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

Raymond Thompson, a former city attorney of Fullerton and a Superior Court Judge, was interviewed twice, in 1968 and 1975, for the CSUF Oral History Program. Here are some things I learned from these interviews.

He was born in Sioux City, Iowa. His family moved to Fullerton in 1911 when he was six years old. His parents were Orvin and Margaret Thompson. He had three sisters: Helen, Janet, and Dorothy.

The population of Fullerton was approximately 1,700 when they first arrived.

His father, who had been a locomotive engineer, decided to get into the automobile business. After taking a course in automobile mechanics at the trade school in Los Angeles, he learned of a garage business that was for sale here in Fullerton that was owned by Lillian Yeager.

“She was the female ‘garagist’ [which was] quite a novelty in those days. She would get under the cars and work and swear, and everything else just like a man, working as a mechanic and carrying on the business,” Thompson recalls. “My father and Mr. Dreyer bought this business which was located at the corner of Spadra and Amerige–the building’s still standing intact. I think there’s a furniture store there now.”

In addition to the garage, the family sold Overland cars, and then Buicks.

According to Thompson, the first automobile in town was owned by William “Billy” Hale, who was a pioneer orange grower and mayor of Fullerton. The car was a 1902 model Saint Louis. 

“In those days, we used to have big Fourth of July local events with races of all kinds. Among other things there was an automobile race,” Thompson remembers. “Stock car races started at Commonwealth and Spadra [Harbor], went east to Acacia, north on Acacia to Chapman, back on Chapman to Spadra, and then south on Spadra to the point of beginning.”

In 1912 the first streets were paved in Fullerton–Spadra from Chapman to Santa Fe and then a block east of each of the intervening streets, Commonwealth, Wilshire, Amerige, and Santa Fe. 

His father’s garage “was like an old-fashioned country store. You could get anything and everything that related to the automobile. It took the place of the service station. They came there to fill their gas tanks, get oil, and have their cars greased. We had a shop with two or three mechanics that did complete overhauls, repairs of all kinds, washed cars, rented cars with or without a driver, retread and vulcanize tires, the whole bit. It was a fairly big enterprise actually, and very versatile.”

Thompson remembers the old Atherton ostrich farm.

“That was quite an institution here in Fullerton,” he said. “The Athertons who were sort of characters had this ostrich farm. They raised them for feathers.”

A few years after arriving in town, his parents bought a lot on what was then North Spadra, on the corner of Spadra and Brookdale. The lot cost $450 and the house, to build, was $2,500. At first there were all walnut groves in back of the house, then Brookdale was built through the grove and frame homes were built. The family lived there for many years before selling the house in the 1950s.

In those early days, the town was able to build good schools, in part, because of the revenue from local oil production and citrus groves.

“So much of the economy was dependent on the orange industry,” he said. “Not only the growers, but the merchants, the people with the garages, the bankers, and everyone else were all largely dependent on citrus.”

He remembers how, in those days, “we could always look out and see the mountains…The word smog was not in the vocabulary at that time.” 

He remembers the old Stern and Goodman general store, which became the Stein and Strauss store. This was one of the first buildings in Fullerton, at the corner of Spadra (Harbor) and Commonwealth.

“They had groceries, dry goods, farm implements and they dealt in hay and grain…You could get anything from a needle to a threshing machine,” he said. “The farmers…would come all the way from as far as Puente, north, and as far as El Toro, south. Some of them would come just once a year with their big wagon and their team…Stern and Goodman carried these farmers until the next crop came, maybe for a year. If there would be a crop failure, maybe they would have to carry them another year. It was a real big operation, and quite picturesque.”

The owners of the store were two Jewish men who had come from Germany, They had a branch store in Olinda, and another in Yorba Linda.

By loaning products to farmers, Jacob Stern eventually acquired a lot of land, should the farmers default.

“[Stern Realty] had land all over Southern California,” he said.

He remembers the Benchley family, who “were very colorful people, rather sophisticated for a little town like Fullerton. The old gentleman, maybe in his early seventies, always dressed just as sportily as any young man in town, in fact, more so. He’d buy his clothes in expensive stores in Los Angeles or San Francisco, and he smoked cigarettes. Oh, gosh, in those days that really raised eyebrows! They mingled with the high society in Los Angeles…But he was a good citizen and contributed a great deal to the upbuilding of the community.”

He remembers the oil fields north of town–the company town of Olinda, and how oil magnate Edward Doheney first struck oil there.

“There were many wells being drilled and many men coming to work in the oil fields. The oil companies put up barracks and boardinghouses, so there was a bunch of rough, single guys, oil drillers, what they called roughnecks. It was something like an old-fashioned mining community with a pretty rough and ready, reckless bunch of men like you would expect in any sort of a situation where there were mostly a bunch of vigorous young men…and then later on, the oil companies built lots of homes for their workers and lots of families lived all through the hills around Olinda and then over between Olinda and Brea. Brea was a similar community.

There was lots of oil, and many people worked in the oil fields, drillers, pumpers, and so forth. I remember Olinda was kind of a boomtown. Lots of single men were working there, and it was a pretty dangerous occupation before they had taken so many safety measures in industry. I remember quite a few times seeing the cars serving as ambulances roaring through town with their horns going, bringing some injured worker to the hospital. Then it had a little bit of the aspect of a wide open mining town, but workers would mainly go to Anaheim.

Anaheim was a “wet” town, where you could buy liquor, and Fullerton was a “dry” town, “so on Saturday night Anaheim would be the place to go.”

As for leisure activities, he remembers that “nice people didn’t go to the pool hall. That was more for the “roughs” and the guys that came in off the farms on Saturday night and that sort of thing.”

He remembers there were dances: We’d go down to Balboa, to the old Pavilion for dances, and…the picture shows and confectionary shops. We’d go in and get a big ice-cream soda or an ice-cream sundae.

He remembers taking his shotgun and trudging over the hills to the Bastanchury Ranch to hunt rabbits.

Thompson attended the original red brick Fullerton Grammar School (on Wilshire and Pomona, which no longer exists).

He graduated from Fullerton Union High School in 1922. The current high school was actually the third school high school location. The first was at Wilshire and Lawrence (now a Fullerton College parking lot), the second was where Amerige Park is now located. This one burned down, and then in 1911, the high school moved to the present location on Chapman.

His recollections of principal Louis E. Plummer were that he was “something of a disciplinarian so that he was a bit austere. He was respected, but there wasn’t quite the affectionate feeling that a warmer person would have inspired.”

His first year in high school, during World War I, they had military training.

“I remember we drilled, marched, had our uniforms, and our wooden rifles,” Thomson said.

During World War I, he remembers “the boys going away, but even then it was kind of a big adventure. I remember seeing them in uniforms, down at the depot taking the train. Lots of young men I knew, like Fred Strauss and Raymond Smith, Mickey Ford, and the Sherwood boys, Raymond Starbuck, just lots of them, and Dr. William Wickett, Sr.”

Football was an important school activity, “especially to beat Santa Ana.”

