USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma 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 time > Part 106
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For a life companion Mr. Bassett chose Miss Gertrude Marie Nielsen, who was born in Denmark, one of a large family of eleven children born to her parents. Four of these children were sons, Andrew, Christian, Louis and Jen- sen, while the remainder were daughters, Gertrude Marie, Catherine, Laura, Anna, Julia, Laura and Christina. Mrs. Bassett has been a resident of Sonoma county since 1904 and since her marriage has made her interest one with her husband in making the ranch all that is possible financially and in every other way, and that they have succeeded in their efforts a casual glance over the ranch will determine. They are both active members of the Two Rock Presby- terian church, of which he is one of the trustees.
CHARLES A. BAKER.
It would be a difficult matter for the most casual observer to pass the ranch owned and occupied by Mr. Baker in the Bloomfield section, Sonoma county, without noting its well-kept appearance, home-like surroundings and general air of thriftiness. This comment would be just, and especially so when it is taken into consideration the comparatively short time that it has been in the hands of the present owner. The ranch is entirely in orchard, from which the owner reaps a substantial income.
In Butte county, Cal., in 1874, Charles A. Baker was born, the son of Andrew K. and Louise (Walker) Baker, the former of whom was a native of Arkansas. On a farm in an unprogressive portion of that southern state the news of a larger opportunity for his energies reached the ears and pene- trated the consciousness of Andrew K. Baker, and it was not without due delib- eration that he decided to leave the locality in which his ancestors had lived for so many years and cast in his lot with the immigrants to the Golden West. The year 1852 found him crossing the plains with ox-teams, and in due time he halted in San Joaquin county, where, near Lodi, he turned his knowledge of
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farming to good account. He remained in that locality for about seven years, when he went to Butte county, in 1865, and settled in a section as yet very sparsely inhabited. There he bought two hundred acres of land which he sowed to grain, which yielded large crops, and in the course of the more than twenty years that he was spared to carry on this property he became well-to-do financially. There he passed away in 1887, and there his widow still makes her home, in the house in which all of her seven children were born. Named in order of their birth the children born to these worthy parents were as follows: Will- iam, living in Oregon ; Arthur, Jessie, May, Mattie and Bessie, all of whom make their home with their mother; and Charles A., the subject of this sketch.
When he was a boy in school Charles A. Baker suffered the loss of his father by death, and as soon as his education was completed he assisted his brothers in carrying on the work of the home ranch which the father had laid down. This association continued in harmony and with profit for many years, when, in 1909, Charles A. came to Sonoma county and bought part of the Andrews ranch of forty-two acres near Bloomfield, the same property on which he resides today. The cultivation of the best grades of apples constitutes his chief industry, twenty-five acres being in the Gravenstein, Alexander, Belle- flower and winter varieties. Since Mr. Baker has become the owner of the property he has put it in the best possible condition through supplying whatever was lacking to make it an up-to-date ranch, and the appearance which it presents today bespeaks the owner to be a man of method and one who appreciates the necessity of caring for details. During his first season, 1909, his crop netted him returns to the amount of $600, and the outlook for the present year bids fair to exceed that considerably.
The marriage of Mr. Baker in 1909 united him with Miss Frances V. Perry, who like himself is a native of Butte county. They have one daughter, Frances Louise, born October 4, 1910. In his political preferences Mr. Baker is a Democrat, and fraternally he is associated with the Odd Fellows order.
CARL W. ARFSTEN.
That congenial work means success is borne out strongly in studying the career of Carl W. Arfsten, whose fruit ranch in the Blucher section is one of the show places of this part of the county. He is a native of this immediate vicinity, his birth occurring on a ranch near Sebastopol in 1878, upon which his father, C. P. Arfsten, had settled when he came to the county in 1870. The public schools of the Canfield section supplied his early educational training, and as soon as he was old enough he was eager to begin his independent career. By working as a ranch hand until he was twenty years of age he was enabled to purchase twenty acres of land in the Blucher section, entirely covered with a virgin growth of timber. He proved himself equal to the task of clearing and developing the land and when it was in condition, planted it to apple and other fruit trees.
