Fresno County, California Biographies

Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of 
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with 
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)

History By Paul E. Vandor 
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes 
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
 
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm



A. W. BEESEMYER. � A successful farmer, enjoying an enviable repu- 
tation for his up-to-date methods, and who has installed one of the best pump- 
ing plants in the county, is A. W. Beesemyer, a native son born in what is 
now Hollywood, a delightful suburb of Los Angeles, on December 8, 1882. 
His father was born in Missouri, and about fifty years ago came to California, 
the son of a Union Army veteran, who was killed during the Civil War. The 
father, William Beesemyer, was foreman in Spreckels' sugar factory until he 
came to Southern California, and then he bought land on the present site of 
Hollywood. He raised grain and hay, and later sold his property as an addi- 
tion to Hollywood, most of which was known as the Le Mona Tract. He still 
owns forty acres there, on which he resides. He had married Sophia Gallwas, 
a native of Indiana, and of this union, five boys and two girls were born, all of 
whom are still living. 

Brought up in Southern California, A. W. Beesemyer attended the public 
schools and the Throop Polytechnic in Pasadena, where he pursued a 
mechanic's course of study. For four years he was superintendent of streets 
in Hollywood, and had much to do with the beginning of improvements after 
the town was incorporated, holding the office until Hollywood was annexed 
to Los Angeles. Then he became a general contractor in Hollywood and Los 
Angeles, and did all of the Los Angeles Pacific work in his locality. He went 
to Bakersfield for the same company for three years, and became a general 
contractor of Southern Pacific work there. Wherever he established himself, 
he made a record and reputation that was capital itself. 

In 1913 he came to Fresno County and bought 240 acres of land, located 
on it, and improved it by leveling and checking. He installed a pumping- 
plant, and provided the electric power for it. He sunk two wells, one to the 
depth of one hundred feet, and the other to twice that depth, which bring 
water to within fifteen feet of the surface, affording a capacity of 2,000 gal- 
lons a minute. His ranch is also under the ditch, so that he has practically 
perfect irrigation � an evidence in itself of his thoroughness. He set out 
twenty-five acres in Thompson seedless grapes, and sold that tract ; and has 
the rest in alfalfa and grain, getting two crops of each a year. After selling 
more of the land, he still has twenty-five acres, the finest ranch land in the 
district. He belongs to the California Alfalfa Growers' Association, and is 
energetic in support of its cooperative endeavors. 

Mr. Beesemyer was married in Los Angeles to Miss Franziska Boehncke, 
a native of Germany, who crossed the ocean to the United States with her 
parents when she was six years of age, and later came west to California. 
One child has blessed this union, Artye Dorthy. 

The principles of the Republican party have appealed most to Mr. Beese- 
myer in matters of national politics, and a Republican he has remained 
through the trying ordeals of the nation. First and foremost, however, he 
has been and is an American, while in local movements designed to uplift 
the community, he has known no party distinction, and has always tried to 
support the best men and the best measures.