fuller ranch - Meissner family

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FULLER RANCH
AT EASTVALE
HISTORY OF
FULLER RANCH
AT EASTVALE
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
1889–1954
Including Oral History of Fuller Guest Ranch 1931–1954
as told by Marcellie Fuller Thompson
Loren P. Meissner
Front cover, upper: The San Gabriel Mountain range dominates the northern
landscape on a clear morning after a rain. Photo 2005 by Randy Bekendam,
near Amy’s Farm on Eucalyptus Avenue. Southern California Agricultural
Land Foundation.
Front cover, lower: Fuller ranch at Eastvale. Pioneer Ranch was established
about 1889 on Jurupa Grant land, south of present-day Schleisman Road and
west of Hamner Avenue. A few tracts were sold to subdividers before 1915.
The Fullers sometimes also leased other nearby land. (Loren Meissner map.)
Sequel to
“A Brief History of Eastvale” by Loren P. Meissner and Kim Jarrell Johnson
(History Press, 2013)
Sources include documents from
W.D. Addison Heritage Collection
Corona Public Library, Corona, California
Bulk printing and binding is available from
Preferred Choice Printing
Suite 112, 670 East Parkridge Avenue
Corona, CA 92879
(951) 549-0951
PUBLIC DOMAIN EDITION
May be freely reproduced and distributed
04-2014-07
with covers
CONTENTS
Acknowledgement
Introduction
Chapter One. The Fuller Family Establishes Pioneer Ranch (1883-1901)
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1.1 Where Did They Come From?
1.2 Pioneer Ranch Documentation
1.3 A Visit to the Fuller Ranch (1907)
Chapter Two. Welcome to East Vale School (1893-1913)
13
2.1 East Vale Elementary School District
2.2 Moves toward a Two-room Schoolhouse
Chapter Three. Distant Horizons (1905-1925)
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3.1 Ranching in Santa Barbara County and Chihuahua
3.2 Muriel Fuller and the Rogue Steer (1924)
Chapter Four. Olive Ransome Fuller – the Next Generation (1925-1954)
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4.1 Background: Before 1925
4.2 Casa Orone and Fuller RanchO (1925-1937)
4.3 Fuller RanchO Becomes a Guest Ranch (1937-1947)
Marcellie’s 1983 Oral History with Photos from 1937 Booklet:
4.4 Hollywood Celebrities at Fuller RanchO Guest Ranch
4.5 Eastvale Neighbors Put It in Writing (1982-1986)
Bibliography
About the Author
28
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Assistance in the compilation of this document was provided by many individuals including:
Kevin Bash, a long-time Norco resident, strongly interested in developing awareness among
people in the area about significant features of local geography and history. He is one of the
first residents I met who was well aware that western Riverside County has a history that
extends back beyond his lifetime or even mine. Kevin has access to an extensive collection
of historical documents, including especially local newspaper archives, and he contributed
numerous stories and articles that illuminate the history outlined in this book.
Trixy Betsworth, resident librarian at Corona Public Library in the W.D. Addison Heritage
Room, patiently assisted searches through historical files there. She proved knowledgeable
and helpful in locating Fuller ranch archives, including the Guest Ranch picture book that
illustrates Section 4.3.
Diane Wright, Corona Public Library volunteer, transcribed Marcellie Fuller Thompson’s
1983 oral history of Fuller RanchO, releasing it into robust and readily accessible typographical form, from its dim 30-year provenance on magnetic tape at W.D. Addison Heritage Room.
Kim Jarrell Johnson, local historian, contributed references from newspaper archives, especially for Chapter Two concerning early school district activities. Kim and I are co-authors
of “A Brief History of Eastvale” (History Press, 2013), from which portions of this book
are quoted verbatim or with minor edits.
Michele Nissen, Public Information Officer at Eastvale City Hall, provided invaluable guidance to contacts with knowledgeable individuals and appropriate agencies currently active
in the local area.
Brian Schultz posted excerpts from Shockey History and Genealogy on the internet, many of
them relating to Harrison Fuller’s mother Drusilla Shockey and her descendants. Brian
Schultz and William Hollister contributed details concerning early Fuller family history,
especially for Chapter Three concerning joint ventures between Hollisters and Fullers in
areas beyond the local horizon.
Riverside and San Bernardino City and County archivists and librarians, including Jim Hofer,
Ruth McCormick, Michele Nielsen, and Genevieve Preston, greatly facilitated searches
and provided copies of maps, deeds, photographs, and other historical documents in their
files.
INTRODUCTION
Recent conversations with a few of the 50,000 or more current residents of Eastvale lead to a
suspicion that less than ten percent have ever heard of the Fuller ranch – a statistic this book
may help to remedy.
For 65 years, between 1889 and 1954, the ranch owned by the Fuller family was the largest
establishment – the only truly large establishment – on the north side of this five-mile stretch
of the Santa Ana River. Those 65 years represent more than a third of Eastvale’s 175-year
recorded history.
Almost half of present-day Eastvale was included within the ranch’s boundaries, during at
least some of the years when the Fuller family owned the land. Almost all residences and business establishments in the southern part of the city, between Schleisman Road and the Santa
Ana River, are now located on former Fuller ranch land.
East Vale Elementary School District, which existed for 54 years (from Riverside County
formation in 1893 till unification with Corona in 1947), occupied school facilities on the Fuller
ranch during the first 20 of those years.
Six square miles of ranch land, about 3,000 acres, were acquired by the Fuller family about
1889. But events from far earlier, and from far beyond present-day Eastvale, had strong and
lasting effects on its destiny.
Before 1889
Recorded history of this part of the Santa Ana River valley goes back at least as far as 1838,
50 years before the Fuller family entered on the scene.
Mexico had achieved independence from Spain in 1821, after which governors of Mexican
California granted large tracts of former Mission land to prominent citizens. Documents describe a December 1838 survey of Juan Bandini’s 40,000-acre Jurupa land grant, which
stretched for about 17 miles along the north side of the Santa Ana River between present-day
Colton and Eastvale. The Fuller ranch later occupied about ten percent of Jurupa grant, at the
southwest end.
Territorial disputes between the United States and Mexico simmered before 1836 (Remember the Alamo!), escalated into open warfare during 1846–1848, and ended with the Treaty of
Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The two principal provisions of the treaty were acceptance of the Rio
Grande as the boundary between Texas and Mexico, and the Mexican Cession which transferred a half million square miles west of the Rocky Mountains to the United States in exchange
for $15 million. About one-third of the Cession land became the State of California in 1850.
The Treaty provided that Mexican land grant titles were to be “respected,” but U.S. courts
reserved the right to analyze claims in excruciating detail and most grant land throughout
Southern California was held in limbo for three or more decades, awaiting final confirmation
of ownership.
Meanwhile, a sequence of transactions had divided Jurupa into two parts. The westernmost
85 percent of the grant, between Pedley and Eastvale, was administered by Bandini’s son-inlaw Abel Stearns and came to be known as Jurupa-Stearns Rancho. The eastern portion, called
Jurupa-Robidoux Rancho, was administered by Louis Robidoux.
Large-scale cattle ranching had been the primary function of most Ranchos in Southern
California’s coastal and inland valleys. During the decades after 1848 this mode of ranching
became obsolete, but conversion of land to other uses was nearly impossible, before titles were
confirmed. Finally, during the 1870s, many grants including Jurupa were “patented” (legally
approved and certified).
Southern California land now became a solid economic asset, but a very different obstacle
remained. How could potential buyers of subdivided rancho land be lured across many hundreds of miles of mountains and deserts?
A new sound heard in the distance brought the answer. It was a train whistle.
Railroads.
Everyone has heard of the Golden Spike ceremony at Promontory Utah on 10 May 1869, which
connected the westbound Union Pacific Railroad line from Omaha Nebraska with the eastbound Central Pacific from Sacramento. This ceremony celebrated the final link in the first
railroad connection between Northern California and the eastern United States. The Covered
Wagon era had suddenly ended.
In 1869 a Golden Spike connected the eastern U.S. with California by rail. The ceremony is reenacted every summer at
the original location with replicas of the original locomotives.
United States Post Office Department.
A mainline Union Pacific track crosses the north end of Eastvale for about a half mile,
between Interstate 15 and Milliken (Hamner) Avenue. (Loren Meissner photo, 2012.)
In 1876, seven years after the Golden Spike celebration, trains arrived in Southern California from Northern California via Bakersfield. Other routes were soon completed, from El Paso
Texas via Yuma in 1881, and from New Mexico via Needles and Barstow in 1883.
Railroad lines were completed near Eastvale through Santa Ana Canyon in 1887, and across
the northern end of Eastvale between Pedley and Ontario in 1905.
Among arrivals by train to Southern California in 1883 was the Fuller family from Iowa,
which included family patriarch Henry Harrison Fuller, his wife Mary Ann, sons Charles and
Ortus, and four other children. About 1889, after the family experienced a few years of very
successful entrepreneurship in Los Angeles, Charles and Ortus acquired about six square miles
of land at the southwest corner of Jurupa grant, in present-day Eastvale. The ranch remained
as a major Fuller family asset for 65 years, till 1954.
Pioneer Ranch and Premier Ranch
Two historic ranches in Eastvale had similar names, which can lead to confusion.
Pioneer Ranch, described in this book, was developed by the Fuller family about 1889,
extending south from present-day Schleisman Road to the Santa Ana River. After 1925, the
name was changed to Fuller RanchO.
Premier Ranch was located north of Schleisman Road, between Hamner and Sumner Avenues, as described in “A Brief History of Eastvale.” Owners included Oscar Ford and Joseph
Warren Chase (1904–1910), the Eldridge family (1911–1959), and the Harada family (1959–
1990).
Chapter 1
THE FULLER FAMILY ESTABLISHES
PIONEER RANCH (1883-1901)
1.1 Where Did They Come from?
Henry Harrison Fuller, known as Harrison, was born in 1832 at Buckstown Pennsylvania,
about 75 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. His birth place is not far from Eastvale Pennsylvania,
a river resort on a historic water route from the western end of the Erie Canal near Buffalo to
the Ohio River at Pittsburgh.
When Harrison was ten years old, his family moved 40 miles south to Grantsville in the
Maryland panhandle. Harrison’s father taught him to be a bricklayer, and he later worked for
his brother Elijah in a dry goods store. Harrison married Mary Ann Morewood in 1854. Two
years later, Harrison and Mary Ann moved from Maryland to Iowa with their infant daughter
Anna Losta, born in 1855. They settled at Mount Pleasant, home of Wesleyan College, where
five more children were born: Charles Henry (1858), Mary Drusilla (1860), Ortus Benton
(1865), Ernest Pearl (1868), and Grace Vivian (1873).
Anna Losta Delana Fuller (1855-1926), oldest child of Harrison and Mary Ann Fuller, trained as an opera singer, and
after a few years of success in America went to Europe. But just before her European debut about 1890, she contracted
an unknown illness that terminated her career. Alosta Avenue in present-day Azusa is named for her.
Azusa Pacific University Special Collections.
FULLER RANCH AT EASTVALE
Harrison Fuller was active in local and national civic affairs. From 1873 till 1877, during
President Grant’s administration, he served as Indian Agent for the reservation at Lemhi Idaho.
He supported a petition of the Indians at Lemhi to remain in their homeland, in opposition to a
plan by the Indian Office to move them to a larger reservation at Fort Hall.
The Fuller family followed the westward tide. After a trip to Philadelphia in 1877 during
the U.S. Centennial celebration, Harrison visited Los Angeles. At that time he did not foresee
the great future of Southern California, so he returned to Iowa where he again engaged in a
mercantile business.
In 1882, after five years during which the future of transcontinental rail transportation had
become increasingly evident, he came to California again, and his family joined him in 1883.
He purchased a 200 acre ranch about 25 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the upper
San Gabriel River valley, as described by Ryan Price in his history of Glendora. Fuller’s friend,
Postmaster General Frank Hatton, approved a nearby post office in April 1883, to be named
Alosta after Fuller’s oldest daughter Anna Losta.
Harrison Fuller family, at Azusa. Original photo notation: “Home of Mary Ann & Harrison Fuller at Citrus & Alosta, Azusa.
Occupied from 1886-1915. Seated: Mary Ann & Harrison. Rt. Front: daughter Grace. Ctr. Rear: daughter Dru.” The man in the
bowler hat is Fred Zucker, husband of Mary Drusilla known as Dru (standing next to him holding her hat), and the young girl on
the donkey is Anna Zucker, born 1887. Anna appears to be about eight years old, dating the photo c. 1895. Youngest daughter
Grace Fuller is at far right. The three persons standing behind Mary Ann and Harrison are Fuller daughter Anna Losta between
two sons, probably Charles and Ernest.
Azusa Pacific University Special Collections.
2
Chapter 1. The Fuller Family Establishes Pioneer Ranch (1883-1901)
In 1884, Fuller sold the ranch to G.D. Whitcomb and G.E. Gard. They purchased separate
acreages, each intending to establish a town that included their Fuller acquisitions along with
other nearby land. The two town sites were separated by the Santa Fe Railroad, with Whitcomb’s town of Glendora on the north and Gard’s rival town of Alosta on the south. Whitcomb
was more successful than Gard, probably because Glendora already had a score of families
living nearby. Alosta had no similar established family foundation, and Gard owned so much
of the planned town area that most newcomers were forced to buy their lots from him.
After they sold the 200 acres, Harrison and Mary Ann Fuller purchased 20 acres a few miles
farther west. In 1886 they moved into a large two-story house, on the site which is now at the
corner of Citrus and Alosta Avenues in the city of Azusa. The house was later used for a girls’
school between 1915 and 1946, after which it became the basis of the main building of Azusa
College (now Azusa Pacific University).
At Azusa, Harrison Fuller established one of the first orange groves in the San Gabriel River
valley. He also served as Los Angeles County Tax Collector for eight years. He died in March
1903. Harrison’s granddaughter Anna Zucker (1887–1961, later known as Anne Zuker, daughter of Mary Drusilla Fuller and Fred Zucker) remembers her grandfather from her childhood:
I liked driving about the long dusty, pepper tree shaded roads with him. I used to wish
that Grandpa wasn’t such a talker when I waited in the buggy for what seemed endless
time, while he went in the house at some ranch.
Our horse Nell had a beautiful long tail and I thought her a very intelligent horse for
she would always turn in at our palm-lined drive without direction from the driver. My
grandmother used to tell how one hot day, when I was four or five, Nell brought the
buggy to a stop by the side porch, and there sat grandpa and I, both fast asleep.
On the upper part of the ranch was “The Four Acres,” on which stood our eucalyptus
grove, which always had some of the enchantments of a fairy wood for me, and on the
side porch I used to wait and watch for the sunset to turn the snow pink on my beloved
Old Baldy.
Commercial Ventures
The Fuller family’s arrival at Los Angeles in 1883 occurred during an early stage of the railroad
boom in Southern California. In parallel with other immigrants from the Midwest, Harrison
and Mary Ann Fuller had probably sold real estate and other assets, and brought a significant
amount of cash with them. They seem to have possessed astute management sense, enhanced
by fortunate timing. Their Alosta land purchase had proved timely, and its sale provided capital
for purchases at Azusa and farther east at Cucamonga. They purchased the ranch at Eastvale
about 1889, taking advantage of the ending railroad boom and falling land prices.
Much of the Fullers’ commercial success at Los Angeles during the 1880s, in merchandising, storage, construction, and local transportation, resulted from their ingenuity in developing
local transportation facilities to and from the railroad lines.
Harrison Fuller’s oldest son Charles, in partnership with younger son Ortus and son-in-law
Fred Zucker, profited from undertakings that included Fuller Department Stores, Los Angeles
Warehouse Company, Enterprise Construction Company, and Pioneer Transfer Company.
Pioneer Transfer Company was created to supply local freight transportation, to and from
railroad terminals in Los Angeles. Motor trucks did not exist till several years later, so the
company used horse-drawn vehicles.
3
The Fuller brothers ran a local transport business at Los Angeles after 1883,
from railroad terminals similar to the one shown here.
Denver Library.
There really were delivery trucks in 1897,
the year when someone photographed this Chas. A. Stevens & Bros. truck in Chicago.
John Chuckman.
4
The original motive for establishing Pioneer Ranch at present-day Eastvale was to raise
draft horses for Pioneer Transfer Company. The ranch was about 50 miles from downtown Los
Angeles, but these were not difficult miles for travel or for freight and animal transportation,
after 1887 when the Santa Fe railroad line through Santa Ana Canyon was completed. The
railroad station at Rincon (near present-day Prado, west of Corona) was only about four miles
from Fuller ranch headquarters.
About 1900, motor trucks replaced horses for the Fuller brothers’ Pioneer Transfer company, which they renamed Pioneer Truck and Transfer. The company’s mission was expanded
to include local passenger service.
A Los Angeles advertisement from 1897 lists C.H. Fuller and brother-in-law Fred Zucker
as proprietors of the transportation company. By 1907, operations at Pioneer Ranch had
changed in emphasis from draft horses to include show horses and other animals.
Charles Fuller and his brother-in-law Fred Zucker advertised Pioneer Truck and Transfer Company
in Julius Cahn’s 1897 Theatrical Guide at Los Angeles
Smithsonian Americana Collection.
1.2 Pioneer Ranch Documentation
The Fuller family is mentioned in early San Bernardino County and Riverside County documents, U.S. Census records, genealogical files (notably, Harrison’s maternal ancestry in
Shockey History and Genealogy), newspaper archives, and writings by family members and
associates. A collection of Fuller ranch documents is on file in the W.D. Addison Heritage
Room at Corona Public Library.
Records from San Bernardino County
The date when the Fuller family established Pioneer Ranch is not known precisely, but it was
undoubtedly between 1887 and 1892 and must have been very close to 1889. Riverside County
5
did not “secede” till 1893, so records from the first few years of ranch history are to be found
in San Bernardino County archives.
A San Bernardino County deed shows that Harrison Fuller’s wife Mary Ann purchased land
at Cucamonga as early as June 1885. This was shortly after she and Harrison sold their Glendora land and moved to Azusa.
Voter registration lists for San Bernardino County, dated September 1886, show both Ortus
Fuller and his brother-in-law Fred Zucker (who had recently married Mary Drusilla Fuller)
residing at Cucamonga. A San Bernardino County deed describes a January 1887 purchase by
Ortus of 20 acres at Cucamonga, at what is today the northeast corner of Archibald Avenue
and Eighth Street, just north of the Santa Fe railroad. Fred Zucker is also listed in 1887 as the
first postmaster for a community about two miles directly south of Ortus’ Cucamonga acreage.
The post office, named Zucker, was later called South Cucamonga and finally became Guasti.
The site of this community is within present-day Ontario, near the Southern Pacific railroad
line just north of the International Airport. Anna Zucker, daughter of Fred and Mary, was born
at Cucamonga in 1887, according to her 1961 death record.
Fuller ranch at Eastvale. The extent of ranch property is described fairly consistently in documents from 1915 and
1928. A likely scenario is that Pioneer Ranch originally (about 1889) included all Jurupa grant land south of present
day Schleisman, after which tracts were sold to subdividers. The Fullers also sometimes leased other nearby land.
