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 CHARLES J. STONE.� As one of its foremost citizens, Charles J. Stone has been very active in building up the town of Kingsburg, and in promoting its business, religious, and musical life. Mr. Stone was born De- cember 27, 1855, at Fredericksborg, in the Province of Delame, Sweden, a district noted for its lumbering interests. He attended the common schools at Sandviken and later at Hammarby. He learned the blacksmith's trade in his father's shop at Sandviken. Being ambitious for further educational train- ing, he went to Upsala, in 1876, to take the regular normal school course at the Seminary, and studied there during 1877-1878. He sailed for America, landing at the old Castle Garden, New York, June 26, 1881. He remained in Brooklyn until November, 1881, when he went to Minneapolis, Minn., and began working as a brickmason. Mr. Stone was married in Minneapolis, February 5, 1882. to Miss Helma Dorothea de Wahl, to whom he was engaged before leaving his native land. They moved to Ishpeming, Mich., in the fall of that same year, where he resumed his old trade, working in the blacksmith shop of the Burch Com- pany, iron manufacturers. In 1884 they returned to Minnesota and became interested in land in Sherburne County, where his family lived while he pursued his business as a contract builder in Minneapolis. On June 7, 1889, Mr. Stone and his family arrived at Oakland, Cal., where he continued in the business of contractor and builder until 1897, when the family moved to Kingsburg. He first purchased forty acres of land near Selma, living on it about four years, improving the land. He then sold, and bought 160 acres, only partially improved, near Kingsburg, which he further improved, building on it a two-story brick residence, one of the finest country residences in this vicinity, and a landmark. He gave twenty acres of this land to each of two sons, and sold the balance at a fair profit. The town owes many of its fine buildings to Mr. Stone. He has built a good many of the brick buildings on Draper Street, Kingsburg's main thor- oughfare. In 1912 he built the Kingsburg Hotel, a fine, two-story, brick hotel. 100 by 125 feet, in which his son, Fred, was a partner in the con- struction and ownership, and which later they sold. In 1917 he built the new Ford Garage, one of the finest in the Valley, a one-story, terra cotta build- ing, 50 x 150 ft, now occupied as a Ford Agency and garage by S. Tucker. Mr. Stone bought out the packing plant of the old Kingsburg Packing Company, in Block One, Riston Addition. He later sold out to the North Ontario Packing Company. Later he became actively interested in the organization of the California Associated Raisin Company, to which he gives his hearty support. To Mr. and Mrs. Stone seven children have been born, of whom six are living: Naima Elizabeth, now the wife of Raymond Nelson, a rancher near Kingsburg, and who is a son of Presiding Elder Martinus Nelson of the Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church, residing at Eureka, Cal. ; Carl Gott- fried, a rancher near Clark's Bridge in Tulare County ; Lydia Maria, a twin- sister of Carl Gottfried, who died when six years old; Knudt Gabriel, who served in the Philippines, is a bricklayer and rancher; John Fritjof, who married Miss Judith Lindstrom, and is a rancher; Lillie Ruth, who married Clarence Nelson, a bookkeeper in the Kingsburg Bank; and Albert William, who was for two years a clerk in the First National Bank at Kingsburg, later worked one year in the Farmer's Bank of Fresno, trained at Camp Kearney, and is now an automobile salesman. During his busy life, Mr. Stone has found time to develop his musical talents, and had become an organist and choir leader in his native country. He has been an active member of the Swedish Methodist Episcopal Church of Kingsburg, serving as choir leader, steward, trustee and Sunday School superintendent. Mr. Stone has also given time to the duties of public office, having served one term as deputy assessor, and on the grand and trial juries. He is a strong anti-saloon worker, and stands firmly for right principles. In politics he is a Democrat.