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


ANDREW H. STAY.� One of the highly respected citizens of the Wah- 
toke district in Fresno County, where he has lived since December, 1905, is 
A. H. Stay. Mr. Stay purchased his ranch when the land was in its primitive 
condition, and he has developed it to a high degree of productiveness, by 
setting out grapevines, peach and apricot trees, and sowing alfalfa, besides 
erecting a comfortable home. Much of his time, since he came to the county, 
in May, 1901, has been devoted to the growing of grapes. Mr. Stay's success 
as a viticulturist and horticulturist is the result of persistent industry, and 
his ranch has become one of the show places of the Reedley section. 

Mr. Stay was born in Central Norway, on September 9, 1863, a son of 
Hans and Christense Stay, also natives of the land of Vikings. His father 
died in Norway, and, in 1881, the widow with her eight children immigrated 
to the United States, locating in Minnesota, where she had a son, who had 
come in 1880, and there the family lived twenty years. In 1901, A. H. Stay 
migrated to California and settled in Fresno County, buying twenty acres 
south of Fresno, which proved to be alkali land and which he sold three years 
later. In 1905 he bought his present place of twenty acres, and by prac- 
tical commonsense and hard work he has demonstrated his worth as a public- 
spirited and progressive man. 

In 1885, Mr. Stay was united in marriage with Miss Amelia Erickson, 
and they had five children: Henry; Peter; Jennie (deceased); Cora; and 
Clarence. The latter enlisted, in October, 1917, for service in the United 
States Army, and was attached to the American Expeditionary Forces, Forty- 
first Division, and served from January, 1918, till April, 1919, in France, when 
he was discharged. Mrs. Amelia Stay passed away in 1897. For his second 
wife Mr. Stay married Miss Ragnhild Lisdal, and to them were born nine 
children, six of whom are living: Esther; Ruth; Reuben; Rachael ; Joseph; 
and Hannah. Mrs. Stay died in 1912. Notwithstanding these sorrows and 
bereavements, the declaration of Mr. Stay is "the Lord hath been good to 
me." 

Mr. Stay served three years as school trustee in Wahtoke district. He 
belongs to the Raisin and the Peach Growers Associations. He attends the 
Pentecostal Church.