Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11tv Agriculture in Fresno County CSPAN February 4, 2017 8:47pm-9:01pm EST
8:47 pm
you're watching american history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span 3. to join the conversation, like c-span ebook at history. this week c-span ness fresno learning more about the city's history. right now we're in kerney park named after one of the area's early ag pioneers. up next we'll visit his home and learn more about his vision for this area. >> we are located here in the kerney mansion museum. this home was built in 1903. it actually was the manager's residence. mr. kerney did not intend to live here permanently. he had ideas for a grander chateau to be built here on the property. and so he lived here a few years until he died in 1906. mr. kerney was really a self-made man. he was not born here in
8:48 pm
california. he was born in liverpool, england. when he was 12 years old, his family emigrated to america. they settled in a suburb of boston. he really went through commercial college, he learned how to be a businessman, and he worked for a truck manufacturing company there. started off as a clerk, worked his way up, and before he knew it he was really a manager of the trunk manufacturing business there in boston. sometime in 1869, he decided to come out here to california. it was a perfect time because the trans continental railroad was coming through. and so they understood that the people buying the land out here, that this is a perfect opportunity to grow crops in this region. so mr. kerney was hired by mr. william chapman who bought a lot of the property out here through agricultural script. he hired mr. kerney to develop these colony farm systems out here. so they started the first
8:49 pm
colony farm, central colony out here in this area. that is really where he made his money. he was a great land promoter. he learned really -- or enticed people to come out here to the central valley and, you please, settle here. -- most of property the properties were 20-acre farms and the thing that really brought people out here was irrigation. the canals would bring to the colonies their own irrigation water. also vineyards were planted for them and other fruit trees and so on. so it really was a great opportunity for people to settle in this region. the first crop they realized was successful was wheat. there was a wonderful wheat field growing here. once they realized they could bring water from the rivers to irrigate it the soil out here was ideal. but eventually, fruit crops, raisins were a big part of what was grown out here and what we are known as today.
8:50 pm
we also have regular grape vines out here. today we still have those. fruit trees. orange trees. almonds. and so much -- many, many crops can be grown in this region. they discovered that over the years this is a perfect area for that. so that he especially was interested in the growing of raisins and he wanted to get together a co-op of raisin growers to kind of structure the pricing, control quality of raisins. and so he started the california raisin growers association and became the first president. and at first everyone thought this was a wonderful idea. he was known as the raisin king of fresno. and he was really looked on as the savior of the raisin industry. however, there were a lot of problems with people, you know, getting along, not everybody agreeing to the ideas that he had, and eventually that went on the wayside. but the managerial ideas he had were later formed in another company, the sun maid raisin company starting in 1912, so he
8:51 pm
is really a big component of that corporation, which exists today. this is kerney's estate office. even though the kerney mansion was mr. kerney's home, this was where all the business was conducted. in fact, a lot of people would come through the back door. this was the main entrance to the office door. and you can see the original rail and many years of people writing on the rail still show. you can see it in the wood. that's where they would come, maybe people that wanted to buy property, perhaps people that worked here on the ranch. maybe the workers would come in and pick up their paycheck or fill out forms. and again, you can see many years of people using that particular area as they came in. so this estate office changed a bit over the years, but it is very similar to how it was when mr. kerney was here. now, in the back of the mansion at one time was a full town at
8:52 pm
one time. this right here is the kerney mansion. this is all in the back and was taken in 1903 about the same time the house had been constructed and there as very large water tower in the back and someone stood on the water tower and took this wonderful photo. they had everything in here hat anyone really could use. it was a full working farm. in the 1940's it was torn down weefment have some structures remaining like the carriage house but, unfortunately, we do not have these items, these buildings today in the back but we at least have this wonderful picture to be referred to. here in the estate office a lot of people enjoy seeing the pictures of what he had in the office. here is the safe. it was a walk-in safe. you can see kearny vineyards syndicate on the top and it is of course where mr. kearny
8:53 pm
would store important papers and money and anything he needed safely stored away would be there in that safe. we have a filing cabinet here that was here during mr. kearny's time. labels were added later but this just shows you what was here on the ranch. all of the things that were grown. peaches, prunes, alfalfa, grapes, raisins were a big crop obviously out here. but today even as you come into kearny park you see the big, wide fields and that's where the alfalfa was grown. going over here in this corner, we see this wonderful broad side poster. this was an original poster. 1889. and this was when mr. kearny was selling the land here. once again, it was very similar to his colony farm system. they were 20-acre farms. very affordable to most people. and this was here in the fruit veil estate. and you can see on the top what the vision of one of those
8:54 pm
farms would look like. you see the canal. again, we have those today out here and all of the city to ring water to the crops. below was a picture of the chateau. it was going to be named chateau fresno and was modeled after the chateau in france. this is what kearny envisioned to be out here in kearny park where he would live. now, unfortunately, however, the chateau was not built. mr. kearny died in 1906. in april of 1906 he was actually in the san francisco earthquake at that time. he wasn't in the best of health. but then he suffered probably a mild heart attack during that time. he came back here to fresno to recuperate and he was going to go to his yearly trip abroad. he usually would do that most years to seek investors for his fruit vale estate project or just to socialize. unfortunately, onboard ship he died of another heart attack.
