Talk:Fred J. Hart (businessman)

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Fred Hart is definitely worthy to be on Wikipedia. In the article there is enough information to justify it including internal links to organizations he established. It is amazing that he was speedily deleted. Please reinstate, one can add more information about his if needed. Pcirrus2 (talk) 18:49, 29 September 2010 (UTC)

Attempting a rewrite
Comments here please - I'm working on this in my sandbox Sgerbic (talk) 23:03, 1 March 2022 (UTC)


 * I found a paid advertisement in the Salinas paper when Hart was running for office in 1944 that makes a lot of claims about Hart's early history and now I'm attempting to try and back those claims up. "At the age of 24 he was managing the Sumner, Washington branch of the Puyallup and Sumner Fruit Growers' association. Coming to California in 1913, he organized a company and built a cannery in Tulare county. He moved to Salinas valley in 1915 where, ever since, his activities have centered around the farm industry. In 1918 he helped to organize the Monterey County Farm bureau and published its monthly magazine. From that beginning he became publisher of 42 agricultural magazines in this state. He also went into radio and operated station K!W in San Jose until 1934. He owned and operated another radio station in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a member of the executive committee of the California Farm Bureau federation, he helped promote bulk handling of grain in California, with the result that four bulk handling elevators were constructed, one of them in Salinas. He helped organize the Growers' Tariff league which was responsible for securing tariffs on California fruits and nuts, on which tariffs had been removed by a Democratic administration."
 * I'm starting with the claim that he was managing the Sumner branch of the Puyallup Fruit Growers' association. I've found in 1908 that the president was Panlhamus and the secretary-treasurer was G. B. Fletcher but I'm so far not finding any mention of Hart. I'm not finding anything older about the association. If we take the claim that he was 24 at the time, that would be 1906. So I'm still looking. Sgerbic (talk) 18:37, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I've been though the 1905 and 1906 and 1907 on Newspapers.com and there is no mention of "Sumner Fruit Growers" and Hart. That does not mean he was not managing the association, they are in the news quite a bit, and other people are mentioned. Seems there was a lot of ruckus about the group wanting to raise the price to $1.50 from the $1.25 they were getting. And the people who buy the cases to sell were not happy about that at all. I checked the Internet and did not find anything on a search. It's possible that something else will show that Hart did this job, he was living there at the time, he did do work in Salinas for the farming community, so it is not a wild claim. So for the moment I'll leave this be and move on. Making this clear on the talk page that the only (so far) reference for him working as the manager of this association is from a paid advertisement in 1944 for Hart running for office. Moving on ... Sgerbic (talk) 18:54, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Ding Ding Ding - a 1913 article in The Fresno Morning Republican says this "At a special meeting of the Terra Bella Chamber of Commerce, Fred J. Hart, manager of the Hotel Terra Bella stated posotively (sic) that a cannery will be built in this city in the near future so that the 1913 crop of vegetables and fruits can be accommodated. .... The scheme is to operate along the lines used by the Payullup and Sumner Fruit Growers' Association of Washington, with which concern Mr. Hart was formerly connected." So we have our citation, and this seems to prove the second claim that Hart was building a cannery in Tulare. Sgerbic (talk) 19:08, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I should be done by now but it is so confusing. The years are all over the place. From what I can gather, Hart's wife Eva got breast cancer and had surgery and then was dying of it and Hart wanted to treat his wife with some medical device and the AMA shut him down. After Eva's death he opened up the National Health Foundation. This is all from the NHF website. But then it also says that Fred got interested in Abrams work in 1916 to cure her cancer. They only married in 1914 and had a daughter then. But she for sure didn't die till 1962 (I have her obit) so ???? I just emailed the NHF and asked them if the years on their website were correct. I'm hoping they will correct the website and not just email me back. I didn't tell them why I wanted to know, just that the way they worded the website it appears that everything even Eva's death happened in 1955. He was ordered by the AMA to stop treating Eva and others in 1955 (according to the NHF website) but according to his daughter's "papers", the daughter learned to use the machines and inherited the machines from her dad. So if Fred was shut down by the AMA in 1955, and still had the machines, and even his daughter knew how to use the machines, then why did he stop treating Eva privately at home? If he did and she lived till 1962 but was marked as "dying" in 1955, then that seems like something the foundation would be bragging about. At least now in 2022 they would mention this as everyone is now dead who could be in trouble. The website does say that he was busted by the AMA in 1962 for using the machines. So very confusing, I have several more resources to look at, but so far this is very confusing. Sgerbic (talk) 00:02, 6 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Well the story gets more confusing - because apparently according to the EMF website the wife Eva found out she had a cancerous tumor and no mention of it being removed, but maybe it was. She persisted with "symptoms" and then went to the Abrams clinic. She had a test done with one of their machines (a test that the FDA later said was worthless) and she was treated with the Oscillociast and "spinal adjustments and diet" and recovered. This would have been in the late 1930s. So two different stories I guess. I assume that she got cancer again in the 1960's and they wanted to treat her with this radionics instead of regular medical practices from that era, it was refused (but he still had the machines at hand) and the FDA made him stop using them in 1962 the same year Eva died. Hopefully this will all straighten out with new information I will find. Sgerbic (talk) 02:26, 6 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Okay I'm putting a fork in this. The things that probably should be explored if you are interested is getting more photos (they exist I just don't want to upload them to WMC because I will just mess it up) and then hopefully the NHF website will get their dates straightened out. What a mess that was, I think I have it in order now, but there are gaps that in order to preserve the history should be sorted out. As to the use of the words "quack" and "quackery" I found it used in many places, including by Fred Hart and the NHF website. He took it as a matter of pride, he seemed to truly believe in radionics. There were several accounts that provided a written description of Fred but I wasn't sure where to use them. I don't think I have seen that done before so I asked for advice from WikiProject:Skepticism and still haven't heard anything back. I will update if so. The photo of Herrold is going to stay on the page until we get something better uploaded. About the daughter's last name in the info box - I wasn't sure how to do that as her name was Margaret Hart at the beginning then she married and widowed and married again, she didn't use all the names at once, usually it would have been Mrs. John Smythe, so I'm leaving it like I have it, Margaret Hart Packard Surbeck until someone has a better idea. I think people will enjoy this page, I selected it off a list of Skepticism rewrites when I saw that he lived in Salinas, CA where I live. I used newspapers.com quite a bit and fell into a lot of rabbit holes reading about what was going on in my town back in the day. I never heard of him before and have no ties other than I have driven down the streets associated with him. OH I think it is important to leave in Eva Porter's lineage and information, the Bardins and Blanco mentions are very important in Salinas History. Also I know this page is about Fred, but his wife Eva had so much influence on his life that I could not ignore her. Same with Margaret. I learned a bunch and hope readers do also. I'll probably remove this page from my watchlist soon as I usually do with most work I have completed. Please tag me if needed. Sgerbic (talk) 05:22, 6 March 2022 (UTC)