Dr. Ofelia Romero-Motlagh has written a book, “The Legend of the Romeros, Then and Today,” identifying and celebrating her nineteen-member family from their humble beginnings as farm laborers to their lives as successes. Tragedies to accomplishments are highlighted with reference to historical and cultural nuances and the photographic images accompanying them.

If you lived in Fillmore, California, and attended school here the 1950s through the 1970s you probably were acquainted with the Romero children and their parents.

The Fillmore Historical Museum will celebrate the Romero family with a book signing featuring Dr. Romero-Motlagh on November 20th, 2021, in the Southern Pacific Depot at 350 Main Street, Fillmore, California, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. All are welcome to come to the museum to meet Ofelia and have her autograph her new book.

For more information please email the museum at fillmore.museum@gmail.com or telephone 805 524 0948.

P.E. Crumbs in 1927, a former city engineer for the city of Chicago, who came to Fillmore, stated his company, the Sespe Development Co. had announced the start of construction of a monorail to the Sespe Hot Springs. Photos courtesy Fillmore History Museum.

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Courtesy Fillmore History Museum

The good, commonsense people of Fillmore are not wont to take off on flights of fancy. But in 1927 the idea of a monorail to Sespe Hot Springs took off like a Condor looking for dinner.

In May of 1927 a gentleman by the name of P.E. Combs arrived in Fortune Favored Fillmore. He was a self-styled developer who introduced himself as a former city engineer for the city of Chicago. Claiming to be backed by Chicago financial interests, he stated that his company, the Sespe Development Co., was capitalized at $2 million. He announced the soon to be started construction of a monorail to the Sespe Hot Springs, an area which was difficult to reach because of steep terrain and essentially no roads.

He began by meeting the local “powers that be” and visiting all the local booster organizations.

The first group to hear about the project was the Fillmore Rotary Club. President, John McNab, headed the meeting on May 13, 1927. McNab was the son of Fillmore founder and founder of the Sespe Land and Water Co., Joseph McNab. He was one of the organizers and a director of the Ventura County Coop Association and a developer of Farmers and Merchants Bank. Like all of the principals of this story he was level headed and not prone to flights of fancy. He will be on the platform on the day ground will be broken for the project.

The Fillmore Herald described Combs as “one of the most forceful speakers that it has been the privilege of the members to listen to.”Combs predicted that “within 24 months the city will have 3 times the population it currently has.” “Every property in the city will be worth double its present valuation.” “Within 12 months every newspaper and magazine in the United States will have an article about Fillmore.” (Remember this promise.) He proposed that lines could be built for 1/3rd the cost of any other transportation and that they had been used in Germany for a “great many years.” Additionally he proposed to build an electric plant on the Sespe that would produce 180 KW hours of power per year. Combs was quoted at the time saying that “He is not asking for money and flatly states in all his talks that the money is ready and waiting for the construction of the monorail.” (Fillmore Herald May 30, 1927.) Not asking for money must have made the project much more tempting to the locals and apparently they responded by purchasing whatever shares they could.

On May 30 Combs showed a motion picture of the Monorail development at the Stearns (formerly Barnes) Theater. With enthusiasm being generated locally and throughout Ventura County, Combs added W. E. McCampbell, local realtor and insurance agent, to his board as a “local” director. It was through McCampbell’s office that local investors bought their shares in the company. McCampbell also fielded all the questions about the project as it was being developed and, later, its aftermath.

Very quickly the local Chamber of Commerce officers joined the band. They included Milo Cobb, an insurance broker and future mayor of Fillmore; Edgar Goodenough, businessman and rancher and in 1927 a Ventura County Supervisor (He made possible the completion of Goodenough Road soon to be proposed as Monorail Blvd.); attorney, Fergus Fairbanks; E. C. Fuller, vice president of the Chamber;and Judge Merton Barnes, theater owner and businessman.

