Officers to be seated with Cloud are Sam Smith, vice President and Robert Campbell, secretary-Treasurer.  Four new directors are also to be installed.  Supervisor Warner is slated to officiate.

Speaker will be Walter Tipton, in charge of juvenile work with the county sheriff’s office. Another highlight billed will be the formal presentation of a certificate of appreciation to Miss Mildred Paulk, art supervisor at the Laurel School.

For the past three years Miss Paulk has designed and supervised construction of outdoor shrines which each year have [rest of article unavailable].

Is St. Isidore Church the oldest building in Los Alamitos?

No.  The Layton house on Chestnut (reportedly built in 1897) , and probably two other houses on that street, are older than the church.  An argument can be made that it’s the oldest complete non-residential structure.   But there is still a lot of gray areas in this.  The Sugar beet factory was constructed in 1896-97.  St. Isidore’s exact date of construction is in question, but the earliest date is 1921 — 25 years after the factory was built.  Part of the sugar beet factory still stands — the Grating Pacific cement structure which was once part of the Sugar Beet Factory warehouse behind Briggeman offices was constructed in 1921 after a fire damaged the original warehouse (and torched thousands of 100-pounmd sacks of sugar) earlier that same year.  St. Isidore was also rebuilt after the 1933 earthquake damaged much of it.

When was it built?

The Chamber of Commerce website says 1922, the St. Isidore website says 1921.  Other sites have used the date 1923.  While it is possible services were held on this site — possibly even in a tent — at any of these dates, the Orange County records show the Bixby Land Company recorded the transfer of ownership of the land to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles on August 21, 1924 (Book 536, Page 323).  And Marilynn Poe says the research done by the Save St. Isidore committee shows that construction of the church was completed in 1926. You also have to take into account that much of the original building was damaged in the 1933 earthquake and had to be rebuilt after that. So you would be more accurate to say the building wasn;t built until after 1933.

Isidore — Isadore — How is it really spelled?

Many original documents and newspaper articles referencing the church — ranging from newspaper listings (placed by the church itself) noting their times of services, and articles in the Enterprise in the 1950s, referencing the womens auxiliary or when the hall was used to host American Legion dances) spell it as St.. Isadore. In some of the oral histories compiled by Cal State Long Beach and the Rancho Los Alamitos foundation, the old-timers spell it out with an “a.”  However, the grant deed from the Bixby Land Company reportedly says “St. Isidore” from a historical perspective. The spellings are often interchangeable, but Isadore is the spelling most frequently used prior to 1960.

Was the church built by Mexican farmers?

St. Isidore was the patron saint of farmers, so part of the story derives from this but all the facts don’t square with the claim that th church was built by Mexican farmers.  First, most of the Mexicans in Los Alamitos were not farmers.  Some ran the pool hall.  Some ran one of the hotels, while others were laundry agents, mechanics, a gardner, sales clerks at local store, a carpenter who did odd jobs,  laborers at the sugar mill, the lumberyard, the brick yard or the rock mill.  A couple were truck drivers.  Of course, some worked on the beet farms and the dairy farms, but most farmers were migrant workers who moved from area to area during the harvests, and did not live in this town full-time.  Nor was attending church one of their prime goals in life.

In addition, the church served all the Catholics in the area and Mexicans were not the only Catholics.  According to the 1930 census, there were 206 total families in the Los Alamitos district.  Only 57 familes were listed as of Mexican descent.

There 21 families of Belgian farmers (almost 100 residents counting children), and they played an active role in the church. Anne Watte served as head of the Auxiliary in the 1950s. Most Belgians (who also called themselves Flemish-Americans, were located on the Fred and Susannah Bixby Ranch properties south of Los Alamitos on Bryant Avenue (now Orangewood), Bixby Avenue (now Chapman), Anaheim Road (also called Ocean Ave but now the 405/Garden Grove Freeway) and Westminster Road.  You also had a good size number of Irish families – the Reagans, Malloys, Brennan, O’Connor, Flanagan, Dempseys, and a sprinkling of French and Polish families as well.

This accounts for only 78 families, just over one third of the Los Alamitos population.  And some, although probably not many, of these older Mexican families may have been Protestant according to the records of the Congregationalist minsters who also preached to the Mexican farmers and migrant workers in Spanish in the early days of the Sugar factory.

And from a practical matter4, the church was built by craftsman, people who knew how to build. No doubt, some of the workers — perhaps even a majority — were Mexican, many of the craftsman weren’t — Rush Labourdette and ___ Sjostrom were also known to have done some of the labor on the walls and flooring of the church.

