Main, Eugene F.

Eugene F. Main was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 16, 1866, to Theodore Main and Sarah Rice Main. Raised and educated in Richmond, Missouri, he learned the bricklayer and plasterer trades from his father before establishing his own contracting business before age twenty-one. Beginning in 1887, he spent eight winters working as a construction foreman in Fresno, California, helping erect structures like the City Hall, the Temple Bar Block, and the Fulton Hotel before relocating permanently to Fresno in April 1901.

In Fresno, Main developed a twenty-acre orchard of Muir, Lovell, and Elberta peaches on Roeding Avenue and was involved with the Fresno Brick and Tile Works and the California Peach Growers, Inc. As a prominent contractor and charter member of Fresno No. 1 International Union of Bricklayers, his masonry work encompassed landmark projects such as the Republican Building, the Y.M.C.A. Building, the Fresno Bank, the county almshouse, and numerous commercial structures across Visalia, Coalinga, and Selma. On November 17, 1891, he married Viola Adams in Richmond, Missouri, with whom he raised eight children named Alma, Fred, Eva, Eula, Jeanette, Charles, Nellie, and William.