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 67
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One child. William Wilson, has blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Mc- Cabe. The family are members of the Baptist Church in Clovis. Mr. McCabe belongs to the Fresno lodge of the Independent Foresters of America. He made a trip back to his old Eastern home in 1901, and a second trip in 1904, when he went to the World's Fair at St. Louis. A third time Mr. McCabe saw the scenes of his boyhood and some old, familiar faces when, in 1907. he attended the golden wedding of his parents.
CHRIS JENSEN .- A Californian who has made his way by his own un- aided efforts, and has become an upbuilder of the community, is Chris Jensen, who came to California in the early nineties. He was born at Vinderm, in Jylland, Denmark, on June 20, 1877, the son of Jens Jensen, a farmer who had a fine place in his name and title. He sold out, however, and preceded our subject to America by a year, coming to California and locating in Fresno. He bought a place, improved it and engaged in viticulture and dairying ; and in the Fresno Colony where his activity and success had made for him a reputation, he died, at the age of sixty-seven. His good wife had been Marie Christene, and she now resides at Easton in this county, the mother of eight children, six of whom are living, the other two having died aboard ship, when sickness occurred that caused the ship's quarantine. The parents and some of the children sailed for the United States in 1892; and three of the children, who were employed in Denmark, immigrated in 1894.
The third oldest in the family, Chris was brought up on the farm and attended the local school. At the age of sixteen, the lad set out for California, and reached here on May 19, 1894. He first worked in the Fresno Colony at farming, and learned to drive big teams; and during the hard times of the two succeeding dry years he drove a twelve-horse team for fifty cents a day and his board. A year later he went to work on a farm for $20 a month and his board, and later received a dollar a day, and after that $30 a month and his board.
In 1897, Mr. Jensen leased a ranch on Fruit Avenue, devoted to the grow- ing of alfalfa, a dairy and a vineyard, and for a year he did fairly well; then he rented another place near Kearney Park, where he raised hay for three years. After that he leased a ranch in the Red Bank district and raised grain. running 640 acres for three years, but the prices were so low that he "only just got by." He next removed to Fresno and for a year engaged in the livery business, but sold out and started in as a dealer in hay. He had his ware-
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house on F and Mono Streets and called it the People's Hay Market, and for nine years he made a success of it. He bought his hay in Fresno County, and sold it both wholesale and retail, shipping to Los Angeles, Coalinga and dif- ferent cities. In 1914, he also rented the Dexter Farm on White's Bridge Road, of 620 acres, which he has operated since. He leveled and checked it, and set it out, partly in alfalfa ; and he has raised hay there from the first season he took hold. In 1917, Mr. Jensen sold out his hay business to engage in cat- tle-raising on the Dexter ranch. He stocked it with beef cattle, and divided the ranch, which is all under irrigation, into different fields for grazing. He has about 250 head. He is feeding cattle, but he is also raising hay and sell- ing it. In Fresno alone he handled from six to seven thousand tons of hay a year. He also raises draft horses of a high quality.
At San Francisco, Mr. Jensen was married to Miss Lizzie Murk, a native of Denmark, and they have had five children: Gerhart, Margaret, Emma, Edward, and William. In national politics, Mr. Jensen is a loyal Democrat, but is non-partisan in local issues ; and he is one of the best "boosters" for Fresno County.
JOHN RUDOLF PFISTER .- A successful rancher, following the trend of scientific research and using the methods of up-to-date agriculture, is John Rudolf Pfister, the well known brother-in-law of Messrs. Blattner and Kopp, whose interesting sketches also adorn this volume. He was born at Wangen, in the Canton of Berne, Switerland, April 17, 1873, and his father was John Pfister who worked as a cigarmaker and as a skilled artisan in a hair factory. He died at the untimely age of thirty-eight years, when his eleventh child was only a year and a half old. His wife, who was Elizabeth Witschi before she became Mrs. Pfister, was a native of the same canton; she was a noble woman, who kept her family together through her own unaided efforts and the use of a single acre of ground that belonged to the town. In this manner she reared the entire family, the oldest being just sixteen when the father was taken away. She lived to see all her children grow up, and peacefully breathed her last at Wangen, in the sixty-eighth year of her age.