During Prohibition, he remembers that bootleggers used to smuggle liquor along the Orange County coast. 

“Lots of it got in, and I remember that some of the old-time sheriffs, reputedly, were tolerant of the bootleggers and the smugglers, even cooperated to a certain extent or looked the other way. Liquor was available in Orange County. There were stills out in the hills and mountains. The Basque people traditionally have their wine and their brandy, and they never recognized prohibition. They still grew their grapes and made their wine and their brandy,” he recalls.

Thompson has distinct memories of the Ku Klux Klan in Fullerton in the 1920s: “There were a lot of good people who had been longtime friends, Catholics and Protestants, and a lot of prejudice and feeling was triggered. There was a Ku-Klux Klan organization. Of course, the Catholics and Jews were very bitter toward the Klansmen…the communities, Fullerton and Anaheim got pretty well lined up. The Masonic Protestant Ku-Klux Klan was the real far-out fringe of those groups, as against the Catholics and the Jews on the other side. I remember the bitterness and it entered into the municipal elections. It was pretty bitter.”

He remembers that W. J. Carmichael had a cross burned on his lawn although Carmichael was not Jewish and was not Catholic.

Dan O’Hanlon, an Irish catholic who was opposed to the Klan, also had a cross burned on his lawn.

Thompson remembers that the issue of Prohibition was a big one for the Klan.

“The Klan favored Prohibition, so maybe that was partly in the background,” he said. “It kind of dissipated over the years. The people settled down and forgot about it. The old friendships were renewed and I don’t think people pay much attention to it anymore.”

He remembers the Bastanchury family, who were Basque sheepherders who had about 6,000 acres. The family got involved in oil and oranges.

“They started the largest orange grove in the world,” he remembers. “They had 3,000 acres, planted in oranges, up where the Sunny Hills area is now. They were very picturesque people. They were gay, they had their big fiestas and their barbecues, lots of fun and rather easy going, improvident sometimes, and they went under about 1929. Unfortunately, the Bastanchury boys all died poor.”

Unfortunately, the Bastanchurys got screwed over oil.

“[The] Murphy [oil company] leased the property for oil, then drilled a well and found oil, but came back and told the Bastanchurys–the old man was perhaps illiterate, at least had very little education–that there was no oil, plugged up the well, then later came back and said that there were some clay deposits that he [Murphy] was interested in. He bought this 3,000 acres for about $60 an acre. Then ten or twelve years later, after the younger generation, the sons, had been to college and realized how the family had perhaps been defrauded, filed a suit for $72 million. Because of the time element and the problem of waiting so long, they settled it for $1.2 million.”

With the money from this settlement, the Bastanchury sons planted orange groves. Unfortunately, they overextended “and then came 1929 and the Depression.”

After high school, Thompson spent one year at Fullerton Junior College, then went to USC, where he got his law degree. After graduating from USC in 1927, he practiced law in Fullerton. For a time he had a law practice with Mr. Albert Launer. 

Thompson remembers the Great Depression.

“Money was scarce and farmers and orange growers couldn’t pay their mortgages. There were foreclosures and after a while moratoriums came along that gave them some relief,” he said. “I remember the banks were closed for awhile. You couldn’t write a check against your account. There was hardly any money.”

He remembers the 1933 Long Beach earthquake.

“I recall people coming into the area from Long Beach driving through Fullerton, driving up on the hills and spending the night in their cars. Many of the people here stayed out all night in their cars and in their yards,” he remembers. “It really shook and you could see the earth wave and the orange trees shake back and forth, like the waves of the ocean. We had a lot of damage in our Fullerton schools.”

He served as city attorney for five years from 1937 until he was appointed by Governor Warren in 1944 to the Superior Court.

Reflecting on the growth of Fullerton, Thompson said, “Our beautiful community is a thing of the past. It is now subdivisions, factories, smog, freeways, and congestion. Of course, what it would have been otherwise is another question. If we had not progressed and had severe economic problems, we might be more unhappy than we are now. A lot of people made a lot of money. The orange growers who sold out, sold at high prices and the ones that invested wisely and saved some of it are in pretty good shape.”

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

The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper (which became the Orange County Tribune in 1908) stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense of what was happening in the town over the years, and creating a mini archive. Below are some news stories from 1915.

Education

The election of high school board trustees was a contentious one, with a slate of candidates favoring principal Delbert Brunton, and others opposing him. Ultimately, the Brunton supporters won. They were L.R. Steward, O.A. Kreighbaum, and Allen Craig. Billy Hale, who opposed Brunton, was narrowly defeated by two votes.

The Tribune printed photographs of the high school auditorium and manual arts buildings. The current (larger) high school auditorium would not be built until 1930. Do the buildings below still exist today?

With World War I raging in Europe, there was discussion and debate about requiring military training in high school.

Neighboring Cities

The newly-formed oil town of Brea was considering incorporation, which would give it a city council with taxation powers. Brea would incorporate in 1917.

Deaths

Fullerton co-founder Edward R. Amerige, who had served on City Council and in the California State Assembly, passed away.

A massive train accident/explosion in the nearby town of Yorba prompted the largest headline in the history of the Tribune.

Government and Politics

Progressive California governor Hiram Johnson outlined his priorities for more state reforms.

A resident named Frank Claudina drew up a petition to recall Mayor Gregory and councilmember Anin; however, it appears that this effort never went anywhere.

In 1914, California repealed its poll tax.

Fullerton’s representative in Congress was Democrat William Kettner, whose district included Orange, Imperial, Inyo, Mono, Riverside, San Barnardino, and San Diego counties.

Arts & Leisure

Fullerton was developing a City Park, although I’m not sure where. The articles on the subject do not say. I will be sure to consult the Fullerton Public Library local history room.

Before the Fox Theater was built in 1925, there was the Fullerton Theater on (Spadra) Harbor Blvd. (which later was called the Rialto Theater). The Tribune included lots of ads for movies they were showing. In 1915, director D.W. Griffith released a movie called “The Clansman” (later called “The Birth of a Nation“), which was a landmark in filmmaking techniques, and arguably the first “blockbuster.” Unfortunately, the movie was also deeply racist, as it portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as American heroes. The Fullerton Theater showed this movie.

This movie is credited with sparking a revival of the KKK not just in the south, but throughout the United States. By the 1920s, there would be an active Ku Klux Klan in Fullerton.

Crime

In one of the Mexican work camps on the Bastanchury Ranch, there was a large fight in which three were injured.

A Brea man killed his neighbor with a shotgun.

The OC Sheriff was attempting to crack down on “marihuana.”

Agriculture

Congressman William Kettner was in favor of a higher tariff on foreign agricultural products to protect American growers.

Racism

Lynching of African Americans was still happening in America.

Comics

In 1915, the first comic strip appeared in the Orange County Tribune:

Women’s Suffrage

Although California residents passed a ballot measure granting women the right to vote in 1911, the 19th Amendment (granting women across America the right to vote) would not pass until 1920. In 1915, president Woodrow Wilson expressed his support for women’s suffrage.