The project began with a giant sign on the terminal site near the river on Telegraph Rd. Every week for months there was a photo or article in the Fillmore Herald relating to the monorail.

On July 16, 1927, ground was broken with representatives of the State, County and City of Fillmore, and the principals of the company present. Perhaps, due to the hype, Mayor Price was more than a little wary. The day of the groundbreaking, as the final part of the ceremony, he turned the first shovelful of earth and said “Well, I think there has been enough talking, now let’s get on with it.”

By June 17th work had started on the monorail. According to Edith Jarrett there was nothing more than a few red flags on sticks to mark the area where the terminal was to be built. Additionally, a baseball team, the Fillmore Monorails, had been formed and a schedule of games set.

And then – NOTHING! August, September, October and November passed by. There was a great silence. Not a word about progress, not even a scathing letter to the editor questioning the lack of progress. The first question raised actually appeared in the Fillmore American newspaper in October.

Was the whole thing a scam?

Research done by Tony Jones of the Fillmore Herald in 1986 seems to at least cast a little doubt on whether or not it started out to be a scam.

The president of the Sespe Development Co., Frank Buren, and a partner had purchased a 320 acre tract of land on which the Sespe hot springs was located in 1924 for $60,000 signing 3 promissory notes at 6%interest. They managed to repay only $15,000 through April 1927. Buren had also purchased a 160 acre tract outside Fillmore in 1922. The two partners failed to pay any taxes on the land and managed to pay only $600 on the debt by October 1928. By 1929 the property had reverted to the County for lack of tax payments.

The original owners, Jessie and Walter Ilenstine and Lillie May and Cecil Cary, bought the property back for $20,000. The Ilenstines and Carys then resold the property for $60,000.

It is possible that Buren and Combs thought they could get enough funds through sales of shares in the project to Fillmore residents to help pay off the debt. Possibly P.S.Combs scammed Buren and the other investors as well as the Fillmore investors.

No one will ever know if it was a scam and no one who bought shares ever spoke of it again. No shares have ever been found. Perhaps someone in Fillmore will find a dusty share hiding in the back of a closet someday.

The following poem appeared in the Fillmore American in October of 1927:

Oh, where are those monorail pictures Bill McCampbell was wont to show,
In his real estate office window,
Lined up in entrancing row.
They showed these suspended carriages,
Like mechanical birds on wings,
That would waft us in twenty minutes
Up to the famed Sespe Springs
But those pictures that charmed the public
No longer draw gaping crowds.
That dreamed of a monorail journey, through the canyon up to the clouds.
And we wonder, oh how we wonder,
Just where the line was broke.
Was it just another fine day dream?
Just another promoter’s joke?
And yet in a manner of speaking,
This town it has well repaid.
It got Fillmore in all the papers,
And we still have the silver spade.
Written by City Attorney John Galvin
Music by Mayor W.H. Price

New Fillmore Council Member Simone Alex. Photo by Wes Woods II of Ventura County Star.

The Fillmore City Council has chosen Simone Alex, 47, to fill the seat of Councilwoman Ari Larson who passed away on September 17, 2021. Ms. Alex will be sworn in at the next regular Council meeting, November 9. “I just went for it,” Alex told Ventura Star reporter Wes Woods II. “She has been an actor, writer and producer who has worked in film and television for 25 years, according to her website.” City Manager David Rowlands is reported to have said that Alex’s term “would end after the November 2022 election results are certified.” At that time Alex would have to run for the 2022 election. A relatively new resident of Fillmore, she expressed special interest in increasing our economy and attracting more tourists. She also emphasized that her world travels, having introduced her to many diverse cultures, would serve her well in understanding different points of view. Alex also holds a BA degree in sociology from UC Davis
and graduated from Drama Studio London in acting. Publisher’s note: Thanks to Wes Woods II (Ventura Star) for assisting with facts as I was unable to meet with our new councilmember personally.

