Nolan, Frank J.

Frank J. Nolan was born in Santa Cruz in 1877, was educated in the public schools of San Francisco, and learned the cooper’s trade in San Francisco. Moving to Fresno in April 1903, he initially began making barrels by hand and quickly built a strong local reputation for his craftsmanship and reliable work. As demand grew, his business was incorporated in 1907 for $50,000 with a fully equipped barrel machine plant, and it was reincorporated ten years later for double that amount.

Serving as president and manager of the Fresno Cooperage Company, Nolan established a major manufacturing plant on a fifteen-acre tract at California and East Avenues. The operation grew to employ sixty to eighty men with a daily capacity of 800 to 1,000 barrels, generating over $750,000 in annual business and utilizing dedicated sidings for both the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads. Shipping 150,000 barrels annually throughout California, the company regularly sourced materials from across the country, including 150 carloads of staves and forty carloads of headings from southern states alongside twenty-five carloads of steel from Pennsylvania.