Balfe, John Hilton

John H. Balfe, born on January 16, 1898, in Newburgh, New York, was the son of Frederick C. and Bertha Hilton Balfe, members of a prominent financial and social family. He received his early education in Newburgh public schools and attended Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, though eye trouble forced him to abandon plans to pursue an agricultural course at Cornell University. Drawn to outdoor life, he worked on the Borden Home Farm in Orange County, New York, where he learned dairying and the care of milch cows. His agricultural ambitions eventually attracted him to the vast opportunities of California, leading to his arrival in the Golden State in 1917.

Upon his arrival, he became the resident superintendent of the famous Margherita Vineyard, located five miles east of Fresno on Ventura Avenue. The property was owned by the East Side Development Company, a corporation in which his capitalist father was a large stockholder and Charles Teague served as president. Under his energetic and intelligent management, the fertile, sub-irrigated tract thrived, producing diverse wine and table grape varieties and utilizing direct shipping switches from the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Fresno Traction Company. His successful oversight of this valuable viticultural property earned great satisfaction from the company stockholders and established his promising reputation in agriculture, horticulture, and viticulture.