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


A. E. THOMPSON.� A veritable "hustler" who has done much to build 
up Central California, and in doing so has well built up himself, is A. E. 
Thompson, the well-known viticulturist and horticulturist, who believes that 
Fresno is the best county in the State, and that Clovis and vicinity are the 
best section in the flourishing county. Born at Hamilton, Ontario, as was his 
father, E. J. Thompson, he is the son of a farmer who came into the United 
States and Michigan, then moved to Missouri and later went back to Ontario. 
In the late eighties he reached California and Fresno, and soon after he bought 
a ranch on Millbrook Avenue. His wife, who was Elizabeth Rolstin before 
her .marriage, died in California, the mother of eight children, three of whom 
settled in this state. 

A. E. Thompson, the eldest in the family, was brought up in Canada, 
and educated in the public schools there. He remained at home until he was 
twenty-one, and then he went to Brandon, Manitoba, where he followed 
farming for a year. Meanwhile, however, he was hearing and thinking about 
the wonderful commonwealth by the Pacific. In 1888 he came to Fresno. 
He was a stranger, and without means, but he went to work on various 
ranches, part of the time for twenty dollars and board, and sometimes for 
only fifteen. He also worked eleven hours. He got ahead, however, and, as 
soon as possible, he bought five acres on Millbrook Avenue. He improved the 
land and sold it, and then he bought twenty acres and some city lots, which 
he also improved and sold. 

By the year 1913, Mr. Thompson had bought his present twenty acres 
of vineyard and orchard, upon which he located; and now he has a fine place, 
with an attractive residence and well-built and commodious barns, the most 
of the land set out as a vineyard or planted to alfalfa. To make his vine- 
yard, he had to take out the orchard. The Enterprise canal affords a good 
supply of water. He has ten acres of Thompson's seedless, two acres of 
other vines, two and a half acres of peaches, and the balance in orange trees. 
Mr. Thompson leases ten acres of vineyard adjoining, with which he has ex- 
ceptional success, as may be judged from the fact that he was one of the 
first, in the vicinity of Fresno, to set out Thompson's seedless � the vines of 
which, in excellent condition, are still growing. 

Mr. Thompson was married at Fresno to Miss Sarah Buck, a native of 
Ontario ; and by her he had six children : Edwin, who assists his father on the 
ranch; Dorothy, Annette, Leslie, Joseph, and Pauline. Mrs. Thompson is a 
member of the Baptist Church of Clovis. 

Successful, and a leader in the field in which he has made his modest 
fortune, Mr. Thompson is a member of the California Peach Growers, Inc., 
and also of the California Associated Raisin Company. He is a Republican, 
but in local issues he votes for the candidates most suitable.