Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 5 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 18

A public-spirited citizen, generous to a fault and untiring for the public welfare, is Horace E. Norman, the one surviving son of J. L. Norman, the vice-president of the Bank of Kingsburg. He owns a splendid ranch of about forty acres half a mile north of the Clay school, and besides operating that, he rents forty acres of his father's property. He was born in Saunders County, Nebr., on August 1, 1889, but grew up mainly in Fresno County, having come to California when he was five years old.

His father, who had much to contend with and who, as a successful American of an interesting type, is represented elsewhere in this work, had a career worth noting again. He was born in Sweden, in 1860, the son of Andrew and Johanna Norman who came to the United States in the late sixties and settled in Saunders County, Nebr., where they homesteaded. The tough experiences of a pioneer, in contending against grasshoppers, cyclones, blizzards and panics, undoubtedly hastened Andrew Norman's end, for he passed away in Nebraska, while his widow was able to come west to California, in the middle nineties, bringing her family. J. L. Norman, as a boy in Nebraska, earned his salt and many times over, so that when he became of age he was able to assume the leadership of the family. He farmed, and he also married, taking for his bride Miss Elna Nelson, who was born and reared in Sweden. When he came to California, he bought and improved twenty acres of land, and afterward he bought and improved forty acres. He sold the twenty and bought another forty. On these ranches he set out peach-trees and muscat vines, and became so active as a successful rancher that he was naturally made a trustee of the California Associated Raisin Company. Busy as he has constantly been, he has found time for wide travel, back to Nebraska and then to Sweden, with his family, and so has become a well-informed leader of men. As late as the winter of 1916-17, J. L. Norman had erected for his residence one of the choice dwellings in Kingsburg's select quarter.

After passing his boyhood attending the Clay Grammar School, and doing chores, and growing up. Horace E. Norman was married to Miss Edith Louisa Peterson, at Kingsburg, on January 19, 1916. She was the daughter of Alexander E. and Anna Petersen. Mr. and Mrs. Norman have one child, Horace M.

The association of father and son made Mr. Norman his father's main stay in running the home ranch. He is not only an excellent worker, but a young man of principle, good judgment, and common sense. He is one of Fresno County's most promising young men. Mrs. Norman also deserves her full share of honor, not only for her worthy family connections, but also for her part in the social life of the community, and she is, in more than one sense, a model citizen.