A bit of Boola Boola at Huntington Harbour

Architect William L. Pereira (L) with his Master Plan for Huntington Harbour, Sept. 6, 1961. Pete Douglas (R) looks on. (USC Libraries Special Collections)

Q: I notice that both Davenport Island and a number of streets near Trader Joe’s in Huntington Harbour -- Branford, Calhoun, Pierson, Silliman, Trumball, Saybrook, Morse and Stiles -- all have names relating to the residential colleges that serve as Yale's undergraduate dormitories. Why?

A: Lewis W. “Pete” Douglas. Jr. (1924-2014), president of Christiana Oil Corp. (which developed Huntington Harbour) was a 1948 Yale grad. 

Pete Douglas’ father was the U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James (U.K.), a banker and an Arizona cattle rancher. Pete grew up both on the East Coast (New York) and the West (Arizona). He attended Groton Boarding School in Massachusetts and went to Yale (where he was in the Davenport residential college,) but paused his college career to serve as a Navigator-Bombardier in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he returned to Yale.

In many ways, Pete Douglas had much in common with a fellow member of Yale’s class of 1948: George H. W. Bush.

Douglas at Huntington Harbor, 1961 (Los Angeles Times)

Unlike Bush, however, Douglas took a lax attitude toward education. “I majored in English and history but mostly in poker,” he later recalled. Even later in life, newspapers described him as “seemingly flippant” and “light-hearted.” After graduating, he had no real plan but ended up working (in another Bush parallel) in the Texas oil industry. But he would go on to show that one doesn't have to be serious to be serious.

In 1952, he formed the Christiana Oil Co. with the help of Eastern investors. The company stumbled for a few years but went public in 1956. The business didn’t start breaking even until he began to diversify – purchasing interests in companies that dealt in title insurance, broadcasting and real estate development.

Among those real estate developments was a project turning 860 acres of swamps and sloughs at the former Lomita Gun Club into a residential marina near Sunset Beach, California. Douglas started planning the project in 1960 and hired reknowned architect and planner William L. Pereira to create the master plan for this new "Huntington Harbour." Some of the initial areas were developed and sold by the mid-1960s. Considering the scope of the project, progress was surprisingly swift. 

Douglas stepped down as president of the Christiana Oil Corporation in 1964, having, as City of Huntington Beach Archivist Kathie Schey puts it, "pooped out in terms of interest." 

Some of the portions of the Harbour developed after that point -- like Trinidad Island -- were subbed out to a number of other capable developers. 

Official logo for Huntington Harbour.

According to his obituary in the Los Angeles Times, “In 1964, Pete formed privately held real estate development firm, Douglas Development, but reentered the energy business founding Stanley Energy in 1985. Unwilling to retire, both intellectually and physically, Pete remained active, involved and engaged until his death. He was a dedicated philanthropist and active member of his community, offering his time as a trustee to multiple schools, director of hospitals, and also serving on the Governing Board of HealthOne. Mr. Douglas served as a Commissioner of the Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy in President George H.W. Bush's administration. Pete was especially committed to the First American Corporation where he acted as a director from 1961 to 2013. An avid lover of the arts, Pete received the Mary Belle Grant Award in 2006, an honor he cherished. However, his greatest passions were his family and friends with whom he built lasting connections, based on humility, compassion, and humor.”

Today Huntington Harbour is part of the City of Huntington Beach and is home to about 3,500 residents. Curiously, Davenport Island – the only one of Huntington Harbour’s five man-made Islands with a Yale-inspired name – includes none of the aforementioned Yale-inspired street names. However, Davenport Island does feature Kitten Circle and Sea Witch Lane -- neither of which sound  very Ivy League nor very serious.

Davenport Island, Huntington Harbour (Courtesy City of Huntington Beach)

[Thanks to Tirzah Lowe, Stephen Updegrove and Kathie Schey for their input on this article.]

