Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 4 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 5

A very important factor in the promotion of the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company, was the late Charles B. Shaver, who located in Fresno in 1892. Being a man of extensive experience in the lumber business he foresaw the possibilities of the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company, an enterprise which had just been organized, and immediately bought an interest in the company and at once assumed charge of the construction, completing the surveys and building the flumes from Stevenson Creek, where the company built a dam sixty feet high, to Clovis, Fresno County, the flume being forty and one quarter miles in length, and requiring 9,000,000 feet of lumber to construct and an expense of $200,000. At the same time the construction of mills in the mountains was begun and carried to completion, two years being occupied in preparation for this extensive work. The planing mills, box factory and dry kilns of the company are located in Clovis, to which place the lumber is brought down by the flume. The output of this great enterprise is shipped to all parts of the world. To the energy, enterprise and experience of Charles B. Shaver, is due the culmination of this important undertaking, which has proved of such great importance in the development of this section of Fresno County.

Charles B. Shaver was a native of Steuben County, N. Y., where he was born in 1855, a son of John L. Shaver who was a native of Delaware County, of the same state. John L. Shaver was a miller in New York state until 1864, when he removed to St. Louis, Gratiot County, Mich., where he engaged in farming and continued to make his home until his death, which occurred at the age of seventy-four years. His wife, who in maidenhood, was Mary Rose, has also passed away. Charles B. Shaver was next to the youngest child in a family of four and received his early education in the public schools of Michigan, to which state he moved with his parents when a lad of nine years. At the age of nineteen he engaged in lumbering and was employed by Whitney and Stinchfield of Detroit, Mich., later becoming a foreman in the woods and in which position he remained until 1882, when he resigned and accepted a position with A. B. Long and Son of Grand Rapids, Mich. While in their employ he assisted in the building of the logging railway and became interested in their mills and lumber plant until 1889, when he resigned and became associated with the White Friant Lumber Company, with whom he continued two years and during which time he constructed fourteen miles of logging railway and put in over one hundred million feet of logs. In 1891 he went to Missouri where he built a mill for Boyden and Wyman Lumber Company, at Neelysville, Mo. In 1892, he migrated to California and located at Fresno, where he was instrumental in the building and the development of the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Company, becoming the president of the organization in 1894. He was also a member of the Pine Box and Lumber Company, of San Francisco, and the California Sugar and White Pine Agency, in both of which companies he served as a director.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., on December 6, 1883, Charles B. Shaver was united in marriage with Lena A. Roberts, a native of Pennsylvania. This union was blessed with three children: Grace, who is the wife of Captain H. J. Craycroft, U. S. A. medical detachment; Mrs. Ethel Hoover; and Doris who is the wife of Harold McDonald, of Fresno.

After a very active and successful career, Charles B. Shaver passed away on Christmas day, 1907. Fraternally, he was a Mason, having joined the organization in Edmore, Mich., later becoming a member of Fresno Lodge, No. 247, F. & A. M.; he also belonged to Trigo Chapter No. 69, Fresno Lodge No. 29, K. T., Lodge of Perfection at Fresno and Islam Temple A. A. O. N. M. S. of San Francisco. He was a member of Fresno Lodge No. 439 B. P. O. Elks, the Chamber of Commerce and the Sequoia Club.