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 60

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 60

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He was reared in Missouri where the mother was a teacher; and in after years she lived with her son until her death. He attended the public schools, and from a boy learned farming. When he was nineteen years old, he rented a farm in Cass County, Mo., and engaged in the raising of grain and stock. Then he moved to Vernon County, where he was married to Miss Dee Fisher, a native of Pettis County, Mo., and bought a farm in Vernon County. He raised grain and stock until 1913, when he sold out, came to California and located in Fresno County.

He bought a farm and for five months was dairying on Mckinley Ave- nue, when he sold out and settled in the Dunkard district, and renewed his work at dairying. He soon purchased forty acres of his present place on Cal- ifornia Avenue, eleven miles west of Fresno, at that time a neglected place of weeds, so that he had to cut his way through ; but he made all necessary im- provements, built a ditch, leveled and checked the land, built a residence, and sowed alfalfa; and then went in for dairying and the raising of stock, cattle, horses, mules and hogs. He also had land for pasture. And he became a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association, in which he is recognized as a very progressive member.

Five children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Guernsey. Verne and Kimball are associated with their father in the stock business; and W'anah and George are at home, and a baby, Jack Couey. The family attends the Seventh Day Adventist Church at Rolinda, and he is one of the trustees of the Adventist school at that place. Besides his own children, Mr. and Mrs. Guernsey have reared the son of a sister, Leon Bland, (whose mother is Mrs. Laura Bland) and he has become a prosperous rancher in the Empire Colony. In national politics Mr. Guernsey is a Democrat.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

ALBERT BURTON HILL .- Albert Burton Hill, now deceased, was the youngest son of John and Maria (Daubner) Hill, and was born in Brook- field, Waukesha County, Wis., on October 14, 1869. He was educated in the public schools and came to California with his father in 1880, and was asso- ciated with him until 1896, when he purchased 160 acres of land four miles southwest of Coalinga. Later he bought another 160 acres. He engaged in grain farming, but had three acres in orchard and two acres in vineyard, shade trees and flowers. The place was highly improved, with irrigating ditch, good buildings and ground under splendid cultivation. In 1899 he started hauling materials to the oil fields. He also conducted a hay and grain store on E Street, Coalinga, in a building he bought and moved onto a lot that he owned on that street. In 1905 he was appointed postmaster of Coal- inga by President Roosevelt. He died while in office April 6, 1907. A. B. Hill was very active in politics, a Republican, and was associated with the leaders in Fresno County. He was a member of the Republican Central Com- mittee of Fresno County, and a member of Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen and Red Men

A. B. Hill married Grace Isabelle Slater, born in Milwaukee, Wis., who came to California in 1880, when a little girl and attended school in Merced and Kings Counties. Of this union were born two children: Lloyd H., a grad- uate of Coalinga high school, married to Ina Cawelti of Los Angeles, who holds a responsible position with the Union Tool Company at Torrance. He was prominent in athletics. And Mabel A., in the Intermediate school in Coalinga. A. B. Hill was a good business man, and he saw the possibilities of the future of Coalinga. When the Sunset Addition was put on the market in Coalinga, he bought the first lot and owned fourteen of them. In the early days he farmed these same lots. This property is now all built up and forms a part of the residence section of Coalinga. Lots then selling for sixty and corner lots for seventy dollars are now worth from $200.00 to $250.00 each.

Since the death of Mr. Hill, the care of this property has fallen to his wife, who has shown exceptional ability in looking after it. She has erected four houses and sold some of the lots, planted shade trees in the streets and otherwise improved the property. She is a fine business woman, and has displayed a great deal of executive force. The ranch property has all been sold and a part invested in town property and other securities. She is a member of the Royal Neighbors.

PROF. CHARLES L. GEER .- Prominent among the men and women in the California pedagogical world is Prof. Charles L. Geer, principal of the Coalinga high school, and supervising principal of the Coalinga grammar schools, who has been an educator all his life and comes very naturally by the profession, as his father and mother both taught school before him. His early education was obtained in the public schools of Dakota, and Iowa, and so apt was he in his work, that he had finished the grammar school at the age of ten years. He came to California in 1897, and graduated from the Campbell high school at Santa Clara, after which he entered Stanford Uni- versity and was graduated from that institution in 1907. He then received the degree of Bachelor of Arts; but his natural ambition would not permit him to be satisfied with that, so he returned for a year of graduate work. What is more, he worked his way through college, and he became an assistant in the English department. He went in for the stiff course in "Argumenta- tion" there, and while at Stanford won the first Bonnheim prize given for debating. What gifts he had as a deep thinker and a fluent talker, he further improved by hard study and severe discipline.

