Fallbrook Historical Society

12/25/2020

Fallbrook Historical Society Wish you Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Fallbrook Historical Society Wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

——- Virtual Toor —— We decorated
1. Heritage Center
https://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org/heritage-center-2020-holiday-decorations/

2. Gift shop:
https://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org/2020-gift-shop-holiday-decorations/

3. Pittenger House:
https://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org/2020-pittenger-house-holiday-decorations/

12/24/2020

—— History Bits ——

The community of Fallbrook was first settled by the Payomkawichum people, later called Luiseños by the Spanish missionaries who were present in the area in the late 1700s. Large village sites and oak groves were established by the Luiseños. One site in particular became the area known today as Live Oak County Park.
The first permanent recorded settlement was during the Mexican period in 1846, when Ysidro Alvarado was granted Rancho Monserate by then governor of Mexican California, Pio Pico, who was residing to the west of Fallbrook where Camp Pendleton is currently located.
Alvarado and Pico were second-generation Californians and San Diegans and were citizens of Mexico and the United States.
Rancho Monserate, a 13,323-acre grant stretched from the San Luis Rey River and Bonsall to the south to Stagecoach Lane and the Palomares house to the North to Mission Road to the west to Monserate Mountain to the east.
Pio's nephew and local vaquero, Jose Maria Pico, had been residing in the area now known as the Fallbrook High School during the 1860 census and his family had registered to vote in October 1868, in time for the November presidential election, the first election after the Civil War ended.
The first known image of the area was an oil painting done by James Walker in 1870 called Roping the Bear at Santa Margarita Rancho, which depicts Mexican vaqueros capturing a grizzly bear.

12/22/2020

—- History bits—-
The Fall Brook had the distinction of doing the largest freight business of any single track road
in the country, and its magnitude amazed practical railroad men everywhere."
(Wellsboro Agitator - 1900)
Introduction

Locomotive #45 - Mulhollon
Fall Brook Coal Company Locomotive #45 "Mulhollon"
Named for John Magee's mother, Sarah Mulhollon Magee. This photo was identified as the first passenger train and crew to run between Elkland and Lawrenceville, on the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim, later the Fall Brook Railway. (1882)

After a foreclosure sale in 1854, Hon. John Magee purchased a controlling interest in the Corning & Blossburg Railroad in New York State, beginning a series of acquisitions and leases which led to the formation in 1892, of the Fall Brook Railway and its ultimate merger into the New York Central system. Early logoMr. Magee, my great-great-granduncle, was a former two-term member of Congress whose extensive businesses included stage coaches, mining and the Fall Brook Coal Company, which operated mines at Antrim, Blossburg and Fall Brook, PA.

In 1833, The Tioga Navigation Company (PA), and the Tioga Railroad (NY) were given permission to construct a rail system to carry coal and lumber from Blossburg, PA north to Corning, NY. Each state would only allow rails to be built to their respective state line.

Curtesy FallbrookRailway.com
Read more history at: http://www.fallbrookrailway.com/index.shtml

12/21/2020

—- History bits —-
Fallbrook, CA named for Fall Brook Coal, and Fall Brook, PA
Many Magees settle on the west coast at Fall Brook & Temecula

Vital Reche, from Rochester, married Amelia Magee, niece of Gen. George J. Magee. He became involved in the Magee family's Fall Brook Railroad and coal interests, in Pennsylvania and New York. In 1869, Vital and Amelia moved permanently to California. They chose the name Fall Brook for their ranch. Soon the entire valley, with its many large and beautiful Live Oak Trees, was called Fall Brook; later, Fallbrook.

More at http://www.fallbrookrailway.com/fallbrook_ca.html

12/06/2020

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

***Please us on Zoom! Meetimg is on***

The Fallbrook Historical Society invites you to join us for our
Awards Ceremony to honor our

Pioneers of the Year, Jackie Heyneman, Cecilia Njust and Bev McDougal;

Vintage Business of the Year, Bill Atkins, All Star Therapy;
and Member of the Year, Don McLean Jr.;

on-line FREE via Zoom!

