Merced County Biographies
Ref: Pages 906-907
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 7/31/2009
ORSON B. CARD
No more satisfactory example of the self-made and substantial business man can be found than Orson B. Card, proprietor of the Card Garage at Arena, Cal. He was born in Potts County, Pa., on September 25, 1882, the youngest of three children born to Orrin and Louisa (Haskins) Card, the others being Oscar M., who married Maimie Havens and had two children, Ernest and John, who are now living with their maternal grandparents, their father and mother having met an accidental death in an auto and electric car accident at Boise, Idaho; and Carrie A., who married J.P. Berlin and lives at Livingston; she has two sons. The mother died at Nelson Run in 1900, and the father, who was born at Oswego, N.Y., resides at Yountville, Cal., and is eighty-two years of age. He was a Civil War veteran, and after the war he farmed and had a sawmill at Nelson Run, Potts County, Pa., where he made shingles and lumber.
Orson B. Card was reared in Potts County, Pa., and attended the public schools till he was fourteen, when he began to assist his father on the farm and in his sawmill, becoming familiar with machinery at an early age. He was the first member of the family to come to California. Before he landed in this state he was engaged in lumbering near Idaho City, Idaho, and in mining at Deadwood, that state. In company with his uncle, C.S. Card, he owned the Dewey mine and they brought in the first stamp mill, which weighed 5500 pounds, through almost impassable mountains. He sold his interest in this silver and gold prospect to his uncle in 1916. When war was declared our subject was classified as A1 for war service and was called just as the armistice was signed. Coming then to California, he developed a forty-acre Malaga vineyard from a wheatfield near Livingston, selling out to Clara M. Myhead in 1923. He then erected his garage, fifty by sixty-four feet in dimensions, and established a Ford agency, handling also the Fordson tractor. He has a full line of accessories, gas, oils, tires and tubes and does all kinds of repairing, employing one and sometimes two men, and is building up a good business in his district, where he is known as an experienced mechanic. In politics he is a Republican.
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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