USA > California > Sacramento County > History of Sacramento 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, 1913 > Part 105
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY
trustees of the orphan asylum (later known as the orphanage), her service in that organization covering a period of twenty-seven years. Aiding Mrs. Clayton, Mrs. Huntoon and Mrs. Mandeville, she estab- lished the Sacramento Children's Home and served from its organiza- tion as a member of the board. She was the first to solicit subscrip- tions for the ercetion of a suitable building on the corner of Ninth and X streets. At this writing she acts as vice-president of the home. For twenty-two successive years she entertained the children from the Home on the 4th of July for an all-day pleasure excursion, besides giving them entertainments and treats on other holidays. In addition to her other philanthropies she has given distinct civie service through her judicious labors as a member of the Sacramento board of park commissioners.
CHARLES D. LEVERING
The horticultural possibilities of the Fair Oaks district have. been tested thoroughly and successfully by Mr. Levering since first he came to this locality. Recently he completed one of the finest residences in the district, a two-story frame building fitted with every modern convenience, arranged so as to reflect the refined tastes of its owners. The attractive appearance of the house is heightened through its excellent location on a well-chosen natural building site which affords a fine view of the entire settlement.
A study of the life of C. D. Levering shows that he belongs to an honored pioneer family of the east and was born at Sparta, Wis., September 15, 1861. At an early age he accompanied his parents to Iowa and settled upon a tract of raw farming land in Polk county, where he received a common-school education and learned the rudiments of agriculture. His opportunities were very meagre. Indeed, what he has and what he is may be attributed to his own determination, energy and sagacity, rather than to any special advantages surrounding his boyhood. When he started out to earn his own way in the world he took up the lumber business and for about three years he engaged in that work in Iowa, his home and his headquarters being at Wiota, Cass county, during the period of his interests in that industry.
At the time of the celebrated opening of Oklahoma to settlers in April of 1889 Mr. Levering was in the territory and experienced all of the excitement incident to the famous rush. Later he pur- chased a claim of one hundred and sixty acres near Omega, King- fisher county. It was no slight task to clear and improve the
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property, but eventually he had transformed the raw acreage into a valuable farm provided with all the appartenances to modern agriculture. The raising of stock proved his principal source of income and he became widely known as a dealer in pure-bred Poland-China hogs. Other stock was to be found on his place, but his specialty for years continued to be hogs of the breed named.
Not long after he had commenced the improvement of the farm Mr. Levering brought a bride to the new home. Returning to Cass connty, Iowa, he there married February 20, 1893, Miss Eva Bur- nette, who was born, reared and educated in that county and there engaged in teaching school for a few years. Her health was un- favorably affected by the Oklahoma climate and it therefore seemed wise to seek another location. On three different occasions Mr. Levering visited California and inspected various parts of the state with a view to removal hither. On one of these trips he bonght raw land at Fair Oaks. The timber was cleared from the ground through his own sturdy labors, the brush also was removed, the first furrows turned in the soil and the land brought under cultiva- tion. Since he brought the family here in 1905 he has labored in- cessantly and judicionsly on the place and has developed a fruit farm of exceptional value and attractiveness. Besides the home place of ten acres, sitnated in close proximity to the plant of the Fair Oaks Fruit Company, he owns another tract of twenty-five acres. He has planted ten acres to orange trees and ten acres to almonds and is bringing the entire acreage under profitable im- provement.
Close attention to his own affairs has not prevented Mr. Lever- ing from identifying himself with many of the movements for the general prosperity. When first a bank began to be agitated as a needed institution for the town he joined in the movement and sub- scribed for a number of shares of the capital stock. When the concern became a substantial fact and business was begun, he was chosen a member of the board of directors. Likewise he bought stock in the Fair Oaks Fruit Company at the inception of that enterprise and to its board of directors he also was chosen, since which time he has been associated with the successful manage- ment of this influential concern. Interested in educational matters, he has given his children excellent advantages. The son, Roy, is now a student at Oakland, where he studies civil engineering. The older daughter, Fay, attends the Sacramento high school, and the younger, Fern, is a student in the Fair Oaks schools. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and generous con- tributors to its maintenance. Stanch in his allegiance to the Demo- cratic party and well informed in politics, Mr. Levering never has sought or filled official positions. During the period of his resi-
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dence at Wiota, Iowa, he became connected with the Odd Fellows and held all of the offices, including that of past grand, in the Wiota lodge. About the same time he became a Knight of Pythias and in it also he served through the chairs, finally being chosen past grand chancellor of the local lodge. As a citizen he has been pro- gressive and loyal and has given his support to those enterprises which he believes tend to advance the welfare of the people.
