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 66

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 66

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Mr. Mccullough takes an intelligent interest in national politics, and adheres to the principles of the Republican party. In local movements, he discards party lines and supports the best men and the best measures. Mr. and Mrs. McCullough do what they can to maintain a lively and wholesome social spirit in the community, and Mr. Mccullough is active in the order of the Woodmen of the World.

ANDREW H. STAY .- One of the highly respected citizens of the Wah- toke district in Fresno County, where he has lived since December, 1905, is A. H. Stay. Mr. Stay purchased his ranch when the land was in its primitive condition, and he has developed it to a high degree of productiveness, by setting out grapevines, peach and apricot trees, and sowing alfalfa, besides erecting a comfortable home. Much of his time, since he came to the county, in May, 1901, has been devoted to the growing of grapes. Mr. Stay's success as a viticulturist and horticulturist is the result of persistent industry, and his ranch has become one of the show places of the Reedley section.

Mr. Stay was born in Central Norway, on September 9, 1863, a son of Hans and Christense Stay, also natives of the land of Vikings. His father died in Norway, and, in 1881, the widow with her eight children immigrated to the United States, locating in Minnesota, where she had a son, who had come in 1880, and there the family lived twenty years. In 1901, A. H. Stay migrated to California and settled in Fresno County, buying twenty acres south of Fresno, which proved to be alkali land and which he sold three years later. In 1905 he bought his present place of twenty acres, and by prac- tical commonsense and hard work he has demonstrated his worth as a public- spirited and progressive man.

In 1885, Mr. Stay was united in marriage with Miss Amelia Erickson, and they had five children: Henry; Peter; Jennie (deceased) ; Cora; and Clarence. The latter enlisted, in October, 1917, for service in the United States Army, and was attached to the American Expeditionary Forces, Forty- first Division, and served from January, 1918, till April, 1919, in France, when he was discharged. Mrs. Amelia Stay passed away in 1897. For his second wife Mr. Stay married Miss Ragnhild Lisdal, and to them were born nine children, six of whom are living: Esther; Ruth; Reuben; Rachael; Joseph ; and Hannah. Mrs. Stay died in 1912. Notwithstanding these sorrows and bereavements, the declaration of Mr. Stay is "the Lord hath been good to me."

Mr. Stay served three years as school trustee in Wahtoke district. He belongs to the Raisin and the Peach Growers Associations. He attends the Pentecostal Church.

WILLIAM H. BERG .- One of the best known citizens of Dakota Col- ony, Fresno County, a man chosen by the Kerman Telephone Company be- cause of his dependability, as well as his special ability, to have charge of their lines and central office at Kerman, is William H. Berg, who is also a successful viticulturist. He is a native of Pawnee City, Pawnee County, Nebr., where he first saw the light of day on December 29, 1877. His parents, Fritz and Anna (Liver) Berg, were natives of Germany. The father came to Amer- ica when a young man, settling in the State of New York, from where he mi- grated to Pawnee City, Nebr., and engaged in farming. Afterwards he moved farther westward, locating at Vancouver, Wash., where he followed farming for fifteen years; later he removed to North Yamhill, Ore., where he pur- chased a farm, and while residing there passed away. The mother now lives at Walla Walla, Wash.

andrew It. Stay

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Mr. and Mrs. Fritz Berg were the parents of seven children, four of whom are living, William H., of this review, being the second youngest. William was one year of age when his parents removed to Vancouver, Wash. He attended the public school of his district while living in that state, and after- wards pursued his studies at Walla Walla public school and Whitman Col- lege. After one year at college he left his studies to engage in the grocery business at Portland, Ore. Afterwards he followed the trade of an electrician in Walla Walla, and several years later was engaged in the same line of work at the Bremerton Navy Yard.

In 1913, W. H. Berg came to Fresno County, Cal., where, through the influence of a friend, he purchased twenty acres in the Dakota Colony. He located on this ranch, improved it with a residence, pumping plant, and set it out to Thompson seedless grapes. Being an expert electrician, Mr. Berg was given charge of the lines and central office of the Kerman Telephone Company, and by his efficiency and courteous treatment of its patrons, he has given the most satisfactory service.

On June 31, 1917, William H. Berg was united in marriage with Miss Ellen B. Nelson, a native of Minnesota, the ceremony being solemnized in San Francisco. Fraternally, Mr. Berg is a member of the K. O. T. M., and Order of United Artisans; commercially he is a loyal member of the Califor- nia Associated Raisin Company. In 1919, Mr. Berg added to his holdings by the purchase of ten acres across the road from his residence, which will be set to emperor grapes.