O.C. pioneer Alfred Hawley: Free love cultist, socialist, gun dealer and baseball benefactor

Alfred & Elizabeth Hawley (From Spencer Olin's 1979 article)

Pioneers were hardly ever the "Ma and Pa Ingalls" stereotypes we all know from television. One example is colorful Santa Ana and Newport Beach pioneer Alfred E. Hawley, whose tale covers some unexpected ground. 

Hawley was born in Cambridge, Vermont in 1847. When his mother died, he moved with his father to Oneida, New York. While attending school there, he met Elizabeth Mallery who later became his wife. Soon after marriage, he went into manufacturing and became superintendent of the Wescot Chuck Co. in Oneida (making lathes and drill chucks).

In both Vermont and New York, “we heard glowing accounts of this land of promise" in Southern California, Alfred told the Santa Ana Register in 1923. "Eventually this was what brought me west. Originally, I came out on a visit. I liked it so well, I went back home, closed my affairs, and came west to stay. I have never regretted my decision. The fishing is good, the people are good, business is good, and Santa Ana is the best ever. What more could I ask?"

His account left out some interesting details. For instance, Alfred was among the “Townerites” – a dissident faction of the Oneida Perfectionists' "Bible communist," free-love, utopian community. This group had come west to Santa Ana under the leadership of J. W. Towner who became a key figure in the creation of Orange County and was the county's first Superior Court judge.

"Prior to their departure from New York, the Townerites had carefully formulated a plan for acquiring land in California," wrote Spencer Olin, Jr. in his article, "Bible Communism and the Origins of Orange County" (California History, Vol. LVIII, 1979). "Towner probably drafted the article of agreement dated September 1881, which made Julius Hawley, Roswell B. Hawley, Alfred E. Hawley, Frederick A. Marks, Martha J. Marks, Edwin S. Nash, Charlotte S. Reid, and William A. Hinds copartners for the purpose of purchasing land. . . . By combining their limited financial resources . . . [they] were able to raise $26,200 for purchasing a substantial block of land soon after their arrival in Santa Ana. The 458-acre Ross tract near the western boundary of the city was purchased and then divided among the copartners.”

Alfred Hawley also bought land for himself around Santa Ana as early as 1882, but did not move into the area until 1887. 

A later photo of A. E. Hawley.

In Santa Ana, Hawley experienced firsthand a bit of the old “Wild West” before it faded away. Jack rabbits and packs of coyotes could be on downtown streets. Election nights were marked by bonfires and street fights. "Fourth street, notorious for its saloons, was a dusty thoroughfare in summer [and] a veritable sea of mud in winter,” he later recalled. “In the block where I had my little shack, purchased in the '80s, there were at least five saloons. The grogshops, doing a flourishing business, got many a dollar of the hard-earned wages of the men who were struggling to put Santa Ana on the map."

Upon arrival in Santa Ana, Hawley bought a small stock of sporting goods from J. P. Hutchens (another former Oneida Perfectionist) and then opened his own gun and sporting goods shop on the north side of Fourth St., downtown. The shop moved to various locations around the business district over the years as new buildings or better rent became available. Most of the locations were on 4th Street, but its final location was at 305 N. Sycamore St. 

At some point, he built a baseball diamond on the back of his lot, which served as a home to the team he sponsored: the Santa Ana Yellow Sox. Notably, the team’s 1906-1908 lineup included Walter "Big Train" Johnson of Olinda, who went on to become the greatest pitcher who’d ever played the game. It’s said that another of Hawley’s Yellow Sox was Arnold "Chick" Gandil who is now best remembered as the ringleader of the 1919 “Black Sox” scandal.

Hawley also acted as the promoter of the West 9th Street Baseball Park -- another early baseball diamond in Orange County. Naturally, more interest in sports meant more customers buying sports equipment.

The vast majority of sales at Hawley’s sporting goods shop were innocuous enough. But sometimes guns ended up in the wrong hands, as in one incident he later described: “It was not unusual for a man to come in and ask for a weapon, and we thought nothing of this incident at the time. In a very short time, however, that man, using the same weapon, walked down Fourth Street and killed an inoffensive Mexican."