Who was St. Isidore?-

from The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) -

A Spanish daylabourer; b. near Madrid, about the year 1070; d. 15 May, 1130, at the same place.  He was in the service of a certain Juan de Vargas on a farm in the vicinity of Madrid.  Every morning before going to work he was accustomed to hear a Mass at one of the churches in Madrid.  One day his fellow-labourers complained to their master that Isidore was always late for work in the morning.  Upon investigation, so runs the legend, the master found Isidore at prayer, while an angel was doing the ploughing for him.  On another occasion his master saw an angel ploughing on either side of him, so that Isidore’s work was equal to that of three of his fellow-labourers.  Isidore is also said to have brought back to life the deceased daughter of his master and to have caused a fountain of fresh water to burst from the dry earth in order to quench the thirst of his master.  He was married to Maria Torribia, a canonized saint, who is venerated in Spain as Maria della Cabeza, from the fact that her head (Spanish, cabeza ) is often carried in procession especially in time of drought.  They had one son, who died in his youth.  On one occasion this son fell into a deep well and at the prayers of his parents the water of the well is said to have risen miraculously to the level of the ground, bringing the child with it, alive and well.  Hereupon the parents made a vow of continence and lived in separate houses.  Forty years after Isidore’s death, his body was transferred from the cemetery to the church of St. Andrew.  He is said to have appeared to Alfonso of Castile, and to have shown him the hidden path by which he surprised the Moors and gained the victory of Las Nevas de Tolosa, in 1212.  When King Philip III of Spain was cured of a deadly disease by touching the relics of the saint, the king replaced the old reliquary by a costly silver one.  He was canonized by Gregory XV, along with Sts. Ignatius, Francis Xavier, Teresa, and Philip Neri, on 12 March, 1622.  St. Isidore is widely venerated as the patron of peasants and day-labourers.  The cities of Madrid, Leon, Saragossa, and Seville also, honour him as their patron.  His feast is celebrated on 15 May.

(From Old Catholic Encyclopedia, circa 1913)

The name was in use in Belgium in the late 1800s.  Lest it be forgotten, Belgium was long part of the Spanish Hapsburg domains.  The Protestant Dutch revolted and became the Netherlands while predominantly Catholic Belgium stayed loyal.

Because of his oil income, Fred Bixby had neither the need nor inclination to sell off any of his beloved ranch. His sister Susannah Bixby Bryant, was not so reluctant.  Her land did not have the same oil income and she had shifted her focus to her lands in Yorba Linda where she had developed a renowned botanical garden as a tribute to her father.

References to the construction of a new naval air base in Southern California made their way into the newspapers as early as January 1, 1941 when a Press-Telegram feature article mentioned the expansion that wo0uld take place in Los Alamitos.   But  to handle the already underway expansion of the Naval reserve, the Navy had already leased land just south and east of Los Alamitos City Garden Acres tract where student were already training when the base plans for expansion were announced.

A two-paragraph item in the Feb. 25, 1941 LA Times reported that the Naval Reserve Air Base in Long Beach would move to a new 400 acre field in the vicinity of Los Alamitos.  This was located south of Farquhar and north of Bryant (Orangewood), and was a mile and a half wide. A follow-up article noted it was “leased from the Los Alamitos Sugar Company” and was 480.6 acres.
On March 29, 1941, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported the Navy had bought from Mrs. Susannah Bixby Bryant 1,300 acres of open farmland for “a huge new huge reserve base for navy aviation.” This was immediately south of the previously purchased land.
Later histories say the Navy offered Mrs. Bixby $350 an acre for the property, but that in the best patriotic spirit she sold it for $300.  Newspapers at the time say only that the price was undisclosed, and that the purchase was made following condemnation proceedings by the Navy, leaving unsaid whether Mrs. Bryant was a willing partner or not. Also condemned was the quarter-mile wide strip just south of the Bryant property and belonging to Fred Bixby.  It extended the base boundary to Lampson, making a total of 965 acres in a mile and half square.
Whether either Bixby was an enthusiastic partner is unknown,. But Fred was definitely not a willing partner on a subsequent military landgrab.  A few months later he was fighting tooth and nail to keep the Navy from taking 88 acres of his prime Long Beach mesa farmland for a new hospital (the one currently located at 7th and Bellflower, next to Cal State Long Beach.).  The LA Times quoted Bixby as announcing “he will make every effort to halt the threatened condemnation of the area.”  Bixby tried to enlist friends on the Chamber of Commerce to help him fight this takeover of some of his best bean fields, and they said he would get so frustrated when talking about he was almost in tears,
Not surprisingly, the Navy got its way and construction funds for the new base and hospital soon followed.  Congress had authorized over $3,000,000 for the facility which would have two runways, one 5,000 feet (15 city blocks) in length, and the other 3,500 feet. Half of the money was to go towards housing facilities, hangars, shops and administration buildings. The buildings at Los Alamitos and at the Roosevelt Navy Base at the Port of Long Beach were designed by well-known architects Paul Revere Williams and A. Quincy Jones.  The pairs art deco modern style, especially at the Roosevelt Base, is considered some of the finest examples of public art deco work.
The tenant farmers on those lands, mainly Belgians   but some Japanese on the southeastern corner or on Hellman land, now had to find new sections to work.  Most of the Belgians did so but the Japanese would not have the chance.
Within hours of the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, US government officials began arresting local Japanese nationals and leaders.  By February 1942, over 19,000 Japanese-Americans from Los Angeles and Orange County had been removed.

