Early Stories of Ojai, Part III (Chinese in Ojai)by Howard Bald
Note: Howard Bald was an early Ojai resident. His reminiscences were written in the early 1970s.
Many Chinese as well as Italians were employed in wood cutting operations in the valley around the first of the century. Some Chinese lingered on as domestics or in other capacities for a decade or so.
My grandmother had one who baked delicious bread. The loaves were always a beautiful deep brown. But the Chinese and my grandmother suddenly parted company when it was discovered that he would fill his mouth with water and squirt it over the loaves during the baking.
There was always a Chinese vegetable wagon pulled by two horses, or sometimes one horse, that came around once a week. (There were never fresh vegetables in the grocery story that I remember.) A carrot or a turnip to each of us youngsters was always a treat, but the Chinese vendor didn’t always have them.
At this period no one can tell me where the vegetables were grown, probably near Ventura. A special treat that we youngsters looked forward to about Christmas time was Chinese nuts, or litchi nuts. They were delicious.
And there was the Chinese laundry that at one time was operated by Wah Lee. It was located east on Ojai Avenue just west of the bridge, and on the north side of the property on Mrs. Gally’s property, mother of Howard Gally. Wah Lee went about with a covered wagon drawn by one horse. His business survived on into the second decade. In fact, during prohibition times, he probably made more money bootlegging than doing laundry. I faintly remember a little stir that was caused by Mrs. Gally refusing to put him out when the local officers were unable to catch him.
Chinese were said to have built the first stone walls in east Ojai valley. It seems to me that the walls looked as old at the turn of the century as they look now. Those walls don’t include the ones on east Ojai Avenue, east Grand, north Carne and the one on the Twin Peaks Ranch. I have been told that these Chinese received 50 cents a day.
There was not too much law enforcement in that day, and the poor Chinese sometimes had a pretty rough time of it. I have heard my mother tell of her brother Tom roping (lassoing) one as he plodded along the dusty road. Tom was riding a colt and couldn’t manage the rope and the colt at the same time, with the result the Chinaman climbed up the rope and took it away from him. Tom dismounted, my mother (Katie) held the colt, while Tom tussled with the man and retrieved the rope.
Later the fellow returned with a shotgun, but Tom had ridden off to the Upper Ojai, while Katie’s mother hid her in a clothes closet and locked all of the doors. That house was the two story, yellow building south and east of the Ojai lumber company yard, a mile and a half east of Ojai.
Well, that fellow had the last laugh. Some time later the boys who had taken his laundry were swimming in the creek beyond what was Clausen’s dairy on the Pirie ranch. This same laundryman slipped up and stole all of their clothes. Needless to say, they were not returned nicely laundered.
There were many other incidents of that nature, some funny, some not so funny, dependent largely on one’s point of view. But just one more Chinese anecdote: A group of rowdies one dark night surrounded the wash house and began firing guns into the air. The occupant of the house opened the door and returned the fire. In the rowdies haste to clear out, one was almost decapitated on a clothes line.
“Reminiscences of Early Ojai” by Howard Bald, 1973
My Chumash Ancestral Legacyby Julie Tumamait-Stenslie
Julie Tumamait
As a Chumash descendant, it is my belief, and that of many other Chumash people, that we have always been on this land. Anthropologists (scholars who study the remains of past societies) do not know for sure when the ancestors of the Chumash arrived in this area. Theories claim that they may have arrived somewhere between 12,000 and 27,000 years ago.
Recent studies on human remains that have been in the possession of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History have been dated 13,000 years ago. These bones belong to one person, a woman who lived on Santa Rosa Island, one of the islands belonging to the group of islands known as the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California. This places her as the oldest recorded human being on the North American Continent.
Scholars theorize that the people migrated across a land bridge called the Bering
Typical Chumash Village
Strait, a strip of land from Siberia to Alaska. In the Chumash oral tradition, we have creation stories where the people of the upper world, Mishupashup, created man from a table made of marble and then, after it was decided what kind of hands man should have, he was placed in this world, Itiashup.
