Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 5 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 21

Good and effectual boosters of the industrious, thrifty, progressive, successful and happy sort, such as arc always a credit to the land from .which they come, while they are a blessing to the United States, and just such pioneers as Fresno delights to welcome and to honor, are Mr. and Mrs. Mikkelsen, a contented, confident couple of superior and impressive personality. They own a twenty-acre ranch near the Ross schoolhouse, two miles south of Parlier, and all who know them respect them and wish them well.

E. M. Mikkelsen was born at Hirtshals, Denmark, near the Skagerrak Light House, on March 20, 1871, and attended the Danish common schools, while he prepared for confirmation in the Danish Lutheran Church. From fourteen to eighteen he followed fishing; and having tasted of the romance of sea-life, he came to America and settled at Merrill, Wis. He sailed from Hamburg on the steamship Prussia of the Hamburg-American line, and on March 28, 1880, landed at the old Castle Garden in New York City.

Settling in Wisconsin, he engaged in the arduous and dangerous work of a woodsman in the service of various lumber companies, and for five seasons drove timber down the Wisconsin. Then he moved to Minneapolis and there, with a partner, ran a Merry-go-Round, continuing to manage the amusement for a year and a half. He realized considerable income from his combined labors and investment, and began to plan greater things.

Between 1898 and 1900, Mr. Mikkelsen made a visit to Denmark, and coming back to America and the Pacific Coast, he settled in San Francisco and engaged in the oyster business. He became the foreman for the Morgan Oyster Company, being with them seven years. He then made a second trip to Denmark, staying a year; and after he returned in 1910, he was married, at San Francisco, to Miss Johanna Christina Fredericksen, a daughter of Denmark, who had come to Iowa when she was sixteen years old, and there became a trained nurse in the Sioux City Hospital. Later she came to San Francisco and continued her nursing; and when she married, she was finely equipped for pioneer work. Mr. Mikkelsen bought his place in 1909, and soon after his marriage made it his home. They have one child, the light and life of the household, Envoid Miller, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Mikkelsen are members of the Danish Baptist Church in Selma. They are thus disposed to aid in building up and improving Parlier in every respect. They also belong to the Danish Brotherhood. As members of the Peach Growers and Raisin Growers associations they also labor to advance Central California's great industries, and they put in many days of effectual work in the great raisin drive in the winter of 1917 and 1918. They are enthusiastic advertisers of the country and the county in which they have had their prosperity; and as loyal citizens, they vote for the best man and the highest principles.