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 56

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 56

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For years the cheerful home of Mr. and Mrs. Dyreborg has been one of generous hospitality, and in fraternal circles no one is more popular than Mr. Dyreborg, who belongs to Fresno Lodge, No. 439, B. P. O. E., to the Danish Brotherhood, and the Knights of Pythias, in which organization he has been a member for the last twenty-three years.

OSCAR O. COLLINS .- Oscar O. Collins was born in Springfield, Kans., September 17, 1889, but was brought up in Pueblo, Colo. He attended the University of Colorado and afterwards studied with his father, who was at that time district judge. Mr. Collins came to Fresno in March, 1915, and was admitted to the California bar October 22 of that year. Soon afterward he joined Company K, Second California National Guards, and was with his regiment on the Mexican border in 1916. After a few months the United States Government recalled its soldiers and he returned to Fresno and began the active practice of his profession, making a specialty of civil law, his accurate knowledge of which, and his careful attention to details, enabled him in a short time to build up a fine and lucrative practice. He has his offices at No. 512, Mason Building. On October 2, 1916, Mr. Collins was married to Miss Clara M. Knott, of Oregon.

Mr. Collins was called to the Officers' Training School of the University of California at San Francisco, and put in three months at the Naval Train- ing School. He was honorably discharged after the signing of the Armistice, and arrived home November 20, 1918.

He is a member of the One Hundred Percent. Club, the Commercial Club, the Workmen of the World, and other social organizations, and takes an active interest in everything that pertains to the welfare and growth of Fresno.

MRS. SADIE ELIZABETH SOPER .- A practical viticulturist, who has an unusually fine place and one she may regard with peculiar pride since it is largely the result of her own personal labor in irrigating and cultivating, is Mrs. Sadie Elizabeth Soper, who came to California in the middle nineties. She was born at Mt. Pleasant, Utah, the daughter of Benjamin Keller, a native of Iowa who crossed the plains to Utah and then married Miss Jane Oldham, a native of England, who came out to America and the Mormon country with her parents when she was two years old. Mr. Keller owned a farm in Mt. Pleasant, and in 1883 he moved his family to Kearney, Nebr., where he farmed for four years. Then he went to Lexington, Dawson County, homesteaded and improved 160 acres and, selling out in 1894, came to Cal- ifornia. Later he went east to Nebraska and then for five years he was in Oklahoma. After that he settled at Clovis, bought land and improved it, and there his wife died. In time, he married again, and now he resides at Jack- sonville, Fla. Thirteen children were born of this marriage, and four girls and two boys are still living.

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The subject of our sketch was the second oldest of these, and being reared in Nebraska, she attended the public schools there. In that state also, she was married to J. C. Soper, a native of Des Moines. They owned 160 acres, fourteen miles from Lexington, which they farmed, and having sold this property in 1894, they located in Fresno County. Mr. Soper was in the employ of the Flume Company, grading lumber, and at Clovis, they bought a lot and erected a house. In the meantime, the far-seeing couple bought the ten acres one and a half miles east of Clovis, which they improved with a vineyard. Mr. Soper continued with the Flume Company and his wife did much of the ranch work herself. In time, she had one of the finest muscat vineyards to reward her toil. It is-a fine place, and bears the name of Ellen- dale Vineyard; and her ownership adds interest to her membership in the California Associated Raisin Company.

Mrs. Soper has four children: Frederick Charles, who is in the United States Marines ; Luella is Mrs. Barcus, of Barstow; Jane Elizabeth is Mrs. Johnson in Fresno; and her sister, Hazel Marie, who lives near her in the same city, is Mrs. Cummins. The family attends the Baptist Church of Clovis, and Mrs. Soper is a member of the Woman's Aid Society of that congregation. In national politics she is a Democrat, but is non-partisan in local issues.

DR. J. H. ROBINSON .- A prominent member of the medical fraternity of Selma is J. H. Robinson, M. D., who was born on October 1, 1874, at Galion, Crawford County, Ohio, midway between Cleveland and Columbus. His father is J. C. Robinson, a retired, well-to-do Ohio farmer, while his mother was Emma Shumaker before her marriage. This worthy couple have had four children, the three youngest being as follows: G. B. Robinson, a grocer at Galion : Richard, a civil engineer at Minneapolis and manager of a large bridge-building concern ; and Carl, who is the proprietor of a moving-picture theater at Galion.

