Author: Drew Mashburn

The following article first appeared in the March 18, 1970 edition of the Ojai Valley News in the “Ojai Yesterdays” section. The article is reprinted here with the permission of the Ojai Valley News.

Ojai’s first newspaper proclaims high hopes for the future of valley
by
Ed Wenig

“THE OJAI makes its first appearance . . . to keep alive before the world the knowledge of the great unrivaled healing climate, the superior home advantages, and the bright business possibilities of the country from which it derives its name.”

Thus wrote Leverett Messick, founder of the THE OJAI in its first edition on October 27, 1891. As editor he had proudly composed the masthead: “THE OJAI . . . For the good of mankind, but telling of the greatest sanitarium for throat and lung troubles in the known world — the famous Ojai Valley.”

THE OJAI continued publication through the peaceful and stormy period of the 1890’s under several editors, each leaving an imprint of his philosophy and each reflecting the changing times. Letters to the editor were faithfully printed, presenting both sides of various topics of discussion.

But apparently the life of an editor of THE OJAI had its perils no matter how hard he tried to be fair to all. In February of 1900 Editor Randolf Freeman wrote an article bearing the headline: “THE OJAI is for sale.” Said he, “Within four years assaults with intent to kill me have been three in number, all unprovoked, and I have never said anything in the paper concerning them, because my adversaries have themselves had no paper of their own, and it would hardly be fair… However, the blow I received on the head this week has shattered by nerves to the extent of incapacitating me for work.”

C. E. Bundy, who took over THE OJAI in September, 1901, wrote, “THE OJAI will exist solely to publish the news of interest to its patrons. It will be found advocating all measures and reforms that will benefit the Valley and its people, but will not be in any sense a censor, morally or socially. No petty personalities will be indulged in by the editor.”

However, when Morrison Swift, a socialist lecturer, came to the valley and began attacking President McKinley in vile terms, continuing his tirades even after McKinley’s assassination, Mr. Bundy threw aside his self-imposed restraints in an unusually strong editorial which concluded as follows: “THE OJAI has a good stout four-by-four with the angles all intact. It will present this to any party of citizens that will give this Swift hombre a ride out of the valley on its corners.” Within two hours after the paper was printed Morrison Swift was arrested and securely locked in the county jail.

Members of the Thacher family were frequent contributors to THE OJAI, and Sherman Thacher, with the cooperation of prominent local citizens published the paper for a few years in the early 1900’s.

The files of THE OJAI published in the 1890’s and early 1900’s form the principal source of information concerning the valley during this era, and make fascinating reading for one who is interested in the local history of this period.

This article was first run in the Wednesday, February 8, 1978 edition of the Ojai Valley News on Page A-12 under “Out of Bounds”. It is reprinted here with their permission.  The photo of Zaidee Soule and its caption were added by the Ojai Valley Museum.  

Don’t ruin the grass on Zaidee Soule’s farm
by
Pete Horner

Al Herman, long time valley resident, remembers the day back in 1962 when the Soule Park Golf Course first opened for play. “All of the big shots were there,” Herman recalled the other afternoon while looking through the pages of a scrapbook he keeps for the Soule Park Senior Men’s Golf Club. “Ken MacDonald (former supervisor and assemblyman) hit the first shot. After all the dignitaries and people like that went out in the first couple of foursomes, the rest of us got a chance to play.

“The course was beautiful. We had a great time. Of course, most of the local boys were novices. We didn’t know too much about golf. But there was a great spirit among the members of the men’s golf club that year. We used to meet with the head pro, Bill Martin, once a week for dinner and he would spin some tales. He gave us some golf tips. And he told about etiquette on the course. He used to say never, never, never pull your cart between the sand traps and the green. Ruins the grass, he would say, ruins the grass.”

GREEN FEES back then were $2 on weekdays and $2.50 on weekends. It cost a buck to play on weekdays after 4 p.m. Today, despite the fact that the green fees have doubled, the total number of rounds played each year is approaching the designed maximum of 75,000.

By all accounts, Soule Park, proclaimed “one of the best public golf courses in the world” by former golf professional Doug Sanders, has been a monumental success. But how many of those thousands and thousands of golfers who tee up at Soule Park each year know they are standing on what was once a 210 acre farm owned by the Soule family?

THE SOULE PARK Golf Course story involved a number of characters, not the least of whom were Zaidee Soule, Doug Jordan and Art Johnson. Old-timers like Al Herman knew these people well and appreciate all they did to make the golf course a reality.

It seems that Jordan, an avid golfer and local store owner, was appointed by then-Supervisor Bob Andrews to serve on a sports advisory committee for the county in the late 50s. After a number of meetings and studies, the committee recommended the creation of a county-owned golf course. But for several reasons, not the least of which was a lack of money, the supervisors turned down the suggestion.