The decision on the kind of hands for man came about when Snilemun (Sky Coyote) argued with Sun that man should have hands like his; then it was decided. As Snilemun was ready to put his paw down, a lizard ran around behind Snilemun and put down his hand, and with that action, we have hands with fingers instead of paws.
Another more modern creation story came out of Santa Barbara around the 1930s “the Rainbow Bridge Story” in which Mother Earth, or Hutash, planted seeds in the ground on the island of Limu, which means “In the Sea” (Santa Cruz Island), and up sprouted these people, strong and handsome. She gave them many gifts, items for them to survive on. When the island became too heavily populated, Hutash called them to the highest point of the island and told them that she was going to make a bridge out of a rainbow and that they were to cross over to a new land. This bridge connected this this land that spreads out for hundreds of miles in all directions. As the story goes, Hutash gave a warning stating that if the people looked down off the bridge, they would fall off and drown in the sea. Some of the people did look down, and as they fell Hutash heard the cries for help, so, out of pity, she turned them into dolphins.
So, with these stories in place, we Chumash people believe in these origins. My heritage comes from my father, Vincent Tumamait, and my mother, Lucy Castro Tumamait, whose parents come from Guajuanto, Mexico. They settled in Camarillo. My mother and father married in 1942 at the Mission Santa Barbara and made their home in Ventura. Family stories, baptism records and interviews with anthropologist have helped our family trace our lineage throughout Chumash territory.
Our family descends directly from Santa Cruz Island. In 1811, Juan de Jesus Tumamait was baptized in the San Buenaventura Mission, which was established in 1782. He was raised by his grandparents, who were two people among hundreds to be removed from the island to become part of the labor force that built the mission in Ventura. As an adult, Juan de Jesus became a captain for that area, helping maintain order and peace between the native people and the missionaries. He also played a violin in the mission orchestra.
As an adult, he took back his native name of Tumamait, which through research we have found to mean “orphan”. He tried to set an example for the other people to tell them that they should not let go of their culture so quickly, but assimilation was rapidly descending upon the people. As a result, our family is the only one who has a Chumash name as a surname. Juan de Jesus was our great-grandfather.
Vincent Tumamait. Photo by Juan Carlo.
My father Vincent moved us into the Ojai area in 1952. I grew up in the river bottom of Meiners Oaks, off the north end of Rice Road. As a child, I loved this area, being near the river and the mountains. Later, I would learn that our family descended from the people who lived in the village there. Juan de Jesus’ mother, Maria Ricarda (her native name was Alulalmegue, which means “one who drags their feet”), was born here at the village called Matâ’ilha, or as we know it today, Matilija, which means “division”. She was born about 1786. The village proper was situated where the present-day historical Lopez Adobe is; in 1830 it was a fort. In 1925, it was sold to Louise McCaleb.
It was in the 1830s that soldiers witnessed the Chumash people, hunting and gathering along the river, making temporary camps and performing ceremonies. Recently, workers were pulling rocks out of a stream bed just up from the former village of Matâlha to use for building a rock wall. One of the workers picked up a rock about the size of a frying pan, and when he turned it over, he saw some painting on it. It turned out to be a ceremonial stone with painted Chumash symbols on it. There has been only one other such stone found and we cannot explain them. This stone was donated to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
Throughout Chumash territory there are select places where cave paintings can be seen. We do not know all there is to know about them, but we do know that these caves are sacred and that visitation is not encouraged. This ceremonial stone was found near a spring, which is consistent with the painted caves. The closest cave that we know of in our area is in a place called Mutah Flats, named after William Mutah, a homesteader who lived in the area of Pine Mountain. This cave is a beautiful example of the intricate designs that the Chumash used to express their visions.
One reason that we will never fully understand these symbols is because the person or persons painting these symbols were sometimes under the influence of a hallucinatory drug, a special potion made up of the Datura plant. When drunk, the person went into a coma-like state. Upon awakening, the person would then tell the medicine man, or the “alaqlapsh”, his or her dreams. It is at this point that we lose the knowledge as to who actually painted the symbols.
