The San Francisco Chronicle called him the “Prince of Fresno.” His vision for Valley agriculture transformed the region, and even in death his impact is felt to this day. M. Theo Kearney – today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
Martin Thomas Carney was born to an Irish family in a poor neighborhood in Liverpool, England in 1842. His family emigrated to Boston when he was 12, and the young man eventually began a career in business, becoming a self-made man.
By 1869 he had changed his name to M. Theo Kearney and moved to San Francisco. It was there he teamed up with Bernhard Marks and William Chapman who hired him to be their agent for the new Central California Colony near Fresno.
Kearney saw Fresno’s potential for agricultural riches, and wound up buying the old Easterby Rancho east of town, launching the Fresno Vineyard Company and going into the wine business. Kearney eventually sold his interest in that venture for something even bigger, something he called the Fruit Vale Estate, on 6,800 acres west of Fresno. This time his focus was growing grapes for raisins.
Beyond that venture, he worked to organize farmers with the California Raisin Growers Association to advance the local raisin industry. He also took some 230 acres of the estate and developed it as a private park, which he called Chateau Fresno. It was the site of his home, and plans for an even grander mansion for the future.
But it wasn’t to be. Kearney passed away in 1906 as a bachelor, and left his entire estate to the University of California, with the intent that the UC would build an agriculture school there. Kearney’s raisin co-op idea didn’t take off until after his death, with the rise of Sun Maid Raisin Growers. Today his mansion is a museum, located in the center of Kearney Park, which is run by Fresno County. More on that in another episode.
