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 86

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 86

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While he was at Ashland, in 1895, Mr. Carlson was married to Miss Lizzie Frederika Wilfer, a native of Finland. Eight years later he came to California and bought, at Kingsburg, forty acres of unimproved land then a rye-field. With his own labor he has planted and built on the farm every- thing of value now to be found there, and he has fifteen acres of muscats, four acres of seedless, four acres of alfalfa, seven acres of peaches, and the balance in a eucalyptus grove, yards and garden. He has a fine pumping plant with a fifteen-horsepower engine and a five-inch pump, and he also commands irrigation for thirty acres from the neighboring ditch.

Mr. and Mrs. Carlson have had ten children: Hildah, wife of Fred A. Snider; Mary, who died a victim of influenza, in December, 1918; Rosa; Clara ; Lillie, who died at the tender age of eight; Myrtle ; Alvar; Otto ; Stan- ley, and Ernest J. The family attends the Kingsburg Swedish Methodist Epis- copal Church. In national politics Mr. Carlson is a Republican. He is witty and extremely good natured, as fine a fellow socially as he is wide-awake and enterprising in business matters.

That which naturally gives Mr. Carlson much satisfaction is his asso- ciation with the Kingsburg branch of the Federal Land Bank, which he helped to organize. He is both a member and a stockholder. A. O. Lanstrom is president; E. Ed. Peterson, secretary ; and Messrs. John Carlson, Gunder- son, Wilson, Mayfield and Hanson, the directors. So helpful has this bank proven to the farmer that it has already made loans aggregating $120,000, and in it the often handicapped farmer finds one of his most encouraging friends.

ARTHUR J. ANDERSON .- A young man of enterprise and public- spirit, who has spent practically all of his life in Fresno County, having been impressed with its great future, is Arthur J. Anderson, who was born in Eureka, Humboldt County, on July 1, 1892, the son of John Anderson, a na- tive of Sweden. The father migrated to Michigan, and thence to Eureka, where he followed his trade, that of a carpenter. In 1904 he brought his family to Fresno County, and so recent has been the development of some of this Central California wonderland, that they were among the first settlers of Vin- land Colony. And there, by hard labor, a stimulating example in itself, he improved sixty acres to fruits, principally grapes.

John Anderson was prominent in the organization and building of the Swedish Lutheran Church at Vinland, and has also been a leader in the up- building of the community. With something worth while to look back upon, and the best of reasons for regarding the future with optimism, Mr. Anderson and his good wife reside on their ranch in Vinland Colony, esteemed by all who know them.

The oldest in their family of four daughters and a son, Arthur Anderson was reared in Fresno County from the age of twelve, and, after completing the grammar school, he attended Heald's Business College at Fresno. He made there a creditable record for proficiency, and later demonstrated equal ability in assisting his father on the ranch. After a while, he purchased his present holding of twenty acres from the paternal property he had helped to set out, and little by little he improved it. The ranch is located on Madera and Riverside Avenues, and is one of the finest vineyards in the district. In course of time he built a new modern bungalow there, added other structures and made various improvements, so that today his estate, for its size, is of real value. Of course, he has come to be a booster in the California Associated Raisin Company.

At Vinland on November 4, 1916, Mr. Anderson was married to Miss Lil- lian Nordstrom, a native of Minnesota and a daughter of the Rev. M. A. Nord- strom, the pioneer of Vinland district, whose interesting life-story is given elsewhere in this volume. They have one child, a bright boy named Gerald, and they attend the Swedish Lutheran Church.

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NIELS JORGEN HANSEN .- A highly intelligent, very industrious and successful self-made man, who has attained to some of the rewards of thrift and integrity, is N. J. Hansen, who owns forty of the finest acres on the Parlier road, a mile west of Parlier. He was born in Denmark on June 10, 1859, the son of Hans Nilsen who married Annie Jorgensen, like her husband also a native of Denmark. His father, who was a good farmer, owned his farm and became fairly well-to-do; and when the parents died, they had the satisfaction of having given life and a start to a family of four- teen children, the youngest of whom was the subject of this sketch.

