Bulletin
South Bayfront Historical Society
Chula Vista Heritage Museum
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Dec 2020 - Jan 2021 | Issue 30 |
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Chula Vista Heritage Museum
RUTH Remember Us The Holocaust
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The Library is still closed to prevent the transmission of Covid-19. You will be able to pick up your holds Monday - Friday from 11 am - 6 pm. To order Library Takeout, simply place a hold on an item either through our online catalog or over the phone by calling 619-691-5069,
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Since you can't visit our RUTH exhibit in person, click on the image below to link to the exhibit: |
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Virtual Programs
C.V. Heritage Museum & S.B. Historical Society
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It’s that time for apple and pumpkin pies, the smell of Thanksgiving and the beautiful holiday lights that glow with such pretty splendor. With COVID still on the rise, we have seen South Bay residents making it a point to walk more, fix up their yards and join together in keeping safe. The pumpkins this year were uniquely decorated and it seems that people are waving more, greeting more and just bringing back the South Bay spirit. Marie Calendars has been replaced with Farmer’s Table. Let’s hope they have a great version of the Marie Calendar’s strawberry pie. |
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Back to the pumpkin, years ago I discovered a great pumpkin bread recipe which is super for the Holidays so here goes:
Preheat over to 325o F
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Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 /2/3 flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 eggs well beaten
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/2 water
- 1/2 wallnuts
- 1 cup cooked pumpkin ( can)
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Instructions:
- Butter and flour the pans,
- mix all dry stuff,
- add the water, eggs, oil, pumpkin
- NOW ADD THE WALNUTS ( sneak in some chocolate chips and cranberries)
- mix well,
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pour into pans bake at 325o F for 50 to 60 minutes.
- Check with a tooth pick,
- let cool.
Eat and grab the eggnog.
Save a piece for Santa you just might get what was on your list. Happy Holidays to everyone.
~Sandy Scheller
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South Bay Historical Society |
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Founders in the South Bay Chinese Community Part I
~ Harry Orgovan
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The Discovery of gold in 1849 was considered the lure which brought many Chinese to the shores of California. The Chinese called California, “Gold Mountain” or in Cantonese “Gum Saan”. The southern part of China was experiencing famine, wars and rebellion during this time. Families would send their sons to foreign lands in hopes of seeking their fortune to send money back to the family.1
The first Chinese in San Diego came from the California gold mines where they had experienced racially hostile environments. Excluded from the best diggings, they took positions as cooks and laundrymen in the mining camps. They also played roles in building of the railroads and the fishing and agricultural industries. They were confined to unskilled, killing jobs at the bottom of the wage scale.
Some of the first Chinese to come to San Diego were fisherman. The property tax lists of 1863 and 1864 listed boats and nets. 1867 the fisherman Juk Sing lived at Ballast Point with his wife and made lots of money selling fish. Chinese peddlers sold fish from door to door. By 1869 there was a small group of redwood shacks, some on stilts, on the mudflats at the end of First Street in New Town (Downtown San Diego). The area between Second and Fifth Streets next to the Stingaree redlight district became Chinatown in San Diego.
The Chinese fishing village was in the area occupied by the San Diego Convention Center today. In 1881 railroad construction along the waterfront forced the fisherman to move to Roseville where another Chinese fishing village had been established. Roseville is where the San Diego Yacht Club is today.
The 1870 census listed 9 Chinese in San Diego all between the ages of 21-36 years old. By 1880 the census listed five families with children. Among the population of 8,618 only 229 were Chinese. The census listed 118 men working in the service industry as cooks, laundrymen, gardeners, and
servants. There were forty laborers, four merchants and two herbalists. 1a
Chinese junks fished the Bay with nets and by line in the kelp beds offshore. The Roseville fisherman went far down the Baja coast in search of abalone and shellfish, which grew to 700 tons by 1880. Roseville at that time was at the mouth of the San Diego River, had ten shanties, drying racks and salting tanks. Roseville also became the location where Chinese ship building took place. 2
A major figure in early Chinese history of San Diego was a man later to be named Ah Quin. In 1848 Tom Chong-kwan was born in the Tom family in Namzha village, part of Changsha city, in the Holping District of Guangdong Province. At a young age his parents moved to Canton where he attended American missionary school and learned English and adopted the Christian religion. At the age of 20 he was sent to San Francisco at the cost of $50 by ship. The voyage took about three weeks.
