Vogel, Frederick Karl

Frederick Karl Vogel, born in Golgewitz, Silesia, Germany, on November 2, 1882, was an accomplished tradesman and oil field superintendent. Raised and educated in Lissa, Posen, he completed a woodturner apprenticeship at age fourteen and worked across Germany, London, Canada, and Seward, Alaska. He arrived in San Francisco, California, in 1906, working at his trade for two years before moving to the Santa Maria oil fields in 1908. Under the employ of H. A. Rispin, he learned the oil industry from the ground up before managing operations at Lost Hills for two years.

In April 1912, Mr. Vogel arrived in Fresno County as the superintendent of the Amity Oil Company near Coalinga, where he oversaw eight producing wells on Section 1, 20, 14. Expanding his local investments into viticulture, he also acquired a twenty-acre tract in Biola to plant Thompson seedless vines. He initiated his naturalization papers in 1906, officially became a United States citizen in 1911, and actively supported the Republican Party. Through his technical expertise, industrious leadership, and regional investments, he became a prominent contributor to the industrial and agricultural development of Fresno County.