The oldest child in the family, J. H. Robinson grew up in Crawford County, attended the country public schools and worked hard on the farm. He took a preparatory course at the Tri-State Normal at Angola, Ind., and then, for two years, engaged in teaching at West Point, Morrow County, Ohio. There he laid the foundation of that knowledge of human nature which has been of such value to him as a practicing physician. After finishing the preparatory course, Mr. Robinson matriculated at Hiram College, in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, the same institution made famous by the good work done there as a student by Garfield; and he vigorously pursued a special scientific course leading up to the study of medicine. In the meantime, while in the Normal and while teaching, and also while a student at Hiram and later a student in the medical college, Mr. Robinson went each summer for seven years to Chautauqua, N. Y., and took the Chautauqua courses; and this experience contribute greatly toward his broad and liberal education.

Having entered the medical department of the Ohio State University at Columbus, Mr. Robinson, with characteristic thoroughness, took the regular four years' course, and in 1902 was graduated as assistant to the demonstra- tor in surgery. During the vacations of the junior and senior years, Mr. Rob- inson did work as an interne at the Cleveland City Hospital, and he was therefore unusually well equipped when he at last received his coveted di- ploma.

Dr. Robinson began practicing at Levering, Knox County, Ohio, but sell- ing out, he came west on an extended trip to Los Angeles and Southern Cal- ifornia, also visiting Fresno and Selma in the early part of 1909. Later in the season, accompanied by Mrs. Robinson, he visited the northwest and enjoyed the Alaska, Yukon and Pacific Exposition at Seattle, having the good fortune to be present on the opening day there-June first. He was greatly taken with the Pacific Coast, looking over carefully both Washington and Oregon ; and he was especially charmed with California, which he revisited.

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Most of all, he was fascinated with Selma; and at Selma he determined to pitch his tent.

This decision was reached despite the fact that Dr. Robinson had no relatives or friends here such as are often of great service to a stranger. Excepting for an uncle, in fact, he was the first member of this branch of the Robinson family to locate in California. The uncle was Samuel Robinson, a 49er and for years city ticket agent for the Southern Pacific Railway at Sacramento, who grew up with the state and was widely known, but passed away in 1906. The Robinsons were originally Irish, as has been shown in a most interesting genealogy of the family prepared by the subject's grand- father.

On reaching Selma again, Dr. Robinson opened a suite of well-appointed offices on the second floor of the Dusaw Building at 2031 Second Street, and there he has conducted a general medical practice ever since. As a family physician in particular he has been unusually successful. This extensive practice demands his maintaining both a Ford and a Mitchell car. During his senior year at college, young Robinson was assistant to Dr. Hoover, head surgeon at the medical school, and the experience he thus obtained has finally culminated in his being regarded as not only one of the most active, but one of the ablest members of the County Medical Association.

About three months after his graduation, Dr. Robinson was married to Miss Mary Robertson, a lady of Scotch ancestry and the daughter of J. M. and Annie (Hunter) Robertson. His wife was born at Galt, Canada; and in the Canadian land she grew up and enjoyed the best of educational advan- tages. One child-Marguerite-blessed this union. In 1913 Dr. Robinson built his bungalow home at No. 2525 McCall Street, Selma, and there he and his family form the center of a large circle of friends.

JOSEPH P. BERNHARD .- The accomplishments of the legal profes- sion in California are exemplified in the person of Joseph P. Bernhard, the well-known attorney of Fresno. A native son, he was born in Mariposa County on November 19, 1873, the son of George Bernhard, one of the Argo- nauts who reached California in 1849 by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and who having come to seek the elusive gold so recently discovered, im- mediately began mining and the next year was among the first prospectors and miners in Mariposa County. He continued to dig gold there for many years and experienced both the successes and the failures encountered by thousands of others. When the town of Fresno was started on the new line of the Southern Pacific Railroad running through the valley, however, Mr. Bernhard, in 1874, located there and engaged in mercantile pursuits ; and these he followed until his death in 1888, eight years after his wife, Barbara, also a Forty-niner, had preceded him to the other world. She was the mother of seven children, five of whom are still living, the subject of our sketch being the next to the youngest.

Coming to Fresno with his parents the first year of his existence, Joseph Bernhard grew up in the town, which gradually assumed the proportions and character of a city : and there, in its well-conducted schools he received the foundation of his education. On graduating from the Fresno High School in 1892, he entered Leland Stanford, Jr., University, from which he was graduated in 1896, with the degree of A. B. He then matriculated at the New York Law School, and in 1898 was graduated with honors (cum laude), receiving the degree of LL.B. He was admitted to the bar of California in the same year, after which he spent two years in San Francisco as associate editor of Rose's U. S. Notes.

