Butte County
Biographies
HARRY FRASER
HARRY FRASER.—Consensus of opinion gives Mr. Fraser the credit of being the father of the hop industry in Butte County. By his foresight and enterprise he has added materially to the prosperity and progress of this section of the state; and he is recognized as an authority on conditions in Central and Northern California.
Harry Fraser is a native of old England, born in Seacombe, Cheshire County. He was reared in his native land and completed his education at Oxford University, receiving a scholarship from that hall of learning. Twenty-five years ago, he came to California, locating in Sacramento, where for seven years he was in the employ of A. A. Merkley. At the end of that time he engaged in hop-growing in Sacramento County, also becoming a buyer and dealer in hops. As he prospered he branched out, and, aside from his operations in Sacramento County, began to raise and deal in hops in Sutter, Yolo, Sonoma, and Mendocino Counties, and finally in Butte County.
On beginning the industry near Chico, in this county, Mr. Fraser discovered the soil to be rich, and to be particularly adapted to hop-growing. He was the first man to engage in hop culture on a large scale in the county. When he began his operations here, there were approximately one hundred hands employed in the industry in Butte County; at the present time, over one thousand hands are employed and the pay roll amounts to over two hundred thousand dollars a year.
In order to make more of a success of the business, and gather information that would enable him to enhance the grade and quality of his hops, Mr. Fraser made several trips East, to large hop centers, and thus kept in touch with modern methods and the best mode for raising, curing, baling and shipping hops on a successful and profitable basis. For years he has had his own buyers in the East, and ships direct to them, thus cutting out the middleman’s profits. In 1910 he purchased the American Hop and Barley Company’s ranch, four miles north of Nord, Butte County. This property comprises one thousand acres, and is largely devoted to hop culture. Of the balance, which also is improved land, four hundred fifty acres are cultivated to alfalfa, while fifty acres are set out to prunes. Mr. Fraser also runs sheep on the ranch. Since this purchase, he has further enlarged his holdings; with five associates he formed the Wilson Rancho Company, and purchased the Wilson Rancho of thirty-four hundred acres, two miles north of Nord. This group of enterprising men are improving and operating the rancho, having eleven hundred acres in wheat, one thousand acres in barley, and one thousand acres in alfalfa. They run a large number of sheep on the property also. It is a splendid ranch; and under Mr. Fraser’s management it is showing up well in returns, as well as in improved condition. In addition to these multiplied interests, Mr. Fraser owns a fifty-acre hop ranch near the Sacramento River, west of Chico.
For irrigating his lands, Mr. Fraser has sunk deep wells and installed an electric pumping plant; and in all his agricultural operations he uses the most modern methods and machinery. A progressive and wide-awake man, he has proven a big factor for advancement in the county ever since his advent here. Intimately acquainted with agricultural conditions in Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, through his interests there, as stated, his varied experience has led him to the decision that the soil of Butte County is the most productive in which he has farmed, and he pronounces this unqualifiedly the best agricultural section in the state.
Mr. Fraser was married three years ago, to a most charming and estimable woman, whose helpful sympathy and cooperation have added materially to his success.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1268-1269, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies