Tulare County Biographies

M. F. Austin

Submitted by Sally Kaleta, June, 2007

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HEDGE ROW VINEYARD 
	Any one visiting Fresno is sure to learn of the success 
which has attended the care and management of the Hedge Row Vineyard. This 
famous vineyard is owned by a corporation of four Eastern ladies - Miss M. F. 
Austin, now deceased, Miss L. H. Hatch, Miss E. A. Cleveland and Miss J. B. 
Short - all of whom were engaged as teachers in educational institutions in San 
Francisco. In the early settlement of Fresno these ladies pooled their savings, 
organized their company, and upon the opening of Central Colony in 1876, by W. 
S. Chapman, they purchased 100 acres on Elm Avenue, Mr. Chapman agreeing to set 
two of every twenty of their present successful vineyard. These sources of the 
valley at  the time were indeveloped, and in the experimental planting of 
oranges, lemons, limes, walnuts, deciduous fruits and vines this company have 
expended thousands of dollars, all of which practically have accrued to the 
benefit of the latter developers. The company have been united and harmonious in 
the management of the ranch, which has been left largely to the direction of 
Miss Austin, who came to the vineyard to reside in August, 1878; and those 
energies which heretofore had been so successful in the management, as 
principal, of the Clark Institute of San Francisco were hereafter to be expended 
in the proper care and development of what has since proved a very successful 
enterprise. Miss Austin was born in Nantucket, and graduated at the high school 
of her native town, and later at the Bridgewater (Mass.) Normal School. She then 
taught seven years in the public schools of Chicago, and received such rapid 
promotion that during the later years was assistant principal. She came to San 
Francisco in 1864, and began teaching in the girl's department of the high 
school, and for seven years was principal of the Clark Institute, or until she 
resigned to take up her ranch duties in Fresno, in March, 1889, deeply mourned 
by her friends and colleagues. Miss Hatch, the able assistant of Miss Austin, 
was born in Maine, and was educated at Mt. Holyoke Seminary. She then began 
teaching at Rockland, and later in Kansas, at the Ottawa University and 
Maplewood seminary. She made a visit to California in 1870, but came to settle 
permanently in 1875, as a teacher in the Clark Institute in San Francisco, 
remaining until January, 1879. She then came to the ranch to reside, although 
the direct management of the vineyard was left to Miss Austin, and to her the 
credit of the successful development. As trees failed in the early experiments 
the ranch was largely given up to vines, in which they now have seventy-seven 
acres, and the remainder in orchard and ornamental grounds. The first pack of 
the vineyard was in 1878, when they put up thirty boxes, adopting the name of 
the Austin Brand. In 1879 they put up 300 boxes and in 1886, 7,500. Packing was 
then given up, owing to the failing health of Miss Austin, and they have since 
sold their raisins in the sweat-boxes. The ranch is now under the management of 
Miss Hatch, and in the tasteful appointment of house and grounds, with their 
complete dryer, packing-house, and ranch apurtenances, one can but recognize the 
intelligence which has been brought to bear upon the several stages of 
development.
 
Source: "The Memorial and Biographical History of the County of Fresno, Tulare 
and Kern, California," Lewis Publ. Co., 1892, pp. 472-473.