The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.
Elma Ames, a long time librarian of Fullerton, was interviewed in 1972 by Shirley E. Stephenson for the Community History Project of the CSUF Oral History Program. Here are some excerpts from that interview, along with some photos to accompany her recollections.
I was born in the little town of Silverton, Oregon…I came here when I was about 19 or 20 years old (1910)…my father had friends here who owned property, some orange groves. We were here a month and I did not like it at all. There was no pavement anyplace in town and the dust was four or five inches thick all over the roads.
The only thing I liked was the Carnegie Library and I spent a great deal of my time there. Miss Minnie Maxwell, who was the head librarian at the time, asked me if I would like to try working there.
Ames moved briefly back to Oregon, and then returned to Fullerton for good.
We drove from our hometown of Silverton, Oregon to Fullerton. There were about four or five miles of paved road all the way from Portland, Oregon to Los Angeles. We had to open gates in two or three different places going through the farms. We went through what they call “wood roads” in the Siskiyou Mountains…It took us two weeks to get down here.
In the Siskiyous they got stuck on railroad tracks. A carload of sailors helped to move their car.
When we were traveling through the Siskiyous, we met two men who were mapping the road for the first Travel Blue Book that was printed.
When I got back to Fullerton, Miss Maxwell asked me if I would like to go back to work…By that time, Miss Mary Campbell was there so I went back.
Did your father own an orange grove here?
Yes. We lived right on East Orangethorpe and owned our grove, right across from [Rancho] La Paz [a mobile home park]. My brother is living now in a mobile home in [Rancho] La Paz. We owned a grove right across the street and we lived there about 42 years.
My father loved the grove. It sounds kind of cruel to say, but I really was glad that he went before he saw the country all torn up the way it was, because he felt that I had it safe living on the grove all my life…The house was torn down and everything is gone.
It was a wonderful life because Orangethorpe was a dead-end road when we first went there and had hardly any traffic on it. The neighbors were all very friendly and we had such good times together. Neighbors were different in those days. They were really neighbors and did things for each other.
Both of them on our side of the road came from Germany. They were really old pioneers. Miss Burdorf’s people that I spoke of–they bought this place and raised wheat on it and hauled it down to Seal Beach where they had a harbor…then he put in grapes but they were blighted or something. After that, I believe he put in oranges as there were oranges when we came. Everything was oranges. The whole country was oranges when we moved there.
Now we can’t find many orange groves.
No. Isn’t that a pity? The ground was wonderful. It was the old Santa Ana River bed. The Santa Ana River came right through the north end of Anaheim in those days. When we first came here, there was a bridge you had to cross to get over to Anaheim. There wasn’t much water running in it then.
Recollections of the 1933 earthquake…
I was holding it [a book] out to [a patron] when it seemed the whole building exploded. I was still holding the book and saw all five men make a break for the door. Miss Sheppard was native-born and had been through earthquakes before. She told me to go and stand in the doorway, but not to go outside.
The noise was terrific…[after] when we were allowed to go upstairs, there was a copy of the magazine Science opened to an article, “Earthquake Etiquette.”
In 1937 Fullerton celebrated its golden anniversary…[they collected pictures and stories of old pioneer families]…We were dressed in old costumes and worked in them during the week.
Miss Carrie Sheppard took a great interest in book week when she was there…they had different outstanding authors…Ethel Jacobson…we always had this one big evening when we served tea and refreshments…another speaker was Meredith Wilson…and Richard Armour.
Recollections of the 1938 flood…
One time a dam broke and caused a flood. When the dam broke the water ran straight down the old channel through Anaheim instead of going out through the new channel that they had been building. A number of people were drowned. It was really a horrible experience. When it broke, a neighbor called us about three o’clock in the morning and told us the water was coming down Orangethorpe. My father had had a stroke by that time.
I went out back and I could hear the rush of the water. It was just like thunder and it really frightened me. But when I went in, I told my father what some of the neighbors had told me. My father said, “Now, it won’t bother us. Don’t worry.” But it did come and ran in the driveway; it didn’t harm anything for us.
My brother lived down in Fullerton and the south end of Fullerton was flooded. They had a lovely new home there and so many of their things were ruined. Water was four or five inches deep in the living room. They had to almost swim to get out. I called my brother up and told him at three o’clock in the morning that Father said to get out, to come right up here because that was the safest place. But he had to stop and shave and while he was shaving, the water came in. He had not believed that my father was right. Three or four of them got together and held each other until they got to a large house had an upstairs. It was one of the first homes for older people here in town and it was just filled with older people. They had to carry those people upstairs because the water was coming in. I don’t believe they had any deaths in Fullerton, but they did in Anaheim.
Did it reach the library?
No. We didn’t have any trouble at all. It only hit the part of the town on the other side of the tracks. My brother didn’t get to go back into his home for a number of days. The basement was full and it came up into the house, about four or five inches of water all through the house.
Were you in the area during the Depression? Were you already in the library?
I was already in the library then but I don’t remember too much about the Depression. I do think it affected us some because I remember I was paying the taxes on the ranch because my father didn’t get enough money from the north to make things go. I was quite proud of the fact that I could help.
During Roosevelt’s administration were they any projects started in the library?
The library was built by the WPA. We had one board member, Ben Carey, a good democrat, who was the one who was really instrumental in getting this grant to the library. That was the way we got our new library through the WPA. Other than that, I don’t remember much about the Depression.
It was really a beautiful building when it was first built, but the air conditioning wasn’t good.
On living with Mary Campbell…
After my mother had a stroke, I retired. Miss Sheppard came to me after Mother passed away and asked me if I wouldn’t come back to the library…I went back about three times, so I don’t remember much about my retirement.
Both Miss Campbell’s and my people were gone and one day we decided that we would share a home. She came out to the ranch and moved in with me. We were together out there for six years. Then Miss Campbell wanted an interest in a home of her own and so she said, “Why don’t we buy one together?” We bought one over on Malvern and lived there ten years. We have been sharing a home for over twenty years and we worked together for twenty-five years and we worked together for twenty-five years, so we know each other pretty well.
Mary and I had a number of short trips. One thing that was interesting was that we both belonged to the United Nations Association of Orange County and the one in New York…We went to the tenth anniversary [of the UN] in San Francisco…really, it was the most exciting week in my life, attending that tenth anniversary of the UN.
Mary and I were charter members of the Business and Professional Women’s Club.
I’ll be 82 next month; I live in the past a lot. I had a very happy life. Although I was ill a lot of the time, it didn’t affect my having a good time.
Fullerton History 
Leave a comment