When we take a look at Ojai and its power spots, we have to first acknowledge the great Topa Topas. The name comes form the Chumash word “sitop topo,” which means “much cane.” This type of cane was used for arrows and for small tubes about 2 inches long used to hold tobacco and then the person would pierce it through the ear lobe.
The village of “Awhay,” which is where the name Ojai comes from, was situated in the upper valley and, from ethnographic reports, it was said that crystals were gathered from the Topa Topas. Our oral traditions tell us about men who would dress in bear skins and travel from the villages of Sisar (eyelash) Sespe (kneecap) down the grade to villages in the lower valley all the way to the village of Matilija.
Little is known about the life of the Chumash in the Ojai Valley during the pioneer days. Some of the Chumash became cowboys and ranch hands; others picked the fruit from the orchards. Like my grandparents, they would belong to a family who put them to work on their ranch. Then, when they were finished, they would be “lent” out to another ranch.
Very little archaeology has been done in the downtown Ojai area. We all know about the Soule Park Golf Course site; it has no village name, only a number. It is only by looking at the collections at the Ojai Valley Museum that we can get an idea of what was in people’s back yards.
When Caltrans was doing trenching along Ojai Avenue near the El Camino Motel [Chantico Inn] and dirt was being loaded on dump trucks, the person monitoring this dig asked to look in the back of the truck. While sifting around with a shovel, a sandstone bowl was found. This bowl would have been used for pounding acorns into flour.
My brother and I do monitoring of construction sites, and it is in talking with different men who we are working with that we get a lot of after-the-fact news about village sites that were destroyed, or cemeteries that were plowed through. We heard how Lake Casitas and the Ojai Valley Inn were both built on former village sites. This was at a time when there were no laws in effect to prevent it. Communication with native people wasn’t done then and sensitivities weren’t as strong as they are today.
During the Ojai Valley Inn’s new construction, they hired a monitor. When we experience any drought years, people call me to say how artifacts are washing out of the banks at Lake Casitas, but my only concern is that no human remains are being exposed there.
A village by the name of Kashomshomoy (kind of animal) was located at the Ojai Honor Farm site (now HELP of Ojai West).
When I was a child, we spent a lot of time at Matilija Hot Springs and Wheeler Hot Springs, both have the healing waters that made Ojai famous.
The Matilija Hot Springs were discovered in 1873 by J.W. Wilcox, and were purchased by R.M. Brown in 1895. It was sold again in 1877 to a Mr. Gardner who opened it to the public. It remained open for several decades, but in 1988 it was closed to the public. It is now owned by a couple who allows groups to come in, though it is still closed to the public.
In my mind, this should always remain a healing place. I always feared the Matilija area for reasons I couldn’t explain to anyone. Through my learning process, I can now explain those feelings. This is a very powerful medicine place, and I feel that people should only enter this place at certain times with great respect.
We grew up hearing about Chief Matilija and his group of warriors who tried to fight off the ever-present armies. In the myth, the story goes on to tell of Chief Matilija’s daughter, Amatil, who was very much in love with the handsome warrior, Cocopah. Tragically, he was killed in the final battle. Amatil’s love was so deep and so pure that she she laid upon her lover and there she died. What remained of that love was a beautiful flower with pure white petals symbolizing their love and a yellow center to represent the everlasting brilliance of their love.. We know this flower as the Matilija Poppy.
Even though Chief Matilija was a fictional character, his curse still lives on. Many people have asked me about this. I don’t know when it began, but it focuses on the Wheeler Hot Springs several miles up the road from Matilija Hot Springs. The curse states that anyone who uses this land for ill gains shall perish. In our oral stories, we have a special one called “Gain Is All” that talks about the results of too much profit.
“A man once played on his four-holed flute: ci winu hayaya, winu winu hayaya, gain or profit, will always exist. He was a very close observer, and he began to study the world. He found conflicts that went so far as people killing one another, and the cause of it all was gain. He stopped playing this flute, put it to his ear, and listened to the world. And he heard that all was gain. Then he played the tune again and listed again, etc. And this is all—the hole in the flute is the pathway to thought. After figuring it all out, the man concluded that profit is the voice of all. All the time, it is a single voice-like humming of the air. Gain is the touchstone of the human heart. This story was published in 1975 by Thomas C. Blackburn in his book December’s Child: A Book of Chumash Oral Narratives.
