Читать книгу History of Fresno County, Vol. 3 - Paul E. Vandor - Страница 6

An enterprising and progressive viticulturist, and an authority on the laying out of fine vineyards and kindred lands, and a business man who, having early in life declared himself for the walk of a consistent Christian, has endeavored in his spare time to promote the cause of holiness and has never swerved from his allegiance to the Christian Church, is John William Sharer, who was born near Pittsfield, Pike County, Ill., on January 23, 1869, the son of Peter and Elizabeth (Johnson) Sharer, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio. His father was a pioneer farmer in Pike County, and after the death of his wife, he retired from active work and spent his last days in Fresno County, where he died in 1906, at the home of his son, 'M. M. Sharer, and in his eighty-fourth year.

John William Sharer's schooling was limited, as he was compelled to lay aside his books when he was only sixteen years old; and he had both the advantage and the disadvantage of growing up in the country districts until he was eighteen years of age. Having a brother living in Fresno County, Cal., he came west in the "boom" year of 1887, and began to work for Steve Hamilton. In the middle of October he joined the threshing crew on Governor Edmiston's place, and put in there two seasons. He early worked for Charles H. Boucher, and also spent some three years in the employ of other people in and about Clovis: and, at the end of the first three years in Fresno, he made a visit home.

In 1890 or 1891, Mr. Sharer rented one-half of the Tarpey lands, which he farmed to grain. About the same time, he took hold of some ranch acreage in the Red Bank section which he ran for many years; then he secured the Elvira section, which he had for five years, and then he quit farming altogether. During the years 1890 to 1894, when the Enterprise Colony was coming to the fore, he and his brother set out the first piece of vineyard in the Colony, the place he now owns. He also farmed grain land up to 1899. This he did, that while improving his vineyard, he might keep up the running expenses. He found it profitable, besides, in the fall of the year, to haul lumber from the mountains for the building of many of the homes in and around Clovis.

In 1896 Mr. Sharer located on the home place, a tract of twenty acres, then only partly improved, but which his industry has expanded into 100 acres, while he has witnessed the growth of this entire section. He installed a pumping plant, and a first-class water system for irrigating the land. At the time when he came to this section of the county, there was no thought of using the land for any other purpose than that of grain farming and stock-raising, and for some time thereafter he could tell the name of each family living between Lane's Bridge and Centerville. It was necessary to get the entire Garfield, Jefferson and Red Bank districts in order to have enough people for a Thanksgiving festival dinner. After a while, viticulture demanded a share of attention, and Mr. Sharer is proud of his part in vineyard development.

But as a man endowed with a natural bent for material progress, Mr. Sharer has come to have other interests besides those of the fields. He has invested, for example, in a steam laundry, and, in keeping with his usual standards, has gone in for the most up-to-date service that could be provided; and he has also come to own valuable business and home property, and is a director of the Scandinavian Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Mr. Sharer was also one of the organizers of the Clovis Farmers' Union, and a member of the original board of directors, and at the first meeting was elected president of the board. His company established the large warehouses at Clovis. Mr. Sharer and K. M. Hansen purchased machinery at San Jose, and the warehouse was equipped for both the seeding and packing of raisins: and within three years their efforts resulted in such success that when the California Associated Raisin Company was formed, their equipment was purchased and became Plant. No. 1.

Mr. Sharer was one of the original organizers of the Melvin Grape Growers' Association, formed in 1916, and was a member of the original board of directors, and was secretary from the start — a position he has held ever since, and to which he has given his best efforts and experience. The association built a packing-house at Melvin, 50 x 100 feet in size; in 1917 they added another floor space of 50 x 50 feet, and in 1918 they built two new packing-houses, each of the same dimensions, with skylights and most modern equipment at Glorietta and Bartels.

The success attained by this association was recognized by other communities, and being intensely interested in cooperative movements, Mr. Sharer as a director lent his aid, visiting different localities and explaining their plan and success, and recommending similar organizations. There are now various associations throughout the valley, all shipping through the California Fruit Exchange. Its growth can be estimated from the fact that the first year's shipment was only 120 cars, while in 1918 some 1,400 cars from these organizations were dispatched through this exchange from this valley, and a conservative estimate for 1919 is over 2,100 cars. The local association at Melvin alone has saved its growers over $35,000 in packing and selling within three years' time. When the Melvin Grape Growers Association became a member of the California Fruit Exchange, Mr. Sharer was elected the representative from his association, and at the stockholders meeting of the California Fruit Exchange in Sacramento, January, 1917, he was elected a member of the board of directors, and was again reelected, having served acceptably and well.

On October 17, 1894, Mr. Sharer was married to Miss Nellie Dawson, who was born near Arena, Wis., the daughter of John A. Dawson, also an early settler. Mr. and Mrs. Sharer have three children: Ralph Vernon, a graduate of the Clovis High School, who superintends his father's ranch, and who served seven months in the United States Naval Reserve; and Alice Gertrude, and Everett Eugene, all of whom are at home. With commendable pride, Mr. Sharer took his family to the World's Fair at St. Louis, in 1904, and while East he had various novel experiences. Someone asked him the question, "How much sugar do you Californians put into your raisins?" and another, "How do you get the sugar into the raisins?" and another question propounded was, "Can a man start in California without money and expect to pull through?"

When thirteen years of age, Mr. Sharer joined the Methodist Church, and finding no church of that denomination here, he joined the First Presbyterian Church of Clovis, in 1900, and he has since been an active member, and of late an elder, while for ten years he was clerk of the session. In the spring of 1904, he went to Alberta, Canada; and while there the San Joaquin Presbytery elected him delegate to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church held at Dallas, Texas, which he attended, and then took his family east to the St. Louis Exposition and visited relatives in that vicinity. In 1914, on the death of Judge Law in Merced, he was selected director of the San Joaquin Presbytery, and has been reelected each year since. In 1918 he was again elected a delegate from the San Joaquin Presbytery to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church held in May, at Columbus, Ohio, and attended the session. On the same trip he visited his old home in Pike County, Ill., also in Missouri, Nebraska and Colorado, and then returned home, more than ever satisfied that he had cast his lot in the land of sunshine and flowers. As the result of this Christian experience in an everyday world, Mr. Sharer's advice is to be honest among one's fellowmen, and having thus met and disposed of the duty of each day, to leave the future to the God of all time.

Emphatically a man of energy, Mr. Sharer is never idle, and is one of the most enterprising and active of men in Fresno County, giving substantial encouragement to every plan for the promotion of the public welfare, for the upbuilding of its institutions and its development, thus aiding materially in bringing about the prosperity we all enjoy.