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 97
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SOMHansen
Mr and Mrs IJ. Bolanian
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iness has grown proportionately, and now from forty to eighty hands are required to cure and handle the fruit.
On March 17, 1902, Mr. Hansen and Miss Emma Louise Maas were united in marriage at Fresno. The bride was born in New York State, and came to California with her parents; Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have one son, James. Mr. Hansen was one of the prime factors in starting and organizing the Melvin Grape Growers Association, and now he is the president of its board of trustees. The company has built three warehouses at Melvin, Bur- ness and Glorietta.
Mr. Hansen was made a Mason in Clovis Lodge, F. & A. M., and he is also a member of Clovis Lodge, I. O. O. F., where he is a Past Grand. He is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Dania in Fresno.
He has always been an enthusiast in the work of the California Asso- ciated Raisin Company and of the Chamber of Commerce. He has won a large circle of friends, who know him as a reliable and upright man of de- pendable qualities. He is public spirited and liberal, and has always assisted as far as he was able in promoting every movement for the prosperity of his fellow-citizens, voting according to the standards of the Republican party.
B. BORANIAN .- It is necessary in speaking of some men to use the superlative degree. They are of such quality that only the highest terms are adequate to describe them. Their achievements are so great that they occupy a position by themselves. The subject of this sketch is one of these. He is perhaps the most aggressively progressive rancher among the many very prosperous Armenians in the vicinity of Fowler.
Mr. Boranian was born in Armenia, near Harpoot, a half century ago. His parents were Ohan and Mary (Sarkissian) Boranian. They lived and died in Turkey, victims, as were so many of the race, of the cruelties of the unspeakable Turk. The father branched out in the mercantile business in Constantinople, and the son also went there. He bought out his father's buisiness after he had conducted it for two years, and ran it himself for five years, making a continuous period of seven years in which he and his father were in business in Constantinople. While here Mr. Boranian mar- ried his first wife, Sarah Tatian. He prospered in business and one child was born to them in Constantinople. His life was bright and happy, when of a sudden the Turks broke out in a bloody massacre against the Armenians, and he was forced to flee for his life. They burned his store but he escaped to America. His wife, however, was left behind, and the cruelties of the Turks brought on an illness which resulted in her death. She left one child, Dick, who lived with his father until his second marriage, and is now a progressive rancher near Fowler.
Mr. Boranian was twenty-four years of age when he came to America. He engaged in business at Lowell, Mass., for eight years, and in 1902 came with his family to Fresno County. He was married a second time to Mrs. Mary Goolbanian, a widow born near Harpoot, and they were married at Lowell, Mass. She had one child by her first marriage, a girl named Naomi, who is still living at home. They have three children by their present union : Edwin, Joseph and Rosa. Mr. Boranian had $2,000 when he came to Fresno County, the result of thrift and energy. At first he bought only forty acres. He improved this place and has prospered exceedingly. He now owns two ranches, one of 180 acres, a half mile south and two miles east of Fowler, and the other of 60 acres lying north of Fowler. He resides on the former, with his family, and there he has twenty acres in pasture, yards, etc .; 125 acres in Muscats, fifteen acres in Thompson Seedless, five acres in Emperors, five acres in alfalfa, and ten acres in peaches and apricots. This place is known by the name of the B. Boranian Vineyard. His first crop here brought him only $400. He is an industrious, progressive and scientific farmer and horti- culturist, and is becoming wealthy.
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While in his native land, Mr. Boranian received an education equivalent to that of a grammar school in this country. He is a very influential member of the Congregational Church in Fowler, and was one of its first donators. Mr. Boranian may well look with satisfaction upon the results of his work, and take justifiable pride in his home place, as he planted it himself and has brought it to a very high state of cultivation.
ROBERT F. COLLINS .- As rancher, vineyardist and raisin grower, Robert F. Collins, has a well-improved vineyard of thirty-eight acres be- tween North and Center avenues, twelve and a half miles southeast of Fresno. It is a part of the old J. D. Collins ranch. Robert F. Collins is a son of the late J. D. Collins and was born at the old J. D. Collins Dry Creek ranch on April 10, 1888. He attended the old Mississippi School and later, after moving to Fresno when his father was elected sheriff, he attended the Fresno High School from which he was graduated in 1908. He ran cattle for his father in 1909-10 on the Collins' Dry Creek Ranch and then put in a year at the Uni- versity of California at Berkeley.
