Skoonburg, J. L.

J. L. Skoonburg, born in the Province of Skaane, Sweden, on May 2, 1856, was the son of a local farm laborer who learned the bricklayer trade before immigrating to America in December 1879. After briefly staying in New York, working on the Grand Trunk Railroad in Indiana, and spending seven years at his trade in Chicago, he moved to California and eventually settled in Fresno County. He pursued independent contracting in partnership with John Edsenhauser and became part owner of a brick yard in Visalia while his family lived on a ranch at Sanger. An accident involving his son later compelled him to give up his prosperous Visalia business to manage his Sanger farm, which he subsequently sold before spending two years working in Los Angeles.

Returning to Fresno County, Mr. Skoonburg purchased a thirty-acre ranch on Church Avenue, where he spent twelve years cultivating crops before selling the property in 1919 to retire on Glenn Avenue in Fresno. He was first married in Chicago to Ellen Bartelson, a native of Sweden who passed away and left one son, Arthur Skoonburg, a physician who served as a World War lieutenant at Fort Riley, Kansas, and later worked at the Sample Sanitorium. He was married a second time to Mrs. Mary Marmaduke, a Missouri native and daughter of William Brewer who brought a son named Millard Marmaduke into the family. A strong temperance advocate, active member of the Raisin Growers Association, and member of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Skoonburg built his success entirely through personal effort.