Magnolia Park and the Wakehams of Orange County

Modern view of Magnolia Park, Garden Grove

Unassuming little Magnolia Park in Garden Grove was once the home of Ernest Alfred Wakeham (1887-1950), an early Orange County rancher of pioneer stock who contributed greatly to agriculture and education in the Garden Grove area.

His father, Hubert Henry Wakeham (1843-1888), was a native of Plympton St. Mary, England who came to Canada, then Illinois, and then finally to California around 1867. He came to the Orange County area (then still part of Los Angeles County) in 1870 and bought a 120-acre parcel of empty land in Gospel Swamp, south of Santa Ana. He turned the raw land into a productive ranch, which was ultimately passed down through several generations of Wakehams. Over time, he also purchased additional farmland in the region. He met and married Elizabeth Sarah Helmer (1855–1937) while visiting England in 1877 and brought her back to his ranch where they raised six children. 

Hubert and Elizabeth Wakeham

Hubert died in 1888. According to a biography in J. M. Guinn’s 1902 history of Orange County, “the responsibility of educating the children has fallen upon his faithful wife and helpmate, and the Mrs. Wakeham is due not only the credit of making noble men and women of her children, but also managing the affairs of her husband as to keep the estate intact and in splendid condition. She is well known in the neighborhood… and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.”

The oldest of the children, Hubert Laurence Wakeham, began running the ranch when he was old enough, and would go on to grow sugar beets, lima beans, and alfalfa, and to operate a dairy. The Wakeham family remained prominent in the Orange County dairy industry until the late 1930s. 

Home of H. H. Wakeham, Gospel Swamp, circa the 1870s.

The youngest of Hubert and Elizabeth’s sons, Ernest A. Wakeham, inherited forty acres of rich Gospel Swamp land when he came of age. He married Myrtle C. Cole (1886–1954) of Santa Ana in 1908 and the first of their children, Jack, was born in 1909. Likely in 1915 or after, Ernest and his family moved to Oceanside for a while, and by the late 1910s they were living at Roberts Island, near Stockton. 

In 1922, Myrtle’s real estate wheeler-dealer father, David G. Cole, purchased twenty acres of Valencia orange groves on the outskirts of Garden Grove and arranged for his son-in-law, Ernest, to manage the property. Moving back to Orange County from Stockton, Ernest also purchased an additional thirty acres of Valencia groves at the northeast corner of Magnolia St. and Orangewood Ave., where they also built a two-story home for themselves. The latter property, at 11402 Magnolia St., is now the site of Magnolia Park.

Ernest A. Wakeham

While running a citrus ranch, Ernest also assisted in tending the dairy business his father had started as well as becoming involved in the betterment of local agriculture, schools, and the community in general. Ernest served as the vice-chairman of the dairy department of the State Farm Bureau. 

At various times, he also served as the president of numerous organizations including the California Milk Producers Association, the Associated Farmers of Orange County, the Garden Grove Lions Club, the Garden Grove Farm Center, and the Garden Grove Citrus Association. He was a member of the Alamitos Elementary School District board from 1922 to 1946 and also served on the Garden Grove Union High School District board for twenty years. 

Myrtle Wakeham

Ernest and Myrtle’s children were Jack Cole Wakeham (1909-1985), Ned Alfred Wakeham (1911-1999),Ernestine Wakeham (1913-1999), Marjorie Wakeham (1915-1997), J. Donald “Don” Wakeham (1919-1945), Terry David Wakeham (1922–1982), and Dahl Bert Wakeham (1925–1971). While all of their stories haven’t yet been researched, those that have been are noteworthy.  

Jack Wakeham, followed in his father’s footsteps, serving for many years on the boards of the Alamitos Elementary School District and Garden Grove Union High School District. He was also the director of maintenance and operations for the nearby Savanna School District. He also served twice as president of the Native Sons of the Golden West. 

March 1943 comic strip featuring Don and Terry Wakeham failed to mention Don's fate

Don Wakeham served as a Navy pilot in World War II and was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroism at the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. Afterward, while on leave in Garden Grove, he talked his brother Terry into going to Navy Cadet Training rather than joining the Army. Don was then sent back to the Pacific theater, where he soon went M.I.A. and was presumed dead. 

His sister, Marjorie, was heartbroken, but became incredibly determined to do whenever she could for the war effort. She volunteered to become a Woman's Airforce Service Pilot (WASP), and completed her training in 1943. Throughout the war, she flew bombers, fighters, and other planes across the continent so that they could be shipped overseas to the theaters of war. After the war she returned home and worked for her father and as a bookkeeper for the Garden Grove Citrus Association. In 1951, during the Korean War, she was recalled to active duty in the Women's Air Force (WAF), and would spend a good deal of time in Japan. By 1952, she was commanding officer of the 4726th Women's Air Force Squadron out of Larson Air Force Base, in Washington State. She attained the rank of Major. 

Marjorie Wakeham, 1943. (Marjorie Wakeham Collection, National WASP WWII Museum)

Ernest Wakeham died in 1950. Myrtle followed in April 1954. Later that month, a new elementary school at Chapman Ave. near Beach Blvd. in Garden Grove – part of the Alamitos School District – was named Wakeham School in honor of Ernest A. Wakeham. (Go Wildcats!) Many of the Wakehams’ groves were sold for subdivision at about the same time.

In 1962, the City of Garden Grove paid the Wakeham estate $56,000 for 4.5 acres, including their home and surrounding citrus grove to create Magnolia Park. The city heavily remodeled the Wakeham home into a community center.  The family's pool was renovated to become a new public pool. 

Aerial view, Wakeham ranch, Garden Grove, July 7, 1955

In Sept 1963, the City Council authorized negotiations to purchase an additional 1.1 acres along Joyzelle St. to enlarge Magnolia Park to the north. And in September 1968 – after a heated debate – the Council approved the development of two lighted tennis courts (the first in the city) built atop a five-million-gallon water reservoir inside the park. This new addition also included landscaping and two handball courts and was dedicated in November 1972. 

Today, the Wakehams' name is remembered through Wakeham School and a street named West Wakeham Place in the old Gospel Swamp area of Costa Mesa and South Santa Ana. There is also an East Wakeham Ave. in the Pacific Park neighborhood in Santa Ana, although the source of that name is less certain. 

Modern aerial view of Magnolia Park, Garden Grove