In January, 1912, Mr. Collins was united in marriage with Miss Eva H. Sisson, a native of Michigan who was reared in Modesto and Fresno. She is the daughter of F. H. Sisson, manager for the Fresno Agricultural Works at Fresno. She is also a graduate of the Fresno High School.
After his marriage, Mr. Collins began farming and improved the thirty- eight-acre tract given to him by his father. He now has a comfortable bunga- low residence, barns, drying-sheds, wells and a pumping-plant with a twenty horsepower engine. Ten acres of the tract are in Thompsons, fourteen acres are in peaches and he raises alfalfa and some grain. The balance is in yards, which he plans to plant to Malagas in the spring of 1920.
Mr. and Mrs. Collins have three children : Robert F., Jr., James Franklin, and William White. Mr. Collins is a Democrat, but is not a politician. He is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and the California Peach Growers, Inc.
HUGH FRANCIS CASSIDY .- The able superintendent of the Salvia Oil Company of Coalinga, Cal., is a native of Canada, having first seen the light of day at Trenton, Ont., a port of entry on the Trent, 101 miles east of Toronto. He was born June 29, 1876, a son of Frank J. and Catherine (Fin- lan) Cassidy, both natives of Ontario who are now living in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Cassidy were the parents of two children, Hugh being the oldest and the only one living in California.
The father, F. J. Cassidy, was a lumberman in Canada and in 1877 re- moved to Bradford, Pa., when Hugh was about a year old. At Bradford, Mr. Cassidy first became interested in the oil business, afterwards he moved to Lima, Ohio, where he became a contracting driller and later an oil pro- ducer. F. J. Cassidy is still engaged in the oil business, having interests both in Kentucky and Ohio.
Hugh F. Cassidy, the subject of this sketch, was brought up in Pennsyl- vania and Ohio, being ten years of age when the family moved to Lima, Ohio, and it was in that city that he received his early education, having at- tended both the public and a private school. After finishing school days he began working for his father in the oil business, later he became a contract driller and operated the business of drilling in the Oklahoma fields.
When Hugh F. Cassidy reached his majority his father took him into partnership and they conducted the oil business under the firm name of F. J. Cassidy & Son. In 1910, both came to Coalinga, Cal., where they were em- ployed by the Premier Oil Company. drilling wells. After a time the father returned east but Hugh F. remained at Coalinga where he became gang- foreman for the Inca Oil Company, retaining this responsible position for five years. In 1915. Mr. Cassidy became the superintendent for the Salvia Oil Company, which has twenty-one wells on its eighty-acre lease. He has so efficiently conducted the affairs of the company, not only to the satisfaction
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. of the officials, but in a manner that has met the approval of the employees, that he still retains this important position. Mr. Cassidy is a thoroughly ex- perienced oilman, having been associated with the industry ever since he was a lad and has learned the business from the bottom up and today is regarded as an authority on matters pertaining to the operation and management of an oil well.
Hugh F. Cassidy was united in marriage at Lima, Ohio, with Miss Daisy Tracy, a native of that city and this happy union has been blessed with one child, a daughter, Catherine. Fraternally, Mr. Cassidy is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and also holds membership with the Coalinga Aerie of Eagles and the Growlers Club.
JAMES J. BRISCOE .- The fourth son of R. W. Briscoe, James J. was born in Fresno County on March 4, 1885. He was raised in this county and attended the Malaga grammar school and later Heald's Business College at Fresno. While but a boy, he began driving horses and operating farm ma- chinery and with the advent of the tractor and the truck, he became an adept in the operation of this class of machinery in its practical application to farmwork. When he was drafted into the service in the recent war, he was assigned to the truck service and after two months' training at Camp Lewis, he sailed with his division, the Ninety-first, from New York on July 14, 1918, landed at Liverpool on July 28, and from there went to France. He served through the Argonne Woods campaign and about the middle of October, 1918, was sent to Belgium and did active service there. He was in Belgium at the signing of the armistice. After about nine months' overseas service, he returned with his division, landing at New York City in April, 1919, and was honorably discharged at the Presidio in May. After his return home, he immediately resumed his work on his ranch.
