Merced County Biographies
Ref: Pages 791-793
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/20/2009
SAMUEL J. ANET
A prosperous rancher of Merced County, who came here to the United States from his faraway home in Switzerland, when a boy of seventeen, and has made good in his chosen line of work, Mr. Anet, entirely unaided, has reached a position in life above the average, and can look back at his early struggles with pride in the fact that he surmounted all obstacles by hard work, unceasing thrift, and the combining of both with intelligent management. A native of Aigle, which is situated six miles east of beautiful Lake Geneva in Canton Vaud, Switzerland, he was the second of seven children born to Henry Vincent and Anna (Blanc) Anet, the former born in 1842, and died in 1917, and the latter born in 1843, and died October 30, 1908. There were seven children: Louis, Sam, Rosine, Fanny, Alice, Alfred and Benjamin. Both parents were of well established families in Switzerland, who had four centuries earlier fled from France during the persecution of people of their belief as French Huguenots, and took up their life again in Switzerland, where today their descendants have made beautiful the natural resources of the Rhone Valley, and there is where "Sam" Anet was reared. Of the well-to-do class, his father was a foremost authority on viticulture in his day, and owned and operated large vineyards.
Sam. J. attended the public and high school of his home place, receiving at the latter the benefit of thorough courses in literature. He worked on his father's property during harvest, a busy time, and also in the making of choice white wines from the small white wine grape, usually producing 800 gallons of liquid per acre. They also conducted a dairy, and were occupied in cheese and butter making. During the summer months, he went with the herders to the higher altitudes on the mountain slopes, returning in October. His brother, Louis, served twenty-five years as gendarme in Switzerland, but is now retired. Sam decided to come to the larger republic of the United States, and sailed, via Havre, on the Steamship La France, crossed the Atlantic, and arrived in New York May 27, 1883. He went direct to Knoxville, Tenn., to a countryman of his named Buffet, who owned large ranch property six miles out of that city. Saving all he could out of his earnings of $8.00 per month, after three years he made his way to Texas, where he earned $40.00 per month, working in the cotton fields. There he was stricken with fever, and was obliged to return to Knoxville. On regaining his health, he entered the employ of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia railway, and after three years on the road as fireman, brakeman, etc., he entered the main shops of the company, where were employed 600 men, and worked at the bench.
In May, 1893, Mr. Anet moved with his family to California, located at Merced, and soon after went to work in the Grange Company's warehouse, then in charge of W.L. Turner. That fall he went into the flour mill of the Merced Milling Company, where for the next nine years he was foreman; it was while in charge of the mill that the name of just "Sam" was given him, an appellation which has remained his since that time; all knew Sam and Sam knew everyone-while in the mill.
In the meantime he invested his savings in land around Merced, and now owns some very desirable property. His first buy was eight acres of Southern Pacific railway land on the edge of south Merced, where now stands his home, rebuilt since 1908, when it was a fire loss. He has added thirty-four acres to the original acreage, and has fig and peach trees now bearing which are twenty-five years old. He also owns other residence property in Merced, and his unbounded faith in this district still grows, for he has never regretted his decision to settle in this fertile district. Twenty years ago he conducted a city retail milk route from his small dairy; the town has grown to three timees its size since that date.
The marriage of Mr. Anet, which occurred December 31, 1889, at Knoxville, Tenn., united him with Miss Alice E. Hoffer, a native of Knoxville, and daughter of Rev. W.A. and Susan (Smith) Hoffer, descendants of old families of planters in the South. Before her marriage, Mrs. Anet taught in the high school for fifteen years. Three children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Anet: Henry L., born in Tennessee, served in the Ordinance Department during the World War as sergeant, and was absent about eighteen months from Merced; he married Miss Rosina Collins, of Hornitos, daughter of Supervisor Collins of Mariposa County. Eugene E., the second child, died at the age of five years; Ann Eleanor, now Mrs. Earl Kittrell of San Jose, has one son, Robert Sheldon.
Mr. Anet received his citizenship papers at Merced, in 1901, and he has always taken an active interest in public affairs and advancement; for the past fifteen years, he has served as county roadmaster of district No. 2.
History of
MERCED COUNTY
CALIFORNIA
With A
Biographical Review
of
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been
Identified with Its Growth and Development
from the Early Days to the Present
HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
1925
Merced County Biographies ~ Archive Biography Index ~ Archive Index
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