Brass Band

In December 1901 it was announced in the local paper that a brass band was being formed in the West Riverside area. New instruments were ordered for the band, all of which were nickel plated. To be known as the "Jurupa Band," it initially had 11 members comment to the weekly practices. G.W. Greene was the director. It was planned that they would be having a concert soon for the community.

E-Book Available

I am happy to report that Wicked Jurupa Valley is available as an e-book. It is (or will be) available for sale via Amazon (on the Kindle), Barnes & Noble (on the Nook) and Apple’s iBookstore (on the iPad). I feel so hip and up to date knowing you can read Wicked Jurupa Valley on all of these devices! Whoo hoo!

This Day in History - September 22, 1897

A quiet wedding was held at the home of Mrs. J.R. Johnson in West Riverside on this date. The bride was Mrs. Johnson's cousin, Mrs. M.E. Wertz of Minneapolis. The groom was H.L. Hopkins of the firm of  Hopkins and Austin in Riverside. The happy couple managed to keep the event secret from all but a few people. They were able to keep the local papers in the dark until after the event by taking out the wedding licence until just before the clerk's office closed. Mr. Hopkins was at the time a popular and successful businessman in Riverside.   

This Date in History - September 17, 1942

Mavis Fern Bachhofer was languishing in jail after she was arrested on the charge of assault with a deadly weapon against Eva Crimble of West Riverside. The assault occurred when the two women got into an argument at the cafe owned by Mrs. Crimble.

Bachhofer was arrested a few days after the assault in Los Angeles. She had some time before suffered the loss of her right arm and was supposedly in LA trying to get an artificial arm when officers arrested her.

This Date in History - September 11, 1939

Streater's grocery men softball team palyed the team from First Baptist Church of Riverside. The game was held at the Mira Loma ball grounds, located at Jurupa Road and Etiwanda Avenue. The game took place at 7:30 p.m. 

This Date in History - September 7, 1917

The following ad appeared in the West Riverside Daily Press:

For Exchange - 9 acres, 5 acres in alfalfa, large garden with berries, asparagus, grapes, etc., chicken yards and houses for 1000 chickens, balance for garden truck. Pumping plant  with abundance of water: fine soft soil. Six room house wth hot and cold water. West Riverside on Fourth Street between B and C sts., near car line. Want a 6 or 7 room cottage, large lot, good location. Telephone Mission 836 R1.  

Fourth Street is now 24th Street, B Street is now Rubidoux Boulvard, and C street is now Hall Avenue, placing this property in what we now think of as the community of Belltown.

The City of Rubidoux

In December 1960 a group headed by Frank Vogel, a Rubidoux appraiser and county flood control commissioner, presented notice to the County Board of Supervisors that a signature gathering campaign was starting to place on the ballot the incorporation of Rubidoux. The new city was to have included all of the area found in the West Riverside and Pedley school districts. If the City of Rubidoux had come to be in 1961, it would have been the second largest city in Riverside County at that time. The largest then (and now) was Riverside at just over 84,000 people. Riverside now has over 303,000 people. The city of Jurupa Valley has a population of just over 96,000 and includes not only Pedley and West Riverside but Glen Avon and part of Mira Loma.

This Date in History

I am starting a new feature today. As you might have noticed it will be called "This Date in History." Once a week I will be looking to see what happend in Jurupa Valley history on that date.

Today it will be July 26th, 1916. On this date the County Board of Supervisors let the contract for the constuction of the Pedley Bridge, the very first bridge to be built over the Santa Ana River in the Pedley area.

Dangerous Bridge

I don't know who has jurisdiction over the Rubidoux Bridge today, but in the late 1800s and early 1900s the bridges of that time were paid for 50/50 by the City of Riverside and the County of Riverside.  This 50/50 arrangement extended even to the maintenance of the bridge with the city maintaining their half and no more and the county responsible for the maintenance of their half.   

This practice could cause problems as was reported in January 1904. At that time the Riverside Enterprise reported that the West Riverside bridge (as it was then known) was in a dangerous condition. The wood flooring of the bridge was rotting and that allowed two horses to break through the wood. One horse was severely injured. According to the paper the city had repaired its end of the bridge and that half was in good shape. However the county had not yet fixed its half and it was in "dangerous condition." 

1905 Advertisement

The April 20, 1905 Riverside Daily Press reported that the the people of West Riverside had produced a pamphlet to advertise their area. According to the Daily Press, " These pamphlets are considered a fine advertisement for so small a section and as every word can be proven, send them to your Eastern friends and you can make good any statement."

Wow! I wish I could see one of these!

