The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.
Following the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the Gold Rush of 1849, and California becoming an American state in 1850, American settlers began arriving and putting down roots on the land that would become Fullerton.
In the 1860s, much of this land was owned by the Stearns Rancho Company, and so many of these early settlers purchased land from this company. The town of Fullerton wouldn’t be established until 1887.
My source for this initial survey of early pioneers is Bob Ziebell’s Fullerton: a Pictorial History.
An early settler was the Basque sheep herder Domingo Bastanchury, who arrived in 1868, and first leased, and then purchased land in what is now north Fullerton for his growing sheep herd. Over time, he acquired more acres, and expanded his business into cattle, hogs, citrus, and other crops.
Another early farmer/settler was Daniel Kraemer, perhaps more known as a Placentia pioneer who purchased 3,900 acres from August F. Langenerger and moved his family into the old Ontiveros adobe and began farming in 1867.
In 1868, Jerome B. Stone and his wife Anna arrived and purchased two hundred acres of land that extended from present day Harbor/Orangethorpe to the Santa Fe railroad tracks. Before it was called Fullerton, this area was known as Orangethrope. Other early settlers in the Orangethorpe area were the Germans Henry Burdorf, Chris Rorden, and Henry Boeckman.
In 1869, William McFadden purchased 90 acres around what is now Placentia and Yorba Linda Boulevards, and began farming. He, like many of these early settlers, would become involved in civic affairs like the Chamber of Commerce and water issues.
Alexander Gardiner, a native of Scotland, moved here with his family from Tennessee in 1869, and established a walnut farm.
Benjamin Franklin Porter came here from Texas on a wagon train in 1870, and purchased 40 acres of land on the north side of Orangethorpe. He and his wife raised 15 children. Porter helped establish the Orangethorpe school in 1872 and Fullerton High School in 1893.
In 1873, Otto Des Granges, a native of Prussia, bought 80 acres of land around present day Cal State Fullerton and Acacia Ave. and built up a citrus and walnut farm.
Richard H. Gilman owned another citrus ranch near Des Granges’. It was here that the first Valencia oranges would be cultivated.
I plan to research more about these early settlers, and will post more as I learn more.
Fullerton History 