(Loren Meissner map.)
6
These are the earliest records that have been found so far, of Fuller family presence in the
upper Santa Ana River basin. This inland area was in San Bernardino County till 1893, when
a large part of the valley “seceded” to form Riverside County.
The Cucamonga Valley land purchases indicate that the Fullers, and especially matriarch
Mary Ann Fuller, had been looking eastward at least as early as 1885. The first documentation
of a shift of attention farther south toward the Santa Ana River at present-day Eastvale is the
birth record of Rhea, daughter of Ortus and Daisy Fuller, on Pioneer Ranch in January 1892.
Pomona-Elsinore Railroad and Auburndale Tract
One intriguing sidelight from the years between 1887 and 1889 involves a “phantom” railroad
that appears on maps from that era. The route that is shown includes several miles across present-day Eastvale land that became Pioneer Ranch soon afterward, passing very close to the
ranch headquarters site just north of the river.
An 1888 irrigation survey map shows Pomona and Elsinore Railroad, and Parmley’s 1889
Jurupa Rancho survey map labels the same line as P. & E. R. R. These maps depict the railroad
as an accomplished fact. The route from Pomona crosses present-day Hellman Avenue from
the west, near the intersection with Schleisman Road. It continues southeastward, crossing
Archibald Avenue south of Schleisman Road, and then curves southward across Chandler near
Harrison Avenue, a mile and a half west of Hamner Avenue.
This detail from an 1888 irrigation survey map shows present-day central Eastvale (with orientation added) at the
southwest corner of Jurupa land grant. The Pomona and Elsinore Railroad was graded but never completed. Its route
passed through the site at Eastvale where the Fuller family established Pioneer Ranch a few years later.
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection.
7
From this point, which is very close to the site where the first East Vale schoolhouse was
constructed a few years later, the maps show the rail line proceeding directly southward past
the location where Fuller ranch headquarters was soon to be established, and crossing the river
toward Corona.
Steve Lech explains this railroad project in some detail. The route, first proposed in the mid1880s, was intended to connect the existing Southern Pacific main line at Pomona with Corona
and Elsinore (now Lake Elsinore). An extension to San Diego via Temecula had been contemplated, but a canyon just south of Temecula experienced disastrous flooding, and by 1888 Santa
Fe had constructed a coastal route to San Diego from present-day Orange County.
Nevertheless, news articles continued to describe the Pomona-Elsinore rail project in glowing terms. A corporation was formed during 1888, led by prominent citizens from Corona and
Chino. The line was surveyed through Chino, and the sponsors confidently proclaimed that
construction would follow immediately. In January 1888 the corporate directors announced
that 25 miles of steel rails and the necessary ties had been purchased. By July, virtually all of
the grading had been completed between Pomona and Elsinore and, according to one source,
a railroad bridge had been built across the river.
Further impetus came from Corona. A syndicate headed by George Joy and W.H. Jameson,
planning to create a town called Auburndale northwest of Corona, purchased land extending
to the Santa Ana River. The town site was described in a September 1887 newspaper article as
“one of the most sightly, picturesque, and attractive that we have seen in Southern California.
It is laid out along high bluffs that overlook the Santa Ana and stretches back over some gently
rolling hills that command delightful views of valley and mountains. Auburndale will become
the shipping and trading point of a section of rich farming country on the north side. A $10,000
hotel is about completed, and will be opened in a few weeks. Several houses are going up, and
as soon as the railroad is completed, so that lumber can be brought in, a good deal of building
is assured.”
Unfortunately, by late 1887 when that description was published, the Southern California
land boom was ending and the Auburndale town project was struggling to survive. A promising
report was published during May 1888 in the New York Times, but it was followed by Southern
Pacific’s immediate and emphatic repudiation of the Times assertion that their company “has
purchased and will immediately complete the Pomona and Elsinore Railroad.” The promised
activity never materialized, and by 1889 the inland railroad plan had collapsed.
Lech notes that “the land owners were still reeling under the bust that occurred in 1888, and
money for the railroad’s construction had disappeared. Throughout the two-year process, much
work had gone into the formation of the Pomona and Elsinore Railroad, but in the end, all the
principals had to show for their effort was a right-of-way and a graded railroad bed. 1889 saw
W.H. Jameson buy an interest in the South Riverside Land and Water Company, and with that
he folded the Auburndale land back into the lands of the parent company.” Now, more than
100 years later, an Auburndale Intermediate School marks the proposed townsite, but not even
“a right-of-way and a graded railroad bed” remains as physical evidence of a railroad across
the southwest corner of Eastvale.
It seems likely that Charles and Ortus Fuller took advantage of the real estate bust late in
1888. Collapse of the Auburndale project may have been reflected in bargain prices for land
just across the river to the north.
Records from Riverside County
Riverside County archives hold Fuller ranch deeds, land transaction records, and maps. In
1893, when the county was created, Pioneer Ranch had recently been established on about six
8
square miles near the Santa Ana River, at the west end of the new Riverside County, covering
most of the southern half of the present-day City of Eastvale.
An 1893 Riverside County public directory shows Ortus Fuller as a farmer at “South Riverside.” This designation for the ranch site reflects the earlier Post Office address for the ranch,
at the city whose name was not changed to Corona till July 1896. Ortus is also listed in an 1893
election directory as an inspector at Rincon voting precinct. Older brother Charles Fuller is
shown in the 1893 public directory as an engineer at Rincon, but he was apparently never
closely involved in ranch operations. By the time of the 1900 U.S. Census, Charles lived at Los
Angeles.
Records for East Vale Elementary School in the new county show Grace Fuller, youngest
sister of Charles and Ortus, as the first teacher, with as many as 29 children in eight grades.
She taught during two years (1893–1895) at temporary quarters on the ranch, while a schoolhouse was being planned and constructed.
An 1896 deed, on file at Riverside County archives, transferred 1.2 acres of land from
Charles H. Fuller and his wife Nellie to East Vale School District, for a token price of ten
dollars, specifying that the land is to be used only for school purposes. As stipulated in a provision of the deed, the title reverted to the original owner in 1913 when “such premises and
appurtenances cease to be used for such purposes.” The school site was close to Fuller ranch
headquarters, at the southeast corner of the intersection of present-day Chandler Street and
Harrison Avenue. Construction of the new schoolhouse on this site was already under way
when the deed was recorded, and it was completed in time for the 1896 fall term.
The 1900 U.S. Census shows that Grace Fuller has moved to her father’s household at Azusa. Ortus is at Pioneer ranch in Temescal Township, Riverside County, with his wife Daisy
and two young daughters recently born on the ranch: Rhea in 1892 and Muriel in 1895.
The U.S. census for 1900 also lists younger brother Ernest Fuller at Los Angeles, 32 years
old and married. Ernest played a leading role during early decades of the twentieth century in
the Fuller family’s most extensive geographical expansions – into other parts of California, to
Arizona and Texas, and to the state of Chihuahua in Mexico (see Chapter Three). Some of
these ventures involved partnership with members of the Hollister family, which had pioneered
California’s San Benito County north of Monterey Bay.
Pioneer Ranch was operated by a hired superintendent after 1901, according to a 1907 newspaper report. At the time of the 1910 census, Ortus and Daisy were divorced and living separately at Los Angeles – Ortus with his second wife Stella, and Daisy with her daughters Rhea
and Muriel. Genealogy of the Shockey family tells more about the daughters’ later lives. In
1924, Muriel (Mrs. Colburn) played a role in the “Bovine Terror” drama at Santa Barbara
County described in Section 3.2.
Ortus Fuller was mentioned in a Riverside newspaper during December 1893. It seems he
called attention of the authorities to an attempted salvage of “portions of the old Auburndale
Bridge” (near Pioneer Ranch) by Thomas Townsend, a former sea captain who was acting
according to “his former traditions as a mariner.” The main article, “A QUESTION OF
SALVAGE: How Capt. Townsend of South Riverside Got Into Trouble,” appeared on
Wednesday 6 December 1893, and a single paragraph describing the affair’s conclusion
followed on Tuesday 19 December.
Capt. Thomas Townsend, a prominent resident of South Riverside, who has a fine ranch
in that township, was placed under arrest yesterday morning by Constable Wall on a
warrant issued at the complaint of O.B. Fuller of Rincon, charging the captain with the
crime of grand larceny. The captain is accused of taking possession, without legal right,
9
of portions of the old Auburndale bridge, which was partly swept away by the floods of
last winter.
According to reports current concerning the affair, the defendant, who is an old sea
captain, seems to have been really a victim of his former traditions as a mariner. When
he saw the fragments of the bridge go floating past, it is said, he could not restrain his
sailor’s instinct and proceeded to secure as many of the drifting boards, etc., as possible.
Forgetting that he was no longer on the briny deep, the old salt is said to have declared
himself entitled to the flotsam and jetsam of the bridge on the principle of salvage.
Sundry land lubbers, however, among them Supervisor Hoover, unable to view the legal
aspect of the case in this salty light, took exception to the doughty captain’s nautical
methods of acquiring title to the county’s property. Mr. Hoover at a recent meeting of
the board of supervisors laid the matter before that body together with a statement of the
captain’s position on the salvage question. The subject was discussed with that
commendable gravity which characterizes the proceedings of Riverside’s county fathers.
The validity of the South Riverside mariner’s claim to salvage on the bridge was
solemnly submitted to the district attorney there present, who at once tersely replied,
“There’s nothing in it.” Mr. Hoover then made a little speech intimating that he thought
that ancient mariners should be taught that the laws which govern on the raging main do
not apply among the orange groves of Riverside county. The rest of the board were of
the same opinion and the matter was left to the district attorney, the result being the arrest
of the gallant captain yesterday.
Immediately upon being taken into custody Capt. Townsend went before Justice
Corkhill of South Riverside and gave bail in the sum of $500. Later in the day the
defendant and his attorney, E.W. Freeman, Esq., appeared in Justice Potter’s court in this
city. Ex-Judge Crowe was on hand to represent the people. Some technical objections
raised by Mr. Freeman were argued and the case was continued.
[19 December:] Townsend Antes Up. The case of the People vs. Capt. T. Townsend, of
Rincon, was disposed of in the justice court yesterday, in short order. This is the case
where the county had the captain arrested for taking certain bridge timber belonging to
the county. Yesterday the district attorney asked to have the case dismissed as the
defendant had made ample and satisfactory settlement, under the provisions of the law
in such cases.
Fred Zucker, husband of Mary Drusilla Fuller, died about 1911. Afterward, his wife and
daughter spelled their surname as Zuker – probably to suggest pronunciation with a long “u”
sound. Also daughter Anna later spelled her given name as Anne, according to later records
including her 1961 death record.
In 1915, almost 2,000 acres were transferred from ownership by individual Fuller family
members (Charles, siblings Ortus and Mary, and their spouses) to the family-owned Pioneer
Ranch Corporation, and the same land was mortgaged for $150,000 – probably to finance extension of their ranching enterprises into distant regions. This transaction, or a later probate
after Ortus died in 1922, may be the source of Marcellie’s report (see Section 4.5) that “about
the time of the end of World War 1 my grandfather bought the ranch in Corona.”
The acreage shown on the 1915 deed is somewhat less than the six square miles quoted as
the initial size of the ranch, apparently because portions had been sold for at least three subdivisions, known as Persimmon, Kingston, and Cedar Rapids tracts. These tract names still appear in some present-day legal descriptions of land transfers and rezoning events at Eastvale.
The land deeded to Pioneer Ranch Corporation in 1915 totaled 1,885 acres, and the deed
descriptions are consistent with 1928 maps, the most detailed maps presently available from
10
Riverside County archives. It appears that no major land transfers occurred between 1915 and
1928. The ranch acreage consists of portions of eight separate sections in three survey townships, and includes most of the Jurupa land grant corner south of present-day Schleisman Road,
except for the Persimmon, Kingston, and Cedar Rapids tracts.
Chapter Four describes later history of Fuller holdings at Eastvale. Charles Fuller owned
Pioneer Ranch after his younger brother Ortus died in 1922, but Charles’ health was failing.
Olive Ransome Fuller, son of Charles, built a weekend retreat in 1928 on the bluff overlooking
the river valley. Maps in Riverside County archives dated 1928 were apparently created in
preparation for this construction project.
In summary: The Fuller family owned the Ranch at Eastvale for about 65 years, between
1889 and 1954. During this time they bought and sold acreage, and augmented it with leased
land in the Santa Ana river valley and nearby outlying areas. But the nucleus of the ranch
always occupied most of the south end of present-day Eastvale, between Schleisman Road and
the river, from Hellman Avenue east just past Hamner Avenue.
1.3 A Visit to the Fuller Ranch (1907)
After 1901, Charles and Ortus Fuller became “absentee landlords” of Pioneer Ranch, leaving
administration to a hired manager. Their interest shifted to Santa Barbara County and elsewhere
in California and other states, and into Mexico. Meanwhile, the hired manager of the ranch at
Eastvale maintained its reputation as one of the best cattle and racehorse breeding farms in
California. Besides pasture land for the horses, swine, and other livestock, large acreages were
devoted to barley and alfalfa, much of which was exported, and to vegetable crops including
corn, melons, and beets. The local Corona newspaper reported a 1907 visit to Pioneer Ranch
in an article with the lengthy heading, “Operating a Big Property – Large scale on which Fuller
Ranch is conducted: A detailed description of one of the big ranch propositions that are contributing to the prosperity and welfare of Corona”:
The Fuller ranch, located northwest of Corona, is owned by the Pioneer Truck Company
of Los Angeles, and those who have not visited the property have no conception of its
magnitude.
The ranch consists of more than 5,000 acres of land, and is devoted to hay and stock
raising. To irrigate this vast tract 1,000 inches of water is required, the greatest portion
of which flows through a large ditch from the Santa Ana River. The balance is supplied
by a 64 horse power engine, which raises 380 miners’ inches, the plant being in continuous operation. To add still further to the supply, another well will soon be drilled and
an additional engine installed.
The present crop on this big ranch consists of 500 acres of alfalfa, 1,500 acres of
barley, while 500 acres is devoted to other products, such as corn, melons, beets, and
garden truck, and the balance is in pasture.
Last year, in addition to the home ranch, the company rented a dry ranch three miles
north of Corona, consisting of about 2,000 acres, which was sowed to barley and cut for
hay. This hay was baled and shipped to Los Angeles, the daily output from both ranches
averaging eight cars per day for several weeks. Some idea can therefore be formed of
the large scale on which this ranch does things. Still another ranch the company rented
was on the Yorba estate of 2,700 acres, near Fullerton.
Another ranch of still greater proportions is one near Santa Barbara, 15 miles long
and six miles wide. This is devoted exclusively to stock-raising, where are cattle, horses,
and hogs by the thousands.
11
There are now on the home ranch about 1,300 head of swine, the greatest portion of
which will be shipped to the Santa Barbara ranch, where they are fatted on the pulp from
a sugar beet factory.
In the horse line the company has the best the country can produce or that money can
buy. At present only brood mares, stallions, and work animals are on the ranch, the others
being in Los Angeles or on the big ranch at Santa Barbara.
Before entering further on a description of the horses raised and owned on this ranch,
attention should be directed to the two classes of fast horses raised, thoroughbred and
standard. As many do not understand the difference between them, it may be explained
that the thoroughbreds are running horses, while the standards are trotters. Of the standard horses there is a stallion that has made a mile in 2:15, and a young filley has made
the same record. Of the thoroughbreds there are not very many on the home ranch, as
they have been shipped to the ranch in the north. However, there are some beauties to be
seen here, some of the young colts being valued at $1,000 each.
There is on the ranch a herd of 60 pure-bred French brood mares, said to be the largest
herd of their kind in the United States. Some of these animals were imported from
France, and their progeny cannot be beat anywhere. At the Pasadena horse show last
February these mares carried away all the prizes.
There is a black Percheron stallion on the ranch that weighs 2,105 pounds. This horse
won the first prize at the State Fair at Sacramento in 1904, when he was only four years
old. This fact is all the more remarkable when it is considered the horse came into competition with the best stallions California could produce and was also a stranger in the
capital city, as well as the man who had it in charge. It was a clear case of merit.
A son and daughter of this horse weigh 1,685 and 1,525 pounds, respectively. He is
also the sire of a span of three-year-olds that trip the scales at 3,825 pounds, there being
only 25 pounds difference in their weight. Another span of these colts, less than one year
old, weighs 2,510 pounds; and so on down the line.
The buildings on the ranch include the superintendent’s house of nine rooms; the
dining room for employees, 20 by 60 feet; and two barns, 80 by 100 and 40 by 80 feet
respectively. The barns have a combined capacity for housing 80 horses.
To handle the hay crop there are 32 mowers, 16 rakes, 4 stackers, 14 buckrakes, 3
headers, and 4 balers. From 15 to 30 men are employed to conduct the activities of the
ranch.
To operate this ranch on a paying basis requires skill and executive ability. This duty
devolves upon W.W. Cochran, who has been its manager and superintendent for the past
six years. How well he performed his duty is attested by what he has done and the results
achieved.
A short time ago Mr. Cochran lost his wife, a most amiable Christian lady, a woman
who was loved and esteemed by all who knew her. Mr. Cochran has one child, a bright
little girl five years of age, whom he will educate in one of the Los Angeles colleges.
12
Chapter 2
WELCOME TO
EAST VALE SCHOOL (1883-1913)
The Fuller family’s Pioneer Ranch hosted East Vale School during its first 20 years, beginning
in the fall of 1893, the year Riverside County was formed. At the start of that year, the entire
Santa Ana River valley as far downstream as present-day Prado had been in San Bernardino
County. The land was sparsely populated, with a few farms near the river along the north side,
including Pioneer Ranch with headquarters on the bluff about two miles east of Cucamonga
Creek. Children from nearby farms were served by Valley School, which was just across the
creek to the west beyond present-day Hellman Avenue on a continuation of Chandler Street.
On 2 May 1893, the political situation changed dramatically when voters confirmed their
desire to form the new Riverside County, detaching a portion of southern San Bernardino
County and joining it with a segment of northern San Diego County. A north-south segment of
the boundary between Riverside and San Bernardino Counties was established along a portion
of Jurupa grant boundary at the Hellman Avenue alignment, with Pioneer Ranch in Riverside
County and Valley School in San Bernardino County.
2.1 East Vale Elementary School District
Already, anticipating a favorable vote on the Riverside County proposal, a convention in
Riverside on 5 April had selected members who would constitute the Riverside County Board
of Commissioners. Steps were under way to organize the necessary Districts and Committees
for activating the county. One of the actions of the Commissioners listed in Bynon’s history
book was establishment of 52 school districts for the new county, including East Vale
Elementary School District.
No documentation has been found for the source of the name East Vale for the School
District. There is some speculation that the founding fathers considered it an eastern annex of
Valley school. Another influence for a similar name might have been Harrison Fuller’s memories of an Eastvale river resort in Pennsylvania, comparable to the region overlooking the
Santa Ana River where his sons had recently established their ranch. Another contributing factor might have been the Vale Ranch that had been founded earlier near the northwest corner of
the district, with the new school territory lying east of Vale.
