by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Charles Clarke Chapman (1853-1944) left behind a failed hotel project in Chicago, where he built a successful publishing business and amassed a substantial real estate portfolio, and migrated to Los Angeles in 1894, acquiring, with brother Frank, a trio of properties including a house near the University of Southern California and citrus groves in Covina and near Fullerton and Placentia.
As parts one through three covered, Chapman took possession of the residence and the Orange County orchard and rapidly developed parallel tracks of success in real estate development, with subdivisions and downtown buildings in the Angel City, and citrus, particularly the orange, as his techniques of cultivation, fertilization, irrigation and others elevated him to the heights of the industry, earning him the sobriquet of the “Orange King.”
We now head into the 1910s, during which his agricultural empire grew in terms of acreage, sales and profits. The 20 April 1911 edition of the Santa Ana Register recorded that Chapman purchased the 276-acre Joseph Mesmer ranch northeast of Placentia, land formerly owned by the Kraemer family (who were married into the Yorbas, owners of once-vast domains in the area). It was separately noted that Chapman plopped down $90,000 for the property.
A little over a year later, the paper’s 6 June 1912 issue noted that Chapman bought the Bond Ranch from the Orange County Improvement Company in the Villa Park area east of Orange. He also invested in lands outside of the region, including an early 1914 in which he and other partners, including oil producers Charles Canfield and William Loftus, leased 3,500 acres they owed near Calexico in southeastern California for cotton farming, which was a major industry there once water was delivered from the Colorado River in recent years.
Chapman’s primacy in orange growing was reflected in such reports as the Register of 1 August 1911 when visitors from Riverside, another major orange-raising region, were given a tour of his north Orange County domain, consisting of the 150-acre home place, the Santa Ysabel Ranch between Fullerton and Placentia, and 350 more added to his portfolio since he “made his initial plunge as an orange grower.” The Riverside Press reporter on the trip wrote that “Mr. Chapman violates precedents in every phase of his work” and was “an original worker, a man of conviction and of ideas.”
His tendency was to buy existing and underperforming groves and rely on “bringing it back” through the methods discussed elsewhere in this post. The result, the paper approvingly observed, meant that “the deep vital green of the foliage, the vigorous growth, the splendid tilth and careful system of pruning and propping and picking tell their own story.” It meant some $3,000 an acre profit on his home property, which was “believed to be the highest price ever received for any soil product for a like acreage.”
When the party arrived at Santa Ysabel, Chapman was at his recent built packing house along a railroad siding from the Santa Fe railroad cutoff completed not long before and the journalist added “he is a man close to 60 years old, low voiced, modest in mien, speaking of his work and his achievements as if they were every day experiences of the average orange grower.”
The discussion went into the types of fertilizers, methods of cultivation and approaches to irrigation, while Chapman impressed upon his visitors that his best fruit remained on the trees for sale in the fall, when prices were better. His views on this were unorthodox, added the writer, “but the odd thing about Chapman’s theory is the fact that the trees on his property bear out the theory” while Old Mission crate labels carried the statement: “This fruit is scientifically grown and refined on the tree.”
As for yields, it was stated that Chapman’s “record last year was 10 packed boxes to the tree, or an average of two [railroad] cars to the acre” for Washington navels and “the Chapman groves pack 15 boxes of valencias to the tree.” The new 52×110 foot (with basement) edifice on the rail siding was said to be “the latest word in packing house construction and equipment” while it was “of distinctive mission type with [the] tower modeled after the Santa Barbara mission.”
In addition to the grading, washing and drying machinery, the facility contained restrooms and dining areas for the women who did the packing,” this said to represent “Mr. Chapman’s consideration for his help.” Invariably, however, press accounts, as was typical generally, avoided nearly any mention of laborers and there were significant differences between those who worked in the packing house and those who were in the groves.
With the end of the year, the Register of 7 December cited the Fullerton News as reporting that
The highest price ever received for oranges in the New York market, and for that matter in the whole world, was on Saturday last, when C.C. Chapman’s celebrated “Old Mission” fancy brand, 126s, was bid off at $17.25 per box. There were 25 boxes sold at the unheard of price of $431.25 . . . or 13 1/2 cents for each orange. The whole car sold for $3132.
