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 71
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Everybody knows "Al" Lesher, and since his marriage to Miss Lucile Sanders, his popularity has increased, and more than ever he is looked to as one of Fowler's substantial business men. Mrs. Lesher is no less a favorite at social affairs, participating with him, especially in the activities of the Elks, of which Al is one of the fully accepted and most acceptable members, having affiliated with the Fresno Lodge.
HENRY LANSE .- The wheel of Fortune, which with a single turn often made bonanza kings out of beggars in the days of the Argonauts, is still turning in the Golden State, but it is no longer the game of chance that it was in those earlier years of the state's history. In these latter years, young men possessing the requisite grit, thrift and continuity of purpose, combined with good business judgment, are the favorites of Fortune, and in such men as Henry Lanse, the owner of a twenty-six-acre ranch two miles west of Parlier, are found the characteristics that eventually receive recognition.
The son of Henry and Bernice Lanse, who lived on their eighty-acre Westphalian farm in Germany, he was born in that country and province, November 1, 1878. He grew up in his native country, remaining there until twenty-three years of age, when he bade farewell to his German friends and relatives and in 1902 sailed from Bremen for New York City, reaching his destination after an uneventful eight-day voyage. He crossed the continent and arrived at Selma, Fresno County, Cal., April 13, 1902, where he joined his brother Frank, who had preceded him to the Pacific slope four years previously, and who was engaged in ranching. He assisted in caring for his brother's twenty-acre ranch and the additional fifty acres of rented land, working for him three or four years.
At the end of that time, in 1906, Mr. Lanse purchased his present ranch property, for which he paid seventy-five dollars per acre, ten acres of which were set to one-year-old peach trees. Otherwise the place was a weed patch, although it had at one time been a wheat field. Ever on the alert to take advantage of the passing moment, after the disastrous earthquake of April, 1906, Mr. Lanse drove his team of horses to San Francisco, where he ob- tained work hauling sand, brick and dirt out of the cellars of the stricken city, making eight dollars a day.
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In 1907 he was married at San Francisco to Miss Elise Sanderman, whom he knew as a girl in Germany. They have the following children : Mary, Elizabeth, and Bernice.
In 1907, Mr. Lanse's parents came to California to visit their children, and his mother was stricken with illness and died fourteen days after reach- ing San Francisco, aged sixty-seven. The father remained in California about a year and then returned to Germany. The war made it impossible for his sons to hear from him. He was born in 1836, and if living would be eighty- three years old. There were seven children in the parental home: Frank; Anton, who lives in Germany; Therisa, the wife of Tony Icholdt, a carpen- ter living in Fresno; Mary, wife of August Winter, the owner of an eighty- acre ranch one and one-half miles west of his brother Henry's place; Henry ; Bartl, who lives on his father's place in Germany ; and Joseph, who is single, and who rents the ranch just east across the highway from his brother Henry's ranch.
Mr. Lanse's place is planted to twelve acres of peaches, nine acres of Thompson seedless vines in bearing, and one acre of Thompson seedless vines one year old. Four acres are occupied by the house, barn, yards and pasture. He has purchased water rights and will put in 350 feet of eight- inch cement tile for irrigation purposes. Mr. Lanse, who has been phe- nomenally successful in ranching, belongs to the Fruit Valley school district.
ALBERT NELSON .- A viticulturist whose experience and exceptional ability have placed him in a position of much responsibility is Albert Nelson, who came to California in the middle nineties. He was born on the island of Oland, in the Baltic, July 11. 1875, the son of Nels P. Nelson, a carpenter and builder. He was the eldest in a family of four, of whom two are still living, the other surviving brother being Carl Nelson, the proprietor of a furniture factory in Sweden.