The lad attended the Danish grammar schools until he was fourteen, when he was confirmed in the Lutheran Church; but at that age he began to work out on farms in the neighborhood, since his father had sold his farm and retired. While thus employed and thinking of the future because of his increasing contact with the everyday realities of life, he became intensely interested in the letters sent home by an elder brother, Jens Hansen, who was located in the Central Colony four miles south of Fresno. He had come to America in 1874, had stopped for a few months in Alameda County, and then, with some companions, had made his way up to Fresno County, arriv- ing here in the fall of the year. He thus became one of the very first settlers in the Central Colony, and met and overcame the obstacles then trying the endurance of the pioneer. For example, it was then necessary to haul from Fresno all the water needed for both domestic and stock purposes, and this inconvenience continued until the settlers were able to sink a deep well.

Aroused, then, by the desire to see America, the young man, just attain- ing maturity, bade good-bye to home and friends and sailed from Copenhagen on the steamship Thingvalla. He landed at the old Castle Garden in New York, on August 25, 1880, having been nineteen days on the ocean. There were only ninety passengers on board, but the weather was good and the trip an agreeable one. He stopped over night in New York, and then hurried on by rail to San Francisco.

Tarrying three or four days in the bay metropolis, Mr. Hansen continued his journey to Fresno where, on September 11, 1880, his brother, Jens, met him. During the following fall and winter he worked for his brother, and thrice went to the mountains at Pine Ridge and labored in the saw mill. He also worked on the road, and the next summer toiled in the harvest fields at Centerville. He had to acquire the English language, and to master American business usages and methods of agriculture. But he persisted and won out. When he had money enough, he bought a lot at the Central Colony, and since that time he has worked for himself. He improved his lot, bought more and more land, and finally owned forty acres, well-improved, in the Central Colony. Occasionally he worked out a little at odd jobs to get the money necessary for his immediate support, taxes, etc.

In 1887, Mr. Hansen married Miss Martha Thomsen, a native of North Schleswig, who came to Minneapolis and thence to California and the Cen- tral Colony. She has since proven such a good helpmate to him that he gives to her, with her good cheer and encouragement the credit for having tided him over his hardships and privations.

Until 1914, Mr. Hansen continued to farm in the Central Colony, but he then sold out, and on the following twenty-sixth of March he moved to his present fine property. He had bought this place in 1909, and with the help of his son (who served in the army in France and returned home after an honorable discharge, March 1. 1919), he started to improve the new hold- ing, at the same time that he operated his place in the Central Colony, using the money made by the latter farm to develop the former. Now, on a beau- tiful site overlooking the surrounding ranches, he has a delightful home.

Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have had eight children, and six of these are living. two having died in infancy: Mata is the wife of Sophus Hansen, who served in the navy and has returned from the war and resides at Parlier; Syvert,

H. J. Hansen

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single, is in the army in France; Hannah is the wife of L. Stoner, an employee of the Griffin & Skelly Packing Company, at Fresno, and resides at Fresno; Jorgen is a machinist and toolmaker, who has worked at his trade in Cali- fornia, Illinois and Iowa for seven years and is now at Visalia; Christiana, who graduated from the Easton high school is now society editor on the Parlier News and is also librarian of the Library at Parlier; and Mary, who is the wife of Adolph Lindberg. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen are members of the Lutheran Church, which the children also attend.

The generous response on the part of several members of Mr. Hansen's family to the call of the Government for service in the terrible war recalls an interesting chapter or two in Mr. Hansen's own experience when he was a young man. In the fall of 1877, when he was only eighteen, he enlisted in the Danish Navy, and served on the Danish frigate Shelland, as a gunner, doing duty there from August 21, 1878, until May 16, 1879, when he was honorably discharged. He also served in the Danish West Indies, when he was stationed for the most part at St. Croix and St. Thomas. These islands were sold to the United States Government, in 1916, for $25,000,000, and Mr. Hansen believes that Uncle Sam got a mighty good bargain.

Mr. Hansen's cosy ranch has become one of the show-places of the vicinity, and is interesting also to the professional agriculturist on account of the way in which it is laid out. Fifteen acres are devoted to peaches. espe- cially Muir and Lovell, as well as Elbertas, and there are nectarines, and also apricots around the border. There are three acres of muscats, eleven acres of Thompson seedless, and four acres of alfalfa. The rest of the place is occupied by buildings, drying grounds, and four acres to grain. A six- room bungalow was erected in 1915.

