With Messrs. Clayton and Hancock as partners, Mr. Haliburton brought the first privately-owned airplane to Fresno County; it is a Canadian-Curtiss J-N-4 Plane. They are using it commercially, as a passenger sight-seeing and advertising plane.
Mr. Haliburton was married in Coalinga to Miss Eva Buckalew, a native of Pennsylvania. They are the parents of two children, Emory and Richard.
Mr. Haliburton is a member of the Fresno Lodge of Elks, of the Coalinga Lodge of Eagles, and of the Chamber of Commerce. The success he has achieved is his own and no one begrudges it to him.
A. E. HASLAM.
A hard working, progressive and excellent dairy farmer is A. E. Haslam, the rancher who owns 230 acres of superior land one mile southeast of Riverdale. He is the original butter maker in that town, and has the distinction of having first demonstrated the special advantages of this section for the butter industry. He is a stockholder in the Riverdale Cooperative Creamery.
Mr. Haslam was born in London, England, the son of William Haslam, who was a native of the world's metropolis and came to America when our subject was only a year old. He settled awhile in New York City and built up a large cigar manufacturing business, through which he became comfortably fixed. He had married Elizabeth Ford, also a native of England, the ceremony taking place in that country; and they became the parents of four boys and a girl.
Crowing up in New York City, Mr. Haslam read the New York Tribune and he heeded Horace Greeley's advice. "Young man, go West and grow up with the country." At twenty-five years of age he came to California and at first worked in San Luis Obispo County at grain farming. He farmed for himself and had a sad experience, for prices fell to such an extent that they broke him.
He then came to Riverdale and worked for Uncle Job Malsbury, who came to California in 1853 and located near Riverdale in 1885, and he was married to Miss Emma W. Holton, a native of St. Andrew's, New Brunswick, Canada. She was a teacher in the public schools at Conejo, in Fresno County, and one child, Margery, eleven years of age, was born to this union. Mr. Haslam had been previously married in San Luis Obispo County to Miss Ida M. Turner, a daughter of James Turner, the well-known pioneer of Riverdale who moved to this section with Mr. Haslam. She became ill and died during the first year of their residence, and she left two children. Willard married Mabel Baird and is a rancher owning eighty-six acres at Riverdale, and they have two children— May and Kenneth: Isabel, the wife of J. T. Hunter, a carpenter and builder, is the mother of four children — Dorothy, Edward. Marion and the baby.
Mr. Haslam bought his present place sixteen years ago from C. G. Milnes, and he donated a right of way to the Hanford & Summit Lake Railway. He also owns forty acres a mile to the west. He is the financial manager of the United Brethren Church of Riverdale — a living growing congregation, thanks largely to Mr. Ha-slam's excellent work. Mr. and Mrs. Haslam are consistent Christians, dwell in a fine ranch house which is one of the very best in Riverdale, and are patriotic citizens, always interested in advancing the welfare of the community.
DR. DAGMAR PETERSEN.
Dr. Petersen, of Selma, comes from a family wherein learning and character always have been valued highly. Her father, Jens Peter Petersen, was born in Denmark, became a teacher and was prominent among the educators of Denmark, but since coming to America he has turned to agriculture and has made good also in that field. He resided and farmed in Colorado and came to Fresno County in 1909; and so well has he prospered here, that he now owns a ranch near Selma. Her mother, who was Manna Trina Andersen before her marriage, and is a native of Denmark, is also resident here. Five sons and four daughters were born to this hardy couple. Two of the youngest sons were in the army in France, and three are ranching in Colorado. Besides Dr. Dagmar Petersen, Dorothea is a trained nurse and was a Red Cross nurse in France for one year, and has just returned to Selma. Mary, who is a graduate of the Colorado State Normal and the University of California, is a teacher at the Salinas High School; and Agnes is a teacher in the high school at Grass Valley, where, as a graduate of the art department of the University of Southern California, she has been chosen to supervise the drawing.
Born at Hornsburg, near Akron, Colo., Miss Dagmar attended the public grammar and high schools in that state, and first came to California in 1907. Soon after her arrival, she matriculated in the branch department of the Medical School of the University of California at Los Angeles — now devoted exclusively to postgraduate work in connection with the State University; and after taking the regular four-year course, she was graduated with the Class of 1911. She then went to San Francisco to acquire practical experience and became an interne at the Children's Hospital, ably filling that responsible, if subordinate position during the winter of 1911-12.
Ready to start entirely on her own responsibility. Dr. Petersen began general practice at Patterson in Stanislaus County, and for a year she was with Dr. Hammer. Later, for a year and a half, she practiced at Arbuckle, Cal., and in April, 1915, she took the step, of such importance to Selma as well as to herself, and moved her office to Selma.
Naturally endowed with unusual gifts for her difficult work, and blessed with a personality which inspires confidence, Dr. Petersen is building up a lucrative practice and a large clientele. Her offices are located in the Dusaw Building, Rooms 9 and 10. She is particularly adept in the diagnosis and treatment of children's and women's diseases; and as there never was a time when the specialist in these fields was more in demand, a career of useful service seems assured to this highly accomplished young woman.
HENRY RUDOLPH HALEMEIER.
An energetic native son, a patriotic citizen, and a good manager is Henry R. Halemeier, the son of August Halemeier, a native of Steinbeck, Westphalia, Germany, where he was reared on a farm. In 1886 he came to the United States and for eight months settled in Nebraska; after which, stirred by the reports of greater prospects in the Golden State, he came to California. On January 10, 1887, he arrived in Fresno County and joined the Eggers Colony; and there he worked as wine maker in the Eggers winery. He was later wine maker in the Fresno, the Margherita and Barton wineries, and rounded out a record of seventeen years in that responsible position. In the meantime he bought twenty acres of land in the Eggers Colony, and set out a vineyard with Muscat vines, and built a residence.
In 1897 Mr. Halemeier purchased his present place of eighty acres of raw land, which he improved and set out with Muscat and wine grapes, adding Thompson seedless; afterward he reset the vineyard and changed it to its present form. With characteristic enterprise, he also secured valuable land in Merced County, to which from time to time he gave his personal attention.
In 1900 Mr. Halemeier quit making wine and devoted all his energies to his property in this section. He sold twenty acres and located on the balance of eighty acres, and there, in 1905, built a substantial residence. In 1916 he rented the place and now resides, with his wife, in Los Angeles. Mrs. Halemeier was born in Germany, where she was christened Marie Seckmann. Three children were born to this worthy couple: August H., the viticulturist on Locan Avenue; Henny, now Mrs. Haeuser, of Whittier; and Henry Rudolph, the subject of our sketch.
Born on December 28, 1891, at Eggers Colony, nine miles east of Fresno, Henry R. attended the Temperance public school, and when thirteen came to this place, where he continued his schooling. He also went to Heald's Business College in Fresno, from which he graduated with honors in 1911. Then he returned home and assisted his father in the vineyard, having learned that business from the time he was a lad.
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