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 82

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 82

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the most profitable, so he purchased and brought the first full-blooded Here- fords into the Valley and since then has been bringing in others until he has a fine herd of pure-bred and high-grade Herefords, in which he can justly take pride. His summer range is at the headwaters of Big Creek in the National Forest Reserve.

At the Boucher home, near Clovis, on December 20, 1893, Mr. Weldon was married to Lottie Boucher, who was born near Suisun, Solano County, the daughter of C. H. Boucher, one of the early settlers of the Clovis section in Fresno County, and two children have been born of this union: Cecil R., who is an able assistant to his father, and Mildred Barbara.

Interested in the cause of education, Mr. Weldon has served as member and clerk of the board of trustees in Mountain View district for fourteen years. He is a member of the Christian Church, while Mrs. Weldon is a Presbyterian. Mr. and Mrs. Weldon are public-spirited and progressive citi- zens of the County, and are well known and highly esteemed.

GEORGE M. TUTTLE .- A good farmer, horseman and cattleman, and an equally good, patriotic citizen is George M. Tuttle, the foreman of the Silvera alfalfa ranch. He was born at Shelbyville, Ill., on February 3, 1872. the son of Elisha Tuttle, a native of Douglas County, Ill., who was engaged in teaming at Shelbyville. He was a loyal citizen of the old-fashioned type, and during the Civil War served in Company K. One Hundred Fifteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry. And in Illinois, in 1915, he passed to his eternal reward. Mrs. Tuttle was Elizabeth Parryman, a daughter of Illinois; and she died in 1908, the mother of seven children, two of whom are still living.

George was the second oldest of these, and he was brought up in the town of his birth, where he attended the public school of the neighborhood. Later, he engaged in coal mining for several years. Then he was appren- ticed to the moulders' trade, at Dayton, Ohio, giving to that experience eighteen months; and afterward he was in the Shelbyville foundry for a few years. The strike of 1908 brought work to a standstill, but it led to his taking one of the most decisive steps of his life.

Looking over the field of opportunity in general, Mr. Tuttle concluded to come to California ; and in 1909 he journeyed to Fresno. He was not for- tunate in finding an opening as a moulder ; but he secured employment on the ranch of W. H. Dillon, who raised alfalfa and had a fine vineyard, and he re- mained with him for a year and a half. Then he was in the employ of R. N. Barstow and helped run his alfalfa ranch ; and in 1914 he was made foreman, a post of much responsibility. Here Mr. Tuttle had charge of 260 acres, most of which was devoted to alfalfa, but twenty acres of which were given up to a vineyard and a stock ranch. In August, 1918. Mr. Tuttle accepted the po- sition as foreman of the Silvera ranch at Tranquillity, where he has super- vision of 285 acres, and raises alfalfa and mules.

Sociable by nature, and fond of society, Mr. Tuttle joined both the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias at Shelbyville, and he has continued his affiliation with those fraternal organizations. No better and more public- spirited citizen could anywhere be found; in national politics Mr. Tuttle is a Democrat, but in local affairs he joins with his neighbors in "boosting" whatever is best. He served on the Grand Jury in 1918.

JASPER A. BANKS .- A very wide-awake merchant, whose business is constantly increased because of his personal popularity, is Jasper A. Banks, the experienced tobacconist at Friant. His father was Willis Banks, a Ken- tuckian who, when there was need of his military services, joined the ranks of the Home Guard Army and did his full duty without a thought of the sacri- fice. He had been from youth a farmer ; had moved to Illinois, and then pushed on to Kansas. He came to California first in 1849, engaged with varying success in mining ; and after two years, went back to Illinois. J. A. Banks was born at Columbus, Adams County, Il1., March 6, 1852 and when a lad of

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only nine years, moved with his parents to Crawford County, Kans., enjoying the adventures common to such an experience at that time ; and there he grew up to manhood, remaining until he was twenty-two years of age. Then he came out to California in 1874, directing his course to Kern County, then for six years he was in Sonoma County.

In 1881 Mr. Banks moved to Fresno County and located in Auberry Valley. He bought land, went into stock raising, and until 1908 gave his best efforts to producing the highest average breed. In that year he sold out and came to Friant, where he embarked in the grocery trade. In the follow- ing year, Mr. Banks established his cigar and tobacco store; and in this line of trade he has succeeded beyond his expectations. He has also retained in- terest in stock, cattle and hogs, and some of his investments yield as they should when intelligence, foresight and experience are back of the deal.

