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 93

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 93

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The second youngest, Arthur is one of two only who have come to Amer- ica, the other son being Thomas W. Berry, who is in partnership with him at Lane's Bridge. He was brought up in England and educated at private schools, completing his courses at the picturesque seaside town of Bourne- mouth. Then he was articled to a land agent, and for three years he studied the methods of business. By 1905 he had considerable knowledge of the world and he concluded to join his brother, who had come out to California years before.

Accordingly Mr. Berry crossed the ocean and the American continent, pitched his tent in Fresno County, and entered the service of the California Wine Association, in whose Fresno office he was made bookkeeper. He filled the position for about six years, and then with his brother started farming at Modesto. They bought forty acres of raw land and improved it with a vineyard and an orchard; and three years later they sold it at a profit.

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Returning to Fresno, they bought their present place of sixty-five acres at Lane's Bridge, where they are raising peaches, and other fruit, and alfalfa. Under their touch everything seems to prosper ; but it is also clear that steady, hard, honest labor such as they are quite willing and disposed to expend upon their ventures, has much to do with their success. They have also ex- ceptionally choice land-a streak of good luck due in part to their wise se- lection of the raw acreage and to their skill in improvements. He is a member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and no more aggressive and pro- gressive worker deliberates in its councils. Through such life and work the name of Berry has come to have a pleasant ring in Fresno County, and even beyond.

HARRY HILL .- An industrious and successful rancher of Riverdale, well known for his large-heartedness and kind disposition, is Harry Hill, whose record alone as a nurse for three years in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War would entitle him to the consideration of his fellow men. He is a dairyman, following the most scientific methods, and owns and operates 100 acres known as the Sunny Hill Stock Ranch, a mile west and a mile north of Riverdale, and operating also a second ranch.

He was born at Victoria, Kans., on April 29, 1882, and when six months old was taken to Junction City, Kans., where a dreadful tragedy occurred which threw a shadow over his whole life. His father, Thomas Hill, a Scotch- man by birth, had a livery stable ; and on February 17, 1887, returned to his barn after supper and was there attacked by one Jem Smith, and stabbed to . death. Smith had nursed an old grudge on account of a horse-trade, and in this way sought to wreak his unholy revenge. He was apprehended and sent to Leavenworth prison for life, but this was little help to the dependent widow and her two children, Harry, the subject of our sketch, and Thomas Oliver, who is employed by the Standard Oil Company at Coalinga. Five months after the death of the father a sister was born, but she died. while Harry was in the Philippines, of spinal meningitis.

Thomas Hill, the father, married Mary Caroline Ashbaugh, a native of Freeport, Ill., and a member of a family that came from Canada to Stephen- son County, that state. They were of Scotch-Irish blood, and their children thus inherited the most serviceable of personal characteristics. The parents both came to Kansas while they were young, and they married at Hayes City, after which they moved back to Junction City. Mr. Hill left a little home and livery barn, and a life insurance of $2,000, but our subject shared in a hard time.

Harry grew up at Junction City, and lived with and worked for two uncles, Fred and Oliver Ashbaugh, at the home of their mother, Mrs. Julia Ashbaugh, who owned the farm of eighty acres near Junction City. On December 13, 1899, he enlisted in the Spanish-American War, joining the Hospital Corps, and went to Jolo, in the Island of Jolo, a very interesting section of the Philippines and the home of the sultan or ruler with his twenty-three wives. He served in the Fifteenth United States Cavalry under the redoubtable Col. Hugh Scott, who had two fingers of his right hand and three fingers of his left shot off in action. He sailed from San Francisco thirteen days after enlisting, and stopped for six hours at the Island of Guam, going over, and then sailed directly for Manila, arriving there under quar- antine. The United States battleship New York, Dewey's flagship, fired a salute, as the transport Sheridan, carrying our subject's company, sailed into Manila harbor. Mr. Hill had plenty of training and practice as a hos- pital nurse, was never sick in the service, and served three years and six- teen days, or sixteen days over the time for which he enlisted. Coming home, his transport sailed through Formosa Straits, and stopped at Nagasaki, Japan. for three days, whence they proceeded to Honolulu, and landed at San Francisco, on December 28, 1902.

Harry Hill and Family.