J. HAYES FISHER, M. D.
The medical fraternity in Sacramento has a worthy represent- ative in Dr. J. Hayes Fisher, who was born November 14, 1880, in Red Cloud, Webster county, Neb., the son of Mason A. and Jennie M. (Rasmussen) Fisher. The father, who was a builder by trade, followed this calling in Sacramento and here his earth life came to a close September 4, 1912.
The early boyhood years of Dr. Fisher were passed in the vicinity of his birthplace and he received his primary education in the schools of Red Cloud and Grand Island, Neb. He was fifteen years of age when the family removed to California and settled in Sacramento, and here he continued his studies. After his graduation from the Sacra- mento high school in 1901 he became the druggist at the Sacramento County Hospital and in March of the following year he began the study of medicine in the Hahnemann Medical College of the Pacific at San Francisco. Completing successfully his course of study he was graduated May 19, 1905, with the degree of M. D. At the time of the San Francisco disaster he was resident physician in the city and county hospital of that city, performing the duties of first assistant in that institution. It was on August 23, 1906, that he returned to Sacramento and opened an office at No. 716 J street, continuing there until his removal to his present quarters in the Ochsner Building April 1, 1907. In 1903, while in medical college, he matriculated at the Pacific Optical College in San Francisco, and was graduated from that institution as an optometrist the same year and in his practice he finds much to do along that specialty.
In 1905 Dr. Fisher was president of Phi Alpha Sigma Society and in 1904 was editor of the Periscope, his college paper, and during his senior year, 1905, was president of the student body. He was one of the organizers of the Sacramento Valley Homeopathic Medical Association and served as its secretary for three years, or until his
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resignation, and he is still a member of the California State Home- opathic Medical Society.
Fraternally Dr. Fisher affiliates with the Woodmen of the World; Red Jacket Tribe No. 28, I. O. R. M .; the Maccabees; the Fraternal Brotherhood; and the Foresters of America. In the Red Men's tribe of which he is a member he holds the office of medicine man, and is medical examiner in the other organizations mentioned. Politically he is a Republican but has never aspired to any office and usually votes for worthy candidates, regardless of their party affiliations. As a citizen he is publie spirited and helpful to all local interests which promise good to the greatest number. Professionally he is popular and held in the highest repute and his large practice testifies to his ability in the profession which he has chosen for his life work.
RALPH HILL MUDDOX
Among the most prosperous and highly esteemed business men of Sacramento, whose efforts along the lines of progress have been conspicuous in business life is Ralph Hill Muddox, who now fills a position of honor in more than one flourishing business house in this city. He is a native of Sacramento, having been born on the family homestead at Twenty-sixth and J streets, opposite old Fort Sutter, on July 9, 1876, and is the son of George A. and Isabelle (Bundock) Maddox, the former a native of London, Eng- land, and the latter of Chelmsford, England.
The father, George A. Muddox, was a potter by trade and upon his arrival in America came as far west as Illinois, where he set- tled, engaging in the manufacture of pottery ware in the city of Alton. In 1872 he came to California, and locating in Sacramento, established a pottery business which he continued until his death. The mother is still making her home in Sacramento.
Ralph H. Muddox was educated in the public schools and at the Atkinson Business College, from which latter he was gradu- ated at the age of twenty-one, at which time he embarked in the contracting and building trade and followed it for twelve years with marked success. Having learned the manufacture of pottery and cement work when but a lad he became experienced in this line of work, and accordingly decided to resume that work. His ter- razzo and cement manufacturing plant which is situated on Twen- ty-ninth street, between K and L streets, is the center of a thriv- ing business which takes much of his attention and has proved a judicious investment and a financial success. Other business inter-
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ests than this concern command Mr. Muddox's abilities. He is secretary of the Isleton Asparagus Company, which has one hun- dred and fifty acres in asparagus, and he is also a stockholder in the Sacramento Olive Company, one of the largest olive orchards in Northern California.
