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 65
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Mr. Farlinger's health being poorly for some years, he rented the farms and removed to Fresno, where he and his devoted wife purchased a ten-acre vineyard about three-fourths of a mile west of Fresno; and they built a com- fortable bungalow, in which they lived in pleasant retirement. Mr. Farlinger liked the climate and country, and was contented and happy in the sunny, healthful atmosphere ; but disease had made too great an inroad on his health, and though he recuperated for a time, he finally passed away, on July 26,
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1918, honored and beloved by those who really knew him. He was a good husband and father and his happiest hours were spent with his family.
Five children had been born to this favored pair: William, who gradu- ated with honors from the Fresno High School and served in the United States Army until the armistice was signed; Fred, also a graduate of the same institution ; Harry, also attending there; May, graduated with the class of '19; and Dixie, a grammar-school student. The last four are still at home, the comfort of their mother, who continues to reside in her comfortable house, looking after the affairs entrusted to her by her husband, turning aside, as opportunity permits, to do such good works as make their appeal to her, particularly those associated with the life of the Baptist Church, to which she belongs.
CHRIS L. HANSEN .- One of the most enterprising farmers and dairy- men of Tranquillity, known far and wide for his scientific and practical methods, and quite as widely enjoying the esteem and good will of his fellow ranchers, is Chris L. Hansen, who was born in Bregninge, on the island of Ero, Denmark, an island in the Baltic Sea, on August 29, 1885. His father. Hans Hansen, is still living there, a prosperous dairyman and farmer. but his mother (who was Anna Maria Christensen before her marriage), died in that place in 1911. She was the mother of four children, two of whom came to California.
The second eldest, Chris was brought up on a farm while he attended the public school, and when twenty-one years of age he migrated to America and settled for a while in Iowa, spending eight months in Audubon County. In 1907 he came to Newman, attracted by the superior advantages of the Golden State, and after working awhile for others, he leased a dairy and engaged in dairying-a department of agriculture highly developed in his native land.
In 1912, satisfied of the greater inducements offered by Fresno County, Mr. Hansen moved to Tranquillity and bought forty acres of raw land, which he improved by leveling and checking, and planting alfalfa. He went in for dairying and the raising of poultry ; and since then he has steadily increased in prosperity, so that he also rents land adjoining and raises still more grain. As one of the best ranchers of his vicinity, he is an active member in the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers Association.
While at Newman, Mr. Hansen became the husband of Miss Egidia Hansen, a native of Denmark who came from the same locality in which Mr. Hansen was born; and one child-Marius-has blessed their happy union. The family attends the Lutheran Church and joins in all worthy movements for the betterment of the community.
Through just such highly intelligent settlers as Mr. Hansen, capable of helping in the great problem of developing the natural resources of the coun- try, Fresno County has prospered until now it is conceded to be one of the most attractive portions of the entire state.
ANDREW C. CARLSON .- Enterprising, progressive, cultured, and refined citizens are Mr. and Mrs. Andrew C. Carlson, active attendants at and supporters of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Tranquillity, although both were originally members of the United Brethren Church, a denomination not represented as yet in the community. Mr. Carlson was born at Welton, in Effingham County, Ill., in 1883, the son of Andrew A. Carlson, a native of Norway. As a sailor, the elder Carlson visited many of the most important foreign ports of the world, and when he left his sea-faring life, he settled in Illinois. There he married Nancy Nelson, whose father was a farmer and a landowner in Effingham County and in time founded the town of Welton, in which place, besides farming, he was following a mercantile career. An- drew was the youngest of seven children, and both his parents died when he was about three years old.
