Meisner, Henry

Henry Meisner was born on July 22, 1872, in Bobofgina, Samara, Russia, to Adam and Margaret (Summer) Meisner. Raised on the family farm and educated in public schools, he served nearly four years in the Russian artillery at North Rastof starting at age twenty-one. In July 1898, he married Marie Buschel in his native province, where he farmed until immigrating to Fresno, California, in 1903. His family joined him a year later, and he spent his first five years in the region working at a plumbing shop.

In 1911, Meisner purchased a forty-acre ranch on Barstow Avenue, establishing a dairy business and growing Thompson seedless grapes as a viticulturist. The couple had five children: John (who died in Russia at age two), Marie (Mrs. Sipe of Barstow), John, Henry, and Adam. Active in his local community, Meisner joined the California Associated Raisin Company, and the family attended the Lutheran Church in Fresno. His hard work and early planning successfully secured a comfortable lifestyle and land ownership in his adopted home.