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


GEORGE SCHWINN.� A public-spirited and progressive pioneer, who 
was one of the earliest settlers at Huron, Fresno County, the first man suc- 
cessfully to grow grapes, fruit and beans in Auberry Valley, and the father 
of the oil industry in Coalinga, is George Schwinn. He was born in Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main, on December 20, 1860, and after finishing his education, 
worked in a general merchandise store for three years for his board. There 
he learned the business thoroughly, and also sound business methods ; so 
that when he was ready to set forth into the world, he was well prepared to 
cope with the world's problems. 

In 1880 he came to the United States and to California, and for a while 
worked on a ranch near Merced. Two years later he went to Hanford. Kings 
County, and for about two years worked in the general merchandise store of 
Silas Simon and Bros., commencing at twenty-five dollars a month and his 
board. Notwithstanding this modest wage, he had saved seven hundred dol- 
lars when, in 1886, just before the great boom in California real estate, he 
decided to remove to Huron, which was the end of the branch line of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad to the western side of Fresno County. The year 
of 1886 proved to be one of the best seasons and they had the most abundant 
feed known to the stockmen of the West Side. The grass had grown so tall 
the sheepmen had to make a trail to drive their sheep through to the shipping 
place. There he preempted a claim of 160 acres of government land, and so 
early had he arrived on the scene, that he built the first store there. He was 
also the first postmaster at Huron, and for twenty-two years held that re- 
sponsible office under the United States government � the longest term served 
by any man in the valley. He had all the trade of the stockmen for fifty 
miles around, there being no other store in the entire district. At Huron, 
also, Mr. Schwinn planted the first vineyard of twenty acres, and he soon 
came to have one of the show-places of the section. In 1888 he promoted the 
first oil company in the Coalinga district, known as the Fresno Oil Company. 
He brought in a surveyor, had the land laid out in twenty-acre tracts, and 
surveyed and built road's into what is now Oilfields. All this he did with the 
cooperation of only seven other men. Later the oil property was exploited 
by Canfield and Chanslor and became Oil City, and now Oilfields, the center 
of the East Coalinga oil fields. After that, Mr. Schwinn homesteaded 160 acres 
in the East Coalinga field adjoining the Shell Company on the east, which is 
valuable oil land. While at Huron he located several people on homesteads 
that afterwards proved to be oil land and they became very wealthy, among 
them Herman Brix, who was clerking for him while he was improving his 
homestead. Mr. Brix also obtained options on other land from customers of 
the store, and it made him independently wealthy. 

In 1907 Mr. Schwinn sold his ranch and store at Huron, and bought 
eighty acres of vineyard and orchard on McKinley Avenue, west of Fresno, 
a place scientifically and beautifully improved. There were a well-set vine- 
yard, fields of alfalfa, and a fruitful orchard, with new and beautiful buildings. 
After selling this he bought 1,600 acres in Auberry Valley. He cleared it 
of timber and brush, fenced and cross fenced it, has planted apricots, plums, 
prunes, peaches and a vineyard. The balance is devoted to raising grain, hay 
and stock. There are two new bungalows with farm buildings and pumping 
plant, and it is now the best-improved ranch in the foot-hills of Fresno. On 
the ranch are a station and a public school. Mr. Schwinn was the first man 
to develop the above-named fruits in Auberry Valley. When he proposed to 
do so, his neighbors said he couldn't succeed ; but he followed out his own 
ideas, and in the end accomplished what others had declared impossible. 

Fraternally, Mr. Schwinn is an Odd Fellow, and belongs to the Fresno 
Lodge. He is also a member of the Commercial Club of Fresno, and co- 
operates in every way in extending commercial interests. He belongs to 
the German Lutheran Church and has many fond recollections of the Father- 
land ; but he is a most loyal American, is devoted to his adopted country, 
and thoroughly sympathizes with the United States and its part in the pres- 
ent war, giving definite and practical support to the administration through 
thick and thin. 

It is to such men as George Schwinn that Fresno County owes much of 
its present greatness ; for without the optimism and energy they displayed, 
its lands and mineral resources would not have been so early exploited and 
the development of the county would not now be so far advanced. He is 
well satisfied with the result, and is very well content that he was so for- 
tunate as to cast in his lot in Fresno County.