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Andrew's childhood was spent on the farm in Illinois, and he was edu- cated at the public schools. When fifteen years of age he made his way to the outskirts of Kansas City, Mo., and there for two years worked on a farm. Then he removed to Hamilton County, Nebr., and again accepted employ- ment as a farm-hand, continuing in that field and locality until he was mar- ried there, on December 15, 1909. The gracious bride was Miss Emma L. Donahue, who was born in Hamilton County, Nebr., the daughter of Charles and Martha (Brown) Donahue, natives of Illinois and Iowa respectively, and very early settlers of Hamilton County. Mrs. Carlson was reared in the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Oliver, who were also early settlers of Hamilton County and became well-to-do farmers; and both now reside in Tranquillity, a highly-respected and much-loved couple. Mrs. Carlson, after completing the public school courses, entered the Aurora High School, from which she was graduated.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Carlson farmed in Nebraska until 1911, when they came to California. For a while they were at Dos Palos, but in 1912, convinced of the far greater advantages offered by Tranquillity, they removed here, and Mr. Carlson purchased twenty acres. Inasmuch as the land was not then improved, however, they grew dissatisfied and returned to Nebraska, in which state they farmed for two years; but seized with the same longing to return to California such as has impelled thousands again to cast their fortune here, they came back to Tranquillity and once more pitched their tent on the scene of their early aspirations.
This time they began improving their ranch, leveling and checking, and soon sowed alfalfa. At the same time they leased the eighty acres of J. C. Oliver, where they resided. This place Mr. Carlson also leveled and checked, and he has forty acres of it in alfalfa. Selling his twenty acres at a good profit, he purchased twenty-five acres on the main canal, which he is now sowing to alfalfa, and where he has demonstrated himself a thoroughly capable and aggressive rancher. Mr. Carlson is ably assisted by his good wife, who encourages him in all his ambitions and thus assists him in the most practical way.
Two children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Carlson, both daughters, named Edna and Frances; and perhaps it is because of their responsibilities and privileges as parents that they are so much interested in the cause of education, and the welfare of children generally. Mr. Carlson has served on, and is still a member of the board of school trustees of the Tranquillity district; and to this task he gives his most conscientious attention.
ELWOOD C. HEDGES .- An interesting representative of both a pioneer family of California and another of Oregon, with just such a winning and convincing personality as one would expect to find in an American whose forefathers had "been through" an experience or two, is Elwood C. Hedges, whose grandfather, the hero of storms and shipwreck, was for many years a purser in the hazardous coasting trade. Elwood C. was born at Albany, Ore., on April 20, 1892, the son of Joseph W. Hedges, a native of Philadelphia, from which the grandfather, Benjamin F. Hedges, came to California in early days. While purser on the Czarina, it was his lot to be wrecked on the Coos Bay Jetty, when he and two others hung to the rigging over night. They were Captain Dugan and a Mr. Millis, and they all fought valiantly for their lives, but in the morning they were washed away and lost; only one was saved out of a crew of nineteen.
Joseph W. Hedges arrived in San Francisco on St. Patrick's Day, 1876; and having in time learned the machinist's trade, he followed it there and in Oregon, where he married Sarah E. Howard, the daughter of R. V. Howard of Cleveland, Ohio, who crossed the plains with ox teams in 1852, and had become a pioneer in Oregon. There he married Jane Smith, a native of St. Louis, who crossed the continent with her parents in 1851. Mr. Howard was a
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farmer and died at Molalla, Ore., in 1915, survived by his wife who died in June, 1919, at Albany. Joseph W. Hedges returned to San Francisco, where he still follows the trade of a machinist, and has recently given Uncle Sam a lift as a machinist in the United States Transport Service. Mrs. Hedges is also living, the mother of three children, two of whom have grown to ma- turity.
The eldest of the family, Elwood C., was brought up in San Francisco and there attended first the common and then the high schools. In 1908 he was apprenticed to a sign-painter in San Francisco, and after completing the trade, worked for the well-known firm of Riordan & Swan. In 1914 he re- moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where he established himself as a sign-writer; but not liking the climate, he returned to San Francisco eight months later and was employed by the Western States Advertising Company, until they sold out. Then he became traveling salesman for the Sontag Commission Com- pany and represented them throughout the Bay counties.
In March, 1916, Mr. Hedges came to Tranquillity and entered the employ of the Standard Oil Company at the "Mendota Pumping Station, and since then he has held the position of oiler there. He likes his work, which is the first condition to any man's ultimate success, and likes his employers, so generally known for their fair treatment of the employee; and still greater things may be expected of him in the future.
While in Phoenix, Ariz., Mr. Hedges was married to Miss May Jennings, a native of San Francisco, by whom he has had one child. a bright lad named Howard Joseph. He is a member of the K. O. T. M., and his good wife shares with him an agreeable local popularity.