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After the war, Mr. Hill went to Los Angeles and worked in a drug store until six months before his marriage. On October 14, 1905, he was married at Downey, to Miss Ethel A. Andrews, the daughter of William Henry and Martha Sabria (Curtis) Andrews, both natives of Ohio, in which state they were married in Putnam County, on April 13, 1867. Mr. Andrews enlisted as a private in Company H, One Hundred Thirty-third Ohio, N. G. Infantry, and served through the Civil War. He was an engineer and ran a traction engine and a threshing machine. Mrs. Andrews was born at Ottawa, Ohio, on March 22, 1847. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Andrews came to California, and the vicinity of Colusa. The trip took a month or more, and was made by water, via Panama. They later moved to Los Angeles County, where they lived for many years. For forty-nine years Mrs. Andrews lived in California, seeing its evolution from a collection of scattered mining camps to one of the finest commonwealths in the Union; and during this time she became the mother of eight children, six of whom survive her: R. C. Andrews and Mrs. Mina King live at Long Beach; Mrs. Bertha Scholl resides at Venice ; Mrs. Lena Davidson is in Los Angeles; F. A. Andrews and Mrs. Ethel Hill are residents of Riverdale. Two brothers of Mrs. Andrews, W. W. Curtis of Kerman and Bildad Curtis of Downey, also survive her. William Henry Andrews died on March 22, 1908, after which she made her home with her Riverdale children. 'Mrs. Andrews passed away on November 25, 1916.

After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Hill made a wedding trip to Kansas, but they returned to California in December, 1905. It was then that they came to Riverdale and the next year bought 100 acres, on which they have built a house and the usual barns and other outbuildings. They have twenty- two milch cows, young stock and hogs. In 1916, Mr. Hill bought eighty acres more, six miles west of Riverdale, and south Burrel, so that he is now the owner of 180 acres in the Riverdale and Burrel sections of Fresno County. Mr. Hill is now engaged in breeding full-blood registered Holstein-Friesian cattle. He has twelve registered cows, and a registered sire, Sir Veeman Helena-Korndyke, from a champion butter-and-milk strain, being from dams with records of 31.9 pounds of butter per week. He is also breeding full- blood registered Duroc-Jersey swine, and has several of the finest individuals in California. The boar at the head of his drove is a son of the celebrated Berk's Good-Enough, one of the most valuable prize-winners in America.

Mrs. Thomas Hill, the subject's mother, was married a second time, when she became the wife of C. C. Daggett of Riverdale; and their daughter, Julia A. Daggett, is the wife of A. D. McKean, the cashier of the First National Bank of Riverdale, a sketch of whose life is elsewhere given in this volume.

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Hill have seven children, all boys, of whom Walter H. is the eldest, in his twelfth year. Thomas Clayton comes next, while Harold F. and Gerald C. are twins. Then there are William A., Howard W., and Francis L. Mr. Hill was in the eighteen-forty-five draft, Class 4 A, and did patriotic duty as the drill-master at Riverdale, getting into excellent shape a volunteer company of fifty soldiers.

Mr. and Mrs. Hill are active members of the United Brethren Church at Riverdale, in which Mr. Hill is a trustee. They also belong to the church choir. Mrs. Hill is active in the Ladies' Aid and the Red Cross. Mr. Hill was school trustee of the district for nine years and of the Riverdale high school for two years. He is a Republican in national politics, and is ready to support all movements for local advancement regardless of party lines.

We take pride in calling attention to the portrait of Harry Hill and family, with seven bright and vigorous sons. It is just such a family as the late Theodore Roosevelt cherished.

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FRANK C. DAVIS .- Among Central Californians distinguished for their honesty of purpose, and integrity of their lives inspired by noble ideals and the commendable desire to do unto others as they themselves would wish to be done by, is Frank C. Davis who first came to Coalinga in 1908. He was born in Jasper County, Mo., in 1861, the son of James H. Davis, whose native state was Michigan. The latter located in Missouri, where he was married to Sarah Grubb, a native of Illinois, and he became a stone-cutter at Carthage and worked at his trade until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he went to Fort Leavenworth. He enlisted in the Union Army in the Sixth Kansas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and served throughout the War; and then he returned to farm in Jasper County. He improved his place, and had one of the attractive farms of that period and section. Both parents died in Mis- souri. There were five sons, and two are still living; and of these our subject is the only one in California.