In 1915 four of the Briscoe brothers had bought 160 acres, devoted to raisin and wine grapes, of which J. J. Briscoe owned forty acres at the out- break of the war. In 1919, three of the Briscoe brothers, bought another 160 acres of vineyard, also in the De Wolf district, and J. J. Briscoe now owns an undivided one-third interest in that.
He is particularly interested in the cultivation of grapes and does a great deal of the work by means of tractors and a G. M. C., two-ton truck.
GEORGE W. DAY .- Among the representative ranchers of Fresno County, an interesting example of what can successfully be accomplished by one with no previous experience is found in the person of George W. Day, local manager and sole representative of an English corporation that owns the Alameda Ranch of 480 acres, situated five miles north of Reedley. Mr. Day is a native of England, born in 1881, and after receiving a good education in his native land became an expert accountant and followed that profession until he came to America in 1913. He soon located in Fresno County, Cal- ifornia, and was employed as manager of the Alameda Ranch, that had been acquired by this corporation in 1912, for the ensuing two years. He was wholly inexperienced in raising fruit, but the two years he spent on the ranch soon gave him a working knowledge of the business and he studied every branch of viticulture and horticulture and decided he would own a ranch of his own.
For one year he leased a peach orchard west of Fresno and by applying his experience already gained, and by hard work, he soon made a success of his venture. In December, 1916, he bought thirty acres of second bench land north from Reedley, improved to orchard and vineyard and gave it his per- sonal attention with the result that his net profits in 1918 were $4,928.78, and it is reported that in the eastern markets the fruit brought twice that amount. The results here shown prove that in ranching, as in other lines of business, a man can succeed if he applies scientific knowledge and methods to his business, and also gives it his undivided attention.
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In June, 1918, Mr. Day once more became the manager of the Alameda Ranch, and in this position is working for the interests of his employers with the same earnestness as he worked for himself. The example he has set may well be followed by others who wish to make a success of their ventures.
In England, Mr. Day was united in marriage with Miss Florence Brown, a lady of many accomplishments, who shares with him the esteem of a wide circle of friends. Mr. Day is a member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., and the California Associated Raisin Company ; and in fraternal circles he is a member of the Masons and Knights of Pythias lodges in Reedley. He is an enthusiastic booster for Fresno County and believes that there are better opportunities now than ever before.
CHRISTJAN JENSEN .- Among the residents of the thriving city of Reedley in Fresno County is Christjan Jensen, an expert mechanic of many years' experience in the blacksmithing trade. He has seen many changes in the conditions of the country surrounding Reedley since he located here in 1908, and has proven to his fellow citizens his worth as a man of good, sound business sense, as well as a mechanic of more than usual ability. He was born in Thisted, Denmark, May 17, 1861, the son of Christjan and Nekoline Jensen, both born and raised in Denmark. His father was a blacksmith and while the lad was going to school he spent considerable time in his father's shop and soon became handy with tools. After his school days were over he learned the blacksmith trade and worked for his father for five years. His next step was to join the Danish army and he served three years in the engineering department.
It was after his honorable discharge from service that the young man married, choosing for his wife Miss Anna Kjargard, and with her came to the United States in 1888. He traveled West as far as Chicago and there he worked at his trade, and had a shop of his own, also was for five years in charge of the blacksmith shop of the electrical department of the City of Chicago. In 1908 he camne West to California and soon located in Reedley where he opened a shop and carried on his business with success. He also bought a ranch of forty acres northeast of Reedley, twenty acres of which were improved, and later sold the whole place at a profit. He then bought another tract of twenty acres, made all the improvements and this he also disposed of at a profit. He is still owner of two good business lots and five residence lots and a good home near the high school, in Reedley.
In 1906 Mr. Jensen was married a second time, this time to Miss Helen Scholanber, who presides with grace and charm over his home. In 1917 he took a trip back to his native land to review the scenes of his younger days, but came back to Fresno County more than ever pleased that he had cast in his lot here. He is a public-spirited man who supports every movement for the betterment of the county and state of his adoption and no more loval American can be found than he.