In 1900 Mr. Bernhard opened a law office in his home city, Fresno, where his natural and developed ability, his conscientiousness, and his conservative counsel have brought him well-merited success and won for him a large clientèle among the city's best citizens. He is the attorney for the Bank of

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Italy, as well as a member of their local advisory board. Always an ardent Republican, he was accorded the chairmanship of the Republican County Central Committee in 1907 and again in 1911.

Mr. Bernhard is a member of the college fraternity Chi Psi, at Stanford, and of the Sunnyside Country Club of Fresno. A prominent Mason, he is a Knight Templar and Shriner, and is chairman of the Committee on Appeals of the Grand Lodge of California, and an honorary thirty-third of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

W. W. COATES .- What a man can do when he is really up against it and must either hustle or be trodden under foot by the unfeeling world, is well shown in the interesting story of Deputy Sheriff Coates' career, from precarious boyhood to his present state of assured success. On the fourteenth of August, in the historic Centennial year, he was born near Selma, Fresno County, the son of James B. Coates, who settled here in 1850, when he first came to California by way of the Isthmus, and who having taken up farming at that early date, was always afterward regarded as one of the first settlers of Fresno County. In the beginning, he pitched .his tent near Selma with W. J. Berry. Afterwards he went to Alaska with Clarence Berry, the "Klon- dike King," and together they shared both risks and results. His wife was Luzeta Fanning before her marriage. She accepted pot-luck with her hus- band in his rough, pioneer life, and passed away in 1882, one of the favored early pioneer women of the Golden State. James B. Coates is still living in Selma, and both fondly and sadly looks back to "the good old days" that will never come again.

The next to the youngest in the family, W. W. Coates was but six years old when his mother died. For a while he went to the public school, but he was early thrown on his own resources, and from that time has had to make his own way. He has done so in a manner creditable to himself, and is truly a self-made man. He soon engaged in business in Fresno, and for eleven years he and his establishment were pleasantly familiar to the people of the town and vicinity. In 1912 he was appointed a deputy sheriff under W. S. McSwain. He was reappointed by Thorwaldson, and again by Sheriff Jones, and is now the oldest deputy in office.

In 1889 Mr. Coates was married to a most attractive lady, Miss Rose Harman, and three children-Jesse, Evalyn and Wesley-have come to bless their home. In 1917 Mr. Coates purchased a beautiful five-acre tract located on Chance Avenue in East Fresno, near the fair grounds, where he resides with his family. Here he finds diversion from his official duties in caring for and growing flowers, berries and vegetables, as well as fancy poultry ; and here he and his estimable wife entertain their large circle of friends. Mr. Coates belongs to the Eagles. The family attend the Baptist Church.

JOSEPH S. BRETZ .- Among the early settlers of Fresno County who helped lay the foundation of the present-day prosperity, was the late Joseph S. Bretz, who was born in Pennsylvania and came with his parents to Clay- ton County, Iowa. In the spring of 1875 he came to Fresno County and was employed at Clipper Mills. Not long afterwards he started making shakes in the same vicinity, and later still, a shingle mill on Pine Ridge. He made trips back to Iowa, and was married in Hardin County, that state, April 29, 1886, to Margaret Ellen Lepley, born in Knoxville, Harden County, Ohio, a daughter of Valentine and Margaret (Scott) Lepley, natives of Ohio, who were pioneers of Hardin County, Iowa. After his marriage Mr. Bretz located per- manently in Fresno County, purchasing the shingle mill from Mr. Beard, and established the Bretz mill one mile east of Ockenden, where he manufactured shingles, shakes and posts ; meantime he bought a ranch near Tollhouse and there he resided when he died, October 25, 1911. He was an Odd Fellow. Four children were born of this union : Edward and Frank who continue the business and run the Bretz mill ; Estella, who lives at home; and Lulu, Mrs.

& Brocks

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Hauert of Clovis. Mrs. Bretz is now one of the oldest settlers on Pine Ridge and still makes her home at Tollhouse.

Bretz Mill is one of the oldest mills still being operated on Pine Ridge. The family own 1,160 acres of timber, which they manufacture into shingles, shakes and posts. They indorse and follow the plan of the government in leaving seed trees for reforestation. Bretz Brothers believe the plan should be made compulsory and enforced by the government.

