Fillmore History 1888-2000
Fillmore railroad station.
Joseph D. McNab, of the Sespe Land and Water Company, who laid out the town of Fillmore in 1887 prevailed upon the Southern Pacific Railroad to establish a station in Fillmore and was instrumental in much of the development of early Fillmore.
The late 1800s were a busy time in Southern California. The railroad arrived, real estate sales were booming and a pioneering spirit permeated the air. Every town liked to think of being the best place to live, raise a family and prosper. Our little Santa Clara Valley, which was sheep and cattle country, was no exception. The first orange grove was set out on five acres in 1888 as an experiment, ten years later in 1899 Fillmore was classified as "a horticultural center for oranges, lemons and apricots. Apricots proved to be too risky so they were replaced with walnuts. Walnut groves also required too much work so in the late 40s walnuts were replaced with navel and valencia oranges. Since 1950 many acres of avocados have been planted.
The late 1800s oil was discovered and in 1924 the Texaco Refinery was built east of the downtown, it was shut down in 1950.
When the Southern Pacific railroad came through our valley in 1886-87, company representatives wanted to promote the area east of Fillmore. The landowner would not sell any of his property so they went west to an area where the Santa Clara River and Sespe Creek meet. The Sespe Land and Water Company joined the Southern Pacific Company in promoting Fillmore, named after Jerome A. Fillmore, the Southern Pacific General Superintendent.
Santa Clara School House.
On August 1, 1888, a street map of the town of Fillmore was recorded in the Ventura County Courthouse. Fillmore continued to grow and prosper. By 1900 Fillmore had a population of 150. The first schoolhouse was built in 1874 or 75. It was 20 by 30 feet with three windows on each side. The first graduating class of Fillmore High School was in 1911 with four students.
Main Street was originally the street that businesses built on, but in 1903 a fire burned most of the businesses. A building spree in 1910 on Central Avenue took place, along with streetlights. Much of the land was owned by the Sespe Land and Water Company, which gradually sold off parcels to ranchers who began raising lemons and oranges. After 1910, large parcels began to be subdivided for housing. Other later tracts have been developed but have not detracted from the small town image Fillmore still wishes to retain.
In 1914, Fillmore was incorporated as the City of Fillmore in Ventura County. On January 13, 1935, the last passenger train stopped here, ending a colorful era. Many changes have taken place and will continue to take place in the future as we continue to grow as a mid-western type town located in the very heartland of bustling Southern California.
Fillmore's Neo Classical City Hall.
Since the city’s incorporation in 1914, Fillmore City Hall has been in six locations. The sixth building is the beautiful Neo Classical building, built in 1997, and located at the corner of Central Avenue and Santa Clara Street.
Fillmore has now grown to almost 14,000 population and still can proudly say agriculture is the main source of income. The railroad is back in operation as a tourist train, downtown still has the 1930's look and the city still boasts that it is The Last Best Small Town in Southern California.
Piru History
Piru—“This word is derived from the Indian term for a reed
that grew along the creek banks, and was used in basket-making. They
pronounced it much like ‘peet hoo’ according to the oldtimers; and it
gradually became sounded ‘pee roo’, spelled piru. “However”, Joe
Paul wrote, “train conductors shouted out ‘Pie roo’; and a
restaurant operator erected a sign proclaiming that he had put the ‘Pie’
in Piru; and little by little it became ‘Pie roo’, except for the
oldtimers and natives who knew better.”
Ventura County Historical Society Quarterly, (Winter,
1972)
Piru, a part of the 14,000 acres of the Piru Fruit Rancho, is situated near the base of the mountains where the Piru Creek and the Santa Clara River meet. It is in the upper end of the Santa Clara Valley, in the eastern section of Ventura County. The name Piru was derived from the grass or reeds that grew in the Piru Creek which were used for basket weaving by the Piru Indians, members of the Haminot tribe. The property, which was patented to the Temescal Land Grant, was purchased in 1887 from the Del Valle brothers by David C. Cook of Elgin, Illinois, the proprietor of the greatest publishing house in the United States. This was quickly followed by the founding of the town of Piru City, as it was once called, owned and controlled by Mr. Cook.
Soon Piru City became known as a flourishing horticulture center. This was due to Mr. Cook’s influence since he had come here not only for his health but to establish a community that would duplicate in its groves and orchards of fruit trees, those of the Holy Land in Biblical times. Piru City was often referred to as the Second Garden of Eden. When David C. Cook bought the Piru Fruit Rancho in 1887, he acquired with the land a valuable water right, allowing him to appropriate the waters of the Piru Creek for irrigation purposes. The water system, consisting of 30 miles of pipes, flumes and canals, had been planned in order to properly irrigate the mammoth orchards extending from Piru City westward, a distance of one and a half miles, and up the Piru Canyon, a distance of six miles.