After finishing his work at Stanford, Professor Geer became a teacher in the Paso Robles high school, and held that post for three years. In 1911, however, he was called to the Coalinga high school. At first he accepted a position as instructor only ; but in 1915 he was made principal of the high

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

school, and in 1918 he was made supervising principal of the Coalinga gram- mar schools.

Since coming to Coalinga, Professor Geer has done much to advance the interests of higher education in this vicinity. He is a strong advocate of physical education-the building up of the body, with the training of the mind; and this is now compulsory in the Coalinga system, with the result that his pupils have made the best record in the Valley in physical standards. Not only that, but some of his students have graduated from the Coalinga high school in the past three years to attain the highest scholarship and many of the first prizes at the university and in the colleges of the state.

Among other things successfully advocated by Professor Geer has been that of the intermediate school system of Coalinga. The first intermediate in the Valley. Over one hundred students from all over the valley are brought to the school in auto buses, and this gives the outsiders a far better chance for advanced education.

Some years ago Professor Geer married Miss Mary Benzing, a daughter of Alameda, Cal .; and two children have blessed their union-Ruth and Charles L., Jr. The Geer hearth is a happy one, and the Geer household the center of a warming hospitality. Professor and Mrs. Geer are leaders in the social and intellectual circles of the town, and he is a member of the Coalinga Chamber of Commerce as well as the Growler's Club.

Z. L. PHELPS .- To go against the advice and judgment of men skilled in geology and win out is not given to many men, but Mr. Phelps is one who did it. He is the pioneer oil-man of the West Side in the Coalinga field and drilled the first successful oil-well there, contrary to the geologists who claimed there was no oil to be had south of the old Coalinga coal mine. Since that time he has struck it rich many times, and large companies have devel- oped lands and there are now hundreds of producing wells over this area.

Zerah Lambert Phelps, known among his friends as Zed Phelps, was born at Marion Station, Marion County, Ore., February 24, 1878. His father, O. B. Phelps, was born in Michigan, and came to Oregon with his father Capt. Benj. Phelps, a pioneer of Oregon. They crossed the plains with an ox team, following the old Oregon trail. Benj. Phelps was a captain in the Yakima Indian War, and was a pioneer of Salem. He died there at the age of ninety-five years. The father came to California from Oregon and en- gaged in mining at Mt. Diablo, Contra Costa County, in the Diamond coal mine. He was married there to Miss Esther Robertson, a native Californian, born near Sacramento. She is the daughter of George Robertson, who crossed the plains to California in 1849. He was killed at Kingston by desperadoes in the early days, and buried there.

After his marriage the father returned to Oregon and engaged in farm- ing near Salem. In 1885 he came back to California, stopping at Visalia, Tulare County, and then located at Traver. This was in 1886 when the town was just started. He ran the warehouse there and took up a homestead of 160 acres east of Traver, improved it and resided there for a time, when he moved to Plano, Tulare County, where his wife died. He was engaged in the grain-raising business until he removed to Bakersfield, where he started in the oil business, operating in the Kern River fields. He, with T. C. Read, M. O'Dell, Frank Pitney and others, located the first oil lands in the Kern River field, sixteen sections being their possessions, but they sold most of the land at one dollar per acre. The father retired after this sale and removed to San Francisco for three years, after which he spent several years in Alaska and when he returned to California he resided with Mr. and Mrs. Z. L. Phelps, in Coalinga; he died in Fresno County, January 2, 1918, aged seventy-two years. There were six children, three of whom are living. Zed Phelps was the third oldest of the family. He was brought up in Oregon until 1885, when he came to California with his parents and attended public school at Traver. At the age of sixteen he began in the livery business for

