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

George Esmay was born in Jackson County, Iowa in 1859. As a young man he worked as a carpenter, then became a railroad operator.

In 1883, he married Ettie May Garlick, whose father James had been active in organizing the underground railroad.

George and Ettie had five children.

In 1907 he moved out west and became cashier of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in Fullerton.

In 1913 he accepted a position at the Farmers and Merchants National Bank of Fullerton.

In the 1920s he also worked as a foreman/mechanic for Lillian Yeager, who owned a car dealership/mechanic business in Fullerton.

Esmay was a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, a Republican, and a bugler of the Home Guards at Fullerton from 1916 to 1919.

Source:

History of Orange County, California: with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present by Samuel Armor. Los Angeles Historic Record Co, 1921.

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

Arthur R. Marsom was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1871. As a young man he learned the trade of carriage painter.

In 1898, he moved to California and worked as a contractor building houses in Los Angeles. In 1903 he opened a store selling interior decorating materials–paint, draperies, tapestries, pottery, etc. He expanded his business into real estate as well.

In 1910 he moved to Fullerton and continued developing buildings and homes. He built the first apartment building in Fullerton, called The Marwood on Spadra [Harbor Blvd.]. It has since been torn down.

He built his home at 441 East Commonwealth Avenue.

He married Marie Warrington in 1893 in Detroit, Michigan. They had three children: Earl, Ivy, and Blanche.

Marsom was a Republican, a Catholic, a member of the Knights  of Columbus, and a member of the Fullerton Board of Trade.

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.

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

“The development of the automobile industry has led to the creation of various related enterprises, among them being that of the modern garage; and these enterprises have called for the  brains, experience and aggressive initiative of thousands known in other fields as successful men of affairs,” biographer Samuel Armor wrote in 1921. “One such man is Albert H. Sitton, proprietor of Sitton’s Garage.”

Sitton was born in Downey, CA in 1878 to Brice and Nannie Sitton. The younger of two children, Albert attended public schools in Orange County and then worked in the bicycle business in Santa Ana.  

In 1900, he moved to Fullerton and continued to repair bicycles for a couple of years before going into business for himself in the new automobile industry.

“It was only a step, and a very natural one, to work into automobile repairs and sales; and now, with northern Orange County as his field, he is the wide-awake agent for the Overland and Willys-Knight,” Armor wrote. “Self-made in more respects than one, with his own hand at the helm, Mr. Sitton has been so successful that he needs to employ ten men.”

Sitton’s garage was one of Fullerton’s earliest car dealerships. It was first located just south of the post office on Spadra [Harbor], and then expanded, as the article below explains.

In 1902, Albert married Rose B. Rogers in Fullerton. They had one son, Arthur.

Albert was a Republican in party politics. He served with Company L of the Seventh California Regiment in the Spanish-American War. He was a school board member for 12 years and served one four-year term on City Council.

Sitton pioneered the automobile industry in northern Orange County, and was honored in 1959 by having the County’s first juvenile facility (the Albert Sitton Home) named after him.

Albert Sitton passed away in 1967.

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

Edwin Till was born in London, England in 1856, the son of Edwin and Eliza Till.

In 1884 he married Adelaide Wyatt in London. They had two sons: Fredric and James.

The family immigrated to the United States and settled in Philadelphia, opening a dry goods store.

“From Philadelphia he went to Chicago, and from Chicago to New York; and in each of these places he conducted a dry goods store for a year,” biographer Samuel Armor wrote in 1921. “When he returned to Philadelphia it was to resume the selling of dry goods, and in that city and field he continued until 1894, when he sold out and came to California.” 

In 1892, he returned to England to witness the coronation of King Edward. 

He lived in the town of Latin, near Los Angeles, for six years, 

In 1900, he purchased a 10-acre ranch in Orangethorpe, just south of Fullerton, which he planted with oranges.

Adelaide Till was one of the organizers of the Parent-Teachers’ Association of the Orangethorpe school district.

To learn more about the town of Orangethorpe, check out Terry Galvin’s excellent article HERE.

