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 80
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THOMAS J. PETERSEN .- A popular Native Son, as well as a son of a pioneer master mariner, of the Pacific coasting trade, Thomas J. Peter- sen, the subject of this review, was born in Berkeley, Cal., September 24, 1880, the son of Capt. Charles and Nellie (Riley) Petersen. His father was born at Tonning, Schleswig, Denmark, and when but a lad of thirteen years ran away from home and went to sea on a sailing vessel which landed in America. Afterwards he sailed to the different ports of the world and even- tually reached San Francisco in 1849, at the time of the beginning of the gold excitement. Here he remained and soon afterwards began sailing in the coasting trade, eventually becoming a captain of a vessel, and later on master of vessels and part owner of a line of ships, among them being the Casper, one of the first steam schooners on the Pacific Coast. Captain Peter- sen was principally engaged in the lumber trade, until 1895 when he was accidentally killed, at Port Costa, by slipping and falling over the side of the vessel, being crushed between the dock and the side of the ship. The mother of T. J. Petersen was, in maidenhood, Nellie Riley, a native of the Emerald Isle, and she emigrated from Ireland to California, when nineteen years of age, where she met and married Charles Petersen. She passed away in Berkeley in 1897. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Petersen were the parents of eight children, five of whom are living, Thomas J. being the second oldest.
Thomas J. Petersen was reared in Berkeley and is a graduate of the high school of that city. After his graduation he went to sea, entering the Pacific coast trade, having previously become familiar with this business when he worked for his father, before he graduated from the high school.
In 1897 Mr. Petersen went to Nome, Alaska, and was engaged in run- ning vessels between San Francisco and Nome. Afterwards he returned to Oakland, Cal., where he was employed by the Southern Pacific Railway Company, first as a brakeman, on trains running out of Oakland, but was soon advanced to the position of a conductor which work he continued to follow on suburban runs until 1909, when he located in Coalinga.
For two years he was employed by the American Petroleum Company in their production department, when he became Deputy City Marshal, fill- ing the office for one year, when he resigned to engage in business in Coal- inga. In the spring of 1918, he was appointed City Marshal, to fill a vacancy, and since then he devotes all of his time to his official duties. By virtue of his office Mr. Petersen is ex-officio tax and license collector and superin- tendent of streets.
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At the primary election in the fall of 1918, Mr. Petersen received enough votes to elect him to the position of Constable of the Sixth Township, of Fresno County. This fact emphasizes the great popularity of Thomas J. Petersen and the high esteem in which he is held by the people of the city of Coalinga and residents of Township Six.
Thomas J. Petersen was united in marriage in Coalinga with Miss Gean Ansolabehere, a native of Basses-Pyrenees, France. This union has been blessed with four children: Martina, Georgia, Thomas J. Jr., and Jeanne Marie.
Fraternally Mr. Petersen is a member of Coalinga Aerie of Eagles and has been honored by the election to the office of chairman of the board of trustees : he is also a member of the Coalinga Lodge of Moose, of which he is the treasurer ; he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Growl- ers Club, and in national politics supports the Democratic platform and candidates.
WILLIAM MOLLER .- How a singular streak of good-luck often en- ables a man to get his first favorable start in a successful career, is illustrated in the life-story of William Moller, who arrived in California during the Cen- tennial year of the Republic. A native of Denmark, he was born in Kjere- mynde. Fyen, on March 28. 1850, the son of Christian Moller, a merchant tailor, who had married Lasina Petersen, and by whom he had six children. Both Mr. and Mrs. Moller lived to a fair old age and died in their native land. William was the second youngest in the family, and he was brought up in Denmark and attended the Danish public schools. When fourteen he was ap- prenticed to a baker; and at the baker's trade he continued until he was twenty-two.
In 1873, however, William decided to push out into the world ; and sail- ing from Denmark he came to America. It was not an easy matter, prior to his departure, to figure out how he could pay for such a trip ; and while turn- ing the subject over in his mind, he decided to invest a good portion of the small amount he had on hand in the purchase of a lottery ticket owned by a friend who did not have the courage to hold on to it and take his chances. Most luckily for William, the number drew a prize of $250, so that he was able, in the end, to travel as far as San Francisco and still have a small residue. For a while he worked at his trade in the bay city, and then he entered the employ of the Spreckels Sugar Refinery, with which concern he remained until 1876.