He was brought up on a farm in Jasper County, Mo., and educated in the public schools. When seventeen years old he started out for himself and traveled widely through the Middle and Central states. Near Aitkin, Minn., he bought forty acres of timber land and engaged in logging-getting out pine timber and driving logs on different rivers. Then he went to Ruluff, Texas, with the Sabine Tram Lumber Company, as assistant engineer in the mills, and for a while was at Spindletop, the same state, in the Beaumont oil fields, and while in Texas was married to Miss Sallie Elliott, from Ala- bama. Two children-Alice and May-brighten the home of Mr. and Mrs. Davis.

In 1908 Mr. Davis came to Coalinga and entered the employ of the asso- ciated Pipe Line Company and took part in the construction of their west side pipe line ; and after eleven months he was transferred to the Associated's loading rack at Coalinga and was in charge of the important work of load- ing. He returned to Texas in 1909 and spent a year there; but in August, 1910, came back to Coalinga, and was again with the Associated on National 30. Since August 14, that year, he has been foreman of the lease, which has ten producing wells. In national politics, Mr. Davis is a Republican.

HERBERT B. QUICK .- New York State, still the empire common- wealth, has contributed many a valued settler to the development of the Golden State, and none more worthily represents the energy and resourceful- ness of the East than H. B. Quick who, with that foresight, enterprise and commonsense-venture characteristic of the long line from which he sprang, has made much of what he undertook to husband, at the same time devoting time, thought and labor, in true public-spiritedness, in fields of activity de- signed for the larger and general good. He was born in Wyoming County, N. Y., November 11, 1875, and is the son of Milan W. and Catherine (Stamp) Quick, natives respectively of New York and England. Notwithstanding the valuable and historic connections of the Quicks in New York, the family moved from there to Iowa in 1882; and among the Hawkeyes they lived and worked for four years. Then they migrated to Nebraska, taking up their residence there in 1886.

In 1905 Mr. and Mrs. Quick could no longer resist the call of California and so they came west to investigate for themselves. After spending six months in Fresno County, with their son H. B. (who had preceded them one year to California) they settled at Santa Cruz which place is still the home of the father, the mother passing on to her reward in August, 1919. Six children were born to this worthy couple and five of them are now living yet only the parent and subject of this sketch are so fortunate as to gaze upon the subtropical skys of California.

H. B. Quick was reared at home, and sent to the public schools; and being sensible and studious, he improved the opportunities offered him to prepare for future usefulness. As a boy, he had his attention directed to agriculture, and he has always taken a very live interest in and followed that

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undertaking, availing himself of every helpful suggestion from science, using the most up-to-date methods and the most approved appliances, and getting the highest possible results. He has eighty acres of land, the home ranch of forty-one and a half acres, only half of which was improved when he took charge of it; so that its present fine condition is due in part to his own initiative and experience. The ranch is devoted to the production of apricots, peaches, prunes, Thompson and Muscat grapes; and such has been his suc- cess for some time that his average yield is one and a half tons to the acre. Mr. Quick has prided himself on the quality and the progress of his culti- vation ; nor have the care and the labor thus bestowed by him gone un- rewarded.

Despite his heavy responsibilities, Mr. Quick has for years taken an interest in educational work, both here and elsewhere. He was one of the principal promoters and organizers in the River Bend school district, and was elected a member of the school board, a position he has since filled con- tinuouslv. In every case where a proposition meaning advancement was before the people, Mr. Quick has come out boldly for taking the step forward.

In February, 1900, he was united by marriage to Miss Pearl L., daughter of Ebenezer and Lucy M. Balch; and their union was blessed by the birth of four children. Max W., the youngest, is deceased ; Velma I., Clarence R., and George H. Quick give comfort to their parents and bid fair to honor an honored name. Mrs. Quick was born in Bond County, Il1., December 13, 1875, and is a most estimable lady, contributing her share to a blending of the best phases of Eastern and Western social life. The family attend the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Quick has long been a trustee.

STEPHEN WALTON RHODES .- The capable superintendent of the B. M. Hopper Vineyard, near Biola, Fresno County, is Stephen W. Rhodes, born in Rhodelia, Meade County, Ky., March 21, 1892. The town of Rhodelia is named for his great-grandfather Rhodes, who was a farmer in that local- ity, and where five or six generations of the Rhodes family have resided.

