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

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28, far back in 1847, but from his ninth year was raised in Shelby County, Ill., on a middle-west farm. At that time the country was wild and barren, in fact it was little less than a wilderness; so that when he grew old enough to rent land and farm for himself, he found it hard work of the most genuine sort.

      In 1875 Mr. Kinney removed to Ralls County, Mo., and there, in New London, he conducted a store and a restaurant. Three years later, he pushed still further West, to Black Hawk, Colo., and later he settled at Leadville, where he undertook teaming to the mines. There, also, conditions were wild and enterprise difficult; but such had been Mr. Kinney's training in the past, fortunately, in parts of our great country also in the making, that he came to the great gold and silver regions by no means a tenderfoot, and was able to dare and do when others might have failed.

      In 1882, Mr. Kinney made one more removal and landed in California, where he at once chose Fresno County as his location. For five years he engaged in farming near Kingston, and then he bought one-half of section 29 of railroad land in the Coalinga district. He improved the land and farmed it to grain for eight years.

      In 1895 Mr. Kinney located at Coalinga, when the town was just starting. He built the Grand Central Hotel and livery stable, and conducted the same for many years. He applied to all his operations the golden rule, and so became one of the best-known men in the Coalinga district. For many years he gave his time and best attention, as a school trustee, to educational progress.

      For three years he absented himself from Coalinga. He had been prevailed upon to remove to Redwood City, and he threw himself heart and soul into business undertakings there; but in 1905, the more imperative call to the town in which he had had his greatest success, and some of his friendliest associations led him to return to Coalinga, and here he has been living since.

      Now he and his wife are retired from active labors, and live quietly, the center of one attention or another from their several children, Mr. Kinney having married, in 1873, in Shelby County, Ill., Cynthia Field, who was born in Gibson County, Ind., in 1853, but moved to Illinois. William J. Kinney, the oldest son, was born in Illinois, but lives at Coalinga, and is the father of two children. Charles L., who was born in Colorado, is married, has one child, and lives at Taft. Arthur W., also a native of Colorado, is now a farmer in Nevada. Albert E., a native son, was once a bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Coalinga and later located in Oklahoma, and from that state he enlisted as a sergeant in the United States Army. A daughter, the fifth in order of birth, is Mrs. Carrie B. Whitmer; she was born in California, and has one child. The youngest of the family is Robert H., who is a native son, is married and has one child, and is a resident of Richmond, Cal.

      ARTHUR HOWARD McCOY.

      A skilled pharmacist who has won an enviable reputation and who is a worker for the best interests of Kerman, is Arthur Howard McCoy, a native son who manages the Kerman Pharmacy with its extensive stock of medicines and drugs, and kindred lines. He was born near Campbell Station, Santa Clara County, on December 28, 1880. His father was Reuben McCoy, a native of Knoxville, Tenn., who outfitted at St. Joseph and crossed the plains with ox teams in 1849, and at first followed mining; then he bought a ranch from the Mexican Government and started in to develop it. Six months later, however, there was a change of government, and he was compelled to buy it a second time. It is near what is now Campbell Station, and he had 320 acres of grain and stock, the whole forming a very attractive ranch. There he lived and labored until he died, in 1885. Arthur's mother, Ellen England before her marriage, was born at Steelville, Crawford County, Mo., and was early left an orphan, and in 1856 she crossed the plains with friends. She was married to Mr. McCoy at Santa Clara. On the death of her husband, she continued, with the aid of her children, to manage her place, and made a specialty of horticulture, and she still has 117 acres of prunes. In October, 1917, she reached the age of seventy-three, and is one of the oldest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Among her memories are those of a classmate, Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst, with whom she went to school and who has since become so famous She was the mother of four boys and one girl: John A. is on the home farm; William Orville lives at Oakland; George Stirling is in Saratoga; Laura Elizabeth has become Mrs. E. O. Fellows, of Santa Clara County; and Arthur Howard, our subject.

