History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 18

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700

USA > California > Orange County > History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 18

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March 21, 1919. Oil wells located in Orange County are producing 1,475,000 barrels of oil a month. That, at the present price, means a value of $1,843,750 a month, and $22,125,000 a year, which is $1,625,000 more than the estimate of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce.

April 14, 1919. The Union Oil Company's Chapman well is now regarded as the finest well in the state and the pride of the southern field. This great well has been throttled down to 2,500 barrels, the product coming through a 7/8 dip nipple. The oil is testing 23 gravity and the cut is less than .6 of one per cent. The gas pressure continues and is now up to 300 pounds. The well is making close to a million feet of gas daily. Gas from the well is furnished Anaheim.

August 18, 1919. A later account. At Richfield the Union's Chapman gusher has become the wonder of all Southern California. This great producer continues to increase daily until now the output has reached 5,200 barrels. Accompanying this tremendous volume of oil that is coming easily and quietly from a depth of 3,000 feet, is some 3,000,000 feet of gas. The oil is coming through a 114 inch opening, and if opened up the well would produce 10,000 barrels as easily as it is now producing 5,200.

August 14, 1919. Barney Hartfield of Anaheim, one of the owners of the Heffern well, said oil and gas at 2,385 feet indicated a good well then, but it was cemented up and bigger stakes are being sought. The Heffern Company has over 500 acres under lease. It has refused $100,000 for the release of a 70- acre tract.

September 10, 1919. Throwing oil and sand a distance of seventy-five feet above the derrick Kraemer well No. 1, of the Standard Oil Company, came in, adding a new gusher to the Fullerton field. It is estimated that this well is pro- ducing 5,000 barrels of oil daily.

September 22, 1919. An experienced Pennsylvania oil man, reported to be very wealthy and with strong eastern connections, has leased for oil the prop- erties of Mary J. Bond, M. J. Monette, W. K. Mead, H. D. Lyman and others, comprising more than 1,000 acres. These lands are located just east of El Mo- cena, four miles east of Orange and six miles southeast of the Richfield district.

October 3, 1919. The Standard's Kraemer 2-1 well blew a charge of gas and oil out of the hole and covered about twenty acres of C. C. Chapman's choicest orange trees with oil. It also discharged large quantities of sand.

October 13, 1919. The Chapman gusher is again referred to as the best pro- ducer in the state, having poured forth a million and a half barrels of 27 gravity oil since it came in the latter part of March.

October 15, 1919. What promised to be another gusher was brought in on the O. M. Thompson property, one-quarter of a mile east and one mile south of the Chapman well. The oil forced its way up through the sand and mud to the top of the pipe; but the men clamped on a cap and prevented its flowing for the time being. 8

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October 20, 1919. The Standard Oil Company and others have leased con- siderable acreage on the Huntington Beach mesa, though no derricks have been erected as yet. Some of the leases carry a cash bonus and a monthly rental as well as a share in the oil developed. Joe Simas of Seal Beach, in boring for water, opened up a small gas well, which he utilizes for light and fuel supply for his house and barn.

October 24, 1919. A 3,500-barrel oil well was brought in by the Standard Oil Company on the Murphy lease on Monday. The well, No. 66, completed at 2,833 feet, is the second largest well brought in during the year, and maintains the supremacy of the Murphy property as the greatest oil producing lease in the state.

October 30, 1919. The well, reported fifteen days ago on the O. M. Thomp- son place as having been capped without letting it display itself, proves to be a 5,000-barrel gusher, rivaling the famous Chapman well.

November 18, 1919. The Heffern Oil Company, which heretofore has been an association, decided to incorporate with a capital stock of $5,000,000. The cost of the test well to date is $214,000, including $30,000 value of the Heffern leases. There are three drilling crews at work in the vicinity of Newport Bay. The Liberty Oil Company is cleaning out its well No. 1 at the head of the bay. Some oil was found at a depth of 2,100 feet when work was stopped. Now the company will go several hundred feet deeper.

As proof that Orange County's oil production has not reached its limits, but is on the increase, note the following recent developments :

The Petroleum Oil Company brought in Thompson well No. 2 on March 12, 1920, with a reported flow of 3000 barrels and increasing. The company was expecting a gusher and prepared to care for the oil so that none of it would be wasted. Thompson well No. 3 came in June 1, 1920, with a flow of 650 barrels, which many believe too low an estimate.

