Mutchler, Mr. and Mrs. Charles H.

Charles H. Mutchler was born on July 3, 1862, in Davis County, Iowa, and moved west to work as a Dakota cattle hand before arriving in Modesto, California, in 1883. On October 4, 1884, he married Laura Hining, who was born in Davis County on May 30, 1865, and had crossed the plains as an infant with her parents, including her father, a pioneer Christian Church minister. Together, the couple launched their agricultural career in Fresno County, initialing ten years on the Rowell place before spending twelve years managing a massive 2,700-acre grain farm at Fish Slough.

Facing severe flood losses on their large-scale grain operation, Mrs. Mutchler used an inheritance from her father to buy sixty acres in Wolter’s Colony, which they improved and sold at a profit. In 1910, she purchased their home ranch on McKinley Avenue west of Fresno, expanding it to 120 acres for successful alfalfa farming and Holstein dairying equipped with modern pumping plants. Parents to six children—Clarence, Claude, May, Maude, Charles, and Laura—the Mutchlers built a prosperous living through their joint business acumen and active involvement in the local Fraternal Brotherhood and Christian Church.