Mr. Muddox has proved himself to be a public-spirited, con- scientious and progressive citizen in every sense of the word. He affiliates with the Native Sons of the Golden West and was for some time active in the Order of Eagles. In politics he is a Re- publican and is inclined to vote independently, favoring the man best suited for the position. On December 15, 1903, he was married to Miss Marian Russell, of San Luis Obispo county, Cal., daughter of D. A. Russell, then a lawyer at San Luis Obispo and later at Bakersfield, but who is now living retired from active cares and re- sponsibilities. In 1903 Mr. Muddox made a four-months' tour of Europe, touching at different points of interest in England and on the continent, meanwhile visiting the old homes of his father and mother in England. Mr. and Mrs. Muddox attend the St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
CASPER V. SCHNEIDER
A son of Charles Joseph and Katherine Schneider, Casper V. Schneider was born in Germany February 16, 1875, and was quite young when the family sought a home in America. During 1880 his parents settled in Omaha, Neb., and there he was sent to the parish schools of the Roman Catholic Church until he reached the age of fifteen, when he began to earn his own livelihood. As an apprentice and helper he entered the shop of the Western Electric Company and there learned all branches of the business, later be- coming foreman of the repair shop. In the various positions which he held with that company he proved efficient, anxious to learn and quick to grasp any new idea in the business. Upon resigning in 1897 he removed to California and settled in Sacramento, where he entered the employ of the Electrical Supply Company. At the ex- piration of one year he bought an interest in the business. Dur- ing 1903 the company was incorporated and he was chosen presi- dent, since which he has built up an important and prosperous trade in the manufacture and jobbing of electrical supplies and the wir- ing of buildings for gas and electricity.
From boyhood Mr. Schneider has been devoted to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and more recently he has become ac- tively identified with the Young Men's Institute and the Knights of
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Columbus. The German Order of Red Men and the Sacramento Turn - ers also number him among their members, as does the local camp, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is independent in politics but keeps well posted concerning all national problems, and supports such men and such measures of each party as seem to him to be best adapted to the advancement of the commonwealth and the country. For some years after he came to California he remained single, but February 4, 1903, he was united in marriage in Yolo county with Miss Pauline Schmeister, and they came to Sacramento, establishing a permanent home in this city and winning the friendship of a large circle of acquaintances. They are the parents of three children, Sophie, Lawrence and Virgil.
FREDERICK S. WALTON
The Walton family traces its lineage to honored colonial settlers of the east and numerous successive generations left the impress of forceful personalities upon the history of New England, where there yet continues a goodly representation of the name, although with the expansion of the country's population and resources to the west there has been a corresponding migration of its members from old settled regions to the new country. Born June 21, 1870, in Boston, Mr. Walton enjoyed in youth the splendid educational advantages offered by that historic town, while in the home of his parents, Harrison C. and Abbie Ann Walton, he received the example of true courtesy to all and the highest refinement of manner. Upon his graduation from the Boston high school in 1886 he faced the future with a youth's bright hope of success and for the attainment of such a desired result he was qualified by birth, breeding and education. The means of the family enabled him to gratify a longing for travel and his first long voyage brought him around the Horn to San Francisco, where he entered into special service for the government as a member of the United States navy, stationed for one year aboard the Albatross. Later he spent one year in travel, mainly in Australia.
Mr. Walton returned home and took up occupative employment, engaging as a hill clerk with the American Express Company for two years. Next we find him upon the plains of South Dakota, where for one year he served as a member of the Eighth Cavalry, U. S. A., and upon his retirement from the army he remained in the Dakotas to carry on mining enterprises. The year 1897 found him in Portland, Ore .. where he organized the Quaker Medicine Company and hecame manager of the business, in which he owned one-half of the stock. For eleven years he continued in the same position.
