Tulare County Biographies

VICTOR STOLTZ

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

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

 
        In the development of our complex civilization new demands arise and new 
occupations come into existence to meet the changed conditions. Thus it happens 
that land occupied by small buildings is often needed for a larger purpose. Such 
a situation brought into existence the house mover. Victor Stoltz was the first 
man to engage in this line of activity in Visalia, California ; in fact, the 
first in Tulare county. He was born in Canton, Ohio, March 2, 1855, and in his 
youthful days was a school�mate of the late President William McKinley. At an 
early age Mr. Stoltz went to South Bend, Indiana, where he was employed by a 
house mover and became familiar with the details of the business, though it was 
not until several years later that he adopted it as his vocation. From South 
Bend he went to St. Charles county, Missouri, where for ten years he followed 
agricultural pursuits. He then went to Arizona and started in the cattle 
business. Drought and Indian troubles compelled him to give up the attempt in 
1883 and the following year he came to Visalia.
        For three years after becoming a resident of Visalia Mr. Stoltz was 
employed as a carpenter. In 1887 he undertook the removal of a house and with 
the knowledge acquired in South Bend, Indiana, years before, the work was 
successfully accomplished. This started him in the business which he has since 
followed. The greatest distance he has moved a house in California was 
thirty-two miles, when he removed a five-room house from Tulare to Dinuba in 
1890. The shortest distance was the moving of a business block in Visalia three 
and one-half inches, the building having been erected that far over the line on 
another lot. When the railroad shops , were removed from Tulare Mr. Stoltz found 
a great demand for his services. During the weeks immediately following the 
removal of the shops he moved fifty-three small houses�sold in those days for 
from one hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty dollars. Most of these 
cottages were taken to Visalia, where twenty-five of them are still standing. 
Mr. Stoltz has a complete outfit and his services have been in demand in Tulare, 
Kings and Fresno counties on numerous occasions. At Lost Hills, Kern county, he 
removed the post office and store building to a new site. Recently he completed 
a large contract in the removal of the house, barns and other structures on the 
Nanse ranch to a new location some distance east of the old one. In addition to 
his contract work Mr. Stoltz has engaged in buying houses that had to be removed 
from premises, taken them to a new location, repaired and resold them. In this 
way he has not only made a profit for himself, but he has also enabled someone 
to obtain a comfortable home for much less than it would cost to build a new 
one.
        Mr. Stoltz is married and has three sons and two daughters : George M., 
Grover, Mrs. Annie Wescott, Elsie and John L.
 
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. 417