Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the James Porteous Collection, 1877-1947, 1972
MSS #004
No online items
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: James Porteous Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1877-1947, 1972
Collection number: MSS #004
Origination:
Porteous, James, 1848-1922
Extent: 9 boxes
Repository:
Fresno City and County Historical Society
Fresno, California
Language:
English.
Papers of James Porteous, donated by his daughter, Mrs. Agnes Porteous Walker.
Collection is open for research by appointment only.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Fresno City and County Historical Society. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing
to the Society archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Fresno City and County Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], James Porteous Collection, MSS #004, Fresno City and County Historical Society.
James Porteous was born in 1848, in Haddington, Scotland, the son of a wheelwright and blacksmith, William Porteous. In 1877,
James Porteous moved to Fresno and established a wagon shop that would later become the largest agricultural implement business
in the valley, Fresno Agricultural Works.
James Porteous is best known for his role in the development and marketing of the Fresno Scraper. After developing and patenting
several dirt-scrapers himself, he would purchase the rights to two additional scrapers--one patented by William Deidrick,
and one patented by Abijah McCall and Frank Dusy. Porteous would combine the elements of these two scrapers with his own improvements
and begin manufacturing the Fresno Scraper. This implement would play a vital role in the land-leveling, ditch-digging and
road construction of the San Joaquin Valley and go on to be marketed throughout the world. The Fresno Scraper was used during
WWI on the European front, and was used in the construction of the Panama Canal. Eventually, the bulldozer would bring the
use of the Fresno Scraper to an end.
At the time of his death, Porteous held 200 patents, including patents for 50 of his own inventions. In addition to his operation
of Fresno Agricultural Works (now known as Fresno Ag), Porteous farmed 80 acres of tree fruit and vines and was active in
Fresno's civic life. He was one of the founders of the YMCA, a charter member of the First Presbyterian Church, president
of the Knob Hill Oil Company in Bakersfield, a member of the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, and an officer of the lodge of Odd
Fellows. Porteous authored a volume of poetry entitled
Death and the Reporter. Records indicate 1000 volumes were published and paid for by Porteous.
Porteous became a citizen in 1879, and married Jenny Ritchie. (There is a discrepancy in their year of marriage. Fresno Past
and Present, Vol. 23, No.4, indicates the wedding took place in 1895 yet personal correspondence alludes the wedding may have
occurred in late December, 1900.) James and Jenny had 6 children, William, Mary, Agnes, Margaret, James Jr., and John. In
1916, the family moved to the prominent home that still stands at 1095 North Van Ness.
The Porteous papers span 1877-1947, 1976 and contain correspondence, financial records, patents, and legal documents, printed
material, Fresno Agricultural Works catalogs, photographs, a scrapbook, newsclippings, the manuscript and one hard-bound copy
of
Death and the Reporter.
Photographs: Photo Boxes 1 and 2, files 1-80, Glass Negative Collection #004
"James Porteous, Fresno's Forgotten Inventor,"
Fresno Past and Present.
The Journal of the Fresno City and County Historical Society. Winter 1981. Volume 23 No.4.
"James Porteous,
'History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley, California'",
by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A.M.
The Chapman Publishing Co. Chicago. 1905. Pg. 1271+.
Death and the Reporter, by James Porteous,
Monfort and Co. Printers, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1913.