 12, 1872. He has been a resident of the United States most of his lifetime, as his parents brought him to Barnes County, N. D., in 1880, when about eight years of age. He was reared in Barnes County, and after finishing his education in the public school of his district he engaged in farming. In 1903, A. T. Carlson took a trip to California and while visiting Kingsburg, Fresno County, he became favorably impressed with its location and climatic advantages. With keen foresight he could discern the future possibilities. Returning to North Dakota, he sold his interests and moved to California, and during the fall and winter of 1904-1905 he was engaged in farming.

Mr. Carlson soon engaged in the hardware and furniture business, in Kings- burg, with J. F. Nelson. In the spring of 1906, he purchased the interests of his partner and became sole owner of the business, which he has continued ever since, as the Kingsburg Hardware and Furniture Company. Since he took charge of the business its growth has been phenomenal. Inheriting the characteristic zeal and thrifty habits of the Swedes, and acquiring the hustle and acumen of the man of affairs in the great West, it is but natural that we find him today one of the most progressive and successful citizens of Kings- burg. The rapid growth of the business necessitated larger quarters; the first building was 36x50 feet which soon became too small. In 1909 the first enlargement was made, but in 1917 it became necessary to practically rebuild, and the new building is now 88x100 fect. The new store-room is one of the finest and best equipped in the San Joaquin Valley, in the hardware and furniture line. With its up-to-date cases and displays of fine merchan- dise, the store is very attractive.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Additional evidence of Mr. Carlson's exceptional ability is found in the fact that he is first vice-president of the Kingsburg Bank, which he was in- strumental in organizing, and which now has the largest deposits of any bank in Kingsburg. He is public-spirited and is ready to aid in the further- ance of the educational, religious, and commercial interests of the community.

A. T. Carlson was united in marriage with Miss Emily Nyberg, of North Dakota, who is also a native of Sweden. Mr. and Mrs. Carlson are the parents of four children : Adolph A .; Nannie; Mildred; and Esther. Mr. Carlson and wife are leaders in the work of the Swedish Free Church at Kingsburg, which has recently built a new church edifice. Mr. Carlson was active in the incorporation of the town of Kingsburg and was elected to the first board of city trustees and served five years, serving as chairman of the board one year, a position equivalent to the office of mayor.

RALPH F. MITCHELL .- The successful and efficient superintendent of the California Associated Raisin Company's branch located at Del Rey, Fresno County, Ralph F. Mitchell, is a native son of the Golden State having been born in San Juan, San Benito County, on December 19, 1879. He is a son of Charles E. and Elizabeth (Hewitt) Mitchell, both natives of Ver- mont who migrated to California, the former in 1859 and the latter ten years later. Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Mitchell were the parents of six children, five of whom grew to maturity: William H., Robert D., Ralph F., Elizabeth W., and Helen G.

The early life of Charles E. Mitchell was spent in the sheepraising busi- ness, and at one time he owned as high as 15,000 head. Fraternally, he was a prominent Mason and also a member of the Chapter. He held the office of Grand Warden, and was Grand Patron in the Order of the Eastern Star.

Ralph F. Mitchell was associated with the American Seedless Raisin Company for six years, during four of which he held the important post of superintendent, a position upon which depends the volume of business done and the dispatch with which it is executed. In December, 1918, he became superintendent of the California Associated Raisin Company's plant at Del Rey, which he is now enlarging, adding a seedless-raisin packing plant. In fact, preparations are being made to increase the facilities for handling a greatly enlarged seedless raisin product during the present year and in the future. When improvements are completed, it will compare favorably with the best of the association's plants outside of the parent plant at Fresno.

In 1906, R. F. Mitchell was united in marriage with Louise M. Nutting, a native of Berkeley, Cal., and a daughter of W. R. Nutting. Four children have come to bless and brighten the home circle: Hewitt F., Franklin G., Esther H., and Richard R. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell are active and influential members of the Congregational Church. Mr. Mitchell is a man of sterling worth and is held in high esteem in business and social circles. He is one of the directors of the First National Bank at Del Rey, which will occupy its new structure in 1919.