PETER HÖGLUND .- Among the sturdy pioneers of Vinland who will long be remembered, and who will be honored while memory lasts, must be mentioned Peter Höglund, the kindly, highly-respected and delightful old gentleman, who came to Fresno County in 1903. He was born in Heriedalen, Hjemtland, Sweden, in June, 1846, the son of Peter Peterson, a farmer, who died in Sweden at the age of eighty-four. His wife was Betsy Peterson, and she died in 1851, the mother of three children, among whom Peter, the only one in the United States, is the oldest. He attended the public schools, while helping at home, and when twenty-one went into the Swedish army for two years. In 1869 he came to the United States and went to Red Wing, Minn., and later to Grant County, where he homesteaded 160 acres. He improved the land, while raising wheat, and so continued until he came to the Pacific Coast.

In 1902, Mr. Höglund sold out and the following year came to California with the Rev. M. A. Nordstrom and one or two others. They came at once to Fresno County, and he bought fifty-five acres on Madera Avenue, which he improved. He set out a ten-acre peach orchard, made a vineyard and planted alfalfa, and ran the place until 1908, when he sold it to A. Soderberg. Thereupon Mr. Höglund bought his present place of thirteen acres, also in Vinland. It is not only along the San Joaquin River, but lies on an island in the stream, and so is ideally situated. There he has 160 peach trees and the balance devoted to grain. He has improved the property, and made it his cosy homeplace ; and there he dispenses an agreeable hospitality to those who call to see him. He is a member and stockholder of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and a member of the California Associated Raisin Company.

While giving proper attention to things worldly, contributing as a loyal Republican towards good government and supporting the best men and measures in local issues, Mr. Höglund never fails in his efforts for the ad- vancement of Christianity, and he was therefore glad to be among the organ- izers of the Swedish Lutheran Church at Vinland, and one of the builders of the church edifice. 97

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JOHN PETER SCHMALL .- Engaged in various activities since his first settling in the county, in 1899, John Peter Schmall has demonstrated his capabilities both as a business man and rancher, and has met with deserved success in his adopted country. His birth took place in Stahl Colony, Samara, Russia, November 12, 1874, where his parents George and Marie (Weibert) Schmall were farmers. John Peter was the youngest of twelve children born to them, and was reared on the home farm, receiving his education in the public and private schools of his native country. There his marriage occurred, on October 20, 1896, to Miss Elizabeth Scheidt, also a native of Stahl Colony.

In November, 1897, the young couple emigrated to America and first located at Lincoln, Nebr., where Mr. Schmall engaged in railroad work. July 4, 1899, they came to Fresno, and here he also engaged in the same occupation, first for the Santa Fe Railway, and then was with the Southern Pacific. His first ranching venture was forty acres in Biola, in 1905, then he sold at an advance and bought twenty acres between Jensen and Ventura Avenues, which he improved and sold, and then bought forty acres, which he set to vineyard, and also sold. He then went into business in Fresno for one year, buying from Charles Scharer the F Street Livery and Feed Yard. He next bought a grocery store on E Street which he conducted one year, when he sold out the property and once more engaged in ranching. This time he bought 160 acres near Herndon in Madera County, later sold this holding and bought at Dinuba, sold and bought near Reedley, making sev- eral trades at a profit there. During the time he lived in Fresno he bought several lots in various locations, built four houses there, then sold them at a profit.

In June of 1917, Mr. Schmall bought his eighty-acre ranch in the Barstow district, and has brought it to a high state of cultivation, a fine vineyard and orchard showing splendid care. He sold off twenty acres and now has sixty acres in malagas, muscats and peaches. Here he has built his residence and barns, and all the improvements necessary to a modern ranch.

Fourteen children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Schmall, ten of them living: Katie, who married Peter Klein, August 1, 1919; Mollie; Peter; George; Fred; Elizabeth; Marie; Harry; and Henry and Albert, twins. They attend the Lutheran Church and Mr. Schmall is trustee of the branch church at Barstow. He is a member and stockholder of the Califor- nia Associated Raisin Company and of the California Peach Growers, Inc. A man of energy and initiative, Mr. Schmall deserves the success he has attained.

PEDER S. PEDERSEN .- An energetic young man who is an inveter- ate worker, and who is very naturally doing well as a general contractor at the same time that he is improving a twenty-acre vineyard, is Peder S. Peder- sen, known to his friends and acquaintances as a fine fellow. He came to California in the early years of this century, and ever since, while contribut- ing his share to the development of the country, his popularity has steadily increased.