Given the name Ah Quin by American immigration officials he became affiliated with the Chinese Mission and continued his studies in both religion and English. His first six years was spent as housekeeper and cook for military officers at Camp Reynolds on Angel Island. 1873 Ah Quin went to Santa Barbara to learn the merchandizing trade from his uncle. From there he was sent to a coal mining camp in Alaska. While in Alaska he cut off his “queue”, the ponytail the Emperor of China required all men to wear. This signaled his desire to become an American and never to return to China.
He then went back to Santa Barbara and then made a trip to San Diego. There he befriended George Marston and Reverend Camp of the San Diego Chinese Mission. In 1881 Marston invited Quin to direct the Chinese labor that was needed to build the railroad. Quin opened a store in the Stingaree district and would provide provisions for families he had found employment. Quin had to reach out to Chinese living north of San Diego to fill railroad labor camps.
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That same year of 1881 Quin would marry Sue Leong who was a ward of the Chinese Presbyterian Mission in San Francisco. They lived in San Diego where they would have 12 children, i
When the work was over on the railroad Quin bought real estate and leased properties in Mission Valley and Bonita. He leased to fellow Chinese so they could grow vegetables to sell at market.
He became the most influential person in Chinatown and was called upon to translate in court cases when a Chinese translator was needed3.
In 1873 the United States Army evicted Chinese fisherman operating from Ballast Point. They moved to La Playa where they established a shipbuilding industry. 1876 saw a state law regulating the size of Chinese net meshes reducing the size of the catches. In 1879 Congress voted to limit 15 Chinese per vessel coming from China. President Hayes vetoed the Bill because it conflicted with agreements made with China.
In 1880 the United States changed its agreement with China called the Angell Treaty. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which per the terms of the Angell Treaty suspended the immigration of Chinese laborers for a period of ten years. The Act also required every Chinese person going in and out of the country to carry a certificate identifying their status as a laborer, scholar, diplomat or merchant.
By 1886 there were 12 Chinese fishing companies operating 18 junks. 1887 local fisherman Captain William Kehoe blamed Chinese fisherman for the decrease in the number of large fish in the Bay. In 1888 Congress passed the Scott Act which made re-entry to the United States after a trip to China impossible. In 1892 Congress voted to extend the Exclusion Act for ten more years in the Geary Act. In 1893 only one Chinese boat was still fishing in San Diego Bay.
In 1902 the Exclusion Act prohibition was expanded to cover Hawaii and the Philippines. In 1915 regulations banning the drying and export of abalone meat from California passes, thus ending Chinese participation in the industry. The next year 1916 the last Chinese Junk was sold. The Exclusion Act was extended indefinitely and not repealed until 1943, aiding the morale of a wartime ally during World War II. 4
The Exclusion Act stopped the Chinese from fishing outside United States waters. Many Chinese turned to farming in Mission Valley and the Sweetwater area.5
The 1880’s saw the arrival to San Diego of Quon Mane. Quon with the help of George Marston started the Quon Mane Oriental arts goods business. The great demand for labor during this time period was supplemented through the “Seven Companies of San Francisco” or as it was later to be called the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association still existing today. They hired more than 100 laborers. 1b
Another leader in the Chinese labor community was Ah Lem who began working for Frank Kimball in 1882. He was indispensable to Kimball and the spokesman for all of his work crews. It was Ah Lem who organized the Sweetwater Dam work crew. In 1884 Frank Kimball opened the rear of his real estate office to the public as a library. Ah Lem moved the books from his home to the library area. 1883-1884 saw heavy rainfall of 25.97 inches, the heaviest on record. The rains washed out portions of the newly completed railroad and repairs were finished in 1885. In 1886 Sweetwater Dam work was started and finished in 1888. Chinese workers stayed in the valley and farmed vegetables and fruit up until the flood of 1916. 6
Part II will focus more on the Chinese in the South Bay.