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

Juanita Ferraris’ grandfather was Domingo Bastanchury, a Basque rancher who was one of the first settlers on the land that would become Fullerton. The extensive Bastanchury Ranch was, at its height, one of the largest orange groves in the world. In 1968, Ferraris was interviewed for the CSUF Oral History program. In this interview, she provides memories and insights about the Bastanchury family and the land they owned. Here are some highlights from that interview, along with some historic photos…

On her grandfather, Domingo Bastanchury…

Domingo Bastanchury…settled in the northern part of Orange County…northwest of the present location of the State College…Directly on the route of El Camino Real which is now called Harbor Blvd.

He was born in France in 1838. As a young man at the age of 20, he decided that life in Europe was not what he wanted. He was trained to herd sheep [and was] an excellent fisherman…the area in which he was born was hilly, rocky, most of the time rainy and the grounds were only plotted maybe for an acre or an acre and a half…

And that was not enough for a young man with a great ambition, so he decided that he would like to come to the United States because he had heard there was an abundance of wealth…He couldn’t read nor write so his friends induced him to come by working his way through on a ship since he was a seaman as well as a sheepman.  

He came around the horn. It took him six months and all he did was to put the sails up and down. He had a tremendous amount of strength. He was a man of small stature—around 5’6”…blonde hair and blue eyed. 

So he landed in San Francisco…in the International Quarters…where all the foreigners would gather, was a Basque clan that gathered…from there he worked as a fisherman on Fisherman’s Wharf in order to gain some money which was something like less than a dollar a day. And then his sheepmen; he was introduced to some of them that were prospering at that time, that the ideal place for him to come would be the Southern California area, which he did. And I don’t know whether he came on foot or the train or by horseback but I have an idea that he came through on a covered wagon horse and buggy type because he was looking for land.  

He came further down past Los Angeles into this dry country as they called it and it was strictly Indians…he toured all that through San Juan Capistrano, the hills here, the barren hills of what is now the Standard Oil Company and all that and decided that he liked the rolling type of hill because the grazing was abundant in certain areas… 

When he first came here he worked for another rancher, did he not?  

That Grandmother was never very clear on. She told me he had accumulated enough money in San Francisco to acquire around 6,000 to 8,000 acres. At this time they ran $5 an acre…there isn’t a record here as to how he gained all this land. And from whom he bought this land.  

But anyhow he gathered all this ground and then decided to have Grandma Maria Oxarart…in [France], to come over and help him out, which she did. 

She was born on March the 15th, 1850 so you can see there is an age difference in Grandmother and Grandfather and she arrived in San Francisco in 1873. By that time he had already acquired this land here in the Northern part of Orange County…There was a 12 year difference in age between Grandmother and Grandfather.

Where did he acquire the sheep that he grazed here?  

Well, that I don’t know either…you know the Basque are clannish people to begin with and if one is starting off they will loan x amount of herds in order to breed… 

Were there other Basque families in the area when he settled here?  

Yes, there were some in the Northern part, near what is now La Habra Heights. There were some families—and Lucky Baldwin was one of his greatest competitors and a man that worked with him on this sheep business.

So they settled right here on what is now the Fullerton Golf Course, directly east of Harbor Blvd. and south of the Union Pacific line that runs under Harbor. In the little knolls there. This is where they first started off. 

They had five sons. But one died in infancy and the oldest one was Dominic, he was born in Anaheim. And Fernando, that was the one that was born in Los Angeles and that’s the one that passed away. He was born in 1883. Gaston Bastanchury was born in Anaheim and Joseph [Juanita’s father] was born in Anaheim and John was born on the ranch.

Grandmother’s education was mainly in the nine to ten months that Grandfather had her go to this orphanage conducted by the Sisters of Charity in Los Angeles and that’s where she learned to read and write and do embroidery, hand craft work.  

Your Grandfather never did learn to speak English or write?  

No, he couldn’t. All his markings in any of the legal papers were done by an “x” or Grandmother did it for him with her initials.  

Grandmother used to say that they didn’t have many neighbors. They were the only white people but they had an awful lot of Indians. Awful lot.  

Ever any problems develop with the Indians?  

Yes, she said that she was scared to death because she came from a country that she had never saw a colored person. And so when she landed in San Francisco, she saw these dark people and didn’t know who they were because they were not educated as to who were dark and where they came from. And then when she came to Southern California as a bride, why that was just too much for her because the Indians were entirely different from the colored. They were more in the savage. They used to stop and trade horses because they used to do the delivery of mail between San Francisco and San Diego.  

