PREFACE
Dear reader,
we, the publisher, have carefully reviewed and edited this book, whose original edition dates back to the year 1919. Well over a hundred hours of work have passed correcting it, but still it was not possible to eliminate all the mistakes that a 20th century scanner produced. The original scans we had at our disposal were of very poor quality. While it was possible to correct and eliminate special characters or false letters, there is unfortunately sometimes a dot where a comma should be, or a colon where a semicolon belongs, or the odd apostrophe, that a small dot in the scan generated in the text file. While we still corrected and eliminated ten thousands of errors, does not hinder the reading pleasure in any way and still makes this version of this rare book much more valuable than other versions on the market that have not been edited at all. We think it is fair to say that this is not 100% of a perfect book, but a 99% edition that has not been available since the original editions vanished from the shelves. We wish all readers a great time browsing through the history of Fresno County and the hundreds of biographies of the most important personalities.
BIOGRAPHICAL
EDWARD JOHNSON.
A young man who has undergone the experience of so many in sacrificing important interests in order to respond to the call of their country in the late war is Edward Johnson, the senior partner in the firm of Johnson Brothers, ranchers, who are renting the Lindquist estates. He was born near Grantsburg, Wis., August 14, 1886, the son of John A. and Betsy ( Erickson) Johnson, who were parents of eight children — six sons and two daughters. With the exception of two sons, who are living in Minnesota, the entire family is now in Fresno County, in the vicinity of Kingsburg. Edward, the third child, grew up in Wisconsin; he received a very limited schooling, he worked on his father's farm, and while yet a youth, hired out by the month, after which he made for Minneapolis. There, until he was twenty-six, he was employed in the Pillsbury Flouring Mills.
In that year he removed to .Montana, and near Skelley homesteaded 160 acres, which he farmed and proved up and was just about to profit by, as a grain and stock farmer, when he was drafted into the American Army, and therefore compelled to sell his Montana interests. It was not easy to part with that which had been acquired through so much hard labor and risk, but the consciousness of duty and its obligation impelled him on and enabled him to come through like a man.
Mr. Johnson served at Camp Lewis for five months, and was then transferred to Vancouver, Wash., having served in the infantry at Camp Lewis and in the aviation in the North. He was honorably discharged on December 23, 1918, and reached his parents' home December 25, 1918, at their ranch in the vicinity of Kingsburg, Fresno County.
At Oakland, on January 2, 1919, Mr. Johnson was married to Miss Nellie Rabe, of Portland, Ore.
The farming operations of the Johnson Brothers are carried by our subject and a younger brother, Alvin Johnson, who was also born in Wisconsin, who came out to California in 1918 direct from Wisconsin, where he had worked on a farm.
The ranches operated by the Johnson Brothers are the forty acres of Mrs. Lindquist, the ten acres of Alfred Lindquist, adjoining, and another fourteen acres of Muscats belonging to still another of the same family, three and a half miles northeast of Kingsburg.
HENRY A. DUNKLAU.
A progressive young rancher, whose capable wife, a real and valuable helpmate, represents the family of a successful viticulturist prominent in the community, is Henry A. Dunklau, the viticulturist and horticulturist, who was born at Arlington, Washington County, Nebr. He is a son of Zacharias and Johanna Dunklau, who located in Washington County, Nebr., in 1865, and there homesteaded eighty acres. Later Mr. Dunklau bought property adjoining, until he had 240 acres. He planted it to corn and devoted part of it to the raising of stock; and there he now resides, at the age of eighty-five, while his good wife is seventy-three. Eight children, all living, have risen to bless their worthy name.
The fourth eldest in the family, and the only one in California, Henry was brought up on a farm and attended the public schools. He remained at home helping his father until he was twenty-one, and then he started out for himself, working here and there for others on farms. After a while, his attention was attracted especially to California, and he finally decided to come to the Coast.
In January, 1908, he arrived in Colusa County, and the following spring came to Fresno County. In Temperance Colony he secured employment in vineyards and orchards, and set to work to learn the propagation and culture of grapes, as well as of trees, and also the preparation and leveling of land, and the staking and planting of vines and of trees. Desiring to engage in ranching on his own account, he purchased for the purpose forty acres on Locan near Ventura Avenue, completing the transaction in 1910, and immediately set it out as a vineyard. He improved the acreage, built several needed structures, bought another forty acres, and then sold it at a profit, after keeping it a couple of years.
During 1916, Mr. Dunklau bought his present property of seventy-two acres in the Kutner school district, twelve miles northeast of Fresno, which he has improved and is devoting to a vineyard and an orchard. He has twenty acres of white Adriatic figs, interset with prunes, plums and peaches; two acres of alfalfa, and the balance in different varieties of vines. He has a pumping plant with an eight-horse engine, and a well eighty-six feet deep, in which the water rises to within eight feet of the surface of the ground, thus furnishing ample water for irrigating his ranch. However, his ambition was not satisfied with' this, and in partnership with his brother-in-law, Edward Bartels, he purchased forty acres across the county road from his ranch, which they also set out to vines. Mr. Dunklau has greatly enhanced the value of his home ranch by erecting a large, beautiful modern residence and by giving the grounds and ranch in general such excellent care that it has become known as one of the show places in the district. Believing in the cooperation of fruit-growers, he has always been an enthusiastic member of the California Associated Raisin Company.
At the home of the bride, in Temperance district, on November 22, 1911, Mr. Dunklau was married to Miss Emma Bartels, a native of Fresno and the daughter of Edward and Anna (Steinkamp) Bartels, settlers of Fresno County who are represented on another page in this history. Mrs. Dunklau, the eldest child, attended the public school and Heald's Business College in Fresno, and now has two sons, Henry E. and William E. Dunklau. The family attends the German Lutheran Church in Fresno, Mrs. Dunklau being an active member of the Ladies' Aid Society of the Church, as well as the Jefferson Auxiliary of the Clovis Chapter of the Red Cross. Mr. and Mrs. Dunklau showed their patriotism by giving their time and means towards the different branches of war-relief work, and they are active in all movements for the upbuilding of the community. They are both liberal and hospitable, and fortunate is the individual who is privileged to be entertained by them.
ANDREAS H. ANDERSEN.
A capable and enterprising rancher, Andreas H. Andersen lives on his forty-acre ranch southwest of Reedley. Mr. Andersen was born in Denmark, March 7, 1886, and is the son of Antoni and Marie ( Hansen ) Andersen. He received a good education in the Danish language. His father died eight years before he left Denmark, and his mother three months before he sailed from Esbjerg via England for the United States. He landed at New York, April 29, 1908, and came directly to California, where he began working on a stock ranch southwest of Selma. He worked on various farms and also as still-man for three seasons under the late John Petersen, foreman of the Parlier Winery. From 1911 until 1917 he rented the Clark & Jones ranch of 160 acres.
In 1915 Mr. Andersen purchased his present property three miles southwest of Reedley. The land was a barley field four years ago, and Mr. Andersen has planted the place and made all improvements. He has 12 acres of Thompson seedless grapes, 7 ½ acres of Sultanas, 10 acres of Malagas. 300 apricot trees, 250