In that year, Mr. Moller had the foresight to leave the coast and come inland to Fresno. His object was to buy land; for although he had never before farmed, he was willing to try, and such willingness is the first stepping- stone to prosperity. He bought twenty acres in the Central Colony, and in so doing became one of the first settlers there. He planted alfalfa and set out a vineyard, and went in for dairying and poultry-raising, and was one of the original stockholders of the Danish Creamery Association. All in all, he continued there twenty-eight years.
In 1901 he sold his property and bought his present place of sixty acres then raw land. On account of its unfavorable condition, he paid only $37.50 an acre, and probably that was all the land was then worth ; but he leveled the rough surface and by hard work improved it in various ways; and then he put in thirteen acres of alfalfa. Later he turned the entire tract into a vineyard, and raised both muscat, raisin and Thompson seedless grapes, get- ting his irrigation service from the neighboring ditch. He set out trees and vines, and he also built a fine residence and the usual barns and outhouses. Later, he sold twenty acres of the farm to his son, Magnus. The tract lies two miles west of Fresno, between Belmont and Whites Bridge Road.
While in San Francisco in 1876, Mr. Moller was married to Miss Louisa Rasmussen, a native of Fredensborg, Denmark, who came to California in 1873. Their married life has been singularly happy, blessed by the birth
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of seven children. One of these-Walter-died when he was three years of age; but the others are living. Bendin is a farmer in Oregon; Herman is a machinist in Fresno; William is a farmer not far away, as is also Magnus; Ella, who married and became Mrs. Prickett, resides at Modesto; and Louis, a machinist by trade, is now serving in a machine gun division in the Amer- ican Army in France. Besides being a member of the Danish Brotherhood, Mr. Moller is affiliated with the Lutheran Church, of which he was a trustee for years.
A firm believer in the sure and surely attractive destiny of Central Cal- ifornia, Mr. Moller has always been identified with one or another of the raisin associations and at present is one of the most enthusiastic "boosters" of that industry in California. He belongs to the Republican party and has for years taken an active interest in national politics, and is a supporter of every sensible movement for local uplift and improvement.
NELS SWANSON .- A viticulturist who has been very successful and now owns one of the best-improved ranches in the vicinity of Fresno, is Nels Swanson, who was born near Laholm, Halan, Sweden, December 7, 1872, the son of Swen Paulson, a farmer there, now deceased, and Ingri Paulson, who is still living, the mother of eight children. As the fourth eldest, he was brought up on a farm and at the same time attended the public schools of his neighborhood.
In 1892, Nels crossed the ocean and the continent to Fresno, arriving here on May 17, and he soon went to work in a vineyard at Oleander, contin- uing in that field of endeavor until 1898 when the news of the new discovery of gold in Alaska urged him, with others, to hasten to the Klondike.
He reached Dyea and then packed over Chilcoot Pass and reached Sheeps Camp soon after a big snow slide, and finally got to Lake Luideneau and Bennett. With the help of a companion or two, he made a scow, and they floated down the Yukon to Dawson. They obtained claims, but not enough gold to make it pay; and he was glad, in the end, to work for others at one dollar per hour. After two such winters in the extreme North, Mr. Swanson came back to Fresno County on October 4, 1900.
He then bought thirty acres at the corner of Johnson and Belmont Ave- nues, and there he engaged in viticulture for five years. In 1906, however, he bought his present place of twenty acres on Madison Avenue three and a half miles west from Fresno, which he soon devoted to the growing of raisins, -muscat and Thompson seedless. He early joined the movement for a bet- ter raisin association, and is now an active supporter of the California Asso- ciated Raisin Company. In 1908 he made a trip back to his old home, visiting his parents and friends, returning home three months later, after an enjoy- able trip.
While in Fresno, Mr. Swanson was married on February 18, 1903, to Miss Ida Gustafson, a native of Westmanland, Sweden, who came to Fresno with her parents in July, 1892. This union has proven singularly happy, and four children have come to bless the Swanson fireside. Carlton Sherwood is the eldest ; and the others are Freda, Edith and Nels, Jr. Mr. Swanson is a Lutheran, and the family attend that church, and are active in its various good works.