3. LPhelps

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

himself at Sanger. This was in 1894, and he remained there until 1898, when oil was discovered in the Kern River field. He sold his business at Sanger and removed to the Kern River field and engaged in oil business. He worked for George W. Smith as a driller, then was in the employ of different com- panies drilling for oil. He remained in this field until 1901, when he went to Los Angeles and stayed there for two years, contracting and drilling wells in the old Los Angeles fields. He returned to Bakersfield for one year and then located in Coalinga and organized the Lucile Oil Company in 1904, bought forty acres and sunk a well. Mr. Phelps was superintendent of the company, and this well proved a good one. He has been in the producing business ever since, continuing actively in the company until two years ago, when he left to look after other interests. He is still one of the large stock- holders in the Lucile.

In 1909, Mr. Phelps organized the Silver Tip Oil Company, bought land and drilled a well which proved to be a gusher-20,000 barrels a day, and it is still flowing, the oldest flowing well in the state. It has flowed uninter- ruptedly, without having to be cleaned out. Mr. Phelps was superintendent and vice-president of this company, and in 1910 he sold his interest in it. He has organized the Marion Oil Company and was a stockholder in the Blue Moon Company, of both of which he was superintendent, and at one time he was superintendent of all the different oil companies he was inter- ested in, and they were all producers. He finally sold out his interests in oil companies except the Lucile. He owns oil lands in different parts of the Coalinga field.

During all this time his headquarters have been in Coalinga, where he has his residence. He has also erected the Phelps Building, a three-story brick, the most pretentious building in the city of Coalinga. He owns a 160- acre ranch one and a half miles from Coalinga, where he has developed two water wells and installed a pumping-plant. He has set out a large orchard of peaches and apricots, and with his own irrigation plant has made a com- mercial success of his fruit, and his is the pioneer and first commercial orchard in the Coalinga district. He owns other valuable property in Coalinga.

Mr. Phelps was married in Los Angeles, on May 10, 1901, to Miss Pearl Overton, a native Californian, whose birthplace is in Sacramento County, but who was reared in Santa Barbara County. They have one son, Edward, a graduate of the Class of 1919, Coalinga Union High School.

Mr. Phelps is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Eagles, and is a Past Sachem of the Red Men, and is also a member of the Growlers Club. He was at one time a member of the board of trustees of Coalinga, and its chairman, and as a member of Coalinga District War Fund Association, he took an active part in putting the district over the top in the different war fund and bond drives, and with his wife is a member of the Red Cross. He is abreast of the times, and always interested in the progress of his home city and community.

THOMAS H. KOENEKE .- Among the first settlers in the section with which he has become identified is Thomas H. Koeneke, who came to Fresno County as late as 1903. When he and his father located on the ranch which they have so greatly improved, there were only three houses between them and what is now the State Highway.

Mr. Koeneke was born at Ward, in Moody County, S. D., on October 14, 1889, the son of Thomas Koeneke, who came from Kansas, homesteaded there, and became a farmer. In 1895 he removed from South Dakota to Marion County, Ore., where he was a farmer and a stockman ; and in Novem- ber, 1903, convinced of the greater attractions of Central California, he came to Fresno.

On the fourteenth of the following February, he bought a ranch of eighty acres in the Biola district, which he improved; and in 1917 he sold forty acres to his son, Thomas. The next year he sold the other forty acres

1872

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

and retired; and now he resides in the Vinland district. He married Anna Shoemaker, and among the four children of the union-a son and three daughters-Thomas is the oldest.

He attended the public schools of Oregon and California, assisted his father, and engaged with him in farming; and in 1917 he made the purchase of forty acres of the home-place already referred to. There he continued viti- culture, cultivating for the most part Thompson seedless, and managing a small orchard. He built a handsome residence and other necessary outbuild- ings; and operating according to the latest and most approved methods, he has made of the ranch one of the finest places for miles around. He joined the California Associated Raisin Company and is now one of its most progressive members.

At Vinland he married Miss Emelie Henschel, a native of Canada, by whom he has had one child, a daughter named Edna. The family attend the Lutheran Church at Fresno; and Mr. Koeneke performs his civic duties under the banners of the Republican party.

