Merced County
Biographies
FELICE IACOPI
An enterprising citizen of Los Banos, Felice Iacopi is a self-made man in every sense of the word for he landed in San Mateo County, California, with nothing in the way of cash and only his willingness to work and a strong constitution as his only assets. A native of Italy, he was born at Montuolo, Lucca, on November 18, 1872, the son of poor but highly respected parents who gave their children such schooling as was possible under the circumstances. When he was sixteen years old he left home for the United States and arrived in Sacramento, Cal., in April, 1888, with just ten cents in his pockets. This he spent for a plug of tobacco, feeling that he might as well be broke in the new country as own one lonely ten-cent piece. He made his way to the San Pedro ranch in San Mateo County, later came into the San Joaquin Valley and in 1890 worked for Miller and Lux in Merced County. Then he went to Tulare County, and it was while he was employed there that he received his citizenship, as a United States citizen at Visalia. He came back to Merced County and worked for Miller and Lux again. In 1901, with his brother, Angelo Iacopi, he bought the Los Banos Soda Works and they operated it for a time; then Felice sold out to his brother and built an ice plant, which he operated for some time, then leased it for a creamery. He then became the agent for the Union Ice Company, which he still continues and at the same time deals in fuel. At the fire in August, 1919 our subject lost considerable, but nothing daunted he rebuilt and continued doing business.
Mr. Iacopi was married January 2, 1905, in Los Banos to Teresa Puccinelli, born in Italy, and they have six children: Louis, Fred, Emma, Velia, Mario, and Dante. Mr. Iacopi is self educated in English, is well-known and well-liked in Los Banos and is always ready to help put through any worthy project that he believes will help the town and its people.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 758-759
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
OLOF P. ANDERSON
A name which will be remembered long in the Hilmar Colony as belonging to a man of sterling worth and exemplary character in the community in which he has lived, a self-made, hard-working God-fearing man, is that of Olof P. Anderson. No less honor is due to his loyal and faithful helpmate, who has mothered nine children and helped put them all through the high school, and a number of them through the university, and is still well preserved, active and interesting. Mr. Anderson is a son of Aaron and Mary (Pearson) Rosen. His father was in the Swedish army and passed most of his life as a soldier. Olof was the sixth in order of birth in the family of seven children and was born in Sale, Sweden, on August 28, 1859. He grew up in Sweden and began working out on farms when only eleven years old. He has a brother, Jacob, in Turlock, a sister, Sophie, in New York City, and three sisters still in Sweden.
In 1882 Olof P. Anderson embarked at Gottenburg, Sweden, on the S. S. Romeo for America, landing at Hull, England, then took the train to Liverpool, from there crossed the Atlantic and after a stormy voyage of eleven days arrived at Castle Garden, N. Y. He proceeded at once to Fremont, Nebr., and worked around as a farm hand for a year and a half. He next went to Haxtum, Colo., and there took up a homestead of 160 acres and proved up on it, but it proved to be a drouthy country and not well adapted to general farming.
Mr. Anderson there met and married Charlotte Marie Anderson, a countrywoman, whom her parents, Anders and Johanna Johnson, brought to this country when only eighteen months old with three other children. They first settled and lived for four years near Lincoln, Nebr., then moved to Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Anderson lived on his Colorado homestead and farmed for seven years, then returned to Nebraska and rented a farm at Mead, and engaged in farming and stock-raising for four years. They then moved to Warsaw, Knox County, Nebr., where they farmed for seven years before coming to California. They joined the Swedish Mission Church in that city. Mr. Anderson bought a ranch of forty acres in Hilmar Colony without seeing it, but sold off three acres. They have nine children as follows: Ephraim Julius, who owns an undivided one-half interest in a thirty-five-acre farm in the Hilmar Colony across the road from his father's place; Joseph Emanuel, a professor in Heald's Business College in San Francisco; Reuben Benjamin, bookkeeper and assistant cashier in Hill Brothers' Coffee Company, San Francisco; Olga Ruth, a registered nurse in San Francisco; Lydia Elizabeth, stenographer in San Francisco; Hildur Marie and Naomi Mariam, both seniors in the University of California; Clarence Nathaniel, a graduate of the Hilmar High School; and Florence Viola, a junior in the Hilmar High School.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 759-760
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
WILLARD R. DAVIS
The life which this article narrates began in Brookfield, Mass.; on November 16, 1847. The only son and survivor of three children, Willard R. Davis has experienced many hardships and struggles against adversity, and has seen many changes in the space of seventy-eight years. When he was a small boy his father, Benjamin F. Davis, went to Pikes Peak and was never heard from. His mother, Alice (Rice) Davis, a native of Massachusetts, moved to Chicago and died there in 1853. The children were then taken to Bowen Prairie, Jones County, Iowa, where Willard was reared on his uncle's farm, attending school until he was fifteen. When he was eighteen he hired out to some men who were coming to California, but on the way he stopped at Reese River, Nev.; from there he went to Virginia City, encountering many tough experiences common to those days. In 1868 he came on to California, and stopping in San Francisco, heard there was a good chance to get work at Mountain View, Santa Clara County, and thither he made his way. He spent some time working on ranches, then went to White Pine, Nev., and from there packed in to Hamilton. In 1871 he went to Kansas and took up a government claim on the Osage Indian reservation. He suffered many set-backs and decided he would return to California. He then spent five seasons in Mountain View section, and in 1877 went to Eastern Washington and staid four years. He returned to California and bought forty acres in the Kearny tract in Fresno County and tried raising raisin grapes, but it did not pay at 2c per pound; then he went to Cotati and tried the poultry business there and in Santa Rosa, but the Mississippi Valley cold storage eggs forced him out again and he spent two years in the quicksilver mines in Lake County. In 1904 he bought eighteen and one-half acres one and one-quarter miles from Atwater and raised beans and sweet potatoes as a double crop; he also set out fig trees, getting the stock from George Roeding in Fresno in 1905. He developed his property and now has ten acres in figs. In 1920 he built his house and the following year his barns and installed lighting facilities in his home. His sister, Violet Huff, came from Walla Walla, Wash., and lived at his home about eighteen months, until her death in 1918.
Mr. Davis was married in San Diego on January 1, 1921, to Mrs. Helen (Rogers) Wright, a native of Wetumpka, Ala., born in 1848, who on September 17, 1867, was married to Dr. W. A. Wright, a prominent surgeon in Waco, Texas. He died in 1908 and his widow came to California in 1909, accompanying her daughter, Mrs. Annie Willet, to her home at Yam. Mrs. Davis is the mother of five children, as follows: A. M., R. E., Mrs. Annie Willet, J. B. of Indianapolis, and Ella. There are twenty-two grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Mr. Davis has prospered well of late years and is now living comfortably in his home.
History of Merced County, California – Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 760-761
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler