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

“The earth is over 4 billion years old, but the oldest rocks in the county are less than 200 million years old. Thus, the geologic history recorded in the rocks found in Orange County only covers about 5% of the entire earth history! But, an amazing variety of changes to the landscape has occurred in that relatively short span of geologic time. We shifted plate boundary types, evolved through changing climates and organisms, emerged from the sea, and witnessed mountains to grow over a mile high!”

–Richard Lozinsky, Our Backyard Geology in Orange County, California

Not being a geologist, I rely upon the work of geologists to tell the story of Fullerton in time scales that are much larger and harder for humans to comprehend. We measure our lifetimes in decades. Geologists measure the Earth’s history in ages, eras, and epochs spanning millions of years.

Thankfully, I was guided on this journey by Fullerton College professor Richard Lozinsky, whose Earth Science class I took back around 2001. I found his class fascinating, as he used the rocks and landscapes of Orange County to teach us about geology concepts. We took field trips to places like Coyote Hills and Dana Point to learn about the stories rocks had to tell. A while back, I interviewed professor Lozinsky. You can read that HERE.

Recently, I re-read Lozinsky’s excellent book Our Backyard Geology in Orange County, California and so I present here a much simplified version of the local geologic story. For the sake of clarity (and my own comprehension), I am leaving out many technical terms and details.

About 200 million years ago, the supercontinent known as Pangea began breaking up into smaller plates. One of these new plates, the North American, began drifting westward.

About 29 million years ago, the North American Plate made contact with the Pacific Plate, and the two began a lateral (up-down movement) with the Pacific Plate moving upward. This created coastal depressions such as the Los Angeles Basin. 

“Lands surrounding the basin began to emerge from the ocean forming a new coastline along the rising San Gabriel and Santa Ana Mountains. These new lands were relatively low lying and probably enjoyed a subtropical climate with rainfall amounts of 30-40 inches,” Lozinsky writes.

The marine life of the Los Angeles basin (like plankton) eventually died and formed the rich oil deposits that were discovered millions of years later.

“The ocean began its final retreat from the Orange County area about 5 million years ago when the convergence between the North American and Pacific plates intensified,” Lozinsky writes.

The San Andreas Fault Zone (SAFZ) formed at this time, and the Santa Ana river began to flow across the coastal zone, carrying sediment.

“By 1 million years ago,” Lozinsky writes, “the hills and mountains had almost reached their current elevations, defining the basin to look more like it does today. During the Pleistocene, the climate of the area was cooler and the landscape was grassland as indicated from the La Habra and Los Coyotes Formations. Here, sabre-tooth cat, giant ground sloth, dire wolf, horse, camel, bison, mammoth and mastodon roamed the region to eventually become extinct also.”

An excellent place to learn about this period is the Interpretive Center in Ralph B. Clark Regional Park, which contains fossils recovered locally of the above mentioned extinct creatures.

Over the next several thousand years, sea levels rose and fell as glaciers rose and melted.

“The present-day Orange County coastline was established about 10,000 years ago with the end of the Pleistocene. The earliest humans to visit our county probably came along the coast where food was more abundant,” Lozinsky writes.

Professor Lozinsky gives a glimpse into the future: “In the future, our coastline will slowly change as worldwide sea levels increase due to the melting of the polar ice caps and locally due to tectonic activity. Orange County will continue on its northwestward cruise towards Alaska as the Pacific Plate shifts with each earthquake that occurs along the SAFZ (San Andreas Fault Zone).”

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

President Roosevelt Died during his fourth term in office. In World War II, the Axis powers surrendered.

Following intense fire bombing of major cities and the dropping of two atomic bombs, Japan also surrendered. In keeping with the prejudice of the times, many headlines used the racist terms “Japs” and “Nips” to refer to the Japanese.

Fullertonians Killed in World War II

The News-Tribune ran an issue which included photos and a bit of information about some of the local boys killed in World War II. Here they are:

Post-War

In the aftermath of World War II, a number of Nazi and Japanese military leaders were convicted of war crimes and executed.

As a result of these trials and other eyewitness testimony, the world learned of the full horror of the Holocaust.

The full horror of the atomic fallout at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was also coming to light.

Because the United States was part of the winning side of the war, its leaders were not punished for mass murder. Instead, General Douglas MacArthur imposed a U.S.-led military government on Japan for six years, during which he clamped down on dissent and censored the media.

Meanwhile, as divisions grew with Russia and the first frosts of the Cold War were felt, President Harry Truman articulated what would become known as the Truman Doctrine:

“We shall refuse to recognize any government imposed upon any nation by the force of any foreign power,” Truman said. “In some cases it may be impossible to prevent forceful imposition of such a government. But the United States will not recognize any such government.”

Regimes forced by the United States on other nations (such as Japan) were, of course, not included in this doctrine.

Racism against Japanese people persisted after the war, as shown by the following articles, in which mass sterilization of the Japanese is matter-of-factly proposed, and soldiers have to be told that taking Japanese skulls as souvenirs technically violates the Geneva convention.

On the homefront, some clergy were urging Americans to extend goodwill to the over 100,000 Japanese Americans who were forced into internment camps during the war when they returned home.

Perhaps the thorniest post-war question was what to do now that the atomic bomb existed–a weapon that could theoretically destroy the world.

On a more positive note, congress passed the GI Bill in 1944, which provided veterans with financial aid for housing, education, and more.

The Labor Strikes of 1945-46

Amid all the jubilation and relief following the end of World War II, some of the largest labor strikes in American history swept major industries like cars, oil, motion pictures, coal, steel, canning, and more. Hundreds of thousands of workers struck–with many of them gaining the kind of strong union powers (like collective bargaining for better wages, benefits, and working conditions) that helped build America’s post-war blue collar middle class.

The strikes even came to Fullerton, with picketers closing down the Hunt Bros. Canning factory.

Citrus Industry

The local citrus industry had always relied on foreign labor. During World War II, Nazi war prisoners were taken to camps (including one in Garden Grove) and “hired” out to lower growers.

To help address labor shortages during the war, the Bracero program was created, which was sort of a guest worker program for Mexicans. This program would continue for two decades after the war, until 1964.

Additionally, hundreds of Jamaican workers were imported to a camp north of Fullerton, near La Habra.

In one disturbing incident, a worker was killed in a conflict that was initially described as a lynching. Fullerton (and Orange County generally) has historically been pretty hostile to Black people.

Culture and Entertainment

For culture and entertainment, locals went to see movies at the Fox Theater.

The Fullerton Police Department hosted an annual vaudeville show.

Education

In education news, Stanley Warburton was made the new superintendent of the Fullerton Union High School and Junior College.

The district would eventually purchase a plot of land on which special low-cost housing for veterans and their families was built.

In 1945, segregation of Mexican students from their white peers was being challenged in Orange County in a case that would eventually become Mendez et al v. Westminster.

Deaths

Long time teacher Anita Shepardson died.

Anna H. Sherwood also died.

Colonel J.E. Jones died.

Stay tuned for top news stories from 1946!

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

Lately, given the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants, I’ve been thinking a lot about the history of immigration, specifically to my hometown of Fullerton, California. I think that if more people knew about the history of immigration, they might favor a more nuanced and compassionate approach. 

And so I thought I’d sit down and try to write a brief history of immigration to Fullerton. Next week, I plan on interviewing professor Jody Agius Vallejo, who teaches about immigration at USC, for my podcast. Perhaps this brief history can serve as a starting point for our conversation. Here goes.

Of course the indigenous people were here first–the Kizh. They were here for thousands of years. 

Then in the 1700s came the Spanish. They didn’t exactly immigrate. They came to colonize–establishing missions and forts and towns. Los Angeles was founded in 1781, for example. The Spanish did not treat the Kizh well–disease, violence, and displacement led to an alarming population collapse. 

Then in 1821, Mexico gained its independence from Spain. What we call Fullerton became part of a Mexican ranch owned by Juan Pacifico and Maria Ontiveros.

In the early to mid 1800s, some Americans came to Mexican California. They could be called immigrants. An American named Abel Stearns came as a trader in cow hides, married a Mexican woman, and eventually acquired a lot of land, including the Ontiveros ranch.

In the mid-1840s, some Americans, including Captain John C. Fremont, came to Mexican California and tried (unsuccessfully) to foment a rebellion–this was called the Bear Flag revolt. They were asked to leave by the Mexican authorities. These Americans might be called the first “illegal” immigrants to California.

From 1846-1848, the United States went to war with Mexico because it wanted more land. This was called Manifest Destiny. Battles were fought, and the Americans won the war. California became a US state in 1850. The previous year, 1849, was the height of the California gold rush, which brought many American settlers and foreign immigrants, seeking their fortunes.

Around 1860, a Basque immigrant named Domingo Bastanchury came to the land that would become Fullerton and acquired a lot of land for his sheep to graze.

In the 1870s, a handful of immigrants came by wagon train to lands that would become Fullerton to establish farms. These included people like Alex Gardiner (an immigrant from Scotland) and Andrew Rorden (an immigrant from Germany).

In the late 1860s, many Chinese immigrated to California to help build the Transcontinental Railroad. With the railroad completed, the Chinese settled in California cities. They were met with virulent racism and violence. Ultimately, the US government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, essentially barring immigrants from China.

Fullerton was founded in 1887 by George and Edward Amerige, two wealthy grain merchants from Boston. More Americans came out west around this time, mostly on trains.

With the Chinese excluded, many Japanese immigrated to California to work in the growing agriculture industry. Unfortunately, the same pattern of racism and exclusion was inflicted on Japanese immigrants, who were eventually barred from owning land by the Alien Land Laws.

From 1911-1921, the violence of the Mexican Revolution and agricultural labor needs in California prompted many Mexicans to immigrate north to California, to the land that used to be part of their country. It was the labor of Mexican immigrants that made the Orange County citrus industry grow and thrive. Unfortunately, Mexicans in the first half of the 20th century were met by racism and exclusion, often living in segregated labor camps.

In the 1920s, a growing wave of “nativism” (a desire to protect the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants) led to the passage of the 1924 Immigration Act, which created national origins quotas that favored northern and western European immigrants, and barred most immigrants from Asia, and severely curtailed immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The 1924 law created the U.S. Border Patrol. Interestingly, the 1924 law did not impose quotas on western hemisphere countries. Immigrants from Mexico and Latin America could cross the border with relative ease, although they might encounter racism and exclusion once they arrived here.

During the Great Depression, many Mexicans living in the Fullerton area were subject to a mass deportation. Nine trainloads of Mexicans (including some American citizens) living on the Bastanchury Ranch were deported. The Bastanchury family was not to blame–they had already lost most of their ranch due to bankruptcy.

During World War II, with labor shortages in agriculture and industry, the U.S. government created the Bracero Program, which was basically a guest worker program for Mexicans to come to the US to work.

In 1952, congress passed the McCarran-Walter Act, which continued the national origins quotas, but eliminated the Asiatic Barred Zone (although the quotas for Asian countries were miniscule compared to countries like England and Germany).

In 1954, the U.S. government implemented Operation Wetback, another mass deportation drive targeting Mexican immigrants. Many were deported. A pattern emerged–Mexican immigrants, being the most conspicuous presence in Fullerton, were often the targets of mass deportation operations.

In 1964, the Bracero program ended, and the following year congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which abolished the (arguably racist) national origins quotas, but for the first time placed a numerical limit on the number of immigrants from the entire Western Hemisphere (120,000 per year). Although this law was celebrated as a civil rights victory, its cap on immigrants from Latin America created the conditions for illegal immigration as labor needs had not changed in the United States.

Predictably, illegal immigration from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America increased dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s. This was exacerbated by the numerous covert wars in Latin America that the United States sponsored during this time in the context of the Cold War. 

The Vietnam War and its aftermath created a large influx of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees and immigrants to Orange County, with many settling in what is now called Little Saigon. 

The 1960s through the early 1980s also saw a large influx of immigrants from South Korea to California, to such places as Koreatown in Los Angeles. After the 1992 LA Riots, many Koreans moved out of LA, to places like Fullerton, drawn by educational opportunities, jobs, and safe neighborhoods.

During the Reagan administration, congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which provided Amnesty (a pathway to citizenship) for around 3 million undocumented immigrants. At the same time, this law also increased the Border Patrol and INS enforcement.

Congress passed the the Immigration Act of 1990 which increased immigration levels and introduced new visa categories, prioritizing family-based and employment-based immigration. It also introduced the Diversity Visa lottery to increase immigration from underrepresented countries.

Meanwhile, the Republican party became increasingly associated with hardline immigration restriction, as pioneered by groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies, and Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC).

In 1994, another wave of nativism (particularly in California) led to the passage of Proposition 187, which sought to deny all government benefits to undocumented immigrants, including public education. Prop 187 backfired, though. It was ultimately deemed unconstitutional, and also inspired a generation of Latino civil rights activists, including Alex Padilla, who is now a California Senator.

1994 was also the year of Operation Gatekeeper, a beefing up of border security around San Diego, which had the effect (as all such measures do) of re-routing migrants into more dangerous terrain, where more died needlessly.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was created in 2003 as part of the newly-formed Department of Homeland Security, in the aftermath of 9/11.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was established during the Obama Administration after the DREAM Act failed to pass Congress, but the Obama Administration also deported millions of undocumented immigrants.

Donald Trump’s first administration was notable for its hardline on undocumented immigrants, and it was Trump who established a ban on travel from majority Muslim countries, child separations, and more deportations.

The Biden administration sought to streamline the asylum process with the creation of the CBP One app, but illegal crossings surged under Biden. He sought to pass a bipartisan immigration reform bill, but it too died.

And in Trump’s second term, he has ramped up ICE raids and created an environment of fear, particularly for Latinos.