The Hawleys moved to Newport Beach in August 1888, during the town’s early development boom, and built about eight houses there – most of which they rented out. Meanwhile, they continued to maintain the sporting goods business in Santa Ana. 

Walter Johnson (center row, third from left) among his fellow Santa Ana Yellow Sox.  (Floyd H. Mitchell Collection) 

Hawley was a prominent member of the Socialist Party in Orange County and wrote a regular column for the Santa Ana Blade. He ran for the Fifth District seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisor in 1906. However, he received only 37 of the 849 votes cast and came in a distant third to winner George W. Angle.

Throughout the 1920s, Hawley was often consulted when people wanted to know what Santa Ana was like in the early years. He retired from his store in 1926, turning the business over to his son, Otto J. Hawley. Alfred  Hawley died after an extended period of illness, in 1930.

Do Utility Boxes Dream of Electric Sheep?

Author Philip K. Dick's last home was a Santa Ana condo at 408 E. Civic Center Dr. (between St. Joseph Church and the Ebell Club). As of this month, there's now an odd but colorful tribute to him just a couple blocks away at the corner of Civic Center Dr. and Main Street. The tribute comes in the form of a utility box, decorated as part of the city Arts & Culture Office's Utility Box Art Program. 

This piece of public art was created by Brennan Roach, who is a co-founder of the Santa Ana Literary Association.

Philip K. Dick's last home, at the French Park Plaza condos.

It features a portrait of Dick and is covered in reproductions of pages from his books. It also includes the words, "If you think this universe is bad, you should see some of the others," based on Dick's 1977 lecture, "If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others.”

The obverse of the utility box reads, "In 1972, Philip K Dick moved to Santa Ana where he spent the last 10 years of his life. During this time he wrote some of his most important works, 'A Scanner Darkly,' 'VALIS,' and 'The Transmigration of Timothy Archer."

The author died in 1982, just months away from the release of the film Blade Runner (and adaptation of one of his stories), which would eventually make his name known by the masses.

Dick's papers are held at CSU Fullerton's Special Collections. Click here to learn more. 

I would have liked to shoot a few more photos of the utility box, but my attempts were sidelined by a character who waked up and started agressively annoying me with nonsensical questions. She was probably just operating in one of those alternate universes.

Haster Field, Bolsa Grande, Garden Grove Park & Atlantis Play Center

Aerial view of Haster Field, 1947. Current street names in blue. (Courtesy OC Survey)

The most interesting thing about farmland that became a Navy airfield should, by all rights, be the story of that airfield. But such is not the case with Garden Grove’s Haster Field -- wedged between Westminster Ave. and the 22 Freeway, east of Magnolia Ave. – which went on to a still more colorful existence. 

Richard P. "Dick" Haster was a born in Hillegom, Holland in 1890 and came to America with his family in 1907, finally settling in Orange County in 1915. He served in World War I and seems to have been naturalized around 1919. Once back from the war, Haster gradually became one of the more prominent ranchers in the Garden Grove/Anaheim area, growing citrus, lima beans, walnuts, and likely other crops as well. In October of 1929, he married Esther Magdalen Nausbaum, who worked at the First National Bank of Garden Grove.

Richard Haster, 1955

During the Great Depression, Haster leased some of his unused land to tomato growers. He also sold twenty acres of citrus groves along Lampson Ave. to E. D. White of Santa Ana. But it was not enough, and in March 1941, the Hasters went bankrupt. 

But somehow, they managed to hang onto some of their farmland. Two years later, on Aug 18, 1943, Dick Haster sold at least 230 acres to the Navy Dept. for $225 an acre, plus $175 an acre for crops then on the property. The government gave him no choice but to sell, but it was probably a blessing under the circumstances. 

Detail of 1943 chart showing NAS Los Alamitos and its outlying fields. Haster Farm Field is marked as 11005. (Image courtesy Abandoned & Little Known Airfields)

Like Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley, the new Naval Outlying Air Field (NOSF) Haster Farm Field (a.k.a. Haster Field) was to be an auxiliary base to Naval Air Station Los Alamitos. However, its official status as a flight training field only lasted for ninety days before the Navy abandoned it. No Navy aircraft ever landed there.  

