Tulare County Biographies

HARLEY R. SLONAKER

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
        Harley R. Slonaker, manager of the plant of the Central California Ice 
Company at Dinuba and a figure of recognized importance in the general 
commercial and industrial life of that city, is a native of the old Buckeye 
state but has been familiar with California conditions since the days of his 
youth, his first acquaintance with this state and its manifold advantages having 
been acquired as a young soldier of the United States regular army, stationed at 
the Presidio, San Francisco. Mr. Slonaker was born January 31, 1888, in the 
interesting and historic old town of Greenville in Darke county, Ohio, a 
frontier station of large importance prior to and during the War of 1812, and 
the center of much of the operations of General William Henry Harrison during 
that period, and he was but a lad when his parents moved from that place to the 
city of Zanesville in Muskingum county in central Ohio, another point of 
historic interest during the frontier period in the middle west.
Reared at Zanesville, Harley Slonaker received his schooling there and was then 
for a time employed in a mechanical capacity in the plant of the Brown 
Manufacturing Company at that place. When eighteen years of age, in 1906, he 
came to California and at the Presidio, San Francisco, enlisted for service in 
the United States army and was assigned to duty with the Twenty-seventh Coast 
Artillery. From the days of his boyhood Mr. Slonaker had displayed marked 
musical talent and it was not long after he entered the army that this talent 
was recognized by his officers and he was transferred to the coast artillery 
band, with which fine musical organization he was connected until the end of his 
three-year term of enlistment in 1909. He at once reenlisted and was assigned to 
the Thirtieth United States Infantry at the Presidio, but a year later, 
concluding he had had enough of army life, he secured a discharge and began 
working on a ranch in Stanislaus county, presently going from there to Stockton, 
where he became connected with the operations of the Central California Ice 
Company. From that place he presently was transferred to the service of this 
same company at Oakland and was thus connected there until in 1923, when the 
Central California Ice Company erected its plant at Dinuba and he then was made 
manager of this latter plant, a position he since has occupied. It thus will be 
noted that Mr. Slonaker has for many years been actively engaged in the 
manufacture of ice and is one of the veterans in that line in this state, 
thoroughly familiar with the details of manufacture and distribution of this 
important product. The Dinuba plant of this big corporation has a capacity of 
around fifteen or eighteen tons of ice daily and under Mr. Slonaker's efficient 
direction this product is as excellent as can be made. The plant is located at 
288 South Main street and is thoroughly up-to-date in all its equipment and 
appointments.
        In 1909 Harley R. Slonaker was united in marriage to Miss Myrtle W. 
Messick, a native daughter of California, and they have three children : Emma, 
Jessie and Paul. The Slonakers have a pleasant home at Dinuba and take a proper 
and interested part in the community's general affairs. Mr. Slonaker is a member 
of the fraternal order of the Woodmen of the World, having become connected with 
that organization during the time of his residence in Oakland.
 
Source:  History of Tulare County and Kings County, California � Kathleen 
Edwards Small & J. Larry Smith, Vol. II, Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1926., p. 403