His father, Francis Rhodes, was born there; his mother in maidenhood, was Cordia Durbin, daughter of Stephen Durbin, and she is a native of Breckenridge County, Ky., and still resides on her farm at Rhodelia, Ky. Ten children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Rhodes, seven of whom are living: Stephen being the fifth youngest. He was reared on a Kentucky farm, and remained at home until he was seventeen years old, when he started out to work for himself. He obtained employment with the Adams Express Company, at St. Louis, Mo., where he remained one year. After traveling through different states, in 1911, he reached Dinuba, Tulare County, Cal., where he secured work in a vineyard. Subsequently, he went to Fowler, where he was distiller for the old Kirby Company at Fowler and Selma ; from 1912 to 1914 Mr. Rhodes was the distiller for the California Wine Association at Calwa, and Smith Mountain.

During 1914, Mr. Rhodes took a trip back east, and when he returned, he secured employment at Reedley, Cal. In February, 1917, he went to the B. M. Hopper ranch near Biola, where after being employed only two months, his services were so satisfactory that he was made superintendent of the place, which consisted of a vineyard of 160 acres, mostly in Muscat grapes, al- though there are a few Thompson seedless. In January, 1919, he resigned his position, having bought a ten-acre fig orchard in the Barstow Colony and moved onto it. However, on May 15, 1919, he again accepted a position with Mr. Hopper as superintendent of his 160-acre vineyard.

At Reedley, Cal., Stephen W. Rhodes was united in marriage with Miss Rosemary Cecil; she was born in Missouri, but reared in California. This happy union has been blessed with two children, Stephen Rhodes, Jr., and Dorothy. Mr. Rhodes is a member of the Catholic Church in Fresno. He has been very successful as a vineyardist, and is regarded as an authority on matters pertaining to viticulture.

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WILLIAM BARNETT .- A thorough mechanic who is particularly suc- cessful as an electrician is William Barnett, chief electrician for the Shell Company of California at Oilfields, one of the most responsible positions of its kind in the State. He was born in Wigtownshire, Scotland, in 1880, the son of Charles Barnett, who was a merchant. He married Margaret Ross, who became the mother of six children. Both parents are living, retired ; and three of the children are in California-Joe, a machinist, with the Shell Com- pany at Oilfields ; Charles, a carpenter and builder, is at Visalia ; and William who is the subject of this sketch.

He was the eldest of the family, and received a public school education in his native country, finishing at the Glenluce Academy. When he had put aside his books, he assisted his father in his mercantile business, remaining with him until 1903 when he came out to Winnipeg, in Manitoba, and for q year took up electrical work. In 1904, he came to California, stopped in San Francisco, but the same year came to Oilfields, in Fresno County, where he entered the employ of the California Oilfields, Ltd., taking charge of their electrical work. At the end of the year, he went to Coalinga to manage the Coalinga Electric Light Plant ; but by the end of the next year he had resigned and returned to Oilfields.

Since then Mr. Barnett has had charge of the lighting plant here and built that up from the start. He wired the whole camp, and has installed all the electrical connections. He continued with the Shell Company when it came into possession in 1913; and four years later when the electrical de- partment was placed under one head, he was made chief electrician, to the satisfaction of everyone concerned and acquainted with his superior fitness.

At San Francisco, Mr. Barnett was married to Miss Catherine E. Fitz- gibbons, a native of Ireland, who came as a child with her parents to the Bay city, and later moved to Portland, Ore., where she was reared and edu- cated. She is a charming lady and rightly shares with her husband an en- viable popularity. Mr. Barnett is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Chap- ter No. 144 of Coalinga.

JOHN T. PETERSEN .- In most every section of the Golden State are evidences of the thrift and perseverance of men who have passed their child- hood days on the picturesque farms of Denmark. The subject of this review. John T. Petersen, first saw the light of day on November 30, 1864, in Aben- rade, Slesvig, and is the son of Peter Thomsen and Mary (Lorriezen) Peter- sen, who were the parents of two sons; John T., the subject of this sketch, and Niels L., who now resides in Oakland. Mr. and Mrs. Peter Petersen are both deceased.

