Ventura Signal Volume V Number 24, 2 October 1875.
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Thomas Robert Bard
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

If you have been reading the last few stories from the Fillmore Historical Museum, you will have noticed that names keep recurring. This article will be no different. This shouldn’t be surprising since in the 1870’s and early 1880’s there were only a few hundred people in the Sespe/Cienega area (Fillmore didn’t yet exist). They were neighbors and business partners. They might be friends one month and bitter enemies the next, usually because of water or mineral rights.

Most sources agree that it was Thomas Bard who brought in the first successful drilled well on Thomas Scott’s property in Ojai in 1867. He was sent to this area as a representative of Scott, acting Assistant Secretary of War under President Lincoln, and who was also president of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Mr. Scott had approximately 350,000 acres in California at that time. Bard would continue to act as Mr. Scott and/or Pennsylvania Railroad’s agent for many years. The Ventura County Signal, October 2, 1875, included an advertisement offering for sale the California Petroleum Company’s (owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad) interest in 7,080 acres of Rancho Ojai “on which there are two flowing oil wells, many natural springs of Petroleum and large deposits of Asphaltum.” The agent for the California Petroleum Company was T. R. Bard of Hueneme.

With the growing need for oil many people came to the area looking for petroleum. One of the folks it attracted was Joseph Franklin Dye. Joe Dye, born in 1831, was originally from Kentucky but had moved to Texas with his family (he was one of sixteen children) in the 1840s. He and two of his brothers went west to the California gold fields, but returned empty handed. He then headed to New Mexico and Arizona where he apparently worked as a miner and teamster.

Besides being a wanderer, Joe also soon became known for having a short temper and a hair trigger. In the early 1850s, he got into a dispute in New Mexico with ”Hand Saw” Pete Fantig (who apparently got the nickname because he killed a man by cutting him into pieces with a handsaw) over a card game. This ended with Joe shooting Hand Saw in the neck. Hand Saw survived to be later shot by a gambler in Salt Lake City. A Southern sympathizer, Dye has also been identified as one of the men who rode with the Confederate guerilla group in Southern California headed by John Mason and Jim Henry.

By the time Joe Dye came to the Santa Clara River Valley in the early 1870s, Dye had killed or wounded several men both while serving as a law officer in Los Angeles and while a private citizen. In October 1870 he shot and killed Los Angeles City Marshal William Warren over reward money, but was acquitted.

In the July 4, 1874, Ventura Signal, an announcement was published of the creation of the Piru Mining Company, a partnership made up of Joseph Dye, S. Levy and Charles Holmes all of Los Angeles. The mining partnership only lasted a couple of years, but Dye became familiar with the area north of the Santa Clara River. He filed claims in the Alamo Mountain and Little Sespe areas. By May, 1875, the same paper announced that “Somewhere in the Alamo mountains, Mr. Joe Dye has discovered a flow of fine petroleum, almost pure; so pure that it can be put into a lamp and burned, without refining.” Dye lost little time developing his claim, which brought him into conflict with anyone else filing claims in the same area.

By 1878, Dye was elected chairman of the Little Sespe Petroleum District which was to “bring order” to the claims in the area and oppose any take over by “tenderfeet from Los Angeles”. The District required that to keep a claim, the claimant had to spend at least $200 improving the property and it must have clearly established boundaries. In August, 1884, J. F. Dye, “incorporator of the district” and J. C. Udall “recorder of the district” wrote a letter in the Los Angeles Herald making it clear that the Sespe was not controlled by the Los Angeles capitalists, although they had leased 800 acres from one of the undersigned, undoubtedly Dye. Instead it is the members of the district who controlled the bulk of the resources.

About this time, Dye married and lived in the Sespe with his wife, Francesca (or in another account, Grace), and their daughter, Grace (according to one later newspaper account there was also a baby boy). Things seemed to be going well for Joe Dye. Including all of his mining claims, his net worth was thought to be at this time close to $200,000. He took on a partner, H. J. Crow of Glendale, and hired a local man, Herman Haines, formerly postmaster at Cienega, as help on his claim.

