Merced County
Biographies
LOUIS DAHLSTROM
JOHN DAHLSTROM
That "honesty is the best policy" is the maxim that governs the business life of Louis Dahlstrom, merchant at Irwin in the Hilmar Colony of Merced County. He believes in the "square deal" with everybody and in consequence he is prospering accordingly. A native of Sweden he was born on January 17, 1877, the son of H. L. and Carrie Dahlstrom, natives of Sweden who came to America with their family in 1889. Their eldest son, Peter Dahlstrom, had come the year before and the family located in Marshall County, Minn., where the father was a farmer on 160 acres of land. There were six children in the family, viz.: Mary, Mrs. Henry Lundell of Turlock; Peter, who died in Minnesota in 1889; John, born November 24, 1874; Louis, our subject; Dan, born August 12, 1880, who erected the Dahlstrom block in Irwin in 1922; Gust, born in Sweden on May 31, 1884, now running a Union Oil station in Turlock. The mother, who was born in 1842, died in Turlock in 1922 aged eighty years; the father, already past eighty-four, is living retired in Turlock.
Louis Dahlstrom accompanied the family to the United States and attended the schools in Minnesota and then spent some time in Washington before he arrived in Turlock, he being the first member of the family to arrive here. In 1921 he started a grocery store on a small scale at Irwin, later being joined by his brother John; and they carried on the grocery business under the firm name of Dahlstrom Brothers until January 1, 1925, when Louis bought his brother's interest and continues the business as Louis Dahlstrom. He has built up a prosperous business and his trade gradually increases with the growth of the community.
In 1905 Louis Dahlstrom was married to Miss Annie Johnson, daughter of Mrs. Frank Johnson of the Hilmar Colony, and their children are: Ella Evangeline, Helen, Stanley, Chester, June, Pershing and Donald. Mr. Dahlstrom is one of the progressive men of the colony and does his duty as a citizen at all times.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 826-827
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ALBERT EDWARD SMITH
The town of Winton was named after the surveyor of Merced County, who was operating for a land and trust company. In 1918 a fourth class postoffice was started with Harry A. Logue as postmaster; it was made a third class postoffice on February 14, 1923. The second incumbent of the office was Mrs. Margaret Cassell, and the third, Albert Edward Smith. He was born in Grass Valley, Nevada County, Cal., July 12, 1879. His father, Zenor T. Smith, was born in Worcester, Ohio, came to California as a young man and taught school at Grass Valley. The mother, Caroline McClosky Smith, was born in Iowa and came to California with her brother. Being afflicted with asthma it was necessary for her to leave Grass Valley and they located at Atwater, Merced County, where her health was improved. The father taught in the Merced, Turlock, Snelling and Madera public schools, and passed away in 1904 at the age of sixty-six. The mother still lives at Gustine, Merced County. They had three children: Frank E., who is in the employ of the State Highway Commission and resides in Merced; Albert Edward, our subject; and Belle, the wife of Harry Foster, who lives in Gustine.
Albert Edward Smith was only a year old when his parents brought him to Merced, and his education was begun in the public schools of the county and completed by a course in Heald's Business College in San Francisco. He clerked in different stores and at length started a general merchandise store for himself in Winton.
On November 9, 1909, A. E. Smith was married to Martha Ann Logue, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry A. Logue, of Winton, of whom a sketch is elsewhere given in this book. Two children were born of this union, Robert Arthur and Mabel Verna. The former has the distinction of being the first boy born in Merced Colony No. 2 at Winton, Cal. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are intelligent and personally attractive and have won the esteem of the community in which they live for their thoughtfulness and attention to the wants of the people of their community. Mrs. Smith makes an able and accommodating assistant postmaster. Mr. Smith is a member of the Moose and of the Modern Woodmen of America of Merced.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 827-828
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
SAMUEL E. HARRIS
It has been said of the World War, that those who "talked about its horrors did not know, and those who knew about them did not talk." It is doubtless for that reason that no data have come to the sketch writer from the veteran Samuel E. Harris of his experience in the field of Argonne and elsewhere in France. He does not talk. It is only chronicled that he was an engineer in Co. A, 25th Regiment of the 1st Army Corps. All honor must be given him for responding to his country's call and for faithful service to the end. He is today serving his day and generation quite as efficiently as agent of the Ford products in Dos Palos. Born in New York City, July 14, 1891, he was reared and educated in Cincinnati, Ohio, up to 1910. From 1911 to 1913 he was in San Francisco. From there he went to Firebaugh, Fresno County, where he was a clerk in Miller and Lux's general store. He next engaged in business for himself until he enlisted in the United States Army. When he returned from the war he sold out his business in Firebaugh in 1919, and coming to Dos Palos he took over the agency of the Ford products and now sells the Ford and Lincoln cars and the Fordson tractors and all accessories.
Mr. Harris is vice-president of the Dos Palos Chamber of Commerce, and a member of Mountain Brow Lodge No. 312, F. & A. M., of Los Banos, and of the Dos Palos Post of the American Legion, No. 86. His family consists of his wife, Elsie E. (Cline) Harris, and one son, Samuel E., Jr.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 828
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
ARTHUR O. WICKSTROM
A Swedish-American of sterling worth who is prominent in farm and church circles in the Hilmar Colony of Merced County, is Arthur O. Wickstrom, who is deeply interested in projects for the advancement of his adopted county and state. He lives on his thirty-five-acre ranch on August Avenue, one mile northwest of Hilmar. He was born at Earl Park, Ind., on November 30, 1879, the son of Oscar A. Wickstrom, who is mentioned elsewhere in this history. When Arthur was a child of two his parents moved to Iowa, and when he was four they removed to Dakota Territory, that part now embraced in South Dakota. It seemed that the elder Wickstrom was looking for a suitable location for a home, and in 1886 he went to Colorado and farmed near Holyoke, Phillips County. In 1898 they left for Knox County, Nebr., and it was in the public schools of these various places that our subject received his education. He was brought up to be a farmer and has devoted his entire life to that pursuit and is now a well-informed man on many branches of agriculture and horticulture. In 1911 Mr. Wickstrom left Nebraska for California, having decided to settle here, where his father had located in 1903. He has been successfully carrying on his ranch ever since.
In 1904 the marriage of Arthur O. Wickstrom and Ida Mord was celebrated in Nebraska. She is a sister of C. A. Mord, the blacksmith at Hilmar. This marriage has resulted in the birth of four children: Oliver, Olivia, Dorothy, and Alvin. Mr. Wickstrom is a member and a trustee of the Swedish Evangelical Mission Church at Hilmar, contributing generously towards the fund for the fine $46,000 edifice. He is a liberal Republican and considers the correct principles of government and the strict observance of the Eighteenth Amendment.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 829
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler