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


FRANK REMBRANDT KELLENBERG. Twelve years as a retail shoe dealer have re- 
sulted in a steady increase of the business of Frank Rembrandt Kellenberg, one of the sub- 
stantial and painstaking merchants of Visalia. Mr. Kellenberg was born at Alton, Madison 
county, III, June 11, 1854. His father, Francis Jerome Kellenberg, was born in Georgetown, D. 
C, and at an early age displayed marked talent for drawing, an inclination which was fostered 
and developed, resulting in a life devotion to art. He became both a landscape and portrait painter, 
having a studio in Georgetown and one in Alton, Ill., where he settled about 1846. In i860 he 
became interested in the far west, moved his family to California by way of Panama, and es- 
tablished his home in Visalia. where his death occurred in 1876, at about seventy-six years of 
age. Latterly he devoted himself to artistic sign painting, but left a large collection of pictures, 
among" them copies and original productions, many of them of great value. His most prized 
effort was a copy "of the Court of Death, upon which he worked at odd times for twelve years; 
a copy of the portrait of the Duke of Athens; of Ebenezer rising from the tomb : and an orig- 
inal picture called the Dance of the Four Seasons. Mr. Kelleriberg had no thought of worldly 
fame as he mixed his colors on his palette and applied them with steady hand; painting to him 
was a congenial occupation, and the study of color had a fascinating charm. His wife, for- 
merly Mary Hillery, died ere he allied his fortunes with the west, leaving two sons and five 
daughters, of whom Frank Rembrandt, named for the great Dutch artist of that name, is the 
second youngest. 

Educated in the public schools of California, Mr. Kellenberg gained his first business experi- 
ence in the mercantile store of Richard E. Hyde, one of the early pioneers of Tulare county, and 
president of the Bank of Visalia for thirty years. A year and a half later he became a clerk for 
Douglas & Co.. continuing with the firm after they sold out to Stevens & Co., and eleven and 
a half years from the time of entering their employ he purchased a quarter interest in the busi- 
ness. However, in 1S81 he disposed of his interest, and in 1882 started his present shoe store, 
which is now one of the best in this line in the city. Mr. Kellenberg is a broad-minded and 
public-spirited gentleman, a stanch Republican. and a valued member of the Ancient Order of 
United Workmen. In Visalia, in 1885, he married Minnie Rebecca Kelsey. who was born in 
Iowa and came with her parents to California. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
Kellenberg, Frank Guido and Louise.