Merced County
Biographies
ORSON B. CARD
No more satisfactory example of the self-made and substantial business man can be found than Orson B. Card, proprietor of the Card Garage at Arena, Cal. He was born in Potts County, Pa., on September 25, 1882, the youngest of three children born to Orrin and Louisa (Haskins) Card, the others being Oscar M., who married Maimie Havens and had two children, Ernest and John, who are now living with their maternal grandparents, their father and mother having met an accidental death in an auto and electric car accident at Boise, Idaho; and Carrie A., who married J. P. Berlin and lives at Livingston; she has two sons. The mother died at Nelson Run in 1900, and the father, who was born at Oswego, N. Y., resides at Yountville, Cal., and is eighty-two years of age. He was a Civil War veteran, and after the war he farmed and had a sawmill at Nelson Run, Potts County, Pa., where he made shingles and lumber.
Orson B. Card was reared in Potts County, Pa., and attended the public schools till he was fourteen, when he began to assist his father on the farm and in his sawmill, becoming familiar with machinery at an early age. He was the first member of the family to come to California. Before he landed in this state he was engaged in lumbering near Idaho City, Idaho, and in mining at Deadwood, that state. In company with his uncle, C. S. Card, he owned the Dewey mine and they brought in the first stamp mill, which weighed 5500 pounds, through almost impassable mountains. He sold his interest in this silver and gold prospect to his uncle in 1916. When war was declared our subject was classified as A 1 for war service and was called just as the armistice was signed. Coming then to California, he developed a forty-acre Malaga vineyard from a wheat field near Livingston, selling out to Clara M. Myhead in 1923. He then erected his garage, fifty by sixty-four feet in dimensions, and established a Ford agency, handling also the Fordson tractor. He has a full line of accessories, gas, oils, tires and tubes and does all kinds of repairing, employing one and sometimes two men, and is building up a good business in his district, where he is known as an experienced mechanic. In politics he is a Republican.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 906-907
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
FRED H. CRONWELL
A successful business man of Los Banos who is now serving his township as justice of the peace is Fred H. Cronwell. A native of Illinois, he was born in Rockford, Winnebago County, on September 9, 1884, and attended the public schools of his city until he was eighteen, when he made up his mind he would strike out for himself and see something of the West. He arrived in San Francisco in 1902 and soon secured work as a clerk in the Russ House; thereafter he followed hotel work for several years in California, Oregon and Washington. He finally located in Healdsburg, Cal., and engaged in the tailoring and cleaning business, later removing to San Francisco where he carried on the same kind of business until 1916, when he came to Merced County and located in Los Banos. Here he opened a tailor shop and also deals in men's wearing apparel and furnishings, and does a cleaning and repairing business in connection, being now accounted one of the leading business men of the town.
Mr. Cronwell was united in marriage with Miss Nell Jones, of Healdsburg, and they have a daughter Ida May. Mr. Cronwell is a member and ex-president of the Los Banos Chamber of Commerce. Fraternally he belongs to Mountain Brow Lodge No. 82, I. O. O. F. and to Los Banos Lodge No. 312, F. & A. M. Mr. Cronwell was appointed by the board of supervisors to the office of justice of the peace to fill a vacancy and at the regular election in 1922 he was a candidate to succeed himself, was elected by a good majority and continues to fill the office to the satisfaction of his many friends.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 907-908
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler