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 98
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The marriage of Mr. Robinson and Jennie M. Bevefiel, a native of In- diana, was celebrated in Fresno. They have four children: Fay, the wife of Herold Emmick and the mother of a daughter; Marjorie, Mrs. Jerome Crawford; Halbert, in the employ of the Santa Fe Railroad; and Doris, at home. Mr. Robinson has won a high place in the business circles of Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley and is a liberal contributor towards all projects that have for their object the upbuilding of the best interests of the county and state. He is a self-made man in the truest sense of the term, for he began at the bottom and by persistency of purpose he has gradually won a name and place for himself in one of the greatest lines of business in the state.
GEORGE H. SNYDER .- The oil industry has contributed, in a greater degree, to the wealth of California, during the past two decades than any other business enterprise in the state, and in the Coalinga oilfield section of Fresno County it has given a wonderful impetus to the development of all lines of business endeavor. Perhaps no corporation has been more intimately associated with the advancement of the oil industry, in the Coalinga field, than the Associated Pipe Line.
The efficient superintendent of the Maricopa division of the Associated Pipe Line, George H. Snyder, is a native of Flemington, N. J., where he was born November 16, 1864, a son of Henry and Mary (Riley) Snyder, natives of Germany and Ireland, respectively. Henry Snyder was a carpenter by trade and emigrated to the United States when a boy of seventeen. He engaged in the building business in New York, afterwards becoming a farmer in New Jersey, near Flemington. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Snyder were the parents of six children, four boys and two girls, George H. being the oldest child, and the only one living in the Golden State. When he was fourteen years old, George H. Snyder was apprenticed as a machinist in the Long Island Rail- way Shops, at Long Island City, where he remained three years, when he accepted a position with the Lehigh Valley Railway Shops at Perth Amboy, N. J. Mr. Snyder was next employed by the New Jersey Central Railway at Elizabethport, N. J., where he was foreman of the erecting department. After the memorable blizzard of the winter 1888, George H. Snyder, took a trip to Mexico, where he accepted a position with the International Railway Company as master mechanic, remaining with the company four years, after which he was for ten years the master mechanic of the Coahuila and Alamo Coal Company. Later on he was associated with the Sabinas Limited for two years as superintendent of their irrigation plant on the company's large farms. In 1904, George H. Snyder came to Los Angeles, Cal., where he ac- cepted a position with the Interurban and Pacific Electric Railway, having charge of their power plants. His next position was as master mechanic for the firm of J. G. White & Co., in charge of their construction work, for the Government, on the Colorado River above Yuma. In February, 1905,
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he returned to Los Angeles, where he assumed full charge of power plants of the Los Angeles Interurban and Pacific Electric Railway, and became the master mechanic of their shops. Mr. Snyder remained in the employ of the railway company until 1907, when he resigned to accept a position with the Tracy Engineering Company, of San Francisco, his duty being to install boilers for the company along the line of the Associated Pipe Line, between Bakersfield and Port Costa. About one year afterwards he became the in- spector for the Associated Pipe Line between Bakersfield and Port Costa with his headquarters at Fresno. So satisfactory was his service to the com- pany that in 1911 he was appointed superintendent of the Maricopa division which includes the business of the company between Maricopa and Mendota, a distance of 150 miles, his headquarters being located at Coalinga. So loyally and efficiently has Mr. Snyder discharged his duties to the company, that he still retains the position.
Fraternally, Mr. Snyder is a member of the Odd Fellows, of the Knights of Pythias, and is an ex-director and member of the Coalinga Growlers Club. He is greatly interested in every worthy movement that has as its aim the forwarding of the best interests of Coalinga and Fresno County and has been very active in all the war movements.
JACOB ROSENTHAL .- A splendid example of the self-made man of Fresno County, and one who, starting without means, except those provided by Nature, succeeded at last, through a willing disposition and an unfaltering courage, in climbing steadily to success, is that of Jacob Rosenthal, who has not ceased to climb, for he believes that there is always room at the top. Coming from a distant shore and of a different civilization, he nevertheless brought with him qualities needed for success in the new world, and has both received from and given to the society that he found in the making, and of which he has become an honorable part.
