California Biographies, San Joaquin Valley

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 HENRY JANSON. The president and manager of Chesnutwood's Business Col- 
lege of Fresno, Cal, John Henry Janson, has been largely instrumental in bringing the com- 
mercial course to a high grade of excellence. He is well and widely known and esteemed for 
his business qualities as well as for the integrity and honor of his manhood. Born in Ne- 
vada City, Cal., August 15, 1872, he is a son of John Janson, who came around Cape Horn to 
California in the spring of 1850, going thence to Nevada City, where he engaged in mining. He 
met with success in his venture, but eventually engaged in farming near that city until bis re- 
tirement, when he located in Santa Cruz, where his death occurred in 1899, at the age of sev- 
enty-seven years. Fraternally he affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His 
wife, formerly Charlotte C. Johnson, came to California in an early day, and she now makes 
her home in Paso Robles. 

John Henry Janson was the only child born to his parents. He was reared in Nevada City 
until attaining the age of eighteen years, attending the public schools and preparing for the pro- 
fession of a teacher in Nevada county. On account of the impaired health of his father he 
was compelled to take charge of the farm until 1892, in which year he entered Chesnutwood's 
Business College, in Santa Cruz. In June, 1893, he was graduated from this institution, after 
which he was employed as an expert accountant. In 1896 he was asked to take a position in 
the college from which he had graduated, filling the chair of penmanship and bookkeeping 
with rare efficiency. He also became financially interested in the institution, being one of the in- 
corporators in 1898, and was then elected to the office of president, which he has since filled. Un- 
der his presidency the college assumed a prominent place among business institutions of the 
Pacific coast, being now considered one of the finest in California Up to 1901 Professor Jan- 
son was identified with the Pacific Coast Business College, of San Jose, in which he was sec- 
retary and a director until he sold out in the last-named year. In June, 1904, Chesnutwood's 
Business College was established in Fresno, the school opening in September of that year with 
an enrollment of eighty pupils. In five months' time the number increased to two hundred stu- 
dents, who are accommodated in the Hedges building. They teach a thorough commercial 
course and stenography, and hope to establish a normal course upon the occupation of their new 
building. Thousands of young people have gone from these colleges into splendid positions of 
trust and responsibility. 

In Santa Cruz, Cal., Mr. Janson was united in marriage with Mabel Ora Smith, a native of 
Vermont, a graduate of the Santa Cruz high school and Chesnutwood's Business College. 
They have one son, Herbert Browning. In August. 1904, Mr. Janson removed to Fresno 
from Santa Cruz, where he had made his home for several years. For the seven years prior to 
his removal he acted as president of the Young Men's Christian Association, which position he 
resigned at that time. He is still a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Santa Cruz, as 
well as of that of Fresno. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and fraternally 
is identified with the Knights of Pythias, of the Uniformed Rank, and Knights of the Maccabees, 
being first past commander of Santa Cruz. Politically he is a Democrat.