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 AUGUSTINE GANDRAU. � A man who has gained success and prominence in Fresno County, is Augustine Gandrau a viticulturist of the Round Mountain district. He was born at Elk Point, Union County, now South Dakota, but then Dakota Territory, June 13, 1867, being one of the twelve first white children born in Dakota Territory. His father. Antoine Gandrau, was born in Ontario, Canada, of French parents. In 1852 he came via the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco, but after mining for three years he returned to Ontario, where he married Marceline Nolette and took charge of his parents' farm, caring for them until they died, when he removed to Dakota Territory, being among the first to locate at Elk Point, Union County, in what is now South Dakota, where he homesteaded and improved a farm. When he retired, in 1894, he came to Porterville, Tulare County, Cal. However, he and his wife returned to South Dakota on a visit and there he died. His widow continued to reside there till her death. Of their six children Augustine Gandrau is the fifth oldest and grew up on the farm, and from a boy showed a great love and admiration for a fine horse. So it is little wonder that in later years he made a success of the selection and training of standard-bred horses. After completing the local schools, Mr. Gandrau learned the printers' trade in the Huronite office in Huron, S. D., and then edited the Beadle County Press at Cavour, S. D., for one year. Selling out, he used his funds to pay his way at the Congregational College at Yankton, after which he came to Porterville, Cal. For a time he worked on the Porterville Enter- prise, and later ran the barber shop in the Pioneer Hotel, Porterville, for five years. In 1898 he located in Sanger where he ran a barber shop. Being interested in fine horses, Mr. Gandrau fortunately purchased a three-year-old gelding for $50, whom he named George G. He proved to be a standard-bred of finest blood. Training him, he discovered his great speed. He raced him on the Western Circuit and won $3,500 in purses in one year. The next spring he sold him to Anthony Brady of New York City, the Diamond King of the Transvaal, for $15,000. On the day he was sold, George G. made a record of 2:05 � and went the half-mile in 1:01, on Pleasonton track. Afterwards he made the world's one mile record � on a half-mile track, in 2:06^4, at the same time beating the world's one-half mile record, and this record has never been beaten. George G. sold for the highest price ever paid for a gelding west of the Rocky Mountains. Always having a desire to own a ranch, after the sale of George G., Mr. Gandrau purchased 160 acres two miles southeast of Sanger. He im- proved eighty acres with vineyard and sold the balance. In 1913 he sold his eighty-acre vineyard for $27,000, and then purchased his present place of forty acres in the Round Mountain district, where he has fine soil and a first class water right, and there he engages in viticulture. He has twenty acres of horizontal cordon emperor grapes, which is the first commercial vineyard of the kind in the Valley, and shows an extraordinary yield. Mr. Gandrau can well feel proud of his success, as do all his friends. He was married at the Hughes Hotel, Fresno, on December 6, 1897, to Miss Emma Derusha, who also was born in Union County, S. D., a daughter of Joseph and Louise Derusha, natives of Canada and of French descent. Mrs. Gandrau came to California in 1894. Mr. Gandrau is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company, the California Peach Growers, Inc., and of the Fairview Grape Growers Association. He has been president of the Sanger Local of the Fresno County Farm Bureau since its organization and is one of the original direc- tors of the Fresno County Farm Bureau He was chairman of the different drives for Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., Associated Charities, and Liberty Loans in his district during the world war. Mrs. Gandrau is a member of the Round Mountain auxiliary of the Fresno Chapter Red Cross. Mr. Gandrau is a member of Sanger Lodge, No. 375, I. O. O. F., of which he has been Noble Grand two terms.