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Notes :
1 (Lee, Murray K. In Search of Gold Mountain; A History Of The Chinese In San Diego, California. Donning Company Publishers, Virginia Beach, Va. 2011 p 17. 1a p 55. 1b p 84
2 (McEvoy, Arthur F., “In Places Men Reject Chinese Fishermen At San Diego, 1870-1893 The Journal of San Diego History 23 (Fall 1977)
3 Bowen, Will San Diego Downtown News Ah Quin: A San Diego founding father posted March 1, 2014.
4 (“Chinese immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Acts,” Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State, http://history.state.gov/milestones/1866/chinese-immigration)
5 ( MacPhail, Elizabeth, “San Diego’s Chinese Mission,” The Journal of San Diego History 23 (Spring 1977)
6 (Sweetwater Valley Timeline, Bonita Museum)
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Privateers of San Diego Bay |
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Hippolyte Bouchard 1818
In 1818 a Buenos Aires privateer with French ancestry named Hippolyte Bouchard captured Monterey. Monterey was then the capital for upper California and the safe harbor for galleons returning from Manila. He ransacked Monterey and set it on fire. Then he sailed down the coast to Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano and San Diego. Santiago Arguello led an army of 30 patriots from San Diego northward to protect San Juan Capistrano Mission. Bouchard landed near Capistrano, but was bluffed by Arguello and sailed south without creating more trouble. This defense against Bouchard was perhaps part of Arguello’s “services rendered” for reward of his large land grants.
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Sir Thomas Cavendish Pirate
On November 4, 1587 Sir Thomas Cavendish lay in wait for one of the Spanish galleons off Baja. His lookouts spotted the 600 ton galleon Santa Ana returning to its Mexican port from the Far East.
The Santa Ana had a crew of 200 men with no cannons, to carry extra cargo. Cavendish used two ships the Content and the Desire.
After several hours of battle the Santa Ana started to sink and surrendered. Cavendish had to pick and choose which rich cargo to load onto his ships because of the difference in size between his ships and the galleon. He captured gold, silks, spices and perfumes. While burning the Santa Ana drifted onto the coast, the survivors extinguished the flames. The Spanish who survived, re-floated the ship and limped into Acapulco. Sebastian Vizcaino was part of its crew.
The Content was lost on the voyage back to England but the Desire with Cavendish aboard arrived on September 9, 1588 and paraded up the River Thames through London displaying her sails of silk and other booty.
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Bits of South Bay History ~Peter Watry
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How did the “Cal-Am” water company become the
“Sweetwater Authority”?
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Frank Kimball first purchased Rancho de la Nación in 1868. The Rancho consisted of what is now National City, Bonita, and western Chula Vista. He translated Rancho de la Nación to be National Ranch, so he named the town, National City, and developed it first. But eventually he wanted to develop the land south of the Sweetwater River into the ‘farm’ of his ranch. But in the 1870s to do that, he needed (1) a railroad to get the produce to market, and (2) a dependable source of water.
By 1880, he had gotten the Santa Fe Railway to build a line to National City. And then with the financial help of the Santa Fe RR, he built the Sweetwater Dam and reservoir, completed in 1888. He then formed a private water company to deliver the water.
Through the ages, the water company had various private owners, and by the 1970s, it was owned by California-American Water Co. (Cal-Am). Leaders in both National City and Chula Vista thought that their residents would be better served by having the water company be a public company rather than a private company. After lengthy processes in courts, they were finally allowed to put the matter to a vote of the people. The people had to vote to approve buying the Cal-Am Watry Co., and also vote the approval of the bonds necessary to purchase it. The voters did, and the election was on. Susan Watry was asked by these local leaders to take on the chore of managing the election on behalf to this proposal.
It was to be a “special” election, i.e., on the ballot all by itself, not as part of a regularly scheduled election. In the 1970, we often had “special” elections like that, but nowadays it cost too much to do one, and they are seldom done.
To make a long story short, Cal-Am spent some $80,000 on the election, Susan had less than $5,000. Cal-Am won 2/3 of the precincts, Susan won 1/3 of the precincts. But Susan won the election easily!
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San Diego Country Club (cont.)
The explanation is that Susan knew what she was doing politically, Cal-Am did not. The turnout for a “special” election was always quite small, and the precincts where the turnout was heavy are few and quite obvious from previous “special” elections data. We walked those few precincts three times, door-to-door, and never mentioned it in the rest of the city. While Susan’s forces never went beyond those few precincts, Cal-Am wasted their money sending out propaganda to every house in National City, Bonita, and western Chula Vista several times, we knowing that 90-95% of those people would never vote. We hand-delivered our propaganda door-to-door, by volunteers, face-to-face, three times, knowing they probably would vote.