Born in Russia, on August 27, 1870, Mr. Rosenthal is the son of Andrew and Barbara Rosenthal, both of whom were also natives of the land of the Czar. He was reared and educated in the country of his birth, and shared the home with seven other children of his parents, four of whom had the hardihood to come also to America. These were, besides the subject of this review, Philip, Henry and Kate. Philip still makes his home in Colorado, while the others reside in Fresno County.
The new century was just dawning when Jacob emigrated to the United States in 1900, and in 1901, suiting his action to the spirit of the age, he came to Fresno County. He located at Sanger and soon found employment with the Sanger Lumber Company, in whose service he remained for seven years. During this strenuous time he managed to save about $2,000.
In 1908, he rented a ranch in Kutner Colony for one year, then in 1909 he bought twenty acres in Del Rey, in its virgin state, but he leveled the ground, got it in good condition, and planted it to vines and peaches. Upon it, also, he erected a fine dwelling, with modern conveniences. In 1915, he also bought twenty-seven acres of vineyard near Reedley and operated both until the fall of 1918, when he sold out and purchased eighty acres in Barstow Colony, where he has thirty acres of vineyard and ten acres of alfalfa, though he will put it all into vineyard and orchard. He also built a residence and suitable buildings and took up his abode in the new place in January, 1919. Mr. Rosenthal believes that the cooperation of fruit men is the only means of making a success of the raisin industry, so he is an en- thusiastic member and stockholder of the California Associated Raisin Com- pany, as well as of the California Peach Growers, Inc.
In 1889, Mr. Rosenthal was married to Miss Mollie Esheim, and they have had eleven children, of whom six are now living: Jacob, Herman, John, Frieda, Edward V., and Norman. Soon after coming to Sanger, Mr. Rosen- thal took out his first citizenship papers, and in 1906 he received his second
Jucob Rosenthal
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document, which made him, to his great satisfaction and that of his patriotic and grateful family, a full-fledged citizen of the United States.
Mr. and Mrs. Rosenthal and family are members of the Sanger Luth- eran Church, and all are interested in its various activities, as also in the Red Cross and other patriotic endeavors, and are ready in every way to help support the administration in the great work of winning for the world a lasting peace. They are happy to have found such a welcome and such oppor- tunities in Central California, and are glad to continue to take an active part in its development.
FRANK T. JOHNSON .- One of the native sons of California who has been very successful in having improved a fine ranch and established a good dairy, with plenty of choice alfalfa, is Frank T. Johnson, who was born near Hanford, Kings County, February 25, 1882. His father, Samuel Johnson, was born in Tennessee, and came to California across the plains. He first located at Modesto, and then moved to Kings County, where he bought land near Hanford. He next homesteaded 160 acres between Dinuba and Kingsburg, and there he planted grain and raised stock. After a while he moved back to Hanford, where he farmed until he died, in 1883. Frank was then eighteen months old. His mother was Elizabeth A. Brady of Tennessee before her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson were married in Tennessee, and came West as a young married couple. Now Mrs. Johnson resides in Fresno, the mother of ten children, seven of whom have grown up.
Frank, the youngest of all, was brought up on the farm near Hanford until he was twelve years old, and then he removed to the Dinuba farm. He at- tended the public school, but he also learned grain farming and viticulture. He became the owner of a part of the old home, sold it and bought twenty- five acres of it, which he set out as a peach orchard and a vineyard of Sultana and Thompson seedless grapes. When he had conducted that six years, he sold once more, and in 1909 removed to Tranquillity.
The country was new, so he bought sixty acres of raw land, which he leveled and checked to alfalfa. He engaged for a while in dairying, but later he sold the dairy. He bought more land, and has made a specialty of raising hay. Now he has 125 acres, and no better could anywhere be found.
In February, 1918, he purchased twenty acres on Marks and Church avenues, and moved there and began to cultivate vines. He also commenced to raise olives, and in both fields he made a success. He sold out in May, 1919, and moved back to his Tranquillity ranch.
At Sacramento Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Effie Maude Shutt, a native of Indiana, and three children have blessed their union. They are Dolores, Eleanor and Louis.
THOMAS J. ALLEN .- A close student of daily life, and a man of sound common sense, who after many years of hard work and struggle for existence, believes that the Socialist party offers the only adequate solution for indus- trialism, is Thomas J. Allen.
