Randrup, James B.

James B. Randrup, born in Denmark on March 29, 1879, was an energetic young farmer whose land improvement projects contributed significantly to the development of early Fresno County. Raised on a small farm, he drove a team and worked extensively from boyhood to help his family, as his father had been crippled from exposure while serving in the Danish Prussian War. He left Denmark for New York at the age of eighteen and arrived in Fresno in May 1898 to begin working on a local farm along the White Bridge road. His early years in California involved leasing grain farms and enduring low market prices alongside a brief partnership with Mads Madsen that ended when Madsen passed away. This challenging start laid the foundation for his future expertise in agricultural development and land cultivation in Central California.

Mr. Randrup achieved success by securing a contract to improve 160 acres of raw land in the Empire district, where he installed the first pumping plant in the area and successfully sowed alfalfa. In 1918, he purchased a 160 acre ranch in the Houghton district that he had previously leased and improved, setting out a vineyard and establishing a dairy with fifty six cows. He modernized the property by utilizing an Empire milking machine powered by a gasoline engine and installing an electric pumping plant for irrigation to complement the local ditch. He was married twice, first to Hattie Miller, who died in 1914 after having four children, and later to Lena Ostergaard Tillesen, with whom he had a daughter. He became a highly esteemed member of the Danish Brotherhood, a stockholder in the Danish Creamery Association, and an active participant in the San Joaquin Valley Milk Producers Association.