About this time Jordan and his wife, Claudia, became good friends of Zaidee Soule, who lived with her sister on a 210-acre ranch in the heart of the Ojai Valley, property inherited from their father, and early pioneer rancher.

According to an account in the Ojai Valley News several years ago, Jordan went to Zaidee and said, “How about letting the county have it (the land) for a park?” and she replied, “Well, Doug, it would make a beautiful park and golf course.”

But nothing happened until about a year later when Zaidee walked into Jordan’s store and said, “Doug, you can have your golf course and park any time you want now.”

JORDAN relayed the news to Johnson, at the time the manager of the Bank of America and the President of the Rotary Club. The “man-behind-the-scene”, Johnson worked to bring the various parties, private and public, together. During the negotiations, Johnson’s enthusiasm and leadership proved instrumental in overcoming any problems that arose. Billy Bell, the famous golf course architect, was brought in to design the course. Construction began in 1961 and the course was ready to play in late spring of 1962.

Unfortunately, Johnson died shortly before the course opened. The Art Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament was started in honor a year later. The first winner of the tourney, incidentally, was OVN Editor Fred Volz.

Jordan became the first president of the Soule Park Men’s Golf Club. He later helped found the Soule Park Senior Men’s Club and served on its board until his death in 1975. Zaidee Soule died in 1962, but her portrait still hangs in the Soule Park clubhouse. Hardly a day doesn’t pass when a newcomer doesn’t look at the portrait and ask, “Who is Zaidee Soule?” And then Al Herman or another of the old-timers will have to sit them down and tell them the whole story.

The following article was written by Howard Bald and appeared in the December 6, 1972 edition of the Ojai Valley News. It is reprinted here with their permission. Bald titled his many articles with the same title. So, this article has “(No. 7)” added by the Ojai Valley Museum.  All photos have been added by the Ojai Valley Museum.  

Reminiscences of Early Ojai (No. 7)
by
Howard Bald

Nordhoff (now Ojai) has generally been described as a quiet, peaceful little place, and generally it was. Several oak trees strung along Main street from Tom Clark’s livery stable to Schroff’s harness shop furnished the only shade, for there was no Arcade until about 1918-19 [1917].

There were three gaps in the row of buildings on the north side of Main street. One was between Lagomarsino’s saloon and Archie McDonald’s blacksmith shop at the east end of the business block, about the location of the Edison office (which recently moved), and Barrow’s hardware store stood alone. There was an alley on both the east and west side of that building, which I think was the site of the present hardware store.

The east alley was used by pedestrians. I think the board sidewalk prevented vehicles going through. But the sidewalk ended at the west corner of Barrow’s hardware, so that alley was quite generally used by horsemen as well as pedestrians.

West of that alley was Bray’s plumbing shop, and from there on to Signal street was the livery stable with its buggy sheds, corrals and hay sheds. West of Signal on the site of the Oaks Hotel stood a small, whitewashed, clapboard building where Chet Cagnacci was born at the turn of the century and later, I believe, Tommie Clark.

Across the street about the site of Van Dyke’s Travel Agency stood Dave Raddick’s residence, then easterly a break, then the meat market. On the southwest corner of Signal and Main was The Ojai newspaper printing office where the theatre now stands and easterly across the street, where the present post office is located, was Charley Gibson’s blacksmith shop. There was quite a gap between the blacksmith shop and Lauch Orton’s plumbing shop, the barber shop and post office. Through that gap could be seen the Berry Villa, which is now the post office employee parking place.

A little distance east of the post office, briefly, stood C.B. Stevens little grocery store, then the entrance and exit to the Ojai Inn which is now our city park. A leaky, redwood horse trough and a hitch rail extended onto the barranca. It was always shady, and teams, horses and buggies were customarily tied there while the out of town folk did their shopping.

I once had a Plymouth Rock hen who would bring her brood through the alley between the saloon and blacksmith shop to scratch around where the horses were tied. Sometimes she would miscalculate and be overtaken by darkness, so hen and chicks would simply fly up on a vacant spot on the hitch rail and settle down for the night. Our stable and chicken coop was just back of Dr. Hirsch’s office and more than once at about bedtime, I would carry them back to their own nest.

Schroff’s harness shop east of the barranca stood high enough from the ground that one could step from a saddle horse onto the porch, which was convenient for ladies riding sidesaddle to dismount and mount.

The corner of South Montgomery and Main was open and was used mainly by Thacher boys to tie their horses while attending services at the Presbyterian church, which stood where the Chevrolet parking lot now is. That building is now the Nazarene Church on N. Montgomery and Aliso.

I could go on and on and on with details of the village of Nordhoff at the turn of the century, but I fear that would become too boring, so will get on with some of my memories of the activities on that time.