Base Starts in 30 Days (April 3, 1941)

Press-Telegram – April 3, 1941

Approval Given Appropriation of Half Million

———

Work is expected to start within 30 days on the $3,000,000 Naval Reserve Aviation Base, for which a 480 acre site was obtained by the federal government last week one-half mile south of Los Alamitos, Orange County about five miles east of Daugherty Field.

Commander Thomas A. Gray of the Reserve Air Base Revealed today that a WPA application for work to cost about $500,000 has already been approved by the Southern California Regional Office.  The project will provide for the start of runway construction and barracks building.

The new field will be located one half mile east of Los Alamitos Boulevard between Bixby and Bryant Avenues.  The Navy Department has already taken title to the property through condemnation proceedings.

Tentative plans call for completion of the $3,000,000 plant inside of 18 months.  While the two runways, one 5,080 feet in length and the other 3,760 feet long, are being built the cadets in training will use the 160-acre field now under lease just north of the permanent base site.

Construction of the barracks will be one of the first moves, Commander Gray revealed, in order that the 100 or more students now housed in private facilities may be accomodated at the field.

The two runways will be 200 feet in width and the interior of the new field will be provided with turf to facilitate practice take-offs and landings and other training activities.

Tentative plans call for an attractive administration building, a series of hangars, a field apron 200 feet wide, and about 1500 feet long, barracks for about 300 men, shops and other structures.

The beginning of the end of the Los Alamitos Sugar Factory began with the release of a report by Orange County officials detailing all the potential hazards of the abandoned facility.   With all the negatives laid out, and the placxe being labeled a “death trap,” the absentee landlord (he apparently lived in Pasadena) had no option but to invest a lot of money to totally upgrade the building or take the cheaper way out and demolish the building and sell the land.  Unfortunately, he chose the latter, but considering the times it’s hard to blame him.  So the Los Alamitos Sugar Factory, the only reason a town was founded in 1896 o

n what had been a flood-prone, out of the way coy0te den, good only for grazing cattle and sheep, began to be torn down piece by piece over most of 1960.
The one interesting new fact to me in this article was the mention of a 1948 raid by sheriffs on a gambling den operating in the building.  We have looked at old LA Times and can’t find any contemporary mention of this.  If anyone has any further knowledge of this, please post or let u know through email.

SANTA ANA—Orange County supervisors have taken official note of a purported potential death trap near Los Alamitos and asked county and legal officials for recommendations as to what should be done.

A report submitted by the county sheriff’s office and the Building department against a former sugar beet factory at Cerritos and Katella Avenues. brought on the action which could lead to a condemnation.

Sheriff’s officers have termed the three story warehouse as an attractive nuisance to children in the area and recently led other county officials on a tour of the brick structure.

During the tour the officials said they found:

A quantity of dust, cotton rags and paper creating a grave fire hazard.

Other Hazards

Wooden stairways weak from age.

Leaking water pipes.

A power fuse box that had been short-circuited by pacing a metal bar across the terminals, shorting out all the electrical circuits in the building.

Catwalks that are three stories up and are open to the ground floor.

A sump hole 9 feet deep outside the building which is filled with water during heavy rains.

A sump hole 9½ feet deep and 90 feet long full of oil and water which is open in two places.

Abandoned 13 years

Several bricks which had fallen and more in danger of falling.

Hot wiring in the building and unlocked fuse boxes.

The warehouse was abandoned as a factory 13 years ago.  Later it was used to store army surplus equipment and in 1948 was raided by sheriff’s officers as a gambling den.

ELMER ORVAL HOOKER. — Prominent among the interesting pioneers of Orange County who have contributed something worth while toward the development of the section in which they have lived and toiled, must be mentioned Mr. and Mrs. Elmer O. Hooker, identified in an enviable way with the introduction of the sugar beet into Los Alamitos. He was born at Terre Haute, Ind., on January 18, 1873, the son of William O. and Elizabeth (Ratts) Hooker, natives of Virginia and Indiana, respectively, and when three years of age was brought by his parents to Phillips County, Kans. There his father raised wheat, corn, rye and oats; and while he strove for a common school education, he helped on the home farm. Of their six children, four of whom are living, our subject is the third eldest.

In 1894, Mr. Hooker came out to California, and that same year he took up farming at Pomona. Three years later, he removed to Los Alamitos, settling there early enough to build one of the first houses, and to become one of the first sugar beet growers in that vicinity. He helped on the construction of the sugar factory, and he also became one of the foremen for the five following years of the Los Alamitos Sugar Refinery and helped to make its reputation for a superior product. He was manager of the Los Alamitos Beet Growers Association for a number of years, and set the pace in growing beets by the latest, most up-to-date methods. He operated from 15O to 500 acres planted to sugar beets, but in 1919 he gave up raising sugar beets and located on a ranch of forty-seven acres he had purchased in Santiago Canyon in 1917. The ranch was formerly a part of the Madame Modjeska ranch, and has over 3,000 olive trees planted by the distinguished Polish actress over twenty years ago which he is grubbing out so that he may plant the land to alfalfa and walnuts. Besides seven head of horses and eight of cattle, he follows the chicken industry as a side issue. He also improved and still owns valuable residence and business property at Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Huntington Beach.

At Los Alamitos on September 12, 1915, Mr. Hooker was married to Mrs. Adelina S. Upperman, a southern lady born at Macon, Ga., the daughter of Harry I. and Laura A. (Alverson) Joy, natives of Ellsworth, Maine, and Macon, Ga., respectively. Harry Joy served in a Maine regiment during the Civil War, after which he married a southern woman and engaged in farming until his death; his widow now lives in Evansville, Ind. Adelina Joy was educated in the schools of Macon, Ga., and there, too, she married William Upperman and they removed to Saskatchewan, Canada, where he was employed as railroad engineer on the Canadian Pacific until he was killed in a train wreck. After his death his widow engaged in railroad Y. M. C. A. work until she came to California in February, 1915, and in September of the same year changed her name.
Besides ranching so successfully, Mr. Hooker has had both public office experience and done good civic work. He was in charge of the road improvement work in his district for years, and has served for a season on the jury. He is what might be termed an exceedingly useful citizen, both doing things and setting an inspiring, contagious example to others.

He was named as one of the directors of the Chamber of Commerce when it was officially formed in January 1927, and by the 1930s was President of the Chamber of Commerce and served on many other local business groups during this time..

He also bought 40 acres of land (see map, click to enlarge) just northeast of town on the east side of Bloomfield.  (It is now in Cypress, just south of Tanglewood.)  Some of this land he leased to the Alamitos Farmers Gun Club in the 1930s.

Below is his biography from the 1920 edition of the History of Orange County by Samuel Armor.

HUGH T. O’CONNOR — A representative citizen of the Los Alamitos section of Orange County who won recognition for his locality during the various drives for loans and other allied needs, is Hugh T. O’Connor, who served as chairman of the committee that brought their section “over the top” in every drive in record time, thereby winning for Los Alamitos the medals and banners offered for efficiency.

Mr. O’Connor is a successful merchant in Los Alamitos, and has served as the postmaster since 1914, and since 1916 under civil service rules. He was born in New Orleans, in 1865. a son of Daniel and Eliza (Sheffield) O’Connor, the former born in Ireland and the latter in New Orleans. Hugh T. was the third in order of birth in a family of five and is the only one living in California. He received a good schooling and launched out in his business career when a young man and by strict attention to business has gradually worked his way to a position of trust and responsibility.

 Mr. O’Connor has been a resident of Los Alamitos for a number of years, spending six years as bookkeeper and cashier for the Felts Company, at the same time serving as postmaster. In 1918 he opened up in the grocery business for himself in a structure he erected on the boulevard, in dimension 66×50 feet, and well stocked with an assorted line of goods suitable for the needs of the community. Mr. O’Connor served as a justice of the peace, being appointed to fill a vacancy.

In 1905 occurred the marriage of Hugh T. O’Connor and Miss Florence Shattuck. After two years of happily wedded life Mrs. O’Connor passed away. Mr. O’Connor is a genial, courteous gentleman and has won the esteem of a large circle of friends in the county. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Apparently Los Alamitos, which had a number of legal drinking establishments (which gave the town a wide-open reputation) also had more than its share of Blind Pigs, some quite creative, as this 1905 LA Times article points out, regarding a blind pig where the barmaid stashed beers in the waters of a pond.

