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 63

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 63

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Mr. Arnold was married in 1898 to Lena Greve, a native of Petaluma, Sonoma County, Cal., and raised in Priest's Valley, Monterey County. Her father, Samuel Greve, located in Priest's Valley in 1886, and her brothers are prominent cattlemen in that district. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold are the parents of four children: Eugene E., Frieda I., Isabel, and William G. Mr. Arnold is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.

THOMAS H. MULLINS .- An energetic, hard-working pioneer, who has contributed to the building up of his section of Central California, and who is entitled to all the success and prosperity those years of toil and self- denial have brought him, is T. H. Mullins, who came to Fresno on May 15, 1892. He was born in County Cork, Ireland, on May 1, 1870, the son of Jeremiah Mullins, an Irish farmer who died in 1916. He married Susan Sulli- van, and she resides in the old home, the mother of seven boys and four girls, all of whom are living. A brother, John, served in the English army in Bel- gium and France ; another brother, Daniel, is in the United States Army ; and a brother, Michael, is in the employ of our subject.

The eldest of the sons, T. H. Mullins was reared on a farm and attended the ordinary public schools. In 1892 he came to San Francisco, and after a week's sojourn there, arrived in Fresno. He went to Fowler for four months and was employed in a warehouse until the fall of 1892, when he came to the James Ranch. With A. J. Anthony and Tim Hurley as partners, he leased raw land of Jeff James, beginning with 1,200 acres, broke up the same and planted wheat. These enterprising men pulled so well together that they were in partnership for eighteen years. In his partnership with Anthony and Hurley, they eventually ran 2,400 acres. In 1910 the partnership was dis- solved, and Mr. Mullins continued on the Mullins Ranch till 1913.

In the meantime he supplied a man in his stead, and engaged in grain farming on what has since become known as the Mullins Ranch, two miles northwest of what is now Helm. This was on James' land-then raw, needing breaking up; and he had a ranch of 1,500 acres, which he put to wheat. He had forty-four head of working stock which he used with a combined har- vester.

As early as 1908 he had bought his present place of stubble-200 acres west of Tranquillity, and he began to improve this to alfalfa under the ditch. He leveled it and checked it, and now he devotes it entirely to alfalfa. In 1913 he built himself a residence, barns and other out-buildings and moved here; and here he is successfully raising hay and stock, and also running a dairy. He raises grain, too, putting in 400 acres of wheat and barley under irrigation.

In matters of national political concern a Democrat, Mr. Mullins sup- ports every movement to improve good citizenship, and takes especial pleasure in helping along, irrespective of party lines, any local endeavor having for its object the uplift of the community or county.

1896

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

WRIGHT H. SPENCER .- A worthy representative of a distinguished old English family, the members of which have fought in practically all the wars from that of Queen Anne down, is Wright H. Spencer, a relative of Platt Rogers Spencer, the originator of the Spencerian system of penmanship, and the son of James W. Spencer, who founded the town of Caro, Tuscola County, Mich. He was born at Caro on December 27, 1862, while his father was a native of New York State. His ancestors were doughty warriors, when war had to be waged, and empire-builders when it was necessary to clear the forests and lay out communities ; and he has an old English musket, bearing the date of 1762, which one of his forebears often carried into action.

James W. Spencer was register of deeds of Tuscola County in which he lived, and for years conducted an abstract office in Caro. He was also active first in the Whig, then in the Republican party ; and was honored by his fel- low-citizens with election to the state legislature. He was the leading mer- chant in Caro, was made mayor of the town, and was deputy county treasurer. Later he came to California to live, and died in Los Gatos, Santa Clara County.

Wright H. Spencer was educated at the public schools in Caro and at Goldsmith and Bryant's Business College in Detroit, learned the abstract business with his father, and was well equipped before he set sail on the broad oceans of the world. On April 26, 1888, he arrived in Fresno, and soon after entered Clark & Mckenzie's abstract office. In 1891 the four abstract companies then operating in this city were consolidated as the Fresno County Abstract Company, and with that newer and larger concern Mr. Spencer re- mained for twenty-seven years, making his total service thirty years, when he resigned to make the run for county recorder. His platform was "Thirty years a searcher of records in Fresno County ; honesty ; efficiency, fidelity, and courteous treatment," and it brought numerous proofs of his popularity and the fact that he had the support of Fresno's leading citizens.