John Rudolf was the eighth child and went to school until his ninth year, also receiving religious instruction according to the Zwingli Reformed Church. When his happy school days were over, he entered a rope factory at Wangen, where he was employed for three years; and at nineteen he sailed for America, taking passage from Havre, on the Normandie of the French- American line. In February, 1893, he landed in the city of New York, soon coming to California and arriving in Selma in the early part of March. With him were two companions from Wangen, Carl Bohner, now deceased, and Adolph Kopp, and the three went at once to work, as became those who real- ized that their future must be identified with the land to which they had come.
The first work Mr. Pfister obtained was on the Vietor farm at Fowler, where he was employed for three months at fifteen dollars a month and his board. He was then offered twenty dollars a month to go to Hills, in Fresno County, but his new employer cheated him out of his wages and he was never paid for his hard labor. Times were bad just then, however, and he was soon glad to work for his board. As soon as he was able he made a trip to Oregon in 1894-95, and at Fulton, near Portland, he engaged in gar- dening. On his return to the south he came to Fowler, Cal., and was a cou- ple of months with his brother, John, after which he worked in a hotel at Winnemucca, Nev., once more he returned to Fowler and to his brother, who furnished him with work for a couple of years. This brother, in 1889, was killed in a runaway accident, and his widow having remarried, already the mother of two children, is Mrs. Mason.
In 1898, Mr. Pfister returned to Europe on a visit, and was gone five months, most of which time he spent in Switzerland. In the late spring he returned to Selma, worked at Hills for the summer, and in the fall made a contract to dry grapes for Ed. Holton, of Wildflower, in Fresno County, The
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next spring he rented sixty acres set out to grapes and peaches, and such was his prosperity that, in December of that year, he was married to Miss Emma Pfister, a lady of Wangen, Switzerland, but no relation of his, whom he had known as a girl at home, and who came all the way from Switzerland to Selma to join her lover.
The sixty acres rented by Mr. Pfister were in the Selma district, and were known as the W. H. Say place, four miles northwest of Selma. A lease was taken out for two years, but at the end of that time he rented the Haas place, four miles to the south of the town and near the Franklin school. He had this property for a year, and then he bought a forty-acre ranch, four miles southwest of Selma, which he planted to vines and trees, and which, after it was well improved, he continued to run for three years. The second year he rented another place of eighty acres, and after four years he sold his forty acres at a profit.
All too soon for his ambitious plans, Mrs. Pfister became seriously ill and he made a second visit to Switzerland, taking her along and seeking to recover his wife's health. She had been physically impaired, however, for the past three years, and little by little she sank to her grave. Their four children were with them in Switzerland-Rosalie, Rudolph, Helen, and Wil- liam-and six weeks after Mrs. Pfister's death her husband returned to Sel- ma with them. In 1911, he bought his present place of forty acres and settled down resolutely to solving anew the problems of life.
At Fresno, Mr. Pfister was married for a second time to Miss Louise Roth, a native of Basiland, Switzerland, who grew up there to be twenty-six years of age, and accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Blattner (elsewhere referred to in this book) and family across the ocean, on their return from a five months' visit to their old home. Three children were the fruit of this second mar- riage: Emma, Walter Randolph, and Ernest Albert. The family attends the Lutheran Church at Selma.
Few can assert their loyalty as an American with more confidence than Mr. Pfister ; he is a member of the Raisin Growers Association, and is a pop- ular member working for the civic ideals of the Red Men at Parlier, Al- though a stanch Republican, he supported the administration in the World War. When he went back to Switzerland in 1907 he did so on account of his wife's health. He retained his farm implements and household goods, and he never lost his American citizenship. His life and example may well inspire American youth.
ALBERT JENSEN .- An enterprising and progressive man, is Albert Jensen, who owns a well improved stock ranch of seventy acres on the south side of the Elkhorn grade road, one and a half miles east of Burrel-a piece of exceptionally valuable property which he has possessed since he was eighteen years old, and only recently leased to others. His father was the late Henry Jensen, who died at Fresno in 1915 at the age of sixty-seven, and was a native of Copenhagen, Denmark. He had married Melinda Paul, an American and a native of Washington Territory, and in that section of the Northwest they were married. In his early life he had been a sailor, but as he grew to manhood he desired a home free from the dangers of the sea. Consequently, he settled in Washington Territory, and the so-called Palouse country, and became the father of six children.
