Duke Kahanamoku in Orange County

Author Mark Zambrano will discuss the life, legacy, local impact of the “father of surfing” – Duke Kahanamoku – at the Feb. 10, 2022 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. The public is welcome.

While surfing defined much of his history, Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku also led a storied life as a lifeguard, Olympic athlete, Hollywood actor, Hawaiian sheriff, and world ambassador. A Native Hawaiian, he played a key role in spreading the popularity of his homeland and its culture. He left a significant positive impact most places he traveled, and particularly in Orange County. Our speaker will discuss this impact, which spanned nearly fifty years and which continues today. “It all started when Duke ignited the surf craze in Orange County and rode the wave from there,” says Zambrano, “leaving an indelible mark on our history.”

Mark Zambrano lives and works in Huntington Beach. He is the author of Surfing in Huntington Beach, an in-depth visual history of the generations of surfers who helped make this community one of America’s most iconic surf towns. He is an avid advocate for the preservation and education of surfing throughout Orange County, working with museums and archives throughout the area to that end, and as a member of the Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board. He also works with Corky Carroll’s Surf School and Board Members surf shop, helping visitors and locals alike learn to surf and “get stoked on surfing.” When not working and writing, Mark spends his time free surfing around Orange County.

A. Otis Birch: The Strange Saga of Santa Ana’s Oil Tycoon

Historian Paul Spitzzeri will discuss “A. Otis Birch: The Strange Saga of Santa Ana’s Oil Tycoon” at the January 13, 2022 meeting of the Orange County Historical Society, 7:30p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

Albert Otis Birch was an early Santa Ana resident who became an oil tycoon during the early 20th century, with gushers in Brea Canyon. 

He also owned a furniture company in Los Angeles and was an insurance company executive, among other business endeavors. After living many years on a hilltop estate in South Pasadena, an aging Birch and his wife Estelle fell into the clutches of Pearl Choate, a Texas-born nurse with a penchant for having older husbands die not long after marriage and who served prison time in one instance. Not long after she began “taking care” of the Birches in the mid-1960s, Choate spirited them off to Texas where both died within a short period of time. But that’s just part of their strange story.

Paul R. Spitzzeri is Museum Director at the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry, was raised in Orange County, and lives in Carbon Canyon, a stone’s throw from the county line in Chino Hills. He has written extensively on the history of greater Los Angeles through articles, a national award-winning book on the Workman and Temple families, and blog posts and has spoken several times to the OCHS.

Show & Tell Night

It’s time again to rack your brain and rummage through your garage and your scrapbooks in preparation for the Orange County Historical Society’s annual Show & Tell and holiday gathering, Thursday, December 9, 2021, 7:30 p.m at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., in Orange. Bring a choice artifact, photo, or a bit of memorabilia that connects to an interesting story about Orange County’s past.

Maybe it’s an orange crate from the packing plant mom worked in. Or maybe it’s great-grandpa’s branding iron, an early redwood surfboard, a plate from an old local restaurant, or Don Juan Forster’s toothbrush. Everyone’s looking forward to seeing and hearing about the item you bring.

We’ll have a sign-up sheet when you enter and participants will be called up one at a time. The public is welcome.

Tails from Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery

This history of Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery will be the subject of guest speaker Kathie Schey at the Orange County Historical Society’s Nov. 11th, 2021 meeting, 7:30 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange.

People have always cherished their animals.  In modern western history, their relationships are revealed in art, literature, and even in popular culture. The human-animal bond is especially demonstrated through the practice of pet cemetery burial. Exploring and documenting this at Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery in Huntington Beach over number of years has revealed a fascinating story of animal memorials and human mourning.  Be they hero dogs, beloved cats, hapless hamsters or a childhood chicken, their grave markers, grave goods and the sheer longevity of remembrance tell us much about their roles in our lives.

Kathie Schey is the Archivist for the City of Huntington Beach and a former OCHS board member. She has a Masters Degree in history, and holds numerous certifications in archives, history and historic preservation.  She has won a number of awards including two nationally-competed visiting research fellowships. While still in college, she received the Nicholas Perkins Hardeman Prize for Outstanding Achievement by a Graduate Student for her work on the history of human-animal relationships.