World War I

The big news of 1915 was World War I, which was raging in Europe, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths. Here are some headlines related to the so-called Great War.

Although the US would not officially enter the war until 1917, the country began to build up its armed forces, particularly its navy.

There was even talk of creating a draft, should the US need to raise a larger army.

Homelessness

Meanwhile, back at home, county officers were planning a war on the homeless.

Mexican Revolution

South of the border, the Mexican Revolution raged, prompting the US to tighten border security.

Technology

Miscellaneous

Stay tuned for articles from 1916.

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

The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense of what was happening in the town over the years, and creating a mini archive. Below are some news stories from 1914.

Fullerton’s population was growing fast, reaching 4,000 people.

Education

Enrollment at Fullerton Union High School was 243 pupils.

Here’s a photo of the 1914 high school graduating class:

In 1914, the principal of FUHS was Delbert Brunton, and teachers were chosen by the Board of Trustees.

A new grammar school was built.

For the first time, in 1914, California history was taught at a university.

Government and Politics

George Anin, R.S. Gregory, August Hiltscher, and E. Livingstone were elected to the City Board of Trustees (now called City Council).

Gregory, a local real estate broker, was chosen as Chairman of the Board (Mayor).

Charles C. Chapman, orange rancher and Fullerton’s first mayor, considered running for governor. He did not ultimately run.

Fullerton City Attorney E.J. Marks ran for Orange County District Attorney.

In the early 20th century, there was a small but active Socialist Party in California. They sometimes held meetings in Fullerton. They were in favor of government ownership of utilities, the 8-hour work day, and other reforms.

Progressive Governor Hiram Johnson made a stop in Fullerton, running for re-election. He was introduced by high school principal Delbert Brunton, and gave a speech about progressive reforms created under his administration.

“When we assumed control in 1911,” Johnson said, “the S.P. [Southern Pacific railroad] company regulated the state; now, the state regulates the company…We have been endeavoring during these four years to provide the weapons with which the electorate may defend itself in case the corporations should ever again get control of state affairs. You have these weapons in the initiative and referendum…I say to you that government has a higher purpose than to make men richer. Its chief concern should be the social welfare–to place in the system of laws the hearts and conscience of the people…The reduction in rates for freight, electricity and phone service made by the railroad commission during this administration will mean a saving of over $7,000,000 per year to patrons of these public utilities. In view of these figures, I ask you, does it pay to own your own government?”

Johnson was re-elected governor.

Deaths

Jose Antonio Yorba, a descendant of the pioneering Yorba family of Orange County, passed away.

The local funeral home was McAulay and Copp, located at 103 South Spadra (Harbor Blvd.)

Loma Vista Memorial Park, Fullerton’s first cemetery was established. It remains Fullerton’s only cemetery, and many early pioneers are buried there.

B.G. Balcom, pioneering Fullerton banker, died. Balcom Avenue is named after him.

Arts & Entertainment

Before the Fox was built in 1925, Fullerton’s first movie theater was called the Fullerton Theater, and later the Rialto Theater. It was located at 219 N. Spadra (Harbor Blvd). The proprietor was R.A. Speicher. Here are some ads for shows at the theater:

Another big attraction was Helen Keller, who “spoke” at the High School Auditorium through her helper Mrs. Macy.

Labor

There was a proposition on the 1914 ballot (evidently put there by socialists) to establish an 8-hour work day. It’s something we take for granted today, but it was a radical idea back then. It was opposed by powerful business interests, and ultimately failed to pass.

Here is a difficult to read political cartoon denouncing the 8-hour law as “the Socialist plan for California agriculture.”

Oil!

Fullerton continued to be a major oil-producing area.

A number of lawsuits were filed against A. Otis Birch, owner of the Birch Oil Company by landowners who felt they were cheated out of oil profits on their land.

Meanwhile, two large oil conglomerates were dominating the industry–Standard Oil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Women’s Issues

Members of the California High School Teachers Association were agitating for equal pay for women and men.

Local Women’s Clubs held a convention in Los Angeles, at which they passed resolutions denouncing militarism, and in support of conservation and environmental protection.

Newspaper

In 1914, the weekly Orange County Tribune started printing the Fullerton Daily Tribune and got a new printing press to accomodate the increased circulation.

Transportation & Infrastructure

While the city or county paid for road improvements, business owners were responsible for paving the sidewalks outside their stores downtown.

Fullerton voters approved bonds for the fire department but voted down bonds for road improvement. What else is new?

Fire Department

In 1908 following a big fire downtown, Fullerton created its first volunteer fire department. In 1914, they approved bonds for a fire truck and named officers. J.M. Clever was chosen as chief.

Miscellaneous

Pioneer ranchers the Hetebrinks planned a large home which still stands today at the corner of Chapman and Berkeley.

Eugenics

In the early 20th century, there was an emerging pseudo-science called eugenics which was the basis for racist beliefs and practices, such as laws which prevented interracial marriage.

A Dr. Webber gave a talk in Riverside. Here are some excerpts:

Anti-Japanese Sentiment

Speaking of racism, in 1914, California had laws on the books which outlawed interracial marriage. The Tribune printed an article which pointed out that some Japanese people in California had married white Americans. Given the widespread anti-Japanese sentiment at the time, this article was likely meant to provoke outrage, rather than sympathy. Interracial marriage, which was outlawed since California became a state in 1850, would remain illegal in California until the 1948 court case Perez v. Sharp.

In 1913, California passed the racist Alien Land Law, which prevented certain Asians from owning or leasing property long-term. Some citizens protested.

Mexican Revolution

South of the border, the Mexican Revolution raged.

The Revolution turned out to be bad news for lots of American businessmen who had oil, mining, and other interests in Mexico, and who enjoyed a cozy/corrupt relationship with the Diaz administration.

An article entitled “Has Mexico Right to Hate Some Americans” paints a pretty negative picture of how Americans treated their Mexican workers.

Here are some excerpts from this disturbing article:

Do Mexicans hate Americans? They do; millions of them do. And during the past two months in Mexico I have learned why so many Mexican Indians wish to kill or abuse American mine managers and planters. I have heard, first hand, from Americans, more than one terrible story of how they abused their Mexican employees. Those stories have been told to me in a boasting spirit. In the days when Diaz ruled with his iron hand, Americans, as a rule, treated their Mexican workmen as the most cruel slave owners of the Old South treated their black slaves.

“I’ve ridden into a bunch of them and mowed them down with a machete as if they were dogs,” one American told me. “It was the only way to treat them. Now and then some of them would get drunk on my ranch in Tampico. I found the best way to do was to ride in amongst them with a big knife and slash right and left as they scattered. If any showed fight, I’d shoot them. Revolver in one hand, machete in the other. That was the way I used to fix them. We’d have the funeral the next day and peace for a long time after that. I’d have the governor of the state and the mayor of the town on my payroll, and I’d report the slaughter to the and they’d always answer that I had done just right. Those were good old days, the Diaz days. The foreigners had plenty of rights then.