In 1890, Mr. and Mrs. Jensen moved south to California and the Burrel district, where the father bought two quarter sections of land, upon which he built his home. However, no sooner had he established himself and his family in comfort than an accident, as sad as tragic, occurred to mar the happiness of his life. Mrs. Jensen's clothes caught fire while she was working around a sheet-iron stove, and so severely was she burned that she died soon after. Thereupon the bereaved father moved to Los Angeles with his six children, but fate continued to cast a shadow over his path and the youngest two of the family died with diphtheria. There were then left the
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sons, George, Harvey, Albert, and Charles. Returning to the Burrel district, the father continued to farm, assisted by his boys, then growing to young manhood. He was a man of more than ordinary attainment, and was a profound Bible student. He had an inquiring and acquiring mind, and never rested until he had found, if possible, a solution for every problem. He was not only scholarly, but he wrote poetry as well as prose.
Born on September 29, 1885, Albert's earliest recollections are of Fresno County. He attended school in the Elkhorn district, and was brought up to farming. When eighteen years of age he bought the land already referred to in partnership with his older brother Harvey, and together they pur- chased 1421/2 acres one and a half miles east of Burrel. Upon dividing the property Albert took the seventy acres fronting on the Elkhorn grade road and Harvey took the seventy-two and a half acres immediately south of it. Inasmuch as he came in on the draft calling for men from eighteen to forty- five, in the fall of 1918, he leased his land for a term of five years, and he has since rented an eighty-acre vineyard at Bowles. On March 11, 1918, Mr. Jensen was married to Miss Gladys Hopkins of Fresno. Fraternally, he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.
WILLIAM P. COLE .- An identification of more than twenty-five years with the oil industry has given William P. Cole, the well known oil operator of the New San Francisco lease, at Coalinga, Cal., an extensive and valuable experience in all of the varied branches of this important business. He is a Buckeye by birth, born at Circleville, Ohio, August 31, 1878, a son of John L. and Emma (Howard) Cole, the father a native of West Virginia, the mother of Ohio, where she died in 1882. The father was an Ohio farmer who after- wards removed to Topeka, Kans., where he passed away. Mr. and Mrs. John L. Cole were the parents of three children, William P. being the only one now living.
When his mother died William P. Cole was but four years of age and was reared by his Grandmother Cole, at Cassville, W. Va., Monongalia County, where he attended school awhile, but owing to circumstances he was obliged to go to work at the early age of twelve years. At first he worked on a farm and when he was fourteen William secured work in the oilfield with the South Penn Oil Company, the production department of the Standard Oil Company. Here he helped to build tanks and after six months of service began to dress tools and later he engaged in drilling for oil. He continued with the company until 1904 when he took a western trip, spending one summer at Seattle, Wash. It was in 1905 that Mr. Cole made his advent into the Coalinga oilfield as foreman with the California Oilfields Limited, which concern is now known as the Shell Company of California. Later he went with the Associated Transportation Company where he took charge of Station No. 3 for twenty-two months, afterwards going to Turlock, Cal., where he engaged in the real estate business for six months and then returned to Coal- inga. For two and a half years after his return to Coalinga he was foreman for the K. T. & O. Company on Sec. 13. Mr. Cole was continually gaining much valuable experience by his many changes, which fitted him for greater responsibilities. For ten months he filled the post of superintendent for the Arizona Petroleum Company, after which he returned to the K. T. & O. Company as foreman. January 1, 1913, Mr. Cole became the superintendent of the New San Francisco Oil Company, which responsible position he effi- ciently filled until April, 1918, when he personally leased the property and is now operating it and acting as a director of the oil company.
April 1, 1919, Mr. Cole negotiated a sale of the New San Francisco Oil Company, as well as selling his own lease at a good profit, and on May 16, 1919, he bought a one-half interest in the Pleasant Valley Motor Company and was elected president of the company and he has since given his time. to the business. They now occupy a new garage on E Street near Fifth where they have a concrete garage with modern machine shop and repair
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department. They have the agency for the Marmon, Jordan, Hudson, Essex, Nash and Hupmobile, and have a fine display room. He is still handling oil prospects and leases.
Mr. Cole is an enterprising, successful man, possessing clear judgment, keen sagacity and executive force, qualities that have proved valuable to him in his business career. Forced by circumstances to make his own way in the world from a small boy, his successful career, which has been won in the face of great obstacles, is worthy of emulation. As an evidence of Mr. Cole's ambition to gain a practical education and thus fit himself better for the business world, we mention that in his spare time he took a correspond- ence course with the Bryant & Stratton Business College, of Buffalo, N. Y., and a course in steam and electrical engineering with the International Cor- respondence School of Scranton, Pa., and is now pursuing a course in law, with the La Salle Extension University of Chicago.