We'll also give a brief review of the past year.

December 6 at 12:00 pm

See you there!

Zoom information:

Topic: Awards Ceremony
Time: Dec 6, 2020 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83648309945?pwd=M21iQjhDQWJHa3lkMVVpZGxkZmtzdz09

Meeting ID: 836 4830 9945
Passcode: 595248

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

12/03/2020

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

The Fallbrook Historical Society invites you to join us for our
Awards Ceremony to honor our

Pioneers of the Year, Jackie Heyneman, Cecilia Njust and Bev McDougal;

Vintage Business of the Year, Bill Atkins, All Star Therapy;
and Member of the Year, Don McLean Jr.;

on-line FREE via Zoom!

We'll also give a brief review of the past year.

December 6 at 12:00 pm

See you there!

Zoom information:

Topic: Awards Ceremony
Time: Dec 6, 2020 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83648309945?pwd=M21iQjhDQWJHa3lkMVVpZGxkZmtzdz09

Meeting ID: 836 4830 9945
Passcode: 595248

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

11/26/2020

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

- Fallbrook Historical Society

11/10/2020

To all veterans of all branches: Thank you for your sacrifice, your bravery, and the example you set for us all. In short, thank you for your service! To all those who have served, and those who continue to serve…

Happy Veterans Day!

Do you know Fred ‘Freddy’ Rodriguez?

Recently the Fallbrook Historical Society was asked to research the background and possibly find a picture of a 1940 Fallbrook High School alumni Fred ‘Freddy’ Rodriguez. Freddy grew up on the Rincon Indian reservation near Pala. He was the starting right halfback on a very good Fallbrook High 1939/1940 football team. After graduation he worked at Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego before joining the Army. Serving with the 5th Infantry Division, 11th Infantry Regiment, Rodriquez was killed during the Battle of the Bulge in Luxemburg. He had just turned 22 years old. Fred Rodriguez is buried in the American cemetery in Hamm, Luxemburg

08/25/2020

The Fallbrook Historical Society is proud to announce a special on-line ZOOM presentation on
"100 years of RailRoad History" by Tom Frew.

Learn about a major part of forgotten Fallbrook history.

Buy Ticket Now:
https://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org/product/fhs-100-years-of-railroad-history-zoom-ticket/

07/28/2020

History of Fallbrook Regional Health District

History Of Fallbrook Regional Health District.

By Tom Frew

The founding of the first hospital in Fallbrook was set into motion by the actions of a Fallbrook nurse, Louise Shipley, and a rich Englishwoman, Alice Appleford. Here is their story gleaned from back issues of The Fallbrook Enterprise, census data, and Fallbrook Historical Society archives.

Click below for Full History at -
https://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org/about/fallbrook-history/featured-articles/history-of-fallbrook-regional-health-district/

The founding of the first hospital in Fallbrook was set into motion by the actions of a Fallbrook nurse, Louise Shipley, and a rich Englishwoman, Alice Appleford. Here is their story gleaned …

07/17/2020

Fallbrook History bits:
Do you know It was 100 years ago in
1920
1. New land companies formed, new neighborhoods developed, real estate business propered.
2. Live Oak Park dedicated as a County Park.
3. First white line painted on Main Street.
4. First sidewalks built on Main Street. Most were higher than building floor levels, so rainwater flowed into stores and offices.
5. Acreage devoted to avocados increases.
6. Road between Oceanside and Fallbrook paved.

06/24/2020

Opening News! July 12, 2020

The Heritage Center museums will be re-opening Sundays beginning July 12. Visitors are required to wear face coverings.

We want to have soft opening. Please wear face mask and keep distance.

Stay safe and enjoy our museums.

See you there!