Each of the 52 elementary school districts created for the new Riverside County was expected to educate children who resided within its jurisdiction, presumably beginning right away
in the fall of 1893. Dr. Lyman Gregory, Superintendent of Schools for the new Riverside
County, spent much of his time during the first two weeks of September 1893, organizing the
East Vale school board and rounding up enough students to satisfy minimum attendance requirements. Many of these first students were children of Pioneer Ranch employees.
The first East Vale schoolhouse was constructed on a segment of Pioneer Ranch land soon after Riverside County
was formed in 1893. This schoolhouse, whose site is now at the southeast corner of Chandler Street and Harrison
Avenue, housed eight grades in a single room from 1896 till 1913. This picture, published in Riverside Daily Press
in 1898, was probably taken during a community work party held to improve the landscaping.
Riverside City Library, Newspaper History Archive.
Ortus Fuller was closely connected with the school district in its early years. In 1893, he
lived on the ranch with his wife and infant daughter Rhea, who would be eligible to attend
school a few years later. Ortus was a member of the first East Vale school board; he “sold”
land for school construction to East Vale School District for a token price; and his younger
sister Grace Fuller became the first teacher.
East Vale classes began on Monday, 11 September 1893. Until a new schoolhouse could be
built, classes were held at a temporary site, probably on Pioneer Ranch – the only place with
enough space.
Three years later, in fall 1896, classes moved to a new schoolhouse constructed on a 1.2
acre site acquired from Pioneer Ranch. This school building, at the southeast corner of the
present-day intersection of Chandler Street and Harrison Avenue, housed East Vale
Elementary School from fall 1896 through spring 1913.
2.2 Moves toward a Two-room Schoolhouse
By 1905 it was becoming increasingly obvious to residents that a larger schoolhouse at a
location farther north was needed. Steps were taken after 1910, leading to construction of a
new school building at a four acre site on Sumner Avenue, now on the northwest corner of the
intersection with Schleisman Road.
14
Chapter 2. Welcome to East Vale School (1893-1913)
Grace Bynum was Principal and teacher for grades five to eight, at Eastvale School on Sumner Avenue in fall 1942.
In the back row, fourth from left, is Peggy Pritchard, future wife of Loren Meissner.
Peggy Meissner.
Several factors were at work:
New farms on the tableland farther north were no longer dependent on the Santa Ana River
or other surface water sources, since heavy-duty pumps were now available to supply irrigation
water from wells. The result was a population trend for the school district, away from the river.
The student load at the school on Pioneer Ranch was becoming intolerable, as everyone
could see. School records show an enrollment surge during the years 1905–1907.
Charles Fuller and his brother Ortus, who had been active in school affairs when the first
schoolhouse was built on their ranch, no longer lived at Eastvale but had employed a resident
ranch manager since 1901.
And perhaps it was becoming harder to find a teacher who could manage eight grades in a
single classroom.
The new schoolhouse on Sumner Avenue was ready for classes in fall 1913, with eight
grades in two classrooms
The building continued in use through spring 1958, a few years after East Vale had become
a part of Corona (now Corona-Norco) Unified School District.
Additional details concerning East Vale elementary school history are recorded in “A Brief
History of Eastvale” (History Press, 2013).
15
Chapter 3
DISTANT HORIZONS (1905-1925)
Much of the information in this chapter comes from William Hollister, a great-grandson of
Northern California pioneer William Welles Hollister (1818–1886). The town of Hollister,
county seat of San Benito County east of Monterey, was named for the pioneer. The Fuller
family participated with the Hollister family in joint ranching ventures in California’s Santa
Barbara County on Point Conception, and in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.
Ernest Pearl Fuller, younger brother of Charles and Ortus, began exploring distant ranching
opportunities for the Fuller family soon after 1900. Besides his involvement with the Hollisters
in Santa Barbara County and in Chihuahua, Ernest did some ranching at smaller properties in
Imperial County as well as in Arizona and Texas.
3.1 Ranching in Santa Barbara County and Chihuahua
In 1907, the Corona Independent newspaper reporter quoted in Chapter One did not encounter
Fuller family members during his visit, but Pioneer Ranch was surviving well under absentee
ownership. W.W. Cochran was ranch manager and superintendent, having assumed this position six years earlier, about 1901. The U.S. census for 1910 lists Ernest P. Fuller in Santa
Barbara County near present-day Santa Maria, and Charles and Ortus in the Westwood district
of Los Angeles.
The 1907 article mentions a “ranch of still greater proportions” near Santa Barbara, devoted
exclusively to stock-raising, “where are cattle, horses, and hogs by the thousands,” to which
huge amounts of hay were being shipped by rail from the Ranch at Eastvale. This was Santa
Anita Ranch on Point Conception, about 40 miles west of Santa Barbara (not to be confused
with “Lucky” Baldwin’s Santa Anita racetrack near Pasadena). The ranch had been owned by
the Hollister family, and it became available for the Fullers to lease or purchase when the Hollisters diverted their attention to Chihuahua State in Mexico.
The Fuller brothers later joined the Hollister family in Chihuahua. Hollister matriarch Hannah, wife of William, died in 1909. Some of the Hollisters left, and the Fullers purchased their
land at Hidalgo del Parral, near Ahumada in southern Chihuahua near the Durango border.
John James Hollister, son of the San Benito County pioneer, had worked in Mexico as a
mining engineer, in places where the revolutionary Pancho Villa had been known to roam.
John’s brother Harold managed the Santo Domingo ranch in Chihuahua, and the two Hollister
brothers used Santo Domingo as a base for their activities in Mexico. Their Berendo and Santo
Domingo ranches comprised almost 70 square miles.
In Chihuahua the Fuller brothers found themselves associated with Pancho Villa, in the
middle of a revolution. Villa at first welcomed such gringos, but he later expelled them from
Chapter 3. Distant Horizons (1905-1925)
Chihuahua, probably because they became a political liability. The Los Angeles Times reported that Ernest Fuller was kidnapped while at Santo Domingo rancho, and had to be rescued
by his brother Ortus. No ransom was paid because one of the bandidos, presumably Pancho
Villa, recognized his former boss and let him off the hook. Hart’s history of U.S.-Mexican
relations describes involvement of the Fuller and Hollister families with the revolutionaries:
They spent considerable time on the property and took pride in their 17,000 head of
cattle and 4,600 registered Black Angus. In 1911 they added 3,200 head of registered
cattle.
At first, the revolution to unseat Diaz swept past their ranch, causing minimal damage. The revolutionaries took some horses and cattle, but they had more important objectives in mind.
In 1912, the situation changed dramatically. On 3 March 1912, revolutionary hero
Pascual Orozco launched a revolt in Chihuahua, repelling an attempt by Pancho Villa to
restore government control in the state capital. President Madero was stunned. Orozquistas entered the estate shouting anti-American epithets, and inflicted heavy damage, seizing livestock, horses, and supplies.
Pancho Villa (1878-1923, born Doroteo Arango Arámbula), Mexican Revolutionary general.
National Photo Company Collection, Library of Congress.
In November 1912 and January 1913, the situation worsened. The Americans ceased
adding to their breed stock. Not satisfied with the confiscations, the Orozquistas smashed
equipment, wrecked buildings, tore down fences, and took feed. By early March the
damage totaled at $49,616 and the survival of the ranch was in question. Its great size,
however, made some of the herds too remote for the revolutionaries to locate. Maximo
Castillo led five raids on the estate. He and his men expressed amazement at the great
size of the herds, which was possible because the Americans had developed water resources and dispersed baled hay.
In March 1916, an embittered Villa attacked Columbus New Mexico, a U.S. Army
garrison town on the border. The Villistas killed 18 Americans, but the U.S. Army killed
more than 100 Villistas. The military action brought disaster to numerous Americans
still living in Mexico. U.S. forces made their way deep into Mexico, meeting serious
resistance only a few times.
17
The most notable battle, fought at El Carrizal between an American detachment and
the Carrancistas, resulted in a Mexican victory. On 5 February 1917 the American
troops crossed the border and reentered the United States. The search for Villa and the
invasion of Northern Mexico had ended.
The baled hay may have come from large shipments raised on Pioneer Ranch, similar to
those noted in the 1907 Corona Independent article. The Battle of El Carrizal took place in the
shadow of Santo Domingo ranch.
No further accounts of Fuller activity in Mexico are known. Ernest Fuller settled near El
Paso Texas, according to the 1920 U.S. Census, and died near Houston in 1938 at age 70.
The Hollisters returned to their ranch near Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, California, where the Fullers were their neighbors for a time. Records show Fuller cattle operations
on Jalama ranch. Pacific Rural Press noted in 1918: “The C.H. & O.B. Fuller Co. has bought
the Jalama ranch in Santa Barbara County, which they had previously leased for five years.”
Jalama Ranch was established many years earlier, during the Mission Era in Spanish California, as part of Rancho del Rey, under the protection of the Presidio of Santa Barbara. After
Mexican independence, Jose de la Guerra received San Julian grant, a 75 square mile portion
of Rancho del Rey. Records from about 1918 show Rancho Jalama as part of San Julian grant.
John James Hollister (1870–1961, son of W.W. Hollister) wrote to one of his sons much
later, reminiscing about his dealings with Charles and Ortus Fuller in Santa Barbara County:
Seventy years ago, we used to raise cattle and we raised cattle for many years but we
had to quit. We could not get our original costs back, and we would have gone broke.
We put in our improvements but had no money to operate. We were paying interest on
our investments, with the expenses being eaten up financially.
The Fuller Brothers came along at that time, and we were very ready to lease. They
took over all of our improvements and had no more improvements to install, and went
on raising cattle.
Prices of cattle went up. The Fullers made a great success of the cattle business. They
combined the cattle business with raising hay for their trucking business (by horses) in
Los Angeles. Old Charly Fuller and I were riding over the ranch some years later, and
he volunteered out of a clear sky without any coaxing that he, if he cashed in at that time,
would be just about a million dollars ahead since he took over our ranch.
I know the Fullers made a great deal of money when they rented the Santa Anita. He
did not cash in at that time, and a few years later went broke. In other words, he cashed
in on our improvements, did not save his money, and finally failed. He could not “stand
prosperity” and when prices dropped again, could not meet his obligations.
Jane Hollister Wheelwright wrote about her life on the ranch in Santa Barbara County, and
its transition from free range to managed agriculture. These books mention the Fuller brothers.
The following paragraphs are quoted from The Long Shore and The Ranch Papers.
The San Agustín was by far the most attractive canyon of this area. It was easy to see
why it had been the home base of C.H. and O.B. Fuller, installed after my grandfather
died and my grandmother was in charge (pioneers had a nose for the best places); their
presence accounted for the large eucalyptus grove. Three varieties grew there.
The Grove was designed to protect ranch buildings from the winds in the interval
after my grandfather’s early death in 1886. It was the interim period when O.B. and his
brother C.H. Fuller leased the ranch from my widowed grandmother’s manager. From
that land they made a million dollars – when a million was a million. Their vast herds of
18
Chapter 3. Distant Horizons (1905-1925)
cattle ‘mined’ the wealth of nutrients straight out of the soil Without sense of obligation
to preserve the range, the Fullers never, in the early days, put back what had been taken.
The over-grazing exterminated the gentle, nourishing, perennial native bunch grass.
Conservation of the land was not yet part of the cattleman’s thinking.
I still see O.B., an enormous genial man with a big paunch, riding a horse too small
for him. His advice fit my father’s determination not to replenish the range with tough
Mediterranean grasses as the experts from the University of California at Davis advised.
He repeatedly quoted O.B. whenever the subject came up: “Jimmy, let God Almighty
feed your cattle!”
A 1921 report in Pacific Rural Press, titled “Bean Robber Foiled,” describes an incident on
Jalama ranch that involved Ortus Fuller:
“On 7 August, a local bean buyer called and offered me three cents per pound for our
small white beans of the 1920 crop,” writes O.B. Fuller, who grew about 3,500 bags of
such beans in Santa Barbara County last year. “I refused; and he told me I was making
a great mistake. Then, after about ten minutes’ conversation, he offered me $3.65 for the
same beans. I naturally resented his effort to make 65 cents more per bag from me than
he needed to, and I told him never to come back on the ranch again. I told him I had
come to the conclusion that the only way to market my beans was through the California
Bean Growers’ Association. He had the nerve to tell me I would make a great mistake if
I joined the Association. The next day, a buyer from another concern wired me an offer
of $3.90 for my beans. I have this day joined the California Bean Growers’ Association.”
Mr. Fuller’s Jalama ranch is this year producing about 5,000 bags of beans which will
materially increase the ability of the Association to prevent such robbery methods as
were attempted on Mr. Fuller. What mercy would be shown to a grower of small acreage
of beans when an attempt like this was made on one of the biggest growers of this variety
in California!
3.2 Muriel Fuller and the Rogue Steer (1924)
The following story titled “Bovine Terror of Range Suffers Defeat at Last” appeared September
1924 in the Los Angeles Times. Mrs. Colburn who “came to Olivera’s assistance” was Muriel,
daughter of Ortus Fuller. Muriel was born in March 1895 on the ranch at Eastvale, and was 29
years old at the time this incident took place in Santa Barbara County, California. The article
states that the rogue steer had been brought from Mexico as a two year old, and his feud with
the cowmen had lasted 13 years. Thus the steer was fairly old, at about 15 years, when he was
captured. His age might have been a factor in rendering him less agile at avoiding the riata.
STRANGE FEUD BETWEEN COWMEN AND “BUCKSKIN STEER” ENDS
AFTER THIRTEEN LONG YEARS
A feud of the range, one of those strange enmities that infrequently arise between a
prideful vaquero and an outlaw steer, has been ended. And Jim Olivera, premier of the
lariat in the Lompoc and Santa Ynez country, who cussed “that sharp-horned devil” for
13 years, now whistles blithely as he rides.
It was a gallant combat that witnessed the conquering of the “Buckskin Steer.” The
whole cow country is still resounding with praise for the victor.
Thirteen years ago the “Buckskin Steer” was brought in from Mexico as a two year
old, so vicious that the riders said he had a hide full of dynamite. He ranged through the
wilds of the Jalama Ranch during all the ensuing time, till last week he was roped, tied,
and dehorned by Olivera.
19
TOO FAST FOR HORSES
It was said there was not a horse in the whole Lompoc and Santa Ynez territory swift
enough to catch him or hold him if caught. The annual round-ups passed with growing
respect for the outlaw. Last week Jim Olivera was riding the range on the Palos Altos
section of the big Jalama ranch. With him were Mrs. George L. Colburn of 324 South
Hobart Boulevard, Los Angeles, and two of her friends. Mrs. Colburn is a daughter of
the late O.B. Fuller, to whose estate the Jalama ranch belongs.
The riders came on a herd of cattle. There was a sudden, crazed movement in the
herd. The “Buckskin Steer” was starting them into a stampede. Olivera spurred his horse
sharply to the chase, cutting the steer out of the herd as the animals thundered through
heavy underbrush, thickly timbered and rough country. He was riding “Mirasol,” (meaning sunflower) the fastest horse on the Jalama. Mirasol gained in the pursuit as the steer
lunged down the ridge of a canyon. Close behind the outlaw, dodging trees and obstacles,
Olivera sought to get a sure cast of his riata. They struck a short level stretch. Olivera
let fly and the 60 foot rawhide whistled through air, falling neatly over the animal’s horns
to settle taut around its neck. A perfect cast.
All this time Mrs. Colburn on her horse “Ginger” had kept up with the thrilling pace.
But the battle between man and steer was far from finished. The enraged steer, bellowing
and stamping like a demon, made a terrific lunge and Olivera’s horse went to its knees.
It was up like a flash with the rider still in the saddle. The tussle continued with horse
and rider being dragged by the frenzied outlaw as it attempted to break away.
Olivera settled the combat with a strategic move, taking a long chance. Passing a tree
he urged his horse to its opposite side, successfully getting a wrap around the tree with
the riata, but not before the steer had swerved in a rush to gore his horse. The steer’s
horns missed the horse by a narrow margin.
Mrs. Colburn came to Olivera’s assistance, holding the steer while he roped its feet,
threw it, and cut off its horns. The “Buckskin Steer” was snubbed to the tree and left
there for two days to “tame down.” A chain and bell was then tied to its neck and it was
turned into a field, still a fighting rebel, but shorn of its sharp weapons.
Olivera laughs in a friendly way when he rides past the “Buckskin Steer.” Now that
the feud is settled, he is a generous victor. He is a physical marvel, this vaquero, for,
though 56 years of age, he is as strong and nimble as any of the younger cowboys. He
disdains the dude apparel of the “picturesque vaquero” who wears chaps, leather wristlets, and gay silk neckerchiefs, but in the matter of horsemanship and roping and tying
an outlaw steer, he’ll take his chances with the best of them.
The “Buckskin Steer” had a running mate when brought in with the batch from Mexico. The other outlaw was known as “Red Steer,” and this outlaw pair frequented the
thick brush, defying capture. Two years ago a forest fire burned out their hiding places
and it was thought both had perished. But last year, when the vaqueros were rounding
up the cattle on the Jalama, both were sighted, and Olivera displayed his prowess by
roping and tying the “Red Steer” after several cowboys had failed.
Santa Ynez riders saw the “Buckskin Steer” at that time but were in no mood to go
after him. And now, the humbled outlaw has been pardoned by John Rodman, majordomo of the Jalama, to roam at will and meditate on the glories that are past, while the
bell on his neck tinkles a taunting dirge of lost freedom.
20
Chapter 4
OLIVE RANSOME FULLER
THE NEXT GENERATION (1925-1954)
4.1 Background: Before 1925
Olive Ransome Fuller, who assumed control of the ranch at Eastvale about 1925, was born 5
October 1880 in Kansas. During his adult life he was known consistently as O.R. Fuller. His
father was Charles Fuller, oldest son of Harrison, who we have met in previous chapters.
Charles and his wife, Mary Ann (Spencer), separated at about the time O.R. was born – perhaps
shortly before his birth. The child and his mother did not come from Iowa to California with
Charles in 1883. He grew up near Wichita Kansas with his mother and his stepfather George
Maddy, and he never met his father till he came to California at age 18.
O.R. Fuller’s role in Southern California bus transport was commended in 1922.
McGraw-Hill, Bus Transportation, June 1922.
The young man appears twice in the 1900 U.S. Census, once in California and once in Kansas. Olive R. Fuller is shown at Los Angeles on 1 June, in the household of Charles H. Fuller
and stepmother Nellie, recorded as age 19, born October 1881 (sic) at Kansas. And Ransome
Fuller is at Waco Kansas three weeks later on 25 June, in the household of his mother Mary
and stepfather George Maddy, age 19, born October 1880 at Kansas.
Soon after 1900, O.R. Fuller became a permanent Southern California resident. About 1906,
he married Agnes Nicolas (1876–1918), whose parents had come from France before 1870.
After Agnes died in 1918, childless, he married Ione Franklin. Their only child was Marcellie
(1920-2013).
