The News-Enterprise headlined its article this week that the Community Congregational Church turned 100 years old this month.
It’s an impressive achievement. What’s even more impressive is that church is actually 114 years old.
Now I know it’s actually very easy to come across incorrect information about Los Alamitos’ early days and that’s one of the reasons for this blog. Let’s finally make factually based information available to the public.
The article basically says the following:
- John W. Bixby and the Alamitos Land Co. founded the city of Los Alamitos. [This is incorrect.]
- Fields of beets had created a need for a sugar factory — [also incorrect]
- A tract map for the town included lots for the church – [also incorrect]
- Katella Ave. was then known El Dorado – [incorrect]
- The first church was known as the Church of Christ and it later became affiliated with the Congregationalists. — Yes, it was called the First Church of Christ but it was always affiliated with Congregationalists.
- The church prospered — [incorrect]
- The sugar factory closed in 1916, and thus the church closed – I’m not sure about the church, but the sugar factory did not close until 1926.
Okay, lets take these one at a time…
John W. Bixby and the Alamitos Land Co. founded the city of Los Alamitos – incorrect.
John Bixby, who was certainly a very dynamic and energetic figure, had very little to do with the founding of the town of Los Alamitos other than the fact that he died. The author of this article is confusing the town of Los Alamitos (shown below, left) with the town of 
Alamitos Beach (shown right) which is now basically Belmont Shore and east Long Beach south of PCH.)
Shortly after purchasing the Rancho Los Alamitos (with financial help from I.W. Hellman, and his cousins through the J. Bixby Co (owned half by Jotham Bixby and half by Lewellyn Bixby and cousin Thomas Flint), John W. Bixby did found the townsite of Alamitos Beach during the boom of the 1880’s. His sudden death in 1887 (presumed appendicitis) caused the Alamitos Rancho to be divided among its owners. Alamitos Beach (basically all east Long Beach south of PCH, see map to the right) was turned over to a new entity co-owned by all the surviving heirs and partners called the Alamitos Land Company. The J. Bixby Company got the northern third of the Rancho Alamitos property contiguous to their Rancho Los Cerritos (roughly figure the current land north of Farquhar east of Los Al Blvd, and north of Katella west of Los Al Blvd. ) This is the group that was involved with the founding of Los Alamitos.
Lewellyn Bixby, who had achieved great success as part of Flint, Bixby & Co. , (sheep ranchers who made a fortune off selling mutton to gold miners in the 1850s and then wool during the cotton embargo of the Civil War) had been involved with sugar beets before. He had invested in the first successful sugar beet factory in California and the US (Alvarado, present Hayward in Northern California). After selling off his Northern California interests and moving to Southern California, he was the Bixby who pushed for a sugar factory down in Southern Cal. But at this time – the mid 1890s when the US was in a bigger financial crisis than nowadays — the Bixbys (who had once been the largest landowners in California, outside the railroads) were land-rich but cash-strapped – especially to construct a sugar factory.
Los Angeles architect Frank Capitain had been trying to organize co-ops and potential sugar factories for the farmers in the Hollywood/Cahuenga and Anaheim areas, but Capitain said he had trouble convincing local farmers to commit to growing beets. He determined the only way to get it done was to get one large landowner to make the commitment for enough beets to operate a factory. Capitain made a connection with Lewellyn Bixby who got the J. Bixby Company to commit all all their Alamitos area properties (under the newly formed Bixby Land Company) to growing sugar beets, and made another connection with J. Ross Clark and his brother, William (a Montana Copper King whose wealth at the time equaled John D. Rockefeller’s). The Bixbys agreed to supply the land and the beets, the Clarks agreed to supply the money to build a sugar beet factory. In 1898 they exerecised an option to buy 8,000 acres of land owned by the Bixbys.
Capitain (working for both the Bixby Land Company and the Clarks) is the one who laid out the current town of Los Alamitos. Capitain also served as secretary of The Bixby Land Company and oversaw land sales in his new town. Beets had not really been grown in this area until after the Clarks built the factory. It was barley, alfalfa and bean territory, with beets just starting to make inroads.
