The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon.
While browsing the archives of the Fullerton Public Library Local History Room, I recently came across a brief autobiography of William L. Hale, an important early businessman and politician of Fullerton. The bio is called “This is a Sketch of My Life” and was published by Mrs. Harold Hale (his daugher-in-law) in 1976. Here’s what I learned.
William L. Hale was born in West Windsor, Vermont on a maple sugar farm in 1862. When he was a young man he and his brother Harris bought a ticket to out west, in 1884. The photo above says he came to Fullerton in 1883, but his bio says 1886.
“It was against the wishes of my mother but we wanted to go west,” Hale writes.
After arriving in Kansas City, the brothers rode in an “immigrant car” on a freight train west. “It was the first I had ever seen real live Indians,” he recalls.
They finally reached California and ended up in Santa Ana. He got a job baling hay, and took other odd jobs.
In 1885 he got the contract to build a road in Ontario, California. For the job he hired Chinese labor because “it was cheap labor.”
Having made some money from this job he moved to the Fullerton area in 1886. He purchased a flock of sheep “and grazed them on the hills which are now called Brea and Yorba Linda.”
In 1887, the year Fullerton was founded, he sold his flock of sheep and went to work for W.F. Botsford, who had a winery and vineyard in what is now Fullerton. Hale became the foreman. After Botsford moved to Chicago, Hale bought the winery and land, in 1889.
In 1893 he met and married a German girl from Anaheim named Dora Bosche. They had two boys, Harold and Lee. Dora died in 1898.
He bought 20 acres in what is now Placentia, which he later sold to his brother Harris, who planted peaches there. He then bought 10 acres in Fullerton, on which he planted grapes for his winery.
Hale tells the story of having to fire one of the workers in his winery. The man got so mad that he set fire to the winery and it burned to the ground. He lost all his equipment and eight race horses that he used to race at the McNally racetrack in Buena Park.
After this, he went to Los Angeles to buy a car, and writes that he actually met Henry Ford, who sold him a race car. He claims to have raced this car at the Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles, where he won a number of races against top drivers of the day, such as Barney Oldfield. I could not confirm the accuracy of this.
Hale also took up boxing. Here he tells another “interesting” tale of a man coming into town from Chicago “to give me a whipping…I met him on the top steps of the old Shay Hotel…He said a few smart remarks to me so I hit him on the point of the chin and sent him tumbling down 20 steps to the bottom. He left for Chicago the next day without further trouble.”
Hale claims that he became sheriff of Orange County “about the time Fullerton came into being,” although I could not find historical records to confirm this either.
In 1906 he married Joan Nichols. They had two girls, Blanche and Gelene.
In 1907 he removed the bricks from his burned out winery and used them to build the house where he lived until he died.
Hale was extremely involved in local business, civic affairs, and politics.
He was elected to Fullerton City Council, and served for three terms, including two as mayor. While he was mayor, he was instrumental in Fullerton joining the Metropolitan Water District.
He was elected to the Fullerton High School Board of Trustees, serving four terms. He was one of the board members who voted for the formation of Fullerton College.
He served on the board of directors of a couple local banks, the Standard Bank of Fullerton, and the Fullerton Savings and Loan Association.
He was one of the directors who helped form the Placentia Orange Growers Association.
He was a Mason, and served as president of the board for 20 years.
“I have now retired from all this activity and live happily on my ranch,” Hale concludes his biography. “I enjoy my many friends and visitors who call to see me. Most of all I enjoy listening to the radio. I am happy to be living in what I think is the greatest place on earth.”
Fullerton History 