Mr. Nelson was reared and educated in his native land, attending the public schools there, and remained at home until his thirteenth year. That year he went to sea, shipping before the mast on a sailer engaged in the coasting trade; and when fifteen he embarked on a merchant vessel, the S. S. Stanley, putting out from Bergen. He went to the Black Sea for wheat, returned to England, made a trip to Odessa, and then ran from the north Baltic with lumber for Liverpool. In that busy harbor he left the ship and signed up on the Swedish steamer Colga; and with that vessel he continued until he was nineteen years of age. About this time he decided to come to America. After his arrival in New York he soon came on to San Francisco; and from there he went to Caspar, where he was in the employ of the Caspar Lumber Company for a year. In 1895, he moved to Fresno and entered the service of Smith & Moore, of the Sanger Lumber Company; and in their mill he continued until 1896. He then made a change that led him into an entirely new field ; for coming to know Mr. Rice, in the Kutner Colony, he took up work in his vineyard. On leaving him, he became foreman of the St. George Vineyard Company, where he was given entire charge of their extensive ranch, and continued to exercise the responsibility for a decade of years. After that he was foreman for L. R. Rogers, and was engaged in de- veloping the Rogers vineyards on Belmont Avenue for a period of four years. During the season he still has charge of the Rogers Fruit Company's shed at Smithville when, for three or four months of the year, shipments of fruit are made; the output in 1917 consigned from Smithville reached the total of seventy-five cars. Mr. Nelson is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company.
When Mr. Nelson resigned from the management of the Rogers vine- yards, he went into business for himself, and in the spring of 1911 he bought his present place, some twenty acres on Belmont Avenue, eleven miles east of Fresno, which he has developed into one of the finest of up-to-date vine-
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yards. The land is set out to Malaga and Emperor grapes in particular, through which he has made for himself an enviable reputation, and he also has a good assortment of wine grapes. In the fall of 1918, Mr. Nelson and J. B. Rogers bought a sixty-acre tract at Redbank, which is in grapes and figs.
Mr. Nelson was married at the Scandinavian Colony in Fresno County to Miss Laura B. Anderson, a native of San Francisco, who was reared not far from Fresno. She is the daughter of Fred Anderson, a pioneer vineyardist, who had a fine tract of forty acres that he considerably improved. He and his wife died there, leaving five children, four of whom grew up, namely: Otto, who is on the west side; Mrs. Emma Coppin, residing in the Scandi- navian Colony ; Mrs. James Allen, who lives on Blackstone Avenue; and Mrs. Nelson, the subject's wife, a noble-hearted and attractive woman, whose influence for good in the community has long been felt. Four children have blessed their home: Chester, Floyd, Lavern and Maud. Mr. and Mrs. Nel- son are among the most popular members of the social circles of both the Eagles and the Woodmen of the World. In national politics he is a Republican.
ABRAM F. GLOSSBRENNER .- Not many of the vigorous, enterpris- ing and patriotic pioneers of California can point with pride to such a war- record as that of Abram F. Glossbrenner, or look back with pecul ar satisfac- tion to the rounding out of over three score years of happy married life ; for the old soldier's helpmate throughout so many eventful and trving years is still at his side. His father was Jacob Glossbrenner, a native of Pennsylvania and a carpenter and builder, who married in that state Sarah Siler, also a Pennsylvanian. He moved to Ohio and thence to Indiana, where he followed his trade and reared a family of five boys and four girls. The mother died when Abram was seven years old, and the father, anxious to perpetuate his home, took to himself a second wife, by whom he had three children, only one of whom is now living. Abram, the eighth child by the first Mrs. Gloss- brenner, is also the only one of her children living.
Having attended the country schools of the districts in which he grew up, Mr. Glossbrenner was married to Miss Nancy A. Kerr at Jefferson- ville, Ind., on November 28, 1852, and from Harrison County in that state he enlisted for service in the Civil War. When the terrible conflict had ceased, he went back to Harrison County and worked at his trade and farmed. In 1873, he left the state altogether and went with his family to Texas; and set- tling at Austin, he carried on a paint shop there for ten years. In the fall of 1882 he went to Mason County in the same state, and bought land and farmed there.
In 1895, Mr. Glossbrenner made still another departure, for he went to New Mexico and engaged in the Angora goat business, assisted by his two sons. Later, they returned to Mason County, and he resumed work at his trade. Eleven years went by, and Mr. Glossbrenner came north to California and Fowler, where two daughters and their husbands were living.