Mr. and Mrs. Berg are both highly respected in the community and enjoy a large circle of friends.

JAMES McCONNELL MARSHALL .- A descendant of the Marshall family, of Scotch-Irish origin, which located in Virginia in Colonial days, James M. Marshall of Parlier, represents the California branch of this well known family. He was born in Allegheny County, Pa., September 7, 1849, the son of John and Margaret (McFarland) Marshall, natives of Pennsyl- vania. His father was a master mechanic by trade and, when James M. was four years of age, removed with his wife and three children, Cordella, Theoph- ilus, and James McConnell, all born in Pennsylvania, to the state of Ohio. There they sojourned a little less than three years, removing at the end of that time to Perry County, Ill., where the father continued his occupation of master mechanic, doing cabinet-work mostly, until stricken with paralysis, from the effect of which he died three years after J. M. came to California. The mother passed to her reward about three years prior to her husband's death. At the time of his death the father was reasonably well-to-do, owning 120 acres of land in Perry County, Il1.

Of their six children, one child was born and died in Ohio, and two were born in Illinois: Ammy died at the age of seventeen in Illinois; Ed died in that state at the age of thirty, leaving a wife and three children ; Theophilus enlisted in the Union Army in 1863 and died at Little Rock, Ark .; Cordella, married Milton Corrigan, a farmer of Perry County, and died several years ago, leaving eight children to mourn her loss.

James M., the only survivor of his immediate family, was brought up in Perry County, Ill., from the age of six years, and, as a small lad of nine, worked on his father's farm, driving a team in the fields. He received an average common-school education and at the age of twenty-one was united in wedlock with Miss Amy Ann King, continuing the occupation of farming in Perry County, Ill., until 1884. Before leaving Illinois he was taken with pneumonia, and while in the convalescent stage suffered a relapse. Threat- ened with quick consumption, the precarious state of his health caused his decision, in 1884, to remove with his wife and two children to the milder climate of California. During the first two years in his new home he was a very sick man and then experienced the darkest hours of his entire life. At 89

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

this time had he had the means he would have returned to Illinois to die. Recovering his health, he decided to remain in the new home. The country grew, more people came, more ditches were being built, and after 1887 the business outlook generally improved. In the fall of 1886 he purchased eighty acres from the Southern Pacific Railway Company. After improving the property he sold one-half of it about twelve years ago, and today owns forty acres of well improved land. Mr. Marshall helped to build the Center- ville and Kingsburg Ditch as well as many of the minor laterals. This ditch is now under the Consolidated Ditch Company, the Cold Slough branch of which passes along the east line of his land and furnishes an abundance of water for irrigation. As an emergency measure he has installed a twenty- horsepower gasoline engine and a six-inch centrifugal pump, solving his water supply for irrigation purposes. A two-horsepower gasoline engine pumps water in a tank for domestic and stock purposes.

Mr. Marshall has been married three times. His first wife, who was the mother of his eight children, died in 1902 and is buried in Mendocino Cemetery, Fresno County. Two of their children were born in Illinois. Wallace was five years of age and Agnes two when their parents removed to California. Homer, Dolly, Jessie, Blanche, Horace and Della were born in Fresno County. The eight children are all living; the girls are married and Homer served in the United States Army. Mr. Marshall's second mar- riage proved uncongenial, resulting in a divorce. His third marriage occurred June 18, 1915, when he was united to Mrs. Irene Jones, nee Irene Conley, a native of Tulare County, Cal., who was divorced from her first husband, the father of her two children, Paul and Ruth by name.

Mr. Marshall helped to promote the oil interests of the county at Coal- inga, the venture proving disastrous financially for him, resulting in the loss of about six thousand dollars. He is an honest, hard-working and successful man, highly respected by his friends and neighbors, and has done much general welfare work, donating largely to the Christian Society, the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Red Cross, as well as purchasing Liberty Bonds. He served as a school trustee in both the River Bend and Parlier districts.

JOHN W. WALTER .- Missouri has contributed many of the most suc- cessful and influential of California's pioneers, and among those who have participated in the great work of developing the State, is John W. Walter, who was born in Andrew County, north of St. Joseph, on December 31, 1881. His father was J. W. Walter, also a Missourian, and his grandfather was Peter Walter, one of the early settlers of the county, and a farmer who was well known in his time. J. W. Walter, Sr., was a farmer who was privileged to retire and spend his last days with his sons in Empire, Cal., where he died in 1915, at the age of sixty years. Mrs. Walter was Laurette McKee before her marriage, and she was born in Missouri, of New England ancestry, and died where she was born. She was the mother of five children, three of whom are still living. One brother, Samuel B. Walter, is a viticulturist in Empire.

The youngest in the family, John W., was brought up on the farm in Missouri and there attended the public school. His mother died when he was nine years old, and he then went to work for an uncle and made his own way in the world. He was employed in farm-work until 1899, when he removed to Sterling, Colo., where he found a place on a cattle-ranch. There for three years, he rode the range for McPhie & Mullen of Denver on their Box J ranch, after which he returned to Missouri. He put in a year there in farm work, and then went to Utah. He learned the blacksmith trade, beginning as a helper for the Utah Construction Company at Ogden, then engaged in the building of the Western Pacific Railroad ; and three years later he became blacksmith. This engagement brought him in time to Spring Garden, Cal., where he con- tinued to work on the laying of the Western Pacific Railroad. He ran a fire

Q. S. Ormandon

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

for four years, and then returned to the shops at Ogden for another two years.

In 1912, Mr. Walter came out to Fresno County on a visit, and liking the country and climate, he bought twenty acres in Empire Colony, and lo- cated on it. He built a residence and made improvements, and now he has a fine vineyard and five acres of muir and lovell peaches. He is a member and a stockholder in the California Peach Growers, Inc., and a member of the California Associated Raisin Company. He also belongs to the Valley Fruit Growers Association and to the Fresno County Farm Bureau. While at Og- den, Mr. Walter was married to Miss Elizabeth Galt, a native of that city, and the daughter of Mathew and Elizabeth Galt, who came from Scotland and early settled at Ogden. Mr. and Mrs. Walter have two children: Violet Muriel and Bettie May.

Mr. Walter was made a Mason in Plumas Lodge, No. 61, at Quincy, Cal., and is still a member there. He belongs to the Democratic party, but in local endeavors he disregards party lines, and is ever ready to work for greater California.

ALFRED JOSEPH ARNAUDON .- A family long known throughout Fresno County, particularly in the western section, has lost none of its pres- tige through the forceful business career of Alfred Joseph Arnaudon, whose splendid energies and dauntless courage have enabled him to amass an inde- pendent fortune. As the pioneer merchant of Mendota he has been con- nected with its upbuilding from its beginning, having been a resident of the vicinity before the advent of the railroad and was one of the first to aid in the development of the arid lands by irrigation and intensive farming.

AT- Arnaudon is a native of France, born at Gap, Hautes Alps, October 14, 1853, and received a good education in his native land. He also learned stockraising at home, thus laying the foundation for his work in this country. When nineteen years of age he came to the United States, leaving France in December, 1871, and landing in New York with only twenty dollars in his pockets. Nothing daunted, however, he began his hunt for fortune in the new country, and February, 1872, found him in San Francisco. He went to work for the Remillard Brothers in their brickyard in San Rafael, and remained with them six years, then went to Sunol, Alameda County, and be- gan stock-raising for himself. He bought a flock of ewes and lambs and in partnership with two nephews continued in the business for three years; the partnership was then dissolved and Mr. Arnaudon ran the business alone for two years. At the end of that period he purchased a ranch near Pleasanton, of 150 acres. This he cultivated, putting forty acres of it into vineyard. This land he later leased out, but still owns the property.

In 1886, Mr. Arnaudon located in Fresno County, starting a hotel at White's Bridge, together with a stocking store, and served as assistant post- master there. Here he brought his sheep, and ranged them on the plains and stubblefields, 4,000 head or more. When the railroad was built into Mendota, in 1890, he put up the Arnaudon Hotel there and opened a general merchan- dise store, the first store in the town, and this he ran until 1917. .

Some ten years ago Mr. Arnaudon bought his present ranch, first obtain- ing 160 acres, then an additional 160, making 320 acres in all, and established his sheep business on this ranch. He also owned six sections purchased from the Borland estate, but sold off all but one section which he still retains, situated one mile south of his home ranch, and uses for a stock ranch, has had it fenced and a deep well of 600 feet put in, with water within fifteen feet of the top. The home place he has improved with all modern facilities; a deep well and pumping-plant installed, run by electricity ; also three pump- ing-plants in all on the ranch; which is devoted mostly to raising alfalfa, grain, sheep, cattle and hogs.