Schey is the current chair of the Huntington Beach Historic Resources Board and of the city’s Design Review Board.

Olinda’s History & Pioneers

The historic oil boom town of Olinda (now part of Brea) and some of its forgotten pioneers will be the subject of OCHS’ Oct. 14, 2021 meeting, 7:30 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. Guest speaker and Olinda native Chris Farren was raised on the Santa Fe oil lease, is a fourth generation Olinda oil worker, and is a docent at Olinda Oil Museum.

CALIFORNIA POLITICAL HISTORY: THE VIEW FROM O.C.

Whether inspiring, maddening, confusing or shocking, politics in California are never dull. Our state has always marched to its own drum and been a place to try new things. And our government and politics have always been part of that. The effects of our experiments over the past 170 years continue to affect us – and the rest of the country – in profound and sometimes surprising ways. Dr. Barbara Stone, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at CSU Fullerton will be the Orange County Historical Society’s featured speaker on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, at 7:30p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2400 N. Canal St., Orange. She will be looking at the scope of California’s political history with an emphasis on Orange County’s role.

Dr. Barbara S. Stone was a political science professor at CSUF for 32 years and served as Department Chair. She is a former member of California’s Little Hoover Commission and the Governor’s Commission on Educational Quality. She is the author of the California Politics Supplement for American Government and co-author of California’s Political Process and has written numerous scholarly journal articles.

Corrie ten Boom: A Dutch Holocaust Survivor in O.C.

Corrie ten Boom helped many Jews in the Netherlands escape the Nazis during World War II, was eventually sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp herself, survived, and spent the rest of her life helping others, speaking before large audiences, spreading the Gospel, and writing popular books. She spent her latter years living in Orange County, and her inspiring story will be the topic of her good friend Dr. Ron Rietveld’s program at the Orange County Historical Society’s June 10, 2021 meeting at 7:30 p.m., online via Zoom.

To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/OCHStenBoom

Ten Boom told her story of her family involvement in their World War II work in her bestselling 1971 book, The Hiding Place, which was made into a movie in 1975. Two years later, in 1977, this beloved spiritual pioneer, at age 85, moved to Placentia. She continued writing books, making films, speaking, as well as her Christian Ministry in various prisons. It was a more restful time than traveling the world, here she died after her third stroke on her 91st birthday on April 15, 1983. With a simple marker inscribed “Jesus is Victor,” Corrie is buried today in Santa Ana’s Fairhaven Cemetery.

Dr. Ron “Doc” Rietveld is an Emeritus Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton. After completing his A.B in history from Wheaton College [Illinois] in 1959, he completed his Bachelor of Divinity Magna Cum Laude from Bethel Theological Seminary [St. Paul] in 1962.  Upon completing his Ph.D. at Illinois in 1967, he returned to his Alma Mater at Wheaton and began teaching History-Political Science that same fall. In the fall of 1969, Dr. Rietveld began teaching American History at California State University, Fullerton [CA], then a ten-year old college. For 50 years, he has continued to serve as a History Department Faculty Member and Academic Advisor to Cal-State Fraternities.

Juaneño/Acjachemen Culture

 

The culture and history of the Juaneño/Acjachemen indigenous people of Orange County will be the topic of Adelia Sandoval’s program at the Orange County Historical Society’s May 13, 2021 meeting at 7:30 p.m., online via Zoom.

Click here to register: https://tinyurl.com/OCHSAcjachemen

Adelia Sandoval is the Spiritual Overseer (Púul) and Cultural Director for the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians / Acjachemen Nation. Adelia shares her Acjachemen Culture through art, writing, storytelling and singing. She is a Ceremonial Leader, Song Keeper, Wisdom Holder, Tribal teacher and healer.

Adelia is also an ordained minister. She created a ministry called Song of the Earth, a Native American healing service held in outdoor sanctuaries. Sandoval has been a Trustee on the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative, a Global Interfaith organization that “promotes peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.” Adelia is a member of Women of Spirit and Faith and contributed to their book, “Women, Spirituality and Transformative Leadership, Where Grace Meets Power”. She is an advisor to various interfaith and environmental groups. In November of 2019, Adelia was ordained as a Catholic Deacon in the Old Catholic Tradition and serves at St. Matthew Ecumenical Catholic Communion in Orange.

