Person:Frank Pfitzer (3)

OBITUARY: Los Banos Enterprise [Los Banos, CA] July 28, 1933 FRANK PFITZER, PIONEER, IS DEAD

Frank Pfitzer, said to be the oldest pioneer of the Los Banos community, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. H. L. Menjoulet at Volta, Monday night at 10:20. He had been in failing health for several weeks, brought on by an accidental fall on the pavement in this city. Funeral services were conducted at the local Masonic Temple yesterday morning at ten o'clock by officers of Hills Ferry Lodge, F. & A. M., of Newman, headed by Worshipful Master Floyd Pearce. The deceased had been a member of Hills Ferry Lodge for 53 years, joining when he was 21 and never affiliating elsewhere. Pallbearers were F. J. Arburua, Jack Triglia, B. A. Wilson, F. H. Riedle, Wm. Fahey and Michael Etcheverry. Interment was made in Los Banos cemetery under direction of W. M. Davis, Newman mortician. Frank Pfitzer was born in Jackson county, Iowa, February 21, 1859, and moved with his parents to the old Central Point near the site of Los Banos in 1863, when he was four years old, and has resided in this community continuously since that time. On September 19, 1881, he was married to Miss Hester Knight, who passed away on July 19, 1924. The ceremony was performed near Volta at the home of and by Judge Clark who at that time was Justice of the Peace. Four children survive, and are Clarence J. Pfitzer and Mrs. Mary T. Menjoulet, both of Volta, Mrs. Ruby L. Chappell of Gustine, and Francis H. Pfitzer of San Francisco. Three brothers and three sisters are left. They are William and Joseph Pfitzer of Gustine, Louis Pfitzer of Oakland, Mrs. Rose Bunker of Gustine, Mrs. Julia McCabe of Berkeley, and Mrs. Clarice Bender of Cincinnati, Ohio. Also six grandchildren survive: Frank C., Frederick J., Maxine and Harry Pfitzer, Henry F., and Marie E. Menjoulet, Hester and William Chappell, and one great grandson, Harvard Pfitzer. During his long years of residence in this community he devoted his time to farming, going into the general merchandise business at Volta in 1903, retiring from that business two years later. He served for many years as a trustee of the local high school and was prominent for upwards of 40 years in Republican county politics.

CENSUS: 1900 United States Federal Census Record Name: Frank Pfitzer Home in 1900: Township 3, Merced, California Age: 41 Estimated birth year: abt 1859 Birthplace: Iowa Race: White Relationship to head-of-house: Head Image source: Year: 1900; Census Place: Township 3, Merced, California; Roll: T623 93; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 46.

BIOGRAPHY: History of the San Joaquin Valley - 1905 - Guinn History of the State of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California: By: James Miller Guinn The Chapman Publishing Co. (1905) Frank Pfitzer page 874 Merced

Transcribed by: Alma Stone

FRANK PFITZER.

August 10, 1903, Frank Pfitzer succeeded through purchase to the general merchandise business of G. M. Martin, and has since taken an active part in the commercial life of Volta, attending also to the duties of postmaster. Mr. Pfitzer's reputation as a businessman rests upon years of worthy effort as a sheep raiser, and upon successful dealings in lands, and the ability to accumulate several large and paying country properties. His entire active life has been spent in California, as was also the greater part of his youth, for he came here a child in the summer of 1863. He was born in Jackson, county, Iowa, February 21, 1859, and is the oldest of ten children of Anthony and Theresa ( Myers ) Pfitzer, natives of Wurtemberg, Germany, the latter a resident of Santa Cruz.

Anthony Pfitzer was a blacksmith by trade, giving to his work the thoroughness and application required of apprentices in the old world. With his trade as a guarantee of at least a fair livelihood, he came to the United States, traveled throughout the east, and finally became a pioneer farmer of Jackson county, Iowa. His land lay along the Maquoketa river, was fertile and productive, and soon placed him above indebtedness and on the road to success. In the spring of 1863 he yielded to a desire to see the far west, and with his family crossed the plains, locating in Eldorado county, where he followed freighting. In 1867 he located on land near old Los Banos, engaged in the stock-raising business, and became one of the largest stock and grain men in the county. From a small beginning he branched out repeatedly, purchasing additional land from the settlers, until he owned over six thousand acres. During the last years of his life he leased the greater part of his property, his death occurred in Merced county in 1892, at the age of sixty-two years. He was a man of marked characteristics, liberal and public-spirited, and impressed his influence upon many departments of the county's growth. As a Democrat he was active in the interests of his party, served on the county central committee, the school board, and was instrumental in securing the building of the first school house in Volta. He was one of the founders and builders of the church at Volta. Honest and straightforward in all of his dealings, genial and considerate in his association with friends and neighbors, he commanded the respect and good-will of the community, and left a void in the hearts of many when he died. Nine of his ten children are living, and of these Joseph, the second son, is a farmer of the Cottonwood district; Mary is the wife of A. Domegine, of Fresno county; Julia is the wife of E. McCabe of Merced county; Anthony lives on the old home farm; Rose married William Bunker of Cottonwood district; Clara is a resident of Santa Cruz; and Louise runs a dairy near Los Banos. From 1867 until his twenty-first year Frank Pfitzer lived on his father's farm, after which he started out on his own responsibility in the sheep business, herding his sheep on the plains and in the valley. Eventually he purchased a farm of sixteen hundred acres in the foothills, which he still owns, and where he pastured sheep until July, 1903. Since then he has rented this property. He also owns a thousand acres of land south of Volta, which he rents fro grain purposes, and two hundred and forty acres in his home ranch, all under irrigation, of which eighty acres are under alfalfa and rented out for a dairy. Mr. Pfitzer practically retired from immediate supervision of his landed interests when he embarked in the merchandise business in 1903, but his responsibilities are still great, and include active political service, and an interest in all questions of local public moment, He is at present a member of the Republican county central committee, and has been for many years a delegate to state and county conventions. The friend of education and all manner of improvement, he was formerly a member of the school board, and his contributions to church and charitable undertakings are generous. Mr. Pfitzer was united in marriage in 1881 in Merced county, to Esther A. Knight, a native of Jones county, Iowa, and they have four children, Clarence, May, Ruby and Frances. Fraternally he is associated with the Hills Ferry Lodge No. 236, F. & A. M., of Newman, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen of Los Banos. His character, lifework and aims command the respect of an intelligent and discriminating commonwealth, and his rise to success is of such a nature as to furnish encouragement and hope to the industrious and ambitiously inclined.