Another American boasted to me: “I had a strike in my mines one time, in the Diaz days, and I asked the governor of the state, who was on my payroll, to send me some soldiers. Instead of that he sent me a lot of uniforms and rifles and ammunition and a commission as major in the Mexican army. He told me to organize an army of my own, and give it all the orders I wanted. I told some of the strikers they’d have to join the army. I put them in uniform, gave them rifles and bullets and took them in the mine. I ordered them to shoot against the strikers and they did. They killed 50 of their brothers and that ended the strike.”

In another article, an American oilman who had fled Mexico because of the Revolution spoke to the Tribune. He was in favor of the United States actually invading Mexico to protect American oil interests. America invade a country for oil? Never!

Here are some excerpts from the article:

That an invasion of the whole of Mexico by the American fighting forces is the only solution of the present international difficulties, is the opinion of R.W. Parkin, who arrived today in Fullerton where he will remain until matters in the southern republic are settled. Mr. Parkin has extensive interests in the oil industry there and left reluctantly. He is connected with the Panice Drilling and Construction company. Panice is situated about 60 miles north of Tampico.

“The feeling of hatred against all Americans is strong as ever in Mexico,” said Parkin, “and before leaving I saw some of their anti-American demonstrations.

Speaking of the oil industry in Mexico, Mr. Parkin stated that the country, in his opinion, contains the greatest supply of oil of any country in the world, and that the ill feeling the natives harbor against Americans is because of the success the latter have met with in developing the industry.

“Practically all the oil wells have shut down since the present trouble has assumed such serious proportions, and the loss in money on this account will be enormous when you consider all the machinery that is lying there idle and will deteriorate rapidly when not cared for. Then, too, there is the fear among all the oil operators that the Mexicans may set fire to the wells or submerge the fields by flooding them with water. The situation is critical.”

World War I

Meanwhile, World War I had begun in Europe. The United States would not officially enter the war until 1917. The Tribune printed numerous articles on this topic.

As is often the case, war was good for American business, in this case oil.

Stay tuned for news stories from 1915!

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

The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense of what was happening in the town over the years, and creating a mini archive. Below are some news stories from 1913.

Newspaper

Starting in 1908, the Fullerton Tribune became the Orange County Tribune.

Education

In 1913, Fullerton College was established. Today, Fullerton College is recognized as the oldest continuously operating community college in California.

The new college campus started on the newly-built high school campus on Chapman Avenue. This was built to replace the previous high school building on Commonwealth, which had burned down in 1911.

The state of California passed a child labor law which set limits on the number of hours a minor could work, and allowed children to go to work instead of school if the father had deserted the family.

Government

The city purchased a site for a City Hall on north Spadra (Harbor) Blvd.

Oil!

Fullerton continued to be a big oil producing town.

There was some discussion about making oil a public utility, like water or electricity. This, of course, did not happen.

At this time, California was producing one fourth of the world’s oil.

Water

In water news, there was discussion of cementing the path of the Santa Ana river so as to avoid flooding. It’s understandable why they would do this from a safety perspective. However, it’s unfortunate that it would ultimately turn a natural, flowing river into the ugly concrete gulch we see today.

In 1913, Fullerton built a new municipal water system with a pumping plant, a reservoir, and 12 miles of underground water pipes.

Additionally, the city was building a modern sewer system.

Transportation

1913 was a year of large expenditures on public works, including much street paving.

To celebrate the grand opening of his new store Commonwealth, William Wickersheim organized an auto parade downtown. The increasing popularity of cars made more road paving necessary.

Agriculture

Next to oil, Fullerton’s other main export was oranges.

Crime

As far as crime went, perhaps the most exciting thing that happened was a shoot out between some local cops and (alleged) robbers.

Among the lesser crime headlines, I found this one, which means something different in contemporary slang.

Racism

In 1913, the California legislature passed the California Alien Land Law (also known as the Webb–Haney Act), which prohibited “aliens ineligible for citizenship” from owning agricultural land or possessing long-term leases over it, but permitted leases lasting up to three years. It affected the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Korean immigrant farmers in California. Implicitly, the law was primarily directed at the Japanese. 

It passed 35–2 in the State Senate and 72–3 in the State Assembly. According to Wikipedia, “The law was meant to discourage immigration from Asia, and to create an inhospitable climate for immigrants already living in California.”

The law was the culmination of years of anti-Asian sentiment in California, going back to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. 

The Tribune published many racist articles against Japanese immigrants.

Successful Japanese farmer George Shima (“The Potato King” of California) protested against the 1913 Alien Land Law.

A few Japanese farmers in Yorba Linda tried a clever way to (maybe) get around the law. They incorporated as a business (the Y.J. Orange Grove Co.) and purchased land in the name of their company, not themselves.

In his article on this topic, Edgar Johnson writes, “the inquisitive person has not been enlightened as to what the Y.J. part of the company means. There is nothing in the articles filed with the county clerk to show what these letters mean. They may mean Young Japanese Orange Grove company or You Jap Orange Grove company or Yokohama Jiu Jitsu Orange Grove Co. or something else equally as appropriate.”

Homelessness

Like today, homelessness was an issue.

International News

South of the border, the Mexican Revolution raged. This would cause thousands of immigrants to migrate north, to the United States.

Photos and Illustrations

The Tribune includes some interesting photos and illustrations on a wide range of topics. Below are some of them.

Stay tuned for highlights from 1914!

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

“Someday, perhaps not long from now, the inhabitants of a hotter, more dangerous and biologically diminished planet than the one on which I lived may wonder what you and I were thinking, or whether we thought at all. This book is for them.”

–William T. Vollmann, No Immediate Danger: Volume 1 of Carbon Ideologies

As part of my research into the history of my hometown of Fullerton, California I’ve been reading over microfilm from the town’s oldest newspaper, the Fullerton Tribune. In the early days of the town, in the late 1800s, oil was discovered. For the first half of the 20th century, oil was a major export of the region. Oil derricks dotted the hills north of town, gushers came in and (for a while) produced thousands of barrels of oil a day. By 1912, Fullerton was producing hundreds of thousands of barrels per year. It was (for a while) one of the most oil-rich areas of California.

In the early 20th century, the Fullerton Tribune printed article after celebratory article about another gusher coming in, or about a big oil company buying up land, or how many barrels were being extracted from the local oil fields.

From a civic perspective, oil (for a while) meant prosperity. It meant jobs and wealth and tax revenue for things like roads and schools and irrigation projects, and a police department and a fire department and a city hall. Oil was (for a while) truly black gold.

Oil was, along with oranges, the economic foundation upon which the town was built up and prospered for decades. From the perspective of someone who lived in the first half of the 20th century, oil was amazing. It was liquid wealth to be extracted from under the ground, piped and shipped all around the country to power American industry and development. It made cars and trucks and ships and factories and farming machines go. Oil was awesome–from the perspective of those who didn’t know about how the burning of it could affect the planet long-term.