Once the war was over, the federal government took many years to sort out the disposal or reuse of its many now-abandoned properties. In 1949, Haster (who then lived at 9222 Trask Ave.) repurchased ten acres of his old land from the government and leased another other 220 acres from them for agriculture. He also allowed civilian pilots to use the old Navy runway. The tiny “airport” was home to a handful of small private aircraft and about six Civil Air Patrol planes.

Garden Grove Park, 2021. (Photo by author)

Dick Haster served on the Orange County Planning Commission until mid-1955, when he seems to have made a number of life changes. Around the same time, he sold the ten acres of Haster Field he owned outright and moved to Santa Ana.

By September 1956, the Navy was looking to get rid of the 110 acres of Haster Field that Haster has been renting as farmland. Initially, they offered to sell it back to Haster. Having heard this news, Louis Lake (Garden Grove’s first mayor) came to Haster, hoping to negotiate a deal to buy twenty acres for a park should Haster reacquire the land.

But rather than selling to Haster, on January 19, 1957, the General Services Administration gave initial approval for the sale of “the forty-acre wartime auxiliary landing strip” directly to the newly minted City of Garden Grove. City Attorney Willard Pool had gone to Washington, D.C. and negotiated at length to get the land. deal. The agreement was not finalized until Garden Grove sorted out its contentious incorporation election in court and could then bargain as a municipality. After a long round of litigation, on May 29, 1957 the courts decided that the election was legitimate and that Garden Grove was, in fact, a city. 

Bolsa Grande High School, 2021 (Photo by author)

A deal with the GSA became effective in August. In addition to selling the land for a park, the government gave twenty acres to the Garden Grove High School District, twenty more to the elementary school district, and eighteen acres to the State for a right-of-way strip adjacent to the planned 22 Freeway. The elementary school district offered its twenty acres to the high school district so that there would be enough space for a new high school. 

The Soka Cherry Tree Grove was planted at Garden Grove Park in 2013.

A month later, two Beverly Hills general contractors, Guy Gadbois and Stanley Anderson, won an auction to purchase another 58.32 acres of the former Haster Field. They would build tract housing adjacent to the park and school properties.

1950s tract housing on the old Haster Field. This example on Linnert St.

In February 1959, development of Garden Grove Park began, starting with the grading and "conditioning" of the land and the installation of a sprinkler system. The city budgeted $98,000 for the first phases of the park's development. The whole project was slated to be spread out over five years. That same year, construction began on Bolsa Grande High School.

Sea serpent slide, Atlantis Play Center

In the early 1960s the Garden Grove Junior Women’s Civic Club forwarded an idea which was enthusiastically taken up by Garden Grove’s first director of parks, V.E. "Gene" Rotsch. The concept was an enclosed, single-entrance playground within the park, where “adults are not allowed without kids, and kids are not allowed without adults.” Its theme would be the Lost City of Atlantis, with the buildings and playgrounds featuring undersea motifs.  This park-within-a-park was made possible through the support of the city and donations from twenty-nine individuals and organizations. 

Entrance to Atlantis Play Center, 2021 (Photo by author)

Parks Superintendent Jack Wallin and his crews built out the park grounds and turned to Benjamin Dominguez (1894-1974), a folk artist and master of creative concrete work, to create custom concrete animals and play equipment. Dominguez had already created acclaimed zoo enclosure and playgrounds throughout Mexico and the American West. He turned Atlantis Play Park into one of his whimsical and unforgettable “make believe parks.” Here, Dominguez’ works were not merely part of the landscape, they WERE the landscape. His contributions included such unique elements as a long sea serpent slide that winds down a hill, giant starfish, coral reef waterfalls, and a large opened-mouth whale whose tongue is a slide for children. A few of Atlantis’ many other features include a pod of dolphins, a “sunken” Viking longship and a lost “Palace of Kronos” to explore.

Atlantis Play Center (Courtesy Friends of La Laguna)

A costumed man playing the role of King Neptune oversaw the dedication of Atlantis Play Park on July 4, 1963, saying, "Forthwith, this kingdom of joy and happiness will be ruled by the children of today. May the reign of childhood be long and happy."