WILLIAM D. McLEOD .- A public-spirited leader of Kingsburg generous to a fault in all that advances the community, and therefore, ex- tremely popular, and at the same time one of the most successful of business men, is William D. McLeod, proprietor of the Rexall Drug Store, one of the two excellent pharmacies of the town. He came to Kingsburg in 1915 and has succeeded, by rare qualities applied in a commonsense manner, in winning for himself a place among the ablest and most influential.

Mr. McLeod's drug-store is centrally located. He compounds physicians' prescriptions with exacting care, and is well assisted, in waiting on his large and growing list of customers, by two thoroughly trained clerks familiar, like himself, with the oddities and demands of human nature. He has a soda fountain, deals in books, phonographs, toys, sporting goods, papers, magazines, cigars, proprietary medicines, and similar necessities, and is constantly en-

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

larging his trade. His genial personality, coupled with a thorough knowledge of pharmacy, his wide experience in business, his sanitary establishment and large and well selected stock, his courteous attention to the wants of all customers-all these have resulted in his commanding a large share of the patronage of the locality.

Mr. McLeod was born at Ottawa, Canada, and there he grew up, to serve a four years' apprenticeship in a leading pharmacy and to complete the regular pharmaceutical course at the Ontario College of Pharmacy, from which he was graduated in 1898. He is duly licensed in the various States of the Union, as well as in his native Canada. Being thus equipped, he has seen much of the North American continent, an experience of value in his profes- sional work. He has held positions as pharmacist in leading drug-stores in New York City, Toronto, Vancouver, San Francisco, Nome (Alaska), where he was in 1905, Tonopah (Nev.), and Seattle, from which city he came to Kings- burg in 1915. In some of these places he conducted drug-stores of his own. He was thus pleasantly situated at Tonopah, where he had made heavy in- vestments, when, by reason of the panic of 1907 the boom broke and he suf- fered severe losses. He has always been able to maintain a good credit, and is enjoying the inevitable reward of playing the game right and keeping wide awake.

At Manhattan, N. Y., in April, 1906, Mr. McLeod was married to Mrs. Anetta Finking, nee Attinger, formerly of San Francisco; and they have one child, Louise, a general favorite. Mrs. McLeod shares the popularity and good-will enjoyed by her husband.

To know Mr. McLeod is to like him. His advent to Kingsburg brought the town a progressive citizen, a good booster, and a man who, with his charming family, adds much to the community's status and social life.

WILLIAM ARTHUR TROUT .- A young man of much native ability, an excellent workman who thoroughly understands his business, and an ex- ceptionally progressive young man distinguished as the prime mover in club and other social affairs, and in forwarding all that makes for the general uplift of the community, is William Arthur Trout, who was born in The Dalles, Ore., on April 8, 1885. His grandfather, J. H. Trout, was born in Kentucky and settled in Oregon; while E. W. Trout, the father of our subject, was a native of Maitland, Mo. In that state he was married to Miss Laura Gordon, of Maitland, and in time they came to what was then called The Dalles, Ore., where Mr. Trout worked at farming. In 1897, the family moved to Salinas, Monterey County, Cal., and there Mr. Trout was favorably known as an able carpenter and builder. In Salinas he died, in 1916, following to the grave his wife, who had passed away seventeen years before. Five children had been given these devoted parents-all sons, and each in his way promising-and three of these are still living; and among them, the subject of this instructive sketch was the second youngest. H. G. is a bookkeeper with the Shell Com- pany at Oilfields; H. E. died at Salinas in 1902, when he was nineteen years old, and E. L. also passed away at the same place in 1904 and at the same age ; and O. C. Trout is serving his country valiantly in the United States Navy.