The 3 January 1912 number of the Santa Ana paper remarked that the previous highest price paid was for Chapman’s Old Mission fruit in 1905 at $14.35 and the “King of orange growers” was asked about his fabulous returns. His reply was that, “there is one that I never do and that is to interfere with the marketing end of my oranges. I give the dealers carte blanche to dispose of them as they see fit. I do my best in the grading and packing and it is up to the sellers to get the best price for them.”
Chapman’s status in the citriculture realm was further enhanced when, at the beginning of 1911, he was elected president of the Citrus Protective League and the Register of 20 January announced the news of his elevation from the vice-presidency by accounting that Chapman was “the most extensive independent orange grower and packer on the coast.”
Another prominent public moment for him was when Orange Day was held at the famous Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco in 1915 to mark the opening of the Panama Canal. As the official representative from the Protective League, Chapman delivered a speech in the Court of Abundance, in which he observed that,
The orange has been a vast factor in the growth and development of California, in its wealth and renown. California is in every way the union for the cultivation of oranges. Its mountains are giant bulwarks to guard the fertile valleys and to serve also as storehouses for water.
He recounted that there were 10,000 growers in the Golden State, some 1.1 million producing trees, while 20,000 persons worked in the groves with 150,000 people who “either directly or indirectly, receive their livelihood” from the industry. Each year up to 45,000 carloads of fruit delivered their payload from California and Chapman noted that “where formerly we shipped only at certain seasons, there is now a continuous stream of oranges leaving California the year around for the markets in the east.”
Chapman maintained his significant ownership in the stock of the Anaheim Union Water Company, which delivered to many of the growers in northern Orange County, and wielded the expected influence in terms of his positions there. When, however, oil development picked up, primarily from the northernmost sections near the Olinda field in what was called the Fullerton oil district, he became a prime advocate for segregating stock based on oil versus water, though he was stymied for years in succeeding in that split.
By 1912, Chapman had a lease arrangement with Standard Oil Company (a few years later the giant firm did the same with Walter Temple at the nascent Montebello field to the northwest) at part of his property. In later years, however, another deal was struck with Union Oil Company for that land purchased from Mesmer–for more on that, see below. Another mining enterprise, near Lake Tahoe in northern California, was the Remington Hill firm, which worked a claim not far from Emigrant Gap, though this was sold by Chapman and three other Fullerton partners in August 1915 to a Los Angeles man.
Investment in downtown Fullerton also was significant during these years, as Chapman, having deeded property at the northeast corner of Spadra Road (Harbor Boulevard) and Wilshire Avenue for the building of the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), offered a donation to the extent that it could be matched for the construction of the edifice.
In late April 1911, the building was dedicated and it was reported in the Los Angeles Times of the 24th that its cost was $16,000 (so Chapman’s contribution was $8,000). Chapman was not only a benefactor (during this period, he also helped pay off the mortgage for the Wilshire Boulevard Christian Church, on land he partially donated on the Chapman Park Tract in the Westlake section of Los Angeles), but also served as assistant pastor and regularly preached at the church.
Three years later, the Register of 8 April 1914 reported that Chapman was to build a two-story brick building south of the church on Spadra (Harbor) and that it was to be “one of the finest buildings in this end of the county.” A few weeks later, he sued the Fullerton Hospital Association, of which he was a founder, to recover not far below $3,000 on a note he held against the institution, which opened just a year earlier at the northeast corner of Pomona and Amerige avenues (the building still stands and is a transitional living center for women.)
When Chapman decided, in 1915, to buy the Exchange Building in Los Angeles from Frank K. Meade, who came down from Seattle to settle in our region, which was discussed earlier in this post, the Register of 6 October remarked that,
C.C. Chapman of Fullerton has traded off 1,000 acres of raw land on the mesa east of Villa Park on what is known as the old road to the county park. The property was bought three years ago by Chapman. At that time it was announced that the land would be planted to citrus fruit.