By the fall of 1886, however, Dye was in jail for the murder of Herman Haines. Dye had discovered that his young bride (she was at least 20 years younger than he) was romantically involved with his partner, H. J. Crow, and that Haines and his son acted as intermediaries between the two. Dye confronted his wife and sent her home to her parents. He then fired Haines telling him to keep away from him. Haines took to carrying a Henry rifle with him telling people it was for Joe Dye. For whatever reason, both men found themselves in Morris Cohn’s store/saloon in Santa Paula. Most accounts agree that Haines went for his rifle first but Dye was the better shot and shot longer. The wounded Haines ran out onto Main Street with Dye still shooting. Haines fell in the middle of the street, dying several days later. Dye gave himself up to authorities and was released on $10,000 bail. When he came to trial he was represented by Stephen M. White and Henry T. Gage, later Governor of California, both with known ties to the petroleum industry. Dye was initially convicted and sentenced to 16 years, but a new trial was granted and in November of 1888 he was acquitted, but only after spending fourteen months in jail. [To be continued]

Before You Sell
- Upon inspection and approval by the Fillmore Fire Chief or his designation officials, fireworks sales may commence beginning June 28" 12:00PM — July 5 12:00PM.
- Inspections will be conducted beginning June 27" by appointment only. To schedule an appointment please contact Fire Chief D. Keith Gurrola at (805) 558-0932.
Inspection Check List – Fire Safety/Egress
- 5 Gallon bucket with water at each point of egress.
- Charged water fire extinguisher at each point of egress, or no less than a 4 lb ABC.
- Clear and open walkway to all points of egress. Area should be kept clear of product and trash.
- DO NOT store cardboard boxes adjacent to the fireworks stand. They ignite easily.
- Dumpsters should be placed a minimum of 50 feet from the fireworks booth. If possible, lock the dumpster.
- All flammable weeds will need to be cleared a minimum of 100 feet from the booth and Storage.
- No parking within 15 feet of any booth.
Inspection Check List Signs
- No smoking signs posted in both English and Spanish on all sides of the booth.
- Minimum age to purchase signs posted on all sides of the booth.
- Post signs provided by Fire Department regarding illegal fireworks.
- Do not place signs within 12 feet of the highway unless you have an encroachment permit issued by Caltrans permitting you to do so.
- Signs will be disposed of with out question by Caltrans if encroaching the right-of-way.
- No flashing signs, strobe lights or any other colored light device shall be place around the booth.
COVID-19 Signs
COVID -19 Prevention (Operators)
- Fireworks sales organization will register with VC Reopens (Ventura County Reopens}
- Complete and implement a COVID Prevention Plan:
- Guidance for employers and employees
- Guidance for customers
- City will coordinate with each Fireworks sales operator in registering at VC Reopens
- Site inspections to ensure COVID Prevention Plan Implemented
- Standardized Plan for uniformity and effectiveness in each operation
- Flyers to be provided for posting on-site on registering
Inspection Check List Information Cards
- Please distribute one information flyer to each individual purchasing fireworks at your booth.
1,000 flyer will be provided to each booth.
- It is anticipated that booths will run out of flyer SO avoid wasteful situations due to the limited quantity.
Inspection Check List Electrical
- All electrical must be hardwired within the booth and enclosed in electrical conduit, unless otherwise approved by the Fire Chief.
- The use of extension cords within the booth is prohibited.
- Items requiring electricity should be plugged directly into a surge protector with out the use of an extension cord.
Inspection Check List On Site Storage
- All storage containers must display a 1.4G explosive placard on all sides of the storage container.
- Storage container doors should not open in the direction of the fireworks stand.
- Storage of fireworks off site is prohibited.
Inspection Check List On Site Security
- Campers for security only should be parked at minimum 50 feet from the fireworks booth.
- The entry/exit door of the camper should face away from the fireworks booth.
Inspection Check List Sales
- Minimum age to purchase fireworks is 16 years old. When in doubt of age, be sure to card! It is a misdemeanor to sell fireworks to a minor and will also result in the closing of your booth.
- Minimum age to sell fireworks is 18 years old.
- All COVID-19 precautions and protocols must in place and followed.
- Parents should NOT bring their children to the firework stands while working shifts, especially due to the current COVID-19 protocols.
- All individuals not working should also refrain from loitering outside the booth entrance.
- No other item may be sold at, near or around your booth. I.E. T-shirts, snow cones, etc.
- No sales gimmicks.
Inspection Check List Discharging Fireworks
- Fireworks may not be discharged within 150 ft of firework stands or storage.
- Used fireworks should be properly disposed of; no closer than 150 ft of fireworks stands or storage.
Operate a Tight Ship…
- Choose your help wisely.
- Be suspicious of strangers who volunteer to work at your booth.
- Obtain thumbprint on all checks accepted as well as drivers license information.
Fraud Detection
- Inspect all bills received to insure they are genuine U.S. Currency.
- Use counterfeit detector pens
- Currency bill scanners such as fraud fighter UV light
- When and if and doubt call. For emergency situations please call 911. For non-emergency incidents, please contact the Fillmore Police department at 909-524-2233. Do not risk your safety for fireworks.
Illegal Fireworks
- The only fireworks permitted for sale/possession/discharge in Fillmore are State Fire Marshall approved “Safe & Sane” fireworks.
- Safe and Sane Fireworks will always display the State Fire Marshall’s Seal directly on the firework or its packaging.
- If your vendor does not provider it, do not sell it.
- Those found in possession, discharging or selling non-approved fireworks will be cited and fined $1,000!
- Ventura County and Fillmore PD are capable of issuing citation for fireworks violations.
- If you see illegal activity occurring with fireworks regardless of the magnitude or severity contact fire officials immediately!
- Report activity to the Fireworks Tip line at (805) 524-1500 ext. 350 or call (805) 558-0932.
Be Safe & Good Luck.