Wheeler Blumberg built a bathhouse at Wheeler’s Hot Springs in 1888. He died in 1906, leaving the place to his daughter and son-in-law Webb Wilcox. It was sold many times and had a number of disasters befall on it. In 1917, five people died in a fire, and a flood in 1935 nearly destroyed it. A mobster was hiding out in one of the cabins when it blew up, killing him. One of the owners in the 1960s committed suicide. The flood of 1969 again put Wheeler’s out of commission for several years.
In 1985, as I was visiting the spa, I had just started my shower after a wonderful massage and hot tub, when I heard the sound of a fire engine. I looked out the window and the fire truck was pulling up in the parking lot. You never saw anyone get dressed so quickly! As we ran out of the building and out onto the road, we could see the fire coming down toward us.
At the time my now ex-husband was playing in a band at The Wheel bar across the street on Sunday afternoons. Well, this was a Monday when the fire started so all of the band’s equipment was still in the bar. We found some people who were visiting and had them fill their cars with all the instruments to take them down the hill to our house. The hot tub buildings did catch fire, but were not destroyed.
The worst tragedy was the death of owner Frank and Evelyn Landucci’s son John in 1987. He and a friend were killed when an oak tree fell on them. It had been hollowed out by the 1985 fire.
Wheeler’s is now closed due to a number of financial problems. The latest news that I have heard was that someone wants to turn it into an Indian casino and I’ve been asked if I would be interested in joining up and being a part of it. “No, thank you!” Some people just don’t get it. Wheeler’s has so much power that we will never be able to capture its full potential; we have seen the full potential of its wrath.
This place as to remain what it had been for thousands of years, a healing place of humble origins, a place where friends and families can go and be healed. Great respect should be given when thinking of developing the land. When disturbing ancient sites, in some cases, there is retribution.
As we come back down the hill along the Ventura River, we come to everyone’s favorite gathering spot. As we talked about earlier, the shell beads that the Chumash made can be found everywhere in this valley, especially after it rains. These beads were made only on Santa Cruz Island, so when found on the mainland, one can say that they were a trade item. The Chumash people would bury the shell beads with the dead. So, when people tell me about the collection of pretty beads they have and where they found them, I have to ask them how their luck and health have been lately. I tell these people that the best thing to do is to go back to the spot and bury what they found, say a prayer, and ask for forgiveness. People who have not heeded the warning often fallen ill and died or they kill themselves.
Some may find this superstition, but, you see, we do not have much proof. Somehow man has learned that it is not OK to dig into modern cemeteries, so they don’t. We don’t know what effect that would have on a person. On the other hand, it seems to many that it is OK to go looking for the pretty beads and other things that are considered ceremonial and funeral-related.
There are other places we must mention which can occur anywhere; they are prayer spots. We can be walking down a trail and all of a sudden spot a carved stone item. This is an atishwin, a supernatural dream helper obtained by a vision quest and used as a charm. The person who made this fetish is long gone, but, for all we know, his or her power still remains. So, when you find these items, place them back in the ground and say a prayer.
One of the reasons I love living here in Ojai is the people and their concern about the land. People here are always ready to put down their hard-earned money to purchase land to be preserved as open space. For me and my descendants, it will be wonderful legacy to be able to learn and know about the ancestral villages and be able to look out over an open meadow instead of a mall.
History Fire Station 23, Oak Viewby Ventura County Fire Department
Oak View’s first fire station was established in 1938, when the County Fire Protection District delivered a flat bed Chevy truck, with a 300-gallon water tank and a 500 gallon-per-minute pump driven by a Chrysler auxiliary engine, to the Oak View Road station. A small amount of hose was also carried on the truck.
In 1946, Engineer Wayne Troxell was put in charge of the Oak View station and its volunteer group.
