California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

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

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


ANDREW BELZ. As indicated by the name, the Belz family is of German extraction, the 
ancestral home having been in Germany as far back as the records can be traced. The first of 
the family to establish a home in the United States was Christopher Belz, a Saxon by birth 
and a machinist by trade, who, during 1854, crossed the ocean to America and settled in 
Rome, N. Y., following his trade in that city until his death. His wife, who bore the maiden 
name of Margaret Schnuer, was a native of Saxony and died in the home of her son, Andrew, 
at the advanced age of eighty-nine years. In religious belief Christopher Belz and wife were 
faithful adherents of the Lutheran Church, and contributed to its maintenance as their means 
permitted. They were the parents of four children, of whom Andrew, the eldest was the only 
one to settle in California. He was born in Saxe Meiningen, Germany, January 31, 1832. During 
boyhood he learned the machinist's trade under the supervision of his father, whom in 1854 he 
accompanied to Rome, Oneida county, N. Y. Later he removed to Jefferson county, Wis., 
where he followed his trade. The year 1865 found him a pioneer of Visalia, Cal., where he 
followed the blacksmith's trade. 

Returning to Wisconsin in 1874 Mr. Belz was there united in marriage with Miss Caroline Weg- 
man, with whom he established a home in Visalia. After his marriage he built a blacksmith's shop 
and followed the trade in Visalia. During 1888 he discontinued work at his trade and on the 
site of the shop, near the Southern Pacific depot, erected the Pacific lodging house, which still 
stands. For some years he has made his home on the Wegman estate, three miles from town. 
This property is largely under alfalfa and is rented for a dairy and stock farm. Excellent 
irrigation facilities are furnished by the Mathews ditch, in which the family are financially inter- 
ested. In politics Mr. Belz votes the Republican ticket, while in religious connections he and his 
wife, as well as Miss Wegman, are believers in the faith which Dr. Martin Luther established 
during the stormy period of the Reformation. In the Belz family there are three children. The 
older son, George Andrew, is a graduate of the San Jose State Normal School with the class of 
1902 and at this writing teaches school in Kern county. The younger son, Frank Arthur, is a 
student in Santa Clara College, and the only daughter, Eliza M., remains with her parents 
on the homestead.