TIMOTHY HURLEY .- An honored pioneer of the Tranquillity section of Fresno County, Timothy Hurley has been a resident of this great com- monwealth for over thirty-five years, and has witnessed the marvelous de- velopment of this district from a wilderness to a well-improved community.

Tim Hurley, as he is familiarly called, was born in County Cork, Ireland, August 15, 1865, a son of Cornelius and Julia (Mullins) Hurley. The father was a farmer in the Emerald Isle, and he and his good wife have both passed away. There were nine children in the family, four of whom are living, three being residents of the Golden State. Jeremiah, and Cornelius, are citizens of Fresno; and Timothy, the subject of this review, is the youngest living member of the family.

He was reared on a farm and when eighteen years old came to Fresno, in 1883, when it was but a small town. He was employed by Mr. Jamison and helped to build the Church Ditch, in Fresno Street. Afterwards he worked on a ranch for Mr. Jamison, at Fowler, where he remained for eight vears. When about twenty-six years of age Tim Hurley came to what was known as the Jamison country, where he began to lease land from Jeff James, and with W. J. Anthony and Thomas Mullins, as partners, engaged in raising grain. They operated about 1,500 acres of land where they raised wheat and barley and used in operating this large ranch four-, eight- and ten-horse teams, and had a combined harvester. They continued this business for many years. During the dry years prices for grain were very low. Mr. Hurley recalls how he hauled barley to Fresno, which took three days to make the trip, and received only ten dollars per ton.

In 1908, the partnership was dissolved, after which he bought forty acres of land, leveled, checked and improved it to planting alfalfa ; also leasing land where he raised barley. Mr. Hurley is a very interesting pioneer and has the happy faculty of making and retaining many friends and is highly esteemed in his community for his uprightness of character.

PAUL KINDLER .- In the growth and advancement of a city one of the most important factors is necessarily the drawing within its borders men expert in the building trades, conscientious in their work and with the best interests of the community as their watchword. To such men Fresno has offered almost unlimited opportunity and to those who have been of the necessary caliber it has proven a most hospitable and appreciative haven. Among these last may be mentioned Paul Kindler, who as a brick contractor, specializing in high class work, has aided materially in the march of progress for which Fresno is fast becoming noted. Born near Berlin, Germany, Oc- tober 28, 1876, Mr. Kindler was raised and educated there and there he learned the trade of brick mason, later becoming foreman on the brick work of many of the fine buildings in Berlin, always engaged in high class work, and soon became an expert in his line of business.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Mr. Kindler arrived in the United States in 1906, and first located in Toledo, Ohio, where he remained one year, working for the Spealser Con- struction Company, which company erected some of the best buildings in Toledo. With the West as his object, he continued his journey, and arrived in Fresno in the fall of 1907, and has since that year followed brick and terra cotta contracting in the San Joaquin Valley. Most of his work has been done in Fresno County and we give a partial list of the buildings he has done the brick contract work on: Brick and terra cotta work on the Bank of Italy; the Liberty Theater; the Christian Science Church ; the Burnett Sanitarium ; the above are of recent construction and are four of the best buildings erected in Fresno; the Overland Garage; Saxon Garage; Peacock Garage; Black Garage : Wiley M. Giffen residence; in other cities, the following: the De- lano High School; Kingsburg High School; Christian Church at Parlier; two sanitariums, a school building and the Peach Growers' packing house in Hanford, Kings County ; the Riverdale High School; and store buildings in Tulare.

While aiding in the rapid growth of the city, Mr. Kindler has prospered, and is the owner of four lots in Fresno, on which he intends to erect dwell- ings in the near future. A member of the Catholic Church, with his wife, whom he married March 29, 1915, who was formerly Meta Rehberg, a native of Germany, he makes his home at 145 North Van Ness Avenue.

HENRY M. HANCOCK .- A Californian by adoption who has become a leading spirit in the community in which he lives and prospers, accomplish- ing much good for the public at large and both earning and receiving the gratitude of his fellow-citizens. is Henry M. Hancock, the president of the Riverdale Cooperative Creamery. Of more than ordinary interest to the student of American history is the fact that he is a direct descendant of John Hancock, the illustrious patriot who, on July 4, 1776, was the first member of the Continental Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence. Henry M. was born at Vincennes, Iowa, on New Year's Day, 1852, and grew up in that state until his twenty-fifth year. Then he was married, in eastern Iowa to Miss Rebecca Fickel, who was born near Charleston, Iowa; and after their marriage, they moved to Western Iowa. There they rented a farm in Mills County, and for two years devoted themselves to agriculture.

