Lundell, Robert

Robert Lundell was born in Gottenburg, Sweden, on May 17, 1881, to Olaus Lundell and his wife. After completing his education and a four-year sausage-making apprenticeship in Sweden, he immigrated to California in May 1899 to join family members in San Jose. He soon moved to Fresno County, where he spent fifteen years in the laundry industry and successfully operated the Selma Steam Laundry in Selma.

Transitioning to agriculture, Robert became a prosperous real estate developer and rancher by buying, improving, and selling fruit properties across Kingsburg, Caruthers, and the Selma Colony. He improved several tracts of land, including a twenty-one-acre property on Washington Avenue and a sixteen-acre home ranch in Selma Colony where he settled with his family. Married in Los Angeles in 1904 to Emma Quist, with whom he had three children named Dorothy, Myrtle, and Alice, he remained a prominent and energetic citizen of Fresno County.