Between 1907 and 1929, he was successful as an automobile and truck dealer and then as a
motor transit manager. His name appeared in a number of specialized automobile dealership
and bus transportation publications.
In August 1907, according to The Motor Way, O.R. Fuller launched a Cadillac agency at
Fullerton, southeast of Los Angeles.
The bus transportation business he started in 1913 was featured on the Personal Notes page
of Bus Transportation in June 1922. The story of his success in this field starts at a truck dealership he owned. As Los Angeles manager for the White Company, O.R. Fuller sold two trucks
to Package and Express line, intended for an expansion into the passenger transport business.
When the P & E plan failed, Fuller reclaimed the trucks and determined to make them pay for
themselves. He succeeded, perhaps owing to his larger capital resources.
By 1916, streetcars provided local passenger transportation in and near downtown Los Angeles, but a more flexible plan was needed for longer distances. Charles P. Hobbs recently
described Fuller’s expansion into passenger service:
Buses, also known as “stages,” served longer distance trips along Whittier Boulevard
from the mid-1910s. A variety of bus companies, using modified cars and trucks of all
descriptions, fanned out from downtown Los Angeles in those days.
Package and Express Stage Line, known as P & E, was an early bus company that ran
along Whittier Boulevard from Los Angeles to Fullerton. After a bad year in 1916, P &
E sold its buses back to the dealer and went out of business.
The dealer, Mr. O.R. Fuller, decided to try his hand at the bus business, and reactivated the Whittier Boulevard route in early 1917. Fuller was apparently successful at
this new venture – his bus system named “Motor Transit” became the largest bus system
in California. Motor Transit operated all over Southern California: east to Riverside, San
Bernardino and the mountains; south through Orange County to San Diego; and north
via the Ridge Route to Bakersfield.
These were the days before freeways and suburban sprawl – riders on these buses saw
little but fields and orchards between the towns. Motor Transit made good time on the
mostly two-lane roads; the trip from Los Angeles to Anaheim took an hour and a half.
Other lines were added from time to time, and then began a steady growth in the
number of cars operated and the territory served.
In 1921 the Motor Transit Company, which had its beginning in the two trucks, operated 6,058,285 passenger car miles. This service was rendered with about 130 cars of
capacities ranging from eight to 32 passengers. The company’s gross revenue for the
year was $1,444,453 and 2,152,988 passengers were carried in 1921. The lengths of the
several routes traveled by the cars of this system now total 800 miles.
22
Chapter 4. Olive Ransome Fuller – the Next Generation (1925-1954)
Motor Transit Company depots near the end of Fuller’s tenure are shown here in order of
increasing straight-line distance from downtown Los Angeles:
14 miles EL MONTE (Los Angeles County)
14 miles SUNLAND (Los Angeles County)
14 miles WHITTIER (Los Angeles County)
23 miles FULLERTON (Orange County)
26 miles ANAHEIM (Orange County)
29 miles POMONA (Los Angeles County)
37 miles ONTARIO (San Bernardino County)
50 miles RIVERSIDE (Riverside County)
56 miles SAN BERNARDINO (San Bernardino County)
64 miles LAKE ARROWHEAD (San Bernardino County)
64 miles REDLANDS (San Bernardino County)
78 miles OCEANSIDE (San Diego County)
87 miles BIG BEAR LAKE (San Bernardino County)
100 miles BAKERSFIELD (Kern County)
100 miles TAFT (Kern County)
101 miles LA JOLLA (San Diego County)
110 miles. SAN DIEGO (San Diego County)
An example of charter bus service near Eastvale, provided by O.R. Fuller’s transportation
company, is mentioned in A Brief History of Norco by Kevin and Angelique Bash. For Rex
Clark’s grand opening of Norco Farms on Mother’s Day in 1923, “The Fuller Bus Company
provided transportation, complete with a megaphone-equipped salesperson, to ferry potential
buyers to the various undeveloped tracts, model homes, and ranches.”
4.2 Casa Orone and Fuller RanchO (1925-1937)
The Fuller family’s involvement with Pioneer Ranch at Eastvale weakened futher after Ortus
died in 1922 at age 57, although day-to-day operations continued under the supervision of a
resident manager. Older brother Charles was then more than 60 years old, in failing health, and
probably weary of adventure. Charles often spent weekends at “the original adobe house” on
Pioneer Ranch, but without taking responsibility for ranch activities, for several years before
he died in 1929.
It appears that O.R. Fuller, son of Charles, remained aware of ranch activities at least as
early as 1925, and made frequent visits to the ranch. Soon O.R. and his wife Ione adopted the
ranch as a weekend and vacation retreat from Los Angeles responsibilities. In 1928, they designed an elegant hacienda they called Casa Orone, a combination of their names. It boasted
views toward the south and east, across the Santa Ana River valley. Some features, such as
imported furniture and elegant woodwork, were reminiscent of Hearst’s Castle at San Simeon
(although at a much smaller scale, of course), or of the Norconian Hotel that Rex Clark was
constructing just across the river in Norco at about the same time.
In 1929, O.R. Fuller sold Motor Transit Company to the Greyhound Bus Corporation for
three million dollars and opened a luxury car agency in Los Angeles, in the newly built Auburn
California Building on upscale Wilshire Boulevard near Hollywood.
The dealership sold Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg cars. Fuller also acquired two popular
radio stations, KFAC and KFVD, with studios in the penthouse of the same building. Movie
stars and musicians dropped in occasionally to demonstrate their talents.
23
Duesenberg 1929 J Murphy Convertible Coupe, in front of the historical birthplace of car builders Fred and August
Deusenberg at Kirchheide in Bremen, Germany.
Ulrich Schumacher.
The “Great Depression” arrived, and the market for luxury automobiles collapsed. O.R.
Fuller’s tenure as a luxury car dealer was short lived. When his car business failed in 1931, his
only remaining asset was the ranch at Eastvale. At age 51, he was not ready to retire. His
daughter Marcellie mentions his legal battle at Los Angeles with business associate E.L. Cord,
to whom he was deeply in debt: “Cord wanted the ranch, and my father was determined not to
lose it.” Rivalry with Cord seems to have further stimulated Fuller’s interest in Pioneer Ranch.
He changed the name to Fuller RanchO, perhaps to emphasize his intent to rejuvenate the aging
property and to inject some characteristics of his own personality.
In 1931 O.R. Fuller, son of Charles Fuller and grandson of Harrison Fuller, moved to Eastvale and rejuvenated the ranch,
changing its name from Pioneer Ranch to Fuller RanchO.
24
One of his aunts (probably Mary Drusilla, widow of Fred Zucker) helped him rescue the
ranch financially, and in 1931 O.R. moved to the elegant Casa Orone with his wife Ione and
their 11 year old daughter. Marcellie attended Junior High and High School at Pomona, where
O.R. established headquarters for his expanded dairy business on the RanchO.
In December 1931, soon after the move, a Corona newspaper described the ranch and its
owner, in an article by L.C. Flora titled “Progress Is Theme of Operations of Huge Fuller RanchO near Corona”:
Mr. O.R. Fuller, who operates a 5,000 acre ranch near Corona, appears to me to be a man
of vision. As I talked to him, it seemed to me that the fever of the much talked of depression slipped off and things looked much brighter.
It is a well-known fact that no concern is bigger than the head of it – that the very
personnel and operation reflects the thought and action of that head – it is undoubtedly
true of the Fuller RanchO.
From the time one enters the doors of the office one is impressed – first by the courtesy of those receiving one; next the orderliness and cleanliness of the institution, and
upon being shown through the plant this impression was confirmed.
Before I had finished a tour of the immense properties, accompanied by Mr. Fuller’s
genial superintendent, Jim Coveny, I was amazed at the outlay and effort which created
an institution such as this.
Perhaps the average Coronan does not realize that the Fuller RanchO has now approximately 3,000 acres under cultivation; 800 additional acres being cleared and leveled
for a 1932 crop; a 200-inch well being drilled which will add to the 12 wells pumping
from 100 to 300 inches, all supplied with modern equipment for irrigation purposes.
At the present time the dairy herd numbers about 1400 animals, representing Holsteins, Jerseys, and Guernseys. There are more than 500 cows milked. Milk and cream
distributed in Corona and surrounding territory is of the highest quality and the demand
is growing steadily. The sanitary methods surrounding the operation and handling of
milk and cream is best demonstrated by the thoroughness of the various operations making for cleanliness and purity. Their entire herd is inspected at frequent intervals by
county, state, and national government authorities.
As an initial project, O.R. Fuller expanded the dairy and extended its distribution territory.
Corona Public Library.
25
Too much cannot be said of the Fuller RanchO poultry plant which now consists of
about 7,500 Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn chickens. The poultry plant is being
increased each year and eventually quarters for 20,000 layers will be filled. The eggs and
meat birds are to be sold to customers of Corona and surrounding cities.
Another unique sideline to this immense institution and which, to my mind, emphasizes the human element entering into the operation and success of the Fuller RanchO,
is the wild bird farm where some 800 birds of various breeds, such as pheasants, quail,
peafowls, and guineas, all find a home undisturbed.
Turkeys, too, are raised in great numbers, fattened and prepared for your and my
consumption.
Which all goes to show that the personality of the guiding hand of any institution is
reflected from the beginning to the end of its successful operation – and take it from me,
Coronans will make no mistake in supporting this home institution.
Fuller RanchO headquarters buildings including the hacienda form a cluster near the center of this 1948 aerial
photograph. The diagonal roadway along the bluff bordering the lake leads to Rincon and Auburndale districts of
“greater Corona.” The first East Vale Schoolhouse site is in the upper right corner, at the intersection of Chandler
Street and Harrison Avenue. (Names added by Loren Meissner.)
Historic Aerials, Nationwide Environmental Title Research (NERT).
O.R. Fuller’s dairy was successful, with milk soon offered for daily delivery all the way
across Cucamonga Valley from Pomona to Riverside. Turkey and chicken farming continued,
on land along the river. A 1935 Corona newspaper article notes that “the ranch boasts 14,000
turkeys, 12,000 chickens, and 625 cows, and is the largest irrigated farm in Riverside County.”
On the rejuvenated Fuller RanchO, the hacienda overlooked a lake “lined with willows and
other trees, giving it a serene and beautiful ambience.” Historical aerial maps show the lake
between the hacienda and the river, more than a quarter mile long and about 500 feet wide.
The lake had originated as an irrigation reservoir and as a feeding and resting area for migratory
26
waterfowl, supplied with Santa Ana River water through a small diversion ditch from about
two miles upstream, east of Hamner Avenue. Land records as early as 1915 indicate that the
ditch had initially been the main source of water for crops on the ranch during summer months,
before pumped irrigation was introduced.
O.R. Fuller’s financial situation was recovering, but he was plagued by trade union problems. In 1937, he sold all the dairy cows, while maintaining his flocks of turkeys and chickens.
4.3 Fuller RanchO Guest Ranch (1937–1947)
O.R. and Ione Fuller shifted their attention to development of a guest ranch with the hacienda,
Casa Orone, as its principal guest quarters.
The hacienda was enlarged to accommodate as many as 25 overnight guests. The dining
room also served lunch and dinner to local visitors, to the delight of many residents of Corona
and vicinity including patients and staff from the U.S. Naval Hospital at Norco after 1941. Ione
supervised the food service, assisted by Marcellie who was 17 when the guest facility opened.
Guests were encouraged to use the lake for boating, motorboating, and fishing
Several Hollywood celebrities visited Fuller RanchO Guest Ranch during the ten years of
its operation. The most notable of these was Charley Grapewin (see also Section 4.4), who was
semi-retired and came to visit and to compose a play. Charley and his wife were pleased with
the ranch atmosphere, and in 1938 they approached O.R. Fuller with the idea of purchasing a
parcel of land where they could live next to the lake. Fuller agreed, and he sold Grapewin a lot.
A large house was built, where Charley resided. Fuller later sold additional residential lots
overlooking the lake and the river valley, on the road along the bluff that became Grapewin
Street in present-day Eastvale.
Charley Grapewin (1859-1956) was semi-retired when he came to Fuller RanchO to visit and to write a play. He and
his wife Anna liked it so well they asked O.R. Fuller to sell them a lot on the bluff overlooking the river valley.
In 1940 he built a house, at a cost of about $100,000, with seven large bedrooms and six bathrooms.
Corona Public Library.
Fuller RanchO Guest Ranch Documentation
What follows is a merger from sources archived in W.D. Addison Heritage Room at the Public
Library in Corona, California.
27
Guest Ranch photos are from a unique book (call number: HR-979.49722-FUL) in the history collection at Corona, which seems to have been reproduced from a promotional document
that Ione prepared for the 1937 Guest Ranch opening.
The narrative is transcribed from a 1983 “oral history” interview with Marcellie Thompson,
daughter of O.R. and Ione Fuller. At the time of the interview, the hacienda hosted a boys’
home, which had moved to the ranch about 1967. The interviewer was Judith Schaeffer, a staff
member at the boys’ home, and the interview took place at Marcellie’s residence near San
Diego. In 1982, as described in section 4.5, Lucille Eldridge had written to Marcellie Fuller
Thompson requesting historical information about Fuller RanchO for possible publication during Corona’s 1986 centennial. Marcellie responded with a letter, which opened the door for the
oral history interview a few months later.
The oral history record was transcribed from tape into text form in 2012 by Diane Wright.
I have made some edits to the transcription to remove redundancies. Statements in italics are
the interviewer’s questions and comments; those in roman type are Marcellie’s responses.
As Marcellie’s oral history record starts, the interview is already under way. The subject is
Marcellie’s father, Olive Ransome Fuller (1880–1946).
Glimpsed through the friendly portals of the hacienda, the sheen of Fuller Lake
mirrors an ever-enchanting vista of natural beauty.
He died in 1946. My mother lived five years, almost five years to the day, after he died.
So he died just after at the end of the war, really. Sounds like he was a very enterprising man.
Was he?
Yes. He really made two fortunes. He lost everything once, except the ranch. And he was able
to hang onto that.
Was that during the Depression?
Yes.
28
A

DOMAIN in itself, as complete and self-sustaining as the
historic old Spanish Grant of Jurupa La Sierra of which it was
once a part, FULLER RANCHO is pleasantly situated in the
verdant valley of the Santa Ana River near Corona.
Comprising more than three thousand acres, with twenty-five hundred
under irrigation and cultivation, this agricultural kingdom maintains a
great dairy serving Los Angeles and neighboring communities, pasturage
for over a thousand head of pure Guernseys, Jerseys, and Holsteins, hog
ranges, poultry farms, riding stables, huge game bird preserve, and a
landing field for aircraft.
Creating a knoll and looking serenely forth upon this busy expanse of rural
life and fertility stands the hacienda of FULLER RANCHO. Within the threshold
is a courtly hospitality reminiscent of the colorful days of the Dons which,
indeed, is the motif of its spacious interior, but —
PASE USTED. ESTA ES SU CASA.
The hacienda at Fuller RanchO was built for O.R. and Ione Fuller by Leo Kroonen, about 1928.
Marcellie’s history mentions that the dairy cows were auctioned off about 1937, at the
beginning of the Guest Ranch era. Poultry remained on the ranch.
29
He must have had money in stocks.
No he didn’t. He had it in automobiles. He was a Cord and Auburn and Duesenberg dealer in
Los Angeles. Cord built a building there on Wilshire Boulevard, and got my father to sign a
99-year lease on it. And then the bottom dropped out of everything, so Cord sued my father.
What Cord wanted was that ranch. But my father was determined not to lose it. So … his aunt
had money, and she loaned my dad the money to pay Cord off. And of course we moved from
Los Angeles then, and lived there at the ranch, and he ran the dairy, and then later on he decided
to open a guest ranch there.
How old were you when you moved there?
Eleven.
Just eleven?
Yes.
And you’d lived in Hollywood?
Yes, we had a big home up there at the end of Hillhurst and Los Feliz. We lived right across
from Harry Chandler.
[LPM comment: Harry Chandler (1864-1944), Los Angeles Times publisher 1917-1944 and
real estate mogul.]
Is it still there?
It was, the last I saw. It’s a big three story thing with a big retaining wall around it. It was sold
to Mr. Chandler and he gave it to his daughter for a wedding present, and later on it was sold
again to some movie people. And I don’t know what they’ve done to it now.
**
Well now, when you moved out to Corona you’d been coming out there. In the winter did you
come out at all and stay any longer, or was it always a weekend?
[LPM comment: Throughout this interview, the ranch at Eastvale is referred to as at Corona,
which was the postal address for the ranch.]
No, we spent weekends there, and spent the summer time there when school was out.
So that was a real change for you.
Yes. It was oh, sort of lonely, because I was an only child. I didn’t have any children to play
with. You know there were a few children on the ranch, whose parents worked for my dad. I
played with them occasionally.
Well, did you go to school in Corona then?
No. Dad had his dairy business and offices in Pomona. And he was paying taxes there, so I
could go, you know, to either school. They wanted me to go to Pomona, so I went to Junior
High School and High School in Pomona.
That must have been a long commute for you.
Well, it wasn’t too bad. Before I could drive, my dad went over there to his office every day,
so every morning – you know.
[LPM comment: The distance from the ranch to Pomona is about 15 miles.]
He’d just drop you off.
He’d just drop me off at school, and pick me up in the afternoon.
30
Now before you moved out there, did he have some sort of dairy operation going?
Yes.
And he had somebody managing it.
Yes, but it was sort of a plaything for him then.
It was.
So … and then he had to make a success and he, you know, did.
He learned about it. He learned how to ranch, instead of selling cars. He never went back into
the car business?
No. And before he was in the automobile business, he had founded Motor Transit bus lines all
through California, which he later sold to Greyhound.
That’s where he made that large …What was it? That three million?
Yes. But then you see, everything was down the drain.
In that lawsuit.
In that lawsuit.
But he hung onto the ranch. He must have loved it.
Yes. Oh yes. He wanted to be buried there, but we didn’t do that.
Do you think he missed Hollywood?
No.
He liked the country?
Yes. And he liked to be around people. I think that’s one reason he started the guest ranch. He
enjoyed being around people having fun. He loved life.
[LPM comment: O.R. Fuller had lived in Los Angeles and nearby cities since 1900. But he and
several generations of ancestors had previously lived in rural or semi-rural areas of eastern and
midwestern United States.]
He was an outgoing person?
Yes.
Well now, when he opened that guest ranch, what gave him that idea? Do you know? Did he
talk about it at all? Talk about opening it or …
Yes, he had talked about it before. For one thing, he sold off his dairy because he was having
trouble with the unions, and he was disgusted, you know. He was one of those people who was
really disgusted with the unions at that point. So rather than … well none of the men working
there wanted to join the union. So they were dumping on milk trucks and doing all kinds of
things to us between there and Pomona and Los Angeles and Riverside. So he just auctioned,
had an auction, of all the cows. And said he was going to open a guest ranch.
[LPM comment: Fuller sold his dairy rights to Knudsen Company in 1940.]
Did he have the turkeys at that same time that he had …
Yes.