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Under his expert supervision the business of the company developed greatly and its reputation was established throughout the west. A favorable opening caused him to remove to Los Angeles in 1908 and there he became general manager for the Dr. Parker Painless Dentistry Company. During August of 1910 he came to Sacramento and organized the dental firm of Walton-Way, Incorporated, of which he is now president and which under his experienced super- vision has reached a high degree of professional prestige and finan- cial success. Modern improvements and devices of every kind suited to professional use may be found in the operating rooms, while the reception and consulting rooms are attractive and elegant. The success of the enterprise is due to the initiative and sagacious judgment of its founder, who in addition to this important association still retains his large interest in the Quaker Medicine Company. Fraternally he holds membership with the Elks. The home which he has established in Sacramento enjoys the hospitable ministrations of Mrs. Walton, formerly Miss Edith Dacre Chapman, whom he married August 1, 1909, in Huston, Tex., and who is well qualified by native abilities and educational advantages to fill an important social position in the cultured circles of the capital city.
T. J. O'KELLY
Left fatherless at the age of four years and forced to become self-supporting at an age when the majority of boys are enjoying educational advantages and athletic sports, Mr. O'Kelly developed qualities of self-reliance and industrious application that have been of the greatest value to him throughout all of his life. With no one to advise him, he early developed the quality of independent reason- ing and thus has always studied out in his own way personal problems, public questions and national issues. Of recent years he has given much attention to the fact that twelve millions in cash annually goes out of California into the hands of the eastern life insurance companies, thus building up the east at the expense of the people of the west. It is now his ambition to keep at least a small portion of this immense sum in our own home state and with that object in view he acts as the Northern California agent for the Occidental Life Insurance Company, an organization having its headquarters in Los Angeles, where it has a reputation for substantial growth and excellent financial status.
Mr. O'Kelly comes of southern ancestry and was born April 17,
60
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY
1867, in Vernon county, Mo., where his father, a native of Tennes- see, died during middle age. The mother survived him for many years and finally settled in California, where in 1911 she died at Redlands. There are seven children in the parental family and of these all but one are residents of California. Formerly the home of the family was in New Mexico, where at one time T. J. and his brothers had one thousand head of cattle on the range. As early as 1882 he began work in the mines of that then territory, but after eighteen months he relinquished that occupation and turned to other enterprises. For two years he was employed in the car- shops at Deming, N. M., after which he went on the road as a brakeman with the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and eighteen months later was promoted to be conductor.
Upon coming to California and settling at Redlands in December of 1890, Mr. O'Kelly bought a tract of land and began the improve- ment of the ranch, which eighteen months later he sold to a brother. Thereupon he returned to the employ of the Southern Pacific Company and had his headquarters at Tucson, Ariz. At the expiration of two years he again resigned from railroad work, this time to enter the Wesleyan University at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he studied during the year of 1893-94, meanwhile giving con- siderable attention also to religious work. Upon his return to Arizona he was given a position on the Santa Fe road as a conductor and as such continued for seven years, with headquarters at Winslow. During the spring of 1902 he became identified with the life insurance business for the first time. For one year he represented the New York Life Insurance Company and it was during this period that he began to study the question of the immense financial drain upon western states through the sending of millions annually to eastern companies. Not being in sympathy with the principle, he decided to give his support to western companies and for that reason he left the New York Life in order to represent the Conservative Life Insurance Company of California. At the same time he engaged in religious and temperance work among the railroad men and was instrumental in getting hundreds of men to pledge abstinence from drink. When he came to Sacramento for the first time in 1905 and saw the prospects of the valley for future prosperity, he resigned from railroad missionary work and became identified solely with insurance and real estate.
The marriage of Mr. O'Kelly and Miss Ethel Farmer, of Spring- field, Mo., was solemnized May 5, 1897, and has been blessed by three daughters, namely: Ella, born in Arizona March 27, 1898; Madeline, born in Arizona June 8, 1900; and Marjorie, whose birth occurred in Sacramento October 15, 1911. The family are connected with the Christian Science Church of Sacramento, in which Mr. O'Kelly
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serves as an usher. In former years he was very active in the Order of Railroad Conductors and his name is still enrolled in the organi- zation, while in addition he has been an influential factor in the blue lodge of Masonry at Sacramento. In young manhood he gave active allegiance to the Republican party and willingly aided all movements for the advancement of that organization, but a later and closer study of national issues cansed him to transfer his allegiance to the Socialist party, in whose ranks he since has been enthusiastic and interested. As a citizen he is progressive and loyal, aiding with generosity measures for the permanent benefit of Sacramento and devoted with whole-hearted sympathy to the welfare of the com- monwealth.