Willis Banks, Jasper's father, returned to California in 1876 and located in Fresno County ; and here, living with his children, he died, two years later. Mrs. Banks, who had been Eveline Thomas before her marriage, was a native Kentuckian, and in that State she was married. She had fourteen children -- seven boys and seven girls; and Jasper was the eighth child born.

Mr. Banks has been twice married. The first ceremony occurred in 1881 in Kern County, when the bride was Bell Davis, a native daughter, by whom he had one child, Lola Bell who married L. C. Mussleman and is living in Fresno. His first wife died in 1883. In 1888, Mr. Banks was married to Mrs. Polly (Blair) Dillwood, born on Grand Island, whose parents were Thos. and Lucy Blair, early settlers of Contra Costa County in the fifties, later of Auberry Valley, Fresno County, where they died. Mrs. Banks received her education in Fresno County, and by her former marriage she had two chil- dren, one living, Ray, who is with the Standard Oil Company at Richmond. Democrats in politics, Mr. and Mrs. Banks are members of the Christian Church.

ALFRED MODINE .- The subject of this review, Alfred Modine, is a native of Sweden, being born on February 19, 1862, at Langaryd Socken, Smaaland, Sweden, a son of Andrew and Sarah Modine, who were the parents of four children, Alfred being next to the youngest; Lewis, his old- est brother, resides on the old home place in Sweden; Swen is a farmer and lives in Sweden; and Annie is the widow of Alfred Swanson and resides in the homeland.

Alfred Modine was reared on his father's farm in Sweden, and was the first member of the family to immigrate to the United States, where he ar- rived in 1883, and after a brief stay at Diamond Lake, Mich., he settled at Assaria, Saline County, Kans., and secured employment as a farm hand, continuing at such work for about six years, being paid by the month, Dur- ing the winter season he worked for as little as six dollars per month, yet by thrifty habits, so characteristic of his fellow countrymen, he was enabled to save money.

In 1892, Alfred Modine returned to his native land and while there was united in marriage with Emma Charlotte Nyquist, returning to Kansas the same year with his bride. For four years he rented a farm at Assaria, sub- sequently purchasing a farm of 240 acres at Lindsborg, where he success- fully engaged in farming until 1915, when he received such an excellent offer for his Kansas ranch that he sold it and removed to the Golden State, set- tling one mile north of Kingsburg, Fresno County. He purchased the C. G. Stone place on Grant Avenue, in the Kingsburg Colony.

Previous to buying his ranch at Kingsburg, Mr. Modine had made several trips to the Pacific Coast country to see the land and investigate the agricultural and horticultural conditions in California, and after very care- ful consideration decided that Fresno County was the best place for him to locate. Mr. Modine has always been a very industrious and thrifty farmer, and by hard work, untiring efforts and intelligent management of his Kansas

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

ranch he accumulated considerable means, and having had to work very hard to secure a financial start, now that he is comfortably provided for, he en- joys life and values money for the good it can bring him and his family. His home in California abounds in comforts and conveniences and his family are happy in the enjoyment of their new environment. Mr. Modine has made three trips to Sweden, and during the summer of 1917 he made an extended trip through the Middle West, visiting relatives in Minneapolis, Minn. His ranch at Kingsburg consists of forty acres and is devoted to raising peaches and raisin grapes. The property is regarded as one of the most valuable of its size in the Kingsburg Colony, being improved with a brick residence, good barns, tank house and pumping plant.

Mr. and Mrs. Modine are the parents of four children: John A., resid- ing at home, is an ex-soldier, having been discharged from duty owing to physical disability ; Selma, who is a graduate of a business college at Linds- borg, Kans .; Hjalmar, who married Mary Rodgers, and they reside in Kings- burg; and Carl, living at home.

Mr. and Mrs. Modine are members of the Swedish Mission Church at Kingsburg. Although but recent comers to the county and state, the Mo- dines have already made many friends, are highly esteemed in the com- munity, and have been warmly welcomed into the Kingsburg Colony.

