Harry Butterfield was one of Los Alamitos’ earliest residents. He was born in Wilsonville, Nebraska and arrived with his family in 1897, while, the sugar factory was still under construction, and lived here about 7 years. [ref] GENEALOGY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHN WHITE OF Wenham and Lancaster, MASSACHUSETTS. 1638- I90l, p.
WILLIAM T. Butterfield 8 (21109), b. in Randolph, Vt., Sept. 7, 1853 ; m. in 1884, Louisa Moore, of Wilsonville, Neb., where they lived for a time, later in Los Angeles, Santa Anna and Los Alamitos, Cal.
Children :
21173. Warren Butterfield, 9 b. in Wilsonville, in 1885.
21174. Harry Butterfield, 9 b. in Wilsonville, in 1887
21175. Nellie Butterfield, 9 b. in Los Angeles, in 1889.
21 176. Oliver Butterfield, 9 b. in Santa Anna, in 1891.
21177 William Butterfield, 9 b. in Santa Anna, in 1893.
21 178. Howard Butterfield, 9 b. in Santa Anna, in 1895. [/ref]He always had a fascination with plant-life and would eventually gain renowned in the gardening community, attended college and become a professor and was associated with the University of California Agricultural Extension Service for over 40 years. As a youth in Los Alamitos, Harry and his friends wandered down by the sand dunes, where the tide left its margin, looking for mosses and sea shells and starfish, and the ice plant . Butterfield sis considered the best California horticultural historian, with numerous articles published in The California Horticultural Journal (later Pacific Horticulture). He is also credited with being very essential to the establishments of gardening groups and clubs throughout the state. [ref] James Blair Kendrick, oral interview; From plant pathologist to Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, 1947-1986 : oral history transcript / 1987. “We had an extension specialist in Cooperative Extension by the name of Harry Butterfield, long since deceased. Harry was kind of a one-person encyclopedia of ornamental horticulture, who worked very closely with garden club organizations and people interested in gardens and urban plantings. He provided a great deal of service, and I think he helped organize the Garden Clubs of California into a state society.” [/ref]
After his retirement Buttterfield assembled his research into a book called California Gardens of Memory, which became the basis of Judith Taylor Norton’s Tangible Memories: Californians and their gardens 1800 to 1950 Butterfield is listed as co-author and Dr. Kevin Starr, state librarian of California and distiguished historian of the state, considers the original manuscript to be a primary source document of California history. In it he detailed the history of how the acacia plant came to California and many other such stories. He died in 1970 before it could be published and it lay unnoticed in a manuscript box in the University of California’s archives until it was discovered by Dr. Judith Taylor, a board certied neurologist with an avocation for botany. Taylor described the book as a “culmination of a lifetime of study. Butterfield basically established the field of California horticultural history by himself, writing a long series of articles in the horticultural literature over many years. .
After retiring, Butterfield returned to Los Alamitos, where he met Dick Wright, the son of his old friend and neighbor Clarence Wright. Dick too had an interest in plants, and Harry turned over outstanding specimens from his collection to Dick. Dick would later achieve world-wide recognition as the hybridizer of Echeverias, and aloes, learned a great deal from Butterfield and would paid homage by naming a variety of aloe after him. Harry also met Wright’s wife, Ruth, and sparked her interest in Los Alamitos history. Butterfield was interviewed at least once by by Ruth Wright in the preparation of her 7-page monograph “Los Alamitos,” which she wrote sometime after 1962. At the end she wrote: “Mr. Harry M. Butterfield initiated our interest in Los Alamitos history. He was an old time resident of this town and had many interesting tales to tell. He was retired from the University of California, Berekeley, Calif., in 1955, after having taught 40 years as Professor. “
It appears she typed up the following two page summary based on her her notes, letters and conversations with Butterfield and gave it to Los Al teacher named Mr. Domas. At the top of the page it says File – 3rd grade soc. studies.”
My family arrived in 1897 and we lived to the northwest of the present school grounds (Laurel) about two or three blocks away.
When we came we attended a school a block or so to the north of the present school. The old hall building faced east and all the grades were in one building that year. A new building was constructed on the site of the present school grounds about 1898 and there we had two rooms downstairs, one for the lower grades and one for the upper grades. I went from the fourth grade through the ninth grade at this school.
There were two teachers in the new school but only one teacher, a Mr. Keys, in the one-room school when we arrived. There were stores, a block or so east and a block north not far from the railroad depot but as I recall the main street for stores was north and south a block east of the depot and a block to the south.
There was a bakery, a pool room, a vegetable store, a grocery store where we could buy nearly everything. At first there was a two-stopry building used as a hotel but in time this became vacant and was probably torn down. This was on the present street running through town north and south. Your letter mentions a one room school and that may have been the hall-like building I attended the first year when I was in the fourth grade and Mr. Keyes was in charge.