AUGUSTIN E. COOLOT
Among the pioneer families of Sacramento that have taken a very important and influential part in the commerical and social affairs of the city, mention should be made of the Coolot family. The founder of the family in California was Anthony Coolot, an Austrian by birth, but after 1850 a resident of the United States. Born November 19, 1821, he received a superior education in various European cities, after which he spent some time in Algeria, his residence there bringing him into close association with the French people of that country, so much so in fact that he was always taken for a Frenchman himself. Becoming imbued with a desire to come to the United States he crossed the ocean and first settled in New York City, but the location did not prove congenial on account of his associations with people of the south. Going to New Orleans he secured employment as clerk in a large glass and crockery establish- ment, in which business he had served an apprenticeship in Europe. From New Orleans he set out on a tedious but uneventful trip around the Horn on the Yankee Blade, which brought the young man to the harbor of San Francisco during the year 1854 and from the coast he proceeded to Sacramento, thence went to Nevada county and began to mine near Moore's Flat. The mines, however, did not produce profitable returns and at the expiration of six months he returned to Sacramento, where he secured a position in a glass and crockery store. For two years he remained with the establishment, but then resigned in order to embark in the general variety and notion business, in which line of endeavor he met with excellent results. Subsequently he embarked in the wholesale cigar and tobacco business, which he carried on until his death in 1900.
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Mr. Coolot went through the fires and floods of the early days. It should be stated that previous to the fire he had erected a brick building at No. 812 J street and it was this structure that arrested the progress of the fire of 1862 and helped to save a portion of the city. He was a staunch supporter and friend of Sacramento and when the attempt was made to remove the city to Sutterville he fought the attempt, and though he received flattering offers, nothing would induce him to desert the city of his adoption, in which he had such abiding faith. He was one of the original subscribers and stockholders of the Central Pacific Railroad and always a liberal supporter of enterprises that he deemed for the betterment of the people and the building up of the city. He was a ready and willing taxpayer and was very enterprising and public spirited, although very modest and unassuming, and all of his donations and charities were accomplished in an unostentatious manner. After he became a naturalized citizen he voted at general elections, but never allied himself with any political party, being independent in his attitude toward national issues and governmental problems. Throughont his entire life he remained a loyal adherent of the Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. Coolot was married in Sacramento in July, 1861, to Margaretha Sommer, a native of Bavaria who had come to California by way of Panama in 1860. She became the mother of three children, two of whom were danghters, Mary Antoinetta, deceased; and Mrs. Clara Louise Diepenbrock, one of the cultured women of Sacramento. The only son, Angustin E., was born in the year 1867 and to him were given the most select educational advantages the city of Sacramento then afforded. From 1876 until 1885 he attended the Sacramento Institute conducted by the Christian Brothers. Upon the completion of his course of study he began to assist his father in the cigar and tobacco business, and continued in the establishment until his death. Meanwhile, upon the death of its founder in 1900, the company was incorporated with Augustin E. Coolot president and Mr. Diepenbrock vice-president. For two years, until the dissolution of the company, the business was conducted as a corporation.
Removing to San Francisco in 1902 Mr. Coolot embarked in business in that city, but the great fire of 1906 wiped out the busi- ness. Thereupon he returned to Sacramento and organized the Aristo Mineral Water & Siphon Water Company, which has main- tained a prosperous development and a steady growth. In this concern he fills the office of treasurer. As a business man he has displayed much of the keen discrimination, untiring energy and resourceful ability that brought success to his father. Unlike him, however, he has taken a warm interest in public affairs as a member
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY
of the Republican party and a stanch believer in its value to the country. His marriage took place in Sacramento January 8, 1902, and united him with Miss Rebecca Maude Elliott. The only child born of the union died in infancy. The family are generous contri- butors to the Roman Catholic Church and Mr. Coolot has been a sincere believer in its doctrines throughout life, having been reared in that faith. The Young Men's Institute of Sacramento has. his name enrolled in its membership and he is also influential in the local work of the Benevolent Order of Elks.