Today, Fullerton’s demographics are 37% Hispanic, 29% White, 26% Asian, and 2% Black.

I know there is more to this story, a lot more. I am still learning, particularly about more recent immigration laws and policies. Hopefully, my conversation with Jody Vallejo will help fill in some of the gaps.

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

Growth

Throughout the 1920s, Fullerton enjoyed a period of rapid growth, as shown by a 1922 population of over 10,000, 20 miles of paved roads, 15 new subdivisions on the market, hundreds of new homes being built, and 15 new business blocks going up. The 1921 shipments of oranges and lemons was 2645 carloads, walnuts was 120 cars, and the oil territory produced 30,000,000 barrels annually.

A 1921 article entitled “Building Boom On” states, “With five new business buildings under way in the downtown section, a new grammar school and scores of dwellings being erected in the outlying districts the activity in this direction has been most marked, and is entirely gratifying to all who are interested in the city’s progress…In addition to the above the new public work on sewers and lights have given employment to many men, and the water extension construction to begin in the near future, will swell the total to many more.”

In 1921, Fullerton business owners and residents began raising money for what would become the California Hotel (now called Villa del Sol), which would open in 1923. The Chapman Building was completed in 1923.

There were plans in the works for constructing a City Hall; however, these were stalled and eventually scrapped. Fullerton City Hall (now the police station) would not be built for another 20 years. Meanwhile, the city government rented quarters in the Wickersheim building on West Commonwealth downtown.

Prior to the 1920s, Fullerton’s two main industries were oranges and oil. Starting in the 20s, the city created a 400-acre industrial zone where factories could locate.

These early factories included: Western Glass Company, Balboa Motor Corporation, Newton Process Company, Los Angeles Paving Company, Citrus Fruit Juice Company, and Orange County Brick and Tile Company.

A new fire hall on west Wilshire Avenue was built in 1926. It stood on what is now Half Off Books in the Wilshire Promenade building.

The Odd Fellows Temple was constructed in 1927. It remains an impressive building downtown.

In 1930, the Fullerton High School Auditorium and the new Santa Fe train station were built.

Housing

Many new housing subdivisions were built. Unfortunately, most of these had racially-restrictive housing covenants, which prevented non-whites from purchasing or renting homes there. In a recent post on this topic, Fullerton Heritage wrote:

“By the 1920s, they [racial covenants] were quite common, particularly in what is now the historic areas of the city…Fullerton newspaper advertisements for new housing subdivisions often signaled whether a tract was limited to whites only. A few advertisements were direct, but most used a coded language that potential homebuyers would understand. Words or phrases, such as ‘rigidly restricted’, ‘exclusive tract’, ‘reserved for the finest’ indicated that minorities were excluded from a subdivision.”

This is an example of systemic racism; that is, a racist policy (as opposed to individual prejudice) that was baked into the housing system. For decades, this policy made it harder for people of color to build generational wealth than it was for their white peers. This is one example of a policy whose economic impact can still be seen today, even after it was made illegal.

Below are some advertisements from the News-Tribune in the 1920s, with the “restricted” portion of each ad circled in highlighter:

Builders could not build homes fast enough to keep up with demand. This “housing shortage” created a situation of very high rents.

To alleviate this problem as new homes were being built, the Fullerton Board of Trade came up with an idea in 1922 to build temporary tent houses on the field next to the newly-built Ford School, which prospective home buyers could rent while they looked for a house to purchase.

Not surprisingly, this brought a storm of protest from surrounding homeowners.

“Like the eruption of a Mt. Vesuvius, a storm of protest has burst forth against the action of those responsible for the erection of tent houses on the West side Grammar School grounds for rent to people seeking a place of abode,” the News-Tribune stated.

A Mrs. G.F. Molleda of 317 N. Richman avenue, said, “No decent white man will put his family in a tent among low class foreigners and criminals…The hundreds of children that are supposed to be surrounded with an environment of beauty and refinement while being educated, are to be daily confronted with a view of dirty tent inhabitants and clotheslines of black, dirty rags.”

“I am speaking for all the homeowners in the vicinity of the West Side grammar school when I make this protest,” continued Mrs. Molleda, “and a petition is being prepared which will voice this protest in no unmistakable terms.”

Despite the statements from the Board of Trade that the tent houses would be neat and sanitary and “only the most desirable class of people would be permitted” to rent there, the nearby neighbors weren’t having it.

“Two hundred people signed a petition condemning the idea of increasing Fullerton’s housing capacity in this manner,” the Tribune stated. “The main points set forth in opposition being that the established of the project in this particular location would be detrimental to property interests, a menace to the school children and would tend to destroy the effect of the beautiful new school building and grounds recently created up there.”

“R.S. Gregory of the Board of Trade housing committee, under whose jurisdiction the placing of the tent houses has been left, warmly defended the action of the committee, stating in effect that the colony was not one in which undesirable people would be housed, but instead would be one in which only the most desirable class of people would be permitted to live, and these only long enough to permit them to find homes in the city,” the News-Tribune stated.

Education

As Fullerton grew, so did the need for new schools. Ford School was built in 1921. There were also additions to Fullerton Union High School throughout the 1920s.

Ford School, completed in 1922, was later torn down to make way for senior apartments and Ford Park.

In 1924, to satisfy increasing enrollment, Maple School opened on the southside of Fullerton.

Lottie Morse was elected to the School Board, one of the first women to hold elected office in Fullerton.

In high school news, a policy was adopted in which girls (but not boys) had to wear uniforms. This was likely a reaction to popular new clothing styles.

In 1924-25, there was serious consideration of establishing a new University of California campus in Fullerton on land that was mostly owned by the Bastanchury family. Ultimately, these plans did not pan out, and UCLA was built at its present site in Los Angeles.

Gaston Bastanchury, owner and manager of the vast Bastanchury ranch in Fullerton, created a bound proposal with lots of photos, extolling the virtues of the proposed site.

Residents of the oil towns of Brea and Olinda voted in 1925 to leave the Fullerton Union High School District and form their own.

Americanization

As Fullerton was building new schools and homes, it was also building separate facilities for its Mexican farm workers and their children under the auspices of an “Americanization” program.

“As Fullerton is the center of a great citrus and walnut growing section, many Mexicans are needed to do the work on the groves and great numbers of them are employed by the packing houses during the time when the fruit is being picked, packed, and shipped,” the News-Tribune stated in 1922. “On this account the Mexican problem has become quite a serious one, and Fullerton has been gradually increasing its facilities for handling this problem by educating the foreigner and teaching him American customs.”

“In order to promote Americanization in this community, the Bastanchury Ranch Company and the Placentia Orange Growers Association have announced their intention to Principal Plummer of the Fullerton Union High School and Junior College, to erect school houses on their properties in Fullerton,” the News-Tribune stated. “This work will commence shortly on the Bastanchury property and on the Placentia Orange Growers’ land in town and the school houses will be completed in time for the fall opening of school in September.”

Druzilla Mackey, who had done similar work at “the Mexican colony in La Habra” was put in charge of Fullerton’s Americanization program.

There were at least two “Mexican” schools in Fullerton, one on the Bastanchury ranch amidst the several work camps, and another closer to downtown Fullerton, at Balcom.

The downtown camp, was called Camp Progressive, and later Campo Pomona “is at present composed of twelve houses each occupied by the family of an employee of the association. Each house is equipped with toilet facilities and there are two bath houses for community use, as a central community washhouse.”

The Placentia Orange Growers Association, who paid for the camp believed “that it will not only be an asset to their business but an institution of demonstrated worth to the community.”

Despite the fact that Mexicans were generally excluded from purchasing houses in Fullerton’s neighborhoods or attending its stately new schools, the proponents of Americanization saw what they were doing as a positive, helpful thing.

A 1925 Fullerton News-Tribune article states:

The Americanization department of Fullerton Union high school is staging some very interesting demonstrations of the work accomplished in the particular field of Americanizing the aliens in the northern part of Orange County. Besides a display of the work done in the various classes, open house has been kept on certain days and the general public has been invited to attend the classes and become better acquainted with the new citizens, who are…to attain American ideals and customs.

In a tiny camp called “El Escondito” or the hidden camp…on a part of the Bastanchury ranch, one of the most successful classes is being held. This class holds an unique position as being a 100 percent class. Every woman in camp has attended each session since the school was opened and their enthusiastic cooperation with Mrs. Alma Tucker, their teacher, has produced some amazing results.

An outstanding example of this applied industry is that of Senora Guadaluope Rodarte, who has attended school eight weeks with only a two weeks absence when a new daughter arrived at the Rodarte home. With her new baby immaculately clean and in white pretty dresses, Guadalupe attends the classes each day. During the short time of her instruction she has acquired a vocabulary of about 200 words in the English language.

Dona Felipa Avilos, who has learned all the English she knows during a like period, can also converse in good English to the extent of a visit to a grocery store and the purchase of supplies.

Mrs. Tucker uses the Gonin method of teaching her pupils, but as adapted it to the local conditions, which add to its usefulness in teaching Mexicans. A new idea of using puppets to demonstrate a word or idea has been worked out by Mrs. Tucher which has proved very successful. The close cooperation and economy of the various departments of the Fullerton high school is demonstrated in this instance, for Miss Easton and Miss Bristol with their classes in art have prepared the puppets and the model houses and furniture, which Mrs. Tucker has found so useful. The class in the “Hidden Place” has a motto which is well understood and applied by the Mexican women and their teacher, and is written on the walls of the little dwelling, “Co-operation.”

In this instance the class is held at one of the Mexican homes, which although lacking many of the conveniences and sanitary additions of the American homes, is scrupulously clean with its board floor scrubbed white and pretty cretonne curtains at the windows. Flowers are in evidence both inside and outside the dwellings and in American flag is pinned to the walls of the room where the class meets.

The roll includes Gladalupe Rodarte, Marie Rodar, Isidra Avina, Rosario Gimenez, Felipa Avalos, Luciana Giminez, Maria Avila, Soledad Avalos, Maria Ramos, Aurelia Perez and Trinidad Rosales.

Occasionally students of the Americanization program showcased their progress to the community at large.

At one of these ceremonies, master of ceremonies, Crescencio Duran “distinguished himself by announcing every number in clear, well chosen English,” the Tribune reported. “Members of beginning English classes dramatized the various processes of buying and selling, while pupils in advanced English classes read original essays on Lincoln, Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Roosevelt. They had also two excellent papers on thrift, accompanied by a dramatization of how to open a savings account in English.”

To read more about the social and educational segregation of Mexican Americans at this time, check out my article “The Roots of Inequality: The Citrus Industry Prospered on the Back of a Segregated Immigrant Workforce.”

King Citrus

Despite the fact that housing and commercial development was increasing, Fullerton was still a major farming area, with citrus being king of the local crops. Many of the wealthiest local people were Orange ranchers, like Charles C. Chapman. Orange growers large and small often pooled their interests and influence with politicians to get favorable laws, such as tariffs on foreign oranges and lower freight rates.

In 1921, local growers held a massive Valencia Orange Show in Anaheim, which featured elaborate exhibits of oranges. Heading up the proceedings was Charles C. Chapman. President Harding even phoned in to praise the Orange Show.

The Orange County Fair, which still happens annually, is a testament to Orange County’s agricultural past, even though those days are long gone, having given way to urbanization and development.

The citrus industry operated in a unique way, with growers both co-operating and competing under the California Fruit Growers Exchange, also known as Sunkist.

Here’s a 1928 description of how the system worked:

One fundamental reason for the great success of the California Fruit Grower’s Exchange lies in the fact that its plan of operation effectively combines the constructive features of both competition and co-operation.

Under the Exchange system, all growers compete to produce the highest quality of fruit. The highest returns in any Exchange association go to growers who produce the most fruit per acre, or who have the largest percentage of their crops sorted into the higher-priced top grades.

Likewise each local association competes with the other 201 associations within the exchange. But the rivalry is in operating efficiency. The association that packs and handles its fruit better, builds a following for its labels and wins premiums for its gains.

Every Exchange grower and association has the maximum incentive for efficiency in management, economy in operation, and skill in method. Through this constructive competition the rewards of success automatically go to the winners in the form of higher returns.

But when the lid is nailed on a box of Exchange fruit, competition ceases and co-operation begins. The problem is then to systematically distribute all the California crop to all the markets. The real competition is not among Exchange growers and associations. It is between California lemons and Italian lemons, California oranges or grapefruit and Florida oranges or grapefruit, citrus fruits against other fruits, fruits against other foods.

In this common task Exchange growers and associations stand shoulder to shoulder.

Orderly distribution is possible only when the marketing is directed by a central organization that has all the facts about supply and demand everywhere. Marketing through unrelated agencies, each acting independently, inevitably leads to the over or under-supply of some or all markets. Sales competition within the industry can only result in lowering prices.

The achievement of the Exchange in successfully marketing the fruit of its 11,000 growers lies in the fact that it handles 75 percent of the yield.

As the percent of the crop marketed efficiency of the organization has steadily improved.

The most beneficial single thing that could happen to the California citrus industry would be to have every carload of California oranges, lemons and grapefruit marked through the California Fruit Growers Exchange.

Then there would be as much competition for quality among California growers and associations as though the Exchange did not exist.

But there would be 100 percent cooperation in perfecting the systematic distribution of the entire crop to the markets of the world…and increased returns for every grower.

What the exchange is…

The California Fruit Growers Exchange is a non-profit organization of 11,000 California citrus fruit growers, producing about 75% of the California citrus crop, operated by and for them on a cooperative basis. Its object is to develop the national and international market for California oranges, lemons, and grapefruit by continuous advertising, and to provide a marketing organization that will sell the fruit of its members most advantageously, and at least expense. Receipts from sales, less only actual costs of operation, are returned to the growers. Applications are received through all of the Exchange’s 201 local packing associations.