WILLIAM H. SININGER .- A successful rancher is William H. Sinin- ger, the experienced viticulturist who is in charge of the old N. N. Norton vineyard on White's Bridge Road, where he has been since December, 1907. He was born at Bentonville, Adams County, Ohio, on January 26, 1886, the son of John Allen Sininger, of Ohio, who was a farmer there. He married Mamie L. Miller, also an Ohioan. Eleven children once made up the family ; and ten are still living.
William was the oldest and was reared on a farm, while he attended the ustal lower country schools and completed the course of the high school,
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after which he continued with his father until 1906, when he came west to California. He arrived in Fresno on April 15, and entered the employ of H. E. Norton, for whom he ranched in the Madison district. Later he worked in Pierce & Norton's sawmills. In 1907, however, and the month of Decem- ber, Mr. Sininger came onto his present place. It is the old N. N. Norton estate, at White's Bridge and Johnson Avenue, and has, besides a fine or- chard and fields of alfalfa, a vineyard of fifty acres, set out to sultana, em- pires and malagas.
At Fresno, July, 1918. Mr. Sininger was married to Mrs. Elo (Whitlock) Thompson, a native of Tehama County, Cal., who by her first union had two children-Howard and Morris Thompson. Mrs. Sininger shares with her husband a large circle of devoted friends.
Mr. Sininger has always favored cooperation, and so has always supported every association movement. He is a Democrat, but he never allows his democracy to interfere when it comes to supporting what he really believes to be the best man and the best measure. Had Fresno County not been blessed with many such sterling citizens as Mr. Sininger, it could never have forged to the fore as the foremost of all counties in the Golden State.
WADE GRIFFIN .- The efficient and popular superintendent of the Consolidated Water Company of Coalinga, Cal., Wade Griffin, is a native of Waxahachie, Ellis County, Tex., a son of George and Margaret (Jordan) Griffin. Both George Griffin and grandfather Wade Griffin were born in the state of Louisiana, the grandfather having been killed during the Civil War. George Griffin, when a young man, moved to Texas, and it was in that state that he was united in marriage with Margaret Jordan, this union being blessed with seven children, Wade Griffin, the subject of this sketch, being the second oldest and the only member of the family in California.
Mrs. Griffin passed away in July, 1907, but the father is still living in Texas where he owns a farm of 500 acres, devoted to raising cotton, which he rents out, George Griffin being engaged as the manager of a large cotton gin. Wade was brought up on the farm in Texas where he learned farming and stock-raising, assisting his father in the work of the place until he was twenty-one years of age, when he removed to Claremore, Okla., where he was employed in the bridge and building department of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company. In 1905 Mr. Griffin removed to Fullerton, Cal., where, in partnership with J. C. Shepherd, he was engaged in concrete and cement contracting, constructing pipe lines and sidewalks, continuing in this busi- ness until 1908 when he dissolved partnership with Mr. Shepherd and came to Coalinga, entering the employ of the Consolidated Water Company. At first he had charge of the pipelines in the oil fields, but his ability to fill a manager's position soon became evident and in 1909 he was appointed super- intendent of the entire plant, and so efficiently has he discharged his duties that he still holds the same position. The company sank its first well in 1903, and subsequently its second well was ready, then pipes were laid into the oil fields and in 1909 three more wells were sunk to a depth of 250 feet. This company is equipped with a large pumping plant having a capacity of over 3.500 barrels daily. The water is distributed to all parts of the Eastern and Western sides of the oil fields.
Mr. Griffin is an active worker for the upbuilding of the West Side and has been particularly anxious for good roads. After nine years of agitation his dream is to be fulfilled as the State Highway is being constructed to Coalinga.
WVade Griffin is a very popular man and is highly esteemed in the city of Coalinga for liis sterling character and unquestioned integrity. Frater- nally, he is an Odd Fellow holding membership with the Maypearl Lodge, No. 149, at Maypearl, Tex., and is also affiliated with the Eagles at Coalinga.
Wadi Griffin
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MOSES PAUL MOSESIAN .- Two and one-half miles southeast of Parlier lies the Mosesian vineyard and ranch, consisting of 340 acres. Its superintendent and manager, Moses P., is the son of Paul Mosesian of Fresno, owner of the Mosesian ranch and a large dealer in real estate, who has bought and sold thousands of acres of land in Fresno and Tulare Counties, and has been instrumental in assisting his countrymen in the subdivision of large tracts for private vineyardists and horticulturists, making it possible for them to acquire ranches and homes on time payments and at reasonable terms.