John T. Petersen was reared on a farm and received his early education in the public school of Slesvig. When nineteen years of age, being drafted for service in the German army, John Petersen determined to escape Prussian military oppression by leaving Germany, and successfully accomplished his purpose by walking over the German line into Denmark, after which he made his way to Esbjerg, where he took a ship for Hull, England, and from there he went to Glasgow, where he set sail for New York City. After reaching America, Mr. Petersen continued his journey Westward until he reached the state of Iowa, where he arrived on July 1, 1884. He secured work on a farm near Marshalltown, and continued to work as a farm hand until 1896 when he bought 160 acres of land near Marshalltown, Iowa, and engaged in farming for himself, raising oats, corn, cattle and hogs. Mr. Petersen con- tinued there until 1904, when he sold his Iowa farm and removed to Selma, Fresno County, Cal., where he bought a ranch and orchard and engaged in viticulture, dairying and fruit raising. In 1910 he sold his property at Selma and bought a place of forty acres on White's Bridge Road, two and a half miles west of Fresno, where he engaged in operating a vineyard of Muscat and Thompson seedless grapes, also a small dairy. However, in 1919, he

ON A Plate

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sold out and built a comfortable bungalow at No. 224 Yosemite Avenue, Fresno, where he now makes his home.

At Marshalltown, Iowa, April 26, 1893, John T. Petersen was united in marriage with Tina Petersen, a native of Aalborg, Denmark, and this happy union has been blessed with four children: Blanche K., a graduate of both the Fresno High, and the State Normal Schools, was a teacher in Fresno County, but was doing instruction work in the United States Army at San Antonio, Texas, during the War. Annie M., a graduate of Fresno High and Heald's Business College, is a stenographer and is a bookkeeper in Fresno; Leonard P., and Jennie M. are students in the Fresno high school.

While living in the Fruitvale district, Mr. Petersen was school trustee for a number of years. Fraternally, he is a member of the A. O. U. W., and religiously is a Lutheran, and is chairman of the board of trustees of the Danish Lutheran Church, at Fresno. Mr. and Mrs. Petersen and their family are highly esteemed in the community where they reside, Mr. Petersen being regarded as one of the prosperous vineyardists of his section. He is always greatly interested in those movements that have as their aim the upbuilding of the viticultural and horticultural interests of Fresno County, and is a member and a stockholder in both the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Associated Raisin Company.

WILLARD F. PLATE .- One who has many recollections of persons, occasions and places in Central California, is Willard F. Plate, a New Yorker by birth, born in Niagara County, fourteen miles east of Niagara Falls, on the Erie Canal, on May 1, 1845. His father, Henry Plate, was born in Fayette, Seneca County, N. Y., and located in Niagara County where he married Jane Flanders, a native of the same county. He was a farmer there, but in 1868 moved to Macomb County, Mich., where he continued to farm, and where lie died almost eighty years of age. Mrs Plate also died there, at an advanced age. They had three children, and all are living.

Willard F. was the oldest, and he was reared on a farm and attended the public schools, including the Lockport High School; and on completion of his studies he went into the oil-fields near Zanesville, Ohio, where he helped drill wells. Then he worked as a pumper, delivering oil to McCon- nelsville. Having saved some money, he went to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., in 1866, to attend the Eastman Business College, from which he was grad- uated the following year; and on returning home he was married to Miss Lizzie Tennant, a native of Niagara County, N. Y. He farmed for a year, and in 1868 moved to Macomb County, Mich., where he resumed farming and, with his father, bought a farm. He was not satisfied, however, so in May, 1874, he came west to California.

He could then have bought lots just adjoining the City Hall in San Francisco, but meeting Mr. Gould, he accepted a post as superintendent of the Gould Ditch and so came to Fresno County. In 1875 he was busy shear- ing sheep in Fresno, and he sheared sheep on the site of the present residence of Frank Short, between K and L streets. He ran a level for engineers, and so helped run a level for the flume into Clovis. Mr. Plate helped put in a dam at the Eisen vineyard; and later he built a water wheel on Fancher Creek. He also helped make the first vintage in Fresno County in 1877, at the Eisen vineyard. In 1877, he joined Mr. Fleming as a partner in the Fleming Livery Stable at the corner of Mariposa and J streets, on the present site of Bow- man's drug store ; but the dry year of 1877 came and he sold out to Mr. Flem- ing and went to Boise City, Idaho.

After working at mechanical work there for two years, he was sent for by the Gould Canal Company and made superintendent of the canal, then for three years he followed mechanical work in and out of Fresno, but in 1904 he went to San Francisco and engaged in carpentering and building. After that he went to Butte County and helped put in the woodwork of the Butte 100

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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 93

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