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 72

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 72

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In national politics Mr. Carlson is a Republican, but he is first and fore- most an American citizen, who places the welfare of the American commu- nity above all party considerations.

JAMES HAMILTON .- Among the later comers to the vicinity of Parlier is James Hamilton. Progressive and energetic, he stands in the fore- front among the residents of the Parlier section. He is a man of fine presence, of great executive ability and sound business judgment, and has a most ex- cellent memory.

Mr. Hamilton was born June 24, 1865, in Crawford County, Wis. His father, Henry Hamilton, a native of England, was born five miles from the city of Manchester. His paternal grandfather, Lot Hamilton, was born in England, November 21, 1812, and having the misfortune to lose both his first and second wife by death in the old country, decided to emigrate to America. Accordingly he came to St. Louis, Mo., about two years before his son Henry, a lad of seventeen, emigrated to the New World and settled in Crawford County, Wis. Henry had an only brother, James Hamilton, who settled in Wisconsin and enlisted in the army during the Civil War, dying from illness while in the service. This left Henry the only heir of his father Lot. Henry likewise enlisted from Wisconsin during the Civil conflict, and served one year in the cavalry, being honorably discharged at the close of the war. Before enlisting he was married to Miss Catherine N. Fairfield, a native of Fulton County, Ohio, and daughter of Hugh Fairfield, a Fulton County (Ohio) farmer, who some time after his marriage removed with his family to Prairie du Chien, Wis.

After the war Henry Hamilton returned to Crawford County, where his father soon joined him and continued to make his home with him until the death of the father, January 15, 1905, at the age of ninety-three.

Of the eight children born to Henry Hamilton and his wife, James Hamilton is the eldest. Hugh, the second son, died of pneumonia at New- man, Cal., in June, 1916. He was married but left no children. The third son, Lot, lives on a ranch one-half mile west of his brother James' place. Stephen resides at Courtenay, N. D., where he is a grain and stock farmer. Henry is single and farms his ranch north of Parlier, making his home with his brother, Lot. Anson was killed at the age of nineteen in an accident with a horse hay-fork, while storing hay into a barn in Wisconsin. Mary is the wife of M. F. Foley, a contractor and builder of Los Angeles, Cal. Sylvia also resides in Los Angeles, and is the wife of Robert Felts, an employee of a gas company in that city.

James Hamilton passed the first twenty-seven years of his life in Wis- consin. He grew up on his father's 1,100-acre farm and attended the com- mon schools. At the age of twenty-six he was united in marriage with Miss Vera Posey, a native of Wisconsin and daughter of William N. Posey, a well-to-do farmer of Crawford County, Wis. They are the parents of three children, all born in Lyman County, S. D .: The eldest, Charles, a graduate of Reedley high school, is in Company E, Naval Reserves, on Submarine

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Chaser No. 90, now in the White Sea, north of Russia. Clarence trained for the Navy at Mare Island and is on the Imperator, the world's largest ship, taken from Germany, being 9201/2 feet long and of 57,000 tons' displacement. Clyde is twenty years old and employed by the raisin association.

After his marriage, Mr. Hamilton farmed for one year, then removed to South Dakota, settling on a stock range west of Chamberlain, which is on the Missouri River. The combined capital of Mr. Hamilton and his wife at this time was only $375. He first engaged in the sheep business, but after- wards sold his band of 2,600 sheep and started in the cattle business. He drove hundreds of cattle on the range from the Bad Lands to the Missouri River, and from the Nebraska boundary line on the south to Fort Pierre on the north. and at the round-ups used to ride ten horses in relays, the cattle being scattered over 125 miles on the range. He moved his herds down to the Rosebud Reservation, but the homesteaders came in such numbers that he quit the business, rounding up his cattle in the latter part of 1902.

While living in Lyman County, S. D., he served as coroner of that county for six years, and also served as chairman of the board of county commis- sioners, which established the various school districts in the county, and transacted all the county's business. In 1902 he removed to Day County, S. D., and joined his brother, Lot, a wheat-farmer, purchasing an undivided one-half interest in 1,600 acres of grain land. From 1902 until 1909 he farmed in partnership with his brother. Being a practical stockman, he was the means of changing to mixed farming, raising both wheat and stock.

In 1907 he was elected and served in the tenth session of the South Dakota legislature at Pierre, as the member from Day County. He proved to be an excellent legislator, as he was thoroughly conversant with South Dakota conditions and needs.