The Indians?  

Grandfather was very fond of the Indians and the Indians were fond of him because he was a great one to feed them. He used to feed them by—oh heavens—they spent three days wining, practically dancing. They’d do all these warwhoops and Grandma couldn’t understand what—she would hide…she was scared of them.

[Grandmother] said that they would have money in gold coins. And this is how they used to pay their sheepmen and they paid them once a month…the gold coin that we are not allowed to have unless we’re coin collectors…sometimes they’d have as many as a hundred depending on how many people they needed to herd the sheep.  

What would you say was the largest number of sheep they ever had here at one time?  

I was told that it was somewhere—anywhere between 8,000 to 10,000.

They were raising these sheep primarily for the wool?  

Wool…right. 

You mentioned something about having to drive the sheep up to San Francisco?  

Yes, Grandmother said that originally this is what Grandfather did. He drove them up. I don’t know how long a time it took to go but I imagine it to be a month or so herding these sheep because there wasn’t any direct route that they followed, you see…LA was in its infancy.  

Did they keep permanent quarters on the ranch for the help?  

Yes.  

How big a crew would you say they usually maintained?  

In Grandfather’s time they maintained…oh Grandmother used to say several hundred. Not families, these were mostly men, Basque men, imported from Europe that did the herding of the sheep and then of course they had the Indians do the laborious type of work.  

What tribe of Indians were these?  

Good Lord, I don’t know. The kind that was around the Missions—San Juan, San Luis Rey, and San Diego Missions, that type of an Indian was here.

Oh, they drank a lot of wine. Of course, they made their own wine you see. They imported the grapes from the Escondido area…so wine was no problem and, I mean, it was like water.  

They raised some vegetables and things on the ranch themselves, didn’t they?  

Yes, they had. This is where the Indians came to raise corn and all that. Because the house was situated by a natural stream and it is still there…this is the same stream that the family used to get mushrooms, watercress, and drinking water, and it was a natural stream [part of the golf course]. During the summer months it would dry up and they would have to get their water source elsewhere. This was before they had plumbing in the place.

What kind of trip did it entail to go into Los Angeles to buy supplies?  

Well, it took a horse and buggy, the whole day, complete. And then they would stay at a French Basque Hotel and maybe spend three or four days and then come back.  

What part of town would you say that would be in?  

Olvera street. In that old Plaza, near the Plaza. They had rooming houses, French people had hotel boarding room type of homes…Grandma owned some property there, too. She had some rooming houses and then tore it down in the early 20s to make parking lots out of them.  

So around that area there were a great many French settlements, and all the Basque people would gather there. If they had any dentistry or any doctoring, this is where they would go.  

Where were your father and his brothers born?  

They were born in Anaheim because the facilities were…Fullerton wasn’t Fullerton when they settled. They didn’t have a thing. Anaheim was established because the German people settled in Anaheim.  

That is from the Vineyard Society?  

Right! And so everything that they purchased came from Anaheim. Grandfather decided when the boys were small and ready for school that they couldn’t go back and forth, so he rented a place which is now the city park of Anaheim, on the corner of Sycamore and Lemon streets…It was a two story home and the boys went to school at Saint Catherine’s Military School which is now on Harbor…Gaston Bastanchury was born in 1884 and attended St. Catherine’s in the early primary years of education. Joseph, my father, was born in 1887 and was baptized in Saint Boniface. 

Grandmother also had a place in Los Angeles where she would stay with the children while they were receiving their education. 

When your family bought the property here, in what is now Orange County, was the land at that time officially deeded? Was it possible to get a deed for the property? Or did you just mark it off and live on in? 

I imagine it was counted in the amount of lineal feet. You know how they used to do it, put a fence up and this is mine…Eventually it was surveyed and deeded.

When the boys took over and Grandfather passed away in 1909 the boys had already received their schooling and Gaston had graduated from the Colorado School of Mines and took his graduate work at Columbia University. 

All of the boys, when they were young, what kind of language did they use at home? 

They all spoke Basque. In school they learned English. They also spoke Spanish and French…My father spoke Spanish, Basque, and English, and I had uncles who spoke French. But mostly Spanish and Basque and English. 

Where was the main residence for your grandfather located at? 