Mr. Allen was born in Person County, N. C., on November 2, 1865, and grew up in Person County until the age of eight, when he moved with his parents to Waite and later to Durham County, where his mother died when he was but fourteen. His parents had been poor, and when the mother died, he was without a home, and had to make his living by working out on tobacco and cotton plantations in Durham and Granville Counties, suffering hard- ships, neglect and abuse until he became large enough to fight for his right to live. He continued to work out on cotton and tobacco plantations in North Carolina until twenty-four and then went to Collin County, Texas, where he continued to raise cotton until 1893.
In that year he came to Hanford, Cal., arriving with hardly enough to pay for his lodging. He lost no time in finding work on ranches, and for four years followed the hard life of a farm hand.
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He then came to Fresno County and bought forty acres in the Laguna de Tache Grant, and while "baching," worked hard and improved the land. He still owns this place, together with two others, 120 acres, in all, well- improved and making three very attractive ranches in the Laguna district, and in the month of July, 1919, he added still further to his possessions by the purchase of seventy additional acres, on the Murphy Slough, some three miles north of his home place.
In 1914 he went back to North Carolina, where he was married to Miss Minnie Sanford, a native of North Carolina, and a member of an old family in that state, well identified, as is the Allen family, with American history and the growth and development of the South. She is a daughter of Robert and Sally (Pool) Sanford, and was born and brought up in Granville County.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Allen started to farm, working the ranch of Mrs. Sanford, the mother-in-law; but before the summer was half over, he gave his crop to Mrs. Sanford, and on July 20, 1904, he returned with his bride to California and resumed farming operations here. He improved that place, did well, and in 1910 bought the forty acres where he now lives; still later he bought forty acres north of Riverdale. In 1912 he built the house in which they now reside. Mr. and Mrs. Allen have had three children, and two-Walter and Zelma-are still living.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Allen have many friends. Mr. Allen devotes most of his efforts to dairying, and is a stockholder and patron of the Riverdale Cooperative Creamery.
ALEXANDER BORGER .- A resident of Fresno for more than a quar- ter of a century, during which time he has become well-known, is Alexander Borger, proprietor of the Alex Cafe, who was born in Priwalnaja, Samara, Russia, on June 10, 1870. His father was William Borger, a grain buyer, who traveled the length of the Volga River and died in 1887. His wife, who was Mary Bier before her marriage, also died there, the mother of three sons and a daughter, of whom Alexander is the only one who came to America.
He was brought up in the city of Priwalnaja, and sent to the public schools, where he received a good education; and when fifteen was appren- ticed to learn the grocery trade at Saratof. For three years he "pegged" away in return for instruction, experience and twenty dollars a year, and then he continued to work in the same place, receiving sixty dollars the fourth year, eighty dollars the fifth, and $120 the sixth.
On account of military oppression he came to the United States, having heard here of the greater opportunities and hoping to do better. An uncle, the Rev. Jacob Legler, was a Lutheran minister in Fresno; and so, having reached New York, he crossed the continent to Fresno, which he reached on December 30, 1891. He worked with the Southern Pacific builders of the Pollasky road, and in 1892 picked grapes. After that, for two years, he worked in Stack's restaurant, and then for a couple of years he was with Gambrinos.
Next he started in the grocery business on G Street with M. Karle and continued for a year; and having sold out, he leased, with Henry Fries, a ranch on the Laguna Grant. The partners had a vineyard there, but after a year they dissolved their partnership. He was next in the employ of Ed Schwartz for four years, and was then proprietor of the Railroad House for a year.
Having conducted a restaurant on I Street for two years, he disposed of the business and for a year was grading streets as a general contractor. Then he engaged in the grocery business with H. Bier on California and Elm ave- nues, and after a year sold out and was in the employ of H. Schwartz for two years.
In 1913 he bought the Waffle Kitchen from Charles Kline, and when lie became proprietor, he named the now famous eating-place the Alex Cafe. It is located at 1042 H Street, a remodeled and thoroughly up-to-date estab-
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lishment. Mr. Borger also owns a twenty-acre vineyard at Biola devoted to raising Thompson seedless raisins and is a member of the California Associ- ated Raisin Company. Mr. Borger also built and now owns a handsome resi- dence at 455 F Street.