How did he get his guests? How did he advertise and let people know he was opening that?
He told friends, and they started bringing people out from Los Angeles.
31
Hollywood?
Yes.
People who he … his car business?
A lot of those people came, and he never really advertised that much. He didn’t believe in
sending out a lot of advertising. Some travel agents, a couple of them knew about it, and movie
people started coming out there. Lots of them weren’t his friends, never saw him before, but
had heard about it from somebody.
How many people could you have at one time out there?
You mean to sleep there? Probably not more than about 25 people.
Oh that’s quite a few.
Yes, that’s after the addition.
After you built that wing on. But before you built the wing on, where did they sleep then? Where
did they stay, if they stayed overnight?
They stayed in the rooms along the patio there, and upstairs.
Where the carriage drive … the automobile drive comes in?
There are four rooms there, and they stayed there.
But you always had your upstairs bedroom in the back, at the top of the stairs.
No, not at first. Those were rented out as a suite. We moved into what was really the maid’s
quarters – you know, off of the kitchen; I assume it’s still there – until that addition was built.
Marcellie’s bedroom.
32
And then my folks moved back upstairs, but in the front part. But I got married, so that was the
end of that. I moved away, so I didn’t move back upstairs.
[LPM comment: Marcellie married Charles Powers about 1940. They moved to a house on the
ranch near the “old ranch house,” and later to a new house on Grapewin Street.]
The room with a porch was the master bedroom. And you moved out of those when they remodeled it into a guest ranch, but then your parents moved back into the master bedroom.
Yes. As soon as …
Once they got that wing built? In our … in one of our pictures of the place during the time it
was a guest house, we have the great hall – or it was your living room, I think. And then just
back to back with that, another fireplace, they had a dining table. Was that always your dining
room back there or was that …
There was a formal dining room in that … beyond the living room.
That was your formal dining room, originally.
Yes. And the other, where they got the name I don’t know, but they called it the Grill Room.
That was where we ate most of the time.
Really. So both places were eating places. One more casual, and one more formal. I suppose
the room where the boys now eat used to be your formal dining room?
That’s the biggest room. When it was the guest ranch, it had smaller tables like any restaurant.
That’s where they ate.
Yes, well, and there were tables in that other room too.
Restful simplicity is the keynote of the Master Bedroom.
33
The Dining Room reflects the traditional hospitality of Old Spain.
Those four bedrooms that the guests originally occupied: Was that always part of the house
that had been built?
Yes.
From the very beginning.
That was always there.
So you could have guests at any time you wanted, to bring out or have out there.
Yes, those were always guest rooms.
What I can’t figure out, if you can tell me, is where the front door was. Did you always, did
you come through that carriage drive or the drive there?
Yes.
And down along the …
Yes, that’s the front door.
And that’s the front door, so … where the stairs come down from the upstairs.
The entrance hall.
We now have a door that goes out where the bedrooms were. Now, was it just beyond … which
would be your front door? We now have a door and then another door that comes through. I’m
wondering … and we probably cut through a bedroom there and come out the other side. Or
was there always an exterior door?
34
The Grill Room, opening on the Patio – cheery and comfortable.
No, there wasn’t. Right off the entrance hall there’s a room that has cabinets in it. That was my
father’s office, and then next to that was a restroom.
Yes.
And right behind that was a bedroom. Now if you cut through there then that’s the …
The boys do that now, and that’s what’s been confusing to me, because that entrance we now
have doesn’t look like an entrance. It doesn’t look like it would be your front door. And plus,
there’s a bathroom there, which is … would be odd. It’s like a bathroom or a bedroom or …
Oh, it’s a regular bath. Because the one I’m talking about just had a basin and toilet in there.
It’s right off the entrance hall. You know, if you came in the door and you turned right.
Oh, I know.
And there’s a little short hallway there.
Yes, there’s a little short hallway, and one of the doors leads to what is now our doctor’s office.
That used to be a bar.
A what? Oh.
The bar was in …
When was that bar built, the curved thing? It’s curved.
Oh, that was built before the guest ranch. When they added, that room was added on out there.
That was added on by your dad, then.
35
Well, all of it was while he was living, because it was closed soon after that. There was an
office. Then there was another sitting room on the front, is that …
I’m wondering if that’s the one. There’s a large room that comes… there’s a door to it, two
doors to it I think, off the great hall. You can go …
It was an archway before.
And that’s where the entrance area …
Toward the lake, and toward the steps out there. That side of the house.
Well there’s that too. But then there’s two on the end, well you know where the balcony comes
up, just below.
Yes.
Just below that there are two doors that go into a big room. A great big room.
Should go into two different rooms.
And another room off to one side of it.
Where the first one you mentioned is, where you went into the bar, what you want to call the
back of the house. That was a sitting room.
Off one of those rooms is a very pretty little niche that looks like it was a personal family bar
at one time.
Yes. What is that now, a closet?
I’ll tell you what they use it for. They use it for a store. It looks exactly the way it was. But the
boys can use it there … we give them what they call play-dough, and they are allowed to buy
things for themselves if they gain certain status, and that’s because it has a half door.
Yes that’s … hey, write that down so that you know … in fact, when the guest ranch first
opened, they just used that as a … kind of like a service bar. And later on …
They had the larger bar.
Yes, well in fact when the place first opened, till he could get a license, people brought their
own and used that little bar. And then when he got a license, for a while he used that as a service
bar, and then decided he wanted to add on. He had a thing about building. I think he thought
he could go on forever if he kept busy.
And you said he thought about enclosing the courtyard so it was …
Yes. It would have gone clear around there, except just a little driveway, because they … Isn’t
there a cement slab out there?
Yes.
Well that’s just before he died. They put that in to add more rooms.
To add more rooms, that’s interesting. In the middle of that courtyard – it’s a very pretty courtyard – there’s a marble …
Wishing well.
Is that what it was?
What is it now?
It still is right now, and I wondered if it was, if it was a well that went down.
36
The Patio preserves the cloistered serenity of the old California days for
the individual guest suites which look out upon the corridor.
No.
Or was it a little shallow …?
They put water in it, you know. But it wasn’t a real well.
It had a beautiful cage over it, of wrought iron, which is not there any more. I don’t know what
happened to that.
Somebody probably broke it off. Vandalism, anything.
But that was a wishing well. Do you have any idea where he got that beautiful basin? It was
beautiful.
No. Just about everything in that house came from Europe, and most of it from Spain. The rug
in the large living room was made especially for that house.
I’ve seen that in the pictures. It’s not there any more.
It would be worn out now, anyway.
Undoubtedly, it would be gone.
It was beginning to wear with the guests coming and going. You know, the path to the dining
room. It was a shame, because it was a beautiful carpet.
Did you have … when the craftsmen came out … when your dad built that, I think it was 1928
when he built that house.
Yes.
37
The Monterey Room, adjoining the Living Room, is delightfully informal.
Did he … were they craftsmen from Hollywood? Were they people he already knew, or did he
have to actually go to Europe and look for them?
No some of … I remember the two men who did the … the one who did all the carving of the
beams, and the other was a cabinet maker who made all the cabinets throughout the house.
They were just men who were recommended to him. But they had both come from Europe.
They were old-time craftsmen.
Had he ever been in Europe? Did he ever …
No. He and my mother never did like to travel. They were homebodies. They liked to have a
lot of friends around. They entertained a lot, but they didn’t travel.
So the idea of building a house like that was … that big Spanish house, was something that
came from maybe from his Hollywood days or …
Both houses that they built, the one in Hollywood and that one, were of the Spanish style. But
the one in Hollywood was … to me, was a very cold formal place. It wasn’t homey. It was …
a big three story house is what it was. It was built on a hillside where … I always thought the
one at the ranch was very homey, up till the time it became a guest ranch. I’ll say that changed.
It changed.
But it had a warm feeling about it, I thought, originally.
**
You probably didn’t have much privacy as a girl, in that, after it turned into a guest ranch. Did
you?
38
No, you see I was still in High School. I was 17 so … and then when I got out of High School,
I disappointed my dad because I didn’t want to go to college. I worked there as a hostess and
helped my mother, and even after I was married I worked there part time, like on holidays when
they were real busy.
So your mother took an active role.
Oh yes. She planned all the meals and she was in charge of that end of it.
She handled the …
Banquets and stuff.
All the food, in other words?
Yes.
Housekeeping.
Yes.
She handled … and did he handle the … booking in the guests, or did he have a manager who
helped him with that?
No. Both my mother and I did a lot of that, and I would write letters. If people had reservations
I’d answer their letters.
Did you get a lot of return customers?
Yes. We had a lot of them who came … maybe a couple of times a month.
Oh really.
And then of course one of the big parts of the business there was when the Naval Hospital was
open during the war. All the doctors and nurses and patients who were able to get around, came
over there to eat and drink and have parties over there.
[LPM comment: A U.S. Naval Hospital occupied the former Norconian resort hotel nearby at
Norco, 1942–1946.]
For meals and parties and things. So the way he had set it up, you could stay or you could
come in for meals.
Oh yes. It was open every day for lunch and dinner.
Like a restaurant.
Yes. A lot of people came there from Los Angeles, and all kinds of places.
**
You mentioned some good old time movie actors in your letter, like W.C. Fields.
[LPM comment: The interviewer is referring to the letter Marcellie wrote to Lucille Eldridge
in January 1982 (see Section 4.5).]
He was a character. Never came out of his room. His chauffer came down every morning and
got his breakfast for him. He didn’t want anybody to come up there.
Was he in one of the upstairs rooms?
He was in the room that used to be my room, and the chauffer would take up a pitcher of
martinis for him. And he and his secretary … he was writing a play or a book or something at
the time, and his secretary would come out and eat her meals … and the chauffer. But we never
39
did see Fields except for when he arrived. He went up there and did his writing and drinking.
So he really was in real life just like he was … you know.
Do you remember some of the others who came out there?
Yeah, some of them I didn’t even mention there. Well Jack Oakie was one. A lot of these you
probably never … But people my age remember them in the movies. Jeannette McDonald and
her husband, Gene Raymond.
What was she like?
She was a very quiet person, a very attractive woman I thought. And Mary Pickford and Buddy
Rogers were there one time, not to stay but to eat.
She was a very pretty woman. Was she nice as well?
Yes, but a very private person. Didn’t want to be bothered with people, you know. Some of the
guests were friendly, and some weren’t. One of the worst ones was Groucho Marx. He was a
very insulting person, and very demanding of the people working there. He gave everybody a
bad time. Yes, he and his family stayed there. And we were glad to see him go. But most of
them were very nice.
I know Olivia de Havilland was one of the people you mentioned.
Yes. And Linda Darnell, she was a very beautiful person, and … she died in a tragic fire. I
can’t remember just when. But she used to come there a lot.
[LPM comment: Linda Darnell’s death occurred in 1965.]
She was pleasant.
Yes. She was friendly with people.
How about Olivia de Havilland? Was she friendly?
I can’t remember that much about her …. Elizabeth Taylor as a little girl was there, but she
was probably ten years old or something like that.
[LPM comment: Elizabeth Taylor was born in 1932.]
Were there any of those movie actors who used to come every year or every season and stay
over like, to come back and come back again.
Yes, there were quite a few of them.
Really?
Spencer Tracy was there quite a bit, because his mother stayed there for about six months. She
had a companion, and I used to take her around places. She liked to go for drives. But then she
had a stroke, and of course they had to move her to a hospital, and she passed away soon after
that.
Well now did Kathryn Hepburn ever come out?
No, but Mrs. Tracy did. Mrs. Tracy came out to see her mother-in-law, and Spencer Tracy’s
brother came with him. Because I think he was his manager at the time.
[LPM comment: Spencer Tracy was married to Louise Treadwell, called “Mrs. Tracy” here.
Meanwhile, he was involved in an extramarital affair with Kathryn Hepburn.]
How was he as a person?
Well he was very egotistical.
40
Kind of a macho?
Yes, he really was. No, I never did see Kathryn Hepburn, though. But Mrs. Tracy, you know,
started the clinics for deaf children.
No, I didn’t know that.
The John Tracy Clinics. Well, they had a son who was born deaf, and she started a method of
teaching him to talk. I guess all … I don’t know if they’re all over the United States, but in
California they had them in several cities. To help deaf children.
[LPM comment: The method was reasonably successful. The clinics were named for the deaf
son, John Tracy.]
Do you think that any of those stars who are still around, who you remember, are any of those
still living? I don’t think Olivia de Havilland.
Yes, Red Skelton is still living.
[LPM comment: He was born in 1913, and died in 1997.]
He came out, did he? Was he funny?
Very quiet.
Did he joke?
He was … this was when he was first discovered by Hollywood, you know, he hadn’t become
famous yet. In fact, the MGM talent scout I mentioned, who built the house up on the hill that
has the pool, brought a lot of movie people out there.
[LPM comment: “mentioned” in the 1982 letter to Lucille Eldridge (see Section 4.5).]
How did Charley Grapewin fit in? Was he someone your dad knew, or…
I don’t know who sent him, but he came out there to visit, and to write a book – a play. And he
liked it so well he wanted to move out there. He was more or less retired. He wasn’t in the
movies much any more then. And Charley’s wife came out and she liked it. And of course he
told the story that he won that lot in a poker game or gin rummy or something. But he didn’t
really. He really did purchase it from my dad. And then Dad decided he was going to have that
surveyed, and all those lots along the lake were still there. It was very pretty then … sell off
lots to people – which he did.
So the Grapewins’ … the lot that Charley Grapewin had, actually …
Was the first one.
… Went down to the lake area.
Yes, all those lots go down to the … there was a road around the lake then, so it went down to
the edge there.
That’s the house that’s …
Yes somebody said it had burnt down, but there is another house there now, isn’t there?
There’s what looks like the … servants quarters or a guest house or something of that type,
still left on that lot. But the main house burned. Now when that other house was built, I don’t
know.
[LPM comment: Most of the Grapewin home burned in 1973, but was repaired. It was demolished in 2004.]
Well there was a … yes, there was a little guest house type thing, off of the garage, I think.
41
This is a two story building?
No.
It looks kind of modern to me.
No I don’t think that had anything to do with that house.
You think it’s separate from it.
Yes. I was asking Harvey, my step-dad, when he was here the other day, if … about it, and he
said somebody built a house there.
[LPM comment: Marcellie’s mother Ione married Harvey Weeks in 1948, after O.R. Fuller
died in 1946. Ione died in 1951. Harvey was still living at the time of the interview, but he died
soon afterward in October 1983.]
Oh, that could be so … really, of the original house.
I think all of Grapewin’s house would be gone now.
Do you remember that house? Do you remember the inside of it? I never saw the inside of it at
all. We have one photograph of the outside.
It’s … I mean it wasn’t …
It wasn’t like yours at all.
No it was just a big house.
Not as pretty.
I didn’t think so.
Didn’t have any of that ornate work.
No. Of course, myself, I like plainer things, but my folks liked all that carving, I thought it was
beautiful, but you know, myself, I don’t care for it that much. Of course I have a mixture of
things here.
Now did Charley Grapewin… I’ve heard several stories. He played in Wizard of Oz and in
Grapes of Wrath. Do you have any recollection of …?
Yes, he played in the two things that he was well known for. Grapes of Wrath, and I’m trying
to think … it was Good Earth, Pearl Buck’s story.
Do you remember what he played in those, exactly what he played?
He was a grandfather in Grapes of Wrath and I think he was the father or grandfather in Good
Earth.
He played old people – a character actor.
He was a character actor.
**
Well, now when you were younger – you were 11 or so when you first moved out there you
said, now from about 11 to when you were around 17, before they turned it into a guest ranch.
Yes, right.
So most of the life that you had as a young girl there, it was really a “ranch ranch.” Did you
have to do any of the work on that, or did your dad have plenty of …
42
No. He had over 100 men working out there when he had the dairy, and of course he raised all
his crops.
For the dairy.
For the dairy and for the turkeys and all, you know. And I spent a lot of time riding horseback
and swimming.
Is that how you … were you interested in the race horses when you got married, or was it your
husband who was interested?
No, it was my husband.
It was your husband, but you could ride.
Oh, my father taught me to ride when I was four years old.
Really. Did he have horses at all?
Yes. Riding horses. And of course he had them for the guests too.
Yes, when they were …
But even before the guest ranch, for his own friends who came out. He liked horses; he raised
polo ponies to sell.
Did he?
It was sort of a hobby. He loved to ride. He was an excellent rider.
Was he. Do you remember whether he had a particular kind of horses, did he like Arabs or
Morgans?
Looking north across Fuller Lake, with the dairy and silos in the background.
43
Flowers border the swimming pool.
Well he had some Arabians that he raised there. He had an Arabian stallion that was from
Kellogg’s ranch. And he loved pinto horses, we had a lot those. My horse was a pinto, and my
dad’s horse had been in the movies. Monty Blue was his name. He was in early western movies.
So it was western that you rode in, that he loved. Not eastern so much, but western.
I learned to ride both ways.
And you rode all your life, all your young life.
Yes, yes up till … I never rode much, you know, after I was married – then, occasionally.
But up to that point?
Up to that point.
And you had plenty of land to ride on.
Oh yes. I rode all through that river bottom land and all over the place.
**
Did your dad have other hobbies? What did he like to do, besides riding and …?
He loved to gamble.
Did he? So the stories about the poker and the playing …
Oh yes. There were some of his friends from Corona that they’d … those men would play for
two or three days at a time and drink coffee to keep awake, and I mean they gambled pretty
good money. They’d lock themselves in my dad’s office and play poker. At one time in Riverside County, if you paid off the sheriff or whoever it was in Riverside, you could have slot
machines. They had them in Palm Springs too, at the time. Then when it got a little tougher on
them, they’d call you up to say somebody has reported you have slot machines. So we had
cabinets – so things would be in the cabinets and they’d come in and there were no slot machines. It just looked like a cabinet on the wall.
So where would those be? Downstairs?
44
They’d be in the room that’s going in, where you said you have a store now. Around the wall
there.
I’m trying to think whether … I don’t think they have any cabinets there now.
They were not clipped to the wall. They’d just look like a piece of furniture. And of course, the
men in Riverside knew they were in there, but they didn’t “see” them. They didn’t do anything.
Oh gee.
People from the Naval Hospital loved to play those things.
I bet, during the war time.
Oh yeah. They were really popular.
In one of the pictures I saw … it’s like an open building down on the lake, with lots of people
inside of it. … Looked like a reception, a wedding reception or a picnic or something of that
kind, and that looked like it was during the war, do you remember?
Yes. That was just a great big room, almost like a barn. And it was used for, oh, people who
wanted to give barbecues, like clubs that would want to rent a hall – that type of thing.
So there must have been a road that went down to that clubhouse.
Oh yes, it was right behind the pool and the tennis court, you know, there was … going down
the hill there. There was a dirt road. And then of course it could go clear around the lake.
And it went all the way around.
Snowcapped Mt. Baldy stands sentinel over rich pastures.
Riding is a favorite sport and a complete stable is maintained.
45
**
Did you swim down there in that lake?
No. I went fishing there when I was a kid, but I went swimming in the pool.