In October. 1908, Mr. Hamilton visited California and purchased his present forty-acre home place. Returning to Day County to close up his business, he rented the California ranch to his brother, Hugh. now deceased, who farmed the ranch during 1909. His brother, Lot, came to California in December, 1908. In 1909, Mr. Hamilton returned to California with $30,000, earned principally in the cattle business west of the Missouri River. He purchased another ranch of twenty-eight acres a quarter of a mile from his home place, toward Parlier. He has improved the home place by tearing down the old buildings and building a beautiful modern, nine-room bungalow. Nine horses and mules are used on the ranch. Mr. Hamilton is a stockholder and director in the Ross Ditch Company, which furnishes an abundance of water for irrigation. In addition, he has installed a pumping-plant with a twenty-five horsepower engine with which he may irrigate the twenty-eight- acre ranch in case of a prolonged drouth.

Mr. Hamilton helped organize the First National Bank of Parlier, in which he is a principal stockholder. its vice-president, and one of its board of directors. The directors are : C. A. Parlier, James Hamilton. J. W. Low- man, Luther M. Say, and Edwin Ross. Mr. Hamilton is a successful raisin and peach grower, and a member and stockholder in the California Raisin Growers Association. The Big Church claims his membership, and he is an enthusiastic worker for Parlier, where his tact and genial disposition con- stantly increase the esteem in which he and his estimable family are held, and where they are as justly popular as they were in their South Dakota home.

AUBREY R. JOHNSON .- An enterprising citizen of Fresno County, who is accomplishing much for its development by the sinking of artesian wells, a business which he thoroughly understands and in which he has heen very successful, is A. R. Johnson, who resides at Tranquillity. He was born near Halifax. N. S., April 21, 1878, a son of Dunlap and Margaret ( Archibald) Johnson. The father was a native of Nova Scotia where he was engaged in farming and lumbering, and died there in 1908: the mother, who is also de-

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ceased, was of Scotch descent, her father being William P. Archibald, an early settler of Nova Scotia. Mr. and Mrs. Dunlap Johnson were the parents of seven children, five of whom are living, four boys and one girl.

Aubrey was the second youngest child and is the only one residing in the Golden State. He was reared on a farm in Nova Scotia and after leaving school followed farm work and lumbering, and for a while ran his father's place. In 1902, A. R. Johnson migrated to the United States of America com- ing to Fresno County, Cal., where he subsequently located at Coalinga and secured the position of foreman of the Consolidated Water Company's plant. After remaining with the water company for four years he resigned to en- gage in drilling for oil for the United Oil Company, which business he followed for one year, when he went to Tulare as an automobile machinist re- maining one year. Having bought forty-five acres of land at Tranquillity in 1913, the following year Mr. Johnson located on the place and began to im- prove it by leveling and checking the land, which he planted to alfalfa. The ranch is advantageously located on the main ditch, plenty of water being available for irrigating purposes. Mr. Johnson sold his ranch at Tranquillity in August, 1919, at a good profit.

Mr. Johnson is a very wide-awake and enterprising man as is evidenced by the fact that when he realized the need of artesian wells in the vicinity he at once seized the opportunity to engage in the business of drilling wells for water and, with J. F. Nisewanger uses a hydraulic rotary rig for drilling deep wells, and since his entry into the business has been successful in sinking thirty wells, being in partnership with Mr. Nisewanger.

On September 11, 1901, at Truro, Nova Scotia, Aubrey R. Johnson was united in marriage with Maggie M. Corbett, a native of Nova Scotia, and this union has been blessed with two children: Margaret Eilein, and Fred Law- rence. Fraternally, Mr. Johnson is a member of the Foresters, while he and his estimable wife are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Pacific Grove.

JONAS PETER ALFRED NELSON .- An energetic, industrious, and prosperous rancher, who had an extensive experience as a farmer in Ne- braska and Texas before he came to California, and who was happily able to bring with him considerable means, thus assuring a start without handi- caps, under the favoring conditions of the Golden State, is Jonas Peter Alfred Nelson, popularly known as Fred Nelson, who was born in Sweden on June 25, 1855, attended the common schools there and was duly con- firmed in the Lutheran Church. His father, Nils Larsen, was a farmer and carpenter, who married Maria Helena Johanson. Both parents lived and died in Sweden, the father meeting a violent death through a bolt of lightning. Seven children formed the family, and four grew to maturity: Carl John still lives in Sweden; Christine Sophie is married there and lives on the old home place; the third-born is the subject of our review; and Anna Matilda is now Mrs. Johnson and lives in South Dakota.

