Stange, Hugo S.

Hugo S. Stange, born in Berlin, Germany, on September 26, 1880, was the son of Godfrey and Ann Teal Stange. In 1883, his family emigrated from Germany to the United States and settled in Neillsville, Clark County, Wisconsin, where he attended the public schools and worked in a local furniture factory. He moved to Fresno, California, in 1900 to join his father and brother, Paul T., who had arrived the previous year. After arriving in California, he worked in a logging camp at Millwood and helped construct the Northern Pacific Railway between Ukiah and Willits in Mendocino County. Upon returning to Fresno, he learned the plumber trade with the firm of Donahue and Emmons, eventually working at his trade in Oakland with Groff and Leonard and E. O. Dryer before returning to Fresno in 1909.

In 1911, after briefly working for Nudt Johnson and Kutner Goldstein, Hugo formed a plumbing partnership with George T. Elliott under the name Elliott and Stange. Following the dissolution of this partnership in September 1914, he operated a successful independent business installing plumbing for prominent structures across the county. His notable projects included the Hotel White, the Peach Growers Packing Plant in Reedley, the Brewer Hotel in Selma, and the Associated Oil Company pumping plant in Coalinga. Outside of his business pursuits, he married Mrs. Alice Elkins, step-fathering her two children, Clara and Phyllis, and maintained active memberships in the Fresno Lodge No. 343 I.O.O.F. and the Hermann Sons fraternity.