The Kraemer well No. 2-5, which was brought in recently, is producing 150 barrels of 26 gravity oil. The Thompson-Goodwin well of the Union Oil Company came in with a roar June 14, spouting oil over the top of the derrick and then sanded up. However, it started flowing again a steady stream which experts estimate at 1,800 barrels per day of 27 gravity oil.

Spouting over the tops of the derricks, two wells on the Standard Oil Com- pany's Sam Kraemer lease, in the Placentia-Richfield district, came in with a roar June 23. 1920. They are numbered 6 and 7. The yield of No. 6 has been estimated all the way from 1,000 to 3,000 barrels per day. No estimate was reported on the yield of No. 7, although it was said to be equally violent with No. 6.

Early in August, 1920, Huntington Beach well No. 1 on the mesa was brought in with a small intermittent flow, which later became constant and in- creased to nearly 150 barrels of 24 to 26 gravity oil per day. This established the character of that section as proven oil territory. Immediately all land, not already under contract, was leased by some of the operating companies. The Newport mesa well and the well at Olive are about ready for testing early in September, although the drillers think they may have to go deeper. A new well is being started near Orange County Park, and others are being planned or drilled in different parts of the county, especially in or near proven territory. It is not always wise in argument to reason from a few particulars to a general conclusion ; but, producing oil wells are becoming so numerous and widely scattered, it is almost safe to conclude that the whole of Orange County is under- laid with oil sand, though it may be at different depths in different localities.

Other wells might be mentioned, but space forbids. However, the Brea Progress-Munger Oil News Service gave quite an extensive survey of the oil fields of Orange County and adjoining territory on June 26, 1920, prepared by Elwood J. Munger. A summary of this report shows 170 wells drilling, 930 producing, with a daily output of 76,000 barrels of oil, ranging in gravity from 14 to 27.

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and in price from $1.43 per barrel for the lowest gravity oil to $1.93 for the highest. While a large majority of the wells mentioned in the report are in Orange County, yet the inclusion of wells at Santa Fe Springs, Whittier, Monte- bello and other outside fields would prevent this county claiming all the credit for the fine showing in this report. If only half of the daily output reported, or 38,000 barrels, be credited to this county, and if the average price received be $1.68 per barrel, which is the average between $1.43 and $1.93, then Orange County would receive a gross income of $23,301,000 from its oil industry each year. If, however, two-thirds of the daily output reported, or 50,666 barrels, be credited to this county, and if the average price received be $1.68 per barrel. then Orange County would receive a gross income of $31,068,391 from its oil industry each year. The latter sum tallies pretty closely with the estimate of the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce.

But, however estimated, the oil industry is clearly the largest asset of Orange County, and makes this county safe from light, heat and power troubles.

CHAPTER XXVI THE CITRUS INDUSTRY

By G. W. Sandilands

The orange was born in India : when, history does not say. Thence it found its way into Arabia and Syria, and in the eleventh century was growing in Italy, Sicily and Spain, Europe's greatest citrus fruit regions. The sixteenth century brought the orange to America. Across the Atlantic the Spaniards brought it in their conquest of the new world.

California saw the orange in 1769, or within the next few years after, for it was then that the Franciscans started north out of Lower California. In 1792 oranges are known, by mission records, to have been growing at the San Buena Ventura Mission. San Gabriel Mission, near Los Angeles, had the most extensive grove. This was set out in 1804. In 1818 there were 211 fruit trees, oranges and others, at San Gabriel. Two small groves were planted in Los Angeles in 1834, the first outside of the Mission gardens. William Wolfskill set out two acres in 1841, the first intended for commercial use. In 1857, L. Van Luven, pioneer fruit man in the region now holding the great orchards of San Bernardino Valley, planted forty-five seedling trees. In 1865, 200 trees were set out at Crafton, near Redlands.