EDWARD JOHNSON .- A young man who has undergone the experi- ence of so many in sacrificing important interests in order to respond to the call of their country in the late war is Edward Johnson, the senior partner in the firm of Johnson Brothers, ranchers, who are renting the Lindquist estates. He was born near Grantsburg, Wis., August 14, 1886, the son of John A. and Betsy (Erickson) Johnson, who were parents of eight children -- six sons and two daughters. With the exception of two sons, who are living in Minnesota, the entire family is now in Fresno County, in the vicinity. of Kingsburg. Edward, the third child, grew up in Wisconsin; he received a very limited schooling, he worked on his father's farm, and while yet a youth, hired out by the month, after which he made for Minneapolis. There, until he was twenty-six, he was employed in the Pillsbury Flouring Mills.
In that year he removed to Montana, and near Skelley homesteaded 160 acres, which he farmed and proved up and was just about to profit by, as a
H.C. Dunklare Emma Dunklau
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grain and stock farmer, when he was drafted into the American Army, and therefore compelled to sell his Montana interests. It was not easy to part with that which had been acquired through so much hard labor and risk, but the consciousness of duty and its obligation impelled him on and enabled him to come through like a man.
Mr. Johnson served at Camp Lewis for five months, and was then trans- ferred to Vancouver, Wash., having served in the infantry at Camp Lewis and in the aviation in the North. He was honorably discharged on Decem- ber 23, 1918, and reached his parents' home December 25, 1918, at their ranch in the vicinity of Kingsburg, Fresno County.
At Oakland, on January 2, 1919, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Nellie Rabe, of Portland, Ore.
The farming operations of the Johnson Brothers are carried by our subject and a younger brother, Alvin Johnson, who was also born in Wiscon- sin, who came out to California in 1918 direct from Wisconsin, where he had worked on a farm.
The ranches operated by the Johnson Brothers are the forty acres of Mrs. Lindquist, the ten acres of Alfred Lindquist, adjoining, and another fourteen acres of Muscats belonging to still another of the same family, three and a half miles northeast of Kingsburg.
HENRY A. DUNKLAU .- A progressive young rancher, whose capable wife, a real and valuable helpmate, represents the family of a successful viticulturist prominent in the community, is Henry A. Dunklau, the viticul- turist and horticulturist, who was born at Arlington, Washington County, Nebr. He is a son of Zacharias and Johanna Dunklau, who located in Wash- ington County, Nebr., in 1865, and there homesteaded eighty acres. Later Mr. Dunklau bought property adjoining, until he had 240 acres. He planted it to corn and devoted part of it to the raising of stock; and there he now resides, at the age of eighty-five, while his good wife is seventy-three. Eight children, all living, have risen to bless their worthy name.
The fourth eldest in the family, and the only one in California, Henry was brought up on a farm and attended the public schools. He remained at home helping his father until he was twenty-one, and then he started out for himself, working here and there for others on farms. After a while, his at- tention was attracted especially to California, and he finally decided to come to the Coast.
In January, 1908, he arrived in Colusa County, and the following spring came to Fresno County. In Temperance Colony he secured employment in vineyards and orchards, and set to work to learn the propagation and culture of grapes, as well as of trees, and also the preparation and leveling of land, and the staking and planting of vines and of trees. Desiring to engage in ranching on his own account, he purchased for the purpose forty acres on Locan near Ventura Avenue, completing the transaction in 1910, and immediately set it out as a vineyard. He improved the acreage, built several needed structures, bought another forty acres, and then sold it at a profit, after keeping it a couple of years.
During 1916, Mr. Dunklau bought his present property of seventy-two acres in the Kutner school district, twelve miles northeast of Fresno, which he has improved and is devoting to a vineyard and an orchard. He has twenty acres of white Adriatic figs, interset with prunes, plums and peaches ; two acres of alfalfa, and the balance in different varieties of vines. He has a pumping plant with an eight-horse engine, and a well eighty-six feet deep, in which the water rises to within eight feet of the surface of the ground, thus furnishing ample water for irrigating his ranch. However, his ambition was not satisfied with this, and in partnership with his brother- in-law, Edward Bartels, he purchased forty acres across the county road from his ranch, which they also set out to vines. Mr. Dunklau has greatly enhanced
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the value of his home ranch by erecting a large, beautiful modern residence and by giving the grounds and ranch in general such excellent care that it has become known as one of the show places in the district. Believing in the cooperation of fruit-growers, he has always been an enthusiastic member of the California Associated Raisin Company.