Another major aspect of the citrus industry was labor. Most of the picking of the fruit was done by migrant Mexican labor.

As they are today, these migrants were sometimes the target of politicians.

“Restriction of Mexican and other Central and South American immigration into the United States on a quota basis was urged by Rep. John C. Box, Democrat, Texas, author of a bill for this purpose, before the house immigration committee today,” the News-Tribune reported. “The country was being flooded with an oversupply of cheap labor which not only was driving out native white and colored labor in the west and southwest but also was spreading northward, Box said.”

“If I had but one reason for urging this bill it would be to protect the American farmer from a system of peasantry,” Box declared.

“Henry Deward read a statement from the immigration restriction league, Boston, urging passage of the measure and also warning that Mexican labor is spreading to other parts of the country,” the News-Tribune reported. “Chairman Albert Johnson of the committee said he had ‘hundreds of letters from prominent people not only in the west but all over the country,’ endorsed the proposed restriction.”

But not everyone wanted Mexican exclusion. Large growers from the southwest still relied largely on Mexican migrant labor, and some American diplomats felt such restrictions would negatively impact international relations.

Oil!

Along with oranges, oil was Fullerton’s other main export in the 1920s, with very active fields in the hills north of town that regularly brought in gushers. Fullerton Junior College began offering courses in oil production.

However, in 1921, all was not well in the local oil fields. Unhappy with wages and working conditions, Brea oil workers (who had recently unionized) voted to strike.

Perhaps the biggest news story of 1926 was the great Brea Oil Fire.

Lightning struck two 500,000 barrel underground oil reserves of the Union Oil Company a half mile west of Brea, creating a huge blast and igniting a massive oil fire.

“Plate glass windows in Brea stores were shattered by this blast which was felt slightly in Fullerton,” the News-Tribune reported. “Flames shot 500 feet in the air as the lightning struck eyewitnesses declared and burning fragments of the wooden roofs which covered the reservoirs were blown directly over the town of Brea by a strong westerly wind.”

Four hundred men were rushed to the scene to try to put out the fire and remove oil from the reservoirs. The fire threatened to spread to 10 other large tanks in the field.

Dikes were erected to halt the spread of the oil fire.

“Huge clouds of smoke billowed into the air throughout the day attracting thousands of persons from surrounding districts,” the News-Tribune wrote. “Brea fire department apparatus has been called out to protect homes near the scene of the flames and Union oil workers are moving out of their houses on the lease surrounding the tank farm as a precautionary measure.”

And then, the next day, a fourth tank caught fire.

Damage was estimated at over $5,000,000.

Fire fighters from Long Beach and Wilmington were rushed to the fire, “and workers from practically every oil field and oil company in Southern California were aiding the fight.”

To make matters worse, a cyclone struck sections of Brea causing more damage.

Finally, after a couple days of burning, the fire was gotten under control.

Ku Klux Klan

In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan saw a massive resurgence, with a peak membership of around 5-6 million, with many in states outside the south. The Klan achieved real social and political power. It would ultimately make its way to Anaheim and Fullerton.

According to a 1979 UCLA doctoral dissertation entitled “The Invisible Government and the Viable Community: The Ku Klux Klan in Orange County, California During the 1920s” by Christopher Cocoltchos, “Councilman W.A. Moore, Judge French, and Superintendent of Schools Plummer [yes, that Louis Plummer] joined the Klan in the latter part of 1923, and R.A. Mardsen entered in mid-1924. Civic leaders were especially eager to join. Seven of the eighteen councilmen who served on the council between 1918 and 1930 were Klansmen,” writes Cocoltchos.

Throughout the early and mid-1920s, there are numerous articles about the growing KKK both around the country and locally.

It’s important to understand that the Ku Klux Klan saw itself as a Protestant Christian organization.

At a standing-room only sermon, Rev. C.R. Montague, pastor of the First Methodist Church of Fullerton, gave a sermon in which he (sort of) condemned the Ku Klux Klan.

However, his condemnation was only for the actions of the KKK, not their principles or values.

“While he scored the alleged acts of the Ku Klux Klan wherein that hooded body is said to have perpetrated acts of violence in an effort to remedy conditions which they believed were without the pale of law, Rev. Montague stated that he believed in fair play for them all, and expressed his entire approval of the tenets of the Klan as outlined in their published statements and oaths–allegiance to the United States government and a ‘square deal’ for every man,” the News-Tribune stated.

One of the main tenets of the Klan not mentioned explicitly in this article was white supremacy.

In order to boost their membership, the Ku Klux Klan tapped into issues that were popular at the time, such as Prohibition, which had been the law of the land since the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919. 

Bootlegging was widespread, and the KKK saw itself as a force against bootlegging.

A Klan raid on an alleged bootlegging operation in Inglewood in 1922 resulted in a policeman [and alleged Klan member] being killed and two others wounded. This prompted a grand jury investigation of the Klan’s activities locally.

Los Angeles District Attorney Woolwine sharply criticized the KKK, saying, “It seems to me that no right-thinking American could find the slightest excuse for the existence in this county of an organization such as the Ku Klux Klan.”

The grand jury found the Klan responsible:

“We, the jury, find that the deceased came to his death from a gunshot wound in the abdomen by Officer Frank Woerner in the performance of his duty while the deceased was acting as a member of an illegal, masked and armed mob, presumably instigated and directed by members of the Ku Klux Klan, and we recommend that the District Attorney convene the grand jury of this county to investigate this case further and take the necessary steps to prosecute the perpetrators of this crime.”

More arrests of Klansmen followed, as well as a raid on the KKK’s offices in downtown Los Angeles at Seventh and Broadway. As a part of this investigation, a list of Klansmen in Southern California was obtained, which revealed that the KKK had over 200 members in Orange County.

“That there are 203 members of the Ku Klux Klan in Orange county and only approximately 25 of that number are residents of other sections than Santa Ana, was the statement of District Attorney A.P. Nelson this morning,” the News-Tribune reported. “Of the Klan members outside of Santa Ana, there are said to be about 10 in Anaheim and three or more in Orange, Fullerton, Placentia, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach.”

It should be noted that this 1922 Klan list was incomplete, and another list would be discovered in 1924 that had over 1,200 names of Orange Countians.

Nelson chose not to make the names on the list public, but said he had it in his possession, should the KKK attempt further crimes.

Interestingly, like Rev. Montague, DA Nelson did not condemn the beliefs of the Klan, only their vigilante methods.

“Although stating that he thought the principles of the klan as outlined by the organization to be truly American, Mr. Nelson said that he was absolutely opposed to any organization, no matter what its principles that works by the methods attributed to the Ku Klux Klan, masked and with identities concealed to take law in their own hands,” the News-Tribune states.

After it became known that Nelson had the membership list, a mystery man appeared at his home while he was gone and tried to get his wife to get her husband to drop any further investigation into the Klan.

Meanwhile, the KKK tried to extort money from Black ministers in Los Angeles.

“Five negro ministers, one in Watts and the other four in Los Angeles, have received letters threatening themselves and their congregations with death unless they paid sums ranging from $1000 to $10,000 to the writers of the demands who signed themselves the ‘Ku Klux Klan’ according to a statement made at the sheriff’s office today,” the News-Tribune reported.

Given the growing popularity of the Klan and its threat to law and order, the Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to bar Klan members from working for the county.

“With the complete list of Klan members in the possession of District Attorney A.P. Nelson a complete check will be kept on the actions of those affected by the ultimatum of the supervisors. The names of those affected will not be made public,” the News-Tribune reported.

The resolution adopted by the Supervisors was as follows:

“Whereas, it has been called to the attention of the Board that certain employees of the county of Orange are members of and identified with the branch of that organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, and

“Whereas, the Board feels that membership in such an organization is not compatible with the duty which county employees owe to the public as servants of the public.

“Now, therefore, it is hereby resolved and ordered by the Board of Supervisors of the County of Orange, State of California, that all county employees, who are members of such Ku Klux Klan be and they are hereby requested to furnish to the District Attorney of the County of Orange satisfactory evidence of their withdrawal as members of the organization known as the Ku Klux Klan or tender to the proper officer of the county their resignation as an employee of said county.

Meanwhile in Oklahoma, an explicitly anti-Klan group formed. Because the KKK saw themselves as an “invisible empire,” this new group called itself the Knights of the Visible Empire.

“The Knights of the Visible Empire are gathering strength to oppose the white-shrouded host–the knights of the invisible realm. The Southwest is splitting into two factions–klan and anti-klan,” the News-Tribune reported. “Within the last few months the Ku Klux Klan has shown its strength. It appears to exist in every community. In the big, modern, fast-growing cities of the Southwest it numbers thousands of its “invisible empire.” This has been proved by parades and demonstrations in such cities as Dallas, Forth Worth, Beaumont, Waco, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and other places.”

And then the News-Tribune makes a shocking, albeit buried, report:

“Here, only a few weeks ago, nearly 3,000 hooded figures passed through the streets. The parade was fifteen blocks in length. At its head masked riders bore aloft the emblem of the klan. Overhead an airplane circled, bearing a flaming cross.”

By “here” I can only assume Johnson meant Fullerton, or a nearby town.

In my previous research on the KKK in Fullerton and Orange County, I found evidence of large rallies in Anaheim and Fullerton, although I thought they only happened in 1923 and 1924. Evidently, there was also a huge Klan parade in 1922. Strangely, the Tribune doesn’t report on it outside the short paragraph above. Probably, as is sometimes the case today, some Fullertonians didn’t want to admit that the KKK was in their community, and prominent members joined.

And then, the Klan made themselves known in Anaheim.

“The first public appearance in Orange county of members of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in the First Christian church tabernacle, Anaheim, last night was marked by lusty cheers of the congregation, and unlike popular beliefs was not featured by bloodshed or riot,” the News-Tribune states. “While scores sat emotionless in their seats, petrified by mingled fear and amazement, what is estimated to have been more than a dozen of the white-robed and hooded figures silently entered the edifice, presented the pastor, the Rev. C.L. Vawter, with a parcel and as silently departed.”

In 1924, the Ku Klux Klan was very active in local politics, with Klan members sweeping the Anaheim City Council majority [They would be recalled within a year].

“Significant of Ku Klux Klan activity in today’s election, a huge fiery cross lighted up the heavens last night from the hill to the westward of Northgate Heights,” the News-Tribune reported in 1924. “That the burning of the symbol had a direct bearing on the local political situation was the general opinion today.”

According to the News-Tribune, “The claim was made today by a person in close touch with local Klan affairs that there is a membership of from 2500 to 3000 in this territory.”

Ku Klux Klan rallies drawing thousands took place throughout Orange County in 1924, including at least two large meetings at what is now Amerige Park, across the street from City Hall.

The Klan was so popular, in part, because it was presented as a patriotic organization. At the above advertised meeting, the speaker stressed the fact “That it is a white man’s organization, a gentile organization, a protestant organization and an American organization in which membership is restricted to native-born American citizens. That the KKK stands for white supremacy; for the enforcement of the law by the regularly constituted authorities; development of the highest standard of citizenship; rightful use of the ballot, and the worship of God.”

At another Klan meeting that drew around 5,000 attendees, the violence that lay beneath the rhetoric almost broke out.

Local businessman Dan O’Hanlon, who was Irish Catholic, was unhappy with the Klan speaker’s denunciations of catholicism, so he shouted “Liar!” during the speech.

This led to cries of “get that guy,” “where is a tar bucket?” from different parts of the crowd. O’Hanlon was taken by police officers, for his own safety, and booked him briefly at the city jail. He was released later that night, and according to an oral history interview with O’Hanlon’s wife Margaret, a cross was burned on their lawn that night.

The Klan also made an appearance at a downtown city carnival.

“Appearing from the direction of Wilshire avenue five members of the Ku Klux Klan, robed and with raised visors, injected a little dramatic note into the street carnival last night, when they marched through the crowds of merry-makers and presented a note containing $25 in bills to E.H. Tozier, conductor of the city band,” the News-Tribune reported.

Meanwhile, the Fullerton Rotary Club passed a resolution condemning the Ku Klux Klan.

“The action of the Rotary club today marks the first tangible, public recognition of the fact that the Ku Klux Klan has become an issue here in Fullerton as it has in Anaheim and in other parts of the county, state and country,” the News-Tribune reported. “Sentiment has been greatly inflamed here of late by the secret circulation of a list of names purporting to be that of local members of the order.”

The resolution read as follows:

Whereas, a situation has developed in our fair city by virtue of the teachings and activities of the Ku Kux Klan which has set neighbor against neighbor, causing suspicion, distrust and fear to fill the hearts of many; and

Whereas such teachings and activities impede the normal development of our beautiful city, interference with the happiness and contentment of our citizens, hold us up to ridicule before the outside world, and stamp us as being a narrow, factional, intolerant, un-American people; and

Whereas the objects of Rotary International are to promote fellowship and harmony among men of all nations, to make them better business men, better professional, better fathers and in fact better citizens of the country in which they live, having as its motto, “Service above self at all times,”

Be it resolved, that the Rotary club of Fullerton, unanimously deplores the existence of such conditions and is anxious to do all in its power to restore conditions to normal so that the right to the free exercise of our constitutional rights, together with tranquility and those blessings of liberty for which our constitution was ordained and established, be guaranteed to everyone, be it further

Resolved that we hereby publicly condemn the organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, which, by its teachings and actions, tends to develop racial hatred, religious intolerance or in any way denies full constitutional rights to any of our citizens no matter what his race, religion or political affiliations may be.

Local attorney Tom McFadden spoke at the above-mentioned Rotary Club meeting, suggesting that administrators of Fullerton High School were members of the Klan.

