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


EUGENE P. THOME. � From sunny France have come so many of the 
most desirable of foreign settlers in California, bringing with them their 
beautiful French customs and a knowledge of things long developed, by 
generations of costly experience, their love of hard work, their frugality, 
their delight in innocent pastimes and their intense patriotism, founded in a 
natural devotion to their fatherland but culminating in the most loyal alle- 
giance to the land of their adoption. 

Eugene P. Thome is a native of Gap, in the Hautes Alps, and the son of 
Eugene P. and Sophia (Eyraud) Thome, substantial farmer folk of that 
section, with such good connections that one of Mr. Thome's cousins is Father 
Daumas, the well-known priest of Los Banos ; and on his father's farm he 
was reared, receiving what would always be considered there a good educa- 
tion. Desiring some kind of a handicraft, however, he did not follow the occu- 
pation of his father but learned the wagon-maker's trade at Gap. 

When he approached manhood and became liable for military service, 
Mr. Thome not only responded to the call of the Government, as one would 
necessarily have to do, but he very cheerfully shouldered his rifle and stepped 
into the ranks. He joined the One Hundred Fortieth Regiment of In- 
fantry, and later enlisted with the Eleventh Hussars ; and after having fully 
satisfied both the French authorities and his conscience, he received his 
honorable discharge and was mustered out as a sergeant. 

In 1890, having crossed the ocean to America, he first came to California, 
and for a time he was busy at sheepraising and later at carpentering. But he 
soon began to follow viticulture, and after a while it became evident that 
that would be his forte. He secured a vineyard just east of Fresno, and 
there he worked for years. 

Since selling that property he has had charge of a most desirable ranch 
known as the Park Vineyard on Ventura Avenue; and there he has been rais- 
ing with remarkable success both grapes and alfalfa. Working only according 
to the most approved methods, as handed down by valuable tradition corrected 
and fortified by the last word of science, Mr. Thome could hardly have failed to 
attain in time his enviable position of leadership. 

Mr. Thome has become a member of the Foresters; he is also a member 
of the Druids, and where he is past officer and past district deputy. As a man 
a citizen, a member of local society, and a business man, Mr. Thome is repre- 
sentative and influential, and enjoys the honors and benefits that accompany 
such a desirable character and reputation.