The Amerige Brothers: Founders of Fullerton

The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the City of Fullerton, some local residents interviewed many early pioneers of the city in 1937. These interviews were paraphrased and compiled into a document entitled “The Story of Fullerton and Its Founders” which is available in the Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library.

Included in this document is a narrative based on a series of interviews with George Henry Amerige, one of the founders of Fullerton. The interview was conducted by Darrel A. McGavran, whose father worked for the Chapman ranches. The following information is taken from this, and other, sources.

The Amerige Family

The Amerige family is of ancient Italian origin, being one of the oldest protestant families of Italy. The name, in Italian, Amerigo, is from the same derivation as that of Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512), Italian explorer after whom the American continents were named.

Because of religious persecution (Italy was catholic, the Ameriges were protestant), the Amerige family moved to Germany. Maurice Amerige, grandfather of George Henry Amerige, came to Boston, Massachusetts around 1807. Maurice Amerige was a dealer in horses, and the Ameriges became one of the prominent colonial families of New England. Maurice Amerige and his wife Sarah had three sons:

George Brown, who went to California during the gold rush of 1849 and became the owner and editor of the Alta Californian, the first paper ever published in California.

William Amerige, who went to China as a trader, and died there in 1839.

Henry Amerige, father of George Henry Amerige, who became a prominent sail-maker and ship outfitter in Boston. Among the ships outfitted by Henry Amerige was the “Star of the East,” which carried missionaries to Honolulu, Hawaii. Henry Amerige outfitted the ship for the arctic explorer Dr. Elisha Kent, for his trip to the North Pole in 1852. In his early years, Henry traveled extensively and visited almost all of the continents of the world.

Henry Amerige helped develop the Boston suburb named Malden (after which Malden street in Fullerton is named), and became a leading citizen and city planner. There is a park in Malden called “Amerige Park.”

Henry Amerige married Harriette Elizabeth Russell, who also came from an old and prominent New England colonial family. Her great great grandfather, Eleazer Giles, lived in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials. Her grandfather, also named Eleazer Giles, fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding the armed brig “Saratoga.” He was a seafaring man and actually had a wooden leg. Her father, Benjamin Russell, was a slave trader.

Harriette and Henry Amerige had five children, of whom George Henry Amerige was the second born.

George Amerige was born in Malden, Massachusetts in 1855. Edward R. Amerige was born in 1857. The brothers established a successful grain and hay business in Massachusettes, before moving to California in 1886.

George and Edward Found Fullerton

The two brothers first visited northern California where they purchased some land in Sierra Madre. It was on a duck-hunting trip south that they discovered the potential for development in Southern California and decided to move here and invest.

They first moved to Anaheim, which was an already-established town. 

According to “The Story of Fullerton and Its Founders”: “Driving out from Anaheim in all directions to shoot quail and dove, they became interested in what is now the Fullerton District and conceived and formulated a plan to start a town, thinking here, of all the places they had examined, would be the location for a successful and permanent municipality.”

In 1909, Edward reflected on their decision in “The Pictorial American and Town Talk”:

“At the close of the great boom of 1886 and 1887, when Southern California was attracting the attention of the whole United States, and, might I say, civilized world; when people were flocking to Los Angeles and vicinity by the thousands, attracted by its wonderful matchless climate and the possible resources of this, the new Mecca, for ambitions people of all climes–a land of peace, plenty and equitable climate excelled by no other; when cities sprang up like magic from wasteless and treeless plains; when by the advent of the eastern capitalist, who, with an abundance of enterprise and capital, made the supposed desert blossom and bloom like the rose; when, by the development of and use of water for irrigating purposes, a transformation scene was enacted that would equal ‘the fairy tales of Aladdin’–two young tenderfeet, G.H. and E.R. Amerige, attracted by the rich and beautiful Fullerton-Placential District, the accessibility and abundance of water for both domestic and irrigation purposes; after a thorough and careful inspection of all the surrounding country and many other locations, conceived and formulated the plan of starting a town, thinking that here, of all locations thy had examined, would be the ideal location for a successful and permanent municipality.”