Fred was the first one of the family to come to the New World. When twenty-four years of age he left Sweden for Polk County, Nebr., sailing from Gothenburg on April 13, 1880. At Columbus, Nebr., he stepped from the cars into a livery wagon and traveled thirty miles to Osceola. He worked out on a farm for three years in Polk County, Nebr., and in 1883 went to Lancaster County, the same state. Afterward he was engaged in Omaha and Lincoln, trying his hand at both railroading and farm-work.

While at Omaha, Mr. Nelson was married, in 1885, to Miss Anna Swan- son; whereupon he took up his residence at Waverly, Nebr. In 1894, he went to Texas, farmed there for nine years, and bought 170 acres. He suc- ceeded measurably, but on account of the boll weevil he sold his Texas farm and in 1903 came to California with his wife and children, of whom he had seven.

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Mr. Nelson then went to Kingsburg and, two and a half miles east of that town, bought a ranch, in Tulare County. These twenty acres he im- proved, so that he is known as an exceptionally able farmer and horticul- turist. He sold the block of twenty, however, in 1917, and went onto twenty acres two miles north of Kingsburg, which his son, then in the United States Army, had rented, and which he assumed charge of to help the son out. This son, David, served in France and Belgium, going over the top three times; he was honorably discharged and came home, June, 1919, safe and sound.

Mr. Nelson, as stated, has seven children: Esther Marie is the wife of Arthur W. Nyberg, a line-man for the Kingsburg Telephone Company, who resides at Kingsburg. Mamie Matilda has become the wife of Bertel Swan- son, a farmer in Tulare County. Earl E., who was born in Texas, is in the United States Navy at Mare Island. David, above mentioned; Ellen Char- lotte, Oscar Joseph, and Josie Annie are at home.

Mr. and Mrs. Nelson are members of the Free Mission Church in Kings- burg, Mr. Nelson being a trustee. He and all his family have deep religious convictions, and have gladly given two of their sons in the service of their country. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson and family are highly respected and have a host of friends at Kingsburg.

F. A. BERRYHILL .- Among the experienced and influential ranchers of Central California must be mentioned F. A. Berryhill, well-known at Fresno, where he laid out a subdivision, and at Dinuba, where he planted a vineyard of eighty acres. Born near Camden, Ouchita County, Ark., on March 12, 1847, the son of Michael W. and Catherine (Broyles) Berryhill, he was taken by his parents to Berry County, Mo., when he was only five years old, and there grew up. His father had been born and reared in Ten- nessee, while his mother came from Alabama, for Grandfather Berryhill was a Scotchman who had settled in Tennessee. Mr. Berryhill's grandfather fought under General Jackson in the War of 1812, and was one of the soldiers that won the battle at New Orleans behind an entrenchment of cotton-bales; and Mr. F. A. Berryhill's maternal grandfather was a soldier in the Seminole War.

The father of our subject learned the trade of a tanner, and then a carpen- ter ; and for a while owned a small farn in Missouri. F. A. Berryhill as a boy had the companionship of three brothers: Jefferson Davis and Leander Rudolphus, both of whom live in Berry County, Mo .; and Orlando D., who is a raisin grower near Parlier, Fresno County. At sixteen, F. A. Berryhill enlisted in the Confederate Army and carried a musket, although he weighed only one hundred and ten pounds; and he served as a cavalryman for two years, until the close of the war, under the celebrated General Sterling Price, who had won distinction in the Mexican War serving under General Stephen W. Kearny.

At the conclusion of the great contest, Mr. Berryhill returned to his home in Berry County, to join the family circle which once included seven sisters, two of whom are still living- one in Missouri and the other in California. He was the fourth child, although the oldest boy ; he attended the excellent public schools of Missouri, and after the war went for another winter term. He remained home to help until he was twenty, and then he went to Neosho, in Newton County, and learned the blacksmith trade, putting in ten years at the forge. Next he bought a shop at Washburn, Mo., and worked in it for six years. At the age of thirty he was married to Miss Druecella Truelove, who was born and reared in Berry County ; and when she died, she left a child that survived her only two months.

Mr. Berryhill then ventured into a new field, that of selling goods, and opened a general merchandise store at Washburn. At the end of two years he moved with his stock of goods to Rogers, Benton County, Ark., and there kept a general merchandise store. It was at that place that he so for- tunately met his present wife, who was Miss Emma Merritt, the daughter of

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andrew Wulf

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

John G. and Mary P. (Young) Merritt, of Kentucky and Tennessee, respec- tively. Her parents were married in Davis County, Iowa, and that is where Mrs. Berryhill was born and grew up until she was thirteen. Then her parents moved to Kansas, and later to Rogers, Ark., where her father kept the Rogers House.

