Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 6 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 16

Identified with the development of Fresno County as one of the real upbuilders of the Arizona Colony is William Nelson Fuller. He was born in Detroit, Mich., on November 27, 1855, the son of John Fuller, a native of London, Ont., Can., and one of the successful representatives of a line of energetic forebears who came from England to New York State and then migrated to Canada.

John Fuller removed to Detroit, where he remained a few years and then located on a farm near Lexington, Sanilac County. Mich., and there foil,, wed farming until his death, at Criswell, in the same county. The mother, Jane Wilson before her marriage, was also born in London, Ont., but of Scotch descent; and she, too, died at Criswell, leaving five boys and a girl, among whom our subject is the oldest son and the only one in California.

William Nelson was reared in Sanilac County on a farm, and educated at the public schools. When sixteen, he left home and worked on farms in different parts of Southern Michigan. He saved his money and entered the high school at Grand Rapids from which he was graduated; and then he learned the trades of a carpenter and a plasterer. After completing his apprenticeships, he came West to Minneapolis, and there he worked as a journeyman, laboring also in St. Paul. Two years later he removed to Fargo. N. D., working as a carpenter, and then he went to Bismarck, where he set up as a contractor and builder. He was in Bismarck when it was the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and was also there when the capitol was moved from Pierre to Bismarck.

In 1887, when the development of California realty interests was at its height, he came to Los Angeles and engaged in farming and horticulture, which he continued for five years; he then came north to Fresno County, where he homesteaded 160 acres near Raymond in what is now Madera County. He made numerous improvements, erecting buildings and in five years he sold the property at an advantage; and then he came to his present place. This was in 1897, and Mr. Fuller was one of the first settlers in the Montpellier Colony.

He began with fifteen acres of raw land — mere hog wallow — on Thorn Avenue, bought a water right, constructed a ditch, and brought the water on to the place; he then began raising strawberries for the Fresno market. He had ten acres of berries, and with a Mr. Markley was a pioneer strawberry grower in this section. Later he bought ten acres more of land. After some years, he quit raising strawberries and set out the whole twenty-five acres in a peach orchard, making a specialty of Muir, Lovell and Elberta peaches. He has raised as many as two tons of dried peaches to the acre, and has sold dried peaches as low as two and a half cents a pound, and as high as fifteen cents a pound. He and his wife have developed their property into a beautiful place, and they are now the oldest settlers on the Montpellier tract. A member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., from its organization, he is also a stockholder and a member in the California Associated Raisin Company.

While in Los Angeles, Mr. Fuller was married to Lucy Mohr, a native of Switzerland, in which country she was reared until she was fifteen, when she came to Racine, Wis. She also came to Los Angeles in the boom year of 1887. Both Mr. and Mrs. Fuller are members of the Presbyterian Church in Fresno, and each endeavors to perform civic service under the banners of the Republican party.