History of Fresno County, Vol. 5 - Paul E. Vandor

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to Sterling, in the same State, and grew up on a farm, at the same time attending the public school. Later, he went to Auburn, and there entered the academic high school, from which he was graduated with honors. He was foreman for Hayden & Smith, and after a while removed to Cleveland, where for fifteen years he showed his unquestioned ability as the superintendent of the Brush Electric Works. Discovering that he had both a liking and a talent for financial operations, he joined the staff of the Garfield Savings Bank, in Cleveland, and for about eleven years was auditor of its many different branches.

      On account of impaired health brought about through overwork. Mr. Possons resigned from his position of responsibility, and in 1908 came to California. He had made a couple of trips to the Coast on previous occasions, and so had become familiar with the state, and he was not long in selecting Fresno County as the section appealing most to his experience and judgment. He bought what has become the family ranch, containing a six-year-old vineyard of wine grapes, with eighty acres on Belmont Avenue, eleven miles east of Fresno, where he located and built his home. He put up a fine new residence in modern style, and replaced the wine grapes with muscat, Malaga, and Thompson seedless grapes, and prepared to get what he could out of life as a proper reward for his years of wearying activity.

      Thus comfortably situated, Mr. Possons appeared to have in prospect a fair lease of life, but on April 10, 1917, to the deep regret of his many friends, he passed away, an honored and devoted husband, father and citizen, and a deeply religious man. He was always patriotically interested in civic affairs, and as a Republican was invited to the councils of his party.

      At Auburn, N. Y., December 30, 1870, Mr. Possons married Miss Mary J. Conner, a native of that city, and the daughter of Joseph and Mathilda (Steel) Conner, natives of Belfast, Ireland, and members of the ( Grange party, who had married there, and come to New York, where Mr. Conner was a boot-and-shoe-maker. Mr. Conner enlisted in the Union army of the Civil War, and was a member of the Seventy-fifth Regiment of New York State Infantry Volunteers, and saw valiant service in the Battle of Cedar Creek and other engagements. At the end of eighteen months, and at the close of the war, he received his honorable discharge. Mrs. Possons was educated at the Auburn Academic High School. Three children were horn to this highly esteemed couple: Martha Adla died when she was ten years old; Milton Howlet assists his mother at the home ranch, having married Gladys McNab, by whom he has had two children, George Allen and Evelyn M.; and Marion Elida has been attending Mills College, from which she was graduated with the Class of 1918. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church.

      Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Possons has operated the ranch with the aid of her son, and has supported every movement for the advancement of local agricultural interests, and, in particular, the California Associated Raisin Company.

      ROBERT K. MADSEN.

      Communities blessed with such men as R. K. Madsen are the richest in the world, because they are rich in that which cannot be measured by the dollar standard. One of Parlier's foremost citizens, Mr. Madsen is president of the Parlier Winery, and also of the River Bend Gas and Water Company. He was born in Denmark, April 4, 1860, near Odense. He grew up there and at Aarhus, and other places in Denmark, where his father lived after returning from California in 1857.

      His father, Jorgen Madsen, was a native of Denmark, and in his early manhood learned the painter's trade, but later became a sailor. His father's uncle, Jens Storm, a millwright in Denmark, came to San Francisco in 1846 and, in the annals of the history of California, has the distinction of having built the first grist mill at Folsom and the first flour mill ever built by a man other than a Spaniard in California. A Chicago publisher, a few years ago, printed a book in English, giving the history of his life.