8:55 pm
once that happened the chateau was no longer being built. they had started a foundation out here at the park. but that, unfortunately, was -- as soon as the word he had died arrived, that stopped. he did not have any -- was not married. did not have any children. his will left everything to the university of california berkeley so they could build an agriculture arl college out here. again, they chose not to complete the chateau and still continued to use it as a ranch. it would have been beautiful to have that, but, unfortunately, it didn't ever happen that we had a chateau fresno here in fresno. this is kearny's private office. this office is very similar to how it looked when mr. kearny lived here. in fact, as we walk through the house, we always have pictures of what the house looked like when mr. kearny lived here. and this is what it looked like in 1903. it almost looks the same way today. very similar to how it was when mr. kearny lived here. we kind of have a little hole
8:56 pm
in the wall there to show everybody what the structure is made out of. it's made out of adobe bricks, about two feet thick. that was very good for insulation to keep the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer, before we had air conditioning or heating. when the -- they started to excavate the land out here, it really was like a sandy plain. not much out here. there was some vegetation, maybe some trees. but you can really get a sense of what it looked like when they did the ground breaking. and this picture shows chateau park, that's what it was called. it wasn't called kearny park then. in february of 1892. and this is the first day of really the ground breaking of the park. mr. kearny is in the front there with a long duster jacket. and right behind, right in the middle of the photo there is a building. and it really was the first manager's residence. kearny mansion that we're in today's second manager's residence. that was first built and that building still exists today.
8:57 pm
we call it the servants quarters. it's the headquarters for the fresno historical society today. now, on the property mr. kearny did have this wonderful general store that his employees could shop in and they would give out scrip, little coins to the employees and they could actually use those in the general store and exchange them for goods. kind of kept everything, you know, within the business obviously. but it also helped the employees who didn't have to go into town so much. although i guess there was another store in town that did accept the tokens as well. instead of using paper money they would just use the tokens to purchase what they needed. also the chateau -- found in his collection there is a postcard of the original chateau in france and i'm sure he visited there and that is where he got the idea of having is own chateau here in fresno. so, unfortunately, the chateau did not get built but we at least do have this house today
8:58 pm
to be able to bring people in and this is how they learned about agriculture, learned about mr. kearny, through these tours. we are so lucky the kearny mansion at least still exists today. >> this weekend we're featuring the history of fresno, california together with our omcast cable partners. learn more about fresno and other stops on our cities tour at c-span.org/cities tour. you are watching american history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> sunday, in depth will feature a live discussion with author and political commentator nick adam. we're taking your calls, tweets, and facebook questions during the program. >> despite all the cultural problems america might have right now, this is still, by far and away, the greatest country in the history of the
8:59 pm
world. >> nick adams is the author of "america, the greatest good." "the american boomerang, how the world's greatest turn-around nation will do it again" and "retaking america, crushing political correctness." mr. adams is also the founder and executive director of the foundation for liberty and american greatness, an organization dedicate today promoting american exceptionalism and combating anti-americanism worldwide. watch "in depth" live from noon to 3:00 p.m. eastern sunday on book tv on >> you're watching american history tv, 48 hours of programming every weekend on c-span3. forow us on twitter information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. the first 10 amendments to the u.s. constitution where
9:00 pm
ratified in 1791. more than four years after the constitution was drafted in philadelphia. monk scholar linda discusses the ratification debate over the new constitution and the states demand for a bill of rights. the north carolina museum of history hosted this event. this is about an hour. good afternoon. i serve as the state archivist for north carolina. on behalf of the sponsors for the program today, i want to welcome you cured tomorrow is the 225th ratification of the bill of rights. we thought there was no better way to celebrate the importance of t
49 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CSPAN3
Television Archive 
Television Archive News Search Service 
Uploaded by TV Archive on