The man who ran the S.P. depot was a Mr. Badgely. He has grown daughters and one married Fred Edwards, both deceased now, if I recall. The son, John Edwards operates a nursery in 1585 Bay Road, East Palo Alto, Calif. He would probably not remember Los Alamitos; in fact, I am not sure he was born there but his parents were living in Los Alamitos when they married.
A boyhood friend who lived in Los Alamitos is William Reeder whose family lived to the west of the thorough st. now running north and south through town and about a block west. This W. Reeder at last report was living in San Pedro and is in his eighties. I have his address if anyone wants it. He is nearly blind so does not try to write much.
My brother, Clarence, was just a baby when we arrived in 1897. My sister Alice and Florence were born in Los Alamitos, also my deceased brother, Albert. We left Los Alamitos in the summer of 1904 after living there about seven years. The Karcher family had daughters who in later years lived in Napa.
Miss Jones was a grade teacher at the Los Alamitos school around 1900 or a little later. I have pictures of some of the upper classes at the school around 1903. In early days we sometimes drove to Long Beach where there were better stores or over to Santa Ana which was about 15 miles away. We also drove up to a store in Artesia which had a little better line than in Los Alamitos. A Mr. Cook was our upper grade teacher when I was in the 8th or 9th grades. He died several years ago in San Mateo County and his married daughter still lives in that area I believe. I entered Santa Ana High School in the fall of 1903 while living in Los Alamitos. Came home on a bicycle weekends.
We often went to Anaheim Landing to fish and have fun on picnics. It was about 5 miles away. Seal Beach was not started until about 1905-6. At first the place was called Bay City but the name was changed to Seal Beach. I worked at Bay City about a year while the town was becoming established. The Reader family moved from Los Alamitos to Seal Beach where they operated a livery stable in early years of that place and I worked for Mr. Reeder several months around 1907 doing teaming on the Hellman ranch where I hauled sheep manure to Seal Beach to load on flat cars to be shipped to citrus orchards.
As I grew up in Los Alamitos our boys would take hikes to Coyote Creek where it reached the salt water near the old Fred Bixby place. At first we saw old “Deafy,” the Mexican fence rider from the Bixby whom you will find mentioned in the book on the Bixby’s found in some libraries. I often saw Fred Bixby in those days, I had correspondence many years later with him while he was in Sacramento, trying to date the pepper trees and eucalyptus planted by Fred and his father, John.
There are references that tell you about the Spanish ranchoes (sic) in southern Calif. You mentioned Don Abel Stearns having his loan foreclosed. The Jewish man who held the loan and foreclosed is mentioned in one of the books where it stated that he was visiting is Germany and tried to get into a cemetary (sic) by climbing over the wall and in doing so he fell and broke his neck. The author seemed to think that was a fitting end to the money lender who foreclosed on Stearns loan. Stearns Rancho land was being advertised in the Pacific Rural Press in the late 1880’s into the early 1890’s and included some lands near Garden Grove and Westminster at that time. Old copies of the Pacific Rural Press around 1890 will contain the ad,
Our drinking water in Los Alamitos around 1897 and later came from pipes leading from artesian wells. I recall they drilled a new well not far from where we lived and found artesian water at a depth of about 25 feet.
As I recall, the street now known as Katella did not cut through to the west when we lived in Los Alamitos, but the road a half mile north was cut through to Cerritos Ranch and went through what we called “Cadder(?) Town” a wet area where dairy men held sway and was mostly subdivided for residences.
The Santa Ana River would get on the rampage at times and find its way to the ocean or the creeks in the western part of Orange County. One winter around 1900 we had 18 inches of water around us for a day or two when the river flooded west. This river often flooded nearer Newport and at times left a sand deposit of several inches.
Our one room jail in Los Alamitos was placed near the railroad tracks on the south side and to the west a few blocks of the present cross street leading to the south. It house an occasional hobo or other person with minor infraction.
Coyote Creek in my boyhood days was a place to fish and go swimming. At one point it was dammed up to furnish irrigation water nearby in beet fields. Most of the beet fields were not irrigated so an average of 10 tons per acre was all they got. The nematodes came in later as they did at Chino and elsewhere. I worked in the sugar factory and beet fields so recall experiences very well. Mr. Lawrence was superintendent around 1903.
Too often we overlook the value of inspiration of teachers I started in high school under the most adverse conditions and continued to earn my way through college. Perhaps such effort hardened us to the realities of life and make us want to do our best. Now after college and over 40 years at UC I look back and feel we had a very wholesome childhood and boyhood.