Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 3 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 24

An enthusiastic promotor of good roads and kindred advancements, and a student with wide experience of public transportation, is Robert D. Chittenden, the enterprising President of the California Road and Street Improvement Company. His parents, now both deceased, were J. W. and Mary C. Chittenden, farmer folk of the sturdy, honest sort so helpful to our expanding country; and it is probably as a farmer's lad, in the days when American country roads were none the best, that he first had his attention directed to the great gain in store for the agriculturist if he would but solve the problem of a quicker, perhaps shorter and, therefore, more economical route between his outlying farm and the city market.

Born in Indiana February 30, 1870, Robert was educated in the public schools of the East. When he came out to the West, in November, 1887, he engaged in the fruit business and he helped install and operate the first raisin seeding outfit in this country. In 1903 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the office of public administrator, for a term of four years, and from 1907 to 1911 he was sheriff of Fresno County. Mr. Chittenden's next move was to experiment with street paving and road construction, and in the years intervening, his company has come to do much work in California. This manifestation of enterprise has been responded to by state and county authorities, and Mr. Chittenden has frequently employed large forces of men.

In 1907, Mr. Chittenden and Corynne L. Jones were united in matrimony, the ceremony being solemnized at Fresno; and today two children — Russell and Catherine — brighten the Chittenden home. The family worship as Protestants.

He is a stanch advocate of good roads everywhere, and believes there should be at least one good road built into the high Sierras, in order to give the people an opportunity to enjoy the fine summer climate to be found there, and enable them to maintain summer homes in the mountains.