      Arthur H. attended school at Moreland, and later went to the Los Gatos High School; and at Los Gatos and Gilroy he had seven years' experience in the drug business. Then he entered the University of California and was graduated from the pharmaceutic department in 1905 with the degree of Ph.C. He was a member of the Phi Chi and was president of his class during the senior year.

      Thus equipped. Mr. McCoy took a position as pharmacist with the Bowman Drug Company in San Francisco, and there remained until the great fire of 1906 burned them out. After that he became the buyer for Wakelee in San Francisco, and then manager of their store in the western addition. When he resigned, it was to remove to Porterville, where he was pharmacist for a couple of years with Todd C. Claubes. Once more he resigned, this time to come to Kerman, arriving here on May 12, 1917. He bought the store of T. C. Peters, and continued the drug business, developing it also as the chief agency in Kerman for San Francisco papers, magazines and other metropolitan supplies.

      While in San Francisco, Mr. McCoy was married to Miss Lela Bell Gard, a native of Cobb Valley, Lake County, Cal. Mr. McCoy is a charter member of Porterville Lodge, No. 1342, B. P. O. Elks; he was made a Mason in Keith Lodge, No. 187, F. & A. M., at Gilroy, and is still a member there. Both Mr. and Mrs. McCoy are welcome members of the Order of the Eastern Star of Kerman. Mr. McCoy is a member of the Kerman Chamber of Commerce.

      MRS. CARRIE PILEGARD.

      Living on a ranch of the late George Pilegard, one and a quarter miles north of Bowles, in the Oleander district, Mrs. Carrie Pilegard presents an exalted example of widowed motherhood by keeping up the Pilegard home — bringing to bear the qualities that make a most excellent housekeeper and homemaker, as well as conservative business head.

      Her husband died on the ranch September 22, 1906, and is buried in the Washington Cemetery. He was born at Fyen, Denmark, December 13, 1860, and grew up on his father's forty-acre farm in Denmark. Educated in the Danish public schools, young George was brought up in the tenets of the Lutheran faith and confirmed at the age of fourteen. At twenty-three years of age he sought a wider field for his energies and embarked for the shores of America. His first stop in the new land was at Marshalltown. Iowa, where he worked on a farm for one year. From thence he came to California and worked on the flume at Enterprise, Madera County. He was with the Flume and Lumber Company two years, and was employed a part of that time in making shakes. While working there he was united in marriage with Karen Nielsen Krog, daughter of Niels Hansen Krog and Annie Katrina (Christensen) Krog, natives of Fyen, Denmark, and the owners of a fifty-acre farm in that place and country. Her parents lived and died at Fyen, Denmark, the father attaining the advanced age of ninety-three before his demise, and the mother living to be eighty-three.

      George Pilegard and Karen Nielsen Krog were schoolmates in Denmark and were betrothed before young George came to America. In 1885 Karen Krog started for America to link her destiny with that of George Pilegard. After their marriage they lived in what is now Madera County from July 4th to December, 1886. Hearing of the fertile lands and the reasonable price of land in the Washington Colony at Oleander, a friend induced them to buy forty acres of land there. They built a small house with their own hands, began to improve the property and were happy in their new home. Eight children were born to them. Their 'oldest child died in infancy. Andrew, the oldest living child, is a fruit buyer and lives in Fresno. He married Lilly Kringel and they are the parents of one child, Helen Katrina by name. A daughter named Anna Katrina, died in infancy. Another daughter of the same name, Anna Katrina, graduated as a trained nurse from the Burnett Sanitarium at Fresno, and is now a Red Cross nurse in France. Christine also graduated from the same sanitarium and is likewise a Red Cross nurse in France. The sixth child, Karen Marie, died in infancy. George, who is seventeen, attends the high school at Easton, and Carrie, the youngest of the family, is also a student at Easton high school.

      George Pilegard improved land and sold property several times,

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