The following article appeared in the Wednesday, February 15, 1989 Edition of the Ojai Valley News on Page A-10. It is reprinted here with their permission.  Photos were added by the Ojai Valley Museum.  

Just sniff the valley’s air to detect crisis
by
Bob Bryan

Special to the News

Emperor Hirohito of Japan was coming to visit this country but where would we put him up for the night?

Blair House in Washington, D.C. would not do for various reasons. But there was Williamsburg, the reconstructed colonial village, where the emperor’s safety could be secured and where His Divinity could taste something of early America and its charms.

Williamsburg is a national treasure and was restored through the generosity of the Rockefeller family. Another dream American treasure, the National Gallery of Art, was brought about through the generosity of the Paul Mellon family.

On a smaller scale but with generosity of spirit to equal those millionaires, we have our Edward Drummond Libbey, who drove West with John, his chaffeur, in his Packard limousine (Libbey sat in the front seat with his driver) and fell in love with the Ojai Valley. Our park, our post office, the Arbolada, to mention only a few, are because of this man.

And now the community and the valley that Libbey fell in love with faces crisis. The word crisis is not idly used. Just check out Ojai Avenue most any hour of the day or drive to Ventura in the morning or evening. Or take a good sniff of our air on certain days. Something quite deadly is happening to our valley.

They say that a frog placed in a frying pan filled with boiling water will jump out immediately. But put the frog in a pan of unheated water and slowly but surely heat it up and the frog will not seek to escape until it’s too late.

Are they turning up the air and the traffic in this frying pan of a valley? And are some of us frogs jumping before it’s too late, jumping to Oregon where, they say, the water is pure and the air clean? Or jumping to the Midwest where report has it that houses are cheaper and the neighbors friendlier?

Of course, the temptation to jump is there for all of us as our citrus orchards skyrocket in value or our homes come to represent small fortunes. (“Let’s leave, Gertrude, while we can still get through Casitas Pass.”)

Some nights, when I can’t sleep, I ponder the problem of our valley. What to do? Perhaps, we could get a present Midas, say a Donald Trump, to simply buy up the Ojai Valley and declare it off limits except to specially designated visitors who would have parking permits, like at the Getty Museum in Malibu. We natives, on designated hours, could engage in cottage industries for the benefit of the gawkers. (“Is he really writing a novel, Mummy?”)

Another idea that comes to me in the quiet reaches of the night is to bring back the old Burma Shave signs? Remember those? You probably don’t but either one of your grandparents can tell you about them. They were the literature of our youth.

The Burma Shave signs were strategically placed along the highway, where, traveling at a modest and legal forty miles per hour, they could be easily read. They rhymed and were pithy and pungent statements on a variety of subjects, all humorously presented. And with a final pitch for Burma Shave.

Here’s a “Burma Shave sign” we might place at staggered intervals along the entranceways to the Ojai Valley:

“Don’t be a frog and jump the pan; Be a pal and turn around and go home.”

Does that rhyme?

The following article appeared on the front page of the Thursday, January 7, 1954 edition of “THE OJAI” which is now called the “Ojai Valley News”. It is reprinted here with their permission. The author is unknown. Photos have been added by the Ojai Valley Museum.

Mother Dies, Family Critically Hurt In Holiday Accident

Still on the critical list of Southland hospitals following a New Year’s Day accident which killed Mrs. Jewell T. Mashburn, 49, Ojai, are four members of her family, her son Harold, 28, his wife, Arlou, 23, and their two children, Thomas [“Thomas” is a first name, but the boy goes by his middle name, “Drew”], two, and Michael [“Michael” is incorrect;  “Mitchell’ or “Mitch” should have been used], seven months.

The head-on collision occurred on Highway 101 at Malibu when the Mashburn car traveling south struck another car going north driven by Robert Jenning, 74, Sierra Madre, which swerved across the highway into the path of the Mashburn car. The Jenning car apparently swerved to miss hitting another car which had suddenly stopped in front of it. Both Jenning and his wife were uninjured.

Mrs. Mashburn, wife of Ojai real estate broker Clyde Mashburn, was killed instantly while the family was taken to Santa Monica hospital for treatment. The Mashburn’s were enroute to visit Mrs. Mashburn’s niece in Los Angeles.

Funeral services were held Tuesday afternoon for Mrs. Mashburn at the Loma Vista chapel of the Mayr funeral home.

Born Sept. 17, 1904, in Pleasant Hope, Mo., she had been a resident of Ventura County for 25 years. Besides her husband, Clyde, she is survived by her son, Harold of Ojai; a daughter, Mrs. Betty Jean Loomis, Ojai; three brothers, Charles Teeters of Ivanhoe; Glenn Teeters of Lynwood, and Fred Teeters of Ojai; three sisters, Mrs. Nora Voris and Mrs. Verda Barton, Ivanhoe, and Mrs. Willa Buckner of Santa Paula; her father, Thomas Teeters, Ivanhoe; and two grandchildren.

