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


JOHN HEDBERG, as manager of the Lindsay Citrus Nursery Company, has attained a 
prominence in the nursery business of which he may well feel proud. Ever since leaving home 
he has had his own way to make in the world, and by industry and economy he has accumulated 
a handsome property. A native of Sweden, he was born July 19, 1870. and is a son of Erick 
and Annie Hedberg. The father is now engaged in farming in the old country. The mother 
bore four children, two of whom are in America. 

John Hedberg remained at home until reaching his twenty-first year, when he entered the 
Swedish army, remaining in the service one year. At the expiration of that time, in 1891, 
he bade good-bye to his home and friends and came to the United States, first locating in 
Madison county, Neb., where he remained one year. In 1893 he arrived in California, securing 
employment in a vineyard and orchard in Fresno county. Later he entered the employ of Mar- 
shall & Wilson, the nurserymen, with whom he continued three years, learning the business 
thoroughly. In 1895 he came to Lindsay and was the first to engage in the citrus nursery 
business in a commercial way at this place. For four years he continued in the business two 
miles from Lindsay, but at the end of this period sold out and purchased eighty acres on the 
hill-side three miles northeast of Lindsay. At the time of purchase the land was in stubble, but 
Mr. Hedberg lost no time in beginning the improvement of the place. A well was sunk and a 
pumping plant installed which now has a capacity of five thousand gallons per hour, enough 
to irrigate his orange grove of forty-three acres. Since then he has set out twenty acres to nursery, 
containing one hundred and fifty thousand orange trees, being the largest citrus nursery north 
of Tehachapi. and in addition has set out other varieties of fruit trees. In the spring of 1905 
he set out forty acres more of navel oranges in Round Valley, three miles from his home place, 
where he also owns two hundred and sixty acres of citrus land. While most of his time is devoted 
to the nursery and horticultural business, Mr. Hedberg has also become interested in several 
business enterprises, including the Lindsay Citrus Nursery Company, in which he holds a half 
interest ; the Rochdale Association, and the Lindsay Building and Improvement Company, of 
which he is a director. 

Fraternally he holds membership in the Woodmen of the World, and in politics he supports 
the policies of the Republican party, but has never taken a very active interest in the politics 
of the county, preferring to devote his whole time to his business. He has met with excellent 
success and now has one of the finest nurseries in the entire state. When one considers that 
Mr. Hedberg has been in this country but a few years, and that he has never had any assistance, 
his success can be fully appreciated. At the same time he has never neglected his duties as 
a citizen, and when called upon by his neighbors he has always responded.