It was east of Harbor Boulevard and south of the Union Pacific tracks and north of the existing Municipal Golf Course…it was a single structure with an adobe front. That was the beginning. In 1906 Grandmother decided that she didn’t want to live in the low lands—it was too hot in the summer, so Grandfather said, “then pick out a site and build yourself a house. And this is when she built the 2-story home. Which is now Las Palmas, right at the dead end between Harbor Blvd. and Puente…that was torn down in 1953. Progress… 

How long had it been after your family had been here before they found that sheep herding wasn’t adequate due to the climatic conditions? 

They started in 1910 considering changing the picture from sheep herding into citrus groves. The boys, particularly Gaston Bastanchury, was very well acquainted with the geological effects of the ground and the terrain…he took a section of the ranch and started it [around] 1910. 

This is where they started an artesian well in the area? 

They had water, yes. And they would only plant the areas where they could derive water. It’s now known as Laguna Lake, that was a man made lake but a water well was right along side of that lake…they had to use boosters, and they built the tank which is now on the Southwest side of…the tank is still existing. 

Is it still in use? 

It is at the end of the West Las Palmas Drive, way at the top and that was our source of water and this is from the Laguna Lake they would pump it up to…and we called that area Red Tank Hill…that was used for both irrigation and domestic…we also instituted water pumps around the ranch. This central sector comprised about 2600 acres which border Brea, La Habra, Fullerton, and Buena Park. 

Was it your father that instituted the citrus? 

No, it wasn’t. Well, the boys were incorporated, called The Bastanchury Ranch Company—three brothers were involved—Gaston, Joseph, and John…What happened was that when Grandfather passed away, Grandmother was left with all this kind of land. So the eldest got 500 acres, the other three boys got an equivalent and incorporated theirs, called the Bastanchury Ranch Company. 

I understand that after they started, they were the largest individual citrus growers in the world. 

Right, right because they developed 3000 acres into citrus groves. 

And you had a horticulturalist from Japan come in to develop the property? 

Yes, the contour planning was done by a Japanese engineer and it was contoured. One of the first contour planning in the nation at that time…the reason was to conserve water because the contour planning conserved the top soil as well as the trees. It gave them a broad root system. 

While they were developing the citrus, what did they do, gradually phase out the sheep? 

Yes, that’s what they did…they raised lemons, oranges and grapefruit…walnuts…they did very well in the walnut industry, too. 

How did your father happen to meet your mother?

My mother came with an old family that had extensive acreage in San Juan Capistrano behind the Mission…they all had to go to Los Angeles to get their medical and dentistry done…[My mother] stayed in this hotel that had a rooming house for Basque people and she met my [paternal] grandmother through a mutual friend, who said she was one of the wealthiest Basque ladies in the county, in Southern California…Grandmother liked mother…so she wanted her as a maid. My grandmother always had maids.

And so then she came to live at her house?

Yes, and then this is when there were four boys in that family, so you can imagine what happened, but my father won out.

And where did they build their home? On what property?

They built right across from the existing St. Jude’s where the automobile club is, about 100 yards right in back of it [on the corner of Harbor and Valencia Mesa]…That’s the home we were all born in, then from 1921 we were progressing so fast that they had to build their packing houses for the citrus. We had to move our house, and our present home is on East Las Palmas, still existing, a two-story home.

What are some of the recollections you have of the early citrus packing houses and the other operations they had?

Oh, I used to have a lot of fun as a kid. I really did…we had a full life, what with horses and boats on the lake and packing houses and using the rollers or slides and things of that nature.

When you were young, were the Indians still working on the ranch here for the family?

Well, not as extensively as it was in the time of Grandfather Bastanchury, but we had some that were from the old families whose fathers had worked for Grandfather Bastanchury and the boys maintained them as, oh, they made foremen out of them..

Were there any Mexican laborers being used at that time?

Yes, the family had two spots, and they housed 500 families in both spots. Built their little homes. It was a city of their own. One was called Mexicali and the other was called Tijuana and the cacti is still existing on this. If you go up here on north Euclid, to the west of Euclid Road, you will still see the cacti that the Mexicans planted around their homestead–it was just like a neat little city. I can’t tell you how many houses there were, but I know this, that they had their own store where they could buy their corn meal and all that sort of thing and the streets were lined up just like a little city with their little fences and their flowers. They were great for that.

Were there schools on the property or did they go to school in Fullerton?