Moses P. Mosesian is a native of Armenia, born at Harpoot, June 17, 1894, the oldest in a family of five children, and the only one of them born in Armenia. His father, Paul Mosesian, was born in Armenia, near Harpoot, March 21, 1870, and while living in his native country made his living as a trader and from the income of a small farm. As a young man he came to America and for two years worked in Boston. He then returned to Harpoot and was married to Tworoida Garabedian. After the birth of their oldest child, Mr. Mosesian returned to America, leaving his wife and baby in the old country, and found employment in a shoe factory at Boston, and by strict attention to business rose to the position of head cutter. At the time of the Alaska gold fever he and a fellow-workman resolved to seek their fortunes in the gold fields of that region, and, going to San Francisco, they took passage for the "Klondike." When the journey was about half com- pleted Mr. Mosesian was taken seriously ill, forcing him to return to San Francisco. On arrival he had but ninety-four dollars left, so he sought em- ployment at any kind of work available. Times were stringent and it was difficult to keep employed. Under these discouraging conditions he met a fellow-countryman who had been in Fresno County and whose glowing de- scription of its future possibilities decided Mr. Mosesian to try his luck here. Resolved to own land and have a home, in 1900 he bargained for 320 acres of practically unimproved land near Parlier. To this acreage he later added twenty acres and his efforts have been successful in making this a splendid property. After establishing himself on the ranch he was joined by his wife and son. At the time he purchased the ranch the raisin and fruit growing qualities of the valley had not been fully demonstrated. Going to work with a will, he set out two zinfandel vineyards of twenty and fifty acres respectively. The vines grew luxuriantly and Mr. Mosesian soon launched in the wine making industry, prospering beyond his most sanguine expectations. After a few years the price of wine grapes fell below nine dollars per ton and under these discouraging conditions he was forced to experiment in grafting the vines over to Thompson's seedless for the purpose of making raisins. The results were so good that the next year he grafted, in the same manner, the fifty-acre vineyard. In addition to the seventy acres grafted over he has 180 acres planted to muscats in full bearing; also thirty- six acres of malaga table grapes. For the last three years those in full bear- ing have yielded from twelve to fifteen tons per acre. In 1917 his best table grapes brought one dollar sixty-five cents per vine-a most extraordinary record.
Mr. Mosesian's acquaintance in Boston enabled him to lay the founda- tion for a large trade in raisins and table grapes in the New England markets. After the war began it became difficult to obtain refrigerator cars at the proper time, and in 1917 he lost twenty car loads of fruit that practically rotted for want of timely transportation. It was this that caused him to erect the new fire-proof, concrete and brick packing-house and cold storage plant on the Santa Fe reservation in Fresno. The building consists of two stories and a basement and is 150x275 feet in dimension with a frontage of 275 feet on the Santa Fe switch. It was built in accordance with plans outlined by Mr. Mosesian and his son Moses.
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Although a private shipper. Mr. Mosesian is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company. His many years of effort has built up an ex- tensive demand for his goods in the East and he has studied to place them on the eastern market in the most attractive and best possible shape. His label, the celebrated "State Center" line, commands a premium of one and a half per cent. over and above regular prices. He has reduced the packing business to a science. Not a grape is wasted, the bruised and inferior grapes are inade into horse feed, which has proved to be a very nutritious food for work horses and mules.
Mr. Mosesian owns sixty acres east of Fresno on Locan Avenue, which is devoted to the growing and propagating of a rare and most excellent variety of table grape known as the Servian blue grape, which was brought from Servia to Fresno in 1914 by Steve Baker, a Slavonian and an expert grape grower. Mr. Baker found this variety of grape while on a visit to the old country, and he brought enough cuttings back to Fresno with him to plant sixteen acres by planting every fourth hill and propagating the two intervening hills by runners put under ground at proper distances. Its branches are large and long and the individual grape is nearly as large as a French prune. Mr. Mosesian saved enough cuttings to plant 160 acres in 1919. Mr. Mosesian buys fruits, raisins, etc., at Kingsburg, Parlier, Clotho and Fresno, in which places he also has packing houses. The Mosesian Packing House at Parlier is being rebuilt to twice its former size and capac- itv. Mr. Mosesian is a stockholder and director in the Parlier Winery and the River Bend Gas and Water Company. He has a comfortable home at No. 1146 "R" Street, Fresno, where he resides. His children are: Moses P .: Mary : Suren : Louise ; and Bernice.