“We must keep out all forms of intolerance in our schools,” he declared. “We must keep it out of our high school here. No one has a right to hold a position of responsibility in that institution who holds and subscribes to intolerant beliefs. There are all shades of opinion and religion in our schools and Fullerton has attained a high standing by reason of its progressiveness and efficiency. It will sink from this position if intolerant views are allowed to interfere with its operation and administration.

“A community cannot grow and prosper when its citizenry is divided by mutual distrust and suspicion,” McFadden continued. “We must restore harmony and try to re-establish friendly relations. The Rotary Clubs of Anaheim and Fullerton can do much to foster the right spirit between the two cities and in their respective communities.

“A house divided against itself can accomplish nothing,” he said in closing.

The News-Tribune stated, “Although no direct mention of the KKK was made by name in McFadden’s talk, and no particular individuals were designated, he clearly indicated by innuendo that he was concentrating his attack on members of the local high school administration whose names are declared to be on the lists which are being circulated in this city.”

Although he didn’t name him by name, McFadden was likely referring to high school superintendent Louis E. Plummer. 

The Rotary Club was not the only local group opposed to the Ku Klux Klan.

“Anti-Klan forces in Anaheim are going to make a determined effort to change the entire city administration. Recall petitions are to be circulated at once, it was announced at a mass meeting held under the auspices of the USA Club…last night,” the News-Tribune reported.

Local Politics

In the 1922 midterm election, Fullerton voters elected Roy Davis (who worked at the Fullerton Ice Co.) and W.A. Moore (of the Fullerton Realty Co.). Gurman Hoppe (of the Stein, Hoppe, and Hax store) was defeated.

Sam Jernigan, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was elected county sheriff.

1924 was an election year, and Coolidge was running for re-election. There was a proposal for Fullerton rancher Charles C. Chapman to be Coolidge’s vice presidential running mate; however, he ultimately chose Charles G. Dawes.

In the 1924 Fullerton City Council election, Harry Crooke, O.M. Thompson, and W.J. Carmichael were elected.

Meanwhile, in Anaheim, the Ku Klux Klan claimed a city council victory, electing E.H. Metcalf, Emory F. Knipe, A.A. Slabach and Dean W. Hasson. They were later all recalled.

In Brea, Harry E. Becker and Isaac Carig were elected as city trustees. “Local gossip has it that the Ku Klux Klan played a prominent role in the election backing the successful candidates and defeating the nominees of the Brea Civic League.,” the News-Tribune reported.

In 1926, J.S. Elder and Bert Annin were elected to the City Council. Harry Crooke was again chosen as Mayor. Less than a year into his tenure, Elder resigned and Emmanuel Smith was appointed to replace him. William A. Goodwin was elected town constable.

In 1928, Republican Herbert Hoover was elected president, defeating Democrat candidate Al Smith. Back then, Orange County was largely Republican. In Orange County, Hoover got 30,100 votes, while Smith got only 7,597. Hoover received 2,966 votes in Fullerton while Smith only got 542.

In the 1928 City Council election, voters chose William Hale, R.S. Elder, and O.H. Kreighbaum. Bert Annin, who was not up for election, was chosen as Mayor.

Crime

A notable criminal case in 1921 involved two Black men (E.G. Brooks and Eddie Woods) who allegedly assaulted a bus driver (Darwin O. Grimes) in Fullerton, after he tried to make them sit at the back of the bus.

“The altercation which culminated in the attack on the stage driver is said to have arisen when the negroes started to enter the second seat against the wishes of the other passenger and the driver. When the passengers objected to the negroes sitting beside them, it is said that Grimes requested that the negroes sit in the back seat, in which there was ample seating space,” the News-Tribune reported. “They refused and stated forcibly that unless the driver allowed them to sit where they chose that they would not allow the stage to depart on the trip to Los Angeles.”

After allegedly attacking Grimes, the two men fled and were later arrested. Both men pleaded not guilty, arguing that they acted in self-defense.

Before the case went to trial, the bus driver Grimes was arrested over a charge that, when he was an immigration official, he abused his power by appropriating liquor seized from an automobile (this was during Prohibition times). He had since been fired.

During the trial, Brooks and Woods said that Grimes “took a belligerent attitude which they interpreted as something of a prediction of physical force in keeping them from occupying a seat in the stage other than the rear one.”

Character witnesses were introduced for both men, among whom were S.E. Reed, Santa Fe Agent in Fullerton, F.C. Johnson, special officer for the Santa Fe, and Joe Murillo, Fullerton officer for the Santa Fe, all of whom were well-acquainted with Brooks from when he worked as a Santa Fe porter.

This was also one of the first cases in Fullerton in which women served on the jury, having recently been granted that right.

Ultimately, the charges against Brooks and Woods were reduced to simple assault and they each paid a $100 fine.

Because this was during Prohibition, the most common “crimes” were liquor-related. One of the major ironies of Prohibition was that, despite its goals of “cleaning up” America, it led directly to an increase in organized crime and political corruption.

Among other fun-killing laws, Fullerton in 1922 started cracking down on roller skating, scooters, and riding bikes on sidewalks.

Among the various crimes reported in the Tribune in 1928, one stood out to me, because it happened right around where I live, which is in former railroad worker housing near the corner of Santa Fe and Highland. A man was murdered in one of the housing units. Was it mine? The Tribune doesn’t say. But perhaps this qualifies my residence for a stop on the Fullerton Ghost Tour.

Fullerton’s First Gang

In 1921, a group of local young men (sons of prominent families) formed a gang (Fullerton’s first gang) called the Hill Rovers. They made much mischief and committed crimes such as petty larceny, breaking and entering, and theft. OC District Attorney Alex Nelson investigated the group.

Because the boys were sons of prominent local families, the DA faced pushback about prosecuting them, or releasing their names.

Ultimately, four of the gang members were arrested, and two got five years for their crimes.

An article published in early 1927 gives some crime stats from the previous year. The majority of the arrests were for booze [this was during Prohibition] or “vagrancy” (homelessness?).

The report lists three suicides, three auto fatalities, 22 arrested for disturbing the peace, four for battery, four for disorderly conduct, 21 for drunkenness, one for operating a still, 21 for possession of intoxicating liquor. 198 car accidents, 47 arrested for vagrancy.

Sometimes the perpetrators of crimes would be given names by the media, such as the Praying Sisters (bank fraudsters who sought a more lenient sentence by showing their piety), the Chloroform Burglar (who knocked people out with chloroform before burglarizing their houses), and The Fox (a murderer who killed a girl in Los Angeles and went on the run, sparking a massive manhunt).

In 1927, a county Grand Jury probe raised ethical and legal questions about top law enforcement officials. Some were accused of being in cahoots with bootleggers. A big rally at what is now Amerige Park in Fullerton called for a recall of OC Sheriff Sam Jernigan for his alleged improprieties.

The meeting was presided over by Carrie Ford, a prominent leader in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

Because, at this time, the Ku Klux Klan was a big supporter of Prohibition, some felt that the effort to oust Jernigan was a KKK plot. This rumor was dispelled by “attendees [who] said it was not a KKK plot.”

According to the News-Tribune, one attendee “challenged any members of the Ku Klux Klan to stand up and show themselves. About 20 men arose in response. The speaker then pointed out that more that 90 percent of the persons at the meeting were not of the Klan.”

This is fascinating to me because it shows that the KKK was still a conspicuous presence in local affairs, even after its popularity began to wane after 1925.

Prohibition

In 1919, Congress passed the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution (and the subsequent Volstead Act), banning alcohol. Locally, city council passed ordinances to help with enforcement of the Volstead Act and curb violations of the law.

One way that people sought to get around prohibition was to have doctors prescribe them liquor for “medical” reasons. On more than one occasion, police rounded up and arrested such violators.

Bootlegging was also fairly widespread, so raids and arrests were not uncommon.

The noted Bastanchury family had made their own wine for years. They were raided and some charged with violating the dry law.

Nearly every issue of the Tribune throughout the 1920s has a story about people being fined or arrested over illegal booze.

Although they had achieved their goal of national Prohibition, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was still active, presumably because lots of people were still drinking.

One way the Ku Klux Klan gained popularity was by adopting popular positions on hot-button issues. In addition to being opposed to racial minorities, Catholics, and Jews, they were also in favor of restricted immigration and prohibition.

In 1924 the Klan and their supporters worked with local and federal law enforcement to conduct a massive arrest of bootleggers. The headquarters of the massive raid was the ranch of Fullerton pharmacist William Starbuck.

In what proved to be a dumb move, these anti-bootleggers then presented a bill to Fullerton city council for $2,800 to cover the costs of the raids (they hadn’t bothered to inform city council of the raid in advance). City Council refused to pay, as did other local city councils who received similar bills.

The Fullerton police department occasionally held public “booze pouring” events in which they dumped out hundreds of gallons of illegal booze they had seized.

And then, something embarrassing happened. Some Fullerton police officers were accused by another officer of stealing wine from the department’s stock of seized liquor for personal use.

After a few public hearings before City Council, the accused officers denied any wrongdoing and were not convicted of any crimes. The whole ordeal, however, caused a shake-up in the department, in which some officers were forced to resign.

Adding to the embarrassment, Fullerton City Councilmember Emmanuel Smith and beloved football coach “Shorty” Smith were both arrested and fined on liquor charges. Neither lost their jobs. By criminalizing a hugely popular activity, prohibition highlighted the hypocrisy of leaders [President Harding famously served and drank booze in the White House], and made the United States way more corrupt at all levels of government–from federal to local.

Sports

In sports news, baseball was quite popular locally. In addition to high school baseball, teams would play at the field on what is now Amerige Park.

By far, the biggest local sporting event of the decade was a 1924 exhibition game in Brea featuring baseball legends Walter Johnson (who went to Fullerton High School), Babe Ruth, and other big-league players which drew around 15,000 spectators.

Local athlete Glenn Hartnraft placed second in the shot put at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The mascot of Fullerton High School was, and is, the Indian. In more recent years, this has proved controversial, as native American groups over the years have tried to get the district to change the mascot, arguing that it is offensive. Despite the fact that activists have been unsuccessful in changing the name, I too find it offensive, especially considering the fact that throughout the 1920s, the Fullerton Indians were regularly called the “redskins” and the “red men”. The school would host “Pow Wows” featuring non-native people dressing up as Indians. These “Pow Wows” were still happening as late as the 1990s, when I attended high school there.

In 1928, Gaston Bastanchury, owner of the sprawling Bastanchury Ranch in the hills of north Fullerton, wanted to build an enormous venue to host a boxing match between world champion Jack Dempsey and Basque boxer Paulino Uzcudun, who would train on the ranch. Unfortunately, this never came to fruition.

In 1929, local baseball star Willard Hershberger was drafted into major leagues by the Washington Senators.

Golfing, both regular and miniature was popular locally, with the following courses:

Culture and Entertainment

Prior to the opening of the Fox Theater in 1925, locals would go see movies and Vaudeville shows at the Rialto Theater downtown.

In 1921, Fullerton’s new Masonic Temple (now the Springfield Banquet Center) was formally inaugurated and its first officers chosen. In the early 20th century, fraternal organizations like the Masons and Odd Fellows were very popular.

Another popular form of entertainment in the 1920s was the traveling Chautaqua show, which featured musical performances, speeches, and more. The show came through Fullerton every year.

The other big gathering in the 1920s, outside of Klan Rallies, was the Armistice Day parade, celebrating the ending of World War I. This was a truly massive annual event, with thousands of attendees and hundreds of floats!

Unfortunately for movie-goers, Will B. Hays (former Postmaster General under president Harding) was hired in 1922 to censor movies of content deemed objectionable.

“A genuine ‘spring cleaning’ to purge motion pictures of all semblance of salaciousness was promised today by Will B. Hays, who leaves President Harding’s cabinet March 4 to head a new association of motion picture producers and distributors,” the Tribune reported.

“I will head what you might term a moral crusade in the film industry after March 4,” Hays said, adding that this would not be censorship. “I have two objects. We will attempt to attain and maintain the highest standards in motion picture production and seek to develop the moral and educational values of motion pictures to their highest degree. That is all we plan.”

Much of the discussion centered around depiction of sex in movies. There was much less discussion about depictions of violence. I always have found it ironic that many Americans tend to be much more averse to depictions of sex than depictions of violence in movies. We are generally more comfortable watching an action hero kill dozens of people than we are watching two people be intimate. This means something.

Just as there was something of a moral panic about sex in movies, there was also backlash against the influence of jazz music.

Probably the biggest news of 1925 for Fullerton was the opening of Chapman’s Alician Court Theater, which later became known as the Fox Theater, a classic old school movie palace. The theater was financed by C. Stanley Chapman, son of wealthy powerful orange grower Charles C. Chapman. The theater’s architect was Raymond M. Kennedy of the firm Meyer & Holler, which also designed Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre and the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

The theater opened with great fanfare with local and Hollywood notables in attendance, including Mary Pickford and her family.

“Dainty usherettes in Italian peasant costume…directed the guests to their places. Among those seated in the loge section were many distinguished visitors including Mendell Meyer, architect for the structure members of the Chapman party, and well known residents of Hollywood Mrs. Pickford, Lottie Pickford Rupp and Mary Pickford’s small niece, Mary Pickford Rupp,” the News-Tribune reported.

Attached to the theater was the fancy tea room known as the Mary Louise.

This local movie palace hosted several “Preview” screenings of major Hollywood films, where the stars would be in attendance, such as Harold Lloyd, Dolores Del Rio, and more. It must have been exciting to attend these star-studded events. In 1926, the theater’s name changed to the Mission Court Theater.

Not only was Fullerton home to a first class movie palace, it was also home to a significant movie director named Lois Weber.

Occasionally Weber and her husband Harry Gantz would host parties at their El Dorado ranch in Fullerton, and invite top Hollywood figures.