Dick Haster died in 1979. By then his “field” had served the Navy, private pilots, the Civil Air Patrol, hundreds of housing tract residents, thousands of Bolsa Grande students, and the countless thousands who’d enjoyed Garden Grove Park and Atlantis Play Park. Today, the land continues to serve the community well.

Teaching certificate, 1911

Q: What can you tell me about this document recently up for sale on eBay?

A: First of all, this is a teaching certificate, allowing one to teach in Orange County. 

Mabel Elizabeth Brown was born in Fairfield, Illinois in 1888. She lived with her widowed mother, Ada C. Brown (816 West St.) and graduated from Santa Ana High School in 1906. From there, she went to school in Claremont/Pomona and then on to take graduate classes at Cal Berkeley in 1910. Once finished, she was hired to teach English and music at Huntington Beach High School in 1911. Within a year or two she married mining engineer Dana Winston Leeke (1885-1961) and his work took them to Hol-gol, Korea, where their daughter, Ada Ethel Leeke was born in 1914. By 1920 they were living in Ontario, California. They would spend the rest of their lives in Southern California. Mabel Brown died in San Diego County in 1972. 

Richard P. Mitchell, who signed this certificate, served as County Superintendent of Schools  for twenty-two years (1908-1931). He was born in Garden Grove in 1875, and graduated from the Los Angeles State Normal School (UCLA). 

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

An unsolved mystery in early Huntington Beach

San Pedro Harbor, circa 1890. (Courtesy WaterAndPower.org)

In May 1891, a mysterious man with a gunshot wound was found dead on the shore at Shell Beach -- now called Huntington Beach. It was the first time that sparsely inhabited corner of Orange County made the newspapers in any significant way, and the details of the story inspire head-scratching.

Visitors to today's Huntington Beach were so few in that era that it took days for anyone to notice the body lying in the surf. It was discovered late in the day on May 14th, and a message was sent to Orange County Sheriff Theo Lacy the following morning. Upon arrival, it was found that the dead man had a large bullet hole in his head. By later that same day, the body was in Anaheim, undergoing an autopsy by Coroner (and future Santa Ana mayor) Frank Ey.

According to the Los Angeles Herald, "The deceased, when examined, had no air in the lungs whatever, one of the surest signs that dissolution must have taken place before the body reached the water."

The following day, the Los Angeles Times reported the man was "about 55 years of age. He had gray hair and whiskers, the latter trimmed close to the face. His weight was about one hundred and seventy pounds. The body was dressed in a blue suit of clothes and checked shirt. The hole in the head was made by a large-sized bullet, probably a Winchester Rifle ball. There was $65 on the body when it was found. The money was securely sewed with a fine wire in the pocket of the pants and so secreted as to have almost been overlooked by the Coroner. There is no clew as to the circumstances of the death or identity of the deceased."

Orange County Coroner Frank Ey. (Courtesy First American Corp)

In fact, the body was that of David Crockett, a baker with a hazy past. 

Around May fourth Crockett had arrived in San Pedro from Los Angeles and checked in at Proche's Hotel & Restaurant. He said he was from Sacramento, but that his relatives lived in Springfield, Illinois. While in town, he idled about and unsuccessfully searched for someone willing write out his will for him. Finding no takers, he returned to Los Angeles. 

On May 9th, he returned to San Pedro, went into a bank, and drew out an amount of cash. That evening, he asked a hotel clerk if she would write his will for him. When she refused, he said she would soon discover why he'd made the request. Hours later, Crockett's hat and coat (with about $6 left in the pockets) were found abandoned on a pile of lumber on the San Pedro Lumber Company wharf.

San Pedro locals presumed he had killed himself. Once in the water, unusually strong tides that night would have pulled him past Smith's Island and out of the bay. The usual down-coast currents could easily have carried him to Shell Beach.