Reared on an Oregon farm until he was twelve years old, William was educated in the public schools and in 1902 went to San Francisco where, at the age of past sixteen, he was apprenticed as a sheet-metal worker in John H. Blakeway's works. At the end of two years he entered the service of the Pacific Blower and Heating Company and in two years was made superintend- ent of their plant. Immediately after the great fire and earthquake, he opened business on his own account at the corner of Eighth and Folsom Streets, San Francisco, and for a year did sheet metal work of all kinds; but in 1908 he quit, lured by the greater attractions of Oilfields.

In April of that year he entered the employ of the California Oilfields, Ltd., as foreman of the tank department, and built and started their shop. In

Beulah V. Fincher.

N.B. Fina

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

August, 1913, when the Shell Company took over the property, he not only continued with them in the same capacity, but he enlarged their department through his valuable practical experience. Now it includes all sheet-metal work, the plumbing and the operation of the three distilled water-plants. It is indeed a big, busy department ; and Mr. Trout is the foreman of all that goes on there.

While in San Francisco, Mr. Trout was married to Miss Ann Irwin, who was born at Waco, Texas, but reared at Coalinga, where her father was one of the noted pioneers. One child has blessed this union-Doris, the charm of the household.

For five years Mr. Trout was a trustee and clerk of the Oil King school district, and he was one of the organizers of the Oilfields Club, and the only charter member now left. He was treasurer from the start, with its sixty-five members ; it is now a large club of nearly 500 members, having some $12,000 of assets and handling about $17,600 yearly. He is supervisor of the social department, which conducts the dances, lectures, etc., of the club, generally held in the lecture hall in the winter, and the moving pictures, which are given in the air-dome outside in the summer. There are pool and billiard parlors, and cigar stands, a place where ice cream and confectionery are sold, a swimming pool and a circulating library, a branch of the county library ; and provision for base and foot-ball. University Extension courses and private classes for men have been arranged by Mr. Trout and his committee, each member of which is keenly alive to whatever may prove of social and intel- lectual advantage to the workmen and their families.

Mr. Trout is a member of the Red Men in Coalinga, and a charter mem- ber of the Netana Tribe, No. 242, Coalinga, in which he is a past officer and a trustee. He is a Progressive Republican in politics, and a member of the Coalinga Chamber of Commerce, serving it also as a director.

VITAL BANGS FINCHER .- It is refreshing to read the story of Vital Bangs Fincher, or Tallie Fincher, as he is familiarly called in the wide circle of his friends. A wide-awake citizen, inheriting foresight and force, he is making a wonderful success of his enterprise, assisted by his able wife, and that despite certain handicaps such as would discourage and defeat many. He is a native son, having been born near Riverbank, in Stanislaus County, on January 19, 1873. His father, Levi Nelson Fincher, was a sturdy North Caro- linian, who, after pioneer experience as a boy in Missouri, crossed the great plains when a young man, in 1850, to search for gold. Two years later he returned East, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and while again in Missouri was married, that same year, to Miss Paulina Moore, a native of Tennessee, who came to Missouri with her parents. As a pioneer farmer, Levi Fincher moved with his wife to Kansas ; and when, in 1862, his health was very poor, he resolved to try the Pacific Coast. It was necessary for him to cross the continent in bed, in a wagon; but the trip helped him, and in time he was able to drive his team of oxen. He arrived in Sacramento, and near there opened a store as a merchant. Afterwards he moved to Stanislaus County, and near Riverbank, at a place then called Burneyville, took up 160 acres and bought 160 more, and was in time very successful at farming. In 1885 he brought his family to Fresno and bought 800 acres nine miles northeast of the town, where he located. At first he engaged in grain-raising, and then he set out sixty acres in vines, but soon pulled out forty acres, because there was no sale for the grape product. He raised alfalfa and grain, and after years of toil, retired. He built a home on Calaveras Avenue, Fresno. After a most creditable record for accomplishment, on August 18, 1909, he passed to his eternal reward, dying in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His wife had passed away in November, 1907, five years after they had celebrated their fiftieth anniversary.

