Yolo-Sonoma-San Benito County CA Archives Biographies.....Fredson, Alonzo H. 1846 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 14, 2006, 5:46 pm

Author: Tom Gregory (1913)

ALONZO H. FREDSON

    The early recollections of this influential citizen of Yolo county cluster
around the Kennebec river region in Maine, where he was born in October of 1846
and where he spent the years of youth in the home of his parents. When only
seventeen years of age he entered the service of his country as a volunteer in
the Union army and early in 1863 was sent to the front with his regiment, having
gone to Bangor, the state headquarters, from Belfast, Waldo county, where he had
been enrolled as a member of Company M, First Maine Heavy Artillery. After the
volunteers had been drilled in a knowledge of military tactics they were ready
for action and their share in the northern victory was neither insignificant nor
unimportant. No memory lingers with more tragic force in the mind of Mr. Fredson
than that of the campaign in Virginia during 1864. The records of the war
contain nothing more fateful than the incidents connected with the long struggle
in the Wilderness. About the 4th of May the siege began, at which time the army
of the Potomac marched in two columns for the lower fords of the Rapidan river.

    At the head of the Union forces was that sagacious general, Grant, who with
the assistance of Meade had planned a campaign against Lee's forces. The battle
of the Wilderness commenced May 5th and continued until the Federals had lost
fifteen thousand in killed and wounded and five thousand imprisoned. The
encounter at Spottsylvania Courthouse followed with its heavy losses to both
sides. The fighting indeed kept up throughout the entire month and the regiment,
which had entered the conflict on the 1st of May with nineteen hundred men, was
reduced to two hundred and fifty men on the 18th of June. On that day Mr.
Fredson received his first wound, a ball in the left leg which confined him to a
hospital for treatment. On his recovery he rejoined his command and the last
winter of the war he spent at Fort Hill in front of Petersburg, April 9, 1865,
he witnessed the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Courthouse and saw the
final triumph of northern arms when General Grant, in behalf of the government,
dictated the terms of peace.

   A brief period after the close of the war was spent in the old home
neighborhood in Maine, from which state Mr. Fredson came via the Isthmus to San
Francisco in 1867. After landing in June he proceeded to Sonoma county and found
employment in the vicinity of Santa Rosa. From there in 1874 he went to San
Benito county and identified himself with the growing activities of Hollister
and Tres Pinos, the latter situated at the terminus of the Southern Pacific
Railroad from San Francisco. Putting up a large building, he opened the first
hotel in the town and this (known as the Southern Pacific hotel) he conducted
for seven years. Upon discontinuing the hotel business he began to buy and sell
hay and grain and for twenty years he carried on a concern known as the Farmers'
Hay Company, the controlling element in the hay and grain business of the
locality. In January, 1911, he came to Esparto, Yolo county, and bought the town
site, including a brick three-story hotel with about forty-five rooms, a livery
barn with accommodations for thirty-five head of stock and with an adjacent
large stockade, two large general store buildings (in one of which he put a
$20,000 stock of goods), a meat market, and indeed the entire commercial center
of the village. Since then he has established a lumber yard for the convenience
of newcomers and also has acted as representative of the Esparto Real Estate &
Improvement Company. Since he became identified with the place its struggling
business activities have gained a new impetus and the place is now enjoying a
steady growth which is the foundation of future prosperity.

    At Santa Rosa occurred the marriage of A. H. Fredson and Adda Jose, a native
daughter of the state. She died in 1885. Three children were born to them. The
only son, Alonzo H., Jr., married Marie Yparraguerre and they live in San Benito
county, where he has engaged in the raising of grain and hay and also for some
years has followed the butcher's business. The elder daughter, Nellie, Mrs.
Frederick McCune, resides in Portland, Ore., where her older daughter, Adelaide,
is a student in St. Helen's private seminary, and the younger daughter, Miriam
V., attends the high school. The remaining member of the Fredson family, Lottie
C., Mrs. M. P. Wilkes, lives in Portland, where her daughter, Berenice, is being
educated. The second marriage of Mr. Fredson occurred in San Benito county and
united him to Miss Mary E. Moore, who was born in Petaluma, the daughter of Dr.
Edwin Moore. The latter, a pioneer physician of Sonoma county, died at the age
of eighty-five years. For many years Mr. Fredson has been interested in the
activities of the Grand Army of the Republic and during his residence in San
Benito county he .was a leading member of the local post. There also he served
for sixteen years as county supervisor, six years of this time as chairman, and
during his long service he accomplished much in the interests of good roads. On
several occasions he was chosen to represent the Republican party as a delegate
to the state conventions. Throughout his entire life, whether in times of war or
peace, he has been loyal in his devotion to the country, and he is particularly
patriotic in his affectionate regard for California, the chosen home of his
adoption. While not personally identified with any denomination he is in
sympathy with their efforts for the upbuilding of the world and has contributed
generously to the Adventist Church, of which his wife is a member. Education
also has received his practical aid, for he recognizes in it the most important
adjunct of modern existence and the greatest factor in the future prosperity of
the west. As a citizen he has been progressive and public-spirited and his
removal to Yolo county has contributed largely to the material growth of Esparto
and the surrounding country.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from

HISTORY OF YOLO COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
TOM GREGORY
AND OTHER WELL KNOWN WRITERS
ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA [1913]




File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yolo/bios/fredson193gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/cafiles/

File size: 7.0 Kb