William P. Cole was united in marriage on August 29, 1900, with Miss Bertha E. Compton, a native of New York state, the ceremony being solem- nized in Cassville, W. Va., and they have two sons: George, a graduate of the Coalinga Union High, Class of 1919, with not only the highest honors of his class, but the highest honors of any graduate; and Paul, attending Coalinga High School.
Fraternally, Mr. Cole is a member of the Knights of Pythias and D. O. O. K., and the Modern Woodmen of America, and has served as a member of the board of trustees of Alpha school district, of which he is the acting clerk.
MRS. MARY OLIVER .- A native daughter of exceptional foresight and business ability, as shown in her ranching and dairying operations, is Mrs. Mary Oliver, who resides on Rolinda Avenue, north of Mckinley, and as a loyal American, always striving to better the world, is active in Red Cross and other patriotic work. She was born at Santa Barbara, the daughter of Frank Alves who was a sailor. Having served on a whaler and experienced many stirring adventures, he landed at San Francisco about the late sixties, and remained in California. Mining in Siskiyou County next attracted him, but later he went to Santa Barbara County, where he was mate of a coasting vessel for some years. After that he was manager of the Gorham Lumber Yard, and then manager also for the Pierce Lumber concern. While in the service of the latter he died. Mrs. Alves was Mary Ann Armas before her marriage, and she lives at the old home in Santa Barbara.
The fourth eldest of seven children, Mary was brought up at picturesque and historic Santa Barbara, and educated at St. Vincent's Convent. She first saw the light on November 1, 1875; and on November 26, 1891, she was married to William Oliver, who came to Ventura County when he was a lad of seventeen years. Being experienced in farming, he took up a homestead near Fillmore, Santa Barbara County, and he also leased other land, 500 acres in all, and his crops included beets, beans and grain. He first rented acreage of Schiappa Pietra for fourteen years, and then the Thomas Bard place for seven years.
In September, 1912, Mr. Oliver sold out and located in Fresno County, where he bought the ranch of forty-five acres at Barstow, in the Roosevelt district, that was to become known through his name. He raised alfalfa, and set out eight acres of Thompson seedless grapes, and equipped a dairy, now having twenty-five fine cows, but on January 2, 1916, he died, acknowl- edged by his competitors a man of unusual capability, and esteemed by his fellow citizens for those virtues that make a man of value to the state, local society and to his home. They had already erected a handsome residence, and since Mr. Oliver's death, Mrs. Oliver has managed the ranch. She has further fitted out the dairy, planted alfalfa and set out eight acres of vine- vard. She is active in the California Associated Raisin Company, giving it her interest and support, and enjoying its benefits.
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Eight children made the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Oliver an undeniable blessing: Rose is now Mrs. Menezes, and resides in the American Colony, in Fresno County ; Mary is at home ; Frances, a graduate of Heald's Business College, is a bookkeeper at Fresno; Henry is farming in Ventura County ; Charles attends the high school and also assists his mother; and Alvin, Arthur, and Rita are at home. All have contributed in some way to advanc- ing war-work; and Mrs. Oliver is a member of the Roosevelt Auxiliary to the Fresno Chapter of the Red Cross.
WILLIAM S. HARE .- A broad-minded, liberal-hearted man, and one with a good record, who has worked his way diligently from the bottom of the ladder, is William S. Hare, the chief engineer at the Mendota Pumping Station, in charge of important interests of the Standard Oil Company. He first came to California in 1899, but three years passed before he located here.
He was born at Morgantown, W. Va., on April 8, 1864, the son of Robin- son Hare, a native of Pennsylvania. The father was a farmer in West Vir- ginia, and served in the Home Guards during the Civil War, and in that state he died. His wife was Nancy Fleming before her marriage and she was born in Monongalia County, then a part of Virginia, but now in West Virginia. She became the mother of seven children, among whom William S. is the third oldest.