The marriage of Mr. Arnaudon united him with Miss Marie Arbios, the ceremony taking place at Mission San Jose, September 24, 1881. His wife was a native of France also, born in Aysus, Basses-Pyrenees, a daughter of

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Jean Arbios, who emigrated to California in 1863, was a miner, then a dairy- man at Novato, and finally engaged in stock-raising in Sunol. His death oc- curred in Stockton, in 1917; the mother passed away in 1904, in Pleasanton. The third child in the family, Mrs. Arnaudon was brought up in France until fifteen years of age, when she joined her parents in California, and in Sunol met her future husband. Seven children were born to this pioneer couple: Emma, Mrs. Jury ; Lucy, Mrs. Bowie of Fresno; Cora, Mrs. Hallum of Oak- land; Adelta, Mrs. Ricou, residing on the home ranch; Marie, Mrs. Smoot of Mendota ; Alfred; and Joseph, Jr., assisting his father on the ranch.

One of the oldest settlers of Mendota, Mr. Arnaudon has seen the country grow from desert land to its present thriving condition; from roads where the wagons sank down into the mire so that they had to be pulled out, to the present smooth highways with automobiles skimming over them; from stock land to the present diversified ranching; he was one of the first to pump for irrigation, to set out orchards and vineyards and use the modern methods of agriculture. He was one of the organizers of the first school at Mendota and was trustee for years. He was postmaster of Mendota for many years, then his daughter Lucy took his place, and now Marie, Mrs. Smoot, holds the position. Mr. Arnaudon was a charter member of the Mendota Lodge, the Knights of. Pythias, organized February 26, 1894, the only one left living, and is the proud possessor of a jewel given to members for twenty-five years of good standing in the order. He is a member of the California Wool Growers' Association, and with all his business cares has been an active participant in the growth of his section of Fresno County. He was also one of the organ- izers and is a director of the Growers National Bank of Fresno.

EDSON EMMET BAIRD .- A kind-hearted, liberal and interesting gentleman, who lives a delightful life surrounded by an equally hospitable and pleasant family, is Edson E. Baird, the well-known viticulturist who saw much adventure and a good deal of roughing it before he pitched his tent in the most pleasant corner of Fresno County. He was born near Decorah, Winneshiek County, Iowa, on July 23. 1857, the son of Warren Baird, a native of Ohio who settled in Iowa as a farmer, and who enlisted in the Civil War, as a member of Company A, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry. Warren Baird died in the service of his country, at Little Rock, Ark., mourned by his widow who was Martha Scoby before her marriage, and who was born in New York. Left with four small children, she reared the family on the old farm; later she resided awhile in Nebraska and finally died in Oklahoma. Of these chil- dren three are still living.

The second eldest and the only child in California, Edson E. received a public school education and worked on various farms until he was eighteen years of age. Then, with his brother, Justin H. Baird, he went to Dallas, Texas, and there found employment on a farm, after which, making his way to Tom Green County, on the Concho River, he homesteaded land and con- tinued in the service of the Government, burning charcoal out of mesquite wood, and cutting hay. Selling out, he removed to Fort Stanton, N. M., where he undertook some Government contracting and also followed farm- ing. It was while in Tom Green County, Texas that he participated, more by necessity than choice, in buffalo hunting. With three companions he hunted the fierce and powerful animals for their meat and hides, the tongues especial- ly being a desirable object, and they also hunted deer and antelope, so that he had many good buffalo and Indian stories to tell. About 1881 he engaged in mining, opening up some prospects and occasionally selling at an advantage; and he was for awhile occupied with the affairs of a small ranch in Missouri.

Near Fort Stanton, N. M., on October 25, 1886, Mr. Baird was married to Mary Cooper, who had been born in Fannin County, Texas, the daughter of James A. and Mary C. (Conrad) Cooper, natives of Kentucky and Texas respectively, and farmer folk who removed to New Mexico. Mr. Cooper was

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

and is still a cattle and sheep man living at Ancho, N. M., his wife having died when Mary was only three years of age.