The Amerige brothers purchased 390 acres from brothers D.E. and C.S. Miles, 20 acres from William S. Fish and another 20 acres from Joseph Frantz, to establish a 430-acre townsite. 

In Fullerton: a Pictorial History, Bob Ziebell writes, “Using current names, the property was bounded approximately by Chapman Avenue on the north, Valencia Drive on the south, Raymond Avenue on the west. A copy of the agreement with the Miles brothers dated May 14, 1887, indicates the purchase price was $68,250.”

Starting a new town involved more than just purchasing a property. There was surveying, plotting, and grading to be done, as well as construction of some initial buildings.

According to “The Story of Fullerton and Its Founders”:

“When they learned that the California Central Railroad Company, a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railroad, would soon build a line from Los Angeles to San Diego, passing through Orange County [then, it was not yet a county] the Amerige Brothers waited on George H. Fullerton who, at that time, was president of the Pacific Land Improvement Company and also the ‘right-of-way’ man for the railroad, who informed them that several surveys had been made, but none of them would take in their tract of land. By offering him a right-of-way through their land and an interest in the town-site, they prevailed upon him to change the survey to bring the railroad through their land and south into Anaheim.” 

The Ameriges then formed a closed stock company, partnering with the Pacific Land Improvement Company and H. Gaylord Wilshire [who later developed parts of Los Angeles].

On July 5, 1887, Edward R. Amerige drove the first stake in a field at what is now the corner of Commonwealth Ave. and Spadra Road (now Harbor Blvd.).

As for the naming of the town, George Fullerton’s son, Perry, told it this way in 1947:

“Well, the way my father has always told it to me–I heard him tell it a number of times, was that they had laid out various towns around Southern California for the Santa Fe Railroad, and…they decided to put a town at this location, and when it came to the question of a name, why the board of directors…wanted to name it for my father. My father said no, he didn’t want to; he was a man who never wanted to put himself forward at all in the public eye, and he said no, he didn’t care for that at all. So it was stopped right at that time…but he had to leave the vicinity for a few days and when he came back, why, the town was named Fullerton, and the President of the Santa Fe Railroad had okayed it, so that was all there was to it. I guess that’s about the whole story. Oh, yes, Mr. Smith, who was then President of the Santa Fe Railroad, wanted to name the town Marceline, after his wife, but the board members thought it sounded too much like vaseline, so they said no…so they went ahead and named it Fullerton.”

The Amerige brothers’ real estate office, the first structure built in the town, still stands next to Amerige park on Commonwealth.

George and Edward named many of the first streets of Fullerton after streets of their hometown of Malden. Some of these include: Commonwealth Avenue, Malden Street, Highland Avenue, and Amerige Avenue.  Other streets were named after officials of the Pacific Land and Improvement Company and the Santa Fe Railroad Company, which were business partners with the Ameriges.

George Amerige says he installed the town’s first water system “employing Chinamen to do the excavation work on the ditches…Hooker Bros. supplied the water pipe and made the connections…The first well was drilled by Padderatz Bros. [in the block bounded by Highland, Malden, Whiting, and Wilshire Avenues] on September 26, 1887…the first water was raised by an old fashion hot air engine and later by a windmill.”

Ziebell describes early buildings: “The first ‘significant’ building–and an imposing one it was–was the St. George Hotel, an elaborate three-story facility set back from the northeast corner of Commonwealth and Harbor, about where the southwest portion of the block’s interior parking lot is now located. Other structures soon followed, the first built by H. Gaylord Wilshire on two lots at the southeast corner of Harbor and Commonwealth, home of Fullerton’s first grocery store (Ford and Howell) and later the famed Stern and Goodman general merchandise story; the next by C. Schindler, P.A. Schumacher, and T.S. Grimshaw–the center store becoming known as the Sansinena Block–on three East Commonwealth lots behind the Wilshire Building: followed by the Chadbourne Block on four lots at the northwest corner of Commonwealth and Harbor.”