Failing in business in Arkansas, Mr. and Mrs. Berryhill came to Cal- ifornia in 1885 with their one child, and landed at Selma in a sand-storm, with thirty dollars to their credit. They settled on a rented farm of 240 acres three miles northeast of Selma, which belonged to John G. Arrants, the pioneer merchant. He was two years there and then went to Sanger and rented a section which he farmed to grain. Later he bought forty acres and he was at Sanger for sixteen years.

Then Mr. Berryhill went to Dinuba and put eighty acres into vines, and from 1903 to 1911 he cultivated raisins. Selling out, he removed to Madera County, where he farmed for a year and a half; and then he came to the city of Fresno. He traded for thirty acres southwest of Roeding Park, subdivided the same, sold what he could and has only seven lots left.

Now Mr. and Mrs. Berryhill are established comfortably in their ranch- house, on their ranch of 125 acres, west of the Kings River, near Lanare. He bought the place six years ago, and he and his wife moved down in April, 1917. It is river bottom and therefore very rich land, and is situated in one of the finest alfalfa acreages in Fresno County. In their ranching operations they are ably assisted by their sons, one of whom promptly responded for his country's service. Their home is made more attractive by good books and current periodicals.

Mr. and Mrs. Berryhill have three children, all sons. Roy married Miss Mary Bills of Selma, who was born in Missouri; they live in Oakland where Roy is a machinist and works for the Union Iron Works; they have two children-Romaine and Bernadine. Harry Burrell is in partnership with his father : and Guy Wendell was a mechanic in the Aero-Squadron at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas ; he was honorably discharged and is now at home. Mr. and Mrs. Berryhill are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South ; and Mr. Berryhill is a Democrat.

ANDREAS WULF .- A man of sturdy character, an industrious worker and good manager, Andrew Wulf, as he is known by his associates, has been most successful in his ranching operations, and is commended by his many friends as representative of his countrymen and as a developer of the natural resources of Fresno County. His birth took place at Dinkel, Samara, Russia, September 4, 1871, his father, Andrew, being a farmer of that province and there his death occurred; the mother, Marie E. (Gleim) Wulf, still resides there. Of their twelve children, Andrew is the third oldest, and three girls and two boys of the family are now residents of this state, namely, Andreas, of this sketch; Mrs. Mary Siebert of Selma; Peter, residing on Shields Ave- nue; Mrs. Katie Peterson of Dakota Colony; and Anna Klemm of Rolinda.

Andreas Wulf was reared on the home farm in Russia and while attend- ing the public schools there assisted his father at farming. His marriage occurred there on December 25, 1891, to Miss Anna Busick, born in Samara, and he continued operating the farm until 1899, when he sold out and came to this country. He first located in Lincoln, Nebr., where he was employed in the material yard of the B. and M. Railway. On December 5, 1900, he came to Fresno, and found employment in the olive factory of M. Archibald, and there learned the curing and pickling of olives and the manufacture of the oil, continuing for seven years, the last four of which he was superintendent of the factory, having become an authority in the industry.

In 1907, Mr. Wulf purchased his ranch of twenty acres at Rolinda ; he releveled and rechecked the land and resowed it to alfalfa, set out ten acres of Thompson grapes, and two and one-half acres to peaches and apricots ; the balance being in alfalfa. He maintained a modern dairy until selling his

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cows in 1919, and he is a member and stockholder of the Danish Creamery. He later purchased forty acres one-half mile northwest of Rolinda and is improving it to alfalfa and vineyard; and also bought twenty-five acres on Shields Avenue, three miles north of Rolinda, of which twelve acres are in Thompson seedless, three and one-half acres in apricots, and the balance in alfalfa.

Mr. Wulf is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and is also a stockholder in the Cali- fornia Post Publishing Company. He is a man of broad ideas and a firm believer in the cooperation of ranchers as a means to greater prosperity for the individuals and for the county. He has proven his worth as a citizen and a developer of the county's resources.

Nine children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Wulf: Andrew, a rancher on Shields Avenue; John, with the United States Army in France ; George: Peter; Mollie : Lydia; Marie Elizabeth; Jacob; and Anne Margaret. The two oldest were born in Russia, while the others are natives of Cali- fornia and Fresno County. The family attends the Congregational Church in Fresno, and Mr. Wulf has been president of the board of trustees for three years, during which time the new church edifice has been erected. In political matters he supports the Republican party.