Sacramento saw the first orange tree in the northern section in 1855. By 1862 there were 25.000 citrus fruit trees in California. In 1870, the first seeds were planted at Riverside. However, the real era of the citrus fruit industry was started in 1873. It was in that year that L. C. Tibbetts, of Riverside, planted two trees from the Department of Agriculture, which secured a small shipment of trees from Bahia, Brazil. The superiority of the fruit of these trees was quickly recognized. The trees were named the Washington Navel, and in the next decade several thousand acres of Washington Navels were planted in Cali- fornia. The original trees are still living and are objects of interest to the people and visitors of Riverside. Some years ago one of these trees was removed from its original home to the grounds of the Glenwood Inn, and reset with great pomp and ceremony on the occasion of a visit of President Roosevelt, the distinguished visitor taking part in the work of transplanting.

By Charles C. Chapman

Orange County, as the name implies, gives splendid evidence of being the ideal section for the culture of the orange. It is as highly developed here as in any other part of the world. Indeed, I do not hesitate to say that the orange grown here has no equal. This is demonstrated by the fact that for years

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oranges from this county have brought the highest prices, in the most discriminat- ing market of the country, of any oranges grown in the world.

The soil and climate of Orange County are splendidly adapted to the culture of the orange. Indeed, the Divine hand has been lavish in bestowing upon all Southern California, and upon Orange County in particular, rare natural advan- tages, perhaps greater than those enjoyed by any other section over which the flag floats. The magnificent mountain ranges not only form picturesque scenery and giant bulwarks to guard the fertile valleys, but are our great natural reser- voirs. Our coast is washed by the boundless Pacific. Our climate is faultless. In fact, it is not too much to say that as to the fertility of soil, the charming climate and the scenery with its grandeur and beauty, it is not surpassed the world around.

Not only are the climate and soil of this county adapted to the culture of the orange, but irrigating water is in abundance and rain is as plentiful as in any other section in Southern California. The temperature does not go as high in summer or as low in winter here as in the more inland sections. The extremes are not experienced, and, therefore, oranges are frequently held here upon the trees for many months after they are fully matured and without serious detriment to their texture, color or flavor.

The splendid equipment for packing oranges now found in our packing houses is the result of a very considerable evolution in the orange industry. Ingenious men have invented machinery, as well as discovered new and improved methods of doing work in every department, from clipping the fruit from the tree to putting it on the market.

The methods of handling oranges were very crude and simple at first. There was no uniformity of pack, or any method in general adopted by the early growers and packers. The only thought seemingly in the mind of the shipper was to get the fruit in some sort of package in order to ship to the consumer. During these early days Chinamen were generally employed to do the packing. The fruit was cut from the trees and piled up on the ground or in sheds, and the Chinamen sat upon the ground or floor and made selection as to size from the pile and put them in the box, sometimes wrapping them with the ordinary coarse brown paper, such as was usually found in the grocery stores of that day.

Soon, however, enterprising shippers began to realize that if the fruit was uniformly sized it would pack more evenly and be more attractive. Some very simple and inexpensive machinery for doing this was invented. Perhaps the first machine for sizing of any pretensions was the one known as the California grader. This was a simple rope grader about ten feet long and worked by foot power. From time to time this was lengthened until some were made from twenty to thirty feet long, delivering fruit to bins arranged on either side and extending five to ten feet longer.

Other sizers more complicated and with greater capacity and accuracy have been invented. There are two or three quite extensive factories in Southern California which make packing-house equipment for doing practically all work in the handling of the orange. There are now on the market washers, driers, polishers, graders, sizers, separators and wrapping machines of several designs and at various prices.

Progress has been made along all lines of the business. Uniform packages have been adopted for both the orange and the lemon. These are embellished with lettering and designs printed in colors on slats and ends. Shippers have individual brands, and most shippers use elaborate and beautifully colored litho- graphic labels of these on the ends of the boxes. The orange wrappers have also been changed from the coarse brown paper to fine silk tissue, upon which richly colored designs or monograms are printed. Some of the most enterprising shippers nse two-color prints on their wrappers, and some who cater to the best Eastern trade use beautifully laced and printed side curtains for the boxes. Thus we have now going from all our packing houses uniform and attractive

TYPICAL ORANGE GROVE SCENE (J. T. LYON RANCH)

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packages. One shipper in Orange County even tags every orange of a certain brand with a little green and gold tag, a specially prepared machine being used for the purpose. In some packing houses the equipment is very elaborate and expensive, costing many thousands of dollars, and with a capacity of ten cars per day.