On October 2, 1892, Mr. Borger was married at Fresno to Miss Mary Bier, who came to Fresno in 1892. She is a native of Mr. Borger's birthplace in Russia, and the daughter of Philipp Bier, a farmer there. Mr. and Mrs. Borger have had four children: Katie, who is Mrs. McMahon of Fresno; Alexander, Jr., who is with the subject of our sketch; Mary, who died when she was only a year old; and Henry, the youngest. The family attend the German Lutheran Church.
WILLIAM HARRISON ENLOW .- A progressive young man, for- merly manager of the Builders Lumber Company at Kerman, is William Harrison Enlow, a native son, born in Tulare County, sixteen miles from Visalia, in the Kaweah district. His father, Henry Harlan Enlow, was also a native son, born in the same county. His grandfather, John Kinney Enlow, was an Eastern man who crossed the plains as a pioneer to California, where he became a well-known farmer and stockman, and in which new land of promise he died. Growing up to man's estate, Henry Harlan Enlow farmed awhile in the vicinity of his home, and then he moved to Lemon Cove, where he was foreman of a ranch devoted to horticulture. He is now employed as foreman for the Merriam Fruit, Land and Lumber Company. Mrs. Enlow, William's mother, was Susan Hannah Snowden, before her marriage, and she was also born near Kaweah. She is the daughter of Hubbard Snowden, a native of Arkansas, who in early days crossed the prairies to California, and here, after having well performed his part, he died, in 1917, seventy-one years of age. Her own life of usefulness and joy to others, Mrs. Enlow is still living, surrounded by loving friends.
The eldest of eight children, William H. was brought up on a farm at Lemon Cove, and there attended the grammar school, later going to the high school at Visalia. At eighteen he took up the lumber business with the Naft- singer Lumber Company at Dillonwood, and thoroughly mastering every de- tail, he began at the bottom and worked for two years until he became a grader. Meanwhile he saved his money, and so was enabled to enter Heald's Business College from which he was graduated with honors in 1911.
For seven months Mr. Enlow was with the Fresno Home Packing Com- pany as bookkeeper, and then he put in a year with the San Joaquin Light and Power Company at Fresno, where he was also bookkeeper: He next went into the retail lumber business with the Valley Lumber Company at Kingsburg, from February to October, 1912, and after that he went to Selma for the same company. In April, 1913, he was transferred to Fowler as yard foreman ; and as such he was active until October, 1914. Then Mr. Prescott of the Valley Company secured him a place in the Kerman yard with the Builders Lumber Company. At first he was foreman, but in February, 1915, he was made manager of the yard where he remained until September, 1918.
While in Fowler, in 1914, Mr. Enlow was married to Miss Lena Isabelle Garretson, a native of Conejo, Fresno County, and who is a worthy helpmate. They have a daughter, Delores Linelle Enlow. Mr. Enlow is a member of the lumbermen's organization, the Hoo Hoos.
RICHARD BEVERLY CONDLEY .- A successful engineer widely ex- perienced in the use of gas and steam engines and all kinds of pumps, who is highly esteemed as a citizen and neighbor, is Richard Beverly Condley, in charge of valuable properties for the Union Oil Company on the Clairmont, Ardell, Coalinga 8 and Security leases. He was born in Marshall, Saline County, Mo., on March 28, 1872, and came to California in the late nineties.
His father was David Mack Condley, a native of Arkansas who became a farmer in Saline County, Mo., moved to Napa, Cal., but returned to the Iron
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State, and finally died there at Marshall. His devoted wife, who was Martha Barnett before her marriage, had been born in Benton County and also died in Missouri. Three girls and one boy were born of this union, and all are in California.
Richard, the oldest, was reared on a farm in Saline County and there educated at the public schools, remaining home until he was twenty-one. At Marshall, on March 28, 1893, he married Miss Ethel Hinton, a native of that place, and the daughter of David and Clara (Parks) Hinton, born respectively in Indiana and Pennsylvania. She came in her youth to Missouri with her parents and there married. Her father was a machinist and a stationary engineer, and was engaged in threshing, shelling corn, and manufacturing lumber for which work he ran a saw mill at Miami, on the Missouri River. Both father and mother are living at Marshall. Six children grew up, and two are in California; and Mrs. Condley is the second oldest of these.