He was born at Ribe, in Jylland, Denmark, on November 24, 1884, the son of Niels Pedersen, who is a farmer in Ribe. The mother was Karen Pedersen, now deceased. They had twelve children, seven of whom came to the United States, all of whom are still living except one of the sons. Peder was brought up on a farm and educated at the public schools; and in November, 1903, when he was nineteen, he came to the United States and California with his brother Niels.

They reached Fresno and soon obtained employment in the dairy at Rolinda ; and thereafter they learned the ways of American farmers, driving big teams in the grain fields. Two years later Mr. Pedersen bought thirty acres of land at Rolinda devoted to alfalfa, and leasing more land, he went in for the raising of alfalfa on a large scale. He supplied hay and feed to the Fresno market and he also sold at retail.

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A couple of years after that he engaged in contracting and leveling other peoples' lands, and went in for the building of ditches in Fresno County. He ran twenty head of horses and rented twenty head in addition, and he was generally in lively demand. About that time he sold his thirty acres and bought fifty-five, also at Rolinda ; and he used to rent in the Kerman district.

Five years ago Mr. Pedersen bought twenty acres in the Dakota Colony ; and soon his characteristic enterprise manifested itself in the improvements he made with the land. He set out Thompson seedless vines and planted alfalfa, and transformed the rather raw land into one of the really valuable ranches of the neighborhood.

On one of Fresno's brightest days Mr. Pedersen was married to Miss Sophia Nielsen, also a native of Denmark, by whom he has had three promis- ing children. They are Thomas, George and Helen Pedersen and they share the popularity of the parents.

Mr. Pedersen belongs to the Danish Brotherhood, and takes pleasure in adding his influence to making this one of the organizations of naturalized Americans making at all times for better American citizenship.

C. J. GALLOWAY .- A hard-working, enterprising Kansan, of fine old Scotch ancestry, and brimful of good ideas and impulses, is C. J. Galloway, a rancher who is winning success with some fifty acres of highly improved land three miles northwest of Kingsburg. C. J. Galloway was born in Cowley County, Kans., fourteen miles from Arkansas City, on December 4, 1879, the son of Thomas Galloway, a native of Stone County, Mo., who married Barbara Meese, whose native place was Terre Haute, Ind., the ceremony taking place at a pretty country spot in Missouri. The Galloway family has military traditions, Thomas' father, Charles, who was an early settler at Springfield, Mo., having served in the Mexican War and been a major in the Union Army. He was living in Stone 'or Barry County, Mo., at the time of the Mexican War broke out, and after the Civil War, in which he served during the entire period, he bought about a thousand acres of land on the James River bottom, and when the Frisco line built through there, it located a station on his land which was called Galloway Station, and is so called to this day.

C. J. Galloway grew up in Kansas until he was fourteen, and then went back to Galloway, Mo., and lived with Major Galloway. His schooling, there- fore, was obtained in Kansas and Missouri. Later he moved back to Kansas with his parents, to the old place. During his twenty-second year, his father sold his farm in Kansas and in 1903 all the family moved to Idaho and there engaged in grain farming.

At Newkirk, Okla., on October 13, 1902, Mr. Galloway was married to Miss Laura Bishop, a daughter of George W. Bishop and an own sister of the Kingsburg postmaster. With his wife and the oldest child, who was born in Idaho, he lived in that state for three years; and then, in 1906, he came west to California.

Fortunate in having his attention attracted to Kingsburg, Mr. Galloway bought at first twenty acres, and in another year bought another tract, this time of forty acres, which he improved and sold to advantage. Then he bought the first twenty acres of his present place, and in the fall of 1917 thirty acres more. Now he is planting nine acres of Thompson seedless grapes, and the balance in alfalfa and seedless. The original twenty is en- tirely planted, and he has built a house and pumping plant on it, and made numerous other improvements. The result is that he has one of the most attractive ranches of its size in Central California. He is a member of the California Raisin Growers Association and of the California Peach Growers Association.

Mr. and Mrs. Galloway are the parents of three children: Bessie, in the grammar school; James; and Raymond, six years old. Mr. and Mrs. Gallo-

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way are active in the Federated Methodist Episcopal Church at Kingsburg. Mr. Galloway is a member of the board of education, and was a prime mover in the plan to consolidate the Eschol and Kingsburg school districts, which involves bringing the school children from Eschol district each day to the grammar school at Kingsburg by automobile. This is being tried out on a three-year test, and if it continues in popular favor, it will probably be voted a permanent institution. Mr. Galloway was first appointed to fill a vacancy, and he was then elected for a term of three years, and is now serving his eighth year.