OTTO VENTER .- An up-to-date, public-spirited and progressive young man, who has set the best example by his intelligent industry and on more than one occasion has demonstrated his pluck, energy and indomitable will, is Otto Venter, who is now improving a ranch of eighty acres two miles northeast of Caruthers. He was born in St. Clair County, Mo., on September 3, 1879, the son of William Franklin Venter, a native of Indiana, who mar- ried Miss Annie Bossert, also a native of the Hoosier State, the ceremony taking place in Missouri, where they afterward farmed. The parents, hon- ored by all who know them, are now living on their fruit ranch of eighteen acres in the Parlier district, not far from their three children. F. L. Venter is a rancher who owns twenty acres devoted to fruit, two miles south of Parlier ; Otto, the second-born, is the subject of our sketch; and Dolly V. is the wife of J. C. McClarty, the rancher to the northwest of Parlier.

Otto grew up on his father's Missouri farm and was the first of the Venter family to come out to California and settle here permanently, although his brother made a visit to the Golden State in 1897, two years before Otto arrived. When the latter reached here he was only twenty with meager means save a good head and strong and willing hands. He arrived in Fresno County on June 9, and began by working out on fruit ranches by the month ; and although his life has been full of toil, he has always been satisfied with his environment, and it is Fresno County, and none other, for him.

While at Madera, in 1910, Mr. Venter was married to Miss Ethel Beau- champ, and their union was blessed with three children, two of whom are still living. William Franklin Venter is the elder; and the other is named Richard Le Roy.

Saving his hard-earned dollars, Mr. Venter's first purchase was ten acres two and a half miles south of Parlier, which he set about diligently improving ; and later he bought ten acres adjoining, which he also improved. Ambitious to get a still larger tract, he bought eighty acres of raw land, in 1918, two miles northeast of Caruthers, and having sold his well-improved twenty acres near Parlier to advantage, he is now occupied in planting the new acquisition to vines, trees and alfalfa. This means much self-denial and hard work for himself, wife and boys, but it is safe to say that in a very few years Mr. Ven- ter will have a large and valuable ranch in the newer section of Caruthers.

Mr. and Mrs. Venter participate in all movements for the public good, thereby contributing their mite to the steady building of the town, the State and the nation.

JB Lacy

J.L Lacy

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THOMAS B., and JACK L. LACY .- Nestling in a cozy valley above Academy, on the Copper King road, lies the ranch known as Lacy Bros. Ranch, formerly owned by Thomas B. and Jack L. Lacy or, as they were familiarly called, Tom and Mack Lacy. However, Mack Lacy was called by death in May, 1918, and his interest was inherited by his niece, Mrs. Julia Lee Edwards, and she and Tom Lacy now own and operate the ranch. They are exceedingly liberal and enterprising and dispense true Southern hospital- ity, and a visit at their ranch is a pleasurable opportunity.

The Lacy brothers were born at Keatchie, La., Tom on July 24, 1860, and Mack in 1862. Their father, Martin Lacy, was born at Delhi, La., and was a planter at Keatchie. He served in the Mexican War and also the Civil War, being First Lieutenant of the Nineteenth Louisiana Regiment. He had married Judie McMickin, and both parents died in Louisiana; of their six boys and four girls, only three boys and one girl are living.

In youth the boys were set to work on the farm and learned the rudi- ments of agriculture. In 1881 Tom Lacy went out to Austin, Texas, followed teaming and also ranching on the Red River in Bowie County, Texas. Mack Lacy had come out to Kansas City, Mo., where he was employed until 1895, when he came to Fresno County, Cal. It was in 1901 that Tom Lacy came to Fresno County. The brothers followed ranching for Bob Lacy and D. C. Sample, and also mined at Sycamore. In 1909 the brothers bought the present place of 300 acres on the Copper King road, and engaged in stock- raising, in which they were successful. Purchasing other lands, they eventu- ally owned 480 acres in Watts Valley, as well as 220 acres on the Wood- chuck range, in the Forest Reserve, the latter, however, they sold in 1916. After an energetic and successful career, J. L. (Mack) Lacy passed from earth in May, 1918. He was a man of pleasing personality and had many friends who mourned his loss. Mrs. Julia Lee Edwards, a niece of Tom and Mack Lacy, had come out from Alabama in 1912 to make her home with them and preside over their household. She was the daughter of their brother, A. J. Lacy, and she inherited Mack Lacy's interests in California, he having willed them to her. Thus she and Thomas B. continue ranching, while she is also individually the owner of a ranch in Watts Valley, making their hold- ings there over 1,100 acres. Her brand is the number 50. Being possessed of much business acumen, she is of assistance to her Uncle Tom.

