For years the cheerful home of Mr. and Mrs. Dyreborg has been one of generous hospitality, and in fraternal circles no one is more popular than Mr. Dyreborg, who belongs to Fresno Lodge, No. 439, B. P. O. E., to the Danish Brotherhood, and the Knights of Pythias, in which organization he has been a member for the last twenty-three years.
OSCAR O. COLLINS.
Oscar O. Collins was born in Springfield, Kans., September 17, 1889, but was brought up in Pueblo, Colo. He attended the University of Colorado and afterwards studied with his father, who was at that time district judge. Mr. Collins came to Fresno in March, 1915, and was admitted to the California bar October 22 of that year. Soon afterward he joined Company K, Second California National Guards, and was with his regiment on the Mexican border in 1916. After a few months the United States Government recalled its soldiers and he returned to Fresno and began the active practice of his profession, making a specialty of civil law, his accurate knowledge of which, and his careful attention to details, enabled him in a short time to build up a fine and lucrative practice. He has his offices at No. 512, Mason Building. On October 2, 1916, Mr. Collins was married to Miss Clara M. Knott, of Oregon.
Mr. Collins was called to the Officers' Training School of the University of California at San Francisco, and put in three months at the Naval Training School. He was honorably discharged after the signing of the Armistice, and arrived home November 20, 1918.
He is a member of the One Hundred Percent. Club, the Commercial Club, the Workmen of the World, and other social organizations, and takes an active interest in everything that pertains to the welfare and growth of Fresno.
MRS. SADIE ELIZABETH SOPER.
A practical viticulturist, who has an unusually fine place and one she may regard with peculiar pride since it is largely the result of her own personal labor in irrigating and cultivating, is Mrs. Sadie Elizabeth Soper, who came to California in the middle nineties. She was born at Mt. Pleasant, Utah, the daughter of Benjamin Keller, a native of Iowa who crossed the plains to Utah and then married Miss Jane Oldham, a native of England, who 'came out to America and the Mormon country with her parents when she was two years old. Mr. Keller owned a farm in Mt. Pleasant, and in 1883 he moved his family to Kearney, Nebr., where he farmed for four years. Then he went to Lexington. Dawson County, homesteaded and improved 160 acres and, selling out in 1894, came to California. Later he went east to Nebraska and then for five years he was in Oklahoma. After that he settled at Clovis, bought land and improved it, and there his wife died. In time, he married again, and now he resides at Jacksonville, Fla. Thirteen children were born of this marriage, and four girls and two boys are still living.
The subject of our sketch was the second oldest of these, and being reared in Nebraska, she attended the public schools there. In that state also, she was married to J. C. Soper, a native of Des Moines. They owned 160 acres, fourteen miles from Lexington, which they farmed, and having sold this property in 1894, they located in Fresno County. Mr. Soper was in the employ of the Flume Company, grading lumber, and at Clovis, they bought a lot and erected a house. In the meantime, the far-seeing couple bought the ten acres one and a half miles east of Clovis, which they improved with a vineyard. Mr. Soper continued with the Flume Company and his wife did much of the ranch work herself. In time, she had one of the finest muscat vineyards to reward her toil. It is a fine place, and bears the name of Ellendale Vineyard; and her ownership adds interest to her membership in the California Associated Raisin Company.
Mrs. Soper has four children: Frederick Charles, who is in the United States Marines; Luella is Mrs. Barcus, of Barstow: Jane Elizabeth is Mrs. Johnson in Fresno; and her sister, Hazel Marie, who lives near her in the same city, is Mrs. Cummins. The family attends the Baptist Church of Clovis, and Mrs. Soper is a member of the Woman's Aid Society of that congregation. In national politics she is a Democrat, but is non-partisan in local issues.
DR. J. H. ROBINSON.
A prominent member of the medical fraternity of Selma is J. H. Robinson, M. D., who was born on October 1, 1874, at Gabon, Crawford County, Ohio, midway between Cleveland and Columbus. His father is J. C. Robinson, a retired, well-to-do Ohio farmer, while his mother was Emma Shumaker before her marriage. This worthy couple have had four children, the three youngest being as follows: G. B. Robinson, a grocer at Gabon; Richard, a civil engineer at Minneapolis and manager of a large bridge-building concern; and Carl, who is the proprietor of a moving-picture theater at Gabon.
The oldest child in the family, J. H. Robinson grew up in Crawford County, attended the country public schools and worked hard on the farm. He took a preparatory course at the Tri-State Normal at Angola, Ind., and then, for two years, engaged in teaching at West Point, Morrow County, Ohio. There he laid the foundation of that knowledge of human nature which has been of such value to him as a practicing physician. After finishing the preparatory course, Mr. Robinson matriculated at Hiram College, in Hiram, Portage County, Ohio, the same institution made famous by the good work done there as a student by Garfield; and he vigorously pursued a special scientific course leading up to the study of medicine. In the meantime, while in the Normal and while teaching, and also while a student at Hiram and later a student in the medical college. Mr. Robinson went each summer for seven years to Chautauqua. N. Y., and took the Chautauqua courses: and this experience contribute greatly toward his broad and liberal education.
Having entered the medical department of the Ohio State University at Columbus. Mr. Robinson, with characteristic thoroughness, took the regular four years' course, and in 1902 was graduated as assistant to the demonstrator in surgery. During the vacations of the junior and senior years. Mr. Robinson did work as an interne at the Cleveland City Hospital, and he was therefore unusually well-equipped when he at last received his coveted diploma.
Dr. Robinson began practicing at Levering. Knox County. Ohio, but selling out, he came west on an extended trip to Los Angeles and Southern California, also visiting Fresno and Selma in the early part of 1909. Later in the season, accompanied by Mrs. Robinson, he visited the northwest and enjoyed the Alaska, Yukon and Pacific Exposition at Seattle, having the good fortune to be present on the opening day there — June first. He was greatly taken with the Pacific Coast, looking over carefully both Washington and Oregon; and he was especially charmed with California, which he revisited.
Most of all, he was fascinated with Selma; and at Selma he determined to pitch his tent.
This decision was reached despite the fact that Dr. Robinson had no relatives or friends here such as are often of great service to a stranger. Excepting for an uncle, in fact, he was the first member of this branch of the Robinson family to locate in California. The uncle was Samuel Robinson, a 49er and for years city ticket agent for the Southern Pacific Railway at Sacramento, who grew up with the state and was widely known, but passed away in 1906. The Robinsons were originally Irish, as has been shown in a most interesting genealogy of the family prepared by the subject's grandfather.
On reaching Selma again, Dr. Robinson opened a suite of well-appointed offices on the second floor of the Dusaw Building at 2031 Second Street, and there he has conducted a general medical practice ever since. As a family physician in particular he has been unusually successful. This extensive practice demands his maintaining both a Ford and a Mitchell car. During his senior year at college, young Robinson was assistant to Dr. Hoover, head surgeon at the medical school, and the experience he thus obtained has finally culminated in his being regarded as not only one of the most active, but one of the ablest members of the County Medical Association.
About three months after his graduation. Dr. Robinson was married to Miss Mary Robertson, a lad) r of Scotch ancestry and the daughter of J. M. and Annie (Hunter) Robertson. His wife was born at Gait, Canada; and in the Canadian