HENRY EDWARD ELAM .- A successful dairyman, who has won a reputation as a level-headed hustler, is Henry Edward Elam, the son of John H. Elam. He was born in Fresno, June 5, 1878, and came to Kerman when it first started. His father was a rancher, who later went into the blacksmith business in Fresno. He had a shop where the Farmers and Mer- chants Bank now stands. Then he removed to Coarsegold, Madera County. and there he continued as a smith until he retired. Now he resides with our subject. He had married Mary Lumsford, who was born in Kentucky, and died at Coarsegold in 1882, the mother of five children, among whom Henry E. was the third. Henry was brought up in Coarsegold until he was thirteen years old and attended the public school, after which he returned to the plains. He was employed for ten years on a grain-ranch in Merced County, where he learned to handle big teams with dexterity. For a couple of years, he was at Yreka, in Siskiyou County, and after twelve years' ab- sence, he came back to Fresno County.

Mr. Elam then leased his uncle's dairy, twelve miles west of Fresno, and ran it for three years, and then he bought a ranch of sixty acres two miles west of Barstow where, with a fine herd of thirty-five cows, he con- tinued dairying for another three years. Then he sold out at a profit and removed to Fowler, and this time bought a ranch of fifty acres. It was devoted to alfalfa, so he established a dairy there, but after a year, he again leased land, this time at Barstow, where he also had a dairy. In 1917, Mr. Elam leased a ranch south of Kerman and conducted a dairy ; and in January, 1919, he sold the lease and bought his present holding, a fine ranch of forty acres on Jensen Avenue, two miles southeast of Kerman. He checked it for alfalfa, and once more opened an up-to-date dairy ; for he found the country most admirably adapted to that field of husbandry. Then he joined the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers Association.

Mr. Elam was married, at Kerman, to Miss Viola Condon, a daughter of John Condon, whose life is also sketched in this work. Mrs. Elam is a native of Merced County and is held in high esteem. By a former marriage Mr. Elam has a son, Franklin Henry Elam. Mr. Elam is a Democrat, and a mem- ber of Fresno Parlor, No. 25, N. S. G. W .; and both husband and wife attend the Methodist Church.

AXEL PEDERSEN .- Numbered among the successful viticulturists of his section of Fresno County, is Axel Pedersen, a native of Denmark, born near Ribe, Jylland, on December 26, 1887, a son of Niels and Karen (Hansen) Pedersen. Axel was reared on a farm in Denmark, his father being a Danish farmer and the owner of a place. When seventeen years old Axel decided to come to America, where so many of his countrymen had won success. In 1904 he sailed for New York, and after his arrival, he continued his jour- ney westward until he reached the Golden State, locating in Fresno County, Cal., in March, 1904. Of the twelve children born to Mr. and Mrs. Niels Pedersen, eleven are living, five boys and six girls; four boys and two girls having emigrated to California.

Arriving in California, Axel found employment on ranches and grain- farms for about four years, when he became interested in viticulture and horticulture. In 1913, in partnership with his brother Anton, he purchased

Dr.J .Konkel

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forty acres on McKinley Avenue, five miles northwest of Fresno, and en- gaged in viticulture. In 1917, he purchased his brother's share and now con- ducts the vineyard alone and is making a specialty of muscat grapes. In addition to vines he has about one and one-half acres in peaches. His land is under the Fresno Canal, and he has sunk wells and put in pumps, as an auxiliary plant.

In 1914, Axel Pedersen was united in marriage with Miss Maren Hansen, daughter of Jacob Hansen, an early settler of Fresno County who at first was engaged in blacksmithing but afterwards followed ranching and who is now living in Fresno. Mrs. Pedersen was born in Fresno County and re- ceived her education in the public schools of Fresno. Mr. and Mrs. Pedersen have two children: Robert and Glenn.

Mr. Pedersen is a member of Dania Society, No. 5, in Fresno, is an honored ex-president, and for four years was its efficient secretary, and has represented the order as a delegate to the state convention. He has been very successful in the operation of his vineyard, and is greatly interested in all aids to the horticultural and viticultural interests of the county. He is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company and the California Peach Growers, Inc.

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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 86

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