The blind pig in question seems to have been just north of the factory – either in the woods around the banks of Coyote Creek or Carbon Creek.  Since Los Angeles deputies were involved with this – the Los Al pigs muct have technically been on the north side of the creek in Los Angeles county.

This was not the first time illegal liquors had been stashed in the shallow waters of the then-forested  riverbed.  Five months earlier, George Coleman, a black man who had once been a slave told the story of an assault by his  former master, R.P. Fixley, whom he had followed to California and worked for, presumably as a barber or real estate agent but according to more knowledgable sources (including Seal Beach justice) John T. Ord, Fixley was a booze-vendor.      Coleman confirmed the booze-vending, and showed the constables Fixley’s stash of forty-two gallons of beer, two gallons of wine, and two gallons of whiskey.  He proved this by diving “twelve feet into the turbid stream and bringing to the surface eight bottles of beet at four dives.”  ^[1] LA Times, May 16, 1905, pII8, and  and May 17, 1905, pII8,

Blind Pigs Turn Turtle

Armed Resistance to Posse of Long Beach Officers

 _______________

Fruitful Raids at Artesia and Also at Norwalk

_______________

Barmaid Approachable at the Latter Place

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF THE TIMES)

Long beach, Sept. 30, 1905 — Over in Los Alamitos they have a new name for bottle beer which is sold by blind pigs.  They call them “turtles.”

Not long after midnight a weary team drove into Long Beach, pulling a surrey, carrying three tired men, and a miscellaneous load of bottle, flasks, demijohns, and kegs, all containing liquor.  The men were Deputy Constable William S. Cason and a posse, and the assortment of wet gods was the result of three successful blind-pig raids last night at Los Alamitos, Norwalk and Santa Fe Springs.

For ten days detectives from the District Attorney’s office have been at work on suspected blind pig cases and yesterday afternoon Justice Bymton, on complaint of T.W. Teter, issued warrants for the arrest of F.M. Smith at Los Alamitos,  Mrs. Jose Sims at Norwalk, and A. Serbeck at Santa Fe Springs and gave them to Deputy Constable Cason for service.

SHACK OF THE TAME TURTLE

The constable secured an assistant and with Teter and two other detectives, left at once for Los Alamitos where Teter said they would find a “nest of turtles.”  F. Smith lives north of the sugar factory, his residence settling far back off the road.  In one corner of the ranch, just off the road, is a small shack, 6×8 feet, in a clump of willows surrounding a pool, some two feet in depth.  In the shack all the day sits Smith’s daughter, a buxom damsel who weighs 180 pounds.  Occasionally  a thirsty wayfarer comes along, greets the maiden cordially, and then asks for a “turtle.”  The girls dons a pair of gum boots, wades into the pond, and making a swift grab beneath the cool waters, deftly catches a turtle of a new variety.  It is round of body with a slender neck and requires a corkscrew to dismember its head.  The customer indulges, pays his two bits and goes on refreshed, while the turtle, transformed into a dead duck, is quietly thrown aside.

SWEETHEART WIELDS KNIVES

The officers arrived there at dusk and found a thirsty crowd of cholos standing about.  Smith could not be found, evidently having been warned.  Cason grew tired of waiting and concluded to take the girl as she had sold the beer to Teter.  To this the cholos objected, and one of them, a swarthy fellow, the sweetheart of the girl, ran into the shack and came out armed with two murderous beet knives, and started towards Cason, who drew his gun, the sight of which caused a stampede.  The girl was loaded into the buggy, as were several bottles of beer, wine and whiskey, which were found hidden in chicken coops, under boxes, in the pond and even cached in the ground.  They drove to Artesia, where the girls was left in charge of Deputy Richardson until their return from Norwalk.

ARM AROUND THE BARMAID

It was growing dark when they started for Norwalk, where they arrived at 7 o’clock.  The suspected joint in the old saloon on main street, and the proprietor Jose Sima, is now serving a sentence of 180 days in the County Jail for illegal sale of liquor, but his wife conducts the business.   She was on the front step when the posse drove up, and followed them into the house and back into the old bar-room where her daughter Mamie, a vaudeville artists, was found seated on the counter with the arm of a lounger around her.  In the room were three other room who attempted to escape, but were stopped by Cason.  He arrested Mrs. Sims and searched the room, finding a considerable quantity of beer and win on ice.  The woman had several small children and Cason went to a telephone to ask the District Attorney’s office for instructions as she could not furnish bond. He was told to have her appear this morning in court.  The officer went back to the joint, arriving in time to prevent a tragedy.  One of the men had acted ugly toward the officer in charge and drawing a knife threatened an assault.  The deputy, taunted into wild anger, had his hand on his revolver when Cason interfered.

