The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.
“An expert machinist who has proven himself to be a successful rancher is Harvey B. Royer,” biographer Samuel Armor wrote in 1921, “one of the dependable employees of the Santa Fe Railroad since 1909 and now also farming along the Romneya Drive, to the southwest of Fullerton.”
Royer was born in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania in 1871. His father was Franklin Royer, who owned a number of a lumber mills.
Harvey worked in his father’s mills until a fire destroyed one of them. In 1895, he married Rosie Schwenk. They had three children: Ruth, Merril, and Le Roy.
In 1900, Harvey moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania and worked as a machinist for the Cambria Steel Company.
In 1909 Royer moved to California to work as a machinist for the Santa Fe Railroad Company, working on locomotives.

In 1912, he bought 12 acres in Orangethorpe on Romneya Dr., and built a home on the ranch.
“When he bought the land, it was a barley field, and he himself set out the ten acres to valencia oranges,” Armor writes. “He has his own private pumping plant and so supplies what water he needs for irrigation. His products in fruit he markets through the Stewart Fruit Company of Anaheim.”
During World War I, Merrill enlisted as a military engineer. Before he could leave for Europe, he was shot during target practice, but made a full recovery. After the war he married Rose Livingston and worked for the Santa Fe railroad in San Bernardino.
LeRoy Royer also enlisted during World War I and served in the motor transport service in France, and was stationed at such places as Tours, La Rouchelle, Nantes, and St. Nazaire.
In 1919, LeRoy returned to the United States and was honorably discharged. He attended Fullerton high school and helped his father on the ranch.

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