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


JAMES P. HARTIGAN. � Through his long association with the 
various phases of the raisin industry, James P. Hartigan has gained an en- 
viable reputation as an expert judge of the products of the vine and is known 
as the "quality man" in the extensive packing houses of the California Asso- 
ciated Raisin Company. James P. Hartigan passes judgment on the quality 
and grade of the raisins packed by this large corporation, and is careful that 
nothing is shipped that will not maintain the established high reputation of 
the brands packed by the California Associated Raisin Company. He is the 
superintendent of warehouses for the company and is regarded as one of the 
best posted men on the raisin industry in the San Joaquin Valley. 

James P. Hartigan was born in Brooklyn. X. Y., on April 25, 1864, a 
son of John and Ann (Trainor) Hartigan, who were both natives of the 
Emerald Isle. In 1869. John Hartigan brought his family to California by the 
Isthmus of Panama, and after his arrival located in Davis, Yolo County, 
where he followed farming and in 1878 passed away. James P. Hartigan 
received his education in the schools at Davis, Cal., and it was in the same 
town that he gained his first experience in the raisin industry, while lie was 
in the employ of G. G. Briggs at Davis. In 1885. he located at Oleander. 
Fresno County, where he was employed in the packing house of the Curtis 
Fruit Company for three years. Afterwards he engaged in contracting for 
the planting of vineyards and orchards in the San Joaquin Valley and in which 
business he continued up to 1898. Many of the famous vineyards and orchards 
in Fresno County were planted under the instruction of Mr. Hartigan. In the 
year 1900, he entered the employ of the J. B. Inderrieden & Company, fruit 
packers, at Fresno and continued with this company until 1912, when the 
California Associated Raisin Company was formed and he was offered by 
the corporation the important post of superintendent of their packing plants. 
By his long and varied experience in the fruit packing business, Mr. Hartigan 
is especially fitted to fill this important position, and is performing the many 
responsible duties that devolve upon him in a very efficient manner and to 
the satisfaction of the managing stockholders of this large corporation. 

In the Poppy Colony, Mr. Hartigan is the owner of a five-acre vineyard 
of Thompson seedless grapes, which he planted and developed. Near Olean- 
der he also planted a vineyard of muscat grapes, containing ten acres, which 
after developing he sold. On Blackstone Avenue, in Fresno, he has fifteen 
acres, ten of which are planted to apricots and the remaining five to Thomp- 
son's seedless grapes. Mr. Hartigan has bought, developed and sold other 
orchards in the county. He served as constable of Oleander and was a deputy 
sheriff of Fresno County, under W. S. McSwain until his death, and then 
under Horace Thorwaldsen until the close of his term. He has contributed 
to the development of the residence section of Fresno by building three 
houses on Washington Avenue. 

Mr. James P. Hartigan was united in marriage on May 1, 1887, with 
Margaret S. Douglass, a native of Canada, who came when a small child to 
California, with her parents. Her father, Frank Douglass, was one of the 
early settlers of Fresno County and purchased land in the Washington 
Colony. At one time he was the master mechanic of the Pacific Wooden 
Mills at San Francisco. 

Mr. and Mrs. J. P. Hartigan became the parents of one son : Lester F., 
who was born in Oleander, Fresno County, and received his education in 
the public school of Fresno, supplementing his early education with a special 
course in electrical engineering, at Heald's Business College, San Francisco. 
He is now in the employ of the California Associated Raisin Company, hav- 
ing charge of the installation and the repair work of all their various plants. 

Fraternally J. P. Hartigan is a member of the Odd Fellows, Red Men 
and the Modern Woodmen of America. 

Mr. Hartigan's first wife died in 1916. The second marriage of Mr. 
Hartigan was solemnized on August 10, 1917, when he was united with Miss 
Margine Sorensen, a native of Skive, Denmark, where she was reared and 
educated and in 1908 came to the United States.