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


LAWRENCE WILLIAM CHRISTENSEN.� An enterprising and 
successful young man, who is known for his honesty of purpose and stand 
for what is right, is Lawrence William Christensen. who was born near 
Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie Count}', Iowa, on October 3, 1880, the son of 
P. N. Christensen. whose sketch is also given elsewhere in this volume. He 
was the third oldest of seven children, and was brought up on a farm in . 
Iowa, while he attended the local schools there. 

At the age of sixteen he came to California and Fresno County, and con- 
tinued his schooling in Fresno, while he assisted his father on their home 
farm. When he was twenty-two, however, he began to do for himself, 
and it was then that he bought thirty acres on White's Bridge Road where 
he set out a vineyard and planted alfalfa. This he ran for three years and 
then sold it at a profit. For a while he located in Clovis, where he bought a 
ranch of thirty-seven acres to the north of the town, set out an orchard and 
planted alfalfa. And at the end of two years, he disposed of it at a profit. 

In 1905. Mr. Christensen bought his present place of eighty acres on 
Coalinga Avenue, between White's Bridge Road and Belmont: and this 
he improved in his characteristically thorough manner. Since then he has 
disposed of sixty acres, keeping twenty acres of the most improved part for 
the site of a residence. He has good alfalfa, and well-bearing Thompson 
seedless vines. With his sister. Mr. Christensen also has another land invest- 
ment; together they own twenty acres on Belmont- Avenue, on which they 
grow alfalfa, and cultivate raisins. 

At Fresno, Mr. Christensen was married to Miss Sarah Morton, who 
was born near Coalinga, the daughter of A. C. Morton, a Central California 
pioneer. He was a blacksmith and stockman, and has the distinction of 
having built one of the first houses on White's Bridge Road. Four children 
resulted from this union : Wallace, Ruel, Willetta, and Douglass, and each 
has brought cheer to the Christensen hearth. They attend the Seventh Day 
Adventist Church at Rolinda, for Mr. Christensen was one of the organizers, 
and has been a trustee from the start. He was treasurer of the church and 
was on the building committee also. He is chairman of the church school 
board, and with his good wife never tires in God's appointed work. He be- 
longs to both the California Associated Raisin Company and the California 
Peach Growers, Inc., in which he is a stockholder; and he vigorously supports 
their policies for the advancement and protection of California husbandry.