Swam in the pool, and fished in the lake.
A pastime always popular with family and guests alike.
Yeah. And I rode my horse.
That sounds a like nice life, though. Do you remember it nicely?
Yes, but I … I didn’t … I really did want to move away from there eventually, yeah.
After a while.
Yeah, my husband would probably have stayed up there, but … I wanted to leave, after the
family was gone.
After the family was gone?
And the place, you know, was sold to Mr. Koenig, and …
Then it’s not the same.
I don’t know. It just didn’t seem the same to me.
Not without your family there.
Well and I … strangers in the house and everything.
Did they live in the house, the people you sold it to at that time?
Yeah, Koenigs lived there for a while, and then I guess he’s the one that sold it … In 1961, I
think they bought it. I think he moved to Chino … I’d forgotten where.
46
**
Well now your mom. Had she already sold off some of the land before you …?
Yes.
But you got your land when your dad died. Is that right? Had you inherited that?
Yes.
Not before though. It was after that.
No, I built … you know … I was married before. In fact, not to my second husband, but when
I was married the first time, I was married in that living room. And they had flowers coming
down from that balcony. They built an aisle for the middle and everything.
How many people did you get into that room?
Oh there were about probably 100 people at my wedding.
That’s interesting, because … one of our young women who’s working for the boys’ home now
is thinking about getting married in that living room.
Well it’s been … three weddings in there … there was my wedding, and then … a good friend
of the family was married there. And when my mother married Mr. Weeks, she was married
under the balcony there. Of course they didn’t have the aisle and everything like they did for
me. It looked more like a church when I got married. They had it all … well, they moved the
furniture back. There was a piano in there then – a big grand piano down near the dining room.
Did you play the piano?
No.
Did your dad?
No, my mother did.
Your mother did?
She wanted me to, and I took lessons, but it was a lost cause. I think if you really force a child
to do something like that, you know, with no talent, that they don’t do it.
What kind of person was your mother? You don’t hear much about your mother.
Well she was a very strong personality, rather domineering.
Did she … like that?
At first she didn’t want to leave Los Angeles and Hollywood, because all of their friends lived
there. She thought it was pretty far out from town and all that. But after she once got moved
out there, their friends came to see them, and she was happy then.
Did she like the guest ranch part?
Yes, because she enjoyed the people.
So your dad and your mom …
They both liked to entertain people, and she loved to plan parties for people. She loved to
decorate and arrange flowers, and things like that. She was very good at that, and she did all
the interior decorating in that place. She did. She picked out everything in there.
And the furniture too?
47
All the furniture, yes. She did it for both homes, the one in Hollywood too. My Dad just turned
that over to her, because she was good at it.
I have a question. Thinking of the furniture, do you remember what color the draperies were
in the living room? They look like they were velvet or heavy cord or something.
They were kind of … they were a velvet type, and they were kind of a burgundy color or deep
red, it seems to me. Some of the rooms had gold colored drapes, but I’m pretty sure those in
there were burgundy colored.
Hmm. We’d like to replace them, and we’re thinking what color we should use in there.
If that room’s rather dark … unless it’s …
It is dark, yeah.
I would think, something lighter colored.
More of a gold or … Did you spend much time in that room?
I used to be afraid of that room, when I was a little girl. It seemed so big, and I could see
shadows when I was little, because that was a formal living room. Unless they were entertaining a lot of friends, we didn’t use that. They used the other room. So my mom and Dad would
be in there, and they … and I would go in and listen. They had a radio in the big living room
in a big fancy Bicaro cabinet. I used to go in there and listen to it, but then I’d get scared and
I’d think I heard things. Just a big too big a room for me.
[LPM comment: The word “Bicaro” may be mistranscribed. The cabinet is shown in a later
photo, under the balcony in the living room.]
Where did you spend most of your … what was your favorite place to be in that house?
Oh, I really think, there in my own sitting room upstairs, because I love to read. Not having
any children to play with much, I became quite a bookworm.
And that was now … your bedroom was in the back there. I think there’s two little rooms off
that bedroom, one for the …
Oh?
And the other one behind that, at least it is now, divided into two rooms. I don’t know.
The one where the porch is, you’re talking about, or the other one? Well, it had a dressing room
and a bathroom that was right off the bedroom. And then the room … behind that were two
sliding doors going into that back room, because that could be closed off, and that was a sitting
room.
So it was all one then, probably. Right, I think they probably put up a wall to make it two small
rooms now, and that was probably one big … one large room.
No … Oh, you mean, the room in the back is two rooms now.
Yeah.
Well that’s where you have offices, right?
Yeah right. They probably put in a little wall between. I should have brought a picture of it.
48
Marcellie has her own Sitting Room which adjoins her bedroom.
OK. The dressing room is now a file room, you said.
I think that’s what is in there now, because that would be the first room you would come to …
After the door, and then the bathroom was the second room.
Then behind that there’s a door into your sitting room, where you studied and all.
Yes.
**
Were there lots of trees around at that time?
Yes, there were walnut trees on the side there where the balcony is. There were black walnut
trees out there.
Did you have gardens?
There was a big rose garden out in front.
In the front?
Yes, well or the back, I guess you’d call it. The lake side. My dad loved roses and he had an
enormous rose garden out there in front and it was all of the same color – he had all the same
color roses. They used them in the dining room on the table.
What color?
Oh, sort of a pinkish red, I’d say, something like in that pillow over there. I don’t know what
color you’d call it.
Deep rose?
A deep rose color, yes. I can’t remember the name of them but he got them through Armstrong
Nurseries in Ontario. And he had them plant this whole thing.
Did your mother like roses?
49
Yes.
Did she like flowers in general?
Yeah, she loved to arrange flowers, and we always had flowers in the house.
Really. And she liked music. She sounds like an interesting person.
She got very sick … she discovered she had cancer, right after my dad died. She had surgery
and she was pretty good there for about three years. But then it started back in.
You talked about having horses and about your dad having a dairy. Where were those buildings? I think they’re all gone now. But where were they then?
There was a stable up on the hill. It would be about a city block from the tennis court. Right
up, you know, where it is level. And that’s where the horses were. Of course the dairy was
farther on.
Farther on, away from the house?
Yes, it was. I imagine some of the old buildings are still standing. Where the silos are still
standing.
Are they?
Well they were, a couple years ago. There were 14 of them.
Fourteen silos?
Yes.
I couldn’t miss that, could I?
Like cement, big round things, yeah. Oh I’m sure they wouldn’t knock that down. They’d have
to blow them up, to knock them down.
Let me see if I can figure out where that is. When you come in on Grapewin – what is now
Grapewin – the street that comes past the house, there is a big brick pillar which is now white
and which looks like it was one side of an entrance gate or something. Was that an entrance
gate through there?
Adjoining the pool is the tennis court.
50
Pepper trees shade the Casa Adobe of the old Rancho.
There was never a gate on that one, but the road still goes from the house back to Chandler
Street Is it a paved drive?
Well, the one road that I know, and I haven’t really driven down the side of the house because
there is something down the side of it, but there is … from the front – there’s where the two
white things are, and there Chandler runs in front of those.
Oh yes, yes, that used to have gates. But then there was …
That road used to have gates?
But on Grapewin, the other end, there used to be pillars but there was never a gate there.
The other end of Grapewin… If we’re at those white entrance gates, if you go down Chandler
Street, down to where it curves, it now curves around to the left.
Yes, going toward Norco.
[LPM comment: Going east, Chandler Street ends at Harrison Avenue “where the two white
things are.” The route toward Norco curves to the left, turning north on Harrison Avenue.]
There are some older buildings right where it curves.
That’s where it was. That’s where the dairy was, and the mess hall and all that. … I don’t know
if the buildings are still standing, but the original ranch house was my grandfather’s – should
be over … just back of the tennis courts there.
[LPM comment: The “original ranch house” was northeast of the tennis court. “My grandfather” is Charles H. Fuller. Note that Ortus Fuller, brother of Charles, was the first Fuller resident on the ranch, about 1889.]
51
We don’t have tennis courts any more.
Well, where they were.
I think I know where the tennis courts were.
The cement’s still there, next to the swimming pool. But what’s next to the pool, now?
Next to the swimming pool is just a big open field as far as I know, but I haven’t walked back
there, I’ll have to walk back and find out. There’s a house back there, which belonged to Louis
Vander Halen. Do you remember him? Did you ever know him?
No, but there are two houses back there. One I lived in till I built the house on Grapewin, and
the other one was used for ranch offices, and it was right next door to that, and that was the
original old ranch house my grandfather had.
So the ranch house would be right near where those two houses are now?
Yes.
Behind that, farther on back?
Not very far. As far as here and across the street.
Let’s see if I can locate it, what did it look like?
Well it’s two frame buildings there. One I assume is still there … it’s a pretty good sized framed
building and had a screened in porch on one side of it.
Two story?
One story. There should be three one story houses over in that area.
One you lived in, and one was ranch offices?
Yes, and there was another one that was for … you know, any worker who had a family.
And the one that was the original ranch house, was that …
In the middle. There were two smaller houses, and one in the middle. I’m sure they’re still
standing because I believe Mr. Koda used them for some of his help. Of course they could have
burned up. I don’t know what’s happened the last few years.
But I’ll look and see if that … That would be interesting – that’s where your grandfather lived.
Yes, and that is where we came weekends at first while they were building.
While they were building the big house?
Yes. I it took more than a year. They had … Mexican help from Corona, bricklayers and all.
And build that. Is it made out of concrete block or …?
Yes, yes.
And it’s cool too. It’s enough for the heat we have out there.
Yeah it does.
Now if we get back there where the dairy farm was, where were the turkeys? Were they back
there?
You talk about where the road curved, going toward Norco. They were on both sides of that
road, clear up to where that road turns again.
[LPM comment: On both sides of Harrison Avenue, between Chandler Street and the right turn
east onto Citrus Street.]
52
Really? And that’s all other people’s dairies now, fairly …
Yes, I imagine it’s pretty solid dairies by now.
So it went that far?
That’s what I say. The ranch went way up there on both sides. Before that road curves again,
there’s a stucco house, a big stucco house back of the trees. See, that was still part of the ranch.
The foreman of the ranch lived in the house. Then there were barns back of that. I guess when
I was a little girl they used mules out there to pull wagons for the hay and all that. You know,
it was before tractors were so popular.
[LPM comment: This is probably eastbound Chandler Street, turning north on Harrison Avenue at the front of the Ranch, and then where “that road curves again,” east “toward Norco” on
Citrus Street. Harrison Avenue was unpaved north of Citrus Street for a long while. The “stucco
house back of the trees” is where Herschel Meuser lived – on the west side of Harrison Avenue
at the corner of Citrus Street.]
So it went really all the way down the two curves of the road and then a little bit beyond that.
[LPM comment: The turkey ranch went down Harrison Avenue past Citrus Street.]
It went beyond where that house is. There was no paved road beyond that. I mean, you know,
it curved to go toward Norco, and you went, it became a dirt road if you went on up, and I think
you said Hamner is the next one.
Not Hamner. A cross street, Schleisman. Schleisman comes down and meets – in other words,
where your curve is. Where that double curve is.
Center: Common Bronze Turkey. Lower Left: Green Pea-fowl.
Lower Right: Full-blooded Wild Virginia Tom Turkey.
Great variety of domestic and wild fowl are found in the poultry farms and
wild game preserve which shelter, in addition to over ten thousand
chickens, a number of rare game birds.
53
[LPM comment: Before 1950, Harrison Avenue continued, unpaved, north to Schleisman
Road, but this is irrelevant. Citrus Street turned east from Harrison Avenue, as far as Cleveland
Avenue (now Scholar Way). The route to Norco during Fuller RanchO era would be via Harrison Avenue, Citrus Street, Cleveland Avenue, Schleisman Road, and Hamner Avenue.]
That’s what I’m trying to think. You know, when I’m up there I can find my way around, but
I can’t … Of course, Corona has changed a lot. There were only 5,000 people there when I was
a little girl.
Is that so? Did you go into Corona much?
When I was working for my dad, I went almost every day, to pick up mail and go to the bank.
You were more oriented towards Pomona because of having gone there, you were there in …
your dad’s office being there.
He also had a market over there that …
The lake affords boating, motorboating, fishing, and a welcome retreat
for wild fowl.
**
Your Grandfather Fuller …
He and his brothers came out here to California and he started Pioneer Transfer in Los Angeles.
There were two or three brothers who came out, and one of them settled over in Azusa. Two
of them went over the other way and there was … I know they bought some property.
[LPM comment: The land at Eastvale was owned between 1889 and 1928 by various combinations of the brothers and their brother-in-law Fred Zucker.]
54
The architectural and decorative detail of the Living Room reveals exquisite care
in the preservation of quaint Old World beauty.
Around where they all …
Where they all owned the land.
And your grandfather, when he owned the property where … which became the ranch for you.
Was it called Fuller RanchO then, or was it after your dad …?
No, my dad named it that.
Your Dad called it that, with a big O on the end of it, for his initial? Was it Oliver?
[LPM comment: Not Oliver. Olive Ransome Fuller (1880–1946).]
O.R. Fuller, he went by the initials. Nobody ever called him …
Well now, your grandfather? Did he ranch there at all or was he …
No, it was just kind of a place he went weekends. See, I only remember him as a very old man.
Sick and all, then.
Was your Grandmother living then too?
Yes, my Grandmother lived to be 85 years old. I was grown.
Did she live with your dad or did she live back there in that house?
No, they were separated when my dad was a little boy, and he never saw his father till he was
18 and came out here to California to see his father.
Oh I see. So your dad was living back …
In Kansas, with his step-dad.
55
The Living Room of the hacienda reveals a distinctly Spanish motif.
And his Mother?
He had two half-brothers by that time. Then he came out here and went to work for his father,
and he became interested in transportation, that type of thing.
That’s how he got into transportation. So you met your Grandmother only by visits then.
She lived in San Bernardino. She came out here I guess, when I was little. She and I were very
close. She used to come stay with us, and spend about a month with us once a year.
[LPM Comment: Mary Ann and George Maddy are shown in census 1900 at Waco KS; in
1910 and 1920 at Jefferson OK; in 1930 and 1940 at San Bernardino CA]
At the house in Corona?
Well, in Hollywood too. She used to come and see us.
Oh, in Hollywood also. Do you remember those Hollywood years very well? Do you have …?
Yeah, I remember that house. I went back there, when it was for sale after I was grown. We
knew this real estate person who said, “Do you want to go through it just for the fun of it? They
won’t know you’re not a prospective buyer.” So my mother and I went up there to see it. And
it was so funny. They had someone showing us through, and telling us all these things. But we
knew where everything was. That house was built during prohibition, and in the den there they
had bookcases that came together, in the back of the bar, behind there. And also there was a
room in the basement that I imagine no one has ever found. You had to touch the wall a certain
place and it opened, and there was a safe in there. It was a … well, it was really a storage room,
and it was almost as big as this room. But the … you know, it was like going into a bank vault
thing. I doubt if anybody ever found that.
56
Was that fun going back, or was it sad?
Yes, I thought it was fun. Some of the furnishings were still there.
You’d sold it furnished?
Yes. So there were a lot of things still there and … it was very interesting to go back. That’s
why I say, I’d like to go back and see what you folks have done to the house.
**
Well I hope you will, as a matter of fact. And you might give us some ideas too, as we move
towards the restoration of the house, how it should be, and what it should look like. Now it
being an institution, of course, we can’t. It can’t be ours again, but we hope some of the main
rooms can be … looking. We don’t have the furniture.
What’s in the living room?
There’s almost nothing in the living room, except a large chest which almost looks like a chest
from a religious or a church background. It’s about five feet high and it doesn’t seem to have
a back, or it’s open in the back but not totally closed. It’s ornately carved with figures.
Where is it sitting?
It is now sitting against the wall opposite the balcony which would lead into your formal dining
room.
Used to be under the balcony. That’s where the radio was, and there was a phonograph inside
too.
That’s the radio and phonograph cabinet?
That’s what it was.
For heaven’s sake, isn’t that interesting?
I’m sure. Just from what you say, I’m sure that’s what it is. It’s the only big piece of carved
furniture that was ever in there.
And that was under the balcony.
Yes.
I know from the pictures, the grand piano was at the other end of the …
Right off the dining room.
[LPM comment: The light colored piano can be seen on the right at the far end of the room,
with a picture above it.]
And we plan to place a grand piano back in that room, and it ought to be as beautiful as the
one that was in there, but we … and one other thing we have. Where was the big grandfather
clock? Do you remember that?
The grandfather clock was in the entrance hall.
That was in the entrance hall. By the stairs or…
Just … right where you first go up the steps. It’s kind of a jog there. … It’s kind of up against
the … tucked in the corner there.
57
The Entrance Hallway beckons an invitation to the friendliness within.
And we have a very ornately carved chair which has a high back and large arms. I thought
maybe that was in the entrance hall too, from one of the pictures I saw of just the end of the …
There was what seemed to me more like a love seat. Two people could sit … But there was …
I can’t place that.
Right now it has … red velvet back velvet back seat, and I don’t think …
Well I can think of one chair similar to that. It was in the living room. It was very uncomfortable. But I’m … You ought to try opening that cabinet, and see if there is anything in it.
In the radio cabinet?
Yes.
Yeah, I’ll do that.
I mean, if they took the things out. Probably did, because you know it probably wore out years
ago. But there should be a shelf or something in there.
That would hold the radio?
Yes.
We also have a large … like a library table that I think might have been in the living room to
begin with. Perhaps behind a couch they …
Yes.
Used to be in the guest … the one photograph I have.
Yes, there was one right behind the sofa. Faced the fireplace, and the table was behind it.
58
And the table was behind that. And that’s very ornately carved, beautifully carved down on its
legs and all around. And then it has two tones of wood – on the top a lighter tone and a darker
tone. And we still have that table, which is in quite good condition actually. We put a glass top
over it so the top won’t be hurt. Redone it, reconditioned it, and rubbed it with oil. Then we
have another table which is almost the same kind as that table, but is more of a mission style
table … Spanish table. It’s not as ornately carved. … A fairly heavy top.
**
I haven’t seen any of those rugs.
Well it’s possible they were sold.
This could be, that they were sold. They look like they were very beautiful rugs.
They were all hand woven, from Spain.
From Spain, yes. That explains it, because the one in what you call the grill room. A Moroccan
rug, almost a Moroccan look, very square.
That one was. But the one in the dining room and the living room were red and gold. They
were very pretty.
What was in your bedroom as a rug? Was that …
The bedrooms were carpeting.
Wall to wall?
Yes. Mine was squares and was green.
Green, green color scheme in that room. Is that right … and the bathroom?
The bathroom was, I thought, was pink and blue. The other one, the master bedroom, had a
green tile in there.
What was your bedspread and all? What were the colors?
My bedspread was gold and had red velvet flowers on it with little white centers. I can remember that.
You can remember that? Gee! Well you lived in that place a long time. Did you have always
have … maids and cooks and things of that sort, even when you were coming out on the weekends to help? That was a very large house.
