Schmitz, Ernest

Ernest Schmitz, born in Nebraska City, Nebraska, on July 27, 1863, was an early settler who achieved great prosperity through his business foresight in Fresno County, California. He moved to a farm near David City, Butler County, before coming to California with his father in 1875, following his brothers Peter and Gustav who had arrived four years earlier. After working on ranches and hauling brick during a construction boom in Pasadena, he drove up to Fresno in 1888 following an economic downturn. Although he arrived in debt, he began buying hay from local farmers to sell at the courthouse square and quickly expanded his operations to include four teams. He eventually opened a successful hay and grain store on H and Fresno Streets, which he operated for six years while accumulating valuable city real estate.

Mr. Schmitz expanded his commercial enterprise by purchasing a city block bounded by Fresno, Mariposa, D and E Streets in 1906, where he built warehouses, corrals, and office buildings to ship grain and hay across the state by the carload. His agricultural endeavors included developing an eighty acre Thompson seedless vineyard on Walnut Avenue and managing multiple alfalfa, fig, and olive ranches across Fresno and Madera counties. He also successfully dealt in livestock and capitalized on the regional real estate boom, famously selling a set of Tulare Street lots for twenty thousand dollars. In 1914, he built a modern residence at 207 Coast Street for his family, which included his wife, Ada Morgan, and their four children, Vera, Cleone, Bertha, and Ernest.