Unfortunately, I do. We do, by which I mean those of us living today, in the year 2023. I know what Edgar Johnson, editor of the Fullerton Tribune, did not. I know that the burning of fossil fuels like oil and natural gas produces carbon emissions, especially carbon dioxide, and that this invisible harmless-seeming gas accumulates in the atmosphere and (after a while) creates the greenhouse effect, which today is causing the Earth to get hotter, and this global warming is going to make life on planet Earth a lot more precarious and difficult for everyone, especially our children and grandchildren. I also know that carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for between 300 and 1,000 years.

In the year 2023, this global warming (or, to use a less ominous term, climate change) has already begun–causing not just hotter temperatures, but is making life precarious in all kinds of insidious ways–extreme weather events–bigger hurricanes, vast apocalyptic wildfires, sea level rise, ocean warming and acidification, deaths of coral reefs, the melting of permafrost and polar ice caps which releases still more previously trapped gases like methane, which accumulates in the atmosphere and adds to the greenhouse effect–a sort of cascading effect.

The rising sea levels are making life increasingly unlivable in certain coastal and island communities. Unfortunately, it turns out that changes in climate affect whole ecosystems, causing weird migrations and diseases and just really horrible mass dying and even extinction.

Living (as I do) in a wealthy or (to use a somewhat ironic term) developed nation where we’ve gotten really good at hoarding and exploiting resources, it’s possible to feel less impacted by climate change. I don’t live on the island of Tuvalu, which is becoming swallowed by the rising ocean. It’s possible for folks like me to kind of just ignore climate change (for a while).

Climate change is big picture. It is systemic. And thus, because of its scale, it can become hard for us to see. It’s like the David Foster Wallace joke about the wise old fish who swims up to two younger fish, and says, “Morning boys. How’s the water?” To which one of the younger fishes replies, “What’s water?”

But the question I’ve been thinking about as I learn about the oil industry of early Fullerton is: How do I, as a local historian, address climate change? Some might say “You don’t need to.” Why mention a current or future problem when writing about the past? But, to me, sitting alone in the library, reading on microfilm a new article from 1911 in which Edgar Johnson is gushing with excitement and admiration about the hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil being extracted annually from the local oil fields, I feel the opposite of excitement. I feel something verging on sorrow or despair, knowing more than Johnson did about the long game of oil extraction.

I feel it must be somehow acknowledged that the very substance that helped build the town is the same substance that is contributing to our collective demise.

I suppose this same acknowledgement is necessary in coal towns, or towns with lead mines. Fullerton was built on oranges and oil. And oil, to me, is not something to be remembered with nostalgia, and definitely not celebration.

If we knew then, say in 1900, what we know now, namely that oil is a long-term planet killer, would we still extract it from the ground? The answer, I think (unfortunately), is yes. We still have big oil companies today that continue to extract oil in much vaster quantities than their 1900 counterparts, and I (unfortunately) continue to purchase products and services that are made from fossil fuels. Hell, I’m writing these words in a jet airplane which is emitting greenhouse gases so that I can get from one location to another more quickly.

So, when I write about the past, lamenting their ignorance or greed or short-sightedness, I cannot do so from a place of any moral superiority or arrogance. We are in some ways worse than our ancestors. They didn’t know about the greenhouse effect. We do, and continue our extraction and burning.

My only hope in researching and writing about the past is that it may create a space for reflection–on the past, present, and future–where we have gone wrong, and how we might do a little better, if for no other reason that our own survival and those of our descendants, who may not look kindly upon us when they write their own histories.

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

The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense of what was happening in the town over the years, and creating a mini archive. Below are some news stories from 1912.

Education

Fullerton’s second high school burned down in 1910, and so a new high school was built on Chapman, where the high school is today. There was some debate over the location of the school, but ultimately the Chapman site was chosen. The new high school opened in 1912.

Politics

In 1911, women in California got the right to vote with Proposition 4. Locally, Carrie Ford was the first woman to express interest in running for office.

Ultimately, however, she withdrew from the race.

In 1912 there was a small but active Socialist Party in California. H. Gaylord Wilshire, an early developer of Fullerton, was probably the most vocal socialist in California. There were socialists running for local office.

Ultimately, the Socialists were not elected locally. The ones who were endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce won.

Nationally, politics were quite interesting in 1912. That was the year Theodore Roosevelt broke away from the Republican Party to form the Progressive (or Bull Moose) party. His running mate was California governor Hiram Johnson. These progressives were mostly former Republicans who were fed up with the corporate influence on politics, who wanted to make lots of reforms. Eugene V. Debs the Socialist was also running for President. Locally, supporters of these different candidates organized clubs and meetings. Hiram Johnson stopped in Fullerton to speak.

Ultimately, Democrat Woodrow Wilson defeated Roosevelt the Progressive, and Taft the Republican; however Roosevelt narrowly won California.

New Hospital

A new hospital was built at the corner of Pomona and Amerige. This building still stands today, although it is no longer used as a hospital.

Business

An issue of the Tribune highlights local businesses in town like the Benchley Fruit Company, the Brown & Dauser Lumber Company, and Clarence Boardway’s Amusement Hall.

Transportation

In 1912, cars were becoming increasingly popular. In those freewheeling early days of automobiles, there were few safety standards and lots of accidents.

Infrastructure

The City purchased 40 acres east of town, where the Fullerton Airport is today, for a sewer farm.

Deaths & Disappearances

In November of 1911, prominent local businessman Abe Pritchard disappeared in Los Angeles. Several months later, he returned to town with very little recollection of where he had been, or why. Apparently he had simply wandered the country, making it as far east as Florida, before returning back home. Weird.

M. Lovering, a pioneer resident of the Orangethorpe District, passed away.

Joseph Goodman, co-owner of the Stern & Goodman general store, passed away.

Colonel Robert “Diamond Bob” Northam, passed away after being assaulted in his home. Northam was for years the agent of the Stearns Rancho company–which owned and sold thousands of acres of prime southern California real estate. He was a colorful and wealthy local figure.

Crime

After an Anaheim marshal was shot and killed by a Mexican man, local law enforcement scoured the region searching for the killer. There was even talk of lynching.

An ordinance was passed with the aim of “separating the bad element among the Mexicans from their guns.” Civil liberties were perhaps not being equally respected.

“It is my desire that all my deputies should enforce this ordinance at every instance, and especially among the Mexicans. It will be your privilege and duty to search every man you suspect of carrying a concealed weapon, and if found to bring him to the county jail, at the expense of the county,” OC sheriff Charles Ruddock stated.

In other crime news, a rancher named Gerorge Biggs brutally slayed his neighbor F.A. Montee and his wife in a debate over a strip of roadway. As far as I can tell, there was not a similar effort made by law enforcement “to separate the bad element among the whites from their guns.”

Oil!

Oil development continued in the fields north of Fullerton. At this time, oranges and oil were the main exports of Fullerton.

Homelessness

As it is today, homelessness was a social problem in Fullerton.

Labor

In labor news, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (or “Wobblies”) passed through Fullerton, spreading their message of working class solidarity. They were viewed with suspicion, fear, and hostility.

Meanwhile, the workers building the new high school went on strike, so the contractor brought in black workers to finish the job.