Well they used to bring servants from Hollywood when they came weekends, for the weekend.
And then back again. How many servants did you have usually?
When we lived in Hollywood both my mother and father had a chauffeur.
Each one had a chauffeur?
Yes. They had an upstairs maid and a downstairs maid, and a cook and a gardener.
How many of those would you take with you when you went to Corona?
Well usually just … probably just the cook and the chauffeur, one of the chauffeurs.
Did you take a maid too, or …?
No, but when we moved out to the ranch, we took this one man who was house boy, and that’s
when they were struggling to hang onto everything, but my mother needed somebody to help
her with the cleaning and all that out there, so they kept this house boy who had worked for
them for quite a while.
59
And the chauffeurs?
No, we didn’t have all the cars and the chauffeurs at that point. Pulled in our horns at that point.
Yeah what a change. That must have been a big change for your mother.
Yes, because they really felt that they might lose everything. You know, it was. However, lots
of people suffered during the Depression, and I don’t think I suffered. I still was spoiled rotten.
Being an only child and …
Do you remember any of the parties in that house when you were in Hollywood? Did they have
parties there?
Yes, they had this great big room in the basement of the house, and of course I was too little to
be around. I was sent to my room, but I can remember them having big parties with lots of
people.
Which it sounds like they had a few of those out in Corona too, once they moved out.
Yes, they had friends come out.
Friends from Los Angeles?
Yes. Until it became a guest ranch, and then of course everybody paid to come. Then it was no
longer, you know, I mean – they didn’t just drop in, like you do with friends.
Yeah, sounds like you worked pretty hard though, once it became a guest ranch.
Yeah, I enjoyed it – I thought it was a lot of fun. Sometimes it was hard work.
Right, above: Lady Amherst Pheasant, male, originally from eastern Tibet
and western China. Right, below: Reeves Pheasant, male, a rare species.
Left: Silver Pheasant, male.
60
Were you ever closed, or were you just always open to guests?
They used to close on Mondays. It was the only time.
Now what you called your maids quarters, which would be behind the kitchen, which I think is
now our laundry.
It was two bedrooms there, and each one had a bath.
Once you had the guest ranch. That was for a maid? Or did you have that for your … even on
the weekends? That was already built?
Yes, that was part of the original house. But … well, one of those out-buildings back over away
from there, was where most of the help lived, waiters for the restaurant and …
They lived on the grounds.
And the cooks. They had all men working there, so they had like a bunkhouse type, and they
all lived in one big house together.
I wonder … There was a time when most of our … when we first started out there, when most
of our counselors lived all together out there too. I wonder if that house is still ….
Well that could even be the house I said was my grandfather’s. Because that had several bedrooms in it. Just an old house. I mean, you know, it wasn’t fancy or anything, but it was …
could be used for …
I’ll have to look that up. Well this has been really pleasant talking to you about all these …
takes you back to …
Yeah some of it was a lot of fun. Yes.
**
Were there any bad times you remember?
Oh, I think, my folks, when they were ill. Because … both of them died there in that house,
you know.
How was it? Both from cancer, did they both have … No, your Father didn’t have cancer.
He did, and cirrhosis of the liver. But my mother really had a rough time. For about the last
two years of her life, she was on oxygen. She had to sit in a chair. She couldn’t lie down. Her
lungs were bad.
And you took care of the both of them?
No, we … they had to have nurses. And of course mother was married to Harvey then. And
this niece of hers who lived in Phoenix came and helped take care of her. Because you see, at
that point I had children too, little ones.
How many children do you have?
I have three. A son and … Art and I have two girls.
[LPM comment: born 1950 and 1952. Their father was Arthur Thompson (1912-1996), married
about 1948.]
The son is by the first husband.
Yes.
[LPM comment: born 1944. His father was Clifton Powers (1913-1983), married June 1939.]
Now which husband was it who had the race horses? Would that be your …
61
That’s Art, my present husband. He still has horses, and that’s where he is this morning. He’s
down at Caliente this morning. He’s getting ready to send a horse we have, to Pomona for the
fair.
And these are thoroughbred race horses.
Yes. We had them out there in Corona, and then when we moved to this area, about 40 miles
out of San Diego, we had a ranch for five years. And we’ve been here for 12 years, but he still
usually has one or two horses. But we used to raise them to sell.
Was that what he did? Was that his profession, raising race horses? Or did he …
No. Art used to be an accountant. But when we got married, he ran the property I had. He
thought it would be great to farm it. He enjoyed that sort of thing. He wanted to be outdoors.
Like your dad, in a way? Like that ranch. And did he still go ahead with the accounting, or did
he give it up?
No, because ranching was full time. Well, not just the race horses. At first we raised pasture
for cattle, and we had some of the land leased out for other crops.
So he really had to run the whole thing?
So after Mother died, I kept bugging him. I wanted to move away from Corona.
It was your idea?
Yes. So we had a chance to subdivide that, and that’s when those dairies started moving out.
In other words, when you’re talking about subdividing, you don’t mean it in terms of houses,
but in terms of dairy land?
Well they called it subdividing, for dairies.
Big chunks of land?
Yeah. So then we went to Hawaii for a vacation and decided we’d stay there. That’s before it
was a state. And we stayed there for two years, and then Art couldn’t find anything over there
to go into. At that time it was practically impossible for Caucasians to get into business over
there. It was all run by Orientals before it was a state. Before they had so much tourism. So he
came back here and went into a water conditioning business and we lived in Newport Beach
for a while. He still wanted to get another ranch eventually. Then we went up to Moro Bay,
and he went into business with another man with a fishing boat, and we lived there about a
year. That wasn’t working out, so we came down here and we ended up buying a ranch.
He finally bought that ranch he wanted, yes? And he bought more racehorses?
Yeah. He’d still like to live on a ranch. But I think now he’s getting too old to do all that work.
So he goes back and forth, in a way.
It gives him an interest. You know, he’s more or less what you call retired. But he, he likes to
have something to do. That’s why we have one or two horses all the time.
How far away is that from here?
We’re only about ten miles from the Mexican border here, and from Tijuana. Caliente racetrack
is in Tijuana.
Just the other side, just about ten miles, really close. He goes back and forth from Mexico too.
Yeah, he goes down there in the mornings, and he has friends who are trainers down there.
Does he train the horses himself, or does he …
62
Left: Lakeshore drive around Fuller Lake.
Looking eastward, with the hacienda in the distance.
Right: Launching the Dodge Lycoming-powered speedboat.
He doesn’t now, but he used to train them. Yeah, he has a trainer’s license. He hasn’t kept it
up the last few years, because he has lots of friends who are trainers, and he gets somebody to
do it. Because it is pretty confining.
Has he ever had a really good horse that he …?
Yeah we had one that was the … He ran down there at Caliente for nine years and he was
always in allowance races. Yeah. Do you know anything about horse racing?
Very little about racing.
Well some of the races are what they call claiming races. You put the horse in you say his value
is $1000, then if somebody wants to buy your horse during that race they can put up $1000 and
you lose the horse in that race. It’s called a claiming race. But this horse I was talking about
never did run in a claiming race. We always … him in an allowance. And he was born out there
in Corona. And even while we were in Hawaii, he came here to Caliente and won several races.
Do you remember his name?
River Clipper.
River Clipper, that’s appropriate.
Yeah so he was, and we’ve had several good ones, not Kentucky Derby type but good horses
you know, that have won at Pomona and Sacramento and around to fairs. And we’ve had some
that have gone to Santa Anita and Hollywood Park.
63
**
But you yourself never, you didn’t keep up your riding after you, isn’t that interesting. Once
you got the racehorses, you quit riding.
No, I quit before that. I had a bad fall. I should have just gotten back on the horse; you know
they say you should if you get thrown. I’d been thrown lots of times when I was a kid, but I
was grown then.
You probably didn’t get hurt much as a kid when you fell.
No, I never did get hurt, but … and I really didn’t get hurt this time, but I did a foolish thing. I
grabbed for the horse’s reins, and the horse kicked, and he just missed my face by inches.
You mean as you went down you grabbed …
Yes. You know, I was out in the middle of a field there, and I thought I didn’t want to walk
home. When I saw that horse’s hoof, I let go in a hurry, and I did walk home. Somebody caught
my horse. I was riding with other people, but I wouldn’t get back on. But I should have kept
riding. I’ve … when we had the ranch out of San Diego, a couple of times our kids wanted to
see me get on a horse. They didn’t believe I’d get on a horse, or that I ever rode one. Our
youngest daughter has ridden in gymkhanas and has ribbons and trophies. So I said, of course
I’ll ride a horse. I was scared to death. I got on my daughter’s horse just to prove to her I could
ride it. But it seems kind of silly, when I think how many years I rode since Dad put me up on
a horse. When I first started riding, I was so little.
It’s amazing too, that one incident like that … even after all those years.
Yeah I was probably 20 years old.
Amazing. But you loved riding.
Yes I enjoyed it.
And now you’re afraid to get back up on a …
Now I … all my bones would crack I think, if I got on. If I’d kept it up though, you see I still
… Look at President Reagan. He’s still riding.
[LPM comment: Ronald Reagan (1911-2004).]
Was that a young horse or was he …?
No, what happened was … the strap broke that was holding the saddle. I started, we were …
with some other people and we were galloping along, and this thing broke, and of course the
saddle … and I flew off of the horse, but I tried to hang on.
Amazing, that you would think to even try to hang on.
Yeah, but I knew better, because my dad had always told me never to do that.
Did your dad continue to ride most of his life?
Yes, till the last … maybe the last ten years of his life. He was so crippled up with arthritis, his
knees were so bad. In fact he walked with a cane the last year or so.
But did he ever get hurt?
Oh yes, he’d been hurt when he was a young man. He said he’d had horses fall on him, and all
kinds of things.
Is that right? Break bones?
Break bones, yes.
64
But he’d never got kicked, though?
I don’t know if he ever did or not.
Most people who have been kicked, I think would remember that.
Yeah, I’ve been stepped on. I remember that too. That hurts.
Well, I really appreciate the time.
I’ve enjoyed talking to you.
And I hope you’ll come out to the home, if you get out.
I’ll make a point of it.
Good.
Yeah, we have friends in Corona.
Wishing You Well
Ione & O.R. Fuller
65
4.4 Hollywood Celebrity Guests at Fuller RanchO
Marcellie names several celebrities who visited Fuller RanchO between 1937 and 1947.
(Photos and caption text from studio publicity releases.)
Charles Ellsworth Grapewin, known as Charley, got into the entertainment field at an early age, first
as a circus performer. Acting sparked his interest, and he worked in a series of stock companies while
writing stage plays on the side that he himself could star in. Grapewin is credited with appearances in
more American movies than anyone else during the decade of the 1930s. Throughout his career he appeared in more than 100 films. Among his most famous roles were Old Father in Good Earth (1937),
Uncle Henry in Wizard of Oz (1939, at right above), and Grandpa Joad in Grapes of Wrath (1940). A
recurring role during the early 1940s was as Inspector Queen in the Ellery Queen film series.
After being a regular guest at Fuller RanchO before 1940, Grapewin purchased a lot from O.R.
Fuller on which to construct a house where he resided with his wife Anna.
66
W. C. Fields, born William Claude Dukenfield, was known for his comic
persona as a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathetic character despite snarling contempt for dogs, children, and
women. He was a frequent visitor at Fuller RanchO, but he was writing a
book and rarely left his room.
Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx was a comedian and film and television
star. He is remembered as a master of quick wit, and is considered one of
the best comedians of the modern era. His rapid fire, often impromptu delivery of innuendo laden patter earned him many admirers and imitators.
He was the third oldest of the four Marx Brothers, who made 13 feature
films. He also had a successful solo career, most notably as host of the
radio and television game show You Bet Your Life. His distinctive appearance, carried over from his days in vaudeville, included quirks such as an
exaggerated stooped posture, glasses, cigar, and thick greasepaint mustache and eyebrows.
Mary Pickford, born Gladys Marie Smith in Toronto, starred in 52 feature
movies throughout her career. She had child roles in Poor Little Rich Girl
(1917), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Daddy-Long-Legs (1919)
and Pollyanna (1920). In 1933, soon after the end of the Silent Era, she
retired from acting, but not from the movie business. An astute businesswoman, Pickford became her own producer within three years. She had a
profound influence in Hollywood’s transition to talking movies. She supported use of materials uniquely suited to film instead of stage adaptations,
and those that focused on actors. Films she produced include Sleep, My
Love (1948) with Claudette Colbert and Love Happy (1949) with the Marx
Brothers.
Charles Edward “Buddy” Rogers was an actor and jazz musician. A talented trombonist skilled on several other musical instruments as well, Rogers performed with his own jazz band in motion pictures and on radio. His
most remembered performance in film was opposite Clara Bow in the 1927
Academy Award winning Wings. He was respected by his peers for his
work in film and for his humanitarianism. In 1937 Rogers became the third
husband of silent film legend Mary Pickford. He served in the United
States Navy as a flight training instructor during World War II.
67
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy was a major star of Hollywood's Golden
Age. He was nominated for nine Academy Awards for Best Actor. He
spent seven years in the theatre, sometimes on Broadway. Tracy's film
break came in 1930, when a stage success in The Last Mile led to his film
debut in Up the River, but his five years with Fox were unremarkable and
he remained largely unknown. In 1935, Tracy joined MGM. In 1937 and
1938 he won consecutive Oscars for Captains Courageous and Boys
Town. By the 1940s, Tracy was one of the studio's top stars. In 1942 he
appeared with Katharine Hepburn in Woman of the Year, the first of nine
movies in a popular 25 year partnership.
Jeanette Anna MacDonald was a singer and actress best remembered
for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow) and with Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose
Marie, and Maytime). During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One
Hour with You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco). She recorded extensively, earning three gold records. She later appeared in opera, concerts, radio, and television. She was one of the most influential sopranos
of the twentieth century, introducing opera to movie-going audiences and
inspiring a generation of singers.
Gene Raymond, a film, television, and stage actor of the 1930s and
1940s, was born Raymond Guion in New York City. He married Jeanette
MacDonald in 1937. In addition to directing, producing, and acting in
movies, Raymond also wrote popular and classical songs. He was a military pilot, decorated for service in World War II and Vietnam.
Ken Murray was an entertainer and author. He was born Kenneth Doncourt in New York City, to a family of vaudeville performers. In 1942 he
created “Blackouts,” a sophisticated Hollywood vaudeville revue that
played to “standing room only” audiences for almost nine years. He was
also known for his home movies of celebrities. Later he hosted Queen for
a Day on radio (1945–57) and the Ken Murray Show, a weekly music and
comedy show on television (1950-53). He also wrote books including his
autobiography published in 1960 and the life story of Broadway theatre
impresario Earl Carroll.
68
Jack Oakie, born Lewis Delaney Offield in Missouri, acted mostly in
films, but also worked on stage, radio, and television. He began with musicals and comedies on Broadway from 1923 to 1927, and then moved to
Hollywood where he appeared in five silent films during 1927 and 1928.
He made his first talking film, The Dummy, in 1929. He earned an Oscar
nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Benzino Napaloni, a
parody of Benito Mussolini, in Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator
(1940). Oakie had his own radio show between 1936 and 1938. After
1960 he appeared in episodes on television shows.
Claire Trevor was born as Claire Wemlinger in New York. She was
noted for her many appearances in “bad girl” roles in film noir and other
black-and-white thrillers. She appeared in over 60 films. She won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Key Largo
and was nominated for her roles in The High and the Mighty and Dead
End. By 1939 she was well established as a leading lady. Some of her
most memorable performances during this period were opposite John
Wayne, including her leading female role as Dallas in the classic 1939
western Stagecoach.
Garson Kanin was a stage and film writer, director, and actor. He began
as a jazz musician, burlesque comedian, and actor. On Broadway he first
acted in Little Ol’ Boy (1933), and directed Hitch Your Wagon (1936).
Between 1938 and 1940, he directed A Man to Remember, The Great Man
Votes, My Favorite Wife, and They Knew What They Wanted. During
World War II army service, he co-directed (with Carol Reed) an Academy
Award winning military documentary, The True Glory (1945). In 1946 he
wrote and directed his greatest play, Born Yesterday. He was co-author of
screenplays for A Double Life (1947), Adam’s Rib (1949), and Pat and
Mike (1952).
Richard Bernard “Red” Skelton was an entertainer best known as a
national radio and television comedian between 1937 and 1971. Skelton,
who has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, began his show business
career in his teens as a circus clown, and continued in vaudeville, on
Broadway, and in films, radio, TV, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he
pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.
69
Rochelle Elizabeth Hudson was a film actress from the 1930s
through the 1960s. She received a Motion Picture Advertisers award
in August 1931, at age 15, as one of several young women “believed
to be on the threshold of movie stardom.” In the 1933 Paramount film,
She Done Him Wrong, she played Sally Glynn, the fallen ingénue to
whom Mae West imparts the immortal wisdom, “When a girl goes
wrong, men go right after her!” She also played memorable roles in
Wild Boys of the Road (1933), Imitation of Life (1934), Les Misérables,
Curly Top, and Life Begins at Forty (1935), and Poppy (1936).
Olivia Mary de Havilland celebrated her 97th birthday on 1 July
2013. She is a British-American film and stage actress who was born
in Japan. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and
1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are
among the last surviving (as of 2013) leading ladies from 1930s Hollywood. Olivia played Melanie Hamilton Wilkes in Gone with the
Wind (1939) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. She later received Academy
Awards for Best Actress in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress
(1949)
Linda Darnell, born Monetta Eloyse Darnell, made her first film in
1939, and appeared in supporting roles for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s. She rose to fame with co-starring roles opposite Tyrone
Power in adventure films, and established a main character career after
her role in Forever Amber (1947). She won critical acclaim for her
work in Unfaithfully Yours (1948) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949).
She died in 1965 from burns she received in a house fire.
Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was a British-American actress. From
her early years as a child star with MGM, Elizabeth Taylor became one
of the great screen actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age. As one of
the world’s most famous film stars, she was recognized for her acting
ability and for her glamorous lifestyle, her beauty, and her distinctive
violet eyes. National Velvet (1944) was Taylor’s first success, and she
starred in Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant
(1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer
(1959). She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for BUtterfield
8 (1960). She played the title role in Cleopatra (1963) and married costar Richard Burton.
70
4.5 Eastvale Neighbors Put It in Writing (1982-1986)
What Happened after 1954?
After O.R. Fuller died of cancer in August 1946, Ione kept Fuller RanchO open to the public
through December 1947. She died of cancer in August 1951.
The ranch lands and the hacienda were sold in 1954 to local dairyman Walter Koenig, who
resold most of the land for agricultural use and found separate tenants for the buildings.
Marcellie Fuller married Clifton Powers in 1939, and they had a son in 1944. She was divorced and remarried to Arthur Thompson about 1948, and daughters were born in 1950 and
1952. After the ranch was sold in 1954, Marcellie and Arthur moved to Hawaii for a time, and
then back to California at San Luis Obispo and later to Los Angeles County. By 1970, they
were living in San Diego County.