Leaving Norwalk, the posse drove to Santa Fe Springs, arriving there at dark.  To ascertain Serbeck’s whereabouts they drove to Baker’s winery and asked for a bottle of wine which was sold to them without question by Baker himself.  To inquiries about his employé Baker said he lived in the first house up the road, but was laid up, having been bitten on the hand by a dog.  The officers drove to Serbeck’s and arrested him despite his denial that he was the man wanted.  He finally admitted it, and gave the officers $250 cash bail to appear next Tuesday to plead.

HEAP OF WET GOODS

The Posse drove back to Artesia where old man Smith was found in charge of Deputy Richardson, he having come to the rescue of his daughter.  Smith also furnished bail and then the posse returned to Long Beach, arriving there about one’o’clock this morning.  The good were deposited innthe justice room until this morning, when they were removed to safe quarters pending trial of the cases.

Mrs. Sima appeared before the justice this morning, daintily dressed.  She is a French woman about 50 years of age, yet retains traces of girlish beauty.  She says the beer captured last night was in the stock left by her husband and that she has sold none of it.  The justice released her on her own recognizance to appear Tuesday for trial.

1. ^[1] ↩

reprinted from Sugar: an English-Spanish Technical Journal devoted to Sugar Production., Dec. 1916, Vol. 18, No. 12, p604

The Los Alamitos Sugar Company will finish a long and highly successful campaign about Dec. 1, at which time 107,000 tons of beets will have been sliced and considerably more than 300,000 bags of sugar produced.  This is far in excess of any previous year’s output in the history of the factory.  The sugar content of the beets has held up remarkably well, considering the 2½ inches of rainfall which occurred in that locality in early in October.  The average sugar percent to date and the average purity are both about 1 percent higher than at the close of the 1915 campaign.

The tonnage per acre has also exceeded the expectations of the Agricultural department, and everyone will concede that 1916 has been a “Banner year”  for both the company and the grower.

Soon after the close of the campaign the annual barbecue for the beet growers and factory men, and their families, will be held at the famous Montana Ranch, which for many years has been owned and operated by the Clark interests.  The ranch is located seven miles from the factory.  These events in the past have always proved very enjoyable to all who attended and the 1916 barbecue will be no exception.  There will be a game of baseball between the farmer boys and a picked team from the factory.  This game will no doubt be hotly contested, as the factory team seeks revenge for the terrible drubbing given them by the farmers last year.  In addition to the ball game there will be other sports such as running races, sack races, three-legged races, tug of war and last but not least, the “greased Pig.”

Extensive improvements are being planned for the campaign of 1917, the most important being the installation of the Steffens process, with complete equipment of the latest and most up-to-date machinery.  The best of the individual features of the various Steffens houses throughout the country will be assembled in the building of this plant and it is expected that the result will be the most efficient Steffens h9use in the United States.

The boiler room will be remodeled and several new Sterling boilers installed to replace some of the old style boilers which have done service for many years.  A concrete chimney 100 feet in height will be built to take the place of the steel stack now in use.

Two more Kelly or Vallez presses will be added to the first carbonation process and many other changes and improvements will be made to the main building to conform to the new process.

The sugar company’s activity in the matter of improvements, however will not be confined to the factory alone.  Four or five new cottages for factory employees will be added to the seven which were built last year.  ^[1]  The present playground for children which was inaugurated last summer, will be enlarged and completely equipped with all manner of gymnastic apparatus.  A tennis court and croquet grounds will be built and maintained by the company, and the establishment of golf links in the vicinity of Los Alamitos is under consideration.

The people of the town have evidently caught the spirit of enthusiasm as at the present time several buildings are in the course of construction.  The local school h9ouse and grounds will come in for their share of improvements.  New plumbing has already been installed, and the grounds will be filled in and planted to grass, flowers and vegetables which the school children will be taught to maintain as part of their education.

The prospects for campaign of 1917 are most favorable and another record breaker is looked for.

The May 1917 issue of Sugar repeated much of the above information, but added that “a large force of men has been employed all inter and many improvements and additions to the equipment are being brought about.”   That issue also noted that

The children of the town are taking a great interest in gardening.  A number of vacant lots have been plowed under and put in condition by the sugar company.  Each child is allotted a certain amount of space, and will plant and care for his individual garden.  The Department of ASgriculture will furnish the seed and prizes will be awarded to the best garden.

