Yolo-Kern County CA Archives Biographies.....Hecke, G. H. 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 9, 2005, 5:28 pm

Author: Tom Gregory

G. H. HECKE

    It is to men of superior ability and scientific knowledge that the various
horticultural sections of California owe their present prosperous condition and
wonderful state of development, and in particular is Yolo county fortunately and
scientifically equipped in her horticultural commissioner, G. H. Hecke. This
busy and useful official was born in Hamburg, Germany, where after leaving the
high school of his native city he was employed several years in a large nursery.
He left that establishment to enter a German agricultural college, in which he
took a course in horticulture and viticulture. After a year of study and
practical work in France he further fitted himself for his chosen profession by
special study at the Royal Botanical Gardens, at Kew, near London, England,
where he remained two years (1890-91). This is the only government institution
of its kind in England, and its graduates supply the British colonies with
trained horticulturists. After passing his examinations Mr. Hecke looked around
for a location and chose the Pacific coast country as a fair field for future
operations and selected California as the most suitable district for his
purpose. Accordingly he arrived here in 1892 and entered the employ of the Kern
County Land Company at Bakersfield. The next year he decided to seek a more
desirable field for his special experiments and found it in Yolo county, where
he accepted a position on the Byron Jackson ranch, two miles south of Woodland.
In the course of time Mr. Hecke became the owner of this beautiful ranch. Under
his intelligent and careful management it could not be other than what it is—a
rare garden of plant, vine and tree and one of the show places of Central
California. Within its limits are a raisin vineyard of eighty acres, a prune
orchard of fifty acres and an apricot and olive orchard of about twenty acres.
"The Yolanda" is the fitting and poetical name Mr. Hecke has given his home, and
its one hundred and sixty acres of park-like cultivation and arrangement could
not have been more appropriately named. The ranch is adorned with a beautiful
residence, in perfect keeping with the place, and has drying houses, packing
houses, stables and other necessary buildings. Here its cultured owner lives and
gathers the plant products of a wonderful farm. A two-hundred acre tract near
Esparto, also belonging to this estate, is devoted to the cultivation of grain
and alfalfa. In a county of such agricultural possibilities as Yolo it is no
wonder that within its territory a grower like this trained horticulturist has
found his natural field.

    From 1904 until 1906 Mr. Hecke was employed by the United States Department
of Agriculture as an expert in viticulture and had in charge eleven experimental
vineyards extending from Chico to Cucamonga. After several years of this service
he resigned to devote all his time to his own business interests. When the
University Farm at Davis was established Mr. Hecke was one of its most
enthusiastic local advocates. As is known, this farm is a part of the College of
Agriculture of the University of California and contains seven hundred and
eighty acres of the rich alluvium which Putah creek has for countless ages been
bringing down from the hills. Believing firmly in the theory of establishing
this great educational institution where farming is taught as a science and pays
for itself in the knowledge it imparts to the surrounding world, Yolo's
commissioner of horticulture is deeply interested in the noble institution and
has faith in the efficacy of its future influence on the agricultural and
horticultural development of the resources not only of California, but of the
Pacific coast.

    In 1898 Mr. Hecke married Miss Elizabeth Welch, a native of Yolo county.
They have two daughters, Leila and Martha.


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]

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