Yes, they had teachers come in to teach.

In the early or the late 1920s they put a cannery in because they also went into tomato planting…it was primarily citrus. They had three packing houses, one of the lemon house, orange house and then the cannery, the tomato which later was converted to Model Market and now it is torn down, where Mayfair Market is now [1968]. Then the original packing house, they had square dancing up here until recent years.

Can you recall any significant changes in the area from the time you were raised on the Bastanchury property to the present time?

I have seen the high rises coming right on the border here…in 1931 or so the Real Estate Convention was held in Los Angeles and apparently part of their itinerary was to come out…they came out to the ranch and I happened to be home from school…I was very anxious to hear what my uncle Gaston was going to speak to them about because here was this huge ranch with nothing but orange trees, the packing houses, and only the foreman’s house and the workmen’s area, but that was enough, we didn’t have anything else on the ranch, so I remember there was a huge crowd and I can very distinctly remember what he said, that the future of Northern Orange County was colossal because at that same time UCLA had not been established in West Los Angeles. They were seeking an area to establish a school, the University regents were and great consideration was given toward Northern Orange County for educating.

Would it have been on the Bastanchury property?

It would have been on the Bastanchury property. And this convention came along at the same time and he predicted at that time that in 40 years North Orange County…no one would recognize because of the development that was going to happen, the development of homes and industry…

Then you, like the other families in the area, lost the biggest share of the property during the Depression?

The depression, because at that time they had already overextended themselves. They had acquired another 3,000 acres that they were developing into citrus in which at that time it was only a year or two growth which was non-productive, so they had to borrow money and you know when you borrow money, this is what…You got to pay it back or otherwise you lose the whole thing.

Did the same situation happen with the other big ranchers and growers in the area? Did they have the same problem?

Well, I mean some, yes. They probably struggled just like the rest of us but they still maintained it…the Bastanchury debt was greater than most because of the extensive acreage they had…And, of course, he gave up some of the acreage which turned out to be a multibillion dollar area, where Standard Oil is now, and the reason for that was that he couldn’t raise sheep. They wouldn’t graze up there and he didn’t think it was worth anything because not even a weed would…but it was worth very much in that black gold in the bottom.

I believe you told me that your Grandmother lived to be 90 years old and she saw some changes.

Yes, she saw the first development of Sunny Hills area in the East Las Palmas. She saw the three houses being built. As she called them, the cracker boxes, because she was in this sturdy house, and they developed them so fast that she said one time she would go by and they had the foundation, the next thing the roof was on.

I understand that your Grandmother and your family made several contributions to the area, didn’t they, as far as land was concerned.

Yes, she did it here through the Catholic church, I know, in Fullerton. She contributed the lot to build the church on [St. Mary’s Catholic Church].

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.

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

My latest research has taken me to the microfilm archives at the Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library, in which I am reading, year by year, the archives of the local newspaper, The Fullerton Tribune. I have just finished reading the papers from 1895, and here’s what was happening both nationally and locally in 1895…

United States News…

They Keep Coming!

The Silver Standard?

How Quickly The White City Fades

The “New Woman”

Cycling Craze!

Standard Oil Monopoly

Trouble in Hawaii

California News…

“The Crime of the Century“

Hangings in California

Bank Robber Barnes!

Governor Budd Inaugurated

Fullerton News…

A New Bank in Town…

Water Problems

The Growers Organize

Chamber of Commerce Organized

Oil!

Temperance Movement Comes to Fullerton

She Wants to Vote

Shoe Maker Steps on Rusty Nail, Dies

Stay tuned for highlights from the 1896 Tribune!

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

Dr. H. Lynn Sheller first came to Fullerton to teach English in the high school in 1927. He began teaching in the College in 1933. During the forties he served as a college counselor, later taking over the duties of college Registrar. When Dr. William Boyce, the College’s first president, retired in 1950, Dr. Sheller was selected to be his successor. He served as the second president of the College through the period of its greatest growth, the 1950s and 1960s. He retired in 1969.

He was interviewed in 1971 by Anne Riley for the Fullerton College Oral History Program. Here are some excerpts from that interview.

I was born in Melrose township of Grundy County, Iowa, on a farm in 1904…240 acres with a fairly large house on it. 

I went to Manchester College in North Manchester, Indiana…In college I majored in English and French and had what you’d call a broad liberal arts education.