Besides being prominent as a horticulture center, Piru City enjoyed prosperity due to the immense freight business caused by the large orders of the Piru Fruit Rancho as well as by the numerous oil wells in the vicinity and on the Rancho. In the winter of 1887-88, the large Methodist Church was erected and on June 1888, the post office was opened with four daily mails. The Piru Rancho Gold Mining Company, which was that portion of the Piru Rancho located in Los Angeles County and was included in the old Temescal Land Grant, was still being worked in 1899 having been extensively mined from 1810-1840 before the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.
David C. Cook, founder of Piru, developed his Second Garden of Eden for 15 years before regaining his health and returning to Elgin, Illinois to resume his position as head of the publishing house. Since Mr. Cook was a strick prohibitionist he was disappointed with many of his employees who were supposed to abstain from swearing and liquor.
Piru is a quiet little community, a favorite location for all of the movie companies. One of the largest citrus packing houses in located here. Piru Lake, controlled by the United Water Conservation District, is a recreational area for water skiing, fishing, and camping.
Places of interest include Rancho Camulos, which Helen Hunt Jackson selected as the home of her heroine in her novel, Ramona and The Mansion, the beautiful house Mr. Cook built for his bride, an historical monument, now owned by Ruth and Scott Newhall.
Rancho Camulos
The present 1,800 acre Camulos Ranch, established by Ygnacio del Valle in 1853, was carved out of the 48,612 acre Rancho San Francisco, granted in 1839 to Ygnacio's father Antonio del ValIe, majordomo and administrator of Mission San Fernando. Camulos was located at the western boundary of the rancho and was originally a Tataviam Indian village known as Kamulus. The San Fernando Mission used the area as early as 1804 for raising small animals and crops grown by the Indians, who numbered 416 when visited by Inspector General of the Missions in 1839.
Antonio del Valle and his family lived at the eastern edge of the ranch near Castaic in the former San Fernando Mission granary adobe building. After Antonio's death in 1841, the land was divided among his second wife and the children from his two marriages. Ygnacio received the western portion of the ranch known as Camulos and built a corral and stocked it with cattle in 1842. He bought back some of the Rancho San Francisco acreage from the other del Valle heirs and also acquired Rancho Temescal, north of Piru. Ygnacio's first wife died in childbirth in 1842. He was married a second time to Ysabel Varela of Los Angeles, who was only 15. They settled in Los Angeles near the Olvera street plaza. The following year he built the first four rooms of what became the main adobe at Camulos, which was at first occupied by Ygnacio's majordomo (foreman).
Ygnacio and Ysabel lived in Los Angeles for almost a decade, during which time as Ygnacio held a number of elected positions. Between 1853 and 1861, five children were born to the. After the birth of their fifth child, Josefa, in 1861, the family moved permanently to Camulos and added three new rooms and a basement to the original adobe. Many of the Kamulus Indians continued to live and work at the ranch and helped to make the adobe blocks used in the construction - some of these Indians are buried in the del Valle family cemetery. Between 1862 and 1870, seven more children were born at Camulos. Of twelve children total, only five lived to adulthood.
The drought of the 1860s took its toll on del Valle cattle and crops, forcing the del Valles to sell most of the Rancho San Francisco in 1865. However, Camulos continued to evolve into a diverse agricultural operation. By the time of Ygnacio's death in 1880, the ranch had grown from a few hundred head of-cattle in the 1840s to a thriving, virtually self-contained ranch. It consisted of approximately 1290 acres of citrus, vineyards, almonds, grain, and vegetables, and supported close to 200 residents. In addition to the del Valles, large numbers of Mexicans and Indians, were employed on the ranch. The single four room adobe built in 1853, grew into a twenty room adobe surrounded by numerous other buildings-a brick winery, chapel, barn and workers' housing, The isolation of the Santa Clara Valley was broken with the arrival of the stagecoach in 1874 and the railroad in 1887.
Throughout its long history Rancho Camulos has had a diverse and rich agricultural history. The first oranges grown and shipped commercially from what is now Ventura County were from the Camulos Ranch in 1876. In addition to the annual crops of citrus, almonds, walnuts, apricots, peaches, wheat, corn and barley. Grapevines were also cultivated at Camulos for the production of wine and brandy. It was the wine grape that brought the first real commercial success for the del Valle family in the 19th century, Camulos wines and brandies enjoyed a good reputation throughout Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. During the 1860s, ninety acres of wine grapes were planted, a brick winery built, and a license obtained for brandy distilling. The federal industrial census for 1870 records the Camulos Ranch winery as the largest of the four vintners in the San Buenaventura Township of Santa Barbara County, with 45 tons of grapes resulting in 6,000 gallons of wine and 800 gallons of brandy.
In 1908 the ranch was incorporated as the del Valle Company by Ulpiano and his remaining brothers and sisters for the purpose of raising crops and livestock, acquiring water rights, and developing oil resources. Eventually, friction within the family and the death of several family members forced the sale of the ranch in 1924 to the August Rübel family. At the time of the sale, writer Charles Lummis, a close family friend of the del Valles, appealed to the State of California to purchase Camulos as a historic park. Lummis had long been an active preservationist. He founded the Landmarks Club, which contributed substantially to preserving the missions. His magazine Out West, more than any other publication, promoted the heritage of Southern California.