Unfortunately, in 1929, a popular form of entertainment was the “minstrel show” which featured white actors in blackface, reinforcing harmful stereotypes of African Americans. Below are advertisements for a film at the Fox Theater featuring the Two Black Crows, popular blackface performers, as well as a big Minstrel show sponsored by the Anaheim Elks Club.

Sadly, in 1930, the Rialto Theater (Fullerton’s first movie theater) closed, and was replaced by the First National Trust and Savings Bank.

In 1930, there was a Fox Theater in Fullerton and one in Anaheim. They would advertise their films in the News-Tribune.

While the Fox Theater in Fullerton still stands, the Anaheim Fox Theater was unfortunately torn down in 1979 along with many of that city’s other historic buildings. This was called “redevelopment.”

In 1930, the film “Hells Angels” featuring daring airplane stunts and produced by Howard Hughes, was filmed at the Fullerton Airport.

Medicine and Health

In medical news, local chiropractor Vanetta Henderson faced charges in 1921 for violating the Medical Practices Act. At this time, chiropractors were viewed with skepticism. I guess not much has changed.

In agriculture news, an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in 1924 in California led to restrictions on some California crops and even restrictions on human gatherings and travel.

“Motor touring outside the county is to be further restricted, according to announcement made at the Rotary Club luncheon here this afternoon by A.A. Brock, county horticuturalist,” the News-Tribune reported. “Coupled with an urgent plea to the public to stay home and in this way help the authorities to cope with the menace of hoof and mouth disease. Mr. Brock made the statement that a general tightening up of the present quarantine regulations is to be put in effect at once.”

Transportation

In transportation news, automobiles were very popular, with a few different car dealerships in town, like William Wickersheim’s newly-built Ford dealership on Commonwealth (It’s now the Ace Hardware Store). Other dealerships included O.L. Smith’s Oakland dealership on West Amerige, Albert Sitton’s Willys-Knight dealership on West Commonwealth, Lillian Yeager’s Dodge dealership in Spadra (Harbor) and Chapman, and William Goodrum’s Buick dealership.

An auto camp at Hillcrest Park was a popular spot for travelers to stop during the 1920s.

Formerly a “sewer farm,” the Fullerton Airport began to take shape in 1927, with locals volunteering to help clear the land.

Fraternal Organizations

The 1920s Ku Klux Klan arose at a time when fraternal organizations were very popular throughout the United States. Not all of them were explicitly white supremacist, like the KKK. Others were fairly “normal” like the Masons and the Odd Fellows. An article in the Tribune gives a bit of history of Fullerton’s Masonic lodge.

Fullerton’s Masonic lodge was formed in 1900 and held its first meeting at the home of Edward K. Benchley, president of the Farmers and Merchants bank. Early meetings were then held on the top floor of the old grammar school. They built their first temple (now the Parker Building), and then they built an even larger temple in 1920, which still stands today–it is the Springfield Banquet Center.

The Fullerton Masonic Temple is now the Springfield Banquet Center.

The leader of a lodge is called a “worshipful master” and this title was held by a number of prominent local men over the years, including William McFadden, Dr. G.C. Clark, Arthur Staley, C. George Porter, Charles E. Ruddock, J.R. Gardiner, and C. Stanley Chapman.

In 1923, membership in the Masons was 425.

Another popular fraternal organization at this time was the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (or just Odd Fellows).

The Fullerton Lodge of Odd the Fellows was organized in 1901. Like the Masons, a number of prominent residents joined, including William Schumacher, August Hiltscher, George H. Amerige, R.H. Gilman, Joseph Hiltscher, D.S. Linebarger, and E.R. Amerige, Edgar Johnson, Bert Annin, and Angus McAulay.

The Odd Fellows met above two different banks downtown before building their own massive hall in 1928. This building still stands today.

Natural Disasters

In 1927 a big fire broke out on the back of the Chapman building, drawing hundreds of spectators. Thankfully, the building survived.

A much more damaging natural disaster occurred in 1927 when heavy rains caused the Santa Ana River to flood its banks.

The flood disproportionately affected the homes of Mexican Americans who lived on the south side of town.

“The houses of many Mexican families on the south side between Spadra road and Lawrence avenues, were reported to be under water and uninhabitable and arrangements were being made by Mrs. Mae Reeve, city treasurer, for their accommodation. She will welcome offers of help,” the News-Tribune reported. “As a matter of precaution, the Placentia Growers’ association today moved about forty Mexicans form its camp on Balcom avenue, to the packing houses where they have been made comfortable.”

This prompted local efforts to deal with the flood and its aftermath.

The flooding also caused oil to pour onto farmlands.

At the regional level, plans were discussed to curb future floods by damming and channelizing the Santa Ana River.

Meanwhile, wealthy residents were encouraged to “Buy a Lot Today, High Above the Flood.”

In 1928, one of the greatest disasters in California history occurred, when the St. Francis Dam broke. Although this occurred in Los Angeles county, its devastating impact in terms of loss of life was felt across the region.

Water

Those familiar with the movie “Chinatown” may be familiar with the California Water Wars that broke out in the mid-1920s when LA officials used dishonest means to buy up land in the Owens Valley and then build an aqueduct that drew water from those farmers to the growing metropolis of Los Angeles.

“A state of virtual warfare existed in the hills bordering Owens valley today while officials here debated measures to curb dynamite attacks upon the Los Angeles aqueduct by bands of armed marauders in Inyo county,” the News-Tribune reported. “Along the 265-mile waterway stretching from the mountain lakes to the city of Los Angeles, through desert wastes and across barren foothills, powerful army flashlights gleamed last night. Meanwhile, the aqueduct guard had been strengthened by the addition of a squad of ex-service men, armed with machine guns and orders to shoot to kill in an effort to prevent another destructive sortie against the city’s main water supply, built at a cost of $44,000,000.”

Meanwhile state growers and politicians were pushing for the creation of Boulder Dam (now called Hoover Dam) which would bring additional waters from the Colorado River.

This is of interest to Fullerton because our city was one of the founding members of the Metropolitan Water District (created in 1928), so (to this day) some of our water comes from the Colorado River, although a larger portion comes from local groundwater sources managed by the Orange County Water District, which would be created in 1933.

In 1929, there was a big political fight over a ballot measure to issue bonds for construction of a series of dams on the Santa Ana river, as a flood control measure.

For weeks leading up to the election, well-funded groups ran advertisements making their cases for and against the bonds.

Ultimately, the bonds were narrowly defeated. Major flood control measures would have to wait until another major flood in 1938 brought the water to the peoples’ literal doorsteps.

Immigration

Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Act), a profoundly racist law (one of its authors, Albert Johnson, was a eugenics proponent) that barred immigrants from Asia and created quotas that severely limited immigration from countries that weren’t northern European (i.e. white). This law was widely supported by many Americans at the time.

The majority of new immigrants to Fullerton in the 1920s were Mexican farm workers, who lived in segregated work camps or “colonias” and had a kind of second-class citizenship. Some of the reasons why Mexicans were the dominant labor force were laws that excluded Asians (like the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924), and political violence and instability in Mexico, with the Mexican Revolution–causing Mexicans to flee north to relative safety.

As part of a recurring pattern in American history, there were clamors to restrict and deport Mexican immigrants. The article below, from 1929, says that rumors of mass deportations were unfounded. This would change in the early 1930s, as the Great Depression worsened and already vulnerable immigrants became convenient scapegoats, sparking one of the largest mass deportations in American history.

Throughout U.S. history, tough economic times have sparked strong anti-immigrant movements that have sometimes had devastating consequences. This happened during the Great Depression, with increasing calls to prioritize “white” over “foreign-born” labor.

“Petitions were circulated in Fullerton Saturday afternoon protesting employment of unnaturalized foreign-born workers on any public improvement project while white labor is available,” the News-Tribune reported in 1930.

“The petitions, circulated by R. J. Simpson of Costa Mesa, president of the Orange County labor association, will be presented to the board of supervisors and to the city councils of all the cities in the county.”

“Contractors have tended to employ unnaturalized Mexican labor to the exclusion of white labor, according to the petitions. This is because they will work cheaper and stand more, Simpson says. A mass meeting of working men will be held Friday night at Birch park in Santa Ana, Simpson said, to formulate further protests,” the News-Tribune continued.

Politicians got on the anti-immigration train and supported measures to restrict it.

Some large agricultural interests opposed immigration restriction, and supported allowing Mexican immigrants to continue working in the fields.

The anti-immigrant voices would grow louder as the Depression wore on, leading to one of the largest mass deportations in American history, primarily of Mexican-Americans, many of whom were actually citizens. This sad chapter of local and national history is chronicled in the book Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s by Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodriguez.

The Great Depression Begins

In 1929, Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as President, and the infamous stock market crash occurred later that year, sparking the Great Depression. Impacts could be seen locally, with a visibly increasing number of unemployed and homeless people, with some even seeking to sleep in jail.

In 1930, there was no such thing as unemployment insurance, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt would not be elected for another two years, so the New Deal programs did not exist.

Local communities were thus forced to fend for themselves. In Fullerton, the Chamber of Commerce sought (with limited success) to help get people jobs.

Hoover signed a protectionist tariff, The Smoot-Hawley Bill, which (predictably) sparked retaliation from other countries and actually worsened the Depression, causing prices to rise on many goods.

Deaths

Here are some notable Fullertonians who died in the 1920s:

1921: Fullerton pioneer Alex McDermont and his sister Anna McDermont.

1922: Fullerton pioneer rancher Henry Burdorf. He died at his house on East Orangethorpe avenue. Burdorf came to Orange County from San Francisco and lived on his ranch for fifty years. He was one of trustees of the first grammar school district.

1923: Local pioneer William Crowther. A rancher who was active in local civic life, Crowther served for many years as president of the Anaheim Union Water Company. He was a musician and organized the first municipal band in Fullerton.

1924: Prominent local businessman Edward K. Benchley.

1925: Dr. William Freeman, one of Fullerton’s first doctors.

1925: William Hetebrink, of the pioneer Hetebrink family, was killed in an accident. Many members of the Hetebrink would die in tragic accidents, almost as if the family was cursed.

1926: Jennie Des Granges, wife of pioneer Otto Des Granges. A native of Tennessee, Jennie came to Fullerton area in 1869. She was the oldest daughter of James Gardiner, another Fullerton pioneer. Their children were Paul Des Granges and Marie Brewer. Her brothers were John R. Gardiner, Lilburn Gardiner, Frank Gardiner, and W.A. Gardiner.

1927: Early Fullerton developer H. Gaylord Wilshire.

1929: George Fullerton, whom the City of Fullerton was named after

1930: Reverend Reuben Francis Holcomb, who moved to Fullerton one year after it was founded (1888) and established the first Methodist church in town.

1930: Pioneer rancher John Hetebrink.

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

Fullerton’s population grew from 2,690 in 1910 to 4,415 in 1920.

Fire Protection

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

Health

A new hospital was approved in 1912 at the corner of Pomona and Amerige. This building still stands today, although it is no longer used as a hospital.

In 1918, a deadly flu epidemic spread across the world, including the United States. Though it likely did not actually originate in Spain, it became known as the Spanish Flu. Hospitals were filled to capacity, and lots of people died, including here in Fullerton.

International Affairs

South of the border, the Mexican Revolution caused thousands of immigrants to migrate north, to the United States.

In 1916, Pancho Villa’s fighting forces raiding American settlements along the border, prompted a full-scale invasion of Mexico by U.S. troops, much to the consternation of Mexican president Carranza, who was also fighting Villa.

One unfortunate consequence of the conflict with Mexican revolutionaries was that it led to fear and suspicion of Mexicans in the United States, who were sometimes viewed as being in sympathy with Villa, or even secretly helping his cause.

“That secret recruiting of Mexicans for the Mexican army has been going on in Fullerton for the last week became known today. Half a score of Mexicans are known to have left town and others are said to be preparing to leave,” the Tribune reported. “Further precautions against possible rioting of lawless Mexicans here took concrete form Thursday night when the board of trustees, at a special meeting, approved the addition of thirty-five citizens to the ranks of the police force as deputy marshals…Five deputy marshals have been on the force for some time, swelling the total of officers available to forty, and other additions are to be made within a short time.”

In 1914, World War I began in Europe. The United States would not officially enter the war until 1917. Upon this announcement, local residents formed a Home Guard, and the high school formed a military company.

The U.S. government instituted a draft to obtain soldiers for the American military. Eligible adults aged 21-30 had to register. 385 people registered in Fullerton. Charles C. Chapman was local draft board chairman. 

The Tribune actively sought to shame those “slackers” who did not register for the draft, printing the names of those required to register, and those who were caught not registering.

Patriotism was in the air, manifesting in rallies, Red Cross drives, Liberty Bond drives, and a massive fourth of July celebration.

Two local young men, Fred Strauss and Nels Nelson, registered for the draft. According to an oral history interview with Strauss conducted decades later, he explained what prompted him to enlist.

“We went there to Los Angeles and had a lot of beer. Finally, after we had had enough beer and we got to feeling pretty good, I said to my pal, ‘Let’s go and enlist and join the Army.’ And he said, ‘Okay, we’ll go.” So they enlisted.

Amidst all the patriotic fever, one local group took a public stand against the war–the local Socialist Party.

High School principal E.W. Hauck enlisted, or was drafted.

Unnaturalized Germans over the age of 14 living in the United States had to register with the postmaster.

In 1918, Germany surrendered, essentially ending the war.

The 1916 Flood

A terrible flood took place in 1916 when the Santa Ana river overflowed its banks. This was particularly devastating for Mexican-American families who lived in the lowlands along the river’s path.

The Tribune stated, “Ten Mexican families are being cared for by Alfred Vail, who lives between Fullerton and Anaheim, and other Mexicans, are being cared for at Anaheim.”