View our re-opening plan athttps://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/FHS_COVID_2020-06-16.pdf

05/22/2020

Some Fallbrook history on Memorial Day 2020

By Tom Frew

The Fallbrook Veterans of Foreign Wars post, VFW 1924 on Old Stage Road, is named for the first son of Fallbrook to be killed in World War Two. Seaman 1st Class Charles E. Swisher was killed in the early moments of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Swisher family, Charles parents Leon and Mary and his younger sister Mildred, were well known around Fallbrook because of their involvement with civic activities. Young Charles had attended West Fallbrook Union Elementary School as a child. He went on to play football on the Fallbrook Union High School team in 1939. After the football season, he joins the Future Farmers student organization. Charles enlists in the U.S. Navy in November 1940 just 2 weeks after turning 18 years old. Following his basic training in San Diego, he is assigned to the battleship USS Arizona then docked in Bremerton, Washington. Just a year later he is promoted to Seaman 1st Class while the Arizona is docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On Saturday night, December 6th, Charles attends a concert on the navy base with some Fallbrook friends also stationed there. He then returns to the ship to stand watch from midnight to 4 a.m. Seaman 1st Class Swisher is sleeping in Sunday morning in the bow area of the ship when Japanese planes make a surprise attack on Hawaii at 7:55 am December 7, 1941. The Arizona is hit several times; explodes, burns and sinks taking the lives of 1,177 sailors and Marines.

Full story at https://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org/about/fallbrook-history/featured-articles/naming-of-fallbrook-vfw-post/

05/06/2020

Post from Ricardo Quintana Ricardo Quintana Favela - Sharing for FHS

Fallbrook's own 5 de Mayo.

Today is May 5th and the birthday of one of Fallbrook and California's most historically significant figures. His family's last name can be found in many Southern California cities on streets, parks, schools, campgrounds & more, including Fallbrook's Pico Avenue named after his nephew. Pio Pico, born on May, 5th, 1801, was the last Mexican governor of California, an Afro-Mexican who in his lifetime was a citizen of New Spain, Mexico, and the US, and whose family was intricately involved in the founding of each of these colonial states in these lands.

As an Afro-Mexican he took the more progressive political stances within that time and along with his brother Andres, led the fight against the US invasion of Mexico and California. Knowing that slavery was legal in the US in the 1840s, he fought for California to remain with Mexico, which had already abolished slavery. After California was occupied and forced into the US, he later advocated for the abolishment of slavery by endorsing Abraham Lincoln for president. The effort of Mexicans in California to support the Union during the Civil War is what led to the popularization of 5 de Mayo in the US today. Californios (Mexican Californians) celebrated and politicized the victory by Mexican forces in Puebla, Mexico as a symbol against French imperialism. France was known to be sympathetic to the Confederacy. Through 5 de Mayo celebrations they raised funds for the Union cause, which they saw as another front against France and oppression.

Despite Pico's progressive positions, he still operated as a colonizer especially regarding relations and land issues with Native people. Conflicts regarding land seizures, including the pueblo of Las Flores on the Camp Pendleton coast and Temecula, contributed to long standing tensions and conflicts between Native and Mexican people in this area.

He stands as a reminder of the historic presence of Mexican people in California and as a founder of the state.

Attached is a painting that was commissioned in 1876 about an event that took place in the 1840s on Pico's ranch. This could have taken place anywhere between Camp Pendleton, Fallbrook or De Luz. The painting itself might be the first image of life in the Fallbrook area, when it was part of Mexico.

03/31/2020

The Fallbrook Historical Society is curating, and collecting information about Fallbrook's heroes in past wars. On Vietnam Veteran's Day we remember, Private First Class Dennis Kipp USMC killed in action near Da Nang on October 20, 1969. He was just 18 years old. Dennis attended Fallbrook High School in the 1960s as Dennis Shoudy (his mother's married name).
The only phograph we found for him was his sophomore picture in the 1968 Fallbrook High School yearbook.

If you have photos or letters and you want to share with Fallbrook Historical Society, Please contact us or Tom Frew, Historian at FHS.

Please visit our website during social distancing as our museums are closed until further notice.

https://www.fallbrookhistoricalsociety.org

Stay safe and positive.