Early North Fillmore Homes and Orchards.
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Sanitary Food Market 801 A Street in 1937.
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Chaneys Trading Post 801 4th Street circa 1947.
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Courtesy Fillmore History Museum

When the Fillmore Centennial Book was published in 1988 it devoted just one paragraph in the “Outlaying Areas” story to Tipperary. But it deserves a little more. You know the area today simply as North Fillmore but in the early part of the 20th century it was most often referred to as Tipperary.The location was part of the original Rancho Sespe which had been purchased from Mattie Mae Storke by the Sespe Land and Water Co. The history of the name is lost to time. However, former postmaster Joel Schwartz noted in his written reminiscences that this was Fillmore’s first subdivision and was nicknamed Tipperary by the residents. Perhaps it was because many of the early settlers there were Irish.

One of the earliest problems in that area was a lack of water supply and its poor quality. Joel wrote a letter on behalf of the residents to Sacramento. Soon a representative of the California government arrived unannounced on the train to solve the problem. He was under the impression that Tipperary was a large apartment house called Tipperary Flats. He soon realized that Tipperary was simply a small local community. In any event, he soon solved the problem for the residents and departed by train back to Sacramento. Can you imagine such service by a state government today?

North Fillmore is an area semidetached from Fillmore. It snuggles below the bluff where the high school athletic fields are located and stretches to the Sespe River on the west side. On the north, it ends where Goodenough Road rises up the hill and continues on to Condor country. On the south side North Fillmore is bounded by the railroad track.

In the beginning it was home to orchards and a few scattered farm homes. It was also the location the 1879 Cactus Patch School. As best we can determine, this school was near the Candelaria Lane cul-de-sac very close to the river.

In time North Fillmore became home to newcomers looking for lower cost lodgings. Many of these newcomers were refugees from the disastrous dustbowl period between 1930 and 1940. During the ten years of the Dustbowl about 3.5 million people left the Great Plains many of them moving to California and settling in places like Fillmore. There were also immigrants of Mexican descent looking fora community with an affordable place to call home.

In addition to the homes there were churches, businesses and industry. It was home to the Mutual Orange Distributers (MOD) packing house which drew many of its employees from the area. That modernized plant still operates today as the Villa Park packing house.

One of the primary businesses was the Hydrosulphosol plant located on 4th street. Hydrosulphosol was an effective “over the counter” burn ointment which was manufactured between 1946 and 1971. The product came to the notice of Elizabeth and Oliver Lientz whentheir daughter Betty suffered an eye injuryand the medication saved her eyesight. It was also used to great results during WWII to treat burns. Elizabeth and Oliver contacted the developer of the formula and then formed a company to produce and market the product. Eventually, daughter Betty took over the management of the company. At one point the product was also used by NASA for treatment of mild burns. But soon the FDA came calling and the product which had been used for years for treatment was removed from the market. The results of testing of the product can still be found on the internet. And, in all probability, old time residents of Fillmore still have a jar or two of the product in their medicine cabinets.

In its heyday, there were three grocery stores serving the community, all located within a few blocks of each otherand all within walking distance of the homes. These were Chaney’s Trading Post on the corner of 4th and B St., the Sanitary Food Market at801 A St. which was first owned by Russell and Allah Day then owned by Delores Day, Fillmore’s first woman Mayor, and her husband, Traver. Finally there was Beaty’s Market at 763 B Street just south of Mountain Vista Elementary School. Two general merchandise stores still remain.

“The Arbor” on 3rd St. in North Fillmore was a popular restaurant in the 30s and 40s. But you had to like chicken as it was the only dish on the menu.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom hall was on Fifth Street with a church built in 1975. The Church of the Nazarene was built in 1939 on Third Street and today it is The Faith Miracle and Revival Center.

Today much of the community still provides affordable housing with narrow streets. Butrecently new housing developments and a new modern elementary school have been built between the original community and the river.

North Fillmore has always been an important and integral part of the Fillmore community and will continue to grow and change as it meets the needs of its citizens.