Chapman’s political involvement with the Republican Party continued to grow, such that, in July 1912, he announced as a candidate for the 39th District state Senate seat, though this was subject to the county G.O.P. convention and he ended up not being selected to run. In fact, that was the year that Republicans split between former President Theodore Roosevelt, running under the “Bull Moose” or Progressive ticket with California Governor Hiram Johnson as his running mate, and incumbent William Howard Taft, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the election.
When it came to temperance, Chapman continued his efforts to not only keep saloons out of Fullerton, but tried to expend his influence on this score in Anaheim. The Gazette of 23 October 1913 reported that the powerful figure addressed a meeting in that city and declared to those who purveyed alcohol there,
I have the right to stand here and protest against this business because you have robbed me of thousands of dollars by maintaining this business. I deny your right to do anything that robs me. I can tell you of a home broken up and destroyed because of liquor. You furnished the liquor. One of my most capable men would visit Anaheim in spite of my remonstrances and advice . . . He could not resist the clink of the glasses and the fumes of the liquor.
Chapman railed that “Anaheim was the last town in Southern California that began to prosper and develop” but “you have lost many good people who would have settled in Anaheim had it not been for your saloons.” He insisted “the saloons have retarded your progress and will do so as long as they exist” and he claimed “if you had voted them out years ago the orange and walnut groves now surrounding the town would have been subdivided and built upon, and the town would have been much larger and prosperous than it is.”
This jeremiad against Anaheim drew a fervent response published in the next week’s edition by someone subscribed merely as “CITIZEN,” who, citing Bible verses, acidly rejoined,
C.C. Chapman, of Fullerton, will find his hands more than full suppressing the vice in his own town without coming to Anaheim to add another to its mischief-makers. It is already overburdened with that commodity.
When there was a proposal to enact a state law limiting the work day to eight hours and this was advocated by Socialists, Chapman was a sedulously vocal opponent and took on Thomas W. Williams, a Los Angeles resident who mounted a failed candidacy for the City Council in 1911 when fellow Socialist Job Harriman was a serious candidate to be the Angel City’s mayor.
In 1914, Williams was the state secretary for the Socialist Party and spoke frequently in support of the eight-hour proposal, including in Orange County. The Gazette of 27 August reported on a gathering at which Williams spoke and Chapman followed and, as they used to say, “read him the riot act.” The grower alleged that the Socialist did not adequately address concerns of farmers that the law would hurt them, not to mention all employers and workers and the Golden State’s economy.
Chapman averred that “working conditions in California are the finest in existence in the world today and if humanity anywhere should be satisfied, contented and happy, it is here.” Moreover, the grower maintained that, “our workers in Orange County at present are satisfied, thrifty, healthful, industrious and intelligent” and also “well paid, are anxious to aid in harvesting our crops and to make extra pay for overtime when conditions demand.” Furthermore, it was claimed, in language that may sound familiar to us today, that “they will continue to be thus contented unless professional agitators go among them circulating falsehoods and fomenting discontent and hatred.”
The fulmination ended with a statement that was reported to have been followed by several minutes of applause and approbation:
You, Mr. Williams, should be ashamed of yourself to be in such a business. You are seeking to inflict a serious injury upon all the people of the state. You owe an apology to the people of the state of California for foisting this outrageous proposition upon the ballot.
It was stated by the paper that Williams, who went on to serve on the Los Angeles council from 1929 to 1931 and died in office, was equivocal about the bill, having apparently “admitted that the effect of the law if enacted was somewhat problematical” while he was said to have “pleaded that if the measure would injure the farmer and the general prosperity the Socialist did not even now wish to see it enacted, although with their present views they would continue to work for its success.” He was not, however, directly quoted.
In any case, Proposition 45, the “Work Schedule Initiative,” sought to limit the work week to 48 hours or six days, aside from emergency reasons, and to develop rules governing work on Sundays, but it was roundly defeated 61% to 39%. Chapman, meanwhile, continued to assume significant political power and prestige, even without holding any elective office, and we’ll move on to part five, dealing with the second half of the Teens, so join us then.