Mr. Spencer still owns the old homestead in Michigan of fifty-nine acres, where he was born. He resides with his family in a residence at No. 395 San Pablo Avenue, which he erected about twenty years ago.

He has been twice married. His first wife was Josie Shields, a native of Illinois, who came to California when a child, and belonged to a pioneer fam- ily, long active in Fresno County. She died on March 7, 1907. the mother of three children-Orland W .. Lincoln A., and Mildred Josephine. Alice M. Parrish, a charming daughter of Los Angeles, became Mr. Spencer's second wife and is a very energetic and loyal member of the First Methodist Church and the Red Cross society.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Spencer are known in the city in which he has been so long a prominent figure as the type. of American citizens for which Fresno County has long striven. Mr. Spencer is a member of the Woodmen of the World. the Modern Woodmen of America, the Odd Fellows and the Eagles.

CARL JORGENSEN .- A highly-esteemed couple long resident in Fresno County, who are deservedly popular in the Dania Lodge and the Odd Fellows, is Carl Jorgensen and his wife. He was born in Holbeck, Sjelland, Denmark, on November 25. 1876, the son of Hans Jorgensen, a merchant who lived and died there. He married Louise Petersen, a native of Sjelland, who now resides in Fresno. She was the mother of nine children, six boys and three girls: and all but two are now living.

The sixth in the order of birth, Carl attended the public schools and at the early age of fifteen came out to South Dakota. He went to Lake Preston, and for a while he was employed on the farm of his brothers, plowing and breaking the prairie with the aid of both horses and oxen. In 1895 he came to Fresno and here began his real career. At first he learned the blacksmith trade under George Larsen, with whom he remained for two years ; and then, for two years, he was with Messrs. Ahrensberg and Lauritzen. Owing to an injury to his right wrist, he had to give up blacksmithing; and he therefore learned the carpenter's trade, which he has followed about eighteen years.

1897

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

On September 9, 1899, he was married at Fresno to Miss Marie Seeberg, a native of Jylland, Denmark, and the daughter of H. P. Seeberg, a stationary engineer and machinist, who had taken for his wife Christena Jensen, a native of Jylland. In 1885 he came to Fresno and brought his family and engaged in farming, locating on White's Bridge Road at what is now Rolinda. The land was then all range and wild grain; but he started to improve what he had and soon made the holding tell another story. Selling out, he went to the West Side at Panoche, and took a preemption of 160 acres. Six months later, he returned to Fresno and engaged in farming. Two years later he bought in the Washington Colony and set out a vineyard. He was one of the organ- izers of the Danish Creamery Association. Eight years later he sold again and located in Fresno : and there, in 1901, his wife died. He continued in bus- iness for some years, but now makes his home with his children. Six children made up the family, and all are now living.

Mr. and Mrs. Jorgensen have owned several parcels of town and country property, but have sold them and in the spring of 1918 Mr. Jorgensen located on his present place of six acres on White's Bridge Road, three-fourths of a mile west of Fresno, a place Mr. Jorgensen was always desirous of owning for a home. The ranch is devoted to alfalfa and a vineyard. It is a fine place with old trees, both ornamental and fruit. Mr. Jorgensen still continues his trade in Fresno. Mr. and Mrs. Jorgensen have two children: Ella A. is assistant bookkeeper with the Western Union Telegraph Company ; and William is in the employ of the garage department of the Lauritzen Imple- ment Company of Fresno.

Mr. Jorgensen is a member of the Dania in Fresno, and has been presi- dent of that organization four times, and was several times a delegate to the state convention. He belongs to Fresno Lodge No. 186, I. O. O. F., the En- campment and Canton. Mrs. Jorgensen was a member of the Rebekahs and of the Lutheran Church, which her husband also attends. He is also a live supporter of and member of the California Associated Raisin Company.

ARNOLD HUMBOLDT STAUB .- An energetic and successful rancher and dairyman who, with his devoted and equally wide-awake wife, has amassed a comfortable competency and, what is best, with it the esteem and good will of a wide circle of friends, is Arnold Humboldt Staub, who was born near Winnemucca, and the Humboldt River, Nevada, on September 24, 1865, the son of John Staub, a native of Zurich, Switzerland. The latter, a fine stone mason, cutter, sculptor and marble-worker, came to Missouri and while there enlisted in the Union Army, having previously married Elizabeth Paine, a native of that state. He worked at his trade ; and when two children had been born to him, crossed the great plains in 1864 with ox teams to Nevada, where he engaged in the stock business. The Indians grew trouble- some, and he and the other ranchers took up their journey again and came through to California with their teams.