Eleven children were born to this worthy couple. The first-born became Mrs. C. P. Evans, of National City, Cal .; the second became Mrs. G. D.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Wootten, of Santa Cruz; the third is Robert Fincher of Hanford; the fourth is J. M. Fincher, who resides at Fresno; the fifth is Mrs. J. B. High, of Madera; the sixth is J. P. Fincher, who ranches on a part of the old farm; the seventh is Miss Letitia Fincher, of Fresno; the eighth is Frank W. Fincher, of the same place; the ninth, Miss Elizabeth Fincher, also of Fresno ; the tenth is the subject of our sketch; and the eleventh is Miss Matilda Fincher, of Fresno.

Tallie Fincher spent his boyhood, until he was twelve years of age, near old Burneyville, attending the public school and doing a boy's chores about the home, and then he came to the present home farm, continuing his school- ing in the Jefferson district. Later he went to the Stockton Business College, and then to the Fresno High School, from which he graduated in 1893, after which he engaged in the teaching of school. He believed in the old maxim that if you would learn a subject yourself you should try to impart it to others. For a term he had charge of a school in Madera County, and then he taught at Davis Creek, in Modoc County, at the same time serving as justice of the peace. When he quit teaching, he took up shorthand under Mussel- man at the Fresno Business College, and only gave up that line when he felt the call "Back to the land."

For twelve years Mr. Fincher operated the home farm, leasing it, and raised grain and stock. When the 700 acres were subdivided, he came into possession of fifty acres and bought fifty acres adjoining, together with ninety acres toward the east. This last acreage was subdivided and sold at a profit in lots of ten, thirty and forty acres. Now he devotes all his land to the raising of vines and alfalfa, having ninety acres of table and raisin grapes, twenty acres in Malagas, and the balance in muscatels. He has ten acres of alfalfa. Having built a fine residence and spacious barns, he staked out the vineyard and set out the vines, and cared for it until his health broke down and he had to limit his activity to superintending what others did. He is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and also of the Melvin Grape Growers' Association, through which he handles his Malaga crop.

At Fresno, on March 27, 1895, Mr. Fincher was married to Miss Beulah Morrison, who was born near Cairo, Randolph County, Mo., the daughter of Asa P. Morrison, a native of Tennessee who while in Missouri, was married to Eliza Musick, of that state, a niece of Jesse N. Musick, of Fresno, to which city they came when, in 1889, they moved to California. For a while the father was in the livery business; then he was engaged in farming the Lone Star Ranch, and thereafter was busy with viticulture. He retired, tak- ing up his residence in Fresno, and died here in 1910. Mrs. Morrison still resides in Fresno, the mother of five children, of whom Beulah was the next to the youngest. She was educated in the public grammar and high schools, and became the mother of two children: Ethel, the wife of F. E. Moore, who resides in Richmond, Cal., and has two children, Roy and Floyd ; and Herbert B., who is still under the parental roof.

ED J. SOUZA .- One of California's very successful young native sons- engaged in the occupation of ranching in Fresno County, is Edward J. Souza. This energetic young man rents the G. W. Beale eighty-acre ranch lying two and a half miles southwest of Monmouth.

Ed Souza was born in Marin County, California, November 12, 1895, and is the son of Henry Souza and Lucy (Garcia) Souza, natives of the Azores, colonial possessions of Portugal. The father was born in 1863 on the Island of St. Michael, and the mother on the Island of St. George. The father, when twelve years of age, took to the sea. After three years spent in the occupation of whaling he went to Providence, R. I., and joined a company of American whalers who were bound for the Arctic, engaging as cook. He afterwards returned to his native islands and at the age of twenty was united in marriage with Lucy Garcia at St. George. Some time after his marriage

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

he went to Boston, Mass., later removing to New Bedford, Conn., where he established his home. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and went on the training ship Chisel, leaving his wife and family at New Bedford for two years. His wife became ill, and because of her poor health he came with her and his family to California in 1889, settling first at San Pablo. Later he went to Sausalito, where he worked for the Duncan Mill Company for seven years. It was while working here that his son Ed was born.

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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 54

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