The first orange trees put out in Orange County, as in Los Angeles and Riverside counties, were seedlings, the present popular varieties being unknown here. Much time was required for these to come into bearing, as the seedling is slower in this regard than the budded varieties. However, the time came when there were a few oranges ready for the market.

The modern packing houses with their splendid equipment were, of course, unknown in that early day; nevertheless the fruit was, after a fashion, packed and shipped. It found a ready market and at such splendid prices that the culture of the orange became an attractive and established industry in several sections of the country.

Very naturally an occupation which is so attractive as citrus culture soon interested many enterprising men. - Some realized that other varieties than the seedling might prove more profitable. Immediately steps were taken to secure varieties adapted to the climate. The result in a few years was the introduction of a number of varieties which have proven productive and profitable and well adapted to our soil and climate.

Among the standard varieties of oranges grown in this county, besides the Washington Navel, are the Mediterranean Sweets, St. Michael, Malta and Ruby Blood, Satsuma and the Valencia Lates. From 1886 to 1890 quite a run was made by the Mediterranean Sweets and many thousand trees were put out. It was thought that this variety would supply the late spring demand, after the season of the Washington Navel had passed. It has proven a tender orange and not altogether satisfactory. One reason for this variety not being in more favor (though of late years it has very generally proven profitable), was the introduction of an orange that more completely filled the requirements of a late orange. This is the Valencia Late, which in many respects, as it has been developed here, is the best orange grown in the world. For more than twenty years it has made the record for prices received for California oranges. It has many excellent qualities which make it a most desirable and profitable orange for grower, handler and consumer. It is the best keeper on or off the tree, and therefore a splendid shipping orange for the autumn. It has been the most popular orange with growers for many years, and especially in Orange County, which seems to be able to produce this splendid variety more perfectly than any other section of the state.

The writer has been informed by A. D. Bishop, an old and honored orange grower living near Orange, that the first orchard planted in that section, if not in the county, was by Patterson Bowers. He put out about two acres in 1873 on the south side of what is now Walnut Avenue, a street running east from the city of Orange and where the street descends into the bed of Santiago Creek. In 1874 B. River planted five acres of seedling trees. These trees were purchased from T. A. Garey, of Los Angeles, and hauled down in a wagon. The following year the remainder of the ten-acre ranch was set out with trees grown in the nurseries of D. C. Hayward and Joseph Beach at Orange. This orchard was on land platted by Chapman and Glassell and known as the Rich- land farm, and now a part of the city of Orange. This was soon followed by an orchard planted by a Mr. Dimmock and Joseph Fisher. This was located northwest of Orange. In 1876 Dr. W. B. Wall put out an orchard at Tustin. This was soon followed by orchards set out in that district by Samuel Preble. Mr. Tustin, Mr. Wilcox, Mr. Snow and Mr. Adams, old-time residents.

In 1878 M. A. Peters and John Gregg planted orchards about one mile south of Orange from trees grown by themselves budded from trees purchased from the Garey Nursery in Los Angeles.

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The Gregg place is the one now owned by A. D. Bishop. Trees in good bearing condition are here which were budded in the nursery in 1876, now forty-three years ago. Some of the trees planted by Mr. Peters in 1878 are producing fruit equal to if not identical with the Valencias coming from Florida at a later date.

The first orchard set out in the Placentia district was by R. H. Gilman. He put out forty acres in 1875 on what is still known as the Gilman ranch on Placentia. Avenue. William M. McFadden, about 1880, put out twenty acres further up the same avenue. The following year Dr. Tombs, whose property lay between Gilman's and McFadden's, put out several acres. These men planted seedlings and Australian Navels, as it was before the stock of the Washington Navels was on the market.

Closely following the setting of the above orchards came Theodore Staley, Peter Hansen and Mr. McDowell into the neighborhood. These men set out small orchards, the two former on Placentia Avenue and the latter the orchard now owned by Mr. Klokke. For a few years thereafter there was considerable activity in planting orchards in this district. -

Even before any of the above orchards were put out there were scattered about in the yards of the residents of Anaheim a few orange trees. These were seedlings, but they demonstrated that what is now the northern part of Orange County was adapted to orange culture. Among the first, if not the very first, to put out orchards of any considerable size about Anaheim was a Mr. Knappe and Henry Brimmerman.