Arriving in Sacramento in 1868, he located in Santa Cruz County, took up a homestead preemption and engaged in stock raising. When nicely pro- gressing, however, the good mother died, leaving five children-at present all living-among whom our subject was the fourth eldest. He was reared on a ranch in Santa Cruz County near Davenport, attended the public schools of his locality, and remained at home until he was twenty-one.

Then, for a couple of years, Arnold went to work for himself; but when his father became sick, he returned home and ran the place for him, and there remained until the old gentleman passed away. This was about 1890; after which he leased his father's ranch and ran it until 1906. In that year he moved to. Fresno County and settled near Dos Palos, where he bought a ranch of thirty-seven acres.

On March 27, 1900, Mr. Staub married Mrs. Alice (Downing) Kelley, who was born at Camp Scott, Nev., in the same locality as her husband, the daughter of Jason Downing, a native of New York State, and a civil engineer

1898

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

who had crossed the plains to California. He was married in Nevada to Sarah E. McCarty, whose father was Larkin McCarty, an early Californian pioneer. The father moved to Nevada where he was active as a civil engineer and then came to Fresno County, Cal., when Fresno was a small town, in its develop- ment of the middle seventies. She attended school in this county, and was married for the first time to James C. Kelley, a native of New York State and a rancher. Two children were born of this marriage-Earl L., who died when eleven years of age, and Maude C., now Mrs. H. A. McDowell of Coalinga, who has one child. Mrs. Staub's second marriage was at Santa Cruz.

Mr. Staub conducted his ranch near Dos Palos as an alfalfa farm for three years, and then sold it at a good profit, whereupon he located in the Madison district and bought twenty acres of raw land on California Avenue, four and a half miles west of Fresno, which he leveled and checked for alfalfa. He also installed a dairy, and had a fine herd of milch cows; and he is a member of the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers' Association.

Mr. Staub was first married in Santa Cruz to Miss Sarah Bradshaw, who was born in Rocklin, Cal., and became the mother of one child, Harvey P., who resides at Soquel, and has five children. The present Mrs. Staub is a member of the Rebekahs in Santa Cruz, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Staub is an Odd Fellow in association with Central California Lodge No. 343 of Fresno, and Fresno Encampment No. 78. A Democrat in national politics, he is without party hindrance in supporting local measures, and has served as a school trustee in Santa Cruz County.

J. L. NORMAN .- A prosperous rancher and resident of Kingsburg, who, as a boy experienced the disadvantage of being a foreigner unable to speak English, and who, in young manhood endured the rigors and privations of pioneer life on the Nebraska prairies, but who is now a man of affairs, in- fluential in the financial and commercial worlds-such is J. L. Norman, the vice-president of the Kingsburg Bank, now the leading institution of its kind in that town, and one of the cornerstones of Central California's pros- perity

J. L. Norman was born in Sweden, near Fallköping, on July 26, 1860, the son of Andrew and Johanna Norman, who came to America in 1869 and settled in Saunders County, Nebr., where they took up a homestead and engaged in farming. After weathering the pioneer days of panics, grass- hoppers, blizzards and cyclones, the father died in Nebraska, survived by his wife, who came to California in 1896 with the subject of this sketch and his family. The lad grew up on the Nebraska plains, with but three months of schooling a year, most of his time being given to the raising of wheat and corn, cattle and hogs, and at sixteen he did a man's work. A Swedish Mission was located on his father's farm; and there he was duly confirmed at the age of fourteen.

In 1885, when J. L. Norman was twenty-five years of age, his father died, leaving to his protection his mother, and the business cares incident to the Nebraska farm. That same year, he began to farm on his own account, and so continued in Nebraska until he came farther West. In 1888, he married Miss Elna (or Ellen) Nelson, born at Skaane, Sweden, who came to Nebraska all alone, in 1885, when a girl of seventeen. Mr. and Mrs. Norman had three children born in Nebraska: Horace E., Mamie, and Ethel. Horace runs one of his father's ranches, and is a graduate of Heald's Business College at Fresno. He married Miss Edith Peterson of Kingsburg; and they have one child, Mevin H. Mamie is a trained nurse at Dr. Gillespie's hospital, while Ethel, the wife of Charles A. Kolander, a rancher, dwells on Mr. Norman's other ranch, and has one child, Glenn W. Mr. and Mrs. Norman had two chil- dren who were born in California but both are deceased.

