Ventura County History

1. Ventura CountyHistory Prof. Jose Alamillo CHS 350 Fall 2008

2. Chumash Indians

3. Mexican Period, 1821-1848

4. Ventura County’s Rancheros • Juan Camarillo • Isabel Yorba • Jose Arnaz • Juan Sanchez • Jose De la Guerra • Ygnacio del Valle

5. Spanish and Mexican Land Grants in Ventura County • Spanish Land Grants • Rancho Simi (1795).  Grantees: Patrico, Miguel, and Francisco Javier Pico. 113,009 acres. • Rancho El Conejo (1802-1803).    Grantees: Ygnacio Rodriguez and Jose Polanco. 48,672 acres. • Mexican Land Grants • Rancho Sespe (Nov. 29, 1833). Grantee: Carlos Antonio Carillo.  8,881 acres. • Rancho Las Posas (July 28, 1834).  Grantee: Jose Carillo. 26,623 acres. • Rancho Guadalascas (May 6, 1836 and April 6, 1837). Grantee: Ysabel Yorba. 30,594 acres. • Rancho El Rincon (Oct. 10, 1836). Grantee: Teodoro Arellanes. 4, 460 acres. • Rancho Ojai (April 6, 1837). Grantee: Fernando Tico. 17,717 acres. • Rancho Santa Ana (April 14, 1837). Grantees: Crisogomo Ayala and Cosme Vanegas. 21,522 acres. • Rancho Santa Clara del Norte (May 6, 1837). Grantee: Juan Sanchez. 13,989 acres.  • Rancho Calleguas (May 10, 1837). Grantee: Jose Pedro Ruiz. 9,998 acres. • Rancho El Rio de Santa Clara o la Colonia (May 22, 1837.  Grantees: Valentin Cota, Leandro Gonzales, •          Rafael Gonzales, Salvador Valenzuela, Vicente Pico, Rafael Valdez, Vincent Feliz.  44,883 acres. • Rancho San Francisco (Jan. 22, 1839).  Grantee: Antonia del Valle. 48,612 acres. • Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy (April 28, 1840).  Grantee: Manuel Jimeno Casarin. 17,773 acres. • Rancho Cañada Larga o Verde (Jan. 30, 1841).  Grantee: Joaquina Alvarado. 6,659 acres. • Rancho San Miguel (July 6, 1841). Grantees: Raimundo Olivas, Felipe Lorenzana. 4,694 acres. • Rancho Temescal (Mar. 17, 1843). Grantees: Francisco Lopez and Jose Arellanes. 13,339 acres. • Rancho Canada de San Miguelito (Mar. 21, 1846).  Grantee: Ramon Rodriguez. 8,877 acres. • Rancho Ex Mission San Buenaventura (June 8, 1846). Grantee: Jose Arnaz. 48,823 acres. • Rancho Ex Mission Tract No. 2

7. Diseño of Rancho Sespe

8. Drawing of Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy (1852) From Deed Book A, County of Santa Barbara.

9. 1851 Federal Land Law • Established a Board of Land Commissioners which required that land-owners “present evidence supporting title within two years, or their property would pass into the public domain.” • The process of protecting one’s land became very expensive. Only the wealthy ranchers could afford the lengthy legal process. • Many of the people with legitimate claims to land went bankrupt under the tremendous legal costs • 12 out of 20 land grants in V.C. were upheld by the Land Commission

10. Displacement of V.C.Ranchero Elite • Payment of exorbitant legal fees to Anglo lawyers • Loss of land to local merchants • Coerced sale to Anglo land speculators • Sale of land to meet debts incurred from floods and droughts in the 1860s

11. European Immigration • -Thomas Scott owner of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was one of the first Anglo Americans to own a big portion of Ventura County. • -Thomas R. Bard arrived in 1865 to manage Thomas Scott’s property and oil interests • and became the “Father of Port Hueneme” and president of Union Oil Co. Santa Paula. • -Early merchants from Italy, France, Germany, Ireland and Austria • -1862 George Briggs purchased Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy from The More brothers who acquired the rancho in the 1850s.

12. European Immigration • -1872 Nathan Blanchard from Maine purchased 2,700 acres from Briggs and began building the town of Santa Paula and planting citrus orchards. The Hardisons, Teagues, McKevett and Collins families followed in building the citrus industry. • -1873 Jewish merchant, Simon Cohn, established El Rio (“New Jerusalem) • -1880s Achilles Levy started growing lima beans and opened the A. Levy Bank. • -1889 Henry Oxnard founded the American Sugar Beet Factory • -1897 German immigrant, Albert Maulhardt started growing sugar beets in Oxnard plain

13. Ventura County Citrus Industry

14. Limoneira Company

15. Asian Immigration • -Building of the Southern Pacific Railroad route from Saugus to Santa Barbara started in 1886 using Chinese grading crews along Fillmore, Bardsdale and Piru. • -1890s Chinese merchants in Ventura and Chinese workers hired by Limoneira Company • -1900s Japanese labor contractors brought Japanese workers. to work in lima beans, • sugar beets and citrus. • -1907 Asahi Company founded and continues in business today on Oxnard Blvd. and 7th • - 1920s Filipino immigrants came to Ventura County as farm laborers in work camps and after World War II came through Point Mugu Naval Air Station and Naval Cons. Batt. Ctr.