03/19/2020

Great read while social distancing...

Fallbrook History By Tom Frew.

—— Rancho Monserate —-
Alvarado Street running across the center of our town is named in honor of the Alvarado family, the first non-native family to reside on the land that later became Fallbrook. Since 1846 the Alvarado family owned 13,322 acres of the Rancho Monserate. Thousands of cattle and sheep herded by Mexican and Indian vaqueros once grazed across the unfenced Rancho Monserate.

Modern day spelling differs slightly from the old records. The Rancho was named for an ancient monastery in Monserrate, Spain near Barcelona. The Alvarado’s Monserate cattle brand, shown here, is one of the classic Californio “picture” brands whose meanings have since been lost.
Bordered on the south by the San Luis Rey River and on the north by approximately where Stagecoach Lane and Reche Road are today, the Rancho Monserate stretched east/west between the old ‘Road from Temecula’ (now I-15) to roughly where Mission Road is today. See 1872 Plat of Rancho Monserate below.
Luiseno Indian families were living here when California governor Pio Pico granted the land to California born Ysidro Maria Alvarado in 1846 as a reward for his father’s long military service.

Ysidro Alvarado's father arrived in San Diego as a Spanish soldier in 1769 with the earliest expedition. Retiring after 35 years of service, his family lived in Los Angeles. Ysidro Alvarado and Micaela Avila were married in the church at San Gabriel Mission, initially raising their children in Los Angeles where Micaela’s father was an important official.

To the marriage of Ysidro and Micaela Alvarado three children are born: Tomas (1839), Dolores (1840) and Lugardo (1842). In 1845, Micaela Avila de Alvarado died of unknown causes. Soon after her death, Ysidro married Micaela's younger sister Manuela. The family moved to the Monserate where Ysidro Alvarado built a large adobe home on the rancho near the NE intersection today’s I-15 and SR76.
In 1862, an outbreak of smallpox swept northern San Diego County killing hundreds. The epidemic ravages Rancho Monserate. Don Ysidro and his wife nursed many of their dying servants, vaqueros, and farm hands. Ysidro and Manuela eventually contract the disease themselves and also die. It has been said that many of the victims of the smallpox epidemic were buried in a common grave near the Alvarado Hacienda.
Ysidro had expressed his wish that he wanted to be buried at the San Luis Rey Mission. Although the mission was now in private ownership with Alvarado’s neighbor, Colonel Cave Couts of Rancho Guajome, it was still La Mission to the faithful. Col. Couts did not want smallpox victims buried there. Couts’ men confronted and shot dead one of Ysidro’s mourners during the burial.

Ysidro Alvarado’s 3 adult children could not immediately inherit the Rancho. The boundaries and title were still being determined by the U.S. Land Commission, according to the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo that ended the Mexican American War and conceded the state of California to the United States. This 9 year delay also affected a Canadian settler from New York named Vital Reche, who could not gain title to his nearby Live Oak Canyon homestead until after the Rancho boundaries are confirmed.
The final survey is finally approved in 1872 and Rancho Monserate is equally divided, with approximately 4,400 acres to each of the heirs.
Tomas Alvarado, the son, receives the eastern portion which includes today’s Pala Mesa. Under Tomas’ management, cattle and sheep become more numerous and the Rancho is profitable. Tomas’ sister Dolores Alvarado de Serrano and her husband inherit the middle portion where Gird Road now runs. Their younger sister Lugarda Alvarado Palomares and her husband receive ownership of the western portion, where Fallbrook High School is now.
Eventually the presence of so many homesteaders on or around the unfenced rancho make large scale stock raising impractical. Over the years Rancho Monserate is subdivided and sold off into many smaller parcels of ranches or farms.

Acknowledgements:
1) Don Rivers, Fallbrook Historical Society, In Village News Oct. 29, 1998
2) Elizabeth Yamaguchi, Fallbrook Historical Society, 1998
3) James S. Copley, Historic Ranchos of San Diego, 1969