Now this esteemed couple have a modest home on a five-acre tract, located inside of the corporation limits, nicely improved and planted to vines. It is a typical Fowler villa lot, and there they are happy in the enjoyment of perfect health. This happiness is immeasurably increased through their children, eight out of the ten having survived until the present. They are : Bar- bara Emma, the wife of Wayman Wells, who resides in Fredonia, Texas; Mary E., who is the widow of William Kniveton, who lives with our subject at Fowler ; Joachim W., who is married and resides at San Bernardino, Cal .; Carter McClellan, who is married and resides near Phoenix, Ariz .; Lela, who is the wife of P. A. Vance, a well-known rancher at Easton, Cal .; Stella, the wife of D. A. Williams, living at Fowler ; Cora, the wife of J. S. Caraker, with her home at Phoenix, Ariz .; and Maud, the widow of W. J. Ward, who lives with her parents. 91
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Mrs. Glossbrenner's full name before her marriage was Nancy Anna Kerr, the daughter of Samuel Kerr, a musician who taught the art of using stringed instruments and the voice. He organized singing schools through- out Tennessee, his native State, and in Indiana, where he was married to Miss Martha Wilson. The Kerrs and Wilsons were both of Scotch-Irish ori- gin, and both families were early settlers near Nashville, Tenn. Mrs. Gloss- brenner thus grew up in Indiana and was educated in private schools at Jef- fersonville, and, like her husband, she became a consistent Christian. Mr. Glossbrenner, although sticking to the Republican party, has been a life-long apostle of temperance, and for years a member of the Sons of Temperance, the Temple of Honor, the Social Temple and the Temperance Council, and he has never failed to vote for men and principles. He has never partaken of alcohol, never smoked, never chewed, and perhaps these simple virtues of abstinence have had something to do with the fact that on November 28, 1917, Mr. and Mrs. Glossbrenner were able to celebrate their sixty-fifth wed- ding anniversary.
Mr. Glossbrenner is a Union Veteran of the Civil War, and not long ago the Washington Historical Society made an official inquiry as to his war- record with the result that the historian of the society affixed his seal to the following authentic statement:
CERTIFICATE OF RECORD
To All Whom It May Concern :
Bequeathed to every American is a priceless legacy, preserved to us by the valor of the Boys in Blue.
THIS CERTIFIES that Abraham F. Glossbrenner enlisted February 1, 1864, from Harrison County, Ind., to serve three years or during the war, and was mustered into the United States Service at Indianapolis, Ind., April 4, 1864, as a Sergeant of Captain Fred- erick Leslie's Company D, Thirteenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Cavalry, the 131st Reg- iment of the line, Colonel Gilbert M. L. Johnson, commanding.
The Thirteenth Indiana Cavalry (the 131st Regiment) was the last cavalry organization raised in the State. Recruiting commenced in September, 1863, and continued during the fall and winter of that year, and on April 29, 1864, the organization was completed and the regiment was mustered into the United States service. On April 30 it left Indianapolis, dismounted and with infantry arms and accoutrements, for Nashville, Tenn., then was ordered to Huntsville, Ala., for the purpose of garrisoning that post, and was engaged in skirmishing, and on October 1 held the place against the entire command of the rebel General Buford. On October 16, Companies A, C, D, F, H, and I, under command of Colonel Johnson, proceeded to Louisville, Ky., for the purpose of drawing horses and equipments for the entire command. Upon arrival there, these companies were ordered to Paducah to assist in repelling an attack of General Forrest. These companies then returned to Louisville, where the object of their mission was completed, and the line of march was taken up for Nashville, Tenn., at which point the remaining companies from Huntsville reported to Regimental Headquarters. On November 30, Companies A, C, D, F, H and I, fully mounted and equipped, under command of General Johnson, proceeded to Lavergne, under orders from General Thomas to watch the movements of Hood's army, then ad- vancing on Nashville. Under the direction of General Rosseau, these companies partici- pated in the battles of Overall's Creek, Wilkinson's Pike and twelve different skirmishes with the enemy. During the same period, Companies B, E, G, K, L and M, left at Nashville under command of Lieut. Colonel Pepper, participated, dismounted, in the Battle of Nash- ville, December 15-16, 1864, where the other companies joined them. After effecting an exchange of arms and procuring an entire amount, the regiment was assigned to the Second Brigade, Seventh Division, of the Cavalry Corps of the Military Division of the Mississippi. February 11, 1865, the Thirteenth Cavalry embarked on transports for New Orleans, but disembarked at Vicksburg, under orders of General Canby, to prepare for a raid on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. These orders being countermanded, the regiment left for its original destination, and arriving at New Orleans, reembarked for Navy Cove, Mobile Bay, where it reported to General Canby and assisted in operations against the forts and de- fenses of Mobile. After the fall of Mobile, under command of Grierson, the regiment started on April 17, on a raid of some eight hundred miles through Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, arriving at Columbus, May 22, and from there it proceeded to Macon, Miss., garrisoning that point and taking possession of immense quantities of captured commissary, quartermaster and ordnance stores. The regiment was mustered out at Vicksburg, Miss., November 18, 1865, then proceeded to Indianapolis, Ind., where it was finally discharged.
