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


CARL LANGESCHEID. � Flow a foreign war may affect the destiny 
of an individual is shown in the story of hard work done and success attained 
by Carl Langescheid, the well-known viticulturist, who came to Fresno 
County early in the first decade of the twentieth century. He was born near 
Breckerfeld, in Westphalia, Germany, on December 21, 1872, and is the son 
of Ludwig Langescheid, a farmer there who owned his own trim farm, and 
who is still living in the quiet enjoyment of the community's esteem. His 
mother was Louise Kuekelhaus before her marriage. After years of devotion 
to her family, she died in Germany in her sixty-seventh year. 

Carl was the youngest of the three children, and his schooling and other 
advantages were not neglected. When he was fourteen, he was apprenticed 
to a hardware merchant in Muenster. with whom he remained for four years; 
and later he was engaged at Bielefeld, where he became acquainted with G. 
Brocks, who interested him in California. He had previously planned to go to 
South Africa, and for that purpose had studied English ; but the Boer War 
breaking out, he changed his plans, and listened more attentively to the 
stories, almost fairy-like, of the advantages of the Golden West, and partic- 
ularly of the Golden State. Wishing on account of his health to get to a 
milder climate, and desiring in particular outdoor work, Mr. Langescheid at 
length determined to cross the ocean and the great American continent, and 
to try his fortune in California. In August, 1903, he came to Fresno and was 
in the employ of Mr. Brocks until fall ; and then he went into the Kutner 
store, serving for six weeks in the implement department. It did not take long 
for him to understand American ways, and he made rapid progress. 

In the same fall, 1903. Mr. Langescheid bought forty acres on Belmont 
Avenue, in the Calimyrna Colony, and set it out as a vineyard with muscatel 
and Malaga grape-vines, completing the work in 1904. Few, if any, vine- 
yards of the kind in that section made a better showing than this, the first 
venture of Mr. Langescheid as a viticulturist. He ran it for ten years. 

In November, 1905, Mr. Langescheid was married. The ceremony oc- 
curred at Fresno, and the bride was Miss Lisette Brocks, a sister of Gustaf 
Brocks. She was a native of Enger, Germany, and made her first trip to 
Fresno four years before. The Langescheids soon identified themselves with 
the German Lutheran Church, of which Mr. Langescheid became a trustee, 
an office that he held for years. He was also president for a year, and secretary. 

In April, 1913, Mr. Langescheid sold his property and they made a trip 
back to Germany and his old home. They had a most enjoyable time, and in 
October of the same year, parted from the scenes of their boyhood and girl- 
hood with natural regret, and yet with a satisfaction in the thought that they 
were coming back to California, and to Fresno. Five months later Mr. Lange- 
scheid- bought his present fine estate, the old Sanborn place, which he has 
operated ever since. Eight miles east of Fresno he has forty acres in vine- 
yard, with muscat, Emperor and wine grapes, and he also has twelve acres 
of alfalfa. He has thoroughly improved the place, and has a fine residence. 
Cooperative in spirit and ready to lend a helping hand to every project cal- 
culated to advance the commercial interests of the county, Mr. Langescheid 
is a member of the California Associated Raisin Company. 

Mr. and Mrs. Langescheid are also keenly interested in anything which 
tends to improve the neighborhood as a place of desirable residence, and in 
that respect as in others, do their full duty as citizens, standing by the land 
of their adoption.