“The body of Mrs. Eleareintia Nunez, a Mexican woman 89 years of age, was found by C.A. Myers in his walnut orchard. The body was identifited by Jose Nunez as that his mother, Mrs. Elcarcintia Nunez. Nunez also identified the body of the 12 year old Mexican boy discovered Thursday as that of his son Juan,” the Tribune reported. “The body of one of Nunez’s sons is still missing. Alberto, aged 9, was in the house at Peralta that was washed away by the flood last Sunday night. There were three persons in the house, the two boys and their grandmother. Nunez and his two daughters had gone to Anaheim for supplies, and did not return Sunday on account of the rain. That is all that prevented them from being in the house that went down the river.”

After the flood, local leaders began to talk about plans to control the waters of the Santa Ana river.

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.

City Council Members

Below are the City Council Members elected in each election during this period:

1914: George Anin, R.S. Gregory, August Hiltscher, and E. Livingstone.

1916: J.R. Carhart, J.M. Clever, A.H. Sitton, and Perry C. Woodward.

1918: R.R. Davis, Robert Strain, and Perry Woodward.

1920: W.F. Coulter, L.P. Drake, and R.A. Mardsen.

Women’s Suffrage

The state of California was ahead of the curve when it came to women’s suffrage. Women in the Golden State got the right to vote in 1911, as a result of a ballot measure (Prop 4), fully nine years before the passage of the 19th Amendment. Women could also run for political office.

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.

In 1920 the first woman was elected to public office in Fullerton. Belle J. Benchley was elected a grammar school trustee. Benchley would eventually move to San Diego, where she would become a noted zookeeper and author.

1920 was also the first year women were allowed to serve as trial jurors in Orange County.

Prohibition

In just about every election cycle since Fullerton incorporated in 1904, petitioners put the liquor question on the ballot. In 1912, with the large number of women registered to vote, the town voted (once again) to ban liquor licenses, thus making Fullerton a “dry” town.

The national prohibition question was also playing out locally.

“Laying plans for the 1917-18 campaign, prohibition workers from all parts of the county gathered in Fullerton Monday,” the Tribune reported.

The US Senate had passed the 18th Amendment in 1917, but it would not be ratified by a majority of the states until 1919, and national prohibition did not take effect until 1920, with the passage of the Volstead Act. Prior to that the Wartime Prohibition Act took effect in 1919, which banned the sale of beverages having an alcohol content of greater than 1.28%.

Both locally and nationally, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union had been an active proponent of Prohibition for many years.

Education

In 1910, Fullerton’s second high school, which was located at Amerige Park, 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.

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.

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

A popular movement seeking to prevent both racial and labor strife was called “Americanization” in which employers provided education to “Americanize” its foreign-born immigrant workforce. In contrast to today’s appreciation for diversity and cultural and linguistic difference, the Americanization movement sought to mold different ethnic identities into English-speaking Americans.

“Where no English is spoken disease breeds, because the immigrant cannot read the suggestions of the Board of Health. The I.W.W. [Industrial Workers of the World] breeds where no English is spoken,” the Tribune reported. “The country is awake to the danger of the alien population, and ‘Americanizing’ must become the great national movement.”

Locally, citrus growers, in collaboration with educational leaders, established special schools in “Americanization” for their predominantly Mexican workforce.

Read more about Fullerton’s Americanization program HERE.

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.

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

By 1920, anti-Japanese feeling in California was intense. Apparently, it was politically advantageous to demonize Japanese immigrants. A Senator James D. Phelan came to Fullerton to speak on the “Japanese Menace.”

California was not the only state to pass an exclusionary law against the Japanese. Texas (of course) followed suit, a long with Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Speaking of racism, in 1914, California had laws on the books which outlawed interracial marriage. The News-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 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.

While Fullerton was building new housing and businesses for its white residents, in 1919, there was vocal opposition for the construction of housing for Mexican Americans.

“The first thunderbolt was in the form of a petition from 117 prominent citizens headed by former trustee August Hiltscher and backed up by William French, former city marshal and now justice of the peace and newly appointed city recorder. This petition was a protest to the building of a concrete structure by the Santa Fe at Highland and Santa Fe avenues for the housing of its Mexican employees,” the Tribune reported. “The petitioners asked if it would not be possible to prevent the erection at that point or at least the housing of the Mexican element in that locality. The matter was discussed from every angle but there seemed to be no relief from a legal standpoint, and finally a resolution was adopted by the board asking the company to abandon that site and erect its building near its section houses, and City Attorney Allen was delegated to present the resolution in person to Superintendent Hitchcock at San Bernardino. Mr. Allen left for San Bernardino this morning to carry out the mission.”

“City Trustees Davis, Strain, and Woodward and City Attorney Allen were closeted with Superintendent Hitchcock of Hitchcock of the Santa Fe in his private car in the yards of the company at this place this morning to discuss the matter of the housing of Mexican workers at Highland and Santa Fe avenues by the company,” the Tribune reported. “A mass meeting has been called for this evening at the city hall for taking action.”

Ultimately, the Santa Fe Railroad won, and got the housing built, much to the consternation of Fullerton residents, many of whom showed up at a “mass meeting” to protest the construction.

“The Santa Fe Railroad Company will continue its work and complete its building at the corner of Highland and Santa Fe avenues for the housing of its Mexican employees and will house them right there,” the Tribune reported. “This bald assertion is made because the mass meeting at the city hall Thursday evening to take steps to avert the menace simply went up in smoke, and went sky high. The council chambers was filled to the doors with property owners, principally from the “infected” district, and they talked and talked and talked, but never got anywhere.”

One of the protestants was heard to say, “Well, we don’t like it, but we’ve got to take it.”

Crime

In 1912, 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.”

Fearing juvenile delinquency, in 1916 the board of trustees of the Fullerton Union High School District urged the City Trustees to pass an ordinance banning teenage boys from pool halls.

Also, in true Footloose fashion, local churches successfully lobbied to have a planned series of outdoor dance events banned.

The biggest crime story of 1920 was the murder of local rancher Roy Trapp and the assault of his wife by a Black man named Mose Gibson, who fled town after the crime.

There was a manhunt for the murderer, who had given the false name of Henry Washington.

Because the murderer was Black, many local citizens wanted to lynch him when he was caught. This was the 1920s, when lynchings were not uncommon.

Eventually, Mose Gibson was captured near the Mexican border, and brought to the Los Angeles jail, where he confessed to the murder.

Gibson was tried and sentenced to death by hanging.

As reported by the News-Tribune, feeling in Fullerton regarding Gibson was “intense.”

Editor Edgar Johnson didn’t exactly help matters by calling Gibson “the lowest type of human beast.”

Prior to being hanged, Gibson also confessed to several other murders and crimes across the United States. One of the people he confessed to murdering was J.R. Revis of Louisiana. Unfortunately, a Black man named Brown, it turned out, had been wrongfully lynched for the murder.

While Gibson was in San Quentin prison awaiting execution, a group called the Housewives Union sent a letter to the governor of California, pleading for the man’s life.

“We ask your attention to the case of Mose Gibson, condemned to suffer the death penalty, September 24,” the letter stated. “The fact that the man is a negro is likely of itself to prevent him fro having that consideration before the law which a white man in his humble position might receive. It seems that when a negro is the culprit, that the white man feels it his peculiar privilege to indulge in any amount of brutality.“

Alas, Gibson was hanged, nonetheless.

Labor

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

“Cowed by the guns of the police, sixteen I.W.W.’s were captured here Thursday night after repeatedly defying the crew of a Santa Fe train who attempted to drive them from the cars,” the News-Tribune reported in 1917. “Ten of the I.W.W.’s were marched to the depot, where they were held under armed guard till Sheriff Jackson and deputies arrived from Santa Ana. Six more I.W.W.’s were captured later and they were driven from town.”

And a bit later: “Shortly before 8 o’clock Thursday night word was received from Los Angeles at the Santa Fe depot in Fullerton that I.W.W.’s had taken possession of an east bound freight train that was due here a few minutes after 8. Deputy Sheriff Murillo was quickly called and he immediately sent word to Marshal French. The latter responded at once and a few minutes later the two were joined by Deputy Marshal Woodford.”

In response to a strike by Mexican Citrus workers, growers brought in “Negro” labor from Los Angeles.

“Negroes are being imported in to Orange County in relieve the labor situation developing through the refusal of Mexicans to take contract jobs or to work for less than $3 or $4 a day,” the Tribune reported. “Twenty-five were brought into the beet fields Tuesday afternoon from Los Angeles and agents of the sugar factories and farmers, are now in Los Angeles securing more.”

As a kind of punishment to the striking Mexican workers, some local merchants stopped allowing Mexican strikers to purchase food on credit.

With some wartime labor shortages, there were special provisions to bring in Mexican farm labor, but not Chinese Labor, which Californians were not keen on.

“Last year Mexicans were brought here to help in the sugar beet harvest. This was done through a resolution of congress allowing the immigration department to make that kind of an importation, and in the regulations those bringing in the Mexicans were under bond to return them to the border,” the Tribune reported. “This does not apply to Chinese labor. It is my firm opinion that efforts to get the bars lowered so that Chinese can come in will not be successful. Whatever the qualifications of the Chinese as a laborer may be, I don’t believe there is any possibility of getting congress to alow the Chinese to be brought in even temporarily.”

Oil!

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

“At the opening of the year 1916 the daily production of all wells in the field totaled 35,273 barrels,” the Tribune reported. “The production has been steadily increasing during the year until the daily production in round numbers is 55,000 barrels. The production for the past year will run close to 18,000,000 barrels.”

In 1914, 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.

In 1918, the pioneering Bastanchury family sued the Murphy Oil company for defrauding them of millions of oil dollars.

Back in 1903, Simon J. Murphy secured a lease of a couple thousand acres to search for oil. He told Domingo Bastanchury that he found no oil, and yet still convinced the old man to sell him the land for $35 an acre. He paid Bastanchury $79,000 for the land.

About a month after purchasing the land, the newly-formed Murphy Oil Company sunk a well that was a 3,000-barrel a day gusher. Many other oil-producing wells were subsequently sunk on the land.

In 1912, the Murphy Oil Company sold its oil holdings to the Standard Oil Company for around $24,000,000.

Meanwhile, Domingo Bastanchury died, and his lands fell to his widow and sons.

In 1917, former workers of Murphy Oil told Domingo’s son Gaston that they had actually discovered oil prior to the purchase of the land, and Murphy lied to Domingo about this fact.

The Bastanchury heirs sued Murphy for recovery of funds from the millions of barrels of oil that had been extracted over the past fourteen years, alleging that the property was obtained by fraud.

In 1919 the Bastanchury family won a large $1,200,000 judgment against the Murphy Oil company.

Meanwhile, local oil workers organized a union, also seeking better wages.

Perhaps a part of the widespread labor unrest, some oil wells were bombed in the Fullerton fields.

“Believing that they have in custody one of the perpetrators of the recent bomb outrages in the Fullerton oil fields the police today detained a man describing himself as Antone-Kratchel, aged 35, an Austrian, who was arrested at First and Gless streets by Patrolmen H.R. Boehm and J.Y. Walton,” the Tribune reported.

Culture & Entertainment

Before the Fox was built in 1925, Fullertonians went to see movies at the Rialto Theater. It was located at 219 N. Spadra (Harbor Blvd).

The Rialto Theater featured a talented musician named Winifred Wilbur, who played multiple instruments that accompanied the films.

In 1918, popular entertainer Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle made a special appearence at The Rialto.

Sometimes famous people would speak at the high school auditorium, including Helen Keller and politician and failed presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

In a more racist vein, there was in the Tribune an advertisement for the Geo. Primrose All White Minstrel Show, presumably featuring white people in black face.

The local American Legion post sponsored a Big Minstrel Show, which presumably featured white performers in blackface.

Another form of popular entertainment at this time was the traveling Chautauqua show, which came through town.

In 1920, the local Masons built a huge new temple which is now the Springfield Banquet Center.

Transportation & Infrastructure

In 1914, Fullerton voters approved bonds for the fire department but voted down bonds for road improvement. What else is new?

In 1917, Fullerton finally got a Pacific Electric passenger train line to pass through the town. The Pacific Electric “red cars” would become, by the 1920s, the largest interurban rail system in the United States. The whole system would unfortunately be dismantled in the 1950s, as southern California became firmly entrenched as a “car culture.”

Homelessness

The local policy toward homelessness had, for years, been to jail people on vagrancy charges. However, in 1916, given the inadequacy of the local jail, town Marshal French decided to stop this practice.

“They can implore as much as they want,” he declared, “but I shall place no more prisoners in the city jail. In the first place the arrest of vagrants and tramps is not included in the duties of the city marshal. It is up to the constable to make those arrests and if the county wants the floating class handled, let him do it.

“I shall no longer make an attempt to control the undesirable class in Fullerton so long as they violate no city ordinances. The necessity for a new jail will probably be impressed upon the people by the time the floating class is allowed to remain unmolested for a short time.

In 1917, in the category of “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” local authorities shut down a homeless encampment near the train depot.

“Officers early Wednesday evening raided a hobo camp east of the depot and sent thirteen tramps out of town with instructions not to return. The raid was made by Marshal French and Deputy Sheriff Murillo,” the Tribune reported. “Reports reaching Marshal French said the tramps had established a camp near the wye made by the branching of the Santa Fe to Richfield. The spot is  favorite site for a camp with bums, a permanent camp having been established there last year despite daily raids by the police.

“When the two officers arrived at the camp Wednesday night the thirteen occupants were stretched about a camp fire, some of them lying down and others engaged in cooking supper.”

“None offered resistance when the officers searched them for arms. All of them were without weapons and most of them had no money.