Mr. Arfsten's early efforts was the beginning of one of the most thriving and remunerative ranch enterprises in this part of Sonoma county, all of which has been developed under his immediate supervision, in fact, all of the manual
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labor was performed by himself, and it is therefore with even greater pride and satisfaction that he notes the increased income from his orchard produce from season to season. Seven acres of his land are in strawberry vines, the crop from which nets him annually $125 per acre. His orchard is made up of the best varieties of apples (about one-half of them Gravensteins) which yield abundant crops, a number of the trees at times yielding fourteen boxes of fine apples each, while the average annual yield from the entire orchard is twenty-five hundred boxes. All of this is in addition to the apples which are dried, which amount to five tons a year. Two drying houses are maintained by Mr. Arfsten, one on his ranch, and the other at Petaluma, in the latter of which he dries fruit for other parties principally, and it is no unusual occurrence for him to turn out forty tons of dried fruit during the season. Besides his strawberry and apple crops Mr. Arfsten has sixteen cherry trees that during the season of 1900 yielded fruit to the amount of $80, and ten acres of. grapes that bore three tons to the acre, He also has six twelve-year-old walnut trees that yield about one hundred pounds to the tree. Mr. Arfsten is intensely interested in the line of work in which he is engaged, no part of which he does not understand thoroughly as the result of continued study and investigation as to the best methods of growing the fruits which he has chosen for his specialty, and his success is the natural outcome of right conditions of soil and climate, with the equally necessary knowledge and ability which he possesses. It is his aim to keep his ranch up-to-date, and each year he adds some improvement. In 1910 he built a new barn and erected a new windmill, besides which he fenced the ranch with woven-wire. He is still a young man, his career as an orchardist scarcely begun, and with what he has already accomplished, a brilliant future undoubtedly awaits him.
Mr. Arfsten is not so completely absorbed in his private interests that he has no time for matters of public import, but on the other hand is alive to the best interests of the community in which his entire life has been passed. Fra- ternally he is associated with the Odd Fellows order, also with the allied order of Rebekahs, and the Woodmen of the World.
SAMUEL I. ALLEN.
The history of California is replete with instances of men who have come to the state poor in pocket, in fact many of them penniless, but rich in courage, hopefulness and a determination to win success. The life of Samuel I. Allen, at one time sheriff of Sonoma county, is an illuminating example of what may result from such untoward conditions, and the account of his rise from penury to prosperity will be read with interest.
A native of Ohio, Mr. Allen was born in Brown county October 18, 1846, and he grew to young manhood in the locality of his birth. It is quite evident that he had not found congenial or remunerative employment in his home lo- cality, if the state of his finances may be taken as a criterion. He was in his thirtieth year when, in 1875, he came to California, landing at Ukiah, Mendocinc county, where he took an inventory of his financial condition, and found that he had just thirty-five cents in his pocket. Undismayed by the realization
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of the true condition of his affairs he accepted the first honorable employment that presented itself, and altogether remained in the vicinity of Ukiah variously employed for the following two years. Coming to Sonoma county at the end of this time he located in Santa Rosa and established a butcher business that he maintained for fifteen years, from 1877 until 1892. While a resident of Santa Rosa he was honored by election to the state legislature as a candidate on the Republican ticket, a circumstance that was unique from the fact that never before had a candidate on that ticket been successful in winning the candidacy to this office. It speaks eloquently of the regard in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, and this regard was strengthened during his term of faithful service, from 1884 to 1886. Other honors of a public character came to him in 1893, when he was elected county sheriff and tax collector on the same ticket. After the expiration of his first term he was elected his own successor, this election recording the largest number of votes ever east for any candidate to the office of sheriff.
It was while he was still a resident of Santa Rosa that Mr. Allen pur- chased the ranch near Sebastopol of which he is now the owner, and in which his energies have been centered ever since disposing of his interests in Santa Rosa. When he purchased the property in 1884, the whole of it, forty acres, was covered with timber, but this he succeeded in clearing and finally, he set out fruit trees of choice varieties, prunes, apples, and cherries principally, his orchard numbering twenty-three hundred prune trees, thirteen hundred apple trees, and three hundred cherry trees. One hundred dollars an acre is the average yearly return from the ranch, which is in charge of a competent foreman, Mr. Allen and his family making their home in Sebastopol, where they have a fine residence.