The May Sugar also reported that the Spring 1917 Southern California

beet crop was in satisfactory condition despite excessively cold weather in January and February, which made a large percentage of the crops slow to germinate.  This resulted in a larger than normal acreage coming on for thinning at about the same time.  Some difficulty has been reported relative to securing sufficient labor to handle the situation in Southern California, as elsewhere, but reports indicate that while some fields suffered to a certain extent on account of delayed thinning, taken as a whole the crop is in excellent condition.  The small amount of rainfall and the unusual absence of fog may necessitate much more irrigation than would normally be required.

1. ^[1] The August 1918 issue of Sugar – reprinting a Jul;y 29, 1918 article in the LA Times — notes that the factory “have built ten up-to-date cottages and are now completing five more in an effort to relieve housing conditions.”  The issue also noted that “there is now a large club house  under construction to accommodate those without families.  The building is of tile, with a large number of comfortable sleeping rooms with baths, commodious living room, equipped with lounges to afford a place of quiet enjoyment, library which will be supplied with all current issues of popular magazines and reading matter, pool and billiard room and also shower baths.  The entire block adjoining the factory, where the cottages and clubhouses are located, will bne transformed into a beautiful park with numerous shade trees and flowers  as well as being equipped with a tennis ground  “ ↩

In these days when the fertile valleys of Southern California are cut up into small holdings and the large ranches are fast disappearing, the casual observer is apt to think that the business of cattle raising in Los Angeles County is a thing of the past.  To a degree this is true, yet herds of considerable magnitude still roam the rich pastures of the Puente and Hollenbeck Hills, not far from Los Angeles.

On Saturday last their existence was brought forcibly to the minds of the peaceful orchardists when 400 head of these wild foothill cattle, owned by Col. F.M. Chapman, were driven from his Hollenbeck stock ranch in the hills south of Covina, in the charge of half a dozen typical vaqueros through the fertile Spadra and La Habra valleys to the stockyards of the Los Alamitos sugar factory to be fattened  for the Los Angeles and local markets.

The drive which commenced at daylight on Saturday, was notable for the small damage done by the passing herd to the cornfields and watermelon patches of the thrifty ranchers who were unfortunate enough for the time being to reside near the path taken by the cattle, which in a dense cloud of dust, swept by like a Kansas cyclone.  Now and then a fence was demolished, but the experienced drivers would soon head the mad rush, and a steer more refractory than the rest would son be thrown by a skillful riata.

A halt of thirty minutes was made in the Brea Cany0on near the oil wells, for lunch, and a little zest was furnished by one of the steers, which for its unruly propensities had been previously roped, breaking loose and making a mad charge upon the camp.  In a moment every one was in motion and those who could reach a horse clambered helter-skelter onto the camp wagon as the animal rushed wildly through the “grub” which had been spread on the ground.  After the animal had wreaked its vengeance on two bottles of Los Angeles brew and joined the herd, luncheon was completed without further incident.

Camp for the night was made at Buena Park and the cattle watered and corraled.

[This paragraph not in the LA Times article] Here Col. F.M. Chapman and the writer decided to forswear the easy and comfort of camp life and content themselves with the customary accommodations  which can be secured at the usual country hotel.  However, they counted without their host for on arriving at the hostelry of the village the genial host informed the Colonel that he could be cared but his hired man (meaning the writer) would have to make himself comfort able in the barn.  A glance into the pocket glass revealed the wisdom of the arrangement.  For no hobo who had ever traveled the brake beam, showed greater evidence of  travel than this hired hand whose grimy face, the result of dust and sweat, would have put the countenance of a chimney sweep in the shade.  However,  after a bath in the horse trough, a compromise was effected, and the reporter was permitted on sufferance having paid his bill in advance, to occupy a suite on the first floor below the roof.

The cook roused the boys the next morning in the dark, and before the first sun rays struck the grass breakfast had been disposed of, saddle horses roped and saddled, the corral gates thrown down and the herd was pouring through the aperture for the last stage of the journey.  Good drivers work their cattle with a wonderful absence of fuss and noise, and it was pretty to see the way in which these steers were started before the most suspicious of them grasped the idea that they were not moving of their own volition.  This gentleness and delicacy of treatment is, of course, a matter of expediency: a steer, or worse still, an old cow that gets on the fight will quickly impart its excitement to its companions, and may cause endless trouble and extra work.

By 10′oclock the factory was reached.  The cattle were driven into one large corral and there commenced the work of the day in cutting out eight or ten at a time to be weighed on a platform scale which was surrounded with strong timbers with a gate at each end.  The operation of weighing is in this wise:  Half a dozen men, well-mounted, enter the corral with the cattle, cutting out eight or ten, drive them into an adjoining paddock which contains the scale into which wings of fencing converge.  The cattle are then bunched by the horsemen and are driven with a mad rush into the scale and the gates are immediately closed.