The year I graduated from college I applied for teaching positions in Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, the Ohio area, and got a unanimous turn-down…So when I didn’t get a job, I decided to follow a girl out to California. I had met Mary Gilbert in college in 1923, and we became engaged in 1926…I found it easy to follow Mary to Los Angeles, where her home was.  

In September 1926, I entered the University of Southern California as a graduate student. I took a year of graduate work, then applied again for a teaching position and was hired to teach English, speech, and journalism at Fullerton Union High School. Mary and I were married in August of that year, 1927. The best thing I ever did in my life was to marry this girl. 

Fullerton had a school system that was famous throughout the country. Fullerton Union High School was said to have a national reputation for excellence. Louis Plummer was the superintendent, and he hired me. [Louis Plummer, it should be noted, was evidently a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.]

Fullerton was a small town at that time, about ten thousand, I think. Nearly all the distance between here and Los Angeles was orange groves at that time…It was beautiful, and everywhere the fragrance of orange blossoms in March and April—lovely beyond description. Fullerton was a small community in which it wasn’t too hard to get acquainted.

I taught English and Speech and advised for the Weekly Pleiades. Then in 1933 I began teaching some at Fullerton Junior College and gradually moved over entirely to college teaching. At that time the High School and the College were both on one campus, and their classes were conducted in the same buildings, though there was one building called the college building.

The process of separation from the high school was a little like the separation of one amoeba into two. It was a slow gradual process. I think it was in 1934 that the Board of Trustees first decided that maybe some day we would have as many as a thousand students in the college and we ought to put it on a separate campus. At that time they bought fourteen acres on the east side of what was then Harvard Street, now Lemon. It was a walnut grove owned by the Sheppards. 

A Master Plan was drawn up for a fourteen-acre campus, the size of the future college campus. This was during the Depression years, and it took some courage on the part of the Board of Trustees to buy that property and to start planning a college.

The first building was completed, I believe, in 1936. Then it was called the Commerce building; now it is called the Business Education Building…The government paid over a third of the planning and construction costs.

Who was the artist who painted the mural on the [high school] auditorium?

His name was Kassler. It was a fresco on the west wall. I watched him put the fresco up there. I would visit him day after day as he was working. Of course you know that the feature of a fresco is that the paint is mixed with the plaster, thus it is supposed to be permanent and not peel or wear off. The fresco covered the west side of the auditorium from approximately the stage door to the south exit on the west side. It depicted early Spanish life in this area–the recreational activities, the social life, women washing clothes together, the community life of people of that time, also Governor Pico and some other personalities.

How long was the mural allowed to stay before people started complaining about it?

There were very few people who complained about it. There was a little bit of vandalism, a little bit of scratching of it, you know, additions to it and so on. But it wasn’t until we had a group of trustees in here who were negatively inclined, that it was painted over. The whole story of that Board of Trustees really ought to be told sometime, but it’s the kind of story you don’t ordinarily tell, I guess. Plummer didn’t include it in his history; he was too much of a gentleman.

Was the mural insulting? Vulgar?

Some people felt it was vulgar or gross in some way. It simply showed the Mexican women as they were probably attired at that time. They were very bosomy women. I don’t think that we would feel that there was anything wrong with it. I never felt there was.

I recall that in the early 1940s Mr. Plummer was having trouble with a recalcitrant Board of Trustees. The Board was trying to take it upon itself the responsibility of interviewing every teacher, instead of letting the superintendent do it, as they should have done. 

Mr. Plummer did have a loyal group of teachers, but always there’s somebody who creeps in, as at the Round Table. There’s a malcontent somewhere. He had his problems with a teacher whom he tried to discipline. Of course, the teacher didn’t take it well, and his trouble began with that.

Mr. Plummer also introduced some excellent vocational training in the high school. The high school had a print shop, a foundry, and an excellent machine shop. These were beyond the ordinary facilities you would fiend in a high school at that time. There was even a time in the early 20s when we had oil drilling technology, taught by Alexander Anderson.

The head of the vocational department–R.A. Mardsen…he had his boys building kayaks.

The business education…was under the leadership of L.O. Culp.

Was Fullerton a school or town that was rather strict in its ideas or dress codes or in questions of manners and they way people had to act?

Well, I think probably no more than other schools at that time. They were stricter in requirements than now. I think it developed out of the feeling that teachers ought to be admirable people whom students could emulate. They felt that teachers should be of fine character. In fact that goes right along with what I said about Mr. Plummer. I said that he felt that character was the first thing to look for in a teacher. 

How about teachers smoking? The students, of course, couldn’t, could they?

No. The application at that time, I think, asked whether the applicant used tobacco or alcohol. They did not expect teachers to smoke. They felt teachers could not tell students that it was bad to smoke and use alcohol if they themselves went ahead and did it.

Turkey Day was a Thanksgiving Day football game which was traditional between Fullerton Junior College and Santa Ana Junior College…It was generally the high point of the season for these two schools. I believe it was about 1938 that we began choosing a Turkey Day Queen.

Didn’t the college own a cabin in the mountains that students might use?

Yes, it did. I don’t think that the cabin was primarily recreational, however. It was used more for Life Sciences expeditions. Mr. Harwood Tracy, one of our Life Science teachers at that time, and Mabel Myers, who was another, took students up there.

In discussing the history of the school we got as far as about 1941; will you continue?

Well, in the late thirties, a group of trustees came into the majority who were not friendly toward the administration of district, so in 1940 they brought in a man named Frederick Chemberlen to take the place of Mr. Plummer who, though he still held the title of Superintendent, was relegated to a subordinate role.

Before long the head of the college, Dr. Boyce was relieved of his position. Esther Hatch, the Dean of Women, was thrown out of her position, and Logan Wheatley, who was Dean of Men, lost his position. L.O. Culp, head of the Business Education Department, also lost his position. Actually, I believe he was first relieved of his position as head of the department, and then he resigned and left the school entirely.

These people were leaders and highly respected in the community, and as a result of their displacement the college and high school were thrown into a period of turmoil and suspicion from which they didn’t recover for a number of years. Then, in 1942, some of the reactionary members of the Board were replaced by others who opposed the reaction that had occurred from the time of Mr. Chemberlen’s arrival. So, in 1943 Chemberlen resigned under pressure, and the Board proceeded to restore Dr. Boyce to the position of Director of the college and Mrs. Hatch to the position of Dean of Women. Logan Wheatley was back in favor again, though I don’t think he went directly into the position of Dean of Men. They were not able to restore Mr. Culp because he had left the scene. Once more, however, at least the Board had a constructive attitude and the school was on its way to try to recover from the tragedy it had experienced for the preceding three or four years.

The community must have voted for these members of the reactionary Board. Did the community have these reactionary feelings too?

I don’t think that it was a general attitude in the community. The actions of the reactionary Board were probably inspired mostly by a couple of misguided teachers, and I think the Board was too willing to believe the things that it was told. Some of the things they did were done simply because the Board was misled. That’t not all, but part at least.

As for the community, there’s always a little negativism in any group of people. I’m not prepared to say exactly the source of the negativism which developed during the latter part of the 1930’s. Putting these people into office was partly due to the political efforts of some teachers. Apparently, they had willing followers in the members of the Board. All this probably sounds very evasive and circuitous, which is it. I haven’t been very specific, but I don’t feel this is the time or place where it’s possible to be as specific as one might like to be. There probably should be a time, sooner or later, for the detailed particulars of this period from the late thirties to about 1943. I don’t believe that I can put it on tape at this point.

Did the problem with this reactionary board have more to do with personalities, or with ideological differences?

I don’t think there were ideological differences that amounted to anything. I might add this. The members of the new Board who restored the Fullerton High School and the Fullerton Junior College to a sound educational frame were Colin Baker, Ross Hodson, Halbert Graham, Fred Dukes, and Carl Wolfe.

Was there anything of major importance going on in your career while all this was going on? Did you change jobs?

No. This was during World War II, part of it, and I was teaching and comparatively unnoticed at the time. I think that the way in which I got myself noticed was that I was openly loyal to Mr. Plummer at a time when teachers felt that they had to avoid him. I made it a point to associate with him, go bowling with him, and to let it be known that I was openly supporting him. So, at that time I think I was not looked on with favor, but nobody did anything overtly at the time.

In 1949 I also served as Acting Dean of Men.

With the return of the veterans after World War II, we brought in barracks from the air base in Santa Ana to use as classrooms and living quarter for the veterans.