In 1959 the Lutheran church Good Samaritan Center purchased the hacienda and some
surrounding property for a retirement facility that housed 66 seniors till 1967. For many years
after 1967, the buildings were occupied by a youth counseling center. A 1997 column in Riverside Press Enterprise states that the ranch “is the heart of a center for troubled teens named
St. Katherine’s Home for Boys. The scenic center provides lodging and counseling for its
charges, most of whom are assigned there by probation departments, according to administrators. The center is operated by a nonprofit corporation named Guadalupe Homes, which is
overseen by Greek Orthodox clergy.”
The entire complex was demolished in 2004, to accommodate residential development.
Letters between Fuller RanchO Survivor and Premier Ranch Neighbors
In 1982 and 1983, Marcellie Fuller Thompson chronicled her recollections of life at Eastvale.
She was in her sixties, about ten years younger than Fred Eldridge who had lived on the neighboring 361-acre Premier Ranch during the 1930s, as explained in “A Brief History of Eastvale.”
The city of Corona, where Fred had been editor of the Corona Independent newspaper after
1963, was looking forward to its 1986 centennial. With Stanley Reynolds, Fred planned to
write a centennial history book titled Corona California Commentaries.
In preparation for a Fuller RanchO article in the book, Fred’s wife Lucille sent a letter of
inquiry to Marcellie. In January 1982, Marcellie responded with two letters to Lucille that are
on file in the W.D. Addison Heritage Room at Corona Public Library. Marcellie’s recollections
in these 1982 letters were extended by Marcellie’s oral history interview the following year.
Fred Eldridge quoted from the letters in Corona California Commentaries, in an article
titled Eastvale: The Fuller Ranch. He edited the letters slightly for publication, and prefaced
the article with the following:
The Eastvale Precinct, some seven miles north of Corona, was and is bordered on the east
by Hamner Ave., on the north by Cloverdale, and on the west by Archibald Ave. It was in
the early days a general farming area, alfalfa, grain hay, black eye peas, and threshed grain.
Although Corona and Eastvale did not physically join each other, Eastvale citizens had
Corona mailing addresses.
To those farmers, Corona was their home town. Most of the farmers worked modestsized farms, with the exception of the Fuller RanchO, which at its peak contained about
5,000 acres, most of which bordered the Santa Ana River on the north side. Its history was
71
unique in that area. Mrs. Marcellie F. Thompson was the granddaughter of Charles Henry
Fuller, the first Fuller to be in charge of the rancho.
Mrs. Thompson wrote that her grandfather pioneered the Pioneer Transfer Co., a trucking and transportation company in the late 1800s. The town of Fullerton, she said, was
named after her grandfather and his brothers who came west from Iowa to settle in Southern California.
Marcellie’s 1982 letters are transcribed here verbatim, although some of the dates and other
facts include minor errors that have been corrected elsewhere in this book. One misstatement
is that the town of Fullerton (in Los Angeles County) was named for the Fuller brothers. Although O.R. Fuller directed some of his transportation ventures from Fullerton between 1907
and 1929, no member of the Fuller family was involved in founding the town. It was named
for George H. Fullerton, who secured the land on behalf of the Santa Fe Railroad Company in
1887.
January 25, 1982
Dear Mrs. Eldridge,
I am happy to give you the information you need on the history of the Fuller RanchO. When
you finish writing the history, I would like a copy if possible. We have children, and fifteen
grandchildren that would be interested.
My grandfather was Charles Henry Fuller who founded the Pioneer Transfer Co. in Los
Angeles in the late 1800’s. The town of Fullerton was named for my grandfather and his brothers who came west from Iowa to settle in Southern California. My grandparents had one son,
Olive Ransome Fuller. He was always known by his initials, O.R. … When my grandfather
came west he and Grandmother divorced. In 1893 when my father was 18 he came to California
and worked with his father for a time before going into business for himself.
I do not know the exact time, or from whom the ranch was purchased, but about the time of
the end of World War 1 my grandfather bought the ranch in Corona. Grandfather was in ailing
health in the 1920s, and my father purchased the ranch in 1925 or 26. My father also purchased
additional acreage in the area to bring the total to 3000 acres. In later years he leased land in
the river bottom from the government, which is why you heard the ranch was 5000 acres. He
named the ranch Fuller RanchO. (RanchO, with capitals at each end, was the way he had it on
all letterheads etc.) I guess I made it clear that my father purchased the ranch from his father.
My father O.R. and my mother Ione, had the home now occupied by a boys’ home built in
1928. They named their home Casa Orone combining their names. A cabinet-maker from Italy
hand carved all the beams and balconies. The original rugs and most of the furnishings were
imported from Spain. Until 1932, we only were on the ranch weekends and vacations. We lived
in Hollywood. A ranch manager saw to raising the crops and running the dairy. My father had
several dealerships for Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg automobiles in Southern California. During World War 1 he had a dealership in L.A. for White trucks. After that he founded what was
Motor Transit Bus Co. throughout California. In 1928 he sold out to Greyhound for three million dollars which was a heap of money in those days.
In 1932 when the depression really hit, Dad lost a fortune in the automobile business. It was
then we moved to Corona. It was a struggle to hold on to the ranch, but Dad was a very determined man. He worked hard at making a go of ranching. He built up a dairy home delivery
routes in Pomona, Ontario, and San Bernardino which he sold to Knudsen about 1940. In 1939
and 1940 he raised 100,000 turkeys which he marketed.
72
In 1938 he decided to sell view lots along the lake front. The first was sold to actor Charlie
Grapewin. Other lots were sold to a talent scout from Hollywood, a film director, an oilman
from Long Beach, a shipbuilder from Long Beach, and a mortician from Long Beach. After
my father’s death I built a home on Grapewin Avenue, which I sold in the late 1950s to Mr.
and Mrs. W.A. Cropper. When Mrs. Grapewin died, Charley sold his home to a Dr Schnack
from Honolulu, Hawaii.
The guest ranch known as Fuller RanchO Guest Ranch was opened in June 1937. During
World War 2 it was a popular meeting place for many of the doctors, nurses, and patients from
the Naval Hospital in Norco. That is where I met Verna and Stew.
Dad died at home of cancer in August 1946. Although Mother was in poor health she kept
the place open to the public through December of 1947. Mother died at home, also of cancer,
in August 1951. To settle my mother’s estate the family home and the remaining acreage had
to be sold. The buyer was a dairyman, a Mr. Koenig, who purchased it in 1954. It should be on
record at the courthouse in Riverside.
I believe you are correct about the Eastvale area being a land grant known as Jurupa Rancho.
I hope I have been some help to you and your project. If there are any further questions let me
know, and I’ll try to answer them.
Please excuse the many typing errors. Unfortunately I think faster than I can type. I thought
it would be easier for you to read my typing, than my handwriting.
Sincerely,
Marcellie F. Thompson
P.S. My grandfather passed away in 1929 and my grandmother Molly passed away in 1945.
My father was born October 5, 1880 in Smith Center Kansas.
January 27, 1982
Dear Mrs. Eldridge,
Since writing to you the other day, I thought of some things of interest, although not history.
I worked as hostess at the ranch from June 1938 to June 1939 when I married. During this
time, a movie was made on the grounds, and on the lake. During this same period, the ranch
was popular with Hollywood celebrities. Many of them were most interesting to know. Those
spending time with us were W.C. Fields, Jack Oakie, Groucho Marx, Red Skelton, Spencer
Tracy, Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers, Jeanette McDonald and Gene Raymond, Rochelle
Hudson, Claire Trevor, Ken Murray, and writer Garson Kanin.
There were many happy times at the ranch, and many sad times too. It makes me sad to
think about the ranch being in the Fuller family so many years, and now it has been sold to so
many people that can never have the feeling for the place that was home to me for so many
years.
As I said, this probably isn’t anything for your story for the library, but we thought you
might find it interesting.
Sincerely,
Marcellie F. Thompson
73
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anonymous, “Bus Transportation: Personal Notes.” New York: McGraw-Hill, June 1922
Bash, Kevin and Angelique Bash, “A Brief History of Norco.” Charleston SC: History Press,
2013
Bynon, A.A. and son, “History and directory of Riverside County, 1893-4.” Riverside CA:
Riverside Daily Press, 1894
Eldridge, Fred and Stanley Reynolds, “Corona California Commentaries.” Corona CA: Corona Public Library, 1986
Garner, Walter T, “Arcadia and the Forgotten Guapa: Refugio Arguello de Bandinii,
‘Patrona’ of the Rancho Jurupa.” Riverside CA: Jurupa Mountains Cultural Center, 1967
Gunther, Jane Davies. “Riverside County, California, Place Names – Their Origins and Their
Stories.” Riverside, California: Gunther, 1984
Hart, John Mason, “Empire and Revolution. The Americans in Mexico since the Civil war.”
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002
Johnson, Kim Jarrell and Loren P. Meissner, “A Brief History of Eastvale.” Charleston SC:
History Press, 2013
Lech, Steve, “Along the Old Roads: A History of the Portion of Southern California that Became Riverside County, 1772–1893.” Riverside CA: Lech, 2004
Shockey, Ralph N and Marie F, “Shockey History and Genealogy, Vol II.” Frederick MD:
William Terry Browne, 1981
Wheelwright, Jane Hollister, “The Ranch Papers: A California Memoir.” San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988
Wheelwright, Jane Hollister and Lynda Wheelwright Schmidt, “The Long Shore.” San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1991
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Loren Meissner attended the eight-grade, two-room East Vale schoolhouse on
Sumner Avenue between 1934 and 1941. He graduated from Corona High
School in 1945 and from Chaffey Community College at Ontario in 1947. He
earned a Bachelor degree in Mathematics from the University of California at
Berkeley in June 1949, and married Peggy (Pritchard) the following month at
Corona.
Loren was the first local member of the scientific staff at the U.S. Government laboratory in Norco when it relocated from Washington D.C. in 1951.
In 1959 Loren moved with his young family to Berkeley, where he earned
his Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics in 1965. He worked for Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory till 1981, when he was appointed Professor of Computer
Science at University of San Francisco. Meanwhile, he served for more than
20 years as a U.S. delegate to the international committee for Fortran language
standardization, and became slightly famous as a Fortran language textbook
author. He retired in 1993, and now lives with Peggy at San Jose, where his
three principal hobbies are: eight grandchildren, Meissner family genealogy,
and local history.
On 14 July 2014, two plaques were installed along the River Trail at Eastvale, with
the pictures and text shown here. The School House marker is near the intersection of
Chandler Street and Harrison Avenue. The Hacienda plaque is at the point where the
trail emerges onto the southwest end of Dearborn Avenue.
East Vale School House
A one-room eight-grade East Vale schoolhouse opened in fall 1896, three years after
East Vale Elementary School District was formed with Riverside County. This school
house occupied a portion of the 3,000 acre Fuller Ranch.
The origin of the name “Eastvale” is unknown. Theories include the fact that Harrison Fuller, the Fuller family patriarch, was born near Eastvale, Pennsylvania; the new
school district was just east of Valley School district; and most of the new school district was east of Vale ranch.
Proposals leading to the city’s incorporation adopted the name “Eastvale” in 2007.
Hacienda at Fuller Ranch
In 1889 Charles and Ortus Fuller purchased the land between present-day Schleisman
Road and the Santa Ana River, to raise horses for local transportation in Los Angeles.
In 1928 O.R. Fuller, son of Charles, built an elegant Hacienda overlooking the river
valley. The renovated Fuller Rancho became a successful dairy and poultry ranch in
1931. After 1937 the Hacienda was a guest resort, frequented by Hollywood celebrities and by World War II patients from Norco Naval Hospital.
The ranch was sold in 1954 after O.R. Fuller died.
The Hacienda was demolished in 2004.
76
Everybody asks how Eastvale got its name,
but nobody has a really good answer.
The first known record of Eastvale as a place name in California is the list of school districts
that were created in May 1893, when Riverside County was formed from parts of San
Bernardino and San Diego Counties.
Why did this little corner of the new county need a school district? On the list of school
districts, the closest school north of the Santa Ana river was Union, probably near the later
site of Union Joint elementary school on Mission Boulevard east of Etiwanda Avenue,
about eight miles from where the first Eastvale schoolhouse was built.
The Fuller family was involved in the formation of Eastvale School District. Before
1893 they had purchased about six square miles of the old Jurupa land grant – everything
from the survey boundary that became Schleisman Road, south to the Santa Ana River.
Ortus Fuller and his wife lived on the ranch, and their daughter Rhea was born there in
1892. About 11 children of elementary school age lived on or near the Fuller ranch.
The Fullers recognized the need for a nearby elementary school. They allocated a parcel
of ranch land (now at the corner of Chandler and Harrison) to the school district for construction of a schoolhouse. Ortus Fuller was a member of the first school board, and his
younger sister Grace was schoolmistress for the first two years.
So then … whence the name “Eastvale?” The “vale” part might refer to the Santa Ana
River valley. But the southwest corner of Riverside County isn’t obviously “east” of anything especially notable. I have made some guesses.
First, there were actually two nearby places that would be bordered on the east by the
new district. Some of the new district’s students had been attending Valley School, which
remained in San Bernardino County, just across Cucamonga Creek, two miles west of the
Fuller ranch. And most of the new district would be east of the Vale ranch at the corner of
Archibald and Cloverdale (now Limonite)
I have imagined a conversation between Ortus Fuller and his father, about 1893.
Harrison Fuller has lived at Azusa for seven years, and probably took part in the selection
of ranch land in the Santa Ana River valley (about 20 miles east of Azusa), to raise horses
for the family’s business of transportation to and from the railroads at Los Angeles.
Harrison is very civic minded, and he expresses interest in questions such as future
school facilities for the baby Rhea Fuller. Ortus tells him about plans for the new Riverside
County, and about local sentiment for establishing a new district with its own elementary
school.
“What will be the name of the new district,” the patriarch inquires. After some discussion, Harrison Fuller recalls the resort town of Eastvale, on the Beaver River north of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, not far from where he was born; and he remembers or imagines a
similarity to the topography of the Santa Ana River valley.
“The new school district could be named Eastvale,” he suggests.
(Loren P. Meissner – 2014)
77
WHAT WAS EASTVALE LIKE WHEN I WAS GROWING UP?
In the fall of 1934, I enrolled in first grade at the two-room eight-grade Eastvale school located
on Sumner Avenue (at what is now the northwest corner of Schleisman Road). I finished eighth
grade at Eastvale in the spring of 1941, and went to Corona Junior High in ninth grade that
fall.
Eastvale was a school district name from 1893 till “unification” with Corona in 1947. When
I was growing up we never said, “I live at Eastvale” – it was “I go to Eastvale school.”
And yet, Eastvale was something of a community, which involved perhaps 30 or 40 different
families. The 1933 photo on the cover of our Eastvale History book shows 36 pupils in grades
1 to 4, and a 1942 photo on page 15 of the Fuller Ranch book shows 30 in grades 5 to 8. So
there were probably between 60 and 70 students in all eight grades during any of the years in
between.
We all got together several times a year at the schoolhouse. We always had a Christmas
pageant for the entertainment of all our parents and their friends, usually in the lower-grades
room, with some sort of drama and lots of carol singing, featuring most of the kids from all
eight grades. And most years there were at least two other community events at the school,
with a pot-luck buffet and some sort of program – such as, music by a “barbershop quartet”
from Corona High School or a young local accordionist, or a short travel movie. Christmas
dramas and carols were directed by the teachers, but mothers got together to make arrangements for the buffets, and they did any necessary sewing for drama costumes.
For families with children of school age, these “Eastvale community” events were social
highlights. Our other social interactions were mostly at church. Some families attended one of
the two churches in the part of Mira Loma near the present-day post office, while others joined
congregations at Corona or other nearby towns. No shopping centers were close by – we went
to Corona or Riverside or Ontario for weekly shopping. But there were a couple of small local
shops that sold gasoline, a few groceries, and liquor. I was frequently sent on foot to the nearest
shop for a grocery item, and I was permitted to spend a few leftover pennies for candy.
At first, none of the roads in the Eastvale district were paved, but by the early 1930s main
“arteries” including Etiwanda, Hamner, and Holmes were improved. As time went on, asphalt
appeared on other streets – politically minded residents noticed that a few improvements occurred before each County Supervisors’ election.
In the 1942 school photo, only two of the eight boys in the front row are wearing shoes.
Before “flip-flops” became popular after World War 2, school-age boys often went barefoot.
Each fall some families bought shoes, slightly oversize, that we wore to church and to special
events, or when the weather was unusually cold, till the following spring. The soles of our bare
feet soon developed thick callouses, and I can remember demonstrating to my city cousins that
I could walk barefoot across a patch of weeds without feeling any pain.
Eastvale school district population at first consisted almost entirely of farmers in the area
west of Hamner Avenue, but in 1925 “Riverdale Acres” was developed near Etiwanda Avenue.
During my years at Eastvale School, the population became almost even between the two
tracts. Life styles in the two sections were often quite different, but I was never aware of rivalry. I know from personal experience during my high school years, that it was not uncommon
for the son of a Riverdale Acres construction worker to date the daughter of a west-side dairy
farmer.
(Loren P. Meissner – 2014)
78
This publication is a sequel to “A Brief History of Eastvale” (History
Press, 2013). Space requirements limited the amount of Fuller family history that could be included in that volume, so this separate book was developed. It contains additional background from before 1925, and presents
information from Corona Library history files concerning the Guest
Ranch era during the 1930s and 1940s.
Six square miles of ranch land, about 3,000 acres, were acquired by the
Fuller family in 1889. For 65 years, till 1954, this ranch was the largest
establishment – the only truly large establishment – on the north side of
this stretch of the Santa Ana River. Those 65 years represent more than a
third of Eastvale’s 175-year recorded history.
Almost half of present-day Eastvale was included within the ranch’s
boundaries, during at least some of the years when the Fuller family
owned the land. Almost all residences and business establishments in the
southern part of the city, between Schleisman Road and the Santa Ana
River, occupy former Fuller ranch land.
East Vale Elementary School District, which existed for 54 years (from
Riverside County formation in 1893 till unification with Corona in 1947),
occupied school facilities on the Fuller ranch during the first 20 of those
years.
79
A Brief History of Eastvale
by Loren P. Meissner and Kim Jarrell Johnson (History Press, 2013)
Books are available via fund raisers for
EASTVALE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION
or online at EASTVALE STORE
Inquire at Eastvale City Hall: (951) 361-0900. 12363 Limonite Ave, Suite 910.
A Brief History of Eastvale is also sold at
DE ANZA TRUE VALUE HARDWARE
8616 LIMONITE AVE (PEDLEY) - RIVERSIDE, CA 92509 (951-685-5340)
and online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble
EBOOK editions are available:
A Brief History of Eastvale: $10.00 (for Kindle) from Amazon;
Fuller Ranch at Eastvale
with permission for EBOOK conversion and distribution:
$1.00 (for Nook) from Barnes & Noble, or $2.00 (for Kindle) from Amazon.
PDF edition is also available for download
(free, with full public domain distribution rights)
For more information email: [email protected]
80

fuller ranch - Meissner family

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