T. B. Lacy has always been interested in mining and on their land dis- covered a chrome mine, and when the government wanted chrome ore he opened and mined it, shipping ore to the East. The Lacy mine is the largest chrome mine in the county and probably the largest and best in the state. Big-hearted and generous, the Lacy's are much respected and highly esteemed. Tom Lacy has also given time to the cause of education, serving as trus- tee of Fancher Creek school district.

PETER GUST .- It is the hard-working man with continuity of purpose who eventually succeeds in passing others on the road leading to success in life. In Peter Gust, an exceptionally successful man in the vocation he has chosen, is found the qualifications of a most excellent manager and good business man. A thoroughly loyal German-American citizen-no slacker and with no German proclivities-he is a valuable member of the community in which he has cast his lot.

He is the owner of a fine ranch of thirty-three and one-half acres, two miles southwest of Parlier on the Parlier road, twelve acres of which are in Muscats, eight acres in Thompson seedless grapes, four acres in peaches, a quarter of an acre in bearing apricots, and two acres in young apricot trees. The remainder of the place is in pasture, alfalfa, and yards.

Mr. Gust was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, July 1, 1871. He was brought up in the Lutheran faith and attended the common schools of his native land. At the early age of fifteen he began working by the year

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

for farmers, receiving the first year his board and $30. He continued this work until 1901, at which time he was earning $110 per year. In the latter part of February of that year he bade farewell to his parents, John and Katherine Gust, and sailed from Hamburg for the New World, landing safely, after an eleven-day voyage, at New York City. He joined his brother, John Gust, at Fresno, Cal. His brother had rented two sections of the Gray ranch, and he worked two years for him.

Then, in 1903, Mr. Gust purchased the James Armstrong place, con- sisting of eighty acres, one and a half miles southwest of Parlier. The place was in pasture, and he bought it on time at twenty dollars per acre, selling forty-six and a half acres in 1905 for forty-two dollars an acre. Since then he has rebuilt the house, built a barn, purchased water rights, put in a pumping plant, built ditches and laterals, laid one thousand feet of sixteen- inch cement pipe for irrigation purposes, and has planted the place. In 1918 he had 704 feet of twelve-inch cement pipe, and he is putting in cement pipe as fast as he is able each year.

A benedict when he first began his ranching, he was united in marriage in 1908 with Miss Mary Winters, a native of Russia. They have a happy, comfortable, cozy home, and are the parents of two interesting children. John, aged ten, and Frieda, eight years of age.

MRS. ALFREDA VERWOERT .- A cultured, refined woman of rare insight and good judgment, especially in the matter of land values, her powers of discernment and estimate combining to demonstrate her business ability. Mrs. Alfreda Verwoert, widely known in California, has come to participate in an enviable manner in the great work of the rapid and sound development of Fresno County. She was born in Melvern, Osage County, Kans., the young- est child of John A. and Amelia (Mitchell) Douglass, natives of Indiana of Scotch descent, who moved to Kansas and about 1890 came to California and settled at Hanford. There the mother died, survived by her husband, who lives in Pasadena.

Alfreda Douglass came to Hanford when a child of ten, and there at- tended both the grammar and high schools. Then she took a course in the College of Natural Sciences at the University of California. In 1900, she was married in Hanford to Carel H. M. Verwoert, a native of Holland and a graduate of the University of Leyden, where he studied in both the College of Letters and the College of Law. He had come to California to look after some land at Hanford, in which his father had invested, and which was in a tract known as the Queen Wilhelmina Colony; and besides setting out or- chards and vineyards, he bought other lands in Kings County which he so improved as vineyards that they soon became of great value. He was not permitted, however, to enjoy the fruits of his hard, scientific labors; for he died in 1907, leaving besides his widow, a son, Herman, who is at present attending the University of California.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Verwoert continued to look after the ranches and other large affairs of her husband, one of the ranches, which she did not sell until 1918, being in the Wilhelmina Colony ; and in a very prac- tical manner, she began to study viticulture and horticulture. About seven years ago, she moved to San Francisco to become manager of the Pacific Coast department of the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, which booked the tours of noted musical stars and companies, and lecturers; but after four years, persuaded that there was a greater and more remunerative field in Fresno County lands, she resigned, to take up ranching more extensively.