The said Abram F. Glossbrenner was promoted from Duty Sergeant to Quartermaster Sergeant of Company D, to fill a vacancy caused by the discharge of the Quartermaster. He was first in a brush with Forrest's rebel cavalry near Huntsville, Ala., about Septem'er,
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1864, and he was in all the engagements and skirmishes of his company. Six companies were ordered to Murfreesboro and six remained at Nashville, Tenn., so that his Company D was in some of the engagements and the six other companies in others. He was in the Battle of Overall's Creek on December 4, 1864, where Captain Leslie of Company D was killed in action; then he was in an engagement with Forrest's men north of Murfreesboro on December 7, 1864, and was in the fall of Mobile, subsequently his regiment was on duty in Mississippi gathering up Government cotton. He belonged to Wilson's Cavalry Corps, and was always at his post of duty, achieving a gallant record for meritorious service and soldierly conduct at all times. He received a certificate of Honorable Discharge at Vicks- burg, Miss., November 18, 1865, by reason of G. O. No. 76, Headquarters, Department of Mississippi.
He was born in Utica Township, Ind., April 29, 1831, and was united in marriage to Nancy A. Kerr, at Jeffersonville, Ind., October 28, 1852, and to them were born the fol- lowing children: Emma, Mary E., Joachim W., Carter Mcclellan, Lela, Stella, Cora, Effie M., all now living. Two others died in infancy.
He is a member of Atlanta Post No. 92, Department of California and Nevada, Grand Army of the Republic. He served as Adjutant and Commander in P. E. Holcomb Post, Department of Texas, at Mason, Texas. He was a member of the Grange in Texas, and was enumerator of the Twelfth United States Census, Texas District.
Previous to enlisting in the United States Volunteer Army, 1864, he served in the In- diana State Militia, known as the Home Guard, and was commissioned as a Second Lieu- tenant in Captain Marshall's Company, at Corydon, Ind. Said commission was signed by Governor O. P. Morton, and during this time he was with the Indiana State troops that followed after John Morgan's raiders, from Corydon, Ind., to the State of Ohio.
These facts are thus recorded and preserved for the benefit of this soldier's family and of all those who may be interested.
Compiled from official and authentic sources by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Historical and Benevolent Society.
In testimony whereof, I herennto set my hand and cause to be affixed the seal of the Society.
Done at Washington, D. C., this 22nd day of April, A. D., 1917.
(SEAL)
No. 76,266.
A. V. HAYES, Historian.
A. W. BEESEMYER .- A successful farmer, enjoying an enviable repu- tation for his up-to-date methods, and who has installed one of the best pump- ing plants in the county, is A. W. Beesemyer, a native son born in what is now Hollywood, a delightful suburb of Los Angeles, on December 8, 1882. His father was born in Missouri, and about fifty years ago came to California, the son of a Union Army veteran, who was killed during the Civil War. The father, William Beesemyer, was foreman in Spreckels' sugar factory until he came to Southern California, and then he bought land on the present site of Hollywood. He raised grain and hay, and later sold his property as an addi- tion to Hollywood, most of which was known as the Le Mona Tract. He still owns forty acres there, on which he resides. He had married Sophia Gallwas, a native of Indiana, and of this union, five boys and two girls were born, all of whom are still living.
Brought up in Southern California, A. W. Beesemyer attended the public schools and the Throop Polytechnic in Pasadena, where he pursued a mechanic's course of study. For four years he was superintendent of streets in Hollywood, and had much to do with the beginning of improvements after the town was incorporated, holding the office until Hollywood was annexed to Los Angeles. Then he became a general contractor in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and did all of the Los Angeles Pacific work in his locality. He went to Bakersfield for the same company for three years, and became a general contractor of Southern Pacific work there. Wherever he established himself, he made a record and reputation that was capital itself.
In 1913 he came to Fresno County and bought 240 acres of land, located on it, and improved it by leveling and checking. He installed a pumping- plant, and provided the electric power for it. He sunk two wells, one to the depth of one hundred feet, and the other to twice that depth, which bring water to within fifteen feet of the surface, affording a capacity of 2,000 gal- lons a minute. His ranch is also under the ditch, so that he has practically perfect irrigation-an evidence in itself of his thoroughness. He set out twenty-five acres in Thompson seedless grapes, and sold that tract; and has
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the rest in alfalfa and grain, getting two crops of each a year. After selling more of the land, he still has twenty-five acres, the finest ranch land in the district. He belongs to the California Alfalfa Growers' Association, and is energetic in support of its cooperative endeavors.