ERNEST WINTERTON FOSTER .- Born in Belmont County, Ohio, Jannary 19, 1875, Ernest Winterton Foster comes from sturdy Irish stock on the paternal side. His father, J. B. Foster, was reared on a farm in Ohio. He made one trip to California, remained one year, and then went back to Ohio and farmed until his death. He was a member of the Ohio state militia during the Civil War and served in the Morgan raid. He married Lydia Ann Gitchel, who was born in the Buckeye State. She accompanied her husband to California ; and after the death of her husband, she returned to the Golden State and made this her home until her death. Her son Winterton took her remains back to Ohio, and she was buried beside her husband. There were eleven children in the Foster family, eight of whom are living, four of them being in California and the others in the East.
The youngest child of his parents' family, E. W. Foster was reared on a farm back in Ohio, where he attended the public school of his district to secure an education. He was married in Monroe County, Ohio, in June, 1896, when he was twenty-one to Miss Clara Mann, a daughter of Allen and Cath- erine (Truax) Mann, both natives of Ohio and prominent citizens and farm- ers there. Allen Mann served in an Ohio regiment in the Civil War. He still resides in the vicinity of his old home, aged seventy-six years. On February 21, 1897, Mr. and Mrs. Foster came to California and settled in Fresno County. Mr. Foster secured a position with what was then the K. and G. Fruit Company (now the Phoenix Fruit Company). His brother, J. E. Foster, was foreman of this company, and the location of their place of business was on the ranch now owned by our subject. In August of- that same year, on account of the death of Mrs. Foster's mother, Mr. and Mrs. Foster returned to Ohio, where Mr. Foster leased the Mann farm and car- ried on operations there for years. His thoughts often wandered back to California. however, and in 1903 we find them back in the land of sunshine. He arrived in Fresno in February, the same month as on his first arrival in the state. With his brother he leased the Posson ranch, east of Fresno, and cultivated it one year, when the brothers dissolved partnership. E. W. Fos- ter then became superintendent of the Phoenix Fruit Company ranch, taking the position in the fall of 1904, and has continued in that position ever since.
E ) Foster
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This company now own 700 acres, all in vineyard except 160 acres, which is devoted to raising grain. Mr. Foster has improved several ranches for the company, and has brought to his work the energy and efficiency so necessary to the successful management of a big enterprise. He employs from thirty to eighty hands in his development work, the land being under ditch irriga- tion, while he has also installed four pumping plants on the property.
Mr. Foster has never regretted his return to the West. He has purchased a ranch of his own, consisting of forty acres, all in raisins, and here has built his residence, besides other necessary ranch buildings. A liberal and enter- prising man, he has earned a place in the county, and has materially aided in its development. Always interested in educational advancement, he has been trustee of Kutner Colony school district for the greater part of the past nine years. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Foster, four of whom are living: Fay, Beulah, Donald, and Bobbie. The family attend the First Christian Church in Fresno, of which Mrs. Foster is a member.
L. KRUSE .- Like so many of his countrymen, L. Kruse is a successful rancher and viticulturist in the Biola district, and has attained to his position in life through his own unfailing industry and thrift. A native of Laub, Sa- mara, Russia, he was born April 30, 1874. His father, Carl Kruse, was also born there and followed farming for an occupation. He came to Fresno in later life, a few years after his son's arrival, and here his death occurred in 1910. The mother, Mary (Leikem) Kruse, returned to Russia, and there her death occurred.
L. Kruse was the youngest of three children born to his parents, and was educated in the public schools of his native town. His marriage there, in February, 1899, united him with Miss Mary Kohl, also born there. After his marriage he followed farming until the fall of 1899, when they came to the United States and for a time located in Dorchester, Wis., where Mr. Kruse found employment with the railroad. In 1900 they came to Fresno, and here he began work in the Craycroft brickyard and in the summer worked at hay baling. He soon bought a hay-press and engaged in baling on his own ac- count, following that for four or five years. He then bought an outfit and engaged in grain-farming, leasing land near Sanger. He later raised alfalfa in the Empire and Barstow districts.
After these various enterprises, Mr. Kruse bought a twenty-acre ranch on Humboldt Avenue, Vinland, and operated it three years, when he sold it, in 1912, and bought his present ranch, forty acres in the Biola district. He later bought forty acres more adjoining, and now has thirty-five acres in cling peaches, and the balance in Thompson seedless vineyards, a valuable ranch, and worth the energy and perseverance which made it possible.
Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kruse: Carl; Jack, Anna, and Loraine, all assisting their parents on the ranch. The family attends the Lutheran Church of Fresno. Mr. Kruse is a member and stockholder of both the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Associated Raisin Company, for he believes in cooperation of the fruit-growers.
BARNEY SCHULTZ .- A late pioneer who has been in California less than a decade, and who is much pleased with both the climate and soil in Fresno County, is Barney Schultz, a native of Illinois, where he was born in Grand Detour, Ogle County, on July 25, 1859, when he started on his career as a "booster" of the real sort for America and Americans. His father, Frederick Schultz, was born in Germany and came to Illinois when he was seventeen years old. He had married Lottie Miller, who was of French and German descent. Mr. Schultz was a fitter of plows in the employ, for eighteen years, of the Grand Detour Plow Shops, and he removed to Grundy County, Iowa, and died there. Mrs. Schultz now resides at Mitchell in South Dakota, the mother of four boys and a girl, all of whom are living.
Barney, the second oldest, was brought up in Illinois until he was fifteen,
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attending the public school; and at that age he went to Grundy County, Iowa, and continued at the public school and on a farm. In 1884 he and his brother Herman removed to Sully County, now South Dakota, following a trip of investigation made the previous fall, when each located 160 acres and soon set to work to improve the same. He planted to grain and raised stock while he worked out at $1.25 a day. They had to haul water four miles, but they succeeded, and he bought other lands. After improving what heheld, to a high degree, including the erection of a residence and barns and other farm- buildings, Mr. Schultz finally sold the property and moved to Woolsey, S. D. There he farmed 233 acres and met with success.
In 1910, Mr. Schultz made his first trip to California, and bought ten acres in the Dakota Colony, and twenty acres in the Hawkeye district. He returned to Dakota, but sold out, and in the spring of 1915 moved here. He then bought twenty acres more and later added, in 1919, still another ten acres. Now he has sixty acres in all, which he devotes to Thompson seedless grapes, alfalfa and grain. He belongs to the California Associated Raisin Company.
On July 13, 1892, in South Dakota, Mr. Schultz was married to Miss Reno M. Livingstone, a native of Ontario, Canada, and a relative of Dr. Da- vid Livingstone, the African explorer and missionary. Mr. and Mrs. Schultz had one child, Myrtle M., who is the wife of Ira T. Maxwell. He served in the United States Army in the Great War, and is a rancher here.
Mr. Schultz is a member of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen. He has for years been a Republican, and was once township supervisor, treasurer and assessor in South Dakota. Mr. and Mrs. Schultz are highly esteemed as loyal American citizens.
LEWIS W. BOYD .- A hard-working, highly successful couple, who have won the esteem of their neighbors and the confidence of business folk by improving their property and making of it a fine place, are Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Boyd, who own some very choice acreage in the Dakota Colony. Their names are well known to fellow members of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Associated Raisin Company, as well as at the Califor- nia Honey Producers Exchange and in the San Joaquin Valley Milk Produ- cers Association.
Born at Goshen, in Elkhart County, Ind., on January 9, 1871, Lewis W. Boyd was the son of James P. Boyd, a native of Ohio who settled in Indiana as a farmer and served for four years and six months in the Civil War as a member of Company B of the Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. In 1873 he removed to Kansas, and in Cowley County, near Winfield, he pre- empted land and supported himself as a farmer. In 1885 he removed to Benton County, Mo., where he bought a farm; and twelve years later he went to North Dakota and in Cavalier County homesteaded and farmed. He next removed to Goodwell, Okla., where he spent three busy years; and in 1907 he came to Fresno. Here, in the Dakota Colony, he worked for three years at improving a vineyard, after which he retired and took up his residence in the city of Fresno. Mrs. Boyd died on July 1, 1917, the mother of six children, five of whom are still living.
