He has the strongest claim to being called the founder of Fresno. But you probably don’t know his story. Anthony Easterby, Fresno’s pioneering farmer, today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
Easterby was an immigrant, born in Surrey, England in 1818. At age 14 he joined the British Navy, and sailed all over the world. Captain Easterby sailed into San Francisco Bay in January 1849 to his hand in the gold fields. He eventually returned to San Francisco and went into business as a merchant.
He married Emily Gray in in 1853, and moved to Napa where founded the Napa Valley Railroad. In 1868, he purchased 5,000 acres in Fresno County from the land speculators known as the “German Syndicate,” led by Issac Friedlander.
When Easterby went to record title for his Easterby Rancho, the county recorder reportedly questioned his sanity for attempting to farm on the arid, waterless Fresno plain. And indeed Easterby’s first Fresno wheat crop failed due to lack of water in 1869.
The next year, Easterby tried again, planting 2,000 acres, in an area bounded by Chestnut, Butler, Clovis and Belmont Avenues. This time the wheat crop was a success, thanks to water from Moses Church’s Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company. This is the crop that caught Leland Stanford’s eye in 1871, and convinced him to build the future Fresno townsite along the tracks west of Easterby’s land, also known as the Banner Ranch.
Eventually the Easterby Rancho was sold off in parcels, including to M. Theo’s Kearney’s Fresno Vineyard Company. Today Sunnyside High School sits on the site. Easterby eventually returned to Napa where he died in 1893. One last note, Easterby was a businessman and investor, but didn’t actually do the farming himself. That was left to veteran farmer Charles M. Loshe.