Bob Crum

We all know the delight of sniffing a new car's aroma, the cherished smell of plastic, leather, carpeting and rubber wafting in the air filling our giddy nostrils.

Why can't photographers enjoy the pleasure of sniffing a special aroma of a new camera? The last time I bought a new camera, I slowly opened the box, lifted the camera gently, removed the protective wrap surrounding the camera and what do I smell? A Chinese shipping port!

Speaking of cameras, Canon is back leading a charge featuring a different technology. The camera is Canon's new Ivy Cliq. The Cliq uses a technology called zink which is short for zero ink. It produces more traditional type prints but automatically and in 30 seconds. If you experienced Polaroid at some time in your life, you could relate to the Ivy Cliq.

Wired dot com wrote, "In keeping with the legacy of Polaroids, Canon's Cliq is not going to churn out museum-quality, crystal-clear prints. Still, it's undeniably fun to use and the results will likely be good enough for many people. If you're looking for an easy way to share those selfies or group portraits in the real world, the Cliq delivers.

It's super simple. There's no focusing, no worrying about exposure. You aim. You fire. You print. This is the perfect camera for phonetographers!

Back to wired: "You press the shutter button and 30 seconds later your image prints. It has no screen, no preview. There is a mirror next to the lens to help you frame selfies, but on the back there are just two buttons: one to choose your image dimensions (either 2 x 3 or 2 x 2 inches) and one to reprint the last image, which is handy when you're sharing photos with friends." (Two buttons!)

"The Ivy Cliq holds 10 Zink papers and the refill packs are small enough that you can throw a few in your pocket and you won't even notice them.

¬It does optionally store your images to a MicroSD card (64 GB max, like this one) so you can download and edit them using the desktop software of your choice. Just know that the Cliq has a 5-megapixel camera so they're not the kind of photos you can blow up bigger than 2 x 3 inches. If you bought your phone in the last few years, it likely captures better images than the Cliq.
There's one big gotcha: You can't take pictures without printing. The Cliq requires printing. But the whole point of the Cliq is to print and share in the moment.

The Cliq comes in red, blue, or yellow. It's slightly thicker than a deck of cards and small enough to squeeze into most pockets. It's a little tight in the pocket of your jeans, but considering that it's a printer inside a camera, it's remarkably compact.

There's also a Cliq+ model, which adds eight LED lights around the lens for better selfie lighting, shoots 8-megapixel images, and has built-in Bluetooth wireless support so you can print images you've taken with your phone, making it something of a hybrid camera/printer.

With a 5mp sensor, the Cliq won't produce stellar photos. Still, it's undeniably fun to use and the results will likely be good enough for many people. If you're looking for an easy way to share those selfies or group portraits, the Cliq delivers. As a bonus, Zink images are also stickers. Great for sticker lovers! And only $89.00 on Amazon! Ivy Cliq+ $129.00. The Cliq+ is a better value IMO."

Photo of the week is from the archives: Dodge blue truck at ghost town Bodie. Happy photoing.

Send comments, questions or suggestions to: focusonphotography@earthlink.net

On Thursday, May 28th Post Commander James Mills, Fillmore VFW Post #9637, awarded checks to two Fillmore High School students, Erin Overton (left) and Natalie Parish (right). It is the First Annual Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #9637 Scholarship. Photos courtesy Fillmore VFW Post #9637.
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Erin Overton
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Natalie Parish
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Courtesy Fillmore VFW Post #9637

The First Annual Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #9637 scholarships awarded to Fillmore High School Students, Erin Overton and Natalie Parish. We are Happy to share the future goals of Miss. Overton as she will be attending Santa Cruz University in the fall. Her plans for the future include a career in Children’s Book publishing, and guiding the future of our youth here in Fillmore.

Miss. Parish will be attending Moorpark Community College for the fall where she plans to earn a degree in agricultural communications. After her transfer to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to continue her education so she may use her agricultural degree to assist farmers across America.

The Fillmore Veterans of Foreign Wars Post # 9637 Post Commander James Mills presented the checks May 28, 2020 to the recipients with the VFW’s warmest wishes for a bright new future.

