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 JAMES PORTEOUS. The success which has attended the development of the Fresno Ag- ricultural Works since the establishment of the plant in 1877 is due to the inventive ability, enterprise and sagacious judgment of James Porteous, who, as owner of the plant and inventor of much of its machinery, has every reason to feel a just pride in the growth of the industry which he founded and fostered. Not only is his plant the largest manufacturing enterprise in the San Joaquin valley, but it is the oldest as well. It had its origin in a little wood-work- ing shop established by Mr. Porteous on the present site of the Grand Central hotel, where he conducted business for three years. In 1880 he purchased his present site on Tulare and L streets and erected the first building in the block, where he engaged in the manufacture and repair of buggies and wagons. By degrees his attention was turned to the manufacture of machinery especially needed in his own locality, and from this he drifted into the construction of a general line of machinery, some of which has been sold in South Africa, Australia and other countries. The prosperity crowning the efforts of Mr. Porteous probably dates from the time when he began to manufacture scrapers for the leveling of ground and building of ditches. The Fresno scraper, as it is known, in the opinion of its inventor has never been equaled for durability, capacity or ease of working. By the adjustment of nuts the dirt may be scattered in layers from one to ten inches deep or left in one heap. A solid bottom is used of I2xj plow steel, which stiffens the bowl, prevents it from wearing, and prevents buckling in hard places. The scraper travels on the bottom when loaded and on the shoes when empty. During two months of 1902 more than five hundred of these scrapers were sold to railroad contractors on one line alone. One of the special products of the Fresno Agricultural Works is the four-ton North Porteous raisin mill, which has a capacity of from four to six tons per hour for raisins, while as many as eight tons per hour of dried grapes have been stemmed and cleaned in the same time. The rais- ins are shoveled from the hopper into the cylinder and delivered from the spouts on both sides of the machine directly into fifty-pound boxes and in four grades, usually designated as one- crown or seedless, two-crown, three-crown and four-crown. The machine being open, the rais- ins are visible at all times except when under the cylinder. Possessing some similarity to this mill is the End Shake North Porteous raisin mill without elevator, the larger size of which, commonly known as the two-ton mill, has a capacity for raisins of about two tons per hour, and is suitable for small packing houses or large vineyards. The North Porteous hand-power raisin mill, made especially for vineyard men, has been snipped to Chile, in South America, also to Australia, South Africa and Europe. Numbered among the other products of the agricultural works may be mentioned the fol- lowing : Fresno raisin stemmer, Fresno raisin grader, cap stemmer, an invention of Mr. Por- teous, which was the first machine to successfully stem raisins ; Fresno differential press, used for pressing dried fruit into fifty-pound boxes; Fresno layer gang press, which is used for press- ing layers ; the Dryer truck for moving trays ; Fresno floor truck for carrying raisins in the sweat boxes to the scales and cars; transfer car and sulphur truck, which affords the most eco- nomical way of handling dried fruit; fruit truck for use on drying grounds and in sulphur houses ; four-wheel vineyard truck, for hauling among vines and trees; four-wheel cross-reach truck, arranged so that the hind wheels will follow in the tracks of the front wheels in turning among vines; steel truck that can be fitted with side boards ; steel cross-reach truck ; winery truck ; three-wheel vineyard truck; brush burner and steel truck, for use where it is desired to burn the brush from vineyards ; brush binder ; brush rake; brush cutter; weed cutter; wheeled weed cutter; hard-pan plow, for the hardest kind of work on roads, gravel beds, etc. ; vee for mak- ing ditches and levees ; Fresno vineyard disc, a two-horse disc harrow, which can be instantly adjusted by lever to tear up a patch of weeds and then reset for ordinary work without stop- ping the team ; Fresno vineyard disc reversed, which may be used as a disc, a spader or a vine cutter ; spader, patented by Mr. Porteous, for spading old alfalfa or for vineyards; Fresno disc with vine cutter attached : vine cutter for summer pruning of vines; Fresno two and three- gang vineyard plows ; orchard and vineyard bench plow, having wheels inside the plow, thus rendering it possible to get close to vines and trees; Porteous improved tree plow, patented by Mr. Porteous, a two-horse plow with which the ground can be tilled under the spreading branches of fruit trees without injury to the limbs, and especially serviceable for irrigation purposes, as it stirs up the moisture in the ground and does it with perfect safety to the tree ; the Porteous header, which renders possible the saving of very short grain ; rotary harrow, a device well-nigh indispensable in a vineyard, as it will roll under the spurs and close to the vines without in- juring them; and the Fresno cultivator, a patent of Mr. Porteous, and in use in many of the vineyards of Fresno county. The plant occupied by the works covers one-half block, with large warehouses of brick, ma- chine shop and foundry, and forging furnaces operated by oil. which lessens the cost of operat- ing the plant. In addition to operating this large enterprise Mr. Porteous is interested in orchard and vineyard culture and owns eighty acres of such land one mile from Fresno. In 1902 he built on the corner of Fresno and I streets a brick building, 150x50 feet in dimensions, and three stories in height. With all of his other activities, he has found time to devote to the presidency of the Knob Hill Oil Company at Bakersfield. The Fresno Chamber of Commerce numbers him among its leading members, while fraternally he is a past officer in the lodge of Odd Fellows and a member of the Encampment.