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


JOHN AUGUST SWANSON.� A well-known California viticulturist, 
whose political affiliation as a member of the Progressive Republican party 
rather naturally indicates his generally progressive spirit, is John A. Swanson, 
one of the most efficient members of the California Peach Growers' Inc., and 
the California Associated Raisin Company, and an energetic advocate of the 
most up-to-date methods for the farmer of today. He was born at Halland, 
Sweden, on July 26, 1879, the son of Swen Larson, a farmer still active there! 
His mother was Johanna Hakenson before her marriage, and she died there 
in 1890. Three children of this worthy couple are still living � a sister, who 
is at the old home, and a brother, Carl" Isaac, who is with the subject of this 
review. 

John was reared on a farm and attended the Swedish public schools, and 
for a while he remained home while he followed farming. In his twelfth vear 
he began to carry mail for the farmers, and at fourteen he entered the service 
of the Government as a sub-mail carrier. 

He had studied English at his old home, so that it was possible for him, 
when he reached Ludlow, Pa., in 1903, to make himself easily understood. 
He was first employed in a factory, and then he worked in a store ; after that 
he went into lumbering and was also employed on a pipe line, and then he 
became a traveling salesman in Pennsylvania and New York. In 1912 Mr. 
Swanson came to California and located in Fresno ; and soon he was employed 
at Vinland in a vineyard and orchard. Then he entered the service of Mr. 
Roeding, in No. 1 vineyard, and after that he returned to Vinland. In 
January, 1913, he leased a vineyard and orchard of forty acres in A^inland. 
Now he conducts twenty acres of it, and he has leased other vineyards and 
orchards. In 1917 he bought forty acres on Madera Avenue in Vinland and 
moved onto it ; and now he still runs twenty acres. He has set out fifteen 
acres in Thompson seedless grapes and five acres in a peach orchard. His 
brother, already referred to, operates the other twenty, which is in peaches, 
grapes and alfalfa. 

Mr. Swanson is a member both of the Swedish Lutheran Church at Vin- 
land and its board of trustees ; and he also belongs to Ludlow Lodge No. 1026 
Pennsylvania, of the Odd Fellows.