Having attended the public schools in Texas, Mr. Baird passed eleven years altogether in New Mexico, mining and farming, and then for fourteen years was a farmer at Pierce City, Mo., where he had a ranch of eighty acres. In time he came to own three times that amount; but selling out, he bought 100 acres in the same vicinity, near Newtonia. When he gave that up, he came west to what has since proven to him the only spot on the globe with superior attractions for a home.

In 1910, then, Mr. Baird reached Fresno, and three weeks later he bought his present ranch of twenty acres in the Gray Colony, where he is a viticul- turist of a high order .. He made many improvements, grafted the vines him- self and set out malaga and Thompson seedless; he planted three acres of peaches and an acre of oranges and by means of a pumping plant, in addi- tion to fine ditch service, he provided amply for the irrigation of his land. When the claims of the California Associated Raisin Company, and the Cali- fornia Peach Growers, Inc., were presented to him, he promptly responded by joining and supporting their excellent work.

Four of Mr. and Mrs. Baird's children are still living: Bertie C. is a viti- culturist near Granville; Edson Earl served in the United States Navy, but is now in the oil fields at Coalinga ; Pearl is Mrs. Everett Cox of this county ; and Cassie is at home. The family belongs to the Independent Holiness Con- gregation in Fresno. Mr. and Mrs. Baird are Prohibitionists, and in other ways also they are active for the advancement of the community and the state.

DALLAS B. McCABE .- An enterprising, progressive ranchman oper- ating according to the latest methods, is Dallas B. McCabe, a native of Milan, Ripley County, Ind., where he was born on April 30, 1873. His father was Wil- liam Wilson McCabe, who was born in Pennsylvania of Scotch descent and came to Indiana with his mother when he was four years of age. There he grew up amid pioneer surroundings, and when he reached man's estate, he bought a farm, cleared it of timber and otherwise improved it, and eventually became a successful farmer. He died where he had toiled, survived at the old homestead by his widow, who was Miss Margaret Pendergast, a native of Indiana, before her marriage.

The fourth youngest of ten children, Dallas McCabe was brought up on an Indiana farm, and educated in the public schools and at the Versailles Indiana State Normal. After having taught for a term he came to Lake County, Ill., that he might work on a farm forty miles north of Chicago and be convenient to attend the World's Fair during that summer; and this am- bition having been satisfied, he decided to push further West. He had seen exhibits of various kinds at the Exhibition, informing him more or less about California, and he determined to investigate for himself and in December, 1893, he arrived in California and located in Fresno.

It will be remembered that that was the year of dull times, and he was nearly broke when he obtained his first employment-that of ranch-hand for William Helm on his grain ranch, now the Colonial Helm Tract. There he worked for eight years, after which he entered the service of the ice com- pany in Fresno, when they were still retailing natural ice, but soon afterwards built their artificial ice plant. He was with the ice company nine years, and during the last two years he was foreman in charge of their delivery system. In the beginning, the company was known as the Union Ice Company, but later it became the Consumers' Ice Company.

While living at Fresno, Mr. McCabe was married on May 25, 1904, to Miss Norma Wood, a native of San Jose, Cal., and the daughter of George W. Wood, who was born in Texas. Grandfather Stirling Wood, however, was born in Kentucky and came to California in 1863, and settled at Ray- mond, in Madera County, where he resided until his death. George W. Wood

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was married in Madera County to Miss Nettie Myers, a native of San Luis Obispo County, and the daughter of David and Clara ( Wagner) Myers, both of whom came from Ohio. David Myers crossed the plains in 1849 to the gold fields in California, where he mined for about three years, when he returned East ; and in 1859 he brought his family by way of Panama. He became a stockman at Fresno Flats, and there he breathed his last; his widow is still living at San Lorenzo, Cal. After his marriage, George W. Wood resided for a while in San Jose, and then at Raymond, in Madera County; and there he became Justice of the Peace. He and his good wife now reside on the Bul- lard Tract north of Fresno. There were five children in the family, and among them Mrs. McCabe is the third eldest.

During his service with the ice company, Mr. McCabe bought twenty acres of stubble field in the Colonial Helm Tract, which he improved with a vineyard ; and having resigned his position with the company, in 1909. he lo- cated on his property. For the last five years he has been with the Earl Fruit Company as foreman of the Glorietta and Melvin packing houses, but is at present the field representative for the company. He is a director in and sec- retary to the board of directors of the Colonial Helm Ditch Company, filling cut his sixth year of that responsibility. He is also a trustee of the Clovis grammar school and has served as road overseer. In national politics, he is a progressive Republican.

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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 66

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