From 1893 until 1897 Mr. Condley engaged in farming in Saline County, Mo., and then he came west to Hanford, Cal., where he entered the employ for a short time of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Then he put in four years with the winery of George West & Sons, at Hanford, and after that he re- moved to Bakersfield and took up work as a machinist helper for the Asso- ciated Oil Company in the Kern River Field. Continuing there, he also worked as a gas and steam engineer and a practical pump man, but after seven years, he resigned.
When the Lake View gusher No. 1 was struck, he went to Maricopa as a machinist for the Union Oil, and for several years he had charge of their machinery. In 1912 he was transferred in the same capacity to the Coalinga field, and here he has been ever since.
Four children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Condley-each of whom has thus far done some good work to honor the family name : Charles is also with the Union Oil, assisting his father, and is married to Eva Um- burn; Lucy, now Mrs. G. C. Work, lives at Oilfields, and has one child, Robert Beverly ; and Edna and David are in the Coalinga Union High School. Mr. Condley belongs to the Woodmen of the World at Bakersfield.
WILLIAM NELSON FULLER .- Identified with the development of Fresno County as one of the real upbuilders of the Arizona Colony is William Nelson Fuller. He was born in Detroit, Mich., on November 27, 1855, the son of John Fuller, a native of London, Ont., Can., and one of the successful rep- resentatives of a line of energetic forebears who came from England to New York State and then migrated to Canada.
John Fuller removed to Detroit, where he remained a few years and then located on a farm near Lexington, Sanilac County, Mich., and there followed farming until his death, at Criswell, in the same county. The mother, Jane Wilson before her marriage, was also born in London, Ont., but of Scotch descent; and she, too, died at Criswell, leaving five boys and a girl, among whom our subject is the oldest son and the only one in California.
William Nelson was reared in Sanilac County on a farm, and educated at the public schools. When sixteen, he left home and worked on farms in different parts of Southern Michigan. He saved his money and entered the high school at Grand Rapids from which he was graduated; and then he learned the trades of a carpenter and a plasterer. After completing his ap- prenticeships, he came West to Minneapolis, and there he worked as a jour- neyman, laboring also in St. Paul. Two years later he removed to Fargo, N. D., working as a carpenter, and then he went to Bismarck, where he set up as a contractor and builder. He was in Bismarck when it was the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and was also there when the capitol was moved from Pierre to Bismarck.
In 1887, when the development of California realty interests was at its height, he came to Los Angeles and engaged in farming and horticulture, which he continued for five years; he then came north to Fresno County,
ST. E. Butter
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where he homesteaded 160 acres near Raymond in what is now Madera County. He made numerous improvements, erecting buildings and in five years he sold the property at an advantage; and then he came to his present place. This was in 1897, and Mr. Fuller was one of the first settlers in the Montpellier Colony.
He began with fifteen acres of raw land- mere hog wallow-on Thorn Avenue, bought a water right, constructed a ditch, and brought the water on to the place; he then began raising strawberries for the Fresno market. He had ten acres of berries, and with a Mr. Markley was a pioneer straw- berry grower in this section. Later he bought ten acres more of land. After some years, he quit raising strawberries and set out the whole twenty-five acres in a peach orchard, making a specialty of Muir, Lovell and Elberta peaches. He has raised as many as two tons of dried peaches to the acre, and has sold dried peaches as low as two and a half cents a pound, and as high as fifteen cents a pound. He and his wife have developed their prop- erty into a beautiful place, and they are now the oldest settlers on the Mont- pellier tract. A member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., from its or- ganization, he is also a stockholder and a member in the California Associated Raisin Company.
While in Los Angeles, Mr. Fuller was married to Lucy Mohr, a native of Switzerland, in which country she was reared until she was fifteen, when she came to Racine, Wis. She also came to Los Angeles in the boom year of 1887. Both Mr. and Mrs. Fuller are members of the Presbyterian Church in Fresno, and each endeavors to perform civic service under the banners of the Republican party.
THOMAS EDWARD BUTLER .- In these days of special training and strenuous effort, he who hopes to attain success, whether in professional, commercial or agricultural lines, must be a man of brains and persistency, with a scientific knowledge of his chosen vocation. Such a man is T. E. Butler, who has risen to a prominent place among the fruit-growers of Fresno County.
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