Rev. Emmett Parks officiated at the services. Burial followed in Ivy Lawn cemetery.

The following article was run in the March 12, 1959 “The Ojai Valley News”. It is reprinted here with their permission.

Clowns, Weight Lifters Shine at Aliso Street Kids Circus
by Arlou Mashburn

“Ladeez and gentlemen! We are proud to present the ‘East Aliso Street Circus’ “.

With that shouted salutation, a seven-year-old’s excited voice announced to an audience numbering approximately 30 persons a combination circus-puppet show planned and staged by seven neighborhood youngsters aged four to eight years old.

Prompted by the John A. Strong Circus which was recently presented in Ojai, the backyard performers utilized several acts they had seen the professional clowns and circus folk present.

Also benefiting from more experienced show people’s talents, the young puppeteers had borrowed a number of ideas from the puppet show recently held in the valley which the Ojai Festivals sponsored.

Spirits exalted by the carnival atmosphere, many youthful observers suddenly found themselves “carried away” and in front of what remained of the audience. It was rather difficult to determine at times who was “audience” and who was “show”.

Recorded music offered background atmosphere. Due to lack of calliope selections, such songs as, “Doggy in the Window” and “Davy Crockett” from the limited record collections of the children participating sufficed. As the energetic performers grew more and more enthusiastic…and of course, noisier…the music was dispensed with entirely since it was inaudible anyway.

PRIZES

Audience participation was rewarding materialistically as well as self-satisfactorily with balloons awarded as prizes. Young Blaise Castren, who journeyed three blocks with his younger brother, Chad, to attend the Saturday afternoon affair, was winner of the marble-guessing game.

Paying one penny to guess how many marbles were in a jar proved to be one of the most popular events of the day. Six-year old Donna Phillips was in charge of the money-making game.

STRONG MAN

“Strong Man” Clark “Corky” Davis, 4, amazed all with his astonishing strength when he hoisted a 500 pound barbell above his head not once, twice, but ten times! “Muscles” fashioned from inflated balloons inserted in his shirt sleeves, were eagerly touched by “Corky’s” many admirers… at no extra cost.

Mark Phillips’ over-sized tennis shoes, worn for his role as the hobo clown portrayed by Emmett Kelly, became entangled with the spurs worn by animal-trainer, Mark Kingsbury. Although the stunt was completely unrehearsed, it brought forth chuckles from the exuberant crowd of onlookers.

Pretty Kathy Nickerson, bedecked with earrings, lipstick, and flowers in her tresses, offered the glamorous touch necessary to all circuses. She won great applause as she daintily tiptoed across the “tight rope” (which instead of being suspended in the air was placed on more substantial territory, the ground in this case), balancing a parasol above her head.

Kathy’s brother, Danny, the oldest member of the troupe, was the unsung hero of the day as the behind-the-scenes worker, generally known in the circus world as a “roustabout”. Always there when he was needed, eight-year-old Danny arranged seats for the customers, carried refreshments to the pop-corn-punch-and-cookies table, and aided in the clean-up following the showing.

With poster paint on his face, Greg Davis was barely recognizable. But the make-up was all it took to throw the first-grader into the role of a clown, costume or no costume. His antics amused all.

INSTIGATOR

Instigator of the planned-for-a-week-in-advance adventure was Drew Mashburn, in whose backyard the one-ring circus was held. Drew, due to the unexpected absence of two members of the troupe, Sandy and Mike Payton, found himself a true showman, living up to the old adage, “The show must go on”, as he not only acted as puppeteer but as ringmaster and ticket-taker as well.

Drew’s younger brother, Mitch, a kindergartner, learned to his dismay upon donning a long-cherished pirate costume he had worn with great pride on previous Halloweens, that circuses do not have pirates. So, relinquishing his part in the show, Mitch appointed himself chief-cookie-passer-outer. His enthusiasm was again thwarted when he was told that the refreshments were not free, but were to be sold at the close to the show. He then resigned himself to the fact that he was not the circus type, and became a member of the audience.

Perhaps the amateurish efforts of the youthful troupe would win no blue ribbons, but in the hearts of the mothers who watched the eyes of their youngsters sparkle as they talked about the anticipated “Big Day”, and as they listened to the squealing voices of these same kids as they presented the hour-long show, there is no prize worthy enough for the memories they will all cherish from now on.

And what makes the parents even prouder is that the children, themselves, decided from the beginning that the money earned from the circus would be given to some deserving charity, rather than be kept for themselves. And they say youngsters of today will grown up to be unfit adults!