Before her marriage, in 1881, Mrs. Allen was Miss Olive Teague, a native of Iowa. With her husband she shares in the esteem of friends and neighbors, and both are prominent in the best social circles of the town in which they live. Fraternally Mr. Allen is a well-known Mason, belonging to the lodge and commandery at Santa Rosa, and he also belongs to the Odd Fellows lodge of the same place.
JOHN LYNCH.
A worthy pioneer of Sonoma county and one who has won the highest re- gard of all who know him is the gentleman whose name heads this article. He was born in the county of Tyrone, Ireland, about the year 1831, a son of William and Catherine ( McCue) Lynch, both natives of Ireland and farmers by occupa- tion. Besides John there was a brother William who came to the United States and later to California and died in Petaluma; one sister, Catherine Lynch, also immigrated to the Golden West and is a resident of Petaluma.
John Lynch was reared and educated in his native heath, and like a great many of the young men of his locality, decided to investigate the conditions of the New World for himself and accordingly, in 1850, started for New York. Soon after his arrival he went to Swampscott, Mass., where he was variously employed until 1854, at which time he took passage for California via the Nicaragua route and landed in San Francisco April 15th, or 16th, that same
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year. He remained in the metropolis five years, working at any honest em- ployment he could find, and being of a frugal nature, he saved some money from his earnings, and in January, 1859, came to Sonoma county and made a pur- chase of four hundred acres of land from Gen. M. G. Vallejo, that being the nucleus of his present ranch of six hundred and fifty acres. This land was in its primeval condition when he secured title to it, but he at once set to work to transform it into a prosperous ranch. He made all of the improvements seen on it today and had to haul fencing from Bodega. He raised grain, then bought fifty head of cattle and embarked in the stock business, which has gradually grown from that small beginning. Three hundred acres of this valuable ranch are under plow. Lynch creek, named for the owner, waters the place, besides a number of springs that flow the year round. Some years ago the Petaluma Water Company laid an injunction against Mr. Lynch, restraining him from using the water. The case was carried to the higher courts and was decided in favor of Mr. Lynch, thus establishing his riparian rights.
Mr. Lynch manages a large dairy, and brought in full blooded Durham cat- tle, and for some years he has been breeding full-blood Durhams. He is the second man in the locality to engage in raising shorthorn Durhams, and he has met with unqualified and deserved success. His ranch is located five miles north and east from Petaluma, about which he has constructed roads and otherwise improved his surroundings by using the Johnson patent gate. Everything about the ranch bespeaks the thought of the owner, who has been interested in the advancement of the county's interests for more than half a century.
In 1859, in San Francisco, occurred the marriage of John Lynch and Mary Ann Riley, who was born in county Cavan, Ireland. She passed away on Sep- tember 22, 1880. Of their children we mention the following: Joseph William, who died in June, 1907, was graduated from St. Mary's College in San Fran- cisco and was employed as manager for Baker & Hamilton, in Los Angeles, for many years, and was thus engaged at the time of his death; John A. re- ceived a business education in Heald's Business College in San Francisco, and is now superintendent of the Lynch ranch; James M., also a graduate of this business college, is salesman for a Los Angeles packing company; Mary A. is Mrs. Eugene Sweeney, of Los Angeles; and Katherine E. and Susanna are both at home.
The family are members of St. Vincent's Catholic Church in Petaluma, and Mr. Lynch has been since its organization, assisting materially in its up- building. In politics he is a Democrat, and for many years has served on the county central committee.