One of the buildings was situated just west and north of the present Business Education Building. It was used for diesel engine and, I believe, air conditioning instruction. Harry Des Granges taught in that building at the time. Then there were two or three buildings which were situated north of what is now the shop building. Originally, we had a hangar at the north end of that building which was used for construction in aeronautics. Just north of that building where we now have the auto shop were other barrack buildings which were used for electronics and drafting. Then, there were still others, quite a group of them, which were situated on top of the hill, just east of the present district administration building. If you look there, you will see it’s terraced. One of the buildings still remains there as a storage place. Those buildings were used as residences for veterans.

Did you notice any difference in these men coming back and the students you had been teaching?

Yes. I did. I had those men in class, and they were some of the best students I ever had. When they came back from World War II, they were more mature and had a purpose in coming to school. They were more earnest. As a group they were probably the best students we ever had.

You were Registrar for approximately two years. Then in 1950 you were chosen to be President. When you started out in the position, did you have any particular objectives in mind, things you thought should be accomplished?

I think that naturally one wants to continue the growth and improvement that has characterized the system over the years…

We had a very broad program of technical education for women, for instance. Vocational nursing was one of the programs which were inaugurated, also our X-ray technician program. The cosmetology program was one which was here about the beginning of the 1940s…

As for men, we had a good selection of programs in existence before I came. The electronics program was strong, and the printing program was one of the two best in the state. We had a good agriculture program, and we always have had outstanding lists of offerings in business education.

We branched out into work experience whereby students took mornings in college and afternoons in some industrial plant.

Beyond the meeting the needs of the students, we had the aim of separating our facilities completely from those of the high school, getting the college all moved onto one campus, which was a long and rather painful process at times.

Originally, when the junior college moved to the east side of what was then Harvard and bought fifteen acres from the Sheppards for the college, it was bought with high school money…So it was part of the high school and not junior college property, even though there was a junior college district legally separate from the high school at the time. The junior college district began back in 1922 and was a separate legal entity from that time on, but still it didn’t own this property that was bought.

Was there a reason?

The reason was that when it was purchased in 1934, in Depression times, the junior college enrollment was not great and some people thought that there might be a possibility that the junior college wouldn’t even survive.

We needed to acquire property of our own…just a natural desire to be independent and have our own separate identity.

It took from 1937 to 1966 to effect the complete change.

Then in 1958 came the addition of the Counseling Center to the Administration Building…The cafeteria was completed in 1958 and the two-story Technical Education building in 1959. The Home Economics and Fine Arts building in 1959 and the Auto Shop in 1960. The agriculture facility was completed in 1961.

Could you tell me about the Fullerton Junior College Foundation?

It was started in 1959…It was my idea.

It is an independent foundation and not subject to the college. Board members: William Boyce, Dr. John Casey, Walter Chaffee, Joe W. Johnston, Wanda McGraw, Arval Morris, Lorraine Plummer, Wallace Runcitel, Dr. Osborne Wheeler.

The purpose…was to establish an organization for administration of funds bequeathed or donated for educational benefit of students and former students of the junior college.

In 1959, the first two gifts which came to us were a gift of $500 from Jessamyn West for the creation of the Creative writing awards fund.

Can you talk about your philosophy of education?

I believe in the dignity and worth of every person, in the right of every person to realize his potential and to receive help in realizing this potential in the public schools. This is important not only for the individual himself, but for our society as a means of self-preservation. So, I believe in free public education through the four-year college program for all who will profit by it, both for the sake of the individual and the welfare of society. I think we can afford it but we seem to spend our money for other things.

We have emphasized facts too much…Helping students interpret, evaluate, appreciate, and use fats is more difficult…When we try to teach for implication and interpretation and application, it’s difficult to measure students’ growth and the success of our teaching. Nevertheless, we must do it.

The teacher has to be excited himself. That’s the first thing…The teachers need to have a genuine personal interest in their students.

The great teacher is not just interested in and conversant with his own little field of instruction but with the whole spectrum of life. This manifests itself in wide reading and concerns, a sense of humor, patience, tolerance, and a wisdom about priorities.

Freedom of mind and imagination…spontaneous flow of ideas among the members of the class without fear of ridicule or error.

“He cannot lead where he will not go, and he cannot teach what he does not know.”