Religion

Maria Bastanchury, wife of pioneering sheep rancher turned citrus grower Domingo Bastanchuy, donated land to build the town’s first catholic church, at the southeast corner of Commonwealth and Malden.

Stay tuned for headlines from 1913!

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

The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense of what was happening in the town over the years, and creating a mini archive. Below are some news stories from 1911.

Women’s Suffrage

1911 was an important year for democracy in California, as that was the year Proposition 4 passed, which granted women the right to vote. Note that this was fully 9 years before the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave all women in the United States the right to vote.

Of course, not everyone was in favor of granting women the right to vote, as this advertisement in the Tribune demonstrates:

In the leadup to the vote, there were large gatherings on the issue of women’s suffrage, including in Fullerton.

Ultimately, Prop 4 passed, and women were allowed to vote in California.

Prohibition (again)

In just about every election cycle since Fullerton incorporated in 1904, petitioners put the liquor question on the ballot. With the large number of women registered to vote, the town voted (once again) to ban liquor licenses, thus making Fullerton a “dry” town.

Other Progressive Reforms

In 1911, the California state government was led by progressive Republicans like governor Hiram Johnson, who passed a number of reform laws, such as an 8-hour work day for women, free textbooks for public schools, and the petition, recall and referendum (which was approved by a majority of voters).

Of course, some business interests were not happy about the 8-hour day.

In 1911, there was a movement for U.S. Senators to be elected by popular vote. This would eventually become the 17th amendment. Prior to this, the U.S. Constitution stated that U.S. Senators were elected by state legislators. It’s interesting to remember that our Constitution is not “set in stone” and has been changed many times, as times change.

Education

In 1910, Fullerton’s second high school burned down. In 1911, Fullerton voters approved a bond measure to fund the construction of a new high school. There was some debate over the location. Ultimately, the site was chosen on Chapman Ave. where Fullerton High School is today.

Infrastructure/Utilities

The Southern California Gas Company was buying up local gas companies and consolidating their power.

When voters approved bonds for the high school, they also approved bonds for road and bridge improvements.

The Edison Company installed better electric street lighting downtown.

Agriculture

Charles C. Chapman was elected to the Citrus Protective Association, whose primary purpose was to lobby the government for tariffs on foreign citrus imports, so that local growers could compete. Not exactly “free market” capitalism, but there was much about the citrus industry that was not quite capitalistic, like the grower cooperatives (such as Sunkist).

Housing

Edward K. Benchley, a citrus grower, was also becoming a housing developer.

Racism

Anti-Asian racism was quite commonplace.

There was even talk of Japanese exclusion.

International Affairs

South of the border, the Mexican Revolution had begun.

Oil!

Large oil companies like Standard Oil and Union Oil were buying up properties of smaller local companies in the Fullerton Oil fields.

The New Town of Brea

National News

The Disappearance of Abe Pritchard

Prominent Fullerton businessman Abe Pritchard disappeared in Los Angeles (he would eventually be found).

“Diamond Bob” Northam’s Divorce

Colonel Robert “Diamond Bob” Northam was a colorful Orange County figure who was manager of the Stearns Ranchos company, and had an office in Fullerton for many years. Chapman Avenue was originally called Northam Avenue. In 1911, his wife Leotia sued him for divorce, stating that she was fed up with his drunkenness.

The Tribune paints an interesting picture of Diamond Bob: “He is now 65 years of age and a millionaire manufacturer and is widely known as a princely spender, bon vivant and general good fellow…Colonel Northam is a pioneer, coming here in 1870, and today, in addition to the manufacturing business at 110 West Twelfth street Los Angeles, has large realty holdings, including the beautiful country place, Los Robles Viejos at Santa anita, one of the well known show places of the big county.”

He had married his wife 10 years prior when he was 55. She was just 20, an aspiring actress.

Mrs. Northam said, “No one could have treated me better than Bob in every way…dresses, jewels, a beautiful home–I had all that heart could desire. But his constant drinking drove me to distraction…He is his own worst enemy and was fast becoming mine.”

Miscellaneous

Here are some random articles/clippings that I found interesting.

Stay tuned for headlines from 1912!

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

The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense of what was happening in the town over the years, and creating a mini archive. Below are some news stories from 1910.

High School Burns Down

Unfortunately, the 1910 microfilm is incomplete, stretching only from January to April. One major news item that is missing is the high school building burning down. This was the second high school, and had only been open since 1908. It was located where Amerige Park is today, across from City Hall. Here are some before and after pictures.

The community would immediately begin plans for a new high school, which would be built on Chapman Ave–this is the high school that still stands today.

Agriculture

Fullerton’s wealth continued to rise from its two main industries–agriculture and oil.

Politics

1910 was an election year, and the following men were elected to City Council (which at that time was called Board of Trustees): R.S. Gregory, E.R. Amerige, and George C. Welton. Roderick D. Stone was elected Marshal, C.A. Giles was elected City Clerk, and W.R. Collis was elected Treasurer.

At the state level, California was in the midst of quite a political shake-up, with the election of progressive Republican Hiram Johnson as governor. At this time, the California Republican Party was divided between the more establishment/moderates (who were connected to large business interests like the powerful Southern Pacific Railroad) and the progressives, who wanted to enact many political reforms. One of these reforms was the creation of the direct primary system. This allowed the voters, rather than party bosses to choose candidates. It was intended to help “clean up” corrupt “party machine” politics.

For a time in California’s history, the state government was dominated by progressive Republicans. Today, the term “progressive Republican” sounds like an oxymoron. In 1912, Hiram Johnson co-founded the California Progressive Party and was elected on this ticket in 1914. Other progressive reforms included pensions for teachers, the abolition of partisan politics in school board elections, reducing child labor, establishing the 8-hour work day for women, women’s suffrage, and an effort to improve the disgraceful conditions of farmworkers.

In 1910, there was also a Prohibition Party.

Roads

A perennial local issue has been investment (or lack thereof) in the improvement of roads. In 1910, there was a regional movement, sponsored largely by the Associated Chambers of Commerce, to get voters to approve bonds for improved county roads. This issue would be debated in the pages of the Tribune and other local papers.

Scandals

Fullerton at this time was still a kind of small town, and so local scandals/gossip were considered fodder for the newspaper. A man named Bob Stanfield ran off with his brother’s wife. They were both married with kids.

Another scandal involved the former high school principal W.R. Carpenter abandoning his wife and marrying the widow of the Baptist minister, Fannie French-Chaffee. Carpenter died shortly after the couple ran off, and Fannie sued Carpenter’s first wife for money she said she loaned to her deceased husband. The court denied her request.

Water

Another perennial regional issue was water. With agriculture booming and the population growing, it was necessary to procure and protect an adequate supply of water.

One of the main sources of local water was the Santa Ana River. Today, as it runs through Orange County, the Santa Ana river is a big, ugly concrete gulch. I used to wonder why people chose to turn a real, flowing river into such an ugly monstrosity. However, putting myself in their shoes, they did it to protect themselves from flooding.

Oil!