“According to their story to the police they were on their way to San Diego, where they expected to find work in the kelp beds.

“Most of the crowd were young men and all of them were shabbily dressed. The oldest man in the camp, bent and grizzled, gave his age as 62 and told the police he did not know where he was going.

“The camp raided Wednesday night is the first that has been established by hoboes this year, according to Marshal French.”

Housing

Fullerton’s population was growing, and there was a housing shortage, so there was much new construction. The 1920s would bring a big housing boom to Fullerton. The Board of Trade established a “housing fund” to finance construction of new housing.

“The Housing proposition is the most important problem which confronts the city today. We not only need good houses but we need business blocks, as people who desire to engage in business here are turned away every day,” the Tribune reported.

In 1919, realtors R.S. Gregory and George A. Ruddock announced the opening of a new subdivision on six acres of walnuts and Valencias on the 200 block of West Whiting, next to downtown. Another new subdivision was Jacaranda Pl., developed by Charlie Gantz. Many of these homes still stand today as well.

In addition to housing, new business blocks and buildings were added to downtown, such as the Gardiner Building, McKelvey & Volz Drug Store, the Sanitary Laundry Building, and more.

Unfortunately, part of this “progress” meant destroying old buildings, such as the Henderson Blacksmith shop, which was one of the oldest shops in town.

The Town of Orangethorpe

Before the town of Fulleton was founded in 1887, some early ranchers settled in an area south of the town-to-be, an unincorporated community called Orangthorpe. In 1920, city leaders attempted to annex part of Orangethorpe so as to extend the city’s “sewer farm” which is now the Fullerton airport. The ranchers who lived around this area organized to fight this Annexation.

The ranchers were successful in blocking this annexation, and they even voted to incorporate as the town of Orangethorpe to protect the land from future annexation attempts.

Deaths

In 1912, Joseph Goodman, co-owner of the Stern & Goodman general store, passed away.

That same year, 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.

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.

In 1911, the Tribune painted 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.”

In 1914, Jose Antonio Yorba, a descendant of the pioneering Yorba family of Orange County, passed away.

That same year, 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, also died in 1914. Balcom Avenue is named after him.

In 1915, Fullerton co-founder Edward R. Amerige, who had served on City Council and in the California State Assembly, passed away.

In 1917, Charles E. Ruddock, former Fullerton marshal and Orange County sheriff, died.

“Ruddock was born in Chemano county, New York making him almost 53 years of age at the time of his death,” the Tribune reported. “He and his family came to Fullerton from Wisconsin in 1897 and since have made their home here. Serving a trifle more than two years as a city marshal of Fullerton, Ruddock also served as county sheriff from 1910 to 1914.”

Goodbye, Old St. George Hotel

The Shay Hotel, originally called the St. George Hotel, was one of the first buildings in town at the corner of Spadra (Harbor) and Commonwealth. Sadly, in 1918, it was torn down.

“Bright and early this morning a large force of men started in to dismantle this old landmark of Fullerton,” the Tribune reported. “George Amerige, the proprietor, has sold the building to the Whiting Wrecking Company of Los Angeles for wrecking purposes and the work of razing the old structure has started. Big signs with white background and black lettering have been plastered all over the exterior of the building which read “Watch It Go.”

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

Government and Politics

At the turn of the century, Fullerton was not yet incorporated as a town, and therefore had no City Council. The governing body was the County Board of Supervisors. 

In 1902, Dallison Smith Linebarger, a Democrat who owned a livery [horse] business in town was elected to represent District 3 on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. He defeated fellow Democrat B.F. Porter (a Fullerton rancher) in the primary, and Republican William “Billy” Hale (also a rancher) in the general election. He would be re-elected and serve until 1912.

That same year, town co-founder Edward R. Amerige, a Republican, was elected to the California State Assembly. He would serve two terms.

Fullerton incorporated in 1904. Residents voted to establish Fullerton as a city, complete with a Board of Trustees (City Council) and taxation powers. The first Board of Trustees was Edward Amerige, E.K. Benchley, Charles Chapman, George Clark, and John Gardiner.

W.A. Barnes was elected city marshal, George Ruddock was elected City Clerk, and J.E. Ford was elected city treasurer.

The newly-established Board of Trustees began to pass a series of ordinances. They established a fire protection district, a board of health, franchises with telephone, gas, and electric companies, built new sidewalks, and made street improvements.

They also passed ordinances prohibiting some things in town, most of which make sense–no fighting in the streets, etc. But some of the town prohibitions seem quite harsh, such as bans on vagrancy and cross-dressing.

There was some conflict over the appointment of a postmaster for Fullerton. This was a position appointed by local congressman Milton Daniels. Although a petition with 500 signatures advocated the appointment of Cora Vail, Congressman Daniels appointed Vivian Tresslar (a man), allegedly at the request of Mayor Chapman.

“Captain Daniels has announced that he will absolutely refuse to recommend the appointment of any woman for the position,” the Tribune stated. 

Tresslar was also the hand-picked editor of the Tribune’s rival newspaper, the Fullerton News–which was bankrolled by Mayor Chapman.

During the 1906 election, eschewing any kind of journalistic objectivity, Tribune editor Edgar Johnson clearly had his favorite candidates. Prior to the election, he ran articles/editorials that advocated for what he called “The People’s Ticket,” which included City Trustee candidates E.R. Amerige, R.T. Davies, and L.P. Drake.

This was in contrast to what Johnson called “The One-Man Power Ticket.” That one man was Charles C. Chapman, whom Johnson had taken to calling the town “Czar” and “The Great I Am.”

Unfortunately for “the people,” the Chapman ticket swept the race. Chapman, for some reason, was not up for re-election–perhaps he had a four year seat.

Town co-founder Edward Amerige, who was a part of the “People’s Ticket” wrote a letter to the Tribune after the election condemning dirty political tactics of his opponents. His words show that not much has changed in over a hundred years:

“I desire to say a few words in your paper regarding the anonymous letter which was sent through the mails during the recent election. Such a contemptible, sneaking, lying and cowardly act is hardly worth replying to through the medium of newspapers. The proper place to answer such a blackmailing and malicious letter is through the criminal courts and should information be secured as to the authorship of this libelous letter such an action will be commenced. The men and parties who would stoop to such despicable means of trying to influence voters would stoop to anything to carry their ends, and are a dangerous and undesirable element in any community. Several of the parties who are mixed up in this disgraceful attempt to besmirch decent men are supposed to be respectable citizens, but when they resort to such methods and are so cowardly as not to dare sign what they write, they are worse than a coyote that roams in the dark.”

In 1908, the City Council election pitted the “All Citizens’ Ticket” against “The Peoples’ Ticket.” Tribune editor Johnson clearly favored “The Peoples’ Ticket, and they (mostly) won. The newly elected trustees (council members) were: Will Coulter, August Hiltscher, J.H. Clever, and William Crowther. The treasurer was W.R. Collis, the clerk was W.P. Scobie, and the Marshal was Charles Ruddock. Coulter was chosen as Chairman, or Mayor.

In 1910, the following men were elected to City Council: 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 in 1910. At this time, the California Republican Party was divided between the more establishment/conservatives (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.

Meanwhile, another town co-founder H. Gaylord Wilshire, a noted socialist, had his magazine the Challenge banned from the U.S. mail. He ended up changing the name of the magazine to Wilshire’s Magazine and shipping them out of Canada, to get around the ban.

News

Tribune editor Edgar Johnson spent considerable space ruthlessly attacking the competing newspaper in town, the Fullerton News, which was funded by mayor/orange grower Charles C. Chapman because he didn’t like the coverage he was getting in the Tribune. Johnson called the Fullerton News the Fullerton Snooze! When Chapman sought to end the city’s contract with the Tribune to publish official notices and give the contract to the News, Johnson again called him “Czar Chapman.”

Meanwhile, some of the front page “news” stories in the Fullerton News were blatant puff pieces about Mr. Chapman and his sprawling orange ranch. Below are a few excerpts:

“He comes of that sturdy American ancestry which has ever in past times of peril been the salvation, and must in like times to come, be the hope of this country.”

“Under Mr. Chapman’s ownership and management, this property has become the most famous orange ranch in the world, as well as one of the largest…Indeed, the Santa Ysabel is a model, perfect in every detail as an orange ranch and home, and one in seeking to describe it with justice would be forced to use language seemingly superlative to one who has not viewed it for himself. From the beautiful and elegantly appointed family residence to the cement flumes, ditches, and pipe lines no intelligent effort or expense has been spared, no opportunity neglected to bring everything as near perfection as lies within the power of human hand and mind.”

“It is to Mr. Chapman’s liberality that the Christian church of Fullerton is indebted for the cozy, attractive house of worship it now occupies. A well known religious periodical in speaking of him recently said: “This religion of his is not of the ‘holier than thou,’ sanctimonious sort, but the honest, rugged, straightforward kind that never parades itself, yet everywhere wins the respect of the world.”

His faith is the kind that never parades itself? The newspaper he was bankrolling ran a front page “article” extolling the virtues of Mr. Chapman.

“Mr. Chapman resides at his beautiful, though unostentatious, home; busy with material affairs, hospitality and good deeds.“

His “unostentatious” house had 13 rooms.

“He has been justly termed ‘The Orange King of the World,’ and this he does not resent.”

Then, as now, powerful men like to have a fawning press. Edgar Johnson of the Tribune would not bend the knee to “Czar Chapman.”

Prohibition

The sale of liquor remained (mostly) illegal in Fullerton, following an 1894 county ordinance. There was an active Women’s Christian Temperance Union and an Anti-Saloon League, and they involved themselves in county politics.

In 1902, a Jo Smith of Fullerton was arrested, charged, and found guilty of violating the county liquor ordinance by selling liquor.

Perhaps adding some fuel to the fire of the liquor question occurred when attendees of a temperance meeting of the State Anti-Saloon League at the Fullerton Methodist church were interrupted by screams. Apparently, a Mr. J.J. Grogan had returned home intoxicated and attempted to burn down his house.

One result of incorporation in 1904 was that the newly elected city trustees could either allow or ban saloons. Those opposed to saloons included members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), some local pastors, and the Anti-Saloon League.

Famous prohibitionist Carrie Nation passed through Fullerton in 1903 and was interviewed by Tribune editor Edgar Johnson.

There was a highly publicized trial against a J.A. Kellerman who was accused of serving liquor in Fullerton as part of a Nationalist Club meeting. He was ultimately not convicted, as there was a hung jury.

The newly-formed Board of Trustees decided to put the question to a town vote as part of a larger city election.

In the newspapers leading up to the election, the Tribune printed editorials for and against prohibition.

Ultimately, a majority of residents voted to allow saloons downtown. However, two years later, in 1906, the town voted to outlaw them.

This was the result of years of organizing by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League.

In 1909, when the liquor question again was put to a vote there was overt voter suppression of Mexicans: “A number of Mexicans who, it is believed, were anxious to vote for license, were challenged, frightened, and not allowed to vote, on the grounds that they could not read, etc.”

The town again voted “dry.”

Education

In 1902, Fullerton had a grammar school and a high school, with an enrollment in the hundreds. Neither of these buildings exist today.

In 1906, voters approved the site for a new high school to be built on Commonwealth Avenue, where Amerige Park is today. The community was outgrowing the first brick high school building on Lawrence Ave. near Lemon.

The new high school was completed In 1908.

Unfortunately, in 1910, the building burned down.

Following this tragedy, the community began plans for a new high school, which would be built on Chapman Ave–where the high school still stands today.

In 1908, a seemingly normal article about the sudden death of W.R. Carpenter, former Fullerton High School principal ended up revealing a scandalous story about how Carpenter left his wife for the widow of the local Baptist minister.

Apparently, Carpenter married a Mrs. French Chaffee (widow of the Baptist minister) at sea when he was also married to another woman. After Carpented died, Mrs. French sued Carpenter’s first wife for money that she claimed she had loaned to her “husband.” Ultimately, French Chaffee’s claim was denied in court.

Meanwhile, the Tribune got its hands on some steamy love letters written by Carpenter to French Chaffee, and published some of them–creating quite the local scandal.

Agriculture

The citrus industry was booming and growing. In 1903, there were nine packinghouses in Fullerton along the Santa Fe railroad tracks. The downtown was surrounded by acres of orange and walnut groves, plus a smattering of other crops. Some groves were relatively small, while others were massive.

The most successful grower in 1902 was Charles C. Chapman, whose Old Mission brand Valencia oranges fetched the highest prices. Chapman’s ranch encompassed over 300 acres. In 1901, he shipped 130 carloads of oranges.

“C.C. Chapman, owner of the Santa Isabella ranchos and Orange groves, holds the highest record for prices obtained for oranges in the United States–$15.05 per box, besides being the largest individual grower and shipper of oranges in California,” the Tribune reported.

By the early 20th century, the orange industry was not functioning by the ordinary rules of capitalism and competition. Instead, the growers, shippers, and marketers were pooling their resources through Fruit Exchanges to eliminate the lower prices caused by competition.

“In this amalgamation the fruit exchanges and the independent shippers are to participate, irrespective of past differences, and the fierce competitive battle for supremacy in selling markets is likely to be replaced by a well-organized central sales agency, through which all independent and all exchange fruit will be marketed by a single board of control,” the Tribune reported.

This citrus conglomerate was initially called the California Fruit Growers Exchange, and later Sunkist.

Sunkist was essentially a union for the growers. Meanwhile, a 1904 article in the Tribune written by “one of the laborers” urged the workers to form a union of another kind–a worker’s union.

Here is the full text of the above (right) article:

“The Tribune has received a communication signed “One of the Laborers,” which advocates increased pay for ranch laborers in this section and their organization into a union to attain that object.”