L. W. Boyd was the second oldest in the order of birth, and, until he was fourteen, he was reared in Kansas. Then he removed to Missouri and there attended the public schools ; and he remained home until he was twenty-two, when he embarked in agricultural pursuits for himself by renting a farm. Two vears later he bought some farm-land in Johnson County, Mo., and in March, 1898, he removed to North Dakota, where he homesteaded 160 acres in Cava- lier County, then he purchased eighty acres, making 240 acres, principally devoted to wheat and flax and general farming. He broke the first furrow, and built the first house in the township, which was named after him, al- though the name was later changed to Seivert.
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On account of the ill health of Mrs. Boyd, he sold out after nine years, and in 1907 removed to Stonington, Colo., where he bought 640 acres and went in for general ranching and stock-raising. He was disappointed in the dis- trict and in September, 1909, came west to California and settled in Fresno County. He had really been here the previous fall, when he bought thirty acres in the Dakota Colony. The land was raw, but he gradually improved it, and two years later he bought ten acres more. Now he has forty acres on Dakota Avenue, devoted to the raising of alfalfa and peaches and Thomp- son seedless grapes, and also a well-equipped dairy. Mrs. Boyd's health has improved since her residence in California, and she is able to enjoy life again while assisting in bee-culture, for which they have fifty colonies.
Mr. and Mrs. Boyd were married in Warrensburg, Mo., on July 8, 1893, Mrs. Boyd having been Miss Sadie Carter before her marriage. She was born in Missouri, the daughter of Charles Carter, a native of Kentucky, who married Elizabeth Brewer. Mr. Carter served in the Civil War in a Missouri Regiment, and was wounded at Lonejack in that State. Mrs. Boyd was left orphaned when she was eight years of age and was reared by D. M. Mohler, until her marriage. She attended the public school and the State Normal at Warrensburg, and thus received an excellent education.
Six children came to further honor the name of Boyd: Eva Mae, who is Mrs. V. A. Martin and resides near Kerman; Jennie L., Mrs. Fay Smith, resides at Dunsmuir ; Charles F. and Gladys Vera, in the Dakota Colony ; Le Roy, who died in his second year ; and James Earl. The family attend the Church of the Brethren.
Mr. Boyd is a Republican in national politics, but believes in doing a good deal of civic work regardless of party lines. In North Dakota he was one of the first school-board members in his district, acting as treasurer ; and he has been sought as a school.trustee here, which honor he declined.
H. W. MCCULLOUGH .- An agreeable couple enjoying their attractive home place, and proud of their American citizenship since they have a son in the United States service, are H. W. Mccullough and his estimable wife. He was born near Pittsburg, Pa., in 1866, the son of Isaac Mccullough, also a native of Pennsylvania, who was a farmer and died on the farm where he had a coal mine that he long operated, and who married Sarah McGuire, native of that locality, and who also died near the scene of her birth. She was beloved by nine children, among whom our subject was the second youngest.
The father having died when H. W. was nine years of age, the lad remained at home with his mother until he was eighteen, in the meantime attending the public school. Then he started in coal-mining for himself, and for fourteen years was interested in that line of enterprise. At Indiana, Indiana County, Pa., on October 1, 1889, Mr. Mccullough was married to Miss Della Lewis, a native of that county, and the daughter of James Lewis who was born in Bedford County, the same state, and who was a tanner by trade. He became a farmer in Indiana County, and engaged in lumbering. Her mother was Christiana Longwell before her marriage, and she was born in Huntington County, Pa. Both parents died in Indiana County. Their family included twelve children, five of whom are still living, and Mrs. Mc- Cullough was the second youngest.
In 1911, Mr. Mccullough quit coal-mining and came to California. For three years he traveled the state prospecting for a home, and he then chose Fresno County as offering the greatest inducements.
In 1914, therefore, he bought twenty acres of raw land in Barstow Colony, and by hard work and skilful management, he improved the land, and now has eight acres devoted to alfalfa, and he has ten acres in a muscat vineyard. He also has a small dairy with eight cows, and the whole farm is well irrigated. Mr. McCullough is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and is alive to the interests of ranchmen generally.
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Five children have blessed the married life of Mr. and Mrs. McCullough : Dale, who is in Richmond with the Standard Oil Company; Joseph, in the aviation section of the United States Signal Corps; Gladys, who married Carl Schlotthauer, and lives at Barstow; Lois, who is the wife of Lawrence Maneely, a rancher in Barstow; and Kermit, who is at home.
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