Those of us who walked those precincts in that election never regretted that
~~ Peter Watry
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Last issue’s History Quiz
Question:
From the early 1900s until 1947, high school students who lived in Chula Vista had to attend high school at Sweetwater High in National City. In 1947, however, Chula Vista High School was created and opened for business.
The questions is: where was Chula Vista High School originally located in 1947?
ANSWER:
From its start in 1947 until it moved to its present location at Fourth and K streets in 1950, Chula Vista High was located at Brown Field on Otay Mesa, a Navy air training station during World War II..
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DECEMBER - JANUARY History Quiz: History of Chula Vista Center
Question:
The “Chula Vista Center,” located between H and I Streets on the east side of Broadway, and anchored by macy’s, JCPenney, and Sears, was Chula Vista’s first large shopping center built in the 1960s.
What was there before the shopping center was built?
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Virtual Programs
C.V. Heritage Museum & S.B. Historical Society
"RUTH" and “Our Lives – Our Future”
recognizing and documenting leaders of our community
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We have added more episodes to our youtube channel, Chula Vista Heritage Museum Virtual Programs, and they just seem to get better everyday.
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Our latest show was David Gibson, executive officer at San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. He truly went in-depth to educate us about our waters and what is being done including the Tijuana River Valley. |
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Rose Schindler, a Holocaust survivor talked about a full day in Auschwitz. |
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Our own member of the board, Peter Watry was absolutely wonderful talking about his wife, the late Susan, and him fighting for what they believed in when it came to keeping our city beautiful. |
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Artist advocate, Elizabeth Tobias gave an incredible interview about the suicide of her brother, her Grandfather Max Weinstock who is in our Holocaust exhibit and her way of communicating through arts. |
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Off the beaten path was an interview at the Amargosa Opera House just north of the South Bay. Let's just say 350 miles north of South Bay. We wanted to share the beauty of the Amargosa Opera House and for those that have visited, you will learn of the updates to the Opera house. Soon the desert flowers will bloom and just on the way to Death Valley is Death Valley Junction. We are interested in knowing how many of our members actually made it to the Amargosa Opera House to watch Marta Becket when she danced and performed mime. Please email me at sscheller@cox.net
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Greg Cox joined our studios and talked about his incredible accomplishments and shares his life stories of growing up in the South Bay of San Diego. |
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The 2 interviews that are are fame are Pepe Romero from the Royal Family of the guitars and Dr. Edith Eger. Pepe Romero has been a member of our family for over 40 years. Dr. Edith Eva Eger is the author of The Choice and her new book The Gift. I highly recommend these books for the Holidays. Her books are the choice of Oprah and Bill gates. She ia a New York times best seller. Here is a little story about Dr. Eger, when I got the approval to interview her I didn’t have a camera person so Mayor Mary Salas was my gal. |
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Councilmember Steve Padilla talked about his COVID battle. |
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Councilmeber Mike Diaz talked about being in the fire department, being a teacher and then joining city council |
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Holocaust survivor Pearl Recht did an incredible interview. Her uncle owned Yardage town with headquarters in National City. |
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Senator Ben Hueso joined us and gave Sandra Scheller( that’s me) her Woman of the Year Honor that was cancelled due to covid. |
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Holocaust Survivor, Bela Mark, talked about being the Holocaust and his life now. Let’s send a prayer out to Bela. He recently fell and is in rehab with a dislocated shoulder. At 98 years old, this is most dangerous but he is in good hands. ( I’ll take him some pumpkin bread this week.) |
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Sandra Scheller from Our Lives Our Future interviews Dora Klinova. She is an author. Her story is most compelling.
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Don’t forget our other shows if you missed them. Rumor has it that the Holocaust exhibit will be extended for another year and we are so looking forward to the new Firemen exhibit in the South Library. We will be filming at both locations so if you have a story to tell, we want to hear it and film it. Happy Holidays.
By the way the turkish crotchet booties can be found on youtube. They take about 2 days to make and are an excellent present. Ask Joy Whatley and Harry Orgovan. ~ Sandy Sheller
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Board of Directors:
Ceasar Castro - President ~ Sandy Scheller - Vice President
Mitch Beauchamp - Treasurer ~ Susan Johnson - Secretary
Harry Orgovan ~ Patti Huffman ~ Peter Watry,
Ralph Munoz ~ Shelly Rudd
Send Comments or Suggestions to:
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