CONRAD K. HARDER

Sacramento County

Biographies

CONRAD K. HARDER

CONRAD K. HARDER--A widely experienced public official of exceptional initiative and executive ability is Conrad K. Harder, the inspector in the Department of Motor Vehicles, at Sacramento. He was born on April 23, 1886, near Koenigsberg, Germany, the eldest son among four children of the late Otto J. and Pauline (Wiersbitzky) Harder, both natives of Germany. They emigrated to America in 1888, bringing with them two children, and arrived in San Francisco, where they remained until their two younger children were born, and in 1892 they came to Sacramento.

Mr. Otto Harder was an expert marble and granite cutter, and with the assistance of his sons, he conducted a business for many years thereafter at the corner of Tenth and X Streets, under the firm name of Harder & Sons. They did much important work, and Mr. Harder was employed to finish the fancy stone work on the post-office or Federal building, which stands today a splendid memorial to his artistic taste and his technical skill. He died on January 7, 1913, highly respected by all who knew him and one of the most esteemed among the eminently worthy German-American citizens in the county, survived by his widow and four children. Mrs. Harder, the center of a circle of devoted friends, having continued to live here ever since.

When only twelve years of age Conrad Harder left school to enter upon his apprenticeship under his father to the marble and granite trade, and for four years thereafter he was a partner with his father and brother. On moving to San Francisco, however, he sold out his interests, in order to work at his trade in the bay city; but he returned to the capital. The San Jose Marble and Granite Works then sought his services as road salesman, and for two years he was their representative in the Southern California field. Early in May, 1908, Mr. Harder returned to Sacramento, and on May 30, he suffered an accident when a falling live-wire struck him down, and 11,000 volts of electricity passed through him. He luckily recovered; but the experience was the turning point in his career. He took up mechanical engineering through a course of study by correspondence with the American Correspondence Schools of New York, and for a few months owned and operated the Del Monte Auto Livery, which he sold, in order to go to Natoma as the automobile mechanic for the Natoma Consolidated Company there. He became the official driver, and the following four and one-half years were occupied in the transporting of gold bullion from Natoma to Wells Fargo & Company, at the corner of Sixth and K Streets in Sacramento, the alloted time given for the run being thirty-two minutes, Mr. Harder driving a sixty-horse-power Thomas car. During all this time, he was never put under bonds, nor did he ever have a mishap, although he thus transported many millions of dollars worth of gold bullion from the dredge headquarters at Natoma to Sacramento. In 1918, he left the Natoma Company to better himself by accepting the position of master mechanic at the Ruhstaller Brewery at Sacramento.

On January 2, 1919, Mr. Harder was appointed by the state of California as inspector of motor vehicles, for which he had qualified by the successful passing of the civil service examinations in the preceding December. For four years, he continued to discharge the arduous and responsible duties of this office, and his official trips compelled him to cover the common-wealth, from the northern boundary at the Oregon line to the southern border to Mexico. He added greatly to his invaluable experience, and in January, 1923, was able to enter upon his new office of manager with the state department of Motor Vehicles at Sacramento, since which time he has remained about as busy a man as may be found in the capital city. He is a member of the North Sacramento Chamber of Commerce, and through many other affiliations is enabled to exert an enviable influence in favor of progress generally. As early as 1914, he became a pioneer in this new subdivision, and he was among the first settlers who located upon and improved home property. He belongs to Lodge No. 6 of the Elks, and also to the Eagles, and is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood.

On January 1, 1907, Mr. Harder married Miss Ella M. Clark, the ceremony taking place in San Francisco. The bride was the daughter of Mrs. Ellora (Neely) Clark, of North Sacramento. Born n Kansas, she was brought by her parents, when she was a little girl, to Panoche, San Benito County, the journey across the great plains being made in 1889 in huge, covered wagons. Her grandfather and father brought out many head of thoroughbred stock, cattle and horses, and spent the first winter in Oregon. Mrs. Harder was thus reared in the open, and grew up in the saddle on the range, in the San Benito mountains. She completed a short course at the San Benito High school, and accompanied her parents to Sacramento in 1900. One son, Karl Harder, has blessed this fortunate union.

Mr. Harder has a real hobby, centered in the Airedale dogs, and he is proprietor of the "Regular Airedale Kennels," which were started early in 1917 with four animals of high, registered blood. He now owns fifty-one thoroughbred Airedales, and has shipped stock to all corners of the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, Japan, and the Orient. He received ribbons at the annual California State Fair on three different showings. He has become a well-known authority on the Airedale dog, but he admits that there are new things to be learned every day about the animal and his care.

Mrs. Harder must also be accorded her share of credit for her own endeavor. In 1916 she took up the breeding of goats, and she has since been very busy breeding thoroughbred and high-grade Toggenburg milk goats. She studied the problems of the undertaking carefully, and has, as a reward, won many blue ribbons at the State Fair. Today, she is one of the largest breeders of exclusively thoroughbred Toggenburg goats in northern California. In 1922, the herd sire was purchased by the state of California, to be added to the state herd at the Sonoma State Farm; and in 1923, one of the finest thoroughbred does was selected and shipped to the State Agricultural Society of New Mexico. Mrs. Harder takes special pride in her business, and has also become well and pleasantly known through her varied writings published widely to the goat fancying world. These contributions from her pen to farm journals and newspaper periodicals have done much to increase a healthy interest in thoroughbred Toggenburg goats and their breeding in the West.

Mrs. Harder is also Librarian at the North Sacramento Public Library, and the branch of the County Free Library on Sixth Street, near Auburn Boulevard, the library having been opened on April 8, 1922, and since then, under Mrs. Harder's able management, having steadily grown. Formerly Mrs. W. Harris had devoted a corner in her store to county library books, but found it too much trouble. Private individuals have been encouraged to add to the library by individual contributions, but these gift-books are catalogued and kept at the library headquarters and do not circulate. A list of the magazines on hand has also been prepared, and these magazines are loaned out for thirty days, under the same rule governing the books. Mrs. Harder was associated, prior to her recent appointment, with library work at the County Free Library, in the courthouse at Sacramento, and the experience gained there is now of greatest service to her, and through her to the library-users seeking her cooperation. She has also, for five years, been the North Sacramento correspondent of the "Sacramento Bee," and it is interesting to note that she has been eminently successful in thus keeping this section of the county in vital touch with the capital city, and has thereby attained a very honorable place among the well-known women journalists of Sacramento County.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Pages 717-718. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.