J. NOBLE JONES.
The opening years of the twentieth century have given a very noticeable impetus to the desire for specialization, and this may be named as one of the attributes of the era through which we are passing. Nor is California less eager in its devotion to this progressive trait than are other commonwealths of the Union; in fact, in the onward march of progress her citizens have been fore- most in reaching success through devotion to certain specialties. A marked attribute in the life of J. Noble Jones has been his intense faith in California's
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future, and his earnest support of all movements for the state's advancement. Especially identified with Sonoma county's development, he is now giving his time and thought and means to the development of Orchard addition to Santa Rosa, a venture involving an enormous outlay, but promising excellent returns to its investors.
Some years ago Luther Burbank, the famous "wizard" in plant develop- ment, offered the following suggestion: "When you plant another tree, why not plant the walnut? Then, besides sentiment, shade and leaves, you may have a perennial supply of nuts, the improved kind, which furnish the most delicious and healthful food that has ever been known." Mr. Jones is not only an admirer of the walnut tree and a lover of the nut itself, but in addition he has the utmost faith in the adaptability of Sonoma's soil and climate to the profit- able growing of this product. Faith took visible form in works, and he began the development of the Orchard addition, with the intention of selling the young walnut groves to small purchasers. Already a deep interest has been awakened in the project. Its feasibility recommends it to men of small means, who do not wish to give up their occupations for a time, yet desire in the future to remove to small farms which will afford them a means of livelihood .
Tradition tells us that the first walnuts were raised in Persia and shipped by merchants to Rome, where the people considered them a great delicacy. In 1769 the Franciscan monks planted walnut trees about their missions in California and thus was inaugurated an industry that has grown wonderfully from that day to the present. The state produced in 1907 almost sixteen million pounds of walnuts. During the year a few hundred thousand were raised in other states and thirty-two million pounds were imported, regardless of the fact that a tariff was paid on every pound. In 1902 statistics show that more than fourteen million pounds were imported and in 1906, almost twenty-five million pounds. The product in California during the year 1895 reached only four and one-half million pounds, but this increased every year and in 1908 twenty-two million pounds were produced. With this increased production there is an increased demand. It has come to be realized that as a food the walnut closely approaches perfection because it contains the three important food elements concentrated in large proportions. It is more than half fat, more than one quarter protein and contains about one-tenth carbohydrates, along with a little mineral matter. The fact that walnuts now form a large proportion of the diet of vegetarians is proof of their high value. The oil from the Fran- quette nut has valuable medicinal qualities, a discovery of modern times that gives promise of a larger demand for this variety.
The plan adopted by the owners of the Orchard addition is the one exper- ience has proved to be the most practical. The land is planted with vigorous black walnut trees two years old, indigenous to the soil of the state, and scions of the Franquette variety are grafted to the stock. The Franquette is said to be more prolific, more hardy and more rapid in growth than the English walnut. It has never been attacked by disease and avoids the frost because it blooms a month later than many of the early varieties. The shell can be broken between the fingers, but is hard enough to ship in safety. The company is following the methods that have produced the best results on the Vrooman grove, adjacent to Orchard addition, where the Franquette has yielded splendid crops and has
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proved adapted to the climate and soil conditions of Santa Rosa. In past years growers did not know what varieties to plant nor how to plant and care for the trees. Thousands of dollars were lost because the walnut blossoms were not properly fertilized and because grafting was not managed with the neces- sary care. The Franquette has staminate and pistillate elements which bloom at almost the same time, ensuring fertilization of all blossoms upon every tree and in consequence a full crop of nuts every year.
After the planting of the trees the company cares for the trees for four years in the interest of the purchaser. The entire care of the young grove is under the experienced supervision of William Farrell, Jr., a man who has given his life to horticulture and walnut growing especially being raised in Santa Clara valley. The land is sold in tracts from one to ten acres at $500 per acre, with a discount of five per cent allowed for cash. A deposit of $10 per acre reserves a tract. When twenty-five per cent of the purchase price has been paid the purchaser may remove to the property, but if he prefers to delay his removal the company will continue to take care of the trees, after the fourth year and market the crops for ten per cent of the net profits. The Franquette walnuts fall to the ground free of the hulls and the sun bleaches them, an advantage over many nuts that must be picked and husked by personal work. The tree thrives in the climate of Santa Rosa, where the mean temperature of January is fifty-two degrees and of August sixty-seven degrees. The rain- fall is sufficient so that irrigation is not necessary. The soil is the right quality and depth, an important consideration, for a rich soil is needed from twenty- five to thirty feet in depth, in which water does not gather and remain long. However, enough moisture is needed so that the tree will carry its foliage late in the fall, because a long growing season is necessary to the ripening of the nut. Walnut trees in shallow soils are not a satisfactory investment and in such locations the tree invariably begins to die back from the top.