Fields of beets had created a need for a sugar factory – incorrect
There was already a sugar beet factory in Chino since 1891. The Orange County farmers who did bother to grow beets could ship them there and many in the west Anaheim, and Benedict (current Stanton) areas did do this. But the Alamitos lands were mainly sheep grazing and barley land. But Capitain and Lewellyn Bixby were firmly convinced the land could be good for beets. After getting the Clarks to commit the capital for the factory, the Bixbys agreed to guarantee a large amount of their land to beets for the new factory.
A tract map for the town included lots for the church – incorrect
The original 1896-97 map did not show lots for the church. A few years later, the very detailed maps made by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Co., did show churches already constructed. Interestingly, the 1907 map shows a Methodist Episcopal Church on Pine, about half way between Florista and current Katella. .
The first church was known as the Church of Christ and it later became affilated with the Congregationalists. Not sure of the name but it was always affiliated with Congregationalists.
The Feb. 19, 1897 issue of the LA Times, pg 11 contains the following paragraph under the column headed “Los Alamits.”
The new church organization takes the name of the First Church of Christ and will build a handsome structure on the lot donated for the purpose by the Bixby Land Company. The charter members are: R.R. Miller, E.P. Wright, Mrs. H.J. Wright, C.E. Miller, M.O. Alger, Mrs. M.E. Alger, Mrs. E Smith, R.R. Martin, Mrs. Lizzie Martin, C.N. Searl. The trustees are: R.R. Miller, E.P. Wright, and R.R. Martin. IN connection with the building there will be a reading-room, open every evening, which will be supplied with good reading matter, including daily papers. The Sunday school and preaching services now being held each Sunday in the hotel dining-room, are very well attended.
Apparently regular sermons began to be delivered in late 1896, per the Jan. 31, 1897 issue of the LA Times which contains the following paragraph:
The new Sunday-school started off under the most favorable auspices last Sunday, there being fifty-two persons present. Rev. H.P. Case, district superintendent, was present to assist in the organization. J.R. Miller was chosen superintendent; Mrs. E.E. Smith, assistant; Miss Nellie Badgley, secretary; and Mrs. Robert Martin, treasurer. It is expected that from this nucleus a church will soon be organized, preaching services having been held regularly for the several Sundays past. School facilities are being arranged for and soon the sheep ranch of ninety days ago will be a model community and a desirable place to live.[ref]LA Times, Jan. 31, 1897, pg 33.[/ref]
Through Google books, one of the series of books they now have online are the yearly minutes (reports) of the Congregationalist Church Missionary Society, the group that first began religious services in the new town of Los Alamitos. The 1898 Conference Minutes cover much of the 1897 activities. (The Bixbys were strong Congregationalists. Remember, Lewellyn, brother Jotham and cousin John W. Bixby, were all married to Hathaway sisters, whose father Rev. George Hathaway, was a well-known Congregationalist preacher). Rev. Alden Case, who was a circuit preacher for Congregational communities in Southern California made this reference.
In addition to this work in the camps, Spanish services were held every Sunday at the Congregational church in Los Alamitos. Here I found converts from our American Board Mission in Mexico.
The church prospered – incorrect
At the time Los Alamitos was not a town of families (although there were a few). This was mainly a town of rugged hard-working laborers, who liked a drink and a fight after a hard day of work in the factory or the field. Attending church was not tops on their agenda. The Rev. Alden Case, in his 1902 report to the Conference, stated quite clearly how the new church struggled in its first few years.
The Alamitos church had experienced discouragements since its formation three years ago, and has been pressing bravely on with nine American members.
The sugar factory closed in 1916, and thus the church closed –
I’m not sure about the church, but the factory did not operations until 1926. It’s possible this is a simple typo.
Katella was known as El Dorado.
This is another easy mistake to make, but Capitain’s 1896 map clearly shows it as Alvarado. At the time, in 1897, it was still basically the dirt path separating two sections of land. Cerritos was apparently the main road connecting Long Beach and Anaheim areas — as their was a bridge over Coyote Creek at Cerritos. By 1907 Alvarado was also known as Church Street. Because the Katella Ranch in Anaheim was on this same parallel, as that path grew in importance, the usage of the name Katella began to extend further west and on the 1922 Sanborn maps, we first see Katella (as well as Church) labeled for the road.