The title, Engineer, was later changed to Captain and the titles of the four Captains in charge of the four districts in the county were changed to Battalion Chief. The Engineer’s title was not used again until 1962.
At that time working hours were reduced from four 24-hour days on and 48-hours off to a schedule of two 24-hour days, one eight-hour day on, and 48-hours off. The new engineer position covered the station Captain’s two days off and worked with the Captain only eight hours of his three days on.
Troxell, his wife, and children lived in a small trailer parked behind the station. In 1948 a new two-stall fire station with living quarters for Wayne and his family was built at 15 Kunkle Street in Oak View. In 1952, Troxell resigned and built a number of buildings and homes in the county, including Station 20 and Station 35.
Glen Tremain, the second man hired for Oak View, lived at the station with his wife in an eight-by-ten room, cooking meals on a small two-burner stovetop.
Glen served the district for a number of years until he retired as Captain of the Ojai fire station.
The Oak View fire station has the distinction of owning the first resuscitator unit in service in the fire district. Donated by the local Lions Club, it marked the beginning of other service clubs donating resuscitators to their local fire stations.
In 2000 the station was demolished for today’s Station 23 on the same site. The crew operated out of a trailer across Kunkle Street, in a vacant lot, until the new station was finished.
“The writer, at 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon, counted (including Fords) 157 automobiles – the greatest number of machines in the valley at one time, within the memory of man.”
—The Ojai (during Tennis Tournament week) April 21, 1916
The automobile would make front-page headlines in The Ojai newspaper as well as across the United States. Stories involving the automobile were constantly being reported as the latest news.
As early as 1904, the papers reported, “A number of automobiles have been plying between Ventura and Nordhoff (now Ojai) the past weeks. Thus far no casualty from frightened horses worth mentioning.” Also automobile trips made the news, “A party of automobilists ventured from Hotel Foothills to Wheeler’s Hot Springs. When they returned from their trip without being dashed over the Matilija grade (now Maricopa Highway), they experienced a pleasant sensation of relief, something similar to what we experience when we have passed the horse-scaring auto everywhere on the roads, in safety.”
Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. motored into the Ojai Valley from Carpinteria in 1910 and expressed themselves as “delighted with what they saw.” By 1910, North America had 80 automobile manufacturers, but cars weren’t being mass produced until Henry Ford introduced his new technique for commercial production in 1913.
In 1916: “E. D. Libbey Motors into Town…arrived here yesterday in one of the family Packards, driven by chauffeur Johns.” Mr. Libbey’s arrival in the valley was a highly anticipated event for Mr. Libbey had been the Ojai Valley’s greatest benefactor.
During Ojai Day 1917, front-page news was “The auto parade through Mr. Libbey’s park was a delight, hundreds of cars and five times as many people participating.”
The automobile also would bring another type of crime to the valley, such as the headlines: “Ford Car Stolen From Wheeler’s.” The article told how “early last Sunday morning, car thieves were busy and appropriated Webb Wilcox’s Ford car and up to this writing not the slightest trace of the present where-abouts of the car has been obtained by the sheriff’s office.”
And 1917 daily life news items: “…family horse ran away with Mrs. Holsten the only occupant of the rig. Facing the danger bravely, Mrs. Holsten kept a stiff rein and cool head, and succeeded in stopping the frightened steed. Mrs. Holsten was no more excited than if she had dropped a stitch in knitting. But Mr. Holsten has more faith in a motor car than a kicking mare and the following day brought home a dainty little Briscoe car, the horse was displaced and disgraced.”
Clark's Auto Livery
Naturally, with more cars in the valley, the need for service facilities increased. Auto garages opened up, mostly with gas pumps to keep the machines running. The Ojai Garage was built on the southwest corner of Ojai Avenue and Fox Street, now Go-Fish restaurant, the first Ford dealership opened for business in the Ojai Garage in 1926, the Clark’s Auto Livery was on the northeast corner of Ojai Avenue and Signal Street , now the Ojai Village Pharmacy, the City Garage opened on the southwest corner of Ojai Avenue and South Montgomery Street, now the Ojai Cleaners, and the Hunt’s Auto Livery was at 110 No. Signal Street, now Gem Quests. The Ojai Valley was indeed ready for the “Motoring Era.”