Moses has, since boyhood, taken an interest in viticulture, horticulture and everything pertaining to the ranch. He had the advantages of the com- mon school, supplementing this with one year in Heald's Business College. His father's business had become so extensive in 1913 that there was im- perative need for Moses to assume the superintendency of the Mosesian ranch, and since then he has given his entire time to its management, bring- ing it up to a standard of excellence which challenges wide attention. Twenty- five men are regularly employed on this ranch and in the harvest, the force is increased to 150. Eighteen head of stock, and one eighteen horse-power Holt tractor furnish the motive power for its cultivation. A gasoline engine pumps water for stock and domestic purposes, while a sixty horse-power pumping plant is ever in reserve for irrigation. The ranch is under the Con- solidated Ditch. The ranch is fringed with a row of Adriatic fig trees and between this row of figs and the field of vines is planted a row of peach trees. This produces an artistic effect and furnishes also a wind break for the vines as well as being a considerable source of revenue.
In 1914 Moses P. Mosesian was married to Miss Marie Merzoian of Fresno, and they are the parents of two children, William and .Lillian.
In his religious inclinations Mr. Mosesian is a Catholic. His wife is a Presbyterian in her religious convictions, and his parents still cling to the Gregorian Church.
ERROLL C. KITTRELL .- A successful and promising farmer of Fres110 County, is Erroll C. Kittrell of the Barstow Colony, a native son, born in Fresno, on September 17, 1889. His father was William J. Kittrell, who was born in the Sacramento Valley and became one of the early settlers of Fresno, having been for a while in the post office there. Then for twenty years he was in the Fresno Agricultural Works, where he acted as manager. Now he is in the real estate business in Fresno, his reputation for integrity and judg- ment going far to influence the would-be customer. Mrs. Kittrell was Ella M. Vezey before her marriage, and she was a native daughter, her birth- place being near Modesto.
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Erroll, an only child, was educated in the public schools of Fresno and the Fresno high school, which he attended until his junior year, when he went east to the Kemper Military School at Boonville, Mo., from which he was graduated in 1909. On his return to Fresno, he clerked three years in the hardware store of Barrett & Hicks, then he went to Lemoore to take charge of the hardware department of W. L. Scally, returning to Fresno in a year to enter the employ of H. Graff & Company in their hardware department.
A year later he engaged in business for himself and started a hardware store on Merced Street between J and I Streets in what was known as the Kittrell Building. At the end of eighteen months, however, he sold out to take up farming. He bought his present place of eighty acres and was soon busy setting out a vineyard and an orchard. He also has twenty-five acres in alfalfa under the Herndon Canal and an eighty-foot well. There are ten acres of Thompson seedless grapes, and forty acres in peaches, muir and lov- ells being the specialty. He is a member of the California Peach Growers,' Inc., and of the California Associated Raisin Company.
In Fresno, Mr. Kittrell was married to Miss Hazel Hague, a native of Fresno who grew up and was educated there, and one child, William Mad- ison Kittrell, blessed the fortunate marriage. Mr. Kittrell is a Democrat in national politics, and an ardent supporter of every worthy movement for local improvement. He was made a Mason in Fresno Lodge, No. 247, F. & A. M.
AUGUST DIEL .- A fine example of the successful merchant is August Diel of Fresno, who was born in Skadofsky, Samara, Russia, on September 24. 1866. His father, Henry Diel, was a farmer who died there; while his mother, who was Mary Schwabenland before her marriage, came to Fresno with Angust Diel, and died here. She was the mother of four boys and a girl ; of these, the four sons grew up and two are now living.
August Diel is the only one in the United States, for two brothers, Henry and Frederick D., who came to Fresno, died here. The second eldest, August Diel grew up on a farm and attended the common schools, after which he did military service, enlisting when twenty-one in the Russian Infantry and serv- ing there four years. He thus saw service at Sebastopol, and received at the end an honorable discharge. He was married to Miss Louise Karle, also a native of the same district ; and followed farming for some time in his native land.
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