Coming to California in 1896, Mr. Norman bought twenty acres of partly improved land and planted it. Later he bought forty acres, improved it, and sold the original twenty. Then he bought another forty acres, partially im-

Bordagaray

1901

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

proved, and now he owns two forty-acre ranches. These ranches are planted to peach trees and muscats, and this will partly explain why Mr. Norman was elected one of the twenty-five trustees of the California Associated Raisin Company, an office of responsibility that he still holds. That company has grown to be one of the largest and best cooperative institutions in Cali- fornia. Mr. Norman helped to organize the Scandinavian Mutual Protective Fire Insurance Association of Fresno County, Cal. He is its treasurer, and has served as such ever since its organization.

Mr. Norman is not only vice-president of the Kingsburg Bank, but he helped organize and found the same; he is a member of the Union Higli School Board, and a member and trustee of the Swedish Mission Church Mr. Norman makes money, but he spends it also, and lets pass no opportunity to do good. He made two trips back to Nebraska; and about ten years ago he took all of his family to Sweden for a visit to his ancestral home.

Mrs. Norman is a devoted mother and wife, an excellent housekeeper, and a kind, hospitable woman, who infuses good cheer wherever she goes. She takes a keen interest in contemporary affairs and in the improvement of the community, and is unusually well informed. In 1916-17, Mr. Norman built a fine large two-story stucco residence in Kingsburg's Oak Knoll.

DOMINIQUE BORDAGARAY .- A successful farmer and business man among the old settlers on the West Side in Fresno County, is Dominique Bordagaray, born in St. Jean Pied de Port, Basses Pyrenees, France, January 15, 1876. His father, Jean Bordagaray served as an official in the customs house service of the French government for twenty-five years up to the time of his death, at forty-five years of age. He was a popular and prominent official of influence.

Dominique is the youngest of eight children born to his parents, all of whom are living, five of them residing in Buenos Ayres, South America, while he is the only one living under the Stars and Stripes. He passed his child- hood in his old home and after completing the local schools entered college. His father naturally wanted him to enter the customs service, but Dominique had heard and read of the wonderful resources and opportunities in Califor- nia, and so resolved to seek his fortune in the land of gold and sunshine. Through the assistance of his grandmother (whom he repaid from his first earnings) he was able to make the long journey to the Pacific Coast, arriving in Los Angeles in December, 1893. One month later he made his way to Bakersfield and there he entered the employ of a sheepman. In 1895 he came to Fresno County, which has since been the scene of his operations. He continued working for different sheep-growers, until 1898 when he went into the mountains in Millwood Basin for nearly two years. Always desirous for advancement, he studied English, not a difficult matter with his knowledge of Latin, and soon he read and spoke English quite well. From 1900 to 1902 he conducted the Pyrenees Hotel at Kern and O Streets, Fresno. Having saved about $350, he resolved to engage in stock-raising and purchased a flock of sheep which he ranged on the plains on the West Side and also buying and selling sheep, at times having 4,000 to 5,000 head. He established a sheep-shearing camp at Turk, nine miles east of Coalinga, where for many years he did a large business. Here he was the first man in the district to use the modern sheep-clippers. He sheared on contract and had as high as seventeen clippers at work. He also built large dipping vats and over 110,000 sheep have been sheared and dipped at his camp in a spring season. He built a store, hotel and livery stable and did a very successful business. During these years he also made a specialty of raising fine rams which he sold to sheepmen, some years selling over 1,000 rams.

He homesteaded 140 acres eleven miles east of Coalinga, which he im- proved, cleared of mesquite and sagebrush, sunk a well and installed a pump- ing-plant, and the rich soil produces all kinds of vegetables and fruit, yielding 88

1902

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

abundantly. He has an orchard of peaches, apricots, quince and figs, as well as a vineyard, and has also raised cotton on the place. He raises grain on land he leases from the railroad company.

Soon after Coalinga began building he bought six lots on C Street near Fifth, where in 1904 he built a row of store buildings. In one of these he ran a French laundry. Some years later they were destroyed by fire and he built the Airdome Theatre which he rents and is now run as the Liberty Airdome.