In the early days there was of course, some friction between auto drivers and horsemen. Generally, the automobile people were quite understanding and would often pull to the side of the road and shut off the motor until the horse had passed.
One memorable incident involving a horse and automobile collision would become part of the valley’s history.
Howard Bald, a member of one of the valley’s pioneer families, bought a rather attractive colt for a very few dollars because of her questionable character. After several months of training and a little expense, she became quite a docile animal. Mr. Bald was known in the valley for having a special way with animals and was in the process of trying to sell this horse.
He found an interested buyer who offered him quite a substantial sum of money for the animal, but before the deal was closed, Mr. Bald was riding the animal up the grade road, now Dennison Grade, and an auto was coming down the grade. The auto crowded Mr. Bald and the horse into a bank and rammed the horse. As a result, the animal developed an everlasting fear of the chugging monsters and, of course, the pending sale was off.
Howard Bald decided to sue the driver of the automobile. The trial was held in the Nordhoff Court, which was in the back of the Ojai Realty building. Mr. Bald obtained the services of Earl Stanley Gardner, a prominent Ventura attorney. Gardner had not become famous for his “Perry Mason” novels at that time so he was quite happy to take on this “major suit.”
The trial that followed was one of the funniest events ever staged in the Nordhoff Court. Judge Wilson was on the bench but at times, he was practically on the floor from laughter.
The defense had gone to a great deal of expense and time, procuring evidence and witnesses to prove that the animal was a confirmed outlaw and that Mr. Bald was reputed to be the best rider in the country and that at one time even Mr. Bald was unable to ride this outlaw horse. Also, the defense claimed that Mr. Bald had paid only $37 for her. Many witnesses were called, and the trial lasted for hours.
In the end, the horse and rider won the suit: however the county newspaper gave Howard Bald quite a lecture in their editorial about his “hogging” the road.
Over the years, the automobile would continue to make front-page news. In 1920, state speed cops from the Automobile Club of California came to the valley on a regular basis to explain and to enforce traffic laws.
At the same time, elaborate brochures advertising that to reach the Ojai Valley from Los Angeles, there were choices of “three concrete highways.” Our whole world seemed to be centered around the automobile, which in earlier years had been thought of as only a fad.
Editor and Mrs. William Randolph Hearst formed a motoring party to the Ojai Valley in 1924 and drove around the valley, they were “delighted with its picturesquesness.” Mrs. Andrew Carnegie, widow of the nations greatest benefactor in public gifts, drove over to view the town of Ojai from Santa Barbara and enjoyed her day as a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Libbey. The automobile was certainly bringing important visitors to the valley.
Street signs and Boulevard stop signs became a necessity by 1926. The original street signs were 5 1/2 inches high by 2 1/2 feet long, they had the name of the street in dark blue on an orange background and were placed on each corner of the town. The signs cost the city $40 per hundred and an additional $25 per hundred to have the names printed on them. The Boulevard stop signs were placed on poles at the corner of each street leading into Ojai Avenue. The usual custom of painting stop signs on the roads could not be used as the streets leading into the main street were not paved. A new law to provide penalties for violations of the new stop sign ordinance was enacted.
The stately oaks and sycamore trees that stood along the main street in front of the Arcade became victims of the automobile in 1926. The city decided to remove the trees, that Mr. Libbey had protected so dearly when building the arcade, because they were a menace to traffic and that the city would possibly be liable for damages to cars should they collide with them.
In 1927, notice was served on the California driving public that the new law setting the maximum speed limit on public highways at 40 miles an hour, was to be rigidly enforced. “Forty miles means 40 and not 45,” was the terse order given to traffic officers. There was to be no tolerance permitted. The speed limit had been 35 miles an hour for many years, but “thousands of motorists have for years technically violated the law by driving up to 40. It will now be possible for them to enjoy this extra five miles and still drive within the limit.” The state believed that this increase would give the drivers a greater respect for the law.