Mr. Beesemyer was married in Los Angeles to Miss Franziska Boehncke, a native of Germany, who crossed the ocean to the United States with her parents when she was six years of age, and later came west to California. One child has blessed this union, Artye Dorthy.
The principles of the Republican party have appealed most to Mr. Beese- myer in matters of national politics, and a Republican he has remained through the trying ordeals of the nation. First and foremost, however, he has been and is an American, while in local movements designed to uplift the community, he has known no party distinction, and has always tried to support the best men and the best measures.
JOHN G. CARLSON .- A romantic story, such as has often been told, of the irresistible charm of California, is repeated in the life narrative of John G. Carlson, who drove his team into Fresno County, liked the Valley, then came to Fresno, heard Vinland talked of, went out to see the land there, and was so captivated that he bought 160 acres at $41 net, and thus became the first to buy in the colony. He had two associates in the transaction, and in Octo- ber, 1905, they located on the land.
Mr. Carlson was born at Vernamo, Jankoping. Sweden, on April 22, 1857, the son of Carl E. Svenson, a farmer there, who had married Gustava Gum- meson, now deceased. They had six children, three girls and three boys ; and John is the fourth of the family in the order of birth, and he is the only one in the United States. He remained at home until he was sixteen, working on the home place and attending the public schools, and then he came to Stock- holm, where he was employed on a dredger for two years, after which he took up railroad work in North Sweden. After eighteen months, he went home, and in 1880 he crossed the ocean to the United States and went to Joliet, Ill., where he was employed for two years in the steel mills. In 1882 he moved to Red Wing, Minn., where he was employed in the flour mills and learned the miller's trade.
During November, 1880, and while in Joliet, Mr. Carlson had married Miss Anna Sophia Johnson, also a native of Sweden, the daughter of Lars Johan Carlson, a farmer who owned a large farm, and whose worthy helpmate was in maidenhood Gustava Benson, and both are now deceased. Of their family, Mrs. Carlson is the only one in the United States.
In 1887, Mr. Carlson came to San Luis Obispo County and bought a ranch in the Bethel district, near Templeton. He engaged in farming and set out a twenty-acre orchard of prunes, but as he could not sell the fruit, he sold out and leased a grain-ranch, east of Templeton. He had 1,200 acres, and there he raised grain and stock. Again prices were low, a cental of wheat selling for sixty cents, and pork at two one-half cents a pound ; and again, in 1905, he sold out.
When Mr. Carlson located at Vinland, he bought his present place of fifty-one acres. Two years before, Mr. Carlson, Oscar Erickson and B. A. Larsen had purchased 160 acres together in this district, and he took this por- tion when they divided the property. Mr. Carlson's part seemed best adapted to the raising of alfalfa and dairying, although he tried peaches and vines; and having secured twenty acres adjoining, he set out fifty acres to peaches. Since then he has grubbed out twenty-five acres and put in vines, for he has seen Thompson seedless sell as low as one one-quarter cents, and peaches go down to nothing. Recently he has become owner of twenty-seven one-half acres more in the Vinland Colony, and he will put the entire area, some ninety-nine acres, into Thompson seedless grapes, peaches and alfalfa. His fine ranch is under the ditch, and he has also a good pumping-plant for irriga- tion. He is a member and stockholder of the California Peach Growers, Inc.,
James Hamilton and Family
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and a member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and heartily supports such cooperative work, designed to benefit the great mass of hus- bandmen.
Seven children have brightened the home life of Mr. and Mrs. Carlson: Esther, who is Mrs. J. S. Reynolds of Fresno; Annie, who is Mrs. W. S. Beatty of Empire and the mother of five children-Stuart, Arnold, Ferdie, Myron and Anna Lorean; Ferdinand, a farmer in Vinland and who married Louise Brown and has one girl, Bernice; and Minnie, Reuben, Alvin and Myrthel, who are at home. The family attends the Swedish Lutheran Church, of which Mr. Carlson was one of the organizers; he has ever since been a trustee, is chairman of the board, has been prominent as a teacher in Sunday School work, and he has served as a delegate to the California Conference. Mrs. Carlson is also very active in church work.
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