In 1913, a dry year, he shipped his sheep to Aspen, Colo., where he ranged them on the government reserve and when ready for market shipped them in lots to Denver, where they were sold. Having disposed of them he quit the sheep business and since then engages in general farming on his ranch. With R. W. Cain as a partner, under the firm name of Bordagaray & Cain, he is engaged in business on Fifth Street, Coalinga, dealing in confec- tionery, ice cream, soda water, cigars and tobacco, as well as running a large billiard parlor and carrying a large stock of goods in their business.

Mr. Bordagaray was married in Hanford to Miss Louisa Devaurs, a native daughter born in Merced, Cal., and they have six children: Albert D., Grace S., Rose E., Stanley, Isabel I., and John Henry. Mr. Bordagaray be- came an American citizen in 1912, and is a patriotic and enterprising citizen. Fraternally he is a member of the Eagles.

O. C. RUSTEN .- A viticulturist who owns a fine vineyard and has both the experience and the enterprise to cultivate and maintain it well, is O. C. Rusten, who came to California in 1901. His birthplace was Valders Etneda- len, Norway, where he first saw the light on April 12, 1858. His father was Christian Rusten, a native of the same place, where he became a well-fixed farmer. The mother was Sarah Rusten; and she, like her devoted husband, is now among the silent majority. There were six children, all boys, four of whom are living. These four are Gulbrand, who is still in Norway ; Haldor, who is in North Dakota ; John, in Iowa, and O. C., the eldest.

Having attended the Norway country schools, Mr. Rusten assisted his father until he was of age, partly in farming, and partly in the getting out of lumber ; and then he worked on farms for others, until he saw that there was not much opportunity there for getting ahead. Much as he regretted the necessary breaking of home ties, he, therefore, concluded to try his for- tune in America, and in 1880 he crossed the ocean and came to Soldier, Iowa, arriving at his destination without surplus means and even in debt. He went to work on a farm, glad to get ten dollars a month. Then he shifted to where he was paid fourteen dollars; and by the third year, he received eighteen dollars a month from an American farmer, Bell Wright, with whom he re- mained for three years and who finally gave him twenty dollars a month. After leaving Mr. Wright he went to the farm of a Mr. Emerson. In the meantime, in 1882, with his brother he bought eighty acres of railroad land at five dollars an acre, and for a while rented it out. Then he bought out his brother and became sole proprietor.

In 1888, Mr. Rusten was united in marriage with Miss Annie M. Rye, a Norwegian by birth. She was a native of Valden and came to Iowa in 1881. With her companionship and help, he located on his farm, and im- proved it by the erection of commodious and attractive buildings. He raised corn, hogs and cattle, and when he sold out in 1894, he received $1.700 for the property. He next bought forty acres near Woodbine for $1,400 and there he farmed for seven years, when he sold out for $1,640, and decided to come to the Pacific Coast. In 1901, therefore, he came to Fresno. A month after his arrival, he bought ten acres near Easton, to the east of Fresno, but a couple of seasons later sold it, having found that it was not what he wanted. In the meantime he had bought two lots in Fresno and had moved his resi- dence thereon. Then he was in the employ of packing houses for a time, and

1903

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

the next year-that is, in 1902-he bought his present twenty acres in the Helm Colony. In 1903 he set out his vineyard and at the same time began the extensive improvements that have added so much to the value of the property in every way. He erected buildings and set his vines, principally malagas, Feherzagos and muscats, and also a small orchard of peaches; nor did he forget the importance of encouraging every movement to aid the growers and help him get good prices once that he had a crop. He was one of the original members of the Melvin Grape Growers' Association, belongs to the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Grow- ers, Inc., and takes an intense interest in all that promotes progress along these lines. In politics, Mr. Rusten is a Republican and seeks to elevate the tone of civic life. The family attend the Lutheran Church.

CHARLES J. STONE .- As one of its foremost citizens, Charles J. Stone has been very active in building up the town of Kingsburg, and in promoting its business, religious, and musical life. Mr. Stone was born De- cember 27, 1855, at Fredericksborg, in the Province of Delame, Sweden, a district noted for its lumbering interests. He attended the common schools at Sandviken and later at Hammarby. He learned the blacksmith's trade in his father's shop at Sandviken. Being ambitious for further educational train- ing, he went to Upsala, in 1876, to take the regular normal school course at the Seminary, and studied there during 1877-1878. He sailed for America, landing at the old Castle Garden, New York, June 26, 1881. He remained in Brooklyn until November, 1881, when he went to Minneapolis, Minn., and begån working as a brickmason.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

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 63

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