A service station and fruit stand, now Boccali’s, was constructed at the foot of the Santa Paula grade on Ojai Avenue in 1927. The station provided the services needed for the ranches in the east-end. It also had a large picnic area under the trees. The next year Reeves Road was built to give better access to the ranchers living in that part of the valley. Everything was changing to accommodate the automobile and its driver.
Along with the increase of automobiles came the billboards along the highways. The problem was so out of hand that by 1930 the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce had to step in, “Advertising billboards erected in large numbers along and adjacent to the highways unnecessarily mar the appearance of the countryside and detract from the pleasures of motoring.” They also felt that the billboards were a positive menace to the safety of operators and users of motor vehicles, by distracting the attention of drivers and contributing to the amounts of accidents.
During the World War II, speed limits were reduced and high penalties were given to the offenders, their names appeared in newspapers and they were turned over to the County Civilian Defense coordinator as traffic violators. Three violations and they were turned in to the war rationing board so they could “bear in mind that these persons had violated laws and hindered the rubber conservation program.” Should the violators have appeared before the rationing board for rations, their cases would receive little if any help because of their violations.
Today, the automobile is certainly a major part of our society. Without it, most of us would be lost. However, over the years, many of our historical buildings have been lost because of a need to create still one more parking lot.
The Ojai Pharmacy. Until the 1960s, the arcade was Ojai’s primary business district, catering to the everyday needs of local residents. One such business was the Ojai Pharmacy. In addition to filling prescriptions, it featured a full soda fountain and lunch counter. Howard Nelson Rockafellow, a colorful Ojai personality, started the business in 1927. Over the next 30 years he helped organize the Ventura River Municipal Water District, served as President of the Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce, and sat on the City Council. Rockafellow single-handedly thwarted a move by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce to rename Lake Casitas “Lake Ventura”. Ironically, while giving an autobiographical speech to the Retired Men’s club at age 71, he ended with, “I expect to live the rest of my life in Ojai”–only to be struck dead by a heart attack at that very moment.
The above is an excerpt from Ojai: A Postcard History, by Richard Hoye, Tom Moore, Craig Walker, and available at Ojai Valley Museum or at Amazon.com.
Krotona Braille Institute. Founded in 1910 in Boston, the Theosophical Book Association for the Blind moved to Hollywood in 1917, where it became the Krotona Braille Institute. Roy and Flavia Snyder (seen operating the Braille presses on the right) moved the Krotona Braille Institute to Ojai in 1947. The Institute consisted of a Braille publishing house and the Baker Memorial Library, which loaned Braille books throughout the world.
The above is an excerpt from Ojai: A Postcard History, by Richard Hoye, Tom Moore, Craig Walker, and available at Ojai Valley Museum or at Amazon.com.
Wheeler’s Hot Springs Auto Stage Lineby Richard Hoye
Wheeler Blumberg homesteaded property in Matilija Canyon in 1888, and he constructed an access road. He then opened his Hot Springs to the public in 1891, offering a hotel with dancing pavilion, a swimming pool, a briskly running stream, fishing and great scenery.
Travel from the village of Nordhoff to the popular resort was provided by horse-drawn coaches of all types, large and small, carriages, tally-hoes, etc.
Visitors would arrive in the valley by railroad and then be taken to Wheeler’s along a pleasant scenic route. However, after 1900 interest turned to mechanized travel, and auto stages were introduced.
The resort came into the possession of Webb Wilcox after Wheeler Blumberg’s death in 1907. Wilcox had married Wheeler’s daughter, Etta, in 1905, so Wilcox was Wheeler’s son-in-law. The resort thrived under Wilcox’s management, and he continued to manage it until 1935. By 1924, Wilcox was offering auto transportation for the entire distance between Los Angeles and the resort.
In this photograph, an autobus is clearly marked “S.P. Station, Nordhoff, to Wheeler’s Hot Springs.” Guests have been seated, and the driver is ready to embark from the village to the resort. When the weather permitted, the top of the autobus could be removed, and passengers would ride in the open air.
