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 AUGUST BLATTNER.� Residing on his well improved forty-acre ranch on the Parlier road, equally distant between Selma and Parlier, August Blattner is among the respected citizens of the favored Selma-Parlier section of Fresno County. A native of Switzerland, he was born at Reigoldsweil, Bassiland, Switzerland, February 14, 1866, and is the son of Henry and Rosa Blattner, who lived and died in the country of their nativity. The father, a small farmer, mainly engaged as a manufacturer of pure silk ribbons, never attained any great wealth. He and his good wife brought their three children up in the religious tenets of the great Protestant reformer and leader, Zwingli. The youngest of the three is August, the subject of this sketch. Leaving his home in Switzerland in September, 1886, August Blattner sailed from Havre, France, and landed at New York City October 5, 1886, going thence to Franklin County, Ohio, where he secured work as a farm hand. For five years he was employed in tilling the soil, and at the end of that time, in 1891, came to Fresno County, Cal., where he worked as a ranch laborer for nine years, continuing this employment one year after his marriage to Miss Marie Pfister, December 5, 1899. In 1900, Mr. Blattner went into business for himself, renting the Miley place of 160 acres, and in 1903 purchased his first piece of land, consisting of sixty acres, twenty acres of which is included in his home place. Some time afterward he sold forty acres of the original sixty and later bought twenty acres across the road, just south of his residence. In 1916 he pur- chased a second ranch of 160 acres which lies northwest of Sanger and twelve miles north of his home place. This is also highly improved and set to raisins and peaches. The two ranches are at present operated by tenants. A very attractive feature about his home place is a cement fence of beautiful symmetry and striking appearance, enclosing the front yard. Among other improvements on the place are a fine barn and other necessary outbuildings, including comfortable, well-built tenant-houses. In 1917, Mr. Blattner rebuilt the house on the home place, transforming it into a modern country residence, and Mrs. Blattner, a devoted wife and mother, is distinguished for her success as a home-maker. She was born at Wangen, a city of about three thousand inhabitants in the Canton of Berne, Switzerland, and is a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Witche) Pfister. The father worked at various occupations, mainly that of cigarmaker, at Wangen. He died in his native country at the age of forty-two years. Her mother is sixty-seven years old. Mrs. Blattner, as a young woman, came to Fresno accompanied by her brother, John Pfister, who became a rancher and died, leaving two children. She has two brothers and two sisters living in Fresno County, namely : Gottfried, her older brother, is single ; Louisa is the wife of Emil Dick, the owner of a forty-acre ranch one mile west of the Blattner ranch; and Rudolph Pfister owns forty acres two and one-half miles north- east of the Blattner home; and Verena is the wife of Adolph Kopp, the owner of a forty-acre ranch in the Parlier district. Mr. and Mrs. Blattner are the parents of one child, a daughter, Martha M., who is a senior in the Selma high school. In 1911 the family made an extended visit to Europe, visiting the parents' former homes in Switzerland. In his party affiliations Mr. Blattner is a Republican. He loyally sup- ported the Administration during the stress of the world war with Ger- many. Although German-Swiss is his native tongue, there is not the slight- est suggestion of the pro-German in him or his good wife. Their home life is ideal. They own a fine automobile and live the life of the prosperous, up-to-date Fresno County rancher.