A Story from the Good Old Days

From the September 17, 1889 Riverside Daily Press:

"Yesterday afternoon a gentleman and two ladies from West Riverside were driving home from the city, and in going down the northwest side of Rubidoux one of the wheels went into a "chuckhole" and upset the carriage, which turned completely over and threw the horse down. In its endeavors to get up the horse bruised the foot of one of the young ladies quite badly, although not seriously. The carriage was somewhat broken, which constitutes the damage. Considering the nature of the accident the young people were very fortunate in escaping with so slight injury. "

Collecting Rubber During WWII

One of the features of the home front during World War II was the collection of scarce resources for recycling to help the war effort. In July 1942 Morton Taylor's service station in Mira Loma held a rubber drive. Mr. Taylor and the Century and St. Helen oil companies donated money so a prize could be offered to the girl and the boy who brought in the most rubber for recycling. Doris Meissner won first prize for the girls by bringing in 872 lbs. of rubber. Billy Haynes topped all the other boys with 1395 lbs. They each won $2.00. Second place finishers Eleanor Anderson and Stanley Anderson each won $1.50. Altogether 20,349 pound of rubber we recycled from the Mira Loma area.

I contacted Loren Meissner, Doris' brother, about this story which I found in the local paper. These are his memories of that long ago rubber drive in Mira Loma:

My sister Doris, and Billy Haynes, were both Eastvale students. I don’t remember the others, but they were most likely from Union Joint which served all the way down the east side of Etiwanda. (The west side, north of Limonite, was a grain field.)

In July 1942 (7 months after Pearl Harbor when the US had declared war), Doris was 15 and I was 14.

Doris and I went all over Riverdale Acres with our little red wagon, asking everybody if they had any scrap rubber, such as old tires or inner tubes, or maybe some kind of pads. It was supposed to be a big help for the War Effort – I think they said it was going to be used to retread tires, cuz all during the war nobody could buy new ones. It was one of the many items that were being totally diverted to the military for “the war effort,” like coffee and sugar. Later I figured out it was mostly propaganda, helping the civilian population feel like we were participating a tiny bit.

When we got close to the time limit, we found out we had collected enough to have a chance for the girls’ prize but no way were we going to compete with Billy. So we figured out our best strategy was to put our collection in Doris’s name and it worked. She might even have given me some of the $2 – I don’t remember that part. Of course kids could get quite a lot for two dollars in “those days.”

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Mr Knight lived on Mann Ave, and he had several tires being used as planters for rose bushes. He told us (with tears in his eyes) that his wife had planted them that way before she died, but he knew she would have wanted him to contribute the tires to help in the war against “them Nazis, who are worse than animals.” So he carefully removed the tires without disturbing the roses very much, and we thanked him and hauled the tires away in our wagon.

The Legion Ranger

On April 7th, 1943 the Riverside Daily Press reported that American Legion Post 500 of Mira Loma had presented a framed copy of the celebrated picture "Legion Ranger" to the Union, Eastvale, and Glen Avon elementary schools.

The "Legion Ranger" was described as depicting a soldier of the "present war" (World War II) lying in a fox hole with an automatic rifle in his hand while pulling the pin on a hand grenade. The presentations to the schools were made by James L. Bullock and James K. Howey.

I tried searching on the Internet for a photo of this picture but was not successful. If anyone knows where I can find one please let me know!

Funny Things Found While Writing Wicked Jurupa Valley Part III

While researching local history for my upcoming book Wicked Jurupa Valley: Murder and Misdeeds in Rural Southern California I discovered some funny (by funny I mean odd) things stuck back in your local history. One of the stories in the book is about a particular time in the history of the bridge that takes us all across the Santa Ana from Rubidoux to Riverside. Now, you may be wondering what a story about a bridge is doing in a book with the subtitle "Murder and Misdeeds." Well, you will be surprised to find out that I found stories of arson, spies, and a rampaging Mother Nature! It was certainly a surprise to me!   I look forward to you getting to read about the Rubidoux bridge and everything else when the book comes out in June!

Funny Things Found While Writing Wicked Jurupa Valley, Part II

So, I was doing research, minding my own business, when I come across a story of manslaughter and mistresses, oh my! One of the things that I found amazing is that this story of questionable goings on occurred at a place called the Jurupa Rancho. I had never heard of it!!!! Yet, in newspaper stories of the time (1948-49) this Jurupa Rancho had a house that was considered quite the place! According to the newspaper, the house on the Jurupa Rancho had "long been regarded as one of the show spots of Riverside County." This house is still located on Pedley Road near the 60 Freeway. I can't wait for all of you to read the story of this murder trial, one that was considered to be the the most sensational since the Wineville Chicken Coop murders.   