Less than a week later, Orange County, Sheriff Lacy and Santa Ana Constable Jack Landell were investigating their mystery victim, absolutely confident they had a case of homicide on their hands. They didn't make their suspicions public immediately, not wanting to tip off the killer. Soon, they were on the trail of a man who had been on Smith's Island (just inside the entrance to San Pedro Bay), but who had left by boat about the same time as Crockett's disappearance.

Orange County Sheriff Theophilus “Theo” Lacy

Meanwhile photographs of the dead man were distributed around Southern California. Soon, a positive identification was made. 

Now the San Pedro authorities had a body to go with their supposed suicide. Likewise, the Orange County authorities switched tracks completely, dropped their murder investigation, and adopted the suicide theory wholeheartedly.

But more than 120 years later, some of the facts still don't jibe. 

Perhaps the missing rifle and bullet ended up at the bottom of the bay. But how likely is it that Crockett shot himself in the head with a Winchester rifle? Not only would that be fairly awkward, but one would think the lengthy news articles concerning his suspected suicide would have made mention of him owning, buying, or carrying a hard-to-conceal rifle. 

And where did the gun and bullet go? Into the bay? 

More importantly, how could a man die from a gunshot on a wharf, have time for all the last traces of air to leave his lungs, and only then fall into bay -- All without leaving anything more than a hat and coat behind as evidence? At the very least, there should have been blood on the wharf.

Certainly, David Crockett was preparing for his own death. But was he planning suicide, or did he know someone was coming to kill him?

And most of all, what was the rest of Crockett's story?

Perhaps some intrepid historian will stumble across at least a few more of the answers someday.

Why is W. H. Spurgeon called “Uncle Billy?”

The ever-bewhiskered William H. Spurgeon

I was recently asked why local historians sometimes refer to Santa Ana’s founding father, William Henry Spurgeon (1829-1915), as “Uncle Billy.” 

“’Uncle Billy’ seems too familiar,” writes one of my favorite readers. “Contemporaries may have called him that (and he may have even encouraged it), but it just seems weird to be referring to him that way now.  At this point, there's not anyone alive who would have called him that.”

It's a fair point. But one might also point out that Spurgeon was (as a very public figure and politician) known by the public as Uncle Billy and was often referred to as such in the press. It’s a bit like folk artist Anna Mary Robertson Moses, who was widely known as “Grandma Moses” and who is still regularly referred to in that way almost sixty years after her death. Likewise, at least some contingent of locals have been calling William Spurgeon “Uncle Billy” since at least the early 1890s.

My aforementioned reader replies that it would at least be an improvement to refer to him as Uncle Billy Spurgeon -- not just Uncle Billy -- since he's not as nationally well known as Grandma Moses and thus requires additional identification. Again, a  fair point.

But let's take a step back and look at the man himself,...

W. H. Spurgeon was born in Kentucky, raised in Missouri, and first came to California in 1852 to seek his fortune in the Gold Rush. He returned to Missouri in 1859 but in 1865 returned overland to California with his wife Martha, his parents, and other relatives. When Martha died in 1867 he returned to Missouri again before finally coming back to California for good in 1869.

The third structure to bear the title of The Spurgeon Building

In 1868 and 1869, farmer Jacob Ross, Sr. bought a few thousand acres of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana from the heirs of the Yorba family. Upon his return to California, Spurgeon and a business associate, Major Ward Bradford, were looking for a place to establish a new town. An engineer who’d worked on partitioning the Yorbas’ rancho extolled the merits of that land to Spurgeon. So, in October 1869, Spurgeon and Bradford purchased seventy four acres from Ross for $594. The mustard on the land grew so high that Spurgeon had to climb a sycamore tree to see the property on which he’d just spent most of his life savings.

Bradford briefly owned the west half of the land before selling his interest and moving out of the area. Spurgeon owned the east half and made big plans. But it was initially a rough, pioneer life. In 1872, Spurgeon married Jennie English, who later recalled moving into the first house in town, at Sycamore St. and Second St, "which as yet had no roof, no doors and no windows."