The Union Oil company (which later became Chevron) was buying up land in the oil-rich fields north of Fullerton.

Stay tuned for highlights from the 1911 Tribune!

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

Stanley Porter was interviewed by Dee Larson in 1986 for the CSUF Oral History Program.

His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Porter was born in Tennessee, moved to Texas as a young man, and in 1870 came out west to California on one of the last wagon trains.

The family eventually settled in the Orangethorpe district just north of Anaheim, before the town of Fullerton was founded. A number of pioneer families settled in Orangethorpe, such as the Loverings, the Gardiners, the Royers, the Spencers, and the Skinners.

Some of these families’ houses still stand and are now officially designated Local Landmarks.

The Porter’s first house was located on a 40-acre farm on what is now the 600 block of W. Orangethorpe.

Benjamin Franklin Porter grew walnuts and later oranges. He and his wife Mary had 15 children and lived in the Orangethorpe District for the rest of their lives. 

One of their children was named Rufus, who got married in 1910 and purchased property across the street from his parents where Woodcrest Park and school is today. Rufus built a nice home near what today is the corner of Richman and Orangethorpe.

Rufus’s son Stanley was born in 1917. When he was still a baby, the family moved into a house at 771 W Orangethorpe, with twenty acres of walnuts and oranges adjacent to Benjamin Franklin’s property on the north side of Orangethorpe. That house was built in 1882 and is still standing. It is the oldest extant house in Fullerton.

“The walnuts were harvested by Mexican families who came and camped there during the season,” Porter remembers. “I can still remember very plainly the horses drawing the wagon loads of nuts in big sacks, which weighed about a hundred pounds apiece.”

Eventually, the walnut crops were killed by a pest called the husk fly, and were replaced by oranges.

For water, the Porters had their own well. They also had a windmill. To irrigate their crops, they purchased water from the Anaheim Union Water Company.

Before they had electricity, the family would go to the ice house on Walnut to purchase 50-lb. blocks of ice for their ice box.

Electricity came to the Orangethorpe area in the 1920s.

The Orangethorpe community had its own school, which Stanley attended (like his father before him) for grades 1-8.

Porter remembers the first movie theater in town, the Rialto theater on Spadra [Harbor]. He also remembers the building of the Chapman Alician Court Theater, which later became the Fox, which featured both movies and live vaudeville shows.

He recalls seeing silent movies as well as the first talkies, such as Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer.

Speaking in 1986, Porter expressed regret that the theater had fallen into disrepair and the original murals had been painted over.

“They covered up those magnificent murals with paint,” Porter said. “I think Fullerton has a thing against murals, they’ve covered up the ones on the high school.”

He witnessed the painting of the “Pastoral California” mural on the side of the high school auditorium., which was also painted over in 1939.

“I vividly recall the mural on the side of the high school auditorium, which is one of my pet peeves when they finally painted it over. I remember watching him [Charles Kassler, the artist] paint that,” Porter remembers. “it was a mural, or a fresco. And, was very representative of the life in early California, and it showed the Indian women washing in those stone troughs which are still around at some of the missions…And there were the horsemen. Beautiful horses. This man was very good at horses. As a matter of fact, he painted some of the museums at the LA County Library. 

Porter graduated from Fullerton Union High School in 1935. Among his classmates was John Raitt, the famous singer.

He remembers the big Long Beach earthquake of 1933.

“My father was down in his walnut orchard. He said the trees actually just swayed like it was in the wind,” he said. “In Long Beach, of course, there were lots of brick buildings, and many of them were destroyed…The Orangethorpe School auditorium was damaged.”

He remembers the 1938 flood.

“My sister’s husband-to-be lived in Anaheim, on the north side of town where the water came through very strongly,” he said. “Anaheim was quite badly hurt by that. Over in this little section of town called La Jolla, over here east, it just practically demolished that. It was a Mexican community mostly, and small houses. And many of those they say they just never did find the people that lived in those places.”

He went to Fullerton College, where he studied ceramics under Glen Lukens, a very well known artist who eventually taught at USC.

As a young man, Porter worked at Hoppey Hardware, which was right next to the Stein-Strauss store on the southeast corner of Harbor and Commonwealth.

“At that time this was a very rural community, there was nothing out around the surrounding areas like there is now. You went into town if you wanted to go the drugstore or the grocery store, or anything else. Things were more centrally situated than they are today,” Porter said. “On Saturday nights, everybody went downtown shopping. It was like the malls now, you know. It was a sociable thing.”

He remembers the big parades that would occur in town, such as the Armistice Day (now called Veteran’s Day) parade.

“We had very good parades. Much better, I’m sorry to say, than we have now,” Porter said. “We used to have parades with the high school. We always had parades for the football season.”

He remembers other popular stores downtown, such as the Chapman-Wickett department store (in the Chapman building), and Dean’s Hardware.

Porter’s mother worked in the telephone exchange office downtown as one of the first switchboard operators.

Regarding African Americans in Fullerton, Porter said, “there were very few black families in Fullerton, even up until the wartime.” He remembers two families, the Berkeleys (who lived in the Orangethorpe district) and the Goodwins, who lived in the Truslow area. 

Ruby Berkeley married a Goodwin and became a famous author and activist.

“Her name was Ruby Berkeley Goodwin,” Porter said. “She was one of the first activists for better relations between the races, or I would say better conditions for the black people…she was very well known…she spoke a lot at club meetings, the women’s clubs and things like that.”

After graduating from Fullerton College, Porter went to Chenard Art Institute and studied interior design and ceramics. 

After working at a bank in Los Angeles, he opened a ceramic business, and also taught for seven years, adult education ceramics and other related craft, such jewelry enameling.

Porter lived in the house at 771 W. Commonwealth for 64 years before selling it. It is now an addiction recovery center.

He says that after World War II, in the 1950s, “things really started changing” as farmers began selling off their acreage for housing and business developments.

“My grandfather’s property was one of the first ones that was sold. Then we did later,” he said.

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

Jennie Reyes and her husband John owned a Mexican restaurant called La Perla on Truslow Avenue in Fullerton (in what she called the barrio) for nearly thirty years, from the 1940s to the 1970s. Reyes was interviewed in 1975 for the CSUF Oral History Program. Below is what I learned from reading the interview, which chronicles a time when Mexican immigrants in Fullerton were mostly segregated south of the tracks and many lived in citrus work camps. Though she experienced hardship in her life, Reyes’ story is an inspiring one. La Perla was an important community hub that was unfortunately demolished to make way for an underpass on Lemon St. in 1975.

Early Life

Her parents immigrated from Mexico from the state of Guanajuato and settled in the Casa Blanca barrio in Riverside around 1917. Her parents had nine children, all born in Riverside, but only three lived long enough to be married. The rest of them died when they were small.

“In those days there were so many diseases: whooping  cough, measles and all that sort of thing…We struggled and we worked,” Reyes said. “We were very poor.”

Jennie started working in a packinghouse at age thirteen.

“In those days, they weren’t so very strict about sending their children to school, especially with the Mexican people. Let’s face it, it was in Casa Blanca…I don’t think they cared whether we went to school or not.”