Fillmore Historical Museum does not have photographs of the Sespe School Miss. Smith taught at, but it would have looked similar to the school at Cienega, just east of Fillmore, and both were built around the same time, 1873.
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Courtesy Fillmore Historical Museum

This is a verbatim copy of a history of the Sespe Schools, prepared by Clara H. Smith, who taught there in the 1886 -1887 school year. A long time teacher in Ventura County schools, she later taught in the Normal School at San Jose, Calif. She probably wrote this in the 1920s or 1930s. The items in brackets were corrections or clarification prepared by F. L. “Ted” Fairbanks, a resident of Fillmore from 1907 until his death in 1983.

Written By Clara Smith

The original district known as the West Sespe included the land drained by the Sespe River and its tributaries, and also a portion of the land bordering the Santa Clara River. The eastern and western boundaries were the mountains, the southern boundary was the Santa Clara River. The region consisted of a Mexican land grant. Around the edge of this grant, the white settlers established homes.

A school for the white settlers’ children naturally followed. In 1874 or 1875 a schoolhouse was built on the north side of the Santa Clara River near the present site of the bridge crossing from Fillmore to Bardsdale. The builder was a Mr. F. A. Sprague. [This is the man sent to the penitentiary for the murder of T. Wallace More.] His son, Hartley and daughter, Ida, [should be Iva], hauled up the lumber from Ventura with team and wagon, and the father built the school house.

The first teacher was a Clara Skinner, followed by Lara Larson. Other teachers were Augusta Stevens, Maude Fisher, Ryal Sparks, and a man names Jordan. The last named showed his individuality by his way of dismissing the children at intermissions. Not the “one, two, three, four”, common in schools of the period, but “Get out of here.” The late Sol Sheridan began his school life in this little pioneer schoolhouse. [Robert M. Sheridan, prominent attorney in Ventura, says this is an error, that Sol Sheridan got all of his schooling in Missouri, before coming west.]

The school building was of the prevailing type, a wooden structure, 20 x 30 feet, having three windows on each side. The height of the ceiling varied according to the judgment of different teachers. It is recorded as being 11, 12, and 16 feet.

About 1879 or 1880 the schoolhouse was moved from its place on the bank of the Santa Clara River to the east bank of the Sespe River, or creek as it was called. This was about a mile north of the present rail (road) bridge crossing the Sespe. This was to give the school a more central place in the district. Here it stood in utter loneliness with only the roaring of the raging Sespe Creek in the winter, and the silence of the desert surroundings in summer. There were no trees, no shrubs other than the sage brush to break the monotony.

A glance inside the door shows a water bucket with a tin dipper standing on the floor surrounded by waste water. The water has been carried up from the creek, and the children quench their thirst until the teacher bans further drinking. A book case to the left of the door houses one hundred fifty volumes, many of which are beyond the ability of children to read. Supplementary reading material was unknown. The children sit in rows facing the teacher, whose chair and desk occupy a place on the platform at the other end of the room. Perchance an unruly child has a desk at her side. To the right of the teacher stands a manikin which shows the relative position of the different organs of the human body. This is the nearest approach to the instruction in hygiene which the children will receive. The three windows on the east side give plenty of heat in the forenoon, and those on the west side continue the warming process after lunch. Here the children of those early settlers learn according to their own abilities, and according to the skill of the teacher. Those whose names appear on the reports of the period are: Goodenough, Japson, Kellogg, Kinney [should be Kenney], Akers, Fine, McIntyre. There are no names of children born of foreign parents. Nor do the census reports show that there are any foreign children in the school.

The teachers are employed for eight months at a salary of sixty dollars per month. There is one record of a teacher being employed two years in succession. This honor goes to Miss Anna Persons who afterwards became a member of the Santa Paula School system. She had a record of being a superior teacher.

The chief agricultural products of the community were: grain and stock for the market, and grapes, olives, and garden produce for home consumption. It was not unusual for the children to be kept out of school to herd the cattle or to help with the farm work.

The railroad was built in 1887. Soon afterwards a water company developed and distributed water from the Sespe. The growing of citrus fruits began. The population increased. Mexicans came to work in the orange and the lemon groves.

Three districts were formed out of West Sespe, and three schools were built one further up the canyon was on what is now Grand Avenue. The second was the present San Cayetano and the third was Fillmore. San Cayetano became the school for the Mexican children.

Meanwhile the little pioneer school on the banks of the Sespe was moved to Fillmore. For a while it was used for a schoolhouse, when no longer needed, a doctor, J.P. Hinckley bought it and converted it into a drugstore, with a residence in the rear. After more than sixty years of service, it burned.

The writer recalls the faith the pioneers of the eighties had in the future of their community. They have passed on, and a few of their children are left to enjoy the fruits of their labor. And to see the marvelous changes that have taken place in this beautiful, fertile, Sespe Valley.

Clara H. Smith
Teacher in Sespe School District, 1886-1887