The children were all born in Fresno County. Edward Bretz is married to Mary E. Hauert and they have four children: Louis, Robert, Bessie and Merriam. The family now make their residence in Fresno. Frank Bretz married Miss Wilma L. Hauert and they have three children-Donald, Verne and Chester. He resides at the old Bretz home near Tollhouse. Both boys are members of the Woodmen of the World. Frank is one of the trustees of Pleasant Vale school district, and Edward is a trustee of Pine Ridge district.

GUSTAV HENRY BROCKS .- A man who, through his optimism, saw the possibilities of the soil of Fresno County for intensive farming and who has labored in that direction, is Gustav Henry Brocks, who came to Califor- nia in the early nineties. His father was Henry Brocks, a farmer of thrift and experience in Enger, Germany, where he owned a farm and lived upon it until his death in 1879, aged thirty-five years. His wife was Hermina Kruse before her marriage in the country of her birth, and she died in 1896, aged forty-two. She was the mother of three children by her marriage with Mr. Brocks, and Gustav H. was the second oldest and the only son.

Born at Enger, Westphalia, February 26, 1875, Gustav Henry Brocks was reared in his native land and educated in the German schools until he was seventeen, when he left home for America, arriving here in September, 1892. He at once came to the Pacific Coast, and in Fresno County found employment in a vineyard. He was frugal, and when he was twenty he made his first purchase of land, which was located in Eggers Colony and consisted of twenty acres. Since then he has been successfully engaged in horticul- tural pursuits and his well-kept ranch on National Avenue shows the enter- prise and thrift of the owner.

Mr. Brocks was married in Fresno to Martha Werner, a native of Halle, Germany, who came to this country with her parents. Of this union four children have been born, three of whom are living: Gertrude, Henry and Edith, all of whom have had the advantages of the public schools of Fresno. Mr. Brocks is one of the original members of the first cooperative California Raisin Growers Association, now the California Associated Raisin Company, and the Melvin Grape Growers Association.

BENJAMIN NORTH .- Just across the border in the province of Quebec, Canada, Mr. North was born on November 6, 1879. His father died when the boy was but a year and a half old, and while he was still young, the mother came to California and settled at Madera. There they remained only for six months, and then came to Fresno, where Ben North, as he is familiarly known, grew up, attending the public schools of Fresno and completing all but his senior year in the Fresno High School. The mother, Mary Thomas North, still lives in Fresno, at 2959 Mckenzie Street.

Early in life Mr. North began to work, being employed at various odd jobs in different occupations. At twenty-one he went back to his old Canadian home, and from 1900 to 1905 worked in pulp mills in Eastern Canada. He learned the paper-pulp business thoroughly in his five years' experience, but returned to Fresno again, this time with a wife, having mar- ried Miss Eva Masters, a native of Canada, in the province of Quebec. He secured employment with the San Joaquin Light & Power Company as store- keeper, remaining with this company for a year and a half, and then went to Goldfield, Nev., where he stayed a year. Returning to Fresno for a few days, he then went to Spokane Wash., where for fourteen months he

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

was employed by the Washington Water Company as station operator. Coming back to Fresno, he was reemployed by the San Joaquin Light & Power Company until he bought a half interest in the store at Clotho, Fresno County. This was a store for general merchandise, and he con- tinued there for fourteen months, when he sold and went to Lone Star, where he likewise conducts a general merchandise store, the only one in Lone Star, and by close application to business is building up a good trade. His ex- tensive travels and the various occupations he has followed have fitted him in a special manner for his work, and he has a natural aptitude for mak- ing and holding friends.

There are three children in the family, Wilmuth, Helen and Billy, who are general favorites.