It is thought that the black scale was brought in on trees from Los Angeles. We are to suppose, therefore, that growers from the very beginning of the indus- try were troubled with this pest.

The red scale, which has at times done great damage to orchards, did not make its presence felt until 1884 and 1885. T. A. Garey, above mentioned, is supposed to claim the honor for having introduced it into California. Some, how- ever, say it was brought in by Mr. Hayward on Australian Navel stock which he brought from Australia. The fact, however, that this scale appeared in the San Gabriel orchards some time before it did at Orange would seem to disprove the latter statement.

These scale pests soon became a real menace to the orange business and very early efforts for their destruction were made. About 1882, spraying with caustic washes, using fish oil as a base for carrying the alkali was pretty generally adopted. Little benefit, if any, was had from this spray, it not proving effective, and often doing damage to the fruit and tree. In 1885 Mr. Bishop invented what is known as the raisin wash. This was quite generally used until the invention of fumigating in 1889.

Fumigating with gas made from cyanide of potassium and sulphuric acid has proven the most effective method of destroying scale pests yet discovered, and is used in all orange sections infected with scale. A. D. Bishop must have the credit for giving to the growers this splendid discovery. It has really been the salvation of the orange industry in Southern California. The division of ento- mology of the Department of Agriculture at Washington sent special agents here from time to time to discover some method, if possible, to destroy the scale pests which were becoming a serious menace. For several years experiments were made chiefly with sprays. These have proven unsatisfactory, in fact, practically worthless as an insecticide.

There was trouble at first in fumigating because of the gas burning the trees and fruit. Then it was noticed that the injury was less on cloudy days; so the tents were painted black. In their experiments Drs. W. B. Wall and M. S. Jones discovered that fumigating at night was even better than with painted tents, be- cause of the lower temperature at night. They accordingly associated themselves with A. D. Bishop and took out a patent on night fumigation, which soon was dubbed the "twilight patent." This patent was offered to the fruit growers of

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Southern California for $10,000; but they lacked one vote on the board of super- visors of Orange County to consummate the sale to the counties. The courts afterward annulled the patent on the ground that darkness, or the absence of light, was not patentable.

The first cars of oranges were shipped in 1883 by M. A. Peters and A. D. Bishop. These gentlemen sent two cars to Des Moines, Iowa. A few other cars were sent out from the county that year. The shipment for 1910 was 840,960 boxes of oranges and 43,392 boxes of lemons; that for 1920 was estimated 2.000.000 boxes of oranges and about 300,000 boxes of lemons.

Many hundreds of acres only recently set out will soon be in bearing, so that we may confidently expect to ship out of Orange County before many years from five to six thousand cars of the finest citrus fruit grown in the world.

Crop estimators have used the returns of the Orange County Fruit Exchange for 1919 as a basis for estimating the value of the county's citrus crop for that year. This exchange, with headquarters at Orange, is the selling agent for eleven citrus associations. all located southeast of the Santa Ana River, except the one. at Garden Grove, and handles at least seventy per cent of the crop in that territory. It is claimed that the territory northwest of the river produces fully as much fruit as that southeast of the stream.

At the annual meeting of the exchange, February 9, 1920, the following direc- tors were elected for the ensuing year : D. C. Drake, Willard Smith, R. W. Jones, Wade Flippen, George B. Shattuck, Ed Utt, E. B. Collier. E. D. White, J. O. Arkley, D. E. Huff, A. E. Bennett. The board organized with D. C. Drake as president ; Willard Smith, vice-president ; L. D. Palmer, secretary, and A. E. Ben- nett, exchange representative.

From the secretary's annual report it is learned that the exchange shipped 2.622 carloads of oranges, of 462 boxes to the car, and 584 carloads of lemons. The shipments. divided according to varieties, were as follows: Valencias, 1.152,145 boxes; lemons. 239,609 boxes; Navels. 42,073 boxes; sweets, 12,858 boxes ; miscellaneous, 3,022 boxes : total, 1.450,707 boxes. The returns from these shipments were $5,495.444.49, which is $1,261,525.42 more than for any previous season.

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History of Orange County, California : with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its earliest growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 18

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1700

Author: Armor, Samuel, 1843-; Pleasants, J. E., Mrs
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1700