Early Settlers: The McDermont Family

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

Recently, while going through the 1921 Fullerton Tribune newspaper microfilm archives, I came across an article entitled “Early Days in Fullerton are Depicted by Real Pioneers,” which featured the recollections of Anna Grace Ford, daughter of Alex McDermont, whose family were very important early settlers of Fullerton.

The McDermonts came from the midwest to the area that would become Fullerton in a covered wagon in 1882, five years before the actual town was founded. 

Anna describes first seeing the property: “When we reached the brow of the hill, just north of what is now City Airport, my father told us that now we could see our new home. I was 8 years old but I will never forget the feeling of bewilderment that came over me as I saw this vast field of dry mustard, outlined now and then by a few gum trees and a rough house on Orangethorpe.”

The only roads were the unpaved Orangethorpe and Spadra (now Harbor). McDermont purchased a sixty-acre tract of land from J.M. Guinn. The McDermont property was bounded by what is now Euclid Street on the west, Brea Creek channel on the north, Woods Avenue on the east and the Santa Fe Tracks on the south. 

Anna remembers the famous Polish singer Madam Modjeska and her husband (who had settled elsewhere in Orange County) visited their home.

The only local schools at this time were in Placentia, Anaheim, and a one-room building on Orangethorpe avenue, which the McDermont children attended. In 1887, a school was opened in Fullerton “in the building used for a blacksmith shop on S. Pomona avenue between Commonwealth and Santa Fe avenues. Seats were provided by nailing planks to the walls of the building…and among the pupils for the first few days was a large gopher snake that insisted on maintaining its position under the seat until it was driven out and denied further school privileges,” according to the Tribune.

A bit later, a larger brick school house was built in town at Wilshire and Lemon, which was later torn down. Young Anna constituted the first graduating class in 1890.

Alex McDermont became a successful rancher, and was helpful in getting the Santa Fe Railroad to pass through Fullerton, donating the right-of-way through his ranch. The railroad was crucial for the early success of the town of Fullerton, which was officially founded by George and Edward Amerige in 1887.

As Fullerton developed, “McDermont became prominent in Fullerton civic circles,” Bob Ziebell writes in Fullerton: a Pictorial History, “being among those who brought a newspaper to town and among the first subscribers to capital stock in the community’s first bank [The Fruit Growers Bank]. He also ‘used his influence’ to help create the Fullerton Union High School…served as a director of the Placentia Orange Growers Association and of the water company; and was manager of the Walnut Growers Association.” He was also Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and among the first library trustees. 

The McDermonts built a home on what became Euclid Avenue, and then lived in a home on what later became 311 West Commonwealth Avenue, which was eventually demolished to make way for today’s Fullerton Public Library.

“McDermont built a large business building at the southwest corner of Spadra (Harbor) and Amerige in 1893, which, when it burned to the ground in a major fire in 1908, spurred formation of the Fullerton Fire Department,” Ziebell writes.

Another influential member of the McDermont family was Anna McDermont (not to be confused with her niece Anna), who was a member of the park commission “and contributed intelligent advice and much active work to the plans which were made and carried out for the development and beautifying of the town,” according to the Tribune. “Her work was an important factor in the establishment of the public library and she been called the mother of the Fullerton Women’s Club.”

Both Alex and his sister Anna passed away in 1921, but the family remained important local citizens.