Clyde Stewart opened a store at the center of the village of Nordhoff in 1910, and his business was listed in the telephone book that year. An advertisement, carried in The Ojai newspaper in 1917 read:
We carry a full line of
GROCERIES
and solicit your business,
satisfaction
GUARANTEED
C.A. Stewart, Grocer.
6 Years in Business
Nordhoff, California
In this photograph, we see Stewart with his staff of clerks. The array of goods on display is typical of most of the grocery and general merchandise stores of the day. Packets of seeds rest in racks on the floor to the left of the aisle. Pots and pans are on the shelves above. At the rear, a large clock hangs on the wall.
Note the sky lights at the center of the ceiling. Those same sky lights can be seen today at Vesta Home & Hearth (previously Tottingham Court).
Howard Bald wrote of an incident that occurred at Clyde Stewart’s store about 1910:
About this time, “one smart aleck rode into Clyde Stewart’s grocery store (on a horse) and roped a fellow and dragged him over the counter…that smart aleck…was myself.”
Howard was only eighteen years old at the time. His behavior must have created quite a stir.
Clyde Stewart ran for and won the office of City Clerk for the newly incorporated City of Ojai in 1921, becoming the first in the city to hold that office. He was later active in the Ojai Orange Association and was secretary of the Association in 1934. He owned a ranch on McNell Road.
Orestes Orlando Orr, who was born in Illinois, arrived in the county in 1878 to teach school on the Avenue. His real interest however was to become a lawyer. He was admitted to the bar in 1881 and became a member of the first law firm in Ventura County. He was elected District Attorney in 1884 at age 27, and he held the office for three terms.
He married Ella Mae Comstock in 1881. She had been born in Oskaloosa, Iowa. The lives of the couple entered a new phase when Orestes ran for the office of State Senator in 1892. The Ojai reported on November 5 of that year that “The Republican meeting at the school house last Saturday night was a rousing one. Orestes Orr made many votes for himself by his manly talk . . . .” He was elected. While serving in the State Senate, he held the chairmanship of the Roads & Highways Committee, a prominent position considering the great drive for good roads at the time. A couple of years later, he chaired the Senate Committee on Corporations.
The photographs above may have been wedding photographs, but a note on the back of Ella’s states that her dress was typical of what she would have worn to official functions in Sacramento. Unfortunately, Ella Mae died young, at age 41 in 1908. Orestes continued to practice law in Ventura County.
His son Harold held the position of Ventura City Attorney for 35 years. Harold received Earle Stanley Gardner into his Ventura law firm in 1915. Orestes’ son Charles owned the Hermitage Ranch in the East Valley, and Orestes himself lived on Signal Street at the time of his death in June of 1915.
The Dennison family is seen here gathered at their ranch in the Upper Valley in 1897, possibly for the celebration of New Year’s Day. The younger members are prepared to play tennis, while the older members are seated on chairs alongside the court, well-wrapped against the chilly air. Seated at the rear center is a bearded man, Henry Jackson Dennison, head of the family. He looks old in this picture, but he lived another twenty years. He and his wife had many children, grand-children and inlaws, as this photograph attests.
The Ojai Valley Tennis Club had been formed about a year earlier, and its first Valley-wide tournaments were played in 1896. Nina and William Soule were the first mixed-doubles champions that year. It seems probable that some of the persons seen in this picture participated in those first tournaments.
Three of Henry Jackson’s sons stand at the rear, from left to right: Rapp, Schuyler and Waldo (behind the net). At the far left is Henry’s daughter, Lulu Dennison Mallory, holding her daughter Margaret on her lap. The infant was born in October 1896. At the lower center of the picture is a young woman who romantically holds a bouquet of flowers on her lap. At the far right is a smiling young woman wishing us good luck by displaying a four leaf clover constructed of tennis rackets. Note that the Dennisons seemed to have had trouble properly trimming their palm tree.
Tennis anyone? Can you find the tennis ball in the picture?