The Yost Theater / El Cine Yost

The history of Santa Ana’s Yost Theater (El Cine Yost) and its important role in Orange County’s Mexican-American community will be the topic of Professor David-James Gonzales’ program at the Orange County Historical Society’s April 8, 2021 meeting at 7:30 p.m., online via Zoom. To register, visit the OCHS website or https://tinyurl.com/OCHSYost.

Opened in 1913 as The Auditorium, the Yost Theater is Orange County’s oldest and most historic entertainment venue. During its early years, the Yost was considered Orange County’s finest playhouse, as it hosted vaudeville performers and musicians. With its massive stage, 970-seat capacity, and full array of backstage props and dressing rooms, the theater was a popular site for the performing arts, film exhibitions, charitable events, religious services, and political gatherings throughout much of its hundred-plus year history.

But to the ethnic Mexican community, the Yost was much more. The Olivos family, who purchased and then ran the Yost for 33 years, not only introduced Spanish-language cinema to Orange County, but also gave Mexican Americans a public place to gather and “feel proud of their ethnic heritage,” writes Gonzales. “During the early-to-mid-twentieth century when schools, neighborhoods, and parks were segregated throughout Orange County, Latinos could enter the theater and feel a sense of community.”

The theater was, wrote Louis Olivos, Jr., “our answer to the Grand Ole Opry.”

A Southern California native, David-James Gonzales completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of Southern California in 2017, writing his dissertation on the Mexican American struggle against segregation in Orange County from 1920 to 1950. He went on to teach at USC, UCLA and is currently an Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University. He is also a producer and host of the scholarly book review podcast “New Books in Latino Studies.”

His article, “El Cine Yost and the Power of Place for Mexican Migrants in Orange County, California, 1930–1990,” was published in the Journal of American Ethnic History in the Summer of 2020. He is currently preparing a book manuscript on the effect of Latino civic engagement and politics on the metropolitan development of Orange County throughout the 20th century.

Caption: The Yost Theater on Spurgeon St. in 1974. Photo by Werner Weiss, courtesy Orange County Archives.

Modesta Avila

The story of Modesta Avila – Orange County’s first convicted felon and a celebrated symbol of protest – is an enduring Early California legend that has long warranted further historical research. Author, attorney, and educator Richard Brock will tell Avila’s story at the Orange County Historical Society’s March 11, 2021 meeting at 7:30 p.m., online via Zoom.

To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/OCHSAvila

Brock’s lecture will include the findings of his article, “Modesta Again” (California History, Fall 2018) as well as even more recent significant findings about Avila’s life.

The tale of Modesta Avila has long been a potent metaphor used by scholars and activists to illustrate themes of social injustice, ethnic intolerance, railroad intransigence, the decline of the Californios, and the treatment of Hispanics following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Because her story is used to explain serious historical themes, accuracy is important. However, the story as it’s always been told was inaccurate and incomplete. Brock’s new research—using original land titles, Mexican land grants, genealogy, trial transcripts, applications for appeals to governors Markham and Waterman, the personal notes of the historian Jim Sleeper in the UCI Special Collections, and hundreds of contemporary news articles—results in a revised and compelling story that has even stronger metaphorical import.

Richard Brock holds a BA from UCI in Classical Civilization focused on Greco-Roman History, Literature, Art, & Myth. He earned an MA in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA and focused on San Juan Capistrano where he did field work with descendants of the Acjachemen, Spanish, Mexicans, and early European settlers. He also holds a JD from Western State University of Law and deploys all of these disciplines in his published papers and novels. He currently teaches law in an ABA program for paralegals at UCR, and also teaches Folklore and Mythology, the Spanish Mission System, and the Pacific Crest Trail through the Osher Foundation.

At the end of the lecture, Brock will also briefly discuss his new work of historical fiction, Laguna Diary, which features such local personalities as Delfina Olivares (storyteller and Matriarch of San Juan Capistrano) and Paul Arbiso (Mission bell-ringer and Patriarch of San Juan Capistrano).