When Mr. Wulf purchased his various pieces of property, after he had established his home on Whites Bridge Road at Rolinda, they were in their primitive state of weed-patches and sand-hills, but he has developed and im- proved them, until they are highly productive. He was one of the developers of the Rolinda district and helped open the roads in that section.

JEROME BLAIR .- One who battled hard and long against the odds of limited means, but now has a fine ranch of forty acres in the heart of the Laguna de Tache Grant. is Jerome Blair who, when asked what brought him to Fresno County, answered: "Poverty!" For when he arrived at Riverdale, on Christmas Day. 1900, with his wife and three children, he owned three or four good teams and had a dollar in his pocket.

He was born in Monroe County, Ind., on March 22, 1853, the son of Marion Blair, who was a college-bred man and an oil painter and portrait artist, and a Mexican War veteran. He made several notable portraits, and perhaps his masterpiece was the life-study of Oliver Perry Morton, Indiana's famous war governor of the '60's. During the Civil War he served in the Union Army and made a record as the captain of a company in the Eighty- second Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was for some time on the heels of Morgan and it was his brigade that captured the leader of the notorious Morgan Raids. The portrait of Governor Morton was given chief place at the Indianapolis State Fair, and now adorns the walls of the Congressional Library at Washington. The Blairs are descended from Scotch ancestry, and the same sterling qualities that helped the progenitors to win fame, have made themselves manifest in the life and work of our subject.

Jerome Blair married Miss Sallie Thrasher on November 2, 1872, and on the second day of the following June, he started with his bride for the great Pacific Northwest. They traveled over the Union and Central Pacific railways, and north by steamer via Portland, to Walla Walla. Wash., where they arrived about the middle of Julv. Mr. Blair, having but little monev. went to work in the harvest field. He later homesteaded in Walla Walla County and proved up on 160 acres : he mined in British Columbia ; prospected at New Rossland. and ran a boarding house for two years; then he came back to Eastern Washington. and in 1900 he came down to California.

Mrs. Blair was born in Monroe County, Ind., the daughter of Joel and Orlena (Carroll) Thrasher, natives of Virginia and Tennessee respectively. Mrs. Blair has had five children, four of whom are living: Orville died at Walla Walla when he was a year old ; Winnie is now the wife of James Wil- liams, a rancher three miles southeast of Riverdale and the mother of two

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children-Lloyd, who has a son, James, and Bessie, who has a daughter, Winnie, named for her grandmother; Marion married Miss Minnie Tinkham and is a wheat farmer at Pixley; George, married Nellie Gepford, and re- sides on the old Blair place, and owns 110 acres of land. Two children, Alma and Orion, bless their home. Myrtle is the wife of L. E. Stine, a rancher, with four children-Daffney, Bernice, Delbert and Glenn. There were eight children in the Thrasher family, only three now living. Those besides Mrs. Blair are James Thrasher, of Maryville, Mo., and Rolla Thrasher, of Colorado Springs, Colo. The family trace their lineage to a signer of the Declaration of Independence-Carroll of Carrollton. The other members of the Thrasher family are deceased :- John Thrasher, was city marshal at Enid, Oklahoma, for eight years; Jason N. Thrasher, was treasurer of Van Buren township, Monroe County, Ind., for four years ; Mary became the wife of Judge Camp- bell, who was a distinguished member of the bar at Maryville for eight years; Catherine became the wife of W. J. Hazelwood of Maryville; and Christia, who died young, was the wife of Edward Worley, a planter in Kentucky.

The first summer that Mr. Blair worked around with his teams in Cal- ifornia, while the family were living at Lemoore, he went with his outfit, at harvest time, to Cholam Valley, Monterey County, to haul wheat to Paso Robles, a distance of forty-two miles from the field to the railway. He saw that he could never succeed, so he went to Laton to rent the land where he now lives, and he took a lease of over two hundred acres west of the North Fork School House ; two dollars and a half cash, per acre, was required on the rent. He was lucky in meeting Mr. Saunders, of the firm of Nares & Saunders, who accepted a cash payment of five dollars to clinch the trans- action, and took his word that he would pay the balance, forty-five dollars, in three weeks. Mr. Saunders personally loaned him the balance of the cash required for the rent, and this he repaid out of the proceeds of the first crops harvested.

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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 72

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