Kellas, Henry

Born near Quebec, Canada, Henry Kellas grew up in Illinois and farmed in Iowa and Kansas before relocating to California in 1905. He purchased a 60-acre ranch seven miles east of Fresno, which he developed with Muscat, Malaga, and Thompson Seedless vines and fig trees, supported by ditch and pump irrigation. Prior to his move to California, Kellas was an active civic leader in Harvey County, Kansas, where he served for nearly thirty-three years as a school trustee and built the original Kellas School, named in his honor.

Following Kellas’s death in September 1909, his widow, Emma Gast Kellas, took over management of the Fresno ranch with the assistance of their son, Floyd Harrison Kellas, an expert horticulturist who also served as clerk of the Locan school district. Their second son, Edward Leslie Kellas, graduated in law from the University of California and served overseas as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army during World War I. Throughout his life, Henry Kellas was recognized for his public-spirited leadership, devotion to education, and commitment to local progress.