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



B. BORANIAN. � It is necessary in speaking of some men to use the 
superlative degree. They are of such quality that only the highest terms are 
adequate to describe them. Their achievements are so great that they occupy 
a position by themselves. The subject of this sketch is one of these. He is 
perhaps the most aggressively progressive rancher among the many very 
prosperous Armenians in the vicinity of Fowler. 

Mr. Boranian was born in Armenia, near Harpoot, a half century ago. 
His parents were Ohan and Mary (Sarkissian) Boranian. They lived and 
died in Turkey, victims, as were so many of the race, of the cruelties of 
the unspeakable Turk. The father branched out in the mercantile business 
in Constantinople, and the son also went there. He bought out his father's 
business after he had conducted it for two years, and ran it himself for 
five years, making a continuous period of seven years in which he and his 
father were in business in Constantinople. While here Mr. Boranian mar- 
ried his first wife, Sarah Tatian. He prospered in business and one child was 
born to them in Constantinople. His life was bright and happy, when of a 
sudden the Turks broke out in a bloody massacre against the Armenians, 
and he was forced to flee for his life. They burned his store but he escaped 
to America. His wife, however, was left behind, and the cruelties of the 
Turks brought on an illness which resulted in her death. She left one child, 
Dick, who lived with his father until his second marriage, and is now a 
progressive rancher near Fowler. 

Mr. Boranian was twenty-four years of age when he came to America. 
He engaged in business at Lowell, Mass., for eight years, and in 1902 came 
with his family to Fresno County. He was married a second time to Mrs. 
Mary Goolbanian, a widow born near Harpoot, -and they were married at 
Lowell, Mass. She had one child by her first marriage, a girl named Naomi, 
who is still living at home. They have three children by their present union : 
Edwin, Joseph and Rosa. Mr. Boranian had $2,000 when he came to Fresno 
County, the result of thrift and energy. At first he bought only forty acres. 
He improved this place and has prospered exceedingly. He now owns two 
ranches, one of 180 acres, a half mile south and two miles east of Fowler, 
and the other of 60 acres lying north of Fowler. He resides on the former, with 
his family, and there he has twenty acres in pasture, yards, etc. ; 125 acres 
in Muscats, fifteen acres in Thompson Seedless, five acres in Emperors, five 
acres in alfalfa, and ten acres in peaches and apricots. This place is known by 
the name of the B. Boranian Vineyard. His first crop here brought him only 
$400. He is an industrious, progressive and scientific farmer and horti- 
culturist, and is becoming wealthy. 

While in his native land, Mr. Boranian received an education equivalent 
to that of a grammar school in this country. He is a very influential member 
of the Congregational Church in Fowler, and was one of its first donators. 
Mr. Boranian may well look with satisfaction upon the results of his work, 
and take justifiable pride in his home place, as he planted it himself and has 
brought it to a very high state of cultivation.