Aside from pecuniary considerations few sights are more beautiful than a Franquette walnut grove. The trees are slender yet compact, rising from the loamy soil in a sturdy column of gray bark, and branching out into a cluster of many slender and graceful limbs. The foliage is delicate yet abundant and the entire aspect is pleasing to the eye. Walnuts attain great age, yet the tree shows no signs of a decreased productiveness. In the Naidar valley near Balaklava, in the Crimea, stands a walnut tree at least one thousand years old. It yields annually about eighty thousand nuts and is the joint property of five Tartar families, who share equally in its product. In the village of Beachem- well, Norfolk, there is a walnut tree ninety feet tall, thirty-two feet in cir- cumference near the ground, several hundred years old and producing in one season fifty-four thousand nuts. The grafted trees will maintain an average growth of six feet in the first year, while the French or English seedlings would consume three years in making that growth.
The Orchard addition is near Santa Rosa, a city of twenty thousand in- habitants, with five banks, one high school, two daily papers, electricity, gas and free water, also an interurban electric railway. As the city increases in size and its limits are extended the value of the addition will be enhanced. It has the further advantage of being within six miles of Kenilworth, Altruria, Mark West, Fulton, Mount Olive, Molino, Sebastopol, Bellevue, Oak Grove and
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Yulupa. Nearness to various towns increases its market and shopping facil- ities, yet at the same time gives to the property owners all the delightful quiet of the country. In future years, it is the hope of the promoters of the plan, the addition will be the abode of hundreds of contented, prosperous and pro- gressive people, whose identification with the walnut industry will be profitable to themselves and helpful to the permanent growth of this locality.
JOHN HENRY JACOBSEN.
The agricultural development of Sonoma county owes much to the industry and thrift of our German-American citizens, who, trained to habits of frugality in their native land, have been admirably qualified to endure the hardships in- cident to the material progress of any region and have proved their worth as capable ranchmen in many a difficult situation. Alone, friendless and without capital, Mr. Jacobsen came to the United States in young manhood, seeking opportunities which he believed would be greater than those offered by his own country. From that position of poverty and dependence he has risen, solely through his own efforts, to an honored place in his community and an influen- tial standing as a farmer. The property which he now owns and occupies con- sists of one hundred and thirty-five acres on Dry creek near Healdsburg. Thir- ty-five acres are in bottom land, twenty acres have been planted to prunes of the choicest varieties, almost four acres are in apples and an equal acreage in peaches, the balance of the ranch being in wood land with valuable timber that adds to the financial rating of the property.
Born in Germany in 1846, John Henry Jacobsen is the son of parents who spent their entire lives in that country and who gave to him such advantages as their limited means allowed. When barely twenty-three years of age he bade farewell to old friends and kindred and started alone on the long voyage to the new world. The ship on which he sailed cast anchor in Boston, and from that city he proceeded to New York, thence to New Jersey and secured em- ployment as a laborer. Six months of drudgery convinced him that conditions were not favorable in the east, and thereupon he came to the Pacific coast, landing at San Francisco in 1869, and securing prompt employment in a dairy. Next he worked on a ranch and later bought a way-station in Santa Cruz moun- tains, where for six months he cared for stage horses. At the expiration of that time he bought a place, where he remained for a year. The sheep industry next engaged his attention, and for fifteen years he maintained a growing and profitable drove. After a visit back at the old home in 1888 he removed from Porterville to Windsor, Sonoma county, where he bought one hundred and sixty acres for $8,000. Twenty years were spent on the ranch, and he then sold out for $16,000, after which he purchased the tract he now owns and operates.
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