• Oral Histories: Stanley Porter

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Stanley Porter was interviewed by Dee Larson in 1986 for the CSUF Oral History Program. His grandfather Benjamin Franklin Porter was born in Tennessee, moved to Texas as a young man, and in 1870 came…

  • Oral Histories: Jennie Reyes (Restaurant Owner)

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Jennie Reyes and her husband John owned a Mexican restaurant called La Perla on Truslow Avenue in Fullerton (in what she called the barrio) for nearly thirty years, from the 1940s to the 1970s. Reyes…

  • A Brief History of the Hughes Plant in Fullerton

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. “It was built on 350 acres in the gently sloping hills of the city’s northwest corner. With its broad lawns and stands of towering trees, the sprawling Hughes Aircraft aerospace complex looks more like a…

  • The Boom of the 1880s in Southern California

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. “This is an era of town building in Southern California, and it is proper that it should be so, for the people are coming to us from the East and from the North and from…

  • Hawaiian Punch Started in Fullerton!

    Hawaiian Punch Started in Fullerton!

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Like most medium-sized American cities, Fullerton has spawned a few companies over the years that have risen to national prominence and become household names. Fender Guitars is probably the most well-known. But a close second…

  • Fullerton’s Two Competing Newspapers: 1909

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from two Fullerton newspapers, the Fullerton Tribune and the Fullerton News. The oldest of these is the Tribune, founded in 1893 by Edgar Johnson.…

  • Fullerton Newspaper Headlines: 1908

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. The Local History Room of the Fullerton Public Library has microfilm from the Fullerton Tribune newspaper stretching back to 1893. I am in the process of reading over the microfilm, year by year, to get a sense…

  • Some Challenges with Writing Local History

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Although I created www.fullertonhistory.com just last year, I have actually been researching and writing about the history of Fullerton since 2010. It started as an occasional hobby for my old blog, continued as I was…

  • The Origins of the “Happy California Mission” Myth

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. Earlier this week, I posted a report on a chapter entitled “The Indian in the Closet” from Carey McWilliams excellent 1946 history Southern California: an Island on the Land. This chapter seeks to destroy the…

  • The Devastating Impact of Colonization and Conquest on the Native People of Southern California

    The following is from a work-in-progress about the history of Fullerton. You can support my ongoing research and writing on Patreon. As part of my research into the history of Fullerton, I occasionally read books about broader California history, to give appropriate context for what occurred locally. I’m currently reading Carey McWilliams’ excellent 1946 book Southern…