At the home of the bride, in Temperance district, on November 22, 1911, Mr. Dunklau was married to Miss Emma Bartels, a native of Fresno and the daughter of Edward and Anna (Steinkamp) Bartels, settlers of Fresno County who are represented on another page in this history. Mrs. Dunklau, the eldest child, attended the public school and Heald's Business College in Fresno, and now has two sons, Henry E. and William E. Dunklau. The family attends the German Lutheran Church in Fresno, Mrs. Dunklau being an active member of the Ladies' Aid Society of the Church, as well as the Jefferson Auxiliary of the Clovis Chapter of the Red Cross. Mr. and Mrs. Dunklau showed their patriotism by giving their time and means towards the different branches of war-relief work, and they are active in all move- ments for the upbuilding of the community. They are both liberal and hospitable, and fortunate is the individual who is privileged to be enter- tained by them.
ANDREAS H. ANDERSEN .- A capable and enterprising rancher, An- dreas H. Andersen lives on his forty-acre ranch southwest of Reedley. Mr. Andersen was born in Denmark, March 7, 1886, and is the son of Antoni and Marie (Hansen) Andersen. He received a good education in the Danish language. His father died eight years before he left Denmark, and his mother three months before he sailed from Esbjerg via England for the United States. He landed at New York, April 29, 1908, and came directly to California, where he began working on a stock ranch southwest of Selma. He worked on various farms and also as still-man for three seasons under the late John Petersen, foreman of the Parlier Winery. From 1911 until 1917 he rented the Clark & Jones ranch of 160 acres.
In 1915 Mr. Andersen purchased his present property three miles south- west of Reedley. The land was a barley field four years ago, and Mr. Ander- sen has planted the place and made all improvements. He has 12 acres of Thompson seedless grapes, 71/2 acres of Sultanas, 10 acres of Malagas, 300 apricot trees, 250 French prune trees and 90 fig trees on the border. These are all young trees and vines from three years old to the spring planting of 1919.
Mr. Andersen is an active member of the Danish Brotherhood and a trustee of the Danish Lutheran Church three miles west of Parlier. He is justly popular and highly esteemed in the community.
RAYMOND D. ROBINSON .- With over thirty years' experience in the fruit-packing industry, Raymond D. Robinson is considered an authority on the various methods used in preparing fruit for the markets of the world.
He is an able manager of those who come under his direction as workers in the business and commands the respect of all with whom he comes in contact. He was born in Chenango County, N. Y., May 6, 1869. His education was received in the public schools and in the college at Marionville, Mo., to which state he was taken by his parents when he was a lad of ten years.
At the age of eighteen, on September 30, 1887, young Mr. Robinson arrived at Riverside, Cal., and the following week he secured employment in the packing house of the Griffin-Skelly Company. Since that date he has been in the employ of this company and its subsidiary, the California Pack- ing Corporation. A service of more than thirty years with one company is something that reflects great credit on the ability of Mr. Robinson and of which he is justly proud. In appreciation of the faithful discharge of the duties of his position and the results obtained by him, the company presented him with an elegant gold watch, properly engraved, when he had completed
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his thirty years with them. This token of esteem is one of the most highly prized of his possessions.
The first two summers-1887-1888-Mr. Robinson was sent to Fresno during the packing season. He proved an apt pupil and soon mastered the details of the business, even going beyond and inaugurating new methods that soon attracted the attention of his superiors and earned him promotion. In 1889 he took up his residence in Fresno and for fourteen years he was su- perintendent of the packing house of Griffin-Skelly Company, then becoming plant manager. In 1917 the concern was merged with the California Packing Corporation and Mr. Robinson was retained in his old position. He has grown up in the packing industry, in which he is one of the pioneers in the packing and shipping of fruits. No man stands higher in the estimation of the growers and distributors, or commands the respect of those under his direc- tion, than does Raymond D. Robinson. He is well and favorably known all over the fruit districts of the state.
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