They next moved to Kansas and bought 240 acres of school land, and that they farmed for twenty-five years. They had seven children: Ayres G., who died in December, 1917, aged forty years, lived at Mesa, Ariz .; he left two children, Grace, and Cecil, both being brought up at Mr. Henry Hancock's, where their mother also resides. Mary is the wife of John Ginn, the dairyman who lives four miles west of Riverdale, and who has two children. (Ayres and Mary were both born in Iowa, while the rest of the children were born in Kansas.) John Roy died at Riverdale, unmarried, at the age of thirty-five. Charles, also single, is the main stand-by of his father. William died, un- married, when he was twenty-five years old. Grace became the wife of Wil- liam Henton, the real estate dealer and constable of Riverdale and she died in 1917, leaving three children-Tina, Ralph and Hazel. And Fred, the sev- enth in the order of birth, is a farmer who married Miss Nina Henson of Riverdale, now the mother of one child, Velma.

The late J. Q. Hancock, of the Laguna de Tache grant, brother of Henry M., was prospering at his new location and wrote for Henry to come out to visit him in 1903; and late that fall he made his first visit to this place. He liked the country so well that he decided to locate here. Accordingly, at Christmas, in 1904, he moved here with his family and two car-loads of stock, implements and household goods. He bought of J. Q. Hancock 240 acres which he still owns. He has greatly improved the property and made it his California home. He also owns 570 acres near Tranquillity, Fresno County.

Mr. Hancock's father was Daniel Ayres Gillett Hancock, a native of Indiana, while his father, Daniel, was born in Maryland. Mr. Hancock is one

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

of Riverdale's most progressive citizens. He gave the right of way through his ranch to the Hanford & Summit Lake Railway in 1911, and then actively engaged in getting that company to build its road through Riverdale, and to put in a switch to the Riverdale Cooperative Creamery which he had been instrumental in establishing here. As has been in part stated, he was one of the Creamery's chief promoters and stockholders, and is still its president. The plant represents a cash outlay of $50,000, and $25,000 in improvements, in the shape of buildings and machinery, are being added.

Notwithstanding the repeated affliction through the death of their chil- dren, Mr. and Mrs. Hancock have preserved a brave and cheerful spirit, and no couple could be more highly esteemed by their neighbors, or receive a larger measure of good will and best wishes. Mrs. Hancock shares her hus- band's interest in schools and other public institutions.

GEORGE CHRISTENSEN .- A pioneer of the late eighties, who has unbounded faith in the greatness of Fresno County-and no wonder, for as a result of his knowledge of the soil and other local conditions and the con- scientious care he has given his ranchland, he has one of the finest vineyards of Thompson seedless grapes in Fresno County-is George Christensen, who was born near Tonden, Schleswig, Germany, on May 26, 1870, the son of Christian and Christine Christensen, who were born under the Danish flag.

His father grew up on the farm but for several years was engaged in railroad work. It was while doing this work that he became disabled for life, his legs becoming paralyzed. For thirty years he was confined to his chair but he showed great fortitude, for he took up the tailor trade, which he had learned in youth, and managed to help out the small income. There were four children, and George, the only one who came to California, was the second oldest and is the only one now living.

Educated in the public schools, the lad helped his parents on their own place and when twelve years old went out to work on other farms to earn money to help support the family.

Five years later, he started for America, young as he was, seeing clearly enough to make California his destination. He arrived in Fresno on May 26, 1888, and soon found employment with Henry Larsen, in his vineyard in Washington Colony, at $10 per month. After the second month he had work at one dollar per day.

In 1893, Mr. Christensen leased eighty acres of muscat vineyard near Malaga. He had a fine prospect, and would have made good but for the fact that the commission firm to which he sold his raisins became insolvent. He was left empty-handed and $400 in debt, which he paid within two years, working at $20 per month on a ranch and paying twelve per cent. interest on part of the amount.

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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 60

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