The communication, addressed “To Whom it May Concern,” begins by stating that the American laborers in the Placentia district have a grievance in regard to their monthly pay. The writer says that the workers want a reasonable price for their day’s work, and cites the action of the Ventura laborers who organized a union, and decided not to work for less than $30 a month. The advantage of a union is then urged, and the local workers are called upon to organize for the purpose of getting their “price.” The communication declares that they now get 95 cents a day, which is denounced as a “regular outrage.” The warning is made that the workers will not stand for this “slavery any longer than the present time.”

After commenting that the hired man is “looked down on, snarled at,” the communication states that he is often forced to sleep in the barn, and concludes as follows:

“Boys, what do you think of that? We are not permitted to sleep in the house after a hard day’s work. We are brothers in Christ Jesus, born of one flesh and blood, and we ought to have a tender feeling for all. But after all of that the cold-hearted rancher sends his hired man to the barn to sleep with the living creatures that inhabit therein.”

On the same page as the above article was another entitled “The Chapmans Entertain Their Friends and Neighbors”:

Here is the full text of that article:

“Strictly the event of all social events in Placentia was the reception given by Mr. and Mrs. C.C. Chapman Thursday evening to their friends, neighbors, and strangers as well, of Placentia. The invitations were universal showing the good spirit and kindliness of the host and hostess, and the acceptance was almost universal. The guests were received by Mr. Stanley Chapman and his sister, Miss Ethel Chapman, and afterward by Mr. and Mrs. Chapman and Mrs. Hatchill, assisted by Mrs. McFadden and Mrs. Bradford. An orchestra occupied the music room and provided music throughout the evening. After cordial greetings on every hand the guests were given the opportunity to inspect the beautiful rooms on the first floor, consisting of library, reception hall, music room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen. The rooms on the second floor were then shown. The guests were then invited to the third story which proved to be a hall strictly in keeping with the rest of the house. Here the guests were seated and most thoroughly enjoyed an entertainment.

The above contrast between the situation of the workers and the lavish mansion of Chapman, the mayor and wealthiest orange grower, speaks to the social divisions of the day.

Water

In order to make this agricultural economy thrive, water had to be obtained and regulated. The company which oversaw allocation of water from the Santa Ana River and all the major irrigation channels in north Orange County was the Anaheim Union Water Company, which sometimes had legal fights with water companies to the South who also drew from the Santa Ana River, such as the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company.

These were private companies whose Board of Directors tended to be owners of large, local ranches.  Water rights (also called riparian rights) were a really big deal—water is life, and profits for farmers. Around 1901, these two water companies met together to bring legal action against a Mr. Fuller, “the Riverside county land-grabber” to prevent his taking water from the Santa Ana River.  This would be one of many ongoing legal battles over local water rights.

In the meetings of the AUWC, there was discussion of purchasing the water rights of James Irvine, the man whose descendants founded the Irvine Company, which now owns the city of Irvine.  In those early days, “maintaining an accurate division of the water [was] difficult if not impossible to devise.”

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Union Water Company and the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company cut a deal to share water rights. Mr. G.W. Sherwood, a sometimes AUWC Board Member who liked to write lengthy articles in the Tribune criticizing those who disagreed with him, took issue with the deal.  To which Samuel Armor of the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company replied: “G.W. Sherwood seems to be afflicted with a diarrhea of words accompanied by a costiveness of ideas. For two years or more he has been filling the papers west of the river with misrepresentations and insinuations against the S.A.V.I. Co. until his followers have come to believe the the people on this side are equipped with hoofs and horns and forked tails.” To which Sherwood replied: “I have always taken pleasure in setting Armor right, when he gets tangled up in the mazes of his own alleged erudition…With regard to the proposed division of water, Armor’s premises are false and his conclusions are wrong.”

Like any political entity vested with power, the AUWC was occasionally hostile to journalists who were critical of its policies. In 1903, the Board of Directors passed a resolution excluding reporters from their meetings.  Shortly thereafter, the Tribune got word that an important report had been suppressed, to which Tribune editor Johnson replied:  “The best way would be to permit the reporters to attend the meetings, then the reports and proceedings would not be suppressed.”

Perhaps the most contentious local water issue of 1906 was the question of whether the city would buy the town’s privately-owned Water Works (a pumping and storage plant) from its owners, the Adams-Philips Co.  This issue created much public debate over the economic and philosophical merits of public vs. private ownership of utilities, a debate that feels relevant today.  Prior to the election, it appeared that the majority of the citizens of Fullerton favored city ownership of the water works.

Ultimately, however, the issue went to a vote and was defeated. Tribune editor Johnson mused: “with the present plant owned by millionaires and in operation…the longer a city delays in acquiring public utilities, the more expensive becomes the undertaking.”

A group calling itself the Citizens Protective Association organized much of the opposition to the water bond issue.

In 1907, a seven year-long lawsuit upheld the water rights of the two Orange County companies, the Anaheim Union Water Company and the Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company against a Riverside rancher named Fuller.

Fullerton rancher Charles Chapman was criticized by the Tribune (and apparently his neighbors) for changing the course of a waterway to protect his crops from flooding, meanwhile causing other ranchers’ properties to experience flooding during a recent storm.

In 1908, the Anaheim Union Water company completed the Yorba Reservoir, (later known as Yorba Linda Lakebed Park). The reservoir was located near Lakeview Avenue in Yorba Linda.

Oil

Starting in the late 19th century, several oil discoveries were made in the hills north of Fullerton, as well as in the Brea-Olinda area.

Early drillers included the Puente Oil Company and the Santa Fe railroad company.

Next, the Graham & Loftus company entered the field drilling “some of the best spouters in the Fullerton field, some of them going as high as 3,000 barrels a day,” the Tribune reported.

Then followed the Columbia oil company, the Fullerton Consolidated company, the Fullerton Oil Company, the Olinda Oil company, The Brea Canyon Oil Company, and the Union Oil Company.

Much of the Fullerton oil was piped to San Pedro by the Union Oil company’s 4-inch pipe line, a distance of 30 miles, and from there the company shipped to San Francisco for refining and other purposes.

By 1903, the Fullerton field was producing monthly nearly 125,000 barrels of oil.

Around this time, the Murphy Oil Company screwed the Bastanchury family out of oil they were entitled to.

The story is told in more detail in an article from the web site Basques in California:

“In 1903, the Murphy Oil Company leased the West Coyote Hills lands from the Bastanchury Ranch to dig for oil. One year of excavations found them hot mineral water at 3,000 feet. As one of the oil workers later confessed, they found an oil well at 3,200 feet but covered it up. In 1905, Murphy bought off from Domingo Bastanchury more than 2,200 acres in the surroundings of La Habra, at $25 an acre. Allegedly, Murphy assured Domingo before the acquisition, that those lands held no oil. Time later, the Los Coyotes Hills area became South California’s largest oil field.”

As time went on, the larger companies used their power to buy out smaller companies.

“The Fullerton field from Olinda to Brea Canyon presents an extremely busy appearance,” the Fullerton News stated. “As far as the eye can reach, new derricks rear their heads. Lumber and rigging are hauled in large quantities and the largest force in the history of the field is employed.”

Social and Business Clubs

At the turn of the century, around 6 million Americans were part of fraternal organizations. Fraternal organizations were a big part of the social life of Fullerton. The most prominent of these were the Masons, whose members included Dr. George Clark, William Berkenstock, William McFadden, A.A. Pendergrast, Otto Des Granges, and other prominent community members.

Another fraternal order, The Odd Fellows, had members who included William Goodwin, Edgar Johnson, Edward Magee, August Hiltscher, W. Schumacher, James Conliff, and others.

Local businessmen organized a Board of Trade in 1902 whose directors included Jacob Stern (co-owner of Stern & Goodman general store), William Brown, T.B. Van Alstyne, E.W. Dean, and V. Tresslar. Among the first matters taken up by the Board was securing electric lighting downtown, protecting the town against fires (the Fullerton Fire Department would not be organized until 1908), improving sidewalks and roads, and devising “a system of keeping tabs on any dead beats who may reside in the county or come this way…for mutual protection of our business men.”

A Chamber of Commerce was also formed, which seems a bit redundant with the Board of Trade. Its officers included Charles C. Chapman, Edward Amerige, and other prominent businessmen.

Religion

By 1902, there were at least three churches in town, all Christian. A Baptist Church, a Presbyterian Church, and an M.E [Methodist Episcopal?] church. In addition to fraternal organizations and schools, churches allowed for social interaction among the townspeople.

Homelessness

Edgar Johnson’s attitude toward the homeless was particularly harsh, and not that different from the attitudes of some today. Below are some excerpts of articles from the Tribune:

“Orange County Constables are having considerable trouble with hobos who infest its towns. Constable Llewellyn of Anaheim has been particularly active of late in making arrests.”

“Anaheim is not alone in being bothered by these wanderers. They abound in Fullerton and vicinity in almost as great an extent as in Anaheim. The experience with some of those arrested in the town down the road is evidence that these tramps are not only an obnoxious but in some cases a dangerous element in the country.

“Tramps are coming into Los Angeles and Orange counties in squads of forty and fifty. Every freight and passenger is loaded down with hobos and the trainmen are kept busy at every stopping point in vain endeavors to keep the brake beam artists off the cars.

Racism

By the turn of the 20th century, Japanese farmers and farm labor had replaced much of the Chinese labor that was curtailed by the Chinese Exclusion Acts. Dredging up the same arguments used to justify Chinese Exclusion (essentially, “they’re taking our jobs and doing better at business than we are”) white Californians agitated for excluding Japanese immigrants as well.

A 1907 Tribune article called “Japs Still in Town,” describes how a committee sought (apparently unsuccessfully) to run some Japanese people out of town, presumably because they were Japanese.

Here are a couple paragraphs from the article:

“Sunday afternoon a number of young men about town decided to go to the house where five or six Japanese reside at a late hour Sunday night with the intention of driving them out of town. Frank Claudina overheard the conversation of two or three of the brave lads and offered to pay the whole bunch $5 a head and also pay their fines if arrested, if they would go to the house and manage to get even one Jap out of the city. They did not take Frank’s offer, but declared that they would make good and hustle the foreigners out of town that very night.

This anti-Japanese sentiment found a welcome home in the pages of the Tribune, as shown by the following excerpts:

“While there has been no open declaration of hostilities there is war between the Japs and the whites of southern California.

“The Jap now clashes with the white, whether it be as a producer and shipper of vegetables, as a wage earner in the garden or orchard or as a laborer in other lines. This competition is becoming so strong that in some sections civic organizations are said to be preparing to appeal to the citrus growers and packers to employ none but Americans.”

Aside from racism, part of the white resentment against Japanese farmers stemmed from the success of Japanese farmers, both at growing and organizing their business.

“The Nipponese may not possess any great inventive genius, but they have not overlooked the co-operative methods of fruit and vegetable men. With a large acreage of farming land under their control they are preparing to adopt, and in some cases have adopted the co-operative marketing method of the Americans,” the Tribune reported.

Tribune editor Johnson re-printed an article by a Mr. Robbins, which argued that “The Japanese Must Go.”

“The question of Japanese exclusion was also being discussed at the national level with a Congressman Hayes introducing a bill “providing for the exclusion of the Japanese from this country, except certain favored classes,” the Tribune stated.

“As a matter of fact,” the article states, “the bill provides for excluding not only Japanese…but all orientals of the less desirable classes in other countries than Japan and China.”

“There is no doubt where the Pacific Coast stands on this question of Oriental immigration. All of the western members met together recently and agreed to support the Hayes bill, or at least the principles in general which it advocates,” the Tribune reported. “The Associated Chambers of Commerce of Orange County is going on record against Japanese immigration, against encouraging the Japanese to settle in Orange County, and against the sending of Orange County literature to the Orient.”

This anti-Japanese agitation would ultimately culminate in various exclusionary policies, including the 1913 Alien Land Law in California, which severely restricted the ability of Japanese (and other Asian immigrants) from owning or leasing land.

New Library

In 1907, Fullerton’s first real library, built with funding by industrialist Andrew Carnegie, was completed at a cost of over $10,000. The Library was on the site where the Fullerton Museum Center is today.

Sports

Walter Johnson, a future Hall of Famer, had been a pitcher at Fullerton High School. He went on to play for the Washington Senators, and became a source of pride for Fullertonians.

Fire

In 1908, a large fire destroyed three buildings downtown.

This fire prompted the citizens of Fullerton to organize the first volunteer fire department, to raise money for fire protection, and to consider municipal ownership of the waterworks downtown.

Health

In 1903, Fullerton’s first hospital opened. The Tribune called it “an up-to-date establishment and the best institution of its kind in Southern California. An efficient corps of nurses are in attendance at all times, so that patients of this hospital receive the best attention and care, which has already made the reputation of this hospital as one of the best.”

Deaths

In 1902, William “Big Bill” McFadden, died at age 62. Originally a schoolteacher, McFadden came to California in 1864, and served as Superintendent of Schools in Santa Ana. In 1869, he became a pioneer of citrus farming and was the second orange rancher in Placentia. He helped organize the Southern California Fruit Exchange, the Fruit Growers Bank, which then became the First National Bank of Fullerton, the Anaheim Union Water Company (on which he served as president and as a director). McFadden was a prominent figure in the local Democratic Party and was a representative from Orange County at the national Democratic convention of 1900.

The pallbearers at his funeral were Edward R. Amerige, Alex Henderson, Richard Melrose, Elmer Ford, Henry Lotz, and A.S. Bradford. The local bank and other stores closed for his funeral. He is buried in the Anaheim Cemetery.

In 1906, Fullerton pioneer rancher Henry Hetebrink died. His son John would later build that big old house (now vacant) on the Fullerton College campus, at the corner of Chapman and Berkeley.

In 1909, pioneer Fullerton resident Domingo Bastanchury passed away.