EDGAR H. BELLMER
John Bellmer, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born near Bremen, Germany, May 11, 1833, and was fifteen years old when he landed in New York. When about twenty he started out on his travels again. He sailed on the bark Catharine Augusta bound for Australia, but his vessel calling at Rio Janeiro, sailed right into the yellow fever, and before she could get out of the infested port half of her passengers died. Mr. Bellmer, like the others, was glad to get anywhere, consequently when he found himself in the clipper ship High Flyer sailing around Cape Horn and bound for California instead of Australia, he was satisfied. He landed in San Francisco in September, 1853, and made his way into the mines, but four years later found him in Sacramento in the grocery business, and he re- mained in that city till his death April 4, 1899.
In the fall of 1871 Mr. Bellmer was elected county treasurer, and was again elected to that office in the fall of 1873. He was long an active member of the Sacramento Turn-Verein and held the offices of president and secretary for many terms. He was also prominent in the Odd Fellow fraternity, having been a past grand master of that order. Mr. Bellmer was married January 18, 1860, in Sacramento, to Miss Mary Grady, of New London, Conn. They had twelve children, five of whom are living, namely: Mrs. Carrie L. Miller of Sacramento; Mrs. W. B. Morrill of San Francisco; W. F. Bellmer, in retail liquor trade, Sacramento; F. R. Bellmer, head-marker, Sacramento Laundry; and Edgar H. Bellmer, secretary of Sacramento Laundry.
Edgar H. Bellmer was born in Sacramento, June 25, 1883, and kept pretty close to the city schools till he was seventeen years old, when he clerked in his father's grocery store. Clerking and book- keeping in the Southern Pacific Railroad store department and other offices occupied several more years, after which he bought an interest in the Sacramento Laundry and was elected the secretary of that insti- tution, which position he has ably filled for the last five years. On December 11, 1907, Mr. Bellmer was married to Miss M. E. Sprague of Roseville, and they have two children, Alice L. and Edgar H., Jr. Fraternally he is a member of the Native Sons of the Golden West.
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HISTORY OF SACRAMENTO COUNTY
ADAM B. KESSLER
The prominent dealer in hardware and house furnishing goods of Oak Park, Sacramento, whose name is above, was born at Williams- town, Clay county, Ind., November 25, 1869, a son of Donglas and Mary Kessler. His parents lived originally near Columbus, Ohio. His father taught school until after the death of his wife in 1887, then he farmed for some years and eventually passed away in 1906. After completing his school education A. B. Kessler did farm work until the spring of 1891, when he went to Livingston, Mont. There he worked as a carpenter until he contracted a fever which necessitated his leaving the town. During the ensuing five years he followed carpen- tering and did railroad and mining work from place to place until he located in Anaconda, Mont., where at length he found employment with the Montana Meat Company, which retained his services three years. During the next two years he was in the employ of the Montana Laundry Company at Butte. After that he bought ten acres of land at Orangevale, Cal., and operated a fruit farm and vineyard until 1909, when he sold the place. Early in the following year he entered the service of the Oak Park Lumber Company, but after a few months became a salesman in the E. A. Pierce hardware store. It was not long before he bought the stock of that concern, to which he has since added to complete the line and put in house furnishing goods, crockery and silverware. By fair treatment of his customers, as well as by the application of good business ability, he has built up a good trade which is constantly increasing.
January 14, 1904, Mr. Kessler married Miss Jessie R. Pierce of Sacramento, daughter of a pioneer at Fair Oaks and Orangevale, who has retired from active life and is living with his son, E. A. Pierce, a contractor. Mrs. Kessler has borne her husband four children: Ruth, Joseph Pierce, Dorothy, and Viola M. She is a member of the Mothers' Club of Highland Park, the family are communicants of the Baptist Church, and Mr. Kessler affiliates with the Knights of Pythias. As a citizen he is conspicuously public-spirited and progressive.
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