He was brought up on a farm in Monongalia County, attended the pub- lic schools of his district, and finished off at the Morgantown Academy. Hav- ing been granted, at the age of twenty, a teachers' certificate, he taught school in West Virginia until the spring of 1893, when he came to Clifton, Wash- ington County, Kans., and taught school during the winter term. Then he went to Oregon in the fall of 1894, and at Corvallis was engaged at farming. Five years later he came south to McCloud, where he took up lumbering; and returning to Oregon, he was employed by the well-known firm, the Cur- tis Lumber Company. He was at Mill City two years as shipping-clerk, and then he went back to McCloud, and was employed in the saw-mills as a log- scaler.
In 1906, Mr. Hare removed to Vernalis Station, Cal., on the pipe-line of the Standard Oil Company, and there he began as third fireman. He studied and worked hard, and then and there commenced to lay the foundation for his enviable knowledge in engineering. He served at different stations until, in May, 1911, he came to the Mendota Pumping Station as the engineer ; and excepting one year, when he was at Rio Bravo, still in the Standard's service, he has been at Mendota ever since, and now he is chief engineer.
While at Laurel Point, in West Virginia, in 1888, Mr. Hare was married to Miss Jane Brock, a native of Pennsylvania, by whom he had one child, Gail, now Mrs. Jack Allen, a resident of Portland, Ore. Mr. Hare is an Independent in politics, and is, at all times, first of all, an American.
EDWARD LINDMAN .- A young man who fits in with the active, progressive spirit that has made Kingsburg one of the best cities in southern Fresno County, is Edward Lindman, the well-known concrete pipe manufac- turer, who passed from swinging the pick and shovel to the front place he has forged for himself as proprietor of one of the important enterprises of the town. He began in a modest way with a single helper, and now he employs twelve men or more.
He was born at Mankato, Minn., on July 7, 1893, and spent the first eleven years of his boyhood in Minnesota, when he came west with his parents, brothers and sisters, to California. His father died when he was only three years old; and the mother, Anna Lindman, then married John Asplund, who now has a ranch in Tulare County, near Kingsburg, and be- came in time, by the two marriages, the mother of nine children. For a year Edward attended school in California and then, when only fifteen, he found work in the cement and concrete works near Ontario, where he thoroughly learned the art of making concrete tiles.
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Mr. Lindman came to Kingsburg five years ago and, in a very unassum- ing manner, opened shop; since then his business has doubled every year until now he manufactures all sizes of pipe from eight to thirty-six inches in diameter, sells tiles and puts in pipe on contract. At first he used hand- tampers; he later installed compressed-air tampers, which have recently been replaced by the most modern machinery which turns out a very superior, trowelled concrete pipe, thereby greatly increasing the quantity and quality of his output, so that during the season of 1919, he put in more than fourteen miles of pipe.
Mr. Lindman has a wonderful record for achievement since he first came to Kingsburg, and what is so pleasing to the community is that, in achieving success for himself, he has built up an enterprise needed by the town. It would be difficult to find anyone who did not wish Ed. Lindman prosperity, and bushels of it.
At Los Angeles, Mr. Lindman was married to Miss Grace Clay of Pomona, and they have one child, Jeanette Louise. Recently he has built a fine bungalow on "Knob Hill," where the family dispenses a hospitality thoroughly Californian.
FRANK LANSE .- Three miles west of Parlier lies the well-improved sixty-acre ranch owned by Frank Lanse, an experienced viticulturist and orchardist. Mr. Lanse is a naturalized German-American, who is thoroughly loyal to the land of his adoption, and justly popular among his friends and neighbors. A native of the Prussian province of Westphalia, he was born at Hoexter, a city of about 8,000 inhabitants, September 3. 1865. His father Henry, was a respected, well-to-do German landowner. His mother was in maidenhood, Bernice Steinemann.
There were seven children in the parental family, of whom Frank (or Franz, the name given him in the Catholic Church at his baptism) is the eld- est. The others are: Anton, or Tony, now residing on his father's home place in Germany; Teressa, the wife of Anton Eicholdt, a carpenter at Fresno; Marie, the wife of A. G. Winter, a rancher in the Selma district; Henry, whose sketch is given elsewhere in this work; Berthold, residing in Germany ; and Joseph, or Joe, a rancher living about a mile east of Frank's home place. In 1906 the parents journeyed from the old country to California to visit their children, and the mother was taken with pneumonia, dying about Christmas time, 1906, at San Francisco. The father remained in California until 1908, when he returned to Germany.
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