THOMAS JACKSON SIMPSON .- One of the native sons of Fresno, Thomas Jackson Simpson, is a son of John Greenup Simpson, a pioneer of 1850, who came from Missouri across the plains via the southern route, on horseback and with pack animals, when seventeen years of age. He was accompanied by ex-Governor Edwards of Missouri. The winter of 1850-51 was spent in New Mexico, the westward trip being renewed in the spring, when in due time they arrived in Stockton. Mr. Simpson worked at teaming in the city until 1855. when he removed to Millerton and engaged in the livery business for three years. He then sold out and embarked in the stock business with J. N. Musick as a partner. This association was continued until 1861, at which time the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Simpson continued the stock business alone until his death. In 1856 he was in the Indian campaign in Tulare County, and in every way took an active part in the pioneer work of the state. His death, at the age of forty-seven, was much regretted by all who had known him. He was one of the first stockmen to locate on Dry Creek, and served as a supervisor in the early days of the county. He pur- chased land at what is now Academy, and before his death had become the owner of almost 6,000 acres. He was one of the builders of the academy on Dry Creek, being a director of the company. This school was for years one of the best in the state. Mr. Simpson was an Odd Fellow and in politics a stanch Democrat. His wife bore the maiden name of Sarah M. Baley, was a native of Missouri and a daughter of W'm. R. Baley, a brother of Judge Gillum Baley, who came to California in 1849. Mr. Baley crossed the plains and settled in Visalia and was engaged in teaming between that place and Stockton. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson both died in Fresno County. They were parents of seven children: Mary K., who married Henry Hazelton and is now deceased; William, who met an accidental death by drowning while in bathing in the canal near Sanger; Thomas J., the subject of this sketch ; Marvin of Sanger: John G. of Fresno, and George P. of Fresno, and Lizzie, the wife of John Fly of Exeter.

Thomas J. Simpson was born July 13, 1866. His early life was spent on the ranch, while his education was obtained in the school at Academy. He was a lad of eleven years when his father died and from that time until he left home he took an active part in the work on the home place. At the age of twenty he started out to make his own way in the world, beginning as a sheep raiser on leased land fourteen miles west of Fresno. In 1886 he bought 500 head of sheep from Mr. Birch, a partner of John Baley, the partnership of Baley and Simpson thus formed continuing for two years, when Mr. Baley sold out to William R. Simpson. In 1889, T. J. Simpson sold out to his brother William R. At that time they owned some 5.000 head. Mr. Simpson then became interested in the cattle business, and a little later established his brand, PL, which is well known all through the cattle country. He has 1.550 acres of land on Dry Creek, which is all fenced and improved and here he is engaged in stock raising and is very successful. Mr. Simpson devotes the greater part of his time to his cattle interests, his range being located in the Sierras, about 40 miles from Fresno.

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In Academy Mr. Simpson married, January 6, 1889, Miss Eleanor Anh Perry, born in Fresno County, a daughter of Peter Perry, who settled in the county in pioneer days and began farming on Kings River. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson have the following children: Edwin R. is assisting Mr. Simpson as well as raising cattle on his own account; Ina May is Mrs. Charles H. Vencill and resides in Fresno; Thomas Russell attended the University of California until he enlisted in the United States Army and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the One Hundred Fourteenth Engineers, he was hon- orably discharged and is again at the University of California ; Hugh, also assisting his father at ranching ; Annie Laurie ; Mary Elizabeth ; Ruth ; Robert Lee; Sarah Margaret; and Jack Tupper.

Mr. and Mrs. Simpson are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Mr. Simpson being a member of the official board. In politics he is a Democrat. At all times he has ever been found willing to perform the duties of a citizen. His success in life has been the result of his own en- deavors and he is considered one of the substantial men of Fresno County.

W. L. OLINGER .- A hardy Missouri boy who has become an influen- tial and most successful Californian rancher in his own name and right, on one of the small "show-places" in the county, is W. L. Olinger, who lives with his good wife and family on his forty-acre ranch one mile west and half a mile north of Del Rey. Not long ago he built a stucco residence, and those who have seen it declare it to be ideal for its purpose. Mr. Olinger came to Del Rey, at that time called Clifton, in the fall of 1890; and since then he has witnessed the working of more than one miracle in the marvelous development of Central California.

W. L. Olinger was born the day before Christmas, in 1864, in Cooper County, Mo., the very day when the nation was being electrified by the suc- cessful bombarding of Fort Fisher by the Federal fleet. Soon after, his parents, Jesse and Mary (Armstrong) Olinger, removed to a town called Pleasant Hope, about twenty miles north of Springfield. His father was a school teacher and a musician, making a specialty of the violin and vocal music, and taught in public schools for forty years. When he died, he had reached the age of seventy-six, and then lived at Hazelton, Kans., where he was notary public and mayor. He had moved to that city in 1902. Mrs. Olinger, the mother of our subject, died when he was only five years of age. She left two other sons and two daughters; and through his father's second marriage Mr. Olinger came to have a half-sister. One of his sisters is now Mrs. Laura Jane Fullerton, and lives in Los Angeles. An older brother, Tames B., who was once the owner of the Olinger place, died on March 10, 1903, and W. L. Olinger bought the property. This brother James came here in 1880 as one of the first settlers in the neighborhood, and had much to do with Mr. Olinger's decision to follow him hither.

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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 56

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