History of Fresno County, Vol. 6 - Paul E. Vandor

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was in the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1907 he left the railroad work and was employed in a clothing establishment for eighteen months; then leased a ranch on Barstow Avenue, raised alfalfa and engaged in the dairy business for five years. During this time he bought his present ranch, in 1910, and for a time worked both places. He now has a forty-acre ranch on Biola and Barstow Avenues, fifteen miles northwest of Fresno, thirty-five acres of which are in Thompson and muscat grapes, and the balance in alfalfa. He has made modern improvements on his property, built a fine residence and barns, put in a modern pumping-plant for irrigation purposes, and is prospering and reaping the fruits of his industry and enterprise.

      Mr. Bien's marriage, in Fresno, united him, on January 8, 1901, with Miss Annie Miller, born in Stahl, Samara, Russia, a daughter of Andrew and Marie (Grill) Miller, who came to California in 1900 and are now living in Dinuba. They were the parents of seven children, Mrs. Bien being the oldest of the family. Mr. and Mrs. Bien have had eight children born to them, six of whom are living: George, Fred, Amelia, Lizzie, Martha, and John, jr. The family attends the Congregational Lutheran Church of Fresno. Mr. Bien is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company, and keeps in step with the march of progress which is sweeping throughout this section of the state.

      HARVEY H. GEORGESON.

      A hard-working, honest, gentleman is Harvey H. Georgeson, who was born in Berlin, Wis., on April 1, 1887. His father was originally known as L. P. Jorgensen, but owing to much confusion in the delivery of his mail, due to the presence of so many Jorgensens, he had his name changed to Georgeson.

      The fourth eldest in a family of eight children, all of whom grew to maturity. Harvey H. lived in Wisconsin until 1895, when he came West to California and Fresno County with his parents. They located in the Madison school district, and there the lad attended school and obtained the foundation of a good education. He was given much work to do, however, as a boy, and so early learned viticulture and general ranching, at which he busied himself until his seventeenth year. He then worked, until the fall of 1911, at logging, lumbering, and stationary engineering at Millwood, Pine Ridge and the Standard Lumber Company's plant.

      On New Year's Day, 1912, Mr. Georgeson was married to Miss Clara V. Hansen, who was born at Malaga, Fresno County, a daughter of H. C. Hansen.

      Following his marriage, Mr. Georgeson purchased his present ranch of twenty acres at the corner of Madison and Braly avenues. He laid out a fine vineyard and erected a residence with suitable buildings for farm use. His vineyard yields the best of Muscat and Thompson seedless grapes, and these command the highest prices in the market. Mr. Georgeson is both a member and a stockholder of the California Associated Raisin Company.

      For the past six years Mr. Georgeson has also assisted in caring for the county roads in road district No. 1, and he runs the Holt caterpillar sixty horsepower engine used in doing the road work.

      Mr. and Mrs. Georgeson have two children, Gilbert and Stanley.

      RICHARD I. FARRIS.

      A representative of the splendid type of manhood of the Middle Western States, Richard I. Farris was born in Lincoln. Logan County, Ill.. November 23, 1876. His father. John H., was born in Kentucky, but removed to Illinois in his youth. He then went to Washington County. Iowa, where he engaged in farming for eighteen years. He first came to California in 1882, but he returned to Iowa again. In 1910 the Farris family moved to Fresno County where they engaged in the dairy business until the father's death, in 1913. He lacked eight days of reaching his eightieth year. The mother in maidenhood was Louisa Harrold; she was born in Illinois, and is still living, residing in Fresno. To them were born four children: Mary, of Fresno; Richard I.; Morton, of Fresno; and Nora, now Mrs. Nowel, of Muscatine, Iowa. The father, by a former marriage, had four children, two of whom are living.

      Richard I. was raised in Illinois until his sixteenth year. He followed farming there until 1896, when he went to Iowa, immediately beginning work with his father on the farm, and continuing there until the farm was sold, after which he engaged in farming for himself. In 1903 he made his first trip to California, and in 1910, having sold out, came again and located in Fresno County, where he entered into the dairy business on his father's place. Here great improvements have been made: they have a pumping-plant with twenty-horsepower engine and seven-inch pump, and the land is also under the Herndon canal system. They have fifteen cows in the dairy, and are raising alfalfa, also.

      Mr. Farris was married January 23, 1901, to Miss Stella Coppock, daughter of William and Frances (Edwards) Coppock, who were natives respectively of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mrs. Farris was born in Osborne County, Kans.

      Her parents were farmers in Iowa, and then in Kansas for a time, but later returned to Iowa. Her father was a Civil War veteran, a member of Company D, Fourth Iowa Cavalry. He has passed on, leaving his wife and nine children. Mrs. Coppock is now a resident of Iowa. Mrs. Farris is the fourth of this large family.

      To Mr. and Mrs. Farris have been born four children: Velma, Wendell, Dale and Gertrude. They are all members of the North Side Christian Church, Fresno. Mr. Farris is a member of the Board of Trustees of Roosevelt school district, and of the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers Association. He was made a Mason in Dayton Lodge, No. 149, F. & A. M., at Wellman, Iowa, and transferred his membership to Washington Lodge, No. 26, Washington, Iowa, of which he is still a member. The Farris family occupies a high place in the life of the community.

      CLAIR E. HALIBURTON.

      Of a long line of honorable ancestry, himself a worthy descendant, Clair E. Haliburton, proprietor of The Toggery, in the Amy Block, stands among the foremost business men of Coalinga. The Haliburton family in the United States is large and all of that name are related by blood, being the descendants of two brothers, who came from Scotland to the United States before the Revolutionary War. One of them settled in North Carolina, and some of his descendants moved to Tennessee, and it is from this branch that Clair Haliburton is descended. His father was Henry Warren Haliburton, who was born in Dickson County, Tenn. His grandfather was Charles Haliburton who was born in North Carolina but who moved to Tennessee when quite young, and engaged in farming when grown. There are many Haliburtons in North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, and a few in Virginia, and they have become prominent in business and as professional men. More of them have engaged in the mercantile business than in other lines of activity.

      Henry Warren Haliburton, the father, was reared in Dickson County. In 1846, when a young man, he migrated to Missouri, and located in Randolph County, where he became in industrious and honorable citizen. Soon after the discovery of gold in California, in 1849, he crossed the plains, driving an ox team in a large train of wagons, and located in Plumas County. After following mining awhile he drifted into the stock business, at Globe, Tulare County, where he purchased a ranch and became successful and influential. He died in 1896 at the age of seventy-four years. The mother was Mary Martha Osborn, a native daughter of California, born in Tulare County. Her parents also crossed the plains in the early pioneer days of California. She died in 1894.

      Clair Haliburton is the youngest of seven children, and was born at Globe. Tulare County, August 10, 1884. Following the death of his mother he lived with his sister, Mrs. A. J. Phillips, now of Tulare, until he had completed the public school course. At fourteen he began clerking in Epstein's store, at Visalia, receiving only five dollars a week, and out of this he had to board himself. He stuck to it for four months, and then began clerking for C. O. Anderson, general merchandise, at Reedley, remaining with him over six months, when he came to Coalinga to enter the employ of A. P. May, as a clerk in the gents' furnishing department. He took a deep interest in his work, and was rewarded by being placed in charge of the department. After a period of three years he resigned, having decided to engage in business for himself.

      In 1905 he started a cleaning and pressing establishment on Front Street, but this soon gave way to the idea of a gents' furnishing goods store, new and up-to-date. For this purpose he borrowed $750 from his brother. In order

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