“In those days it was very hard for us to get anything done and to be accepted in any kind of work [other than agriculture],” Reyes said. “Let’s face it, there in Casa Blanca there were nothing but Mexican, Japanese and a few Italian people at that time.”

Reyes recalls experiencing segregation and prejudice in Riverside.

“If you would go to the show–they had one theater in Riverside–there was a place for you [Mexicans]. You couldn’t sit where everybody else did, where all the Anglos would go. We had a section where we had to sit if we wanted to go to the show,” Reyes said. “As far as jobs, there were no jobs for the Mexican people, not even as a clerk in the store, not even that. All we would do is work in packinghouses, pick tomatoes in the fields, pick walnuts, pick prunes, pick cucumbers, strawberries and blackberries.”

“Because we knew that we were not wanted in other jobs so we just segregated ourselves to what we could do, where they could accept us,” Reyes said.

Her father got a job as contractor, bringing Mexican workers from Casa Blanca to El Monte to pick walnuts. Eventually the family bought a lot in El Monte, where her father built a home.

“We used to have the relatives come and stay with us and they would put their tents up in the backyard. From there we could go to work,” Reyes said.

Reyes’ family then moved back to Riverside, purchasing a house in Casa Blanca. The family would travel north to the town of Hillsborough to pick prunes when they were in season.

“The first year we worked for them they let us camp in a big barn. It was so big you could put five little tents inside. Those were our living quarters during the prune picking,” Reyes said. “After they got to know us better, they let us into their home and we used their washing machine, which we never used at home because we didn’t own one.”

When she was 13, her parents separated “and things were a little harder.” 

“I had two brothers…I was the mother of them,” Reyes said. “I stayed with my father and my ‘children.’ I called them my children because they were my two brothers and I took care of them until they got married.”

Life in Fullerton/La Perla

When she lived in Riverside, Reyes used to come to work during the orange season in Placentia and Fullerton in packinghouses. Her future husband John used to make boxes in the packinghouse right next to hers.

“That’s where I met him, there in the packinghouse,” Reyes said.

John and Jennie were married in Riverside in the early 1940s.

A friend of John’s was in the business of delivering merchandise to different restaurants and he heard about a restaurant that was for sale in Fullerton’s barrio on Truslow, so the newly-married couple bought it. They moved in the little room in the back of the restaurant.

“The people we bought the restaurant from…cheated us,” Reyes said. “They asked a high price for it and they were supposed to leave a lot of things there which they didn’t.”

Despite this, the couple worked hard to build a successful Mexican restaurant.

“The menus and all the food that I prepared there, I just tried to prepare everything like I would at home, and some of the recipes from my mother that she had taught me to cook,” Reyes said.

Her husband also continued to work making boxes for a packinghouse in Placentia and then after that he went to work for the Mississippi Glass Company.

She remembers when Saint Mary’s church burned down: “It was a shock because we went to mass and here was the church burned down. Then we used to go to mass there at the Boy’s Club.”

Reyes remembers serving a large clientele of Mexican farm workers, and she would help them send money and letters back to their families in Mexico.

“Every Monday I used to spend about four hours at the bank to make all those money orders and to get the money orders ready to send, and to register their letters and all that,” she said.

She would also help translate for Mexican workers.

“They couldn’t speak English. They didn’t know where to go to, who to go to, who was going to take advantage of them, who was going to be honest to them,” she said. “If I would go to town shopping and I’d see somebody there, and some of them didn’t know English they’d say, ‘Could you interpret for me?’ I’d say, Sure. I was always glad to do it for them.”

There were at this time Mexican work camps in Fullerton.

“The Eadington Company had a small camp there across the street from where we had our restaurant in which they accommodated their sixty workers. In fact we had them as boarders in our restaurant for one year,” she remembers. “I had to get up at two and three o’clock in the morning and make three hundred sixty flour tortillas to fix their lunches and than at six o’clock we would give them breakfast and they would leave for work and take their lunches and then they would come home in the evening at five o’clock or five-thirty to have their dinner and they would leave.”

Her children all graduated from high school.

Eventually the family moved into a house at 315 South Lemon, near their restaurant.

The restaurant became a popular gathering place, not just for Mexican workers, but for all kinds of people in town.

“We had a wonderful clientele. Doctors, people from offices would go there; nurses from Saint Jude’s; people from the Motor Vehicle Department. They used to come every Friday from Autonetics,” said said. “It was like a family thing.”

“Even though it was a barrio, I was happy there. We were happy,” Reyes said.

The Death of John

Eventually her husband John got sick with Osler-Weber-Rendu’s disease, a rare blood disease that prevented him from working and required that he get regular blood transfusions and sometimes spend weeks at the hospital. 

The family struggled to pay for John’s care on their income from the restaurant. During those difficult thirteen years, the community helped out a lot, such as the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange who provided service and medication for Mr. Reyes at nearby St. Jude Hospital and never sent a bill. 

A 1970 article in the catholic publication The Tidings told the Reyes’ story shortly before Johnny died.

“This is a Mexican love story. It takes place here at La Perla, a little restaurant in this town’s old barrio. It ls the story of John Reyes – a man kept alive for 11 years by much love and two pints of blood each week,” the article stated. “La Perla, at Truslow and Lemon Sts., is next door to the Reyes’ old frame house. It is where Jenny has worked 12 hours a day – for years, to support John and their four daughters, Mary, Margaret, Martha and Helen.”

John passed away on August 15, 1970.

The Restaurant and Family Home are Demolished to Make Way for an Underpass

A 1975 Fullerton News Tribune article entitled “Progress Uproots a Family” stated that the city of Fullerton used eminent domain to condemn the site of La Perla and the Reyes house, along with other neighbors “to make way for an underpass on Lemon Street at the railroad tracks.”

“I just can’t go see my house being torn down,” said Mardie De La Torre, one of Reyes’ four daughters. “That house and the restaurant represent the blood, sweat and tears of my entire family…’People don’t realize what it is like being forced to leave the home where you have lived all your life,” she said. 

Reyes remembers, “It hurt us so much when we were moved out of there…because of the underpass. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to be selfish; I believe in the betterment of the town and everything…but I don’t believe it was a fair price.”

Other small businesses that catered to the barrio residents, such as Negrete Market, were also torn down.

“What I think makes it so bad is that some of the people from that area are very poor. Some of them have a car, you know, but some of them don’t and it makes it hard for them to go to the shopping centers,” Reyes said. “It’s going to help the traffic but how is it going to help all those people in that area?”

City Attorney Kerry Fox defended the city’s position. “We follow the law, we don’t set the law,” he said. “Whether the laws are fair – that’s not my business.” 

“They think about the betterment of the city, of the town, [but] they don’t stop to think of the sacrifice some people will have to go through,” Reyes said. “The barrio, especially there where the Mexican people live, all the other people who were there moved out to better homes and left all the poor people there with no help.”

With the destruction of their home and business, the Reyes family relocated to Placentia, which is where Jennie was living when she gave the interview in 1975.