      Jorgen Madsen, one of the early pioneers of California, while a sailor on a voyage to the New World, left his ship at Havana, and made his way to Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1848, and, although it was not the lure of gold that first brought him to Vera Cruz, yet upon hearing; of the rich finds in California he resolved to try his fortune in the favored land, and, securing a mule, made his way to the west coast of Mexico, where he took passage for San Francisco. For nine years he was engaged in mining and painting, becoming a contract painter in partnership with a man by the name of Holm, under the firm name of Holm & Madsen, with their place of business at 58 Clay Street, San Francisco. The business proving profitable, he remained in San Francisco until 1857, when he returned to Denmark and was united in marriage with his betrothed, Conradina Rytel. For several years he ran the hotel at Odense, Denmark, then became interested as a sub-contractor in the construction of the first railroad ever built in Denmark. He moved to Mullerup and from thence to Skanderborg, where he became interested in a flouring mill, and in 1869 removed to Aarhus, where he became a manufacturer and extensive dealer in brick and lime, and where, after an active, useful and respected career, he died at the age of seventy-two. He and his good wife were the parents of Robert Kelly Madsen and Conradine Fanny, the widow of Ankjar Heegaard, now residing in Copenhagen.

      Robert K. Madsen was well prepared for a business career in a private academy in Denmark. At the age of fourteen he left school and began a seafaring life; starting as a junior sailor, he rose to the position of ordinary seaman and then to that of a regular sailor. He followed the calling of the sea for nine years, in the meantime attending the Danish navigation school. He became an officer and was in the line of promotion when his hearing became impaired, an incident which exempted him from the seaman's fate of "once at sea always a salt," and which was providential, as he was enlisted to go on the Jeanette, then outfitting at San Francisco for her last voyage to the Arctic. His defective hearing caused his rejection, and thus he was saved from going. He worked his way back to New York City as a seaman, and thence took passage for Copenhagen in 1880 for the purpose of visiting his old home. He learned the business of making compressed yeast and the distillation of whiskey, then came back to California after an eight months' visit in Denmark. He was with the Protrero Yeast and Distilling Company in San Francisco, acting in the capacity of superintendent. From there he went to the Hay View Distilling Company at South San Francisco, and then entered business for himself at the National Vinegar Works in San Francisco. Afterwards he was with the Frank Lewis Pickle Company at Oakland, and when that partnership was dissolved he and Mr. Lewis formed the Lewis Packing Company at San Francisco. Disposing of his interests, he went in 1896 to Parlier and purchased the eighty-acre Miller & Company vineyard and orchard. In the spring of 1897 he moved onto the ranch and continued to operate it until 1917, when he sold it. The winery was organized in 1900, and Mr. Madsen's efforts made it a splendid success. It had a capacity of 850,000 gallons of brandy per annum. They made no wine. In 1913, Mr. Madsen became president of the River Bend Gas and Water Company, in which he had been a stockholder for many years. He was also instrumental in helping amalgamate the Alta District Gas Company of Dinuba with the River Bend Gas and Water Company, distributors to Dinuba, Reedley, Parlier, and Kingsburg.

      On a second trip to his old home in Denmark, in 1887, Mr. Madsen was united in marriage with Anna Flack of Aarhus, daughter of Carl and Maria (Peterson) Flack, natives of Denmark, both now deceased. Of the six children in the parental home one died in Denmark at the age of forty; the surviving children are: Wilhelm; Henrietta; Ann Maria; Florentine, and Marie.

      Mr. and Mrs. Madsen's union has been blessed by the birth of ten children, three of whom, Otto, Ellen, and Halvor, died in infancy. The seven living children are: Georgia, the wife of E. A. Berryhill, a rancher at Del Rev Fresno County; Carl, who married Miss Etna Hankey of Sanger, and who is the president of the Parlier Winery and resides in Parlier; Anna, the wife of Mr. George W. Wiley, stock-raiser, near Orange Cove, Fresno County Helga, a graduate of the Glenn County high school in the class of 1914, and who also attended the San Francisco Institute of Art one year, and is well known as an artist of merit; Robert K., Jr., chief electrician and instructor in the Navy Reserve at San Pedro; Henriette and Herald, students in the Reedley high school.

      The family home is a comfortable cottage which is built on the winery property at Parlier. Mrs. Madsen is an accomplished musician and an acquisition to the social life of Parlier. Mr. Madsen was a member of the old Raisin Association, in which he held stock and whose interests he did all in his power to further. He also helped organize the Parlier Packing and Raisin Seed Company, and

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