Spurgeon mapped out a 24-block town site, which he named Santa Ana in honor of the old rancho. The original town boundaries were First St., Spurgeon St., Seventh St. and West St. (now Broadway). A street adjacent to the tree Spurgeon had climbed was appropriately named Sycamore. 

As the town grew, Spurgeon remained its chief booster and benefactor. He built the first road into town, he sold lots at low prices to encourage newcomers, and he asked various businesses to relocate to Santa Ana. He also started the town’s first store, the First National Bank of Santa Ana, the Santa Ana Gas & Electric Co., and the Santa Ana post office, where he served as Postmaster. 

Mrs. William Spurgeon, III and William Spurgeon IV plant a sycamore near the site of the original climbed by Uncle Billy. Historian Jim Sleeper (left) looks on. (Oct. 1976)

Spurgeon dug the town’s first artesian well and founded the town’s water company. He built roads from Anaheim to Santa Ana and on to Tustin, as well as the first road from Santa Ana to the coast. 

He built the Spurgeon Building at Fourth and Sycamore (the first of several with that name) and finagled to get his town included on the stagecoach line. He then served as the town’s Wells Fargo agent. He also sat on the boards of the Santa Ana Land Improvement Co., the Santa Ana Valley Walnut Growers’ Association, and the Santa Ana & Newport Railroad, and served for three years as president of the critically important Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Co. (SAVI). 

Perhaps most critically, in the late 1870s Spurgeon convinced the Southern Pacific Railroad to bring its Anaheim line down into Santa Ana, bypassing the rival communities of Orange and Tustin and ensuring Santa Ana’s continued growth and prosperity.

It also quickly became one of the area’s most important pollical movers and shakers. In 1877 and 1878 he served on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, representing the portion of the county that included Santa Ana.

When the City of Santa Ana incorporated in 1886, Spurgeon was the obvious choice as the town’s first mayor. The following year – despite being an ardent Democrat in the Republican-leaning 78th District – he was also elected to the State Assembly. Over the next few years, Spurgeon’s combined efforts with Republican James McFadden helped lead to the 1889 creation of the County of Orange. This new county had Santa Ana as its county seat and William H. Spurgeon as the chairman of its first Board of Supervisors. Later, Spurgeon sold land to the county (at a discount) for a courthouse, and Orange County’s government has been centered in that part of town ever since.

The Spurgeons with a giant rose bush, Santa Ana, 1913.

An early use of Spurgeon’s nickname, “Uncle Billy,” appeared in a June 25, 1892 Los Angeles Times article about a meeting of local Democrat party bigwigs. It mentions that “Uncle Billy Spurgeon was the unanimous choice . . . for grand marshal of the evening.” 

Two years later, the Los Angeles Herald (Aug 14, 1894) referred to “Uncle Billy” in an article about Santa Ana Democrats, and never even mentioned his full name, assuming readers would already know.

In fact, newspapers from the Anaheim Gazette to the Santa Ana Standard soon began frequently referring to him casually as Uncle Billy or Uncle Billy Spurgeon.

The reasoning behind the moniker isn’t spelled out in print until a 1907 biographical article in the Santa Ana Register, which cited many of the accomplishments of “Uncle Billy Spurgeon, as he is lovingly called by all who know him.”

Indeed, because of all his efforts – and perhaps also because of his personality – the citizens of the burgeoning City of Santa Ana came to feel a real affection and kinship for their energetic, resourceful, and benevolent patriarch. From those warm feelings, it seems, sprang the moniker “Uncle Billy.”

Those who have studied local history – from Carey McWilliams to Terry Stephenson to Phil Brigandi – have run across this nickname countless times in newspapers and pioneer accounts. Accordingly, their own works sometimes reference “Uncle Billy” as well.

I'll admit I've used the nickname myself -- a habit I picked up from Brigandi, who picked it up from from Jim Sleeper (and possibly Don Meadows), who, in turn, undoubtedly learned it from a wide array of old-timers. 

Is it one of those quirky local mannerism that helps tie us together as a community across the generations? Is it an ongoing tribute to an avuncular pioneer? Or is it just weird and inappropriate? 

You be the judge.