Jim Sleeper is here to stay

It's been almost seven years since the passing of Orange County historian Jim Sleeper (1927-2012). Since then, his papers have landed at UCI's Special Collections, the Orange County Historical Society has published a volume of his previously uncollected work, a bit of video of him speaking has surfaced, and many rare volumes from his research library are now available at the Orange County Archives. Younger generations of historians continue to reference and be inspired by his work, the public continues to enjoy his books, and the Orange Countiana journal and County Courier newsletter he helped create in the 1970s are still being published. I doubt there will ever be a time when he isn't still a tremendous influence on the study and practice of Orange County history.

I recently came across the following article about Sleeper, written by historian and Jose Antonio Yorba’s great-great-granddaughter, Mildred Yorba MacArthur. It was published in Laguna Federal Savings' Laguna Federal Highlights (Vol. 30, No. 3) in September 1977:

Jim Sleeper: An Orange County Original

 by Mildred Yorba MacArthur

The inspiration for this piece is a letter received from historian Jim Sleeper, December 10, 1974, thanking me for some old Orange County mining pictures.

He wrote, “Great pix. Have run down dope on mine (1899) and believe I can identify most of the gents. Will respond more fully when I get a moment. Right now I am stepping around like a blind dog in a meat house. In the meantime, get off of your big fat Spanish veranda and get something into print.”

Well Jim, this is it!

He hasn’t been around long enough to take himself or anyone else seriously, for he was born April 16, 1927, at Santa Ana, the son of Boyd Sleeper and Italia Perrine Sleeper. He’s a third generation Orange Countian, the grandson of “Big” Jim Sleeper, who was an early sheriff and later the county assessor for 34 years. He says, “When it comes to local pride, I’m not just provincial, I’m downright bigoted.” Whatever it is, he hues to well-documented facts, which he records with comic overtones and the end result is delightful reading. He is the past president of the Orange County Historical Society, lecturer, speaker, and listener.

At any meeting he is the quiet one, fondling his pipe, taking in that which he thinks is important and only voicing an opinion when called upon. At the ripe old age of 46 he became the founder-president of the Old Timers’ Annual Picnic. Only sudden death can keep a member from missing one of these events, held in late June, rain or shine, at Santiago Park on North Main Street in Santa Ana. That day Jim becomes host and president.

For several years, Jim was staff historian for the Irvine Company. He wrote and edited their San Joaquin Gazette, starting with a Christmas edition in 1966. It took his readers on a 130-mile stagecoach trip from San Diego to Los Angeles, which included “43 miles of bladder-busting road,” with stops and pictures of Anaheim, Tustin, Santa Ana and San Juan Capistrano in the fifties and sixties. This issue and all others that followed were instant collectors’ items, as are all his writings.
Jim Sleeper’s other accomplishments include his Orange County Almanacs, replete with a hole plugged in the left hand corner of their bright orange covers, through which a cord could be run, for hanging purposes, for easy reading in primitive locations.

Never has so much been crammed into so little space, for Jim is the master of the footnote. It is positively unsafe to skip even one line of the fine print, for you may unearth your own family skeleton in some remote corner. Don’t be afraid to resort to the use of a magnifying glass, for the rewards are great. He also includes pictures of old and young people, places and things. His tables of contents include such gems as, “Tried and True Health Remedies; Rainfall Records; Handy Argument Settlers; Wild Animal Log Book; Official City Flowers; Bumper Crop Reports; and Pithy Political Promulgations.” There are also some puzzles and his favorite recipe for orange spice cake.

The space usually reserved for fillers by other authors is used by Jim to record his own musings, such as, “Ecology boils down to whether someone is going to build a house blocking your view; Justice is when your side wins; He who cuts his own firewood is twice warmed;” and to farmers, “Don’t plant your land. Wait for a developer to make an offer, then haggle like hell.”

Jim’s full-length book, Turn the Rascals Out, published in 1973, is advertised as the story of Orange County’s Fighting Editor, Dan M. Baker, but in it he follows his man from one end of the U.S. to the other and his stormy publishing activities in Orange and Los Angeles Counties. It is a scholarly piece of writing, replete with indexes, annotations, and a fat bibliography, but it is never dull. The book is dedicated to the late John “Sky” Dunlap, a gentleman-journalist who assisted and encouraged so may writers on their way up.

Jim is not a selfish historian, for if he comes across an old clipping or a quote, he’ll pass it along. Recently, he sent Miss Lorna Mills a faded clip, dated August 10, 1900, from the Santa Ana Weekly Blade. It was about her Uncle Fred B. Mills, who lived on a ranch at Ocean View, now Huntington Beach. While digging for a water well he discovered bitumen at a depth of 125 feet. He was sure there was coal thereabouts and his neighbors were heating and lighting their homes from their own gas wells nearby. However, Lorna’s Uncle Fred preferred to go on raising celery which was bringing a fine profit,” without the element of uncertainty incident to mining ventures and oil drilling propositions.” Then came the Huntington Beach boom! Lorna’s uncle and her beloved Dad, the late James H. Mills had other distractions, as Jim Sleeper reports on page 54 of his 2nd Almanac, under the title “Ducks.” “Firing only a single barrel, Fred managed to down 35 wild ducks. The following day he added 32 more sprig in the same fashion.”

The best way to explain Jim Sleeper’s sense of humor is to refer to page 4 of his 2nd Almanac, where Mrs. Calvin Lambert of Tustin wrote, “I enjoyed the Almanac so much and thank you and your wife for getting you to do it. Please write another and tell us her name.” Jim’s answer, immediately below, “Her name is Mrs. Sleeper.”

I ran that one down in the fine print, where he hides that which he prizes most, and it said, “Her name is Nola and she is a school marm.” The Sleepers have a rustic retreat in the mountain area of Holy Jim Canyon and a home in Tustin, where Jim answers the phone.