As the blood of both men and beast grew heated the scene became more exciting, but far less businesslike; the steers began to get wicked and chase their persecutors and now and then an animal more active than the rest would jump the five-foot stockade , which meant an exciting chase for the horsemen who were watching the fun on the outside

However two hours saw this entire band of 400 cattle weighed and the cows and steers placed in separate corrals.

Thousands of range cattle are fattened annually on beet pulp and molasses in corrals surrounding the beet sugar factories of California.  On this food, a thrifty steer weighing 800 pounds will in ninety or 100 days put on from 450 to 550 pounds.

At the Los Alamitos factory the feed is controlled by the Pioneer Truck Company of Los Angeles, who fatten 3000 cattle annual in corrals covering a section of land surrounding the factory.  This firm also controls the pulp of the Santa Maria factory where it is this year fattening 5000 head.  At Alamitos the corrals are so arranged as to provide every facility for the rapid feeding of the stock and four men are caring for this vast herd.  The pulp is loaded into cars at the factory and is run direct to the corrals on a narrow gauge line through the center of the corrals, the pulp being forked from the cars into the feeding troughs.  All visitors to the stock yards are introduced to “Beck,” the faithful old mules who has been in the employ of the Fuller family for the past thirty years, and now in his declining years he is engaged in pulling the pulp cars.

[This paragraph not in LA Times version] During the trip from Covina to Los Alamitos, the cattle were in charge of F. Jackson, foreman of the Hollenbeck Ranch, C. Madison of the firm of Madison & Kendall, butchers, Otis Keeling, Carl Kendall, Porter Montgomery and our young friend Howard, the nine-year of son, of Charles Madison, and despite his youth, this gritty little youngster filled a man’s place throughout the drive.

ROAD OPENS — Kate Rea, 85,of Anaheim, and Ella Wallop, 80, of Fullerton, for whom Katella Ave. was named, paint the white line on the extension of Katella St., connecting Long Beach and Los Alamitos on Thursday. Also participating in the ceremonies was Los Alamitos mayor James V. Bell. (Register photo)

By LEONARD SARGEANT

News Assistant City Editor

LOS ALAMITOS— Miss Kate Rea, 85½, and her “kid” sister, Mrs. Ella Wallop, 80, were the hits of a ribbon cutting ceremony yesterday which opened an important link to a highway which had been named after them many years before.

Scene was the bridge over the San Gabriel River where the rites were held marking the completion and opening of the 1.6 mile extension of Willow St. in Long Beach to join with Katella Ave. in Orange County.

VETERAN PERFORMERS

Kate and Ella, namesakes of Katella Ave., posed for photographers as patiently as the many politicians who surrounded them.

The old pros at the ribbon-cutting bit included Supervisor Frank G. Bonelli of Los Angeles County, Assemblyman William Grant, and the mayors of three cities, James Bell of Los Alamitos, Ed Wade of Long Beach, and Paul S. Kemner of Signal Hill.

There was also a sprinkling of non-political bigwigs including Orange County Road Commissioner Al Koch, Assistant State Highway Engineer Ed Telford; Capt. Robert B. Buchan, commanding officer of Los Alamitos Naval Air Station; Dr. Orville Cole, president of Long Beach Chamber of Commerce, who arranged the program.

SONORA SNACKS

But it was the two sisters and a burro named Sonora loaned by Knotts berry Farm, who drew most of the attention.

Sonora ate his way through his favorite snack, a carrot, to cut one of the ribbons.  The other was officially snipped in a more conventional manner — with a pair of oversized scissors.

The Rea sisters came to Orange County in 1896, to the 80-acre ranch which their father, John R. Rea, had purchased a few years before.

Forty acres of the ranch were located just east of the property which later became the Katella School, and the other 40 acres was just north of that.  Ten acres of the old ranch now belong to Disneyland.

DEEP DUST

The old dirt road in front of the ranch and school, also called Katella, was used mostly by sugar beet truckers and sometimes was a foot deep in dust.  Rea sold the ranch in 1905.

Miss Kate now lives at 224 E. Broadway, Anaheim.  Her sister married William (Bill) T. Wallop, for 31 years superintendent and secretary of the Anaheim Union Water Co., and president of Anaheim Savings and Loan Co.  The Wallops live at 2211 N. Moody Ave., Fullerton.

Opening of the newly constructed segment of highway eliminates the only missing link in an arterial route now extending for a distance of 28 miles between Redondo Beach and Anaheim.  Cost of the project was $970,000.