Funny Things Found While Writing Wicked Jurupa Valley

The deadline grows closer for me to finish up my new book, "Wicked Jurupa Valley." Doing the research has been a very interesting journey and I have come across some funny things. Funny as in odd, not laugh out loud funny.   

In researching one story I came across information on the "Winter that Almost Wasn't" as it is called. The winter of 1898-99 was a very mild one, particularly in the upper Midwest. Then on January 30th, 1899 a cold front moved in that lasted about two weeks. The cold affected most of the country and was so severe it caused the entire length of the Mississippi River to freeze! Ice flowed into the Gulf of Mexico and a snowfall record was set in Washington D.C. that did not fall until 2010.

What does this have to do with Jurupa Valley, you ask? A family that endured that horrible cold wave while living in Minnesota moved to Jurupa Valley right after that. That cold wave may have affected their thinking when they made that decision to move. The rest of their story will be in "Wicked Jurupa  Valley." I can't wait for all of you to be able to read it!

Sunnyslope

The name of the community of Sunnyslope actually dates to 1888. That year a development was advertised by Cunningham and Co. as the "Sunny Slope of West Riverside." At that time the name was spelled as two words, not one as it is today.

A Place Called Bly

A quarry was begun in Pyrite Canyon in the Glen Avon area about 1900. It was soon taken over and expanded to at least two quarries by the Bly Brothers who owned the Bly Brothers Stone Company in Los Angeles. The stone was taken from the quarry to their yard in LA for finishing. In 1903 or 1904 a spur line was built to the quarries  by the San Pedro, Los Angeles, and Salt Lake Railroad. The spur went from the Pedley area to Pyrite Canyon. At the end of the spur line a siding was built for the loading of the rock. That siding became known as "Bly." Sometimes that area shows up on old maps as Bly as well, even thought there never was a real community known as Bly.

Walking in Previous Footsteps

My first deadline for my upcoming book, Wicked Jurupa Valley, is looming! I have to have all photos, maps, and any other images to the publisher by March 15th. With that in mind, last Saturday my husband and I took a drive to Los Angeles so I could take photos of two apartment buildings. These buildings had been owned back in the 1940s by a man named John Owen. They were managed by a woman named Agnes Garnier. Agnes had become John's mistress but it didn't end well. At John's big ranch here in Jurupa Valley a gun went off that ended John's life. That gun was in Agnes's hand when it went off. I think we can say their relationship didn't end well!

Researching and writing the story of John and Agnes for the book makes me think of them in a very personal way. It is almost like they become distant relatives, the kind you catch up with every year when you get their Christmas newsletter. So, seeing places where they actually lived and breathed was quite exciting for me. Both buildings were locked but I managed to finagle my way into the lobby of one of them. I could imagine Agnes walking across the lobby's black and while tiled floors. I could see John standing in front of the elevators, waiting to go up to visit Agnes. It was very cool walking where they walked!  



  

1921 Wedding

As a mother of two daughters, I have to admit that reading the stories of weddings in days gone by makes me long for the simpler, less expensive weddings they had back then. But don't tell my daughters. They will just think I am cheap! Here is another description of a wedding in Jurupa Valley that was solemnized on April 30th, 1921.

Miss Harriet Hannah Correll and Mr. Benjamin H. Walker were married at the home of the bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.G. Correll of Glen Avon.  It was held in the presence of relatives and a few friends of the happy couple.

An arch of white roses and greenery was erected in one corner of the living room which is where the bridal party stood. At the stroke of eight the wedding march was played and the bridal party entered the living room. Miss Mildred Gallwas was the maid of honor. She wore dainty frock of pale green organdy and carried a bouquet of Cecil Bruner roses and asparagus fern. The best man was Glen Goodwin of Redondo Beach.

The girlish bride wore a wedding gown of white satin with embroidered georgette. her tulle veil was caught in her hair with a cornet of orange blossoms. She carried an arm bouquet of white roses and maiden hair fern.

After the ceremony an informal reception was held and then refreshments were served. Guests included five girlhood friends of the bride. They were Margaret Kelsey, Leone Anderson, Grace Witte, Olive Gogin, and Vera Gallwas.

The bride and groom slipped away for a short honeymoon to Los Angeles and San Diego. For the going away the bride wore a becoming suit of brown with a white hat.

The new Mrs. Walker has lived in Glenavon for many years. She graduated from the Girls High School in Riverside in 1920. She was a member of the school's basketball team in her senior year. The groom  is foreman of he bake shop at Chaffee's store in Riverside. They will be at home after May 8th at a new house at Sixth and Lemon Streets in Riverside.