Mrs. Verwoert had investigated lands in other parts of California, having the best of opportunities to do so on her preliminary journeys from town to town to book her Lyceum attractions, and found that, considering the real productivity of acreage in Fresno County, the average price here prevailing seemed ridiculously low. She was convinced that these lands would rise in value, in time, and especially about three years ago, noting the great influx

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of gold into the United States, she reasoned that it would cause a perceptible rise in land values. She therefore began purchasing ranches, and at one time had six ranches in Fresno County, comprising in all about 900 acres, all im- proved with vines or trees. She also had a vineyard of 350 acres near Han- ford.

Lately, she has sold all of her Fresno County ranches, realizing thereby a large profit, although she retains a peach orchard of sixty acres near Sanger. She is a member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and of the California Associated Raisin Company. Mrs. Verwoert is an Episcopalian, and a very active club woman especially interested in civic club life.

RICHARD G. RETALLICK .- Minnesota, "The Star of the North," as the French motto of the state means, was still a territory with a civilized population of less than six thousand gathered about the trading posts and missions when the California gold fever was at its height in 1849. The state, now among the richest wheat-producing areas in the Union, still contributes its quota of citizens, who are searching for a less rigorous climate, to swell the population of the Golden West. Among these, Richard Godfrey Retallick, Fresno County's popular deputy district attorney, learned as a youth to ap- preciate the advantages of California as a place of residence.

He was born at Battle Lake, Minn., November 3, 1889, and brought up by his grandfather, Dr. T. G. Virian. As a boy he. made numerous trips to California and in 1899, when ten years of age, came to San Francisco to make his permanent home. He attended the public schools in that city and later took a course in engineering in Cogswell Polytechnic School, afterwards serving as reporter on a San Francisco paper. He took a course at the Poly- technic Business College, in Oakland, and worked for the United States Gov- ernment in the fortifications on the north side of San Francisco Bay as time keeper and foreman. The legal profession appealing to him he became a law student in the office of George E. de Golia of Oakland and was admitted to the bar in 1911, after which he practiced law for one year in King City, Monterey County. He came to Fresno in April, 1913, and was associated three years with Everts and Ewing in legal practice. He then formed a part- nership with Penn Cummings under the firm name of Retallick and Cum- mings, with offices in the Rowell Building. In February, 1917, he was ap- pointed United States Commissioner, in which office he is still the incum- bent. In September, 1917, he received the appointment of deputy district attorney.

He married Miss Catherine McCoy, a native of Santa Barbara, and they are the parents of three children, Richard Godfrey, Jr., Ruth R. and William J. Mr. Retallick is a member of the Commercial Club and is one of the rising young attorneys of the state.

RICHARD HODDINOTT .- A finely-developed Californian who trav- eled alone to the Pacific Coast when he was a lad of only fifteen, is Richard Hoddinott, who was born in Bristol, Southwest England, on September 10, 1872, the son of John Hoddinott, a farmer there. Since that time, through wide-reading and travel, he has become a well-posted man, with a well-stored mind and retentive memory.

John Hoddinott was killed by lightning on June 20, 1880, leaving a widow, who now resides in Wiltshire, England, and who was Mary J. Welch before her marriage. She is the mother of eight children, seven of whom are living. Richard is the fifth in the order of birth, and he was brought up at Fishpond, a suburb of Bristol, and attended the famous Colston public school until he was fifteen. He thus came from the town in which Cabot, the explorer, had fitted himself out for his voyage to America, and spent part of his boyhood near the scenes of the exploits long to be credited to the boy-poet Chatterton. He saw something of maritime life and the coming and going of seamen where Robert Louis Stevenson commenced his "Treasure Island."

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In the great "boom" year of 1888, young Hoddinott crossed the ocean to America and in time reached California, stopping for a while at Fort Bragg, where he was employed in lumbering. Then, with his brother Charles, he started in the dairy business at Point Arena, and in that field he continued for fourteen years. Next they removed to near Willets, where they leased a stock-ranch and continued stock-raising and dairying in Scott's Valley, Men- docino County, for ten years.

After the brothers had sold out and dissolved partnership, Richard con- tinued dairying there for two years more; but in 1915 he shipped his dairy- herd to Fresno County, where he bought his present place of eighty acres three miles south of Kerman and continued dairying. Then he sold off forty acres, and the balance he leveled and checked for alfalfa. He put in an electric pumping plant and irrigates his own lands and that of his neighbors. He has a dairy of twenty cows, and is a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Asso- ciation.

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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 82

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