16. Oxnard’s Chinese Community China Alley located on Saviers Road (currently Oxnard Blvd), A Street, 7th and 8th Streets Golden Chicken Inn, 1928

17. Oxnard’s Soo Hoo Family A Chinese family that resided on China Alley was the Soo Hoo Family. Hoo Yee Tom and his wife, Soo Hoo Jung Hall (Mama SooHoo, came to Oxnard in 1920. They opened a store called Wing Chen Lung. This business later became a restaurant, and its final location was on Oxnard Blvd. near 7th Street. It was called Mama Soo Hoo’s Orient. Six children were born into the Soo Hoo family: Irene, Bill, Bartley, Edward, Dorothy, and Rose. Bill Soo Hoo was born in 1924 and he attended local Oxnard schools. He served in the military during WWII and received two battle stars. Upon his return to Oxnard he served on the Grand Jury and the City Council. In 1966 he became the Mayor of Oxnard. He was the first Chinese Mayor in California.

18. Ventura’s Chinatown

19. China Alley is located in front of the mission, down Figueroa toward the sea, between Main and Santa Clara. Chinese farm laborers, chuck wagon cooks, construction workers and domestics toiling in all parts of Ventura County could return to their community to find a microcosm of Chinese society. Scholars such as Tom Lin Yan taught school and served law courts as interpreters. Artisans, vegetable gardeners and fishermen plied their trade. Merchants exported marine products and imported goods from China and provided labor to the growing city of Ventura. Sam Fong Yi not only had a store, restaurant and labor agency but also organized Ventura's unique and famed Chinese Fire Brigade. This unique company of Chinese fire fighters served China Alley and their surrounding commercial and residential neighbors in Ventura. While strict national immigration laws, local anti-Chinese sentiments, and lack of employment caused the ultimate demise and dispossession of this vibrant community, the descendents of our Chinese pioneers are still present and continue to enrich Ventura County.

20. Second Mexican Immigration • -1890s Mexican single men worked on the railroad gangs. • -1900s Mexican sugar beet workers arrived in Oxnard and their families lived adobe • houses owned by the American Sugar Beet Company • -1910-1920s Mexican families arrived to work in the Santa Paula citrus industry.

21. Oxnard Sugar Beet Factory

22. Mexican Families in Oxnard’s American Sugar Company Housing

23. 1903 Oxnard Strike: Japanese and Mexican sugar beet workers

24. 1903 Oxnard Strike: Japanese and Mexican sugar beet workers

25. Japanese Mexican Labor Association (JMLA) • On February 11, 1903 the 500 Japanese and 200 Mexican laborer who constituted the JMLA opposed the WACC on the following matters: 1. They accused the WACC of paying less than they had promised 2. They opposed the subcontracting system because it forced workers to pay double commissions. 3. They called for the freedom to buy goods wherever the desired and avoid the unreasonable prices at the company store.

26. "Mr. Samuel Gompers, Pres. American Federation of Labor, Washington, D. C. "DEAR SIR: Your letter of May 13, in which you say: ‘The admission with us of the Japanese Sugar Beet & Farm Laborers into the American Federation of Labor cannot be considered,’ is received. "We beg to say in reply that our Japanese brothers, here were the first to recognize the importance of co-operating and uniting in demanding a fair wage scale. "They are composed mostly of men without families, unlike the Mexicans in this respect. "They were not only just with us, but they were generous. When one of our men was murdered by hired assassins of the oppressors of labor, they gave expression of their sympathy in a very substantial form. "In the past we have counciled, fought and lived on very short rations with our Japanese brothers, and toiled with them in the fields, and they have been uniformly kind and considerate. We would be false to them and to ourselves and to the cause of Unionism if we, now, accepted privileges for ourselves which are not accorded to them. We are going to stand by men who stood by us in the long, hard fight which ended in a victory over the enemy. We therefore respectfully petition the A. F. of L. to grant us a charter under which we can unite all the Sugar Beet & Field Laborers of Oxnard, without regard to their color or race. We will refuse any other kind of charter, except one which will wipe out race prejudices and recognize our fellow workers as being as good as ourselves. "I am ordered by the Mexican union to write this letter to you and they fully approve its words. J.M. LIZARRARAS, Sec’y S. B. & F. L. Union, Oxnard. June 8, 1903.